Rise and Run
Rise and Run
147: Balancing Athletic Pursuits and Family Time at Disney
Ever wondered how to balance a love for running with family time, or how to make the most out of your Disneyland race weekend? Join us as we unpack listener questions and share Greg's joyful experience celebrating his daughter's birthday at Disneyland! We'll guide you through essential training schedules for upcoming races, including the Disneyland Halloween Race Weekend and the Wine and Dine Weekend, filled with tips for those gearing up for their very first Run Disney event on the West Coast.
Take a trip down memory lane as we reminisce about Disneyland in 1976, when tiered tickets determined your adventure, and classic attractions like the Matterhorn reigned supreme. Fast forward to the present, where we offer practical advice for navigating race weekends at Disneyland. From meal planning and bag-free races to understanding different security measures compared to Walt Disney World, we’ve got your back to ensure a smooth and magical race experience. Alongside these insights, we'll reveal our unique sports passions and even imagine our Olympic dreams, fostering a connection through shared athletic aspirations.
Our conversation wouldn’t be complete without discussing the invaluable role of supportive partners. Hear our personal stories about how our loved ones encourage and sometimes challenge our frequent Disney escapades. Thinking about dream vacation destinations and hobbies beyond running, we cover bucket list trips from Japan to Australia and personal interests like college basketball and classic cars. Wrapping up with tips on building a welcoming community through our podcast, we encourage you to join the conversation and meet fellow runners at events. Don't miss out on this heartfelt and informative episode of the Rise and Run Podcast!
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3 am again. 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:Hello my friends. Welcome to episode 147 of the Rise and Run podcast. I'm Bob. I'm here this week with Lexi.
Speaker 5:Hello.
Speaker 4:With Greg hey, hey, hey. With Jack Hiya.
Speaker 6:With John. Hey how you doing.
Speaker 4:And with Alicia. Hello, you might have noticed a little bit of a difference here in the intro. No guests this week. We're going to go ahead and answer your listener questions. No race report spotlight this week. We're going to go ahead and answer your listener questions. No race report spotlight this week. I'll let Greg explain it to you in a minute.
Speaker 3: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 at Rise and Run Podcast, and IG, which is Instagram at Rise and Run Pod. Check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have any questions, comments, race report or want to introduce an upcoming episode, call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.
Speaker 1:We also want to thank our patrons, whose support helps us keep the rise around podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the patreon team, please check out patreoncom.
Speaker 2:Slash rise and run podcast the rise around podcast is sponsored by our friends over at magic bound travel. Yeah, so Bob alluded to something. This episode might be a little bit different, and that is because on day of release, I will be flying home from my family vacation out from Disneyland, which was booked by our friends at Magic.
Speaker 2:Bound Travel, there you go, so it's kind of weird, it's in the future Disneyland, which was booked by our friends at Magic Bound Travel. Yeah, this was so. Yeah, you know it's kind of weird. You know it's it's in the future, but I need to talk in the past tense oh yeah, I get all messed up. You know I'm hopping in the Mandalorian here, but this, this is a trip that I've been or I was or I'm still looking forward to I'm not not 100 sure, uh, because I have not been to disneyland in 20 years.
Speaker 2:So, um very very excited. We went out to disneyland to celebrate my daughter's seventh birthday.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it was an epic trip uh I just, you know it was so but yeah, just to be able to see the tiny castle and get on the Matterhorn. And I'm going to tell you, even though we are recording this a couple of weeks early, you know what's the thing that I'm most looking forward to. Slash, I love the most from this trip is I think I need to schedule like eight lunches in the San Francisco section of Disney, california, because there is so much food that I want to eat slash, I ate um and.
Speaker 2:But again, if you're interested in traveling to Disneyland, to Walt Disney World, any of the universals Disney Cruise Line, our friends over at Magic Bound can book these trips for you, zero cost to you. You to use their services. So if you don't feel like waking up at your 60-day mark to book your dining reservations, or now that we're one week away from the multi-pass entering the Disney Lexicon here, magic Bound can help you book those as well too. So visit our friends over at magic bound travelcom.
Speaker 4:Well, great Thanks. I'm glad you're going to. We'll have finished having a good trip. A bunch of our friends will be there in six weeks. I don't know, math is hard, especially running math. But let's look at training schedules. Yeah, it looks like it'll be six weeks from now. Six weeks from now, disneyland Halloween Race Weekend. Week 11 of the training schedule calls for a four-mile training run with one of those four miles being a magic mile run, with one of those four miles being a magic mile. We are already into week three of training for marathon weekend and wine and dine weekend. I hope the excitement level is still high. It usually is early on. We're at a three mile long run for both of those. Both of those will probably stay the same for a little while and then uh, and then they'll start to split, especially as we include training distances for the marathon. So hope you're doing well with those friends.
Speaker 2:All right, bob.
Speaker 2:Well, before we get into the, the main um, the main topic of this week's episode, which is a continuation of our ask us anything or listener question segment, you know we just want to briefly chat. You know, in honor of my trip to Disneyland, we figured let's talk about Anaheim a little bit more because you know, as you just said, bob, we're, you know, six weeks away from the first ever disneyland halloween. So you know, people are probably getting real excited for that upcoming race and I know we, you know we talked about a little bit, you know, in the recap episodes, especially from the disneyland race weekend that happened this past January. But we'll, we'll, we'll throw it over to the, you know the, the two people that that ran there this past January. Uh, jack and Lexi, if you could give tips to people maybe running their first run Disney race in Disneyland, you know, maybe something that you learned from January that's valuable information. Now that Run Disney has returned to the West Coast in that seven-year hiatus, or whatever it was, what tips can you pass along to the listeners?
Speaker 3:One of my biggest tips and I don't even think we mentioned this in the video for the Disneyland episode Hold on you guys. So just a heads up, we do have a YouTube video about the expo over for Disneyland and what we experienced in January. So if you have any expo questions of what it's going to be like, that's definitely going to be the biggest thing that's going to be super helpful for you guys in the next six weeks to prepare for. But one of the things that I know was not mentioned in that video is I do not recommend at all during the time the race starts, or before the race starts or even after, do not try and get a Lyft or Uber. If you are staying either on property or within a mile or two, just walk it. I know it's more miles on your feet, but, granted, if it was Disney World, you would have been walking it anyways by the time you get off the bus, through the checkpoints and everything.
Speaker 3:The main reason is, for example, I decided I didn't want to walk from the point where we were able to exit the finish line area to the point back to the hotel. It was only going to take me about 15 minutes to walk and I was like you know what I'm going to splurge? I'm going to get myself a lift. It took me an hour just to circle around and then have to get dropped off at the same point at which I got picked up, because he couldn't even get to where the hotel was, because all the roads were blocked or they were busy or it was the chorus area, especially for the half marathon. And don't even try for the 10k, because you're probably going to have the same issues. And that's my biggest thing. Don't even waste your money on it, because you could have saved yourself so much time by just walking back.
Speaker 5:that's my biggest take from that weekend I will say on the flip side, because I finished like two hours after jack, if you finish towards the end of the race, it's not as bad doing an uber or a lift because the roads have opened up, but like by the time the finish line has closed, I walked when I finished the race to the hotel because we were like super close with our hotel. I feel like if I was on the other side of property I probably would have have been okay Ubering, because by that, by the time that I got my Uber, the roads on the opposite side of the property were open because everybody was on the side of the finish line. And you know you kind of have to weigh out, like, saving your legs how, how's your training been going versus, um, you know, standing and waiting like it is. You know, is it better to stand and wait or walk and wait? You know well. Also for clarification.
Speaker 3:I did walk from the finish line to the park, uh, because, um? So I guess I have to restate a little bit what I said. I just remember you because I got picked up at the park and the park you know Uber lift and drop off area and I went to go and get some pictures and I think I met up with some friends, so my timing of it was wasn't too different from actually when you finished, lexi, so maybe it was just the course from where I was at was still closed off because it was near, quote unquote, the finish line area. So maybe that was part of it. But yeah, just just to kind of heads up on that.
Speaker 3:I also think another tip and trick not even really a tip, it's just be kind to the cast members because again it's a new race weekend and they've only ever had one try at this, or at least a recent try, in the past. How many odd years since the last ones, um. So just kind of give them a little grace. And if you are getting a, um, a coast to coast medal, make sure that when you go and pick up your bibs that you get the wristband associated with that, so that you can get that at the finish line of the half marathon.
Speaker 5:Assuming that they do it the same way that they did. Oh yeah, Assuming which you don't know yet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I remember when we walked in I see Lexi, she had already got a wristband. I had already gotten my bib. I said where'd you get that? She's like, oh, where I got my bib. So the lady actually didn't see on my check-in list that I actually qualified. She didn't know. Because she's like, oh, I'm so sorry. I was like it's okay, I just wanted to see you twice. She's really nice. But yeah, if you have that, make sure you get that.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, Bob, I know you haven't run a run Disney race in Disneyland, but you said before we started recording that you did have a tip that you wanted to pass along to people.
Speaker 4:Save your e-ticket for the Matterhorn. Okay, don't waste it. Don't waste it, captain Nemo. No, don't use it on that, use it on the Matterhorn.
Speaker 5:I think we need to hop into our Mandalorian to go back to when Bob went to Disneyland. That would be fun.
Speaker 4:I don't know Of that was fun. I don't know. Of course it was fun. Of course it was fun, but it was different. It was kind of akin to when you got and if you don't know what I'm talking about you young whippersnappers. You used to pay a small admission fee and then you buy a book of tickets and you could buy anything you wanted in tickets. But most of the people who went bought a package and the tickets were labeled A through E, and A's were for like the carousel and simple rides and the E's were for the big rides and it was kind of like FastPass used to be or I guess Lightning Lane is going to be. Now. You have to kind of budget your choices and decide which ones you're going to do. Nowadays you can do more, so there's really no sense going much deeper into it than that, because that was 50 years ago and that system doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny, you say that Bob. That system doesn't exist anymore. You know it's funny, you say that, bob. So there is a I don't know if you could call it a theme park, but I I would call more so of the amusement park, um, up near the pocono's here in pennsylvania, a park called knobles, and it's one of, I think, the the very few parks remaining where it is free to enter but you buy tickets for each attraction oh yeah, it is and it's been like that for since the day it's over.
Speaker 2:I can't remember how many decades. I mean I remember going to kenoble's as a kid. So I mean you know the fact that you know, even in 2024, um, and you know, an amusement park can still do that old school system that you know. You know, maybe disney patented all those years ago that that's.
Speaker 4:That's really cool to see let me ask you east coast fellas I think I'm talking only to john and greg here if you go to the boardwalk and one of the amusement piers on the boardwalk, do you still buy tickets?
Speaker 6:yes, yes you can buy a day pass or you can buy tickets.
Speaker 4:It's yeah, you know you used to buy a roll of tickets and this, this ride, would be four tickets and this one would be seven, or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, the one thing. So when I, when I do beach vacations, um, we go down to Rehoboth Beach, delaware, so there's only like one little you know like amusement area, but it's the same way it's, you know, it's buying the tickets. I think they might do like John was saying, the day pass, but I think they only do those on like a Tuesday afternoon or something like that. So it's somewhat limited there, but yeah, so it still does exist.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm going way back there because while I was at Disneyland in 76, I couldn't tell you the last time I was at a pier. But you get on the boardwalk at Wildwood and there'd be three or four piers each. I guess they're independently owned and you'd have to buy tickets at each one.
Speaker 6:Well, they were independently owned and you'd have to buy tickets at each one. Well, they were independently owned. Now the same company owns them all, which?
Speaker 4:makes it a lot easier.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I can see that, so that's where that pay pass works out really well. All right, so I got some tier stuff too for the rides. If you want to know the original A, b, c and D oh yeah yeah go for it.
Speaker 6:Okay, yeah, what the heck rides if you want to know the original a, b, c and d. Oh yeah, yeah, go for it. Okay, yeah, what the heck? Okay, okay. So talking of the, uh, the tiered system for disneyland back in the 70s, uh, a tickets, sleeping beauty castle walkthrough main street vehicles and king arthur carousel carousel, I knew that yeah you had to pay to walk through the castle.
Speaker 4:I didn't remember that Apparently you did B tickets Casey Jr Circus Train.
Speaker 6:Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse in Main Street. Cinema C ticket Peter.
Speaker 4:Pan's Flight, autopia and Mad Tea Party. Okay, autopia was a lot like. I think it was a lot like what's it called over in Magic Kingdom?
Speaker 2:now, it's a kid's ride, the other ride that should be blown to an oblivion the Tomorrowland Speedway.
Speaker 4:Speedway. That's it. Yeah, I think that was what Autopia was at the time or I-4, so people don't know how to drive. Yeah, they're still driving.
Speaker 6:D Storyland, Canal Boats, disneyland Railroad and the Skyway, and your E tickets were the Matterhorn Pirates of the Caribbean and it's a Small World and I remember from the Disney World version of it.
Speaker 4:When we used to go, we always had a lot of A tickets left over at the end of the trip. Yeah, and I remember the Skyway, too would basically take you from one end of the park to the other, which wasn't that far and it was an open air thing. It wasn't like what we have now at Disney World. It was just an attraction where you could basically see the park from above. That was it.
Speaker 2:The Skyway flew, so the sky liner could soar that's it.
Speaker 5:so, circling back to the disneyland tips from the trip down memory lane into current times, we'll get back on our mandalorian and go back into current times. Um, one of the tips that I have is kind of figure out what you're gonna eat before race weekend, because in my opinion and now I'll preface this by saying I'm gluten free, um, so I'm more careful about what I what I eat before race weekend because I don't have a reaction. I really had to. There's an allergy guy, there's tons of allergy guides online, but I remember being done with the race and the park wasn't open yet or something, and I couldn't find any food and I ended up going to IHOP down the road. So don't be afraid to go off property, because there's plenty of restaurants that are not Disney restaurants that you can go to to eat at.
Speaker 3:I kind of forgot about this one and I feel like it's very necessary to mention.
Speaker 3:If you're running the 5k, you guys, you can watch the 5k at Disneyland on our passport to run video and you will see why I say this Don't even try and bring a bag with you to think that there is going to be a spot to put your bag before the race, because a lot of people couldn't find it and I'm glad I didn't bring one, because I didn't see a bag place at all and so you would see people on the course carrying their nice full bags with them running.
Speaker 3:So don't, even for the 5k, don't even, don't even try. Just have maybe like a little waistband that has your things in it and that's it. Because even if you did bring stuff and you did find it, the line to get into the park assuming that it's going to start inside the um disneyland area again on main street I mean you're gonna lose your placement so bad that it's just gonna, yeah, just don't don't forget your room key, because if you're not staying on disney property, you need a room key, not a magic fan to get in your room I will say.
Speaker 2:The one thing that shocks me is I remember the two of you talking about how long the security lines were at oh yeah in january I mean obviously. Yes, I know they're two separate parks and two different sets of leadership, but I can't believe that disneyland hasn't instituted those new security scanners that we walk through in the world because I think that's one of the best investments that they've made in a really long time and I guess in Disneyland they're still hand-checking bags and everything like that.
Speaker 2:So I mean you would think that they would see the success of that in Florida and want to bring that over to California. But who knows?
Speaker 3:To be fair for the races, though, specifically, you're not entering, like if you especially for the 10k or half. You're not entering through the park, you're entering on a side street, so they wouldn't even be able to have access to those kinds of scanners.
Speaker 5:Anyways, yeah, I think my final tip is don't panic. Expect things to kind of be a little more bumpy than Walt Disney World, which they could have completely resolved everything that went wrong in January, and we're just like going to be blown away and it's going to be wonderful. You know Disney magic, let's throw some pixie dust out there. But if it's not exactly like Disney World, you just have to mentally be prepared to put that away and enjoy the race for what it is and enjoy the fact that you're in Disneyland running through the parks at Halloween time with all of these amazing theming races, with all the people that you love.
Speaker 4:Right, right, absolutely. And heck, we've all done races at places other than Disney World, so, but yeah, just be ready for something a little different. That's good, friends, let's. Let's move on, and for this episode we're going to take a stab at some more listener questions. I'll start off, if you don't mind, with a question from our friend, tom at We'll Run. For If you didn't run but you wanted to pursue another sport, what would you try? I got to think about I'm not going to answer this one yet. I got to think about when Tom says if you didn't run, I think he meant I don't think he means if you are not physically able to run, and then your sports would be like chess or something like that. I think he means if you're not interested in running races. I'm going to take that approach when I make my answer. Alicia, go ahead.
Speaker 1:So a fun fact about me I've done a lot of different sports over the years. I did gymnastics, soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball, track and field, which is also running. But if I had to choose one or another one, I think I would choose soccer, which is kind of a cop out because you're still running a lot, but I really enjoyed playing soccer.
Speaker 5:I did not know you did all those sports, yep, all the things, what yes?
Speaker 4:Well, actually, what did you do? What would you do?
Speaker 5:Well, I'm not a very sporty person, so I think I mean I swam competitively in high school. Uh well, all grown up from when I was eight until high school, so that would kind of be what I would probably lean towards. Um, but honestly, if I didn't run, I probably wouldn't really do much of the sports things besides watching them.
Speaker 4:You can have chess. You can use that if you want.
Speaker 2:I think for me, you know, growing up I played baseball and I played basketball and even though I would love to probably pick those two up, even though I never pursued it, I always in the back of my head like if I could go back in time and redo high school and everything like that. I really enjoy volleyball because I feel like it's a sport that can get very intense, but due to the confinements, it's not like you have to do, like you know, strenuous amounts of running, you know, and everything like that, and just you know, I think there's like a lot of adrenaline in terms of the sets and like jumping up and like trying to spike the ball and everything like that.
Speaker 2:But it was one of my favorite um you know, my favorite sports to play in pe class, whether it was in middle school or high school. So, um, so, yeah, I'm going to say volleyball.
Speaker 3:So I'm a little split in my decision, as usual. Um, I have been looking into doing aerial work, so silky hoops, um, but part of me is like, if I really wanted to train up to it, I would like to see if I could qualify for a World Winter Guard team again. Well, not again, so I guess I had never said this. So I used to spin competitively. I spun flag and rifle. I did Winter Guard and I've been to World Championships, but I was one class underneath world class and once you get to a certain age you can know the only way that you can continue spinning is if you're at world class. So I think if I trained a bit harder, I feel like I would like to try doing flag auditions for a world class guard, but I don't think I would do it to spin rifle because I don't think I would be good enough, unfortunately.
Speaker 4:But flag because I like dancing and, um, I just think it's beautiful a lot more athleticism in that than most people give credit for, I think I'm gonna change my answer. You can't, but I have to do already, swam already on record, even though this is three weeks away, minus two weeks, whatever with the square root of we're using the mandalorian to go back two minutes and then answer no, I would probably pursue some kind of dance
Speaker 5:that's that's what I would do um and do theater more I guess, than I do now um musical theater, and I don't know if I would take a dance class or do like tap or ballet or something, but I think that would be fun did you have one, john?
Speaker 6:yes, I do.
Speaker 4:I sorry don't feel so sad, john, it's not for me.
Speaker 6:The sport I would do would be hockey yeah.
Speaker 3:I can see that for you.
Speaker 6:That's the camaraderie with the hockey players and the guys you play with is just as good as run Disney and running it's like hey, didn't I play with you back in Pee Wee's back a long time ago.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a lot of camaraderie in team sports. I've talked about being active in sports before playing small college basketball. I don't know if I've said this before. Maybe I have. If I chose one sport that I was better at my peers than at a different level, more than any other, it was table tennis, and I used to. When I was in the army, especially when I was in Alaska and we had a table in the basement, I used to hustle guys. I would play them. I would go into the kitchen and get a pot and, instead of using a racket, play with the pot, or I'd take my shoe off and play with my shoe, but I was pretty good at that. I competed in the Alaska State Championships. That's where I found out I wasn't quite as good as I thought I was, but I did get to that level.
Speaker 6:Did you lose to Forrest Gump?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was really thinking that, but I was like I won't say it. He was a little younger than I was.
Speaker 4:I'm a little before his time.
Speaker 6:Actually, you're probably older than him. Yeah, yeah, he'd probably be older than you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he'd be older than me, that's right. He would be. Yeah, that's right. Yep, yeah.
Speaker 5:So I'm going to have a follow-up question.
Speaker 4:I thought you were going to change your mind again.
Speaker 5:No, no Follow-up question, because I was just looking at the calendar and the Olympics will start in. Oh yeah, what is one sport that you wish you could do?
Speaker 4:but you probably would never do ever in your life. Mine's ice skating. I kind of wish, when I was a young man in college, that I had tried some of the throwing sports like javelin oh, that's cool. I used to be. I was not a competitive football player but I played on the you know, fraternity intramural teams and I could. I could throw the football a long way I, but I never tried it and God knows I probably wouldn't have been any good, but I would have liked to have tried it.
Speaker 3:Dang. You know what, lexi? I think I would either do ice dancing, because I think it's absolutely beautiful, or I think probably the closest thing that would be, I guess, easier to grasp, so to speak not at Olympic level would be like rhythmic gymnastics, because it's like a lot of tossing, tricking and stuff. So I would say yeah. I would say break dancing, oh yes, john, oh my gosh, I can't believe. I can't wait to watch that in the Olympics wait, is that a new sport this year?
Speaker 2:Yes, it is, but they won't put ultra running in there.
Speaker 3:What is going on with the Olympics?
Speaker 2:Wait, hold on. So we can't have baseball and softball anymore, but we can have breakdancing.
Speaker 4:Breakdancing and, I think, rock climbing are the two this year.
Speaker 2:I just saw an Instagram video of rock climbing or the two this year I just saw. I just saw an instagram video of like rock climbing championships. This dude scaled the wall in four seconds that.
Speaker 1:That was that's wild so I I will, I will watch that okay yeah yeah I think for me it would be like the high dives I would never do that, but I think it's so cool that people are willing to do it. Like the platform, yeah, where they dive really, really high distances into the pool. It's so cool. But yeah, you're fine, I love it.
Speaker 2:You know years ago and, Grant, I think this holds true and this should happen years ago about how, in every olympic competition. You should always have an amateur compete against the olympians? Yes, because you know, when it comes to diving, like I love how they will like be super critical, like oh, they just they don't tuck in.
Speaker 2:You know like early enough and that's going to be a six point deduction or something like that. And then, like you build up your brain like oh god, that was a terrible dive. You just want to see some joe schmoe just jump off the high dive and belly flop into a pool, that would. That would bring in ratings for every scene.
Speaker 5:I watched that yeah or, like you know, have someone who runs disney races going right next to like the olympian winner and just yeah, yeah I mean it does make me sick when I watch track and field and like knowing what my paces are, and then you, you know, and then you see these people you know running, running a 10k in like a half an hour it's running the 10k in the amount of time
Speaker 1:I run a 5k. Yeah, the 5k, they did it in like less than 15 minutes the one day I watched. I'm like whoa.
Speaker 3:I watched the finals yesterday for the 10,000 meter run, which is basically a 10K. They're running a mile in five minutes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, super fast. And actually you're talking about the women's 10K yeah. They were actually a little bit off of pace. Yeah, they were, because they were actually a little bit off of pace.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they were. Because, it was hot. Yeah, this is from Danny in the Netherlands, if you have one. What does your partner think about your run Disney obsession and are they? Around at the races to watch.
Speaker 3:David's like can I go? That's usually his response Can I go? Especially if it's at Disneyland. He loves watching the races, but he doesn't always get the time off for it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I feel like that's the main problem is getting the time off in addition to me going um, and then now we have scooby and somebody's got to watch him or we put him in daycare. Like you know, it's all the logistics. It's really hard for us both to get off, to go down to disney every single time that I have a disney race, um, but I will say, during our like trip budgeting little talk that we had in january, kevin goes. So how many races are you planning on doing this year? Oh and um. Yeah, he was like. I mean, you did go to disney four times last year, which is fine, but is there anywhere else you want to run?
Speaker 2:no, lexi I, I can, I can, can understand that sentiment to a T With my wife. She is extremely, extremely supportive of my running and run Disney habit, slash, obsession, but to the point where she was the one that encouraged me this past year to finally invest in an annual pass, and because of that I was able to get Marathon Weekend surprise, and then, you know, in november, wine and dine. But it does come to the point, though, where you know she doesn't have the time off or, you know, with my daughter being in school, you know it's hard to get off and everything, and you know I'll talk about like a future race weekend and she's like I will remind you that you have been to Disney world, you know four times this year, three of those without us, and that's just not fair.
Speaker 2:So it is. It is a while. She is extremely supportive. It is a delegate balancing act, for sure. But now in terms of cheering for the races. When she does come down for marathon weekend, you know she and my daughter will be there, but a couple of years ago she instituted a rule that, um, she would only cheer for me.
Speaker 2:And, and, and this isn't just run, disney, this is like just running in general. Um, it has to be a half marathon or greater distance in order for her to cheer, but the fact that I've done so many halves. Now I'm wondering if that is going to get shifted from a half up to a full. But we'll, we'll see.
Speaker 6:And it's going to be an ultra Greg.
Speaker 3:I was thinking that, but I didn't want to.
Speaker 1:So I don't have a partner, but I have a mom who, if you've seen me at the Rent Disney races, my mom's always with and, like you, greg, she only comes now for the fact that I've like created a business and going to the meetups, because she usually comes with. She's like, wow, there's so many people and she's seen everything that's grown, so, yeah, super supportive.
Speaker 5:You know, it was really interesting whenever Kevin and I first started dating him, coming to a 5k race and he was like, but there's not a lot of people that are running, like aren't you racing this? And so it's been. It's been a journey trying to explain to him like the run walk method and why we do it and the run Disney just brand in general, the run disney just brand in general, um, and kind of watching his mindset switch has been really cool.
Speaker 2:Now I will say the one one thing that I want my wife um to, I guess, up up her auntie a little bit in terms of the support is I want her to start taking lessons from Becky because, if there is one thing that I mean, obviously, when, when I do the marathon, uh, for next year, uh, you know, I will finally get my margarita but, if there's one thing that I want immediately after the race, I want a cider, and let me tell you, becky is the MVP Bob.
Speaker 2:Whenever you finish a marathon, she is always waiting there for you with two ciders ready to go. And I want her to teach that skill to my wife.
Speaker 4:One's for her. I felt like I didn't need to answer this question because anybody that knows me knows my sweet Rebecca. But then I forget that there are a whole lot of folks out there who are listening and haven't met either one of us. So, yeah, becky's there almost all the time. Becky's into the last race of the weekend is the race to show up. Show up for at the end. In most cases, if we're staying off property, we only have one vehicle. Then Becky doesn't make any of the races, but that's rare, maybe once a season. But yeah, friends, friends who know me, know Becky and know how much she supports this group.
Speaker 6:Yep, my, my wife comes down with me for the race weekends Cause somebody has got to try to keep me in line, you know. But and she's like like, kind of like Becky, she, she'll go to the last race of in line. She's kind of like Becky, She'll go to the last race of the weekend because she goes. I really don't need to get up at 3 o'clock to watch her run a 10K.
Speaker 2:Oh no, she was with Jack. That's where Jack and Diane came from.
Speaker 6:Oh, she did do the 10K with Jack that one day.
Speaker 3:We coordinated, we both agreed.
Speaker 5:I think that's one hard thing about the disney races too is um? Kevin was like I will cheer from the bed. I'm not. I'm not getting up that early, um. So I have a follow-up question. I already know bob and john's answer to this when are we getting the partners, significant others or moms to run a race with us?
Speaker 1:My mom has said if it was a Star Wars before, yeah, Sue has yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then Maren Riley did the Wine and Dine 5K in 2022.
Speaker 4:Whatever year, the.
Speaker 2:Coco 5K was we did that. I mean, I got smacked in the face at 2.30 in the morning when I tried to wake up Riley, and then, thank God, john was at the bus stop to at least help get her a little bit more excited and then once. Bob was next in line to meet Miguel at the meeting area.
Speaker 4:Oh, I remember that.
Speaker 2:And then Becky showed up with donuts, Then we were okay. But boy, was that touch and go for a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's when she stopped going. Yeah, yeah she. She would be more than willing to do if it was just the 5k, but because we have to go so far, um, she was like I don't need to do a 10k if I'm gonna do a 10k. I would sign up for a 10 K.
Speaker 4:We don't know it now but I forget which race it was. But something happened on the course that we walked and I'm not exaggerating, it was further. I'm sure I know you all remember, and several of our friends remember, how we used to walk out for the marathon. That was seven tenths of a mile. This was longer than that and it just happened that one time.
Speaker 5:Yep, yeah, my sister finally ran a run disney race and I told her. I said, after seven years of me talking about this, you all of a sudden decide you want to run a 10k because the friend that you work with started talking about it. I was was like I've been telling you Nobody listens to me. But Anna Claire just told me last week that she wants to do Wine and Dine 2025. Yay, and she wants to do the 10K and she wants to convince our mom to come do it with us. Cool, I was like okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Sure, speaking of traveling and doing things with our families. This, uh, is a question that I'm combining two separate responses that we got when we asked for those questions all those weeks ago. This comes from alissa and Margaret what is your favorite vacation spot outside of Disney and do you have a bucket list vacation?
Speaker 5:I can only pick one. My bucket list has like 50 items on it. Okay.
Speaker 2:I know that's why we're all so quiet. We don't have six hours for this episode.
Speaker 1:I think my favorite vacation location has been Hawaii, if I didn't. Well, I love cruising, but that's not just one singular location. So I would say Hawaii, and for a bucket list I would either choose somewhere in Asia or somewhere in Africa, because those are two continents that I haven't been to.
Speaker 6:My favorite vacation spot. It's where I'm probably gonna be next week Wildwood, new Jersey where the whole family comes down. We get like three, four rooms and we all hang out on the beach for a week and just have fun.
Speaker 2:Watch the tram car please.
Speaker 6:That's right, yep, watch the tram car.
Speaker 4:That's tram car, please. That's right, yep.
Speaker 6:Watch the tram car, tram T-R, tram car, yep, and it's a lot of. I see a lot of Phillies hats out there and Eagle stuff, so I'm not that happy about that, but you know it's okay. But yeah, and bucket list, I really want to do one of those Panama Canal cruises where you go all the way through the Panama Canal, but that takes a lot of time.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of days, but I definitely recommend them. They're cool.
Speaker 3:I'm going to sound so corny when I say this, but my favorite vacation spot is anywhere David and I go, because we always have a blast wherever we go. Yeah, but I guess, if I had to choose, one.
Speaker 5:Oh, be quiet.
Speaker 3:I think we really enjoyed our time out in. Bryce Canyon in Utah. We really enjoyed that trip and we got to do a lot of cool trails outside of my 50 miler that I did. And then my bucket list is Japan. I want to go so bad, so incredibly bad. It just looks so beautiful and it has, of course, disneyland over there and Universal, and but I also want to see Osaka.
Speaker 2:So for me, my answer would be a combination of some of the answers that were already given. If I'm talking a local vacation spot, I really love Rehoboth Beach, delaware. It's a wonderful, wonderful beach destination. Plus, you got to love tax-free shopping and dining. That's also fantastic as well. But on a more grander scale, um, I'm I'm falling in love with hawaii.
Speaker 2:I'm right there with you alicia the fact that I got to do alani, uh, you know, last november, and I've been there twice for work, um, I I had never been there for um like a true, true vacation.
Speaker 2:But I also love traveling to new orleans, uh, and also to austin, texas. Those are some of my uh favorite cities in terms of bucket list um, and I'm gonna give all the credit to my wife for for this bucket list trip. What we want to do but granted, we would need to one hit the lottery or b find oil in my backyard and then also be able to take a sabbatical is fly from Philly to California, do two days or so at Disneyland, then fly LA to Tokyo, spend some time with my host family over there and then go to all the you know, the japanese parks, then, on the way back, go to alani to help break up that flight, you know, maybe spend, you know, like three or four days there and then, uh, fly back from, from oahu. So that that's the, that's the ultimate bucket list trip, right you really?
Speaker 3:thought, really thought about that one Greg.
Speaker 2:Give all the credit to Meredith, but when she pitched it I co-signed on it. But I can't wait to see what decade we finally get a chance to do that.
Speaker 6:But, greg, if you find oil in your backyard, it's going to be a super fun site, and then it's a whole different story.
Speaker 2:That's true, that's very true.
Speaker 4:I wish I traveled more than I did, than I do, than Becky and I do, but we've been. I listened to the places you're talking about and we've been to a lot of them because of my previous career. I'm back with Greg. If I hit the lottery, I think I'd like to go to Australia. I don't know where in Australia. I've just never been there and it intrigues me and I think it would be fun no-transcript Capri, italy or Iceland, oh yeah.
Speaker 5:Because, I like them for different reasons, and if you haven't checked out my Iceland videos on Passport to Run, you should go do that.
Speaker 2:That's like our eighth reference to Passport to Run in this episode.
Speaker 5:It's getting up there. This is an all-time record, but it was just like I would totally go there again because I feel like there's so much of the country that I didn't get to see and it was just. It was beautiful and so many different like ecosystems and climate types and everything everywhere you looked. My favorite local vacation spot is New York City. By by local I mean within the United States, new York City.
Speaker 5:And then bucket list is kind of a combination of what Greg and Jack said. So Kevin and I have planned a trip for next year that we're talking about going to Hawaii for a couple of days, um, and because I'm a Delta Platinum member, I have a free domestic flight. So that's free, um, and then using points to fly to Japan for two weeks, um, and do Disneyland, tokyo, osaka, kyoto, tokyo, osaka, kyoto, mount fuji, like all of those places, um, and then you know, fly, fly back round trip from hawaii, because it would be cheaper than flying round trip from atlanta, um, so I think that's probably the current bucket list place, but it's kind of planned.
Speaker 2:So so, brad and maggie, if you're listening uh if we get the rise and run cruise in 2026 off the ground, and that's a smashing success. I think the follow-up to that um cruise 2.0 has to either be a hawaiian cruise or what's the disney ship that's going to be in the asian markets, the um, the adventure we need to have a Rise and Run cruise on the one of these days, and then we can all satisfy all of our bucket lists.
Speaker 5:My other bucket list vacation place that I will probably never get to go to is Morocco.
Speaker 1:Don't ask me why I just want to go. I want to go there, really bad.
Speaker 5:It just looks beautiful. It's so different from my real life I don't know. I want to go ride a camel in the desert.
Speaker 2:Lexi, it's really easy If you just go to the Japan Pavilion and then keep walking it's right there.
Speaker 5:It's right there, really.
Speaker 1:Wow, I didn't know it was that easy. So the next question is from our friend Daniel. He's wondering what are some of your non-Disney or non-running hobbies?
Speaker 4:Well, I spend a lot of time podcasting.
Speaker 5:That's so fair.
Speaker 4:That's good. That's good, I'll have to think about it, bob, it is kind of run Disney. If that's what's in counting, I'll have to think about it.
Speaker 2:For me, some of my hobbies outside of running. Uh, I'm a big, uh, college basketball nut, so you know that's, you know. Hence, when we did the brackets back in march, that's why I was all into that and doing my really bad bill rafferty and and dick vitale impressions, uh. And then another big hobby that I have as well too and this actually goes back to something that Jack referenced earlier in the episode is I am a big fan of Drum Corps International.
Speaker 2:I marched in marching band from eighth grade all the way through college, so it was a massive part of my life all the way through college. So it was a massive part of my life, and what I always loved was watching the drum corps come through, because where I grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania, believe it or not, this drum corps organization actually had a large competition in Allentown, pennsylvania, which was about 10 minutes from my house growing up. So I got to go to this thing every single year. It's something that I used to do with my fraternity brothers all the time. It is, you know. And their kids, I mean, they range anywhere from like 16 all, and the oldest that you can be is 21 years old. Uh, the musicality that some of these kids have is on the level of professional musicians. Watching the, the drill that they do, and you know marching, you know the distance of 30 yards in like 10 seconds while playing an instrument or playing drums, uh, is just really, really a sight to see.
Speaker 2:Jack, you referenced the color guard with flags and rifles. It's a really spectacular production and I absolutely love it, even to the point where, when they do their championships, there are select movie theaters that will actually broadcast them live, and I will literally sit in a movie theater for six plus hours to watch this broadcast. It's a ton of fun. So, yeah, those are my little quirky hobbies that I have outside of running and run Disney.
Speaker 3:You know, what's funny is I realized after this question was asked. I was like I don't know if I have too many hobbies beyond running and podcasting anymore.
Speaker 5:Well, yeah, because you have to run 5000 hours per week.
Speaker 1:You're training from the ultra. I did the same thing, jack. I really enjoy reading, but I used to like cross stitch and I used to bake a lot more than I do now, and I enjoy cooking. But yeah, running is a huge part of my life, so I don't do a lot of a lot of other hobbies anymore.
Speaker 3:I mean, I guess, if I had to choose one, I guess I would piggyback off of what Greg was talking about and what I mentioned earlier. Every once in a while, if I really feel like it, I'll either go down to the tennis courts at my apartment or I will just pay to go in a gym that is nearby that I know has high ceilings, so that I can go ahead and toss and spin my flag and rifle, and sometimes I'll just kind of put some music to it and choreograph my own stuff, and usually that's the stuff that I send to Disney for the Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween auditions, because I know if I do I'll get the audition, and I think we've been called back every time I've submitted. I wasn't able to accept the call back this time around, but I do enjoy that, so I guess that could be my hobby, to say.
Speaker 4:I think I was somewhat joking when I started out with podcasting, but let me put it in perspective. The last two years that I worked, I worked from the house. Becky will tell you that I put more hours a week into the podcasting than I did into my job when I was working from the house. So I'm kind of serious about that. Like Greg, I love professional sports. I get the Major League Baseball package so I can watch. I'm a fan of the Phillies. I grew up a fan of the Phillies. I can watch them almost every game. In fact, I think they're playing now. I have no idea what they're doing. I love that. I still work puzzles on now. I used to work them in the newspaper, now I work them online. Uh, that kind of thing really really not much else. I'm not a carpenter or an artist or anything like that, so that's pretty much it my hobby is uh classic cars uh, that's cool, I have a.
Speaker 6:I have a 69 Camaro I got a long time ago. It's been with me and that's my little hobby and going to car shows showing it off, and summertime hobby because you really can't show it off in the winter, that's a good one.
Speaker 1:You also like to go to concerts too, John.
Speaker 6:Oh yes, concerts that's not a hobby. That's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, music.
Speaker 2:John, even though I can see your face right now. How's the growing the mullet back for charity thing going?
Speaker 6:Speaking of I got to, I got to work on that. Ok, we got to work on that All right. My. The girl that cuts my hair says I ain't giving you a mullet, but I could probably talk her into your tell if it's for charity. You know that's another one I've been going to for 20 years too.
Speaker 5:I would say my main hobby is theater. Y'all have heard me talk about it multiple times. I'm kind of taking a break right now from it, but I used to help manage a children's theater here in Atlanta from it. But I used to help manage a children's theater here in Atlanta and, um, that was one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done. It's just directing and doing different shows. I mean we did everything from Matilda to Frozen to Lion King, um, to School of Rock, you know, like all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 5:And every year there's a junior theater festival here in Atlanta that I get to go to with my kids and it's just a three day weekend of 6000 theater, kids and parents singing show tunes at the top of their lungs through the hallways and it is. It's like Comic-Con for theater lovers. It's wonderful. They have all these Broadway stars that come and I've gotten to see some major Broadway stars like Megan Hilty in concert and it's just been wonderful. And then I bake, and that would probably be the other hobby that I have. I bake a lot and that's kind of my therapy than I have. I bake a lot and that's kind of my therapy and my specialty is cupcakes, but not the run-of-the-mill cupcakes. One of my best creations, I think, was a vanilla cupcake with apple pie filling with homemade maple buttercream and salted caramel drizzled on top.
Speaker 2:Lexi, can you stop? We're in the middle of the afternoon recording this.
Speaker 5:None of us have had dinner yet, and I'm sure we're all extremely hungry now, so that was one of my best cupcake creations, and then a couple weeks ago I made a lemon blueberry mousse cake. That's really good.
Speaker 2:Lexi, you're killing me.
Speaker 5:That was a pretty big hit around, that, I've heard. But I like like watching the baking shows and then trying to recreate them in my kitchen. So sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 3:Can I just put this out there? I know none of our listeners can see this, but have you? You guys, I'm sure have all been on carousel progress, um. So let me paint an image of bob. Right now it is almost july. Although bob is not in a bathtub and he's not uncle Orville, he does have a fan blowing on him that looks like it has a big, huge thing of ice. No one appreciates progress.
Speaker 4:It's a misting fan. You see the water coming out.
Speaker 3:I had to put that out there.
Speaker 4:The heat index was 100 degrees when we started.
Speaker 3:I don't blame you, I'm just saying it just reminds me of that July scene.
Speaker 2:It also goes to show how much of disney dorks we are. That jack didn't have to go any further and half of us knew exactly what you were talking oh man.
Speaker 2:You know, going back to something, lexi, you talked about theater, because that's another, even though it's been many, many moons as I've done, I love musical theater as well too. I think we should, you know, a couple years down the line, like, come up with, like the rise and run, like theater group, and we, you know we can come up with a fun name, because you know how fun would it be. You know, with all of us up on stage singing and dancing, we can get Pelkey and Riley. Maybe we can put on a production of 1776 or what was Riley's favorite Fiddler on the Roof. There we go and we can just be off and dancing around. That would be a blast.
Speaker 4:Let me know how that goes, Greg Okay.
Speaker 5:So our next question is from Kim, and she said what tips do you have for anyone, especially introverts, to engage with you all in the community?
Speaker 1:So I am somewhat of an introvert. I can be extroverted too, but in everyday life I'm more introverted. I would say, push yourself a little bit and say hi, we have such an amazing community and I assume all you're going to get is warm wishes from everybody welcoming you and saying hi back. So I think that's the best way to try and connect with others. Or ask if you have like a specific location and you're looking for somebody to run. Ask if there's anybody around there that maybe you can meet up with so it's not so overwhelming and find somebody that you can meet up with.
Speaker 3:I agree with that, alicia. I know I don't seem like it. David likes to say it this way and I think he says it perfectly I'm an introverted extrovert. I was a lot more introverted, probably before the podcast. Me too. Yeah, lexi can attest to that.
Speaker 6:If.
Speaker 3:I was working all day and I was talking all day because that was my job as a server. I would come back and I just have to kind of shut myself away and be quiet, and you know, yeah, so thankfully this community is so welcoming and so beautiful that it's made it very easy for someone who is introverted to be a part of and, like Alicia says all, you just have to go up and say hi and you just make friends so easily, like even on the course, sometimes just having a short conversation, and then you meet them again. You're like, oh my gosh, and you start chatting and then you exchange phone numbers, probably Like I've definitely had some conversations with people on the courses. In the corrals is a good place to meet people at our meetups. Week wink is a great place to just say hello because there's so many people there that just want to share their love of running and run disney I think I'll follow up with that with the, the meetups jack.
Speaker 5:You know our meetups have gotten to where they're so, um, I guess they're so full of run, um, they're so full of rise and run listeners that there's like 50 different conversations going on.
Speaker 5:So it's really easy to just go up to one person, um, like if you would rather talk to one person instead of a big group of people going up to one person or going up to one person, um, like if you would rather talk to one person instead of a group of people going up to one person, or going up to one of the hosts and just saying hello, and then you kind of just get sucked into the rest of the conversation.
Speaker 5:As it happens, um, and you know I will speak for everyone here. If you see us at any dis or non-Disney location, you know like come up, say hello, say you know I recognize your voice or your laugh or you know something like that, and we will definitely start a conversation right there and say hello. But also I feel like you know, I know for me, if somebody came up and was like hey, you know, I'm a little bit introverted and I will start introducing you to people and like here, let's go talk to this people. They live in your same state, like you know. I like definitely come speak to us and say hello and yeah, that would be my advice.
Speaker 2:I want to approach this from a slightly different angle because, jack, I'm right there with you, even though my wife loves to harass me when I say that I can be introverted, and she thinks I'm full of it I think a great place to start to get, or at least to get, more comfortable and break the ice is our bi-weekly zoom calls oh yeah, to me that's where you know, let that be the stepping stone, you know, so that you know, and if you're consistent in it too, you know that you know.
Speaker 2:If you show up week after week, you know, okay, maybe that first week you know you know, because, bob, you do a fantastic job of making sure that you know. Okay, maybe that first week you know you know, because, bob, you do a fantastic job of making sure that you know everyone. You know if they have a question or they have a thought, you know everyone can voice it on that zoom call and then just start showing up to those with a little bit more consistency. And then it's amazing the bonds and the relationships that you can create through those interactions and then to me, it would make the in-person meetings a lot easier, especially if you do feel introverted. Like I said, I think that's the pathway to go because, I'll be perfectly honest, that's the pathway that I went on And's the the pathway that led me to meeting my wonderful co-hosts and so many others in this community. And, yeah, so just started with the zoom calls all right, kim, here's the deal.
Speaker 4:Just be careful around, john. He's pretty mean. I am, we. We love nothing more than meeting new people, and had greg not made the zoom call point, I would have. Uh, zoom's a great way to get to know not only the host but the rest of the family. It's one big family and it's you're gonna love it. You just gotta break the ice. Uh, a good way is go to my wife and say is that bob? Because she gets that all the time. I told her way is go to my wife and say is that Bob? Because she gets that all the time. I told her I was going to get a T-shirt that says, yes, that's Bob, which he stands by me, and I know it's.
Speaker 4:Sometimes it's a little awkward because there's very few times, especially at the expo or before a run, that I can speak for the group. I'll speak for myself, that I'm not talking to somebody, but if I see somebody else just kind of hanging out, I'm going to try to recognize you. So, please, please. I learned one lesson from Jeff Galloway you can't fake that. I can't fake the fact that I love you guys. I love the family that's built up here. I love the fact that you enjoy being part of the podcast group. So if you see us say something, I know it may take a little bit of courage on your part, but believe me, we really, really want you to do that, guys don't bother me.
Speaker 6:I'm very mean, I don't want to be bothered.
Speaker 2:If you see us, just come up, like Bob said, say hi, we don't bite you know, I don't know, maybe jack's unless you see john in the star wars store, then definitely don't bother him that, but any other time you can bother him now you can bother me in the star star wars store.
Speaker 6:It doesn't matter, you know it's I. I don't care, I'll talk to anybody. I don't have a problem. And, like like you said before, one of the great places besides the zoom calls is our pre-race corral meetup. Say hi to us, we'll introduce to everybody else. Get in the group photo and something else. Our Facebook group, our Facebook group. We're out there to talk to people. I know it's sometimes easier to talk behind the keyboard. Then once that person meets you in person, they know a little bit about you, you know a little bit about us and you'll be fine. We're very easygoing people.
Speaker 5:And besides the Facebook group, also the Facebook chats that we have through the group. You know there's a bunch of little smaller focus, focus, focus groupie type things with different topics and different race weekends and you can join those. And I know there's several people who are they call themselves lurkers that you know read every single message that comes through, but they haven't actually said anything yet. So you can definitely join the conversation there too absolutely all right.
Speaker 4:Next question, our buddy Jonathan. The question is for those not living. You can definitely join the conversation there too. Absolutely All right. Next question, our buddy Jonathan. The question is for those not living in Florida and not able to take time off from work to run every weekend during the season. What are the main factors you consider when deciding which weekends to run? I can't answer this question because I live in Florida and I'm retired, so I have all sorts of time off. So how about it?
Speaker 6:That's a great question, guys, cause every year it's different. I know like springtime flies different times every year, but I try to pick probably two race seasons you know a season to figure out. I think one of them's always going to be marathon weekend, because that weekend's probably and I the best weekend out there. It's the biggest, for sure, and probably I think it's the. Yeah, that's fair, john, yeah, yeah. And then I look at what's happening right now. My two favorites are marathon and and Wine and Dine, but I'm still looking for that Star Wars weekend to come back.
Speaker 3:Oh, same, same, Don. Okay, so I'll go ahead and go into this one as well. I'm a huge Marathon weekend fan. My thing is this sounds so weird. Maybe it's not weird, I don't know. I love doing the Mar and half marathon. There. I feel like they always bring out some of the most rarest characters, I feel like, and especially for the marathon, I really love seeing characters and I feel like it's more bang for your buck because you're paying basically what you would pay for the half marathon price almost and you get to see twice as many characters. You get to run through all four parks. I know it's a lot more training, but I feel like I don't know. I just really, really enjoy it. There's just something different in the air during marathon weekend.
Speaker 4:You get Blizzard Beach too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's probably the coldest, maybe not the coldest race out of the weekend in terms of quote unquote cold, but you're usually not dealing with too crazy of a heat like you would during springtime surprise or, I feel like, during wine and dine.
Speaker 4:They choose the weekend because historically it has the lowest average daily temperature in Orlando is that part of January. Now there's no guarantees.
Speaker 5:Yeah, flashback to Marathon Weekend. What was that 21?
Speaker 4:19 and 21,. I think.
Speaker 5:Yeah, where it was like 90 degrees, it didn't actually it got quite hot.
Speaker 4:It didn't quite get that hot, it was 2020. It was 2020. 2020. It was 2020.
Speaker 5:Yeah, 2020. 2020.
Speaker 4:It was 2020. Yeah, it was. 21 got canceled. 20 was the year where they shortened it.
Speaker 5:yeah, I think, you know, you really have to look at it. Each race weekend has its own vibe and atmosphere and you know, I feel like different kinds of runners kind of show up consistently to the different race weekends. Yeah, you know, wine-o-dine is always on my short list. It's one that's very dear to my heart. It was my first Disney race and then you know, I think maybe the best advice that I have been given is maybe choose like two one year and do the opposite, two the next year, so you can kind of get the feel of all of them in a shorter time period and, um, you don't have to take off all of that time.
Speaker 3:You know, and, um, I know, for me I go, based on, like, what the themes are, that that's usually the deciding factor of of whether or not I'm gonna try to sign up for a race also one of the really the really nice things is that if you work like a Monday through Friday job I mean say you can't get off that Friday you still have the ability to do you know, go to the expo on Saturday for the half marathon and then be able to run it Sunday and then leave that night, like that's what I usually do if I can't get a Friday off. So if I can at least get a half marathon in, why not?
Speaker 2:I look at this twofold. The first is a determining factor for me is the race weekend itself. In terms of number one, what are the distances? Two, what is the theme? Obviously, if it is a theme that speaks to you, like let's take this past Springtime Surprise, for example there is a massive Lilo and Stitch community out there and people went nuts when Stitch was the challenge medal when Stitch was the challenge medal. So if there is an affinity to a specific character or a movie franchise or something like that, then I think that will help guide your decision as well, too.
Speaker 2:I think the other factor to look into when it comes to looking for race weekends is what else can you get outside of the race itself? So like, for example, a huge benefit to Wine and Dine is that as long as you do the half or the challenge, you get admission into the after hours party at Epcot on Sunday night. Or now, with this past springtime surprise, they're offering the after hours water park event at Typhoon lagoon, you know. So if you're looking at those extras or you know, maybe you're really interested in yoga as well too. Obviously, yoga has now been part of princess and springtime surprise the last couple of years. So I would look into those on the other side of the coin. The other determining factors for me are travel expenses outside of the race itself I think what makes marathon weekend not?
Speaker 2:I mean obviously the the weather plays a huge factor in terms of being able to hold a marathon at disney world, but it's a much cheaper time to travel because it's post uh, christmas and hanukkah and new year's, whereas you know you look at, for example, springtime surprise, maybe you might not want to do that one because you know usually it can hover around spring break. The rooms are more expensive, the flights could be more expensive. So I I would make your list of pros and cons based off of the weekend itself and then the non-race factors, and I think that will help you guide in terms of what race weekends make the most sense for you.
Speaker 4:Very good, all right, let's take on one last one here. Simone asks what tips do you have for a first-time dopey Not a first-time marathon runner, but a first-time dopey not a first-time marathon runner, but a first-time dopey runner rest, rest, rest go to bed early, like lay down in your room at like 5 or 6 pm.
Speaker 5:You'll be so happy for it later on yeah, I think one of the main things about dopey that I wish I would have done better whenever I attempted dopey was was you know, it's not as much as we love Disney. Personally, it was not a time for me to do the parks. It was a time for me to run the races and enjoy the races exactly for what they were, but then I needed to rest and I should have rested more than I did when I attempted dopey.
Speaker 1:When I was looking at this question, I was thinking of it more of a training standpoint.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I would encourage you to really make sure that you're doing those back-to-back days and getting as much of the training in as possible. And getting as much of the training in as possible. Like, granted, things happen and you might miss a day here or there, but those back-to-backs are going to be really important to help you be successful.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. You've probably heard it already earlier, in earlier weeks, in the podcast which will come after, but you'll hear it as we go through the training. Do the training, even if you're walking a good chunk of we. Go through the training. Do the training, even if you're walking a good chunk of it. Do the training. My second practical tip is take it really easy on the first three races.
Speaker 4:My first Opie was in 2019 and I asked Jeff for a tip and he gave me three words Walk, wait a minute. It's four words walk the half marathon, walk as much of the half marathon as you can. So you'll be ready for the uh, for the marathon, but we'll go. We'll go over this as we go through the training. But that's the big deal. If you've completed a marathon and you're going to do the training for Dopey, you're going to be all right. You're going to have fun. You're going to enjoy it. The comments that Lexi and Jack made about resting they're true, but resting's easy. The training's hard and it's going to get tough for you, but you'll do it and you'll be fine.
Speaker 3:So one little quick thing though, also because I know I have friends that do this, that after the races I mean it's almost extra magic hours anyway in the mornings. Don't go to sleep, don't take a nap, just go straight to the. If you're wanting park time, go to the park, do the extra morning magic hours and then still have that time. That okay, I got to enjoy the parks when there wasn't too many people around and then still leave the parks at like four or five o'clock to be able to get back to the room by six.
Speaker 6:Something else. I would a couple of things. I would recommend. Do your training runs early in the morning, like maybe get up at five or four and just get out there for those longer runs, so that you're used to getting up that early to run, especially, like we were talking about in the summer, in the heat. That will help you get used to those early morning wake-ups. And something else going back to the parks, watch what you eat. It might be the time to go heavy and, let's say, have all-you-can-eat buffets the day before the marathon.
Speaker 4:I liked early. I thought you were going, john, get up at four in the morning, go outside, stand there for an hour and then start your training run. Bring a little realism into it.
Speaker 5:But you also have to remember I mean kind of unfortunately, whenever you're doing all four races for the weekend, you're not just doing 48.6 miles, even if you're doing just quote, unquote, just the half, it's not just the 13.1.
Speaker 5:You need to make sure that you're conditioned to. You know, stand around for an hour, walk from your car or the bus to the start line, walk from the finish line. You know like it's not quite as simple as, oh, I'm going to hop straight from my car to the start line to my bed. Like you know, you've got to have a little more time on your feet, which the training plans that are on the website, with Jeff Galloway or with Kristen Customize or with a running coach that would help condition you, with Kristen customized or with a running coach that would help condition you. That's why I feel like also the back to back days are really important. Also, I'm going to echo something that Bob says almost every single season Unfortunately, with Dopey, it's not one of those things that you can wait until December to start training for it. You know, maybe one in a million people can do that, but do the training.
Speaker 4:Do the training, simone, you're going to be fine. Stick with us. We look forward to seeing you there and we look forward to congratulating you when you finish that first time. Dobie Guys, let's bring this to a close Now. Again, we're a couple weeks time shifted, so I have no other announcements and while we really aren't doing justice to it, we're going to do a facsimile of the race report and even though it's phase shifted a couple weeks, this race report is still brought to you by our friend Tom Stokes at Stoked Metabolic Training. Stokesfit slash riseandruncoaching is the site for our Rise and Run friends to join Tom in his one-on-one coaching. If you're doing his summer challenge, I hope things are going well for you, but again, we're a little bit too far out of phase to talk about that one tonight. Anyway, check them out. Top of the Facebook group.
Speaker 4:Scheduled on Friday, july 12th, in Salem, massachusetts, the Miles Over the Moon four-mile race. Rachel and Ken are scheduled to be there on Saturday. And boy oh boy, this is a light schedule. One race on Saturday the BTN Big Ten Network, big Ten K in Chicago. Kelly is scheduled for that one. Also on Saturday, in Barling, arkansas, our good buddy Joe is running the Brett Morrison Memorial 8K Sunday. The Boilermaker 15K in Utica, new York, megan was scheduled for that, as are Lauren and Christopher Steve scheduled for it. Virtually Over in London, the London 10K formerly the ASICS London 10K Aaron's scheduled for that and Easton Mass. The Narragansett Summer Reading Festival 10K Avery was going to be there and continuing that series in New York on Monday night.
Speaker 4:In New York on Monday night, megan's running the New York State Parks Summer Run Series. Robert Moses Beach Mile in Long Island and if once again my numbers are correct, I think that series is coming to an end. I think it was a series of five runs. I think this is the last one, but I'm not sure. My friends and if you run you know you are our friend Tonight is either a Zoom night or it's not. We'll figure it out and put it on Facebook. My friends, hope you enjoyed the episode. Look forward to seeing you soon.
Speaker 2:Until then, 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.
