There's usually a character around Country Bear I think. It's been the Country Bears and maybe Woody and Jess before as well. Leaving MK through the backstage area there is usually a Prince/Princess set up. I've seen Cinderella/Charming and we got Flynn Ryder and Rapunzel there. Aurora/Philip I think I've seen as well.I was thinking about this last night. As I am stuck in the last corral and plan on running 10:20 min/mile, I was thinking of playing some sort of game with myself to see how many people I can pass. If anything, it will make me feel like a badass and grow my confidence throughout the race.
I have emailed Track Shack and called them. All they told me was "Proof of time is a general recommendation, but does not guarantee you a specific corral.". So essentially they told me proof of time is pointless. Which doesn't make sense. I think my best bet will be to talk with runner relations at the Expo and see if they will accomodate. If not, at least I tried.
This is probably a topic for another day, but am I the only one that doesn't like characters that are not in costumes? When I see Jack Sparrow, I just think "that's just some dude wearing a pirate costume" whereas when I see Sully I'm like "OH MY GOD THAT'S SULLY!"
My original goal was to make it with time to ride EE...but I think Tower of Terror has now trumped this!!!
I'm 2 days into my final Dopey sim - I think I've done 3 before this? 4? It's all sort of blending together at this point, lol! Anyway, this final one is 3/5.5/11-12/20-22, but I'll cut that 22 short if it gets too hot: things are warming up quickly here in FL now that our last cold front is gone. I did the same sequence of sims last year and felt it totally prepared me for Dopey!
That's pretty much my strategy. I goof off with friends for the 5K and we take f o r e v e r with walking and stopping. I pick it up for the first section of the 10K so I can bank time for plenty of stops later in the race: the first few miles are pretty empty, and I don't like how character pics turn out in the dark, so I skip the couple that are there. My half was canceled last year, bu on our DIY version we stopped plenty of times for silly pics, just as I would in the official race. Marathon day I felt good - totally ready to handle the distance. I picked up the pace and put in a solid effort, though I still stopped for a few pics along the way.I've decided that my strategy will be sort of a weird mostly walking slow 5K, 10K, and Half where I go for a maximum amount of time and just try to enjoy the course, pictures, and barely beat the balloons. And then I'm going to save myself for the Full and enjoy running it
I haven't started from the very last corral, but pretty far back... in my experience, the first few character stops tend to have long lines, but once out of MK the lines seem to get shorter and shorter, with practically no wait in WWOS, DHS, or EP. MK is hit or miss: really popular ones have crazy waits - like Mickey/Minnie or the royal couples - but I've had short waits for characters like the Tweedles or Woody.
I have never experienced the kind of traffic jam I've seen in photos - let me see if I can work out timing...
Yep, for Dark Side and W&D this year they did the waves for the half. I think A-C had no waves - they started with D or E. The largest corrals had the most waves: 7,000 people in DS F = 6 waves, 6,000 people in W&D F = 3 waves. Volunteers just kind of eyeball 2,000ish at a time and hold the rest back until the next wave. Figure a couple minutes between waves.
Question, do you mean estimated finish time? Because if I recall correctly you mentioned not having a proof of time but instead estimating your finish time to be a time that required a proof of time. In context saying "estimated finish time is a general recommendation, but does not guarantee you a specific corral." is more in line with the process Disney uses given they sort first on estimated finish time and then weed out those with a proof of time (or lack there of) that doesn't correspond with that estimate. Not to say that having a proof of time guarantees you a certain corral but they are generally responsive to changing your corral to match your proof of time so long as the proof of time submitted was before the deadline.
Anyone else in the midst of their Dopey Sim or did theirs last weekend? I'm curious about your experience with it and how you feel it helped you.
I've decided that my strategy will be sort of a weird mostly walking slow 5K, 10K, and Half where I go for a maximum amount of time and just try to enjoy the course, pictures, and barely beat the balloons. And then I'm going to save myself for the Full and enjoy running it
So far, the Dopey Sim has actually proven helpful to find where that slow pace is and how to get there. I'm sticking to around a 15 minute mile, which is about 1 minute of running and 4 minutes of walking. That will be adjusted during the race for photo stops, so it may be "stand around in a line for 10 mins and run 2 mins until the next picture line" on race day.
What I want to feel is the affect of the 4 early mornings combined with the long run on Saturday. It's also allowed me to try shoes and I recognize that my Brooks aren't good for walks, while my New Balance aren't good for runs. I think I now found my shoes for each race too by doing this.
Tomorrow is 10 miles at 15 min/mile. A very long 2.5 hours, but I've downloaded some PodCasts to listen to so i can laugh and enjoy the time on my feet.
Maybe we'll try mixing up some ratios for tomorrow's 12-miler. I want to take it extra easy because my ankle has felt a bit wonky today, and I want to be in the best shape possible for Sunday's insane miles.
