Thursday: 5k
Friday: 10k
Saturday: Half Marathon
Sunday: Marathon
Wednesday (1/8)
They sent me my Magic Band around mid December, a full month to get acquainted with the new technology. They even sent a thumb drive with an animated tutorial on how to use the band. I would be using the band for pretty much everything... getting into my hotel room, purchasing souvenirs and food, as well as for the FastPass.
Sometimes I get asked if I was rich or how do I pull these trips off? You really need to keep track of how much you're spending and never to spend beyond what you have saved. It also helps to not have taken vacation for several years. For this trip in particular, I used points for free airfare. I also was rewarded by my employer for healthy activities which included eating a certain amount of servings of vegetables and fruits on a regular basis as well as getting regular exercise. I applied the reward towards paying for the rest of the trip.
Getting to this event was pretty stressful. I took an early flight out of LAX to Orlando. If there was any delay, then I would miss the race expo which would cause me to miss the first race, then the Dopey Challenge would have been a bust before it began. Lucky for me, there were no delays. I got to Orlando on time, took the complimentary Magical Express Motorcoach over to my hotel. I stayed again this year at the All Star Sports. If you're on a tight budget, you should stay here. Out of the three All Star resorts, the shuttles stop here before picking up people from the Music and Movies resorts. Also, it is the closest to the nearby McDonald's if you want to escape the high priced Disney cafeteria food. You could do all of this without having a car. That's the main reason why I have been staying at this Disney resort every year.
Disney Magic Band
Checking in was pretty painless as always especially if you check-in online prior to your arrival. They have all of your stuff ready to go. My credit card was already linked to my Magic Band which was also my room key. They just had to scan my band and gave me a little welcome packet. Then it was off to my room where I dropped off my stuff and headed to the expo over at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
All Star Sports!
They have free expo shuttles from all of the Disney resorts that'll take you directly to the expo. After I picked up my race packet and my shirts, I decided to buy another shirt as if I don't have enough race shirts already! I just wanted a finisher's shirt for the Dopey Challenge that actually looked good. I didn't like the color scheme of the long sleeved shirt that was included in the registration. I'm also not a big fan of the long sleeved shirts. I'm also not a big fan of these tech shirts. I still prefer cotton shirts. So my favorite out of the bunch was the one for the 5k, a short sleeved cotton shirt. In the race packet, we were given two bibs. One bib was for the 5k and 10k. The other bib was for the half marathon and marathon.
I also tried to see if I could buy one of those special Mickey branded New Balance shoes, but I was informed that the only people that could buy them had to make reservations. Wow!
5k shirt
10k shirt
Half Marathon shirt
Marathon shirt
Goofy shirt
Dopey shirt
Bought an extra Dopey shirt
I was pretty tired, so I just ate dinner in the End Zone Food Court. Even though it's just overpriced cafeteria food, I do love their roasted half chicken. After getting back to my room and before hitting the hay, I laid out my gear for the 5k. It was going to be a humid warm weekend, so no sleeves were required for this weekend of racing.
Thursday (1/9) - 5k
At about 3am, I caught the shuttle over to the Epcot parking lot. These early morning shuttle rides would get tougher and tougher with each race. The organization for this race was spectacular. They put us in corrals or pens before releasing us into the starting block one corral at a time. For this race all I wanted to do was to run a comfortable progression race. There was a quite a bit of weaving going on once I caught up to the walkers and joggers in corral A. That's just plain silly for a 5k. You should not be walking in corral A!
1: 8:15
2: 7:44
3: 7:29
3.1: 0:46
Finish: 24:13
I noticed that most of the participants were doing the the Dopey Challenge. The line was pretty dang long after crossing the finish line. Since it was their first year with this type of challenge, I don't think they were anticipating such a long line to get a 5k finisher bracelet slapped on our wrists. They were probably thinking that we would be more spread out.
Dopey tent
After getting my gear bag, I went to get some pictures with some Disney characters as well as with my friends. Along the way, I even saw a good looking couple dressed up as Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper. After the pictures, I got on my bus for a ride back to my resort.
One of the best costumes that I've seen
5k finisher medal
After getting cleaned up, I went back out to check out the expo again this time at a more leisurely pace. They already had signs showing what sizes were sold out for those special edition Mickey shoes. As always my size was too popular so obviously I no longer needed to worry about fighting for a pair of super cool expensive shoes. :)
I stopped by the Disney Vacation Club booth to get some information. The lady there was pretty helpful but she was quite persistent in trying to get me to go hear a presentation. She said that they would have a representative meet with me that would tailor a package for my specific needs. I'm sure they could. She even tried to entice me with a $100 gift card just for going. She finally let me go with information on how to contact them in case that I decided to go. They would just swing by my resort and pick me up. Good thing that I know myself well enough to not take the bait or else I'd be part of the DVC for sure!
As I got out of the expo to go back to my hotel room, it was starting to rain cats and dogs! I'm always so prepared like a boy scout, but this time I forgot to bring my umbrella! So I had to wait it out a bit before jogging from cover to cover to the bus stop.
The rain had let up by the time I got back to my resort, so I walked on over to the McDonald's to pick up lunch. I do love me some McNuggets and Big Mac! I grew up eating this stuff and it always reminds me of the good old days.
For dinner, I ate in the End Zone Food Court again. This time I went with the salmon to mix things up. I've never had it before and it was actually pretty good. Again I laid out my clothes for the next day. With these 3am shuttle rides, you really need to have all of these little things taken care of the night before.
Friday (1/10) - 10k
Per the usual, I got on the shuttle at around 3am to get to the starting area. It was time for the inaugural Minnie Mouse 10k! For this race, I just wanted to average about 8 minute miles. Apparently most people in my corral were just going to jog the race, as only a couple of runners and I were in the front with nobody ahead of us until we came up on the walkers in the first corral. The first 5k felt good and then the next 5k was just a whole lot of weaving. But I was happy to finish under 50 minutes. I poured a lot of water on my head along the way.
1: 7:57
2: 7:51
3. 7:51
4: 8:25
5: 8:10
6: 8:00
6.2: 1:40
Finish: 49:54
After crossing the finish line, as would become the routine, I got in line for the finisher bracelet and true to the Disney experience, they adapted from yesterday's bottleneck to get us through with no problem. They alleviated the bottleneck by funneling the single line into about 10 mini lines with volunteers slapping on the bracelets. After getting my medal, I met up with a few of my friends at the photo lines. I took a photo with Minnie Mouse. Kind of had to since it was the Minnie Mouse 10k.
Minnie Mouse
I then caught the bus back to my resort. It was a bit troublesome to have so my bracelets while taking a shower. I kept getting scratched by the hard plastic. I then walked over to McDonald's to pick up lunch. This time I had a Filet o' Fish with my Big Mac.
Minnie Mouse 10k medal
I relaxed a bit and fell asleep while watching Man v. Food. So I was late in meeting up with my friends at the House of Blues over at Downtown Disney. I had the Juicy Lucy burger and a couple of beers. It was definitely juicy and overall a good burger. It even had jalapeños in it for a little kick!
Juicy Lucy
Before going to bed, I laid out one of my favorite Disney shirts. It was a shirt that I bought for the 5th year of the Disneyland Half Marathon. I thought it would be appropriate to wear that shirt for a half marathon. I don't wear it often because I'm afraid that the design would fall off in the washing machine.
Saturday (1/11) - Half Marathon
Here was when things started to get tough especially having to wake up for the 3am shuttle ride. I went to the front of the corral to wait for the start. My friend who was also running the Dopey found me there. With some fireworks, we were off and running again for the third straight day. The first two miles felt okay, then I just got tired and ran at whatever pace felt reasonably comfortable while taking in the early morning sights. I sped up for the last two miles when I realized that I could still make it under 2 hrs.
1: 8:03
2: 8:14
3: 8:53
4: 9:50
5: 8:49
6: 9:02
7: 8:56
8: 10:13
9: 9:38
10: 9:37
11: 9:46
12: 8:53
13: 8:41
13.1: 0:46
Finish: 1:59:21
After get another bracelet and picking up my Donald Duck medal, I went over to the photo lines again and took a picture with Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. They were two obscure old school Disney characters that I had to look up on Google for their names. If they only knew that I ran with Team Beef! Well, I guess I'll go have yet another burger! :)
Team Beef!
Donald Duck Half Marathon medal
Ever since I've started staying on a Disney resort, they have always included a coupon for Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. I noticed that the coupon this year was now $10 instead of the usual $15. So after getting cleaned up, I hopped on the shuttle for Downtown Disney. I got off at Pleasure Island to save myself a little bit of walking. I like the atmosphere of this restaurant but the food here are pretty pricey. I started off with a Killian's draft and ordered the Double Down burger for my meal. It was stacked pretty high with two thick beef patties. I still wouldn't say that it was worth the $19.99 price tag, but with the coupon it was more reasonable. I had a Guinness to help polish off the rest of the burger.
Killian's
Double Down burger
Guinness
Lots o' beef!
All gone
After demolishing the burger, I stopped by Disney Quest to check it out. Meh... I think I'm too old for this place! There were 5 floors of fun for kids of all ages. The bottom floors were geared more for little kids. About two floors had food. The rest of the floors were for older kids. While it was fun to see and play some of the old coin-op machines that I grew up on in the 80's and 90's, most of the newer games were hogged by everyone else. It seemed like the new thing was virtual games. They do have a bumper car type game where you crash into each other. Also you can shoot at your opponents with your cannon. While I like the concept of paying a flat amount for a full day of fun, I only came here to check it out because I had a coupon for 2 free entries. It was quite nostalgic to be in an arcade again, but I think I've outgrown the days where I found it fun to spend hours on end playing video games. Having said that, I would return if I had some younger teenage kids with me.
I then rode the shuttle back to my hotel. It was time to elevate the tired legs and watch some NFL playoffs. Having to run these consecutive days of races really works up an appetite! The remaining marathon would be the most physically demanding out of the four races, so I had to make sure that I ate enough to get through the final race. I also had to rest my legs, so instead of walking over to McDonald's again, I settled for the End Zone Food Court where I got the roasted chicken again. I laid out my usual Marathon Maniacs running gear before hitting the hay pretty early.
Legs up
Roasted chicken
Marathon gear
Sunday (1/12) - Marathon
Somehow I rolled out of bed, got ready, rode the shuttle, and showed up at the starting corral for the final race of the Dopey Challenge. This year they attempted to alleviate the extreme heavy bottleneck during the stretch where the runners walked to the corrals by announcing that only the runners for the first few corrals should start making their way to the corrals. Since I was starting in corral F, I could wait a bit before heading to the starting corrals. In my opinion, they were successful. It used to be a super crowded cattle call. Again I made my way to the front of the corral where the same friend found me. After the fireworks, it was time to finish off this ridiculous challenge.
This was the race where I wasn't going to run hard at all and to stop at as many photo ops with characters as much as I can. The first two miles were okay. Then I just got really tired. This was the one time that I was glad that the race started so early. The sun wasn't out yet to make it even worse. I was trying to finish around 5 hrs, but as the race went one, my body just kept feeling worse. Mile 21 was when I started feeling really bad. I started feeling hot and cold at the same time. It also felt as if my head was swelling up. It got a little bit better the next mile, then it got worse again by mile 24. I just felt like I was going to pass out any time that I tried to run, so I ended up walking almost the entire next mile. I started to feel better when I saw Dopey. I just had to get in line to take a picture with him and for a most welcomed rest. Then it was a loop around the world at Epcot before I heard the Hallelujah choir and it was just a short run to the finish line.
Dopey!
1: 8:35
2: 8:44
3: 9:14
4: 10:05
5: 9:39
6: 9:38
7: 11:03
8: 10:51
9: 11:06
10: 11:18
11: 12:28
12: 11:43
13: 11:58
14: 12:11
15: 13:19
16: 14:41
17: 13:15
18: 13:18
19: 14:53
20: 13:42
21: 17:23
22: 15:21
23: 16:46
24: 16:53
25: 18:40
26: 14:57
26.2: 1:57
Finish: 5:33:40
That was one of the rougher finishes to a marathon for me. Along the marathon course, I ended up taking pictures with Flynn & Rapunzel, Lilo (Stitch was on a break), Dug & Pluto (weird combo, they just rounded up all the dogs), Jiminy Cricket, Phineas & Ferb, Belle, Mulan, and of course, Dopey. After picking up my Mickey, Goofy, and Dopey medals I pretty much wanted to get back to my room ASAP. I was glad that they removed all of the bracelets that I had been wearing from completing the other three races.
Mickey marathon medal
Goofy challenge medal (loved this new design)
Dopey challenge medal
I got out of my sweaty clothes and took a hot shower, but I was still feeling cold. I had done the usual after any marathon where I would eat the post race banana and drink the Powerade or whatever electrolyte drink that they would pass out. Apparently I had over exhausted my body and was most likely dehydrated. I kept checking out the color of my urine which checked out okay. I was supposed to meet up with my friends at the Magic Kingdom in about an hour, so I thought I'd lay down and rest a bit. I ended up taking about an eight hour nap. I was still feeling the chills and somewhat nauseated, but at the same time I was feeling hungry. So I walked over to the End Zone Food Court to pick up something to eat. I bought water, chocolate milk, and a box of fruit to keep putting in fluids. I felt a lot better after eating and went right back to sleep right after I sent my friends a text telling them that I had overslept due to exhaustion.
What a medal haul
Fruit dinner
Monday (1/13) - Eat around the World!
I always look forward to the Monday after the races. I am so thankful and grateful that my friends allow me to join their group each year! I usually show up pretty much right when the park opens to get in a few rides before joining up with the group. I first went to the Mission Space ride. This one can really get one sick! So if you're prone to motion sickness, do not join the orange team! Then I stopped by one of my favorite attractions, Captain EO. It's definitely one of the best works of Michael Jackson before he became too eccentric for a lot of people. After that it was the Chevy Test Track. It was a nice short ride. I rode it a couple of times with different car configurations which has no effect on the ride itself.
Epcot
Time to get sick!
Captain EO
Chevy
After those rides, I was already pretty hungry, so I started making my way over to 'America' to see if I could buy one of those turkey legs. I was only able to walk to 'China' where there was a Disney cast member roping the way off. So I sat at a bench watching a few ducks while I waited for that section to be opened. When I finally got to the stand where they sold the legs, I found out that it didn't open until 11:30am. So I milled around and walked all the way to 'Canada' before turning around. It wasn't too bad as walking around after a marathon always helped with the recovery of my legs.
The duckies run wild
China
Right when the clock turned 11:30am, I finally got my turkey leg and a Sam Adams beer. I think this year I got the biggest leg that I've ever had. After demolishing the leg, I met up with my friends for some rides. I always love riding the Imagination ride with them. Such a catching tune. Then it was on to eating and drinking around the world.
Time for a turkey leg
So big!
All done!
I always have a hard time remembering what we drank and ate especially as the night goes on. But this year was a bit more tamed as my friends had all started to have kids and start a family. So naturally the craziness has gone down a tad. :)
Eating and drinking around the world!
I was pretty stuffed by the time we made it to our dinner spot. Every year my friends and I always try to secure a table or two at Le Cellier for some great steaks. I ordered the smallest steak on the menu, their Mushroom Filet Mignon, and I was so full I could barely finish half of it. I had a glass of Cadaretta Cabernet Sauvignon to go with it. Next time, I'll probably need to skip the turkey leg. It totally ruined my appetite. My friend gave me a hard time with a few "I told you so!" To makes things worse, the filet was a bad cut. For some reason it was stringy and tough to chew, but it still tasted very good. I had some of my friend's lobster poutine. That was good as well!
Le Cellier Entrance
"Le Cellier" Mushroom Filet Mignon & Cadaretta Cabernet Sauvignon
Tuesday (1/14) - The Magic Kingdom
Fortunately for me, my flight home was at 5:20pm, so I was able to go visit the Magic Kingdom and not let the park pass go to waste. I checked out of my room and had them hold my bag at bag check. It was cloudy and threatening to rain, but it was my first time visiting this park and I didn't care. The times where I've run through the park during races doesn't count. It turned out to be a great day at the park as there was never any real downpour. The layout of the park was somewhat similar to Disneyland but different enough where I was lost a few times and had to pull out the map.
The Magic Kingdom
Cinderella's castle
Cool! They're building a Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster ride and they left slits for you to peak in on the progress.
7 Dwarves
I loved the Beauty and the Beast section of Fantasyland. I wish that I had more time to check things out at Gaston's Tavern. Nearby was the Little Mermaid ride, Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid. I went on that and then went into Ariel's Grotto to meet Ariel. A cast member at the entrance sort of warned me that it wasn't a ride. I guess I was a bit old to be meeting Ariel. Yes, I did feel like a creeper but hey, what the heck, I'm already here! :)
The Beast's castle
Gaston and LeFou
Gaston's Tavern
Ariel
Meeting Ariel
Besides seeing the new attractions, I rode all of the old favorites: "It's a Small World", Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, and the Haunted Mansion. I used all of my FastPass with my Magic Band and got into the single line a few times for each ride. I definitely maximized my time here at the park, but next time I would like to take my time and enjoy the park at a more leisurely pace.
It's a small world
After taking the shuttle back to my resort, I picked up my bag, and waited for the Magical Express Motorcoach ride to the airport. I love visiting Disney World, but boy was I tired from the long "vacation". The races alone made me exhausted. I was glad that I was able to have recovered from the races and summon up enough energy to make it through a half day in the Magic Kingdom. I had a swell time, until next year!
When I got home, I drove straight to my favorite ramen shop, What's Up Men, for a late dinner. Edamame and beer has been my recovery food of choice as of late.
Asahi draft with edamame
Would I do the Dopey Challenge again? Right after the marathon, I was sure that it would be a "one and down" ordeal, but never say never! :)
