April 2022 , we signed up for the Dopey Challenge! June 2022, we started the training, and in Jan 2023 at last we have finished the Dopey Challenge! 48.6 miles (78.214 km) were ran during 4 days, and that doesn’t even include all the walking to get to the starting corrals. This is by far one of the most challenging things we’ve undertaken, but now it’s over, and you get to read about it without even leaving your home.
This event takes a lot of time and dedication, and of course, running! runDisney events are meant to be fun, but make no mistake, the Dopey Challenge is not to be taken lightly. Not only do you run 48.6 miles in 4 events over four days, but you get to wake up at least at 2:30 am EST to do it as well, in our case, 1:00 am, but your miles may vary. This event takes a lot of time and dedication, and of course running!
This event isn’t all bad though. While you may hear me complain here about all the training we did to get here, make no mistake, we enjoyed every mile and minute of this journey. Whether it was some of our long walks in the parks for training or our multi-day training weekends that took us to new places to run, let’s face it when you need to run 26 miles, you need to change the scenery up to not get bored.
The main point of this article will be broken up into the four events and what type of runner can join them. While not everyone can accept the commitment of the Dopey Challenge, there are events for you to join and have fun. runDisney events are entertaining events to the core, and if you are curious about them, go for one of them, but choose wisely!
runDisney 5k
To start the Dopey Challenge, you are met with the 5k run. Anyone who asks me about my running journey will often hear me tell the tale of when I was severely overweight, and I joined a 5k. Following Jeff Galloway’s walk and training method, I could conquer 5k races easily, and trust me, you can too! The link to the training programs is here. These are the training programs I still use to this day.
As you can see above, 5k at Disney World is just walking in EPCOT. runDisney does ask you to keep a 16min-per-mile pace as you do their events, but for the 5k, they are more relaxed than the rest of the events. In fact, they don’t even have the dreaded balloon ladies chasing you down for the 5k! For those who don’t know, the balloon ladies represent you being swept off the Disney course if you don’t keep pace.
This morning, we were met with somewhat humid but cool and breezy weather. The conditions were ideal for this quick 5k. Our strategy to keep ourselves energized was to do our average run pace for 1 mile and then walk the last 2 miles. This paid off for us, and it felt like less than 5k, or 3.1 miles for my American friends.
The fun part of runDisney events is getting some pictures with rare characters. However, the options for the 5k weren’t for us. On the course was Tarzan with Terk, Mushu, Genie, Abu, Max, and Chip and Dale in their Rescue Rangers outfits. The line for Chip and Dale was probably 60 minutes long, so we skipped them and the other characters. We just wanted to get home and rest up.
runDisney 10k
The second morning of the Dopey Challenge greets you with a 10k. Now 10ks are a little more dedication and double what you did for the 5k. I caution people not to take 10ks lightly, and you need to train. Also, starting to form your training habits for a 10k will help you graduate on to your first Half Marathon. If you follow Jeff Galloway’s program as we did, you will find yourself beating these 5/10ks relatively quickly, but you have to be consistent with training or get hurt.
As you see, about 10k is a bit more than just a walk in the park. You not only go through all of EPCOT, but you can throw in the parking lot and a couple of the surrounding resorts. If you felt good about your 5k, there is no reason to shy away from attempting a 10k after you get some 5ks under your belt. You do need to keep pace for 10k and up runDisney races, which, remember, is 16min per mile and enforced by balloon ladies at the end of the last corral.
The weather for this run was very cold in the morning. To this point, we had to use a couple of the mylar blankets we purchased just in case, and they worked amazingly. For 5k and 10k, we were placed in the last corral, so the famous balloon ladies started with us. Since we wanted to avoid getting swept on the 10k, our strategy was to run our marathon pace for 3 miles and then walk the rest of the way. This worked out well, and we beat the balloon ladies by 13 minutes.
Characters are fun, and there were two scarce ones on the course. However, we did not want to sacrifice our Dopey medal for them by being swept. Lumiere, and Darkwing Duck were out!!! Scrooge McDuck, Hercules, Mickey, and Minnie were also around. The lines for all these characters were very long, and we skipped them.
runDisney Half Marathon
Day 3 of the Dopey Challenge is the half marathon. Half Marathons are where running events get real. Our advice to anyone wanting to do one is to signup for a 5k/10k event on an actual road course so that you can feel what it is like to run on a course with pacing requirements. 13.1 miles or 21k is a long way, and you can only hurt yourself if you aren’t prepared for the distance that comes with training and habits you have formed from doing 5/10ks. It took me three years of training and dieting to get to a point where I could run half marathons consistently starting in 2014.
As you can see, a half marathon course is quite long. Anyone who has been to Walt Disney World knows that EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom are far from each other and not walkable. If you are comfortable with 10ks, you should consider a half marathon. Finishing one of these gives you a high and a sense of accomplishment. If you want to test out what 13.1 miles feels like, you can always sign up for a virtual event where pacing isn’t enforced, but remember, on road courses, you need to maintain a pace at whatever the event sets. runDisney pacing requirement is 16min per mile, so when training, try to be faster than that by at least a minute.
The morning of our Half Marathon was even colder than the 10k. The mylar blankets made an appearance again. The blankets were a lifesaver while standing in the corral! Knowing we had a full marathon the next day, we had a goal of running a little more than half of the 21k, and we accomplished that while keeping pace.
The course they used for this half marathon was incredible. We ran through the Magic Kingdom, and running down Main Street and through the castle were epic portions of the course. Luckily we get to experience it again for the marathon.
Because we built up a lead on the balloon ladies, we stopped and grabbed a photo with the rare character Lots-o’-Huggin Bear from Toy Story 3! There were some great characters on the course, but of course, we wanted to avoid having to try too hard on this race as the main event is the marathon. Stopping for too many characters will affect your time, and you can get swept.
runDisney Marathon
Day 4 of the Dopey Challenge is a marathon. This also happens to be our first marathon ever. Running 26.2 miles, or 42k at 16min-per-mile pace, isn’t something to take lightly. Not only is this a marathon, but it takes place after a 5k, 10k, and 21k. Do not take this lightly and train, train, train! If you struggle with half marathons, continue to work on your pacing there before trying out a marathon.
As you can see from the course, this is a long but fun map. The morning of the marathon, the race conditions were set to yellow, which is a caution. The humidity was much more prevalent than the previous days meaning we had to adjust our hydration strategies. Even though the start of the race was incredible, we knew it would warm up once the sun came up. We do have an advantage since we live in central Florida. Our training already happens in the humidity, but it can surprise you if you aren’t from here.
As the race started, we planned to run a little harder to get further faster before the sun appeared. Our target pace for the marathon initially was 15 min per mile. For the first half of the marathon, we sped up to 14 minutes per mile to gain ground on the sun, which will slow you down. This strategy paid off for us to this point when the sun was fully up and heating us. We were already at mile 18, and we could slow down a bit. Even at mile 20, we were barely above 15 min per mile. This gave us the advantage to take our time to finish the last 6 miles, and even allowed us a picture with Darkwing Duck!
This was our first marathon (and our first Dopey), and we couldn’t have had a better experience. Neither of us got injured, and we even posted record-breaking times for our 5k, 10K, and even 21k. We even celebrated by going to EPCOT in the evening with our Dopey medals! All of that while finishing our first marathon faster than we anticipated.
Final Thoughts on the Dopey Challenge
Still with me here? I will hit you with stats on how much time and miles we put into the Dopey Challenge. These averages are from June, when we started our training.
- Steps: 1.854,914
- Miles ran: 497
- Hours Running: 125
- Average Steps per day: 9,463
- Average Steps Per Week: 66,247
As you can see, there is a massive commitment to running the Dopey Challenge. I can’t stress enough that you shouldn’t be scared to try this if you like running; however, take the training seriously. Also, for anyone who may be scared off by all of this, keep in mind that you should start with a 5k race. This way, you can find out if it is something you enjoy. Running isn’t everyone’s forte, and that is fine too. We can make a tips and tricks article on how we prep for running. Let us know.
As for us, we will continue to do runDisney events as they are so much fun. We enjoy the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend event in November and the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in January. The Dopey Challenge is more than likely a one-and-done for us. It isn’t because we didn’t enjoy it, but the time commitment to train for it is a bit much. We will continue to do half marathons and occasional marathons as we progress through our training.
As this article comes to a close, I want to reiterate that if you are interested in running, there is a race out there for you. If running has been on your list of things to try, we hope you found some pointers in this article to help you begin your journey. Please let me know what your thoughts are. Will you be signing up for a runDisney event or any event in the future? Let us know in the comments.
You need a pic of the dreaded balloon ladies!
No one wants to see them… They will scare you!!!
Great write up. Lot of effort and time
Thanks for reading!!!
Awesome job congratulations
Thanks! It was quite a thing to do!