If You are Going to Jump at the Finish Line, Be Sure You Stick the Landing – A 2018 Dopey Run TR

[ZellyB]

So funny story - I was getting all set to leave work and then I saw you updated your TR. So I am still at work.

Glad you have your priorities straight!

Glad your GI issue cleared up quickly!

You and me both!

Somehow in all of the Disney races I have done, I have never seen corral jumpers! Why are people like that?? Kudos to the volunteers indeed!

I'd seen it once before, but I think more people may have tried it due to the cold. So many people had on multiple layers and bibs were often covered, but they did a great job of stopping each person and getting them to show them the bib. You could tell people were trying to just rush past as quickly as they could, but at least the ones at the C opening were having none of that.

I agree that the Mickey head balloon is a little creepy-looking...

GAH, so bummed you didn't get Oogie Boogie! I haven't seen him out yet either, just seen pictures. Someday we'll find him!

I'll keep looking! We have to get lucky at some point, right?

I LOVE that the course goes under the train station - I think the Tink course did that too right? Great change! And your outfit obviously is giving me life, never thought of that combo but it looks great!

That course change was the BEST!

SEBASTIAN!! So jealous, what a great meet!

I was pretty excited for him. I don't remember seeing him out before at other races, although I'm sure he probably has been.

You're a butterfly, gotta spread your wings...sorry Eeyore!

Yay love reading this! [/QUOTE]

Poor Eeyore. She was probably cursing me when she got those pics.

Great pictures!

Totally understand getting to the corrals early. I was lucky enough to get in the first wave of G both for the half and full and that was great. G and H were ginormous corrals too. I so wish Oogie would've been out. I think he was out for the half two years ago? That was the only time I met him. I should've stopped for Sebastian but I was running with Team Shenanigans and they decided to skip that one.

We saw a lot of those Team Shenanigans people later in the course and they seemed to be having a fantastic time! I'm so jealous you got Oogie. One of these days for me, maybe!

Look at you, pretty butterfly! Love that top! Reminds me of @Ariel484 in the marathon (I think) last year.

The upside of the cold weather this year was it gave me an excuse to wear that top in a Disney race.

You ARE a beautiful butterfly!!!

Aw thanks! It's a great top too because it's lined and very warm.

Great pics! And I agree about the new entrance to MK! It was much better to see the castle full on for as long as possible vs. going backstage and making that sharp right hand turn in to Main St.

It was a great change on the course and I'm so glad they did it. There's plenty of things I don't like about the course (looking at you, cone alley), but that was a wonderful improvement.

 

[ZellyB]

We also like the new entrance into MK. At first I was worried it might be a big bottleneck, but we breezed right on through.

You know, we had worried about the same thing, but I almost think it went more smoothly than the old way. It's wider I think than I realized and not having to make that sharp turn may have helped too. We also breezed through!

 

[TheHulamuffins]

Fantastic trip report! I always admire the Dopey runners! Our trip overlapped with yours (cold, cold, cold), though we are not runners, so it started and ended a few days earlier. We have the same taste in FastPasses and rides, as well as restaurants. I thought it would be funny if one of your ride photos included a member of our group, but that would have been too much of a coincidence.

 

[baxter24]

I LOVED the new entrance to then Magic Kingdom! It seems like a better way to enter the Magic Kingdom especially after being so close to everyone on the road by the Contemporary. Great castle and character pics as well!

 

[ZellyB]

Fantastic trip report! I always admire the Dopey runners! Our trip overlapped with yours (cold, cold, cold), though we are not runners, so it started and ended a few days earlier. We have the same taste in FastPasses and rides, as well as restaurants. I thought it would be funny if one of your ride photos included a member of our group, but that would have been too much of a coincidence.

Thanks for reading! It was so cold, right?? Not why I go to Florida in January, but nothing to be done about it but bundle up. You clearly have excellent taste in FP, rides and restaurants.

I LOVED the new entrance to then Magic Kingdom! It seems like a better way to enter the Magic Kingdom especially after being so close to everyone on the road by the Contemporary. Great castle and character pics as well!

Good point about how nice that is to spread out after getting past the Contemporary. That portion of the course is also pretty miserable.

 

[evre13]

I love the outfit! I haven't let myself delve into the world of Ink 'N Burn yet, but you (and @Ariel484) make it look so adorable and sporty. Asportable? We'll go with that.

I didn't realize they had changed the entrance into MK. I did Princess on the old course, and I loved running through the park, but to come in under the Train Station seems so much more special. Ugh, I have FOMO of this year's races.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

You look so amazing in Monarch and those cable knit capris! I'm so sad I never got those pants You have some great race pictures again. I love your character strategy and it's paying off with some great character pics!!

I would love to get to the castle when it's still dark in a race. Definitely a goal for next time!

 

[ZellyB]

I love the outfit! I haven't let myself delve into the world of Ink 'N Burn yet, but you (and @Ariel484) make it look so adorable and sporty. Asportable? We'll go with that.

I didn't realize they had changed the entrance into MK. I did Princess on the old course, and I loved running through the park, but to come in under the Train Station seems so much more special. Ugh, I have FOMO of this year's races.

InB can be addictive, so watch out!

I think this was the first year with the new entrance into MK. I think everyone loved it that I've read.

You look so amazing in Monarch and those cable knit capris! I'm so sad I never got those pants You have some great race pictures again. I love your character strategy and it's paying off with some great character pics!!

I would love to get to the castle when it's still dark in a race. Definitely a goal for next time!

I spy some InB Serape in your avatar, right?

It's usually been shortly after sunrise for us to get to the castle, so it was nice to get there when it was still kinda dark. But, we took our time for the marathon, so not as dark in those pics.

 

[Ariel484]

InB can be addictive, so watch out!

 

[ZellyB]

Let's Finish This Half!

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On to Frontier land. Hey, Woody and Bullseye.

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Never had Bullseye before, but opted to skip anyway.

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There go those big arms again!
I love that they added this extra loop through Frontierland and by BTMRR.

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There's some woman who is up in some kind of tower thing talking to people here too. I don't know who she is, but hey, lady.

You loop around to that backstage area here and for the life of me I can't remember who was here. Princess/Prince maybe??? I'm at a complete loss to remember and no selfie to remind me.

And then sadly out of the MK and back to the road. The dreaded cone alley is through here and per the usual – hated it. I know there’s not probably much choice here, but man, I hate this part and it really had a rough impact on Chris. He was just really over it and he was starting to get some pain in his calf. We did take in a little fuel here and that ultimately helped us some, but it was rough going for awhile and I think both of us were really worrying about a struggle at mile 8 on a half when we had a marathon to run the next day.

We did see Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, but again we’ve had them so we kept on trucking.

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Mile 9

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Huge Mickey head still floating in the median. Not quite as creepy in the light of day.

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Mile 10

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And we were both just kinda over it. We were getting pretty tired and this is why I don't love the half marathon course for Marathon weekend. After you get through MK, there's just not a lot that keeps me that interested. I know there are others though who really like this course, but for us, it just loses us in here and we are just trying to finish.

I think it’s here that you loop up to the overpass, but it didn’t seem bad at all and then a pretty straight shot back to Epcot. Woohoo!!

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And on to the finish line!

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So, as we were crossing the finish line, there was a lady right next to us who decided to make a jump at the finish line. If you aren’t thinking of my thread title right about now, you might want to, because – yeah, she totally bit it. She went down pretty hard and she had her phone in her hand too. We pulled up and of course about 5 volunteers immediately started running toward her, but she popped back up right away (don’t you love adrenaline?) and was like, “I’m fine! I’m fine!” Chris and I felt terrible for her, but we also would have loved to see her finish line photos. Hopefully she wasn’t hurt and could laugh about it afterwards! But, from that point on, we were all about “sticking the landing”.

Hello pretty Donald medals!

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We picked up our gear check bag with a plan to watch the end of the race, but first we were hungry, so got in line for some beverages and food.

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Yum! But, the line took forever and by this time we had chilled quite a bit, so we both thought it best to just head back to the resort. By the way, the walk back to the monorail felt WAAAAAY longer than the walk that morning. But, I later heard the lines for the buses were crazy long, so I'm glad we were able to hop on the monorail to zoom back to our room.

It was awesome to have the race done though. Just one more itty bitty 26.2 to go. We did have a lunch reservation at Kona Café (no pics of food, sorry) and it was fine, but not that special. And the rest of the day was really just spent taking it easy around the resort. We did a quick service carry out from Captain Cook’s

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and we ate in the room while we watched another pitiful display by the KC Chiefs on how they CANNOT apparently win a post-season game Grrr,and then just did prep for the marathon and got an early bedtime. In all honesty, I felt sorta surreal that I actually had to run a freaking MARATHON the next day.
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/JAtnDM']

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Next up: I guess we’re actually running a Marathon today.[/url]

 

[kski907]

First off great Half outfit!! I love reading your recaps, brings back the excitement of the weekend. I also love all the photos you take and the character stops. I never remember to take photos and just not comfortable enough to feel safe getting character shots. We were lucky this time and have tons of photo pass photos of all of us so happy. We even have 5K finish photos so bummed to hear you did not.

 

[TeeterTots]

I believe those “big arms” are in fact wings during this race, am I right?! Love love those capris I wish I had bought them!!!

Yay for 22.4 miles ran! Maybe one day I’ll get there!

Oh poor girl! Maybe she’d be happy if she knew she had a “trip” report in her honor!

 

[rteetz]

Congrats on the half!!!

That tower thing is a parade float they use for Easter and other holidays but no idea why they had some lady up there.

Mickey balloon was down when I came back around.

Those dang Chiefs! Sorry about the loss at least you made the playoffs.

 

[Ariel484]

Well you know that I share your feelings on the half course! I do feel like there comes a point in Dopey weekend where one is sort of "over it" and ready for the thing to be done - for me it was the night of the 10K/morning of the half, for you guys it sounds like mile 8/9.

Oh no, biting it at the finish line! That's no good! I thought for sure you were going to say she jumped and whacked one of you in the face or something.

Just 26.2 left, no biggie.

 

[PCFriar80]

Please keep arms and legs inside race course at all times! Miles 7 - 10 don’t do much for me either, but I am happy to see Dolphin on the horizon on the way back, plus I don’t have to run the full the next day!

 

[ZellyB]

First off great Half outfit!! I love reading your recaps, brings back the excitement of the weekend. I also love all the photos you take and the character stops. I never remember to take photos and just not comfortable enough to feel safe getting character shots. We were lucky this time and have tons of photo pass photos of all of us so happy. We even have 5K finish photos so bummed to hear you did not.

It's so nice when you get a lot of good photo pass shots! I thought we got pretty lucky on that as well. I was a bit bummed about the 5k finish shot myself, but we got plenty of others thankfully.

I believe those “big arms” are in fact wings during this race, am I right?! Love love those capris I wish I had bought them!!!

Yay for 22.4 miles ran! Maybe one day I’ll get there!

Oh poor girl! Maybe she’d be happy if she knew she had a “trip” report in her honor!

Yes indeed, a "trip" report. I won't post it here, but I have a finish line shot with her in it pre-fall and she looks utterly joyful. I hate that it happened to her and I really do hope she didn't end up hurt!

Congrats on the half!!!

That tower thing is a parade float they use for Easter and other holidays but no idea why they had some lady up there.

Mickey balloon was down when I came back around.

Those dang Chiefs! Sorry about the loss at least you made the playoffs.

I had no idea the tower thing was from a float. It's a nice little diversion though. Stupid Chiefs. I actually wish they hadn't made the playoffs. Saturday evening my original plan was to go to Disney Springs and we had an ADR for Homecomin'. Chris really wanted to watch the game though, so we just decided to cancel and stay in. It was probably best for our feet and legs too, but I think we'd have been happier at Homecomin'.

Well you know that I share your feelings on the half course! I do feel like there comes a point in Dopey weekend where one is sort of "over it" and ready for the thing to be done - for me it was the night of the 10K/morning of the half, for you guys it sounds like mile 8/9.

Oh no, biting it at the finish line! That's no good! I thought for sure you were going to say she jumped and whacked one of you in the face or something.

Just 26.2 left, no biggie.

I figured there would be a time that we'd hit some burnout, but I thought it would be in the middle of the marathon, not during the half. Interesting for you it was even sooner though.

Please keep arms and legs inside race course at all times! Miles 7 - 10 don’t do much for me either, but I am happy to see Dolphin on the horizon on the way back, plus I don’t have to run the full the next day!

I know they like to say every mile is magic, but realistically they can't all be magic, but this year just our Dopey doldrums and the less than inspiring portion of the course didn't make for a good combination. Fortunately we survived it to run another day.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Oh man that poor girl that fell down! I could totally see myself doing that!

Congrats on your half finish! You guys are cruising right along to Dopey!

 

[Nole95]

Cone Alley is definitely not magical. Hated that section in both the half and full.
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Since this was the first time doing Dopey, I never really felt burned out. The closest I came was around mile 23 of the marathon when I was just about out of gas.

I think because we took it so easy each day and made sure to get a power nap in, I think we got into a rhythm and that allowed us to power through the weekend.

 

[CherieFran]

Loving your report so far! Beautiful butterfly!

Totally agree with you on the struggle point. I think the miles between MK and Epcot during the half marathon were the toughest of the whole weekend for me.

 

[Chris-Mo]

Ok so let me describe the fall a bit, Gisele just kind of breezed over it. As the girl crosses the line she jumps in the air, she raises her legs like in a Toyota commercial, as her body travels forward and her legs return to the ground she has too much momentum and begins to stumble forward, taking huge steps and arms flying about in an attempt to recover. She finally comes to rest in a heap of arms, legs and Lycra, her iPhone skidding across the pavement face down . As you can see, by my face in this shot I was watching her the whole way. The lady in the Mickey ears also was enjoying watching her . I know I laughed but I do hope she was ok, as I think by the look in the picture we have pre fall, she was very excited to have completed what I expect was her first half marathon.