Dopey Challenge January 2018 Day 2

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  • #68493

    eeyorepoohfan
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    Wednesday January 3rd Expo Day:
    6am alarm. Got ready. Breakfast in the food court by 7:15am. We shared the Bounty Platter and requested two waffles instead of one waffle and a biscuit. We were out to the main bus stop at 8:15am. We were to Hollywood Studios by 8:45am for a 9am opening. It started sprinkling at rope drop. We made a dash straight to Toy Story and the rain really picked up quickly. Ryan beat me, yet again. When we got out, it was really dumping rain and super windy. Temps were in the 30’s, there was even some sleet coming down! We were thankful to have our umbrellas with instead of just ponchos. We made our way to Rockin Roller Coaster in huge puddles for our 9:30am FP. We walked through the shops in the area while waiting for our 10am FP for Tower of Terror. We made our way to Star Tours since the standby was just 10 minutes at 10:35am. We opted to do this instead of waiting until noon for our FP. We enjoyed the new scenes! We then went to Pizzerizzo right at 11am when they opened. I had a Gluten Free pizza and Ryan had a standard one. Both were yummy as usual. We made our way to the exit so we could head to the Race Expo that opened at noon. We had no plan to be there right at opening, but close to it. We wanted to heavy lines and crowds to start to thin a bit. It was bitter cold at the bus stop. We caught the bus to French Quarter after waiting about 15 minutes. We got off the bus and saw the Expo bus waiting and ran to it. They sat and waited to leave until 12:30pm. They must have had a set time to leave at. We did stop at all the stops in Riverside before heading to Wide World of Sports. We were dropped of at WWoS at 1pm.

    We found the line for Dopey Challenge Bib pick-ups and had about a 30 minute wait. I’m thankful we waited a bit to get there because it gave the rain time to stop. We were queued up outside for a good 20 minutes of the wait. It was still super cold, but at least no rain! The sun even kept peeking out for quick glimpses! Not enough to warm us up any, but it was refreshing to see the sun! Pickup was simple. We received 2 bibs each (one to be used at both the 5k and 10k and one to be used for the half marathon and full marathon). We also received a Marathon 25th Anniversary Luggage tag and Bib clips for being Dopey runners. We then picked up our bag that included 6 shirts! A cotton t-shirt for the 5k, long sleeve tech tops for the 10k, half marathon, full marathon, Goofy Challenge (doing the half marathon and full marathon), and the Dopey Challenge (doing all 4 races). The sleeves on the tech tops have a symbol for the parks you run through for that specific race! Pretty cool detail! Since it was the 25th anniversary of the marathon, Mickey was included on all shirts (and medals) along with the character for that race. 5K Pluto, 10K Minnie, Half Marathon Donald, Full Marathon Mickey. We then went to get in the insane RunDisney Merchandise line! We were outside again and the winds were cold and strong. In total, we waited one hour before entering the merchandise area and about 45 minutes of that was outside. They only allow a certain number of people to be in the merchandise area at one time to help with crowd control. We were stopped just before we could enter and chatted with the super nice CM for a good 10 minutes before being allowed in. Once in, we went straight to the Dopey Challenge Merchandise section. We grabbed several things we knew we wanted right away and then took our time seeing what all was available. My sister Teri is participating in Dopey as well, but was at work until 5pm. She works in Orlando. So I was texting her pics so I could get her stuff before it sold out. I think this is the longest Ryan and I have ever shopped before! Once we found all of the Dopey merchandise we wanted, we then went to the other sections to see what they had. They had each race distance and challenge in different sections so it was easy to shop. We ended up with Dopey “I did it!” shirts, full marathon “I did it!” shirts, Ryan got a half marathon “I did it!” shirt, I got a Dopey Challenge Tank top, Marathon weekend mugs, Car Magnets for Dopey Challenge, Goofy Challenge, Full Marathon and Half marathon, Marathon Weekend Shoe Ornament, Ryan got a marathon hat. I picked up the items Teri wanted. I was so thankful I was able to find her the proper Dopey Challenge tank top size in the fitting room area! That took much effort! With our choices in hand, we made our way to the checkout line with a 30 minute wait. We then went to the vendor building and did several laps around to see what they had. Teri arrived at 5:30pm and went straight to get her bib. We met her at the Mickey Meet and greet they had! We had huge sister hugs!!! It was so good to see her and hug her! She had been in a car accident the week after we saw her in October. She lives in Orlando and was driving to work. She had to quickly swerve to avoid a car and ended up crashing head on into the cement median barrier. She’s still in pain and there was nothing I could do for her since we live so far away. So I gave her the biggest, gentlest hug I could! Teri wanted to pick up some Ofoos recovery sandals for after the races. So we walked the vendor area and she did some shopping. We took bib pics and races sign pics on our way out at 7pm. We went to the wrong way to her car and had to backtrack. We rode with her in her car back to Riverside. She was going to stay with us for 2 nights and then she and her family had a room for the next 2 nights.

    We dropped off all our stuff in our room and then went to the food court for dinner. We found they had a carving station with beef or turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans. It was the perfect dinner before a race! I thought I had packed my winter lined full length tights but realized I packed 3 pairs of capri thin leggings! We swung into the gift shop to look for long socks to help cover my calves from the cold for the races. They didn’t have any. Thankfully, Ryan and two long pairs of Star Wars socks with and I would just wear his Han Solo in Carbonite socks for 3 races, with my standard running socks under them to prevent blisters. We went back to our room to lay out our clothes for the 5k in the morning. Due to the insane freeze warning, we had to make sure we had lots of layers. We were up much later than we had planned to be. Lights out at 9:15pm. Alarm set for 2:45am! Tomorrow is 5k day!
    Miles logged 9.4

    #68569

    Nascfan
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    Those lines were crazy! Lots of people! I’m really glad Ryan had some long socks for you to wear, for it was surely to be cold the next few mornings!

    #68576

    eeyorepoohfan
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    The lines were insane!! We’ve never experienced that during any other race weekend before either!! But then again, Marathon weekend brings 75,000+ participants! :surprised: I was so so thankful that Ryan had long socks! I couldn’t imagine how my skin would have been without them!

    #68604

    SEJ101
    499 XP
    CONTRIBUTOR

    Oh no, cold and rain! :down:
    runDisney events are just waaaay to crowded for me. An hour just to spend money on a meaningful experience? No thank you :wave:

    #68610

    eeyorepoohfan
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    It was bitter cold and rain! Very in-Florida like!!! We don’t normally have much of a wait for the expos. This was all new to us with these crowds! If you weren’t worried about getting specific merchandise, you could go late in the day or the next day with no wait!

    #68613

    SEJ101
    499 XP
    CONTRIBUTOR

    Information noted. :figment:


    #68620

    eeyorepoohfan
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    Good job!!! :)

    #98839

    Nascfan
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    MOD

    Oh man, I remember this cold, wet day! The pics and the rain! This is so great to read and re-live though!

    #98860

    eeyorepoohfan
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    It was so stinking cold!!!! And wet!!!! I’ve never been so cold in Florida! It was Expo day!!!!! I can’t believe it was a year ago!

    #98862

    Nascfan
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    MOD

    It was crazy cold and wet! And those lines! Wow! I was genuinely fearing for April at that point, but thankfully that was a much easier time at Expo!

    #98867

    eeyorepoohfan
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    So cold and wet for sure!!!! I honestly had no clue the lines would be that bad! But since it was an anniversary year for Dopey and the Full Marathon there were way more participants in the races. April is a much easier Expo for sure!

    #99027

    eeyorepoohfan
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    Rainy HS pics. There was sleet for a bit! :surprised:

    #99038

    eeyorepoohfan
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    Expo!!!!

    #99075

    Nascfan
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    MOD

    Oh my goodness, so cold and wet! Those lines! :surprised: Great shots! And :pizza: ! Yum!

    #99076

    eeyorepoohfan
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    So very cold and wet!!! Those Expo lines were nuts!! At least the sun came out for a bit! LOL Thanks!!


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