Dopey Challenge: Full Marathon

2:45am and our phone alarms started going off. 2 freaking 45am! I wasn’t super exhausted because we had gone to bed around 7pm the night before and I actually slept pretty well, but I certainly wasn’t in the mood to be awake at the time of the day. It was marathon day. The culmination of it all! The hard work started now. And by hard work, I mean keeping my eyes open!

Enter in a repeat of the other mornings. Get dressed. Taxi to Epcot. Long ass walk to starting corral. Long ass wait to start. By this point though we had gotten smart and just found a spot on the ground and sat out the wait until it was our turn to start.

Before we knew it, the fireworks were going off and I was pressing the ‘run’ button on my Garmin and we were off! The first part of the course was a repeat from the previous day. Victoria’s foot was feeling better after she had popped the blister the night before, but it wasn’t long before her knee started to give her even more trouble. She did good keeping up with me for the first couple of miles, but I could tell just shy of mile 5 that I was starting to pull away from her. We sort of have this unspoken rule where it is kind of okay to do that. I think we both know that there comes a point where we both have our own paces to go at and we just go. I felt bad leaving her behind and I know she felt bad slowing me down and so we separated. I knew at that point the rest of the marathon was going to be hard for both of us. What I didn't realize was just how hard. 

I didn’t have my ipod along for music (I did bring my headphones) and because I was no longer with Victoria, I was afraid of using too much phone juice listening to music and have my phone die before the end because I knew I would need it to get ahold of where Victoria was at the end so we could meet up. Thankfully my new iphone battery is super and lasts WAY longer than my Galaxy ever did. By mile 5, I had texted Jay and told him that he needed to text me every so often with encouraging words so that I would keep going. And he did great with that and it helped way more than I think he knows.

I did a little bit of interval running after mile 6, but only for about 2-3 miles. I made it to mile 13.1 before I started to have really negative thoughts about finishing. My pace was about the same the day before, but I knew I had another 13.1 miles to go. I texted Victoria at that point to see where she was and how she was doing and I heard back from her around mile 15. She was about a mile behind me, almost at mile 14 at a medic tent. She was having serious pain with every step and unfortunately the medics highly recommended that she not continue with the race. She was still making good time, but was in too much pain. As bummed as I am for her for not being able to finish, I’m glad that she followed their recommendation. I would have hated for something more serious to have happened and for her to be out of the running game for even longer. I need my running partner to heal fast!

By mile 16 I had almost had enough. I had another 10.2 miles to go and didn't think I could do it. At this point I knew Victoria was done and thought, it’d be so easy to stop at one of the many medic tents myself and just call it quits. Every part of me ached and I didn't want to take another step forward. Thankfully I was always surrounded by people. I tried to listen to one of my radio apps on my phone and it worked for about 10 minutes, but then it would get locked in the ‘buffering’ step and wouldn't work. So much for any music.

I had come and gone through Magic Kingdom at this point, as well as Animal Kingdom and around mile 17 we were headed into the ESPN Wide World of Sports Center and we passed those coming out of it around mile 21. I was totally bummed that they were so far ahead of us going in, but I kept trucking forward. I had water or powerade at every stop they had. I fueled with my Sport Beans, bananas, and even chocolate that they handed out, but I was starting to get hungry. After all, it was probably close to 10am and I hadn't eaten anything except half a bagel with peanut butter since 3am.

My pace continued to slow and by mile 20 I was consistently slower than the 16 min/mile pace that was required (but not by much). Prior to starting the race, I thought that individually you had to have a pace less than that for all of the races to qualify for your Dopey medals, but as it turns out, you just had to be faster than the two ‘balloon ladies’ in the last corral. We had started in the second to last corral so I knew I had a few minutes on them. At mile 20, my only thoughts were, just keep going, just finish, don’t get ‘swept’ off the course because you are too slow. Even if you don’t stay faster than 16 min/mile and don’t get your Dopey medals, at least you’ll have finished.

There was a lot of chatter going on around me regarding pace and finishing and medals and being swept and finally someone had heard that the race people did their last ‘hard sweep’ at mile 24 and that if you made it past that and were still ahead of the balloon ladies, you’d be able to finish and would get all your medals. All I needed to do was make it to mile 24. Easier said than done. I was dying. I wanted to quit SO bad. But, I had come so far. I couldn’t give up.

I made it to mile 24, no balloon ladies in front of me. Didn’t get swept. Now all I had to do was finish. Hot damn, I still had 2.2 miles to go and it didn't help that by this point my Garmin was off and was reading that I was about a quarter mile farther than I really was. Between mile 24 and 25 the balloon ladies did end up passing me. I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t even try to keep up with their pace. All sights were set on just getting to that finish line.

And there it was. The end/finish line was the same for all of the races so I knew when we were getting really close. All of a sudden it was just around the corner. The thing I had been wishing for for the last 13.1 miles. I rounded the corner and saw it. Each step forward brought me closer and closer. I just kept moving. Of course I had to run the last bit across and I did. I crossed the finish line and it hit me. I just finished a freaking full marathon. I didn’t burst out into tears or anything obscene, haha, but I did get very emotional. I got my medal for the marathon and slowly made my way towards the tent for the Goofy and Dopey medals. I got verified, got those medals. Took some more pictures and then found Victoria and quickly found a place to sit down. I plopped right down in the middle of a bunch of other people plopping right down. Right on the parking lot asphalt. 

Then it really hit me and I got even more emotional and then I almost did start to cry. I came, I saw, I conquered.

Best part of all, by the time I finished the marathon the sun was out and it was warm! Like sandal and shorts and tank top warm! Throughout the previous 7 hours I had gone from cold and shivering to warm, to cold and wet (thank you rain) to warm and wet, to just plain warm sunshine!

I slowly managed to get my shoes off and what awaited me was some full on ugly runner feet, haha! Can we say blisters galore!

Victoria and I managed a few more photo ops before very slowly making our way back to the taxi lot and back to the hotel where the rest of the day was promptly spent with this amazing thing called biofreeze and my wonderful compression socks and my bed.

Will I ever do another marathon? I don't know... but for now...

I came. I saw. I conquered. I finished the Dopey Challenge. 

4 races. 4 days. 4 parks. 48.6 FREAKING MILES!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Dopey Challenge: 10k and Half Marathon

The weather on Friday was supposed to be a little warmer than Thursday and true to the weather person’s word (as if they are ever really that correct on the weather) it was, although quite honestly, it didn’t feel like it, haha! Victoria and I had another super early wake up call, jumped in the van taxi thing, and made our way over to Epcot for the second of our four day event. After some more obscene amount of time waiting, the 10k started! Wait, did I mention that to even get to our race corral we had to walk probably close to a mile. And the people, oh the people! 

The 10k was much the same as the 5k, only twice as long. Once again, we walked quite a bit of it. This time we were on the ‘open road’ more than in the park because we had longer to go. The open road part was slightly boring because there wasn’t much to look at. We talked. We always talk. We talked about being cold, oh wait, maybe that was just me complaining. Actually, by the time we hit mile 4 I had warmed up enough to be comfortable. Once again I was wearing many many layers, but at least I was no longer cold. We did do a few running intervals here and there, but mostly just took it at a nice and easy speed walking pace. 

We finished. Got our medals. Took more race selfies and then headed into Magic Kingdom for a few hours. I’ve been to Walt Disney World before. Once with the high school band and once with my mom and siblings. Both times were enjoyable. Because the weather was not super warm out (again), I don’t think I quite enjoyed myself as much as the previous times. Don’t get me wrong, I still had a good time, but I was cold. And it also rained a bit. Victoria and I went on a fair amount of rides and wore our bling around the park. Let me tell you, it didn’t get old hearing ‘congratulations’ from the park workers as we walked around. A lot of runners wore their bling actually. 

After a couple of hours at the park we decided it was best to head back to the hotel to rest up for the following day’s races. Afterall, we weren’t even halfway done with our mileage for the four days. Let’s just say, overall we spent a lot of time resting in either the hot tub or our beds, especially after the half and the full. 

Saturday morning started early for us again. We were becoming pros at getting to Epcot. Thankfully we had the same driver each day who knew exactly where to take us and exactly how to get there. Only this time, after we finished our almost mile walk to the race participant entrance, we had yet another half mile to three quarter mile walk to our race corral. They had moved the start of the half marathon and marathon to a different location, so basically before we even started the half marathon we had already almost walked two miles. Yeah, that sucked. But at least it wasn’t quite as cold as the previous two days. Still, I was bundled up yet again. 

It was almost an hour after the start of the half marathon before our corral got to start, but the excitement was still there. Quite honestly, I think the half marathon distance has become my favorite. And I never thought I would say that. There was no running (that I remember at least) during the half marathon from myself or Victoria. That was okay. We were saving ourselves. I had my Garmin on (which I had for the other two races as well) and I kept us on point throughout it. I think Victoria may have gotten sick of me saying that we needed to keep pace because nearing the end of this race she started to form a blister on the bottom of her foot and the back of her knee had started to bother her. I wasn’t in any extreme pain, but did have some shin irritation. I warmed up enough by about mile 10 to take off one of my layers of clothing. That was a plus, haha! 

We finished the race is just under three and a half hours and then waited for the free shuttle back to our hotel. During said wait time, we ate our snack boxes, rested our legs, and enjoyed some sunshine that was peeking through the clouds. It was after the half marathon where I really started to wonder if we’d be able to finish the marathon. 13.1 miles is a long distance and I was tired by the end of the race. Not exhausted, but I knew the following day that I’d have to go another 13.1 miles and I didn’t know if I could. I also knew that Victoria was hurting after the half and was concerned about her as well. But, we didn’t sign up for the Dopey Challenge thinking it was going to be a walk in the park. Oh wait; it was a walk in four parks, hardee har har! In all honesty, I doubted myself.

Back at the hotel we ended up in the hot tub again for some relaxation. We ran into another runner who was experienced in the marathon world and he gave us a bunch of good tips and tricks. He also said it was going to be hard and our head was going to try and play games with us. Stay ahead of the mental thoughts he said, be the bad ass and finish. 

After a carbo loading session for supper, we went to bed early again because Sunday held our earliest wakeup call yet!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Dopey Challenge: The Before

If you’ve visited my Facebook page at all in the last two weeks you know just how excited I was to leave for Florida, just how sick everyone around me seemed to be getting and the fact that I was going to participate in something called the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World. By now you also know how said challenge went and have seen probably WAY more than your fair share of pictures about said adventure. I had every intention of just journaling about the experience instead of blogging about it… just writing down my thoughts for me and me alone to see, but then I thought that it might be fun to share the details with everyone who’s supported me along the way. That, and quite honestly, typing things out goes A LOT faster than hand writing it. Just another reason to blog, right?! I know, I’m just so logical these days.

And with that I decided that although I haven’t blogged in months (we have a little tiny man named Alexander to thank for that), I’d blog about this. I can’t say that I’ll be back blogging regularly again, but maybe this is the kick that I need to get that started up again. In any case, it is a place for me to share all about this experience with you all (whoever that may be).

This all started just over a year ago when Victoria somehow happened upon a picture of someone who recently completed the first Dopey Challenge. Said person (whoever he is) had six medals hanging around his neck from one four day event. She said we needed to get these medals for ourselves. You see, we are ALL ABOUT ALL THE BLING! Bring on the bling baby, bring it on! If we rewind about eight months before that, I had just finished my first half marathon in April 2013 and had told Jay that I would never run a marathon. Said Dopey Challenge included a marathon and I didn’t give it a second thought when I told Victoria that of course we were going to take on the challenge. In April of 2014, shortly after I had given birth to Xander, we found ourselves registering for the second Walt Disney World Dopey Challenge promptly when registration opened. A few hundred dollars later, yes, it was EXPENSIVE, we were in! Come hell or high water, in January 2015 we were headed to Florida!

Training began in late May 2015 and I couldn’t wait to get back into running shape. Despite my best efforts and/or thoughts, I did not work out during my pregnancy. I craved getting back into it and during the summer of 2014, both Victoria and I did well with our training. We both participated in the August 2014 Cheesehead half marathon and did well. It was my second and Victoria’s first. I cannot tell you how proud I was of her for completing that. It was not long before that when she thought she’d never be able to complete a half marathon and here we are and she’s now done THREE (plus half of the marathon)! That’s right girlfriend, I’m writing directly to you right now… YOU ARE AMAZING! Never forget that! It wasn’t long after that race however; that things kind of derailed on my end as far as training goes.

I could use the excuse that life got in the way. Jay and I started house hunting. Ayden started school again. We bought a house and moved. Victoria and I signed up for and ran the Cliff Runner half marathon in October 2014 and it sucked on my part. It was a hard run, and quite honestly, I didn’t run much of it. It was a trail run and the terrain was kind of sketchy, so I had to be careful on parts, but I didn’t finish it well at all. It took me way longer than I had wanted to. The hardest part was how I felt after the run. I ended up spending the rest of the day after the Cliff Runner in bed with a stomach ache or throwing up. No good. Unfortunately, by October, the longest I had run was my half back in August. I was on the totally right track for my upcoming marathon… or not.

I was WAY behind on my training by October and every attempt to get back on the wagon failed. I was letting myself down and had no one to blame but me.

Before I go any further, I should explain that the Dopey Challenge is a four day event that consisted of a 5k (3.1 miles), 10k (6.2 miles), a half marathon (13.1 miles), and a full marathon (26.2 miles) for a total of 48.6 miles in four days. Requirements for the event included keeping a 16 min/mile pace. If you know anything about pace, that’s not superfast, well, at least I didn’t think so. Even without keeping up on what I should have been for training, I was really only worried about finishing the marathon at that pace. And from what I discovered, my worries weren’t for nothing.

Almost everyone that I explained the Dopey Challenge to before I left for Florida thought I was crazy for wanting to complete said event and quite honestly, a LOT of people didn’t think it was even possible. They’d call me nuts, but wish me the best. I’d lie and say training was going well, when in all honesty, training wasn’t even going… AT ALL! With everything else that was going on in life, I lost my zest for running. I didn’t even want to. I had gotten new running shoes and they stayed almost pristine in my closet. My eating habits went to hell. I was maintaining my weight, but I could tell I was losing my fitness. Each day brought me closer to leaving for Florida and each day brought me more worries about actually finishing this event. I wasn’t worried about not completing it for me, but not completing it for everyone that I told I was doing it and having them say, told you so! I was beginning to truly think I wasn’t going to be able to finish. As you probably already know, I did. I finished, but not in the way I wanted to. Given the opportunity to do it over, I’d do things differently beforehand.

And, as I sit here and type this, I realize me saying that I didn’t finish the way I wanted to, it makes me sound kind of stupid. Because, um, hello, I did do something pretty awesome. Can’t that just be enough?! You do realize the person behind the keyboard was born with some slight hint of needing to be a perfectionist with things, right? It isn’t enough for me to just have completed it because I know I could have done better. But, I won’t let those feelings completely overtake the fact that the feat was overcome.

Stay tuned for a recap on the 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon!

CIAO! LOVE ME!