Many of you reading this might not know how big of a deal the runDisney Dopey Challenge is, so let me lay it out. But first, a history lesson with Emma and I and long distance running.
Way back in 2013 while Emma and I were dating, we decided we were going to run our first runDisney half marathon race together, which also happened to be my first half marathon ever. Keep in mind, I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to take on the challenge of running 13.1 miles. I did however love running, and at that point have completed several 5k & 10k’s.
Since then, we have completed several half marathons in many states with several themes. They are a lot of fun, however a lot of work, too. Being on the course is not for the faint of heart, to that point, make sure you train!
Now let’s come back to today’s decision to run the Dopey Challenge. What is the runDisney Dopey Challenge you ask? Well it is a challenge that is made up of running a 5k, 10k, 21k, and a 42k, 4 days in a row starting at 5:00am, all while maintaining a 16-min-per-mile pace for all races. If you don’t maintain this pace, you get swept off the course.
Dopey Challenge Registration Day
April 19th at 10:00am EDT was the time that registrations were supposed to open. However, there were technical problems on the runDisney page. I logged in at 9:55am and watched a technical issue screen refresh over and over again.
This pattern for the runDisney website continued with occasional updates from technical support for 3 hours. A lot of refreshing on my part, 2 cups of coffee and 3 glasses of water helped me pace on through while wondering if we can even secure a spot to register. These events do sell out really fast, like sometimes within 15 minutes of it being open.
Fast forward to 3 hours later, we were checking out with a confirmation that we were registered. Are we nuts? Maybe, but to that point, we enjoy every minute of this madness.
Why we runDisney?
This is a complicated answer for us. We love hitting the pavement, and the training. It is a time for us to decompress and spend quality time together. Some people think we do it only for the medals. While they are nice looking, it is more than that. If you just want a medal you can buy them sadly from EBAY .
The medals are great and I am very proud of them all. They each carry an experience with them, and I could tell you stories about each one of them. But I don’t brag about them except for right here as I am on a high for signing up for the Dopey Challenge. You can even read about our last even, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Ten Miler, which saw me visit the ER and struggle through to finish, but I did it through all those issues.
Conclusion
The easy part is for us to have signed up. Now the training will begin, keep in mind though we are coming out of a ten mile run. We are already trained up for that, and even have the Wine and Dine Half Marathon in November we signed up for.
Also this particular race is the 30th anniversary of the Disney Marathon which coincides with Walt Disney Worlds 50th anniversary celebration.
Wish us luck and keep your eye out for our progress as we report it.
I can see a lot of run mileage in our future. 👟🤘😁 Good job on this article and good luck on Dopey!!!