Dopey & WDW Marathon Weekend Lessons Learned

[dburg30]

I admitted I didnt train very well for this Dopey. That being said, I DID complete it. What I learned was since I hadnt trained well, I had bad form habits. After the half, I had beat the bottom of my feet so badly from bad form, I honestly almost didnt even try the marathon. But I went back to the room, got off my feet got them up in the air and just rested for a while. They started feeling better. I decided I was going to make sure to start the full, because I wanted the mickey medal. Not even getting into that discussion, but I wanted that medal. So I told my family I was going to start, but honestly didnt think I'd finish the way me feet hurt. I told them I wasnt going to be 'playing' on my phone taking pictures, or texting them etc etc. I was going to focus on doing what I could. It took me the whole 7 hours, but I did it and my feet hurt much less after the full! So, obviously training is super important, but even more so, is making sure you are practicing and training your running / walking FORM also. It'll save you in the end.

 

[Anisum]

I am not a fan of the digital event guide from an informational delivery standpoint. I find it harder to navigate and locate information within than the old printed copies that they used to hand out. From an environmental stewardship standpoint, though, the electronic guides are hard to argue against. The printed event guides had a useful lifespan of 4-5 days. By going digital RunDisney has eliminated the paper and ink requirements for 40,000+ 20+ page booklets, not to mention the landfill space that won't be taken up by the guides after the event weekend. At this point, I've switched from hoping that printed material will come back to providing feedback on the content delivery mechanism in hopes of getting a more user friendly digital guide in the future.

That's very true. I didn't think of that. Especially since I imagine they have to print more than necessary. Hopefully they will make a more user friendly guide though.

 

[CDKG]

I admitted I didnt train very well for this Dopey. That being said, I DID complete it. What I learned was since I hadnt trained well, I had bad form habits. After the half, I had beat the bottom of my feet so badly from bad form, I honestly almost didnt even try the marathon. But I went back to the room, got off my feet got them up in the air and just rested for a while. They started feeling better. I decided I was going to make sure to start the full, because I wanted the mickey medal. Not even getting into that discussion, but I wanted that medal. So I told my family I was going to start, but honestly didnt think I'd finish the way me feet hurt. I told them I wasnt going to be 'playing' on my phone taking pictures, or texting them etc etc. I was going to focus on doing what I could. It took me the whole 7 hours, but I did it and my feet hurt much less after the full! So, obviously training is super important, but even more so, is making sure you are practicing and training your running / walking FORM also. It'll save you in the end.

Is there anything specific you struggled with during your training? For example, I have a friend who struggled through her first full marathon at CIM. Her advice was not to skip the midweek semi-long runs (easy to do for those of us working a traditional 9-5).

Congratulations on sticking it out and proving to yourself that you CAN complete Dopey!

 

[dburg30]

Is there anything specific you struggled with during your training? For example, I have a friend who struggled through her first full marathon at CIM. Her advice was not to skip the midweek semi-long runs (easy to do for those of us working a traditional 9-5).

Congratulations on sticking it out and proving to yourself that you CAN complete Dopey!

I have done 2 Dopeys now and failed once . As far as what I struggled with in training.. Doing it. Between starting a 2nd job, which takes up every Sunday morning. And my regular job which is 7-5 (sometimes 6-5) and Saturday mornings minimum during our normal season (April thru Oct / Nov) I was just done at the end of the day. My job I am on my feet all day long, so I was just over it. Now, that also I think is really what allowed me to finish, the whole on my feet all day long.

 

[PrincessV]

Just now came across this thread, so I'll have some catching up to do...

Meanwhile, my lesson learned: yes, even as a Floridian, I DO need some "real" winter running gear! One day of wearing a gazillion layers of non-winter gear was tolerable. Two was pushing my limits. Three was the tipping point: I woke up the Monday after the full (which also involved layers, but not nearly as many and I was actually able to ditch the throwaway items!) and ordered a few cold weather items in case it ever gets that cold down here again... just in time for this next major cold snap.

 

[PrincessV]

Still catching up, but one more lesson learned that I think could be beneficial to newbies: it really is very possible to nail a GREAT race at WDW! After going slow and having fun the previous 3 days of Dopey races, I felt really good marathon morning and decided to put some effort into it and see what happened. I wasn't chasing a particular time goal, but felt like I could probably beat my previous best by at least a couple minutes... I set a 22-minute PR! And that was from corral G, with multiple stops for pics, removing layers, restroom, applying sunscreen. A lot of that can be attributed to putting in the training, and a lot is being lucky enough to have avoided illness and to have near-perfect weather that day. I feel like we get so used to warning newbies about how crowded the races can be, and how hard it is to run a good time at WDW, we forget that there are times the planets align and it happens - so I wanted to throw it out there

 

[CDKG]

Still catching up, but one more lesson learned that I think could be beneficial to newbies: it really is very possible to nail a GREAT race at WDW! After going slow and having fun the previous 3 days of Dopey races, I felt really good marathon morning and decided to put some effort into it and see what happened. I wasn't chasing a particular time goal, but felt like I could probably beat my previous best by at least a couple minutes... I set a 22-minute PR! And that was from corral G, with multiple stops for pics, removing layers, restroom, applying sunscreen. A lot of that can be attributed to putting in the training, and a lot is being lucky enough to have avoided illness and to have near-perfect weather that day. I feel like we get so used to warning newbies about how crowded the races can be, and how hard it is to run a good time at WDW, we forget that there are times the planets align and it happens - so I wanted to throw it out there

Congratulations!!! You make it sound so easy... My hope is that if I put in the training, I might just surprise myself too!

 

[Dr Q]

Still catching up, but one more lesson learned that I think could be beneficial to newbies: it really is very possible to nail a GREAT race at WDW! After going slow and having fun the previous 3 days of Dopey races, I felt really good marathon morning and decided to put some effort into it and see what happened. I wasn't chasing a particular time goal, but felt like I could probably beat my previous best by at least a couple minutes... I set a 22-minute PR! And that was from corral G, with multiple stops for pics, removing layers, restroom, applying sunscreen. A lot of that can be attributed to putting in the training, and a lot is being lucky enough to have avoided illness and to have near-perfect weather that day. I feel like we get so used to warning newbies about how crowded the races can be, and how hard it is to run a good time at WDW, we forget that there are times the planets align and it happens - so I wanted to throw it out there

This is exactly how I feel about it all!

 

[Nole95]

Still catching up, but one more lesson learned that I think could be beneficial to newbies: it really is very possible to nail a GREAT race at WDW! After going slow and having fun the previous 3 days of Dopey races, I felt really good marathon morning and decided to put some effort into it and see what happened. I wasn't chasing a particular time goal, but felt like I could probably beat my previous best by at least a couple minutes... I set a 22-minute PR! And that was from corral G, with multiple stops for pics, removing layers, restroom, applying sunscreen. A lot of that can be attributed to putting in the training, and a lot is being lucky enough to have avoided illness and to have near-perfect weather that day. I feel like we get so used to warning newbies about how crowded the races can be, and how hard it is to run a good time at WDW, we forget that there are times the planets align and it happens - so I wanted to throw it out there

This is basically what I did as well. Treated the first three legs of Dopey as easy training runs. According to my Hanson's plan I was supposed to be running an easy 6 miles on both Thursday and Friday anyway, so I knew those two runs would not mess me up. It was the 13.1 on Saturday that I needed to make sure I went at an easy pace.

I knew I was trained well coming in. The only thing I could not control was the weather. If it had been a warmer than normal day, I probably would not have gotten a 14 minute PR. On the flip side, had I not had to run 13.1 the day before, I feel I might have been able to run at least a 20 minute PR. I really did not start to hit a wall until about mile 23. On this one day, things really did line up well for me to hit the sub 5 time that I wanted.