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The trip of course didn’t start as planned. The schedule flight out of DTW to MCO was canceled the previous morning due to weather conditions. I quickly called the airline and the earliest flight I could get to MCO was scheduled to land at 755pm; the expo was scheduled to close at 8pm. The initial question of how do I get to Disney was replaced with how do make it to Disney in time to pick up my bib. Ah-ha drive, yes I will drive nearly 20 hours to make it in time for bib pick up. The common sense intervened, and I choose to take the flight… but did I do the right thing? Surely not as I will be unable to run the 5k and thus unable to complete the Dopey Challenge.

I started looking around on-line and even posted a question on a board what could I have done to have foreseen this issues… and someone pointed to a posting on twitter suggesting runDisney would allow bib pick-ups at the 5k, yet no official word. Nearly 24-hours after my the airline canceled my flight I went into a slight freak out mode and thought of various was to ensure I could run all four races. One of which involved scanning and email documents to a family friend was was picking my parents up from the airport at MCO. In all the rushing an panicking I some how left my drivers licensing on the flatbed of the scanner. Of course I didn’t realize this until checking my bags at the airport… oh the stress. As it turns out the family friend was able to pick up my race packet just in time. I was able to run the 5k.

Disney calls the 5k a family fun run, and as such I wasn’t to excited to see I was placed in the second to last coral. After all to officially complete the Dopey Challenge you must run all four races under the 16 minute per mile pace. With that many family’s in front of me I dreading having to weave in and out between family’s. My original plan called for a 3 minute run 1 minute walk for the 5k and 10k. As I did speed a good deal of time weaving between people I ditched the plan and basically run the entire course, of course I therefore ran much faster than I had anticipated.

With the Minnie’s 10k the weather was nice, a mist hung in the air. I fared much better working my plan… but I didn’t exactly follow it. I did walk the hill but my walk intervals fell at odd places on the course. So I ran until I felt like I might need a break. This strangely work really well, but alas I ran the 10k faster than I would have liked.

Coming into the long events I felt good. My only concern so far had been my feet, well toes specifically. I’ve been worried about my footwear since mid November when my Brooks Ghost 6’s starting giving me issues. I was going to use them to run the 5k and full marathon while opting to run the middle two events in my Brooks Defyance 5’s. I kept spinning trying to figure out a new plan and I eventually bought a pair of Skechers Go Run Ultra’s just before Christmas… and they arrived a few days after Christmas. They seemed to be a nicely cushioned lightweight shoe, I love my Go Run 2 and thought these would be great for the 5k and 10k and a nice shoe to walk around in after the first two days. While I didn’t have much time to break them in prior to my trip I they really didn’t let me down… or did they? Early in the summer I switched from my dependable Adidas socks to Asics socks and never had a problem, however after the first two days toes where feeling a bit tender. I switched by the the dependable Adidas socks for both the half and full marathons and I had zero issues. So I don’t know if it was the shoe of the socks. After all I did walk around the parks all day with the same combo after completing the challenge…

Okay, back to the races, the weather for the half marathon was anything but ideal. A dark cloud loomed in the distance at the start line, thankfully it never did rain. However, it was warm and very very humid, and every mile seemed like a struggle. Contrast that to the breezy cool weather for full marathon where every step seemed effortless… well until later, but of of that in a bit. My plan here was similar walk the hills, but also walk the narrow congested areas as well as using a 2:45 run 1:15 walk ratio. I honestly couldn’t hear the the prompts most of the race, but did eventually find the “grove” in the second half.

Final day, the plan was to fix the issues from the previous day and stick to the plan and use the knowledge I gained from my first marathon last year… namely don’t buy into “the drink early and often” and the “if your thirsty your already dehydrated” myths. Therefore I would only take one sip every other water station unless a.) I was washing down a gel b.) I felt like I need more fuel in the form of Power Aid. I must say everything worked like a charm. I felt strong well into the late teen’s. I did have some mental wall issues to work through between mile 18 and 19 and started to feel like I may have hit the physical wall around mile 23ish… I did have enough in me to sprint quarter mile. I finished strong and felt really good crossing the finish line. I didn’t feel overly sore, did hobble to much… just the step between a bus and a ground.

I feel as if the weekend was a success, I didn’t over do it at the parks, and stayed in control of my race plans which allowed me to smashed my marathon PR/PB…

Official Chip Times

• 5k – 30:28
• 10k – 1:04:45
• Half Marathon – 2:23:05
  • 5K Split – 33:30
  • 10K Split – 1:07:25
  • 15K Split – 1:42:45
• Full Marathon – 4:58:34
  • 5M Split – 55:14
  • 10M Split – 1:52:07
  • Half Split – 2:27:20
  • 20M Split – 3:47:36