It didn't take long after reading this definition of the race to know that this was something that I wanted to complete at some point in my life. I decided to start saving for it and planned on participating in the race in Florida in January of 2015. I planned on paying myself $1 for every 1 mile that I ran and/or walked as part of my training.
It was a way to pay for (at least part of) the trip without feeling guilty and instead feeling like I earned it. But, the guilt of paying so much for a race as well as travel expenses was just too much and I made the decision to not participate in the actual race in Florida.
It was a difficult decision to make, but I knew that the mature/adult decision was to not participate in the Dopey Challenge and instead to put that money towards our home. It's just not something I can ever see myself affording so I made a choice to do something else instead.
It's not the same, but I decided to run all four days, all four distances. I'll just be in California running by myself instead of Florida running with thousands of other runners. And, no bling..
It's probably a good thing that I decided this before it was time to register too. Dopey was 100% sold out within hours, so if I had still been contemplating my decision it would have been made for me.
I've been looking into a training plan and the Jeff Galloway training plan on the runDisney website is the one I am leaning towards. For the most part, the training plan is three days a week. It's manageable and I'm fairly certain I can adjust it slightly in order to fit in my scheduled half marathon races that I'm already signed up for. Plus, I've been using Jeff Galloway's method for years. No point in changing now.
I'm going to be using mapmyrun to plan all four races and I'm going to attempt to make them as different as I can so that I'm not running the same/similar courses for four days. A visually appealing course can do wonders for your mental stability during long distances... I think having a course will add to the excitement of the challenge and take away the disappointment of not being able to do the actual race.
It's going to be a test to my mental and physical abilities. I'm going to have to continue to tell myself that this was the correct decision and allow myself to celebrate when I complete my own challenge. Just because I don't have medals and I'm not crossing an actual finish line does not mean that the distance is any less or that I didn't push myself to complete something I've wanted to do. I'm just saving about $3000 in the process...
This is the training schedule I have come up with using both Jeff Galloway's plan and my scheduled races. Most races fell on weekends where there was lower distances scheduled, plus I am already coming off of the past 6 months of training for half marathons, so I do not suggest following the below plan for others. Instead, the Disney website has Jeff's original plan as well as others.
June 28th: 3 miles (completed)
July 5th: 3 miles
July 13th: Shoreline Half Marathon
July 19th: 3 miles
July 26th: 5.5 miles
August 2nd: 3 miles
August 10th: Arroyo Creek Half Marathon
August 16th: 3 miles
August 23rd: 9 miles
August 30th: 3 miles
September 7th: Ventura Pier 2 Pier Half Marathon
September 13th: 3 miles
September 20th: Walk 4 miles
September 21st: 13 miles
September 27th: 3 miles
October 4th: Walk 5.5 miles
October 5th: 15 miles
October 11th: 3 miles
October 18th: Walk 7 miles
October 19th: 17 miles
October 26th: Rock N Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon
November 1st: 6 miles
November 8th: Walk 8.5 miles
November 9th: 20 miles
November 16th: Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon
November 22nd: 7 miles
November 28th: Walk 4 miles
November 29th: Walk 10 miles
November 30th: 23 miles
December 6th: 6 miles
December 14th: Santa to the Sea Half Marathon
December 19th: Walk 5 miles
December 20th: Walk 12 miles
December 21st: 26 miles
December 28th: San Diego Holiday Half Marathon
January 3rd: 7 miles
January 8th: 5K!
January 9th: 10K!
January 10th: Half Marathon!
January 11th: Marathon!
It's going to be a busy and stressful 6+ months of training. I think the most important thing is to stay open and communicative with my family to make sure everyone is 100% on board with the decision that I have made. This decision and the training that comes along with it doesn't just impact me. It impacts my entire family and especially my mom, Patrick and Isabel. I do not know what I would do without their support and understanding of me spending the time out running instead of at home with them.
Training is going to be taking up a lot of time, so it's important to make sure my priorities are straight going into it. There's going to be no point starting the training if I'm going to be skipping a bunch of scheduled workouts for silly reasons. I think that as long as I keep the goal of completing the challenge in the front of my mind then nothing can steer me off course.
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