dopey challenge day 1: the 5k

Well, I DID IT!!!!!

I ran 48.6 miles in 4 days! (eh, more like 49 1/2, if you believe my GPS watch, but details, details...) 

I'll be going over each race in its own post, so this one here covers the Pluto 5K.

I left work on Wednesday, hit up the expo at WWOS for my race packet, 6 (count 'em!) shirts, and some merchandise.  I think I'm solely responsible for keeping the Bondi Bands gals in business.  I added 3 more to my collection- hey, they were part of my costumes!  I always need new ones because 1) They're awesome and keep my forehead sweat-free and 2) I have probably 10 very specific design ones that I get for costumes so nothing I have will ever match anything I wear again.

Anyhoo, the race shirts were long sleeved (hey, it's January but what the hell can I do with long sleeve shirts in Florida?) so I bought a short sleeve Dopey Challenge tee at the RunDisney booth.  After that, I headed with my bag of treasures (some mileage magnets for the car) over to Art of Animation to check in.  They were able to grant me a late check-out Sunday afternoon, thankfully, and I made my way over to my Nemo suite.  The location was great- first building, first floor, 2 rooms down the hall from the door.  Great, if you're lazy and potentially sore like me.  Not so great if you want to sleep.  Lots of hallway and pool activity kept me up the first couple nights til I was too tired to care by night 3.

Christmas decor still up all over the parks.  I heard Christmas music for 4 days straight and just about lost my damn mind.  I was going to punch someone if I heard "Run Run Rudolph" one more time.

I got some dinner at the food court and cleaned up and tried to get some sleep around 9pm.  That didn't work!  I tossed and turned til after 10 and didn't sleep well at all!  Part nerves, part very uncomfortable pillows.  I made a note to have Scot bring me my pillow from home if I wanted to get any rest at all this weekend.

My alarm went off at 4:05 am and I was glad to get up.  I looked at the temperature outside and it was 39 degrees!  Shit.  How long can I delay my trip to the bus and still make it on time?  I didn't want to stand around outside for an hour in this cold!  I ended up putting on leggings, a long sleeve tech shirt, my running jacket, gloves, and a fleece head wrap.  The walk to the bus was brutal, my eyes were watering in the cold!  I boarded the bus quickly and the ride was all too short to the Epcot parking lot.  Everyone looked pretty miserable.  I didn't see very many costumes, I'm pretty sure a lot of people scrapped that idea with the frigid temps.  I struck up a conversation with one of my fellow runners as we headed toward the staging area and the music.  His sister had convinced him to sign up for the Dopey challenge and then had to bail on him at the last minute for a work commitment.  That totally sucks, btw.  We kept each other company by the front stage- usually the DJ has everyone up dancing together and warming up but not this morning!  Everyone was just bouncing up and down, but not to the music- to keep warm!  We eventually got herded into our corrals, my new friend was in D so I said goodbye and headed into B.  Everyone in the corral was huddled up together in the front corner- the rest of the large space was bare.  I joined some others there to commiserate about the cold- even the girls from Wisconsin were freezing.  The temp dropped to 38.

Then it got weird.

I chatted for a few seconds before our corral was released with a fellow Dopey runner, and when we took off, he said he wanted to pace with me.  That's fine, I was doing about a 9:30/mile and don't mind company for a short distance.  Let me just tell you the bizarre things I learned about my new friend in 30 short minutes:
1) He thought college was unnecessary, even though his mom wanted him to go
2) He didn't want to go to med school like his mom wanted him to because doctors "only make like $200,000 a year"
3) He dropped out of pharmaceutical school
4) He makes millions of dollars trading precious metals and has connections in Dubai and all over Europe
5) He's never been to any of those places because he pays people to go for him
6) He paid back his pharmaceutical school loan of $180,000 in just a couple months after starting his current work
7) He ran a 3:30 marathon the first time ever with little training
8) He has friends that make their living playing video games
9) He lives in New York
10) He wants to retire in a couple years
11) He's 28 years old

Now, my bullshit meter was going off like crazy!
But then I'm like- this guy's story is so far out there that it could be partially true.
Whatever.
I opened my big fat mouth and told the truth when he asked what I did for a living and then I had to spend half the run explaining the flight training process to him because all of a sudden he got interested in buying and flying his own jet airplane.

Lord help me.

I did fucking JOB MARKETING during the 2015 Walt Disney World 5K.

We crossed the finish line and went our separate ways after claiming our medallions.  I couldn't tell you anything about the course because I was having a conversation with Mr Millionaire the whole time.  It went through the World Showcase and stuff?  He was a nice guy, but a bit... intense.  That's a good word for it.  

 Like my pants?

It took me a while, staring at my medallion ribbon, flipping it over, staring at it again, to understand that it was printed backwards!  My early morning frozen brain could not comprehend this.  I'm keeping it, maybe it'll be valuable one day!

So, the 5K was bizarre, I was freezing cold, I waited in line for the bus for over half the time I was actually running the race, and I had to go to work later that day where I got no-showed from my customers so after making $0 I just came back to the hotel to meet my parents. They'd arrived that afternoon and taken the Magical Express in.  We got them set up with park tickets and I hit the mattress early again in preparation for the 10K!

5K stats (the 5K isn't normally timed, but for Dopeys it was)

5K time- 30:24
[no other placement info available because it was not an officially timed race]