Keep reading through the history stuff I promise this one gets good.

A History of Marathon Weekend and the Dopey & Goofy Challenges

We had three races in our back pocket—the 5K, the 10K, and the half marathon—for a total of 22.4 miles. It was time for the last little race of the weekend: The Full Marathon. 

The Walt Disney World Marathon has been around since it was first run on January 16, 1994. To this day there are some extraordinary people who have run every single one since the start. They started a companion half marathon race in 1998. Initially, the half marathon was on the same day as the full marathon, but for the first time in 2006 the races were held on consecutive days and runners could take on both as “The Goofy Challenge”—where a bunch of nuts would run them on back-to-back days for a total of 39.3 miles. The Goofy Challenge celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and there are some people out there who have run every one of THOSE too! 

The 5K was added as a family friendly, inclusive event somewhere along the way. And then, in 2014, they popped in a 10K too. And while they were at it, that same year, they said if they’re already running a half and a full back to back as a challenge, why not add in a 5K and 10K too?

And we’ll call it “The Dopey Challenge” after the dopes who want to do it.

And that’s how we ended up with today’s version of Walt Disney World’s Marathon Weekend. A 5K at 5 a.m. on Thursday, a 10K at 5 a.m. on Friday, a half marathon at 5 a.m. on Saturday, and a full marathon at 4:30 a.m. (they bumped it up a half hour this year) on Sunday. For 20 years now, people who have run the half marathon and the full marathon back to back have earned a separate medal for completing The Goofy Challenge. And for 12 years, people who have run the 5K, 10K, half marathon, and full marathon have earned a separate medal for completing The Dopey Challenge. And they get The Goofy Challenge medal, too, since that’s subsumed by Dopey….so if you run Dopey you go home with SIX new pieces of bling—four races, two challenges.

Leading Up to Now 

Corral A waiting for the start of the full marathon

Dopey sounds crazy on paper…and it is a little nuts. It’s not even the mileage so much as the exhaustion since you’re waking up between 1 and 3 a.m. to get to the races in time. This year we were asked to be there for the 5K, 10K, and half marathon by 4:00 a.m. and for the full marathon by 3:30 a.m., and many people arrive an hour or more before that to see friends, pose for some fun character pictures, get into the right headspace, or just plain make a beeline into corrals as soon as they open to get into a good starting position.

My first Dopey was in 2018–the first January that we lived down here. And I’ve done it every year since (virtually once during COVID) so I’m no stranger to the process. I’ve done variations of the training process every year. I’ve come out limping and I’ve come out unscathed. Not to brag, but my body can handle the distances. I’m not an Olympian or anything but I’ve run a lot of marathons and a million 20+ mile training runs and I know how to pace myself at the start to still feel pretty good at the finish.

I know that Dopey will be uncomfortable but that it will also be fun. I know to prioritize sleep and hydration above all else. I know not to bother to try to PR because if you PR at Dopey you know damn well you could have done better on fresh legs. So if you do PR at Dopey it’s basically your sign to recover and go hit another race to find out what you’re really capable of when you’ve slept and not just run 22.4 miles over the previous 3 dawns (and maybe all right in the middle of your family’s Disney vacation).

All of this to say, I knew this wasn’t going to be a big PR weekend for me because my training has been really focused on base strength and cross training to prevent injuries, and it was Dopey anyway, but I was feeling good. I’d blown through the 5K, 10K, and half marathon and was SO excited for the full. The course was going to be similar to the half (entry into Magic Kingdom via the Grand Floridian walkway, through Magic Kingdom starting with Adventureland, etc.). And I’d been LOVING running in the cold and was excited to trade the half marathon’s wet and cool for the marathon’s predicted cold and dry. 

runDisney 2025 Marathon Weekend Half Marathon Course Map

Race Day

So everything was great going into Saturday night. I didn’t get as much sleep as I’d meant to, but honestly I never do during race weekends and it works out alright. I woke up at 1 a.m. planning to leave for EPCOT a little earlier since the race was starting at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5 and in any case it was our last morning of the weekend.

When I woke up I….didn’t feel great. Not awful. Just a little off. A little extra achy. A little extra cloudy-headed. It’s always hard to know what’s just the Dopey exhaustion and what’s a little something else.

So I went through the morning routine and headed to EPCOT. When I found my friend Michael he was immediately like “you don’t look so great” (probably in nicer exact words) and he was right I definitely wasn’t feeling so hot. I figured I’d shake it off when we started. I was still super excited for the race.

Blissfully unaware of what’s to come.

We started and I dropped my layers and gloves and hat pretty quickly. I expected to be flying in the cold soon enough–running in 40ish degrees is heaven once your body warms up.

But I never warmed up. The whole damned race. We got to the first character, Ariel, about a half mile into the run and I kept going past her, figuring I’d get ahead of the character lines and maybe hit a porta-potty since I was starting to feel like maybe I needed a porta-potty.

You guys. When I tell you that I hit every freaking bathroom opportunity for the first 7 miles. I think half the reason it’s taken me so long to write this is because I needed some emotional distance from it. And the worst part is that all I was was nauseated but I was scared to death to skip a bathroom in case that switched directions quickly. 

Because did I mention that I was wearing light green pants? So help me God.

So here I am, freezing to death, nauseated, and having to close myself into a porta-potty every mile or so where I made sure I didn’t have to go to the bathroom yet while I tried to hold my breath. And when I couldn’t hold my breath anymore I would start retching in there because I was already sick to my stomach. It was gross.

And you know what the worst part of all of it was? I was FLYING (for me) when I wasn’t in there. I was pacing 9-10 minute miles including the bathroom stops. My moving pace was firmly in the 8-minute zone. This would have been such a great race.

But actually no—the worst part was the one time I left a porta-potty in the dark and realized that I had SOMEONE ELSE’S SHIT ON ME. And I promptly threw up on the side of the road while practically ROLLING in the grass to get it off and sprinted to the next medical tent where God bless the poor cast members or volunteers there who cleaned me up and sprayed me down with what felt like a whole bottle of sanitizer while I continued to retch and cry IT’S NOT EVEN MINE to anyone who would listen while reminding myself that I still had more than 20 miles left to go.

To the people who helped me at that medical tent: I will probably never see you again but I will remember you forever.

Did I mention in all of this that I was wearing LIGHT GREEN PANTS? Never again, Lisa. Never again. I was daydreaming about my all black half marathon outfit the whole race.

And then, yeah, I pretty much just kept running? I never warmed up. My core must have been holding all of my blood for safekeeping because my extremities were frozen solid and my hands were so swollen that I was forced to slow down to make sure I didn’t hurt myself out there. I’ve never been tempted to board a DNF bus before on the course but man did they look tempting. (I distinctly remember passing one along the way and thinking….if it only had a bathroom…. lol) 

The saddest race picture I’ve ever taken.

By the time I was in Disney’s Animal Kingdom (miles 17-19 or so) I was miserable. By the numbers I could have walked the whole rest of it and been fine but I just wanted it to be over so I was sort of half heartedly jogging. I couldn’t keep down any fuel—no solids at all and was just sipping the smallest bit of water at each water stop, so I was pretty much depleted. 

Here I am not caring anymore lol.

At some points we’d run out into the open and this freezing cold wind would pick up and just smack me in the face. Once I think I yelled “SERIOUSLY?” out loud at the air and someone next to me started laughing. 

Me rounding the finish line bend so happy it’s OVER.

If I’d been feeling good it would have been the race of a lifetime. That wind would have felt amazing. Alas.

Finish line felt like a miracle.

And so it just goes to show you, you can do all the preparation in the world and who knows what kind of literal or figurative BS the universe is going to throw in your way. Our only job is to keep moving forward through it. And to be very, very, very clear: It would have been fine if I’d DNF’ed. If anyone I knew called me in the middle of something like that, I would have told them to stop being stupid and get on a bus. But it’s hard to explain the mindset that shuts everything off and just keeps moving toward the finish line. It’s the greatest superpower we get from distance running, I think. The ability to put mind over matter and shut down the pain and keep going.

I got it done and I went home and I took the longest shower in the history of showers and then I went to sleep for a very long time.

I can’t wait for Princess weekend. 😉

Oh…and the course was cool. Similar to the half in the Magic Kingdom details–entered via the Grand Floridian walkway. Water Pageant was out. Down Main Street and left into Adventureland for the “backwards” route through Magic Kingdom and out again by the Contemporary.

Per usual, we ran through all 4 parks and the Blizzard Beach parking lot. We also spent what felt like a silly amount of time running around the TTC lot. I’ll need to look back to compare that stretch to prior years. You can see the whole course map up above.

I could talk more about the details but clearly that was not my focus or my story here.

Mile 24.5ish and they were a sight for sore eyes.

Our incredible running team was out cheering along the way–along with my family!! You didn’t know how much I needed you all out there–and neither do all of the other amazing spectators, volunteers, and Cast Members who were out that day.

If you’re out there cheering, remember it’s often the people who don’t have the energy to show their appreciation in the moment who you’re helping the most.

And that’s a wrap. Until next time. <3

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If you’re interested in what my race guides look like, you can find this weekend’s HERE. Stay tuned for the Princess Race Weekend edition, as that information has just been released!

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And that’s a wrap on the recap!! You can always watch here and on my Instagram @thecastlerunner for live updates over the course of race weekends and recaps after each event. I generally try to start near the front of the race and provide coverage throughout, especially for the 5Ks and 10Ks.  

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Please join me on Instagram for my day-to-day adventures living a mile from the magic. 

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Planning a run while you’re here? You can find my complete guide to running trails on Walt Disney World property RIGHT HERE.

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View of Space Mountain over the Water from the Half Marathon Course

If you’re missing home (or love someone who is) and are looking for a way to bring the magic home, I’d love for you to check out my photography prints over at Thousand Circles Images.