Runners' Record: Dopey Challenge 2022, Day 3, part 1 -- 5k

"2:00am! Really?! WTF?! This is absolutely ridiculous!" I wasn't quite alert enough to fully form that sentiment, but surely I was feeling it when I woke up on Thursday morning for the 5k. Oy. Why the hell did runDisney feel the need to move ALL of the races to start at 5am, requiring the runners to be at the starting village by 4am? That meant being on the bus no later than about 3:15am (given what traffic tends to be like the later it gets), which meant I needed to wake up at least 1 hour ahead of time to do everything I needed to get prepared for the day -- go to the bathroom, eat a mini breakfast, go to the bathroom, get dressed, go to the bathroom one last time to make sure everything is out. (If you can avoid using the portapotties, it's preferable.)

The ride was actually pretty quick getting to EPCOT, and they changed things up AGAIN this year. They dropped us off where the normal resort buses go. OK, fine, a slightly longer walk. Then we get to the front entrance and actually go in through that security area. Huh? Definitely figured that would turn into a cluster with the later races that have a larger field. But it was kinda neat being greeted by the newly redone entrance.

Then we wound our way through a revamped front area where the prior "memorial" was relocated and eventually made our way to the runner's village. About ¾ mile total from where we were dropped off. OK, decent warm-up. On the way, we got a preview of one of the Fab 50 (that is actually located in MK):

And it was even earlier, actually, because I wanted to make sure that I was present for the official Perfectly Dopey photo that was being taken -- at 3:45am. (!)

There were about 475 left among our ranks at the beginning of the weekend. It's always difficult to get a large contingent together for the initial photo. There were 1 or 2 other rounds afterward that had different sets of people. We're definitely looking forward to the 10th anniversary Perfectly Dopey photo and meet-up next year. How many people will remain? We'll see...

That out of the way, people started heading to the corrals even before they officially announced that they were open. I made sure to get in as early as I could, so that I could be as far forward in the corral as possible. (Turns out the first corral had very few people in it compared to prior years.)

The reason for the front of the corral? First off, it's much likelier to have little to no line at the character stops along the route. Secondly, it gives me a great chance to be visible in the official starting photo, such as here.