Pre-Trip A Dopey Dream (with some race updates)

Hi everyone. Having been inspired by lots of new trip reports lately, and with only two weeks to go until mine, I’ve decided to take the plunge and share my upcoming holiday with you.

The travelling party this time will be myself Sharon, my husband Darren, our two youngest daughters, Alice 12 and Lexi 10.
We live in the not quite so magical MK, Milton Keynes UK, and try to visit the more magical version at least once a year. We’ve been DVC members since 2006.

This is us on our last visit in February this year, Lexi with me, Alice with Darren.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

So the report name gives a clue as to the reason for this trip.

While we’re there I’m going to be running the Dopey Challenge: 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon over 4 days. The day after the marathon we’ll be boarding the Disney Dream and I’ll be running the Castaway Cay 5k which will earn me the Castaway Challenge medal as well. You have to run any race over the marathon weekend together with the island 5k to get this.

I’ve run quite a few 5k’s and 10k’s. Ran my first half in March this year and have since run 4 more. But this will be my first marathon. At the moment I’m alternating between being super excited about the holiday and being terrified of running the marathon.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

A few details on dates and places:

January 1st - 13th staying at Saratoga Springs, our home resort. While it’s not our favourite DVC resort (that’s a tie between the Polynesian and Wilderness Lodge), it is a lovely peaceful resort which is sometimes needed after busy park days. And as I still have some training runs to do in our first week, it is a lovely place to run around. In the past, I’ve run to Old Key West and through Disney Springs in the early mornings.

Jan 13th - 17th on the Disney Dream. This will be our 5th Disney Cruise, 4th on the Dream and we’ve also done a 7 night on the Fantasy. It’s the first time we haven’t chosen our stateroom, we have a guaranteed verandah stateroom, so just keeping fingers crossed for a good location. It was quite a big saving to book this way.

One other thing is that Alice and Lexi don’t know about the cruise part of the trip. We’re not planning on telling them until the day before we sail

 

[Nunu]

Count me in!

I like Saratoga Springs. It's relaxing, mostly quiet, and the grounds are beautiful.
Alice and Lexi will be thrilled about the surprise cruise!

Looking forward to reading more about your upcoming trip.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Count me in!

I like Saratoga Springs. It's relaxing, mostly quiet, and the grounds are beautiful.
Alice and Lexi will be thrilled about the surprise cruise!

Looking forward to reading more about your upcoming trip.

Welcome. More details to follow.

I enjoyed your trip report, especially the Piglet photos

 

[Nunu]

Welcome. More details to follow.

I enjoyed your trip report, especially the Piglet photos

Thank you!

Love your avatar and name, but you already know that.

 

[Swissmiss]

Good luck on the Dopey. And if you haven’t already, you’ll need to sign up for the DLP half in September to round out your challenge medals with the Castle to Chateau

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Good luck on the Dopey. And if you haven’t already, you’ll need to sign up for the DLP half in September to round out your challenge medals with the Castle to Chateau

Thanks. So tempting to sign up for this. 3 medals for the DLP Challenge plus the Castle to Chateau medal, and I haven’t been to DLP even though it’s so close. But I think I’ve completely blown the race budget this year after adding the cruise

 

[SharonD]

Can’t wait to follow along. I was impressed when you said you were running the 5K ... then the 10K ... then you added the half maturation ... and then the full marathon!!! Wow. The 5K on Castaway Cay will probably be like a walk in the park for you. Wonderful stuff!!!

 

[MickeyCB]

Can't wait to read about all of your race and vacation fun!

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks. So tempting to sign up for this. 3 medals for the DLP Challenge plus the Castle to Chateau medal, and I haven’t been to DLP even though it’s so close. But I think I’ve completely blown the race budget this year after adding the cruise

That’s unfortunate - the DLP races are a very different experience than the WDW races - smaller and more “civilized” (ie: ability to walk to the corrals from the hotels and later start times).

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks. So tempting to sign up for this. 3 medals for the DLP Challenge plus the Castle to Chateau medal, and I haven’t been to DLP even though it’s so close. But I think I’ve completely blown the race budget this year after adding the cruise

Or 5 if you do the 36K challenge . I’m doing my first challenge this year but only the 31K so that I can get a shiny medal for my birthday

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Can't wait to read about all of your race and vacation fun!

Welcome

Can’t wait to follow along. I was impressed when you said you were running the 5K ... then the 10K ... then you added the half maturation ... and then the full marathon!!! Wow. The 5K on Castaway Cay will probably be like a walk in the park for you. Wonderful stuff!!!

Thanks. Although I think it’s possible I’ll be crawling the Castaway Cay Race

 

[SharonD]

Thanks. Although I think it’s possible I’ll be crawling the Castaway Cay Race

You will probably do great, but I did realize after I wrote that ... “ brave woman to do the Castaway 5K after all the previous races!”

Also meant to say how much fun the surprise of the cruise sounds for your daughters.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

So, a little bit of background about my running.

I have never been a sporty person, I was always the child happy to stay indoors with my head in a book. And I was lucky in that I never had any weight problems growing up so didn’t really feel the need to make any effort to be active. I put on a bit of weight after having 4 children (we also have 2 older daughters who aren’t coming with us), but I just pottered about at the gym a bit and tried to watch what I ate.

Even when Darren ran the Disney World in 2011, I was impressed by the runners and loved the whole atmosphere but thought that wasn’t something I could do.

Then about 3 1/2 years ago I was persuaded by my family to join a local outdoor fitness group. I’d watched them doing outdoor bootcamps in all kinds of weather and begrudgingly agreed to try it, more to spend time with the family than anything else. To my complete surprise I absolutely loved it. The group has some of the most wonderfully supportive people ever, and I never felt out of place because there was such a range of fitness levels. There was a little bit of running, but just from one place to the next where we’d stop to do exercises. So I still wasn’t a runner.

Then 3 years ago, a few people from the group were going to run Christmas Day parkrun. They were all going to stay together and jog round sociably so I tagged along. This was my first ever 5k, jog/walked round with the remnants of a nasty cold in about 45 minutes. Can’t say that I enjoyed it, but I did feel a great sense of achievement afterwards. And thought, well if I do this again when I’m not feeling ill then I’m sure I can be faster. And I was. And so the addiction started .

I stuck to just shorter distances for the first few years. I’m still not fast, but have managed to get my 5k time down to about 28 minutes which I’m happy with. Had a couple of injuries, and finally ran my first half marathon this year. Found that I actually prefer the longer distances, so the next step was to try a marathon. Originally I was just entered for the marathon but training was going so well that I decided to upgrade to Dopey because I didn’t know if I’d ever have the opportunity to do it again. The cruise was only added on about a month ago. Really looking forward to being waited on for 4 days.

Anyway, a bit long winded but it just explains why this Challenge means so much to a non sporty girl. Even more so because it’s at my happiest place.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

So now some plans.

Travel days: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

We’re flying from London Gatwick airport at just after 10am on New Year’s Day. We live about two hours drive from the airport so we’re driving down mid afternoon the day before and staying at the Gatwick Hilton. The extra two hours in bed make a huge difference when you’ve got a nine hour transatlantic flight to look forward to. The Hilton has a walkway directly to the airport so we don’t have to use shuttle buses. Probably won’t be staying up to see in the new year, sleep more important.

We’ve flown New Year’s Day before and the flight was pretty quiet, hoping we’re lucky again.

Land in Orlando about 2.30pm and go through immigration. We’ve had anything from a 20 minute to 90 minute wait here in the past. Depends how many international flights land close together.

Pick up luggage and head on over to the Magical Express for our journey to Saratoga Springs.

Don’t have an ADR for the first evening, but we’re thinking about the Turf Club if we’re not too tired. It’s usually pretty easy to get a same day ADR there and we do like it. Otherwise it’s pizza in the room. For some reason the girls love the frozen pizza that is sold in the DVC resorts. I think it just tastes nicer because we’re on holiday.

 

[riverside]

I stuck to just shorter distances for the first few years. I’m still not fast, but have managed to get my 5k time down to about 28 minutes which I’m happy with. Had a couple of injuries, and finally ran my first half marathon this year. Found that I actually prefer the longer distances, so the next step was to try a marathon. Originally I was just entered for the marathon but training was going so well that I decided to upgrade to Dopey because I didn’t know if I’d ever have the opportunity to do it again. The cruise was only added on about a month ago. Really looking forward to being waited on for 4 days.

Congrats!! 28 minutes for a 5K would be a dream come true for me!! I've really tried to get into running but I find myself having to walk more than run(5 foot surgeries in a span of 15 years). I run as much as I can but a lot of times I have to slow down b/c of pain & I don't want to make things worse.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Congrats!! 28 minutes for a 5K would be a dream come true for me!! I've really tried to get into running but I find myself having to walk more than run(5 foot surgeries in a span of 15 years). I run as much as I can but a lot of times I have to slow down b/c of pain & I don't want to make things worse.

That sucks on the foot problems. I sympathise with the pain, I have osteoarthritis in my big toe joint which luckily I can manage with the right shoes at the moment, but the wrong ones and it’s horrible. Great that you’re still keeping moving, lovely morning walks around Riverside.

I tend to compare myself to other runners too much. Lots of running friends are much faster than me including my kids. I can just about keep up with Lexi, but Alice (at age 12) runs a 22 minute 5k. I joke with them that they’re faster but I can plod for much further. And I’m getting super awesome Disney bling

 

[riverside]

That sucks on the foot problems. I sympathise with the pain, I have osteoarthritis in my big toe joint which luckily I can manage with the right shoes at the moment, but the wrong ones and it’s horrible. Great that you’re still keeping moving, lovely morning walks around Riverside.

I tend to compare myself to other runners too much. Lots of running friends are much faster than me including my kids. I can just about keep up with Lexi, but Alice (at age 12) runs a 22 minute 5k. I joke with them that they’re faster but I can plod for much further. And I’m getting super awesome Disney bling

I'm the same with the shoes. Pretty much if I'm not in sneakers I am in misery. Yes--I so enjoy the morning walks around Riverside!!

I'd take the Disney bling over being fast!! Good luck & I can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

First Disney Day: Thursday 2nd January

Because of the time differences it doesn’t seem to matter how late we stay up on our arrival day, we’re always awake at silly o’clock on the first morning. Normally we take advantage of this and go to whichever park has early EMH. But because this is a different kind of trip and I still have some lower mileage training runs to do, today will be an early morning 3 mile run. The girls will probably join me, they’re both runners and still have the end of cross country season when we go home so they need to keep up their training.

Then a quick breakfast at Artist Palette and off to our first park, Epcot.

Fastpasses are all for the morning: Spaceship Earth, Mission:SPACE and Test Track.

Followed by lunch at Coral Reef. I originally just booked this as a backup thinking that I could change it to the new space restaurant if it opened, but that’s not happening. The girls like it, I have mixed feelings so I’ll give it another chance.

Afternoon and evening is open, see how tired we all are after the long travel day.

Random photo of the girls at Epcot to break up the text: