runDisney 2024 Dopey Challenge Day 4 – Marathon

When I woke at 1:30 am, I was ready to go tackle the marathon.  I got up with a sense of excitement, today was the last day of the Dopey Challenge.   I knew that once I crossed that starting line, it would only be a matter of hours before I crossed the finish line and completed the runDisney Dopey Challenge.

I went through my morning ritual once again.  The preparation the night before was a little more challenging because I had to include enough fuel for a 5–6-hour journey.  My FlipBelt was loaded with four Hüma gels, 3 extra servings of HEED electrolyte powder, and a dozen electrolyte capsules as well as my phone and a spare GoPro battery.  I slipped the belt on, laced up my shoes and headed out to catch the 2:30 am bus.

 

I ran into some friends on the bus and upon arriving in the pre-race gathering area, about 3:00am, we were able to snag an open picnic bench.  We sat and chatted about many things and before we knew it,  it was 4:00 am and time to head to the corrals.  

 

Each of the runner areas seemed more crowded for the marathon.  I had to fight through the crowd to get into the bag drop area and wait in line to check in my bag.  Then the crowd was thicker going through the check point to get to the start corrals and the open area near the start corrals was more crowded.  I had to navigate through the crowd to get to the water table to fill my bottle, and then wait in line for a port-a-potty.  The clock was ticking, I had less than 10 minutes before my corral closed at 4:45 am.  Anxiously I waited in line waited with several other anxious runners.

 

When I exited the port-a-potty, I had 2 minutes to get into my corral.  I was standing near corral A which was right in front of  the starting line.  But the entrance to corral B was clear across the corral area and I had to jog through the heavy crowd to make it.   Ironically, after I safely made it through the checkpoint, I then had to walk the perimeter of the corrals for about 400 yards to end up about 20 yards from the port-a-potty I had just exited.  <sigh>.  But I made it, in 15 minutes the first wave of the marathon would be off, and my wave would be shortly after that.

 

3…2...1 and we were off.  After three days of this my legs felt lifeless.  No problem, this was the same as I felt during training.  I settled into my 2/1-min run/walk rhythm and just let the time pass as I had done on my training runs.  The first few miles were probably mentally the toughest with doubt lingering in my head.  After about 5 miles the doubt stopped being the problem and the cumulative fatigue took over.  But we were nearing the Magic Kingdom area and the entertainment and spectators started pulling me through.

We were entering into Magic Kingdom before I knew it.  I had planned to walk down Main Street USA to ensure I didn’t let the crowd pull me through and make me go too fast.  My plan did not materialize, I turned the GoPro on and let the crowd pull me down Main St.  It was hard not to just run all the way through Magic Kingdom.  I walked a little but ran most of the way.  Once we exited, I slowed down to walk for a while. 

But now it had started to rain.  There had been no rain in the forecast.   It rained for about 30 minutes, steady and heavy at times.   We all go soaked, my running shoes were heavily attracted to the large puddles that formed in the road.  For a while it seemed this was going to get miserable.  But then the rain tapered off and the air temperature was high enough that my clothes dried out pretty quickly.

 

By that time, I was well past the halfway and approaching the north service entrance for Animal Kingdom.  I had been marching along with my 2/1-min run/walk pacing for almost three hours now.  It was not effortless, but it was not extremely difficult either.  I entered Animal Kingdom near Kilimanjaro Safaris and cruised through the park letting the cheers of spectators and cast members carry me through.   We passed through “Africa” and “Asia” and exited the park near Dino Land.  After another mile on service roads around Animal Kingdom, we were back out on the highways.

 

Mile 17 … 18 … 19 … a diversion into the parking lot of Blizzard Beach, not the park itself, just the parking lot … Mile 20 … 21 … 22 … up the cloverleaf off-ramp to take us to service entrance for Hollywood Studios.   Mike 23 was just inside Hollywood Studios near Fantasmic.  A little more than 5K to go.   

 

The last 5K was the easiest final 5K of a marathon that I can remember.  Most of the last 5K was lined with spectators and/or cast members.  We passed through a short part of Hollywood Studios, exited near the front where guests were entering, past the Sky Liner station, along the waterway to Swan and Dolphin, onto the Boardwalk, into Epcot near the UK pavilion, a lap around World Showcase, up the center of Epcot, into the backstage area by test track and into the parking lot for the finish.

 

I was done. I had completed the runDisney Dopey Challenge (with an asterisk for the shortened half marathon).  I continued through the gauntlet of volunteers to collect my medals and some beverages and then headed to bag drop area for the last time.  Onto the bus back to my resort for recovery and celebration.