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!