Official 2014 Dopey Challenge Thread!

[roomthreeseventeen]

Hope that everyone had a great weekend. I sure did. I can't believe how much fun that was. Tiring, but lots of fun. I took it easy every day. Stopped for 11 pictures on Sunday and still managed an 8 minute Disney marathon PR. Can't wait for next year

 

[SAHDad]

Done, finished, officially Dopey. Apparently I had enough of a base to do it without any long runs (and I mean, longer than 3.5 miles, with one or two exceptions) since mid-November. Not a PR by any means - my half was 15 minutes slower than last years Goofy (though I blame most of that on corral issues), and my full was about a half hour faster than last year, with more character stops, more pictures, and (again) the corral issues.

Pretty sure that if I had been a couple corrals up, I would have knocked a good 15 minutes off each time - since the lines for characters would have been shorter, and I would have had to dodge fewer people.

 

[RussTKD]

My biggest issue is someone was kind enough to relieve me of my Dopey Challenge/Goofy Challenge/Dopey Challenge Medal pins out of my suitcase somewhere between the DME dropoff at Wilderness Lodge and baggage claim at New Orleans Airport.

 

[billpete]

My biggest issue is someone was kind enough to relieve me of my Dopey Challenge/Goofy Challenge/Dopey Challenge Medal pins out of my suitcase somewhere between the DME dropoff at Wilderness Lodge and baggage claim at New Orleans Airport.

That really sucks....

I thought that it went pretty well. My only disappointment was that I was in Corral K, with a 1:31 Half submission time. I spent most of my runs trying to get around folks.

I was pleased with how things went overall. First marathon for me, and got under 4 hours, which was a goal.

 

[SAHDad]

That really sucks....

I thought that it went pretty well. My only disappointment was that I was in Corral K, with a 1:31 Half submission time. I spent most of my runs trying to get around folks.

I was pleased with how things went overall. First marathon for me, and got under 4 hours, which was a goal.

Well done! Probably would have been faster, if you have been corralled properly.

 

[BriarRabbit]

Congrats fellow Dopey runners. When I ran the Goofy a few years ago someone posted cumulative times and standings for the races. Has anyone seen that for the Dopey races?

 

[goofeygirl]

It is done and dusted.

I originally thought 'yes' I would do it again but as the days are passing by I am now rethinking that plan.
If they were to offer the Dopey again for next year, and I am not sure they will as it appears more people are saying they would NOT run it again...I don't think I will.
I think I will concentrate on the 5k and half..and either run a fast half OR run a slow half and take advantage of the photo opportunities that I never have before...something like that. I can sleep later and have a few drinks and not worry about the big full on Sunday...
I am so glad I did it...and happy with how I did it...but now looking back, it was very time consuming...early to bed and early to rises...no parks.

But congrats to all that did it...weather you finished it or not...showing up that early to do this is tough in and of itself...

 

[Haas4Concern]

I'm glad I did the Dopey this year, but I think I'm going to be cutting back to half marathons from here on out. I have more fun at that distance and I'm also able to get in more park time. Thanks to all the WISHers who were handing out licorice, cold towels, etc. Those helped immensely.

 

[billpete]

If available, I would probably do it again. My biggest reason/rationale not to, would be that I thought I did so good on it that I would not be able to do those times again...

I had never run a marathon before Sunday, and it did not seem as bad as I thought it would.

I had a good running buddy, and we made a plan and stuck with it.

To me, the 5K-Half were relatively easy, the marathon was the doozy.

Getting up early sucked a little, as I was on MST, so a 0330 wake up was a 0130 wake up.

Most nights I was in bed by 9pm.

Did the parks hard too, it was all in all, a great experience.

 

[ludari]

I completed Dopey this year and enjoyed my visit to WDW and I thought for the most part that the event, expo and everything related to the marathon went smoothly.

I was not to happy with any of my finish times but I hadn't trained at all since I was recovering from a nerve injury around my foot and ankle. The longest I ran was Tower of Terror 10-miler in October and I really noticed the impact to this lack of training as a result of my times for the 5K and 10K. After those horrible times I decided not to wear my Garmin and just go with the flow for the half and full. From doing Goofy in 2013 I knew enough to conserve my energy during the half to save myself for the full. During the full I kinda gave up around mile 17 and decided to walk more and run less. I accepted that I might get picked up for the first time ever but when I reached MGM Hollywood Studios I knew I had it in the bag. I am really surprised that my only injuries where two small blisters but I did notice my injuried ankle was swollen. After the race I rested and soaked my ankle and I feel pretty good and ready for Tink this weekend where I will complete the 5K, 10K and half.

 

[RussTKD]

That really sucks....

I thought that it went pretty well. My only disappointment was that I was in Corral K, with a 1:31 Half submission time. I spent most of my runs trying to get around folks.

I was pleased with how things went overall. First marathon for me, and got under 4 hours, which was a goal.

I was in F with a 4:03 marathon time submission. Odd.

My half PR is 1:39 too. Kinda glad I didn't submit it.

 

[SAHDad]

I was in F with a 4:03 marathon time submission. Odd.

My half PR is 1:39 too. Kinda glad I didn't submit it.

I wonder if they did something really funny for any Goofy/Dopey runner who submitted a half instead of a full. I did not use the full from my 2013 Goofy, because (1) I did the first 6-8 miles with my wife, who was walk/running, (2) it was a hot day, and (3) I took a lot of pics, so it wound up being almost 6 hours.

But I could have (and would have) submitted a 4:17 from April of last year, if I thought it would have made a difference.

 

[dumbo_buddy]

i'm sure they will have dopey again. they had the "in training" shirts with pictures of minnie, donald, mickey, goofy and dopey. they will definitely have it.

i thought the races were great. fun and well organized. i wish they would have fixed the speakers though for those of us in the back corrals. i was in J and for the half all you could hear was loud base and for the full you couldn't hear anything until you got closer. in fact the J fireworks went off and i didn't know it was for us!

for the half there weren't fireworks for all the corrals. i went off in K with a friend and everyone had their cameras up to take a picture. when there weren't any fireworks we just started and said oh well. but then the corral after us got fireworks and you hear a big loud groan from all of us who were already on the course. it was pretty funny. not really a big deal. just notable.

 

[RussTKD]

for the half there weren't fireworks for all the corrals. i went off in K with a friend and everyone had their cameras up to take a picture. when there weren't any fireworks we just started and said oh well. but then the corral after us got fireworks and you hear a big loud groan from all of us who were already on the course. it was pretty funny. not really a big deal. just notable.

We had the same thing in F. I had my phone out to make a video, and nothing happened. I figured we were far enough back that the fireworks had ended. Then I heard them go off for G. The "we got robbed" sentiments were quite audible.

 

[DanK]

I wonder if they did something really funny for any Goofy/Dopey runner who submitted a half instead of a full. I did not use the full from my 2013 Goofy, because (1) I did the first 6-8 miles with my wife, who was walk/running, (2) it was a hot day, and (3) I took a lot of pics, so it wound up being almost 6 hours.

But I could have (and would have) submitted a 4:17 from April of last year, if I thought it would have made a difference.

I wonder if his submission just didn't count. I submitted a 2:05 from the Disneyland Half and was put in I, and my wife submitted a 1:59 non-Disney half and was put in H, both for Dopey. You sure you didn't accidentally submit 2:30 instead of 1:30?

 

[dburg30]

We had the same thing in F. I had my phone out to make a video, and nothing happened. I figured we were far enough back that the fireworks had ended. Then I heard them go off for G. The "we got robbed" sentiments were quite audible.

Yep, those were the 2 that didnt get fireworks. I can almost promise they had them, they just didnt fire for some reason... Was kind of a bummer that's for sure...

 

[SAHDad]

I wonder if his submission just didn't count. I submitted a 2:05 from the Disneyland Half and was put in I, and my wife submitted a 1:59 non-Disney half and was put in H, both for Dopey. You sure you didn't accidentally submit 2:30 instead of 1:30?

I submitted a 2:01, from Goofy 2013. The time submitted is not in the registration email, but if they are not allowing people to change it past 1 Nov, then presumably they are checking them as well. And I was very careful when I put it in - I've had typos in race applications before, and they are a pain to straighten out after you have submitted it. J would have had me type 3:01 (or thereabouts).

I ran into several Goofy/Dopey runners who submitted a time that should have put them anywhere from B to G, but got put in I or J.

And there is no way to correct it once you find out where you are. That's the problem. I understand people abused the old system, but the new system still has a few bugs that need to be worked out.

 

[CaptHomer]

Congrats fellow Dopey runners. When I ran the Goofy a few years ago someone posted cumulative times and standings for the races. Has anyone seen that for the Dopey races?

I am still working on a combine for the Dopey and Goofy. I haven't had time to compile it all yet. I have downloaded the data from RunDisney but haven't put it together yet. You have to download each age group and gender individually.

They put out a pdf file for the Goofy and Dopey but you can't do much with the data.
I will post a link on here when I finish but it will be after the weekend at least.

 

[DoctorK]

So much fun! I loved talking to various people during the marathon - striking up conversations. I met one of the Perfect 21s along the way - I think his name was Alex. That was my first marathon and I'm a little afraid that a non-Disney marathon will end up being so boring by comparison!

If I can get approval from the family, I'm in for next year!

 

[flatlandcycle]

If you were placed in incorrect corrals complain to runDisney and TrackShack. They need a system for fixing errors in the seeding of corrals.