The second race of the Dopey Challenge is the 10K. I set my alarm a little earlier for this race because it starts at 5:30. I was up at 4:00 and had the trouble I had last year with the exit ramp being closed. I ended up driving to Magic Kingdom and back around to World Drive in order to get into Epcot. Once I was able to park I went to the corrals. I arrived in time since I was in Corral E. It was a beautiful morning, temperatures were in the lower 50s with sunshine anticipated at the finish. I tried to locate Diana and Tami and came across Sid Busch and Nick Takacs. When the corrals were released for the start Diana and Tami caught up to me.
It was my first time meeting Tami so we didn’t have a set strategy for our walk/run method for this race. We were just going to wing it. The first three character stops were crowded and we didn’t want to lose time standing in line so we ran past them. The character stops were Scrooge McDuck and Launchpad McQuack. I have yet to get my picture with them. The second one was Lilo and Stitch. The third was Mr. Incredible and Elasta-Girl.
As I was running the course I saw Mike Scopa on the road so I told the girls to go up ahead and I would catch up with them. I chatted with Mike for a while. We walked and ran while talking and catching up. He hadn’t planned to run this race at all, so he scrambled up some running gear and ran the 10K. We talked about what we thought might happen for the half marathon scheduled to run the next day. There was bad weather being forecast for the morning, especially during the time, the volunteers had to start setting up. So there was concern that they may delay the start, cut the course short, or even cancel the race altogether. It was good to see Mike and then I ran up ahead to catch back up with Diana and Tami.
We entered Epcot but didn’t stop for characters there either because the lines were also long. Especially the line for Colonial Goofy, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck. In fact, we didn’t stop for any characters along the 10K course. In Morocco was Vacation Genie, on the Boardwalk was Pluto, and heading back the backstage of Epcot was Pooh and Tigger. We did find friends along the way. I ran into Linda Bachand-Jackson just as we were exiting the International Gateway and I walked with her a bit towards ESPN, and then after seeing the Mickey Milers and BOGP cheering squads I found Kimberlee near the Beach Club.
I NEVER get the chance to see Kimberlee when we are in Disney so I took this opportunity to walk with her to the finish. She was having issues with her IT band so I told Diana and Tami to go ahead and I walked in the rest of the way with Kimberlee. I figured I would save my legs for the half marathon anyway so I didn’t mind.
Despite not stopping for characters we finished in 1 hour 45 minutes. I think my pace last year was 1 hour 48 minutes. But I was in no hurry. I just wanted to be safe and conserve my energy and my legs for the second half of the race weekend. Little did I know what was going to happen the following day (more on that in a future post).
Diana, Tami, and I went to the line for Dopey photos and I was back at our hotel by 9:15. I had to hurry to eat and shower because I was attending the Cigna blogger event that was taking place at Hollywood Studios and needed to be at the Floridian Convention Center for 11:30 a.m.