Following our adventures in Disney World, Geth and I returned to the more familiar environs of Town Moor parkrun today!
We had been annoyed by Florida being colder than we expected, but going out the door at 8am to scrape ice off my car so that I could drive to parkrun reminded me what cold really is. It was a frosty morning on the Moor! Absolutely beautiful but pretty chilly, though we did warm up when we were running. Took it easy for 30ish minutes today, and it was lovely to catch up with friends and tell them about our adventures. We even met a runner from the visiting Bournemouth AFC fan group who’d also done the Dopey in Florida last weekend!
In our challenge finisher t-shirts and marathon finisher ears! Photo from Penny at TMBR.
Next week isn’t finalised yet but it’ll be another local one! No more travelling for a while…
It’s the fourth and final day of the Dopey Challenge… and while we always planned to take the pace easy today, a marathon is a marathon and it’s always hard, especially when it’s the fourth day of racing in a row!
It was cold again this morning and it got colder during the first few miles. We were taking a walk break once per mile but I found this section the worst, as the cold was making me lightheaded and it was just long boring road again.
Once we got into Magic Kingdom at about 10 miles and the sun started to rise, I began to feel better. The fatigue was really kicking in and so I now needed two walk breaks per mile, but I was able to keep this pattern going for the rest of the race (which surprised me, as after yesterday I thought I’d be solidly walking from 20 miles if not before).
We did visit a few of the parks, but again most of the route was road in the middle of nowhere. Disney is big! I found this quite hard, as the parks were good for distraction and the road bits very definitely were not.
We worked hard for a sub-7 finish, which is my second slowest marathon ever. This challenge has been so tough and I’m really proud that we’ve got through it.
Another pitch black race start!
From the start, I treated this challenge like a multiday ultra. What I have learnt from it is that I won’t be doing any multiday ultras in the future! It was an incredible experience and I do want to come back to Disney for other race weekends before too long, but my Dopey is most definitely one and done.
Onto training for the next race now. But I do need a week or two of recovery to start with…
Day three of the Dopey Challenge, and now the hard work begins! While 5k and 10k are comfortable daily distances that we do all the time, a half marathon and a full marathon on back-to-back days constitute the real challenge of this event.
It was much warmer this morning (16ish degrees Celsius, which is normal for Florida nights in January) but it rained heavily while we were waiting to start, so we felt just as cold as the last two mornings! Should have worn a plastic covering – a bit of rain never normally bothers us at that temperature but it hits differently here for some reason.
We took the half marathon very easy, but I am starting to feel extremely fatigued from the cumulative race days. It’s not just the mileage but all the rigmarole around it (runners who do races will be very familiar with this). I am a bit anxious about the marathon as a result, but we’ll take it as easy as we need to, with lots of walk breaks.
Cinderella’s castle was a rare bit of excitement today – the route was a bit dull in general.
It’s the final day of the challenge tomorrow… but in terms of mileage, we’re not even halfway there yet!
Day two of the Dopey Challenge saw us running the 10k!
Knowing the logistics made it easier, and we were a bit more prepared for the cold conditions this morning. The race itself went by fairly quickly again – once you get into Epcot there’s a lot going on to distract you – but I don’t really feel in race shape despite the training. Christmas has left me feeling sluggish and overfull and I felt a bit ill for the first couple of miles today. Hopefully I’ll feel better for the big two races over the weekend, especially as we’re planning a more restful day today.
Nicely warmed up about four miles in!
For day three tomorrow, it starts to get a bit harder, as we press on to the half marathon…
Here we are in Disney World, Florida, for the first day of a race weekend that’s been years in the planning!
Geth first started talking about doing the Disney races in 2019, when I did my first London Marathon and he spotted the RunDisney stall at the London expo. At first, he wanted to do the Star Wars Stormtrooper Challenge (a 10k one day followed by a half marathon the next), as he didn’t believe at that point that he would ever run a full marathon. He was going to be turning forty in 2020, and he thought it would be the perfect way to celebrate his milestone birthday. Then 2020 arrived, and the pandemic happened… and plans just slowed down for a while. During that time, those plans morphed into the full Dopey Challenge (four back-to-back days of races: a 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon) as we became more confident in our running.
It took a long time to get here. But here we are now! For Geth’s 40th birthday trip… in my 40th birthday month.
(He’ll be forty-five this year. We’d better start thinking about his 50th birthday trip now in case we get derailed again!)
We arrived in Florida two days ago as we needed to go to the expo yesterday to pick up our numbers and t-shirts (which was a fun experience in itself!). This morning was the first race morning, and I was glad that the 5k acted as a bit of a trial run for the next few days, as it meant we could see how all the logistics worked without needing to worry about the distance. We’re now set for tomorrow onwards and know what we’re doing.
It was very cold (not what we expected from Florida) and we were shivering at the start – it took us most of the race to warm up. After we were done it was fine though as the queues for the drop bags and buses moved nice and quickly. It just felt like the race itself was gone in a flash and over too soon! I doubt we’ll have that issue as the distances increase…
I went to my favourite parkrun for my birthday weekend parkrun and my first performance in my new age category as a VW40-44!
Not that I was banging out a fast time or anything, especially not in the frosty conditions we had this morning (I was just grateful that Jesmond Dene was on). Geth and I took it easy for another 30ish minute one and enjoyed a lovely run round the Dene.
(Well, I say easy, but that hill is always murder on my asthma on cold mornings no matter how slowly I take it!)
Looking a little frozen at the end!
A rare non-parkrunning Saturday next week as there’s something very special going on, but I expect to be on the Moor the week after…
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea is a fairly obvious parkrun for me to do. It’s not my NENDY (nearest event not done yet) but it’s a popular one with my running friends and people are often surprised that I haven’t done it. It’s also one of the few parkruns in the local area that put on a special event on New Year’s Day. As Geth and I have been at home in Newcastle for New Year (a rare occurrence), I decided it was a good time to visit this parkrun at long last!
We were very lucky with the weather as the wind has died down here since yesterday, which has not been the case in other parts of the UK (lots of NYD parkrun cancellations today sadly). It was a beautiful morning running along a beautiful seafront, though it certainly was a bit harder when the wind did pick up on the outward leg! I loved this parkrun as you can see everyone along the out and back, and it has its own culture and character. Lots of the Benchies came out this morning and we had a bit of a New Year party.
New Year parkrun! Photo from Nick at TMBR.
Back to regular Saturday parkrunning in a few days’ time… and what will be my first performance in my brand new age category!
Auldcathie District is a relatively new parkrun to the west of Edinburgh, having started last year (I think). I wanted to tick off one more new-to-me parkrun event before the end of the year, and it’s as quick to get to as any of the parkruns closer into town (given that they all require driving from Morningside… I will forever live in hope of a parkrun starting up within short walking distance of my childhood home).
When we arrived in the park (which was only built a couple of years ago as part of the new estate) I wasn’t sure how much character it would have. However, this turned out to be a GREAT parkrun. The new tarmac paths are lovely to run on, there are a few mild inclines but nothing major, and while we were taking it easy yesterday (30ish mins) we both agreed it could be a nice fast course if you were giving it a go.
Final pop-up sign photo of the year!
Another new-to-me event planned for New Year’s Day, as we’ll be back in Newcastle for New Year!
Many parkruns in the UK hold special extra events on Christmas Day, as it’s the designated ‘special event day’ for the country. I would personally rather have the UK’s special event day be a less-notable festivity, such as a bank holiday or something, as I’m usually too busy with family stuff to manage the Christmas Day parkrun. However, this year it was agreed that we could squeeze it in before heading home for a slightly-later Christmas breakfast, so Geth and I went to the main Edinburgh event at Cramond for our first ever Christmas Day parkrun!
While I’d probably never seen so many Santa hats in one place, going to parkrun (and the accompanying slightly stressful driving along the badly-maintained back roads of Edinburgh) did make the morning feel like a regular old morning rather than Christmas morning. But we had a lovely parkrun, taking it easy and enjoying the beautiful scenery along the Cramond coastline. It turned into a bit of a progression run despite the headwind on the return leg, and we finished comfortably under 30 minutes.
It was a clear morning with a beautiful view!
The next parkrunday is a regular Saturday, and we might be trying out a new-to-us venue…
Town Moor parkrun typically doesn’t do a Christmas Day parkrun these days (it tends to be the smaller parkruns in Newcastle that are on for Christmas Day), so the event on the Saturday before Christmas is the one that’s specially themed. This is a lovely opportunity to celebrate the festive week with running friends and wear my loudest Christmas leggings, and this last Saturday was no exception (except for the fact that I wore Christmas shorts instead because it was mild – saved the loud leggings for the following day!).
We did consider a change of plan to Denton Dene as a friend was doing her 350th parkrun, but decided to stick to the quicker option. The winds were really strong but I somehow managed to finish 14 seconds faster than the week before, so I’m happy with that! Looking forward to the spring and getting back into 5k PB shape though.
The next parkrunday is Christmas Day, for the first of the two festive special event days. Geth and I have never done a Christmas Day parkrun before, but this year looks like being the first…
