Never underestimate the kindness of strangers, and never doubt the power of “We’re in this together.”

One of our least popular tips for participating in a Run Disney race is to leave the music at home. Run Disney events are just too crowded and there’s too much to pay attention to be distracted by music. That may be annoying to some, but the benefit is you can overhear some pretty great conversations. It was one of those overheard conversations that quite literally allowed us to cross the finish line and complete our Dopey Challenge.

It was around mile two when we heard a woman speaking to young couple about the marathon. She was telling them how she’s done multiple Disney marathons and completed them all by walking. The young couple, who said that this was their first marathon, stated they were going to stick by the woman and let her guide them to the finish line.

Upon hearing this, the two of us looked at each other and thought maybe that’s not a bad idea for us to tag along too.  We approached this group of strangers and said “Hey can we join?”

They all accepted, and it was with this group of people that we went from mile two to mile 26.2.

It wasn’t until that moment that we all met, but we stuck by each other for the next 6+ hours. We entertained each other when we were bored, we pushed each other when we were tired and we reassured each other when we started to doubt our journey. Our guide gave us the strategy and pace to keep going until the end, and we gave her the motivation to keep moving forward and help us complete our first Dopey Challenges.

Running a marathon is hard, and doing a Dopey Challenge is borderline insane, but you aren’t alone. You’re there with thousands of other people who are committed to completing the same goal you are. You’re all in this together. And by recognizing the challenge ahead, and being open to other people, you can get through just about anything.

We want to thank our little crew one more time for helping us to the finish line and for creating a race weekend we will truly never, ever forget.

Characters

As with every race, there were a good variety of characters to see along your journey. We didn’t stop to see them all, but we made sure to make note of who was there.

It’s important to note: Not all characters translate between years, so just because we saw someone in 2019 doesn’t mean you’re going to see them in 2020 and beyond. We are listing out the characters here more so as a reference point.

Here are the characters we saw:

• Captain Hook
• Darkwing Duck and Launchpad McQuack
• Starlord and Gamora
• Judy Hops and Nick Wilde
• Buzz Lightyear
• Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
• Sideshow Donald
• The mime guy from Tangled
• Fairy godmother
• Woody and Jessie
• Jafar, Dr. Facilier and Claude Frolla
• Penguins from Mary Poppins
• Grooms with the gazebo
• Mickey and Minnie in their golf attire
• Vintage rides and Orange Bird statue
• Sid from Meet the Robinsons
• Clarence
• Stilt Walkers and animals
• Rafiki
• Timon
• Ballerina Ostritch
• Gravediggers
• Pluto
• Sporty Minnie
• Sporty Goofy
• Referee Donald and Mickey
• Joy and Sadness
• Epcot – there were characters, but we were too late to see who was out. We believe it was at least Jasmine, Belle and Snow White.

Miss our other race recaps? Be sure to check out our 5k, 10k, and half marathon reviews.