Rise and Run
Rise and Run
136: 2023-2024 runDisney Season Recap
Lace up and get ready to feel the magic underfoot as we journey through the high spirits and heartwarming tales of the 23/24 runDisney season. Special guest Rachel joins us to bring to life the vibrant energy of Disney races, where themed costumes are as much a part of the event as the finish line itself. We share laughter and lessons from our very own Rise and Run family, delving into race recaps and the community that's always there to cheer us on – whether we're dressed as our favorite Disney character or aiming for a personal best.
As we recount the camaraderie and emotion from Main Street to the finish line, you'll hear from runners like Sue Hayes, who's on a mission to conquer all 169 towns in Connecticut, and Allie Without an E, whose Disney race adventures capture the essence of why we all run. Hear how their stories intertwine with memorable moments like the Dead Last Start group's inclusivity . These narratives embody the strength and spirit of runners who push past every challenge and celebrate every achievement together.
Wrap up your cool-down with reflections on the Boston Marathon and anticipation for future Disney events. We'll share the anticipation and preparation that goes into these iconic races, touching on the emotional rollercoaster that is the journey from training to crossing the finish line. Every stride brings us closer – not just to our goals, but to each other. So join us, and perhaps you'll find inspiration to chase after your own running dreams, Disney themed or otherwise, with the Rise and Run family by your side.
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3 am again.
Speaker 3:Why did I ever think this was a good idea? Welcome to the Rise and Run podcast. Join our group of Run Disney friends. As we talk about running at Walt Disney World and beyond. We'll discuss recent runs, training, upcoming races and surprise topics suggested by you, our listeners. Well, the alarm's gone off, so let's go.
Speaker 4:Hey, Rise and Run friends. It's Amy in Nashville, Tennessee, and I'm here getting ready to run 6.15 rockin' miles at the Rock and Roll Nashville Race Weekend. Time to start loosening up, shaking out and getting ready, because a new set of training plans are just around the corner. Can't wait to see y'all marathon weekend. Happy running.
Speaker 5:There you go, amy. Thank you so much for recording that lovely introduction for us. We appreciate you doing that. Amy's already looking forward to Marathon Weekend 2025. Amy, we are too, but we'll get to that later on this time to episode 136 of the Rise and Run podcast. We're so happy that you're here with us. I'm Bob. I'm here this evening with John.
Speaker 5:Hey, how you doing With Greg hey, hey, hey. With Lexi, hello. With Alicia Hello, alicia, hello. And a special guest this evening as we recap the 23, 24 walt, disney run, disney season rachel's joining us. Hi, rachel, howdy, y'all thanks. Perfect, rachel, we're doing great.
Speaker 3:We're glad you're here thanks for a pinch uh hitting for jack tonight we appreciate it.
Speaker 5:It's fun and it's exciting. Well, friends, our guests, our stars this week are you Is Tony's bra. No.
Speaker 1:No, no, okay, sorry.
Speaker 5:That's not happening. That's an entirely different podcast. Okay, that's not happening. That's an entirely different podcast. Okay, that's not happening. No, we're excited because we have so many wonderful recorded interviews. We've got a couple that came in on the hotline and we had a chance to record some while we were at the meetup at Springtime Surprise. So we are featuring you, our friends and family from Rise and Run, to talk about this just completed season In the race report spotlight. We're a little bit behind, but we're catching up. We've got a couple friends who ran the Boston Marathon a couple weeks ago. They dropped by to visit with us. By the way, we'll be talking the London Marathon next week. We're behind with that one too, but we're going to catch up.
Speaker 7:And if you enjoy listening to the Rise and Run podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family. Get them to join our Facebook group. I know a lot of great stuff goes on over there with people posting their runs and the good things that happen and the not so good things happen. It's just a really good conversation we want to share in their Run Disney journey as well. Make sure you follow us on Facebook at the Rise and Run podcast and Instagram at Rise and Run Pod, and we also have a YouTube channel so you can go over there watch a couple videos. I believe the most recent video we have is a packing video.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 7:Check that out and if you have a question, comment race report or you want to make an introduction, like our good friend Amy did, to an upcoming episode, call us at 727-266-2344 and leave a recorded message we would also like to thank our patrons, whose support helps us keep the rise and run podcast rising and running.
Speaker 2:If you'd like to join the patreon team, please check patreoncom. Slash riseandrunpodcast.
Speaker 3:The Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by our friends over at Magic Bound Travel. I know we were talking a lot these past couple of weeks about, obviously, season is coming to an end but you are planning your summer vacations or maybe vacations for the rest of the year. They can help you plan Disney World, disneyland Cruise Line, alani and something else that they can plan. That I want to bring up Because, yes, I did have to step away last week during the Magic Bound ad and I heard what you guys said about me.
Speaker 3:That place that starts with a U, they can book that as well too. And let me tell you, folks, there's about a half a percentage point of my soul that actually might consider booking a vacation at the other place because apparently Universal came out with all these announcements this week about new shows at the Harry Potter place and a new nighttime show or whatever, but apparently there's going to be a new parade and in that. But apparently there's going to be a new parade and in that parade there's going to be a Ghostbusters float with a 16 foot State Puff Marshmallow man.
Speaker 3:So there's a again 1% or less than 1% of me is interested in booking a trip to the theme park that begins with a U, so if you're interested, like I am, contact our friends over at magicboundtravelcom.
Speaker 2:And another rumor, Greg, is that Rip Ride and Roar is going to be at Ghostbusters Ride.
Speaker 7:Rip Ride Rocket.
Speaker 3:Yep Well see, the thing is that thing should have never been erected in the first place because they decided to blow a hole through hook and ladder eight. That was the ghostbusters original attraction there, and so I mean, granted, I'm not, I've never been on the ride, but I'll put. I'll put that it maybe not in the same echelon as the magic carpets of aladdin, but the fact that it destroyed hook and ladder eight, that it doesn't rank high on my list, that's for sure but it's a fun ride you need to ask rebecca about that ride tell us
Speaker 10:how she has stories.
Speaker 5:She truly does it's. It's a fun place I got I've been over there a couple times lately is a fun place. Magicboundtravelcom is the website, as greg just said. Check them out. Hey, my, I'm looking at the training schedule. Do you know that if you are registered for the Disneyland Halloween weekend and you're doing the long run or the challenge, your training starts next week? What? That's right? You are five. Count them five days away as of release of this episode from beginning the 19-week Jeff Galloway training plan 19 weeks. Week 19 is the week after the race. So yeah, I know we just got done. I know we're going to miss one another, but I'm excited about that because it means it's not quite as far away as it seemed when we left a couple weeks ago. The rest of them, we still got a ways to work out, but it's looking good.
Speaker 2:And our friend Mark has created all new graphics for this season. He has, he's been busy, he has, they are ready to go and they look great. I saw them already he does, he's been busy.
Speaker 5:He has, they are ready to go, he does.
Speaker 2:And they look great. I saw him already.
Speaker 5:He does. I appreciate what Mark does. Friends, what we want to do this week is we would love to spend some time recapping that wonderful season that just finished. We asked several of we asked all of you if you would want to call our hotline and leave us your recorded messages about the season. We got two. Let's start right now. Let's hear from Patrick from Georgia, who talks about his first run Disney season.
Speaker 9:Good morning Rise and Run people. This is Patrick from Tucker, georgia. I just wanted to call to give you my 23-24 Run Disney season memory. So this season was my inaugural Run Disney season.
Speaker 9:I am not a runner, I do not like running Never have but I had always known about this Walt Disney World Marathon and my family's Disney family. Early last year, the end of January of 23, somehow my YouTube algorithm got me down some Run Disney video tunnel. I started seeing Oxen Spoon and Running With Makeup and all of the other run Disney YouTube people and it got me excited. So I made the decision I was signing up for the 2024 Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. I decided go big or go home. I signed up for Dopey. My family thought I was crazy, my friends thought I was crazy, but I started training. I never liked running but I got out there every day and was hitting the pavement. Then I ran across the Rise and Run podcast, fell in love with it. Binge listened to it Every episode to catch up to. Every Thursday was on the current one.
Speaker 9:I want to say thank you guys. You got me not only through training but days at work, car ride, you name it. I was listening to Rise and Run. Happy to report, I finished dopey. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't a PR. It was a PR and fun, but that was the only PR. But I got done with it. So thank you. I am now signed up for more run Disney events. I look forward to seeing everybody at wine and dine. I look forward to seeing everybody at Wine and Dine. I look forward to seeing you before the race meet up all that good stuff. Thank you, run Disney. Thank you Rise and Run. You guys are amazing. Keep up the good work. Look forward to listening and seeing you guys in person. Take it easy, happy running.
Speaker 5:Thanks, patrick. Patrick finished his first dopey. Now he's hooked, signed up for more. We look forward to seeing you, patrick. Hey, let's go ahead and continue. We got Tara Tara from Ontario, canada. She's got a bit of a unique spin on her highlight of this race season.
Speaker 11:So Bob asked us to think about the 2023-2024 Run Disney race season and what stood out the most to us, I think, of all the fun races I've had with friends and enjoying the miles together and seeing characters and being in costumes. I've had a great time, but the most unique experience, which I never thought would have been, was the one I had the opportunity to spectate on Main Street for the Princess Half Marathon. I've always had that emotional feeling when I see the castle on Main Street and all the spectators cheering there, but I never thought actually to spectate. I finally had the opportunity to spectate and wow, what an experience it was. What an emotional time.
Speaker 11:I loved cheering on the elite runners, walt Disney middle packers and, more importantly, the backup packers. I stayed there right until the end to cheer on every athlete that showed up that morning to have the magical experience of going down Main Street and seeing the castle that morning. I never thought it would have been emotional, but to cheer on those people who are at the back, who put in every effort to be there to experience this community, was incredible. My one tip is that if you ever get a chance to spectate and cheer on your fellow runners, do so. It'll be the most rewarding experience you'll ever have. Enjoy.
Speaker 5:So Tara talked about cheering on Main Street Gang. Have you done it? I have not. Have you had a chance to cheer on Main Street? I?
Speaker 7:haven't made it to Main Street yet. I mean, I am a little biased, to my spot at mile 20,. To my spot at mile 20, 21 of the marathon, and that's fine. Just because that's the spot where most people hit the wall, I feel like it's a different kind of magic, but that's one of my goals for the next race season I want to make it to Main Street.
Speaker 5:I'd like to do it too. Of course, I'm signed up for Dopey.
Speaker 3:I was like good luck with that then.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess if I'm really fast, you could stop there for like 20 minutes. Start to the side of the road, cheer and keep going again.
Speaker 5:I have to think about that. I do think I want to do that one of these days. So either at a princess or at a dopey weekend Well, it'll be at a princess if I'm going to do it. I've decided I've committed dopey till I die. And you know, if I die I'm not is to run down Main Street. A lot of that's because of folks like Tara who are out there cheering on Main Street. In fact, I'd say most of it is the people who are out there. It's just daggum great Well, thanks. Thanks Patrick, thanks Tara. We appreciate you calling those in. They were great Gang. Let's take a look. How about let's go back and recap our seasons Now? We don't need to go race by race, weekend by weekend, but how about we take it one at a time and give us your impressions, your highlights, maybe some favorite stories, some favorite costumes, whatever you'd like to talk about? And how about let's start with Alicia?
Speaker 12:Yeah, bob. So I did Wine and Dine this spring season Marathon and Springtime for this season for me was one getting to run and see some of my clients because it was my first year being a run coach, but also getting to run and experience it with a lot of our friends from the podcast here. A huge highlight for me was during the 10 mile race during springtime surprise, when I was able to catch up and find our whole big group and I was really struggling. It was hot, coming from Minnesota and not having trained in the heat, it was a lot for me, and so to see our group and see your smiling faces was a huge relief for me and I really enjoyed that. I got to experience that because I usually am somebody who runs by themselves For my favorite costumes. I don't do a lot of costumes myself, but I really enjoyed Kay's costumes.
Speaker 12:It was so fun running with her and seeing all of her extravagant things that she does. I really enjoyed that and I'm just grateful for the whole race season that I got to do, and completing my seventh full marathon was great.
Speaker 5:That's awesome, alicia. Very good, thank you.
Speaker 13:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 5:This season, at the Springtime Surprise Meetup, we did something we've not done before, at least not very successfully. We brought our recording equipment and we sat down with some friends. Let's get their views right now. Let's start with Monica. Monica, thanks for sitting down with me and helping to break the ice. I appreciate it.
Speaker 14:No problem.
Speaker 5:How many runs did you do this year, this season? How many weekends were you here?
Speaker 14:I've been here every weekend, I think I ran everything that's the 5 and 10K from Wynandell.
Speaker 5:Okay, okay, cool. Do you have any idea how many you've done total?
Speaker 14:Oh gosh, Probably 100%.
Speaker 1:Really yeah, we've been doing this since 2015.
Speaker 5:Oh my.
Speaker 14:Started with just marathon weekends and quickly grew to almost every weekend.
Speaker 5:Wow, Wow. And of course, the most famous one was Dopey23.
Speaker 14:2023.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 14:That's Dopey Baby.
Speaker 5:Hashtag. Dopey Baby is actually here. We could get him on the mic, I think, but he wouldn't have much to say.
Speaker 14:No, probably not yet.
Speaker 5:He ran his first race, though.
Speaker 14:He did he participated in the kids' race at the Pirate Plunder two miles later, a couple weeks ago. Yeah, we talked about it.
Speaker 5:That's cool. Now I'm not putting you on the spot Any favorite stories. Favorite race Favorite race weekend. Favorite costumes that you've seen. Favorite costumes that you've worn Anything like that oh gosh, there's so many.
Speaker 14:I guess it would probably be easiest if I just narrow it down to this weekend, because I'm sure I've got something for every weekend, okay.
Speaker 10:So this weekend we had well let me back up a little bit.
Speaker 5:I run with the Dead.
Speaker 14:Last Start group, the villains. I've been doing it for years. Kind of a long and crazy story how I got started, but in a nutshell I got put in the last corral. At first I was kind of pouty about it. I think some people are sometimes yeah right Sure. I answered a proof of time I'm in the last corral. I was kind of a faster runner. I thought you know what. I'm just going to make the best of it. I found the Dev Last Start group and made a game out of it.
Speaker 14:Yeah, and I've been doing it ever since for at least one or two races a year. So, this weekend the group grew very quickly to probably close to 100 runners for the 10K this morning.
Speaker 5:Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 14:It was pretty incredible. The picture before we started was just unlike anything, I could have imagined If you saw us. On course, quite a few of us had orange pennant flags. We jumped in group photos together. It was just hysterical. I think I laughed my way through the entire 10k.
Speaker 5:Good stuff, good stuff.
Speaker 14:If you saw us out there, act in a fool. Just know we're runners of all paces, all abilities, everything from an 8-minute to a 16-minute, and just out there, encouraging each other and having a good time, but this weekend was just hysterical.
Speaker 5:I'm having fun here. The entire Chaos crew is here.
Speaker 14:They are and they want to jump on the mic and they can't stay away and it's all fun hey, everybody wants to say hi we're gonna do dalmatians in uh january I'm so excited after our group costume this weekend with the flags, I think the dalmatians are going to be even better yeah well, we're going to work on the details, but it's going to be even better.
Speaker 5:Yeah Well, we're going to work on the details, but it's going to be fun, monica, thanks, thank you.
Speaker 14:I appreciate you. Thank you, see you soon.
Speaker 5:You bet Monica has really gotten into those dead last starts now, and in fact she participated in the dead last start for Trevor, so she will likely be back later in the year to talk about that. I'm also making her come back to talk about the Dalmatians Dagummit, it was her idea. She's the one who's making me do dopey again. I blame it all on her. Greg, you sat down and talked with Beth and Diane.
Speaker 3:So we're here at the Rise and Run meetup, here at Springtime Surprise, and we're sharing fun and inspiring stories from the season, but I have a story that needs to be shared and actually happened this weekend.
Speaker 15:Ladies, I need you to introduce yourselves first, and we live in Norwalk, connecticut all right, ladies.
Speaker 3:So actually, what are you actually? I'll preface the story by we all know, at Springtime Surprise, it was really, really hot, and what is the one thing that everyone has been obsessively telling us the entire weekend is to hydrate. So I went to 50s Primetime Cafe. I finished my water immediately and you know there's the shtick at 50s primetime, you know. Then you know they play around with you. So they immediately gave me this giant carafe of water with a straw, and so I I thought I'm gonna take a funny photo and I'm gonna stick the straw and it'll all be great.
Speaker 15:You take the story from there ladies and run folks at the expo and just missed you. Dye said, oh, I saw a few of them walking out as we were walking in. I was like, oh, I'm bummed, we'll run into them at the meetup. And so we were at studios and our dinner, our pre-10K dinner was at Hollywood and Vine. And we walk up to take the bus back for early bedtime, before stupid o'clock, as they say. I'm scrolling through facebook waiting for the bus to pull in and I said to die. I was like, oh, hey, look, you know, the rise and run crew was um at the 50s prime time. And now you immediately were like, oh, look at craig's like giant glass of water and you had at least two straws yes and so I'm I'm like, oh, it's too bad, we just missed them, and you can tell the rest of the story.
Speaker 3:And I looked at the phone and then I looked at.
Speaker 16:Beth and I looked at the guy standing waiting for the bus and I was like wait, I think that's him and she looks at her phone.
Speaker 15:So she's like that's Greg and we look and Greg is standing right next to us. He had his back to us the entire time.
Speaker 3:So if you properly hydrate and you go to bed at a proper time, a Rise and Run host might be standing right behind you.
Speaker 15:And then you could get interviewed for the Rise and Run podcast. Exactly.
Speaker 3:Ladies, I hope you have a wonderful race weekend. We've got one more day ahead here. By the way, folks, it's their anniversary today, their 10-year anniversary on the 10k. That's serendipitous, I don't know what is, but congratulations. Thank you for coming out to support us and enjoy the the rest of springtime surprise thank you.
Speaker 3:We will see you tomorrow on the bus at odark 30 for our 10 miles it was such a pleasure over springtime to get to see both Beth and Diane several times. I feel like Run Disney is one of those places where you meet somebody for the first time and then they just keep randomly popping up in your life throughout the course of the rest of the weekend. I mean, obviously things helped that they were staying at the same resort that I was staying at, you know, hence the the story about waiting for the bus at uh oh yeah at hollywood studios.
Speaker 3:But it was just, it was so lovely to get to see them. I again, we bumped into them on the bus and then after the race and then I saw them very briefly at the typhoon lagoon after party and everything like that. So they, um, you know, they were lovely to get to know such a wonderful story. Um, again, congratulations on your 10-year anniversary. Uh, incredibly special, and hopefully we see you at a race weekend soon. But we'll go back to recapping. Um, you know the season here internally and, and we're gonna, we're, we're going to move over to Mr. Hey, how you doing? John? Tell us some of your highlights low lights, mid lights, of the of the 23, 24 run Disney race season.
Speaker 2:So I did a wine and dine and marathon this year. So those are the two races I did. One of the highlights was I finally, thanks to Rachel, got to do a margarita at the finish line. Greg, we're getting it next year.
Speaker 3:You just love to shove that in my face all the time, John we're getting it this year, greg, I mean sure we can, but it's not going to be the same. I mean, rachel, I love you, but it's just not going to be the same. I mean, rachel, I love you, but it's just it's.
Speaker 2:It's not going to be the same I'll get you two.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm in animosity gone that was one of the highlights, something I we wanted to do but this never did and finally did it. That was one of my highlights for the weekend. Other highlights were meeting everybody out there, getting on the course, meeting up with friends, meeting up with everybody out there. Our friend Tony, who was like the group picture guru, grabbed us on the half of the half and said guys, come on in, let's get a photo. We got a big photo at launch pad and I think we closed launch pad down because that's where the lightning started and they shut it down. That was pretty much my favorite thing. And the other thing that I really like about the race weekends is wine and dines after party. That that is a fun time just relaxing and spending time in Epcot after the race celebrating your personal victories, john sounds like you had a great time, and I know you did because I was there for it with you.
Speaker 2:Yes, you were.
Speaker 5:Let's hear from a couple more friends. Mark, you know, mark, mark sat down to talk with us. Well, young man who sat down and knocked over our equipment and tried to destroy the entire time. Why don't you tell everybody who you are and where you're from?
Speaker 8:Well, I'm Mark and I'm from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 5:And this is that, mark the. Mark, that we talk about all the time our buddy, mark, who's doing all the training posts for us and the charity spreadsheets and generally doing a wonderful, very helpful service for the Rise and Run podcast. We appreciate it, mark. It's good to see you. Mark. Bob, when did you start running at Disney?
Speaker 8:Two years ago.
Speaker 5:Just two years ago.
Speaker 8:Springtime Surprise.
Speaker 5:The inaugural inaugural one was my first event well, when did you start running as an adult?
Speaker 8:uh, it was I guess about four years oh it's been a while, okay, okay it's. It was an on and off thing I started running to just to lose weight and stop uh-huh c-pap because I hated it uh-huh yeah, yeah, understand, so I wasn't, and that was still while I was in the mindset of to run at an event. You had to run all the way through, so I had been trying to do that.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, right.
Speaker 8:There was no run-walk back then.
Speaker 5:Before the epiphany of the Galloway Method.
Speaker 8:Yes, yes. I came out cheered on my roommates when they did an event here. Yeah, the half marathon, the particularly hot half marathon year. I went oh that's a thing, that's a thing I could do, yeah, and then I trained to do it, and then COVID happened and I didn't get to do it Right, right, right right.
Speaker 5:Remember that we lost that whole season, yeah. But you, I know, have made remarkable progress in your running in this last year and it's noteworthy and you should be proud of it. I hope you are I am. Yeah, you should be. You've done very, very well To the point of now. You are a regular Galloway pacer at these events.
Speaker 8:Well, I'm doing it for the second time, so I guess I get to count as regular now.
Speaker 5:That is two in a row. Okay True, that is two in a row. Okay True, not two, it's two in a row, it is a streak Plus. You know, you did a little mini pacing today.
Speaker 8:I did do mini pacing today, yeah.
Speaker 5:Mark was in full pacer mode today. Did a great job. Had people walking up to us asking or running along with us going. What paces are you doing?
Speaker 8:And that's the problem. We weren't. We were just doing intervals and getting through the race. We weren't shooting for a specific time. Yeah, we were just staying together and having fun.
Speaker 5:So 22,. You started down here.
Speaker 8:I did Right.
Speaker 5:How many weekends now Can you remember have you been here? Doesn't have to be exact, nobody's going to check you on it.
Speaker 8:I guess this is number six six.
Speaker 5:So yeah, so you've made a.
Speaker 8:You made a whole bunch of them yeah and any favorites I love marathon weekend yeah, I think I weekend I always will, because of dopey and yeah the, the accomplishment that, that was for me but I'm also this this weekend has been this, one has felt like coming home.
Speaker 5:It's been, it's been great it really has.
Speaker 8:I guess partly it was. It's the anniversary of my first one, but yeah that is part of it, yeah, but it's just been a good vibe this whole weekend it's been a good weekend.
Speaker 5:It's been a wonderful weekend for the rise and run family. Yeah, it's just been so many folks. I mean we're here at the meetup and I remember telling becky, oh don't expect too many people this time. I was wrong.
Speaker 8:We had over a hundred, I think in the picture.
Speaker 5:I think you did sure, golly, golly, that's what we had at marathon weekend and I thought we'd well, I'm, I'm just proud to be part of it. It's just so cool Me too. And there's still cookies over there We'll have to work on getting rid of those.
Speaker 8:Some of them have quite a kick this weekend.
Speaker 5:I have heard, mark, those are actually tamed down, and I'm not joking, I'm not joking. I remember. I see our friend Kay over here. I remember the first time I gave her one of those, I said they're not hot. Okay, I promise I made them myself. They're not hot. She took a bite. She looks at me, she goes bob you lied.
Speaker 5:I have betrayed but I'll tell you that these are tamer than most, and I mean that we soaked the hot peppers in milk okay, to get rid of the capsaicin, and these soaked a little longer than normal, so they're warm but they're not too bad. A question I've asked everybody Any favorite costumes you've seen or worn?
Speaker 8:This weekend has been funny. I think the themes are so pervasive that I don't know that I've ever seen a race weekend where so many people were in the same costume. Yeah, that's true. We had so many Peter Pans and so many Tinkerbells but only one Tinker Bob.
Speaker 5:Only one Tinker Bob, that's true.
Speaker 8:If I get so many Kevins and so many Wilderness Explorers.
Speaker 5:Although we had other fellas dressed like Tinker Bill.
Speaker 8:But no Tinker Bobs.
Speaker 5:Well, Tinker Tom. But that's still not Tinkerbob yeah yeah, I don't know how people didn't confuse the two of us. We had the same wig, we had the same tutu. Oh yeah, he looks different than me.
Speaker 8:A little bit. I'm taller. You are much taller than he is.
Speaker 5:Not much, Really not much. Tom's fairly tall. Anyway, it's been fun. How about you? You tend to go towards the lesser-known characters.
Speaker 8:I do, I just play around. I was just telling Kay. Actually, though, tomorrow is very much mainstream. Okay, very Okay, but I like getting into the deep dives with Disney. Yeah, it's fun it helps remind people of stuff that they might not know about. Today I ran as Jake from Rescuers Down Under and I've had a lot of people go. I should watch that or I should watch that again Because it's been a while since I have.
Speaker 5:It took our friend Brittany to convince me I needed to do costumes, and you've had a lot of fun with it. I've had a great deal of fun. You've had a lot of fun with it. I've had a great deal of fun. But when we get past the 10Ks, I'm done. I'm shorts and a T-shirt after that.
Speaker 8:I mean, that's mostly what my costume tomorrow is yeah, yeah. And a hat and ears.
Speaker 5:Mark, what's your next? Disney?
Speaker 1:race Well the 10 Mile tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow, yeah, after that, wine and Dine and Dopey, it works.
Speaker 8:And then pacing, as you mentioned.
Speaker 5:Yeah, man. Well, good luck with that. Thank you, I will see you in the morning. We will Thanks Mark.
Speaker 8:Yep, Thanks Bob.
Speaker 5:Mark loves the costumes and I love to see the costumes that Mark does. Mark's made such wonderful progress as a runner this year and now a pacer. Congratulations, mark. We are proud to have you as part of the family. Here's another fellow who's made a lot of progress this year, and that's our buddy Matthew. Greg, you sat down and talked with Matthew. I'm here with our buddy, matthew.
Speaker 3:Matt, we had a very interesting story that you and I chatted about earlier today. I was looking at my my Disney experience and I'm scrolling through photos, you know, looking at what was taken today, and all of a sudden I'm seeing your photos. You and I've been friends for a while. We're not friends on my disney experience. Explain to the five people what happened and why we were both very thoroughly confused earlier today so it.
Speaker 1:it's definitely not AI, yes, Not facial recognition software or anything like that. So John DeMarco had reached out to me this morning and was like hey, you got any pictures that you want some of your bib number. I'll get it on PhotoPass for you. And apparently you and John are linked in the my Disney Experience app. So because he put my bib number in there. That's why you're seeing my smile on the face in all those photos.
Speaker 3:I thought to myself I'm like, okay, maybe we have similar faces, but I'm like you've lost all this weight. Your face is a heck of a lot thinner than mine. You have a full head of hair. I choose to shave mine off, so it can't be the facial recognition technology, but it's a commonality of our friendship with John.
Speaker 8:Exactly so that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Matt, real quick, tell us what has been your favorite highlight of this particular race season.
Speaker 1:Oh, let's see, I think the highlight of the season for me was at Princess running the half marathon, and all of a sudden, bob comes up behind me. He's like, hey, what's going on? And all of a sudden, bob comes up behind me. He's like, hey, what's going on? We're doing 30-30. You want to keep up with us? Yeah, I'll keep up with you for as long as I can. I think I kept up with you for like two miles. Two miles, okay, nice, but this has been the best weekend so far. I like springtime surprise.
Speaker 10:It was actually the inaugural springtime surprise of my first Run Disney 5K.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I've been doing that ever since, but looking forward to next season Wine and dine. I signed up for Dopey, so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3:Very cool. Well, congratulations on the great race season this year. Good luck in the 10-miler tomorrow and we'll see you soon Sounds good. Matthew, it's always an absolute pleasure speaking with you and I'm glad we got our little um you know photo situation there figured out. But and you know and I agree with you, man, you know, I think there's something special that is slowly starting to creep into the lexicon of run disney that springtime surprises is a very unique and fun weekend and I I think it's going to continue to gain steam over the course of the next couple of years. But we're so excited for you to finally tackle Dopey and we'll be here with you every step of the way. But speaking of every step someone who took every step of every single race- this past season is our special guest with us this week.
Speaker 3:Miss Rachel, miss, perfect season over here. Obviously you know over 135 miles, two castles, five weekends, lots of airline miles and hotel points and annual passes and quick service meals. I'm sure you have a lot of memories from this weekend, so give us some of your highlights, and please keep it to under two hours.
Speaker 17:You're right, let me try that.
Speaker 5:You fit right in otherwise, so don't worry about it.
Speaker 17:So I guess we'll start where all seasons start at the very beginning. Early last year it was at Wine and Dine. I think there's just something so special about Wine and Dine it's the first weekend back at Walt Disney World, it's the family reunion. Like John said, it's celebrating at the after party and just getting together and being together and I think, well, that was a joyous time because that was the start of the perfect season, or what I defined as my perfect season. I know a lot of people have their variations, respectfully. So that was a really special time because my roomies were Jack and Lexi and Anna Claire and that was an absolutely wonderful time and that was when the teacups debuted and we were oh yeah.
Speaker 5:I remember being nervous because of the new rules and all that yeah.
Speaker 17:Yeah, but I mean it worked out great.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, it did yeah.
Speaker 17:Disney. We had backup plans. Disney was like nope, it's totally fine. So I mean that weekend was just an amazing time just to be had by all. That was my highlight of that weekend. And then to follow that dopey, where John was my guide for all four races he put up with oh yeah, I remember that yeah and that was just awesome, because I remember my first dopey I.
Speaker 17:I didn't stop for a single character. I didn't stop for hardly the bathroom. I was so nervous and John and I were able to finish with margaritas in our hands and smiles across our faces, and I don't think we stopped smiling the whole time.
Speaker 5:Rachel. I remember running into John on the course every now and again. And he'd look around and he goes oh, I got to get going. I got to go catch Rachel. I'm her guide.
Speaker 17:Yeah, I guess I have that habit. I just sometimes like, but then I love how we were getting. We were coming on that last turn, john, and then David and Greg are yelling at us like we're in a hockey match or something.
Speaker 17:And they're like saying that we were bellying up to the bar and that we took long enough, like that was a great highlight. So I will forever have greg ingrained in my brain on that last turn. Oh and, lexi, you know mile 22, that is like your place. I saw you the first opie and then you were there again this time and I swear it's like an adrenaline boost. You have no idea what it does I mean you do but it's truly um wonderful and just so encouraging to get that one last high five or hug from someone. And sometimes you don't even know you need it. But when you see people there for you or when you turn around like Alicia and you see the group and you're like, oh my gosh, like I didn't know I needed it as badly as I did. So that was dopey in a nutshell for me. And then, gosh what.
Speaker 17:A few days later I flew across the country to Disneyland and met up with Jack and Lexi and Tara, and Tara was my guide for all of those races and I loved it because my costumes were like Merlin from sword in the stone and Mr Toad, like it was all throwback, and I loved it. Although the face paint for Merlin did not love me, it's okay, like in the lesson, but you looked awesome. It was so weird because I forgot to paint like my neck. I did this, but I didn't do this yeah, this is audio.
Speaker 5:Only you can't point that you got it. Oh yeah, so I failed to paint my neck area it just looked awkward. Clearly I needed k's help yeah not have k okay, k got professional help. You know that yeah, well yes, she did, and that's cool, that's cool that was fun.
Speaker 17:And then princess the highlight was getting to do a race with my mom yeah I'd always excellent one with mom, and we celebrated so much together.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's wonderful. I remember that. That's fantastic yeah.
Speaker 17:And that was when Bob and Heidi. Oh, there's Heidi.
Speaker 5:Oh, there's, heidi.
Speaker 17:Hi Bob, hi Bob, I have snacks Every time.
Speaker 17:And then this will be my last little tidbit Springtime, like aren't words for the end of the season, like it's been a week and I'm still processing all the memories, and like springtime was literally the icing on the cake, the cherry on top and the sprinkle for the whole season and spending quality time with Greg and Bob and Alicia and all of you that weren't there, were definitely there in spirit, and it was just like like I didn't have words for that finish and I had to tell Greg, like half a mile before the finish.
Speaker 17:Like I know I won't have the words, but it was an absolute honor to run with everyone. Um, and my I was telling John and Bob earlier my skirt that I want I wore for the final race commemorated all the costumes, um, that either I wore or, like John my guide you know he's represented in the dopey icon on my skirt Tara, and you know she's my guide. She was Evan Rood for the 10K, so she was on my skirt. So, honestly, I look and I have memories of all of you for that whole season, because there's a character that represents each person on the podcast.
Speaker 5:Awesome.
Speaker 17:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Awesome. Well, congratulations on nailing them all, rachel, and it was a blast. It was a blast. Yeah, I'm just going to leave it at that. It was wonderful and thanks for the recap. Let's get back to our friends. Taylor, I, I know, I know you, taylor. I know who you are. That's an inside joke. Taylor sat down and talked. Know you, taylor, I know who you are. That's an inside joke. Taylor sat down and talked with us. Taylor, I think, was the first one that we spoke with who talked about the family. Use the word family with Rise and Run. Taylor, thanks for joining us. Why don't you introduce yourself? Tell folks who you are, where you're from. I'm Taylor. I'm from Winchester Virginia.
Speaker 5:How often do you make it down here for races, Taylor? So we started right after COVID.
Speaker 1:So, we have been here for Marathon Weekend ever since.
Speaker 6:The return since 2022.
Speaker 5:We've done springtime the last two years. All right, that's quite a few. Yeah, and you're having fun. I know I wasn't going to ask that question. I know you're having fun. Always fun. Any highlights this weekend, anything that sticks in your mind from previous weekends?
Speaker 20:I think, just the community. I can't be down here alone without my husband or my daughter. So I'm solo this weekend and it was just very strange going to the race weekends without someone.
Speaker 5:But, the huge community just makes it even better as soon as you get there. Yeah, it's like 1,000 people. They just are like hey, taylor.
Speaker 20:Hey Taylor, it's like oh my gosh, I know so many people, Let me run with you.
Speaker 5:I still like seeing you guys. One big hug, yep, exactly. How about any favorite costumes that you've worn or seen?
Speaker 20:or I think, probably my favorite costume I've ever worn was at Marathon Weekend this past year for the 5k. I wore a toffini costume but, I did like to feed a pretty flowers on the back everything awesome, fantastic.
Speaker 5:Well, have fun. When are you coming back? I will be back here for Marathon Weekend 2025, but I'll be at Disneyland Halloween as well for the challenge. I'll see you there.
Speaker 20:It's going to be so fun, I will All right. Thanks Taylor, thanks Bob.
Speaker 5:Okay, taylor, you know training starts in five days now You're. You know training starts in five days now you're doing disneyland halloween, looking forward to seeing you there, but we it's time to get started again. Our next guest would probably have been with us tonight, because rachel and tara are pretty much a team. It's hard to leave one without the other. But she and can you believe this? She had an opportunity to be on the Rise and Run podcast and she elected to go to Italy instead. How dare she. Tara, we hope you're having a wonderful time. We look forward to seeing you again soon. But, tara, just like Rachel did, a perfect season.
Speaker 3:We're here with the pride of Maryland. And when I mean the pride of Maryland, I'm not talking about Tom Stover, I'm talking about Tara. Tara, welcome to the meetup. Thanks, Greg. So I got a question for you. You're one race away from completing the perfect season. Obviously, lots of memories could be made tomorrow, but what, for you, was the top memory of this entire 23-24 race season?
Speaker 21:it's really hard to pick one memory. Um, honestly, I probably my favorite memory was when um rachel and I did the half marathon in Disneyland and during the race she was texting with John and John said if you keep going at this pace, you're going to reach this time. And I looked at Rachel and she's like that would be a PR. I said great, let's do it. And so I said let's keep this pace that we have right now and we get to mile 9 1⁄2 or 10, and if you're feeling great're gonna go for it. And we did and it was really fun.
Speaker 3:So it wasn't a pr for me, but it was a pr for rachel and that was really, really fun to do. Sometimes, seeing others succeed is is victory enough. That's awesome. Congratulations on the perfect season. Can't wait for you to do it again. I know you're not doing it next year, but I think I you got another one. We'll see. Well, tara, that was a very, very sweet thing to say that one of your, your top memories was, you know, helping rachel get her pr in disneyland. Um, rachel, without uh needing a whole box of kleenex, do you have any response to uh, to, to uh, that being uh tara's top moment?
Speaker 17:uh, from the weekend I think I need to buy a lottery ticket. That's just too good to be true.
Speaker 3:Well, congratulations, and again, I hope you're enjoying all of the wonderful pasta that Italy has to provide you on your trip right now. I mean, you know what? If you think about it, Tara's probably completing the true life World Showcase tour right now. I mean, obviously she's in America.
Speaker 6:She's been to.
Speaker 3:Japan. She's in Italy now. I can't wait to see when she goes to Germany. We'll have to ask her about that next time she's on Zoom call.
Speaker 5:She gets a real drinking around the world Exactly.
Speaker 3:Congratulations, tara, on a perfect season. Now we're also going to move over to somebody who is practically perfect in every way, and that's Miss Lexi. Lexi, obviously you've had some very high highs. You've had some low lows in terms of your training cycle for this past season and how just the season in general has gone for you. What are your highlights from 23-24?
Speaker 7:24. Wow, what a whirlwind of a season. Um, going from having a blast at a girls weekend to burning out and being like I just want to be done to the FOMO of not being at springtime. I was looking through all of the pictures from the weekends on my phone here and I was actually just texting Rachel and I was like can you just see the joy on our faces, like we just look so happy.
Speaker 3:Lexi, you don't need to text her, she's right here. It's a secret conversation. Oh, okay, so happy Lexi, you don't need to text her, she's right here.
Speaker 7:It's a secret conversation, oh okay. So, starting at Wine and Dine, it was my sister, anna Claire, her first race ever.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, I remember that yeah.
Speaker 7:She did the 10K. Um, bless her heart. She was like lexi, I'm just gonna go at my own pace, because she got in, I think, a corral ahead of where I was. She's like I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna do it by myself, like I need to do this.
Speaker 7:I'm like okay if you want to go by yourself, like, go on, and we'll see you at the finish line. I'll text you whenever we get done. And she did so good. She made a pr, she um, and by pr I mean first race, but by pr I also mean the fastest that she had ever run, um in training too, and we just had such a grand old time um I mean lexi.
Speaker 5:I remember her catching her passing us heading towards the chorus at the 10k and she she must have recognized us because she told us who she was and all that.
Speaker 7:That was cool yeah, and it was so funny. Coming out of that weekend she was like I'm never, I don't think I'm ever gonna need to do this again. And then about a week ago she's like you know, yeah, I'm thinking about wine and dine 2025 I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask what she signed up for.
Speaker 7:Yeah yeah, so she's she's taking. She's having some back problems, so she's dealing with that for this season, but she's looking forward to next. Wine and dine is what she's what she's aiming for. I think she moved last year and she has a herniated disc in her back, so she's doing all of the all of the things to get ready for that. But I'm really proud of her. But don't tell her. I said that.
Speaker 7:Okay, we will, greg, cut that out, greg cut that out, and I think Wine and Dine was also one of my favorite costumes, maybe that I have ever run in the amazing teacups that. I can't even have any words to say how impressed with Rachel I was because she made those things like from scratch and they were. They were wonderful, they were beautiful and I, like I, love it oh, they look great yeah, um, skill right there.
Speaker 7:Um, so then fast forward. Uh, what, two months to marathon weekend? Um, I was going into it, really tired of running. I was, um, majorly burnt out and I was like you know what I'm just gonna skip. I'd signed up for the 10k and the half marathon and, um, I had gone into the weekend, I was like, no, I'm just going to sit out for the half so I can focus on Disneyland, cause that was the following week.
Speaker 7:And, um, then we did the half of the half and I decided to do it and I mean, I remember running through that with Mark and Rachel and I just kept my eyes on them and we made it to the end and it like the excitement and, I guess, elation from from that coming out of that um really helped me. You know, move forward and go into the Disneyland race, like ready to go Um forward and go into the Disneyland race, like ready to go, um, and you know, disneyland was Disneyland, which we have, those, those thoughts. But again I look back at my picture pictures and you, just, you just see so much joy because ultimately we were running in the happiest place on earth and that's what we were. So, um, I think, overall, it was just a fantastic season and I can't wait to get back Um one of my highlights, um, I actually had taken a screenshot of this post, so this post was probably one of the highlights of the whole weekend. This was Wine and Dine. It was from Valeria Esteban.
Speaker 5:Yeah, from Argentina.
Speaker 7:She was talking about her race and how she had to pull herself out of the half. She said, as I left the tent where they gave me the medal, I was crying. Someone talked to me and asked me if I needed a hug and it was Lexi. I had never met her before, she had no idea who I was, but she was so nice. So thank you, lexi, for your kind words and taking the time to comfort me.
Speaker 7:You made my day and like I remember that moment because I had voluntarily pulled myself out of the half because I knew I was not feeling good, my stomach was hurting really bad and I know how it is to DNF, when you really think like you've worked so hard, when it's not a voluntary thing, like I know the devastation. And I just remember coming out of the bathroom at the port-a-potties and seeing this woman crying and I like it was just a wonderful moment and I'm still so proud like to have been able to give a hug to someone who needed it and it happened to be someone who listened to the podcast. I just like it was a highlight for sure well, lexi.
Speaker 5:Speaking of valeria, she was back at springtime and we visited with her at the meetup. I am happy to be joined by my friend from argentina, valeria. Valeria, tell everybody who you are. Well, I've already told them where you're from. Where are you from in Argentina?
Speaker 16:I'm from Buenos Aires.
Speaker 5:Good, because if you'd said anything else, I'm not sure I'd have known where it was.
Speaker 16:Wow, you have a hard time repeating the names of our races there in the cities.
Speaker 5:I do, I do, you challenge me, our friends in Holland challenge me, and the ones I end up getting wrong are the ones in the United Kingdom, and I don't understand that at all I told JJ that's my husband to pick races with heart names.
Speaker 8:You did that on purpose. Yes.
Speaker 5:Well, thanks a lot, that's a long trip.
Speaker 16:Yes, it's like a million hours here.
Speaker 5:About a million, yeah, about a million.
Speaker 16:Well, actually, this time we flew through.
Speaker 5:New.
Speaker 16:York. We flew from Buenos Aires to New York and then back here, to Orlando and it took like 24 hours.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 16:For real.
Speaker 5:Wow, wow, but you still come here fairly often. Yes, how many times have you been here. Oh to run Disney.
Speaker 16:Yeah, I run like nine weekends Really.
Speaker 5:Yeah, really yeah, I love it. That well we, we love seeing you here too. What's your favorite weekend?
Speaker 16:Well, I like the distances of this one yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, like doable yeah.
Speaker 16:Um, but I don't like the weather Weekend. That was my first one. I think I love it so much because it was the first time I came here, yeah, and it was also my first half marathon Main Street.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, that's such a big deal. It was special.
Speaker 16:It is special Running through the main street. Yeah, yeah, that's such a big deal. Yeah, it was a cold year because it was 2018 and it was super cold, yes, yes, and windy, as I recall.
Speaker 5:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 16:Yeah, super cold, but I enjoyed it very much.
Speaker 5:I was thinking, as you were talking, it gets warm in Buenos Aires, right? Super warm Like this Right, but you come up here. It's wintertime in Buenos Aires.
Speaker 16:Well, it's the opposite. It's spring here, it's fall there.
Speaker 8:Yeah right, it's fall there now yeah.
Speaker 16:So, I hate summer, and it was just starting to get a little cooler and. I came here so.
Speaker 5:I'm melting again. Yeah well, you go back to cooler weather. That's good. I asked what your favorite was Costumes Any favorite costumes that you've seen or worn?
Speaker 16:Well, I don't do many costumes.
Speaker 5:Right, it's tough to travel with all that stuff.
Speaker 16:Yeah, we don't have Amazon, so there are a lot of things that we can't buy so I have to make them myself. That's tougher, so I made like skirts and single things. But I love costumes. I love Hollywood costumes. He's always surprising us. I like the very complex ones. For example today the ones that they were doing Kevin, but the Kevin with the tall heads.
Speaker 5:Yeah, very high yeah.
Speaker 16:Yeah, I don't know how they ran with those. I didn't either.
Speaker 5:for the 10K I was like, oh, that's going to be hard.
Speaker 16:Yeah, once I saw I was on Princess last year a girl that was like Alice and a guy that was the rabbit, but he was full rabbit with a coat, oh my.
Speaker 1:And it's super warm and he was running with a coat warm and he was running with a coat.
Speaker 16:Yeah, I was like, okay, I won't be able to do that, but Okay, well, valeria, we're glad that you come up here.
Speaker 5:We love seeing you. We look forward to seeing you every time you get here. Thank you, when do you think we'll see you again?
Speaker 16:Oh well, I'm coming for Wine and Dine oh boy. Yeah, and Marathon.
Speaker 5:Weekend. I wasn't going to come for Marathon Weekend, but when I heard the 101 Dalmatians, that's Monica's fault. Yeah, monica is right. Well, she was on the podcast earlier. She's here somewhere. You can go yell at her, okay.
Speaker 16:Yeah, I couldn't skip it. And of course, jj's right side for the doping.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 16:Actually he. Today he finished first in his age group and 20 overall.
Speaker 5:Wow, wow, wow. Jj's a good runner. That's really cool.
Speaker 1:He did great.
Speaker 5:Valeria, thank you hon.
Speaker 19:Thank you.
Speaker 16:Thank you for having me. You're welcome.
Speaker 5:Valeria, JJ does not have to look for especially hard names for the races, just for me. I appreciate it, but I get enough of that from our friends in Holland. It's always good to see you and JJ. I'm still sorry. I kicked JJ in the head at the after party at springtime. I hope he's recovering, but he was certainly a good sport about it. We've talked about our friend Kay quite a bit. Kay dropped by and she talked with Greg.
Speaker 3:We're here with the beautiful, the lovely, the talented Kay Kay, how are you Good? Kay this is going to be a very short interview. I only have one question for you, and that is there's a little incident that happened at the end of the 10K today. Okay, first question. Wait, no, First question who did you finish the race with?
Speaker 10:Oh, okay, I had the pleasure of finishing. Oh, she's trying to explain herself.
Speaker 3:Okay, this is a very simple question who did you finish the race with?
Speaker 10:None other than my interviewer here. I got to finish with Greg and Bob Okay so you finished with Greg and Bob. I hate this lead up.
Speaker 3:A trio of three. Kate, why don't you explain to the fine people what proceeded to happen after we crossed the finish line and got our medals? I do not recall, don't recall.
Speaker 3:Allow me to refresh your memory. A very, very kind Disney PhotoPass cast member approached the three of us and it's so funny because Bob was like I want to run with KBs, I want to be in a run Disney photo. And the gentleman came up to the three of us and just looked you right in the face. I was nervous and said can I take your picture in front of the finish line? Do you think? She invited Bob and I. It just got very, very hot in this seat.
Speaker 10:This Florida weather is nothing compared to what I'm feeling right now.
Speaker 3:I need you to explain yourself why you know. If you have such love and adoration and respect for Bob and I, why weren't we invited to be part of the photograph? I?
Speaker 10:was nervous. It wasn't me. I blame the photographer, that be.
Speaker 3:Listen, we're only doing this because number one, it's funny. Number two, we know you're a good sport.
Speaker 10:And three, we're totally kidding here and we made up for it, by the way. Well, we made up for it ahead of time because we did get our photo together yes, we did, yes, we did yes, and it was a beautiful one. Thank you very much of course, now.
Speaker 3:now, my, my final question is obviously um, you know, we all know the legend of Mr Hollywood Tony, which, by the way, I am going to call him out here on this podcast. You know, I like to call him the mayor of Run Disney.
Speaker 10:He's being very Hollywood today and not making an appearance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so much Hollywood that he didn't even have the decency to show up today, but the thing is you've had a much better streak in terms of making the run Disney post the last couple of race weekends. I think you might have surpassed him. I have dubbed you. Beverly Hills. Hollywood has called you 90210K. What would you like to be called?
Speaker 10:No, I told you guys, you get to pick it. I don't like this kind of pressure. This has all been super fun. I do it for fun. I do it because it actually takes the pressure off of me when I'm running, to just enjoy it all. And I will give credit to hollywood because I kicked this thing off during wine and dine running with him during the 5K, and ever since then I've had the streak.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 10:So yeah, hollywood, you get your credit even though you're not here, and we are going to give you a hard time about that. Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Kay, you've been an absolute pleasure to run with. You've become a wonderful friend. Congratulations on your season. You have been a wonderful friend.
Speaker 10:Congratulations. You have been a wonderful friend too, and I cannot wait for tomorrow.
Speaker 3:We're doing this again.
Speaker 5:It's gonna be awesome. Great good story and I was there now I wasn't with k when she finished the 10 miler, did she get stopped again?
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah, because remember we were all chatting with Jeff and Carissa and Riley and Pelkey, yeah, and I thought we were done and I like. Yeah yeah yeah. I chanted all right, let's finish strong. Everybody and Kay and I bolted off and everybody else was still talking.
Speaker 12:Oh yeah, a couple of us hung around, greg, you and I and Kay, we all just turned around and we're like where is everybody? But we were already over the finish line.
Speaker 3:But then you and I stopped to see where everybody else was Kay just keeps going and, of course, gets pulled.
Speaker 5:Of course. Well, Greg, while you're up, why don't you tell us your thoughts on this season?
Speaker 3:I mean spectacular, as always. I participated in Marathon Weekend and Springtime Surprise and I will say, from the race course itself. Obviously, probably one of the biggest highlights for me is that the national nightmare coming to an end and finally getting an opportunity to have my photo taken with powerline max, and that you know, after the massive disappointment that was Marathon Weekend 2023, when we all saw that leaked list and it said Powerline Max and it was regular Max just dancing to Powerline. It's just not the same. So I'm glad I was able to get two photos with Powerline this past race season.
Speaker 3:But I honestly gotta say and this spans both Marathon Weekend and Springtime Surprise I think why I continue to love the Run Disney product more and more year after year is not necessarily because of the races themselves or the characters we see or the parks that we run through.
Speaker 3:It's the people that you get to spend time with and for me that's the major highlight of this week. I apologize I will be singling a couple of people out here, but if you're asking me for the highlights of my weekend, these are going to be the highlights Starting that marathon weekend, seeing lots of friends, but by happenstance I just happened to keep bumping into, um, you know, the bennetts, the entire weekend getting to spend time with david and his wife greta, and being able to talk to them as they were, you know, at that point in time, just a few weeks away from the start of their family. Uh, you know, being able to, you know, share, you know my experience and my wife's experience, and you know, then getting to hang out with my daughter to you know, help prep them for what they'll get to experience at Walt Disney World.
Speaker 3:And you know, a couple of years time, uh, you know, just, that time was really special I got to spend some quality time with our buddy, abel um, at, uh, la Cava. Um, you know, since, you know, I know we had done that patreon post and and that's where everyone told me to get my ap celebration drink and everything like that, you know, then we got to talk about the mermaid in the room, or the, or the, the shirtless man, squirrel, mermaid, baboon in the room, hollywood, you know, he, he has just become, he has become such a dear friend and the fact that our relationship has has grown to the, to the comfortability level that you know he's willing to split a room with me so that we can make, you know, these race weekends, you know, just a little bit more affordable. Um, you know, I really appreciate that. And then you know, and then you know, turning to, turning to springtime, and you know, having that extra time to you know, with you, rachel, and you know, hanging out with tara and k, and, just, you know, taylor and the will run for crew and and everything like that, because I mean, yes, you know those of us here on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have absolutely wonderful relationships with you and I cherish every single moment that I get to spend with you at race weekends. But the fact that that family gets to extend even further just makes my heart so full of joy and it just excites me to see what can happen for um for the next race season. So for for those that I've mentioned and all the other countless rising runners that that I've had the experience to cross paths with this past race season and seasons previously, you truly do not know how much you mean to me, how you keep me going in my running journey. You know, especially when I hit those mental and physical walls, you know it's it's you folks that I'm thinking about. That that helps propel me forward, and I'm just forever in debt to you all and thank you so much.
Speaker 5:Yeah, well said Greg.
Speaker 17:Two things. Number one is it truly is amazing how you know we all have our day to day lives and our jobs and our careers and our families that we go to. But it truly is amazing how, each race weekend, our cup is overflowing with love and joy for the time. For the time, like you said so eloquently, Greg, the time that we spend together is worth. You can't put a dollar sign on that, on how overflowing our cup is with love and joy. And number two, greg, how are the power limes? Are they worth the rave?
Speaker 3:Excellent follow-up question there, rachel. They are a little bit tarter than I was expecting. I enjoyed tart things, so it definitely hit for me, but I was not expecting that much flavor. But the one thing that did surprise me, though, is those things will turn your tongue green. So it's to the point where I have been splitting them with my daughter. No, they're surprisingly good and I I might not stockpile as many next time I'm down there, but, but they were, they're definitely worth the wait well, you got some of those from our buddy, monica, didn't you?
Speaker 3:yes, I did get some from monica. So yes, uh, thank you very much. And for our last interview that we captured at springtime surprise, we want to chat with one of Alicia's clients, the pride of Pennsylvania, allie Without an E.
Speaker 5:Young lady, would you please introduce yourself? Tell us where you're from.
Speaker 18:Hi, I'm Allie Without an E and I'm from York Pennsylvania.
Speaker 5:Is that how you introduce yourself to family and friends? Now? No, just fellow Rise and Runners.
Speaker 18:Just here. I love it.
Speaker 5:So, allie, without without an e, it's good to see you, you're. You're one of my running partners, particularly this weekend.
Speaker 18:You're having fun yeah, I am having fun. This, I would say, is the first time I've run with a group. Yeah, and I love it and I'm sad I haven't done it before I get you, I hear you.
Speaker 5:I've ended up falling in with the group, oh golly, the last, most of the last two seasons, and I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go run on my own anymore. Yeah, I'm not sure I know how.
Speaker 18:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I love it, but it's fun.
Speaker 18:And yesterday and today have been fabulous.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they have A little warm, but not too bad, especially in the mornings. Not too especially in the mornings. Not too bad, right, yeah, humid, but this is florida, that's right. The humidity can get a lot hotter higher than this, so not too bad. No thanks, so it's fun. Um, now I don't know the answer to this. When did you start running at disney?
Speaker 18:at disney was wine and dino 2022.
Speaker 5:that was my first, all of my first half, my first disney, my first challenge I just went bigger, went home and I went big, yeah, and pretty much since then, about every weekend. Or have you what you've done since then?
Speaker 18:So I did Wine and Dine of 22, then I did Princess of 23. Okay, and then I did Disneyland in January and then, Princess in springtime.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 18:So I'm still kind of a newbie.
Speaker 5:Oh, that's cool, yeah, that's cool. Any favorite races that you've done, anything really stick. Any stories stick out in your mind. No, I would say the time that Bob tripped and fell, it didn't happen. No.
Speaker 18:It didn't happen. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but hey, anything's possible. I would say Wine and Dine. My first one is probably memorable but not really for a good reason. That was a terrible half for me.
Speaker 5:It was, it was hard.
Speaker 18:It was my first half. I wasn't trained as well as I thought I was. I didn't do a training plan, I just picked Kind of, did it on your own, yeah, and it was a hard half and I learned from it and now my halves aren't so bad no they're not.
Speaker 5:If you do that, training makes a big difference. It sure does any favorite I've been asking the same questions all afternoon any favorite costumes either that you've worn or that you've seen?
Speaker 18:um, I've done figment twice now, once for wine and dine, and I did it with my daughter in February. I like figment, so that one might be one of my favorites, but tomorrow I'm Lilo and I'm kind of looking forward to that one too. Anything Hawaii makes me happy Does it yeah. Hawaii's my happy place.
Speaker 5:Have you lived there? Have you been there?
Speaker 18:We've been there a lot. We have not. I don't live there. We've never lived there. Okay, we were there actually this past summer, for we go to the big island Kona and we get off the plane and it just feels like home.
Speaker 5:Oh, I know that lush tropical air. Yep, it feels like home.
Speaker 18:Oh yeah, we try and do every other summer in Hawaii.
Speaker 2:Wonderful, yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 18:Our girls have been three, four times now.
Speaker 5:Oh, wow, yeah, Do they know how to hula?
Speaker 18:No, not yet.
Speaker 5:But they did get to see the volcano how to hula. Yeah, that daggum thing started this phase of eruption when I was there in the early 80s, 82 or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been going on for a long time. It's still been going on.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah. Well, may I call you Allie. Do I have to call you Allie without any?
Speaker 18:You can call me Allie. Oh okay, We'll go informal.
Speaker 5:All right, we're friends.
Speaker 18:Right.
Speaker 5:What's our next Disney race? Wine and Dine. Okay, the next one here at Disney World. I know, I know I'm going to miss you guys. It's a long time from now. It's a big break.
Speaker 18:I don't like it, I mean I don't know if I want to be down here in July running, but oh, you don't, I know.
Speaker 5:No, you don't Right.
Speaker 18:But I'm going to miss it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we will, especially coming off of this weekend. No, yeah, yeah, hallie, thanks. Thanks, bob, good to talk with you. This was a little spooky After recording these interviews and listening to them to prepare for this episode. I listened to me talking with Allie without a knee and saying jokingly to her well, you want to tell the funny story about the time Bob tripped and fell down? And as I listened to it I thought I didn't want to tell anybody about that. Not that I'm embarrassed by it or anything, I just wasn't planning to talk about it. And then I realized it hadn't happened yet. I was talking with Allie on Saturday and I tripped and fell in the 10-miler on.
Speaker 3:Sunday. I think this is the perfect opportunity to announce our newest merchandise item in the Rise and Run shop, and that is the Bob Voodoo doll.
Speaker 17:Yeah, I thought, you were going to paint me Pat.
Speaker 5:It only works on yourself. That's the problem. I will talk about it for a second, and I do want to talk about the race season. I want to talk because I want to share a couple lessons. Lesson number one it can happen to anybody. I hit an obstruction in the road, I hit a manhole cover, I believe it was, and the good thing I did is I didn't grab anybody and I started to, but I thought this is not going to work. I'm going to pull them down too. I didn't hit my head, that's a biggie. I got banged up a little bit and I was fine, so, but it was just funny. I'm listening, I'm going. What are we talking about? Oh, that's right, hasn't happened yet. All 13 races, all four weekends at Disney World. It's actually been nine consecutive weekends at Disney World for me. I missed a couple of races last year, but this was my perfect Walt Disney World season.
Speaker 5:I will reflect back to Wine and Dine. Yeah, everybody mentioned it. The grand thing about Wine and Dine is the reunion seeing everybody again. It's fantastic. Our buddy Brittany, and actually Jack had a good bit to do with this too have convinced me of the joy of costumes, so I tossed on a Mad Hatter costume for the 5k. Becky ran as Alice. We enjoyed that. I say ran, we walked. I got to be Gaston's grandfather for the 10k. I liked that one. I had a Gaston wig but it didn't look right, so I got some spray paint from Walmart and spray painted it white and became Gaston's grandfather. I did that one with John and Caroline. That was fun. John Did the half with Allie Withany, our good buddy Allie. We still consider her part of this podcast and her crew, her posse, as I like to call them. Rachel was there, so was John. That half at wine and dine it was so fun yeah, it was.
Speaker 5:It was. They all are. It was a great way to kick it off marathon weekend. I will never top marathon weekend. I can run another 30, 40 years and I'm not sure I'll never top marathon weekend. I can run another 30, 40 years and I'm not sure I'll ever top marathon weekend, for a couple reasons I've been pointing to. Bob is 70 and dopey since Bob was 65 and dopey, so I've been pointing to that for five years.
Speaker 5:Well, let's start off. John, you and I hung out at the expo for marathon weekend. That was amazing. We almost had our own booth, literally Well, not literally, I misused the word. But yeah, there were times when we were kind of like, asked to move, you're shutting us down, please move somewhere else. And then we kind of tried to hide and that didn't work. Oh gosh, it was fun, it was just a blast. I didn't work. Oh gosh, it was fun, it was just a blast. I didn't want to leave. Um, I ran as my favorite character for the 5k. I did goofy and I look pretty goofy. I'm sure that was one of my favorite ones. Becky and diane ran together. I think they did some kind of a mini mouse theme, as I recall I remember be remember Becky wearing a polka dot skirt. I think Diane did too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Becky had a special polka dot skirt.
Speaker 5:That's right. She had the ride and run decals as her polka dots In the 10K. I remember our friend Stephanie trying to teach Caroline and I how to pose for jumps in photos. It didn't work. Photos were pretty silly. Something else, and we haven't mentioned this I remember Marathon as kind of the start of the friendship bracelet thing down at Run Disney.
Speaker 5:That's where I remember it kicking off. And literally now, two weekends later, I have more than I can wear. And God bless you, friends, I love them. I love them. I'm making them to trade. I look forward to getting more, but I can't wear them all at one time anymore, and that's because of you, of course.
Speaker 5:We had our rain shortened half, and that's because of you, of course. We had our rain shortened half and we had that amazing marathon weekend get together and meet up. I was a little afraid it wasn't going to happen. I was afraid the weather was going to ace us out, but it ended up being beautiful and there were just so many people there, golly, it was fantastic, uh. And then, completing the 70 and dopey run I got to do that with my buddy Woody and and his mom Kim, and I don't think, uh, anything I'll ever mean more to me than those finishing line photos, uh, of pushing Woody across the line and the joy on his face and the the joy on mine it was. It was very, very special. I remember I kept patting him on the shoulder and saying we're going to make it, we're going to make it and we did. And you know what else. I remember that weekend, john, is when we went over to Magic Kingdom on Monday for some metal shoots and our buddies, the Rundope Girls, photobombed us.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 2:Hold on One more photo.
Speaker 5:Princess Weekend. I enjoy Princess Weekend more than I thought I would. It's only the second one I've ever done I dressed as a prince. Becky was. Ariel Did the 10K with Rachel and Tara. They taught me how to prance. Where's Heidi? I don't see? Oh, there she is. Heidi was there. Mark was there too with us. Rachel, mark was there. Same crew did the half together Rachel, tara, heidi. No, mark wasn't with us because Mark was pacing at that time. Um, but that's where I met Tom and Adam on the course. The two, two guys First time I'd met them in person was on the course there. And then we've all talked about springtime. Surprise, quite a bit. Tinker Bob was back. I enjoyed that, enjoyed seeing Becky do.
Speaker 5:Wendy had a pretty big group. We had big groups for all the races that weekend and I don't want to yeah, I'm going to miss somebody. Amy was there. Rachel, not this Rachel. Well, this Rachel was here too, but we also had the Rachel who was our scout, who would go out and get us photo positions in line. I appreciate her. Allie without an E ran with us. Debbie was there. Debbie knew to the podcast. It was great seeing her. Laura was there, I believe. Katie Mark did our 10K pacing for us. He was practicing for the next day. When he paced the 10 miler, that was great. The next day, when he paced the 10 miler, that was great Again. The 10 K just too many to mention Ended up finishing with Laura and Stephanie because, greg, you and Kate all ran off and left us and Alicia.
Speaker 12:We didn't mean to Bob.
Speaker 5:Completely disregarded us, just ran off and left. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. And one more comment After I did fall, my friends were pointing out obstacles along the course and I don't know if they thought it bugged me or not. I may have even said something, but I thought about it for a minute and I thought and I'm going to sound geeky here what a nice way to say I love you. Hey, I don't want you, I don't want you falling again. Watch out for that guy. So I, so I genuinely it comes from the heart, I genuinely do appreciate it.
Speaker 5:The weekend ended beautifully at the after party at Typhoon Lagoon, one last chance to see everyone and say goodbye until we meet again at Disneyland or Wine and Dine. Well, it was beautiful. My friends, we're going to talk over the summer about plans for the future, about what do we do next. We may revisit some topics along the way. Hey, 101 Dalmatians for the 5k. I want to keep it because I know it's a very active thing folks are thinking about. I've got, we have a phone call this week to talk possibly I don't want to say uniform, but costumes for that. So we will keep it in the forefront and we will advise you. I'm hoping we get a thousand and one Dalmatians how impressive would that be. But we'll settle for a hundred and one. I'm excited by the reaction. Hey, here's some good news. Our friend Diana has a brand new grandson as of the day of this, recording Our newest rise and runner, jordan James, weighs in at an even eight pounds. Welcome to the family, jordan James.
Speaker 3:Congratulations Welcome.
Speaker 5:Looking at next week, episode 137, scott Douglas, author of Run Disney, the official guide to racing around the parks, will visit with us. Should be interesting talking with Scott. Okay, my friends, it's time for the Race Report Race Report brought to you by our friend, tom Stokes. Tom, the tutu guy, coach at Stoked Metabolic Training. Tom's got a great deal for the Rise and Run family. Check him out at stokesfit slash riseandruncoaching. That link is on our Facebook page in the featured section up there at the very top. Good seeing Tom. I saw Tom right after the. What was it right after the 5k? Yeah, I remember mentioning it last week that I didn't know how folks could tell us apart, but somehow they did. Good seeing you there, tom. Check out his page stokesfit slash rise and run coaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Tom, a couple of days ago back in our Facebook group he posted a video of a workshop he did nutrition and strength training for runners workshop. It was pretty good, informative video, so guys check it out.
Speaker 5:Yeah, worth looking into Put a link in the show notes also.
Speaker 5:Thanks, john. Coming off Springtime Surprise, I mentioned that we had gotten a little bit behind and if I'm being honest, it's me I had gotten a little bit behind. We're still in catch-up mode, but we had two major world marathons occur in the last couple of weeks and I absolutely want to make sure that we chat about those. We're going to do them in chronological order. We'll talk about boston this week. We'll chat with our friends who ran london next week, but let's kick this one off. Welcome to the rise and run podcast adam hello, valerie hello and jennifer hiya thanks for joining us guys.
Speaker 5:Short notice, as it's becoming the norm with me. I'm sorry about that, but I'm glad you could make it and I'm happy to have you here. Hey, we want to hear your stories real quick. Let's start with this one. Any boston veterans, or was this a first time for all three? I'm a veteran jennifer's a veteran, valerie and adam first time right well go ahead val well.
Speaker 19:So for me, when I was at the expo picking up my bib, the woman was like oh, this is your second boston marathon. I'm like no, she's like. Well, it says here that it's your second. So I did it during covid when it was virtual, so apparently that counts on the boston book.
Speaker 5:So I guess I'm a veteran. Oh how interesting. Yeah, I think a lot of our friends will be interested to know that that if they've done the virtual and they get back there, they're going to say well, you're going to get a welcome back reading huh.
Speaker 13:That's true, cause I did the virtual too and it's in my total count.
Speaker 5:All right. Well, that's pretty cool. Another thing I know, but I will allow you to elaborate on please, is that Adam, you and Jennifer run together and in fact you've been on the podcast before together talking about that. Will you explain briefly, please?
Speaker 13:Adam and I have ran together previously, but this is our first time running the marathon distance together. We've done the half marathon previously. Adam runs for me because I don't have peripheral vision, so I prefer that he blocks my right side so that way no one comes up and surprises me and also tries to block people from running in front of me or cutting across the course in front of me, which I can't always anticipate. So that's Adam's job, which is a big job, considering he's also running.
Speaker 5:Jennifer, you said this was not your first Boston and I don't think you were counting the virtual Right, so you've run it live before. Did you have a guide on the other one?
Speaker 13:So I ran it in 22, and I ran it by myself and that was kind of when I realized I couldn't run it by myself again. It was just too challenging and I think you know the kind of runner whether you're someone who time qualified or you're a charity runner who comes out to this event is typically someone who's very competitive and, in many cases, incredibly fast. So this year we had a lot of people who ran for charity that also time qualified but they were eliminated because they didn't make that cutoff that we all read about, where there were a lot of runners who were disappointed. So they still wanted to run and they were starting from the back waves, but these are people who are very fast. So I read that a lot of people experienced some of that difficulty on the course with people that were fast and a bit aggressive.
Speaker 5:I had not thought about that, but I know I know what what you mean. Let me explain for a second in case some listeners don't. There's a prescribed boston qualifying time and it goes by age groups. But just because you make that doesn't guarantee you entry to the boston marathon correct if there are too many people who make the qualifying time, then that time and in some cases it can be as much as six or seven minutes that it gets cut, which is it's gotta be tough, really tough.
Speaker 13:It's heartbreaking, I mean, and this year, I think, was one of the most competitive years they've ever had with the number of people who were eliminated.
Speaker 5:Wow, wow. So Jennifer, did you time qualify? Correct, you did so. Adam goes with you right. Valerie charity bib time qualify um.
Speaker 19:I had an invitational bib oh, there you go I did not time qualify, not even close um. So there are certain agencies that provide support to the boston marathon that are given bibs because of their support. So I. I was offered one of those bibs.
Speaker 5:Oh, that's excellent. That's excellent. Need to talk with my daughter who lives in Boston to see if she nevermind.
Speaker 13:Yes, you need to ask everyone that could possibly help you. You never know.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you never know, you never know.
Speaker 2:Adam and Valerieory, since this was your first boston, what did you guys do to prep uh coach twigs yeah, just build it into the program.
Speaker 19:I, unfortunately, was dealing with injury towards the end, so I I went into the marathon knowing it was going to be a challenge that day. But yeah, coach twigs and customized training and built it out and had the confidence. And every time I sounded like I was doubtful, he was like yeah, you can do this, you'll be fine, just do it.
Speaker 6:Similar for me. Coach Chris put in speed work for me after getting through Disney and a couple of marathons prior. He put in mile repeats just to get those legs moving, to get me up to Boston speeds. Let me rephrase that Get me up to Jennifer's.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 6:She's hard to keep up with, which we'll learn about.
Speaker 5:That is significant. I mean, we're joking a little bit, that's. That's significant.
Speaker 6:Yeah. So I did repeats, got. I got stronger there, I had the endurance. I wasn't concerned about the endurance and the distance, but the speed is always a concern when you talk Boston, because it's like Jennifer said, it's super fast. But I just wanted to be as prepared as possible.
Speaker 5:How do you avoid getting swept up in that and going out too fast, Jennifer?
Speaker 13:That is really hard and, honestly, it's something I'm not good at, which is why I was really happy to have Adam with me and I kept asking him is my face okay? Is my face okay?
Speaker 13:And when it wasn't, he would tell me real quick because you know I tend to get really caught up in the moment. And when people are running around you it's not so much I don't care if they pass me. It just feels like when you're at a race that everyone should sort of be going the same speed. You know you want to keep up with traffic, so it's very easy to get caught up, and especially those first miles when you're at an incline going down and that gives you a distinct advantage. You don't feel when you're running faster than you actually are. So I think initially we were faster than we should have been, but honestly not significantly. So I don't think that would have hurt us.
Speaker 5:Okay, now you described the course, jennifer Valerie. How did you find the course coming out of Hopkinton and heading east towards Boston?
Speaker 19:I watched, watched videos, I did my research before so that I was familiar with the course. So, um, there was a youtube video that was really good about explaining the first five miles are in that downhill. Don't go out too fast, save yourself, because you know the 16 to 21 is where the the hills are. You, you get into Newton and you get into Heartbreak Hill and whatnot. So I stuck to my 30, 30 intervals, like I was supposed to. I was a little bit faster than I wanted to be, but not enough that. I was significantly faster than I needed to be. So I focused, I did my own race yeah, the people are going to go by and that's their race and this is mine and I needed to be very conscious of doing it the way I was supposed to. Adam, how was the weather?
Speaker 5:Oh, the weather.
Speaker 6:It was hot, and I mean sunny hot. It started off with some overcast but it ended up being very sunny in the end. The starting temp was 68, pushing 69 degrees and zero wind in the beginning, so we had no breeze. So right off the bat we felt that and I know we struggled a bit with hydration and and and whatnot. Um, but uh, you know, as the race went on, eventually we got um a better breeze, I think for us. We finally got that breeze after heartbreak. Uh, maybe even like 23 miles, we we started to feel the breeze and that was amazing. But the first most of the marathon was was a real nice and rough and hard from a weather perspective.
Speaker 5:That race covers a multitude of weather scenarios. I was thinking back today to the 2018 race, which had to be the most miserable race. I watched it on TV. That was the Des Linden one, with the 30 mile an hour winds, the 35 degree temperatures and a torrential rain. Yeah man, oh man. But yeah, that's really warm for this time of year, and I mean honestly, most of the course was direct sun as well.
Speaker 13:So they're, you know, coming Adam and I. Coming from central Florida, I'm used to heat and I can handle heat, but I can also, during training runs, control my hydration and control everything I'm taking in. And you know that's a lot harder, especially at the world majors where you're not allowed to carry, you know, a hydration pack and they have a lot of rules and regulations that you have to navigate around, so it makes fueling more challenging.
Speaker 5:Well, let's talk about your races, and I'm going to start Adam and Jennifer together. Just an overview how'd it go? Tell us some of the highlights, please.
Speaker 13:Adam, I'll let you go, since this is your first Boston. Take it away.
Speaker 6:All right. I would say the energy around the race was absolutely amazing. I loved how it had a small town feel to it that grew as you got closer to the city. I thought that was absolutely amazing. I really enjoy the course as a whole. It took me some time to reflect on that and see it fully because it was a very hard race, but I would say the course is amazing. Cannot wait to do it again. But I know that this was a very difficult race for me, especially the second half of the race. Uh it in the end we did well. We hit our goal, our, our, our c goal. I should say that's all right, um, but we had to adjust and and that's that's what you do when you get into a marathon you troubleshoot as you go and I think we did a really good job doing that. Um, hindsight, we would would change things, going back and repeating the day, but we don't get a chance to do that. So I think, given all the challenges we had, I thought we did quite well, that's awesome, valerie.
Speaker 5:How about you? How did the race go for Valerie?
Speaker 19:So I was back with a pack and obviously it's supposed to be a six hour course limit. So I knew that that was actually going to be a PR for me if I could stick to six hours. Okay, I knew it was going to be a challenge, but that was fine. My first half I was on point, but I had to visit the medical tent at mile 10. Plantar fasciitis in my left foot was very uncomfortable and my right hip has been an ongoing issue. So the foot liked it when I ran, the hip liked it when I walked, so there was really no win. So, like I said, my first half was fine and the second half was hard. It was harder. But I put my head down and I said I'm going to finish this. And you know, you have your A, b, c, d goals and D goal was to finish.
Speaker 19:It was kind of disheartening. I got to mile 20 and they were taking the mile marker sign down At certain points. After that I was dodging box trucks on the course as they were dumping. They were dumping the water and the fuel on the ground. Oh gee whiz, closing up the water stations. Um, but spectators were really good after that. You know, do you need oranges? Do you need a bottle of water? Do you need a gatorade? So the the spectators were still there and they were really supportive About mile 25, I made it to 25 and they directed us onto the sidewalks. So you're running down uneven cobblestone, weaving through pedestrians that have had the day off from work.
Speaker 19:Yeah, yeah, that's right so they were an obstacle in itself. You're trying to cross streets. There's traffic, you don't know where to go. People were really good about you know. You're doing great Turn up here and then you'll take a left onto Boylston and I'm still on the sidewalks, I'm still navigating these people and I'm running down the sidewalks and I can see the finish line and I look over again. I'm on the sidewalk and there's this guy that goes running down the center of the street and I'm like I'm supposed to be over there. So how do I get over there? So I'm trying to find a gap in the you know, the barricades so that I can get on out on the street. So I finally managed to get out there and I don't know if anybody has seen my finish line picture. I am all by myself, so I, so I. You know it's like the picture of the first place finisher or the last place finish. There's nobody. So you know if anybody wants to digitally input some runners into my picture no, no, no.
Speaker 5:They need to digitally input a ribbon, a finisher's ribbon yeah, they were still cheering.
Speaker 19:Um, it was great. Yeah, I took a long time, but I did finish. I did 26.2. Just like everybody else did. It's not an official finish because it took too long and it's probably a one and done, but it was a once in a lifetime, lifetime opportunity and I don't regret any of it.
Speaker 5:No it was.
Speaker 19:It was an amazing experience.
Speaker 5:Valerie, you ran the Boston Marathon.
Speaker 19:I ran the Boston Marathon Pretty bleeping awesome girl, Good for you.
Speaker 5:And I was smiling a little bit when you talked about the folks on the street who had the day off and I'm thinking, yeah, and the bars were open.
Speaker 19:Yes, they were.
Speaker 5:But you know the city and I'm not telling you anything you don't know. You can tell me more about this. I lived up there for a while. The city takes great pride in that event. It's unique to boston? Well, that's not. I mean it's special. It's not unique to boston. New york, chicago, other cities.
Speaker 13:It's the oldest marathon in the world.
Speaker 5:It's the oldest marathon in the world. They they take great pride in it, as they should, and it's it's special, and I'm excited for all of you and I'm excited that you had a chance to tell us about it. I don't want to cut you loose yet, but I'm going to ask one overarching question what do you want to tell us that we haven't talked about yet? Adam, I'll make you go first.
Speaker 6:Oh, so I would say this was my hardest piece that I have ever done. Oh, so I would say this was my hardest pacing that I have ever done. Hands down, it's also and it's not, it's the course and what we had to manage. That made it difficult. I'll tell you Jennifer made a point of it earlier when you are being a wall or being protective, it's very difficult, especially what we call when the swarm comes. And we knew when it was coming because it was a couple of random people.
Speaker 6:And then, all of a sudden, we're getting blown by person after person and then lots of people, and this is, you know, we started right after, right after wave, at the end of wave one and wave two, which, about 15 minutes after we started, they start and they're, all you know, low, low, three hour runners looking to do that that day. So once they started to hit us at mile six, seven now, now I'm, I'm trying to make sure somebody's not coming up on either side and I can't see behind us either. So I'm, I'm, I'm looking, I'm directing, I'm guiding. When we're doing walk breaks, I'm clearing, doing a, apparently doing a good job, had many people comment and thank us for the guiding that we were doing.
Speaker 2:So that made me feel good. Yeah, thank us for the guiding that we were doing.
Speaker 6:So that made me feel good, yeah, but I would say it was the hardest because of the condition and stuff that that we both went through, especially what I went through. I got to really think about this, and my best friend, tony, and I run all of our ultras together are over a hundred milers and I thought it was. It was ironically similar to how we run, because in those long distances, one of us will be doing really well and the other one will be struggling and the other one picks it. You know we pick each other up. Ironically, that happened during the Boston Marathon for us.
Speaker 6:So, yeah, in the beginning, jennifer had hydration issues, some stomach issues, and I was I was, you know, guiding through that, keeping us on pace, getting her what she needed and then, of course, come mile 16, 17, the tides turned and everything got really hard for me. I started to have that problem. I started up cramping. So she's turning around making sure I'm still there and and holding strong and throwing water on me to cool me down. Um and uh, it was. It was a very humbling experience. A ton of uh, difficulty, but fun. I look back on it now and I I wouldn't change anything. Honestly, I thought it was, uh, a very good overall successful race. Would I have loved to do a little bit better, from a pacing and whatnot perspective, of course, but given the day and given the challenges, I thought we did really good. With all those crowds and the craziness around, it was wonderful.
Speaker 5:I think it's fantastic. Jennifer, you want to add to that, or you have something else you'd like to talk about on your own?
Speaker 13:I would say that overall, the city of Boston, you know, starting Friday prior to the race being on Monday is just really incredible. The whole city is focused and centered around that race. There is no other race experience that I have had and keep in mind, I've finished all the world majors that remotely compares the way that they make you feel so special and all that matters is that race is incredible. You know whether you could go as a spectator because you have a friend or a loved one running, or you just want to go as a spectator to experience it. I think you should do it because you're not going to ever get that experience elsewhere. The um, the pros are all so kind. They all know that we admire them and they come out and they take photos with you. They try and make you feel special. Um, my family and I we were lucky enough to meet gronk and if you don't- know who gronk is.
Speaker 2:He must have been under a rock, but we were lucky enough to meet gronk and if you don't know who, he must have been under a rock.
Speaker 13:But we were lucky enough to meet gronk and we all got our photos with him and he was so kind, um and welcoming that's good to know it is, and so I encourage you. Whether or not you're actually going to run, it doesn't matter if I encourage you to go out and experience it fantastic.
Speaker 5:That's awesome, and you kind of buried the lead there, jennifer. I didn't realize you'd done all six.
Speaker 13:I have. I finished my sixth star in this last Chicago Marathon in.
Speaker 5:October. Golly, I wish we had known that. I'm sorry, but congratulations, that's really really cool. Thank you, valerie.
Speaker 19:Last thoughts yeah, I'll echo the spectators. They were pretty amazing. I wore a shirt to represent my hometown up in Maine and there was a lot. You know New England's a pretty tight. You know it's like a family of six and each sibling has their own personality, but they're still a family and New England is still pretty tight knit. So the, the interactions with the, with the spectators, was pretty amazing. There were dark times. There's some rough miles where I had to move away from the Wells, the Wellesley scream tunnel, because they were a little bit too much for where I was in my rates.
Speaker 19:But later on I did a duet of Paradise by the Dashboard Lights with somebody on the sidelines. Oh right, something like that. So it was a lot of engagement. I did the photo package. It's like 107 pictures and multiple videos, and there's one picture where I'm not even looking at the photographer. I'm like interacting with somebody on the other side of the street. So they were really supportive. It was really great. My family was there. They brought me McDonald's, it was great.
Speaker 5:That's wonderful.
Speaker 19:Yeah, if you ever have an opportunity like that, take it, because they don't come along very often and it. You know as hard as it was. It was rewarding. And to hear my kids like humble brag that mom did Boston Marathon, it's so funny. You know, teenagers, you don't. You don't expect to hear my kids like humble brag that mom did Boston marathon, it's so funny. You know, teenagers, you don't like. You don't expect to hear something like no, that's a big deal it's so cool, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2:Valerie, that's great so, valerie, is this your only major?
Speaker 19:well, if you count the virtuals, it's not okay so. I've done. I've done london, I've done new york and I've done boston all virtually so it doesn't really count, but to me it's okay and I've got the medals up on my wall.
Speaker 5:So yeah, there you go. I don't so good on you congratulations, next challenge yeah, we'll see. We'll see. All right, my friends, again, wonderful to see you. Congratulations on finishing the Boston marathon. That's awesome, and thanks for spending time with us.
Speaker 13:Thank you.
Speaker 5:Thank you.
Speaker 5:All right, my friends. Thanks for sharing those stories. Adam, jennifer, valerie loved hearing them. Glad you had a good time. Even though that's a challenging run, no doubt about it, you did great. All right, I mentioned that I'd gotten behind. Another one I've gotten behind on is the London Marathon. We're going to visit with several folks who ran the London Marathon in the next episode. There were also a couple of races that were completed last week that, for one reason or another, I didn't catch your submitted race report on, so I'm catching up on those right now. The first one is the Nolichucky Wine Run, a 5K in Russellville, tennessee.
Speaker 5:Megan I still don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly, but I'm sticking with it. First trail run for Megan made her a little bit nervous. Had some rain, some mud, which is going to make things even a little more treacherous but started out strong, then took a sharp turn somewhere in the vineyard, found a hole to land in, did it just so that she was able to twist her left foot and bend her ankle in a way that it really isn't supposed to bend. That's not good. Fortunately, some nice ladies helped her up. She continued for a while, but as Megan continued, the throbbing in the ankle got worse. Now she's got a 15K coming up that she doesn't want to miss any training for. So to prevent this injury from getting worse, she made the tough choice to cut this race in half. It was a two-looper. She finished this one after the first loop. Things like that happen sometimes. You just got to keep moving forward and do the best that you can, and that's what Megan did. Good job, megan. We're proud of you. Hope that 15K works out. I'm sure we'll hear about it.
Speaker 5:Our friend Sue Hayes in Connecticut did two races last weekend the Camper Scamper 5K in Palm Fret and the Deacon Chuck Deitch 5K in Southbury. She placed third in her age group in both races. Now finished towns 149 and 150 on her quest to run all 169 towns in Connecticut. You're getting there, sue. Olathe, kansas. The Garmin Olathe Marathon in the land of Oz.
Speaker 5:Riley did this one State number 27,. She is working on doing 50 marathons in 50 states. As we speculated last week. Had a blast at this one State number 27. She is working on doing 50 marathons in 50 states. As we speculated last week. Had a blast at this one. Weather was perfect, volunteers, staff, spectators all really great, very friendly. Lots of bike path running in this one, which tends to be relatively flat, which tends to be relatively flat. Riley had a just-finished goal for this one, since her training for this race wasn't quite ideal A lot of us can relate to that. Riley Happy to say she finished in 5 hours 19 minutes. Pretty darn good Overall super fun, a Wizard of Oz-themed race and a great option for Kansas for of you, 50 staters out there, so absent, the London Marathon. That catches us up from previous runs.
Speaker 5:Now let's get into this week's races and let's start on Saturday in Nashville, tennessee, where we had a bunch of rising runners going and doing the Rock and Roll Nashville Marathon weekend. Let's see Molly was there. Molly said it was miserable but she finished, got multiple compliments on her bright and colorful outfit, which it surely was. Molly, you looked great. Half marathon number eight. Let's see Sarah. Sarah ran the half. Sarah didn't say miserable, but she said this is a tough one. This is a hilly area, nashville in general, and this course was kind of hilly. Sarah says tough one Managed a PR on her half despite the heat. Way to go. Sarah Enjoying Nashville. But the next time she comes she thinks she's going to just visit for the music and the food. Not a bad call.
Speaker 5:Laurie was there. Laurie was running her 11th half marathon Again not her best finish time. The hills and the heat Again not her best finish time. The hills and the heat that's a theme for this race. Lots of fun and an amazing support from the crowd. Jordan and her sister Regan ran the half. No PR for Jordan, but it was Regan's first half marathon. She finished in 217. Of course that's a PR Way to go. Reagan.
Speaker 5:Vanessa ran the full. Lots of people talked about seeing time. She's done it. She's local so she does it every year. She's just started back to running after wine and dine. So she relaxed and did what we love to do. She PR'd in fun. This was made somewhat easier because folks had cups of beer for her on the course it does. In fact, this helped her build her confidence to tackle this one next year and other races later this season.
Speaker 5:And back to Sarah and Vanessa. They also did their first one-mile race, which allowed them to complete the Rock and Roll Remix Challenge. They went out faster than they planned to, but they had drag brunch reservations across town that they needed to make. Rock and Roll. Nashville sounds great. Guys, let's go north of the border. St Lawrence, ontario, canada, for the St Lawrence 10K. Tara Tara ran it looking stunning in her black rise and run singlet. She grabbed herself a solid walt disney world pot on this race. Way to go, tara. Jupiter, florida, the live like jake. 5k. Stephanie said she saw some run disney friends there on this beautiful morning on a course that a race that was run for a great cause.
Speaker 5:10th year anniversary of this particular race, the sunset beach half marathon. In sunset beach, north carolina, just a little north of the south carolina border, chelsea and gretchen said they barely made it to the start line in time. They had had to park about a mile away and then there were long lines to enter. Corral P. If you don't get the reference, I will refer you to last week's episode. They made it, though had a wonderful race. Mostly flat in the beginning, helped them to conquer the uphill bridge over the island. Towards the end they got a half under their running belts. Now they got their eyes on their first ever marathon in January. By the way, I saw photos of the medals for this race. They're about the size of a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza. They're huge.
Speaker 5:It was the greater St Louis marathon weekend in St Louis, missouri. Chris was there. He ran a half in the morning and a 5k in the afternoon and Katie ran something called the Rally, the Lou Challenge. I spent a little time trying to figure out who Lou was before I realized that the Lou was St Louis. I'm not always that fast on the uptake. Anyway, the Rally of the Loo Challenge was a 10k and a 5k. Katie says this race is quintessential St Louis all the way down to the toasted ravioli mascot, the gooey butter cake and the crowned candy. At the end the mascot was pretty. Over 10,000 runners, two races. Katie PR'd both of them in that mecca of running that we haven't heard a lot from lately.
Speaker 5:Fishers, indiana. The choose to move 5k. Tiffany and her family ran this charity run for Parkinson's disease. Tiffany's kids decided it was too hot so they turned off and just did the mile, but Tiffany and her husband used it as a training run for their half marathon coming up next week. The Indy Mini another big event Up in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, the Twin Cities In Motion Get In Gear Races. Melissa and she met Aaron there. The big news is they found one another, had a little mini rise and run meetup. That's cool. No cookies, though, just a banana. Good run, ladies. Way to go.
Speaker 5:Hattiesburg, mississippi, the Farm to Fork Ride Run. 5k. Tim says this is a great local race that raises money for Extra Table, a charity that supplies food banks throughout Mississippi. Second year at the event for Tim Struggled a little bit with walkers on the course but he managed. He just started running in January of 23, at the age of 52. Just a kid, tim, you've got plenty of time yet. Doesn't want to believe that slower time is caused solely by age. It's not Tim, it's not. You'll be all right. You've got great running days ahead of you. I promise Lake Como, new Jersey, the Lake Como Spring Break 5K. Robin says she's definitely missing the warm weather from springtime. Surprise, however, at this 5K Robin managed to PR. Winter Park, florida.
Speaker 5:Jake and Lily ran the Run for the Trees 5K In Louisville, kentucky, the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini Marathon. Great event. Abby was there, as was Grace. Really fun event, even if it didn't go according to plan for Grace. She dropped back to plan C, which was just to have fun. That's a good plan, grace. Great crowds, great course support. Running through Churchill Downs was definitely a wonderful experience. They've got a half and a full run. They start at the same time and one of Grace's goals was to finish as the top male finisher finished the marathon, so she got to see him break the tape. That's pretty cool and actually, grace, that's a pretty good pace too, because you were usually looking at a race like that high 220s, maybe low 230s. Good job, Glad you had fun at that excellent event, the Thin Mint Sprint 5K in West Palm Beach, florida.
Speaker 5:I have to admit when I first read about this I was wondering if the Girl Scouts put this on. Turns out they kind of do. Jennifer and Stephen were there. Beautiful morning, a little humid. It's Florida, what the heck. Jennifer second place in her age group, stephen first in his, I think, steve's, drawing power from the Phillies headband that he wears. They got to meet Amber We'll hear from Amber in just a second. Another Rise and Runner and they each got a box of Girl Scout cookies with their medals. Amber, as I said earlier, was there. Amber said she's running on coffee, girl Scout cookies and of course she mentioned meeting up with Jennifer and Stephen. I love when that happens.
Speaker 5:In Jim Thorpe, pennsylvania, the Jim Thorpe Marathon, david ran this one Beautiful 26-mile race on packed gravel course along a gentle downhill trail next to a gorgeous river. David said he went out a little bit too fast, was hoping for a PR but didn't quite get it. Still proud of his finish time of three hours and 16 minutes. David, three hours and 16 minutes is not a PR. That's smoking, my friend. Great race and I'm excited for you when you do set that PR. Let us know.
Speaker 5:The Run United Half Marathon 10K 5K in Aitkin, south Carolina. Dylan was there. Ran the 5K In Kissimmee, florida. Dylan was there. Ran the 5K In Kissimmee, florida. Kayla ran the Stroll First Scholarships 10K. And finishing up Saturday in Columbus, ohio, the Capital City Quarter Marathon Kayla was there. This is her first race report. She's back on the road after having her first child back in December. Her goal is the Wine and dine half. She's pretty close to a POT time for this one. Kayla, I'd say for you the future is bright. We had one weekend-long event, the 30-hour event in Savannah Georgia called the Bronze Dragonfly. Our buddy Chad was there. Chad's been on the podcast before a couple of times. He is an ultra distance runner. I've never met chad. I've seen him on zoom many.
Speaker 5:I think chad and chad is about the same size as I am he is yeah, yeah, he about as tall as you, significantly younger but about the same size, which makes what he does to me as a big guy even more impressive. And what he accomplished this weekend is kind of mind-boggling. His main goal for the event was to finish the 100-mile distance in under 24 hours. The 100 mile distance in under 24 hours. So he did that. He finished in 23 hours 18 minutes 19 seconds. This was by four hours, eight minutes and 50 seconds an improvement over his previous 100 miler. Pretty sure that's a PR.
Speaker 5:Then he found a runner who was having trouble finishing with her walking, so he went back for more laps to help the other runner. After completing a couple more laps, his crew, which was Jamie and Dean, let him know that if he kept going he was going to finish the event number one overall and if he did one more lap he was going to set the 30-hour course record for number of miles. So they looked at him. Chad said I don't know, I need some water. Dean said no problem. Came back, gave him a bottle of miles. So they looked at him. Chad said I don't know I need some water. Dean said no problem, came back, gave him a bottle of water. I don't know if he literally pushed him or not. Send him back out. He did the lap, set the course record for this event, chad, bravo brother.
Speaker 12:Congratulations Amazing.
Speaker 3:It is absolutely amazing you know, when I hear these stories about chad? Um, he's a pennsylvania boy like me, um, but the thing is he's on the complete opposite side of the state like I mean he's, even though we're we both live in pennsylvania. He's six hours away from me yeah, he's like southwest, I think.
Speaker 5:Think isn't he, greg? Yeah, south of.
Speaker 3:Pittsburgh and I mean, if you need like an accountability partner in this community, chad is one that will positively push you in the right way. And I mean I was amazed when, you know, early on the podcast when we had interviewed him, and you know when he talked about the across the years and, you know, knocked out 400 miles over the span of a couple of days.
Speaker 3:And you think that's incredible. And then he does this. I mean that's just, it's fabulous. Now the one thing based on the customized training call. According to sources, one gentleman from this weekend called Coach Twiggs and said that dean was being mean and so I I want to go to someone who has ran with dean um before and that's lexi, lexi in the. In the short time that you've run with dean, has dean ever been mean to you?
Speaker 7:Never.
Speaker 3:Never Okay, he doesn't have a mean bone in his body, so whoever could have told Coach Twiggs that Dean was being mean must have been lying. I just wanted to set the record straight on that it might have been another Dean. Who knows, it might have been another Dean you never know.
Speaker 5:Well again, Chad, congratulations. That is really awesome. Let's move to sunday and let's start in philadelphia and ask greg to tell us about the gift of life donor dash 10k sure.
Speaker 3:So this is uh, this is a race that I have done, uh, several times. I got involved with the Gift of Life donation and all the the different options you know. Even if you know the, the organs aren't viable. They can be used for scientific research and everything like that. So, um, so this has been an organization that has um held a very special place in my heart, and the fact that they did a race and then they also do a 3k walk as well too. So I've I've just I love participating in this plus, not to mention, it's one of the cheapest 10ks I've ever run. I'm going to say you, you can do the, the 5k or the 10k for like 35 dollars. Like you, you really, you really can't beat it.
Speaker 3:So when I was looking at my training calendar and when the news had dropped that Run Disney was moving back to a two hour and 30 minute POT, I was like, huh, maybe I could knock this one out, because this race was eligible for me to use for Wine and Dine. So I went out in hopes of knocking out. I think I had to run like a 107 or something like that, and the problem was that, you know, I remember in the back of my head the entire time. You know, coach Twiggs told me that, coming out of Springtime Surprise, I needed to take Springtime easy and I needed to be fresh by Wednesday of last week in order to have my legs ready to go for this 10K. And unfortunately, and as I've learned through others on our Facebook group and other Facebook groups, a lot of people came out with varying forms of illnesses out of springtime surprise. I heard of stomach bugs and then colds and coughs and everything like that and unfortunately I fell victim to a sinus infection and I was like crap, this isn't going to bode well for the POT attempt. So I was diligent in my fluids and making sure that I was taking medications and everything like that and I was actually recovering faster than I initially do. So I was like, oh, I actually have confidence that maybe I can, I can make this work on Sunday.
Speaker 3:So I started off and I think that to get that that POT at the 10K pace, you have to run 1050 miles, which is quite a bit faster than what I'm used to. But I was up for the challenge. I hit my first two miles. I was sub 1050. I was really excited about that and then I was approaching the 5K mark and it's just not to get graphic here like the the post nasal drip was just out of control and I was having trouble breathing and then I was making my chest tight and everything like that, and by the time I hit the third mile I was already about 90 seconds off pace and I just at that point made the decision that this was now going to become a catered training run.
Speaker 3:And, um, you know, and you, just you know, you gotta look, be smart. And you know, go to a plan b, because I have another race this weekend, uh, the broad street 10 miler that I'm gonna use as another potential pot attempt here. So I was like, you know, I'm just gonna to live to see another day here. So, finished off that race, um, I'll, I'll let bob and alicia talk about the wonderful news though that came out of this race weekend. Uh, and then, once I finished, met back up with my wife and daughter and the three of us walked the 3k uh portion of the event.
Speaker 3:That happens about 45 minutes after the run was done so very nice again it was, uh, it was a great time was in the brand new location down at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which was nice to run around and see some of the old ships and everything like that, but a good time overall. So yeah, if you're in the Philadelphia or beyond region and you're looking for a cheap and effective 10K that benefits a great cause, I highly recommend this race.
Speaker 12:Greg, I'm so glad that you overall had a great weekend and I hope that Broad Street goes well for you, and I'm also grateful to you that you told Allie about this race. She texted me and she was like I was talking to Greg and he told me about this 10K. Do you think it's too close to the race? I want to go for a proof of time. And I said no, I definitely think you can do it. And she's like I don't know if I can hit it. And I was like, just give it a try, have that be your A goal, have a B goal and just go for it. And she did and she got her proof of time. So I'm grateful for you, Greg, for telling her about it, and I'm so proud of you, Allie, for achieving your goal of getting a proof of time.
Speaker 5:Yes, she did Allie without an E, just so we know who we're talking about here. There's only one.
Speaker 3:No, I was incredibly proud of her too. You know, she, she started off with me and then bolted ahead and the way that the course was set up, we just um. It was essentially a two-loop course, so I was glad to see that she was getting further and further away from me. So I knew that was a good sign and obviously I, you know she was really encouraging. But obviously I didn't want to ask her. You know, like, where she thought she was at or whatever you know on the course you, obviously I didn't want to ask her. You know, like where she thought she was at or whatever you know on the course you know I didn't want to like potentially jinx anything.
Speaker 3:And. But she was waiting for me at the finish line with a bottle of water because in theory she finished about she finished about seven and a half to eight minutes before me and she was so excited she's like I just got the text message and it's unofficial.
Speaker 3:I think I got it by like 31 seconds or something like that, and when she told me the time I was like, well, if that Macmillan calculator rumor is true, then yes, you got your POT. Yeah, so I was. I'm beyond thrilled for her. So way to go, allie, and cannot wait to see you this weekend.
Speaker 5:I love beyond thrilled for her. So way to go, ali, and that's good. Cannot wait to see you this weekend. I love when people wait at the finish line for me. I get a little annoyed when they've already gone back to their room, showered, changed and come back, but that's okay.
Speaker 3:Good job, ali, we appreciate it oh, and, and actually, and by the way, before we move off of this race, um, I, I, I just I needed to bring this up. Um, I need to talk to ali's coach. She really, really wants to run bird in hand, but she was saying that her coach is maybe a little apprehensive because of some travel and being able to incorporate that travel. So I just want to put it out there into the ether hey, coach, let her run bird in hand.
Speaker 5:Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 12:Her and I have already chatted about it, but I will talk to her again.
Speaker 1:Cater training run If nothing else, that's a real good one.
Speaker 5:Real good one. All right, my friends, let's continue. Let's go to Portland, maine, the Portland 10 miler. Heidi was there. Weather was perfect for running until it started to pour rain. At the very end, as she was waiting for her ride, heidi saw another run Disney person there wearing their Hakuna Matata t-shirt. Jessica was also at this run, her first 10 mile or ever. We know what that means. Enjoyed the course. One killer hill around mile four. In this run, not only did she PR, she's had her fastest mile, fastest 5K, fastest 10K times. But she wasn't quite fast enough. She couldn't finish before that same rainstorm Heidi talked about hit her at mile nine. She finished in the pouring rain. Let's go to the other coast Eugene, oregon. Christina and Trent ran the Eugene Marathon In Central Park, new York. Megan ran the Real Simple Women's Half Marathon. Kristen was in Charlotte, north Carolina, for the Hit the Bricks 10K.
Speaker 5:Back in Philadelphia, grace run wild for the zoo the 5K in Philadelphia. Philadelphia run wild for the zoo the 5K in Philadelphia. Philadelphia has a very nice zoo. Grace got to run with her friends, beautiful day. The animals seemed to be enjoying. I saw some of her pictures and videos. She got to run with the giraffes. The giraffes were loping along on the side. That was pretty cool. Post-race snacks Grace describes a Philly pretzel chips of all kinds and giant cookies. Greg, I remember Philly pretzels coming out of a ballgame in Philadelphia. They'd be cold and unsalted and awful. But if they're big, salty, soft pretzels.
Speaker 2:Hey Bob, do they cook them on a chopping cart? That's the only way you've got to eat them, Kind of yeah, yeah, the vendor's cart with the yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen those too.
Speaker 5:It's been a long time but I've seen those too. Let's go north of the border. Calgary, alberta, canada, the Get Stuff Done Run 5K. Melissa Leanne and her friend Kevin. Melissa says she's had a hard time getting back into running since Princess Weekend but they did it. Not a PR, but a solid run and a crazy amount of wind, which, of course, the wind is always in your face. She finished in 26.14 for a 5K With the wind in your face. That's smoking under any circumstances. Happy to be back out there. Way to go. Melissa leanne out in california. The big this was big, sir.
Speaker 5:Marathon weekend. That's a legendary run in the us. Beautiful, beautiful course. Jen did the 11 miler. It was her first ever 11 miler. Another pr, pr bell. Stunningly beautiful course, amazing volunteers. Her husband, george, ran the marathon. Also described his course as absolutely magnificent. Highly recommend this race.
Speaker 5:Fitz Kohler was the race announcer out there. They went to or at least Jen did went to Fitz's Fitness Clinic on Saturday. Bethany. Bethany was out there, ran a 12K, made a new friend in the corrals. They spent most of the time talking about Run Disney. Bethany said that her friend wasn't a listener, but she told her she needs to listen. Thanks, bethany. We appreciate you spreading the love. Beautiful day, stunning course. Hills are tough. Got a new run, disney friend. So glad she went. After all, this is her first 12K. We know what that means.
Speaker 5:At the Boston Marathon. I know you thought we talked about the Boston Marathon at the top of the race report, right? I know you thought we talked about the Boston Marathon at the top of the race report, right. Well, there's a Boston in the United Kingdom and this race starts in the city of Boston, finishes at Boston College. It's known as the flattest marathon in the UK. Boston's an inland town of about 45,000 people, in kind of the central part of England.
Speaker 5:Over there on the eastern seaboard, our buddy, rob, who also ran London Marathon, did this one. The way Rob describes it, the weather he describes reminds me of the 2018 Boston Marathon in the United States, where the rain was torrential, the winds were about 30, 40 miles an hour, the temperature was about 35. All of that is what Rob ran in. It was just a little bit warmer a couple degrees warmer, but not enough to be meaningful. Of course, all the heavy rain means the course flooded a little bit, so you're running in four or five inches of water. He eased off a little bit at the 10-mile mark because he thought he'd kind of struggle at the end.
Speaker 5:But as bad as the weather conditions were, they got worse in the second half. The last mile and a bit was back inside an urban area. Gave him a little bit more shelter from the wind. So the pace really picked up, got a few more places and finished this mess in a time of three hours 15 minutes. Way to go, rob, way to go. That's an awesome marathon time under great conditions. Under those conditions that's really really impressive. Back stateside for a bit. Here in Gettysburg, pennsylvania, the Blue-Gray Half Marathon. Caitlin was there, said it was a foggy morning, which I think is kind of perfect for a run around Gettysburg. Didn't actually go through the Battlefield Park, went mostly to the south of the city. It's a good one to check Pennsylvania off her list for half marathons and she's going to check maryland off too, because this thing actually spends.
Speaker 3:I think it's literally a couple hundred yards yes, no, I was going to say that again. Technically, I ran this race two years ago and, yeah, even though it's not very long, you do dip into maryland just a little bit.
Speaker 5:Yeah, in basking ridge, new jersey, the spring distance classic 15k. Heather did this one, originally scheduled for march but the course got flooded so it got moved to the last weekend. This is us track and field state championship race for jersey. Heather had a goal to finish in two hours but he got to her, started cramping a little at mile eight, finished in two hours three minutes. Not too shabby. And since this was her first 15K, there's a lot of that going around. Another bell please.
Speaker 5:In Plymouth, back in the UK, the Plymouth Half Marathon. Peter ran the half and around the 10K. Peter said the conditions were ideal. A little chilly, especially on the way to the start. Yeah, that's the tough part. A couple of killer hills about the halfway point in the last quarter mile. Peter finished this half in 2.57, just ahead of his target of three hours. This will be his last race in his 40s. The good news is, peter, you got decade PRs to look forward to. Hannah did the 10K, said the weather. She thought it was a little cool but she liked it. It was nice bit of sun, first time she's done this 10K. The support on the course was amazing, even with the 10k had a nasty uphill finish. Let's finish the race report.
Speaker 5:In Georgia, chatsworth, georgia, the teardrop races. Aj ran the half and his wife Erica ran the 10k. This course features a 2,000 foot elevation drop. Seven miles of downhill running on the half and the 10K is almost all downhill. A little climb at the beginning of the half, kind of intense, but after that let's see. Aj wasn't able to PR this race. His PR was back at Princess, but Erica did PR her 10K. Amy was also there. Amy ran the half. Her only comment is my legs are still killing me. And there we go.
Speaker 5:Race report for episode 136. No Zoom call this week. My friends, okay, my friends. And of course you know if you run you are our friend. Season's over Been trying to put it into perspective and I keep coming back to Pro Football Hall of Famer. Joe Namath If you don't know who that is, google him.
Speaker 5:In the early 70s, wrote a biography entitled I can't wait until tomorrow colon, because I get better looking every day. Until tomorrow, colon, because I get better looking every day. Well, I can't wait till our next race because you surprise me more and more every time with the support and the love I don't. We still pay attention to how the podcast does in terms of downloads, but I don't count them as much anymore. Growing the family, watching the way that you interact with one another that means so much more to us. That that's what it's all about. It's all about you.
Speaker 5:But I want to share one story about I think it encompasses how this weekend affected me not this weekend, this season. Two of my good running friends, one of whom is here this evening, rachel and her buddy, tara, invited me to participate in their photo shoot on Monday. Photo shoot on Monday, wrapping up the season. I really appreciated that. It's not just those two, but it's all of you. And I was sitting at dinner that night and I was looking at the photos.
Speaker 5:I'm at the Rodeo Roundup with Becky and I'm looking at the photos and to say overcome is the right word. I was overcome to the point of thinking I was going to pass out, because all I could think of is what did I do to deserve this? This is, this is incredible. This, the love that this family has created. Oh, it's so meaningful to us. Look, we'll stay together this summer. We'll continue to talk with you and about you during our episodes. Maybe we'll see some of you at local races. I hope some of you see one another. I'm planning to be at the We'll Run For virtually live event, so I may see some of you on Zoom there. But think about this how exciting is it going to be when we get back together next fall, whether it's in California or in Florida? Golly, I can't wait till next season. But until then, happy running be running.
Speaker 3:The Rise and Run podcast discusses general information about Run Disney and is in no way affiliated with Run Disney or the Walt Disney Company. Any information or advice discussed on this podcast should not be considered medical advice and should always consult with your healthcare provider or event organizer.
