156: Disneyland Halloween Half Weekend Recap…Take Two

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to race through the magic of Disneyland, twice in a row due to technical hiccups? Join us for an exhilarating episode of the Rise and Run podcast, where Bob, Lexie, John, Greg, and Alysha team up with  Grace , Allan, Abel and Kelly to recount every thrilling moment of our recent Disneyland race adventure!

Experience the enchantment of a sunrise at Disney California Adventure's Paradise Gardens as we share personal stories from the 5K and 10K races, highlighting the camaraderie and seamless organization of these West Coast Run Disney events. We also dive into Heather's unforgettable first Disneyland half marathon, the improvements made to the family reunion area, and the energetic meetups that made everyone feel like part of the Rise and Run family. Plus, hear all about the event's magical moments, including personalized buttons, and memorable character stops.

Looking ahead, we discuss our future Run Disney race plans, training updates, and the exciting news about the Sydney Marathon's potential inclusion in the Abbott World Marathon Majors. From training tips to inspiring race accomplishments from around the globe, this episode is packed with valuable insights that will leave you motivated and ready to lace up your running shoes. Whether you're a seasoned marathoner or just starting your running journey, the magic, challenges, and community spirit of these events will captivate your heart. Don't miss out – tune in now!

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Transcript

Speaker 2 0:04

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. Hey everybody, this is Jeff Lonnie G.

Speaker 5 0:39

Jody B Gene and Kevin with Disney, with the Ducks, and we love listening to the Rise and Run podcast.

Speaker 1 0:46

We sure do. How about them ducks? Huh. Great intro. Thank you my friends Jeff, lonnie, jody, gene and Kevin. Disney with the Ducks. We love listening to Disney with the Ducks too. It's a fun group, friends. If you haven't heard them, they've got an entertaining weekly podcast. They talk about disney runs. Thanks for the intro, friends. Welcome to episode 156 of the rise and run podcast. I'm bob. I'm here this week with Lexi Hello. With John hey. How you doing With Greg hey?

Speaker 2 1:28

hey, hey.

Speaker 1 1:29

And with Alicia.

Speaker 6 1:31

Hello.

Speaker 1 1:32

Friends, we're glad you're with us. Always wonderful to have you along as we talk about what's going on at Run Disney and other stuff. This week we did it so well, we did it again. We did the race recap for Disneyland two times. Kudos to our friends who stuck it out with us a week ago for the initial recording that we were not able to use, Then came back and worked with us on Friday night. So we've got finally the Disneyland race recap for you this week. With that going on, no race report spotlight this week. We'll get back to the regular race report spotlight next episode.

Speaker 7 2:20

And 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 running journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook, rise and Run Podcast. On Instagram, on Rise and Run Pod, check 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 recorded message.

Speaker 8 2:51

We also want to thank our Patreons, whose support helps us keep the Rise and Run podcast rising and running. We have a new Patreon, our friend Amber, who joined in the how you doing level. If you would like to join the patreon team, please check out patreoncom.

Speaker 2 3:12

Slash rise and run podcast the rise around podcast is sponsored by our wonderful friends over at magic bound travel. Before we get into our standard ad uh, you know, speaking of our magic bound family want to give a big shout out to our friend and co-owner, maggie, who celebrated a birthday just the other day. So happy birthday, maggie. Of the race dates for the 2025-2026 race season, I would have to hope that information is going to get released either at Wine and Dine or sometime before Marathon Weekend, but when those dates do drop, as we talked about on our Run Disney Budget episodes a couple of months back, it is imperative that you get your room ASAP so you can get the absolute lowest rates, and our friends over at Magic Bound Travel can do that for you, and they really take the hassle out of vacation planes. So if you're interested, visit magicboundtravelcom.

Speaker 1 4:22

That's the way to do it. Magicboundtravelcom. That's the way to do it. You know, every week we have our boilerplate intro and we ask you to give us a call 727-266-2344, and leave us a recorded message. That's an unattended line. That's a Google Voice phone number. It's on my computer.

Speaker 2 4:44

Wait, you don't pick up every single phone call that comes I got it.

Speaker 1 4:46

I got it on do not disturb, so it doesn't ring, but uh, I try to check it once a week. Well, I was traveling out to California and I didn't get to it. And if I had gotten to it, at last week's race report we might have added something like this Good morning Rise and Runners.

Speaker 3 5:14

This is Michelle from Erie, pa, coming at. You live from the parking lot of the Barber National Institute Beast on the Bay. I just finished 10 miles with 30 grueling obstacles and I was thinking about all of you while I was doing it. Happy running.

Speaker 1 5:30

So that's what we would have done, but you know it's too late now. So thanks, michelle, we appreciate it. We appreciate everybody who sends us an intro. We're we still have one or two in the queue, but we're ready to get more anytime. So we love letting our friends introduce the episodes. Let us take a look at the training schedule.

Speaker 1 5:55

Wine and Dine is now six weeks away. That's right, just six weeks. As I stare up at the full moon here, I realize there would be only one more full moon between now and Wine and Dine. We're into training week 12. It's a double up week. It's a three mile walk followed by an 11 mile run walk. This is your next to last long training run for Wine and Dine. You should have one more three weeks from now and then three weeks after. That is the event For Marathon Weekend, now 16 weeks away, also in Training Week 12.

Speaker 1 6:35

And this is the first double up for the Marathon Weekend training. If you're doing goofy or dopey, the distances are four miles on Friday, 13 miles on Saturday or whatever days you run them Friday, saturday, saturday, sunday, doesn't matter. I think Disneyland Half Marathon weekend training may kick off next week. I know we're getting really close. Let's see my friends Training comments. I'm going to start off here with my training comment and I'd love you to chime in because I know we have talked about this before and we're going to talk about it a lot in a couple more months. And that's this. We finished the Disneyland Halloween weekend In my case, finished the challenge In your case.

Speaker 1 7:32

Whatever your event was, whether it was the 5k, the half, whatever you finish something you had pointed toward, you get on the other side of that and you look and you go, oh geez, I still have training and there is a little bit of a mental letdown and that's pretty normal. I'm here to tell you that's pretty normal and that's okay. And if you needed to take one or two training days and go, needed to take one or two training days and go, oh, I just need a break, that's okay too. But try not to make it any more than that, because you do have to get back into it. And I did. I took I think I took one run day off. I took almost a full week off from my strength training. I took almost a full week off from my strength training. Don't tell Tom, he'll be upset. Okay, don't tell him. All right. But I'm back to that too and you've got to get back into it. It takes a little bit of self-motivation, but you can do it. Any other training comments, friends?

Speaker 7 8:42

I did the same thing, Bob. I just finished Bird in Hand and I got Marathon Weekend coming up and I'm just hopping back into where Marathon Weekend starts that week because I did 13 miles two weeks ago and just followed back in on the plan.

Speaker 2 8:59

Yeah, I think when it comes to having done a race weekend, that's a sizable distance. I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a couple of days off, like you did, bob, but I think to me and Coach Twiggs, you can scold me next week on next week's call if this advice is wrong, he never listens, greg.

Speaker 1 9:25

Okay, well, Tom doesn't listen, so you'll be okay on the strength training part here.

Speaker 2 9:30

Is that, you know. I think there's nothing wrong, like I said, with missing a weekday run, but the thing that I appreciate with Coach, though, is that usually after a race weekend, that long run that I get from him is usually somewhere in the ballpark of like five to six miles.

Speaker 2 9:50

Yeah, right, and you know he just labels it as do whatever pace you know that feels comfortable to you. So I I think that that's a nice little segue into you know, getting back into those training miles. You know, if you had to take an extended break, I mean I don't think there's anything wrong with one week, but I mean, obviously I think once you get past that benchmark of one week, then that's where maybe you could start losing a little bit of your training. So again, do what is best for your body. I think that's the most important thing. But you know again, you know, keep that motivation. You know we were just talking the other week about, you know, looking at the schedule in terms of the short term and the longterm. I think here this is a great situation of look at the short term so that it helps you build to those longterm goals for yourself.

Speaker 1 10:44

Yeah, don't give up what you've gained, don't throw that away. And I find it. I find it applies to Disney runs for me. As an example, I had a 10K locally here. Now 10K at this point in my training. 10k is not a long run, but I had a 10K here on Sunday. Didn't even think twice about going after my training run this morning. Didn't have that same mental oh golly, I need to get back at it. It's just the big weekends, the ones that we've been pointing to, are the ones where I find there's a little mental letdown on the other side. But as we're speaking about those big weekends, let's go back two weeks, hop into Mandalorian big weekends.

Speaker 2 11:29

let's go back two weeks, hop in the mandalorian, go back two weeks and let's revisit the halloween race weekend at disneyland so you know they always say that the the best things come to those who wait, and I think that is very applicable in this situation because, you know, as we mentioned in last week's episode, we had a lovely almost hour-long chat with folks about the inaugural run, disney, disneyland, halloween half marathon weekend and, unfortunately, the wonderful people at zoom and whoever bob's internet provider is yeah, it was on my end but it's not bob's fault, it's bob it's.

Speaker 2 12:15

It's bob's internet's fault. So so no no personal blame goes around here, but unfortunately audio files got corrupted. I know bob likes to tell me every week that I do magic when it comes to editing and unfortunately there just was not enough pixie dust in my edit bay in order to salvage that episode.

Speaker 1 12:37

I was counting on it, greg, because as I was listening, on my end I go boy, greg's going to have a hard time fixing this.

Disneyland Expo Event Recap

Speaker 7 12:43

It's going to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher, right, yeah, pretty much that, but anyway.

Speaker 2 12:51

So we are excited to give this another go, to recap again this inaugural event that took place in Anaheim, and we would like to welcome our special guest for this episode. First we're going to start with heather, then we have our uh friend kelly hello, then we have mr abel welcome back, sir hello there. And then, last but not least, you know this is just a family that's.

Speaker 2 13:18

You know, they're really not well known within the run disney community they've only run like almost every well, actually they've ran every single race I wish they had their buttons on I I know we have the legends back with us. Grace and alan young, welcome again to rise and run hi hi so we'll we'll get the the recap started with how any great recap should start, and that is with the expo that took place over in the Disneyland Hotel. Kelly, why don't you start us off and tell us about your expo experience?

Speaker 11 13:59

Sure, my wife and I came in Thursday night. My wife and I came in Thursday night and so we drove down from Northern California and didn't get there until five or so. So we basically just strolled in, grabbed our bibs and shirts and kind of passed through the merchandise areas on the way out. So it was pretty streamlined. It was pretty.

Speaker 11 14:28

Once we actually found where we were supposed to start, the whole experience it was great. We actually we ran into some because we got a little lost, we got a little turned backwards before we found the where to get our bibs. We found the where to get our bibs. We got sort of a personal guide who, it turned out, was someone who was a run Disney employee from Florida who'd been brought in, and that was really nice because she was telling us all about, like, coming in and sort of some of the differences that they were I don't want to use the words dealing with but some of the differences between the Florida organization and the California organization. But she was great and she really helped us out and it was it was a very no stress expo for us.

Speaker 2 15:17

Great to hear that, Heather. What was your experience like?

Speaker 5 15:20

So I definitely noticed the Florida influence there and the first reason I noticed that is because nobody knew where the elevator was.

Speaker 5 15:29

It was a little challenging just as far as, like the expo, everybody knew what was going on but they didn't really know the lay of the land for the hotel that the expo was occurring in occurring in. I did not do a virtual queue because I was flying in on Thursday as well, so, even though I was a little bit earlier, I just did bib pickup on Thursday and went back on Friday to look at the merch and one of the things I noticed is how well stocked they still were. On Friday late afternoon, early evening, they were out of a couple of things. The only thing I wanted but couldn't get, or the only thing that I wanted I wasn't able to get, was the Challenge Magnet. Other than that, it seemed like they had a lot of sizes, a lot of merch, a lot of variety still available.

Speaker 2 16:15

Well, that's awesome to hear, Abel. How about you? What was your experience? And I remind you, you are Club Run Disney, correct?

Speaker 9 16:25

your experience? I remind you, are club disney, uh, club run disney, correct? I am, I'm a gold member of club run disney, so I did get the early arrival okay, so.

Speaker 2 16:29

So how did that uh play out in terms of your shopping and bib pickup experience?

Speaker 9 16:34

yeah. So for the first thing that I did was went to the merch. Because I don't, because only platinum gets the special location where you can go and grab. They have everything for you. So I figured I would do the bib after I did the merchandise. So they opened that up. I happened to get there really early just because I couldn't really sleep and I decided to walk over there.

Speaker 9 16:57

Actually, on my way over I ran into Carissa Galloway as she was heading out for her run and they kind of did a little bit the same where they had everyone line up outside, but they did put us into a different side entrance, which actually worked a lot better than last year, where they put us in which was essentially the exit of the expo.

Speaker 9 17:17

This one was on the side and you kind of flew right in. One of the changes they did make was is that all of the Club Run Disney people who went in. They only had about a half hour on the schedule to be in there and they said that by nine o'clock you need to be at the checkout because they wanted to clear it out before they brought in everyone else. So I believe Platinum got in at, say, 7.30 and then 8.30 was for gold, but at 9 o'clock they said you need to be at the registers. They actually did let us in about 9. So we did have plenty of time to get through it and it was really well stocked, obviously so early in the day. But there was a lot of stuff still there and they were constantly restocking. They had walls of pins versus. Instead of just having to go to each individual race to get your pins.

Speaker 9 18:08

They had a you know end caps full of pins, which was great because I didn't want to have to walk all the way around to all the different races, cause that's the main thing I go for is the pins. So I was like, all right, let me grab my 5k. Then I got to find the 10k section and the half and then the challenge it was all right there. So it made it a lot simpler and I was in and out of there by 9.30. And because of that I kind of walked into the expo area.

Speaker 9 18:32

A lot of the vendors were still setting up because it wasn't officially open until 10. But they were all still there and I could have purchased stuff if I wanted to, which maybe I should have, because when I went back later lines were fairly long for some of the places Did go check out the Galloway booth. There was no one there, there were books there, but Chris Twiggs came down about quarter to 10 and started chatting with people and very nice. And then the bid pickup was pretty easy, mostly because I knew where I was going, since I had done it in January was kind of a benefit. I know people still were kind of confused exactly where it was because it was upstairs, but the lines move very rapidly to get everything. And you know there was only a couple of times where the cast members were a little confused on where to send people. When the lines got long they kind of split them and they're like these group go over here, this group go over here Got a little confusing but in the end everyone got where they needed to be.

Speaker 2 19:36

Well, speaking of being confused, Robert, I remember a couple of weeks ago you were a little concerned that, if you know, you saw a tall old guy wandering around the Disneyland property. The the point him in the right direction. Did, did. Did you get lost at all? Or or were you?

Speaker 1 19:52

okay, it was, it was lovely. I had plenty of help. People like to tell me where to go, so it was not a problem. Becky and I got in Wednesday. We got, I think we're in the hotel by about three o'clock in the afternoon, california time. Uh, had a nice dinner with friends, a bunch of us met up and then, thursday, I did a variation on a theme that I usually do here at Disney world, which is this time Becky and I went to the park, went to Disneyland for the first time in almost 50 years First time in 48 years, that was lovely and went to lunch and then visited the expo after lunch. Everything was virtually seamless.

Speaker 1 20:36

I thought it went very, very well. I kind of forgot to get in the virtual queue right away, so instead of getting in at seven, I probably got in and around 715, 730, which gave me a number of like 138. And, uh, when Becky and I did get there in the afternoon, I don't even they weren't close to calling our number. They weren't in triple digits yet and we looked back there at the line and said, hey, we'll come back tomorrow, which is what we did. It was fine and, as others have said, most everything was there. There was a shirt I would have bought, but they were out of my size, but I got something else instead and that was just fine. So I you know, thumbs up on the Expo. I thought it was well run. It is a little smaller. It's a good bit smaller than it is at Disney World, but that didn't make it any less nice and any less enjoyable.

Speaker 2 21:32

Wonderful Grace and Alan. What was your experience like just having to walk across the street from your house and roll up into the expo?

Speaker 4 21:42

I think it was pretty good. They had opened the parking lot at 3 am for yoga and then they closed it again and generally the parking lot is open at 7 am. So they closed the parking lot and then they reopened the parking lot at 7 am for the parks and the expo. Because of the location of the Disneyland Hotel, proximity to Disney Springs and DCA and Disneyland, it's very, very short. It's about a quarter mile at most between those. So from the parking lot to the Disneyland Hotel is about a quarter mile and I thought it was pretty well stocked and gold and platinum got in early and I think there was a lot of merchandise.

Speaker 7 22:26

One of the questions I have. I mean you talked about I go, bob talked about it at a like. Heather talked about it going back to the expo later, so I guess it's a little. I know we all know about going to the Disney world expo. You got to get on that bus, so you got to drive over to ESPN. But for most of you most of you where you were staying, was it a quick walk to the Expo Hotel or did you have to take mass transportation? I expect.

Speaker 1 22:55

All of us walked, yeah, and it wasn't really a quick walk, john. It wasn't really a quick walk, john, but it was okay, it was not a problem. I was already in the area. If you haven't been out there and I think most people know this I think you could put the entire Disneyland area maybe in the Magic Kingdom parking lot, Maybe.

Speaker 7 23:25

Yeah, that was the trivia question on the bus all the time I don't, that was before california adventure came in.

Speaker 1 23:32

But I know the original park can fit in the parking lot, they said but picture yourself walking and we never done it from one end of that parking lot all the way to the other. It can be a pretty good walk.

Speaker 5 23:46

I ended up I think I had uh 18 000 steps the first day, so, and my hotel was about a half a mile away from uh the disneyland disneyland resort so I had had a um, a good neighbor hotel right at the start line, which would have only been about 0.6 miles away, but because I actually had to go around the corrals every time I wanted to get to Disneyland, it ended up being about 1.1 miles.

Speaker 1 24:14

Abel, you took the art bus right.

Speaker 9 24:16

Yeah, I decided to get the art pass. It was a five-day pass so I could use their buses as often as I'd like in that time frame. And it worked out great because where I ended up staying there was a stop right across the street and that took me on a normal day to get to the parks right to the little bit harder. But the bus driver kind of made an unofficial stop for me at the street where the entrance of the hotel was, so that was great. I was the only one on the bus. He said I'll drop you off here and he let me off and that worked out great.

Speaker 9 24:57

But using the Artbus actually works really well there. They can be a little long to get like they're every like 40 minutes or so but if you catch them right you're there and back pretty quick and I definitely would recommend anyone going there. If you're staying even slightly down the street, it can help, especially on race weekends when you want to limit the amount of extra walking. If you're only about a mile away, that's still two miles extra to go to and from the park.

Speaker 1 25:26

Well, especially if the temp's 106. That's true. You can ask them, now that you know friends, just ask them to do the Abel stop.

Speaker 6 25:38

I know. Years ago, when I did the Disneyland races, I also used the bus and it was a great option if you're staying at one of the hotels that's a little bit further away.

Speaker 5 25:49

And I didn't look into it, but I also heard it's free for wheelchair users, so I might look into that for next time.

Speaker 6 25:59

Yeah, so let's move into the 5k. Kelly, you were at the 5k. Do you want to tell us how your experience was?

Speaker 11 26:07

to run it and, and we were. We were quickly disabused of that notion because it was a a, a big kind of moosh crawl forward, um, and and it was lovely, like we, we got there. Um, we got up earlier than we probably had to, uh, because, what our experience? We had been told that, oh, security could take a while. It's good, it's going to take a while to get in, but it didn't turn out to be true at all. I mean, we just kind of zoomed right through security and and were there, which was nice, and we were way, way back of the pack and we just kind of took it easy. We just sort of hung back while they were doing the entertainment that morning, which was pretty spectacular actually. I was really impressed with it.

Speaker 6 27:12

And you started on Main Street right.

Speaker 11 27:14

Started on Main Street, so we were way back at the sort of just around the I don't know what the what they called that area there, um, but right near where great moments with Mr Lincoln is, and the firehouses. We were actually right next to the firehouse and and Walt's apartment and, um it was, it was pretty spacious back there and and everyone was was mellow and happy and when we, when the race finally took off, when our corral was released, we were, we were raring to go and then we realized pretty quickly that no, there's no running gonna happen here. We're gonna be walking this and you know, we resigned ourselves to that and we're perfectly happy. It was a really nice run. We were surprised when it was over because it just came up so quickly.

Speaker 1 28:08

That's good for a race. That's a good problem to have right yeah.

Speaker 6 28:15

Abel, you were also at the 5k, is that correct?

Speaker 9 28:18

I was.

Speaker 6 28:19

How did your experience go?

Speaker 9 28:22

It was actually a really great experience. I this year or I continue to say this year, but last January I had a problem where I had my gear check bag and couldn't find the gear check, so I had to do the whole 5k with the bag around my my body, and so so this year I made a conscious effort. I said when I looked at the expo guide it said it's going to be by the strollers. I said perfect, okay, I get to security. I get through security and I look and I see a sign that says gear check and walk over there. There's no trucks. And I'm like and I find a casualty oh, he's coming now he's coming. It's at three, 45 and you know, I'm like where's the truck? And I see the truck backing up into the area. So I was like, okay, so there's like me and two or three other people there waiting for that truck to finish. And at the time I turned around and they're starting to let people into the park at 345. And I said, oh no, we're missing. I said that's fine, but they cut it off at. They cut it off at four, I think. They stopped letting people in and the line had to restart back up. But I was able to find that and I got back in line and they led us all in about four, 15.

Speaker 9 29:30

And uh it was.

Speaker 9 29:31

It was beautiful, as always, you know Disneyland.

Speaker 9 29:34

Uh, after dark that that very lit up um did walk down. It was a little narrow because I actually got a corral B for this race, which was nice, which put me in the hub and which in the end turned out to not be that great, because last year when I was in a later Corral where I was was on the side of Tomorrowland and I could barely see the, the stage and I couldn't really see much out any of the projection that might have been happening, and so it was a little bit. I was closer, but not, you know, I kind of maybe missed a few things that I may have seen um in there. But the 5k in itself is is fantastic. Getting to go through the park, mostly on stage versus backstage, which is really nice, um, and ending at pixar pier, I think is just fantastic um to run through, especially when it's a little bit darker, and I did get a shout out uh from from the, from chris galloway, at the end, so that was always nice to hear there you go.

Speaker 2 30:41

I do have a question for both abel and kelly. The big thing that I saw in terms of the 5k that had everyone ecstatic and I think it can be summed up best with our um friend kristin, over at run for mama. She had a wonderful facebook post to highlight this and I want to get your reaction to it. Her post after the 5k was everyone disneyland races suck. Disneyland halloween 5k pre-game hold my beer. It sounded like there was a lot of production value that got put into those opening ceremonies of the 5k. Tell us about the the wonderful things that that happened there yeah, I mean it, it was.

Speaker 11 31:27

It was pretty spectacular actually. It was um just a big, uh descendants musical number that kind of spread up all the all the way down, um, down main street. So, like we, we were back of the pack and there was a dancer on our end too and there were dancers on the side, so they they kind of surrounded us with live performers. I felt a little bit sorry for the dancer that was on our end because she was working so hard, but you know, if there's a video screen, people's eyes are going to go there. So everyone was looking down main street towards the dancers on the video screen and didn't realize there was one like 10 feet behind them just dancing her heart out able.

Speaker 2 32:12

Any thoughts on the uh on the opening festivities of the 5k yeah, I mean, I thought it was great.

Speaker 9 32:17

There's great music, a lot of great atmosphere happening. Um, you know, uh tetris I think is his name is was doing some of the pre-interviews. I guess that would be kind of like the riley or um, uh, I can think of her name right now, but uh, you know, just doing that pre-game interviews oh uh, tracy, yes, yeah um and uh, and and again.

Speaker 9 32:40

The music was great. It was funny because we were with uh, with Kay, and she happened to be in a Uma costume that morning, so it was perfect for the Descendants kind of theme that was happening for the day.

Race Experience at Disneyland Resort

Speaker 11 32:57

You know, one other thing about the 5K kind of as a whole, it was my favorite ending of any of the three races, like because everyone just sort of spilled on to. Uh, it's kind of the area they call paradise gardens in dca, but it looks across the water at pixar pier and you know, it was just as the sun was starting to come up. I know like we, we got there and everyone was just hanging out sitting on the wooden steps looking at the giant Ferris wheel and, um, they had a lot of the rides in motion, which was really nice. And I, you know my wife, kind of leaned over and said, when sunrise and we looked and it was like 15 minutes away, it was like let's stay here for that. And so we got to see the sun rise up behind the pier. It was absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 11 33:46

But one one thing that I realized I was just thinking about this the other day you guys did a great piece. A couple of years that area gets cut off for a while and I and I was it had just hit me because I'd I'd written an article recently where I was going through all the dis forward stuff and just if you want anyone that's read 40 years of Anaheim zoning codes. I'm your guy. But one of the things you know, with the D23 announcements they're putting in a Coco ride in DCA and it's almost assuredly going to be right there, um, in that, in that paradise gardens area. So, depending on what order they do stuff in that whole, and and all three races took this same path down the pier through paradise gardens. That will be rerouted for a year or two.

Speaker 7 35:04

Okay, so you all finished the 5k. Now our 10 K runners and challenge runners Heather, let's start with you.

Speaker 5 35:15

So this was my first West coast run Disney experience, first Disneyland experience. So I kind of went in it just just hoping things were better than I had heard previously, um, but really not trying to go in with any big expectations either way, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Um, I did have to walk a little further to the start to get around the corrals, but getting through security was a breeze. Um, then they kind of held us once we could get through. You kind of went through the corral to get to the other sort of staging area and the athletes with disabilities tent was extremely easy to find. They actually had a disability coordinator involved with that whole process who you could just tell was a person with a disability herself and really knew what she was doing and really, um, took care of us.

Speaker 7 36:10

Every wheeled athlete had a bike guide, or more than one bike guide, uh, for the race and that's fantastic again yeah, that's impressive, yeah, it's like that's like I had the top runners in the event get exactly, exactly and well and um, mine was named dory.

Speaker 5 36:27

She said like from finding nemo or finding dory, she was fabulous and it was my first time ever seeing disneyland, so to see it lit up like that at night for just my first view, um, I won't say what I first saw, said when I saw the castle, but overall it was just a beautiful experience. I really enjoyed the course. I thought it was just a beautiful experience. I really enjoyed the course I thought it was great.

Speaker 11 36:53

I would definitely go back. Kelly, no-transcript, walked right through everyone. Security was surprisingly cool. They were just like, yeah, no, no, go on. And um, you know, went, went and found our corral really easily. Uh, when the race uh took off, it just, I guess my my recurring theme is that it felt very well organized. To me it felt very streamlined, um it. It was a nice race. A lot of the same stuff that we saw in the five K. But then we got uh backstage and, um, I want to give a big shout out to third shift custodial, yeah who, who were backstage just cheering their brains out. It was so great and I and I love that they were cheering. And then, a little bit down the path was a different custodial crew from a different shift and they weren't nearly as great yeah, I actually saw there.

Speaker 11 38:30

Somebody posted photos of the third shift oh yeah cheering on facebook, which I thought was really cool by the time, by the marathon, by the half marathon day, the two custodial teams had joined forces and so they were. They were a custodial force to be reckoned with.

Speaker 1 38:46

yeah, they were big signs and it was great yeah.

Speaker 11 38:50

But we had a good run. The whole weekend was hot but we were done before that really factored in. It was a little bit humid, but it was fine we had a really really lovely run.

Speaker 1 39:05

It was not humid.

Speaker 9 39:07

Yeah.

Speaker 3 39:08

I don't know if it was humid, it was it was Saturday.

Speaker 1 39:11

Yeah, saturday was a little little bit California humid it was. I'll just pick up on the 10 K. Lots been said going in and hearing about oh, this is awful, and uh, I think Heather alluded to it earlier Gang, it was terrific, it was terrific, it was terrific. You, you get to the. The 10k start area is in a parking lot that's not directly on the disneyland property. Well, it is. I don't know if it's disneyland property or not, but it's it's not, it's disney way, it's Disney way, okay.

Speaker 1 39:46

But this was actually closer to my hotel than it would be to go into the park. So I got there in short order. I was early, as I typically am, went through the security with no problem and then when you got into the area, the staging area area, they must have had five or six food trucks in there and that was nice. I grabbed a cup of coffee, grabbed some cookies. I was very popular. I was walking around. I can't escape walking around with cookies, so I had about 10 or 15, a cup of chocolate chip cookies. But it was terrific. The course was wonderful Course takes you through both parks. It's still dark, weather was still good. Part of the course doesn't really go out into Anaheim. It loops around the park and I just again it finishes where it started, close to the hotel had time to meet up with people on the way back. Uh, photos afterward just like there are at disney world.

Speaker 5 41:01

Nothing but good things to say there was no characters, but they did have backdrops.

Speaker 1 41:06

Right, no characters before or after, yeah, but, but in terms of the, the I did it photos or the finishers photos, they were there, just as they are at Disney world. So it was, it was fun, it was a good. The only thing that happened to us is we were just having a good time. I was with, I was with Abel, you were with us, right.

Speaker 9 41:31

I was at the end.

Speaker 1 41:33

Yeah, so Abel and um gosh, I'm going to stop calling out names because I'm going to leave somebody out. Okay, but there were a group of about seven or eight of us who had been together off and on throughout the race and we're just goofing off. You know we're stopping. When someone needs to stop for Corral P, everybody stops. When somebody stopped for a group photo, everybody stopped. We figure, we're fine, we don't see any balloons, we're great, we're happy. We get to like the six mile mark and the course makes a 180 just before it goes into the finishing chute. We make that 180, I turn and I look behind us. Abel, there's nobody back there. We're at the back of the pack. In fact, you and I talked about doing being the the last finisher. We chatted briefly about it and decided not to do it.

Speaker 9 42:30

We could have waited about 20 seconds and we would have been the last finish down that last stretch but there weren't any balloons. Never did see a balloon yeah, and picking up on that, when we went through that, what I'll call the tunnel underneath the transportation center, coming up to that roughly mile six marker, I'm come up behind two ladies and I'm running in. These two bicyclists roll up right next to them, so right in front of me, and his comment to her was oh, I didn't recognize you without your balloon.

Speaker 9 43:01

Oh and she looked oddly familiar and I think it was the balloon, and she said something to the fact that her balloon popped and so we didn't know we were. We were behind them and so we we kind of we ran around them and to finish up, and shortly after that we got to that, um, that u-turn that Bob mentioned, and that's they had cut it off probably two or three minutes after we had passed that spot, so we were really surprised when, bob, I was glad I was getting updates from somebody in your group, cause I stuck around to cheer for the rest of the people in my group costume and I probably waited another hour and a half after I finished or something.

Speaker 5 43:41

It was crazy and I was like is everybody okay?

Speaker 1 43:44

Oh yeah, we got our money's worth.

Speaker 5 43:47

I was happy because I finally had a chance to place in a Disney race, so I got second.

Speaker 2 43:53

Atta girl, very good, very nice yeah.

Speaker 1 43:55

Nice. I'm impressed with that, congrats.

Speaker 2 43:59

I want to go back. Bob, you were talking about the experience of the start and finish area and and anyone is is open to answer this question what is the vibe like and and what's the energy like in terms of that start finish area? You know the family reunion area, comparing that to disney world, I mean, obviously you know you all mentioned there aren't characters, but there are photo stops, there are food trucks. Was there an area that you know like how we always like congregate, to, like the left of the bleachers? Was there a setup like that? Do they have a DJ? What is that vibe like?

Speaker 1 44:38

you know, in the start-finish area it's not quite the same, but I was heading out there believing that I was going to go through security and go right into the corral, but that wasn't the case.

Speaker 5 44:52

We were able to find each other relatively easily, and then we did set up an area to meet, which was the AWD tent. I selfishly much preferred this meetup place because we have timelines that we always have to meet for safety checks and things, and so it was great to have ryzen run right there and then still be able to make all those timelines but it it was centrally located, unlike at world, where it's off to one side and you'll be out of the way. And the furthest thing.

Speaker 1 45:25

This was an excellent meetup area, so it did work out. We did get time to hang out and chat, and I love that part so much. I'm glad we were able to do it.

Speaker 9 45:37

Yeah, I would say that the family reunion area was much better this year than last year. They removed some things and they added some things. For example, they had food trucks that Bob alluded to earlier, which is nice, because if you wanted coffee there was nothing to get. Last year, he brought a dozen fresh baked cookies and was forcing them. Well, maybe not forcing them down.

Speaker 9 46:01

But they were pretty. They were darn good. Also, they did have bleachers last year and a small stage, but they removed that and put tons of high top tables and the food trucks was in this space where they had those bleachers and that stage. So they got rid of those stages. But they added these two towers with monitors around them to display information. The status was green for the day for running and they ran some videos on it various things like that so information was getting displayed. So it was a lot better flow there and the gear check was in a better position, I think, for the days. So a lot better experiences overall in that reunion area.

Speaker 5 46:46

And I wasn't at January's race but I loved how they did the AWD tent and area even better than Disney World, because they had it basically along the finish line chute and they pulled us out of the chute basically between getting our finisher medal and our challenge medal and they would go beyond and they had the snack boxes and bananas and Powerade and everything already there for us. So you, it's a really dangerous and difficult time to kind of navigate the crowd. So they actually just pulled us out and they also had not like closed off fencing, but they had some plastic fencing around the tent so that people just didn't use it as a shortcut. So it wasn't blocked off, you could still get in and out, but it sort of just kept the crowd down because they saw that it was a sectioned off area. So that was really helpful too.

Speaker 11 47:37

I think my one complaint about the corrals and this is pretty minor, but we were back, my wife and I were pretty far back. I think we were in the last corral for the 10K and I was like second or third to last for the half. You could hear, fine, but there were no monitors past the front stage.

Speaker 1 48:02

Right, there was just one, yeah.

Speaker 11 48:04

Just the one, so you couldn't see anything.

Speaker 6 48:08

Yeah.

Speaker 11 48:08

And I mean it was well lit and it felt safe and comfortable. But if there was information happening on the monitors, there was no way we were going to see it.

Speaker 5 48:18

Well and Kelly, I actually had the opposite. We were in front of the monitors.

Speaker 11 48:21

Oh, really, oh, I like that they were behind us. Yeah, that doesn't work either.

Speaker 9 48:28

That is a good point. They did seem to add a few more speakers because they did have some. On Clementine, where basically the back of E Corral was, and then across the street where security is, to F Corrals, they did have a speaker. So I felt like maybe in F you might have had a little bit more than we did last year. You can hear a darn thing last year in those back corrals, but even where I was in front of those I was in front of the speaker, so it was still a little muffled and hard to hear. But in the end which is why you know, anytime there was a corral I jump on the Facebook group right, corral A's out, corral B's out, just so that people knew um, because otherwise, especially since we didn't move right away like they got a and b out before, they've kind of pushed the corrals forward it just.

Speaker 7 49:16

I think it's just something to help and they do it differently for the races out in california. They just send you out, right. So a corral goes out. Well, it always goes out in one. But bcd, there's no staggered yeah, I they.

Speaker 1 49:32

They did do a little bit of waves because I know when we took off on the 10k we were in a second wave in our group.

Speaker 7 49:40

Okay so they did a little bit I know in january they said they just sent you out and you know, kind of're in C, you're all going out at one shot.

Speaker 11 49:50

I wonder if the front couple of corrals were a little denser, like had more people, because I know the our corral and the few corrals in front of us just went by letter, so maybe there were more people in the front several the front several.

Speaker 6 50:10

All right, let's move on to later in the day, on Saturday, when our resident Disneyland experts had cookies and helped with a meetup in the downtown Disney area. Grace and Alan, thank you so much for helping our friends find the meetup spot. How did that go?

Speaker 4 50:26

Good, we showed up about 2 o'clock. People started showing up about 2.15.

Speaker 10 50:31

Nice. It was about the warmest time of the day.

Speaker 1 50:36

unfortunately, it was.

Speaker 10 50:37

We did have some shade on the tables and we had very good turnout and, I think, more than enough cookies, which was nice.

Speaker 1 50:45

It was great. They were wonderful.

Speaker 5 50:48

We appreciate you making those all Grace. I was great. They were wonderful. I would appreciate you making those all Grace.

Speaker 4 50:51

I was trying to hide under the shade of Bob and Kelly, but they.

Speaker 6 50:59

Speaking of Bob, you have some new buttons that you gave out. How did those go over?

Speaker 1 51:04

They were really well-received. I'm not going to hold one up to the microphone to show it, but they were really well received. I'm not going to hold one up to the microphone to show it, but they were really well received. We got three inch buttons, the kind that's like the celebrate buttons you would get from a Disney World or Disneyland, and we had some markers and people use these buttons. We've got our little clock logo on it, but the interior part of the clock is is whited out so you can write your name in there.

Speaker 1 51:31

And I grabbed. I'll tell you, the Rise and Run family just never ceases to amaze me. I did not think we'd have more than 25 or 30 people there and when I saw the temperatures I thought, yeah, that's going to be about it. And I don't know, gang, we had more than 60. I don't know if we had 75 or I mean you can look in that photo. I have a hard time counting people in the photo because I go, did I count this one? Anyway, it was and it was great and it was wonderful and people were talking with one another, but I ran out of buttons. I don't know how many I brought. I guess I brought about 60, but I ran out of them. But we'll have them at Wine and Dine. I'll have the rest of them there and they were neat.

Speaker 11 52:25

Just for perspective when Grace says it was the warmest part of the day, it was 103.

Speaker 1 52:32

Oh, yeah, right I mean.

Speaker 11 52:34

I mean so the. The fact that that many people showed up when it was that hot, uh, was really impressive, and I know. I just walked in, you know, saw Bob shook hands with Bob, Alan put a band on my my arm. Uh, Grace gave me a cookie. Uh, someone else just immediately started talking to me about racing in Chicago. It was just great.

Speaker 6 52:56

That's awesome and our meetups are so welcoming, and I think you guys have um portrayed that here. But I just want to remind our listeners that if you're ever at a race weekend, please come to one of our meetups. Please come and join the conversation. Even if you're shy and you don't want to say anything standing there, you'll meet people, will, will interact with you, will welcome you in um. It's a great time, um, and we we really hope to see you at one of them and play your cards right in a leash, you might buy you a margarita there's too many people now I've really I've noticed this at all the race weekends, but I think I noticed this more at this race weekend than any other.

Speaker 5 53:39

We interact now so much online that I'll get there and, like you know, abel, I've talked to you a million times online but had never met you on in person before this weekend. But it didn't feel like I was just meeting somebody in the in person for the first time. You feel like you know each other and so it really feels like you're reuniting with old friends, even if you technically aren't old friends. And if somebody is standing by and we're having a conversation, you're going to get reeled in and you're going to be a part of it, and it just is very, very welcoming.

Speaker 4 54:11

Able, had originally, had originally suggested the site, which was actually, I think, perfect. There's full.

Speaker 1 54:18

Oh, it was a great site.

Speaker 4 54:20

We were kind of we had our, there was. There was some trepidation about finding it but I think everybody found it and it's and they kind of like, left us alone for a couple of hours and we had plenty of picnic tables. Shade kept moving around. Thanks, bob and Kelly. Yeah that's you and me, Bob.

Speaker 5 54:45

No, it was a great spot. The other perk, too, at Disneyland that we don't have at Disney World is that once you go through security and enter a park or downtown Disney or whatever, you're through security and you can literally just walk in between. You don't have to take any kind of additional transportation. So I had been in the parks and I sometimes think like, oh, I don't want to leave because I don't want to go through security again, but you don't have to, You're already there. So that was one advantage.

Speaker 4 55:09

Even the people that talked to me that were in California Adventure or Disneyland or Downtown Disney, it was literally in Downtown Disney and it's literally less than 30, 40 yards away from the exit of Disneyland and about 100 yards from DCA. So people were able to walk, come in, spend some time and then go back.

Speaker 9 55:32

That was definitely a nice perk, because normally at the meetups I know at downtown no, I'm sorry, disney Springs, at Disney World, you know people would have to make reservations for a meal at Disney Springs, otherwise they'd have to take a bus somewhere here. You could have had a reservation at Disneyland, california venture, that Pixar hotel, any of the hotels all within a 10 minute walk and that's and that's a nice kind of added a benefit to having it right on site.

Speaker 1 56:04

No, it was a great site.

Speaker 2 56:06

Usually, you know any meetup that for for a race weekend that I cannot attend, I am always just flabbergasted by the site of the group photo. You know, for me I know it started at wine and dine uh, last year I I couldn't believe the size of that photo. And then, you know, seeing this disneyland one again. You know, again, seeing this Disneyland one. You know, again, what you all mentioned before, you know, with how bad the heat was and the fact that that many people uh came out, you know is a true Testament to this community and you should all be commended and and thank you so much for coming out to support us but also supporting one another too, I mean also supporting one another too.

Speaker 9 56:46

I mean, that's really, that's what is most important?

Speaker 2 56:48

uh, here for sure. But let's move to the final event of the weekend, the half marathon. You know a unique instance in you know terms of run disney, where you get parks and the sights and sounds of anaheim and then finishing back up in that start finish area. Alan and grace, why don't you lead us off and tell us about your half marathon experience?

Speaker 4 57:15

I think the, the, the security was a lot better and they routed us from security and being able to go to the port of parties and going directly to the crowds, which was not necessarily the same way that they routed us in January, so people got through that a lot easier. The corrals opened up earlier, so I think that that really worked better.

Speaker 10 57:40

Security was definitely easier. And then in the corrals I think that the display they had in the films with Carissa I think that a smaller stage when they were had the event in January. It was much larger, I thought, a lot more entertainment, a lot more organized, where you were directed where to go. There was big questions in January about where's bag check and then they, you had to go way around to get to a bag check and then you had to walk around another way to get back. It was just very inefficient. So those were very nice improvements to see. But I really thought the entertainment was good.

Speaker 10 58:22

Prior to the race I started in Corral B and it did start on time and they had about five minutes between the A Corral and the B Corral but we got off. There were a lot of people out on the streets. Overall. I would say I can't think of any other Disney race where they really have had such great music All the way through most of the parks. I thought there was music almost the entire way and I really happened to enjoy the music from the Cruella film, the music from the Descendants, and they had a lot of it. It was just fabulous. There was so much entertainment as you went through that, before we knew it, we were out on the streets and, um, we, we got to go over ball road before the sun came up, which is nice, actually, I was almost down to when the sun was coming up.

Speaker 10 59:16

Um, down at Cotella, near the entrance to the bike path, um, when the this you notice the sky is getting lighter and um, where we made that left turn it was. That was again different. It was a little shorter than January, but we made that left turn onto the bike path. It was concrete, it wasn't just gravel, which it has been in some previous races over the years with Disneyland, it was concrete. But coming towards me as I came up to that, were some, I'd say, hobby local bikers on their bicycles. They had their helmets on, they had their 10 speeds or whatever, how many, their fancy cycling. But they came in and they got right in the middle of the runners and it wasn't too long down that pathway that you had to make a real sharp turn. And there was and I'm still not sure if she had on the green volunteer shirt or what her position was, I don't particularly remember seeing on this woman there were like three people there making sure everybody got around that corner, but she really got all over those bikers.

Speaker 10 1:00:30

Won't you dare get in the way of my runners and she was so protective and wanted to make sure that those bikers that weren't part of the race. Um gave us the right away, uh, which was nice, and she made sure that all the runners got around that corner safely. I didn't know the bikers were going to make that corner too and keep going, which they did. When they went under the bridge and up they did actually get off their bikes and walk and then when they got past, when we turned off, they got off their bikes and stood and watched all the runners. So I'm glad they were entertained. But I was really happy to see how protective those volunteers were of just making sure that we were, as the runners were safe in that area and weren't held up by somebody who wasn't part of the official event.

Speaker 10 1:01:22

And I enjoyed on the course for the marathon, because you're on city streets, a lot of intersections, have police you know Anaheim police and young cadets out there making sure no cars get in their pathway, and it was nice to say thank you to them. That isn't something you have in Disney World because it's Disney's property. At that point it it was nice to say thank you to them and I noticed that if I said thank you to one, I'd hear four or five other people also thank them who heard me say thank you. So it was kind of nice to thank the volunteers and to thank those people that were making an effort for everything to be smooth outside of the Disney property and the parks and how excited they were to help you with water and, you know, powerade and whatever. But I thought it was a great experience.

Speaker 4 1:02:17

The Disneyland Half Marathon Legacy by Jenny Lee had a big picture of the Haunted Mansion, and then they had snacks. There was an unofficial water stop at mile 12 and they really went to great lengths to set that up and notify people.

Speaker 10 1:02:34

They were great yeah, that was neat that became an unofficial photo stop as well it was a good one yeah, they were very nice and, alan, they had a, they had a soda for alan, that's great.

Speaker 1 1:02:48

I I got to tell you, Grace, if you were all right to the bike pass by the time the sun was coming up. I was still in the park by the time you said that. Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2 1:03:00

Heather, what was your experience like on your first ever Disneyland half marathon?

Speaker 5 1:03:05

There was a few little minor issues. Obviously the weather Disney can't control, so that's a moot point. I am glad I didn't have to start in my assigned corral Cause for whatever reason. I submitted a very good proof of time that would have given me a corral and I got I Um. So I was glad that wheels started first because I would have been pretty upset if I had to start an eye with the time I submitted. I loved the park time Again. I thought it was beautiful.

Speaker 5 1:03:35

Some of the photo stops were a little bit tricky. You can just tell that Disney World has worked with the AWD community for a long time and have it down where, like they know, we can't make U-turns. So you know, greg, if you're the last person in line, they'll say okay, you're behind the gentleman in the gray shirt, wait over here and we'll. Not that you're cutting in line, but you just. It expends a lot of extra energy to do some of that maneuvering and they just didn't quite have that down at Disneyland. But they did have an interesting setup where they would have characters like up on a stage and they would have three different lines for the character and so the characters would go line to line to line and hit three groups of people very rapidly and so it made things move very quickly. So I thought that was really neat. I hadn't seen that before. I love the music and there was, you know, marching bands and cheerleaders and things. Even outside the parks, on the streets, people complain about the city streets. I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 1:04:34

It felt like I thought it was good.

Speaker 5 1:04:36

A really well supported hometown race on top of already having the park time for a Disney race. Um, I did not like that piece of bike path. That was a very difficult turn and then I had bikers yelling at me to get out of their way on a fairly steep uphill, which I can't do. That I was like that's not going to happen. But my bike guide again was great. He had brought a whistle and was yelling at people to get out of my way. He was like a photographer for me.

Speaker 5 1:05:07

I love going by the Ducks Arena. I'm not a baseball person, but it was really enjoyable going through Angel Stadium and it was reminiscent of my first dopey when we still did the Wide World of Sports and you were in the races and they announced you. So I loved it. I said this was going to be a one and done, but I'm probably going to eat my words and I'll probably be back and done.

Speaker 7 1:05:29

But I'm probably going to eat my words and I'll probably be so quick question Uh, you're talking about I know the first two races were pretty much almost all in the park. This race was on the city streets, the character stops were they just on Disney property or was there any character stops on the city streets out there?

Run Disney West Coast Races Review

Speaker 5 1:05:49

The official stops were just on property but they had the 501st. Star Wars were out there. There was Ellen's Friends who had a great Haunted Mansion photo stop. It was Ducks cheerleaders out there. I happened to pass the Ducks Stadium when the mayor of Anaheim was going by, so they were all announcing her and interacting with her. And again, marching bands, cheerleaders. I've. I loved it.

Speaker 4 1:06:17

I think a lot of what they the problems they had before. In January they really tried to correct them.

Speaker 2 1:06:23

We didn't have a problem, or anything.

Speaker 1 1:06:25

It was great.

Speaker 2 1:06:26

It's great that you say that and you know I've been. It's been wonderful to hear that. You hear that West Coast Run Disney has really taken the feedback from, because I can remember the stories already of the complaints that people had and Run Disney immediately sending out surveys to everyone who ran. So I'm glad they collected that data and they were able to pivot and make this a better experience, probably after the conclusion of the race on Sunday, that the remaining spots that were still open, left for the January February races in 2025, are now officially sold out. So I think enough people went onto social media and saw the positive reviews and gave them the confidence to go ahead and register for the you know the you know the new race in 25.

Speaker 4 1:07:32

This is the third time that the West Coast has started runs, so the first run was in 95, went one year and that was it. Then the Disneyland half marathon, then that just got discontinued.

Speaker 11 1:07:47

And this is this is actually the third rendition of the starts gotcha interesting just gonna say, just to kind of tag you on to what you were saying, greg like it's impressive that the reviews have turned around so much, especially given the, the kind of duress that the, the extra heat added to the day. Um, because you know they were, know they were having to keep up with a lot of people needing extra hydration. They were having to, you know, deal with a lot of people having to come off the course and go into the medical tents. I think they had more pressure than they probably had expected. So the fact that the reviews came out, or that at least on social media generally, the reviews people on the course doing a good job.

Speaker 5 1:08:55

They had the color codes throughout the course DJs were announcing it. I just felt like they did the best they could with what they were given to handle that situation.

Speaker 4 1:09:07

Grace got to visit the medical tent.

Speaker 10 1:09:14

Uh-oh, oh no, handle that situation. Grace got to visit the medical tent. Oh oh no. I was waiting in the sun with in an area without shade and in the heat for the time from when I finished until waiting for alan to finish and I started feel I'd had a banana, a bottle of water and a bottle of Powerade but I was having hydration issues and I was aware of. I just wasn't feeling great, even though I ran pretty strong and all of that and that was good. I had a pretty good race. I did slow down, but I had a pretty good race. But I'm standing by those. They were like bicycle fence. I was trying to stay in the secure area and not go out so that I could get back in to finish. So.

Speaker 10 1:10:02

But I started to feel lightheaded so I'd sit down on the ground and I then I'd stand back up. I felt better than I'd sit down on the ground and I kept feeling like I was going to pass out. So I kept sitting down. They helped I went. I found a green shirt volunteer person and I said could you just help me to get over to where the medical tent is, because I'm feeling a little lightheaded. I just was worried about passing out or falling because of hydration and heat. So they did that. The medical tent which is right next to the AWD yeah, the AWD tent. They said, well, we can get you there faster if you wouldn't mind just sitting in our wheelchair. So they whipped me up in the wheelchair, got me down to the medical tent and it must have been I don't know 65 degrees in that tent, with the ice and the wind blowing, and it felt great, oh man.

Speaker 5 1:10:51

When I worked the marathon 2020, I had to keep going outside to thaw out.

Speaker 1 1:10:57

Oh jeez.

Speaker 5 1:10:58

Yeah, it was really cold in there.

Speaker 10 1:11:02

But I felt better right away and I was just worried. I just didn't want to collapse or pass out, because I was just dehydrated and too hot.

Speaker 5 1:11:10

Grace, you did the right thing.

Speaker 7 1:11:11

And something I also heard that probably they don't really do that much at run, at run Disney in Florida, is you said that the flags or the race status was posted all throughout the course, where basically if you're not on your phone running, you don't know that we've been, you know, red flagged or black flagged or whatever on for for run Disney.

Speaker 11 1:11:36

Yeah, and we. We started Sunday.

Speaker 5 1:11:38

It was yellow and it went red right at the very, very end, like with cause, I could hear the announcers from my hotel and literally it was like almost in the same breath. Carissa announced red flag and balloon. Ladies.

Speaker 9 1:11:55

Yeah, I was waiting. I was waiting at the, the gear check, kind of cooling off at the bag of ice, and I heard them saying oh, the last, the last people were crossing. And then as soon as they did, it was oh, it's announced, a red flag, get out. You know not, it's like go go get somewhere cool.

Speaker 11 1:12:12

Well, as I understand it, it was partially the heat. I mean, when I finished it was about 83, so it was hot but dealable. But um, it was partially the heat and there was some fires not far away, so the aqi had gotten still there that's true, yeah because the awd tent of where it was located.

Speaker 5 1:12:28

There was some people that got pulled off kind of in the AWD tent area who weren't necessarily registered AWD athletes, but they could tell they needed some help. So they got them off, got them in the shade, got them in a chair and then medical was able to kind of get them from there. So I think that was another reason it was helpful to have it there and to have a point in the finish line where you could pull people out without them having to go all the way through.

Speaker 2 1:12:52

Well, look it's it sounds like everyone did their, you know, did their absolute best in terms of um. You know the, the unfortunate elements that you know everyone had to deal with and obviously, you know, as we heard in the news, you know wide, wide arranging of experiences in terms of how everyone, you know, dealt with the heat and um. But we'll, we'll go back to the course itself and Baba, I'm going to, I'm going to transition over to you here. One of the unique things about this course is that you had the opportunity to run through Angel Stadium. So, uh, my question is are is are there a lot of signs up at Angel Stadium? Are they still upset that Otani went down the street to the Dodgers?

Speaker 1 1:13:36

Didn't see any. Didn't see any. The air conditioning in Angel Stadium didn't work.

Speaker 2 1:13:42

Oh, that's a shame. Did they take the top off for the weekend? Yeah?

Speaker 1 1:13:46

I shared that story. I was telling people going into the race that, well, when we go to Angel Stadium, it'll be air conditioned, it'll be all right. I live very close to where the Tampa Rays play baseball, inside a domed air conditioned stadium. I'm a big baseball fan, I know that there aren't a lot of domed air conditioned stadiumss, but I just had it in my head that this one was air-conditioned. And while I'm in the corral, uh, one of my friends says bob, what are you? You're just joking, right? I said, no, bob, it's an open air stadium. Oh god, that's right it is. Um, no, it was fun running through there. I think everybody said that it was they. I think the stadium announcer was there. Whoever they had was doing a really bang up job oh, it wasn't mike trout that was on the wasn't?

Speaker 2 1:14:36

no, no, he was amazing.

Speaker 1 1:14:39

He was probably in brazil watching eagles, I don't know um good point, the uh. Yeah, that was fun. I mean, we stayed on the track all the way around, we came in and right field and left and left field and it was nice and you got on the uh jumbotron. I didn't, I didn't notice. You got on the jumbotron kind of early and I didn't notice.

Speaker 5 1:15:00

But that's okay I thought you were on right as you left.

Speaker 1 1:15:03

It was that's what I thought too, but it wasn't the the. There was a camera there, but that wasn't the camera for the jumbotron.

Speaker 9 1:15:11

I'm not sure what that was recording actually, I think they were swapping between two cameras were they yeah, they had a camera in the dugout um, because they were calling people's names from the uh first base dugout as they were coming through and they were showing them on on the jumbotron. But then they also cut to the camera and left field as people were leaving as well, oh, okay, and I think when we left the stadium it was on the other one.

Speaker 1 1:15:36

Yeah, the other thing that happened is a fellow who was doing the announcing job kept telling us when you leave left field and you get to the top of that hill, you'll have only one mile left. In this race Lies. There was a fellow up there, I don't know whether he was working from the stadium or not, but he was up there going. They're lying to you. You still have two miles left, which we did, and it was okay.

Speaker 1 1:16:04

Hey, I thought you've heard me talk positively about this whole thing and that's my's, my experience. I even, as others have said, I enjoyed running through anaheim. I thought it was fun. Uh, that was great. I'm going to lodge my one single solitary complaint for the race organization for the weekend and it probably had to do with where I finished in the half, which was toward the back. But the line to get your challenge and or coast to coast medal was ridiculously long and one of the group, one of the Rise and Run family, was well ahead in the line which cut back, you know, cut back to the 180. So grabbed a bunch of us and pulled us forward, to the chagrin, no doubt, of several people around us. But I didn't care, I jumped anyway.

Speaker 2 1:16:57

That's the only thing that needs a little bit of uh, of work to make that line a little more smooth well, if that ever happens again, just grab alan and then just keep repeating the phrase do you know who this guy is? That should, that should work out in your favor, but it should.

Speaker 4 1:17:14

It absolutely should I said this before, but we've run probably 10,000 miles on those roads. We've run in our house and angel stadium or, uh, the pond and around Disneyland. I mean a lot and it's much more fun to run with friends.

Speaker 1 1:17:33

Oh heck, yeah, but it was a good course. It's, it's flat. There were, it was supported, it was, it was fun gang. It really was a great one.

Speaker 4 1:17:43

But next time you come try to leave the heat in Florida.

Speaker 5 1:17:50

It's beautiful here now the week before yeah alan I brought it home with me to vermont.

Speaker 10 1:17:56

It should be fall in vermont that was the hottest weekend of the entire year in southern california yeah, I believe you can't get much hotter than that where you live.

Speaker 1 1:18:07

I don't think I don't know what the record is, but yeah, that sunday it got up to 107.

Speaker 11 1:18:11

It was brutal.

Speaker 2 1:18:13

It did, Kelly. I know we've talked a lot about many aspects of this particular race, but any other race or course highlights from you?

Speaker 11 1:18:23

Most of it's been covered so I won't rehash. I want to reiterate that the outside, the parks, was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. Um, there was some terrific bands set up. I did, I did. I do have to say it was particularly cruel when we were kind of going up a hill and the temperature was rising and there was a band at the top of the hill playing hot, hot, hot.

Speaker 7 1:18:54

That was less funny than they probably thought.

Speaker 11 1:18:56

But there was just some great music. It was great to see the ducks out represented. It was just. It was a lot of fun. There was so much just local Anaheim support there that I really appreciated.

Speaker 7 1:19:13

So you saw ducks. Do you see any?

Speaker 1 1:19:15

camels out there? No, no camels, that was last week's episode oh sorry all right abel.

Speaker 2 1:19:21

And how about you? I know you know, once you finished, you know you had sent me a text. You know, tell me about how you know it was. You know longer than you wanted it to be, and and it was hot. You know, tell me about how you know it was. You know longer than you wanted it to be and it was hot. But you know what was your overall impression of the half.

Speaker 9 1:19:35

I, I had a really good time. It was, um, you know, this whole weekend was a vast improvement over last January and had a lot of fun. It was really hot, yes, but overall, you know, running through the uh, through the parks, the first parks, the first six miles or so, was fantastic and I got through that. I went out at a regular race pace so I could get to as many character stops as I could. And I think I stopped at five different photo stops between the two parks. And then, once you got out onto the streets, I said I'm just going to kind of take it easy because I knew I was going to take a couple hours to get through it. It was going to get hot. I didn't want to overexert myself and it was a lot.

Speaker 9 1:20:16

There was a lot of entertainment along the road, all the bands, you know. I got my, got my red vines on the road. There were plenty of water stops, so very fun. And running through Angel Stadium, that was one of the best parts.

Speaker 9 1:20:31

I mean it was fast, you know, but it was kind of fun to be in a be in a ballpark like that, you know, picking up all the dirt you saw when we got through the park, a lot of people were stopping over the side to dump out some of the warning track dirt out of their shoes, dirt out of their shoes, um, so, as they were going and so, but again, and it was also awesome at the very end to see uh, jeff galloway, uh, hanging out there at the end to say hello and thank you and get a photo.

Speaker 9 1:20:58

But then also, coach chris twiggs was there right afterwards as well, um, mostly because we finished well after he did, since I think he was so, overall, definitely one of those races that, yes, it was hot and it took me a while to cool down. You know, as Grace was mentioning, you know, I went towards the medical tent and they had someone passing out bags of ice, which was fantastic, because then I just went, found some of that shade from those new tables. With those tables they had, they had umbrellas over.

Speaker 1 1:21:29

Umbrellas.

Speaker 9 1:21:29

yeah, so I was able to get shade, you know, because otherwise it's, you know there's no shade. But I was able to find a spot that had some shade. Just sat there or stood there for 10 minutes cooling down, because I just needed to cool down from that race down from that, that race.

Future runDisney Race Plans

Speaker 2 1:21:54

Well, we are so immensely proud of each and every one of you and everyone else in our rise and run community, for, you know, really tackling this inaugural event with you know the, you know the best effort that they could, uh, you know, despite the weather and the elements and everything like that. So, you know, job well done everyone, uh. But before we close out, let's go around the horn real quick. When will we see you at a run Disney race again? And Abel, let's start with you.

Speaker 9 1:22:18

Well, I'm just in the middle of my training for Dopey 2025. So I'll be there at Walt Disney World in January.

Speaker 2 1:22:24

All right, Alan and Grace. How about you?

Speaker 4 1:22:26

Marathon weekend.

Speaker 2 1:22:27

I was going to say I would imagine marathon weekend for sure, but I didn't know if we'd be seeing you earlier or not.

Speaker 4 1:22:33

I have my number and then we're doing Disneyland half.

Speaker 2 1:22:36

Okay, excellent, heather.

Speaker 5 1:22:39

I'm still kind of hoping for a last-minute 5K bib so I can be a puppy, but if not, I'll definitely be at Princess in springtime.

Speaker 2 1:22:47

Excellent and.

Speaker 11 1:22:49

Kelly, how about you? I will be back at Disneyland in January for the half, so I'll see Ellen and Grace there.

Speaker 2 1:22:55

All right, wonderful. Well, thank you again for coming around the second time to recap this. You know this wonderful event, but we really appreciate the time and and we will see you on a race course soon. So thank you everybody.

Speaker 11 1:23:09

Thank you, thank you Thank you.

Speaker 1 1:23:10

Thank you. Well, look, I know we've said it, I've said it before it was a great event. It was a great event. There is no reason at all not to look to the future Disneyland races, because they were a lot of fun and I'm sure the future ones will be a lot of fun. Also, news from around the Rise and Run family. Gabby posted just absolutely gorgeous photos of her one-month-old coast-to-coast dopey baby. I love the picture Gabby's holding the baby. Gabby's got her dopey medals. Baby's got the little miniatures. It's awesome.

Speaker 7 1:23:52

It's so cute, didn't the hat say dopey baby too on it.

Speaker 8 1:23:56

It did.

Speaker 1 1:23:57

Yeah, it was adorable, absolutely adorable. So congratulations, gabby, to you and your family. That's fantastic.

Speaker 2 1:24:05

You know, speaking of coast to coast real quick, I can't remember if we mentioned this during the recap or not, but our wonderful friend Kay got featured in the 5K post for Disneyland. That, john, you came up with a brand new nickname for k, because there was the whole debate, you know, were we calling her 90210k or were we calling you know, I was calling her beverly hills, but you have come up with the perfect nickname coast to coast k coast to coast k I.

Speaker 2 1:24:45

I think that's absolutely brilliant. So we got, we have hollywood and coast to coast k, c2ck, c2ck. For sure. That's absolutely brilliant. So we have Hollywood and Coast to Coast K, c2ck, c2ck for short.

Speaker 1 1:24:54

That's how you spell it out Exactly. You pronounce it Coast to Coast K.

Speaker 7 1:24:59

And the over or under is almost shot already.

Speaker 2 1:25:01

Absolutely so those of you that did place bets from the Council of Costumes episode congratulations on your payouts.

Speaker 1 1:25:08

I took the early betting odds on that one. Yeah, also in the news our friend Lori's recovering from her total knee replacement surgery and doing very well. Glad to see it, lori, I actually saw that you wrote this in one of your posts. I'm going to say it out loud for you anyway Baby steps, baby steps. I'm sure you're going to recover. Just be patient. You can do this, john. What's new in the shop?

Speaker 7 1:25:38

Okay so with the shop. Uh, we should be getting these shirts in any day now. So that's really good, uh, once uh, we get them, look at them day now. So that's really good, uh, once uh we get them, look at them. Make sure everything's the order's correct. Uh, we'll be starting shipping them out, so, hopefully, and that our october first date for getting your shirts should be right on target outstanding.

Speaker 1 1:26:03

Yeah, and I know once judy gets hold of them she'll get them in the mail real fast. She's, she's really she's almost comically good at that. She's so funny she gets them out so fast. I think she likes going to the post office. I think she does wonderfully well and we appreciate, we appreciate her doing that for us and for you.

Speaker 7 1:26:25

Yes.

Race Report and Training Updates

Speaker 1 1:26:26

Taking a look at upcoming episodes. Now this was supposed to be Jeff Galloway's episode. Jeff will be with us next week. Always a pleasure to visit with Mr Galloway. He always has wonderful insights, very helpful. Look forward to hearing from him. Two weeks from now, episode 158, the folks from Vacation Races will be here to talk with us about some of the opportunities they have for races throughout the country, throughout the world. So that sounds like fun. All right, my friends, it's time for the Race Report. The Race Report sponsored by Stoked Metabolic Training, our friend Tom Stokes Coach. Tom Stokesfit slash Rise and Run Coaching is the site. The information is pinned to the featured section at the top of the Facebook group page. He is now into his new three levels of training the foundations course, the accelerate course and, of course, the one-on-one coaching that he had to begin with. I'm back in the accelerate course. Alicia, you are too right.

Speaker 6 1:27:44

Yeah, I am Bob.

Speaker 1 1:27:45

Okay, good, yeah, I, I. I missed about a week of it in that aftermath of what we're talking about at the top of the episode with coming out of Disneyland. But I'm back into it and, taking the week off from that, I have the muscle soreness that I had kind of gotten away from by going three days a week.

Speaker 1 1:28:07

But that's back. But that's not a bad thing. That's how you're building muscles. So we appreciate Coach Tom, and you got any questions on that. Feel free to ask Alicia or me We'd be happy or Lexi or Jack. Lexi, how are you doing with yours?

Speaker 8 1:28:22

Well, we had just started my first cut and then I got sick.

Speaker 1 1:28:29

Oh yeah, yeah. So that's an automatic cut there, not the kind that you want.

Speaker 8 1:28:34

Yeah, yeah. So, um, we're, I'm back on track as of yesterday. Um, I haven't, um, I was sick all last week like in bed, but I'm better now. And um, I'm going back to the gym tomorrow because up until like the past couple of days, whenever my heart rate would get up, I'd start coughing.

Speaker 1 1:28:55

So you know that post cold post you know, you know got it and that that kind of that can hang on.

Speaker 8 1:29:03

I know, I know, so it goes away, but it can.

Speaker 1 1:29:06

Yeah, it's pain.

Speaker 8 1:29:07

So I feel like my energy is back and um, we'll see how my workout goes in the morning. I'm starting a new cycle of exercise too, so Understand Very good.

Speaker 1 1:29:19

All right, so that's a Stoke metabolic training Again. The information's pinned to the featured section on the Facebook group. Let's take a look at the races from last week and starting with a week ago, on Thursday, the Sunset Runway 5K in Binghamton, new York, at the airport. Steve and Brenda did this one. It was an evening race, chosen so that they could run just as the sun set. Timing and the weather couldn't have been better Breathtaking views of the hills and a gorgeous sunset that Steve managed to do a really good job of capturing in photos. If you want to go back and look for the photos he posted to Facebook on that, they're very pretty. Course was a two and a half kilometer loop from the hangar down to the runway and back. Steve paced Brenda who finished. Brenda did with a new 5K PR.

Speaker 2 1:30:20

You want to talk about two extremes. Two weeks ago, steve runs hilly bird in hand and then goes and turns around and runs an airport 5K Airport runways, yeah, yeah, I mean. And there's no hills there, so good job on a recovery run there, steve.

Speaker 1 1:30:36

It is a good one it is. Here's one that actually started Friday, ended Saturday. That's in SeaWorld Orlando. The Howl-O-Sprint 5K started at 11.50 pm and had a special party for runners and paid attendees after the race on Saturday. So he started on Friday, ended on Saturday. He had a bunch of riser runners there Krista and her husband, phil. Mary was there. Monica was there. Mary's comment was the race was so much fun. It was hot and humid. It's central Florida, it's still, you know, warm weather here Didn't bother her because the race was that much fun.

Speaker 1 1:31:17

Monica talked about the scare actors. Said they were amazing, either cheering the runners on or trying to scare them. Apparently there was one zone, the toxic turmoil zones, one that got her twice. By got her, I think she means surprised and maybe a little startled. No on-course photography, but the scare actors did allow you to take photos with them. Sounds like a fun event late Friday night in Orlando.

Speaker 1 1:31:46

Let's move to Saturday in Castleberry, florida, the Battle of the Bands 5K. This is race number two in the Track Shack 24-25 series of races out there in the Orlando area. Again, a bunch of rising runners there, including the fellow we were just talking about, our 2-2 guy himself. Coach Tom Stokes broke out the 2u for this. One got to see some familiar run Disney faces and is now even more excited about Wine and Dine weekend. Tabitha's husband, mike, was there. Now, Tabitha, I remember talking about this last week. She did this one virtually last week because she's helping her mom out with mom's knee replacement surgery. Mike finished this one, posted a photo that he took with Tom Tracy, rested up after Disneyland, had some unexplained leg swelling but still managed to have a good time. Great race here. Managed to have a good time. Great race here. Sub 30 minute finish in a 5K Tracy. That's pretty good. And Jared again hot and humid. But he did well and he even said he kept up with Tom most of the race In most Disney races. That's not that tough, not because Tom doesn't run well, because he stops all the time for photos or he gets stopped all the time for photos and just has a great time during the race. All right.

Speaker 1 1:33:15

Still in Florida, in Tampa, the Nation Run 5K. Helena did that. One completed it with her son, her seven-year-old son, mason. This was Mason's ever, first ever 5K. He loved it. And for your first 5K, mason. It first ever 5k. He loved it and for your first 5k, mason. It's a PR bell Out in Denver, colorado, so Uris ran the Denver 5k in that Mecca of running, fishers, indiana, the Geist half marathon. Tiffany participated in that one. Wait, jeff wasn't there. Jeff was not there. We haven't heard from Jeff. We haven't heard from Jeff for a long time. Yeah, we haven't heard from Jeff in a while. I hope he's okay.

Speaker 2 1:33:53

Because I mean, if there's one thing that's synonymous with Fishers Indiana, it's Jeff.

Speaker 7 1:33:58

I did see some of his photos. I think they were out in California.

Speaker 2 1:34:01

Okay.

Speaker 7 1:34:02

Was he.

Speaker 1 1:34:02

I missed him, but there was. That's one of my. If there was anything disappointing about going out to California, it was seeing the posts afterward of all the people that I missed, but you can't catch everybody. I try, but it's hard. Let us go to Bar Harbor, maine, although if you live there there are no R's in that. Well, there's one, there's one in Harbor, but it's in the middle.

Speaker 2 1:34:26

I would say you got to say it right for Al. Oh, it's Bahaba there. I would say you got to say it right for Al. Oh, it's Bahaba there you go.

Speaker 1 1:34:30

Yeah for sure. The Bar, Harbor Bank and Trust Half Marathon. Sonia ran this one. It's her first race report and first half marathon. We know what that means. This one starts in town, goes into the beautiful Acadia National Park Great views, but you need to watch out for the horse droppings underfoot and the minefield from the squirrels who use the acorn to conduct target practice on the runners as they go by. According to Sonia, it was a challenge. She almost got taken out by the squirrels dropping those acorns from the trees. Weather was great for a late summer race in Maine. Sonia was on customized this morning and I want to pass on that Sonia's husband is ill. Sonia, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Hope that all works out well.

Speaker 1 1:35:36

In Lake George, new York, the Adirondack 5K Andy was there North of the border. In Toronto, canada, the Oasis Zoo Run. Rachel did the 10K Great zoo run with the family. When she says family, she means family. Listen to this. This was Evan's first race. Evan was in a stroller being pushed by Rachel's brother-in-law, nate. For the 5K. Isabella Isabelle's did her first cub run. I think it's cub run. I think it's cub run. I copied it as cub run. It might be. Club run could have been a typo. It was Elle's. Ellie's first 5k, tiff's first 10k. Renee had a PR in the 10k. I am losing track of family members here, rachel, but I think is delighted.

Speaker 2 1:36:33

So are we at five PR bills we're going to.

Speaker 1 1:36:36

Greg, we're going to, we're going to wrap it all up and we're going to hit one big PR bell at the end.

Speaker 9 1:36:40

Perfect.

Speaker 1 1:36:40

Okay. Rachel says she is really proud of the time that she finished the 10K and she's happy not to be nursing an injury like she was two years ago. I know how that feels. Congratulations for all of the family who either did their first or set a PR. This PR bell is for you Now, whereas we were at Baja, but before we were at Safety Harbor in Florida, not far from here, for the best damn leftover 5K.

Speaker 1 1:37:14

This is an interesting event. I don't know how many BDR races do this, but they conduct one of these in Safety Harbor every year where when you finish, you get to choose one race shirt. You get to choose one race shirt Well, you actually get to choose the race shirt before and two medals at the end, and they're all leftover from races, from BDR races that have been done throughout the country. You just get your pick. Mary Jo did this one. Typical Florida weather, of course. This is a nice course, however, in a scenic area I've run over in that area several times Very pleasant, around the water, all pretty flat. Uh, what Mary Jo did was she picked a couple of out of state medals for her leftovers. We had one Saturday, sunday event a weekend in Daytona, florida. The run, daytona double dare featured a 10 K on Saturday and a 5K on Sunday, and Michael did this one. It was a blast to run on the speedway on the Daytona International Speedway, lucky enough to have his daughter, amanda, join him for the 5K. So, amanda and Michael, glad you enjoyed it. Great run over there in.

New World Major Marathons Consideration

Speaker 1 1:38:25

On Sunday, the 2024 TCS Sydney Marathon in Australia. Rebecca Jane did this one. She was part of the AG1 Sydney pace team this year. She paced the 640 group. Wonderful event had pacers from 2.30 to 7 hours. Rebecca says I can't begin to tell you how awesome yesterday's experience was. Crisp breezy day.

Speaker 1 1:38:55

The race starts near the famous Harbor Bridge ends at the Sydney Opera House. Atmosphere was electric all day. The crowds and the volunteers were superb and I understand this because this I'm sure all of Australia was excited about this. This was a trial run to adding Sydney to the Abbots World Majors and making it seven stars now instead of six. They should find out in about three or four weeks if they'll join. Regardless of the outcome, it's a great event. Rebecca says please consider coming to Sydney next year. I don't see how they can miss, though I've got to. What a wonderful place for a marathon. I think it's almost inevitable. For all of our friends in Australia, I sure hope that comes to be, and for all of our friends in Australia, I sure hope that comes to be.

Speaker 8 1:39:50

I've been following the. There were two races around the world that were being considered for being added to the Abbott's World Marathon majors, and the Sydney one is the closest one. Look it up sometime, the amount of criteria that they have to meet in order to be considered part of the Abbott's World Marathon majors. Like it is, it's it's pretty, it's an intense process and like it's not just a one race process, it's like over several years.

Speaker 8 1:40:26

Oh, I would imagine they have to meet a certain number of participants. They have to have certain um like special measurings, um year after year after year, in order for it to be considered one of the world majors.

Speaker 1 1:40:39

Uh, yeah, I was thinking as you said that, Lexi, I don't know what the other city was, you remember?

Speaker 8 1:40:44

it was somewhere in China, I think.

Speaker 1 1:40:47

Really, because there is an event in Asia Tokyo, a couple in Europe, of course three in the US, nothing in Australia, africa or South America, of course nothing in Antarctica, but that's not likely to happen. I was wondering if perhaps one of the South American cities, but anyway, look, I think it's great and I'm kind of pulling for Sydney and for Australia to get that seventh star, if you will.

Speaker 2 1:41:21

Now, Bob, did I hear you correctly? They had a Pacer for 230? 230, yeah Holy.

Speaker 1 1:41:28

Hannibal.

Speaker 2 1:41:29

I mean, I understand the news just dropped this week about the new cutoff times for Boston where I think, if you're like a male 18 to 34, you now have, your qualifying time is now 255. I mean, obviously that's smoking, but if they have people doing 230, my Lord, that's impressive.

Speaker 8 1:41:52

I looked it up. I was way off with my geography. The other candidate for being added to the majors is Cape Town.

Speaker 1 1:42:02

Okay, that would make sense. The kids would have seen it's close. No, that would again, because there is not one in Africa. So that would be interesting also.

Speaker 7 1:42:11

That would be the eighth one when they make it Could be Like the final four. They'll just keep expanding.

Speaker 1 1:42:18

They're not going to ask us those. I'm going to move on. I think it is interesting and exciting. And that 230 pace group that's what Rebecca Jane says and I believe her. I think that is below the women's qualification time for the marathon trials here in the US. I think the women's qualification is like 234 or something like that.

Speaker 8 1:42:43

Oh, I was right.

Speaker 1 1:42:46

No, it's too late. You already said you were wrong. It's too late, you can't.

Speaker 8 1:42:50

There are three majors that are being considered. The Chengdu Marathon was announced as a candidate in May of 2019. Huh interesting.

Speaker 2 1:43:06

I just want Sydney to happen. So if the one day I get the chance to run it, I can run it as Bluey and my life will be complete.

Speaker 1 1:43:15

I think it would be great. I think it would be great because I know we have listeners in Australia. I don't think we have many in Chengdu. We may have some. We may have some in South Africa. We really may. I don't know, I haven't looked recently, but I know we've got several in Australia. So let's go Sydney. Let's go all the way to Darien, connecticut, for the Darien Connecticut road race, sue Hayes, on this five-mile course around the Connecticut coastline and up into the hills by some beautiful homes. It was a lovely day with low humidity, temperatures in the 60s and Sioux is at 164 out of 169 races to complete the Connecticut 169. You go, sioux, the Connecticut 169. You go, sue.

Speaker 1 1:44:11

In Des Moines, iowa, the Greater DSM High V Half Marathon Series I had to look it up. High V H-Y-V-E-E is a supermarket chain in that part of the country. Tracy ran this one. She ran Half Marathon. Number four Says the humidity got to her in the last couple of miles. It was a struggle but she still managed second place in her age group and a PR. And they had a good time at the zoo afterward In Washington DC, the DC half, which Kate describes as a local event.

Speaker 1 1:44:52

But this local event attracts 5,000 plus runners. Her goal was to run the half at marathon pace, preparing for the upcoming Marine Corps Marathon next month. She attended the pre-race kickoff party where she got to meet Des Linden and I looked at the photos and Des is a small woman. I'm not surprised, but Kate kind of towered over her. Kate got her post-race banana and took it home for her pup. She's got a banana-loving pup, says the pup loves fruit and vegetables and meat and the occasional paper products and other things that dogs love. Jen was also at the DC half In Belle Isle State Park in Detroit the women run the D half marathon.

Speaker 1 1:45:51

Christina ran at half, number 10 for Christina. Excellent weather. It got a little warm as the race went on. Race announcer Fitz Kohler was there to pose for a photo with Christina when she finished. Definitely a race. Christina recommends running In St Louis, missouri the Dogtown Doggy Dash 5K. Apparently there's a section in St Louis that they really call Dogtown. This race was run by Sam the Golden Doodle, pearl the Bernese Mountain Dog, and Annie the Labradoodle. Oh, and Kate and Kelly were there too. They walked it because the dogs don't run. There were two water stops with water bowls, as they should be for the puppies pools so the dogs could cool off. All the dogs got a bib and a chip timer making this for Sam, pearl and Annie, their official first 5K. So one big puppy PR bell please rough rough they're so cute yeah, it was cute.

Speaker 1 1:47:01

Let's go to Snohomish Washington, the corn maze craze. Vanessa ran this 7k. A new distance for Vanessa, so a PR there. Two loops through a marked corn maze, very well supported with candy treats, bananas In Vanessa's opinion, bananas should be mandatory and donuts Maybe they should be mandatory too. She got to run this one with a new rising runner and a longtime friend, renee Lee. Such a wonderful, fun event. Vanessa, glad you had fun. Renee, glad you were there too.

Speaker 2 1:47:39

That sounds like a really interesting race, but I'm a little confused by something though it's a corn maze, but it's marked, so does that make it still a maze?

Speaker 1 1:47:51

well, I get your point, uh, but the alternative probably is to still have people out there if it wasn't marked, so maybe this is better. Oh, let's move to texas city, texas. The island girl triathlon. Brandy participated Girl Triathlon. Brandi participated as part of a team, the Island Girl Tri Team. Worst place scenario. They had fun. Brandi was the runner, other friends did the swim and the cycling. Nobody was dressed up at the event except for Brandi. She got a lot of looks. She was, since it was the Island Girl run. She dressed up as Moana.

Speaker 1 1:48:30

In Fresno, california, the Diamond 10K Sylvia. The weather, of course, was perfect in California this weekend and I've heard that from a lot of people. The medal was a beautiful sparkle necklace. On this they had mimosas and sparkly donuts at the end and sparkly donuts at the end. And let's finish this one up in St Petersburg, florida, with the Fort DeSoto Oktoberfest 10K. This is the first in a series of five runs in and around St Petersburg that ends in March.

Speaker 1 1:49:02

I did this one. I was there along with friends I've made from doing this race, krista and Richard, and I met their son, glad to see them. Bridget was there too. Bridget came by on the course. Bridget was running back towards the finish line when I was still running to the turnaround, so she was smoking me. Good run, fun place, I got to tell you. For me it was really hot. Now I know I talk about the heat in this part of the country and it's normal, but it just really struck me on Sunday the heat was really bad, but I did okay. Finished age group first. Not all that impressive when you get to my age group, but still I'll take it. No medals when we got done which is very unusual for this area, turns out, the medals were ordered in plenty of time and they've been held up in customs in Miami for the last three weeks. So eventually we'll get medals for this run.

Speaker 1 1:50:04

And there you have it, friends. That wraps up the race report for episode 156. Well, friends, and if you run, you know you are our friend. We always appreciate you having us along for your training runs or for wherever you listen to the Rise and Run podcast. We just love that you're out there with us, love seeing you at the races when we can. We have a Zoom coming up on Thursday. If you haven't been before, please consider coming. Just hang out. This is how we get to know one another even better. Information on the Zoom will be available on the Facebook page by the time, well before the time, this podcast airs. That does it, friends. We'll see you next week. Until we meet again, happy running.

Speaker 2 1:51:04

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. Thank you.