Here’s what you’ve been waiting for, life got in the way and I didnt get the opportunity to update everyone on my training, but if this challenge is any indicator, I got the training in!
5K – This race was run by myself, my husband Jude (a new runner, love of my life) and my best friend Kelly (veteran runner, coach, all around awesome individual). We got on the bus nice and early to make sure we were there on time, and it was a chilly morning. Jude has run this distance with me in the past, but a hectic work schedule caused his training to slip. It was such a nice run, with plenty of stops for characters and hydration as we ran through EPCOT. We dressed as Buzz, Woody, and EVIL EMPEROR ZURG (thank you Kelly) we finished in proper pacing time (under 16 minutes) and snagged our first medal!
10K – Jude ran with us for this one too! He had never run this distance before, his longest being a 5K. We had to tell him that we were going to stay with him as long as we could without losing the average time (we started early enough that the balloon ladies wouldn’t get us, but still had to monitor the time) We got a lot of great pictures, running round Epcot and looping the boardwalk to lead back into Epcot, and Jude kept up with us the whole time, rather, we made the conscious effort to not run our normal paces because it was a long distance for him. we collected our medals, and I presented Jude with his own Challenge Medal, which I called the “Jack’s Not So Scary Challenge” with a picture of Jack Skellington on it 🙂 it fit the theme perfectly for Lock, Shock and Barrel (our costumes of the day)
Half Marathon. – another morning, another bright and early wake up! It was just Kelly and I for this one, slowly but surely the wake ups were taking their toll, even with our early bed times. The half brings you on a larger course, if you can believe it haha. Start out in Epcot and continue along the highways until you reach Magic Kingdom, running down Main Street, into Tomorrow- and Frontierland and out back through the Castle. Truly Magical! You finish the race by coming back into Epcot, which I may add has the only 3 inclines in the race, and I remembered from last year that they really hurt my good ankle (previous injury on the other that I’m surprised didn’t get aggravated by it) but I knew for this race and the marathon (which I knew I would encounter it again) I had to walk up them, while maintaining time still =) we were Alice and the Mad Hatter for this race, I’ll leave it up to you to decide who was who haha.
Full Marathon – Here it is, the big one, the final leg in the Dopey Challenge (and Goofy as well) After everything, this was what I had been training for! The race started late because of traffic, which also caused A LOT of racers to start the race late, which gave us time to shake off the stress and use the bathroom. Beginning in Epcot (as usual) making our way up the highway miles til we reach the Castle again! Out and around to Animal Kingdom, into Blizzard Beach, quickly through Hollywood Studios and back to Epcot for the finish! What a rush!!! I know that doesn’t do it justice, but we stopped for character after character, some really cool ones like Jafar, and Max Goof! We even found our husbands spectating us a few times which is truly the motivation you need to keep going! We also had the opportunity to take a picture with some live animals as we ran through the Animal Kingdom, what a treat!! The race ended up being cut for some racers as the heat (85 degrees with 90% humidity ouch!) was too much so the 2 miles of Blizzard Beach was just cut from the course. We met up with Dennis (Kelly’s husband) in the last stretch of Epcot and he handed us some margaritas to cross the finish line with, and we did it!!! We crossed that line with Marg’s in hand! We checked over by the challenge tent, tears in our eyes from finishing the race as they said “You did it” and ushered us along to obtain our Goofy and Dopey Medals! Honestly I’ve never been filled with so many emotions at once! Aptly, we were dressed as Dopey and Snow White for this final leg
Mike and his Miles 