I ran my first marathon, at Disney World, on January 7, 2018. It was one of the four races in the Dopey Challenge. The marathon was the 25th running and it was the 5th year of Dopey. Anniversary years mean special medals, and the bling from this series is indeed awesome.
The first part of any race weekend at Disney is attending the expo to pick up essentials (bib(s) and shirt(s)) and other goodies like souvenirs, running gear, and race nutrition. I attended the expo on the first day, Wednesday. The expo opened at 12PM; I arrived around 11:30AM. Most of my time was spent in lines. It was crazy busy!
First there was a line to pick up bibs.
Then there was an even longer line to get into the merchandise hall.
There were some photo ops along the way.
And special merchandise included runDisney themed Mickey Mouse cupcakes (it was delicious).
I got my bibs (2 for Dopey and one for the Castaway Cay Challenge) and my shirts (6 (!!) for Dopey and one for the CCC). In the official merchandise area I stood in another long line to check out. In the expo hall I got some gels for the half and full, and picked up some freebies too (including obligatory GoGoSqueezes).
I survived! Next up: 4x crazy early, crazy cold race mornings -- so Dopey!
Woo hoo, it was time for my second Dark Side weekend! The Dark Side 5K last year was my first runDisney event and I learned a lot! I had a ton of fun then and even more fun this time since I knew better what to expect....
Five years ago this week, I was running my first Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World, getting ready to run my first Marathon as part of the race weekend. This year I took part in the 5K (and volunteered for the half marathon and marathon).
Due to pandemic-related race cancellations and postponements, 2020 has seen a rise in popularity of virtual races. Are you looking for your next virtual race?I found the following virtual races with both t-shirts and medals as swag. Several of these runs have budget-friendly prices, especially considering shipping and...
Yay, it's Star Wars race weekend at Disney World! I've run this weekend for the past three years. You can read my reports about previous 5K races here: 2016 Dark Side 5K (my first runDisney event); 2017 Dark Side 5K; 2018 Dark Side 5K. This...
