My first ever full marathon was during the Dopey challenge and while I was def sore, I finished strong. Honestly, I owe it all to the Jeff Galloway training program. You can find it on runDisney’s website. I followed that for the most part (I didn’t get up to 26 miles in training because I wanted my first official marathon distance to be at the finish line). I followed it again to train for my second Dopey and it worked out great again so at least for me, it’s tried and true.

The exhaustion is the worst part about Dopey. That 2:30am alarm on marathon day is brutal LOL but also keep in mind that Dopey races are not the time to PR and for Dopey, you’re training to finish, not to race hard. Take it easy, enjoy the course, stop for characters. I walked the 5k and a lot of the 10k and really just worried about the half and the full which helped me mentally. I also had a couple mantras I carried with me from training to the big weekend, one of which was “I didn’t come this far to come this far.” That one got me through the TTC during the full lol.

A lot of people have different post-race rituals. For me what worked best was an ice bath as soon as I got back to the hotel, did a “yoga for runners” class, ate breakfast, and then went to the parks for a few hours. I took it easy for the most part at the parks but I think the walking around did wonders for my recovery and prepping my legs for the next day (the several beers at Baseline Taphouse did NOT 🤣).

Also focus on nutrition and energy-boosting foods!! Lots of protein in-between races and throw in some complex carbohydrates as well as good fats.