Ever wonder what it's like to do a marathon in Disney World? Or run the Dopey Challenge of 48.6 miles in 4 days?

Dr. Leo Kormanik and his wife, Samua Kormanik, recount their recent experience participating in the Dopey Challenge, a remarkable feat that encompasses a total of 48.6 miles over the course of four days. This event, organized by RunDisney, combines a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, and a full marathon, all infused with the enchanting spirit of Disney. The couple reflects on the unique atmosphere of the race, where participants often prioritize enjoyment and camaraderie over competitive times, resulting in a distinctively festive environment. They discuss the challenges they faced, particularly the demanding early morning wake-up calls, as well as the exhilarating moments of stopping to take photographs with beloved Disney characters along the route. Ultimately, their narrative serves to encourage listeners to consider the Dopey Challenge not merely as a test of endurance, but as an opportunity for joyful engagement within the magical realm of Disney. The Dopey Challenge, a formidable yet exhilarating undertaking, has captivated runners and Disney enthusiasts alike. As I recount my recent experience alongside my wife, Samua Kormanik, we delve into the intricacies of running approximately 48.6 miles over the span of four days, culminating in a unique blend of physical exertion and Disney magic. The challenge encompasses a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, and a full marathon, each event meticulously designed to traverse the enchanting landscapes of Disney parks. The initial hurdles we faced were not merely the physical demands of the distances, but rather the early morning awakenings that seemed to sap our energy before the races even commenced. However, the vibrant atmosphere, characterized by runners clad in whimsical costumes, transformed the experience into a celebration rather than a mere competition. The essence of the Dopey Challenge lies in its community spirit; it is a gathering of individuals united by a shared passion for running and the joy of Disney. We shared anecdotes of our adventures along the courses, including the strategic stops to engage with beloved characters, turning what could have been a grueling marathon into a delightful escapade filled with laughter and camaraderie. With each mile marked by the exuberant presence of fellow runners and the cheer of bystanders, the race transformed into a cherished memory rather than a singular test of endurance. Our discussions reflect the underlying theme of this episode: the Dopey Challenge is not merely about crossing the finish line but embracing the journey, the friendships forged, and the magical moments experienced along the way.

Takeaways:

1. The Dopey Challenge consists of a remarkable total of 48.6 miles over four consecutive days, showcasing a unique blend of endurance and Disney magic.
2. Participants often experience a different atmosphere at Disney races compared to traditional marathons, emphasizing enjoyment over competitive timings.
3. The integration of character photo opportunities throughout the race serves as a delightful distraction, enhancing the participants' overall experience.
4. One of the greatest challenges during the Dopey Challenge is the early morning wake-up calls required for the races, which can be quite taxing on runners.
5. A notable aspect of the Disney races is the low dropout rate, attributed to the inclusive and supportive environment among the participants.
6. The camaraderie and shared purpose of runners, many of whom are supporting charitable causes, create a positive atmosphere that transcends individual performance.

Foreign.

Yo, yo, everybody.

Here is another episode of the Mind Body Marathon.

And today I'm here with my beautiful wife, Samuel Cormanick, and we're taping this down in Orlando.

The Monday after we did the dopey challenge, which was what again?

So for those of you, how many.

Miles and all was it?

48.6, 48.6 miles filled with Disney magic across all the parks.

Four days.

And it's doing a 5K, 10K, a half marathon, a full marathon.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday mornings.

Yeah.

And the biggest challenge by far was the waking up, I would say.

Like.

Right.

Yeah.

So basically, so just so you know how it goes.

So you know, the park, the course just runs pretty much all through the parks.

Right.

And then the access roads, the 5k and 10k is just around Epcot.

And then the half did Epcot in Magic Kingdom.

Yeah.

And then the full does all four parks.

Yeah.

Hits all four parks.

And you know, it's an interesting experience coming from a little bit more of the traditional runner, like road racing marathon perspective.

Coming to these Disney races has a.

It's a very unique feel.

Like people are getting dressed up.

There's a different energy about it.

Not everybody's concerned about time.

Almost nobody is concerned about time.

I think a lot of rundisneyers would be mad at that comment.

A lot of people are concerned about times.

And if you go to Disney blogs, that's all you hear about.

Because there is a cutoff of 16 minutes, which most races have that.

But most races probably don't have a lot of first time marathoners or people that are trying to potentially not be a lot of.

They're not like gung ho runners, but now they're trying to do 48.6 miles across four days.

Because a lot of what you hear about is the balloon ladies.

Yeah, I. I give it that time.

I feel like there's.

I feel like there's probably a chatty few at the end.

I know what you meant.

Like you meant, obviously people aren't trying to PR at dis.

Yeah.

At least if you're smart, you're not trying to pr.

I mean, you're really just here to dress up to have a good time, to kind of just be in the Disney atmosphere, in the Disney moment.

And you're the whole goal really, throughout the race for us this time, and this is the case for a lot of runners, is that, you know, we wanted to get out of it in one piece.

We wanted to get out of it somewhat.

I was okay getting out of it In a couple pieces.

Because I knew you were there to catch me back up.

I was like, eh, we'll see how this goes.

I'm not as trained as I should be, but Liam will be there, so he'll take care of me.

He'll tape me up, literally.

Yeah, you were taped everywhere.

But the other thing too is that, you know, you're stopping and taking photos with the characters.

There's all these nuggets along the way to kind of help you versus, like a traditional marathon.

Like a, you know, like a Cleveland or, you know, a Chicago marathon or something like that.

Yeah, there's events and there's DJs along the way, but here there is that and there's pump me up sections.

But there's definitely this other added character situation where you're.

You're stopping to take pictures with different characters.

And there's.

I think in the full marathon, there's like 20.

How many?

Like 24ish characters.

Probably we stopped at 18 and there was a hand, probably like eight maybe, that we didn't stop at.

And so, like, literally, you're just kind of like.

So what we would do is I would just run up a little bit faster, maybe like a half mile, three quarter miles out, and then get in line and.

And then so that way when she shows up, she just jumps in the picture and then we get back running.

And that was literally just jump in the picture.

And that was like pretty much the game plan there.

I think the cool thing, which I mentioned this as we were getting started with the half, because by the time you get to the half, especially the full too, you know, I'm me who doesn't love running.

It's just like over all of this, but.

And even, you know, 13.1 miles on day three and 28, 26 point.

See, I can't even know how many miles the marathon is right now because I'm still cooked.

But it's daunting.

Like, the whole morning of the marathon I just kept repeating like, I don't want to do this, like, nothing.

But then when you're worried, especially when you have the character list, which.

That was nice that we got that ahead of time because rundisney doesn't put it out there.

So it is through, like, underground networks that you can find the character list, what miles they're at and things like that.

And the fact that we had that was so, so positive and distracting to me because I wasn't really worried about, oh, mile one, mile two.

You know, we got a 5K down I was worried about, like, wait, which is the next character?

Three quarters of mile.

Okay.

This is our game plan.

And that.

That really helps us, people who don't love running.

Yeah.

And I think kind of the point of this episode is for me to, like, kind of just.

I mean, we talked about the dopey challenge before.

We talked about the signup process.

We talked about some of the ins and outs from your perspective.

But I hadn't done it before.

And so I just kind of wanted to, you know, let the audience know, like, if you want to do this race, this is kind of what to expect.

And she is right.

Like, when you have the character list and you know what's coming up, that's like another carrot in the midst of the mile marks.

So, like, you're not just looking for mile one or two.

You're basically like, where's Peter Pan?

Yes.

Yeah, where's Peter Pan?

And then like, oh, there he is.

And then all of a sudden, like, you didn't even notice that there was two miles that went by because you're kind of just preoccupied with the next couple character.

But one of the.

Some characters that, like, some of the miles, there would be two or three characters in between a mile, and then there would be, like, another mile and a half before the next character.

So, yeah, it was very distracting from how much you actually ran and how much you got done.

One of the things that I found to be really interesting and this was this.

I kind of was thinking about this in the moments that I would run up ahead.

The way the course is designed, there's a lot of, like, access roads and, like, highways that you're on to, like, get from one park to the next.

But the way if you've ever driven through Disney, there's really no stoplights.

There's really no, like, intersections.

They're just kind of, like, long roads for, like, three, four miles on end.

What.

What this did was this created a situation where you're, like, looking really far into the distance because you can see it.

It's really flat, and they're just kind of, like, gentle, windy roads.

You can see, like, mile in the distance.

And that helped to, like, I would, like, look at my watch and be like, oh, my God, a half mile's already gone by, or a mile's already gone by, because you're kind of just seeing the next thing for so, so long, and there's just this sea of people in front of you.

And it.

From a perspective standpoint, the race really went by super quick.

I was out there.

We were out there for about six hours stopping the characters, riding rides.

We'll talk about that in a minute.

But doing all those things and it really genuinely felt like a sim, like a three hour marathon that I would typically run.

Like, it felt like I was out there for about that long.

It didn't feel like crazy, extensive.

There was always something to happen.

So.

But yeah, one of the other perks of when you run through the parks is that if they are open while you run through, then you actually get to ride a ride if you have have time.

And not everybody does have time, but we did have time, so we rode.

Yeah, it was actually cool.

It was my first time because I did the inaugural Dopey and I've done the regular marathon and Goofy Challenge.

This was my fourth time running the full at Disney.

But never before had I stopped for the rides, even though I had the time before.

I don't know why I did it, but it was always talked about like Everest.

That's the big buzz is are you going to be able to, you know, get to Animal Kingdom by the time that they're open and with enough time where the balloon ladies won't catch you to like ride Everest because you don't get special treatment.

It depends a little bit on the cast members.

Sometimes the cast members that are working will let you go through Lightning Lane, but it's not guaranteed.

So, like in our case, they did it.

They were saying it was a 35 minute wait.

I think they might have actually upped the wait time just to deter a bunch of runners from getting in there, because we only waited about 20 minutes, but we just waited in the regular line and got to ride it.

But this year the course was different from when I've done it in the past.

I don't know if it's different even from last year to this year, but we hit up Hollywood Studios almost at the very end.

We were at mile like 23, and in the past that wasn't the case.

So when we've run through Hollywood studios in the past, it was when they were still closed.

So we had just passed Tower of Terror.

We probably ran like 0.2 miles up.

And then you're like, oh, it's like 25 minutes.

And we had plenty of time to spare.

We were at mile 24 or almost 24 at that point.

And then we were like still jogging.

And do we stop?

Do we not stop?

And then we ended up running back to get back in line.

And I'm glad we did.

It was because I was like, I just hadn't even thought about Tower of Terror because it wasn't ever an option.

Yeah, it was so interesting to do a roller coaster right in the middle of running because your heart rate was elevated and you're already kind of like dizzy from the heat and you know by the time you get to the.

Your body already hates you.

So, like, if you normally get, you know, butterflies in your stomach or something from rides, which I always do for Tower of Terror still, even though I love wild rides, it didn't happen.

I think it's just because at that point my body was just maxed out with anything it could make me feel.

Yeah, you're not like worried in the same way that you're just like, whatever.

I'm just on a roller coaster right now and I'm in the middle of a marathon.

This is just my life.

I couldn't do anything else harder.

So my body is just.

I mean, that's like just peak Disney marathoning right there.

But so Everest was about mile 17 and then, as she said, Tower of Terror was about mile 24.

So you are late in the race.

I mean, it was hot and the full blown sun was out.

I mean, the race day was actually pretty happening.

So you're getting out of the rides.

You look, you're moving slow.

You're running a marathon.

Yeah, it's.

It's definitely an experience.

But I think, you know, this morning and even yesterday we went to the parks yesterday after the marathon.

We had like over 75,000 steps yesterday.

I mean, I was fine, I think, like just taking our time and stopping at the characters.

And it's definitely not a race that beats you up in the same way that, like, if you are trying to run a genuine time, like in a traditional road marathon.

So, yeah, I would highly suggest experiencing this.

And there's just a, you know, it's not going to get the same fanfare as like a Chicago or New York or Boston, but it's gonna.

It has a decent amount of crowd support along the way and a lot of character nuggets along the way.

It was really cool when we got into Main street for Magic Kingdom both days, even though it was dark, it was, you know, the first.

It was earlier in the race.

And yet the crowd was huge.

Huge and just so much energy.

And then when we got into Epcot at the end and we went over this, like, little underpass between worlds there, and so it echoed like the roar.

And that crowd was amazing.

But rundisney and rundisney fans and Crowd supporters.

If you're watching this or come across this finish line, people like, I don't know what you all were doing.

It was weak.

But every day for the.

And especially for the half and especially the full where one, it's later in the day so you guys can't even say that you had to be up early to be there to support us.

Because at this point it's like 11 o' clock.

And they were so quiet, like you would have thought they were like, yeah, it was packed like seven, eight people deep.

But there was nothing all across the.

Last like quarter mile there going into the finish.

Nothing.

And I'm like trying and I would, you know, motivate people at the end.

And half of them would cheer and the half would like scowl at me like, how dare you tell me to cheers.

Like, well, why are you taking up space at a finish line then?

Let somebody who's going to have a board or something be here.

They almost need to have like a pump up person a little bit out of the finish line area, like a little bit like down.

I agree to like get the crowd to like do something because it's.

You have for like hours on end, stream of like thousands of runners coming through that are doing something that's very important to them.

That a lot of people, this is a really big challenge for them.

There's a lot of people running for charity, a lot of people running for a purpose.

And we were there running for a purpose and was just a soft finish.

It just was.

There's just no other way to put it.

The crowd needs to be redder.

Talking about we were there running for a purpose.

And then I don't know that I did another marathon after that.

I don't think I had.

And I kind of like was over marathons.

Half I can handle, but just like, I really don't want to be tortured in that way.

I don't like running enough to keep doing it.

And then my lovely friend bride decided to text me February of last year because the registration for this race was in March.

And she starts off the text and it takes up my whole screen and she's like, hear me out.

And then she goes on and on about why we should do Dopey.

And I finished reading it and for about 10 seconds I'm like, what the heck is she talking about?

Like, no.

And then took about 20 seconds for me to be like, yeah, let's do.

We should do it.

And we registered and she helped us get in and all of that.

And, you know, we broke Leo into it more so because we wanted him to be here to finish, fix our woes in between the races.

I know where I'm at.

I know my place.

But she ended up getting diagnosed with leukemia in November and couldn't be here.

So for any parent out there or avid readers, if you've heard of Flat Stanley, we kind of brought that in.

And we had a poster for every day.

And I knew which costumes because we were the Dalmatians and I was Cruella de vil for the 5k, for the 10k.

We all had separate costumes.

So she was just gonna wear this one running outfit that she's worn before.

And I had a picture of her by herself, that outfit.

And then we were Prince Eric and Ariel and she was going to be Flounder.

And then we were Mickey and Minnie.

And she was dopey for the full because it's the dopey mirror, the dopey challenge and Chat.

GPT helped me put her into each one of those costumes.

And we had a poster for every race.

And it was super fun because I got to carry her through.

And she took pictures.

Flat Bride took pictures with all the characters at the finish line.

It was a good time.

Yeah, I mean, you know, that's the thing for me in my career running.

You know, I'd be up far in the race and just really focused and not.

Not much people around me, but other competitors kind of thing.

And then throughout my years, obviously of getting older and running slower, I have experienced different parts of marathon.

Slower is very relative.

But, yes, I've experienced different parts of the marathon process and in the marathon experience, I should say.

And so you kind of drop back into the crowds a little bit more and you see people are running for a purpose.

People are doing things that are.

That are important to them.

And Disney is loaded with that.

Like, that is massive motivation for a lot of people.

So people are wearing shirts, people are carrying things.

People are doing very specific actions to represent a person they care about, a person they miss.

Like, in our situation, a person that we wanted with us that got a grave diagnosis.

And it felt really cool for the first time to be able to do something like that, to be able to support something like that.

One of the really cool things about rundisney is that it does pull people into running that otherwise would never consider it.

And that's me included.

I was never a runner.

And I remember I've talked about this before.

Like, I would do the Mild fit test when I was 17 years old and I couldn't do, do a faster than a 14 minute mile and thought that I was gonna do.

I love Disney and I thought I was gonna do the one race for my daughter, you know, in honor of her with autism.

And then that said I was gonna be done because I hate running and I probably have done.

I have to count, I would say probably over 40 Disney races at this point.

Oh, geez.

It's definitely 30 to 40.

No doubt, like, no doubt if I was to count my medals and, and it is, it's like, it just, it's very welcoming because, and part of it's because of the Disney distraction.

Like, you know, the Disney magic.

It's magical miles and people who just love Disney.

It gives an excuse for people to take trips, you know, and that is like depending on lifestyle, depending on, you know, partners or whatever.

Some people can't just get up and leave.

So when they feel like there's a purpose tied to it, whether they're fundraising with a group that is going to cover a lot of their travel expenses or whether they just need to legitimate legitimize, I can't say that word to themselves or family members that, hey, I'm going to take this chunk of time and this money and go do this thing.

Disney just kind of makes it all of that.

And the characters obviously running through the parks, it is just distracting and enticing enough.

The costumes, you get so distracted even, you know, even on the access roads you get distracted because you're like, oh, holy crap, look at that person.

She has like Space Mountain built out of, I don't know, cardboard foam.

Like it's literally Space Mountain all around her body.

And somehow she's running like that or there's tow mater or you know, like you just see people's creativity, one of their pictures.

And our sitter who's here with us was looking at the rundisney website and one of the like their pictures on their site, it has a person finishing as gray stuff.

So that would be an obscure Disney fan thing.

Not really obscure.

It's just from the song Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast.

And Lumiere says, has a line where he says, try the gray stuff, it's delicious.

Don't believe me?

Ask the dishes.

And so she was gray stuff for one of the races and they have.

A picture of it.

Yeah, so many esoteric things here.

So.

And you just get distracted even by that.

And so I think that Rundisney, I'm sure people like you said, people like you have never done it, wouldn't think of it, but you, like, people who are at that level of running can come in and really focus on winning.

And it's a very high possibility for them, you know, to be able to do that, no problem.

But also for people like me that would never have ran, it does open up.

And even though I still don't love running, I would say I hate running.

I always am willing to be here at a Disney race and even a few other races, but definitely a Disney race.

And there's so much positivity in my own growth as a person, too, of doing something that I don't like and then enjoying it at the end.

The end result is I'm happy I was here.

Well, here's the thing.

This is one of the points I was going to make, is that as the race went on, you have, like, weird energy once you get past Everest.

I think, really, because I just think what was happening was you got past that.

The dauntingness of, like, I have a lot to run.

Yeah, the 2/3, 75% mark of anything is, like, hard.

So, you know, you'd, like, you said on the line in the marathon, you're just dreading it.

And for me, the way I get past it is I just actually don't even think of what I'm about to do.

Like, I just, like, just act very ignorant about what is about to happen.

And that helps me get it through, get through those, those tough times.

But your energy went like, crazy, like, once you got past, like 16, 17, like, you were, like, pumping up the crowd.

And it's because you knew you were going to finish.

And there were so many doubts prior to that, I'm sure.

And that, that, that qualms your, your enthusiasm.

But, you know, you were the, you were the, the picking up the crowds everywhere.

We were pretty much from that point on, which I thought was pretty incredible.

The other thing that I think that's really incredible about this race is that the dropout rate is very, very low.

I found that to be very interesting.

And I think it's just because everybody is here.

The dropout rate is 1 to 3%.

Since they've had the Disney marathon on average, and any major marathon, which Disney would be considered that because it's definitely over 10,000 runners.

It was 13,000 something finishers yesterday.

It was 13,000 finishers yesterday.

And that's a major race.

I say that yesterday they might have had a slightly higher dropout rate because of the heat was really Getting to a lot of people, but.

So I don't know how many people were registered, but that's how many finishers they had.

And then in most majors, you're looking at 5 to 10% dropout, a decent 5ish percent mostly.

But the half had what, over 16,000 finishers.

We heard that's probably true.

Yeah.

So it's pretty awesome.

But I think like, people are.

When you come here and you're not chasing a time and you're not pushing the envelope in the same way, and you are challenging yourself on the distance, then I think you just are more than willing to kind of just put up with the slugfest of it all and just like, you know, like just see it all through to the end in the same way or in a different way than you would if you were in just kind of in your hometown marathon or something like that.

I think all the money and effort and time and experiences that you've put into this, like, that just keeps everybody bought into finishing in a different kind of way.

Yeah.

Versus, if you went to Chicago, it's not like you got a costume and it's not like you went through this whole experience of taking photos along the way.

We should start being people that show up for like, marathons.

Like Chicago, New York, like a group of like 10 of us, like decked out as if we're running Disney.

Yeah.

Why not just bring the love everywhere else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I ran.

I think the hardest for me, costume wise was Prince Eric on the half I was wearing.

Weird.

He had boots covering up his shoes that went up to you like your knees.

I mean, he looked just like Prince Eric.

So.

Yeah.

And then what are those called?

What's the name of those belts.

Yeah.

That you wear with tuxedos, cumberbunds.

Huh.

Look at that.

My coming up.

That is awesome.

Yeah.

And your, your, your pants were really thick.

Yeah, it was hot, like polyester.

And it was the hottest day too, so.

But you know, that's.

I, I was, I was there for the moment.

It didn't bother me one bit.

So really genuinely didn't bother.

I was happy.

I got through 48.6 miles with four costumes and zero chafing.

I know, like zero chafing.

In fact, a couple times when you were Aladdin, we, you know, when you're, when we do what we do, you kind of tend to get passed by people and then pass the same people back and forth.

Because when we're stopping for characters, people would obviously pass us.

But then once we would Pick up running again.

We would pass them again, and there would be a couple times that I would hear people say, and even in Portuguese, they would be like, oh, no, her Aladdin left her behind.

Or, oh, no, her Aladdin is, like, way up there now.

Because they obviously didn't know our game plan, but it was kind of funny.

Yeah, you were amazing as Jasmine, by the way.

I got kicked out of the park.

She went in dressed up as Jasmine.

I've heard stories of that, but I never thought it was actually a thing.

So we come home, you know, the kids just stayed at a hotel with our sitter.

And because it's the start times is 5:00am and 4:30am, and so we would come back and they would just be waking up.

And especially for the 10k, they were literally just waking up.

And we walk into the room and, you know, he's Aladdin, I'm Jasmine.

And so Mariah was so excited, and we brought down her Jasmine costume.

Since we were going to the park.

She brought that in her Elsa, because she wasn't sure which one she wanted to wear.

And she was just, like, so excited because she didn't realize I had that costume.

And.

And she was adamant that, no, mom, like, we're going to Epcot, like, you have to match me.

And she just really wanted that to happen.

So I did.

I matched her.

And then we get there and there was all these, like, hoops they kept making me jump through to even get to the point to scan our ticket.

And then we went to scan our ticket.

They're like, no, no, no.

Like, we have to wait.

And then we had to sit there for about 10 minutes.

And they were calling all these different managers, and they call, like, the manager of the day, like, the toppest guy that you can get to.

And he comes and he's like, yeah, we just can't let you in.

It's character integrity.

You look too much like the character.

And we don't want our guests to get.

It was like, your cheapy outfit, too.

But, like, just the fact that she.

Looked like Jasmine, it wasn't like the Disney ified version, you know, you guys know, like, if you have kids, like, you can go to Target and get a Disney dress, so you can go to the Disney Store and get a Disney dress.

And they're very different.

Mine was definitely the Target version, and they still wouldn't let me in.

So they escorted us in, and the top guy of Epcot for the day that was in charge takes all of our pictures.

Cause I'm like, can we just get a couple pictures then?

Because that's all she really wanted and takes our pictures for us.

And then I get escorted to the bathroom.

Like, they literally watched until I went in to be like, okay, go change.

Wow, that's crazy.

I mean, I was blown away by that.

That was a new experience, too.

Yeah.

One of the final points I wanted to make is I was shocked at how many.

Because when you think about, like, nationalities coming to the.

To the race and experiencing it and experiencing Disney and all that, but without a doubt, there was a gazillion Brazilians here.

I've told you this.

I don't know why you're shocked.

Because I was shocked at the race.

Like, I was shocked at how many people had, like, Brazil flags and jerseys.

Well, I told you.

It's because, one, in Brazil right now, it's vacation.

Like, kids have vacations there from December until February.

So that's.

That's like our summer break for them.

And so a lot of people have vacation time.

And then two, they literally have tour groups that they create to bring.

Like, just, like, they have tour.

Like, you know, if you go to.

If you go to Disney in July, which I don't recommend ever going to Disney July, because you're going to see all the teenagers with their matching shirts and the little person with the flag, because they bring all these tour groups that bring typically just the teenagers.

Because for Brazil, it's very expensive to come here.

It's expensive for anybody to go to Disney, but especially where the dollar and all that comes into play.

So a lot of kids for their 15th or 16th birthday with.

Well, no, for their 15th birthdays, because that's, like, what they do in Brazil that are well off, the parents will usually sign them up with a tour group to then come to Disney, because Disney is the most magical place on earth for Brazilians for whatever odd reason.

And clearly I'm in the boat, so I'm not throwing shade at that.

Just saying.

So they do the same thing with the running groups.

They just have running tours that comes and they bring these huge groups.

I would love to look at the stats, because I feel like in the last maybe 15, 20 years at the marathon, a Brazilian has probably a Brazilian guy.

I don't know.

I don't think the Brazilian women care for running as much, but a Brazilian guy, I think, has won it.

Probably the highest percentage of any other.

Nationality that'd be worth looking into.

He could easily chatgpt that.

Yeah, well, I think that's kind of rounding up our Dopey Challenge episode.

Oh, this year.

What was new, though?

Just because, like, people come and they complain about the things that they know is always going to happen.

So it's like, when you sign up, you've heard people say this, so you should just expect that to happen.

But the Expo was annoying because the only way that you could get into, not the Expo itself, the Expo was fine.

And Disney does do a great job with their organization.

So even though the lines look pretty long and daunting for your bibs and all that, it does move quick.

But then to actually get the Marathon Disney gear only, so you could go into the Expo and get all the vendors and buy whatever running stuff you might want there.

But the section that had just the Disney merchandise, you can only get in with a virtual queue, which was selling out.

Not selling out, but filling up in less than a minute.

And, yeah, that was a bit ridiculous.

They opened it, like a couple times in the day and literally a minute later.

It was worse than trying to do Star Wars Ride when that first opened.

Like, it's not like we're.

We're taking from you.

Like, if you ride a ride, like, you're.

You're giving up an experience.

We're trying to give you more money.

We're trying to give you more money, like, and then you're, like, withholding that.

It's so.

It didn't even make any sense.

And it wasn't even like that overwhelming in there either.

In the.

Yeah, not at all.

Yeah.

It was like they literally could have let so many more people in.

Yeah.

So rundisney was just weird with that.

And then the Dopey Challenge, you know, Brian and I were texting about this.

It's like they're trying to solve a problem, but then they just create another problem.

Because with the Dopey Challenge gear, one of the problems is that they do get a lot of people that go in, buy the gear, may or may not be running the raise, and then end up selling the stuff on eBay for three times more.

And they're trying to help that because they've heard through the years people complain about that.

So now they created a separate section for Dopey.

But then you had to wait 45 minutes to an hour to even look just in line.

Just to look at the Dopey specific.

Yeah, you couldn't even look at it.

You couldn't even see, like, oh, I'm gonna wait in line to buy this.

You couldn't even see it.

As amazing as Disney is with all their details, for the parks and your experience, I feel they need to pull in like a chick fil, a manager to kind of help them sort this stuff out, the organization of that.

And then we kind of hit the episode off with the times, you know, the race times.

They start at 5:00am for the five, ten and a half and then the full starts at 4:30.

And you know, the obvious reason is they're trying to get you out of the parks a little bit quicker.

And the fool obviously is.

Takes a lot, takes a lot longer.

So.

But it is a beast because you got to be there pretty quick.

You know, you can't be like, you know, showing up five minutes before your race like it's, you gotta, there's a long walk to get to the start line.

Like it's definitely a whole process.

So it's a Disney process.

If you've been to Disney, you know, it's all about lines.

Yeah, you just gotta wake up and just bite the bullet and do it.

So doing that four days in a row was by far one of the biggest challenges.

And then for this race and any other race, my last little note, for anybody that comes across this is just be gracious to every runner.

Cause again, there's so much buzz online between and especially at this race because as you mentioned, there's a lot of people that walk and, and not only is there a lot of people that walk that might finish the race in longer minute per mile, but there's even people who might finish in a 9 minute mile, 10 minute mile average, but they all do the Galloway method, which is running walking.

And so even if they're running a two, three minute span, but then they're going to walk for 30 seconds and you just go back and forth.

And then there's always this debate about walkers on the right, runners on the left, like do this, do that, as opposed to just this mindset like we're all here for this great experience.

We're all here to challenge ourselves in a positive way and see what we're about to do and honor different people and have a good time doing it.

And so instead of being focused on who should be on what side of the road, because if you're, especially when we, this time we came across all of the pacing groups, when you have 30 people that are doing a Jack Galloway walking method group and they're all going to be running walking at the same time, it's not very easy for them to maybe get all the way over to the right or, or runners.

Like if you're a Runner that is trying to make up a specific time or be at a specific pace.

You want to run the tangents.

And sometimes the road's gonna go to the right, and so you wanna be on the right, and you're gonna have to pass walkers.

And I think the focus, instead of arguing back and forth, it's just be gracious and assume the positive in other people.

So if somebody comes up behind you and says, I'm coming on your left, and they're not saying, hey, jackass, move over to the right, you're just saying, on your left.

Please just move to your left and don't make a comment.

Like, so many times that would happen to me where, you know, like, I'm running on the left side of the road and there's walker in front of me, and I'd be like, on your left.

And then, like, half the time people would make some comment, and it's just like, I'm politely asking you to move.

Just move.

And if you were, you know, politely asking me to move, I would just move.

Or if I did end up running on the right side of the road, I wasn't trying to bulldoze anybody down or think that they don't deserve to be there or run the way that makes sense for them or the way that the course is creating right now.

Because sometimes between water stops and turns, like, I couldn't just be on the left or whatever it was.

And let's just not get mad at each other.

Yeah.

I just think, like, you know, I was oblivious to a lot of this.

This, like, order of how to do things and.

Yeah, because you have, like, three people running around you.

Yeah.

So, like, you know, like, I didn't really.

Wasn't really too familiar with it.

But some people do get really mad.

And it's very odd to see because you're like, you're at Disney.

I mean, like, what are you doing?

Like, with this attitude and yelling and screaming, and it's like, you're not even near the front.

Like, what does it matter if somebody cost you one extra second because you got to move to the left or the right.

It's like, it was just such a weird experience.

We both experienced this, too.

Sometimes we would run on the grass.

There was nobody in front of us.

Like, we're not on the road.

We are on the grass.

And we're just trying to go, you know, down this open path.

And people would get mad that we would pass them doing that.

It's like, why do you care that I'm running on the grass right now.

Very interesting.

Come in and show their shirts.

Hey, guys, come here.

Here's a special treat for you guys.

So we have on, if you're watching.

You can see our Dopey Challenge shirts.

Mariah, come show them their shirt.

Come here.

Nice.

So Mariah and Naomi got to do the 5K.

Kneel down a so the camera can see you.

There you go, Mariah and Naomi and Mariah got to do the 5K.

So they have their 5K shirts on.

They were Dalmatians along with Leo and I was Cruella de Vil, which was fun because then people would keep saying to me, like, oh, look, you caught your puppy.

It was cute.

Awesome.

Well, thank you guys for listening to another great episode of the Toy Guy for another great episode of the Mind Body Marathon.

And we hope you enjoyed us talking about this.

We hope you guys enjoy talking about this Disney experience and the Dopey Challenge.

And again, moving forward, you guys should definitely consider this as a fun experience.

Even if you've never run.

Highly recommend it.

Yes, absolutely.

All the best.

Thank you.

Dr. Leo here.

Be sure to check out my new book, Faster Without Fail, your guide to overcoming injuries and running faster than ever.

It is now available on Amazon.

You could read reviews on the Amazon.

You can check out what other people have said about it.

But basically, if you want to revolutionize your running form and better understand how to stay injury free within the sport, this is your guide.

Feel free to reach out and let us know what you think of the book.

I would love to hear your feedback, but again, please check it out on Amazon.

Faster without fail.

Appreciate it.

Dr. Leo here.

If you want to catch me in another setting, be sure to check out my YouTube page, Running Rehab, where you will find exercises on how to stay healthy with running, how to improve your running form, and a bunch of other tips and tricks on how to get over common injury.

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