Dopey challenge training – week 5

I have embarked on a bit of a crazy quest to run the Dopey Challenge in 2020. It’s in Walt Disney World in January 2020 and takes place over 4 consecutive days of a 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon. I’m trying to document my training weekly to help keep me on track! I am following the Jeff Galloway training plan.

Well, this week was still mostly rest and frustration. I sprained my toe 2 weeks ago and have had to stay off of it. I didn’t run (until a short test run this weekend) and tried to rest as much as possible, but my job makes it very difficult. I still logged over 10,000 steps on Wednesday with trying not to walk too much. So I know that may be slowing my healing. As you’ll see below the test run didn’t go so well, so I can only continue to rest and ice and hope it gets better soon.

Running

I did one 3 mile run this week with the hopes that I would be better and the pain wouldn’t come back. It was okay for the first mile and a half, but after that the pain slowly started to creep in and then by the end it got pretty bad. I know it may take longer to heal but the fact that it felt better in general but still had the same problems running was just frustrating. So another week of rest and then I guess another short run to test out how things are going.

Costumes

Let’s try to distract me by talking about race costumes! With 4 different races I get to do 4 different characters. I’ve already done a pretty extensive list of characters for past Disney races (you can see my Elsa costume here and a list of all my others costumes at the bottom of that post). Many of them are princesses since I usually do the princess races, so marathon weekend is a good opportunity to branch out.

The last time I ran the marathon it was important for me to pick a character who I really loved and felt embodied strength as that’s what I needed to get through that race. I ended up doing a Megara costume (though it was so cold a lot of it got covered up!).

Here’s some of the possibilities I’m thinking for this race:

Joy (from Inside Out)
Minnie Mouse
Orange Bird
Jasmine
Mary Poppins
Judy Hopps
Giselle

I’m definitely doing orange bird for one of the races. I have a little bit of an obsession and it’s more of a unique costume that I can really be creative with. I’m torn now on whether to do the orange bird for the half or the full. While it’s my favorite character on the list there’s two reasons why I’m hesitant about orange bird for the full. The first is that I probably want to do some sort of hat or headpiece that’s a bit more elaborate (like, with a beak and stuff) and I want my full costume to be as comfortable and easy as possible). The second is that like I mentioned earlier, it was important to me to pick a strong, empowering character for the full. While the orange bird is adorable and wonderful, he’s not exactly “marathon inspiring.”

If I do orange bird for the half I’m thinking maybe Jasmine or Mary Poppins for the full. Minnie for the 10k and perhaps Joy for the 5k (for “only” 3.1 miles I think I can even wear the blue wig I have). But I’m not yet sold on any of this. And I know now that I will have to have adjustments for the weather because January is so unpredictable!

As you can tell I’m very indecisive – so please, give me your opinions!

Which characters do you think I should do for my running costumes?