Rise and Run
Rise and Run
175: Mayra's Big Surprise
The Rise and Run podcast has always celebrated our runDisney family, and Episode 175 is no different. The latest episode showcases how running is not just a sport but a way to forge deep and meaningful connections among friends. Through a collection of heartfelt stories, we delve into the experiences of runners who have faced challenges, celebrated milestones, and found joy in their running journeys.
We start with an amazing story from Andrea. During Marathon Weekend, Andrea started a collection and quickly raised the funds needed to surprise Mayra, our Pop Century superstar bus coordinator (episode 171) with an annual pass to Walt Disney World. You can hear the excitement in Mayra's as she describes her first trip to Hollywood Studios. It is not to be missed.
Similarly, Jack joins us in the race report spotlight to give his account of the Icebreaker Marathon in East Meadow, NY providing insight into the mental strength required to conquer the multiple loops of the race. We also celebrate Jack's completion of running every street in Camden County, NJ, a story we first talked about in episode 94. This spectacular effort was done in memory of Jack's father and as a fundraiser for the Lewy Body Dementia Association.
Another of our Galloway pacer friends, Greg, joined us to talk about a very special fund-raising race he his helping to organize in the Tampa Bay, FL area.
As we wrap up Episode 175, it's evident that the spirit of togetherness, shared aspirations, and the magic of community resonates in this running family. Whether you’re training for your first race or celebrating your latest achievement, the heartwarming stories from this episode remind us to cherish every mile, every memory, and every friendship made along the way. So lace up your running shoes, join the community, and start creating your own unforgettable running story today!
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3 am again. Why did I ever think this was a good idea? Welcome to the Rise and Run podcast. Join our group of Run Disney friends. As we talk about running at Walt Disney World and beyond. We'll discuss recent runs, training, upcoming races and surprise topics suggested by you, our listeners. Well, the alarm's gone off, so let's go.
Speaker 4:Hi, this is Chris coming at you live from the first annual pop-up of the RunFit Fab crew from Disney World in Orlando on Marathon Weekend. Today's been the most joyous day spending time with so many great people and getting to see the first live Rise and Run podcast Happy running. Hi, I'm Laura, I'm Tara, my name's Jack, I'm Rachel, I'm Allie with Allie. We're coming to you from the Run Fit Fab meetup at the Dolphin and you're listening to the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 6:Happy running. Well, hello my friends and welcome to episode 175 of the Rise and Run podcast. A couple of intros from our friends this week. That's because John recorded a bunch at the pop-up and I think maybe even elsewhere, so we don't want to leave anybody out. We heard from Grace and then we heard from the ensemble of Run Disney, Rise and Run Friends, and thank you for those.
Speaker 7:There was a surprise one in that one too, I think. Was it there a Jack in that one?
Speaker 6:Oh yeah, jack's in there with the ensemble. Who else was there? I know Allie without a knee. Tara was there. If Tara was there, rachel was probably there. Yep, jack was there. Well, thanks, guys. Thanks for doing it, and meanwhile, if you want to send us one, we'll give you the information on calling one in here in just a moment. I'm Bob and I'm in less than perfect voice this week, but please forgive me. I just been doing too much yelling. I'm here this week with Greg Go birds. Yeah.
Speaker 6:I'm surprised you have a voice, greg. The difference is Greg watches at home. I watch at a bar in Clearwater with a couple hundred other Eagle fans, so it's kind of like being at the game. We get to yell.
Speaker 2:Oh, trust me, I did plenty of yelling in my living room. So, don't you worry. I guess I'm more vocally trained for this Bob. I don't know.
Speaker 6:We'll get you a vocal coach for the Super Bowl. Alright, I'm here with Alicia Hello. With Jack.
Speaker 5:Hello.
Speaker 6:And with John. Hey, how you doing Very well, john. Thanks, despite the voice.
Speaker 7:G-men, g-men, I gotta put it in there somewhere.
Speaker 6:We still love and respect you, John. We get it. It's our year. Your year is coming.
Speaker 2:Bitter party of one. Bitter party of one.
Speaker 6:Oh, I don't hear that I don't hear that. Anyway, okay, friends, this week's episode we've got a couple special revisits. I was going to say I'm going to leave one secret, but since we're posting to Facebook and Instagram what we're doing A couple special revisits I was going to say I'm going to leave one secret, but since we're posting to Facebook and Instagram what we're doing, we revisit with Myra from Pop Century. But the reason for the revisit is very special. Our friend Jack Witzig, the Camden County runner, is back with us and we have a quick conversation with our friend Greg Creel. Greg's a Galloway Pacer who has a special event going on in my area that he wants to let our friends in the greater Tampa area know about.
Speaker 1:If you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family. We want to share in their Run Disney journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast, instagram at Rise and Run Pod. Check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage at riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, comment, race report or want to introduce an upcoming episode, call us at 7, 2, 7, 2, 6, 6, 2, 3, 4, 4, and leave us a recorded message.
Speaker 7:We also want to thank our Patrion to support helps us keep the rise and run podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join Patreon team, please check out patrioncom slash rise and run podcast. And we want to recognize some of our new Patreons. We have Joe R who joined the plastic cheese level, and Miranda who joined the how you doing level.
Speaker 6:How you doing. How'd we come up with that name?
Speaker 7:I don't know, nevermind Must be from Jersey.
Speaker 6:I off the beaten path here. I think I told you this one time, John. I was at the Italian restaurant in uh, in Epcot Right, and I'm just reading off the menu. I'm just reading what's written there that the dish is written in Italian. I just read it and the waiter, who's from Italy, says to me your accent's perfect. What part of Jersey are you from? Says to me, your accent's perfect.
Speaker 7:What part of Jersey are you from? I get corrected all the time in Italy. In Epcot I go. Can I get the calamari? Oh, you want the calamari. No, I want the calamari.
Speaker 6:If you were at, it wasn't Via Napoli, it's, I don't know. Maybe it was Via.
Speaker 7:Tutto Italia, tutto.
Speaker 6:Italiaudor. Italia is the sit down. Well, listen back on, hey Jack. What's new on YouTube?
Speaker 5:I got the pop-up video on YouTube. I had a lot of fun making it and I really hope you guys enjoy it. It was a very nice event, very nice day and had a blast recording the live recording Our first ever live one, but yeah.
Speaker 6:Well, actually it was our second ever live podcast you were on the other yeah, you, you were on the other one, jack at jack's event in atlanta
Speaker 5:oh yeah, I was on, that, wasn't I my bad.
Speaker 2:Second ever live event but jack, I will say I love your new camera, so uh everything looked great, so keep up the great work.
Speaker 2:The rising run podcast is brought to you by our friends over at magic bound travel. Uh, magic pounds got some, uh, really interesting updates for us. As you know, brad and maggie and the rest of the mbt team are hard at work. Um, you know, planning the first ever rise and run cruise. Uh, that's going to be occurring immediately after springtime surprise in 2026 and this weekend, uh, the team got to go on a little bit of a research trip on the ship that we will be sailing on the utopia of the sea, a part of the royal, uh, caribbean cruise line feat. So we're very excited and I know we're going to try and get brad and maggie on, uh in the next couple of weeks. Uh, you know, to tell, to tell us about what they learned about the ship and the ideas that they have for this cruise that we're going to have in about a year and a half, or maybe not less than a year and a half's time 446 days from now, Greg.
Speaker 2:There we go. Perfect, not that you're keeping count or anything like that, but so the part that I wanted to pass along here is our friends at MBT have secured discounted interior staterooms for that particular cruise. Again, the cruise is happening on April 20th 2026. Interested in one of those discounted interior staterooms or any other stateroom on that particular ship, be sure to visit magicboundtravelcom. You can also visit our Facebook page and our website. We have links that will take you over to the quote form for that particular cruise and we're so excited and we just got this update today and and I can't wait to hear my co-host thoughts here as of time of recording, we have 29 staterooms booked yeah, that's just that boggles my mind.
Speaker 2:That's so fascinating. Especially you know how far out we are, so we hope that that number continues to grow. We have started our brainstorming sessions now of the fun activities that we're going to have. So if you are interested in that cruise, any other cruise, a Disney cruise or any other vacation destination, especially those run Disney racecations be sure to visit magicboundtravelcom to fill out your no obligation quote and a team member will get back to you swiftly.
Speaker 6:Thanks, greg. Yeah, I am really excited about this and the more people that sign up, the more excited I get. I think this is going to be a wonderful time. All right, let's take a look at our training calendar. It is Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. Hi, friends, I'd say, look around and we'd be there to say hi to you, but we unfortunately will not. But we hope you are having a wonderful time.
Speaker 6:It's Expo Day out in Anaheim and I hope things are going really really well for you. Have fun. Princess Weekend now. Golly, friends, princess weekend is a mere three weeks away. We're in training week 15. Training schedule calls for four miles, including a magic mile. Springtime surprise is now nine weeks away. We're in training week nine. Training calls for three miles, including a magic mile. I want to remind our friends who are going to springtime surprise that if you are arriving, I count down from expo day. If you're arriving on Expo Day, your Advanced Dining Reservation Day is coming up on February 2nd. That'll be here before you know it. That's next week, so that's coming up shortly. And, of course, if you're arriving before Expo Day, you can count backwards to the first or the end of this month, whatever. A real quick note.
Speaker 6:Many of our friends are familiar with Galloway training and the Magic Mile but we haven't talked about it. I just want to talk about it real quickly if it's a new thing to you. The Magic Mile is a measuring tool and not necessarily a training tool necessarily a training tool. The best way to do it is to spend your first mile at a slow, easy warm-up pace, then run your magic mile. The Galloway training method describes running the magic mile as at a pace a one pace that by the time you finish you should feel you can't keep that pace going much more than another hundred yards or so, so nearly your maximum pace, and then use the time for your magic mile. You can just Google Jeff Galloway magic mile calculator, plug your time in there and it will give you recommended training times for your various distances. So if you haven't done one in a while, that's how it works.
Speaker 7:I just pulled up the calculator and just for your guys reference, if you did a 12 minute magic mile, let's say right, he's saying your long run pace should be 1736. Don't worry about that, that's just your long run pace. So your five, your, your 5k pace is about a 12 minute mile, your 10 K pace is a 1348, your 10 miles a 14 minute mile and your marathons of 15 36. So you're still underneath that yeah that threshold?
Speaker 2:you know, and john, going off of that and that and that's a really important distinction to make here is if you are using that online calculator, that long run pace that it is spitting out for you, that's the long run pace based off of the marathon distance.
Speaker 2:So, for example, you know, say you know you put in your magic mile, and it's going to say your long run pace.
Speaker 2:The rule of thumb that I always like to go with is okay, you know, it's going to give you that breakdown in terms of your paces for 5k, 10k, 10k, half and full. If you're not training for a marathon, say you're training for the 10K, take that pace, that what it says of what your race day pace should be for a 10K, then add two minutes to that and that should be your training pace. So that is the one thing that is a little I don't want to say difficult, but something that you do have to parse out using that calculator is that that's super granted, as we also have discussed, though, is that you can never go too slow on a training run. So if you want to go that pace, you most certainly can, but if you want to, you know be in the most optimal position to be able to hit those race day paces based on the distance. Just take the race pace, add two minutes and you should be good to go Right.
Speaker 6:Good, your long run is an endurance run. We'll get more into that at some other point. But yeah, it's a speed limit. You should not go faster than that pace because you're using that run to build your endurance, build speed during the week Again, a topic for another time. Let's take a look here. The other thing that's coming up on February 11th for the general public it's actually February 4th for those who are in Club Run Disney or those who are perfect Wine and Dine Challenge runners Alicia I'm not blaming Alicia, I don't think she feels it. She's pretty far away. However, if you are new to this, again if you haven't been with us for a while, find the Wine and Dine Weekend Community Chat Group on our Facebook page and be ready to join us on the morning of February 11th. We do a lot of work to help one another get registered for those races and we're pretty successful. We can't guarantee anything, but we're pretty successful. My friends, any training updates amongst the gang here? Any news?
Speaker 1:I did my first run post-marathon today and post being sick. I kept it short, I did two miles, but it went pretty good.
Speaker 6:How's the weather right now, Alicia?
Speaker 1:Right now we're in a heat wave, is what they're calling it, and so today not when I went, cause I went early in the morning, but today we got in the forties, and then Thursday we're also supposed to hit in the forties.
Speaker 6:So Okay, so you're not dealing with ice on the road, right now.
Speaker 1:No, there was a little bit in like the shaded areas, but 99% of the areas it was fine.
Speaker 6:All right.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good, yeah, anybody else, alicia, I'm right there with you Right after marathon weekend. I guess I would say I had a lot of active recovery, because the way that I've been handling things the last couple of years is I do the races and then I stay almost the full week after marathon weekend as part of my family vacation, so I got lots of park miles on my feet, so I think that that always really helps in terms of making sure that you're not stiff and getting back into tip top shape. But last week I also got my first run in post marathon weekend. The know the conditions were a little tough, but I did it along the beaches of Maui.
Speaker 2:And at least this time there was no waves that hit me as I was running, but it was good to get out there. Now, usually I always like to go in the morning because I like to watch the sunrise and the times are cooler, but because of my work schedule I didn't get to go out till the afternoon. So it kind of felt like marathon weekend in the sense where I was running in 80 degrees and you know, and then, you know, sat by the pool and you know, and Alicia, you know, I heard you on last week's recording I only had two Mai Tais, the entire trip.
Speaker 6:So I think I well behaved myself yeah, the entire trip. So I I think I I well behaved myself. Yeah, only only two, but they served him in buckets I wish they did so.
Speaker 2:You had a horrible time yeah I did have a horrible time, but yeah, so I. I was uh very, very fortunate that I got to uh to get that first uh post-marathon weekend run. In also went on a nice little hike as well in uh one of the hawai state parks. So not a total run, but I definitely got some elevation under my feet too. So that was. I'm glad to be back out there, and as soon as all this snow melts here in Pennsylvania, I'll be back out on the road more, because I can only take the treadmill for so long.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you know it's been a long time, Greg, but one of the things I remember about running in Hawaii even though the temperatures were high and the humidity is reasonably high, it always felt okay, and I think the trade winds had something to do with that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 6:Yep, but it always felt all right. I don't remember. Really I suffer a lot more here in Florida than I did in Hawaii when the weather got warm. Let let's see. I got back out on the road today. I did the week after Dopey. I took that off from training.
Speaker 6:The next week I got back into Coach Stokes Stokes Metabolic Training his eight-week challenge. I got back into that. I did runs on the treadmill that week. Weather was okay here. It wasn't great, it was rainy, nasty, it was atypical of Florida and sometimes a treadmill is just a little easier to hop on there and get it done. But I got back out on the road today, still doing Tom's program. I got back out on the road today so I feel pretty good about that. I was commenting earlier this morning One thing about and I'm not superstitious so I don't mind saying this and I'm not looking for wood to knock on or anything Since starting with Tom and I really started with him in July last year the strength training I haven't had a running injury and it's been that's for me. It's been a long time since I've gone that amount of time without some kind of running injury.
Speaker 1:So I think strength training makes a difference.
Speaker 6:I think it does, Alicia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Hey Bob, maybe not this week because I know your voice is on thin ice right here, but maybe in the next couple of weeks. I would love to hear your thoughts about the Echelon treadmill and what your experience has been like that, especially with the fact that Galloway has now partnered with Echelon as well. I'd be really interested to hear about that.
Speaker 6:Now that I've had it for a while, I'd be happy to talk about that. Yeah, we'll set something up there, Greg.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I've been doing the same thing, bob. I've been just doing Tom's workouts. That's been my training right now. Like I said, I do walk a lot for work. So that's my I guess my endurance, if you want to call it that. That's my uh, I guess my endurance, if you want to call it, but I still have not did a official run yet. I think maybe this week or next week I'll get back on the uh, depending on the weather.
Speaker 6:Okay, sounds good. I got a half marathon coming up next week, so I can't let too much time slip by.
Speaker 7:Hey guys, did anybody have a problem with their garment today?
Speaker 1:too, much time slipped by, hey guys did anybody have a problem with their garment today? No, I on the garment app that they knew that it was a problem. I did not have issues, but I assume a lot of people did yeah, my, my garment went into a a blue triangle reboot all day.
Speaker 7:Uh, I guess whatever happened with the gps or whatever it was, it put my Garmin into a reboot mode and they had to actually do a hard reset to get it back at work. And there's a whole thing on the Garmin site about how to fix your watch if it's having a problem, but they still have not said what's caused the problem. A lot of users got it today. Yeah, I think the biggest reason I didn't get it is because I'm wearing a Samsung watch and not a Garmin. That said what's caused the problem.
Speaker 6:A lot of users got it today. Yeah, I think the biggest reason I didn't get it is because I'm wearing a Samsung watch and not a Garmin. That limits your Garmin problems if you're wearing a different watch.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 6:That is unusual, though that's the first I've heard of a widespread problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've had it happen to me personally before and had to do that thing that's on the website to reset it, but I haven't heard of them having like a huge problem like that for a while now.
Speaker 6:Hey, just changing subjects. Just a quick comment. Friends, I saw a lot of our friends on our social media posting they got their Love on the Run 14 miler medals this week, and while it's too late now to register for it, since the medals are already out, lots of positive comments on the stuff that was received. Yeah, yeah they look really nice. Yeah, and apparently the throw in there was also nice Again I read a couple in. There was also nice. Again I read a couple of nice comments on that.
Speaker 7:I guess just concentrating on those two or three virtuals a year now. Yeah, they've really stepped up the game.
Speaker 6:So, for those of you who are doing that, good luck, have fun with it. You've already got the medals, so enjoy them. I hope you do have fun and do enjoy that. Friends, let's uh, let's go ahead and visit. I think this is an exceptional story that we're about to unfold before you, and I hope you enjoy listening to it. Oh, friends, and forgive this voice here, this is a special story. This is one that our guest, andrea Hi Andrea.
Speaker 9:Hi, good evening.
Speaker 6:Good to see you. Thanks for jumping in there. Andrea approached me about and I'm going to, because I'm about to completely fail here. I'm going to ask my friends Greg and John to take over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, as Bob was saying, you know, we got this email. I believe it was during marathon weekend. Um, andrew, you know you, you reached out to us via our web page and you shared with us the most heartwarming story that you know like. As soon as we heard this, we we needed to share it. Now the thing is, I want you to start to tell the story, because the one thing we haven't alluded to yet is there's another person logged on for this interview who we are going to remain secret until you bring up their name. So, andrea, tell us about the email that you sent us just a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 9:Well sure, I did not know about the podcast.
Speaker 9:I did not know about the story that was covered.
Speaker 9:I was at Marathon Weekend with friends that staying at Pop Century, where I stay all the time and, as is tradition, getting on the expo buses and the race buses, seeing our good friend Myra, who was there to say hi, remembers us every time we visit, gives us our hugs, helps us on the bus, makes sure we're all set for the races, stays beyond her shift to make sure everybody's all set, always looks out for the athletes.
Speaker 9:And we got to talking on this trip and talking about park time and she had mentioned that she hasn't gotten to go to the parks in years and she hadn't even seen Galaxy's Edge yet. And a couple of us got off the bus and started to walk back to the room and say we need to do something about this and started to make some phone calls saying can we get a pass? What can we do? Actually talked to one of the managers of Pop Century, Mike, who's an absolute sweetheart, said we have an idea, how can we pull this off, and he gave us some tips and other athletes overheard us talking about it and said we want to contribute.
Speaker 6:Andrea, this was just folks around you. This wasn't an organization.
Speaker 9:Yeah, Nope, just, I don't even know who they are, just people that were on the bus next to me, people on the bus to the race, people on the bus to the parks on the Skyliner line, in the Pop Century cafeteria, overheard us and pulled out their wallets.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 9:And said can I Venmo you? Can I help you? And long story short, on Sunday of marathon weekend, when we were waiting for Myra to finish her shift which, of course, she's just a sweetheart stayed beyond her shift to help people off the buses. We were able to say that, myra, we have a little surprise for you. Talk to people on the line, did a little video of it just for proof of purchase for people that contributed, and explained that the athletes of Pop Century wanted to thank her for everything she's done for us over the years and for her support, and that enough athletes had contributed together to collect to purchase her an annual pass.
Speaker 6:Wow, this is amazing.
Speaker 9:So we brought her over to Disney Springs, had her ID, got her set up, good to go, and she's already been to the parks. But that's the spirit of Run Disney and I assure you that it was as much a privilege to be able to do this and to be a part of this and to have so many people want to help out. The minute we said who it was, the first disbelief was people automatically assumed she's a cast member but she's not privileges. And for us to run through these parks and go to these parks all the time, um, we needed to make sure we share that magic. So it really truly was my privilege and I appreciate her being a good sport of the surprise and for me waiting around the bus for her to finish her shift so we could. But, um, really it was an honor for all of us and the least we could do to thank you well, well, she, she's dabbing her eyes right now.
Speaker 2:You alluded to it in that beautiful story. Let's welcome back the pop century princess herself, the newest annual pass holder of walt disney world, myra, welcome back to rise and run oh my god, hello everybody oh my goodness, I'm sitting here listening to this.
Speaker 11:I can't help but cry. This was something so unexpected. I do what I do because I love to do what I do. That's the bottom line. When this happened, I was not expecting this. I was trying. When we were talking about it, it was just a thing. I said oh well, you know it'll happen, it will happen. Life is what life is. So sometimes there's always a flat tire. There's always a bill that needs to be paid, there's always a friend that needs to be helped, there's a dog that needs to be saved, there's somebody that needs to be helped in one way or another, so entertainment always falls behind.
Speaker 11:When this was presented to me, I did not expect this at all. I had no idea Andrea was even doing any of this. I didn't even think that this was even a thing, and she surprised me At first. I was taken back by everyone's generosity and everything that they did for me, which was incredible. It still is. Family and friends were amazed. I was so taken back. I didn't know how to react. In that moment. I kind of lost my head and Andrea was like okay, take a breather, relax. This is something she didn't know. I left everything behind my clapper, my wand.
Speaker 11:I left everything in top century and I left. And here I am, maybe five minutes from home, when Andrea sends me a text by the way, you left all your stuff over there. I'm like, oh OK, turn around, turn around.
Speaker 11:But I was so wound up, that it didn't matter, and I was just the whole ride. I'm usually singing, screaming in the car. I was just crying, quiet, thanking everyone in the community within my means and sending everyone the most amazing vibes for what they did and went and got my things. I did not expect this at all at all. The conversation we had. We had it was very oh well, if you know a cast member that can get me in, you know, so I could come with a couple of friends and check it out. I'll run real quick through the park so I could see this and that was it.
Speaker 11:I wasn't thinking anything more than that and then to have this incredible gift given to me, it was way, way more than I ever expected. I know everyone appreciates me and they're always hugging me and they're always doing things and I don doing things and I don't want to. I never want to put anyone out. If you know me, you know that I'm not a material person. I am very down to earth and I'd rather help someone. Whether someone's watching or not, I'm going to help you and that'll just be in the universe. That know what happened and that's the basic line of it. And but to have this happen for me on the other side was extremely unexpected. It's something that I have been thinking about since it happened, and just to think that they did this for me, it's way more than just that pass, you know what it came with and all the thoughts and everything that.
Speaker 11:All the goodwill that came from all these individuals that pulled together to do this is amazing. And Miss Andrea pulled this together and I had no idea she kept like I saw her off and on because the running joke is, like you know that I always tell her what time is it. Look, it's 6.15. You need to get to bed. You got to be here in the morning.
Speaker 10:Let's go Go to bed Now Go, go talk.
Speaker 11:Let's go, go to bed Now Go, don't talk, just keep walking. Go to bed, I'll see you in the morning. You know this kind of thing and whenever I see her, it's really nice to see her. And hey, how are you? How's it here? We go Another year, this kind of thing. But to have this thing happen and to know that so many people stepped up, it was just unexpected. I didn't. I don't even know how to explain it. You know how it feels to be on the other, the receiving end. It's way more than what you think.
Speaker 9:If you saw, you know that this was the weekend of the downpour on the half marathon. It was, you know, the unfortunate timing chip issues for people. There were a lot of people that were upset and it was like you know, let's do something positive here. And if you ever doubt your personal impact on people, um, in the first Disney group that we shared it in, to have thousands of people respond and all these comments of, oh my God, I know exactly what you're talking about, how can I help? She's so amazing. I hope you keep reading all of those and realize that people that haven't been back in years remembered what you did for them and wanted to help. And I didn't know about the podcast, I didn't know about the story. Someone mentioned it to me and said did you know about this? And that's when we contacted you and said, hey, I just want to make sure you knew, just to share the good, the happy ending.
Speaker 2:Well, andrea, what you're saying is so true because and granted, every single episode that we put out, we do some social media promotion behind it. Alicia posted on the Instagram and then Bob posted on Facebook, and every once in a while there's a few comments or a few shares or something like that. When your episode dropped, all the hosts commented on this that I had never seen such a response of either personal stories of interactions with you or just I love Myra.
Speaker 2:And then here was my selfie with you and every time you know we, we have never seen that that type of influx of just like positive jubilation over I'm so excited to listen to this week's episode because of you, and that goes to show what a powerful and positive impact you are into this community. We've never brought a guest back this quickly. I mean sure we've done two part episodes. We've never brought a guest back this quickly, you know. You know I mean sure We've done two part episodes, but we've never had a repeat guest as quickly. So that goes to show that you're in the Pantheon of this community. Now one question that I did have, andrew. You know, obviously you know. You said you, you talked about this and how it organically happened in, you know, from the bus to to the everything pop food court and everything like that. If you had to take a guesstimation, how many individuals do you think put you know funds towards this very noble and valiant effort?
Speaker 9:I can tell you 38 okay, wow wow, that's, that's just in person.
Speaker 9:A couple people online, um, no matter what it was going to happen, but everybody that I'll have messages that I'll forward from what people wrote, but it it was just a. It was the spirit of run disney. This is what it should be and and I'm I thank everybody that helped out to make this possible um, but this is what it's all about. You know, I always tell people when you go to run Disney, you don't go alone, you just have 10,000 friends you haven't met yet.
Speaker 6:Oh yes.
Speaker 9:And being there for each other and helping people off the bus and, you know, helping people that are doing their first race calm down and letting them know it's going to be okay. And even on the cold mornings, when we saw people that were freezing at the start, we were telling them if you see a throwaway layer on the ground, pick it up, put it on, it's yours now, stay warm. That whole shared experience that people that haven't done these events don't understand. But this is literally pop century. Being at that bus stop is part of the weekend and I'm one of the people that looks forward to getting there and getting my hug and getting my congratulations when I get off the bus. So really, thank you to everybody that helped make this happen and thank you for allowing us to tell this story so that people can know that we made some magic.
Speaker 6:You sure?
Speaker 7:did Okay. So there's five days that weekend right, the expo day till Sunday. Like how quickly did this come together?
Speaker 9:Sunday morning.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 11:Sunday morning 6.30 in the morning. Yeah, way, wow. I was not expecting anything. I was expecting Andrea to say hey, there's this cast member, they're going to walk you in with your friends on the I don't know January or February 23rd. Be at the gate and you'll have the day to enjoy the park. That's where I was thinking. Never in a million years I expected that. I do want to say that.
Speaker 11:You know you hear so much negativity about Disney. People you know, oh, they're only out for this, they're only out for that. Disney is just a mouse trying to grab and blah, blah, blah. And they have this idea of what they hear because of others to have something like this happen and have it happen within my own circles, okay, of people that I know. The industry that I'm in it kind of shuts them all up and says do you see? Do you see what a little bit of love and kindness takes you? I'm not doing this for that, but I want to express to you guys be nice, be kind, be loving to one another. Even if someone is hating on you or getting mad at you because of whatever reason, be a good person, do something positive, because this universe has so much negativity around and everyone's. Oh, those people are crazy. Look, they're getting up at that time in the morning to do nothing. If you want to run, run around your neighborhood, why does it have to be there? And blah, blah, blah. And then this happens and they all like, oh wow, oh, that's crazy. And I said, now you guys get it. Now it's a business. We know, we know it's a business. That's how this world is. We're a first world nation. It's a business. But the love that's behind that business, that's what you got to look at, not what you're seeing all the advertisement. Take a minute to see these folks, the ones that finished the race and the ones that didn't, because sometimes that bus comes back with heartbroken people, people that are just that have tried so much and they get to that last race and they just can't make it.
Speaker 11:There were two young ladies that were in this particular marathon. They came from California. Two different stories. One the boyfriend left her and decided not to go to the race. So she decides to be by herself and I introduced her to a couple other people and I said, here, take her under your wing, bring her in. So you guys, look, this is her first time she's here, she's by herself and and we're going to warm in that, come on, let's go walk around. And they became friends and they went together and they came back together.
Speaker 11:Another little girl that I had a great conversation with which she was so scared. She's like well, my friend was going to come, but she twisted her ankle and I had already paid for everything. So I said, okay, I'll go to Disney, whatever. And she came back in tears and we had a moment and it was phenomenal because she said, you know, I would have never thought about doing this until you kind of said do it go, you'll have a good time, it'll be fine, trust me, it'll be fine. And she said I had the best time. And I said, good, that's what it's about. And I said, and she goes? And I made a whole bunch of people and I knew the people that she met. I'm like, oh, I'm so happy, you're going to be great, connect with each other, get together on Facebook and talk about everything.
Speaker 11:And this guy pushed me. Oh, that one did love. Okay, so he pushed you, but think about it for a minute. What if you really had to go to the bathroom? And that's why you know, always think of something. Whatever might have happened, think of that one little positive thing that you can find and emphasize on that and make that grow and, trust me, that bad thing is not even going to seem that bad at all, because when days pass and things go on, what do you remember? The person that gave you a hand, the person that passed you toilet paper, the person that gave you a blanket. The person that helped you, you know, get over a huddle. The person that moved out of the way so you can keep going with your friends. The one that held a camera to take a picture that you really wanted. Think of those things and those are the things you're going to remember. You're going to forget all the bad stuff, especially that 2 am wake-up call.
Speaker 6:That was a hard one myra, I want to know have you been to the parks?
Speaker 7:yes, she's holding up the brand new pass holder magnet that none of us have yeah.
Speaker 2:So, disney, if you're listening, let's go back to the old way of when you used to mail these things to all the annual pass holders. Not, oh, if you're lucky to be here for three days and pick it up by yourself. You know so, but it's. It's such a cool magnet with ray on it, I'm so jealous.
Speaker 11:It's beautiful. So I decided that I was going to go. I was going to go the first day, but I said no, I got to go home and take care of this and take care of that. So I had to take care of the things I had to take care of and I picked a very, very cold Florida day and it was raining and it was cold.
Speaker 6:Yes, it was nasty and it was cold.
Speaker 11:Yes, it was nasty. Yes, I'm very comfortable with being outdoors. My job takes me outdoors a lot. So, as far as having gear, I was in Chicago last year and it was negative 14 when we landed, so I have the gear to be worn. So I had my outfit prepared, my buns were on, I had everything ready to go and I looked in line and I saw the day that it was going to be the worst weather and I said that's my day. That's my day Cause I want to go and I want to enjoy.
Speaker 11:I did get there. It was so perfect it couldn't have been more beautiful. It was an overcast day. When it rained it must've been every time I was in a ride, because being outside it was just a little drizzle I had my umbrella, I got to enjoy Galaxy's Edge. I cried, I went back in and came back out, and came back in and came back out. Just the entrance of it Took a minute to just kind of sit there and look and take everything in.
Speaker 11:And I was happy to be alone, because then I could be as goofy and cry as much as I wanted, and and I didn't. It was just for me. This moment was my moment and I took it in every nook and cranny and I looked at everything. And then to stand there and look around and think for one second, wow, look where I am, you know, look, look, look, what I'm in front of. And I did videos to show everyone because I wanted to show that off, but I also wanted time to just kind of.
Speaker 11:At one point I was sitting on the bench looking at everything, crying, and a cast member came up to me and says to me oh, my goodness, are you okay? And I said oh, these are just tears of really, really, really happy person. And she's like oh, my God, that's so sweet. And I said you want to hear something? And I told them my story and she hugged me and Trisha was her name and I gave her a cast compliment. So Trisha comes up to me and she gives me this hug and she's like that is a beautiful story. I said isn't that nice? Because this, because this is why I'm sitting here crying, so, just like it's raining, I'm going to sit here and cry because to me the weather was perfect. It was just.
Speaker 11:It was this cloudy, overcast day and when you walk into Galaxy's Edge it's like I'm in Naboo. I am there and this is how it would be if I was in outer space in the middle of all this and to see everything I saw. There were hardly any people there. Lines were maybe 20, 30 minutes at most and I got to ride all the rides I got to drive and one of the ones, andrea, had told me oh, try to do the one rider, but they'll just put you in any step. Maybe you won't be in the front of the line. You know, the universe works the way and the magic works the way it does.
Speaker 11:Every single place I went, you would have somebody say, oh, I don't want to be in front, anybody want to be in front. I'm like, I'll do it, I'll do it here, you know, and I was always put in front of things. And then the one time there was a little girl with me and I was wearing the bracelets, you know, and she was saying something like oh, you'll get a bracelet, it's like because I think that Taylor Swift is a big thing with those bracelets, it's like. So I turned around and I said come here, and I put it on her wrist and I gave her two other bracelets Happy is just a little trinket made her day and her mom's like, oh my God, no, no, no. I said please let me do this. This is great, I want her to enjoy it. And then she goes I like your buns, because she saw my buns and I said it's hard Look, you can't keep them.
Speaker 11:If you look at this way, they're crooked. And she started laughing. So we had a beautiful moment with this child that I don't even know, but it was great because I don't have children, so but it was great to see her enjoying it. As I'm talking, we were at the one with the resistance. So we're standing in line and we're talking and I'm talking to her like I'm talking to you guys, just taking in pictures, and then we make a turn and I see all the line of stormtroopers.
Speaker 11:That was that moment and I stood there like just froze, and I'm looking at this beautiful. I mean I can literally say I was in outer space and there were ships behind and everything is moving around. And then the cast members were phenomenal. They're like you, dirty scum. Keep moving, keep moving. I'm like this is so perfect.
Speaker 11:They're like yes sir, yes sir, you know, and you kind of go along. It was impressive Everything at the restaurant, the little robot that's churning this huge pit of fire as he's cooking things, and it's just, I mean the details. Every door has little things going on. Um, you have banners. I mean I just I'm a star wars geek to the core and being there just made my day.
Speaker 11:That's why I said I want to do this by myself, because I don't want somebody going. Oh my god, no, she's gonna touch a stupid flag again. Didn't she already touch it? Like why is she touching it? You know, why does she want to go stand next to R2-D2 and just kind of stare at him? You'll never understand. You have to kind of. This is why I wanted it to be alone. And the fact that there were hardly any people there that you could have looked at everything you wanted to look up, that the weather was like perfect of what it would be if you were in this planet with all these things around you. It is just as immersed as you can be and you take everything in. And even when I, before I walked in, I kind of stood outside, I said, ok, here I go, what am I going to see? And I kept going back in it. And then the people are looking at me like why does she keep walking back and forth? I said because it's just taking a moment to see everything which was incredible.
Speaker 2:Myra, I want to go back to something you said a couple of minutes ago about being in the moment and experiencing those moments, because you wanted to really revel in and how special they were. What, to you, was the most impactful moment? I mean, obviously, you just told a you know. You told a beautiful story about you know, when andrea and you know and all those other supporters you know presented you with you know you know this amazing gesture you know, presented you with you know. You know this amazing gesture you know, at pop century walk, walk us through the moment of number one being handed that little yellow card with a Mickey mouse on it at Disney Springs, and then two. I mean sure, you know you just talked about, you know your experience of entering Galaxy's Edge for the first time. But also describe for us the feeling of when you scanned that yellow card for the first time at the turnstile. What emotions were going through you at that given point in time?
Speaker 11:I got to Hollywood Studios, I parked my car, I see the Skyliner. So I said, oh, look, the skyliner that goes to my hotel. That's nice. And I walk over. Now, when I get there, they're kind of ushering people and I said hold on, hold on, hold on. So I got out of the side and I said, okay, breathe. I went through security and they said, okay, go ahead. And I grabbed my little card and I'm looking at it and the young lady goes are you setting? I said no, I said hold on.
Speaker 11:I have to take in this one particular moment right now, because this is someone, I said someone very special, made this happen for me and I just want to vibe with her right there. Miss Andrea, this is for you. And I said and I just want to send her all these emotions that I have and this amazing sense of gratitude to her for putting this together Never expected anyone to ever do anything like this, to have it done so quickly and not expecting it. So in that moment I kind of sat back and I sent you the biggest hug from the other end and said to myself this is for you. And I took pictures and I put the little thing and it does the thing and it going green.
Speaker 11:And then I was standing there. I'm like, oh, my God. And she's like, wow, this is really nice. And again I told my story to our cast member there I believe it was Crystal or Krista. I have it written now and she says okay, your fingerprint and you'll be sitting. I was like this and I was like, and I took pictures of that and then go ahead and I'm like what this whole thing? And I, of course, I started crying again. I was on the side with my umbrella, crying, thinking of you, miss andrea, and just sending you lots of love from this end.
Speaker 9:I was at home with the receipt, like okay, let me know you got in. Do I need to send you a picture of the receipt? We good, you're in. Great, all right, have fun.
Speaker 11:I was standing there going what is this is? This is just way more than I expected. And then took a couple minutes to just kind of let it sink in and in a second, do you know how many faces? I closed my eyes and how many faces flashed through my brain of tons of people and the hugs and the cheers and the and the. You know, I can almost see them all like way to go, go, have fun, whatever. And it was a a moment of just so much gratitude that was around me and I wanted to reach out to each and every one of them and kind of like in my head have everybody behind me, let's all go, that kind of thing, you know, and it was. It was a very emotional moment and I it did take me a while to get myself together again, not to look like somebody who just lost, because people see you crying and they don't know why you're crying.
Speaker 9:Sure.
Speaker 11:Everybody's automatically are you okay? Are you okay? And it was just happy cry. So when they see the smile, then they knew it was a good thing To just kind of take that in and take those first few steps. And then people that don't know I'm going, I'm a cast member. Look at this. I got an annual pass and then pass and you'll pass and you'll pass. And I'm hopping along, going and you'll pass and you'll pass, which is so stupid. That was just for me. And I'm like where you at? How do you look at them? Where are you going? Galaxy's head, and you'll pass. And I'm just in my head, I'm just having the best time. You can imagine being as silly as I wanted to be and no judging, just enjoying so much. And I think some people around me going okay, whatever she's on, we want some because we want to go back that kind of thing and I was just like to do and then I have my umbrella and then I'm.
Speaker 11:I said I'm singing in the rain, I'm going to galaxy in the rain, this kind of thing. But it was. It was a day for me that I don't know if there will be other days in my life, but this day was very, very special for me, everything that I got to see and how I got there andrea, are you hearing some of this for the first time?
Speaker 6:I know you heard some of it before.
Speaker 9:I did. And just a reminder to Myra the surprise is not over. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. Oh my, God.
Speaker 11:I don't even want to. She's already done so much for me. I'm already overwhelmed with everything.
Speaker 7:You're running the race. Myra, You're running the race.
Speaker 11:You know, someone said that. But can you imagine for one moment I would love to, don't get me wrong but if there was no Myra, a pop century.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that would be bad.
Speaker 11:People would be like oh no, I am going to be working because of the fires in California and whatever. Some of my programs have swapped over to Orlando One of the beautiful things that you guys don't know about that most of the time when I work at certain events here in Orlando, we take folks to Epcot, magic Kingdom, animal Kingdom, hollywood Studios and we bring them like eight, we get summons to work at like seven in the morning, get the buses set, we take a group of maybe three, 400. Drop them off, we're on the bus with them and then that's it. We are, we are continue, we are on the clock with our business. They stay there and we have to roam around for the next six to ten hours, depending on what they chose.
Speaker 11:So now the options are you go drop your people off and you get back on the bus with your bus driver, and then the bus driver can drop you back off at a parking lot. You take your car, you go home and then later on you meet up with a driver in the same spot and then he brings you back to pick up our folks. The other option, which 90% of us do we stay in the bus. They go amongst their way. Way, we stay right where the bus is going to come back and pick those folks up and we take tours around the public transportation. We'll take them to disney springs, we'll take it to the grand floridian, we'll be on the monorails, we'll be on the skyliner I mean not the skyline, that was the first time I was in it but we'll be at the monorails. The boat rides to all over the, all the, the areas that you can go. Go sightseeing at the Grand Floridian, go to the beach club, wherever public transportation or Disney transportation takes you, you spend the day just kind of roaming around, just make sure you're back at that post at that certain time.
Speaker 11:So now I get to take these people. Tomorrow they're all going to Magic Kingdom. So I'm going to drop them off at 8 o'clock and I have to pick them up at 8 o'clock. That means I'm going to drop them off and go bye. I'm going too. So most of the time they're like well, myra usually stays there and walks and talks to people, because you know how she is. She'll go talk to people, disney people. She'll go roaming around and talk to people. But now I get to literally go in, have them do their thing, I'm gonna go do my thing and then at the end of the night come back to the, get right home and I can.
Speaker 2:I can picture it now myra is sitting on the hub grass eating some corn dog nuggets and french fries from casey's, just staring at cinderella's castle, bawling her eyes out I can already picture exactly what I would be doing, and I'm like this is when you sit back and you're like is this really happening?
Speaker 11:like how did how did this come to be? Like you know, thank you, universe, thank you people, thank you for you know. Just the things and things in my life happen in the weirdest, oddest ways, things that I never expect. I'm that one person that everybody's like it's christmas and you're like well, there's no parking spot, there's no parking spot.
Speaker 11:Oh my gosh, he found a parking spot right in front of the store you know, um, all of a sudden, you're the last person that got on the ride and they say, okay, the ride's gonna be shut down from this point on. Things like that happen to me all the time. So I'm not, it's just weird because people are like no, you know, everybody else got rained on and the sun is still on top of her. You know she's the only one that's not walking with a cloud like you are on top and it's because, if I was, I'd be singing in the rain, I'd be having. You guys gotta learn to accept whatever happens. It happens, but things work out in such a weird way for me. I just, sometimes I just sit back and go. You know what in my but that, you know, the strongest force is, the force is strong with me.
Speaker 6:So you know the force is strong in this one I love it.
Speaker 2:Andrea, I, I want to. I want to shift back to you now, because myra is not the first person that you have helped in in association with run disney. Um, you know, as we learned your story, you are an incredible fundraiser for a lot of these events. Can you share with us? Uh, you know all the fundraising efforts that you've embarked in over the last couple of years and, uh, you know and talk about the fundraising that you're doing right now for, uh, for princess coming up.
Speaker 9:Sure. So, uh, I started run Disney in 2011 on a charity bib and every single year since have at least one charity spot. Uh, and I rotate through the different charities and it charities, and it's partially. It's in gratitude for being able to do this, because to me it is a privilege that I get to go visit these parks more times in one year than some people will see in their lifetimes, if at all, and to always remember how lucky we are that we could do this. So this year I passed $37,000 in Run Disney fundraising over the years.
Speaker 2:Incredible Way to go.
Speaker 9:Thank you. Thank you. It's all due to the generosity of people and organizations and companies. And there's an organization that I run. It's all volunteer. It's called Sports Metal Recycling and we are a group of athletes up here.
Speaker 9:We work with race directors that have extra unused metals after their events. We're able to get them recycle the metal recycle the textile, ribbons, and the metal and the textiles are all recyclable. We take the proceeds and donate to other people or donate to our own minimum. So we do that volunteer, unpaid, outside of our regular day jobs, and that's raised $12,000 since we started so far. So we'll either donate to our fundraisers, to other people that need some help. But really it's a privilege to be able to do these events and I think I get to do so many because we do good. So I believe that when you do good first, the good follows afterwards, multiplied far greater than I can imagine. My flights made it there, I had a great weekend, saw friends. I'll be back in a couple weeks for my first and last princess ever, so um and my last there's always six here the villain themes got me.
Speaker 9:That's what got me. Oh good, I was okay, I'll do one of these, but it's all in good fun and it's meeting people and seeing friends and enjoying the experience and helping other people across the finish. If they're struggling, and always remembering that there's somebody that's doing this for the first time, and to help them you know little things like pointing out where the bathrooms are or helping somebody out you can see they're starting to struggle. You can just pick up a conversation and help them perk up and help them make it across the finish. That's the whole point of why we do this is to help each other. So it's just been an honor to be invited to this and to remind everybody this is really what Run Disney is about.
Speaker 6:Absolutely, Andrea. Tell us about your current fundraiser for Princess, please. I think it only has about a week to go.
Speaker 9:I'm past my goal, but I'm trying to help my team, my New England chapter, come in first place. We have a costume challenge, a fundraising for an organization called Breakthrough T1D they used to be called JDRF and this is for fun that people will vote what I'm going to wear, that if you donate in $10 or even increments, you're on one team, and if you donate in $15 or $5 increments, you're on one team, and if you donate in $15 or $5 increments, you're on other teams. So people will decide if I will have to wear a princess or a villain costume for the 5k. So it's, it's up to people, to what they donate and and we'll, we'll. We have a cutoff date just so that I have enough time to get the costume ready, but this is all part of the fun. So, and people that donate, you'll get the post race photos as proof of purchase.
Speaker 6:That links going into our show notes. We'll talk about it a little bit. On the episode. We have a pretty big audience, Andrea. You might, you might be surprised. This may be our chance to return the favor.
Speaker 9:For Marathon Weekend. I don't think anything will top. I've never worn so many throwaway layers at a race. I had four layers on and a bathrobe that I wore for a mile and a half. So I'm hoping for better weather, but this is all part of the fun. It's all part of the fun, myra. Thanks for sharing your story and for reminding a lot of us what it's like to look at these parks again. Of the fun, myra. Thanks for sharing your story and for reminding a lot of us what it's like to look at these parks again for the first time.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 11:My goal is to go so many times that when I pull up they'll be like, hey, myra, how you doing today? Go ahead, we got you. They get to know me. Okay, and I want to get to know so many of the little secrets. So when those folks come to me and say, oh, I said, do this, don't do that, stand here, don't stand there, Try this, don't try that, All these little type of little things that are kept secret, easter eggs that are here and there, and kind of revitalize what the mouse stands for. We've had too many years of just not good, so we want to bring it back to what it used to be. Let's make Mr Walt up there very, very proud of the things that are happening down here.
Speaker 2:Well, the one thing that came across my mind now is Myra. If you do achieve that goal and I'm pretty certain that you're going to folks, if you do achieve that goal and I, I'm I'm pretty certain that you're going to, uh folks if you're staying at pop century for an upcoming race weekend, you might want to get to the bus at least an hour ahead of time, so that not only can you get your run disney tips from myra, but now she'll be your personal tour guide as well too. So she's gonna have a lot of information to dispel, so you'll want to get there early, I'm sure she's going to have quite a line now.
Speaker 2:You know selfies, you know now that she's been on the podcast twice and and you know in about a month's time. So I mean you're already a superstar to begin with. We might as well just give you a star now on the Hollywood.
Speaker 11:You know it surprised me with so so many folks. I hadn't heard the podcast till the marathon and someone pulled it up and we're looking on, you know, cause I'm not computer savvy. So I'm standing there and we pulled it up and I got back to my hotel and I was supposed to go to sleep early and I didn't, cause I wanted to hear it and I heard it and I was crying and it was so beautiful and nice because there were so many people. I heard your podcast, I heard it. I'm like I even haven't heard it. I I heard it and I was crying and it was so beautiful and nice because there were so many people. I heard your podcast. I heard them, like I even haven't heard it. I haven't heard it yet, I want to hear it. And after I was like, oh my God, this came out really good and I was very surprised on how many people came by and said hello and the hugs and I did post a little note to everyone. I was sitting there one morning, after everybody has gone, they're all down there. And I did post a little note to everyone. I was sitting there one morning, after everybody has gone, they're all down there. And I was sitting in my car. You know it was kind of raining and I wanted to reach out to everyone. And the amount of hugs and love that I received after that and I kept telling them I'm going to make you all cry, and when you're sitting in your carousal I'm going to make you cry like I'm crying in my car. And I posted a little note for everyone from the heart, and it was great to see that return. I really, really, really needed it.
Speaker 11:On this last one I was dealing with a lot of things in my mind. I wasn't going to attend, I was gonna stay home because I said I have to be 100% for for my folks and I'm not a hundred percent, but I wanted. I said as much as I give to them, I needed them on this last run and boy did they show up the love, the hugs, the sympathies that it's a good thing. And I introduced mom to a whole bunch of people that are up there with her and I kept saying to folks well, what's your dad's name, tom? I said, well, tom, that's Anna, anna, that's mom, that's Tom. I'm here with his daughter and we're doing the race and both of you can watch us over from up above. So I care to think that mom is up there with a whole bunch of the family members that are not here and they're all out there going woo and cheering for our folks down here.
Speaker 11:But it was very nice. It got me over a hump that it had taken me a little bit of time to get out and get to myself again and that was incredible that they helped me through that. I mean, like I said, the love, the heart, just the hey, we're here with you. You need us right now. We're here for you. And they were and they helped me. I mean the gift was beautiful and of course you know I'm overwhelmed with the present, but that connection there, it helped me put that smile back on my head and say you know what Things happen in life sometimes Because you've got to accept what it is that doesn't mean you can't be sad about it and to accept what it is.
Speaker 2:That doesn't mean you can't be sad about it, and it did help me way more than they know.
Speaker 2:Well, meyer, we're always here for you because you're always here for us absolutely, and and I and I know that will continue from the bottom of our hearts. Ladies, thank you so much for coming on. Andrew, thank you so much for sending us that email, because if we would have never got that email, this episode would have never happened. And again, it's stories like these is why, three and a half years ago, we set out to do this podcast, and that was to extract the joy and jubilation that this running product provides us. So, andrea, thank you so much again.
Speaker 2:Like Bob said, we will make sure to post your fundraising link in this week's show notes. So, folks, I know there's a lot of people out there that are always fundraising for charity, but if there is one person that you know, if you want to pay it forward because you know Andrea and so much of many other people paid it forward to our friend Myra you know Andrea and so many other people paid it forward to our friend Myra you know, let's do it for Andrea and get her over her next goal here. And, myra, it's always a pleasure. I said to so many friends, even though I loved staying at the Polynesian during marathon weekend, there was a part of me that was sad that I wasn't at POP because I couldn't see your face. So I hope we you know we get to see you very soon and upcoming race weekend and thanks so much for joining us again here on rise and run.
Speaker 11:Thank you for having me, you guys love you all.
Speaker 9:Thank you, and hopefully we'll all get some part-time in together soon too.
Speaker 7:I mean, guys, that was a really great interview. I a really great interview. I mean, if you guys can see Myra's face while she was describing everything that went on, how she went into Hollywood Studios and saw Galaxy's Edge for the first time, it's like when you brought your kids to Disneyland or Disney World and you see it through their eyes for the first time. That's how I think it was for her and I'm glad that these people did everything for her that they did to get her to go to the parks.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and the thing I can't wait to see is Andrea mentioned it two times during that interview that the surprise is not done yet. Apparently, there's going to be more, whether that's princess or springtime surprise. I I can't wait to see what else she has up her sleeve and, you know, I can't wait to hear the report about it. And, all that being said, there is not one person more deserving in this community than her, and I was. Just you know, I'm so glad that she's part of the Rise and Run family now and the fact that you know she will always remain a staple in this community just it warms my heart and I'm so glad that we can share stories like that and we need to start sharing stories like that more often, because it's really, really special.
Speaker 6:I'd love to. I don't know if we're going to get a lot of stories like that.
Speaker 6:I know I know it's a special, special story and I want to I really want to highlight that Rise and Run is kind of just a tangential part of this story, that we didn't have anything to do with the fundraising. I think it's just a matter of Andrea caught a rumor about this and then I'm not even sure. Listen, I know Andrea is a rising runner. Now she's on the Facebook group and she's part of the family, but I'm so proud and so excited about what she did it's I would love to encourage friends. We did not contribute to the fund for Myra. Andrea had done all this before she even contacted us about it. But Andrea is raising money for a fundraiser for a type one diabetes and we have the link for that and if you were so inclined, I think that would be a wonderful way to I'll use the phrase pay it forward, pay it back, whatever you want to think, but contributing to Andrea's fundraiser. And another thing that Andrea does that we didn't mention in that interview is the 100 Half Milers Club. She's part of establishing that to recognize and celebrate athletes that have done a hundred lifetime half marathons or more, encourage each other to reach that goal. We'll have information on how you can find out about the hundred half milers club also in our show notes, on our Facebook page and on our webpage.
Speaker 6:Really heartwarming story. I'm glad we got to bring it to you. That was exciting. Listen, friends, as long as we're talking about charity events and opportunities to recognize our friends who are doing good things, let's visit with our buddy, greg. Friends, we've got another guest with us tonight. It's a big week for guests. We're excited to welcome Greg Creel to the Rise and Run podcast. Hiya, greg, how you doing? How's it going?
Speaker 3:Bob, how's it going? Crew Gang, sorry, it's gang, it's gang. That's that one up.
Speaker 6:Greg will fix it in post. We're okay. Well, welcome my friend. As always, I'm always delighted that our friends are willing to take the time to chat with us. We got a couple of things we want to talk about, but let's kick it off. Greg, you are a jeff galloway pacer, correct? Yes?
Speaker 3:yes, sir, I uh, I have paced two races, both with chris twiggs. I uh did the disneyland halloween half. I was unofficial, his partner. I stole the stick out of his hand and that's how I actually became a pacer. And then I, yeah, and then I was a his partner again for the 210, for the wine and dine half okay uh, just that past half and then this weekend.
Speaker 3:Well, the disneyland half marathon coming up. I'm going to be the 215 pacer and I'm hoping to find out about princess and springtime, but we'll see it's. Uh, it's up to run Disney how many slots we get.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I get it and I I may be wrong about this. I thought Chris had princess pacers ready, but he didn't want to release them to confuse things before Disneyland. I could be wrong about that though, yeah. But I understand now why I never see you pacing, greg, since you're doing the two fifteens and running with twigs and like that. So if it's an out and back, you can wave at me.
Speaker 3:I did. I waved at you at Space Coast, Did you? Oh yeah.
Speaker 6:Okay, look, I know you did, but a lot of people do and it's fun. Space Coast is great, great yeah that's a that's a great course yeah, now you. You just said you're heading out to disneyland this weekend. You must be getting ready to go here uh, fly out friday morning oh really, yeah, okay, I don't do the 5ks out in disneyland, that's just.
Speaker 3:you know it's much, it's a lot of cost. Got to save the money for Disney world.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it is, I got out there. I got out there at the Halloween race and enjoyed it very much. Not sure when I'll be back. Hey, you got. You already talked about the races at Disney world. Anything else coming up? Greg of interest?
Speaker 3:So I actually am a race director for a local hockey program that we have here for disabled veterans.
Speaker 2:And that's our big here in Tampa.
Speaker 3:So it's the Lightning Warriors. We're a 501c program where we teach veterans how to play hockey, put together teams for tournaments, we travel out to different places, we play in a thing called a disabled fest, where every single person on the ice has a VA disability rating. So you had to serve in the military and also had a VA rating to actually be in our program, and one of the ideas that we came up with in the locker room was hey, we should do a 5K. And next thing, you know, wheels started turning. Um, one of the ideas that we came up with in the locker room was hey, we should do a 5k. And next thing, you know, wheels started turning and we started doing a 5k.
Speaker 3:Now it's our third time doing it. Um, it's a lot of fun. This year we're doing our first time giving out medals. It's also going to be chip timed, which is a first for us, because last year we did it, we kind of had an iPhone recording. It was a lot of fun, and we're doing it at Gadsden Park, over right outside of McDill.
Speaker 6:Oh, okay, okay, yes.
Speaker 3:It's a two-loop circuit because we can't really find a good 3.1-mile loop or area around Tampa without cops and trying to save cost, it's a little tough. But yeah, we have a code for the rise and run. So if anyone any of the rise and runners want to come out and do it, obviously you can find us, find us on Twitter or X at warriors 5k, and then you can also look for us on race entrycom and it's the lightning warriors, st Patrick's day day. 5k is the race and, uh, the code is rise and run and we'll save you five bucks, which is really awesome, and, uh, you get a hat, a medal and a ship time. So those are like our big three things for this year and you support a really worthwhile cause oh yeah, great calls we.
Speaker 3:You know something about getting veterans together in a locker room. It opens it up, yeah, you open up and you start talking about some things and it's it's. It's crazy what happens when you put on some pads and give someone a stick. How like emotionally, emotionally open someone gets. It's really cool. I can imagine it gives you like a, like a. It's kind of like run Run Disney, where we have our Run Disney family. It's the same, but you know we're veterans.
Speaker 6:You wouldn't think there'd be a lot of ice skating in the Tampa Florida area. We have three Stanley Cups. I know it's surprising. We were talking offline earlier. In fact, even before you joined us, greg John and I were talking about how Tampa supports certain teams here better than others. They support the Lightning. The Lightning are sold out every night.
Speaker 3:Yep, bolts Nation is strong. If you want tickets to the game, you better be ready to pay. Well, not really. We got good prices. That's actually why it's so good. We're not paying like uh dc prices, so it's really good. And also our arena. We have a patio.
Speaker 7:Come on, that's right outside, that's right that's, that's right we have. We have a smoking section at our arena. No, no, you can't.
Speaker 3:Thankfully you can't section at our arena, no no. Thankfully you can't smoke in our arena or outside on the patio, so that's good.
Speaker 6:Greg, I don't think you gave us the date. You mentioned St Patrick's Day. Do you have a date for the run?
Speaker 3:It's March 16th 2025. So that's when we'll be taking off. It's at 9 am, so it's a way later start than Run Disney. Yeah, yeah, right, you can sleep in.
Speaker 6:I appreciate it because that's about a 45 minute drive for me. I'm going to try and make it. I don't know if I have another event already scheduled that day or not, but I will be sure to let you know.
Speaker 3:Please, definitely do.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I would definitely try, and there are a lot of friends in the Tampa area, a lot of rise and run friends. I hope they will consider that also. I believe that hockey league has been featured on the local news at times, hasn't it?
Speaker 3:Yes, so we do. This is actually our second largest fundraiser. The biggest fundraiser we do is Hockey Hills 22, and it's a 22-hour nonstop hockey games where local teams play against us for 22 hours and it's really cool. That's our big fundraiser and thankfully this now has turned into our second largest, so it's really cool that a 5K in a locker room has moved up and it's pretty cool.
Speaker 6:I'm excited about it. That's the one I've seen that gets the press. That's cool, all right. So 5k in the uh in the MacDill air force base area in Tampa. Friends, we'll have the information for you, we'll put it on our website, we'll put it into show notes, we'll put it in the show notes and I hope to see some of you there. I hope to be able to make it. I will make this commitment. If I do not have one already lined up, I'll be there your spot's ready for you, bob thanks, thanks, chris no best costume contest, the best leprechaun.
Speaker 3:I wish we did. We do have a raffle where we're going to be giving away some lightning gear and some stuff like that. We have a, I think, like a Southwest round trip.
Speaker 7:We give away. That's good to know.
Speaker 3:So hey, if you want to get into Disneyland Halloween. You can run the 5k, do the raffle and then maybe you'll get your free trip to California out of it.
Speaker 6:Oh, okay, because I was going to say the round trips to Orlando or something, but no, that's good.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, it's wherever Southwest goes.
Speaker 6:No, I was joking, I like it.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 6:All right, well, hey, greg, thanks for dropping by to tell us about it. I wish luck and hopefully I'll see you there, and if I won't, I know I'll see you at Disney here in the spring.
Speaker 3:Yes, there we go, Obviously. Thank you for having me and everything.
Speaker 6:So if you're in the area or if you're planning to spend some time over here in the Tampa Bay area, check it out Again. We'll have the information available to you on our social media sites. All right, I'm talking to our friends at Disneyland. Pay attention, pay attention. You've got a meetup coming up on Saturday. We use this site back at the Halloween race. It's an excellent site Three o'clock Saturday afternoon. If you line yourself up and look at the front entrance to Disneyland DCA, at your back to your front left, there's a large hedged area. It's a circular area and there are signs there that say picnic area. It's near the Lost and Found, the lockers and the restrooms there, to the left of the Disneyland entrance. It's an excellent place for a meetup. It may. I think it's actually a better place than the food truck area. The only difference is there's no food or drink in the immediate area. But Downtown Disney what do they call it? Yeah, they call it Downtown Disney in Disneyland. It's not far away, so you could go over there, but I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful time. Please send us photos. We hope you're having fun and we look forward to seeing that.
Speaker 6:As we get to do every now and then we share news about the Rise and Run family. There's a fellow who will be at the Disneyland meetup. This is a man I look up to literally, and I don't look up to many people, but our buddy, kelly, reported this week that he got some lab work back and that he is cancer-free. I know he had a surgical procedure earlier this year and that's wonderful news and we're glad to hear it. So if you see a six-foot 11-inch tall gentleman walking around with a smile on his face, that's Kelly. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's going to be the only one there at that height. Tell him you're happy for him, because I know we sure are.
Speaker 5:You know, you guys, with still plenty of races to go, one product that I really not even product, but a company that I really put so much love for and grace for, is Fluffy Fizzies. They're back in action, you guys, and we're so thankful for it, and I just would say, go out and check out their website for Fluffy Fizzies, because I've used their products quite a bit and they have so many. The ones I usually go for are the ones that are more towards the recovery tools and everything. I don't know what you guys personally choose, but I love the recovery I believe it's called like a recovery bath bomb that she has. It's really really great, especially for the long runs. I mean, if you plan on going to the races, go ahead and order early so that you can bring it with you, so that way, when you do go do half marathons, 10 games, whatever distance you're doing, go take a bath afterwards, and it's just so great for your body to relax and recover from after each and every race.
Speaker 5:I highly recommend them. I know we've talked about them so much in the past and when we heard they were going away originally we were really sad, but we are so forever grateful that they're back up. So go and give them some love, especially if you're prepping up for any big races coming up and if you're wanting to try the products. Well, guess what? We have a discount code because, of course, we love her. The discount, if you guys would like to go check out the website, is going to be happy running.
Speaker 6:And that website is Jack out the website is going to be happy running and that website is jack. Oh yeah, fluffy fizziescom. Right, melissa's running now. Pam was pam for a while, but her sister melissa's running it. Hopefully she'll get back to the expo, but won't be there, princess, we know that.
Speaker 2:Friends, it's time for a rise and run tradition bob Bob, I almost played the race report sound effect. You scared me there for a second. You're not allowed to say the phrase it's time for. Oh, was that the trigger? That was the trigger. I just all of a sudden, automatically almost hit it.
Speaker 6:Friends, we got something. We want to do Something. We do a lot. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. No, this isn't bad news, though.
Speaker 2:No, it's not.
Speaker 6:Here's the thing typically precedes bad news. This is good news. This is the Rise and Run roll call for race weekend. Our buddy, rob, compiles statistics for us. The number of people who have put their name in for the roll call is down significantly this year. I have a feeling a bunch of you are out there who didn't get into the roll call. That's fine, you still get to run anyway and we look forward to your race reports in facebook or instagram. But uh, overall it's about half, or maybe even a little bit less from what it was in 2024. Now, part of that may be that 2024 was a return. It was the big return to disneyland. No, actually it wasn't. That was halloween, wasn't it?
Speaker 5:no, no, this was the return, this was, yeah, you also got to think, though, that the span between how like Marathon Weekend was to when Disneyland was last year, there is such a small time frame that it was back-to-back.
Speaker 6:Oh, it was back-to-back. Weekends, yeah.
Speaker 5:It was a lot easier to go from there to there, whereas this one's like a few weeks apart, so that's probably honestly why so Disneyland? If you ever want to, you know, think about doing it right next to Marathon Week again, I would do it. I would do it, just saying.
Speaker 6:Well, for whatever reason and again I do expect there are more people out there than we are about to call names here but the numbers are down for 2025 and that's okay. I want to thank our friend rob for compiling these numbers. It puts a lot of work into that, rob, we appreciate it. But let's get going and let's kick it off with the dumbo double dare all right, running the dumbo double dare challenge.
Speaker 2:Now, of course, every time I say that name, I also picture Sleeping Beauty's Castle with Mark Summers and getting ready for a physical challenge. But anyway, I digress Running this challenge. We have our buddy, abel, who's going for his Coast to Coast number two and also and I'm very excited for him his first time running as a Galloway Pacer. So I know you're going to crush it, abel. There are a couple of those, greg.
Speaker 6:There are a couple of them.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's true, and I believe from what Abel was telling me. The reason why is not only is this upcoming weekend Disneyland weekend, but it's also Donna. So a lot of the typical Galloway Pacers are going to be in Jacksonville for Donna. So that's why they had to really dip into the reserves for this one. But I'm so glad that there are many, many people who have never done this before are getting the opportunity. So that's great to really expand the network there. But continuing on, we have our buddy Allie Without a Knee. She is running also coast to coast. Bethany is running her first challenge. We have Celia and Edgar. Christina Courtney is running her first Dopey to Dumbo and first Coast to Coast. Denise, gary and Susan Jennifer. Also getting their Coast to Coast is Jessica. We have Joseph Justin is going for coast-to-coast number three and his first Dopey to Dumbo. Our friend Karen also is pacing this race. The newest Philadelphia Eagles fan, kay.
Speaker 3:I mean I'm sorry, that's right, she's a Commanders fan.
Speaker 2:unfortunately, our buddy Kay is running the Coast to Coast Challenge, a part of the Dumbo Double Dare Kelly you know the Kelly that Bob just mentioned a few minutes ago and again, congratulations on that news. Kelly Kelly is running this challenge, as well as Kenda Kazay. This is Coast to Coast 2.0 for them. Laxmi, our Council of Costumes member, margaret, is running her third Coast to Coast as part of this challenge. Mark is getting Coast to Coast, his first Disneyland race and his pacing. That's a whole lot wrapped up in the one. Paige is running her first Disneyland race and this will also be her first Coast to Coast. Sarah M's doing Dopey, the Dumbo, first Coast to Coast and also first Disneyland race. Also, sarah C is doing the Dumbo Double Dare Challenge. We have Tanya and Dan. This is Tanya's first run post her leg fracture, so way to go, way to bounce back and rehab from that. Trisha. And in rounding out Dumbo we have Vanessa, who is a pacing, their first half marathon with Mark.
Speaker 5:All right, you guys, for the half marathon. We have Heather and Tucker running their first Disneyland race and trip. Oh my God, that's gonna be so much fun. For the first time ever we also have Jake that will be running. We have Jennifer with her girls, Grace and Sarah Caitlin, Kristen and Megan.
Speaker 7:Okay, going for the 10K. We have Anna, who's running her first 10K, kathy, jude, second 10K at 10 years old that's great. Ripley, first run Disney, first 10K. With parents Tanya and Dan. You have Ruth, sylvia and Ivan, and it's Ivan's first run Disney race, yay.
Speaker 1:And finishing off our list doing the 5K, we have Allison, guy, tyler and Grace. It's Tyler and Grace's first 5K. We have Kathy, gary and Susan, jessica G, jessica M, joseph, kay, kazay, margaret, mark, monica, paige, sarah, sylvia, Ivan and their daughter, alina. It's Alina's first Run Disney race and a birthday celebration. Happy birthday. And to finish it off, we have Tricia and Vanessa.
Speaker 6:All right, friends. Those are our friends whose name were in the race report. I know at least two people who are going to be out there whose names aren't in here. That's alan and grace. I am sure that they'll be there also alan's perfect for this, isn't he?
Speaker 7:or are they quote legacy out there, I guess?
Speaker 6:yeah yeah, alan's done all the halves, I think. I think alan one Tinkerbell half, I think. But yeah, he's perfect in this half, so I'm sure he's doing that. And Grace, I'm not sure if she's perfect or not, but I'm sure If she's not perfect she's darn close by golly. So I'm sure they'll be there. That'll be fun. Have a great time, guys. Miss you. Glad you're be there. That'll be fun. Have a great time, guys. Miss you. Glad you're out there. Glad you're having fun. All right, greg, you ready, I'm ready this time.
Speaker 6:All right, my friends, it's time for the Race Report, the Race Report brought to you by Tom Stokes and Stoked Metabolic Training. Stokesfit slash riseandruncoaching is the website We've talked about already, tom's eight-week challenge that we're a couple weeks into. But he has other programs the Accelerate, the Foundations and the One-on-One program and the one-on-one program. All that information is available in the featured section on the Rise and Run Facebook group page. Let's take a look.
Speaker 6:Let's start on Saturday and I'm going to mention we had some friends Debbie, meredith, susan and Amy who were signed up for the Charleston, south Carolina Half Marathon. That event got canceled Mostly well, not mostly it got canceled due to weather. Even in South Carolina it was cold, there was snow and ice. Amy went ahead and did it, virtually, I think, the following day. Hey, let's visit with our friend Jack for the race report spotlight. All right, my friends, let's continue the Race Report Spotlight this week with a good friend of the podcast. He's been on before. He talked about his adventures in Camden County, which we are going to get back to. But, jack Witzig, jack, welcome back to the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 8:Thank you, glad to be here again. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 6:We're excited to have you. We always appreciate our friends sharing their time with us, and this is a special one. I would like to start talking, and I'm not going to do the traditional. How do you get started running? We did all that before, jack, but I'd like to hear about the Icebreaker Marathon this weekend, just to kick things off.
Speaker 8:Sure that sounds good. Yeah, I did, like you said, the Icebreaker Marathon, which is in East Meadow, new York, on Long Island, a few minutes outside of the city. They actually had 5K at the half and a full the same day. The 5K took off slightly before 9 am and then the half and the full at the same day. The 5 5k took off, uh, slightly before 9 am and then the half and the full at the same time. And, um, the the marathon and the half were interesting in that uh, this is not a marathon for you to do. If you're interested in in exploring an area, because it actually was eight, uh, 3.275 mile loop, oh, eisenhower Park in East Meadow, which is a really pretty pretty place.
Speaker 6:Yeah, probably for the first two or three times, probably, yeah.
Speaker 8:You'd run past pavilions and ball fields and the 9-11 Memorial, other statues and a small lake that's down there. So it's really good for people like me, who I do a lot of my marathon training down at Cooper River in Pensacola, new Jersey, which anyone who has run the loopy or frosty looper is very familiar with that.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8:Yeah, yeah, sure. Um, I live actually even closer than uh, than Aaron and Michael of the uh we'll run for podcasts I live even closer to there than than they do, so I uh.
Speaker 2:I do a lot of my training down there yeah.
Speaker 8:But we're pretty much as close. Yeah, um, so it, but it. For somebody who's used to doing loop sort of training like that, it's great and it also you know, I know a very powerful way to run a marathon is to kind of chunk it. So all of a sudden, instead of thinking of the marathon as 26 miles, I'm thinking of it as eight loops around and you can kind of yeah, it definitely helps with the mental aspect of it. It was cold at the end of the race.
Speaker 8:Yeah, 29 degrees Fahrenheit, 11 mile per hour, winds, 19 gusts yeah, but like my coach says, in theory, on a looped course you're going to be facing the wind and then you turn around and it's going to be at your back, yeah.
Speaker 7:In theory, you hope, you hope, right. Well, here's the thing about the winds.
Speaker 6:If they're not 45 degrees off of either side of your spine, they're not helping you Even if they're dead cross, they're not helping you. That really shows up on a bicycle, but yeah, so cold, windy.
Speaker 8:It was cold, but you know, we knew it was going to be like that so we dressed appropriately. They did a really good job of clearing the path, but most of it like 95% of it was asphalt, so the ice was gone, the snow was gone from the path, so it was in good shape. There were about 75 people that ran the full, so it wasn't a huge race, but it was good energy. They had people giving out food and electrolyte beverages at the beginning and the water station halfway through. So you know it's pretty well supported and it's kind of a good deal. I'm definitely thinking about doing it again next year.
Speaker 6:Well, that's nice. You know, I and our fellow runners admire the volunteers who man the water stations. But when it's 29 degrees and windy and you're manning a water station, yeah, that's a special volunteer.
Speaker 8:Yeah, indeed, you know we had. They had warm water that they were giving out and it was warm, maybe for the first lap or two, and then after that it became. I sort of think of it as crunchy water, because it had a nice sheen of ice on the top of it.
Speaker 6:I hear stories about events like that, where at the water stop because of just spillage, you get ice on the course. Any of that problem?
Speaker 8:I mean I did spill one myself, but no, it was okay. The table was kind of off to the side, so we managed to avoid that, luckily. How'd you do? I did okay. I mean I think we talked about before that I'm always going for that BQ, especially since they tightened the Right, the age and the time standards?
Speaker 8:Yeah, Um, yeah, so I, I came in at three, 21, which didn't quite make it for for me. But, um, you know, regardless of your time, you know when you, when you're searching, you're trying to get to a certain, uh, certain time and you fall a little short. It's a little disappointing, but I did, I did think that I, I, I gave what I had on that day.
Speaker 6:So I'm satisfied as far as that goes. Gotcha For what it's worth. Jack, we think that's an amazing time, so congratulations on that, and I know you're an excellent runner and I appreciate it, but yeah, how close were you?
Speaker 8:I needed to do 315 this year. Last year at the same course, I did 318, which was great. That was a BQ at that time. Now not so much. But this for anybody who's interested and is in the area, this is a good course for it. It's mostly flat. It's just one little hill about 10 feet, something like that. I mean literally 10 feet, so it's a nice fast course.
Speaker 6:And after a couple of laps you know exactly when it's coming. Oh yeah, Good point. Well, congratulations on that, jack. I think that's excellent, and I appreciate the report Also, though. Big-time congratulations. Just in summary now. I forget what episode you were on. It was about a year ago. I would say Something like that it was 93 or 94.
Speaker 8:It was in that neighborhood In that neighborhood for episodes Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah, a little over a year. Then Tell our friends what you did.
Speaker 8:Well, I ran all of the streets in Camden County, new Jersey, for charity to benefit a charitable interest that I have, the Lewy Body Dementia Association. Lewy Body Dementia is the and I'm going to go into the spiel here, but it's the no, please do I want you to.
Speaker 6:Please do it.
Speaker 8:Great yeah, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, and it's also the disease that gradually took my dad's life. So I ran all of the streets in Camden County to build awareness for this and to raise funds to again raise awareness and to fight the disease.
Speaker 6:Is that fundraising site still up?
Speaker 8:I have been telling people anyone who's interested in donating to just go straight to the Lewy Body Dementia Association website. I think it's lewycom or lewyorg.
Speaker 2:I should probably add that up, but Louie Body.
Speaker 8:Dementia, because all of the fundraisers that I put together through Instagram they always have overhead. So I say, just go straight to the source and donate that way.
Speaker 6:Great Great.
Speaker 7:We'll put that in show notes. It was episode 94. I just looked it up so it was episode 94. I just looked it up, so it was episode 94, if anybody wants to go and, uh, check that out yeah, perfect, thanks, thanks, thank you.
Speaker 6:Um, so you finished uh about two weeks ago yeah, yeah, it was on.
Speaker 8:I mean, initially I kind of hoped to finish in october and then that became november and I did the phil. So you know, running gets in the way of life. Running gets in the way of running. But yeah, we I finished it on New Year's Eve. I ran that last little street.
Speaker 6:Yep, that's, that's perfect, that's really excellent.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I follow you on Strava, we follow each other on Strava and I was watching that. That those last couple of streets where like little street here, little street there, a little street over there, that's to get those little little ones out of the way, I guess. Huh.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I mean one of the, even though it was. It's about 2,100 street miles in Camden County, but it took me about 3,700 miles to do it, because every time you go down a cul-de-sac or a dead-end road, you have to go in and you have to go out, so you're doubling your distance and you're nodding. I mean, we're all runners here, we know what we're talking about and at the beginning, when I was going to a town that was maybe five miles distant, I would start at my house and I'd run five miles to the start of my course, and that I couldn't do that after a while.
Speaker 8:Right. But yeah, John, like you were saying there, I tried to merge different areas that I hadn't finished into one long run, but sometimes it just wasn't going to work out. So, yeah, I'd hop from place to place, do an apartment complex and then get back in the car and do a cul-de-sac and get back in the car and yeah, it was interesting. I certainly got to see areas of the county that I never would have otherwise.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I'm going to guess there's some you're not going to be revisiting anytime soon, that's true.
Speaker 8:Yeah, there are some, like any place there are some areas that are maybe a little sketchier than others. And then there are some places that are deep in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey which, for anyone not familiar, look that up, Some roads that are roads on paper but really in practice, and I'm going to be running one of these tomorrow morning because City Strides has now said I'm not quite done Camden County again as the map updates new roads get added, things get tweaked.
Speaker 8:I have to go back out and do it, but there are some sections that are deep in the woods, that are technically streets but really they're dirt roads in the middle of the pines. Probably never going to see them again.
Speaker 7:That was going to be one of my questions. If they put a new development in Camden County somewhere, is that going to be something you have to do or is it considered done?
Speaker 8:To the world it considered done. I mean, I can well, I to the world it's done, but just for my own edification. Yeah, I, I keep track of these towns and city strides, which is the, the website that I use to keep track of all of this. Um, I have they. They're nice enough to set up alerts that whenever a town that I that I've run is updated, it kicks me an email and I know to go see if I have any work left to do.
Speaker 8:So yeah this week I'm going to be picking up miles that didn't. That quote, unquote, didn't exist before.
Speaker 7:Oh, that's interesting, Jack, yeah, yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 6:Yeah Well, it's quite an accomplishment. We're all proud of you, bud.
Speaker 7:Well done.
Speaker 6:How many?
Speaker 7:counties again, how many counties? Well, one county, One county. How many towns I mean in that county?
Speaker 8:Yeah, 36 towns 36 towns. Yeah, the largest one, cherry Hill, has about 315 miles of road miles in it. And the smallest one, for any golfers out there might have heard of well you've certainly heard of Pine Valley, which is considered one of the best golf courses in the country. I couldn't run there, but I ran right by it. But the smallest town is called Tavistock. It was created solely to have a country club and that only has 0.4 miles of road. But yeah, 36 towns.
Speaker 6:Cherry Hill first mall I ever stopped in Cherry Hill, new Jersey.
Speaker 8:Yep, one of the very first ones.
Speaker 6:Just across the bridge. Is the city of Camden not in Camden County, or is it not the biggest?
Speaker 8:city. It's the biggest city, I suppose, in Camden County. It is in there. Cherry Hill is the biggest municipality, I guess, in terms of area. But yeah, Camden's our biggest city.
Speaker 6:I would think so yeah, All right.
Speaker 7:I would think so, yeah, all right. So, jack, any final thoughts about your Camden County run that you would would have liked to changed or done differently?
Speaker 8:Well, I mean I, I really enjoyed doing it. I mean I, I, I, I love getting out there and loved how it. I mean I'm, I'm, I'm pretty deep into into the running hobby at this point, the running habit, but it gave me a reason to get out there every morning, I mean. But that was kind of that's. One thing that I wish I could do differently is, I mean, some nights I was, or some mornings, nights I was out there, of course before sunrise, and I kind of wish I had had time to walk some of this a little bit more, to really take in some of it, to see things in the daylight, when I wasn't just lit by streetlights and a headlamp, but really that's just part of the game, but other than that I wouldn't take back a thing.
Speaker 8:It was very enjoyable and I got to explore and see things that I never would have seen otherwise, so it was great.
Speaker 7:And this was a how many year journey.
Speaker 8:I finished my first town on September 24th 2021, and then finished the final one last year, so a little bit more than three years.
Speaker 6:Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8:Yeah.
Speaker 6:And September 2021, that's one month before this podcast started. We're almost synced up. Yeah, we're October 21.
Speaker 8:Oh great, yeah, it took. It took about 13, 40 hour work weeks I figured to, to finish all of this up. But you know, hey, I was just like everybody listening to this, understands. You know, I was going to be out there running anyway.
Speaker 7:So if I can raise a little bit of money and awareness, and have a good time doing it great, and you saw a lot of different places you probably wouldn't have saw on your runs.
Speaker 8:Oh, absolutely. There's a log cabin in the middle of a town, I mean there's a shipyard and maritime museum in Camden that. I've gone to since then I had no idea about all of this stuff Folk art and yard decorations and all sorts of good stuff.
Speaker 6:Wonderful hey. Any future plans, Any projects ahead?
Speaker 8:Well, I'm going to and this might involve the beagle that I'm looking at right now that you can't see, but I think my wife and I are going to go out and maybe do some of the trails in Camden County that I didn't have a chance to see, so do a little bit more exploring in the woods and kind of see where it goes from there.
Speaker 6:Jack, you're an inspiration. I think this is tremendous. You know, raise money for a wonderful cause. I know your dad's proud of you. It's a great thing. Great thing, my friend. Again thanks for taking the time to come back and visit with us again. I look forward to seeing you down the road somewhere I'm not sure where, but that would be a wonderful thing.
Speaker 8:Oh, thank you. I really appreciate all you've done to help and, yeah, I certainly hope to see you guys at Disney at some point.
Speaker 7:And yeah, sounds good. Or bird in hands right down the road from you guys a little bit.
Speaker 8:Yeah, that is, that's definitely a reason. I have never done.
Speaker 2:And I really really want to.
Speaker 6:That's a good one.
Speaker 8:I've signed up to do it, but it just hasn't worked out.
Speaker 6:Okay, all right, my friend, friend, we'll let you go. Thanks again for your time. Hey, kid. Thanks a lot, jack. All right, thank you. Good hearing from jack. And that camden county thing is tremendous. One thing I don't think jack mentioned he mentioned his finished time and looking for a bq. Uh, he finished first in the master's division at this marathon. That's a big deal, master's division, I think that's 50 and over, but it's a big deal. I know I finished first in a grand master's division one time and when I went to get my award they asked what I was getting. I said I'm getting the great grandfather award. So good stuff, jack. Thanks for visiting with us. So good stuff, jack. Thanks for visiting with us.
Speaker 6:In Fort Lauderdale Chelsea did the Walk for Wishes event in Westlake, florida, westlake 5K. Jen and Steven were supposed to be there. Jen was there Real near home. She got to walk to the start line A little chilly at the start. Yeah, even in Florida you guys know you were here for marathon weekend. It stayed chilly up until the last few days. Jen was able to toss her gloves at mile one, ended up with a podium finish, third place in her age group and an age group PR. Stephen. Stephen bailed when he saw the weather forecast.
Speaker 6:Over in Athens, georgia, matt did the classic city marathon relay on a four-person team. I think that's pretty neat, matt. He ran with his girlfriend, sister and another friend, chili, over in Georgia. But by the time they started the last leg Matt was feeling really good. He did 6.4 miles, got a new 10k PR during the race. We count that, matt. It's like Olympic swimming events where if you do the first leg of the relay you can set a world record. Well, for Rise and Run, if you do any leg of the event and you set a PR, you get your PR bill. One of the neat things is on this race and I don't know if it was just this group that did it or if this was a plan in the event everyone got to meet at the end of the race and all crossed the finish line together. There's a really nice photo of them doing just that In Robesonia, pennsylvania.
Speaker 6:I am not familiar. This is like midway between Lancaster and Allentown, I think, northwest of Philly. I think it's Robesonia. Anyway, denise was there doing the Chocolate Frosted Buns 5K, ten. Count them ten degrees at the start of the event. Thankfully there was no wind. Denise did this one with her father. I love seeing that, denise. Congratulations to you and to Dad.
Speaker 6:In Lakeland, florida, mary Jo did the freaking freezing 5k. Now, lakeland's kind of bold when they label this thing the freaking freezing event because typical high daily temperatures in Lakeland this time of year like 72, but this one was 33 degrees when Mary Jo left the house Got up to about 40 at start time, so it ended up being pretty nice weather, not exactly freaking freezing. Of course there's one lap around the lake, lake Hollingsworth. Lots of nice views of the mansions along the side that Mary Jo said she loved looking at when she was a kid. Only about 200 on this one Kind of a small event. Even an alligator on the lake shore. Not sure I would stop for that character stop. I don't think Mary Jo did. She said she didn't see it. A few other folks did. Ah, she says she wished she'd been able to get that character. Stop, mary Jo, I wouldn't have been that bold.
Speaker 6:Wrapping up Saturday in Houston, texas, the Hot Chocolate 5K Jennifer's first race at 2025. Great weather. Her time wasn't the best, but who cares? Just needed to get in a run before next weekend's big race. I'll have to check that. I don't know if Jennifer's going west to Disneyland or east to Donna or somewhere else, but we'll find out about it next week. Brandy was also there. Brandy said the snacks were delicious, the medal was adorable and Brandy's heading out to California to do Dumbo. There was a big event in the town of Celebration, right near the Walt Disney World gate in Florida the town of Celebration Marathon and Half Marathon. Our friend Kay did the marathon and sent us this report.
Speaker 10:Hey guys, it's Florida Kay here. I wanted to give a race report on this past weekend's 2025 Town of Celebration Marathon and Half Marathon. It was a great race. I will definitely be back.
Speaker 10:I ran the marathon and I enjoyed the course, except the boardwalks. They were extremely tough on, like the pain point areas that I've had over about a month and a half, and I signed up for this race based on my run dusty Debbie's recommendation during our like fun space coach travel adventure, and I actually had the pleasure of starting out the race with her for the first four miles, where she thoroughly entertained me with scares of alligator sightings at each body of water to which I took off running. I did not wait to find out if she saw anything, but after the split I did see some like really cool stretches of roads through the town of Celebration. So there was one where it looked like they were like straight from a Hollywood studio lot. Then I noticed a lot of the houses, so we ran past some really beautiful neighborhoods, a lot of the houses. I kept myself entertained by houses decorated with like Valentine's hearts, and then it got me thinking okay, well, the town is called Celebration, so I don't know if the residents in the namesake always decorate their houses based on that. But anyway, part of the course was a lap around a high school track and that was really home for me because track and field was actually how I got started with running. So I was also happy that the course I found out the course would be a double loop so I would get to run another lap of it. I'm very much a jacket so I don't look at anything, I just show up the day of a race. But many know about like the pain points, like the pains that I've been having for the last month and a half. So this race was no different. It got tougher for me like after the half and then it just continued to get tough, um, pretty much with like each mile. Um, yeah, on the second lap it it took a while before I saw other runners, so a lot of the runners came out for the half marathon.
Speaker 10:When we split I didn't see anybody for like a really long time and that started to mess with the mental got a little discouraging. For a second. I questioned, like you know, was everybody just faster than me? But yeah, it turns out that the marathon runners were in fact faster than me. I noticed that at the end as I was one of the last ones to finish the race. But I did see a more senior athlete ahead of me on the course and I incorrectly assumed he must be doing half because he was just walking. And so when I ended up getting up to him on the road leading to like that same Hollywood stretch Hollywood looking stretch I saw he had on a marathon bib and it was a genuine moment with him where I had to let him know that he was inspiring me. Moment with him where I had to let him know that he was inspiring me, because I'm thinking, if he's out here and he's pushing it like this and he's not giving up, then I can like run past these pains that I'm feeling and just get it done. And I really meant that when I said it to him and I saw him a few times and paced with him around like mile 22 because my legs really didn't have much left in them and then I took off again and was really happy to see him finish.
Speaker 10:So I wanted to mention that the volunteers were great. They had more than enough hydration feeling on the course and some of the volunteers were just as energized, like with their cheering in the beginning, as they were for us last finishers. One even walked with me for about 100 feet or so to like the next volunteer, showing us where to turn, and that meant the world to me. And Credit also wanted to go to the race committee. I don't know if she's like head of the race committee or something not quite the race director but her name was Tracy and she gave so much attention to us last finishers and like sat us down and even went and got like the food for us at the end of the race and I just thought that meant the world because I watched her do it with the others that came after me and they do hold some of the really good food for even the last finishers. So then I just want to say like shout out to some of my core virtual race support, and this one it was my North Carolina Robeson family.
Speaker 10:They checked in on me and then Greg and Allie, and so I'm going to finish this race support talking maybe about talking about Greg and Allie. I guess like real quick before I do that towards the end of what turned out to be the jogging piece where it was more of like a high-powered Olympic race walk. I thought of how I watched Jack push through those 100 miles and so I wanted to let her know that. And I told myself just one foot in front of the other and keep moving and you'll finish. So thanks, jack.
Speaker 10:So now Greg and Allie on the race support that they gave. I got a group text from Greg and Allie and I didn't get to check it for a while but I was texting with Allie separately as she was checking on me on the course. So once Greg started the group, allie let him know I was going after these miles and the trash talking that apparently was in there turned to full support and I love them dearly. And so let me clarify the trash talking is not what they do every race I do, but the support they give shows up in text message every race. So I appreciated them so much for making sure and checking on me, because I put my phone away, so they didn't even know if I had finished at first and waited to check on that.
Speaker 10:So they didn't even know if I had finished at first and waited to check on that. And so once I finished, our trash talking turned back on in anticipation of the game that was to begin at 3 pm and it did not turn back off. Like our enemy switch turned on and it didn't turn back off for the rest of the evening. But I just want to say, like my legs are killing me right now, but the pain is nothing in comparison to how Philly handed it to us. So I have more hurt feelings from yesterday after this marathon that I do from the marathon itself. I just want to close out this race report with all my Rise and Run Philly fans. Go Chiefs, the hate is real. Happy losing in New Orleans.
Speaker 6:Kay, you know you're dealing with a bunch of Eagles fans here, with Greg and me. So sorry, sorry, the hater aid's coming out. My friend, hey, look, maybe next year. Listen, I will say this.
Speaker 2:For the first six minutes of the game. I was extremely concerned when they had the 17-play opening drive.
Speaker 6:But then everything else went down really, really fast. Then the Eagles had the 17th second.
Speaker 7:Then my boy came in and did everything for you.
Speaker 2:Correct, because I said to my wife I was like my God, we better not go three and out here because the defense is going to need some rest and then take one run 60 yards for a touchdown, and that was a one and out here because the defense is going to need some rest and it's one run 60 yards for a touchdown, and there was a one and out so you had a 17 play drive followed by a 17 second drive, correct?
Speaker 6:exactly? Yeah, and this is the reason, my friends, that my voice is gone. Uh, we had a bunch of folks doing the half marathon there, k, you know we tease and we love you, adam. Adam, at the half marathon he was pacing. Laura Didn't hear anything from Adam or Laura. Debbie and Esther were there. Our friend Heather commented on how nice the weather was. Heather does push rim, doesn't love boardwalks. I can kind of understand that. She is on to the booby Trap Challenge next weekend in Jacksonville for the Donna weekend and she'll be there with our friends from Will Run For following along on all of Will Runford's social challenges.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what race Michael is doing I can't remember if he's I think he's doing the marathon but I believe Aaron, tom and Diana are doing the half marathon and are going to be party pacing. That, to celebrate not only Aaron but also everyone else in this community, is either a survivor or a thriver in terms of breast cancer, so I know that they're going. This is going to be a very, very special weekend for the We'll Run Fork crew and a lot, and also you know the Galloway community as well too, so be sure to go follow along on their social media channels, because I'm sure they're going to provide lots of great and inspiring content.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I cannot speak for the rest of the country here because I know there are breast cancer awareness, breast cancer fundraising events throughout the country throughout the year, but I don't think any are bigger than the Donna in Jacksonville. So big deal Good luck. Have fun there, guys. Back to the celebration town of celebration weekend. Jared was there. Jared got a proof of time for Run Disney on the half. That's outstanding, Jared. Food and drinks are always top notch. Afterward he got to do it with a bunch of his Run Club friends.
Speaker 6:Jessica got blisters around mile three but kept going. Really liked the race course with the beautiful parks and trails and neighborhoods, A lot of cheering and volunteers, Nice weather this weekend, so I'm sure a bunch of folks were out there. Some of them had goodies like candy oranges. One had beer and brats and sodas. I don't know if I'd be able to keep running. She was really happy. She got a Coca-Cola around mile eight. That helps Caffeine kicks in the sugar. That was the early energy drink. It was Coca-Cola. Racers would open it up the night before and leave it flat. Drink, flat Coke. Jessica definitely would do this one again.
Speaker 6:Kathleen Kat was there. Impulse sign up for her Felt like she could do it. Needed a run following the Walt Disney World Marathon. Local for her, she's able to walk to the start-finish area. Saw Kay twice on the course. Great to have some other Ryzen runners to cheer on. Biggest thing for her, for Kat, is that she finished this race with a 13-minute PR Congratulations.
Speaker 6:Mentioned earlier, Laura was there running with Adam. Mary said Mary was there. Mary says this wasn't fast but her first eight miles were very solid. She's coming off a cold. She'll take it. Love you. Love the uh rise and run shirt. Mary, you look great. And Monica did this race for the first time. Also, beer and brats on course, Dogs, Amazing signs on a long stretch of road, Great race, Great half marathon and for Monica, a PR In Clearwater Florida, the Clearwater Florida Running Festival.
Speaker 6:Let's see. Our friend Fitz Kohler was the race announcer. Rob was there. We talked to Rob last week on the spotlight, Said the 5k on Saturday was chilly and I didn't catch anything about the half from Rob, but I'm pretty sure he did that. Jennifer did the half, Beautiful morning. It did warm up considerably on Saturday. Even though this is Clearwater Florida, even though this is beach territory, even though it's flat over here, there are a couple of really tough bridges on this course, and I mean significant. I think they're tougher than the Skyway Bridge between St Pete and Sarasota. But despite the bridges Jennifer managed a 20-second PR and she wants to thank her friend Carolyn for helping her pace to that. And of course Carolyn was also there and finished the half.
Speaker 6:Winding up Saturday the Arkansas Grand Prix Series in Russellville, Arkansas. I think this is new. Our friend Shelby Allison, our SA, did this one. This is the first race in a series. It's a track race where you run for an hour. Sa did 4.8 miles in the hour. During that time she hit a PR in the mile, the two miles and the 5K and since it was her first officially timed track run, she's counting that as a PR too. I think one big bell's going to do at SA. This was also the debut of the fun Arkansas run team. That's right. Sa's running for the fart.
Speaker 6:A serious note our friend Shelby Allison. I'm proud of all of our friends. I genuinely am, but Essay's really, really made a lot of great strides here in the last year. She's only been running a little over a year. I think she ran her first 5K about 14 months ago and then did Dopey a couple weeks ago, so she's really doing well. Nicely done, Congratulations. That's it, friends. That's the race report for episode 175. Thank you for keeping it short for me. I don't know if you realized I'd be losing my voice or not, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 7:I can't wait till the when we record, after the Super Bowl, how bad Bob's going to be. You know, that's the thing.
Speaker 2:I was just about ready to make a comment and then realize I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to jinx it, or anything.
Speaker 6:Oh, there are no such things as jinxes, says the guy who will probably wear the same shirt.
Speaker 2:Same thing in the same seat Yep.
Speaker 6:All right, my friends, and if you run, you know you are our friend. Thank you for joining us for episode 175 of the Rise and Run podcast, with a few asterisks because we're into that part of the football season. It is a Zoom Thursday. Thank you, john. It is a Zoom Thursday. This will be the last Zoom before we register for Wine and Dine, so if you're new to this and you want to talk about the registration process, this is a great time to do it. I do realize that it is Expo Day out in California, but I'm hoping the fact that we start the Zoom at 5 pm California time, some of our friends will be able to make it. I sure hope so.
Speaker 7:You know Kay's going to find a spot in the park and uh.
Speaker 6:I think she may. I think, uh, I did that one time at Disney world on a zoom uh event. I was there and had a lot of fun actually. So I hope, hope, to hope to see you on zoom. If you haven't done it before, please drop by. We have a great time. So there you go, my friends. Hope you enjoyed episode 175. Until we meet again, happy running.
Speaker 2: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 health care provider or event organizer. You.
