Dopey Challenge January 2018 Day 3

@starbee Exactly what Scott said! The balloon ladies are the unofficial 16 minute mile pacers. They are the absolutely last people the start the race. So technically the 16 min/mile pace is usually started around 35-40 minutes after the race even starts! And the farther ahead of them that you start, the bigger the cushion you have on pace. However, they aren’t the official sweep. They have pacers on bicycles (not to be confused with the medics that ride throughout the course to help those in need). Those bicycles are the hard sweep. If you fall behind them at any time, you will be swept from the race and put on a bus to the finish. If you get swept from any of the races you will not receive any challenge medals (so no Goofy or Dopey medals at the end of your marathon). You would receive the medal for that race even though you technically didn’t finish the miles. And the race officials don’t look to see that you were under a 16 min/mile either! You receive 2 bibs to wear during Dopey. One you wear for the 5k and 10k and the other you wear for the half and the full. They are the same number but different colors. They both have tracking chips in them. Only Dopey participants have a timing chip in their bib for the 5k. No other runners have timing chips for the 5k. This is strictly so that they see you start and finish the 5k. During the 10k, half and full there are several timing mats that you run over throughout the course. This helps them to see that you complete each of the courses in their entirety. Unofficially you must finish your full marathon in 7 hours. But there are people that take over 8+ hours and still get their Dopey medal because they started so far ahead of the pacers. So unless you see the bicycles on your heals, you really are safe and fine! So just have fun and enjoy! There is zero reason to try to run fast! Take it all in!! I still remember so much from all of those races that weekend!

@starbee @nascfan Yep! Disney races have A LOT of participants! The half marathons usually have 15k-20k participants. Same goes for the marathon. The 10k usually has around 10-15k runners. I believe the 5k’s are under 8k participants? So it’s a lot of people to get off the line! I know that the half and the full marathon do mini-waves within each corral and release approximately 1K runners at a time. This helps to relieve some congestion early on in the races. So that shows how long of delay there will be from the official start of the race to when you will actually start! And also why you really don’t have to fear the balloon ladies and hard sweep! Unless you start the race right next to the balloon ladies, you have a built in cushion that can be pretty significant. The 5k has absolutely no real sweepers. I’ve seen people taking 2 hours to finish it! The 10k technically does have sweepers but there are very few points in which you can be swept. When you register for Dopey you just enter one proof of time. It needs to be a minimum of a 10k (I think, but it might be a half marathon. I will try to find out and let you know). Disney then takes that proof of time needed for the longer distances and then places you appropriately into corrals. The 5k and 10k technically are on the honor system for Proof of Time. But when you register for Dopey you have to enter a time. There really is no rhyme or reason to corral placement in the 5k and 10k honestly. You have some people put down a good proof of time and still end up farther back. You have first time racers in farther forward corrals. You will have 2 different corral letters in total for Dopey. You will have the same corral placement for the 5k and 10. Then the same for the half and the full. If you feel your corral placement is too fast for you then start farther back in that corral. Otherwise, just work your way as far forward into your corral as you can get. During Dopey you will intentionally want to slow your pace a bit anyway just to save your legs for the full. I’ve heard lots of different recommendations. But the one we followed for the half marathon was to slow down your overall pace by upwards of 30 minutes off your normal finish time for a half. I walk/run and just allowed myself extra walk breaks and selfie stops. But there’s nothing set in stone. Some people keep their normal pace for all the races. Or slow down by 1 minute/mile. My advice would be to not push yourself hard at any of the early races. Use them as warm up to a full marathon! That’s how I looked at it. I had 3 days of warm up before running a marathon. I had no pressure on myself to hit a certain pace. My goal was just to finish each race within the 16 minute/mile time parameters for myself. I knew I was safe from being swept. But it was the personal goal I set for myself and I succeeded at each race!