In Which Jenn Isn’t Too Sure About These Race Challenges

I have made it through two runDisney challenges now: the Dopey Challenge in 2015 (5K + 10K + half + full marathon) and Lumiere’s Two Course Challenge just this past November. Running Disney is my very favorite thing to do, and I adore every race.

Which is why I don’t know if I can ever do another challenge again.

It’s just too stressful, guys. I’ve talked before about my pathological fear of sleeping through the race, and how I’ve had near panic attacks while trying to fall asleep. I set 4 phone alarms. I program in a wakeup call.

Once I accidentally called emergency services while attempting to program a second wakeup call (turns out the system won’t let you do that). I wake with a start 3, 5, 9 times in the night in a cold sweat, desperately checking the time.

Have I ever slept through a race? Well, no. But I almost did once. And ever since then I have been FREAKING. OUT.

Which is why these challenges, where you’re getting up at 2am, 3am, two to four nights in a row, might simply be too much for me. During the Two Course Challenge I was nervous the night before the 10K, and not surprisingly got very little sleep.

You would think that by consequence I would’ve fallen asleep much more easily the night before the half. But no, now I was MORE terrified – because what if I was so tired I slept unusually deeply and turned off all my alarms in my sleep???

Cue tossing, turning, a racing heart, and fitful slumber. AGAIN. JUST LIKE THE NIGHT BEFORE

I’d say collectively I got about 3.5 hours of sleep over the course of the 2 nights.

I freaking LOVE runDisney races, but I think I might have too anxious a temperament to enjoy challenges as I’m meant to. One race at a time will probably be enough for me for the foreseeable future. *

UNLESS, of course, runDisney re-institutes night races, in which case I am THERE. I am SO THERE!!!

* Until someone actively asks me to do a challenge with them, in which case I will probably cave immediately.

P.S. I had a Twitter conversation before the half with a woman who claimed to have never gone to sleep in the first place, which I suppose is an alternate means of handling the problem?

How do you feel about challenges? Do you ever sleep?

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