If You are Going to Jump at the Finish Line, Be Sure You Stick the Landing – A 2018 Dopey Run TR
- Thread starter ZellyB
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FredtheDuck
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Duck Tales!!! How cool! Definitely looking forward to reading about the rest of the marathon.
ZellyB
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Right? I'm not exaggerating when I say as we were walking up to her for the photo I was honestly staring at her face. I'm sure she thought I was insane.
Thanks! I was a happy girl.
I honestly don't know how she was doing it. I would have dumped all that stuff after the first 100 yards.
I need to finish this thing up because I'm already forgetting all kinds of details!
Ahhh Ducktales and the Queen! So great!
That picture of the ferry is just perfect!! Along with the picture of Chris being “over it.”
Loving your Pixels and Mermaid capris!
Poor Chris. More "over it" faces to come.
Mermaid! Still one of my favorite InB items.
YES! On Ducktales. I remember telling Chris that I was really hoping for at least Scrooge at some point in one of the races. Dreams come true.
My poses. LOL Oh well, they entertain me when I get the pictures later. I also didn't really understand why she had some of those items. I didn't get the tie in to the UP house on those.
I felt so lucky to get those and while the lines were long, they weren't horrible. The Hag was the worst one we waited in for all the races.
I never saw anybody cheating on them fortunately. That would also make me mad.
The rest is coming soon! I hope.
ZellyB
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Marathon Part 2 (Of Castles, and Characters and the Magical Smells of Disney)
After the turn by Mile 5, it’s that straight shot into the Magic Kingdom. There are so many people in there clapping and cheering, it’s incredible. If somebody could figure out how to bottle up that surge of energy and sell it, they’d make a fortune!
Down mainstreet we go. Love that the Christmas décor is still up for these races too. As you can see, it was later for us arriving as the sky is much brighter than during the half, but those character stops were worth it.
I’ll tell you now, that Chris was continuing to struggle some on this day. He was tired and was having some calf pain and I think it was hard for him to enjoy himself. It kinda shows on his face in these shots.
He’s always been so great on races to encourage me and distract me, so I was doing my best for him, but I’m not as good at it as he is. I don’t even remember what characters were out again, but I know some were repeats from the Half and some were ones we’ve had before, so we just were cruising our way to the castle.
Pretty as ever, yes? And, woohoo! A character stop that was new for us!
Cinderella’s stepmother and step sisters.
This is actually the picture from my phone. The photopass one never showed up. I’m guessing since Chris’ bib was covered and I was doing a goofy pose, that they couldn’t match our bibs. These ladies were hilarious though and I enjoyed the stop a lot! Also, after the weekend, I got a Facebook message from a running friend who belongs to a Facebook runDisney group and someone posted a video on there as they were running the marathon and she spotted us in the video. HA! She sent me the screenshot.
On through the castle and I told Chris I wanted to peel off for a picture. Love this one!
We ran on away from the castle, but at this point, Chris was warming up and wanted to drop his sweats, so we pulled off for him to do a quick change. I told him I’m not sure Walt would approve of him stripping in the shadow of the castle!
I’ve got no recollection of the other characters in the park from this point, but none that tempted us to stop.
Mile 6!
As we were leaving the park, they had the Dragon from the Festival of Fantasy Parade out and I was tempted to stop, but the line was long and Chris was not into it, so we headed out of the park and into Cone Alley. Blech. Bad as ever, but we got through it. I was still feeling good honestly and kept waiting for the fatigue to hit, but it didn’t come.
Mile 7!
We took in some fuel and Chris’ spirits did seem to be lifting, so when we saw the next character stop, I was pumped to stop for it.
UP!
We’ve certainly seen Russell and Doug before (and my kids have met them in the parks), but this was the first time I remember seeing Carl. It was a very long line, but I was very happy to get them!
We continued on for another mile or so and again, I think there were some other things of interest, but nothing we made note of and then we saw the next character stop that I had been hoping to see. Hades with Pain and Panic.
https://flic.kr/p/JPfsAZ
Now, you may be saying, “Um, Gisele, that’s just Hades” and I would say, “yes, because stupid Pain and Panic had to take a break while we were reaching the front of the line.” I briefly considered stepping aside to wait for them to return, but we opted to just go with Hades. He’s one I’ve been wanting for a long time. runDisney, you make me so happy sometimes.
As we were leaving, P&P were returning and so we opted for a selfie.
That counts right?https://flic.kr/p/E5B17H
And then, it seemed like before I knew it, Mile 10 was looming. What? Double digits already? This race honestly was zipping by for me at this point. I think Chris would disagree, but I was having a great time.
https://flic.kr/p/FAKJjL
Now, of course, the next portion of the race is the infamous portion where you run past the Disney wastewater treatment area. Disney tries to make it better by posting informative signs like this one...
https://flic.kr/p/23FRphm
To distract you from the smell, but, sorry, that doesn’t do it. Still, Chris and I felt we should commemorate this moment with a selfie with the treatment plant behind us.
https://flic.kr/p/22FrQYE
How’s that for celebrating the best and worst of a runDisney race?
Next up: It’s time for a little EXPEDITION – and some libation as well.
The "surge of energy" you get running down Main Street is something I can't put in words. Full disclosure, I'm only a 1/2 marathoner with one full experience, but regardless I'm so happy to be there and for some reason can't remember a thing about MK as I exit over the tracks and out through the backstage area. Glad to see the smile coming back on Chris.
TeeterTots
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Wow the race is really wizzing by! You look great in all your shots! Poor Chris and his calf. My BFF and I started together but she encouraged me to go on when she stopped for a potty. I was worried that there was a lot of race to run but there are many distractions so I was good.
emilyindisney
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Great race so far! Love those mermaid capris!
SarahDisney
So ... Yeah
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I feel like stripping in Magic Kingdom is against the rules. Unless you're going to share a cut of your profits with Disney 
UP!!! That is an awesome character stop - I don't think I've ever seen Carl out before. By that point in the Dopey weekend I might have needed to borrow his cane
Hades! (and a Pain & Panic selfie!) Another great stop!
UP!!! That is an awesome character stop - I don't think I've ever seen Carl out before. By that point in the Dopey weekend I might have needed to borrow his cane
Hades! (and a Pain & Panic selfie!) Another great stop!
roxymama
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Omg this is like when I have time to watch my fave show, so I watch like 6 episodes in one day and then realize I now have to wait with everyone else for the season finale!!!!!!
Awesome recap and excited to see some marathon finish photos. Also stop being so cute in your inknburn...it's making me jealous! #fashionista
Awesome recap and excited to see some marathon finish photos. Also stop being so cute in your inknburn...it's making me jealous! #fashionista
amazingact21
Upendi
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Really enjoying your race recaps. Disney had some awesome characters out for the races! As other people have said, Carl was pretty rare!
Being able to get a picture with the dragon from Festival of Fantasy sounds pretty fantastic, too!
Being able to get a picture with the dragon from Festival of Fantasy sounds pretty fantastic, too!
ZellyB
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Running down Main Street with the Christmas decor is the best. Great photos all around! I believe I saw you at Hades. I was in line with Team Shenanigans.
Who doesn't love the sewage plant?
OH, wish I would have seen you at Hades. We had a lot of near misses on the race.
Never say only a 1/2 marathoner!
Yes, Chris did gradually start getting happier although there were still some tough spots ahead.The distractions are what make a Disney marathon so amazing. It really helps the miles go by.
Stripping in the Magic Kingdom! Scandalous @Chris-Mo!
GREAT character pics!! Sorry you somewhat missed P&P but looks like a fun race so far!
I was having a blast on this race. Chris thought the photo of him taking off his pants was unnecessary, but, HEY, I have to document the race right?
Mermaid capris are the best. The ugly stepsisters were impressed with them although they wanted to know why I was running instead of swimming.
I feel like stripping in Magic Kingdom is against the rules. Unless you're going to share a cut of your profits with Disney
UP!!! That is an awesome character stop - I don't think I've ever seen Carl out before. By that point in the Dopey weekend I might have needed to borrow his cane
Hades! (and a Pain & Panic selfie!) Another great stop!
Those two stops were awesome. I'm still a little bummed I didn't get Pain & Panic with Hades, but the selfie helped.
I love Hercules too! One of my favorites as well.
I've been really tempted with some new InB lately, but I've been trying to be strong and resist! More updates coming soon!
Thank you!
Carl was awesome. First time I've seen him out. I would have waited for the dragon, but I will say the line was really long and it was probably smarter to move along.
ZellyB
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I FINALLY GO ON AN EXPEDITION!
After making it past the stink of the treatment plant, we found ourselves pretty quickly on the short little out and back before entering Animal Kingdom. This part sucks. It's just packed with people and trying to keep any kind of decent intervals or pace is very hard, but we just tried to do our best. At one point though I very nearly lost Chris. EEK! I didn't hear the beep to walk and was weaving through people and left him behind. I eventually realized he wasn't with me and stepped off the road to look for him but it took me a bit and I was starting to panic. But, I found him and on we went. I was starting to feel a bit of fatigue here and getting a bit worried about the number of miles left to go.
Once past this little turnaround, you make the turn toward the back entrance to Animal Kingdom. Now able to spread out, it was much nicer to run again. It was right around 9 AM at this time, and I was really hoping to ride Everest, but was worried about how long the line would be since the park was open, but I just decided we'd see how it went. As we were getting closer to the park, we spotted another new for us character with a pretty short line!
Next were some animals to pet, but we cruised on through and into the park. I think I remember King Louie being here as well, but we've had him before, and needed a bathroom break so we went on. We did take a stop for a real bathroom and the wait was a bit long, but it was fine really. As we were approaching Everest, I asked Chris if he was sure he didn't want to ride and he was still firmly no on that. I asked if he didn't mind to wait for me and he was also fine with that, so off into line I went. I headed for the single rider line, but as soon as I got in that line, a CM was saying to go standby because it was moving faster than single rider, so a quick u-turn and I was in line. I'd say I waited about 15 minutes before finally getting on the ride. I was seated next to another marathon rider.
I didn't pause my Garmin while on the ride either, which made for a fun Garmin route map!
Once off the ride, I found Chris at the exit. He told me he'd seen @rteetz coming off the ride shortly before me as well.
We headed out again and I guess it was the exhilaration of finally riding Everest during the marathon, but I had a renewed sense of energy and was feeling so happy again. Of course, this might have helped as well!
My sweet husband had purchased us a little drink while I was riding. That's a good man! Can you tell we are happier now?
All too soon we were headed out of the park and across the parking lot (which always has great crowd support) and onto the long slog toward Wide World of Sports. Luckily, my adrenaline was holding up pretty good and we managed to maintain a decent pace through here. Mile 15!
There were the trampoline guys along in here as well, but you can see lots of people starting to struggle on this portion of the route. You also see all those people heading for mile 22/23 and headed for Hollywood Studios and it's hard not to get really jealous! We kept at it though and around mile 17 or so, saw an unexpected character with a short line. No photopass person, but a CM to use your phone.
Pluto! I'm not sure why he had a dinosaur head behind him, but whatever!
As we were approaching the turn into WWoS area, hundreds of other runners are headed the other way across the median. We thought it was funny that at the intersection there was a big sign flashing "No U-Turn". HA! I wish! Anyway, off we headed toward WWoS. I was still feeling good here, but Chris' calf was really bothering him, and we were taking some extra walk breaks. I hated it for him.
I think we saw Minnie in here, but the line was crazy, so we moved along. Goofy was out on the track, but we've had him several times before, so we skipped again. I think it was in here that we saw @Barca33Runner and I slowed a second to say hi. He was having a very hard time and I was so worried he was going to have to stop, so I was really happy to read later here that he had finished the race and maintained his PERFECT Dopey status. YAY!!And, now comes my only major regret of this race. We saw a huge character line with Mickey and Donald in it. I really wanted to stop, but we were taking such a long time on this race and Chris was hurting and we decided it was best to just skip it and go for a selfie.
Aren't they cute in their baseball uniforms? But, you know, we just needed to keep going. We saw Joy and Sadness while headed into the stadium, but we've had them before so we moved on past. Even typing this up, it feels like WWoS goes on forever.
20 miles baby!!
Happy because we just have 6.2 left to go.
Maybe around in here was an announcer who was warning people about how slow we were. LOL He was basically telling all of us that the last of the runners was about 3 miles behind us and if we kept up our current pace we'd be fine. I heard there were times stuff he was saying wasn't quite as helpful, but I thought it was a good thing to tell people here. We knew we were fine as we could have picked up our pace without a lot of difficulty, but I thought it was good for people to know they were still safe.
As we were FINALLY leaving WWoS, there were a couple of people with SNACKS!! OMG!! WE were so hungry and it was stuff like goldfish and pretzels and the like. I grabbed so much and told them thank you a million times. One table was also handing out Fireball shots! Um, no. I'll drink beer on a run, but that was a bridge too far even for me.
Anyway, finally we were out of WWoS and back on the road toward Hollywood Studios.
Next up: A trip around the World and the big finish!!
ZellyB
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How Long Does it Take to Run Around the World??
(also, how hard is it really to stick the landing?)
As we finally made the turn out of Victory Way, the sun was finally starting to warm me up, so I shed my long-sleeved shirt and got ready to finish this thing off! Our salty snacks had helped some and Chris, while still hurting some, was doing great. I was feeling surprisingly good and ready to take this thing to the finish!(also, how hard is it really to stick the landing?)
Cue SARGE!!
There were a lot of people stopping to do push ups. Um, no. I mean I felt good, but not that good. We did stop around in here for Chris to try and stretch and rub out his calf. I know it was hurting him, but he kept up a good face and we cruised on toward Hollywood Studios. Mile 22!!
There's a nice little downhill along here that we were able to enjoy and then we were making the turn into DHS!! Hello, beauty!
They were handing out chocolates here as well, so we grabbed a couple and rolled on. We saw another character stop. We've had this one before, but again the line was nearly non-existent, so in we went! Oswald!!
Chris seemed to be doing a bit better through here. Maybe stopping to stretch some had helped, but he looks happier, yes?
And, I can tell you I was feeling great! Best I've ever felt at this stage of a marathon. I was having a blast.
And far too quickly we were headed out of DHS and moving toward the Boardwalk. I love this portion of the course as well. It's tight and we often had to slow down because of the number of people, but there are always tons of supporters here and we entertained ourselves with the signs Disney had along the side with really horrible puns/jokes on them. We might have been a little punchy! Anyway, past Swan & Dolphin
And then on to the Boardwalk!!
And into Epcot!! We saw the 25 mile photo op. Certainly not special enough to stop.
and then I told Chris that since I didn't know when we'd be running the marathon again, I wanted to fully enjoy our last run around World Showcase with a commemorative selfie in each country. Thankfully, my husband is a very good sport and he agreed. So, ready for your trip around the world with us as we celebrate the final mile of our Dopey challenge? Ready or not...you know the rest!Cheerio, United Kingdom!
I see Paris. I see France!!
Hello, Morocco.
Chris may have found a new running partner. Uh Oh!
Kon'nichiwa, Japan.
Howdy, 'Merica!
Ciao, Italy!
Hallo, Germany!!!!! We've been waiting for you!!!
Celebrating the marathon German style.
We had to interrupt our world tour for a quick stop with royalty here!
https://flic.kr/p/23PDRB1
By the way, it is forbidden to hold a beer (or even a pretzel) while being photographed with a princess. Just so you know. Luckily the CM held them for us!
Back on the tour!!!
Hey, there, Outpost. I know you aren't officially a country on the showcase, but we wanted to share some love with you too!
https://flic.kr/p/23PDRB1
Hey, ho, China!!
Hi, there, Norway!
And, finally, Buenas Tardes, Mexico!
With our beer and pretzel and our whirlwind world tour behind us, it was time to say goodbye to Epcot and hello to the finish! One last shot with Spaceship Earth.
Happy Runners!!
Mile 26!!
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/22MKu3u']Gospel Choir!!
And the finish told in a series of pictures. As we were approaching the finish line, Chris says to me, "HEY! Let's jump at the finish line!!" I say, "Are you crazy? What if you don't stick the landing?"
I go for my standard Victory pose!!
While unbeknownst to me, Geronimo, has decided to go for broke!!
Now, he told me he had jumped, but that night at dinner I pull up our pictures and that one is the first one that pops up. I laughed so loud and hard I could barely breathe. I think the people at Victoria and Alberts thought we were drunk.
Anyway, on to the finish chute where we got our medals and a special bonus Mickey ear hat for the 25th anniversary (which I love!) and on to the photos!!
Officially DOPEY!! And couldn't be happier!!!
Next up: Celebrating Dopey with a lot of good food!!!
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CONGRATS!!!
I love that you took a selfie with each country. That is such a good idea! The 25th anniversary stop was definitely not exciting.
Great finishers photos! I love the "jump" too. I always think about it but decide its best not to.
I love that you took a selfie with each country. That is such a good idea! The 25th anniversary stop was definitely not exciting.
Great finishers photos! I love the "jump" too. I always think about it but decide its best not to.
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