Rise and Run
Rise and Run
140: Getting Fit with Fitz Koehler
What if you could transform your running journey with advice from a true fitness guru? Join us as Fitz Koehler returns to share her latest insights and stories from the running community. From practical training tips to heartfelt anecdotes, Fitz's contagious energy will leave you inspired and motivated.
Get ready to laugh and learn with our "#NachoGate" controversy, where Greg humorously defends his stance with Merriam-Webster's definition. In our Race Report Spotlight we hear from Ryan as he recounts his latest race experiences during the Run Madtown series in Madison, WI. With summer in full swing, we'll also provide essential tips on managing heat to keep your runs safe and enjoyable.
Celebrate the incredible achievements within our running family as we highlight memorable races and personal records from across the globe. From the Buffalo Marathon to the Bolder Boulder 10K, we capture the spirit of camaraderie and inspiration that makes our community special. Plus, don't miss out on exciting new merchandise announcements and upcoming race plans, including our 101 Dalmatians-themed shirts. This episode is packed with humor, heartfelt stories, and expert advice to fuel your running journey!
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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 2:Hello everyone. This is the Puppet Runner. Remy and I are here to welcome you to the Rise and Run podcast. That was our friend Andrew the Puppet Runner. If you've been to Disney, you've seen Andrew. What a good guy. He is A lot of fun. Andrew, thank you for leaving us that intro. My friends were running out of intros so when we give you the number here in a minute, give us a call, give us some intros, welcome. Welcome to episode 140 of the Rise and Run podcast. I'm Bob. I'm here this week with Greg hey hey hey, and with John.
Speaker 2:Hey Bob, how you doing? I'm doing good, john, it's just the three of us.
Speaker 3:It's boys night on Rise and Run.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we'll do what we can we, but our guest this week very definitely not a boy our good friend Fitz Kohler. Fitz is back with us. What a delightful person. She is fun, entertaining, informative. She'll be with us in just a little bit. Our race, race report spotlight our buddy, ryan. Ryan did a couple of runs this weekend. He joined us to tell us about it.
Speaker 6:If you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast. Please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family we want to share in their run Disney journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook Rise and Run podcast and on Instagram Rise and Run pod. Check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, comment, race report or want to introduce an upcoming episode, call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a message.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please do that. We want some intros, friends. We also want to thank our patreons, whose support helps us keep the rise and run podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the patreon team, please check patreoncom slash rise and run podcast. We'd like to welcome our latest Patreon, patrick. Patrick has joined us as a plastic cheese Patreon.
Speaker 3:The Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by our friends over at Magic Bound Travel.
Speaker 3:You know we're getting ready, we're in the throngs of summer vacation season, but you know summer isn't the only time that you can take a vacation. You can take a vacation year-round to multiple Disney, universal oh my God, I can't believe I just said the U word Cruise line destinations. You know our buddies over at Magic Bound can definitely help you out and you know what's great about their services is that number one, it's free. But number two is they're always in the market in helping you save money. I know Maggie is in the process right now of helping me potentially save a little bit of money on my upcoming trip to Disneyland this summer. It looks like Disneyland's gonna be putting out a new ticket offer, so she's gonna be the one crunching the numbers for me to make sure that if I can save a few bucks here or there and you only get that with a travel agent and the team over at Magic Bound is really fantastic. So if you're interested in booking any type of vacation, especially Disney and the other park, go visit our friends at magicboundtravelcom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, check them out. And, Greg, I agree, that's where it really helps is trying to keep. Could I go online and get my own reservation? Sure, but keeping on top of all the discounts and when they drop and when to use them. Yeah, that's a big deal. Remember, the Magic Bounce services are free to you. Do we have any apologies and or alibis this week, my friends?
Speaker 3:I do, Bob. I'd like to start this segment of the podcast by issuing a statement.
Speaker 2:Have you sent this through legal?
Speaker 3:I have not sent this through legal. This is a statement that some might say could be off the cuff, that some might say could be off the cuff. Merriam-webster defines nacho as a tortilla chip topped with melted cheese and often additional savory toppings. Now the operative phrase that I like to draw attention to is melted cheese and obviously, since our Family Feud episode has dropped, I want to say there's a borderline smear campaign that is being put on by our friends over at the We'll Run For podcast, because I was not acting as an impartial judge, thinking that the plastic cheese that we get in our famous Run Disney snack box does not qualify as nachos not qualify as nachos. So I just want the record to show that I think there is a correlation, again based on what Merriam-Webster said of melted cheese, and we all know how liquidy that stuff is.
Speaker 3:But I'd also like the fact to show as well is that I spent the time going through all of the data and the mathematics. Even if Alicia would have received an X for plastic cheese and will run for would have won the round. Again, I want the record to show that rise and run would have still won the game handedly, even if we'll run for would have taken that round. While I have the most utmost respect for Tom, diana, michael and Aaron, I hope that we can put this issue to rest. We can move on. Hopefully there is no more hashtag NachoGate and we look forward to potentially another wonderful rousing round of podcast family feud in the future with our friends. So that is the end of my ad lib statement.
Speaker 2:Good answer, Greg.
Speaker 3:Thank you Thank you no, but in all seriousness, what I love about the will run for crew is that they find these little things that are just such comedic gold and they love to run with it, and even though they love to razz me, it really does bring a smile to my face. I I also want to go out and thank everyone for the wonderful feedback that we got about last week's episode. I know I had a ton of fun putting the episode together from the planning stages and then being the host and editing it, and I know you guys had a ton of fun playing during the recording itself and then again just the reaction that we got from not only our listening community but the We'll Run For listening community as well. It really made me smile throughout the course of the whole entire week. I think it's a really special episode and I just want to thank everybody for all their support.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was fun, greg. It was fun, greg, it was fun. Yeah, great job, greg, thank you. All right, Let us look at our training schedule. The Halloween race at Disneyland is now 14 weeks away. We're getting there. We're down into double digits in days 98 days till Expo Day. In fact, as we're recording here, we are right at an actual 100, but on release, 98 days away, if you're training for one of the long runs at that event the half or the challenge you're in week four of your training week and your long run now is up to five miles. So you're getting there. We're moving along nicely. It'll be here before we know it. Fellas, how's training going for you?
Speaker 6:Okay, uh, train's going fine. Uh, I, I'm kind of not really training for much. I'm just, uh, most likely going to be doing a bird in hand, uh, that so I'm kind of following the Halloween schedule for the bird in hand. Oh, that's right, Because it's the same weekend, so right now that's what I'm doing and I did kind of do my best. Brittany on my uh run and I found 15 pesos on my run. I'm rich. I'm rich. No pennies pesos.
Speaker 2:What's the exchange rate, John?
Speaker 6:I don't know. I should check it out. I have no idea.
Speaker 3:Well, needless to say, if you don't hear John's voice, in a few weeks you'll know that he went on a vacation to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico.
Speaker 2:He's in Tijuana or someplace. With 15 pesos, he won't be gone long.
Speaker 6:About a second maybe.
Speaker 3:He might not make it out of the airport.
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 3:Greg, how are you doing? I'm doing good. This past weekend Coach Twiggs had 10 miles on my schedule and unfortunately, with you know all the the pomp and circumstance that is, memorial Day weekend and family plans I didn't get a chance to do that 10 miler until Monday, and here in the northeast it was unsettled weather on top of the fact that it was.
Speaker 3:It wasn't super hot, but you know, here's a phrase that we'll start hearing a lot more over the course of the next couple of months. The dew point was just super high and you know the extreme humidity. And I went out and I I said to my wife I'm like I'm not going to go to any trails because I don't want to get caught in the rain, especially if you know I'm five miles away from my car or something like that. So I kept it to around my local neighborhood and I came back into the house at seven miles and I just said I just needed to take a break.
Speaker 3:Put across this week in terms of our training is that, now that we are in, you know the unofficial start of summer and the training miles will you know? You know, depending on you know, especially if you're doing the halloween race, but again, it's going to be here before we know it you're going to have training for not only marathon weekend if you're doing one of the big events, but also you have wine and dine. Training is do not be afraid of having to divide up your run, um, especially and most importantly, to keep you safe, because at one point I don't want to say I was dealing with like heat exhaustion by any means whatsoever, but I just knew it was important for me to get back in the house, cool down for a little bit. Uh, take, taken a whole lot of water, changed my shirt, and then I decided to. I just hopped in the car, went to the gym and just walked out the last three miles.
Speaker 3:So, again, you know the rule of thumb. You know, especially if you are a Galloway runner, but I would also have to imagine, though, that this is applicable to no matter whose training plan you're you're running is that you know that, as long as you're back out on your feet within two hours of when you ended the first part of your workout, you are still getting the exact same endurance benefit as you were if you were going straight through. So, really, the important point that I just want to impress upon everyone is it's going to get hot, it's going to get humid. Do what you need to do to make sure that you are safe during these warm months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good point. We allude to the dew point a lot. Some folks aren't familiar with it. We'll talk more about it in some detail. I went out Saturday morning. The dew point here was 77, I think. Wow, yeah, it gets hot here. It gets high enough. I will talk about this more later. But the dew point is the absolute measure of water vapor that's in the air. So when you get to temperatures dew point temperatures above 75, there's so much water vapor in the air that there's not as many oxygen molecules as there usually are and you find yourself a little short of breath. It's not exactly like running at altitude, but it's similar it's. The physiological effect in your body is a little different, but the results are the same you find yourself a little bit short of breath. So it's just time to slow down and take it easy.
Speaker 2:I've got a training plan now that's working for me, at least for now, and I think we'll continue to work it this way through the month of June. And what I'm doing is I'm my daily Galloway runners. We have our daily runs Tuesday, Thursday, Monday, Wednesday, whenever you do them of 30 to 45 minutes. I'm doing those in the pool, I'm doing those as aqua jogging workouts. I'm doing 45 minute workouts there. That's another video I probably make here in a little bit on aqua jogging, but there are videos available on Jeff Galloway's website about aqua jogging. I also and we 'll talk about this with Fitz in just a little bit I've also been going to the gym because I have finally got it through my thick skull that I need to do something other than run.
Speaker 2:I need to develop the other muscles so that I have balance and try to minimize my risk of injury. So I'm doing that three times a week, three or four times a week, and then I'm going out on the road on Saturday and doing whatever distance Coach Twiggs has for me, and so far that's working out pretty well. So we're going to stick with that for a while and see how it goes until we get into the training, until the numbers start to get kind of big, and they will here in July and August. I'm looking forward to that. You sound like it? Well, here's the thing. This is Dopey number five. John's done four. John, I've done three dopies. Yeah, this will be number five, and I don't want to discourage anyone. I don't because it's wonderful, it's exciting and you're going to be excited when the training starts. But I know what the training involves and, just candidly and honestly, it's hard but you have to do it and I will do it and we'll talk more about it as that comes up. All right, friends, more on that later.
Speaker 2:But now let's visit with our guest for the week. Guest for the week. We first met our guest for the evening back in September of last year, episode 102. Fitz joined us and she talked primarily that time about her cancer comeback story A very, very compelling, genuine and uplifting story that really resonated with a lot of our friends who listen. So that's a great one. But we're not going to talk about that tonight. Tonight we are here with fitness guru, runner, race announcer, cancer survivor, all-around fun person, Fitz Kohler. Fitz, thanks for coming back.
Speaker 5:Oh guys, thank you so much for having me. I was very, very excited when I got the invitation to return to your show. I love you all that's awesome.
Speaker 2:We appreciate it. Hey, my friend, happy birthday. I know it was yesterday. Yeah, thank you, and at the time that we released this podcast, it will have been three days ago. It was on Monday. Did you make it home? Okay, I know you had trouble with your connecting flights. When did you finally get home?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so long story short for people who don't follow me on social media yet is I got to Buffalo airport around 10 30 plan to be home to Gainesville by four 30. So it was Buffalo to Atlanta, atlanta, gainesville and it was my birthday. So I was very much looking forward to getting home to my family and my dogs and doing whatever it was we were going to do. And as soon as I arrived at the airport in Buffalo, they said your first flight is two hours late because of weather. And I thought, oh, here it comes. And then I immediately was reassigned to a 1040 pm flight from Atlanta to Gainesville and I just thought rats. And what I thought is gee whiz, I'm actually just going to be completely alone on my birthday. I mean, obviously surrounded by people who could care less about me. Right, we're thinking about women who've lost their entire life in the name of freedom, and there's nothing I value more than freedom. So I thought I won't be a crybaby, I will put on my big girl panties and I would just be fine. But then I thought about it's so funny.
Speaker 5:Last week I was interviewed on a podcast and the guy was talking about my book and he said you know, you've got this chapter called when Things Go wrong, don't go with them. And I actually have an antidote from an airport in that chapter. And I thought you know what, what can I do here? And so first I thought, well, when I get to Atlanta at three, 30 or whatever, I'm just going to rent a car and drive to Gainesville. So it would have been a five hour drive, but I'd get home by eight, 30, not too bad. And then I thought, well, maybe I'll fly into one of the surrounding airports. And so Jacksonville was sold out.
Speaker 5:And then, and my bestie, my childhood best friend, the girl who makes me laugh more than anyone on earth, christy, she'd been messaging me all day and she lives in Tallahassee, two hours away from Gainesville, and I thought you know what, let me see if I can get in there. And I thought, you know what, let me see if I can get in there. And I did. And so, getting home at midnight, I went to Christy, she picked me up from the airport and we went to a sports bar and had dinner and beer and it was a blast. And then I got a ride home. So I think I pulled into my driveway about nine o'clock at night, and my son was waiting for me with a tray full of chocolate covered strawberries to feed himself, and it was it turned out to be a wonderful birthday.
Speaker 2:Isn't that nice when it looks like everything's going to crap and it works out like that, that's great yeah.
Speaker 5:Sometimes you just have to be proactive, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad to hear it. It reminds me of a story of my time, a time my wife was stuck in Atlanta. But we're here to talk to you, not me. Hey, here's an off the wall question. I do obviously follow you on Instagram, especially, and on the fitnesscom page, but I noticed you referring to congratulating your university of Florida interns at graduation at UF Fitz. What's that about?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I have hosted interns from the University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance for I think about 12 years now. They invite me in to speak to their graduating seniors every semester and those students are taking their last semester full of classes and then the next semester they're obligated to do a full-time internship. So I host between one and five per semester and they do all sorts of wonderful things for me. They write articles for fitsnesscom, they do graphic design, they do editing, they do research, communicate with businesses I'm working with. They're fantastic and you know I do sure they create some content that's wonderful for my business, but I'm really committed to helping them.
Speaker 2:Oh, I believe that yeah.
Speaker 5:Professional skills and go Gators, go Gators. I've probably hosted over a hundred interns and I'm so proud of all they've accomplished. They're cool kids.
Speaker 2:Very neat. Well, good, good. Thanks for telling us about that.
Speaker 6:So I know you're a race announcer and you do some really fantastic races. I know you've been up in Buffalo last weekend for the Buffalo Marathon. What other races have you done recently?
Speaker 5:Gosh a lot. It's been a busy, busy spring. But off the top of my head OC marathon in California. The week before that was Big Sur marathon. The week after OC was the Donna Mother's Day 5K in Jacksonville on Saturday. Immediately after that race completed I went to the airport, flew to Detroit for the Epic Races Goddess, detroit, mother's Day 5K. So I have been all over the place Savannah Women's Half Marathon, gasparilla, the Donna I mean it's-.
Speaker 6:Oh, you were at.
Speaker 5:Gasparilla, yeah, and I go to Fargo this weekend.
Speaker 2:I want to catch you at one of these races, fitz, I'm in Florida also. Yes, yeah, well, you know, gasparilla and Princess are the same weekend.
Speaker 5:Well, what I can tell you right now is, if you made the switch, you would not be disappointed. In fact, you might kick yourself for not doing it sooner.
Speaker 2:I've done Gasparilla. I did it three years ago, so I've done it. I I've done Gasparilla. I did it three years ago, so I've done it. I know it's a great event. Heck, you may have been there. I didn't know you back then.
Speaker 5:Were you there during the weird year in May when we had the hybrid race. No, okay, no, of course, any race I'm at is kind of weird, just by definition Pirates versus princesses, as if there's a choice I know, come on guys, I know I'm thinking I can do a Pirates to Princess challenge one year.
Speaker 5:You know what A lot of people do, that They'll do Disney Saturday and come to Gasparilla on Sunday, or vice versa, and that's a nice way to have both. I'm absolutely obsessed with our runners. I'm head over heels in love with every one of them and I kill myself to try to remember names and remember stories and faces and give those hugs and pour the love on each athlete that they deserve. And if they're so kind to tell me that I'm something special to them, it's really important for me to keep an eye out for them to make sure I can, you know, make their finishes especially special.
Speaker 2:It really shows through. I mean it shows through on your post and it shows through on the social media that they then in turn post. So I think that's really cool. So, friends, if you're out there, what's coming up, so maybe our friends listening will get a chance to see you.
Speaker 5:Well, I got to tell you I got Fargo this weekend and then I have a six week break and I have the USATF Women's 6K Championship in Canton and then I don't have anything again until the fall. So I'm actually I mean, I love the race announcing and if something popped up that would be fine, but I'm gone so much that I'm looking forward to spending a good chunk of time at home, and especially with my dogs.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'll bet you are. Plus, it's getting a little warm. Well, you know how warm it is down here. We're kind of done until the fall, but yeah, even throughout the rest of the country it's going to start to warm up and the races are going to thin out for us a little bit. So that's good, all right, I'm going to shift gears again. Yes, this one was fun. I thought I had a lot of fun following it. I think you had a lot of fun doing it. Tell us about how you got involved in that Dancing with the Stars fundraiser that you did. It was in the Jacksonville area, is that correct?
Speaker 5:Gainesville area.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, Gainesville yeah so.
Speaker 5:I was actually invited to compete in the 2023 show and, folks, it's not the ABC network show, which I would love to do, that I mean, if the thing that I did was big fun, the uh ABC official show would be even more fun. But I was invited in 23 and I couldn't do it because I was announcing Coast Guard Marathon. It collided. So I said I'm so sorry, I would love to do it but I can't. So they invited me again this year and it had switched dates and so I said yes in a heartbeat. And you know the cause was the Dance Alive National Ballet Company. It's a world class professional ballet company with premier dancers from all over the place. But they also want to build a studio. They're in kind of a dilapidated studio that was built in the 40s I mean, it's old, old and they wanted to build a larger studio, not only for the pros but for youth market and then for folks with special needs, so they could come and do some dancing and arts, which was pretty cool. So they asked if I would do it in fundraise and I said yes. And so there is, I think, 16 average Joes and Janes, and I was one of the average. Well, they called us stars, but really we were average Joes and Janes and I was one of the average. Well, they called us stars, but really we were average Joes and Janes. And then they paired us with professional dancers and they let us choose our dance, and so some of the performers wanted to do African dance or tango or whatever.
Speaker 5:What I did, like a total dummy is I got on Google and a few times I kept because in my mind I just think high energy and fun. I want athletic and fun and challenging. And so I kept Googling what is the most athletic or challenging ballroom dance, and every single time I typed that in, it kept saying jive, jive, jive. And so, like a moron, I went okay, I'll do jive. And so I showed up and my core choreographer, he goes, you really want to do jive? And so I showed up and my poor choreographer, he goes, you really want to do jive? And I said, yeah. So, uh, he set off and I also had chosen my song, um, tina Turner's proud Mary, which, because it's a classic, and boy did that pan out. But yeah, we practiced for about four months. I had a pro partner change. Um, pretty early on I had one guy and then he got fired.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that part. How about that?
Speaker 5:Yep, Yep. So that was a little, you know, kink in the chain. But my new partner, Tucker Goki, what a pro that he's so young, 18 years old.
Speaker 2:He's 18? Really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:He's danced around the world. He's going to be dancing in Italy this month and just awesome. Tucker and I had the best time ever and you know kind of my MO along the way as I was learning and so I was started off. I was gifted with a fit body, rhythm and coordination, so those were the things that were on my side, not the things working against me is, I had zero dance background and I had to learn a lot. And oh, tucker was sweet, my choreographer got very cranky with me quite often.
Speaker 5:And I just thought it was hilarious, so he would get cranky, and sometimes I would get a little cranky, but I would keep it inside because I'm a good student.
Speaker 2:That's the way to go.
Speaker 5:My tactic with social media was to just share the bad stuff. So if you go back on Instagram through the rails, all you'll see is me falling or us failing Cause I thought that was the funny stuff and more likely to get donations. And then, on performance night, uh, I, I. It was just one of the best nights of my entire life. I had zero nerves and that's, of course, one of those great gifts that comes with cancer is you realize most things in the world that people are scared of are really not so scary at all. So I walked onto that stage with elite confidence and we just, we just had a blast, and I'm so grateful for that opportunity.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you killed it. I thought it was very, very impressive. John, did you get a chance?
Speaker 6:to see it. I did see some of the clips on Instagram, but I didn't watch the full thing.
Speaker 2:Well, that's your assignment, I'll be watching that tonight, fitchnesscom, you can find it. It's right there on the homepage.
Speaker 5:That's right. That's right. It's also pinned on top of both my Facebook and Instagram pages, so if people want to watch me shake my thing, it's there and I think it was great. We had a lot of fun. I love my outfit. Did you like my outfit, bob? Of course.
Speaker 2:Of course I did. I really thought it was impressive. I thought the whole thing was impressive. I thought it was unfair that Tucker got to wear high-top Chuck Converse sneakers and you had to wear what? Two inch heels, three inch?
Speaker 5:heels yeah.
Speaker 2:I thought that was a bit of a challenge. But yeah, you're right, I mean he, he also. You were both impressive. But and I don't I don't mean to be diminishing when I say this, but that was the professional dancer. I mean he, everything was just so natural. But, my goodness, you worked hard on that. Tell me again how long you trained to do that. You said what? Four months.
Speaker 5:It totaled about four months. We didn't get almost anything in December because Tucker was traveling doing the Nutcracker I think it was a Nutcracker, but yeah, so we at least had a good three months with a little bit extra. And the closer we got to the performance we would do two hour-long sessions a week versus just one. But I did, you know, much like our runners do. I did a lot of practicing alone. I would take my little dance shoes and I would go to the fitness center and use their group fitness room, which had wood floors, and I would use it when there were no classes going on. And you know, it's not only the moves but it's memorization and uh, yeah, I mean it was just really, really challenging and that's why I loved it so much. I've actually continued on, so yeah.
Speaker 2:I was going to follow up with that. How's that?
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's going great. So I hired my choreographer and you know what? Um, I mean, I make a fine living, but you know not, not Susie money bags, but personal lessons are pretty pricey. But I just say, you know what? I don't go to the movies, I don't go do I don't know, I don't really go do anything for myself, and this thing makes me laugh, it brings me joy, it's it's fit and healthy.
Speaker 5:So I'm going to invest in me and so once a week I do lessons. In fact, my, my coach, I had my lesson today. I booked an hour. He kept dancing with me for two hours. So we're doing Samba and salsa and Foxtrot and waltz and all sorts of things. And you know, I want to encourage our runners to do something else. You know, running is great, but it's not the only thing, and you, you could definitely enhance your running capability and then also clear your mind. It's just nice to have another hobby. So this one, this one has proven really fun for me and I'm going to compete. We're going to go find some official ballroom competitions and I'm going to do it again.
Speaker 2:Good for you. I think that's awesome. I think it's great to be that committed to something like that and I'm glad you enjoy it. And I mean you do really do well at it. Thank you, I listened to your. I want to get well. In fact, let's talk about this for a minute. I want to talk about your podcast, because I listened to the episode with your choreographer I think, okay, yeah, yeah. Now that's not the person you've hired to.
Speaker 5:Yes, it is, that's Michael.
Speaker 2:Michael. Okay, Now I got Jacksonville on the brain. For some reason Is he in Jacksonville?
Speaker 5:Yes, he is in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I remember him saying that he would travel, and yeah, yeah, he does.
Speaker 5:He's got clients all over North Central Florida so he'll drive to us. You know, he stacks up a few people back to back and then he makes some money and goes to the next town and then he goes home. He also so interesting he's a leader in the automotive industry really so for a car. He's a car guy, but then when he shows up for dance he's in slacks and a button-down shirt.
Speaker 5:And mr rico, suave, it's so very interesting the dichotomy of this guy, but but I love him. He's. He's a wonderful, wonderful man and we have fun dancing. It's cool, it's very cool.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, he certainly sounded like a professional person dedicated to, and it sounded like he loved it also. I mean, you have to if you're willing to do what he's doing and make those long trips. It's got to be something that you love. There's not enough money to do, short term maybe, but after a while you're going to burn out and you've got to really enjoy it. So that's cool. Well, I wish you a lot of luck with that. Will there be a dancing with the stars next year or don't?
Speaker 5:we know yet um, you know, they did say they were going to have an all-star edition and they would invite me to that. So I'm happy to go do that whenever um but yeah, but thank you for listening to the fits in the show. As you know, my fellow podcast hosts, it's nice when people tune in, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, now that show's been around a while, but it's kind of finding its way again here in the last what six months or so.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and you guys are to blame for that.
Speaker 6:It's John. It was John, I'm sorry.
Speaker 5:Yeah, there was quite a few of you. So the fitness show was killing it up until I got sick. And when I was sick there was two things. Number one when I'd come home from a race, I just didn't have energy to. You know, it takes a lot of energy to come up with content and blah, blah, blah. And then the other thing is, I just didn't want to talk about myself, I didn't want to talk about sickness or suffering, and I just I couldn't do it, so I didn't. And so the fitness show kind of died. And then it was COVID and every Tom Dick and Harry who really had no fitness credentials without they're just yammering on about exercise, and I just thought I don't want to be a part of that. So I let my entire show die. And then in the fall people let my entire show die, and then in the fall people started asking for it and I kind of just like, yeah, yeah maybe, maybe, and then it was you guys who said please bring back the show.
Speaker 5:And then the next morning I think it was one of you who sent me this this statistic. It showed that the Fitz and his show, even though I had done nothing with it for years, was still in the top 5% of all podcasts globally. And I thought, well, there you go, I should put some effort into that. And so I have, and so it's um, I really enjoy it again and my guests have been great, and uh, I, yeah, it's doing really well, so thank you for that push.
Speaker 2:That was really meaningful. You're welcome. I've been listening you talk about doing an alternative. I do aqua jogging quite often, nice, and so I'm in the pool up to my neck, I'm making the running motion under the water. I have my shocks water resistant headset on my phones, on the deck with the Bluetooth and I was listening to your bloopers episode with Mike and Rudy the two episodes yeah, people think I'm goofy doing what I do. They really thought I was goofy while I was doing this and laughing out loud.
Speaker 5:Oh, that makes me happy.
Speaker 2:Both the episodes were excellent, not everyone. Was it Mike who fell and broke his back?
Speaker 5:Yes, Mike Reilly, yeah.
Speaker 2:My point is not every one of the stories was hilarious. I'm sure Mike didn't find that one funny.
Speaker 5:No, but you know what I feel? I almost feel bad, but I don't. His book, it's gosh stories from the Iron man, or I wish I could come up Folks. It's Mike Riley, the voice of Iron man, but as he tells that story of him climbing up on this crappy scaffolding at a finish line Now, mind you, I have done that a million times, climbed up onto towers that I was sure going to be the death of me.
Speaker 5:I mean, sometimes they are put together with a piece of duct tape and dental floss. I have no idea why I've agreed to climb up, but as he tells the story in the book, I'm just living it with him and I practically fell off the treadmill, crying, laughing as he talked about the time, between you know, leaving the scaffolding and hitting the ground. And of course I love Mike and he's a wonderful friend. I would never want him to be hurt, but I did find that story hilarious. So, um yeah, race announcing is apparently a contact sport and Mike and Rudy and I we had, we had a bunch to share. We probably could have tacked on another five episodes of that nonsense.
Speaker 2:They were good. Both episodes were very entertaining. Have you ever fallen? I mean a distance, a good distance, not just tripped and fallen.
Speaker 5:From a stage.
Speaker 2:Or anything, because it seems like when you're falling, it takes forever to hit the ground. It's like slow motion and then all of a sudden boom. Yeah, it's not the fall that hurts, it's that sudden stop at the end.
Speaker 5:That's right Well the answer to that is yes, I have, and I would say the most slow motion anything has gone for me with race announcing was when I was sliding out of the pace car in Savannah, when I tried to jump in backwards and then the car left.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember that story, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah. That and I thought all like this whole series of thoughts went through my head. It might've only been 20 seconds, but, to sum it up, I was thinking I am definitely going to die here, and how pathetic are the headlines.
Speaker 5:This is what went through my mind. I was thinking about the cover of the newspaper like noisy, and I thought it would be so pathetic because I was going through chemo at the time and it was just so tragic that this noisy, cancer-stricken race announcer died being trampled by the runner. She was announcing me the whole thing. It was an hour's worth of thoughts into 20 seconds, but I'm so glad I did not die.
Speaker 2:Well, I am too. We are too, because you know we'd have no interview for tonight if you had. But I'm not that callous fits, that's right. Uh, I, I think it. Those were great episodes. It's a good. It's worth listening to my friends. Uh, the fits in this show, wherever finer podcasts are sold, um, but I particularly like the bloopers episodes. But the other episodes are great also. All righty, let's get down to well, not to get down to business. We've had a fun time so far this evening. I would like to talk a little bit now and we've kind of mentioned this in passing about runners want to run and they don't want to do anything else, and in the long run, or sometimes the short run, no pun intended that hurts them. What can, what should we be doing, and what resources are on your website that can help us with that?
Speaker 5:Yeah. So I'll start by saying that I do have solutions to help runners run further, faster and pain-free.
Speaker 2:There's the big one.
Speaker 5:Before we get that, I just want to drop a little bombs about being fit in general, and my master's is exercise and sports sciences. So, besides being a race announcer, fitness is actually my passion. The thing that I am is helping people live better and longer. My passion, the thing that I am, is helping people live better and longer. So, in order to qualify as fit, one must be proficient in all four pillars of fitness, and so runners were really good at the cardio, cardio, respiratory thing. That's our pillar, that's where we're great. But you also must have some level of proficiency in strength, flexibility and balance.
Speaker 5:And it's phenomenal how many athletes will cross the finish line of a marathon and still not qualify as fit. It makes no sense, right? Of course I'm fit, I do marathons. Okay, stand on one foot for five seconds. Whoa, can't do it? Okay, you're not fit. And so I want runners to know that before you're an athlete and you are athletes before you're an athlete, you're a person, and so you got to start with your fitness. Your fitness requires cardio, strength, flexibility, balance. Now, those other pillars of fitness also happen to be the secret to success in running further, faster and pain-free. So if you would like to avoid injury, recover from injury. Strength, flexibility and balance are going to be your go-tos. They're essential.
Speaker 2:Strength and balance to me are related, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 5:So it's all related, and so you asked about my resources, and I have plenty of resources dedicated to the general population and then, of course, to runners. But you know, with running, legs are heavy, legs are just generically heavy. So what I'd like all of our listeners to do for not driving a car is stand up. So stand up wherever you are.
Speaker 2:Can you do a?
Speaker 5:Bob, can you stand up?
Speaker 2:Could I, could you.
Speaker 5:Yeah. John, can you stand up? I can try. Yeah, look at them, they're moving equipment.
Speaker 7:I want everyone at home to stand up.
Speaker 5:I know what other podcast guest is such a pain in the can. Okay, and now what I want you to do is take one leg and hold it up in front of you, so extend that leg straight and lift it up as high as you can get it to go. There you go.
Speaker 2:Hold it up there. There it is.
Speaker 5:Now hold it higher.
Speaker 2:Easy for you to say.
Speaker 5:And high. Now how does that feel? Well, go ahead, put it down. I've got the balance, yeah, but how did that feel? Lifting up your leg and holding it? That I need more flexibility? Yeah, wow, what else did it feel? Did it feel heavy?
Speaker 6:Well, honest answer not particularly Just a little pressure in the quad, okay, okay.
Speaker 5:So most people would say that felt hard because that was heavy, that was hard to hold my leg up high. The reason being is legs. Each leg is approximately 33% of our body weight. So if you are one of those weirdos who only weighs 100 pounds, then each of your legs is probably about 33 pounds. That's a 33 pound dumbbell. If you were going to do a half marathon, that means you are lifting that dumbbell 26,000 times. If you're going to run a marathon, you have to lift that very heavy dumbbell 52,000 times.
Speaker 5:Now, if you're not a 100 pound person, which most people aren't, let's say you're 150, each dumbbell, each of your legs, is 45 pounds. If you're 200 pounds, those are 60 pound dumbbells. And so lift, lift, lift. And so if you make those hip flexors the muscles you use to lift your legs, stronger, well then that marathon is going to feel a lot easier, right? If your glutes are stronger, if your hips are stronger, they are going to hold your femur in place. Your femur is the longest, heaviest bone in your body, and most runners who complain of knee and hip pain they haven't fallen or taken a twist, they're just really, really weak in their glutes, and so that femur is rattling around. With every step you see that as people's knees bow in, and when that happened it causes incredible pain. So strength training is the solution to those issues. If you've got plantar fasciitis, if you've got it band syndrome or piriformis syndrome which those are things only runners know about, because only runners have those pain right. Our friends who don't run don't know what a pair of.
Speaker 2:that's right, that's right.
Speaker 5:So you know what? What I encourage people to do is if you go to fitsnesscom, on the very front page there's a workout called strength training for runners. It's a 12 minute workout. If you do that 12 minutes every other day for the rest of your life, you will start PRing like crazy. All of your aches and pains will disappear. There's also a horde of videos for stretching hip stretching and hamstring stretches, and stretches with bands, lower body stretches.
Speaker 5:And here and what I encourage people to do is to know that if you do what I'm telling you to do right now, you will start to do better right, you'll feel better, you'll move faster. Those pains will go away. If you nod your head and say, yeah, fitz, that makes sense, but you don't take on these measures I'm advising you to do, what will happen is, eventually you'll start to experience some runner pain and then that will lead to some suffering. And then at some point, you're going to throw in the towel and you're going to go to an expensive doctor who will say you know what? We should order some expensive scans. And those expensive scans will likely say, yeah, there's no real injury here. So that doctor will send you to an expensive physical therapist, and then that expensive physical therapist will tell you to do exactly what I tell you to do in these videos so you can avoid the pain, the suffering, the expense and just start training.
Speaker 5:You know, if you were on the University of Disney World marathon team, you would have a strength and conditioning coach that's me and that coach would assign you to do these exercises in the strength training for runners video and they would assign you some balance training and some flexibility training. So get on that. It's not only necessary as an athlete, but it really will make you a healthier individual and make life easier for years and years to come, and hopefully you won't be one of those 75 years old who meets an early death because you fell and that's silly. Don't do that right.
Speaker 2:Don't do it. Don't do it. Preach sister, I'm testifying.
Speaker 6:That's my biggest mistake.
Speaker 5:I said why do I need to work the bottom half? I'm running every other day. I'll just work the top half. And then what happens? You get injured.
Speaker 5:And so anytime we move laterally, we're totally weak, totally inflexible. Our joints were meant to move in a variety of ways. Our shoulder joints will take our arm in a full 360 direction. Our hip will do close to the same. So you should be moving all of your joints through their full range of motion every day and that will feel good. I mean, it just feels good to move your body in those different ways.
Speaker 5:And you know, running is wonderful. There's infinite amount, infinite amount of benefits to it. But if you're wise and you'd like to keep running, you will heed my warning. Take these suggestions and start cross-training, do cycling and swimming and dancing and karate. Find other things you enjoy. Blend those in. When I trained for Boston, I ran three days a week period, end of story. I also strength trained every other day, so you don't have to be a seven-day-a-week or a five-day-a-week runner. In fact, from my actual expertise, what I'm telling you is you will do far better if you change things up on a regular basis. Avoid those overuse injuries, avoid so many aches and pains and really build up your body. And you know, the number one question I have to ask everybody is, on any given day, doing any given thing. Would you rather be stronger or weaker? Of course, Of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, obviously, and I smiled when you said it because I remember sitting probably right here last September and listening to you go and I go, fitz, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm going to do that, I'm going to download that and I'm going to. And I didn't oh my gosh, bob, I did not, I did not. And so I was doing the Skyway way sunshine bridge, skyway 10k, skyway bridge 10k and strained my hamstring and knew what it was ended up at. That physical therapist you talk about. They're great people, by the way yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And finally, after all these years and all these preaching, it finally got through. You can't just run so, and John's the same way. John's got a routine now. I've got a routine now that involves getting to the gym and doing some weight work using the resistance bands you just talked about, a couple times a week doing the aqua jogging, doing other things to kind of, because I am getting old and I need to do other things to keep the muscles in balance. I think that's so critically important.
Speaker 5:You are correct and you should be twisting and moving in various directions. And you know, our bodies are pretty spectacular. We just have to help them live up to their potential. So if you've not been doing what I've been telling you to do, start now. Start now, folks. I make it easy, it's interesting. Runners are like I, can I have a long run? Okay, we'll run. Make it easy, it's interesting. Runners are like I, can I have a long run? Okay, we'll run. One mile less. It's a 12-minute workout. If you have an 18-miler and you really don't have time, run 17 miles and do the 12-minute workout. At the end, I assure you, you will run faster because of it and those aches and pains just won't be able to creep up on you.
Speaker 2:And, as I recall, you don't need any equipment to do the workout, do you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, Limited limited.
Speaker 8:It's stepping on a bench or a box, if you got one, it's lunges.
Speaker 5:The exercise bands are just a few bucks, so go to Amazon or Walmart I don't care and buy a couple. I keep bands in my luggage and my backpack in my car. They're all over the place like a weirdo, but they're the secret to my success is just a very fit person and let me point out, is it okay if I do this? Muscles are sexy.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, good, I'm convinced, I'm working on it now.
Speaker 5:I'm not talking about big, gigantic John Cena muscles and good for him. I'm just talking about being strong for you, right, having a little definition and and health. Obviously, health is number one and fitness is number one, but I think kind of everybody would like to look and feel a little better, right? When you look better, you stand up a little taller. It's all a centripetal. So, yeah, being better helps and makes you it's. It's not only the way you feel and you perform, but it's okay to improve upon your appearance in that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fitness looks good. It does Gosh Fitz. Thank you. I know you are so daggum busy, and thank you for finding some time. Well, first of all, I'm glad you made it back to be here, Me too, yeah, but thank you for finding some time. I know our friends enjoy hearing from you. How can they hear more? Let's tell us We've talked about a couple of things, but let's talk about how folks can get up with you and anything else you'd like to talk about there.
Speaker 5:Well, my website, fitsnesscom, which I would say it's 95% function, is to help guide people towards making fitness understandable, attainable and fun, and we have just renovated it. Fitsnesscom has had a facelift and so I have a new little competition. I have hidden a pink graphic microphone, so it's not all the pictures of me with my microphone in my hand, it's an actual graphic of a pink microphone. If folks go to fitnesscom, start snooping around. When you find that microphone, click on it and you can enter to win a new fitness hoodie. We have some really fun designs coming out, so the pink microphone contestant one of them will be chosen to receive the very first of our new Fitsness hoodies before I even receive one, which I'm really excited about, right? So that'll be that privilege.
Speaker 2:And then I haven't found it. By the way, I've looked no, no, no, I have not OK.
Speaker 5:You know what? It's not too hard to find.
Speaker 2:But I'll keep looking.
Speaker 5:You got to look a little bit. And then, of course, my books are still available. Folks, if anybody knows anyone going through cancer care, I know we care so much about these people and we think, what can I do? And it is hard to figure out how to help your friend. Okay, well, empower them. You're a fit audience. You know how much exercise helps your brain and your body.
Speaker 5:And so my noisy cancer comeback is the memoir. Your healthy cancer comeback. Sick to strong is the guidebook to help people weaponize exercise and nutrition. And there are endless studies that prove if you exercise and watch what you put in your mouth during cancer care, you will be more likely to reach remission, less likely to have a recurrence, and that's pretty good stuff. And then, of course, there's the Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal, which is a lot of fun, a great place to document your details, dump your feelings in and then, of course, track your progress from sick to strong. And then I'm on social media all over the place, at Fitzness and your listeners, your people are my people and I love getting to know all of them and celebrate each of them at so many start and finish lines across America. So, folks, if you follow, I promise quality content in return and and please say hello once you do follow Cause I would much rather have friends than followers.
Speaker 2:She means it. She means it, friends, she's one of us. She means it. Fitz, it's delightful to talk with you. We appreciate it. I'm going to find you to finish line one of these days, my friend.
Speaker 5:You better.
Speaker 2:Man, we would have such a good time. Bob, you too, john. All right, fitz, we will let you go. You're off to Detroit, I think. Fargo, fargo, fargo, fargo.
Speaker 5:That's right, you've already been to Detroit, off to Fargo.
Speaker 2:Fargo, fargo and Fargo. All right, have a great time. Thanks one more time for joining us. We'll see you soon. Thanks, guys. It truly is a delight to talk with Fitz, and I'm going to find her to race one of these days. Guys, I hope you do too. She's all over the country.
Speaker 6:I'm thinking Gasparilla or Buffalo. That's my pick right now.
Speaker 2:Hey, come on down to Gasparilla. I know a place you can stay.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 2:We'll do Gasparilla down here and then we'll ride over to Disney and do well, we have to at least ride to Disney for the meetup at Princess Weekend weekend yes, if nothing else, so we'll do that. That sounds like it might be a plan, john.
Speaker 6:I'm looking forward to go yeah.
Speaker 2:Friends, if you're listening, if you do a race and Fitz is the announcer and I got a feeling if Fitz is your announcer, you're going to know it Say hi to her, Tell her. You heard her on the Rise and Run podcast. As I think I said during the interview, she's one of us, she genuinely is, she loves this too and she's a part of the family. Hey, we promised an update on the 101 Dalmatians shirts. Here's what we've got. Friends, it's time for a 101 Dalmatians update. See what I did there. Actually, that was Monica's idea. I am joined happily joined by Monica and Alec, who are working their puppy dog tails off on this project. I appreciate both of you, Ladies, how we doing.
Speaker 1:Good, hey, bob, thanks for having us again.
Speaker 2:Oh golly, it's really good to see both of you. I'm just the mouthpiece. You two are doing all the heavy lifting on this and, gosh, I really appreciate it. So what can we tell our friends to look for within the next week or so?
Speaker 1:So on June 2nd, which is halfway to 5K day, On June 2nd, which is halfway to 5K day, we plan to open up a Google Doc with 101 puppy names for our Rise and Run friends to sign up for.
Speaker 2:That's cool, but that is not a limit.
Speaker 1:No, that's just the beginning.
Speaker 2:That's just the beginning.
Speaker 1:That's right, yeah, so once the names are full, there should be, or you can create an additional line on the Google doc where you can give yourself a puppy name, so you can use your own puppy, your favorite puppy, your spouse's name, your name or whoever, whoever you want to identify as that day for the 5K as a donation.
Speaker 2:And it's not going to bother me if we have multiple people using the same name. That's not going to matter.
Speaker 1:The more the merrier.
Speaker 2:It's just for fun. The mock-ups of the shirt have been on the Facebook group for a little bit. I need to pin them up to the featured section so people can see them. But there's more. We have more to reveal, I believe.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I just kind of put out a little teaser last week of just two of the colors the red and the blue colors and you can barely see the shirt sleeve with the new rise and run logo on them. So this weekend, I guess I can drop the rest of the colors.
Speaker 1:Alec from kawaii pizza apparel was amazing and able to give us as always several she was great several color options, and then you guys came up with a brand new rise and run logo to put on the sleeve actually credit where credit is due.
Speaker 2:That's from our friend devon at uh zippity tees. She designed that for us and we've had it for a little while. We just haven't used it on much so far, so it's like a whole collaboration with all of our friends, oh yeah yeah, it's. Oh golly, don't get me started. It's so wonderful. It really is alec. We've we've worked out a price for our friends on this one. What's the price we're going to charge for these t-shirts? For the puppy shirts.
Speaker 2:We're doing 30 that's a pretty good deal. Now that you have to pay another. Uh, you have to pay shipping on top of that, which is another likely around five dollars.
Speaker 4:It's calculated at checkout but five dollars is normally covers it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now our our. What? What code do we have with you? Rise and run, run or Happy, I don't know. Whatever our code is, we'll not apply that. $30 is the bottom. This is any other. No other discounts apply to this one. Correct, this is special, special group pricing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. We wanted to do this so that we could get and Alec's been wonderful working with us, we could get the price down as low as possible. We'll get back with you later, alec, on another episode where we talk about other costumes and stuff, but that'll be down the road a little bit. As we get closer to the next running season, we can probably start orders. How would, how would you want our friends to order this one from KPA?
Speaker 4:Well, you guys are going to have your own page on our website, your own, where you can choose the color, you can write in a name that will be a tag.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No extra costs on that. No extra costs.
Speaker 4:That's pretty cool so yeah, you guys will have your own listing on our website and you guys will have the direct link to post and they can just order through that post link.
Speaker 2:I want our friends also to know. If you see it and you go, that's really cool, I want to have one, but I'm not going to be running that 5K. We don't care, go ahead and get one anyway. Heck, get two.
Speaker 4:Yeah, if you want that exclusive new logo, Rise and Run logo, you've got to get it here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do with that down the road, but for now, for now, there you go. You got it, so start ordering, probably right around the same time, early in June. You think this website will be ready for it by then. Yep, yep, absolutely, would you think this website?
Speaker 2:would be ready for it by then. Yep, absolutely, and I know we're a little far out, but we're going to have to put a deadline on this, and we were talking probably the first week of November. So by the time of wine and dine, you'll have to have your Dalmatian shirt ordered. Now I do want to remind our friends you do not, although this is a wonderful deal. The Hawaiian Pizza, apparel stuff and I've got four, four or three, I can't recall. Anyway, I've been a customer. The shirts are terrific. At full price, at this discounted price, they're crazy good.
Speaker 2:I'm just excited about it. We're really excited about the number of people we think we're going to have. We talked on the last episode. We may look into some stuff, because if we get a couple hundred, like we might well, who knows, we may be into a whole different area. But uh, yeah, so you don't have to do it. Whole different area, but uh, yeah, so you don't have to do it. Special colors, the name tag, the dog tag, can be customized for you. Gosh, this is gonna be fun I can't wait.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to see all of our puppies out there in full gear, I ordered uh, with my last Fluffy Fizzy's order. I ordered the red lip gloss, the Cruella red yeah all these years, all these years, my friend Pam's been trying to talk me into lip gloss and go no, no, no, no, no, no, okay, and now she's done. Is there anything else we want to update at this time?
Speaker 1:if we run out of space there's. Is there anything else we want to update at this time? If we run out of space.
Speaker 2:There's plenty of room for more.
Speaker 6:There'll be no running out, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, monica or Alec, are we going to show some of the other colors on a future Facebook.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I do the sign up sheet, or I mean, I can even do it before. If you'd like, I can drop a couple more colors.
Speaker 2:Whatever you'd like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll be great.
Speaker 2:So we're making progress. Thank you both for the work. I know the work has kind of just begun, but you've done a lot already, both of you, I and the Rise and Run family. We appreciate you. Thank you so much Of course, no problem.
Speaker 1:This is too much fun to do.
Speaker 2:All right, so there will be future updates. We'll talk to you again soon. Thanks, ladies.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Bob.
Speaker 2:Okay. So we're looking forward, then, to starting to order, probably next week. It's getting real. Hey, one thing we wanted to emphasize that number one you don't have to buy the shirt that we talked about. I think we talked about that when we were talking with Alec and with Monica, but I think you'll want to once you see it. I really appreciate Alec working to keep the price as low as she could, but this is important Now. She said that you can have the shirt customized. You can have a name put on that dog tag that's on like the front collar, and you can. But if you do that, she won't be able to exchange any of those shirts. So no exchanges on customized shirts.
Speaker 2:But once again, the quality of shirts we get from Kawhi and Pizza Apparel is really excellent. These are good looking. Heck, I may even buy one myself. I've got to buy a Cruella costume, but I may even buy one of these shirts myself. Friends, we've got some news from the Rise and Run family. This one's kind of fun. I was going to put it in the race report, but I think it needs to be by itself. Our buddy Adam did a birthday run last week.
Speaker 3:He's insane.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, our buddy Adam did a birthday run last week. He's insane. Oh yeah, yeah, but he's a good insane.
Speaker 3:No, he's a very good insane, he's an inspiring insane.
Speaker 2:but he's insane. A very nice man. He planned on running 45 miles for his 45th birthday but when he got to mapping out routes he really couldn't find a good route that covered the places he wanted to go. That was less than 50 miles. So he made a route of about 50 miles in and around the Orlando area and several of his Orlando friends helped him in the run Stephanie, laura and Roxanne helped out in the run and I smile because I know some of the stories.
Speaker 2:You need to look on Facebook for Adam's story about this run, but there's a story about Stephanie carrying her pistol on her part of the run. The story about Stephanie carrying her pistol on her part of the run and the T-shirts that the ladies had made to celebrate the run at the end and how they were telling Adam hey, slow down, we're not ready for you, and just great fun. I love seeing the interaction. I think it was wonderful as he got going and we all noticed this. We map out a route and then we look at our GPS and we're not exactly where we think we're going to be. He's getting close to the end and realizing he is going to be close to 52 plus miles, so he ends up doing 52 and a half, so that he did a double marathon on his birthday and my friends central Florida, it was stinking hot. So happy birthday, adam and Stephanie, laura and Roxanne. You did a great job helping out on that one.
Speaker 3:Happy birthday, buddy.
Speaker 6:Happy birthday. I would have moved to decimal point over a little bit, Bob.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 5.25?.
Speaker 6:Well, yeah, not for me, but yeah 4.5 miles, yeah, 4.5, yeah I know right, bob, when they start getting up there like running, you don't want to run 70 miles on your bird.
Speaker 2:No, that's not happening. That's not happening. Maybe for the month, maybe.
Speaker 6:Yeah, but 7.1 would be perfect, right, bob? 7.1.
Speaker 2:I could do yeah.
Speaker 3:You know Adam's one of those individuals, you know. I know I talked earlier in the episode about you know how it's. You know we're in these, you know, summer months now and that the train's going to get difficult because of the weather. Anytime that I feel like I'm struggling, I'm like I need to stay out here longer because you know, you know I think of people like Adam. I think of people like you know who you know do these ultra events, whether they're sanctioned races or not, and they're, you know, they're doing it in the throngs of you know what is warm to them and I'm like, well, if Adam can run two marathons on his birthday, then I can clearly run 10 miles, but then that's the monkey brain side of me thinking that, and then I have to come back to my senses. But at least I have these individuals and these warm climates that do these crazy runs, that know that it is possible, even though when I am struggling, Jeff Galloway would be proud of you for the monkey brain reference.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's a good one. But you make a good point, greg. That I've said before, but not for a little while I don't think is that you never know who you're influencing. You never know who you're motivating. You never know where motivation comes from. You're influencing, you never know who you're motivating. You never know where motivation comes from. I remember when I first started getting into Disney running and Facebook friends and I'd think about them and go, I don't feel like getting up, but I bet you well, my buddy Boyd was a good example from early on, because I bet you boy the leukemia survivor's getting up and if he can do it, I can do it. And you just, you just never know. You don't know who is watching you out the window as you run by every morning thinking, golly, she gets out there three days a week and I see her. Maybe I should try it. You just never know where your motivations, who you are motivating. So keep it up. Keep it up.
Speaker 2:Hey, more family news. Our buddy Jennifer our buddy Jennifer's got a surgery. Actually, it's scheduled for today, the day of release of this podcast. I heard from Jennifer earlier today and yes, we have more than one. This is the Jennifer who put off her double mastectomy so that she could run dopey back in 2023 and then took all of her dopey metals with her into the operating room and she was getting her metals I think she said the metals she's earned since August of 23, getting them all together so that she could take him with her for this surgery. This was a scheduled procedure, but she's going to be out for a bit, but she's going to be back. She's going to be back stronger and better than ever. Jennifer, god bless you, girl, where you know your friends are on your side, where you know your friends are on your side. Hey, let's finish. Congratulations to Rise and Runner Emma on her engagement. That was a great post, emma. It was delightful to see.
Speaker 3:Congratulations, we are all happy for you. You know, when I saw that I got excited. I mean, obviously, congratulations regardless. I thought that maybe this was the first rise and run engagement, because I know we chatted I think it was after the springtime meetup, bob, someone made the comment to you.
Speaker 2:Somebody made the comment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like someone in this group will get married. I thought, oh, did it happen already? But obviously not but congratulations, you crazy kids.
Speaker 2:Congratulations, emma. We look forward to seeing you at Disney World. Upcoming episode 141 will be an Ask Us Anything episode. We haven't done one of those for a while. Greg has made a Facebook post asking for questions, so give us a shot. We'll do our best to answer it. I'm not sure we'll answer honestly, but we'll answer.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, and really you know, when it comes to this, if you, if you have just like a run Disney logistics question, a Disney world Disneyland question, a training question, you know what size shoe Greg wears.
Speaker 3:Exactly. But you know. But also I mean question If you want to know what size shoe Greg wears Exactly. But also I mean, obviously we're not going to open the book on us 100%, but if you have a question that either is specific for one of the hosts or just the gang in general, that you want to get to know us a little bit better, feel free to post it. And, like I said, we're going to try to answer as many questions as we can. And, like I said, we're going to try to answer as many questions as we can.
Speaker 3:But, based on a time of recording when I made that Facebook post, we're well over 50 Facebook comments already. So somebody tells me I think we're going to have enough material that we can do multiple parts or extend this out over a couple of episodes. But please just submit those questions. That way we always have them and if there's ever a night where, hey, we don't have anything to talk about, we can easily grab these. So, um, you know, feel free to either post on that Facebook post, uh, send us an Instagram message at rise and run pod, or you can also email us at the gang at rise and run podcastcom.
Speaker 2:You know, Greg, I think at a customized Zoom meeting this morning, our buddy Chad was asking for a six-hour episode.
Speaker 3:Let's put Chad in the same realm as those insane people that love those crazy distances. And, chad, I love you, buddy, but we're going to have to have a talk if you want a special six-hour episode, because that's a lot of time on my end.
Speaker 2:I did remind him that we had 130 something in the can.
Speaker 3:So there you go.
Speaker 2:All right, my friends, it's time for the race report.
Speaker 2:The race report brought to you by our friend Tom Stokes. It's stoked. Metabolic training. Stokes Fit slash, rise and run Coaching is the place to go to see what Tom's got to offer and to register for his training with a special discount, just for Rise and Runners. I've been looking. Tom I don't think I know has picked up some members of the Rise and Run family that he's training now. I'm excited about that and I hope you are excited about training with Tom. Hey, I wanted to catch up. Last week was a very busy week and I wanted to catch up just a little bit. There were a couple that I missed. I want to get them right now.
Speaker 2:At the Denver Colfax Marathon weekend, sia set a PR in, I believe, the half marathon. In the Cleveland Ohio marathon, michelle PR'd that one, and out in Olympia, washington, the Capital City half marathon, grace ran that. Grace is trying to run a race in all 50 states so she can now check Washington off that list. All right. Now to the holiday weekend here, which running actually began on Thursday the AEO Memorial Day Run-Walk event that Andrew did as a five-mile run. That Andrew did as a five-mile run. Moving to Saturday, we just talked with her.
Speaker 2:Fitz was the race announcer at the Buffalo Marathon weekend. We had three friends there all running the half marathon Emily. For Emily, this was her first timed half. We know what that means. She was aiming for 2.15, came in at 210. Way to go, emily, congratulations. Overall felt pretty good. Died a little bit around mile 11. Yeah, that'll happen in a half, but she did a great job knocking that one out in 210. Next up 2025 Disney Marathon. Jessica ran the half. She was there, as was Kristen. Both posted pictures in the thread about the Buffalo Marathon.
Speaker 6:In Wheeling, west Virginia, the Ogden Newspaper Half Marathon. Our friend Carissa ran that one. Our buddy Joe, he ran the Veteran 5K in Van Buren, arkansas. The three Amigas are on a roll sweeping first, second and third. It's a beautiful day on the river but a little warm. When he finished Got a great poppy cookie at the end and celebrated with a Dairy Queen Blizzard and as he said he said it's for you people that don't know Dairy Queen. It's like a Dole Whip without the pineapple.
Speaker 3:In Knoxville, tennessee, was the Knoxville Expo 5K. Our buddy, jimmy, who I feel like you know. John made this comment off air, but I think it's worth mentioning here. I think Jimmy is turning into the younger version of Joe because I feel like he is running a race almost every single weekend but he enjoyed this expo. He said it poured rain but ran anyway and amazingly shaved off four minutes off of last year's time. Tiffany was also there and said that the rain was brutal as well.
Speaker 2:Jimmy put a little video in of the rain. It was raining, it was raining hard, I think. Well, the central part of the country had some really, really rough weather yeah.
Speaker 6:Tornado warnings yeah.
Speaker 2:Serious business. Yeah, a lot of damage, a lot of injury and loss of life. West Palm Beach, florida. There was an average Joe run there. Jennifer and Steven ran it. It was really hot. It was in Central Florida, it's that time of year, but they had Krispy Kreme, donuts and coffee at the finish line and the medals were adorable. In addition, jen ran her Will Run For Virtually Live event with her friend Darlene.
Speaker 6:In Melbourne Florida, the TWLOHA Move For it 5K. Our friend Andrew did that one virtually.
Speaker 3:Noelle ran the Cedarburg Half Marathon in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. She said not a PR or a POT, but having your little guy see you run up to him and then running with him to cross the finish line was more special than a PR. She posted the photo in the Facebook group. Absolutely adorable stuff. And I can admit you know, seeing a loved one, on course, especially a young child, really can give you that mental boost. So I'm really glad to see that that really helped Noel. So congratulations on the great half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a cute photo. Glad to see that that really helped them well. So congratulations on the great half. Yeah, it was a cute photo. Let us go to the Southern Hemisphere through the Carrara Maya in Buenos Aires, argentina, one of Argentina's most popular races, a 10K commemorating the May Revolution that eventually led to Argentinian independence from Spain. Our friend Juan Jose JJ ran this one Southern Hemisphere. It's wintertime, it was 37 degrees Fahrenheit at the start of the race. Jj PR'd this 10K with a time of 39.51. Wow, jj can flat out move.51. Wow, jj can flat out move.
Speaker 3:You know who is responsible for that PR you Bob.
Speaker 8:Not me.
Speaker 3:I don't think if you would have kicked him in the head, I don't think that would have put him into an extra gear. So, jj, just think about that next time. You see, bob, maybe he was the one that gave you the strength to get that new PR.
Speaker 2:Well, congratulations, my friend.
Speaker 6:Our friend Amanda ran the Brookgreen Gardens Memorial 5K Run Walk. She walked this as she's training herself to be able to beat the 16-minute mile pace for the half, so she's getting right on target.
Speaker 3:In Ornaga, illinois, we had the poppy 5k. Caitlin, uh, did this. This was her first time as a race organizer for um, their small town, on memorial day weekend, and they were beyond thrilled to have over 70 participants for this inaugural event. Not and not to mention, not only did she organize the event, she also got the run too. Congratulations, caitlin. I'm sure that is no easy task by any means whatsoever.
Speaker 2:No, and I wanted to point out that the Ornaga American Legion Auxiliary was involved in that Poppy 5K for Memorial Day weekend. Moving to Chicago, tiffany, tiffany did the Soldier Field 10. Now she originally dropped, originally had planned to do the 10 miler, had to drop to the 10k having a little bit of a hip problem but still finished in under an hour, which is a fine time for a 10k, tiffany says. As she came in, the band was playing Knocking on Heaven's Door and she thought, and I quote oh, come on, I don't look that bad. Good for you, tiffany.
Speaker 6:In Newport News, virginia, the Chick-fil-A 5K. Sharon and her husband Jerry ran that race. It was a very warm and humid morning but it was a great race with a free Chick-fil-A sandwich at the end. It's her first Dopey's coming up in 2025.
Speaker 2:And we had a couple friends who ran Saturday and Sunday. This weekend. Let us start in Madison Wisconsin weekend. Let us start in Madison, Wisconsin, and we are happy to be joined by our longtime friend, Ryan, who ran two races in Madison this weekend. Ryan, how you doing? Welcome to the podcast Doing well, Thanks for having me. Oh man, glad you're here. You know that, buddy, we really are. We're excited. We want to talk all about them. I will kick off as I usually do. Well, first of all, let's see it's been. I haven't seen you since April.
Speaker 8:Yep.
Speaker 2:I saw Ryan at Springtime Surprise where you earned a special number of run Disney medals. What was it? Yep number 100. Number 100. 100 run Disney medals. What was it? Yep Number 100. Number 100, 100 run Disney medals. That's pretty cool. I'm impressed. I've got a ways to go, I don't know. Anyway, I'm getting there. I think I'm at 67 or something like that, but yeah, that's a cool thing. Uh, but let's go back and ask you the question how did it all get started? How did you get started into running as an adult?
Speaker 8:Well, I guess I I did kind of start before I was an adult. I my first run Disney race. I mean, I did some, like you know, local five Ks or whatever with like run, walk type things. Um, but, uh, my first run Disney race was 2015,. Um, walt Disney world marathon weekend 10 K. Um, I learned about run Disney from a relative who had done the first, uh, been doing run Disney for quite a while, and she did the first dopey Um, and then I was like, well, that looks like fun, why don't I give this, this a try? And so, lo and behold, at 16 I did my first run disney 10k. And then, uh, the rest is history wow, yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Well listen, let's talk about the weekend.
Speaker 8:It starts out on saturday with the 5k right, yeah, so, uh, I I was new to this weekend, but, um, they did a twilightK on Saturday, which you could also. There was a lot of people that brought their dogs too. They had a dog race as part of it as well, so it was a lot of fun. I mean, it just started at 7 pm and it was just all around right around the campus there at UW-Madison.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I don't think I've mentioned it before. We're talking the Run Madtown series in Madison, wisconsin. The Twilight 5K temperature is kind of nice by that time of the evening.
Speaker 8:Yeah, it was probably right upper 60s, so not too bad at all Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we get those in November. Good. So then I mean, you ran in the evening, then you flip right around and come back the next morning for a half marathon.
Speaker 8:Yep 7 am the next morning for a half marathon, big concern was weather. For the half they were calling for some potential rain and possibly storms. Thankfully, the rain held out until about halfway about mile five is when it started raining for me, and the storms held out until way later in the day, so that was good too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is. I'm really surprised that you didn't have any uh weather graphics for the own race uh, it would just been probably.
Speaker 8:I mean, I know there was somebody else in the facebook group that ran um, but otherwise, yeah, it wouldn't. It wouldn't have been for many people if I was doing graphics yeah, there was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll mention it here. When we wrap up, we had at least one other person run that half. That's cool. Yeah, you don't know what the do point was, off the top of your head no, hey, ryan, taking a look at the course maps here.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, as you mentioned, your race takes place in madison. Um, it looks like at some point you were running through, or at least nearby you know, university of wisconsin. Seeing senior video feeder right now I see a lot of big red W's behind you. Are you an alumni of Wisconsin?
Speaker 8:No, I didn't go to Madison, I went to UW-Milwaukee.
Speaker 3:so a sister school, but yeah. Very cool, very cool.
Speaker 2:Still a badger at heart, huh.
Speaker 8:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Cool. Well now, one of the photos that I saw that you had posted after the 5K was of some of the race announcers that were at the finish Mention who was calling this race that Run. Disney fans might know.
Speaker 8:Yeah, so we had the pleasure of having Cree Kelly at Run Madtown, which was really cool. I know he had done it last year, so I was excited when I saw that that he was back for this year as well.
Speaker 3:So, ryan, whether it's the 5K or it's the half marathon, give us outside of the weather, of course give us some course highlights over the course of the two races.
Speaker 8:So for the 5K it was pretty just much around right around the campus there. It was actually the 5K I found more hilly than the half marathon, which, if you're familiar with the Madison area, it is pretty hilly in certain spots, but the half actually. I thought. I've done other races in Madison but this was probably my favorite race I've done in Madison yet and at one point we ran through a fire station which I've never done before.
Speaker 2:I was right through it.
Speaker 8:They had. They had firefighters there with like drums and bagpipes as well, while you were through it. That was a lot of fun. We ran. We ran entirely around the Capitol, which was cool. Different parts of the campus. We ran right next to the Kohl's Center where the basketball team plays, and then Camp Randall where the football team plays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 8:Very cool.
Speaker 3:And then one question I do have for you is I noticed in your medal photos with your giant breakfast plate that you had after the half marathon. There is the medals and, like a lot of the signage for the race, have a flamingo on it. What is the significance of a flamingo to madison wisconsin and this race?
Speaker 8:yes, I'm not entirely sure in the full backstory but I know at various points throughout the year the campus is all about um flamingos and they put out like fake garden flamingos throughout the campus and on bascom hill where they uh, there's a statue of abraham lincoln. They put a bunch of them over there and stuff like that so that they kind of play into that theme throughout this race very cool I'm looking at the uh half marathon medal.
Speaker 6:It looks like almost kind of like the six star type medal. It's got little circles all around it. Are those like highlights or something of the?
Speaker 8:race. There's all different highlights throughout the race. You have, uh, I believe, camp Randall's on there, the state Capitol, um, there was, I think there's a fire truck. That probably signifies the, uh, the fire station we ran through.
Speaker 6:It's all just different points throughout the race and the metal's huge, I mean like bigger than many of my disney metals. Huge like it's next to that plate of food and it looks pretty big you could say almost space coast yeah yeah, space coast has some big metals.
Speaker 2:Ryan, what's on your disney schedule this year?
Speaker 8:um well, next one is wine and dine, and then, of course, dopey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good stuff, my friend.
Speaker 3:We need the intel, can any?
Speaker 8:secrets be divulged about what the slackers will be wearing over the course of this race. Well, I'll give a hint to Wine and Dine. We are doing a Muppets related. It's not Muppets specific, but it's Muppets related costume for the 5K. I know there's still some things in the works for the 10K and a half that I don't know if everything's finalized there yet, but that's what I'll give you for now.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, we love a good tease. Yeah, we do. It's fun and we like seeing you guys there, absolutely 100%. Well, ryan, we look forward to seeing you in November and, of course, january. Thanks for taking the time to visit with us. Glad you had a good time and we'll talk to you soon. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks, ryan. Also, on Sunday at the Run Madtown, katie was there. Katie talked about the rain light rain, lots of hills.
Speaker 3:Katie said a 10-minute PR, all right next on the list and Bob gets off the hook for once in terms of the butchering of pronunciations of races across the pond. Our buddy, Danny, this past Sunday ran the Marathon van Amersfoort in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. This takes place in a 750-year-old city where Danny was actually born.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but Danny wasn't born 700.
Speaker 3:No, danny is not 750 years old. I think that would make it as old as yoda. He, uh, he goes on to say that this is a beautiful city with amazing landmarks. He finished in one hour and 41 minutes. That's a great half marathon another excellent runner uh, he said the most rewarding thing after the race was not the medal, which was made of bamboo, which is very, very interesting, it wasn't the ice-cold Coca-Cola, not the blueberry cookie, but the nice hot shower that he was able to take afterwards. Congratulations, danny On.
Speaker 2:Sunday Rachel did two races in Connecticut. Rachel's a 169er. She got town number 93 in Wilton, connecticut, a 5k finished third overall amongst the women racers at that run. Then her second race was a one mile sprint which she finished in 621, just one second shy of her PR for town number 94. Of her PR for town number 94. She has already mapped out her future plans and she plans to hit town number 100 on.
Speaker 6:June 22nd, one mile down the pike in Monroe, connecticut, our friend Sue told Nancy about this race, so Nancy ran this. She's going to be one of those 169ers. It looks like she became third in her age group Fun run with a walk back to the car being an unplanned participant in the town parade. So join that town.
Speaker 7:Join that parade.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty cool. Looks like I'm the lucky one this week that gets all the international races. We have the Alnwick Castle Trail 10K, um, we have the alnwick castle trail 10k. And he goes on to say this just was a really cool setting for a race, especially around a castle in northeast england which actually was a castle that was used as a movie location for hogwarts in the first harry potter film. So if we got any potter heads out in the rise run community, you definitely might want to check this one out. Yeah, he said a pouring rain the night before, which left the roads and the the parking lot flooded and it looked like a mud bowl. The race is described as undulating and it turned out that undulating actually meant a mile long hill. So he wants to thank the motivation of a stranger that he made to help him finish it in just over one hour. Way to go, andy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good job. Wrapping up. Sunday in Honolulu, Waikiki, the Hibiscus Half Marathon. A friend, Amanda, who is a flight attendant, went on a run on a 24-hour layover. She said she lands in Honolulu, sees lots of parking closure signs for the next day due to the race. So she does a quick Google search, finds out where the expo is, changes her routes, goes to it, signs up and runs it. This is the same Amanda who you may remember us talking about a year ago, who had to work the red eye flight to run the Chicago marathon. Amanda, that's impressive Way to go.
Speaker 6:Okay, it's Monday. Uh, the Ridgewood run. In Ridgewood, new Jersey, which is about 15, 20 minutes North of me. Our buddy, Rob, ran that race and he left us a race report.
Speaker 7:Good afternoon everybody. This is Rob from Glen Rock, new Jersey, calling in a race report for the 2024 Ridgewood Run 10K. You know, before I knew about Run Disney and about New York Road Runners. The Ridgewood Run was the big race on my calendar. They have prize money. They had a 5K, a 10K. The volunteers are fantastic. They have a bag check. It was fantastic.
Speaker 7:The 10K today was my first in the new age group, in my new age group, so that was exciting. And got to run with one of my old soccer players, one of the kids I used to coach way back when, so that was fun. The weather was a little sketchy to start but it cleared up. Got a little drizzle at the end, which was great, but the humidity really was something. Today You'd pour water on yourself and not even notice that anything had happened. But ended up with a 53-55, which was fantastic because I was trying to beat my age and I did and everybody seemed like everybody had a great time. I hope that everyone in the Rise and Run family did as well. I hope you all have a peaceful Memorial Day and happy running day and happy running.
Speaker 3:In boulder, colorado, we had the boulder b-o-l-d-e-r boulder b-o-u-l-d-e-r 10k. Alexis uh completed the 10k. Uh, she said this is was her first boulder boulder. No pr, no medal, a great race with wonderful family support. And she posted this great video uh short that included dancing bacon.
Speaker 3:So you definitely have to go check that one out. Also. Sia ran this race. She said it's the funnest race she's done outside of disney. She gave up on the idea of a new pr? Um and literally ate and drank her way through the entire course. She ran as a pink unicorn. She got to pet a llama and thinks that this is the best 10K in the United States. So nothing better than bacon unicorns and llamas. So everybody get out to Boulder Colorado.
Speaker 2:Good job on those In Massillon Ohio, the Hero Run, 5k Run, walk, run, 5k, run walk. Laurie was just going to take it easy but she kind of pr'd. Laurie's been doing really well lately. Not bad for a 60 year old woman that needs a knee replacement.
Speaker 6:Laurie, when you're ready for it, talk to me okay, in rockville, maryland, montgomery county roadrunners memorial day four miler. Our friend Kay did that one. She almost didn't make it. She had a really sore knee but got there anyway. The race begins with runners calling out names of fallen soldiers. She was running for a senior airman. Despite some troubles, wouldn't quit until she finished.
Speaker 3:The real question I have is did she get featured on any promotional materials for this race?
Speaker 2:I don't think so, and she didn't run in costume. That's shocking. But she did create a special bib for the airman.
Speaker 3:I did see that that was very, very special.
Speaker 2:For the airman that she dedicated the run to. Yeah, that was nice.
Speaker 3:In Boston, massachusetts, we had the Boston Run. To Remember 5-Miler, lauren ran that.
Speaker 2:She said it was a great race with great crowd support and she got a PR. Memorial Day 5K, houston, texas. We were talking about Jennifer earlier, about her having surgery today. Well, this was her last run before going into surgery. She'll be running some more later. She introduced a friend of hers, a fellow named Jeremy, who is a pretty good runner. Jeremy volunteered to slow down and help Jennifer out, so Jennifer introduced Jeremy to Run Walk Run, which she kind of liked. Jennifer finished strong and got an awesome looking medal.
Speaker 6:In Weston, florida, the Memorial Day Classic 5K. Ravi ran that one. It's a nice local race. That's in its 36th year. The final mile is a soldier mile with pictures of service members give the last measure of devotion to their country.
Speaker 3:And rounding out the race report, we have the Virginia Beach Run to Remember 5K. One of my Bird and Ham buddies, chris Darling, ran this race. Chris believes this is his first race report, but he goes on to say that he has a love-hate relationship with this course because it happens around an airfield. He said, like many this weekend, when he started to struggle, it gave him time to be thankful for his temporary struggle, as he honored those who have given their lives so that we can be out here running. It also goes on to mention that who wouldn't love an event that ends with Black Rifle Coffee and Mission Barbecue as the post-race festivities? Way to go, chris.
Speaker 2:Sounds good. All right, friends, congratulations to everyone. A lot of Memorial Day runs here in the US. It's a big weekend. It's the unofficial start of summer here. So congratulations to all. Not a Zoom weekend. We'll be up again next week. So, my friends and if you run, you know you are our friends we hope you've enjoyed this episode of the rise and run podcast. We know we enjoyed bringing it to you. We look forward to seeing you and until then, happy running.
Speaker 3:Happy running. 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.
