The Road to Dopey, 2016

In January, 2015 I participated in the 2015 Walt Disney World Half Marathon.  It was so much fun, and left me thirsting for more.

First off, let me say that I don't consider myself a runner.  I am not competitive.  I don't want to be first, and I know that I'll never be fast.  AND, that's okay.  I do interval training, and follow the methods of my running hero, Jeff Galloway.  If you are wanting to run, but don't know how---I suggest looking him up on Google.

I remember joking about the idea of doing Dopey, 2016.  First off---let me describe exactly what the Dopey is.

The Dopey Challenge is to me, the mecca of all Disney Races.  On Thursday, you do a 5k, Friday a 10k, Saturday a half marathon, and Sunday a full marathon.  That's a total of 48.6 miles, thus completing the Dopey Challenge.  Lots of training is required in order to finish.

Sitting in the hospital room with my mom in April, 2015.  It as Dopey Registration day.  I was SO scared to register, but didn't want to live with the regret of NOT registering.  So, I told Brandon I was doing it, transferred money out of savings, and hit the submit button.  I held my breath a few minutes, and just like that I was in!  YIKES!  Time to get serious.

People thought I was NUTS for signing up, and I'm pretty sure they thought I wouldn't make it.

Life happened, and training did not.  I HATE training for races but I love doing them.  I signed up for every race that I could in between as a way to train myself for longer distances.  I researched how to fuel my body.  I almost deferred the race to 2017, but after much thought and prayer, I decided I should give it a whirl.  For 9 months it was all I could think about, I would get tears just thinking about how I would feel IF I succeeded.  It became my "baby."

You see---I've been a quitter most of my life.  I quit college.  I would quit jobs.  I joke that the one thing I didn't quit was labor, and that was because I couldn't quit at that.  So, for me the Dopey was a battle against myself--and I knew deep down that I probably would be a quitter, but I also knew how bad I wanted to accomplish it.

So, on January 6, 2015 we set off for Orlando to see how this would all pan out!