Official 2016 Dopey Challenge Thread

[Baloo in MI]

So, did nearly 7 miles on Saturday, 4 miles yesterday (Sunday) and then did a 1.5-mile swim today - which. felt. awesome.

I think I'm going to start incorporating swimming on my "rest" days. It helps my upper body and I feel like it will help me get a better handle on improving my breathing, which is the next hurdle I think I need to work on.

I think I'm going to stick to week 2 of the Higdon Dopey plan for a couple of weeks, just to building up my mileage and get used to back-to-backs and let my body understand what it's about to start undertaking before I start piling on distance.

Thoughts?

I am no coach but I have to agree with the other's feedback. Focus on building a strong base fiirst. Don't worry too much about needing a lot of distance, 20-25 mile weeks for a month or more will set your base. Then always followed the 10% rule. Never increase milage by more than 10% from one week to the next. I do not bust out the calculator to check distances but I do try to pay attention to keeping my milage increases to reasonable steps and then give myself rest day(s) to recover when I do add milage as the training plan progresses. The only time I have dealt with injuries and running pain is when i let my ego set my goals and overdue it.

11 miles over the weekend and then a 1.5 mile swim 2 days later... You got this!

 

[GrandAdmiralStrife]

Anyone know how long it usually takes before disneystore.com sends out the shirts? I want mine to get here yesterday

 

[Simba's Mom]

Anyone know how long it usually takes before disneystore.com sends out the shirts? I want mine to get here yesterday

We were wondering that too. You'd think for what it cost for a training tshirt, they'd overnight it!

 

[BwoZoo22]

We did it, we signed up for the Dopey. I had never, ever, planned on a full marathon; I get bored too easily to run 26 miles. We'll see how 48 goes. rD sucked me in with all the hype and the fact that their races are so much darn fun. I'm going to try to follow the Galloway training plan. I followed the plan for my first ever half (last September), but have really slacked off on training since. I've still been able to finish a half every single month since though. That first is still my PR, but three of those non-PR halfs have been rD, with photos. Getting very excited and nervous already!

 

[donk3]

I signed up for the dopey ! just seeing if anyone that has done it in the past could offer some advised or tips , i have run a few 5km , 2 -10km races and have had reasonable times , and i will be taking part of the fire brigade challenge at the bird-in-hand half marathon in September, its a 5km run on the Friday and a half marathon on the Saturday , I run about 3-4 days a week and log in about 20 miles per week.

 

[Barca33Runner]

I signed up for the dopey ! just seeing if anyone that has done it in the past could offer some advised or tips , i have run a few 5km , 2 -10km races and have had reasonable times , and i will be taking part of the fire brigade challenge at the bird-in-hand half marathon in September, its a 5km run on the Friday and a half marathon on the Saturday , I run about 3-4 days a week and log in about 20 miles per week.

Not entirely sure what type of advice you are looking for so I'll hit generally on certain aspects of my experience from the first two Dopeys.

Training/Preparation: This seemed to be the primary focus of your inquiry. The marathon is obviously the biggest race to prep for, particularly for someone who has not done a marathon before. There are many marathon training plans that can be found relatively easily online. I have never actually followed a plan, but have kind of cherry-picked mileage, timetables, and other information from various plans. It's not necessarily rocket science putting a plan together, but I would certainly recommend upping your mileage from 20 miles/week before a marathon and finding a plan can give you a good idea of how to schedule things.

Week of the Races: Waking up and getting to the races is half the battle (motivation-wise, the actual mechanics of it aren't too difficult). I have hit basically every schedule the night before (eat and in bed early, out late, good night's sleep, virtually no sleep) and don't really feel I have been adversely affected by any of them. I probably prefer the eat and in bed early method before the half and full, but everyone knows their own requirements before a race. The excitement of the week makes getting to sleep a little difficult, but that can be planned around.

Race Strategy: Personally, I have run the 5K at virtually PR pace, the 10K at about 90%, the Half at about 80%, and the full at whatever I have left (but 100% effort). I know others have used other methods and I believe Jeff Galloway recommends walking some of the races. This is once again a personal preference thing and since these are Disney races there are plenty of opportunities to take it easy, stop for characters, and just generally have fun. I probably run closer to my full capacity than most runners at these events, but making sure you are prepared for the marathon is the big part of the week. I have felt fairly confident at my ability to finish the marathon and haven't been nursing any injuries the past couple years, so I haven't felt the need to conserve perhaps as much as some runners.

I am a strong believer that if you can finish a singular marathon you can finish the Dopey, it just takes a little planning. Hopefully this info helps.

 

[FFigawi]

I signed up for the dopey ! just seeing if anyone that has done it in the past could offer some advised or tips , i have run a few 5km , 2 -10km races and have had reasonable times , and i will be taking part of the fire brigade challenge at the bird-in-hand half marathon in September, its a 5km run on the Friday and a half marathon on the Saturday , I run about 3-4 days a week and log in about 20 miles per week.

It sounds like this is going to be your first marathon. Assuming that's true, I'd recommend finding a good training plan designed to get you to the start line injury free and to the finish line standing up. As @Barca33Runner said, there are plenty of them available online. Runner's World, Hal Higdon, and Jeff Galloway all offer solid plans targeted at Dopey. I wouldn't recommend trying to put your own one together, though. As a first-timer, you'll want to focus on your training without worrying about if your plan is a good one or not.

 

[JClimacus]

It sounds like this is going to be your first marathon. Assuming that's true, I'd recommend finding a good training plan designed to get you to the start line injury free and to the finish line standing up. As @Barca33Runner said, there are plenty of them available online. Runner's World, Hal Higdon, and Jeff Galloway all offer solid plans targeted at Dopey. I wouldn't recommend trying to put your own one together, though. As a first-timer, you'll want to focus on your training without worrying about if your plan is a good one or not.

As a first time marathoner this past January, I second John's advice. I did the Higdon Intermediate II plan, and it worked out well for me and I got through the whole training with minimal injury (I suffered a brief strained calf in November after foolishly running a 19 miler on a hilly course rather than my usual flat.) The key point is that your subjective impressions of what's going on in your body can be misleading; there is a temptation to overtrain, or panic, especially in the taper phase when you will experience weird things (like heavy legs). If I hadn't been religiously following Higdon, I'm sure I would have overtrained. Using a tried plan you are leveraging decades of invaluable prior marathon experience about how the human body responds to the training.

 

[BwoZoo22]

I signed up for the dopey ! just seeing if anyone that has done it in the past could offer some advised or tips , i have run a few 5km , 2 -10km races and have had reasonable times , and i will be taking part of the fire brigade challenge at the bird-in-hand half marathon in September, its a 5km run on the Friday and a half marathon on the Saturday , I run about 3-4 days a week and log in about 20 miles per week.

This will be our first Dopey, and first full, as well, so I don't have 'experienced' advise. But as your first full, remember the goal is to finish, not win. As everyone has said, training is important, but don't push it - train to work up to the mileage. And don't forget to train with the food/drink you will race with as well to be sure it works for you. The last two miles of my first half nearly did me in because I did not follow my fuel plan; the first six miles just felt so good I didn't think I needed to. BIG mistake.

 

[donk3]

thanks for the advice ! I am using one of the half-marathon training program from rundisney to get ready for the half marathon then will be jumping into the dopey training plan. I am doing the plans with a few modifications since im a 12hr shift worker and I have to change some long runs days . my goal is to finish and not be injured so I will take it easy and listen to my body.

 

[GrandAdmiralStrife]

Week 1 Training in the books!
Airline tickets thru SouthWest to be purchased on Tuesday (the official 26 week mark from departure)

 

[DOOM1001]

The Dopey challenge is obviously hard but ESPN sports center is running a 10-15 minute segment on a man from the UK who's one of 9 people running the World Marathon Challenge,7 marathons in 7 days in 7 continents.The thing about this guy is that he's not some highly trained athlete,he's somewhat overweight and barely trained to attempt such a feat.He's doing it in support of his wife who was diagnosed with MS.His combined time between of all the marathons was 20 hours longer than the guy that came in first place but he finished all of them,I think 6 of them between 6:10-6:45,the fifth one in Morocco took him like 7:45 but it was a miserable overnight run with drenching rain.Pretty amazing accomplishment and all this while having to take multiple flights that must have been 7 hours plus.

 

[FFigawi]

One of my friends helped organize one of the 7-7-7 events. Lots of fun but really painful recovery time sitting in airports for a week.

 

[DOOM1001]

One of my friends helped organize one of the 7-7-7 events. Lots of fun but really painful recovery time sitting in airports for a week.

Is it even safe to be flying all those hours after running so many miles?

 

[FFigawi]

Good question. I have no idea. None of his group seemed to get injured from so much flying, but I'm pretty sure they all wore compression tights the whole time.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Is it even safe to be flying all those hours after running so many miles?

I have flown within 3 hours of a few long races. Recovery compression pants remove most of the risk. People doing this sort of thing just 10 years ago were taking much greater risks.

 

[Baloo in MI]

7 marathons in 7 days is incredible enough, but to do it on the 7 continents, that is almost hard to comprehend. It really is remarkable what a person can do who just decides they are going to accomplish it!

 

[ANIM8R]

One of my friends helped organize one of the 7-7-7 events. Lots of fun but really painful recovery time sitting in airports for a week.

Any idea what the cost was to the participants?

 

[Ariel484]

Any idea what the cost was to the participants?

I looked this up the other night because I saw an ESPN special about one of the 7-7-7 participants while I was running on the treadmill on Monday. It's $35,000+, which does not include your flight to the initial staging area (which I think was in South America) and your flight home from Australia. So I could see it being $40,000 easily when all is said and done.
ETA: The special I saw was the one that @DOOM1001 referenced above.

 

[FFigawi]

Any idea what the cost was to the participants?

The cost was $14,000, not including the cost of getting yourself to the start of the first marathon in Australia or home from South America once you finished.