If It Scares You, It Might Be a Good Thing To Try (Dopey Challenge 2018)

Have you ever had a great idea, commit to it, and then are like "WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?!"

That's how I felt about the RunDisney Dopey Challenge. Because it's just that-- dopey.

It's 48.6 miles over the course of four days throughout the Walt Disney World Property. It starts with a 5k on Thursday, then continues to a 10k on Friday, a half marathon on Saturday, and concludes with a full marathon on Sunday. And yes, it's every bit as daunting as it sounds.

But last January, when I saw that my friend, Tasha, had run her first RunDisney marathon and I was at the beginning stages of my running career AND I knew that I was going to be moving to Orlando over the summer, we started chatting about the races we've done and how we'd definitely have to do RunDisney races together. One thing led to another, and because a year is totally enough time to train, the next thing we knew we had both signed up to run the Dopey Challenge.

The four courses that would label was "officially Dopey"

I'd like to say that we were fully and properly trained and 100% prepared for these races. But we weren't. Not even a little bit. Our "2018 Dopey Challenge Survival Plan" included two things-- finish all the races and get all the medals. Timing wasn't even on our radar; we just had to finish.

There was the promise of these beauties waiting for us at each finish line. And honestly, for a couple of the races, knowing that a shiny medal was at the end was enough. 

From the first of the year until the Expo, which was the day before the 5k, I went back and forth between thinking "I HAVE SO MANY REGRETS" and "We'll be fine, we'll be so fine." Post Expo feelings were definitely "I have so many regrets and I might die, but I'm going to enjoy it for as long as I can."

Ready or not-- Dopey Challenge 2018 was finally here.

. . . . . .

And as a side note, or a PS, or whatever you would like to call it. I took this picture at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party in October, knowing that I would be completing the Dopey Challenge in just a couple of months.

"I think the Dopey Challenge should be renamed to the Seven Dwarves Challenge. Dopey because signing up was a dopey idea. Bashful because I don't even consider myself a runner, but I still signed up to do something so monumental. Sleepy because 2am wake up calls, four days in a row are the WORST. Grumpy due to sitting in our corrals for almost two hours in the freezing cold while we waited for the races to start. Sneezy due to the colds that have been going around. Doc because I learned so much about myself. And HAPPY because I did it!! (And now it's over!!)"