After the 5k and 10k races, I felt that the Dopey Challenge became real. The first two races of the series is the story of my life, so the only thing that bothered me about those races was the early wake up time. For the half marathon, I started doing intervals (3 min running, 1 min walking) from the beginning. Usually, I would run the entire distance, but I had to remind myself that I had 26.2 miles the next day.

For the half marathon, we used the second Dopey Challenge bib. The bib had a different corral assigment than the first two races. The race started at 5:30 am at Epcot. Similar to the earlier races, there were plenty of characters for pre-race pictures, snacks for purchase, and a DJ to keep us all awake. The corrals for the half were about a half mile from the staging area and were packed. .

For the race, we ran about 5 miles to Magic Kingdom. We ran around the park until we reached the highlight of the race, Cinderella's Castle. The great thing about running early in the morning is that castle was lit and was beautiful. We ran through the castle and there was an opportunity to take pictures in front of it.

After leaving Magic Kingdom, we ran back to Epcot. We got another running tour of Epcot and headed to the finish. The half marathon is the only race that I took a character picture (Donald was calling my name). There was no line, so I couldn't resist. I got other pictures along the course. I really enjoyed the half and was able to pace myself so that I could conserve my energy for the finale. I earned the third Dopey Challenge medal at the end of the race.