Sunday, February 3, 2019

The Dopey Challenge Race Reports - WDW Half Marathon


My daughter (Mara) and I decided that since we were going to be running with our friend Sara in the Half Marathon that instead of riding the buses over to Epcot, we would ride over together in her car.   This meant that we could sleep in a little.  Having slept very little the first 2 days of racing, I was glad to get a bit of extra sleep time before the Half.  My alarm went of at 4:30 a.m. and I got dressed while downing an energy drink to help wake me up.  Mara showed up at 4:45 and we headed over to Epcot.

When we got there we decided to get in line to meet Dopey.  His always seemed to be the shortest line.  After meeting Dopey, we decided to go back to the car to try and stay warm while waiting for our start.  We were going to be in Corral H despite the fact that Mara and Sara had Corrals E and F respectively.  Disney doesn’t let you move up in the corrals if you want to run together.  You have to go to the furthest corral.  Keep that in mind if you and a friend or friends are planning to run together.

Since we knew we would not be starting until at least 45 minutes after the official start, we sat in the car keeping warm and grabbing a snack.  At 5:30 a.m. on the dot we saw the fireworks for the official start of the race.  We decided to go ahead and walk over to the starting line.  We didn’t realize how far away from the parking lot the starting line corrals were.  The Half Marathon starting line and corrals are located on Epcot Center Drive which is about ½ mile walk from the parking lot.  It took us almost 15 minutes to finally get into our corral.

After we got into the corral we still ended up waiting for over ½ hour before we finally got up to the starting line.  It was a long wait and I was glad we had slept in a little more.  Plus it had started to warm up a bit as we waited making it not as uncomfortable as the first 2 races.  Finally at 6:29 a.m. it was our turn to start running.  The fireworks went off and we were finally running.

Our plan was to run 2 miles and then walk 2/10 of a mile the entire course.  Mara and Sara had not had a lot of time to train due to work and Mara’s being  sick during a large part of the training period.  As we approached the Mile 2 marker we noticed that Captain Jack Sparrow and Angelica were on the side of the road.  Since the line was really short, we stopped to get our picture taken.  Most of the lines for characters were short since we were in one of the last corrals.  After getting our picture, we ran a little further before taking our first walk break.

It was starting to warm up so we shed our outer layer at one of the water stops and kept going.  We took a short detour to meet Wreck-it Ralph and Vanelope.  The sun was just starting to rise as we approached the automobile entrance to the Magic Kingdom.  We ran under the entrance and headed towards the 3 mile mark.  We were all feeling really good and excited to be out there.  The route takes you through the Magic Kingdom’s parking lot and heads across Seven Seas Drive through the Transportation and Ticket Center towards the Contemporary Resort.

Right before we reached the turn to head to the Transportation and Ticket Center we saw the Queen of Hearts, Maleficent and the Wicked Queen from Snow White.  Since it is rare to meet them in the parks, we decided to stop and have our picture taken.  The lines were short and we were able to head off pretty quickly.  At this point the route had been sparsely populated with runners.  But we were passing a lot of people who were mostly walking the course.   It made me wonder why I was placed in Corral H.  We passed the 4 mile mark and took a walk break.

When we reached mile 5, we were almost to the entrance to the Magic Kingdom.  There were a lot of cast members on the sides of the course cheering us on.  Once we passed the Ferry Landing area, the course narrowed quite a bit as we approached the entrance to Main Street USA.  Then in a blink of an eye we were on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom with Cinderella’s Castle in front of us.  I’m not sure why but I actually teared up as we ran down Main Street with people cheering us on.  We had to stop for the obligatory picture with the castle before making the turn towards Tomorrowland.

We ran into Fantasyland and met the White Rabbit near the Mad Tea Party ride.  The course wound through Fantasyland until we made the turn back towards the Castle and ran past the Carousel.  We were nearing the 6 mile point which was just as you run through the Castle.  It was then that we saw Lady Tremaine and her daughters Anastasia and Drizella.  We had to stop and meet them.  As we got to the front of the line and walked towards them, Drizella said to me, “Look at those muscles.  They’re almost real.”  That made me laugh.  I think she took a liking to me based on the picture.  Mara said to Lady Tremaine that I wanted to know if she was single.  She replied, “I’ve been married twice.  It didn’t end well for either of them.”  We all laughed and then bid them farewell and headed off.

Since it had taken a little longer to meet the Tremaine’s, we decided not to take a break at the 6 mile
mark which was just as you came out of the Castle and made the turn towards Frontierland.  We were all feeling pretty good and even with the stops for photos were at 1:24:43.  At that point, I knew we wouldn’t be able to get Mara her PR in this race.  But I was secretly happy to be taking it slower to conserve energy for the marathon on Sunday.

At about 6.5 miles, we exited the park and turned onto Floridian Way which would take us past the Grand Floridian hotel.  It was at this point that Mara’s asthma was starting to kick in.  She also said her ankle was feeling sore.  We decided to take a walk break her to let her take her inhaler and rest her ankle a bit.  This part of the course is pretty boring.  We were running on a road that took us by the golf course and Polynesian resort.  We had run 8 miles so far and our pace had climbed to over 13 minutes per mile.

Mara was really struggling with her ankle and asthma.  She kept apologizing to Sara and I about slowing us down.  Neither of us particularly cared because we were just enjoying being in this race together.  We chatted about everything and anything and the time seemed to pass by without us even noticing!  We really didn’t have any particular time goal.  Running the half and 10K with my daughter was all I wanted and knew it would heighten my memory of the experience we were creating together.  It was only about finishing the race and having a shared experience.

We had 5 miles to go at this point.  We stuck together the whole way.  I would sometimes run ahead to see what was in front of us and then walk slowly until Mara and Sara would catch up.  I could tell Mara was frustrated and mad at herself.  I kept reassuring her that with the amount of training she was actually able to do that she was really doing well.  Plus I pointed out how many people we had passed along the way.   We checked off mile 9 and 10 as we ran along World Drive.

Finally, we made the loop turn onto Epcot Center Drive and hit the 11 mile marker.  We were at 2:31:38 when we ran past the 11 mile post.  I told Mara and Sara we had only 2.1 miles to go.  I could see that Mara was really pushing herself to go harder.  But her ankle was not going to let that happen.  Running is a valuable teacher, especially in these difficult moments.  The one thing I know about her us that running has taught her how to power through and be strong.  The issue was that she hasn’t raced enough to be able to really tell me what was happening or know the difference between true pain and discomfort.  She just kept pushing.

The course finally turns back toward Epcot and the Monorail Station just before mile 12.  It is the second real hill on the course.  We powered over it and finally entered the backstage area behind Living with the Land and Soarin’.  We finally entered the guest portion of the park at Epcot's
Imagination Pavilion.  We had only a 1/10 of a mile to go.  I just kept encouraging Mara to keep going no matter how slow.  We finally saw Spaceship Earth and knew we were really close.  I was so excited to be finishing the race with her.  As we approached the finish line, I grabbed her had again and raised it over our heads in triumph.  This was a really hard race for her but she had persevered.

Sara had crossed a couple of minutes before us and was waiting just past the finish line.  We received our medals and grabbed some snacks.  We had our official picture taken together to commemorate the accomplishment.  We had finished in 3:07:52 (14:20 pace).  I was feeling really good as we headed to the recovery area.  Mara asked if we would take the bus back to the resort so she could go home and rest up.  Her ankle was really bothering her.  So Sara went to Mara’s car and grabbed our stuff and rejoined me at the bus to head back to the Swan.

That was by far the slowest Half Marathon I had ever run.  Yet I was so happy and pleased with the result.  Over the years, I strived to build healthy self-esteem in both my son and daughter.  It was something I personally struggled with in my early adult life.  I wanted her to be proud of herself and what she had done in this race.  As we walked through the crowds at the finish line, I told her that she should never feel like she needs to please me or anyone else.  When I asked her later “how do you feel?”, she answered “proud of myself”.  Now that was the perfect answer and a great way to close the chapter on the race.

I love racing with my daughter.  I cannot think of a better way to spend a vacation or a weekend.  We had run a killer adventure relay together in North Carolina (see my blog post dated Sept. 30, 2018) and now had run back to back races at Walt Disney World.  We had run 19.3 miles together.  She had run over 7 miles on a sprained ankle that had swollen to twice its size by the time we met to go to the Magic Kingdom for some dinner and fun.  I know that she doesn’t always remember the times we spend together doing normal things.  But I know for sure that she will look back on these two races and smile knowing we accomplished something huge together.

As I showered back at the hotel, I was amazed at how good I felt.  I had run 3 races covering 22.4 miles.  Then it dawned on me that although I had run ¾ of the races, I had only run 46% of the mileage.  I started to feel that twinge of nervousness.  While I never doubt myself, I wondered whether I would be able to stay ahead of the sweepers and get an official finish to the challenge.  My goal to run the entire Dopey Challenge in under 10 hours wasn’t in the cards.  But since that was my Gold Medal goal, I was going to do everything in my power to meet my Silver Medal Goal of finishing with a smile on my face.

Jan 28 – 4.10 miles (38:47, 9:28 pace)
Jan 29 – 5.20 miles (44:50, 8:37 pace) – Speed Work
Jan 31 – 7.20 miles (1:03:09, 8:46 pace) – Tempo Run
Feb 2 – 7.50 miles (1:11:00, 9:28 pace)
Feb 3 – 8.30 miles (1:18:11, 9:25 pace)

Total Miles:  32.30 miles
2019 Total Miles:  144.96 miles





1 comment:

Dad said...

You're a good Dad. The race with Mara is something she'll remember forever and will laugh about it as she becomes a more experienced runner. I'm not too tiref so am ready for the marathon. Bring it on, Ted.