Marathon Weekend 2020

Anyway, for this week's, um, Saturdays are for Disney, I want you all to brag a little. What is your greatest Disney or runDisney achievement? Did you PR a race? Do your first Dopey? Spend 12 straight hours in the park? Eat the Kitchen Sink all by yourself? I wanna hear it all.

SAFD: my greatest runDisney achievement is being the first customer at the Thirsty River Bar during the marathon.

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Anyway, for this week's, um, Saturdays are for Disney, I want you all to brag a little. What is your greatest Disney or runDisney achievement? Did you PR a race? Do your first Dopey? Spend 12 straight hours in the park? Eat the Kitchen Sink all by yourself? I wanna hear it all.
Probably my first dopey/marathon. I don’t think I have any other great Disney achievements.
 


SAFD: I have two RunDisney achievements that I’m most proud of:

The 2017 Disneyland Half Weekend was brutally hot. Temps in the parks were reaching 103 degrees in the afternoons and it was hot and humid for the runs, even starting early. I PR’d the 10k and fought through the half marathon, hanging on for my only sub-2:00 Disney half finish. Training in the heat and humidity of N.C. really paid off in those races.

The next RunDisney weekend, Dopey 2018, didn’t go nearly so well. The weekend started off cold, wet and windy in the parks and the 5k went to plan. That afternoon I started to feel off a bit and my easy pace during the 10k the next morning felt like a tempo run. I was feeling worse and worse and not even dropping back to intervals helped during the half, which turned into a second half death march as I struggled mightily to a personal worst half marathon finish by 45 minutes. Dopey 2018 was the replacement for Dopey 2017 and its cancelled half. I was in tears at the end, as I didn’t see any way I could possibly complete the marathon the next day. I forced myself to get out to the park that afternoon and after a much needed pep talk from all the good folks on here, I decided to start the marathon and pull myself when I couldn’t go any further. My fever ended up breaking that night and I was able to modify my intervals to get through the race relatively slowly, but successfully. I found out the next week I had bronchitis. Completing that Dopey under the circumstances was a big confidence builder.
 
SAFD (acronym still works):

Rope dropping Pandora, riding both Flight of Passage and Nav’i River Journey before the park officially opened at 9 AM, riding Everest and catching first showing of Festival of the Lion King before leaving AK for Epcot and my first trip to Food and Wine Festival, arriving before World Showcase opened at 11AM, scoping out festival center and all of the booths while circumnavigating the whole park in under an hour while getting some lunch, back to hotel for quick shower (it was hot) before meeting my sister, niece and nephew for MNSSHP at 3:00. Never done so many rides in one day. Was up at 6:30 and not back at the end of the day until after midnight.

For rD, being perfect Dopey. But really every race I finish is a great achievement.
 


SAFD:

Finishing Dopey 2018 in an unofficial 20th place with a 5:46:34 finish time. Also, wrapped up a 5th straight Perfect Dopey and was the 2nd fastest perfect in 2018. Unlike @MissLiss279, I wasn't able to pull off the Sextuple PR Dopey Challenge though. PR'd the 5k by 24 seconds (6th 5k attempt), 10k by 3:31 (7th 10k attempt), HM by 8:14 (14th HM attempt), and missed the M PR by 1:54 (12th M attempt). All while participating in 99% of the vacation with my family and doing the parks from the moment I finished the races to going to bed at 6-7pm.
 
Tough choice. One was definitely when I was in college in San Jose, I had Disneyland withdrawal, so I left around 1 AM, drove all the way down to Anaheim, picking up a couple of my friends on the way, we went to Disneyland from 8 AM to midnight, I dropped my friends off and drove back to San Jose and got back around 6 AM. It was so worth it!

The other was when I worked for a travel company and we started working with a new airline and could fly standby for $25 per segment. They went from LA to Chicago and then a few other destinations, conveniently including Orlando. What good is a perk if you don't use it? So my friend and I tried it out and went to Chicago with no problem and decided we were going to go to Orlando. Our waitress at the Neon Cactus had free one day park hoppers at Disney World that she gave us, so we flew out and AK wasn't open yet, but we did the highlights of MK, EPCOT and DHS in one day.

And then our waitress at the Neon Cactus getting us into Club 33 was amazing. Watching Fantasmic from the balcony in New Orleans Square was amazing. Moral of the story is tip your cast member well!
 
My first marathon was the WDW marathon in 2013 - I broke down crying happy tears at the end. I was a mess!

Also have to mention my first Dopey in 2016 - back in 2013 I couldn't believe anyone did the Goofy challenge, let alone anything else, but I couldn't resist 6 shiny medals! I remember falling apart on Saturday evening at AK - telling my husband that I didn't know how I was going to get up at 3am again, and how I was going to run a marathon, and how hungry I was but there was nothing I wanted to eat...I was a wreck! But I got up and got it done on Sunday!
 
Definitely doing the 2017 full after the half being cancelled. I was only registered for the half and did not want a disney credit. I came all that way to run down Main Street and I wasn't going to miss it!

Smart to run a marathon after only training for a half? NO. But there is no way I would be training for my second Dopey right now if it hadn't happened.
 
Anyway, for this week's, um, Saturdays are for Disney, I want you all to brag a little. What is your greatest Disney or runDisney achievement? Did you PR a race? Do your first Dopey? Spend 12 straight hours in the park? Eat the Kitchen Sink all by yourself? I wanna hear it all.
A few years ago I completed the Dopey in spite of having pulled a calf muscle less than a week before the 5k. I was running with many people in each race and I was coaching them all, so I had to do it. I had tears in my eyes when I crossed the marathon finish line. So many emotions, but chief among them was the relief in having completed it.
 
Proudest moment would probably be BQ'ing during Dopey 2018. (Being older helps with the qualifying time!) Completing Dopey was going to be plenty sufficient, the rest was icing on the cake (although truth be told, icing is my favorite part of a cake)

Close second is completing my first marathon--which was at Disney in 2010. In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would ever be able to do that.
 
Just finished the Rock Hall Half in Cleveland at 2:50:46. Looks like I’ll be PoT-less this year. The weather wasn’t the best, but it’s August and it would have been crazy to expect it to have been ideal. No regrets, I’m happy with the finish and it’s no more or less than I deserved. I’ve made some good gains since a few months ago and this was just another step on the journey.

Still stoked for Dopey 2020 and now I get to experience it from a different perspective. Might look at late Sept. races but, honestly, I’m not fussed about the lack of PoT.

ETA: Preposterously large medal as well. Larger than anything I’ve got from Disney, which is a pretty tall hurdle to clear.
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SAFD:
DH here, but I'm going to answer for DW, whether she likes it or not: seeing the outstretched arms of joy as DW leapt in the air to finish her first half marathon: DS 1/2 in 2018. This was after several 1/2 attempts that were thwarted for various reasons (I'm looking at you: 2015 W&D Half a Half, and you 2016 W&D stress fracture the stinkin' day before we flew down).
 
SAFD: 2019 Princess HM. I had a secret goal to beat our time from our first HM in 2015. That was a horrible race for both me and my friend. We stuck together on this race and I kept track of our pacing. Cloudy skies helped too. But when we crossed the finish line and I told her we beat it by almost 10 min she started crying. Then I started crying. It was awesome. :)
 
DH here
I ran 7 miles this morning! That is the longest run since the half marathon the week before I hurt my knee. And 6 miles on Friday. I'm slower, and taking it easy, but it felt good. T+D around 145-150. 4.1 miles in the same park 10 days ago, and I was feeling it in my conditioning. Today was a lot better.
Right now, there is more hope than I've had in a long time.
 
My best friend is moving away, we're having a going away party at the possibly haunted former elementary school where he lives and there's a decent chance I don't survive the night. If I don't, please spread my ashes in the 9th circle of hell known as the Wide World of Sports.

I just read this more closely.

Please, more explanation of the haunted school.

I'm thinking the best place to spread the (your) ashes is the dirt track around the baseball field, if that's OK with you.
 

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