The Dopey Challenge is known for two things: Running a total of 48.6 miles in 4 days, and 4 early mornings in a row. Well, the early morning part of the challenge started a day early for me, as I had a flight to catch at 8 am on the first day of of “Marathon Weekend” (the so-called weekend starts on a Wedensday, so that’s why I am putting weekend in quotations).
My husband Dennis and I hitched am early morning ride to JFK airport with his Dad, and by 8 am we were all boarded on our flight and getting ready to take off. We somehow scored the lucky row of exit seats with our randomly assigned seats, and I was happy to have all the leg room as a result. It was an easy flight, and I alternated between napping and anxiously checking how much time we had left before landing.
When we finally landed, we headed over to the magical express, and waited for a bus to our resort, All Star Movies. Apparently it was a popular time to land at the airport, because we waited almost an hour before we got a seat on the bus. When we arrived at the hotel our room wasn’t ready, so I quickly changed from New York winter wear to something more comfortable for Florida winter, and then checked the rest of the luggage I had carried on with the hotel. Once our bags were taken care of, Den and I grabbed some lunch from the All Star Movies food court and the waited for the Expo bus to make its rounds to the hotel.
It was a quick ride over to the expo, and we found Mike and Jude right after arrival, who had headed to Epcot that morning before meeting us. Den’s Mom and sister Liz were also at the expo, along with Liz’s boyfriend Bobby, since Liz and Bobby were running the 5k and needed to pick up their bibs as well. The first stop at the expo was the arena, which was housing the official RunDisney merchandise. I had my eyes on a few pieces of Dopey apparel plus a marathon magnet, and wanted to try to get to the merchandise before it sold out. We wandered through the rows of merchandise, and thanks to Jude’s sharp eyes I managed to find the Dopey pullover that I was coveting. I also picked up a few other things, including some pins, a wine glass, and a pair of RunDisney ears.
Once we were done shopping, Mike and I had to pick up our pre-ordered merchandise. We had both ordered the race weekend jackets, and the pick up line was the first line we encountered that weekend. Once we had collected all of our goodies, it was time to get what we needed the most from the expo - our race bibs!
The bib pickup takes place in the HP field house, so that was where we headed. Lucky for us it was late enough in the day that there were no lines over there, so the process was relatively quick. Mike had pre-printed all of our waivers, so I quickly signed mine and then we headed onto the floor. First Jude picked up his bibs for the 5k and the 10k, which were on the main floor of the building. Mike and I snapped photos, both excited that Jude would be running with us this year. Once he had his supplies, we headed to the second floor of the building, where the Dopey Challenge bibs were found. We handed over our IDs so that our identities could be verified, and a photographer snapped our pictures so that the race officials could confirm that it was indeed us that ran each of the four races. For Dopey challengers the shirts are in the same building as the bibs, just around the corner. We picked up our bags, which were stuffed with 6 shirts, and after trying them on, Mike and I both exchanged our sets for the next size up. There was a fun photo op with a Dopey cut out, so we stopped for a quick picture before going to the Visa Athletic center to pick up Jude’s shirts, which were in a separate building.
When we got to the next building we found another photo op, and then wandered around the expo floor for a little while. I picked up some sport beans and a headband for the marathon, and collected some go-go squeeze pouches that were being handed out. I also grabbed a pulled pork sandwich from one of the food vendors, because it smelled so good when I walked by that I needed to try it. Mike and I both had KT applied to various appendages, but I ultimately wound up removing the tape and re-doing it myself, as I didn’t like how it was positioned on my knee.
The shirt pickup that Jude’s shirts were waiting at were in the back of the building, so we had to walk by lots of vendors on the way there. It is a big expo, which I like, because if you forget anything you need for race day, you can probably find it at the expo.
By the time we were done exploring, it was time for the fastpasses that we had booked in Magic Kingdom. So we headed back to the hotel, where our room was ready, dropped off our purchases, and then headed to the park to get in a few rides before bedtime. Mike and Jude headed into the park to make it to the first fastpass, but I had to activate my annual pass before joining them. We rode a few rides, and we grabbed dinner at Pinocchio’s, where half of us ate flat breads and the other half ordered chicken parm. We had an early morning ahead of us, so we left the park before closing time.
We took the bus back to the hotel room, and spent some time settling in. We were staying in one of the newly renovated rooms at all star movies, which have a good amount of storage space squeezed into them. I made sure to hang up all of my race costumes, and check that I had everything that I needed for the 5k the following morning thrown into my gear check bag. By the time I crawled into bed I may have been a little over packed for a 5k, but I was excited for the days of running ahead of me.