I just registered to run the Dopey Challenge! I don’t have buyer’s remorse… or should I say, runner’s remorse – yet. I’m excited and a lil overwhelmed because there’s a lot to do before I even do my first training run! So, I’ve put together a Run Disney To Do List to get organized.

First, if you didn’t see my last post Announcing the Dopey Challenge 2022 and/or aren’t familiar with the Run Disney Events – let’s talk about what the Dopey Challenge is…

Run Disney is the group in charge of organizing all the running events for Walt Disney World and Disneyland. (The Disneyland events are currently on hold & have been for a few years now though.) So, when you see something referenced as ‘Run Disney’ it could be any of the in person races or virtual races they organize.

The original and biggest running event organized by Run Disney is the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in January. It features 4 different races – 5K, 10K, Half Marathon and Full Marathon. Each race is on a different day during what is called the ‘WDW Marathon Weekend” but really starts with the expo on Wednesday and races begin on Thursday and run (pun intended) through Sunday.

So, the Disney World Marathon Weekend Races are the — 5K on Thur // 10K on Fri // Half on Sat // Full on Sun.

The dates for this year are Jan 6-9, 2022.

The Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge aka the Goofy Challenge is to run the Half Marathon and Full Marathon. Get it? Race and a Half?? Except in this case it’s Half and a Race because the half marathon is before the full marathon.

The Dopey Challenge is the biggest challenge of the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. To complete the challenge runners must complete ALL the races of the weekend. And remember – they’re on consecutive days!

Dopey Challenge = 5K on Thur // 10K on Fri // Half Marathon on Sat // Full Marathon on Sun

I just registered to run the Dopey Challenge for 2022 as I announced here.

And that brings us to my to do list to get ready and organized for this epic marathon running challenge!!

I think due to the many unknowns and race cancellations of last year the Run Disney organization opened registration for this race a lot later than usual. I saw people posting about training for the ‘WDW Marathon 2022’ and ‘Dopey 2022’ – BEFORE Race Registration was open. That’s because it does take longer than a marathon to train for back to back long distance races.  I guess they just hoped they’d get in before it sold out and started training!

Race Weekend is about 20 Weeks away – that’s about how long it takes to train for a marathon (not to mention a challenge with multiple races)! So, designing a training plan for Dopey is one of the main things on the list.

[RUN TIP:  The time you should train for a half marathon or full marathon depends on your current fitness, health/injury history and goals for the race.]

1. Training Plan for Dopey Challenge – I’ll design a customized plan for running the Dopey Challenge that works within the 20 week time frame and my schedule. (I’m a RRCA Run Coach & have experience running back to back races.)
2. Nutrition and Meal Plan – Part of the training plan will include on going meal planning to make sure I’m staying healthy while training. Weight loss isn’t my main goal right now, but I do have extra quarantine weight I’d be happy to lose as part of the process. Really my main focus with meal planning for marathon training is to make sure I’m fueling well to recover as I think the reason I broke my foot was in part due to poor nutrition and vitamin/mineral refuel combined with time periods of running high mileage. (Note – this isn’t the only reason. We can talk about it another time, but it doesn’t run in my family and I’m not in the usual risk groups for early bone density loss.)
3. HOTEL!! I need to make hotel reservations fast as I’ve heard the best locations sell out quickly and prices are going up!
4. Flight – I need to catch flights, not feelings and book that too! (Pray that the world continues to get better and Covid goes away by race weekend so it’s not a thing by the time I’m on the way to Orlando!)
5. Costumes!!! I’m excited to have to figure out 4 Running Costumes since I’m running 4 races in this challenge. I want to start with this item on the list, but won’t. I haven’t even started to brainstorm ideas yet, but I’ll definitely blog about it as I figure it out.

There are probably other things to do but these are the most urgent for now. Stay turned for more!

 

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