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!