SAFD: I have only run 2 non Disney races. My favorite is the San Francisco Giant Race. It finishes on the field at Oracle Park in San Francisco and runs by the Golden Gate Bridge and along the bay. Only one major hill. Also offers a 5K, 10K, and family relays.
OK. I have a question for everyone that does the Dopey Challenge. Would you make the Disney Marathon in January your first marathon you ever did?
RunDisney races at
Disneyland are why I even started running in the first place. For many years, I put up with training because it was a necessary evil in order to have the fun at races. Distractions such as character stops along the course even if I chose not to stop for them, seeing the parks, running backstage, et all helped take my mind off what I "hated" doing. Even in these days, I said that if I ever ran a marathon, Disney World would be my first. But I was quite convicned
As I became more experienced and gained more confidence as a runner, I discovered that I was now successfully doing many things I once believed were impossible. This helped break down my final barriers to the marathon and more specifically Goofy/Dopey.
For perspective, I started running 2011 and ran the 2011 Disneyland Half, 2012 Disneyland Half, and 2012 Wine & Dine Half. After Wine & Dine, I took about 18 months off entirely because my spare time was taken up by an important professional exam. I was just beginning to get the running bug back when runDisney announced the 2015 Star Wars Half Marathon weekend at Disneyland and my love of Star Wars pushed me to sign up for inaugural Rebel Challange (10K and Half on back to back days) and became a more consistent runner from that time. After 4 consecutive years of at least 1 challenge weekend, and a 2017 with 3 half marathons and reading a few marathon weekend race reports, I realized I that I wanted to experience the marathon for myself.
Owing to fear of missing out and only living once, I concluded that I should also incorporate marathon number 1 into Dopey.
1. January is a tricky month for me to visit Disney World. So I knew that I cannot run it annually.
2. If I finished the marathon, then I could finish Goofy/Dopey, but if I hated the marathon, then I would never run it again and would therefore regret passing on Goofy/Dopey.
3. Therefore, I decided to run Dopey as part of my first marathon.
I wound up really enjoying the experience and even returned this year for Dopey number two.