Walt Disney World Dopey Complete!

It's been exactly a week since the Dopey Challenge in Disney and I am finally getting back to "normal" in terms of routine and workouts. The Dopey Challenge consisted of the 5K, 10K, half marathon, and full marathon for a total of 48.6 miles over 4 days.

Going into the race I felt extremely prepared and overwhelmingly nervous about my foot and some of the problems the high mileage in training had been giving me. I showed up feeling confident that I would do well regardless of anything else because my coach had a training plan that kicked down my running but picked up my bike and swim, preparing me for Dopey but also keeping me on track for IRONMAN. I know I say it all the time but there are so many benefits of a great coach... and I am lucky I have Matt as mine.

Anyways, we left Pittsburgh on Tuesday and it was -6 degrees at the airport. I remember being so cold on the plane because they weren't able to get the doors closed because the latch kept freezing. We arrived to a very cold 31 degrees in Orlando but I was happy to be anywhere warmer than 0. We had a few days before the race so we went to Disney and did some sightseeing before gearing up for the races.

The hardest part about running Disney is that they start closing the roads at 4:30am, this means you must arrive before that, and for us we were up and out of bed around 3am each day. It was rough because since we were on vacation and trying to explore we weren't ever in bed before 10 or 11pm.

5K:

The 5K was Thursday and we were extremely excited because it was the first race up on the list. Christian and I dressed as Tweedle Dee and Tweedledee and Tweedledum.  We arrived and found out that there were 7,000 Dopey s just like us. Disney knows how to have fun... they had characters and a DJ, and celebrity guests at the starting line party which made the 90 minutes between arriving and getting into the corral go pretty fast.  The 5K ran through Epcot and back to the starting area for a nice and easy course. Coach had a nice and easy run planned for me and I ran pretty according to plan. Finished in around 25 minutes, right on schedule.


10K:

 I remember being really tired as I woke up for the 10K. In my mind it had to be another easy day The 10K course for me was a bit mental because it was a lot of highway running and park themed fun. The course ran out about 2 miles and then back and through the 5k course. I am not a fan of out and back ANYTHING, and Disney must love them because there was more of those to come. Christian and I dressed as Buz Lightyear and Jessie for that race and I was so disappointed we didn't see them on the course to get photos! The 10K ended good and I finished in about 54 minutes, again right on track and feeling good. My foot felt like I didn't even have anything wrong and I started getting pumped for the half marathon.


Half Marathon:

I was nervous about the half marathon because I knew that if my foot would start hurting that it
would happen here as it had in all my training runs. We arrived really early again and had to walk about 20 minutes to the start line. We had plenty of time to warm up before heading to the corral. We were in corral F and the time seemed to drag because we had to wait for all the ones ahead of us to get off and started. They let us go every 2 minutes and finally it was our turn. I had a great warm up and as we started I was running about 8:45 pace which was good to swerve through all the people and get out ahead. At about the 5k mark the worst fear became a reality. My bump on my foot was rubbing raw and I could feel my Achilles starting to ache. Christian and I planned to run to the castle so we could get the photos together and then split and I could tell I was holding him back. Finally at mile 6 I started my walk run method which lets my foot settle a bit. For whatever reason as I run faster it rubs more and hurts more so I was trying to settle that down the best way I could. I was dissapointed because my coach and I had planned to try to PR in the half, it just didn't happen that way for me. I was crushed but also glad that I listened to my body because I still had 26.2 miles ahead of me and a raw inflamed foot wouldn't of made it through. I finished in 2:08 and just faced the fact that I wasn't able to do what I wanted to.

Marathon:

I remember being at the starting line party for the marathon and the MC announcing that in just 1.9 While I had not felt at my best and my foot was double wrapped, had a brace, and a old pair of shoes (that's right... my foot hurt in my regular shoes so bad I wore a pair of shoes I wouldn't even run a 5K in) I was still determined to try for my goal. I hit my 5K and 10K ahead of where I had finished in days prior and shaved 9 minutes off my half split from the day before. I was doing AMAZING when it all came back again. I did what I would do to get through my foot and also had something else interesting going on.... My bra was rubbing my skin raw on my bra line. I was covered in blood and ever drop of sweat was making it burn more and more. I just wanted to get to the finish-line. I started stopping every water station for 2 minutes to adjust my bra and fix my shoes and I think the last 10K felt as long as the marathon. When I turned the corner and saw the Hallelujah choir I was so incredibly relieved that I could have cried. I came running in and did a 4:45:15--- grabbed a quick photo with my fiance and darted out of there to get my bra off. You can see all the blood in the photo (YUCK).
miles we will be halfway through the Dopey Challenge. I think that made my stomach drop slightly. The race ran through Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Speedway, ESPN Sports, Hollywood Studios, and on alot of highways.

All that being said I go back to the foundation of a solid training plan. I wasn't sore leaving Disney, walking funny, or even achy. Matt trained me so that I would be able to complete the challenge and not feel like I just got hit by a bus, and lets face it... alot of people feel like that just after one of the races I ran. I have so much respect for proper training and really being careful with what you do to your body. It took alot of miles for me to realize that sometimes a PR isnt worth what you get out of it. If you take care of your body there will always be a PR down the road and another race to run. If you don't respect your body and have the smarts to know when to pick up or slow down, then you may find yourself not being able to do the very thing you love.

I love every part of training and challenging myself. I am always looking for something more challenging so that I can push my limits and go for it. This was one of those things. It's helped me in every area of my life to this day and being competitive and always striving for more makes you strong in all ways. I am proud of my accomplishments and that  can continue onto IRONAN Mont Tremblant.