To recap, the Dopey challenge is all 4 races over the WDW marathon weekend- 5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, half marathon on Saturday and marathon on Sunday. (Andy was also doing this challenge, but apart from the 5k we ran seperately) We’ve both completed Run Disney events before- we did the inaurgural DLP half marathon in 2016, and in WDW a 10k in 2018 and a 5k in 2019. As with all Run Disney races, you need to collect your bibs (number) in person from the expo the day before the race. As this was a multi race event and the expo only started on the Wednesday, we had to go on that day (along with anyone else running Dopey or the 5k). The expo runs until the Saturday so if you were doing a single race you could go later on when it was less busy. However, not an option for us. We had planned to not go to a park that day, and that worked out very well as it took ages- hours and hours!
Expo day (the Wednesday)
The expo is at the WDW Wide World of Sports, which is a huge sports complex that hosts loads of competitions, and is so many buildings and sports pitches and inside basketball courts etc. We had to do several things, all of which were in different buildings:
Collect our numbers (with ID, with our Run Disney app confirmation code and with a waiver that you sign in person).
Collect our shirts- with Run Disney races you get your shirt before the race- lots of people seem to run with their shirts (which was madness seeing as these shirts were long sleeved and it was hot).
Look at the Disney merch- Brooks had released special Run Disney themed shoes (I did very well to resist them) and there are also loads of additional race shirts, jackets, hats, bags, pins, magnets etc that Disney release.
Look at the other merch- there are loads of stands with sparkly tutus, various “nutrition” products, medal display options, even Jeff from Jeff Galloway was there.
There are also loads of photo ops with characters, a large castle, various props linked to the different race and challenge distances…
The expo at the sports complex- we waited outside a while for our virtual queue to open up. Even the paintings on the walls in the corridors were themed to the races.
Because we were going on the first day, we had to join a virtual queue to look at the Disney merch, so as soon as it allowed (I think 9am but possibly 8am) we did that via the app and had an approximate time of 10:30. We took our time driving over and parking, and hung around in the sunshine waiting for our group to be pinged. We were probably waiting for a good 45 mins and with hindsight could have collected our numbers first but you never know how long anything will take. Even after being called, we joined one queue along a corridor, then a giant queue inside (next to the Brooks trainers) before finally getting into the main merch hall. This hall is quite mad with people grabbing armfuls of stuff (I think there’s a lot of reselling going on) and by the time we got there some things had already totally sold out. Here there was an additional queue if you wanted to buy Dopey challenge merch, but the design of the jumper wasn’t my favourite (he’s not the cutest character imo) so we didn’t bother. We got a nice marathon weekend mug, a jacket each and a few other bits.
Top left shows the queue through one large room to get to the merch- this followed on from the virtual queue and a queue in a corridor. Then Jeff, a giant Brooks shoe box, and the field we had to walk around to get to the next building.
Then it was onto get our numbers- this was another walk to another building (in fact we were directed in a large loop to just go around one building and back to where we started before we got inside the actual number building)- we then joined another queue, signed our waivers and got our numbers. Here is where the paranoia began for me because we got two numbers each, one for the 5k and 10k, and then a second number for the other two races. They properly check your bibs as you go into the corrals so I was really worried about using the wrong one!
All the shirts! They had big maps of the routes (plus the medals but I didn’t want to look too closely before), then the two numbers. On the green gem below the C is where it said 5/10k or half/full.
Anyway, once that was done we went to another building, this time walking around a sports pitch first, to then collect our shirts. As you get one per race, and one per challenge, we got 6 shirts each in total. (As well as Dopey there is a Goofy challenge which is the half and the full, so as our challenge encompassed that we also got those items).
A few photo ops- the Dopey queue was too long for us to join! The 39.3 is the Goofy which is the half and the full.
I was keen to take a few photos, so we queued up for a few, but by this time it was about 2:30 in the afternoon and we didn’t want a late night ahead of our 3:20am alarm, so it was time to head off. I had seen on social media that the following days were fairly quiet, and in fact on the Saturday afternoon we popped back as I wanted to see if they still had a t-shirt that I quite liked (they did), so if you didn’t need to go the first day I would recommend waiting and going later.
The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent getting ready. We had a bit of doubting about what to wear, as lots of the media was talking about keeping warm, but for us it wasn’t that cold, and I’d run parkrun on the Saturday and been fine in shorts and t-shirts. But there was loads of stuff about the dew point, about how it was really cold because it was so humid and damp before the sun came up- we second guessed a bit but in the end I stuck to shorts and t-shirt and that was definitely correct. We had been sensible with the alarm, getting up at 5am on the day of the expo, 6am the day before, and 7am the day before that, so by around 8pm we were pretty tired and ready to sleep. We got our numbers and running clothes ready, and that was it- the challenge was about to begin!
Thursday- 5k day
We were staying at Bonnet Creek which is within WDW but not a Disney resort. This was ideal as it was a less than 10 min drive with no road closures at the time we were going there. The race began at 5am and Disney suggested getting there by 4. We drove into the gates at 4am, parked and sat in the car for a bit, as this morning was a little chilly. However it’s about a mile walk through the car park, through security and through the race village to get to the starting corrals, so in the end we headed off at about 4:10am.
You are given a starting corral based on time, and we had submitted our Brighton Half marathon times- I was in C and Andy was in B (it went to G I think). He was allowed to drop back, so for the 5k decided he’d run with me. There were detailed lists of when the corrals closed, and when this happens the light turns off and you have to join a later one. I think my one closed at 5, as each corral goes off in waves and so the estimated start time was something like 5:13. I think we timed it pretty well as we were not waiting around for too long, but there is a stage with a very enthusiastic presenter chatting to various people and hyping everyone up so you could listen to that while you waited.
The EPCOT parking in the dark, the large balloons marking the corrals, directions and Spaceship Earth lit up along with the Run Disney signs.
It wasn’t long before we were off! They set of the wheelchair athletes first, and then within each corral they had perhaps 3 waves- each one had a countdown and fireworks, so even once you started running you could hear the countdown and fireworks behind.
The 5k start gantry, the fireworks going off, World Showcase looking beautiful, and Spaceship Earth lit up as we ran
The route took you around the back of the car park, into Epcot, around World Showcase and then back out the front, into the car park. The car park was unrecognisable though, as there were loads of things set up there- the mile markers were themed, there were character meets, and various bands/ local high school cheerleading groups etc. The race weekend was themed around “What’s your story?”, so each race was linked to a character and genre- this one was Pluto looking at space themed books, so the characters were space themed (Buzz Lightyear, various characters from Stitch). The music was also space themed, so there was lots of Star Wars playing as we ran.
The aim of the game we decided was to run gently for the first two races- I didn’t want to walk because it would be a lot more time on feet. The 5k isn’t timed although you do get a time for Dopey as I think they check you are doing them all- we ran it in 36 mins so it was nice and gentle.
As you finish you get given a medal, bottle of water, bottle of powerade, banana and snack box. You need extra hands!
There was a large area in the race village for meeting back up- we didn’t use the baggage storage until later on in the week but on this day we saw where they were (right by the finish line) and they had bleachers set up as well as trucks selling beer, hot drinks and various food items. We had agreed to meet by the benches after the other three races, and as someone who gets anxious ahead of races because of wondering about the parking/ start area/ finish line etc, it was really good to know that the next few mornings would be the same in that regard.
Happy running by Spaceship Earth! And with my medal at the end in the race village.
After finishing we looked at some of the characters but were both a bit chilly so after taking a few photos ourselves we headed back to the car (one mile walk!). The snack box is pretty grim if you choose to read the ingredients (shelf stable cheese flavour dip?) as is powerade (high fructose corn syrup) so we made porridge back in our room and ended up giving all the boxes to the donation box in the lobby (they had a box to put in unopened and un-used food/drinks if you have anything left when you check out).
The content of the box- crisps, crackers, cheese flavour dip, fruit flakes (that when I googled contained no fruit at all), waffle, plus banana, powerade. Our porridge (we used the bananas for that) and the Pluto space medal!
After breakfast and a shower, we headed back to Epcot for a bit- I took my medal so I could have a few photos of course. We saw so many people wearing their medals or the race shirts, as well as the merch we’d seen at the expo. Cast members would say “congratulations” to you as well which was lovely.
My medal by the Japan and Canada pavilions, plus some of the Run Disney signs up that we saw as we went through the car park in the day.
The aim was to not do too many steps though I ended up doing 31,000 steps- not ideal! The evening was again a repeat- an early dinner (around 5pm), heading back to the hotel around 6pm, getting our race numbers, clothes and bag drop bag ready, and then getting to sleep around 8. 10k coming next!
Have you ever taken part in a multi day event before?
