During my last WDW Marathon weekend, I overheard some people on the Expo bus talking about their preferred approach to the final few miles of the race. Mainly they attempted to make several pit stops in the World Showcase for food and drinks, especially for soft pretzels in Germany and beer in the UK.
This, of course, is the sort of opportunity that makes runDisney races amazing and unique. I wholeheartedly endorse anyone and everyone who takes this laid-back and delicious approach to the end of the race. I may even chill out and join you some day.
But that is not why I’m writing this post. I’m writing it because with that overheard conversation, something in my racing past finally clicked into place.
You may recall that I did Dopey in 2015 – and if you read my recap of the final, marathon leg of the race series, you may remember the following anecdote: while running around the World Showcase, the finish line almost at my feet but NOT NEARLY CLOSE ENOUGH, I saw a guy standing on the side of the course, wearing his official dark green long-sleeved Dopey 2015 tech tee, sipping on a glass of sparkling wine. He wasn’t wearing a medal, but he didn’t appear to be in race mode. Rather he was just standing there, relaxin’ all cool, sipping his beverage and watching his fellow athletes sprint limp run by.
I considered the options, briefly noting that it was possible that he had slept through the race start and had only come out to watch what could have been his (tragic!). But no, I concluded; the only plausible explanation was that he was already done and now he was drinking sparkling wine in definite mockery of all of us who were still very very slowly oh God I feel so slow why is this happening to me incidentally where did all my money go plodding toward our endgame. Never mind that he didn’t have a visible medal – my logic was flawless. Clearly this man was an officer in the army of evil, intent upon destroying my morale with his… his… his FINISHEDNESS.
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| No, YOU tailor YOUR writing to gifs YOU want to use. Quit projecting! |
Obviously now I realize he was a fellow Dopey denizen who had only, and wisely, chosen to step off the course, drink some much-needed alcohol at 11:30am, and straight up take a break. And so I exorcise my resentment toward him and replace it with respect. Random Dopey wine guy, I salute you. You have much to teach us all.
Have you ever stopped during a race to make a purchase? Come to a complete halt and chilled out a bit before stepping back onto the course?
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