Walt Disney World 10K Recap

Walt Disney World 10K Recap – Dopey Challenge Day 2

Walt Disney World 10K RecapHere is the Walt Disney World 10K Recap which was Day 2 of the Dopey Challenge. (Click HERE to read about Day 1 of the Dopey Challenge which was the Pluto 5K). After a good night’s sleep at Ft. Wilderness Campground, we once again set our alarms for a crazy early wake up. Since the Walt Disney World 10K started at 5:30 AM, a half hour earlier than the 5K the day before, this time we set our alarms for 2:15 AM. Once again, when the alarm went off we quickly got dressed before heading down the dark roads to the Epcot Parking lot. And just like the day before, we easily parked in one of the first few rows near the finish line before heading back to bed to sleep in our Camper Van for a couple more precious hours.

Walt Disney World 10K Recap – Deja vu!

At 4:30 AM, our alarm started buzzing for the second time that morning and we finished getting ready to run the 10K. It felt like deja vu as we gobbled up our bananas and headed to the entrance gates. Once again, I was comforted to see how thorough security was with numerous dogs, police and security guards working diligently. I decided not to get a coffee this morning as it was so close to the start of the race and I didn’t want a bunch of coffee sloshing around in my belly. I also knew I could get some as soon as we were finished running. But other than that, everything was pretty much the same as the day before.Walt Disney World 10K Recap

Same visit to the never ending row of port o potties, same checkpoint to get into Corral D, same people watching for all of the awesome costumes! As I said in the Walt Disney World 5K recap, Dave and I decided to skip the costumes for Marathon Weekend as it was just too expensive to justify so we were both wearing our Minnie 10K shirts and I wore a running tank under it since temps were fairly warm. I also had on one of my Sparkle Skirts, which is one of my very favorite pieces of clothing to run in. But we did love checking out all of the very clever costumes- some are amazingly elaborate.

Walt Disney World 10K Recap – It’s Time to Run!

We must have been a bit closer to the front of our corral today or maybe the announcers just went a bit faster, because it only took us 25 minutes after the first Corral A start to get to the starting line. And we were off. Can I just say how much I love the 10K distance? Still an endurance race, I like how you have more time than a 5K to get into your running rhythm without the exhaustion of the longer distances. Much like the 5K route, the 10K races through nearby roads before heading back into Epcot through World Showcase but the 10K has the addition of the beautiful Boardwalk area. Maybe people had gotten their jitters out the day before or we had more time to spread out, but I didn’t see as many disgruntled runners during the 10K as I had during the 5K which was nice. Water stops went smoothly and I didn’t see any close calls for collisions.Walt Disney World 10K RecapWalt Disney World 10K RecapWalt Disney World 10K RecapAnd even though the lines were pretty darn long, we did stop for a couple of photo ops- one with Pluto as he is Dave’s favorite Disney character, and one in front of Spaceship Earth. We also stopped for our own pictures along the route as we had the day before. Running through World Showcase in Epcot at dawn never gets old and even though we had just done it 24 hours earlier, I loved every minute of it once again.Walt Disney World 10K RecapWalt Disney World 10K RecapWalt Disney World 10K RecapWalt Disney World 10K Recap

Walt Disney World 10K Recap – Why Do a Disney Race?

Before we knew it, we were at the finish line feeling great after religiously following our 1 minute walking and 1 minute running intervals that Jeff Galloway preaches. And once again, the runDisney Minnie Mouse 10K medal was impressive! Same banana, water bottle and gatorade and same exact snack box and we were heading to the van and on our way back to Ft. Wilderness. After a shower, we headed over to Wilderness Lodge to look around and grab breakfast before spending the rest of the day lounging around our campsite at Ft. Wilderness. While the Dopey Challenge races are definitely early which can make you pretty sleep deprived, spending the rest of the day resting and relaxing not only made it bearable, it was truly fun. I’m sure the extra pre race hours of sleep in the van helped with that too!

It never ceases to amaze me how organized Disney races are. From water stops to handing out the medals, there were tons of smiling volunteers working hard and doing their best to help the runners have a fun race. Having so many cheerful helpful people working is one of the reasons the runDisney races are so special. That, and the beautiful scenery, the characters on course and of course the amazing medals makes these races ones to remember. As far as this Walt Disney World 10K recap, I can honestly say these are some of the most fun miles I’ve ever run. And doing them with Dave to celebrate our anniversary made it especially memorable.Walt Disney World 10K Recap

So the first two races of the Dopey Challenge were in the bag, but we knew we had a lot of miles of the Dopey Challenge left to run! We headed to bed early to get ready for Donald’s Half Marathon the next morning, but as we were falling asleep we got text alerts that because of the storm forecast for thunderstorms the next morning, the Half Marathon had been cancelled. WHAT???? Now what were we going to do?

Since we were committed to running the full Dopey Challenge, we knew we would be running the miles anyway the next morning, so we fell asleep planning where we would be running our own version of the Donald Half Marathon. I’ll tell you about it in the next post, but it ended up being one of our favorite memories of the trip.

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