I appreciate all the responses. Bear with me while I outline my running life and how I came to even think that I might attempt Dopey.
My very first race of any distance was the 2011
Disneyland Half. It never even crossed my mind to build up to a half. In 2012, I ran the Coast to Coast, but didn't even want to run a 5K before the Half because I didn't want to risk my legs since the Coast to Coast was at stake for the Half. Well, running a half in Disney World after running around the parks for 4 days before the half persuaded me that if I could do that, a multi race challenge could happen to. And since I love Star Wars, that became the perfect choice. So I ran the 2015 and 2016 Star Wars Rebel Challenges. Then they went and announced the Kessel Run for 2016. Only one problem. Due to professional demands, I can only run an April race in the last half of the month. And those same professional demands last from February through mid April so training for a race becomes a problem in and of itself. But when 2017 Dark Side was announced for after mid April, I realized I could essentially train for a race during that very busy time of year to see if I could (1) handle the training on top of professional demands and (2) actually handle the distance mere days after working insanely long hours. Well I could so I signed up for 2017 Kessel Run and finished both the Light Side and Dark Side Challenges.
Fast forward to last October. Disappointed about the (hopefully temporary) end of runDisney races on the west coast, I signed up for Avengers 2017 just 3 weeks out from the race. My last long at that point was the Dark Side Half itself and I had run intermittently over the summer, but not at all in 6 weeks. So I found a 4 week training program for a half, modified it for 3 weeks, and set myself to it. Lo and behold I learned that I could run 5-6 days a week without destroying my legs. Next thing I knew I signed up for Dark Side 2018 and successfully finished Avengers on just 3 weeks training. Well this got me to thinking. If a Half on just 3 weeks training could happen, what about the heretofore impossible? What about a full marathon? Maybe Goofy? Or even Dopey?
My feelings about attempting a full marathon essentially remained the same for most years. I never really wanted to run one. While I came to believe that I
could run a full with proper training, I never really wanted to. While Star Wars Half was at Disneyland, I didn't even think about the full because I didn't want to risk Star Wars. I'm also slow. I have yet to run a sub 3 half. While all but one of those runs have involved multiple character photo stops along the course, I'm concerned about increasing my speed. Every single attempt to increase my speed has resulted in pain, including knee pain this past January that forced me to take time off from running and had me briefly fearful that the pain would cause problems with my goal to finish Dark Side next month. Fortunately, I successfully resumed running in February, but have taken my return slowly to keep the knee pain at bay.
I believe I could run the full and finish in the allotted time runDisney gives you. I don't care if I take 7 hours to finish because I still finish. But the training required for that distance worries me. I don't really want to sacrifice 5+ hours in training every other Saturday for the full.
@DopeyBadger and his custom training plans intrigue me especially because of the possibility of not running all day for my long run weekends. But I also know that I must respect the training if I'm going to do this.
I'm viewing next month's Dark Side as a mini test of Dopey. Obviously the full is the biggest part of that test, but I want to see how I feel the day after the half and how feasible Dopey would be.
So I'm looking for feedback. Am I completely insane? Is it foolish to do nothing longer than a 20 mile run in preparing for a half? Any other experience in attempting Goofy or Dopey without running anywhere from 5-7 hours every other week on long runs?