Dopey Challenge Race Report

After 3 nights of early wakeups and late bedtimes, I was so tired the night before that Shawna says I fell asleep mid-paragraph! And hence missed the start time memo. It was a hurried departure and we got slightly stuck behind merging lanes of traffic. But that helped us get a spot closer to the entrance! So all was good.

For the half marathon, we went as Pirates ready to have a jolly good time! The weather turned from hot to cold and so Barry’s famous mop/pirate hat was out. And Ajit’s wife had done some amazing pirate make up for Ajit! (Our most conservative costume dresser was the best costumed amongst us for atleast two days!)

The start to the half marathon was a much longer walk than the previous two races. A walk in the dark with long portapotty lines (we met a girl walking the full who had fallen down and broken her wrist on the way to the corrals!). And all the corrals were sent off with much more fanfare than the previous two races.

Just after the first mile marker, we found our ship and the rest of our crew. But decided to stop for character photos only on the way back – the sun would be up and the lines would be much less!

About mile 2 got us entering Magic Kingdom through the parking entrance. We’d made friends with Leah from New Jersey at the corrals and soon after we got to MK she split up because she couldn’t handle stopping so much (oops! Just 3 miles in and photo stops were plenty).

Even though it was dark when we entered through the parking ticket gates, by the time we actually entered MK it was bright light. Pity because we never got to see castle with Christmas lighting up.

But we did have some beautiful sights going up Main Street.

Passing through Tomorrow Land, we skipped the Character lines because they were long and we entered the Castle from the back. The Frozen characters were waving us on from the top of the castle. I wish they’d stayed down because I’m sure they’d be a major attraction. But then the path into the castle is so narrow that I can see how having major characters just outside would create a bottleneck even worse.

I’ve always regretted that I can’t ride the Everest rollercoaster in the Marathon route because it would take a very long time by the time I got to that point. So I tried bargaining for a carousel ride instead. No go, the park wasn’t officially open so no rides.

We had a quick photo stop in front of the castle before heading off to Frontierland and out of the park (a photo that marathonfoto seems to have misplaced!!)

After coming out of Magic Kingdom, there is a long stretch of nothingness next to the golf course. But there were plenty of characters out. Including the guys in the lower left who I had NO idea about. But hey – four men in a tuxedo with roses and outside a wedding chapel brought out plenty of giggles amongst the girls.

The bottom right is from before MK but it fit into this photo collage, so I took some artistic liberty.

The stretch was so narrow that we were in a tight bottleneck and even weaving around people wasn’t getting us much traction. Although it was funny to see the long lines for the portapottys while the guys were being quicker!

People were in a long line for golf Mickey as well!

But I preferred to chill out instead, and even toyed with the idea of a quick round of golf 🙂
I almost lost the boys on this stretch and had to hustle to catch up with them!

Soon we were getting near to the finish and stopped to see the Pirates. Captain Jack and Captain Barbossa said I was a saucy wench for shooing off the boys and getting in a photo with the best looking men all by myself 🙂

All I needed was some coconut water drink! — All this Pirate Princess needed was some coconut water and a bottle of rum!

It wasn’t all rest and relaxation though! The Army guy on the ramp up to the bridge made me work for my photo – High knees at Mile 10 !!! I guess I should be happy that he didn’t make me drop and do push ups!!

The tall guys were on the bridge – and it never gets old. They are still uber tall and I’m still uber short.

We bravely trudged along.

And soon it was time to enter Epcot and head to the finish.

Just before the finish, Donald was greeting all the half marathon finishers. I *had* to give him a quick hug and a kiss !!

And just like that …. we were done! 3 down, 1 to go.

After we finished, I had just enough time for one character photo before they closed the lines (not cool, runDisney – there were plenty of people behind me who were well within the time limits). “Call me Maybe” came on just as I went in and Chip and Dale danced with me a bit 🙂