Dopey Challenge Review - Part One - Expo Day

Let me preface this by explaining where I was at physically before I signed up for Dopey and what my motivation was. I had wanted to participate in a runDisney event since probably 2014 or 2015 when I first found out this was a thing. I had always wanted to do the Expedition Everest Challenge or the Tower of Terror Ten Miler because those sounded the most fun. Well, those both ended a while back and I hadn't really given it much thought since. I was well versed in 5K and 10K races but both were becoming pretty easy and I was looking for a new challenge.

Considering runDisney
I knew a couple people who had completed the Dopey Challenge so I knew about it and thought one day maybe I would do it. Well, two of my friends started to talk about registering for Dopey so I started considering it too around January/February of 2019. I considered other races, really I just wanted to complete a runDisney event but couldn't decide which. I didn't want to do a 5K or 10K because those were getting easy. I considered the half marathon but still thought I didn't want to go all that way for a half. I knew I wanted to complete the full marathon. But did I want to stick to just that? There was also the Goofy Challenge (half and full marathon) or the Dopey Challenge.

Choosing to be Dopey
I decided if I'm going to Disney to race, I should probably go big or go home, and I decided I would run the Dopey Challenge. For those unfamiliar, the Dopey Challenge is all 4 races over marathon weekend: 5K (3.1 miles), 10K (6.2 miles), half marathon (13.1 miles) and full marathon (26.2 miles) for a total of 48.6 miles. I did a ton of research and decided in March 2019 that I wasn't getting any younger, this would probably be an easier undertaking while I was childless, and if I signed up for 2020 I'd have two friends going for moral support. When registration opened in April, I signed up the first day. Many people were shocked when I told them. "But you've never done a half or full marathon before". I know, but there was also a time when I couldn't run a quarter mile and now I run 4 miles three times a week. You have to start somewhere.

Training
I was already running before I registered and I had been solidly for over 2 years. I was also training for another 10K the same month I registered for Dopey. Immediately after that race was over, I started on the official runDisney Dopey Challenge training plan in April 2019. Overall, training went well, but I'll be honest - you can't win them all. Some days I skipped my run, other days my run completely sucked and I questioned why I was doing this at all. But for the most part, my runs went great, I could see amazing progress, I was enjoying myself and I felt a sense of accomplishment. Each milestone gave me more and more confidence in undertaking Dopey. Especially when I completed my first half marathon, which gave me a qualifying time to submit to runDisney as proof of my pace for corral assignment during Dopey. Corrals for the half and full marathon are A-H and I was thrilled when I found out in December that my pace had earned me Corral E. My two friends also received the same corral assignment.

Expo Day
When the trip finally came, the first order of business was to attend the Health & Fitness Expo at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. This is mandatory as the Expo is where you pick up your race bib, which is not available for pick up on race day. Furthermore, you have to show ID to pick up your bib to prevent bib scalping, so each runner must be present at bib pickup. You can't pick up bibs for other people.

We stayed at Disney's Pop Century Resort and each Disney resort offers a bus service from the resort to the Expo and back. Buses started running at 9:30am and we arrived at the bus stop right at 9:30am. There were two buses already lined up and they loaded the first one and off it went, then they began loading the second bus which we got on. The line looked crazy long at first but I'm sure people were lined up prior to the buses running. The line constantly moved once the buses started. We were on our way at 9:40am and arrived at the Expo at 9:55am. Pop was a perfect resort because it was close to both the Expo and the starting line of the races.

The Expo opened at 10am and we went straight to bib pickup. I probably should have gone to the Disney merchandise section first, and I was advised to do so in my runDisney research, the bibs weren't going anywhere but people go nuts for the Disney merch. I didn't because I wanted to see my race shirts before deciding what merchandise to buy. I didn't want to get something too similar to something I already had plus I figured I would need to exchange my shirts for a different size. By 10:25am I had picked up my race bib and shirts, had my photo taken (Dopey Challenge participants have their photo taken with their race bib to verify it was them completing the races), and exchanged my shirts. I stupidly ordered the wrong size and after trying my race shirts on in the bathroom, confirmed they didn't fit. There were a couple of Dopey photo ops at bib pickup but the lines were long and I really didn't care to wait in them since the photo ops were just props.

Shirt Exchange
Exchanging my shirts was kind of a mess. The volunteers at the Dopey shirt pick up (different location to all other race shirt pickups) told me I had to go to another building to exchange. I headed over there and it was the building with all the vendors. We took a peek but I wasn't interested. Everything was regular non-Disney running brands that you can get anywhere. I didn't want to waste time there when I have an amazing running store down the street. I like to support local anyway. I found the shirt exchange booth and was told it was for all shirts except Dopey. The Dopey shirt exchange was where I just came from. Ugh. So I walked all the way back to the first building. There were no signs stating where the exchange was. I went back to the shirt pick up to ask and a volunteer rudely said that was shirt pick up and I clearly had my shirts. Thankfully another volunteer pointed to the end of the table and said I could exchange them there. I needed a women's medium and they had one bag! I tried them on in the bathroom just to be sure - perfect fit. Thank goodness! Now on to the Disney merchandise.

runDisney Official Merchandise
On the way to the building with the Disney merchandise I stopped for a Joffrey's. I hadn't had my morning coffee yet and after that debacle I needed some! By this time it was 10:45am, the Expo had been open less than an hour. We had to line up just to get admittance to the Disney merchandise area - I had been warned. We waited 50 minutes but thankfully it wasn't so bad because it gave me time to drink my delicious mocha.

I got inside and there was so much awesomeness! I wanted to take a picture to show how amazing it was but I also wanted to get done with my shopping fast after waiting so long so I didn't take any. I went down every aisle, picking up things I was interested in as I went so as not to miss out. I didn't really hold back because this would be a one and done event. I wanted to make the most of it and not have regrets. I decided what I wanted and then we joined the checkout line. I was afraid I'd have to wait almost another hour to check out but thankfully it was only 15 minutes. The damage wasn't as bad as I thought thanks to Annual Passholder discount! I got a marathon and Dopey "I did it!" tech t-shirt, a Dopey Challenge jacket, Dopey car magnet, Marathon Weekend 2020 Minnie ears,1st time runner pin, Marathon Weekend 2020 mug, shoe ornament, and a Marathon Weekend 2020 Tervis. My husband got a t-shirt that said "Sleepy Challenge 2020 - I did it! I slept while you ran!"

Pre-Purchased Merchandise Pick Up
After that I needed to pick up some merchandise I had pre-purchased during registration. I got a Marathon Weekend 2020 jacket and Magic Band. The pre-purchase pick up line was an absolute joke. By this time I was done and wanted to leave but the line took another 50 minutes to get through. I couldn't believe it. People have already paid for this stuff, you should hand it over and move along, why is it taking that long? Check out with 2 baskets took 15 minutes and they had to ring me up. I was getting hangry. I picked up my merchandise and moved along to the final booth at the end of the pick up line. Once again my genius self ordered the wrong size. The women's medium didn't fit me either but the Cast Member was nice and exchanged it for a men's small which fit much better.

I'm glad I pre-ordered the Magic Band because I didn't see those at the Expo so I wonder if they were only available for pre-order. The jacket however I absolutely did not need to pre-order and had I not ordered the Magic Band, I could have saved myself over an hour by NOT pre-ordering the jacket. I wanted to be out of the Expo by 1230 and I would have been if not for the disastrous pre-order line. We took a few pictures outside then left the Expo at 1:45pm.

Preparing for the 5K
We spent the rest of the day at Animal Kingdom after the Expo and had a delicious pre-race dinner at Yak & Yeti. We left the park at 7pm and arrived back in our resort room at 7:25pm. I was sad to miss the Tree of Life Awakenings but I knew it had to be done and I was proud of myself for curbing it and not letting temptation get the better of me. In the room, I got all of my clothes ready for the next morning, but my bib on my shirt, prepared my pre-race fuel, set a "wake up" alarm, a "you really need to wake up" alarm, and an "oh snap if you don't get up right now you're going to be late" alarm, and went to bed at 8:25pm in preparation for the early wake up call the next morning.