Rise and Run
Rise and Run
177: Paralympian and runDisney Champion Brian Siemann
Ever wondered how a world-class athlete prepares for the Dopey Challenge? Join us as Paralympian Brian Siemann shares his incredible journey, from receiving a life-changing invitation from a high school coach to placing on the Paralympic podium. Brian's story of perseverance and triumph in wheelchair racing offers valuable insights into the unique challenges faced by athletes with disabilities, as well as tips on navigating the exhilarating yet demanding world of runDisney races. Whether you're curious about the Paralympic classification system or looking for inspiration from a true sports hero, Brian's experiences are sure to captivate and motivate.
As we gear up for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend by briefly discussing the event guide, we also chat about our experiences with registering for the 2025 Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend. We also discuss our theories as to why the Springtime Surprise Splash was cancelled.
Through lively exchanges, we celebrate the camaraderie among Disney race enthusiasts and share updates on recent races, from honeymoon runs to 100K ultras in Texas. This episode promises not only laughter and lighthearted moments but also a wealth of insights for runners of all levels, as we cheer each other on in our shared running journey.
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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:Good morning Rise and Runners. This is Mary from High Point, north Carolina, about to start my long run for my 10k training. With a joke for you why did the orange stop running? Because it ran out of juice. All right, have a great run everybody.
Speaker 5:Hi, this is Lizzie, live from the Rise and Run meetup at Marathon Weekend. Happy running and enjoy your day at Marathon Weekend.
Speaker 6:Happy running and enjoy your day. Mary Lizzie, thanks for the intros, ladies. Mary, that joke was fabulous. That's how come you made it on the episode. We appreciate it. Hello, my friends, Welcome to episode 177 of the Rise and Run podcast. We're so glad you're here with us. I'm Bob and I'm here this week with Jack.
Speaker 5:Hiya.
Speaker 6:With Greg.
Speaker 2:Fly Eagles. Fly On the road to victory. B-a-t-l-e-s Eagles. Thank you, Bob appreciate that With Alicia.
Speaker 6:What no music Alicia.
Speaker 5:No music, but at least that spelled it right.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, we'll come back to that. And with John, hey, how you doing Good, john, I'm doing great, I'm doing wonderful. Same reason that Greg is. It was a big weekend.
Speaker 3:Great, I'm doing wonderful, same reason that Greg is. It was a big weekend.
Speaker 6:I slept well. I did sleep well Sunday night, though I didn't. I didn't, and I was up Monday and headed into Disney World to see the one-person parade. It was a one-float parade, it's not a, you know, they have the characters up there with the MVP, but I was glad I did it. It was fun. If you don't know what Alicia is referring to, I think a lot of the country does. Apparently, the Philadelphia mayor needs some spelling lessons.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, she does.
Speaker 6:E-L-G-S-E-S Eagles, eagles.
Speaker 5:I also saw another video of an Eagles fan, also spelled wrong, before the game.
Speaker 6:Oh, that was NFL Network. Yeah, he was maybe E-G-A-L-S. He probably thought that was right. That was not that impressive.
Speaker 2:I mean, that thing took off so much that I know a lot of local bakeries here were selling cupcakes and they would put the letters on the cupcakes but spelling it the same way that Mayor Parker spelled it it got so bad that they actually had to schedule an interview on WIP, the sports station here in town. So she could have a redemption to spell it correctly. Very exciting, go Birds. So she could have a redemption to spell it correctly. So yeah, yeah, but very exciting, Go birds.
Speaker 6:This week's episode special guest Brian Seaman.
Speaker 2:Oh you didn't get Jalen from the parade. I thought we talked about this. I got some video.
Speaker 6:Okay, I did get some video, but Jalen's a very private individual, as you can tell. In fact, at the point where they stopped the float and we were very close by and they hand him a microphone, he kind of looked like he was surprised and he talked for a couple of minutes. It was a for. Oh, here's the thing, kids. Y'all know how old I am.
Speaker 6:I lived through some really bad Philadelphia sports teams and in my life the Eagles have won the NFL championship three times. The first time I was six years old. I don't remember it. So when they do it it's a big deal to me and it's an emotional thing. And, uh, I'm surprised I'm able to talk this this week, but I'm doing okay. So this is a good thing for me is this one was over early, so I didn't have to scream the whole time, or I didn't scream the whole time, but it was fun. It was fun. But let us move on. We talked about Brian joining us. You know, friends, if you've listened to the podcast we have, since the very first year, since our very first dopey weekend, we've had at least the marathon champion on the podcast afterward the first three years. Well, the first year was Brittany Charbonneau podcast afterward, the first three years. Well, the first year was britney charbonneau, who, by the way, britney, is now a proud mama.
Speaker 6:Britney and her husband congratulations baby boy whose name I cannot remember right now, but I know his name is hugo hugo.
Speaker 6:Congratulations charbonneau family. But Brittany was the first and then we had the female champion the next two years from the marathon, brian is the push rim champion and Brian is a world-class athlete. He's won well, you'll hear it on the interview. Athlete, he's won. Well, you'll hear it on the interview. He's won the Dopey Challenge as a push rim racer for the last, I think since 2016, as I recall, and he's also a US Paralympic athlete. And I'm going to stop there because I don't want to give the whole interview away.
Speaker 2: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, on Instagram at Rise and Run Pod. Be sure to check out our awesome YouTube channel headed up by Jack, and visit our webpage, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, a comment, a race report. You want to do the Eagles chant?
Speaker 2:or introduce an upcoming episode, give us a call at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message. And once again, go birds.
Speaker 6:Go birds. I'm sorry, it's reflex.
Speaker 3:Okay, I got to. I got to relax for a couple of seconds. Okay, there's too much birds for me now. Okay, we also want to thank our Patreons, who support helps us keep the rise and run podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the Patreon team, please check us out at patreoncom. Slash riseandrunpodcast. And we would want to thank our newest Patreon, roxanne, who joined the how you Doin' level. How you doin'?
Speaker 6:That's the same Roxanne who was on the episode last week telling us about her Donna Marathon. So thanks, roxanne. We appreciate you joining us. I promise I'm going to let this go, gang, I promise, I promise I'm going to let this go, gang, I promise. But, john, whilst I was at Disney World yesterday and there were a lot of people there, I mean, it was slam-packed there were a couple of guys who came at different times and walked down Main Street before the parade started with their Giants jerseys on, and my buddy, chris, who was with me, said oh, I kind of feel sorry for them. I said no, chris, they know exactly what they're doing. In fact, one of them had a Saquon Barkley jersey on.
Speaker 2:I bet a lot of them had trouble sleeping at night, wouldn't you say, bob, maybe?
Speaker 3:I didn't have trouble sleeping. I was fine with it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, one guy just had a generic giants t-shirt and the other guy had a saquam. I did not see for what it's worth. I did not see a dallas cowboy jersey in the magic kingdom oh, that's one thing we could all agree on for sure.
Speaker 6:Yes, correct. Oh, let's see, friends, the rise and run podcast, which will now return to being the rise and run podcast is, which will now return to being the Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by our friends at Magic Bound Travel. Today was Wine and Dine Registration Day, which we'll talk a little bit more about in just a bit. We've been encouraging you to get your hotel reservations in early, but if you haven't done it, now's the time you got a particular resort or maybe a particular type of room that you're looking for. Now's the time to reach out to your Magic Bound Travel Advisor or submit a new request for a quote at their website, magicboundtravelcom. Greg mentioned YouTube in the intro. Jack, what's new with the YouTube channel?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so of course, if you guys didn't know already, our spotlights, or unedited race spotlights, are put up every Thursday.
Speaker 6:that we have on the recording as well, but don't expect anything exciting Goof ups is about the best you're going to get.
Speaker 4:But it's a great way to see who we're interviewing for the race report and see the excitement on their faces as they talk about it.
Speaker 6:It's fun.
Speaker 4:Also, with that being said, John had actually taken some footage along Main Street during the marathon weekend, and what better way to inspire everybody running at Princess than by watching people run through Main Street, going through the castle and seeing magic happen? It's going to be a small video, but it's going to be magical.
Speaker 6:I look forward to it. Thanks, jack. Let's look at our training calendar. Friends, uh, princess weekend, we know, one week away, yeah they come. You know we, we look when we put them on the calendar. We look, oh, that's going to take for. And then all of a sudden they're here. Princess is a week away. Expo day. Seven days from the day that this episode drops, we're in training week number 17,.
Speaker 6:Four miles on the training schedule this week. I recommend that you do it. I know it's getting close. I know, as we were fond of saying, going into marathon weekend, the hay's in the barn, the bulk of your training is done. But go ahead and do that four mile or take a nice easy pace and enjoy that four mile run this weekend. Springtime, surprise is now just seven weeks away. This is training week 11. Four miles here also, friends, this one of the four. It includes a magic mile, the thing that Greg made that nice reel about. And then I went out and tried and I couldn't do it as well as he could, but we did it and that's our training update. It's getting smaller, getting smaller, all right. So that's our training update. It's getting smaller, getting smaller, all right. So that's the training calendar. What's new on your training friends? Anything going on.
Speaker 5:Yeah, bob. So last week I talked about how I had done my first run coming back from Marathon Weekend, but I still apparently wasn't over the sickness that I had had. So I gave myself some time and today I did a treadmill run, because it's absolutely freezing here and it went really, really well. It was a short run, but everything feels good. My legs felt good, my breathing felt good, so I think I'm back and actually can train for springtime. Surprise, yeah, and I'm still doing Tom's challenge, so got the strength training too. So yeah, I'm I'm happy to actually be back now.
Speaker 4:I kind of went back into training last week. Um, I know I wasn't here um the last episode to talk about it, but um, this week training has gotten a little bit better. I had gotten sick not too long after marathon weekend like Alicia, and it messed up my cardio a bit. But, yeah, my knee has been I don't know if it's runner's knee, I've never had it before, so it's a new experience. Poor timing personally, but it's fine experience. Poor timing personally, but it's fine. But I went and did my four mile test run because I'm going to be pacing, be one of the Galloway Pacers for Princess this year and I don't even know if I can say what time I'm doing until they post it. So I'll leave that out until it's posted.
Speaker 6:Okay, all right.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But yeah, I went and did my run, walk, run, and I was very, very happy because I have been my running the past few times. I've been trying to go after everything. I just I couldn't get the speed I wanted, I couldn't get the breath that I wanted. It was very frustrating and my knee was bothering me. I was like this is great, great timing. And then when I did this four mile run and I know it was only four miles, but afterwards I felt like I keep going and I was 10 seconds average pace ahead of what I'm supposed to be scheduled. So I feel confident. I have a run tomorrow, which is Wednesday, the day I feel confident. Um, I have a run tomorrow, which is Wednesday, you know, the day before a podcast, and then I have yesterday.
Speaker 6:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4:Yesterday, and then and then I have my long run Saturday. My goal is to get like seven or eight miles to make sure like, okay, you're good for princess, you're fine, and then taper it down after that. But hopefully good things Cause. That four mile run was really nice.
Speaker 6:Now, friends, don't do seven or eight this weekend.
Speaker 6:Just said she was going to. She's Jack, and I say that in the nicest way possible. But you, you said something in there, jack, that you just went right by, and I thought this is a way I answer friends who are new to the training regimen and new to running when they say when does this get easier? And I don't know that it ever gets easier. But what you said and I'm not going to try to quote you, but something like I just have a short four miles this week and just passed it off.
Speaker 4:Oh, I didn't even realize I did that that's right, that's right.
Speaker 6:And when you get to that point and you will, friends, you will you'll get to the point of looking on your training schedule and go oh, there's just three miles, just four miles. I want you, when you hit that, I want you to remember the day that you weren't sure you could run to your mailbox and now you're just passing off. Oh, it's just three, it's just four. The big ones aren't coming until the weekend when I have to do 19. So there you go. That's a good thing. Good update. Thanks, ladies, I appreciate it. Hey, we got some news from Disney regarding Springtime Surprise, which I think caught us by surprise. The post-run event, springtime Surprise Splash got canceled. I was disappointed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Bob, I was kind of surprised to see that news, especially that they kind of pulled the plug on it after just one year. Obviously, again, we'll never know why it got canceled. I have a couple of theories uh, but but I, I would you like to hear them oh, I would love to hear okay, actually the first.
Speaker 2:I I have to give due credit to uh lexi was the one that had made mention of this uh, but unfortunately she couldn't be here tonight and that that is now that Disney is offering that hotel perk of you know free water park entry the day of check-in.
Speaker 2:I wonder if maybe that had something to do with it, grant, who knows what kind of numbers they've been getting in terms of guests doing that? Because it's it's you know, obviously we're only, you know, six weeks into the year, and you know, obviously we're only you know, six weeks into the year and you know it's been cooler in Florida, like I know there was a couple of days where the water parks were just like straight up cold.
Speaker 6:but I'd go to the water park today. Okay, all right, it's nice. It was mid eighties yesterday, yeah.
Speaker 2:So maybe that has something to do with it, but I mean, in my, my personal opinion, I think it was just not priced correctly, or or they could have done something different in their strategy, like, for example, and and we'll get into this a little bit later in the episode, but you know, you look at wine and dine. If you run, if you run the half or you run the challenge, the after-party ticket is included in your registration registration, or the the springtime surprise challenge registration, then I think it could have been, you know, a popular or more popular event. I should say so. I think it just just wasn't selling like they thought it would, because, I mean, bob, you and I went to it last year there was a decent amount of people there, but at the same time, it wasn't overwhelmingly packed either.
Speaker 6:No one packed when it I don't, I'm glad it wasn't packed. Packed either no, it wasn't packed, I'm glad it wasn't packed. Oh correct, exactly, it was more fun this way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah no, I agree. And the other thing too is and I remember I did mention this during our Springtime Surprise Recap last year While I was willing to pay the money last year for the event, and I had an absolute blast with all of our Rise and run friends at that event I will say, though, I had this, the same type of experience, sans free popcorn yeah mickey bars and mickey ice cream sandwiches.
Speaker 2:That I did two years ago at Typhoon Lagoon, because I know Allie and I think it was Casey and Heidi and I we all went and took advantage of the. What does Pelkey say? It's the race them relax where you can get the 50% off discount on the water park ticket. We did that and that was. I thought that was a phenomenal deal and we had a very similar type experience. So $35 versus $90 to $100, that's a huge difference. I think I was with you.
Speaker 6:Greg, oh you were. You were, yes, but I think we left early.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 6:For some reason yeah.
Speaker 2:See I keep getting mixed up. You kicking JJ in the head into the raft and you and I trying to gracefully get into a raft.
Speaker 6:I keep getting those stories mixed up.
Speaker 4:Yes, Well, and to put this out there, the summer event that they have at Typhoon Lagoon, the H2O Glow Party, that is not even as much, as I think it was like $70 worth of cash.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it $70. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't understand the reasoning. Oh, I'm sorry, there was a commemorative item, wetbag.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4:I felt like I forgot all about you, but they, they harped on that a lot and I always thought that was funny. I'm like that was probably some item I'm never going to use at all.
Speaker 2:Nailed it.
Speaker 4:Thanks, but yeah, I just thought it was always so funny. I was like, well, I'm not going to spend $95 for that, I would rather go and do the H2O glow where it's like $65, $70, and I get the same experience for $30 cheaper. To me, the math never felt the same, especially if you're going to compare that weekend to wine and dine. You can't, it's not.
Speaker 6:No, it's different.
Speaker 3:I also believe like what Greg's saying. Basically, it was almost 60 days out that they said they pulled the plug on it. So they said, ok, I needed X amount of registrations by 60 days out, or this isn't feasible.
Speaker 6:Oh, I think that's. Yeah, I think that's very likely true.
Speaker 3:And I think the other problem is too. You look at this. I know they had the problem with that, with that yoga, that one time, like a lot of people fly out Sunday. You know cause they want to get back to work on Monday. They don't want to do the extra day, so I'm not going to spend time at a water park that night. That Monday yoga didn't work out well for them either. I don't think they ever offered that again.
Speaker 6:Right, but the Sunday night.
Speaker 2:We have Monday yoga coming up at Princess. Is it really?
Speaker 6:We got the Sunday night after party at Wine and Dine too.
Speaker 3:That's included, though. That's the.
Speaker 6:That's the difference yeah, yeah, well, look, I don't know why they did. I'm disappointed that they did, because I had a good time, uh, but you, you still make a good point, greg, about maybe, I don't know, maybe they'll bring back that half price ticket, I don't know and I will take advantage. We're getting in on a day early on springtime surprise weekend, so I will take advantage of the day of arrival. The springtime surprise splash is canceled, so it's a shame. The biggest shame to me was it was a great going away party.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 6:So that's that Back to the following season. Already we're starting to register for the following season. We registered today for wine and dine. Seemed to go pretty well. What was your experiences?
Speaker 5:like friends, I was already registered.
Speaker 6:Yeah, Ms.
Speaker 5:Perfect over here.
Speaker 3:Okay, I had to register. It was a little stressful for me because this is the first time I'm registering. More than me and my wife, I registered. My granddaughter is doing her first 5K run Disney event Very exciting.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So it sounds like a good idea right now. You're right that I that's cool, that two 30 wake up call, that's going to be there, that's going to be the kicker. I got through it. But I said, let me. I told my wife I'm going to register myself for the challenge, first, get myself in that and then go in and get the five K's for the four of us so that we can all do the 5K together. So at least I'm in the challenge, which I wanted to do, which luckily everything went well and I got into all three races and my wife and my granddaughter are doing the 5K with us.
Speaker 3:Good, and she's already got the costume set out for us. Oh, nice, nice, are you going, greg?
Speaker 6:doing the 5k with us, good, and she's already got the costume set out for us. So, oh, nice, nice, are you going, greg?
Speaker 2:I am unfortunately sitting this one out due to some uh work commitments and all right and other other future vacations that I have to budget for so unfortunately no go for me I am going.
Speaker 6:I'm in for all. It's a tradition for Wine and Dine. Miss Rebecca remains retired for this one, so we got that going for us. We had a great time. We used the Wine and Dine weekend chat group, had a bunch of folks in there. I did something different this registration day. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but I think it worked pretty well and I'm probably going to do it again, and that is I set up a Zoom call and we kind of just used it as a multi-person telephone call. I don't think we used the video. I mean everybody was up, but I don't think we used the video. I mean everybody was up but I wasn't paying attention to the video. We just had a chance to talk to one another and that seemed to work out real well.
Speaker 6:Our good friend Mark, who is always out there to help the Rise and Run family. He showed up and I think Mark said he had 17 computers and 43. I don't know, he had a lot of computers. He had multiple computers and browsers open. He had more computers open than I have in this house. So he was very helpful. I had only two browsers open, but I found things moved really well today and friends seemed to have little trouble getting registered. I was watching on the chat and folks were helping one another out, but by about 1040 or so, 35, 40 minutes after registration opened, we had more people in the chat saying, hey, I've got a link if you want it, than we had people asking for links. So that went really well. I do have some data here from our friend Ryan, who is always helping out with this, and we noticed a couple of things.
Speaker 6:The first race to sell out was the 10k really that's been a trend lately, I feel like it was the first race in 24 to sell out, it was the, and 22 and 21, of course, was COVID.
Speaker 2:But 21 was the year in person came back was it.
Speaker 6:I thought so too. No, I think, I don't know 21 got cancelled 2020 got cancelled.
Speaker 2:21 was the return of in-person racing, because we started the podcast in September of.
Speaker 6:October 21. Oh wow, that was our first race. Yeah, that's for sure. True, it's odd because I'm looking at the times on Ryan's page. The 5K took six days to sell out in 21. I don't know, maybe people were afraid to register. I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because remember the last three events well the Dopey, our marathon weekend and the Wine and Dine before that all got canceled. So people are like why am I going to put my money out and they're going to cancel it again?
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, that could be, that could be, anyway, but look, let's get back to where we are now. Yeah, the 10K has been selling out first, which I always thought the 5K did. 10k sold out in an hour. The half was the next thing to sell out. It sold out in 79 minutes. 5k took a little over an hour 20. And the challenge sold out in a little over an hour and a half.
Speaker 6:Those numbers are all really fast. Compare them to last year. I'll just take a look at one. In 2025, the two-course challenge sold out in 95 minutes. In 2024, sold out in an hour, 52. I'm sorry, 152 minutes, two and a half hours, so almost exactly an hour more. This makes me think and again, with folks not seeming to have too much trouble getting registered, makes me think that disney has somehow increased their throughput in here or increased their bandwidth, and we're getting more people registered in a faster amount of time, because that that makes sense to me. Otherwise, if we had these fast sellouts, I would have expected a lot of our friends going. I couldn't get in and we didn't have that happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, I mean. The only other thing that I could think of, too is but at the same time with the bumped up weekend, there is a similar conflict. Typically, you always have wine and dine competing with New York City Marathon, whereas that won't be an issue this year.
Speaker 2:Now, the issue will be it competes up against the 50th anniversary of Marine Corps and, granted, I honestly do not know the field sizes, but I would have to imagine that New York City is a bigger event than Marine Corps. So I wonder if oh, it is. So I wonder if that maybe had a very small impact in terms of how registration went as well.
Speaker 6:It is bigger. I don't know how much bigger and likewise, I don't know how many entrants are in this Disney weekend either. Still, the fact that the fact that we got people through faster and I didn't see folks lamenting the fact that they didn't get in Now if you didn't get in next week- we have an episode solution for you.
Speaker 3:That'll be next week, but we'll get more to that later and going back for registration today, something else open for registration was the New York city marathon, which was one of the one of those years where you can actually do both. If you want to do a half marathon, 10 K or five K the week before the New York city marathon, new York city marathon registration opens today. For their lottery, they're non-guaranteed lottery, they call it right. So marathon registration opens today. For their lottery, their non-guaranteed lottery, they call it right. So and you? So that registration's open till February 25th. So if you want to try to get your hands into New York city, go to New York city road runners and register for New York city marathon by February 25th.
Speaker 2:Well, I know that was a long wait because actually the the person who provided our intro today, our friend Lizzie, she, uh, her and I were texting today and she had to wait multiple hours for her um cue spot to open to input her information for the lottery. I know at one point she said it was like four plus hours that she waited. So there's a lot of interest in New York City this year, for sure.
Speaker 6:Wow, you know what we miss out on, guys? And we miss out on this because we've been doing this a lot. I don't know I'm coming up on 60 Disney runs and I forget how exciting it can be to get registered for your first Disney race weekend.
Speaker 6:I remember 2016 Wine and Dine. I got registered for the half. I was jumping up and down. I was literally. I went out to the parking lot, started jumping up and down. I was so excited. So if if you are there, my friend, if you are there, if this is new to you and you got in for wine and dine race weekend, I hope you're as excited as I was and congratulations. We look forward to seeing you there. It's a big deal.
Speaker 6:All right, friends, let's visit with our guests for the week. Friends, if you're familiar with the podcast, you know that over the last couple of years, we've had a chance to interview one of the champions from either the Dopey Challenge or the Walt Disney World Marathon at Marathon Weekend, and we are fortunate to be able to continue that tradition this year, as we welcome Brian Seaman, the push rim champion for Dopey 2025 and 24 and 23. And well, brian, welcome to the podcast. You can finish and tell the friends about the rest of them. When did you get started doing this and how many of the daggum things have you won?
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. I guess I got started running Disney races as a wheelchair racer all the way back in 2015 was when I learned about the Avengers half marathon at Disneyland and that was my I think that was my first run Disney event and it was. I'm just a huge Marvel fan, and so you put being able to go to Disney and do wheelchair racing and Avengers in like the same category and sign me up right away, take all of my money, which Disney did and then I honestly, had never even really considered the marathon as like I really didn't. I knew very little about it, I guess I should say.
Speaker 4:And so.
Speaker 1:I saw that there was a marathon and I was like I didn't even know about the Dopey Challenge either. This was all new to me in terms of things, that I was a marathon and I was like I didn't even know about the dopey challenge either. This is all new to me in terms of of things that I was going to do, and I um, I did the marathon cause I I've done marathons, for by that point, I'd been doing marathons for about eight years, and so it was cool. Again, I got to do a marathon and go to Disney, sign me up, and that was the year, my first year that I just did the marathon. I found out that there was this challenge, the Dopey Challenge, and I was like, well, that sounds kind of cool. So then I signed up for my first Dopey in 2016. And every year I think, just like everyone else, I tell myself all right, that was it, I'm never doing it again. And now this is my ninth Dopey.
Speaker 6:So, yes, I've been doing the Dopey challenge for about nine years now. Wow, that's awesome. Now, friends, as as you're going to learn as we talk with Brian, a little bit more, there's more to his storied career than just doing the Dopey challenge. Brian is a U S Paralympic athlete and has competed in the world championships, but we'll get to that in a bit. Let's back up Now, Brian. I know from doing research that you've been paralyzed since birth, but how did you get started into wheelchair racing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a. That's a great question. My my journey to wheelchair racing is pretty unique and atypical for a lot of other kids with disabilities. When I was growing up you know this was the 90s and early 2000s the internet was not really as prevalent as it is today, and so I didn't really have the connections or resources to know that these opportunities existed for someone with a disability, and so I kind of knew about wheelchair basketball, but it never really interested me, and the little bit that my parents had sort of looked into it, the closest program was really far away, and so, you know, I'm also a quadruplet as well, and so I have three other sisters that are the same age as me, and so between us, and then my older brother, who's four years older than us, it was very hard for my parents. Sports was just not something that I really considered in the realm of possibility for me, and so I had other interests, like video games, standard teenage boy stuff, and so I got started racing though in high school.
Speaker 1:On the first day of high school, my then track coach came up to me on the first day of school and asked me if I had a broken leg or if I used the wheelchair permanently. And when I told him that I used the chair permanently, he said to me well, why don't you come out for the track team? And I sort of looked at him and I said, sir, I just told you I can't walk. And he said, yeah, no, I know I've seen other kids in wheelchairs compete at our state meet. I've never coached a kid in a wheelchair before. I'm willing to give it a try if you are, and I hate confrontation.
Speaker 1:And so I said, sure, I was like sure, I'll do this. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And, yeah, my high school ended up. My coach, he and the high school raised money for my first racing chair. They found a junior sports team that sort of taught me the mechanics of wheelchair racing. I was about an hour away. And then they I trained with my high school team every single day. I was a member of the team and so I. That's really how I got started and and really changed the trajectory of my life completely.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's fascinating to me. This is coach McLaughlin, right? Yeah, your high school coach. I doubt that he's listening to the Rise and Run podcast, but just in case I want to give him his due. And I was again researching to chat with you. There were competitions at the high school level for disabled athletes at that point. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:There were at the state meet. There was a specific wheelchair division.
Speaker 1:So I got to race against other, you know, high school students that were on their track teams as well.
Speaker 1:It ended up actually being a lot of the other like students that I trained with on my other team, like I knew all of them, um, because it's it's not a very large pool of people to to sort of choose from in the state of New Jersey.
Speaker 1:But, um, yeah, otherwise, um, when I was competing, most of the time I competed it was just against my able-bodied teammates, and so I, um we figured out a way for me to participate, uh, in the same heats as them. And so, if it was for sprinting events, I would be on the inside lanes, because typically, when runners would finish, they'd run off to the right, towards the fence, because they're like winded, and I would just keep my chair rolling around the track on the inside lane. And then, for the distance events, I would actually start on the outside of all of them and then, as I would build up my speed and especially as I got faster, I would end up. I would then just sort of lap them and then it would be my responsibility to kind of go around and make sure I didn't run anyone over over gotcha.
Speaker 2:That segues me nicely into the question I had for you and that is about your training. I saw on your instagram page, you know, a couple of videos of you in essentially what I would maybe call like a like a stationary chair for you to. You know practice. You know your push run movements. What type of upper body exercises are part of your training regimen?
Speaker 1:So the videos that you'll see on my Instagram if I'm on my what we call a roller and basically it is essentially like a treadmill. It's not electronic at all, it's all just based off of our you know how fast we're moving our arms, but that's what we use for all of our indoor training, especially here in Illinois. Now in the winters I'm not going outside when it's below freezing, so a lot of our indoor training. They see my upper body and it is very strong.
Speaker 4:Like I don't, see it but.
Speaker 1:I see pictures of myself competing and then I look and I'm like, oh wow, I didn't realize my shoulders were that big. But we actually do a lot of lower weight exercises than like resistance bands. I think a lot of people think that I'm sitting. You know, when I'm doing my gym sessions, I'm lifting, I'm doing a lot of heavy bench pressing and I am doing some of that. But my coach's philosophy really is focusing on developing those smaller muscles and preventing injuries. And so we'll do a lot of resistance band work. We'll do lightweight shoulder mobility, lot of resistance band work. We'll do lightweight shoulder mobility push-ups, pull-ups, things like that. And then we do have some force-based exercises like rows and some bench pressing, but that's just a very small fraction of our overall lifting workout.
Speaker 4:So what do you feel like has been the most difficult part of preparing for like a race like dopey?
Speaker 1:I think that the dopey challenges is unique just in the sense of it's just the early mornings, it's getting up every morning. I think for a lot of the athletes with disabilities who use bracing chairs or hand cycles, the biomechanics are really different in terms of it is not as much like force on our legs because obviously we're not walking and we're able to. I can pretty. The distances are not the challenging part for a racer, especially if we've been training, if you've been doing marathons and things like that, but even more of a beginner athlete as well, you might get tired, but, um, biomechanically it's not as much impact on our shoulders and our arms as it is on a runner.
Speaker 1:And so when I see the runners coming in through the dopey, I mean it is such an accomplishment. I'm so it's. It's always it's inspiring to watch because it truly is. I'm like you have been. You have been pounding the ground for 48.6 miles, um, and so for us it's a little bit different in terms of um, of just getting around, but so for me it's always just getting up early. That's something that I have to. I have to prepare myself for every year.
Speaker 6:Understand, friends. We invited Brian again because of the dopey challenge and our connection to run Disney. But it's video, it's audio only, of course. I'm looking at a young man sitting in front of four Team USA singlets which I'm going to assume, brian, those are from your four participations in the Paralympics in the Paralympics they are.
Speaker 1:I finally got my office set up a little bit, and this was the one thing that I've always wanted to do is to be able to display the uniforms that we get each of the from our kits, every game.
Speaker 6:That's awesome, but you started international competition back in 2011, correct?
Speaker 1:Yeah, my first competition with Team USA was at the World Championships in Christchurch in 2011. And that was a really exciting opportunity, I think. And looking back on it now, that was one so long ago, and I just think back to my experience and how nervous I was and I'm always still nervous when I race, anyway but just how much more nervous I was, and it's just so exciting, though, when you get to represent Team USA, when they call out your name at the selection and you get your first kit. It's truly something that it's really hard to explain, and so being able to be able to do that for as many years as I have has been an honor.
Speaker 1:And it's something that it's been so cool.
Speaker 6:It's awesome. It's awesome and it's also an honor for us to speak to someone who's been able to do that since 2011. Your last international was what? Last year's Olympics? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and everyone in between except I think we lost one international world championship to COVID. I think, yes, we did.
Speaker 1:We missed. There was one that was supposed to be in Kobe Japan and that got rescheduled. Kobe japan, um, and that got rescheduled. And then it was rescheduled actually, uh, in may of this year of 20, actually, well, I guess now last year, 2024, and I I made the decision not to go because it didn't really align with games prep and it didn't really serve a purpose. So I was like I'm not going so that was yeah.
Speaker 6:You were already committed to Paris by then. I assume yeah.
Speaker 1:Team selection hadn't happened yet, but we, the, the training focus was on that, and so adding a international trip to Japan while would have been fun, just so I could have gone to Tokyo Disney, didn't really align with with going to the Paralympics. So so we, we we nixed that from the schedule.
Speaker 6:I love that. Um I one of the things I've noticed that you compete and this, I think, is unique to push him athletes. Certainly, I don't know any runners that do this. You compete at distances from 100 meters to the marathon, yes, and you seem, it seems, that your specialty is the shorter, I'm going to call them the sprint distances, the 400, 800 meters.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are correct. I'm one of the few wheelchair racers that do that. I enjoy the challenge and the training for marathons and, despite being good at them, I'm a much better sprinter than I am a marathoner. I'm a much better sprinter than I am a marathoner, and so I think it's one of those things that I, if I stopped doing marathons, I would watch my friends and teammates do them and I think I'd have FOMO that I kind of like run Disney races Whenever I don't sign up for them.
Speaker 1:I'm like I'm missing out on this really cool thing and I think that's why I sign up for Dopey every year, cause I I know I'm going to go and do the marathon at least, and I can't, I can't not have, I'm going to watch everyone else have fun. I have to sign up and do it too, and so so, yeah, so I do all of the events. I'm a much better, I would classify myself as a sprinter overall, and that's what my training focus is. But again, because of the of the way that with biomechanics of wheelchair racing, I'm able to do both, and so when we get into sort of like the Paralympics and world championships, things like that, my focus, my training focus, shifts to sprints. But we won't necessarily like I don't completely remove distance training from my training plan overall.
Speaker 6:Well, it's still endurance training for you.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about these international competitions that you participated in. 2024 for you, sir, was a really big year because you came away with two bronze medals for Team USA in the 400 and the 800. First of all, congratulations.
Speaker 6:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:What an amazing feat. And, just on that stat line alone, we are just so proud and honored to know you now and to be chatting with you. And, granted, this might be a difficult question to answer, but describe the emotion of you being part of two medal ceremonies. Obviously, a majority of the world I mean, we always like to say the marathoners are 1% of the world, but it's even less who get to have an Olympic medal or a Paralympic medal around their neck. Describe that feeling.
Speaker 1:It's something that I can still very vividly remember and, I think, for everyone to kind of put into perspective my career. My first Paralympics was in 2012. And I had, through the series of the next, I guess 12 years after that, of trying to. You know, I've made Paralympic teams. I've been so close to getting onto that podium Sort of I don't want to say heartbreak, because I think you have a different perspective every single time. Games gives you new insights and things like that. But 2012 was my first games and that was something that I was actually ranked number one or two in the world at the at the time, and so I went in with a lot of confidence and I came out with nothing, um, and so that was. That was unfortunate and that kind of just was a reality check. Um. 2016 was I missed the podium by a hundredth of a second and so that that really sucked. Um, like, really sucked. That one. I I can still remember that race vividly.
Speaker 1:2020 was the the pandemic games in tokyo. That was just weird. I missed again. I missed the podium. I was in fourth place again. I always joke that I would get uh, there was gold medals for fourth place finishes. I would have one, because it was a consistent four places.
Speaker 1:And then finally, every 2024 was the year that everything sort of came together and that first time that it happened, it was the 400, um, the 400 meter event. And I remember probably the last 50 meters of that event too were I felt pretty comfortable, like I did. I. I was in a, I was in an outside lane and I knew I was like, if I can get to that, that last a hundred meters, and my inside is I don't see anyone there, like I'm going to be good. And no one was there and I was like, okay, just like the last 50 meters, like in my head I was like I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen, but you have all this adrenaline and you don't know what's going on, and so I'm like keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing.
Speaker 1:And was real I? I knew that was the first time when I went across the line. I was like this isn't going to be a close a hundredth of a second, like they have to decide who got it. I knew that I had gotten it, which was really cool, and so then what happens is you get escorted from the, from the stadium. They bring you back up to your the team.
Speaker 1:You say tent, you have to bring all of your metal like ceremony gear with you. Um, they like check it, make sure you have everything you need, because nike is very particular about everything that you wear. So you got to wear the socks, you gotta wear the shoes, everything, and then you get escorted back down under the stadium and then you just kind of sit there for a little bit and you're just watching. But then they line you up and you just sort of have this, the.
Speaker 1:They just like play this, the metal ceremony music, and then you just kind of go out there and it's the first time that you're on the track and you're not in your, you're not, you know, using your racing chair or anything like that. It's, it's wow. This is a moment that it's sort of the culmination of everything that I have I've just worked towards, and now I get to to be on this podium with with my competitors and competitors, and I had friends and family in the stadium, which was really nice, and so to be able to see them and to cheer me on in something is really something that I think means more to me than the medal itself.
Speaker 6:Thanks for the description, Brian. I enjoyed just listening to that. I got a thrill.
Speaker 4:I could see it in my head happening.
Speaker 6:It's so cool, I got a thrill.
Speaker 4:I could see it in my head happening.
Speaker 6:It's so cool. I'm one of those kids who grew up and played sports but not that kind of talent and I watch these superb athletes. I always I feel bad. If you are an Olympic or Paralympic athlete, I don't care if you lose in the first qualifying round, you're amazing. I don't care if you lose in the first qualifying round, you're amazing. You are at a level in amongst other athletes in this world that most of us, as my college basketball coach, said to me if only you had any talent you'd be great. You guys are at a level that a lot of us can't even understand. But then to get there and finish fourth by the blink of an eye even literally less than the blink of an eye that's got to be heartbreaking. Now you got the Olympic bronze in 24. You also won world championship bronze the year before right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was actually in Paris as well. So symmetry there in terms of we were not at the, the, the um stadium, uh, for world championships. It was a different track but I got to go to to. So Paris is is now one of my favorite cities. It was never before. It was never before but it is now Um, I seem to have some good luck there. But that was really exciting as well. I think the World Championship medals were my first international medals as well and I think that competition there really helped sort of give me that motivation and confidence going into the games, knowing that, okay, I've done it, I'm racing against the same people and we just got to do it again. So there were some nerves, extra nerves there, because that internal pressure of, well, what if you don't do it this time, but you did it last time? But it all worked out, which is really exciting.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I have a question about the delineation between the events that are part of the Paralympics. So I was looking at your profile and then comparing and contrasting that to you know the final results, because you know like, I was really interested to know, like, what your time was in the 400 and the 800. And I'm seeing this, this list, so like, for example, you won your medal in men's 100, T53, but then there's also T52 and T54. What, what is the significance of T53? Could you describe that to our listeners?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so for anyone that has yet to watch the Paralympics and you should but the Paralympic classification system exists because there are. You know, disability is a spectrum and they try to create. They needed to create classifications to level the playing field as much as possible and so that you are competing against people as close to the same level of ability as you, and so it can be really confusing because you have T and like T and then a number, and if you're just tuning in for the first time you're not going to know sort of what that actually means. And so, on the the wheelchair racing side, there are sort of three main classifications for, for wheelchair track racers, um, there's T52s, and 51s are also included in that, but they're kind of a smaller subset Um, to be athletes that are quadriplegics, and so that's the level of mobility and function that they have.
Speaker 1:T53 is sort of the middle ground of classification, which is what I am. We tend to be athletes who have no core function, so our disability impacts our ability to use our abdominal muscles, and so I have no control over that. Um, which is really important in wheelchair racing because when you are going um, you know 22 miles an hour around the turn of the track. Um, athletes who can rely that can utilize their core, the T54 athletes can lock in and their chair will be locked in so they're able to maintain that speed, um than someone like me who's fighting his chair from going out because I can't lock in and so. So, yeah, so that the classification system exists, it's. There's all different sorts depending on the disability type.
Speaker 2:So, if you're visually impaired, there's a set of classifications If you're an arm amputee, if you're a leg amputeutee, if you have a neurodevelopmental disability, um, basically, it's just so that I'm not racing against an amputee, because we, our disabilities impact us differently okay, that makes a ton of sense now because, you know, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch any of the track and field events, but I remember watching some of the aquatic events and I remember my, my daughter, was like so locked in to to watching that. You know, as you described, you know there were athletes there of, you know all varying levels of disability and I found it interesting that, like the, the one heat of swimming, the gentleman who won that particular event, like she, was like daddy, he has no arms and whereas you know, like someone, maybe a couple of lanes down, you know might have had arms, but you know, obviously you're not. You know the at the same length and level and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So seeing that that classification now makes a ton of sense. So thank you so much for explaining that to us.
Speaker 1:I greatly appreciate it yeah, and it can get complicated. They can can combine classifications In the distance events, for instance 1500, 5,000 in marathon, the T53 men and the T54 men. It's a combined classification event, so it does not matter what class you are. You race against everyone, and so it can get it's it's its own. That's a whole other podcast to talk about the intricacies of Paralympic classification systems.
Speaker 3:At the Disney races. That course is not an oval. It's got lots of different terrain to navigate technical turns and terrain to navigate the Water Bridge, cinderella's Castle, this year, going around the new Grand Floridian area. How does that affect your racing? And what's the most difficult part of the course for someone in a wheelchair or a hand cycle or whatever they're doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, the Disney races, I think, are probably some of the most technical races that I've ever done, Just in terms of the tightness of turns and just the logistics of everything. I always say I'm very fortunate given sort of that, I'm by myself, basically, so I don't have to navigate around all of the runners, and so it's a lot easier for me to be able to do when I'm not trying to make a super tight turn, Like there was this year with the grand Floridian that that was a very sharp left-hand turn it was actually I was not expecting it to be as sharp as it was when I did it and I remember they had a guy telling me oh, it's a sharp turn, and I was like they always say that it's like caution sharp turn ahead.
Speaker 1:And I was like yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I actually realized how sharp it was when I was doing it and I had to kind of quickly adjust. So, um, our racing chairs actually have a? Um, there's a steering cylinder as well as a track compensator, and so you don't really touch the track compensator If you're on the road, you'll primarily just use the steering cylinder, which gives you a lot more, um, uh, range of motion as you are sort of trying to turn.
Speaker 1:And so a lot of times what I do as you know someone who's kind of done a lot of road races I'll be able to sort of use my forearm to sort of push the steering cylinder to sort of where I need it to go, and then I'll be pushing with my right hand or my left hand, whichever direction I'm turning.
Speaker 1:So no one, we don't ever like lock in per se, like the track cylinder, cause once you hit that, it locks the wheel to the degree of the turn of the track or the straight away. And so the Disney races are really technical in that regard. It was really rough. I remember back years ago for anyone who remembers, when you used to go through the wide world of sports and you'd actually go, could go on a track, but then you'd go off road for a little bit and so those were always tough, just to sort of maneuver. But yeah, they're very technical races and I've had friends that have crashed at Cinderella's Castle before my coach actually his first Disney race ever. He didn't finish because he crashed at Cinderella's Castle. He didn't make the turn. So he came back years later and we did it together and it was a redemption arc for him.
Speaker 5:Brian, we've talked to other cyclist friends in the past and they had mentioned that they have a guide that is with them the whole time. Having done the Dopey for so many years with them the whole time, having done the dopey for so many years, do you have the same guide every um every year, or have you had multiple um guides along the way?
Speaker 1:I've had multiple guides most of the years. I think this is the first. I think I've had the same biker the last two um two cycles, which has been really good because we're kind of familiar with each other, and even just over the course of Dopey itself I'll ride with the same rider in previous years as well. So even if I don't have them the following year, by the time we get to marathon day we're synced in and they sort of know how far they should be in terms of just helping me navigate, because so much of the course for me is pitch black.
Speaker 7:Um it's.
Speaker 1:You know, I get out to animal kingdom and there are no. They don't even have lights set up, because most of the runners are going to get there and it's going to be the sun's going to be out by then and there's no. There's no lights out there. It's pretty dark.
Speaker 6:Wow.
Speaker 1:And so having us having the cyclist sort of know kind of be keyed in um because we've pushed together the other races, know that this is how far they need to be so that I can see and everything else is, is really nice.
Speaker 6:I hadn't thought about that. That's interesting, brian. We've talked about uh Disney. We've talked about the uh world championships and the Paralympics. I know you did the New York marathon back in 16, I believe, 2016. Did it with your sisters.
Speaker 1:I did. Yeah, it was a. That was a tough thing to sell them, to get them to all time to do a marathon. How'd it work out? It worked out really well.
Speaker 1:Um, my one of my sisters is really not a runner. The other two had run marathons before, so they'd always wanted to do new york and we kind of had to convince the other one to do it and it was. It took some convincing and I think never again, but it was really cool. I think that was. You know, I didn't get to run with them, um, because I had finished long before they did um, but but it was really nice just to be able to kind of share in that moment. Um, running has been so important to me in my life and getting to, to share the same course as them, um, in a, in something in a race race that I've, you know I love doing. We, we were born in Brooklyn and so there was some some hometown connection there as well it was just really nice it was. It was. It was a really cool experience. And then, you know, just fast forward to, you know they came to Paris and and you know they were the first ones I saw as soon as I.
Speaker 1:When I won my first medal, they had like oh great they like ran down to where they weren't supposed to be, so it was really. You know, we've shared in so many moments together and then that's just a really cool part of our story as well that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Brian, whether it's dopey, new York City Marathon or the Paralympics, what is one misconception or one piece of information that those of us who are able-bodied runners would never, ever know about? You know racing in a push rim or a hand cycle, so that you know not only you know only because obviously everyone is a respective of the road. You know for all, all athletes. But if, if there was something that you could expound upon us so that we can be even more aware in these race situations, what would that misconception or advice be?
Speaker 1:I think that's such a good question and I get asked it a lot and I feel like I never have a great answer. Because I think, especially at the run, disney community is incredible and so inclusive and really supportive of of athletes just getting out there and competing and racing in whatever way that they need to. And I think for me, I think the the part that I always like to just really emphasize is the fact that our chairs they take up space and it is really hard to sort of quickly adjust. And so usually when we're in, when we have a, you know we're on a certain direction or things like that, it can be challenging for us to quickly sort of move. And so I think, as as runners, it's important when you're on a crowded course to really respect the sort of two people, um, her, um, you know, don't go more than two wide, so that if there is a, uh, a chair athlete, they're able to. They don't have to maneuver around three, four, five people. It's a lot easier for them to get around too, um, and to just listen.
Speaker 1:I know that you know we all like to listen to music and stuff, but a lot of the chair athletes will they're really cognizant of the fact that, for starters, if we do hit someone, like the person who gets hit is going to be a whole hurt, a whole lot more than the person in the chair, and so they're really trying hard to not have that happen, and so they're yelling and screaming. And so I think it's just thinking if they say like I'm on your left, that doesn't mean run to the left, just thinking about where they're saying where they're going or where they say they are so, and just sort of thinking of that. But I think, yeah, the chairs just can't move as quickly without, because the wheels are cambered and so they don't move as quickly, like they can't just quickly adjust or otherwise they're going to flip over, and so it's really hard for them to make sudden moves. And so I think that that's something that a lot of people it's not as easy as maybe a runner, sort of just quick navigating around people.
Speaker 6:All right, brian. We talked New York. Have you done any other world majors?
Speaker 1:I have done Chicago, boston, london and New York. I have not done Berlin or Tokyo. I was actually supposed to do Tokyo and then something with work came up this year, so not doing Tokyo. I would love to do Sydney, as it just got added to the majors, so I'm very much hoping that they invite me, because I will sign up right away to do the Sydney marathon.
Speaker 6:There you go, excellent.
Speaker 4:So are you trying for a?
Speaker 1:six star, I think eventually, I think I, I that's on the, the to-do list I. So I think for me to-do list I. So I think for me it's hard because I, I love the, I love berlin and tokyo as well, but I just they're at weird points of the season for me, so it's hard for me to like convince myself to get over there and then do the other races and chicago, boston, london and new york. They do such a great job of like of taking care of their athletes that I'm like I really want to, I prioritize those races and so then the timing of the other ones makes it hard for me to then say I'll also do these ones then, just with my other commitments. But I think it is I've, since I've done most of them. Yeah, I'm going to do it eventually, like it's just it might not be right away, but it's going to happen, because I mean I might as well.
Speaker 6:It would be silly not to Well, let's look, let's look forward, since we're doing that competitively Olympics in 28,. Do you think?
Speaker 1:I think so. That's the. That's kind of where we're my head's at right now. I it would. That will be it. I will. That will be. This is a firm commitment. Breaking news here. This will be the. This will be the last. This will be my last games, because I don't think there's a better. Yeah, that will be five games, five games yeah I. I don't think it will be. Um, there's really no better place to end it than the united states and I think, um, we'll see if I can get there.
Speaker 1:It's, you know, I'm getting older and it's the up and coming guys are really fast, and so being able to, to even just help them make their dreams come true would be, would be fine with me, but I would like to be on that that team as well, and and starting with them, so and and ending at the at the in LA.
Speaker 6:That would be awesome. We're rooting for you there. How about Disney? You got to have some Disney races in your future.
Speaker 1:My goal. I would love one year to do the whole run Disney calendar. That, I think, would be something. When I'm done professionally racing, I think I want to kind of do that, although my wallet probably needs some.
Speaker 6:We know.
Speaker 1:I don't need to explain that to anyone here. Um, I think, uh, I definitely I'm going to be doing the doing dopey again next year. You know that will be my 10th and I'll go to try and win it and I've said that that will be my last dopey, but we always say and then we never we never follow through.
Speaker 1:So I'm not I'm saying that to everyone, but who knows, who knows what? What will come after that? Um, and then I might actually try and do the wine and dine this year, because it doesn't conflict, it doesn't coincide with the New York city marathon, and so I might. I might try and put that on the calendar as well, just as a little a warm-up before a new york, new york city marathon. Get on the roads and run through. I actually don't even know the course, so I don't even know where the course goes. So it would be the first time in the course oh, you'd enjoy it, magic kingdom is that only a marathon?
Speaker 6:that's what thought Princess and the marathon go through Magic Kingdom, my sisters have done.
Speaker 1:Princess, I cheered them on for that one.
Speaker 6:Yeah, those are the two.
Speaker 1:I think that's the tentative run Disney schedule my goal is to eventually do. I want to do the whole calendar at some point, just because it would be fun. I love to run Disney races.
Speaker 6:We call it the perfect season.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a.
Speaker 2:I like that hey, brian, speaking of dopey, you know for us, you know the idea of winning, you know, before meeting you, the idea of winning dopey for us came back to our friend britney charbonneau. Have you ever had the chance to meet Brittany? And if you have, have you I mean, even though you know again two different types of athletes have you ever like conspired together or in chatting, to talk about, like mental strategies of winning dopey, since you have a heck of a lot more dopey wins under your belt than she does? No, you said that.
Speaker 1:So I, um, I, britney and britney actually, um, I did not. I. I got to cheer on the year that she won um, and I was so one.
Speaker 1:I was just impressed by all of her incredible costumes that were just I mean to to be able to win and then look as phenomenal as she did was, was just amazing. Um, but she's, she's a great runner. Um, a real inspiration of just sort of perseverance. And, um, the following year she actually um came up to me in the starting corral and we we just chatted a little bit. Um, just, she knows some of my teammates as well and so it was nice to have her support. Um, yeah, she's just an incredible athlete and I'm hoping that she is able to get back on into one of the run Disney races at some point pretty soon.
Speaker 6:Oh, I think she will. I think she will. Hey, this is wonderful. I've been excited and enjoyed it. But before we wrap it up I want to talk some Disney stuff with a clear disney friend. Fellow disney geek how many parks have you been to, brian?
Speaker 1:um, I've been to disneyland and disney world. I didn't get to go to disneyland paris in when I was in paris oh no, you're just too busy earning bronze medals my sister planned the trip when I was like they're like, oh, it's your off day, would you want to come? And I was like, well, no, it's my off day, I have to like rest, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I didn't get to go then, and then I got I got screwed out of going to tokyo disney when I was in there for tokyo yeah, it was the pandemic and so we weren't able to leave, so I've only done the the us um parks, but that is getting to go to all of them is is will happen, that'sa guarantee okay I love disneyland. It is. It's, there's something so special about it and disney world great. I love it. But give me a trip to disneyland any day yeah, there's something about the original park and the.
Speaker 6:You know the proximity of the thing where you walk from one to the other. That's kind of neat.
Speaker 5:I enjoyed that.
Speaker 6:Of course, the only time I was there the daytime high was 107 degrees, I'm not exaggerating. That was last year at the Halloween race weekend. Oh goodness, oh, my goodness, it got too hot. Favorite Disney snacks.
Speaker 2:The pretzels okay which which one, with cheese or without cheese?
Speaker 1:with that. Well, I'll do like, I'll try that. I'll like sample the cheese like we'll do like one with the cheese, just because you gotta, but I actually just give me some spicy brown mustard with it and it's, it is like my favorite snack nice, brian.
Speaker 6:It's a delight man. It's a delight, it's an honor to have you with us. We're really, really proud of your accomplishments. We thank you so much for spending some time with the Rise and Run gang. I'm looking forward to seeing you at one of these events in the future, my friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you so much for having me and I will absolutely try and get to one of your meetups. Me and I will absolutely try and get to one of your meetups, either. If I, if I managed to to convince my sisters to let me do wine and dine during our family vacation, I'll do that one, but if not, uh, 2026 Disney marathon weekend, I'm there.
Speaker 6:That would be awesome. All right, Brian, thanks again. We look forward to seeing you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 5:Thank you so much, brian. That was amazing. I loved hearing and visualizing um all of all of the things that he talked about and all the race finishes and um getting to be a part of that and um yeah, it was just a really cool experience and I hope all of our listeners loved it as much as we did.
Speaker 6:Is Brian our second Olympian? Jeff, of course, jeff Galloway. Yeah, you'll be our second Olympian. Yeah, we had Neely made the Olympic trials for the marathon. And of course, brittany is on a Team USA but not the Olympic team.
Speaker 3:She's on the US mountain and trail running team. So our second Olympian, third team USA, I would call it yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely Very cool.
Speaker 5:All right, so let's move into what is coming up next. Princess Weekend. Let's talk a little bit about the event guide. Want to start off with the expo.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so the expo will take place at you guessed it the ESPN Wide World of Sports. Basically, this is the hours for the expo on Thursday 2.20. It's from 10 am to 8 pm. Friday, 2.21, 12 pm to 7 pm and then Saturday, 2.22, it will go from 11 am to 3 pm. Just so you guys know, heads up the virtual queue for Thursday for the Run Disney merch it will open at 8.30 am. So just kind of set a reminder for that. And the Expo check-in pass will be sent Monday on February 17th. So keep a lookout for that.
Speaker 6:Yep Jack, I think you and I are the only podcasters who will be there.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 6:When are you getting there?
Speaker 4:I haven't decided yet if it's either Friday or Saturday.
Speaker 6:Yeah, because you're in the half and that's it. And I think Becky and I are getting over there on Wednesday, so that means I'll be at the expo probably right around lunchtime. I don't like to get over there. First thing, it's too crowded and I don't care that much about getting into the.
Speaker 2:You don't want one of those shiny jackets that they're going to be selling. I figured that was right up your alley, bob, I'm sure they're great.
Speaker 6:You know the problem I have if Becky will look at a jacket and say, oh, look at this sweatshirt, it's great. I go, yeah, I'm going to wear it three times a year or something. Three days a year. Uh, there's a beautiful. There's a beautiful jacket got sorcerer Mickey on it, a beautiful uh sweatshirt we saw it this well, just yesterday, as a matter of fact. And she goes it'll last forever. I said, yeah, I know it will. I'm 71 years old. I'll wear it three days a year. Yeah, it'll last forever.
Speaker 6:So, so, but I'll tell you I do like the generic run disney merchandise. I'm not going to buy much weekend merchandise I've got so much but I do like the generic stuff and so, uh, yeah, there's a chance I'll get something there. I will get into the virtual queue and we'll go over and check it out. But real reason I go to the expo is you got to take care of the paperwork, you got to pick up your bids, got to pick up your shirts. But I want to see our friends. I want to see our friends over there at the expo. So I'll be hanging out. I'll be the tall old guy who looks confused. Come say hi.
Speaker 5:All right. Moving on to the 5K, transportation will begin at 3 am and I just want to remind folks that in the lobbyists of your hotels there'll be a bulletin board and if there's not, ask the front desk where the bus location is so you know where to find it. There will be no monorail or skyliner transportation for the 5k. Start groups will open at 3 45 am. The start groups are A through F. Be sure to check the event guide to see when your start group closes to make sure that you get there and get in whatever corral you were supposed to be in, if you're wanting to not be pushed back and spec dating is only at the start and finish lines for the 5k.
Speaker 3:Okay, going on the 10k, it's basically the same information as the 5k. Transportation begins at 3. No monorail or Skyliner Start groups open at 345. They're adding an extra corral, so start groups are going to be A through G and again, check your event guide to see when the start group closes and there's basically only official cheering at the start and finish lines. There will be quiet zones around Epcot, so, like no bells, the quiet zone yeah.
Speaker 6:I've got to say quiet. We're rabbits. You have to tiptoe through those.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you know it is 6 o'clock in the morning. They don't want people outside yelling underneath the hotels when people come running by. And if you're going to go to one of the resort areas, best bet is probably taking an Uber and getting dropped off at one of the hotels because there will be no parking.
Speaker 6:Oh, yeah, very true.
Speaker 3:And also, if you're doing the challenge, you're probably putting your new bib on today, because you'll have a different bib for the challenge than you do for the 5K.
Speaker 6:Yeah, there's no, probably about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's not like the dopey weekend.
Speaker 6:Right, yeah, right. Well, this weekend the 5K bib has no timing chip on it. Yeah, the dopey weekend. If you're in Dopey, the 5K bib does have a timing chip.
Speaker 6:Yep, so you just have the one bib for the 10K and the half Following the 10K. We have our group meetup, 3 pm in the food truck area at Disney Springs. Try to make it, friends. I hope we get to see you there. I put out a couple feelers. Becky's still going to bake some cookies, so we'll bring some. But I invite our other friends who, if you want to bring cookies along, especially those who live and are driving, don't need to bring them on the airplane. Yeah, bring them along, we'll have a good time. We'll have a cookie smorgasbord. We'll have a cookie smorgasbord, a cookie buffet, a cookie potluck I'm running out of terms. It'll be fun. So, 3 o'clock. I also like to remind our friends, 3.30 is when we'll take the group photo and while we have no definite ending time to these, a lot of times you'll find our friends have dining reservations at five o'clock or so. So, along around four, 30 or five is when they tend to break up. But it's, it's just, uh, it's a highlight of the weekend for me. No doubt about it. All right.
Speaker 6:Then, sunday morning half marathon time. Transportation starts a little air earlier on Sunday morning. The buses start to roll at 2.30 in the morning. Oh man, I'd be so tired. Oh golly, monorail's available 2.30. No Skyliner, monorail starts 2.30 am.
Speaker 6:The corrals start to open at 3.15. We go A through G again in corrals. The information on closing times for the corrals is in the guide. It is also in the staging area. If you look around, there'll be signs telling you when the groups close. If you're going to your corral with a group, try to go as a group. The last couple of races they've been subdividing the corrals and what you don't want to happen is, let's say, you're all in corral D but you go at different times and you find out that you're in Corral D pink, but your friends are in Corral D, green, and you may not be able to get with one another. So try to go at the same time.
Speaker 6:The half marathon course is the same as it was marathon weekend, which means nothing to you if you weren't there Marathon Weekend. But there's a couple things to point out. We started at Epcot, of course, and then it heads to Magic Kingdom. This is one of the three races in the Walt Disney World race lineup that goes through Magic Kingdom and through the castle and, of course, down Main Street, which is the best stretch of racing in the racing world. That's right, I said it. Better than the Olympic track, better than no, come on, but it's wonderful. It's wonderful. For those of us casual runners, it doesn't get any better than going down Main Street and seeing that gorgeous castle.
Speaker 6:Now, during marathon weekend, the half marathon got really jammed up going into Magic Kingdom. I would anticipate that happening again. Just be patient. You get there. Around mile five you start to turn in towards. You're going in the back. You're going around what's that? Bay Lake there. It's pretty, but it's going to get very narrow. It's going to get jammed up. Just be patient, you'll get there. It's going to be okay, but it's fun. Enjoy it, enjoy it. Look, I remember early on, when I was still running at a decent pace, I'd get on Main Street and I'd run and then it hit me what in the world are you doing? Knucklehead, this is gorgeous. Take your time and enjoy it. So take your time and enjoy it, friends and enjoy it. So take your time and enjoy it. Friends, out of Magic Kingdom you head straight back to Epcot. We do not loop World Showcase, but we do come in through Epcot, back out, pass the choir onto the finish, say hi to Jeff at the finish, say hi to the race announcers and we're done for the weekend, or are we?
Speaker 2:I was just about ready to say, bob, not so fast, because the weekend technically ends with yoga For some reason. This is, I believe, the second yes this is the second year, I believe where yoga has been placed on Monday, as opposed to Expo Day, so early in the morning on Thursday. But yeah, so just nice gentle reminder there yoga is Monday not Thursday. Also, the other change, I believe, is that instead of yoga taking place at Magic Kingdom, it is now happening at Hollywood Studios. Really, the big thing here is, yes, there is is bus transportation, but unlike for the races, where you know you don't have to be on the first bus, you know there's other buses that come afterwards for yoga, this is not the case. There is one opportunity to get on the bus and that is it, and those buses start leaving the resorts, starting at 3.30 in the morning, as I'll explain in a second. Some might be a pickup of 3.30, some might be 3.35, some might be 3.40. Specifically, check the event guide and, as Alicia said, be sure to check the poster that they have hanging up in the lobby of each hotel resort. But essentially, what happens here is that the buses are broken down into routes so real quickly I will go through these.
Speaker 2:Route one is all the all-star resorts. Route two, animal Kingdom Lodge. Three is Coronado Springs. Four and this could be your first situation where it's multiple pickups, so hence different times Route four is the Polynesian Shades of Green and the Grand Floridian. Route five is Fort Wilderness, wilderness Lodge and the Contemporary slash Bay Lake. Six is Port Orleans, french Quarter and Riverside. Seven, old Key West and Saratoga Springs. Eight, caribbean Beach and Riviera. Nine is the Swan, the Dolphin and the Swan Reserve. Route 10 is the Yacht Club, beach Club and Boardwalk. And then, rounding out, we have Route 11, and that is Pop Century and Art of Animation and that is your detailed look into yoga and the rest of the 2025 Princess Half Marathon Weekend Event.
Speaker 6:Guide. All right, thanks, greg. All right, friends, I am looking forward to seeing you there. I'll be there all weekend. Jack will be there part of the weekend and we can't wait. One final thing to remind you about for princess weekend next week on the episode is the roll call of the runners who will be there that week. If you don't have your name on the roll call the race report file it's in our Facebook group. It is a file pinned to the featured section of the Facebook group which is easier to find on my laptop than it is on my phone. I finally did find it on the phone and you can either add your name there or just put a comment that you're going to be at the race and we'll add it for you. But the roll call is next week.
Speaker 6:Friends, as you know, we are, so we're excited that this is a family and that we share information with one another on our social media, and occasionally things come to our notice that we want to talk about on the podcast. Our friend Lola, who ran Marathon Weekend, did the marathon did Dopey, I believe. I'm not sure about that, but she did it while six months pregnant, recently had an emergency C-section. Earlier in the week she had twins, one of whom, miles, is in the natal intensive care unit and will be for a couple of months, and her other child, benjamin, did not survive the procedure. Miles is growing stronger, that's the good news.
Speaker 6:And this must be so difficult for the family. I just it's hard to imagine the joy of having the birth of a son, the anguish of losing one and then the angst of knowing the other is in the NICU. Now again seems to be doing well. That's great news. I'm sure Miles is getting wonderful care. But Lola and her husband have to be really, really, I don't know strained mentally and physically tired. I just it's a tough thing. And, friends, I don't want to go on much longer. All I want to tell you, lola, is the entire Rise and Run family is thinking of you. You're in our thoughts and prayers. Please keep us updated and let us know how Miles is going.
Speaker 2:And while we're talking about news within the the rise and run family, we also want to pass along our condolences to our friend and co-host, lexi. She informed us over the weekend that her grandmother had passed away and hence why she is not on the episode this week. So you know, lexi, just know that we are here for you not only from a host standpoint, but from a rise around community standpoint, and we are here to support you every single step of the way. So you know, we don't like reporting on this stuff, but it it goes to show, like you said, bob, we have such a strong community that will rally around those in need and and that's something that we want to continue to foster here so that hence why you know we do share these stories sometimes, so, but so. So, thank you, you know, again to everybody, but again our our deepest uh, sympathies, thoughts and prayers to, to lola and and to lexi this week yeah, and look, thanks.
Speaker 6:Thanks also for thinking enough of the rest of the family to share that news with us. Because it, yeah, we, we want to know, we wish, we, we wish we didn't, but we, we want to know, we want to share. All right, let's move on next week. Our buddy, matt, is back. Matt is the brains behind teamiz, a vertical warehouse of Run Disney information, and Matt's the guy who created that application that notifies you when spots are opening up in runs. So we'll talk with him next week. All right, my friends, it's time for the Race Report week. All right, my friends, it's time for the race report. The race report is brought to you by Tom Stokes at stoked metabolic training. Stokesfit, slash, rise and run coaching is the website. Information's on our Facebook group, pinned to the featured section. Tom's got an eight-week challenge going on right now, like Alicia was talking about, and I'm participating also. I think is a great activity. But he's got other things. He's got his Foundations program, his Accelerate program and his one-on-one coaching. So check that one out in the featured section.
Speaker 6:Let's see who was out running around the last couple of days. During the week on their honeymoon, emma and her new husband did the Castaway K5K. Now I've done this several times and it's easy. I mean, I'm familiar with it, but it's easy. A lot of people will get back to the beginning and they go all around 2.7 miles. It's because you miss a turn and you only do the loop once that you need to do twice. Emma and her husband missed a turn and they ended up doing four miles. I don't know how they did that, but I don't think they cared that much. It was nice Lori was on this cruise also. I believe it's the same cruise. They posted around the same time. There's only one castaway K. Lori said this is the first time that she ran intervals for two-thirds of this 5K and it felt great. Lori's making great progress since having her total knee replacement earlier this year.
Speaker 6:Heading to the weekend, on Saturday a series of nationwide races called Cupid's Chase. They're fundraising events for Community Options Incorporated, a nonprofit organization that provides housing and employment for people with disabilities. We had folks running in several locations. Heather was running in Bridgewater, new Jersey. In Knoxville, tennessee, megan ran it Well, ended up walking it, and that's okay. Kind of a mental game for Megan. She just needed to cross the start and finish line. There's nothing wrong with that, megan, glad you were able to do it. Jimmy was there at that one also and Jimmy spent at least part of the race with Megan In Glen Rock, new Jersey.
Speaker 6:Rob did the Cupid's Chase there. Rob said 14th out of 14 iterations of this race. I assume that's there in Glen Rock. I don't know Lots of Achilles International runners. That's pretty great. Rob loved cheering for them as they finished. But the highlight this year for Rob was the class of cadets from the Passaic County Police Academy that's the neighboring county there who ran in formation calling cadences, or what we used to call Jody calls, throughout the race. The last one that we have on our list is in Chattanooga. Amanda did it Her second best 5k time of just under 34 minutes while running for this worthy cause.
Speaker 6:Let's go to and this place is in Florida. I should know how to pronounce it. I believe it's mccanopy for the florida track club's mccanopy, 10 miler. It's up up near gamesville. I believe debbie and jessica ran this one. This is their first race report, also first 10 miler for both of them. So there's pr a hilly, packed dirt course on a beautiful tree canopied road. We'll see my canopy. See, that must be it. Uh, went through a rural neighborhood. They got to see cows and horses and chickens, cranes, and they made a new friend who joined about a third of the way through. They were giving Debbie and Jessica were giving their costumes a test drive for Princess, I believe, and notably the only ones wearing bright colors and sparkle skirts. Way to go, ladies. I'm glad you represented the Run Disney and the Rise and Run skirts. Way to go, ladies. I'm glad you represented the Run Disney and the Rise and Run crowd.
Speaker 6:In Mesa, arizona, jennifer ran the Mesa Half Marathon. Jennifer is a really excellent runner, finished this one in just a bit over an hour and 36 minutes Not a PR, but a good run for her. She works really hard and the results show it. Good job, jennifer.
Speaker 6:In Winter Park, florida, the AdventHealth Run for Love four-miler Tracy. Solid nine-and-a-half-minute pace for Tracy for this four mile event. Kept with her same intervals and her speeds from last weekend felt really good. And Jared was at this race too. In Naples, florida, the Naples Distance Classic Half Marathon Rob, he was in Clearwater two weeks ago. That half felt great on a looped course. In Naples it was an out-and-back with little excursion out-and-backs along the way and it felt entirely different. That's the way it is with races and runs. But he crossed the start line, made it to the finish line uninjured. That's a success, I agree On to the next one in seven days and again, I think Rob's talking about Princess Not positive, but I think so.
Speaker 6:Let's go to the United Kingdom, the Exeter Riverside five-miler. Anna was there, beautiful course, lots of support, pretty flat. It was one sneaky hill at about the second mile. They have sneaky hills in Britain apparently. And for Anna, a new five-mile personal best.
Speaker 6:In Savannah, georgia, the urgent care of Berwick Love chocolate 10K. Melissa ran it. Thought it was interesting. She ran this race at 40 years old twice Now. What that means is she ran it last year and this year and in 2024, she PR'd it. This year she was five minutes faster for a new PR. Yeah, the race was like a week earlier this time, so she ended up running it twice in one year. Good job, melissa. The Glam Race 5K was in Palm Harbor, florida. Our friend Judy did it. She's with us for the Race Report Spotlight. So I remember last week in our Race Report Spotlight our friend Roxanne joined us and I said Roxanne, how's it been that we have never had you on the podcast. So I'm looking for someone for this week's Race Report Spotlight and I see a friend who's done races the last two weeks and I go, judy, how is it we've never had you on the race report spotlight?
Speaker 7:What do you think?
Speaker 6:Judy Don't know, that's okay. Roxanne didn't know either. I don't know either, but I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 3:We just talk to her all the time, Bob. That's the thing.
Speaker 7:We do, she's on all the Zoom calls.
Speaker 3:So she's on all the Zoom calls, so we probably assumed she was on already yeah, in fact, if I listen real close, she doesn't live that far away.
Speaker 6:Nah, she's a little further away than that.
Speaker 7:I almost could yell loud enough.
Speaker 6:I can't hear her from here. If you couldn't hear me over the football games, I can't hear you from here, I promise. Well, judy, thanks for joining us. My friend, I'm glad that you took some time to talk about. Let's start where I always start, judy, which is how did you get started running?
Speaker 7:Well, I came. You know, I came from a generation where girls did not play sports.
Speaker 6:Yeah, true.
Speaker 7:Well, I didn't play any organized sports right Until high school and I only went to the high school. I went to because it had a flag football team for the girls.
Speaker 6:Really that's interesting and it was a girl's school.
Speaker 7:We played one game but, and then I always played basketball and stuff in the yard but I ended up making the basketball team and the softball team my four years there. Got to go to college. High school you never ran because you were always in good shape. Got to college and then I thought, division III, no scholarships or anything. But at that time, um, and I asked the coach, how much running? And he knew that moment that if he told me how much running, I would do the running and then that's some. So he never told me. So I then kind of started to run to stay in shape when we had time off, but no organized races, literally until off. But no organized races literally until probably about 2017.
Speaker 7:Um, we had friends that lived in illinois by us. They moved, we moved, they literally talked us into buying dvc in 1997, sort of like if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us. And every time they'd come down for a race, we'd go over to visit them and they just got, did a challenge and I'm like I don't understand how you're running 19 something miles in two days. And that's when she introduced me. Well, we don't run the whole thing, we run walk and I'm like you know, by this time my kids were grown. You know you go for that period. If your parents you could run when they're little and then once they start sports, you're never seeing your house again because you're gone six days out of seven. So I exercised on and off pretty much their whole adult life and then it wasn't until you know I started doing run walk. And who knew?
Speaker 6:florida had 15 races every weekend yeah, it's quite a few, but then until we get to the sun, that's not a lie, you could go to probably 15 races within a two-hour radius of our area at this time of year.
Speaker 7:You can, yeah, this time of year and so, in order to get ready for my very first princess, started doing some local races. Turns out run into a whole bunch of neighbors, so now we've got like a little over 60 club that run. We do a lot of the races together. So my first princess was in 2018, coming off of meniscus surgery. So always been active not real consistent until 2018,.
Speaker 6:I would say real consistent until 2018.
Speaker 7:I would say yeah, so your your tie into running ties right in to run disney almost from the get-go. Yeah, and we've been, like I said, we've been dvc members for quite a while yeah, um, and I'm not sure how we went these whole years without even knowing that existed.
Speaker 6:Apparently we never went on a race weekend there are cast members who don't know it exists. That always surprises me. Oh, I didn't know about that, yeah.
Speaker 7:But you know, when the kids were little we'd go in the off times, you know middle of.
Speaker 7:November, when nobody was there Tuesday, wednesday, thursday kind of thing, and I think it might not have been until my son's kindergarten teacher was going to Princess. You get to run through the castle and once again I kind of looked and I'm like you know, not knowing now what I. What I didn't know then was anybody can be a runner and I was very biased like you don't look like you could run, but you know, if you do the training and you wet the heart, you can run. So you know, bad on me, but good learning. I think it wasn't until really Facebook that has really propelled me to keep on going. Just want to be a part of the community. I did like for my very first challenge. I followed Jeff's plan to a T minus the magic mile because I didn't understand it, you know. I just didn't understand it until I saw him. You know somebody do a video on how to do it, but I pretty much follow, you know, his routine.
Speaker 6:Good story. Let's talk about the races. They were both local and I know you want to talk about both of them. Let's go back a week to safety harbor 5k right uh, 10k 10k.
Speaker 7:Okay, yeah, they have a 5k 10k half marathon challenge oh, okay, do that I didn't that's a nice.
Speaker 6:That's a nice area over there.
Speaker 7:Yeah, as a matter of fact, years ago, the first half marathon was my first half marathon to do before the Star Wars, the 2019 Star Wars Challenge, and that was the half marathon where, once again, didn't know you should race like you train, and that race was a total disaster. But because of that really bad experience, my star wars race was an absolute joy as you learn your lessons. But the you know the safety harbor race, it runs right along the water tampa bay, um, because the race does not change. There are that was one of the surprise there are hills in safety harbor, you know. You say florida has no hills, safety harbor does. And, knowing the course, I know that in the last two miles, as you're going out, it's a big incline, um, and it's like I knew, mile three or four, that I'm not going to make that incline and not be able to finish strong if I didn't slow down a little bit. So actually you start and there's a big incline right coming out of the gate, which is kind of.
Speaker 7:But it's a beautiful course and they were handing out Girl Scout cookies. Oh yes that was nice and the whole idea was just to finish a little bit stronger than uh. You know, I basically used it as a training run, uh, for the princess 10k so yeah, they, they do they.
Speaker 6:they host a couple of events over there in safety harbor every year and if you're in this general area, I'd recommend you look into them because, again, it's a nice place. I don't remember the hills Judy's talking about, but I'm sure she's not making it up. I just don't remember them.
Speaker 7:Oh, and the half marathon's even worse with the hills.
Speaker 6:So how'd you do with that one?
Speaker 7:My time was just expected. The one thing I am is I am a very consistent miler. Like I can go on a training run and hit like 1148, 1147, 1148, 1149. I for some reason have that ability just to be very, very consistent. Right, looked at my watch and saw, you know, 1049 in like mile two. I'm like uh-oh, we need to slow down. But the music was you know. Yeah, the music had you going. Music had me going, you had a remedy for it, didn't you?
Speaker 7:Yeah, and I thought I'm going to. Well, I tried, I listen to like 12 podcasts a week so I just thought, well, I haven't heard stephanie and aaron. Their podcast was new and I thought, well, you know, not the most fun of topics, but I love hearing their voice and yeah, it's a good time being so honest and it just kind of took my mind away of trying to run fast and they got me to the finish line they do a good podcast, darren and stephanie do.
Speaker 6:It's called uh, pace yourself, it's just cancer.
Speaker 7:Judy uses it as a as a drogue parachute to slow herself down I just like consistent voices and that you know, and then, also listening to it, I feel like I have the ability and I can run today. I don't have those issues right now. Knock on wood. Um, you know, worst I have is a knee that sometimes cooperates and sometimes doesn't. Um, and I'm very fortunate I get to do this today yeah, that is like a nice reminder listening to them and then, exactly just thinking of them like if they were here, they would be cheering me.
Speaker 7:If I was by no doubt be cheering them, yeah, absolutely so thinking of them like if they were here they would be cheering me, if I was by them, no doubt be cheering them. Yeah, absolutely, so absolutely it was like running with friends, that was, uh, that was safety harbor.
Speaker 6:And then this week, this week was a 5k, wasn't it?
Speaker 7:yes, and you were in palm harbor, which and I should know my geography a little bit it's a little bit further north, palm harbor yeah, um, yes, and it's west, so it's not too far alt 19, so it's not far from the gulf we can say it can't be, it can't be too much further west or it wouldn't be, because you can see the water yeah, um, so that was a little uh race that did our one of our benefits, one of our local high schools I think this year might have been the 11th year Really fun race because there's a lot of teenagers, a lot of high school kids and their teachers, so there's nothing like being at a race. Because that drew my memory that I remember running a little fundraiser in high school and I remember in the yearbook was a picture of me, my PE teacher and a couple of my basketball teammates running like well.
Speaker 7:That would have been my first unofficial 5k, but it's so fun to see the young kids sharing you on and you know it goes to a really good cause. And I think it's important for like kids to see teachers, because we don't live at school well, like they think, but just to see the teachers in a different light and out there all working towards the same cause. And that one definitely was no speed, nice and easy, just trying not to blow something.
Speaker 6:Pardon me if you said this already. That's not where you teach, is it?
Speaker 7:No, I teach in the suburb just north. Yeah, okay, just north of it. But neither race had an expo.
Speaker 6:No, they're too small.
Speaker 7:The Best Am race does have a very nice after party.
Speaker 6:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 7:They usually have a really nice spread for everybody, and even this little glam race had a nice little spread. But we decided not to go out for breakfast because what's the purpose of running if you don't go out, that's good, you run for food so, judy uh, what are you doing next?
Speaker 3:did you uh register today?
Speaker 7:I did register. Um, kind of funny. I got on it like 10 o'clock I almost forgot. But then I saw a note on my desk. Oh my gosh, I had to take the kids to music and I logged into the run Disney thing real quick and, you know, got in and saw the queue, you know whatever. Over an hour, get them to music, run back. And um, stephanie messaged me and handed me a link and I got in like five minutes before I had to pick the kids up and then I gave her my link to hopefully help somebody else and she's like I'll take care of it. So yeah, so I got into the 10 K. So I'm very happy and I'm doing princess next week.
Speaker 3:So you're going to be a princess running princess.
Speaker 7:I will be a princess.
Speaker 3:Okay, cause I know, I know, I know you hop, hop down there for the meetups because you're like Bob, you're local enough where it's a depending on I-4 drive. You know, it's not that far of a commute, right.
Speaker 7:And usually I don't do wine and dine.
Speaker 3:I mean only that one time, like two years ago, that was the first wine and dine I've ever done and that's where I met you actually for the first time and because as a teacher I was using the races as like a mental break.
Speaker 7:But since we get a whole week off at Thanksgiving, I'm like if I can make it to the first week of November, I can make it two more weeks. So I just felt guilty taking like time off when we were getting a week off in a couple of weeks, so, but now that I'm retiring, yes, she is judy's retiring this I got
Speaker 7:those days I gotta use right yeah well, um, you know, got the room a long time ago and I just thought I'm just gonna sign up for the 10k, obviously, come to the meetup and and, uh, cheer people on and, um, you know, I'm excited about signing up for marathon weekend just to do the 5k and 10k, but stay in the whole weekend because I did not realize how fun cheering was when I was by lexi I had my jaw down.
Speaker 7:I was like, oh my gosh, this is, you know, that runner's fight. This is almost as good as like. I was in tears watching people be in tears because they were seeing us. It was an amazing experience. And Lexi man, she knows how to cheer, she knows all the locations. I wish I could have followed her the whole day.
Speaker 3:You guys are at a good spot for the marathon. That's when you kind of need that a little extra boost, and it's right.
Speaker 7:Well, she was determined to find a better spot when we started.
Speaker 3:Well she's. She's been around Coronado for the last four marathon, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7:And I just wish I could have hopped on that bus and just kind of followed her, but I didn't need to drive home, so it's the next day, but, yeah, I'll hopefully be there next, next year to cheer y'all on for the marathon, for all of our friends that are doing that outstanding.
Speaker 6:That's great. All right, judy. Well, now we don't have to answer the question how come we've never had judy on the uh spotlight before? Because you've been here, so we appreciate it. Thanks for joining us. Thank you very much. If you're not aware I think most many of you are judy is the person that handles the distribution of all of our material, all of our merch. So if you order a shirt, a visor or anything, judy's the one who's sending it out to you and she does a terrific job with that.
Speaker 6:In jacksboro, texas, jason did the north texas ultra 100k. Temp started at 64 degrees, warmed up, of course, as the sun came up, got close to 80 by noon but then began to drop pretty quickly. Four trips out and back for this 100k course. First lap felt great. Second was a struggle because it started getting warm. Towards the end of the second one he started questioning whether he wanted to continue because he's got a 100 miler coming up in March. Gave Coach Twiggs a call, decided yeah, he's probably going to be okay. He'd have time to recover as long as he wasn't feeling hurt or injured. So he went back out. Weather ended up being perfect as the day went on, made some new friends Finished strong Now. It was 64 at the start, got close to 80. When he finished the temperature was 44 degrees. He said it dropped quickly. It dropped quickly.
Speaker 6:There's a miler series in Indianapolis. This race was three miles long. Tiffany did it chilly morning, really, prepared for it after Dopey. Yeah, it was chilly and Dopey. The miler Series is kind of neat. Every year they build miles. Each month they start with three, then six and then ten and that leads them up to the Indy Mini Marathon, the half marathon. Neat idea.
Speaker 6:Farrah did the 3,000 Day Spectacular 5K. Interesting title. Well, here's why. The owner of the local running store wanted to celebrate his 3,000 day running streak. So he organized this 5K. He had reps from eight major shoe companies there. You did a one mile loop and you could wear the shoes from one of the companies. You could do it as many times as you wanted. You had two and a half hours to do one mile loops. You could try a different pair of shoes each loop. So Sarah did four, tried out four different pairs of shoes. Neat Got a raffle ticket for each pair of shoes that you try and then they raffled off gift certificates at the end. She didn't win but still had a great time. It sounds like a neat idea, so 3,000 days is over eight years, Bob.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and that's. I didn't do the math. That's thanks, john. That's Eight years, that's impressive. There are websites that track these streaks and some of them are just insane. Well, I think eight years is pretty insane, but there are some We've had folks on who have had.
Speaker 2:Remember we had an episode with yeah, we did our streaking episode yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I don't know if we had anybody. I forget what the longest person we had on the show.
Speaker 2:It was a while, but I don't know if it was that long oh yeah, moving to Port St Lucie, florida, the Cupid's Dash 5K.
Speaker 6:Amber did this one Great morning. It really has been nice around here. This is a small local run. Temps were around 65. Lots of love. This one's for a good cause. I got to look. This was an. I should have put this one, I think Well, I don't know, at the top of the race report we had Cupid's Chase. I think this is different. I think this Cupid's Dash is local to Port St Lucie. But good job, amber.
Speaker 6:In Melbourne, florida, the Okapi Clip Cloppy 3K at the Brevard Zoo. Monica did this one. Now, this is typical Monica and the Chaos Crew. Okay, they're good runners.
Speaker 6:Her girls are good runners for their age groups. They do a great job, monica's fast. So they come up with this plan to play for their age groups. They do a great job, monica's fast so they come up with this plan to place for their age group so they could win these cute little stuffed Okapi dolls and a pair of feature socks for the age group placing. So kids one and two take off with a friend in the first wave. Monica stays back with child number three to start in the second wave. When it gets started, monica takes off at top speed because she doesn't want to be the one who ruins the plan and doesn't finish in the top of her age group. She makes one of the first turns. She sees her kids jogging along, having time with their friends, talking, chatting, checking out the animals. She continues, she grabs first place in her age group and she is now the owner of her very own solo, adorable little Okapi doll.
Speaker 2:You know, bob, I'm not sure if you know this or not, but did you know that the okapi? You would think, because it's got stripes on its legs, that it's related to the zebra, but it's actually related to the giraffe.
Speaker 3:What? Where did you learn that, Greg? I just knew it.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, Obviously Kilimanjaro Safari.
Speaker 6:I was just. I was at boma for breakfast recently, like thursday morning, yeah, a week ago, and I don't know if we could see the okapi out there or not.
Speaker 2:I always saw the giraffes and I don't recall what other animals, but yeah I cannot wait to show my daughter the the pictures from this race because, um, like I want to say I don't know if one of the kids have posted the photo or something but I saw a photo of someone from the race that had the okapi that you can buy the stuffed okapi you can buy at animal kingdom, which my own daughter owns, and she's she loves them so much so maybe we'll have to make a special trip to Florida next year so we can run the Okapi Clip Cloppy or however you say, this race.
Speaker 5:I was excited about this one too.
Speaker 2:Okapis are my favorite All right, Alicia, we're going to go together and we'll be a big Rise and Run event.
Speaker 5:All right.
Speaker 6:Yeah, there you go, I think you'd have fun. There you go, I think you'd have fun. There was a hot chocolate race in Dallas this weekend. The 10K. Britt did it First run of any kind since she hurt herself two weeks ago and she pushed herself to a strong finish. In the lovely town of Fairhope, alabama, aaron ran the Pirate Dash 5K. Now I heard this story this morning. It customized.
Speaker 6:Aaron was asked by this sweet little eight-year-old boy's mom from church to run with her son. So before the race, young fella asks Aaron, are you going to do that run-walk thing? She says yeah, I am. He says well, I'm you going to do that run walk thing? She says yeah, I am. He says well, I'm just going to run. So she asked if he was okay and he and another young friend took off running together. The course was well managed. There was really no worry about the kids getting lost on the course or anything like that. But before terribly long doing the run walk, aaron catches up to them. He sees a little guy walking. If Aaron catches him, starts to pass, he takes off running again. So he ends up doing his own run walk. Based on not letting Aaron catch him, he does manage to hang in. Finish just a few seconds ahead of her, aaron finished under 40 minutes. Not a PR, best time she's run in a while and good for fourth in her age group. Nicely done.
Speaker 6:Katie Texas the run Houston series 5K. Katrina Lucas and Olivia the Bear family. They should have and Olivia the Bear family. They should have all been there but the kids were sick. That's going around. So Kat hadn't run a solo race vocally since 2023. Given the opportunity, she aimed for a PR and she got it. Aimed for a PR and she got it. And her character stop was with some local cows no camels, but cows.
Speaker 6:Let's move to Sunday, melbourne, florida, the Florida Marathon. Adam was pacing. Adam did the 4.45 pace group on a loop course, two causeway bridges, the final one coming at mile 25. We talk about the flat terrain here in Florida and most of the places it is, but the causeways and bridges here can be really tough and it looks like this one was. This was a very successful pacing event for Adam. He came in officially at nine seconds off the mark, nine seconds under. Uh. He had three first time marathoners with them one doing her long run from Tokyo and then he had one who was on marathon number 38. He was honored to have two of them hang on hit their target times, even with that last bridge at mile 25 beating him up. That's a tough place for it. Daniel was there first marathon. That's a PR Pretty awesome story here with Daniel.
Speaker 6:Daniel's an AWD runner with MS. He started off holding a 1230 pace for the first 19 miles. Rock solid there was doing this and he hits a stone in the roadway, I think. When he says hits a stone, I think he means he stepped on a stone. Instantly his leg went numb so he had to slow the pace down, run, walk, run down to 15 minutes. He was a little discouraged. He was alone. Then he had some friends reach out on FaceTime who kept telling him that he could do it. He kept telling himself you got this. He finished the marathon a little over six hours. That's solid, daniel. He adds if you ever doubt yourself, just tell yourself you got this. Because, says Daniel, if I can do it, you can do it. Great run, great message. Congratulations Daniel and Adam on the Florida marathon in St Petersburg, florida.
Speaker 6:The St Petersburg Distance Classic 5K through marathon Great event. I've done it several times. I did it this weekend. I did the half marathon. It went well. It's a nice area. This is the event where all the fast old farts show up. A lot of times I'll go to a local event and in my age group I'll finish towards the top and a lot of times, a lot of times, I'll finish at the top because there'll only be two or three people in there. Well, this one I've run twice and once I finished ninth out of nine, and this year I finished eighth out of nine, even though I was a minute or two slower. But the thing about it is the slowest of the 70 to 74 year old age group, I think, finished in like 247, which, while not speedy, is not bad for that age group.
Speaker 6:Uh, I saw a couple of friends there. Let's see Trina and Jeff. I saw them before the race. They've got a report. I'll make it here in just a second. The two other friends I've made from running in the St Petersburg area, richard and Krista, were also there. It was great to see them. They did the 5k. I saw them before I took off on the half and then I saw them just as I was about. I was darn near at mile 13, I think, when I saw them again and we got a photo there before we finished. So nice to see them.
Speaker 6:As I said, trina and her husband, jeff, was there. Trina started out a little too fast they were doing the half the half marathon out a little too fast, they were doing the half marathon. She upped her running interval strong at first, then faded a bit towards the end. Jeff ran ahead and for Jeff a PR this week in the half. David was there. David came up about a 90-minute drive for David to come up to St Pete. He ran the marathon. He had just set a personal best at Walt Disney World last month I went looking for David. The marathon started first. I think the marathon started about 6 1⁄2, around 6.30. So I kind of got there just as the marathon was starting and didn't see David. Let's see PB at Disney World. Last month this marathon three minutes faster, 419, is a new PB for David.
Speaker 6:Now, the way this course runs, the half goes through the town of St Pete. Really nice. You're on the sidewalk, sometimes in the asphalt. Uh, some of the streets in St Petersburg are still brick. That's kind of neat run on that. It's not an even surface. But at about the oh gosh about the 10 mile mark. The half goes off to the left and goes past what remains of the uh Tropicana field where the Tampa Bay Rays play, minus the roof on top, so they don't play there. The other side goes to the right and heads out on the Pinellas Trail. Now, the Pinellas Trail is a neat stretch of cycling running. It's an old rail line that's been repaved in the rails trails.
Speaker 6:I love it when I'm out on a training run, but if you're doing a marathon it's boring. There's nothing out there. There's there's no spectators, no entertainment, nothing. It's just a dead out and back. So David thought that was a little boring. Nonetheless, this is a well-organized event. They got a great medal. David said I knew Bob was there and I zeroed in on the tallest guy I could see in the corral, said hi, and it wasn't him A little awkward. So that's the St Pete Distance Classic. Back to the UK and to London where our friend Amy was at Battersea Park for the Swifty 5K, which Amy describes as one of the most poorly organized events I've ever been to. None of the organizers had a clue what was going on. Doggone thing started 45 minutes late. They had a Taylor look-alike warm-up that lasted two minutes. Most people couldn't see or hear anything. No, chorus music. How can you have a Swifty run without chorus music?
Speaker 2:See, when she said that it was very unorganized, I thought maybe they were playing Sabrina Carpenter music instead of Taylor Swift or something like that.
Speaker 6:Oh gosh.
Speaker 2:But now the thing I need to know is did Amy run this race in 22 minutes? I don't know about you, but she could have been feeling a 22-minute race.
Speaker 6:Alright, that's going right over this old guy's head. I'm not a.
Speaker 2:Swifty, but it gets played enough in this house that I know that lyric, so it's a Taylor Swift lyric.
Speaker 6:Okay, I figured it was Greg, but I'll tell you what. Look, on top of all this, it was raining, okay. Well, it's London. I think that's normal. It was so bad, it became fun. She didn't run it in 22 minutes, she ran it in less than 27, though, okay close enough. Rock solid Rock solid.
Speaker 2:I don't know if there's any lyrics that rhyme with 27 as opposed to 22. We'll work on it. We'll workshop it.
Speaker 6:Amy, way to take lemons and make lemonade. Good job. My friend Plantation, florida, ravi, did the run through Central Park 5K In Memphis, tennessee, the MRTC Frank Horton Memorial Winter Off-Road Series 8K I have. Suzanne and Alex were there. Friends, if I go through the Facebook page until about 15 minutes before we have to start recording, so if I've missed some of your reports, I'm sorry. Let's see I've got in Vancouver.
Speaker 6:I do have a report from Lauren. She did the first half half marathon. That means something I didn't stutter. It is in fact the first half half marathon. That means something I didn't stutter. It is in fact the first half half marathon. She wasn't sure what would happen with the race, given it was snow and ice in Vancouver, but the course was changed. The race went on A little bit, icy, Snowed a little bit, but they did a good job. Race organizers kept the thing safe. Not a PR, I can imagine, not for Lauren, I think, spending most of your time trying to stay upright, but it was a PR for her husband, as it was his first half marathon. Great course, says Lauren, just not her favorite time of year to do it. All right, I'm looking through my notes here, friends, I think I have the Exeter Riverside race on the wrong day. I talked about it on Saturday. I think it was in fact on Sunday, but Anna did that one She'll forgive me, I hope.
Speaker 6:In Geneva, illinois, the Super Shuffle year 15, caitlin did it Cold at the start, feels like in the teens. Once they started running she warmed up quickly. Lots of folks wore their favorite NFL team's gear In Geneva, illinois I imagine it'd be a bunch of Bears jerseys, I don't know Big post-race party at the park. She went back, ran about two more miles to finish out the five she needed for princess training. So we'll see Caitlin here next week. And there we go, friends. That's the race report for episode 177. My friend and if you run you know you are our friend we do have a Zoom meeting this week, last Zoom meeting before the princess race weekend. We can talk about wine and dine registration, we can talk about the princess race, we can talk about just about whatever you want to talk about. So I do hope to see you there. Get your names in for the roll call, keep your training up and until we meet again, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, that's not right. 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.
