We really are just Dopey... Dopey Year II (2015)

Last year, just as we finished the inaugural Dopey challenge I remember the very first thought that followed the “OMG I finally crossed the finish line” was “I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN”.  Ha Ha Ha.  Funny thing is, only a few hours later I was beginning to change my mind, and as you might be already realizing this, I did decide that Dopey a 2^nd time around may not be so bad, especially if I trained better for it.

In retrospect, though my training may not have been everything I dreamed of, it was certainly improved over the previous year. In 2013, we ran mostly 5K’s, a few 10K’s two half marathons and one full marathon prior to Dopey 2014. In 2014 I doubled my amount of running and almost quadrupled my number of half marathons to nine total, and ran the more difficult Kansas City Marathon with a 1 hour PR.  By the time December 2014 rolled around  when I ran my last 20 mile practice run I was becoming delusional, was it possibly that 20 miles was starting to feel less daunting? 

Another difference for this go around was that it wasn’t just Jeff and I running all four races by ourselves.  Jeff’s sister, Suzy joined us this year and not only ran the 5K and 10K with us (which was great for pacing purposes), but was our cheer squad along the routes for the half marathon and full marathon too!  

Of course nothing ever goes as planned.  In October I had gone in for a routine mammogram. As I was expecting, I was called a few days later for a second follow up mammogram and ultrasound.  I wasn’t freaking out yet, as this was for me, pretty normal.  I was told I had a very small calcification in my left breast, that was 90% chance benign, and only a 10% chance of being pre-cancerous DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma  in Situ).  They sent me to a breast surgeon who then sent me in for a needle biopsy to find out what we were dealing with.  I was told I would receive the results in 2-3 business days.  So you can imagine how I took it when I got a call the next day, I had DCIS, I fell into that 10% statistic, and I completely freaked out… I made an appointment to see the breast surgeon for the next Monday, and the first question out of my mouth was… how is this going to affect my Marathon coming up? (I always call Dopey a marathon because everyone knows what a Marathon is, not everybody knows about the Dopey challenge).

Since my calcification in my breast was only 3mm (tiny) Doctor cleared me for running the Dopey and going on vacation.  My next step was an MRI just to double check and make sure nothing else was in there, and thankfully it showed clear.  Of course I did stress quite a bit about going to Florida still, wondering if it was REALLY a good idea after all.  After numerous stressful moments, Facebook posts, and discussions with my significant other, I decided to go ahead and go.  As I look back… I think it was a VERY good decision.

Our plan was the fly in the Tuesday morning prior to the WDW Marathon expo which opened Wednesday, check in, have a little fun in the parks before the four days of sleep, eat, run, repeat, repeat, repeat began… 

This was also our first time visiting Orlando without renting a car at all, Jeff’s sister came up from her home in Miami and picked us up from the Orlando airport. Since we were the first flight of the day we arrived around 10:00 and from there we headed to Port Orleans Riverside (POR) for our first two nights, checked in, and got something to eat at POR food court.  It was about 11:00 at this point, and our room was ready so we drove over, parked and moved everything in for the next two days.  We had a Royal room booked at POR, simply because it was the cheapest room option available at POR at the time I booked it using the Annual Pass discount.  The room was a great location being only about a five minute walk from the main building, food court and all important bus stop. Overall for the rest of the trip we found all of our rooms were a good location and an easy walk to the bus stop. 

Since Tuesday was the only day during our trip I was able to get a fast pass to the Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train that determined our park for the day.  We decided to take the bus to Magic Kingdom, which was quick, and arrived at the park around noon.  If we were using the old ticket FP system there is NO WAY we would have gotten three different fast passes, we would have been lucky to get one.  Overall, I prefer the new FP+ system, the only problem I encountered a few times during our trip was how slow the Disney iPhone Ap worked to reschedule FP+. Later that evening we had a quick dinner at Casey’s and headed out just as Wishes was starting around 8PM.  The bus was quick and we soon made it back to our hotel room, and set the alarm to get to the WDW marathon expo at opening at 10AM. 

A look at the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside:

 http://allears.net/acc/g_PortOrleans-RoyalRooms.htm

Wednesday

EXPO day! Last year, a friend of ours Mark, who is our unofficial running coach, and also SUPER FAST, had done packet pick-up for us, we simply mailed  him the authorization form, and he handed us the bags of stuff when we showed up that morning.  This year, this was not even possible as Disney had changed the rules were you had to pick up your own packet, bibs and shirts, probably due to people selling their bibs if they were unable to race.   It took us a little while, as we first picked up our bibs in one location, then had to go to a separate location, wait in line again and pick up our six shirts.  With Dopey each of the four races gets its own shirt, along with the Goofy challenge and Dopey Challenge shirts.   I had seen pictures of the shirts online, and thought they looked better in person, he only one I wasn’t super crazy abut was the dark green Dopey shirt? 

Now it might be because we didn’t actually pick up our racing gear the previous year, but I still have to think that the EXPO, though it spanned two large athletic buildings was a zoo, it was NUTS.  After picking up our bibs and shirts, we wanted to head over to the RunDisney merchandise area to pick up a few things.  Because paying $500 a piece to race, and getting six shirts simply isn’t enough…

Disney, I have found, has this amazing ability to want you to spend every cent to your name and smile about it it seems.   In prior years RunDisney had one large merchandise area in one location. This year there were two locations for official merchandise, with one in the Josten’s Center and a smaller location in the HP pavilion.  I guess it would sort of make sense if they had the same merchandise, but we found different jackets and shirts in both locations.  This makes ZERO sense.  I ended up getting the women’s jacket, magnet and a few pins in one, and Jeff ended up getting the men’s jacket (which I actually like better) as well as the Dopey “I did it” shirts in the other.  One other point I have found that I detest is that many non runners swarm the RunDisney merchandise on opening day and buy huge loads of this limited edition merchandise to sell for a profit on EBAY.  This makes those who REALLY ARE runners have to paw over the leftovers it seems. Disney doesn’t seem to care because they still make their money, but its frustrating for runners because much of the merchandise runs out in the first day or in many cases the first hours. I believe, as do many others, that Disney should either limit the amount of items one person can purchase, or allow the first few days open to runners only. 

Suzy was also interested in checking out the Sparkle Skirts Booth, since we had looked at them at the Tower of Terror 10 Miler expo.  After checking the map we found out that they weren’t there, which seemed kind of odd.  So with bib pick up and shopping done, we headed back to the bus, we didn’t take pictures with the race art as we had done the previous year, thinking we would be back to the expo… didn’t happen. 

After making it back to the room, took out all the shirts and 2 bibs, and took the obligatory photo. Our next stop was Hollywood Studios, we had an ADR that night for Mama Melrose at 4:30, plus we had several FP+ set up for today.  We ended up missing our Star Tours FP and I wasn’t able to reschedule it, but did make it for Toy Story Midway Mania.  Prior to FP+ we were lucky if we rode it once every other trip now its common to for us to ride it every time we visit Hollywood Studios thanks to FP+.  Next up was dinner at Mama Melrose. Jeff and I had eaten here many years ago and found the food rather sub-par, but it was many years ago and the reviews looked good so I figured it was worth another try.  In the end I wasn’t totally thrilled with what I had ordered but, everyone else, suzy and Jeff enjoyed their food.  I would definitely go back, but also definitely order something different.

With carb loading done for the day, we headed over to Tower of Terror for our 2^nd fastpass.  I am not a huge fan of drop rides, but will ride with Jeff so he doesn’t have to ride alone, as it is his favorite ride, Suzy took my place this time though so I sat it out.

Afterwards we did a little shopping since I have found many of the shops at Hollywood Studios carry different merchandise then anywhere else on property, soon after we headed for Suzy’s car as this was one park were It was almost as easy to drive as it would be to ride the bus.

Originally since we were staying at POR we had wanted to stop by and see Yehaa Bob, which we had seen many times before, but by the time we got back to POR it was around 9 pm and I still had to get everything ready for he following morning, decide what I was going to wear, and actually get up early for the first morning of four.

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The weather forecast for Thursday morning was upper 30’s with a wind between 15-20 mph, so I was expecting chilly, and laid out my running pants, jacket and shirt.  I had also on a whim bought a 10 pack of emergency thermal blankets off Amazon about a week prior for only $6, we would find out soon that that was probably the best decision!