Disney Winter Racing Part One - WDW Marathon Expo

I have previously talked about keeping running fun.  Training and racing can eventually burn a runner out, so we must sprinkle in a little fun during our training and racing to keep it fresh.  Things like obstacle course races, relays, and trail runs can help, as will cross-training.  While I do all of those to break up the training, I also like doing back to back races, or challenges.  Unlike a normal race, the goal is to get an overall time versus a single race time.  This is a different way to race and can lead to injuries due to the stress on the body.  If you train properly for them, the risk becomes much smaller, but it is great fun!.  We call it an ultra with sleep breaks.

When it comes to fun, no one can really beat Disney.  Their races are focused on theme and having fun, versus beating a time, since their inception.  Some elitist runners will even tell you these marathons are not real races and shouldn't count as a real marathon.  To these runners, I laugh at you.  The distance is the distance, no matter how much fun you're having.

Disney has had, for ten years, a weekend challenge during there Marathon Weekend, called The Goofy Race and a Half Challenge.  It includes the Donald Half Marathon on Saturday and Mikey Marathon on Sunday.  Since these distances can be too much for the little kids, they also had a family focused 5k on the Friday leading up to the half.  It was a fun race and was not timed. 

2014 changed all of that.  Disney added a fourth race, mainly for money, to help those that wanted to race, but saw the weekends races as too long, and the 5k as too kid friendly.  Thus the Minnie 10k was born.  Disney couldn't just leave well enough alone, so they decided to add a second challenge, that contained all four raced.  They even named it after the unofficial name runners were using for the challenge of running the original three races.

Thus the Dopey Challenge was born.  In 2014, 7000 racers signed up, and around 6145 finished all four raced successfully.  This year there were 7700 racers, and since the racing started on Thursday, every one of us needed to be in Orlando and at the Expo on Wednesday.

Flying in late Tuesday night, I headed to the hotel, knowing that I had to be up early to get in line for the Expo.  While I needed to get my bib, I wanted to hit the merchandise sections to make sure I got what I and my two soon to be first time marathon finishers wanted.

One of the problems with Disney races is that Disney collectors tend to show up on day 1 and grab a large amount of the gear to keep and/or sell.  This means that if you fail to reach the official Disney merchandise area of the Expo by noon or 1pm, the new or unique stuff will be gone.  This year was no different.  By 1pm, the Dopey section was ransacked, as was the Goofy section, since it was the 10th anniversary of that race, and the gear reflected it.  Collectors on Ebay and other sites were grabbing $7k+ worth of gear just to sell later that day to runners (and collectors) that failed to get to the Expo at a very early time.

I spent a good amount of time in this section, reviewing and grabbing what I thought I would want, as well as gathering the gear on my list for Sallie Gibbs and Jenna Johnson.  They wouldn't be arriving until Friday night, and I did not want them to miss out on the gear they really wanted.  The most popular item this year was the Dopey jacket, due to the unique saying on the back.

I grabbed several more shirts, another jacket and some pins.  Once I was done with the section I wandered around to the rest of the Expo.

I had left most of my GU at home for Sallie to use/choose from for her marathon preparation.  This meant that I would need to purchase my GU here.  This is one of the first things we teach new runners not to do, as you can never assume that an Expo will have the type or flavor of nutritionals that you need for the race.  Having been to previous WDW marathon Expos, I new they should have what I use and took the risk.

I also grabbed a small foam roller to help recover between each day.  Nothing else really inspired me, so I wandered into the New Balance booth to see the new shoes, which had the original Minnie and Steamboat Willie characters on them.  I liked the feel and fit of the men's version and made a mental note to head back here Friday to grab a pair if they still had them.  On my way out, I ran into Sean Astin's first presentation of the weekend.  Sean decided to do the Dopey Challenge this year, in addition to the Marine Corp Marathon he just finished.  Much of his talk was about his love for running and his running campaign #run3rd.

Now it was time to get my bib and head back to the hotel to do work.  The bib line wasn't long, and they had a special section for the Goofy and Dopey runners.  We would be getting two bibs; one for the 5k and 10k races, and one for the Half and Full marathon.  We then grabbed a large bag of stuff that had a shirt for each race, plus a shirt for each challenge.  Last, we had to get our photos taken with our bib (either one).  This was to help reduce the amount of cheating and assure runDisney that the person picking up the bibs would be the person finishing each race.  At this point I was done, or so I thought, and headed back to my hotel room to knock out some work.

I spent the rest of the day deep in spreadsheets and e-mail, only coming up to breath for Lunch and Dinner.  At the dinner mark, around 6pm, I was reviewing everything I needed for the 5k the next day.  It would be colder then expected and my compression t-shirt and shorts may not be enough.  I wandered out after dinner to solve this issue, which ended up being trash bags.  While searching for cheap throwaway clothes, I realized I had forgotten something at the Expo.  Specifically, I did not pick up my Race Retreat wrist bands.

 The Race Retreat is a tent for those who purchase the service, that stays warm, has food, private bathrooms, and a changing room.  I needed these for the Half and Full, but was unsure if I could pick them up tomorrow.  Off I ran (well, drove quickly) back to the Expo to grab the bands, as I had 30 minutes left before it closed at 8pm.  Finally sure that I had everything, I headed back to the hotel, via Publix, and off to bed.

With everything for tomorrow placed out on the desk, it was time for some sleep, as the first race was at 6:15, I was in Corral A, and I needed to be there much earlier.

Next up, the Frozen 5k!