This Trip Report will mainly contain writing and photos of the Marathon Weekend
in Walt Disney World, Florida. We went on a two week holiday, but I didn't take much photos in the parks. And I took all my photos with my cell phone, so quaility isn't always that great. We have visited WDW before, and have many photos from the parks. This time, I just wanted to take it as easy as I could, because I was running the Dopey Challenge! But hey, we were still in WDW, so ofcourse we visited the parks more than once!
How the Dopey Dream began? Somewhere in 2014 I found out about the runDisney race in America. I collected more and more information and that's how I discovered the Dopey Challenge: 78,3km through four parks in Walt Disney World! It took a while until that dream became reality. Ofcourse it was amazing news that Paris would start their runDisney races in 2016, but Dopey has always been in my mind. And now, in 2019, that dream became reality!
How the Dopey Dream began? Somewhere in 2014 I found out about the runDisney race in America. I collected more and more information and that's how I discovered the Dopey Challenge: 78,3km through four parks in Walt Disney World! It took a while until that dream became reality. Ofcourse it was amazing news that Paris would start their runDisney races in 2016, but Dopey has always been in my mind. And now, in 2019, that dream became reality!
2018
In March we booked our plain tickets, and in april our hotel package through the UK site(7=14 days park tickets, free dinining, free Memory Maker and the $200 giftcard.) Now, we just needed bibs! They always say: if you really want to do a race, make sure you get registered when the bib only sale goes live!
July 19th was the day of the bib sale, and how stressfull it was! We had 2 laptops, 1 tablet and 2 phones ready. I registered myself first for Dopey, and then John for his 5K, 10K and Half marathon. The system wasn't complete flawless, because when I was almost done with John's registration, they threw us out! We had to start all over again! Luckily everything went well after that, we got our bibs!
July 19th was the day of the bib sale, and how stressfull it was! We had 2 laptops, 1 tablet and 2 phones ready. I registered myself first for Dopey, and then John for his 5K, 10K and Half marathon. The system wasn't complete flawless, because when I was almost done with John's registration, they threw us out! We had to start all over again! Luckily everything went well after that, we got our bibs!
Training
I followed Jeff Galloway's training schedule for Dopey, a 28 week schedule which started in July. I had to adjust it a little bit, because I also did the 36K Challenge in Paris, and the Two Course Challenge during Wine and Dine. 28 weeks is long and hard, especially the long runs. Due to an injury I couldn't do a longer run than 30K and only did 1 mock Dopey. But, all went well! The hardest part about Dopey for me was the 28 week training schedule, the Dopey Challenge itself was a celebration of that training! (Honestely, the people who say the hardest part about Dopey is the 4 early wake up calls... Zipp it, just go to bed early, that isn't the hardest part!)
I followed Jeff Galloway's training schedule for Dopey, a 28 week schedule which started in July. I had to adjust it a little bit, because I also did the 36K Challenge in Paris, and the Two Course Challenge during Wine and Dine. 28 weeks is long and hard, especially the long runs. Due to an injury I couldn't do a longer run than 30K and only did 1 mock Dopey. But, all went well! The hardest part about Dopey for me was the 28 week training schedule, the Dopey Challenge itself was a celebration of that training! (Honestely, the people who say the hardest part about Dopey is the 4 early wake up calls... Zipp it, just go to bed early, that isn't the hardest part!)
Tripreport Dopey Challenge!
We stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort from 5-17 January. We arrived in the last weekend of the Christmas Vacation, and the hotel was fully booked! And that's why we got a free upgrade to a Pirates room with a water view. I really like the theme, all the details! The beds were a bit smaller than the standard room, but hey, we slept in a pirate ship! We stayed at Trinidad, and we were the 3rd busstop. The route was Martinique, Old Port Royal, Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica and Aruba. We walked to the main building almost everyday for breakfast, about a 10min walk. And most of the parks were just a 10-15min ride away.
Day 1: Animal Kingdom + Magic Kingdom + Animal Kingdom
We always pick Animal Kingdom as our first park, mostly because it's the least crowded on Sunday. There were still Chirstmas decoration everywhere!
After spending the day in AK, we went to Magic Kingdom, because we really wanted to see the Christmas decoration over there. We knew they would take it down somewhere around Marathon Weekend, so we didn't want to miss it. (They took it down after the marathon). We only saw the decoration in daylight.
Yeah, parkhopping is our thing! We went back to AK, because we had a Fastpass for Flight of Passage. And my parents hadn't seen Pandora in the dark, that's a must!
Yeah, we had over 25.000 steps every day...
