Rise and Run
Rise and Run
179: 2025 Princess Half Marathon Weekend Recap
Join us for a delightful exploration of Princess Weekend, where running converges with magic! In this episode of the Rise and Run podcast, we dive deep into the excitement of participating in Disney races, sharing funny stories, challenges, and triumphs experienced along the way. Our hosts and guests recount the unforgettable moments that make Disney races truly special, from costume malfunctions to character interactions that leave lasting memories. We discuss the camaraderie built among runners, emphasizing the importance of training, preparation, and the joy of the running community.
This week, we also look ahead to upcoming race weekends, unveiling new themes that will inspire both seasoned and novice runners alike to lace up their shoes and get involved in the fun. Whether you're aiming for a PR or simply looking to enjoy the magic, there's valuable insight waiting for you.
Together, we cultivate a close-knit family that uplifts and motivates each other, encouraging every listener to find their own joy in running. So whether you're a seasoned veteran or new to the race scene—join us as we celebrate the triumphs that come from uniting athletics and fantasy. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave us a review to spread the magic even further!
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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 Hi everyone.
Speaker 4:This is Andy from the Roller Coaster Running Channel and all the way from the UK and I'm here at the meetup with everyone and it's great to see everyone and keep rising and keep running. Andy joins us for an introduction. Thanks, andy Gosh. Andy wasn't over here at Princess Weekend but he was here for Marathon Weekend and he gets over quite a bit. Thanks for doing that roller coaster of running Andy's YouTube channel. Friends, if you want to check it out. Friends, welcome to episode 179 of the Rise and Run podcast. We are, as always, delighted that you're joining us. I'm Bob, and this week I'm here with Greg, hey, hey, hey. With Alicia, hello. With Jack, hiya. And with John hey, bob, how you doing? Doing well, my friend. Thank you for asking. On this week's episode, we've invited some friends to join us to talk about Princess Weekend. Only Jack and I were there out of the podcast group. So we've got a handful of Rise and Run friends who have come to relive this last Princess Weekend with us. To relive this last princess weekend with us.
Speaker 5: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. So please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run podcast and Instagram at Rise and Run pod, and check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, comment, race report and check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, comment, race report or want to introduce an upcoming episode, go ahead and call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.
Speaker 6:We also want to thank our patrons, whose support helps keep the Rise and Run podcast rising and running.
Speaker 4:If you'd like to join the Patreon team, please check us out at patreoncom. Slash, rise and run podcast. Thank you, jack you mentioned youtube.
Speaker 5:What's new in the youtube channel? Yeah, so, um, I know you're gonna hear me talking about a little bit later, so I'm not gonna say too much, but I did record my race this weekend, so you guys will be getting on the Rise and Run YouTube channel a Run Disney POV race weekend for the half marathon as a Galloway Pacers POV for the race. You're going to be with Adam and I. You're going to be with Adam and I, and if you're used to how I usually record races for Run Disney, this one is just slightly different. I'm not doing it in a vlogging style in respect to talking to the camera. I really want it to be very natural. But, yeah, you get to go ahead with this video. You get to listen to Adam and I talking about how we are strategizing throughout the race, on whether you know, picking up the pace, slowing it down, so that we are running our most perfect time for the time that we are assigned to get you guys to your race goals.
Speaker 4:Jack sounds good Jack.
Speaker 3:I do have a question At any point during this video does Adam attach the camera to his tutu?
Speaker 5:No, no, okay.
Speaker 4:Okay, it's good then. Good then, we won't have to click any kind of explicit blocks or anything. That's good. Also, I meant to mention this at the top no race report spotlight. This week. Those have been going to YouTube. I've been having a lot of fun with those. Uh, we'll be back to that next week, though.
Speaker 3:The Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by our friends over at Magic Bound Travel. Uh, today was a big day in the Run Disney universe as the themes for Marathon Weekend dropped today, and I know we're going to chat about those here in a little bit. But I know one topic of conversation that has been on a lot of people's minds are well, I want to sign up. Let's get this party started. Can I book my vacation package or can I book my room now? And unfortunately the answer is, at least as of day of recording, not right now but, I believe, soon.
Speaker 3:Should be very soon, and I know our friends over at Magic Bound have been saying that if you go ahead and fill out their online no-obligation quote form, you essentially can get put into the queue so that the minute that those rooms open up and those packages open up, they'll have all your information ready to go to get you a quote for marathon weekend 2026 or any other race weekend or non-race weekend uh, next calendar year. So be sure to go visit our friends over at magicboundtravelcom.
Speaker 4:It's a smart thing to do. Let's look at the training calendar. Friends, it's getting light. The only event we have on the training calendar now is Springtime Surprise, and it is just five weeks away. We're into training week 13, now for springtime, and the mileage this weekend is four miles, one of which is a magic mile. How's training going, friends? Anything we want to talk about this week?
Speaker 3:Training is going well. I had a, speaking of springtime surprise, I had a simulation weekend this past weekend, so I did a three mile walk and then a 10 mile run walk the following day. But I'm not sure how many people know this, but for springtime surprise, my daughter is running with me in her second ever run disney event, uh, during the 5k. So I need to make sure that her training is up to snuff and and for those of you that have been long-time listeners of the podcast, you all can remember how uh interesting the training cycle was with her.
Speaker 3:I remember back in wine and dine uh, 2022. But I am happy to report that things are going much better this time. So you know, two years really does make a difference. But I know that the thing that works for us when it comes to her training is to gamify things. She responds really really well to that. So we've been doing a really good job these past couple weeks of on the weekends, going on family walks. So I said, well, how about we do this? How about you and I run, walk two and a half miles while mommy just walks two miles? And if we can beat her back to the car, I'll let you pick dinner tonight and she was thrilled with that I'll bet, and you know so, as we, you know, hit our turnaround point and we're making our way back.
Speaker 3:We kept saying, whenever we were doing a run segment, we'd be like beat mommy, beat mommy, and she was just getting closer and closer because, as a seven-year-old probably, maybe like a mile and a half during the run segments, even though we were only doing 15 seconds, she was doing like exaggerated, like over breathing or saying that she had a cramp or whatever, and you know. So I just, you know, I was instilling that idea beat mommy, beat mommy, and we would just say that for 15 seconds and that was enough to distract her. And I'm happy to report that we beat mommy and uh and she got to pick her dinner. So things are going really really well. I'm very excited. Five weeks from now. Can't get here fast enough and uh and she got to pick her dinner. So things are going really really well. I'm very excited.
Speaker 4:Five weeks from now, can't get here fast enough and uh yeah um, you know again, just really really looking forward to it I'm thinking you know something else is happening at springtime and we're not going to talk about it because we don't have any details. It we should have those uh brooks shoes of it, is it, bro Brooks?
Speaker 3:Or New Balance. Yes, brooks, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the Brooks sportswear Brooks shirts.
Speaker 5:Yeah, very interesting.
Speaker 3:I hope we hear something about that soon.
Speaker 3:Well, actually not to jump the gun on the themes, but this kind of does correlate a little bit is with the information that got released today for marathon weekend themes. I forget what page is on, but you have to dig through it in the marathon weekend page on the run Disney website. But they actually give you a sizing guide of the Brooks shirts, because I think it was our friend Amanda over at once upon a marathon she had put up a uh, an instagram story slide today staying about how notoriously brooks shirts do run small so that they, you know. So they were given that sizing chart so that way you can look at. So when you do go to register for marathon weekend coming up here in the next two weeks or so, you know you know the appropriate uh shirt to select. So, yeah, so that partnership starts in the next two weeks or so you know the appropriate shirt to select. So, yeah, so that partnership starts in a couple of weeks. And, yeah, I'm very excited to see the shirts and even more excited to see the shoes.
Speaker 2:So that's going to be a real interesting shirt exchange at springtime. You got that right.
Speaker 6:Are we still able to edit the shirts if we needed?
Speaker 2:to or no. I don't think so. I think that goes away the minute the POT goes in, I think.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 4:That makes sense yeah, well, speaking of, I mean, we're only 12 days away from registration day for a marathon weekend, oh my gosh, that's right. Yeah yeah, the Run Disney crowd registers this coming Tuesday and we're one week behind them. But we did get themes dropped today and they generated quite a bit of excitement on the socials.
Speaker 3:What did we think? Can I answer for you, Bob, real quick.
Speaker 4:Give it a shot.
Speaker 3:They're nice.
Speaker 4:I thought they were very nice. Very nice. I just had to mess with you. Yeah, I mean, we all know from Marathon Weekend what characters are going to represent what race, but we still don't know the overall themes. Well, let's talk about them a little bit.
Speaker 6:Start with the 5k I like the 5k one.
Speaker 4:I like the astronaut space theme astro pluto or something yeah what there seems to be a villainous character in the background.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and I didn't recognize what that was?
Speaker 4:did anybody?
Speaker 6:no, I wasn't sure for that one, but I did notice it looked like a bat wing, or something. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, since we're talking about the 5k, a lot of folks have asked us. We had so much fun in the 2025 Marathon Weekend 5k with the Dalmatians, right right away. The question was well, what are we going to do next year? We got a lot of suggestions but, to be honest, the suggestion we got most often is the one I knew we needed to go with as soon as I saw this theme, and that's the aliens from Toy Story. So don't have details. Don't have details on the shirts or anything. There are aliens costumes out there. I I just you do a google search, you can find them, but I'll get with our friend at kawaiian pizza, alex, and see what she can do for us and uh, yeah, we'll be running as the aliens. I'll see what kind of a claw costume I can come up with.
Speaker 3:I was just about ready to say if you were going to be the claw.
Speaker 4:That should be exciting.
Speaker 6:The claw.
Speaker 4:I'll give it my best effort. I've got eight months to get ready for it. Actually, a little more than that, almost ten.
Speaker 2:I could be a delivery driver too for Pizza Planet.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we could use that Absolutely. We could use for Pizza Planet, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:We could use that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely, we could use a Pizza Planet delivery driver, but so that'll be it. Friends, I'll put that on our social media sites too. That'll be our 5k group costume for the 2026 5k marathon weekend. How about the rest 10k?
Speaker 3:Let let's see 10k chippendale, I must say I was a little confused by this one because I've been great. I know we can, we'll talk about the, the overall general theme that spread across the entire weekend. But I remember when I just you know like was on instagram earlier today and I was scrolling, I was like why are there question mark acorns, like?
Speaker 3:did they like did they forget to finish the logo, and this is just a proof and it's going to get updated in the future. But then once I read back and saw the overall general theme, then then the idea of mystery and and um you know, and detectives and stuff like that made a lot more sense.
Speaker 2:Like the Hardy Boys.
Speaker 3:Yes, the Hardy Monks.
Speaker 5:I think the 10K Goofy and Dopey are my favorite.
Speaker 2:They're interesting. They're very interesting. At first glance I'm like what are they trying to do? Because I didn't see the book portion of it. When I first looked at it I'm like, okay, space, okay, it's Valentine's Day. Then I realized it was a book.
Speaker 6:I did that too, john, I was like why is it Valentine's themed? Then I was really kind of confused. Um, as a big reader, I I appreciate the idea of the, the overall theme. Um, I'm interested to see what they're gonna do, like come 2027 then, um, if this is gonna be a one-time thing where they're trying to do a theme. Um, I did kind of like that Marathon Weekend was always just kind of the basic characters without a theme. But I mean, change is sometimes good.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I agree with you because I'm like looking at all my medals right now and I'm like you know, I honestly think I like that the way they are, like if I'm looking at my 2019 model, like I am, and I look at my 2020, like it's just a running theme with a cool design difference. You know what I mean. I think having a theme weekend is nice, but marathon weekend just seems like the one weekend like you said.
Speaker 2:That's like it's just a classic yeah, well, they had that theme a couple years back with the uh retro 90s, 80s theme.
Speaker 6:So yes, yeah, and the gold. They had a theme, but it's not as strong as this, yeah strong overall, though, I do think the artwork is really good for this one. It seems cohesive and the lines are nice, so that's good.
Speaker 3:I agree with a lot of what you all are saying. I am not a book reader. I wish I read more, and please don't come for me on social media or in a comment section or something like that. So, like to me, the idea of a book theme isn't like screaming to me like I, I don't, I don't love that aspect of it. Now, on the the flip side of it, the thing that I do love, though, is like the it's, it's part of, like the banner artwork, you know where it says, like what's your story? I think that I think that's a really, really cool idea, but the idea that, like a book, is part of every single one.
Speaker 3:Again, it doesn't. It doesn't speak to me, you know, and going to what you were saying before is to me the idea of a book like this, I think, plays out really well with springtime surprise yes or it plays out really well for maybe even a wine and dine like like to me. I you know, I honestly think the book idea is a little bit better than the breakfast, lunch, dinner thing that they're gonna that they're gonna be doing for wine and dine, uh, this upcoming year?
Speaker 3:so yeah, because you know what what you ladies were saying before is I like the idea that marathon weekend yes, you have the core characters and there and there was like just a very slight generic theme and like like this past year was a perfect example is, yes, they went with the whole like collegiate varsity type theme, but that made a lot of sense because it ties into an athletic event that we're all competing in. We're not reading books while we're running 26.2 miles.
Speaker 3:So, for me. There's a little bit of a disconnect there. Now, all of that being said, though, the artwork itself, I think, is very, very well done. I think they did a very nice job with that. Again, we've all talked about cohesive themes, the fact that everyone you know that each race has a book. I think that's really nice, and I honestly truly believe that these are going to produce some really really nice medals as well, too it's just the idea of books and reading in terms of racing just doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 3:And and then on top of that, like when I first saw the half marathon artwork, I was like wait, didn't we just do this for the Valentine's day virtual race and stuff like that. So so some positives and some misses for me on on this particular theme.
Speaker 5:So, funnily enough, you mentioned you know that the half reminds you of the virtual races, because looking at these races, almost I like, I almost thought for a second oh, these are the virtual series they must be doing a whole new virtual series, because I could see this 100 as a virtual series one, because they do those very unique and and whatnot.
Speaker 5:I didn't see right away that oh oh oh, this is marathon weekend. So I think, no matter what, if you're gonna sign up for anything, marathon weekend is always the one that I always is my go-to race weekend to sign up for. Um, just a little surprised by the themes, yeah, I mean, and there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 3:You know, I think this is going to john's point a little bit there there is nothing wrong with going with a theme for Marathon Weekend. We talked about this many years ago when we talked about our favorite medals. There's something to be said for those 50th anniversary medals from 2022, because, again, there was a theme, but it was super generic. Or then, john, you brought up the 90s super generic. Or then, you know, john, you brought up the the. You know the the 90s. Again, that was a set done to celebrate the 30th anniversary of run disney right marathon weekend, which happened to take place in the 90s or early 90s. I should say so again, I think you can incorporate, but something very specific like this, though I you know again, doesn't fit. But again, artwork's awesome and I know, and I know a lot of people are really, really excited. So I'm not sure I'm not trying to steal anybody's joy from this whatsoever. Um, you know, if you love it, I'm extremely, extremely happy for you and regardless of what the themes are, we're all going to be there.
Speaker 4:Which leads me to this question what is everyone signing up for? Yeah, I was going to ask. That's a good question, go ahead.
Speaker 6:I'm hoping for the marathon again.
Speaker 3:Just the marathon.
Speaker 6:Just the marathon.
Speaker 4:Just the marathon 5K and marathon. Here I'm with you, Bob.
Speaker 3:Good, you know you started as just the 5k at the marathon last year and then look at what that turned into. Yeah, no, I actually started last year, oh no, you were going to do goofy, that's right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, uh. Two years ago I did 5k in marathon. I wanted to do Dobie but I turned out to be that turned out to be good luck, because I was still at that point. I, just a couple of days ago, past three years on this knee replacement. Had I registered for dopey, uh, two seasons ago I w I wouldn't have made it. The knee was not back to where it needed to be by then. So no, 5k and marathon. I think I like that idea. I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 3:All right, Our bride-to-be. What are you running?
Speaker 5:So I need to call Disney first, because I want to do a wedding photo session at Hollywood Studios and they only do those like before the park opens, and so I want to do it on Sunday so that I can run the half marathon. But I'm worried that because part of the race runs through Hollywood Studios, I don't know if we will be able to, unfortunately, do the session that day, so I might have to switch to the marathon. But I just want to verify with them first before I register for the event. Um, because I still really want to get our um, some wedding photos done over at tower of terror listen, speaking of reservation, and we said, uh, not reservation.
Speaker 4:And we said, not reservation registration and we said that was coming up on the 11th of March, the 4th. If you're in Club Run Disney, I've seen in the threads and on the Facebook pages folks expressing, you know, a little nervousness about registering. You know a little nervousness about registering Understandable, this is a tough weekend to register for. But if you're new to this, I highly encourage you to join us in the Marathon Weekend Facebook community chat where we help one another out on registration day. I'll remind you of that again next week. We have a really high success rate. No guarantees, of course, can't possibly make any guarantees. We have a really high success rate of getting our friends registered for these races what were you thinking for marathon weekend greg?
Speaker 3:as of this moment, and I don't think it's going to change much. But I am looking at just the half marathon, so I'm holding fast and true to what I said during our goals show at the beginning of the year that this boy will not be running any marathons in 2025 or early 2026.
Speaker 6:So yeah, just the half for me. I did that in 2022. I took off from the marathon and just did the half and I was really glad that I did. So, yeah, I took off from the marathon and just did the half and I was really glad that I did.
Speaker 3:So. Yeah, I mean heck, I already booked my flights for a marathon weekend because I scored a really good deal on American using my miles.
Speaker 2:Excellent.
Speaker 3:I got my rooms booked and everything. I can do that because I know we talked about. With MBT. You can't do that yet, but with DVC you can. So in theory I'm already set for marathon weekend.
Speaker 4:Excellent.
Speaker 2:Looking back at the themes again, I just hope that some of these are the shirt colors.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 3:I'm really hopeful that we get some different shirt colors. You mean, you don't want three versions of gray and blue of all in one of these, I think blue looks great, though You're wearing a navy blue right now.
Speaker 5:No, that's black. That's black yeah.
Speaker 6:I'm wearing a blue marathon there, you go Alicia's got a blue shirt on, yeah.
Speaker 2:The marathon's like a lavender type shirt. It looks a little different, actually, the goofy, the dopey shirt with the, the brown or whatever they were going to call that color yeah I don't think it's something different for once.
Speaker 6:I mean, I like the blues, I like the grays, I look good in them, but I I just want some variety, yeah red blue, and red blue and gray, that's the three colors and some yellow thrown in.
Speaker 4:Yeah, All right. Well, let's wait and see what happens there. We got shirts. We're a long way from seeing shirts. We'll see medals before we see shirts, and we got that to go Well. Since we're looking forward, let's change course completely and look back just a few days to the recently completed Princess Weekend. Big weekend just finished Princess 2025. Gosh, it was a good time. As many of you know those who were there and those who listen regularly only Jack and I were there from the podcast crew. So, to get an outstanding recap of this weekend, we invited some friends to join us and I would like to welcome Josh Hi Pamela.
Speaker 7:Hi everybody.
Speaker 4:Taylor Hello and Trina Hi. Guys. Thanks for Taylor, hello, and Trina Hi. Guys, thanks for joining us. Good to see you this weekend. Hope you all had fun. Yeah, you're shaking your head up and down doesn't work on an audio podcast. We got a lot of how about?
Speaker 1:a thumbs up, Thumbs up yeah, okay, that's good.
Speaker 7:It was great.
Speaker 4:Well, let's do as we normally and I'm going to try and up. I was there for the 5K and the half marathon. I missed the 10K. I will talk more about that when we get to the race report. And Jack was there pacing the half.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Did a good job on that.
Speaker 5:Oh shucks, We'll let her tell us I want to know about that.
Speaker 4:So we'll let her tell us about that, but I want to hear from our friends. So let's start with the Expo. Alicia, I'll let you kick it off, okay All right?
Speaker 6:So yeah, let's start with the Expo, where we all go to get our bibs. Pamela, I know you always go the first day. I assume you were there the first day.
Speaker 7:How did it go? It was great. I am in Club Run Disney, so even though I can get in at eight o'clock, I still get there at seven, because that's just how we are. We like to get there nice and early, so we're the first five people. Yeah, I love the excitement of the beginning of race weekend.
Speaker 4:It's a social thing, isn't it?
Speaker 7:We do. We spend an hour in line hanging out and talking and then everybody comes up. It's like a big family reunion at the expo. So I think it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 6:Taylor, we're shaking your head. Were you also there on the first day?
Speaker 9:Yeah, so I got really lucky. Well, I'm not there on the first day yeah, so I got really lucky. I. Well, I'm not clubber on Disney. I wish, but nope. I had to get my virtual queue at 8.30 and I got group 15. So we were in there fairly early. I actually got there with my group of girls before the gates were even open for the ESPN, so I'd never been there that early. Actually we usually roll in after 10 o'clock, but we were there at 9.45, ready to go. They called us probably around 10.20, and we went straight into the expo, didn't have to even wait in the holding area, which was very nice. So most everything was still there when I got there and you're both talking about the Run Disney merchandise right.
Speaker 6:Yes, yeah. How was the Run Disney merchandise this race weekend? I know some people were saying that things had run out. Was that true?
Speaker 9:I think things probably ran out really quickly. I was one of the lucky ones who got the metallic jacket that everyone wanted. It was also a very good price point it wasn't as expensive as the other jackets. But I know we were in there for probably about an hour and by us leaving they were all sold out. Because one of my friends put hers back and it was like lions trying to get to the jacket. I was like I have the medium.
Speaker 6:Take it. I've never had that happen before.
Speaker 9:Yeah, so otherwise, I mean I was very fortunate, everything was still there, but I don't know how anyone else's experience was later in the week.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I got in there. I could have gotten one of those metallic jackets. I had first dibs on them, but I just couldn't do it. It's too shiny.
Speaker 7:I don't know what I would wear that other than on this race weekend. So I did not get the metallic jacket. Everybody has their favorites. It was not my favorite so I got, but I did. For the first time ever, I got this pass holder quarter zip. It's really cute. It's like a light, light purple. It's got all the princesses and villains on the back. I thought it was my favorite pass holder item they've ever had, so I got that. And, yes, I got the white jacket. I looked at all my friends. I said so we're all agreeing, we're buying a bright white jacket. You know I work at a school.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 7:I'm going to get stuff on me whatever, and sure enough.
Speaker 4:I mean, it's already stained, it's okay, I still like it, white jacket and pizza and spaghetti for lunch.
Speaker 7:We had just had spaghetti the night before, I said, oh, it's good, we got our spaghetti out of our system.
Speaker 7:Now we should be fine. And then I always really liked how the tank tops are made. Now I like the higher neck and I like the material. I think it's very comfortable. I don't know, I think they're really cute. So I got a tank and then I was getting my ornament with the little shoe ornament and I did pretty good. I didn't. I didn't like go crazy this time. I didn't get the backpack. I did, which was really cute't I w. I didn't like go crazy this time. Um, I didn't get the backpack. I did, which was really cute though, by the way, I think those lugs I mean they have 500 pockets in them and they're very practical and they're a lot bigger than the lounge flies Um, and I love that you can display your metal um in the back of it. I think they did a really really good job designing the race weekend lug backpack. So I'm hoping that the one for springtime surprise I'm sure it was probably posted at some point online, but I'm hoping it's cute because I might get that one.
Speaker 9:Yeah, the lug bag I purchased and it was the best purchase all weekend. It kept everything dry too in the rain on Monday and there's so many pockets. I could not believe how many pockets and how many things I was unzipping and some pockets go up, some pockets go down. It was the best purchase. So if anyone's thinking about it for future race weekends I did see it was pre-ordered for Wine and Dine.
Speaker 10:I'd get, I'd get confused yeah I left my house at like 5 am to try to get there, because I'm club run disney andi wanted to get there by eight and I got there like 15 minutes to spare. Oh wow, I four in the great traffic. Oh yeah, I stood there in line and then I went in and I saw the preview the night before. I think it was the castle Runner had done a preview, and I don't ever get the jackets or anything like that. I usually just get an ornament and a magnet and then every once in a while something else. And that jacket just intrigued me the night before. So I was like I'll just check it out when I get there.
Speaker 10:And I went in and I got the first couple of items that I really wanted and I saw a whole bunch of people kind of running by with like handfuls of the jackets. So I just kind of ran by like where they you know where they were coming from and I ran over and a bunch of people were pulling them off the shelves and I just are off the rack and I just I grabbed one and I ran away and I went. I went in the corner and I grabbed a lug, because a bunch of people were grabbing the lug bags too. So I grabbed one of those cause I just wanted to look at it. So I went off in a corner and I put the jacket on and I was like this is the greatest thing I've ever had.
Speaker 10:And then, uh, I loved that that bag. I just I went through all the pockets. I even went over and picked up one of the bottles to make sure that the bottle would fit into the side pocket, because that's the most important to me is being able to put your water bottle. So I did that. And then I bought everything and I left and I went out to my car to wait for my husband because he was coming over a little bit after me, and I started checking my email and all of a sudden I had an email from Run Disney that said don't forget your pre-purchased items.
Speaker 10:And I was like oh, I pre-purchased items, so I ran back in and luckily I could get back in with my wristband. So I ran back in and I went over and I was like hi, I think I pre-purchased some items, so I wound up with two shoe ornaments.
Speaker 4:One for each foot. There you go.
Speaker 10:Yeah, that's the one thing that I had to get. That was the whole reason why I went over there so early was because I had missed it last year and I was like devastated. So this year I was like I'm not missing it and I was like, well, I guess I have to.
Speaker 4:Hey, Josh, did you get your metallic jacket and your lug pack?
Speaker 1:I didn't.
Speaker 3:They didn't really have a size for my jacket. That's a bummer, because it would have went so well with your eyes.
Speaker 1:You know I would have rocked that jacket, but it just wasn't cut for me I didn't either no, I I'm club run disney too, so I was there like 7 15, but I think I spent the least amount of time in the merch that I've ever spent, because Princess Weekend the men's stuff is. They really dumb it down Like it's bland, it's boring, and I think they're trying to get all those husbands that were dragged there by their significant others and if you know me, I have more color in my wardrobe than that, and so I'm like, eh yeah, not for me I.
Speaker 4:I like the generic run, disney stuff, I mean the just plain run.
Speaker 3:I bought some of that josh, I want to go back to something that you said a little bit ago. Now. Obviously your club run disney so you know you get in there a little bit earlier, but you know you were there quite a bit early and I did see like a lot of posts on social media that would have been with thursday morning of a sizable line for the the various levels of club run disney, but then also quite a long line waiting for the gates to open so people could go get their bibs or head into the general expo. Obviously we're not back in the days of before a virtual queue, where people were getting to ESPN at like 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning. But what would your assessment be of the number of people that are showing up well before the 10 o'clock start, and does that make the first couple of hours of the expo really hectic and congested?
Speaker 1:When I get there. I get there about quarter after seven and there are people lined up at the gate by the time I get there. Not a lot, but there are a few and there's quite a line by the time I'm done with the merch at 8, 15, 8, 30. But in my experience, if I do go to the expo and I don't always go I have to sit and wait until 10, which is an hour, hour and a half, and usually there are not that many people waiting by then because they are all going to their bib first.
Speaker 4:Nobody goes to the expo first.
Speaker 1:They all get in line in the bib. So if you actually just want the expo, you're going to walk into an empty room.
Speaker 7:So that's kind of a first world problem for us ex-club people is that we're done and we're like all we want are the character pictures. But now we have to wait till 10 o'clock and then we still have to wait in that long line with everybody else that are going in to get their bibs. And we're not getting bibs, we're just going to get in line to go see the characters.
Speaker 4:Oh, I see yeah.
Speaker 7:So you know the over at the Run Disney merch area they still have the numbers there you can take pictures with. So the 3.1, 6.2, 13 know those numbers, so we still do some pictures over there. Um, but then now where the bid pickup is, where they move the character um pictures, which makes more sense to spread it out, I get it, but it also makes um just a lot more line standing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just curious, you know, from the standpoint, because you know day of recording is the first day that guardians of the galaxy, cosmic rewind and tiana's bayou adventure don't have a virtual queue. And obviously I I understand why the the merch virtual queue still exists, so that you know there isn't crazy mass hysteria for the run, disney, merch. But then, like there's a small part of me that wonders well, if all of these people are still lining up, to quote unquote, rope drop the expo and your bib pickup, does that make the virtual queue as effective as a tool? But I guess they can probably tinker things, uh with things and uh move forward.
Speaker 1:But I was just curious to get everyone's perspective on that I think if they got rid of the virtual queue for the merch it would be back to the 3 and 4 am lines okay that's.
Speaker 4:That would be my guess, I think right now, I think you're right now.
Speaker 5:I think you're right people showed up that early first oh yes, oh yeah when was this this?
Speaker 4:must have been like after club run disney or before the virtual queue.
Speaker 10:I'm sorry, before the virtual queue yeah, I was surprised at how many people were like coming up as we were kind of coming out of the merch ourselves, like so many people were just walking up in it and the gates hadn't opened yet and it was just so many people. I was like like really kind of surprised.
Speaker 9:And then they opened the gate and everyone flooded to the bib and the bib line got crazy. Even first thing in the morning. It was all the way back behind where, like one of the first concession stands.
Speaker 10:They went back like into that one. Like when we walked over there it went back in inside like that one stadium, like it was kind of like looped around and then we had to like kind of go through it to go to the restroom.
Speaker 9:And this year they won't even let anyone enter into the actual like vendor expo the normal way. You had to go in through with your bib down below and they only would let people come in on the bottom level instead of coming in on the top and going down the stairs. They weren't allowing anybody in. They had guards there and they were blocking it.
Speaker 4:Becky got caught in that. She wasn't running so she didn't have a bib, she just wanted to go into the expo and she had to go downstairs. My comments I got there after lunch, I got there a little after one, I suppose, and uh, I was surprised that the line for the bib was still in the stadium. That surprised me. Now, once we got into the field house, you know how you go around the field house and then you get into that big open area and you've got the snake queue in there, big open area, and you've got the snake queue in there. That wasn't there, okay. So from the stadium in around, no big deal. Then, yes, down to the line outside, which again isn't that big a deal because it moves really fast. Uh, becky tried to get by. No, that wasn't happening. I don't know if she offered the guy cookies or what, I don't know.
Speaker 9:Anyway, but while you were waiting there, they had Cinderella's carriage at the bottom of the stairs.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was, I had never seen before oh it's really cool. It's been there before, taylor, it has.
Speaker 7:Yeah, they've done it a few times at Princess. They used to have the carriage more by where the Run Disney merch is outside there and then they moved it to that. And then they also had Mulan and Princess Minnie inside, and then there was a magic shot which the line was really long for that, so we ended up never waiting for that one.
Speaker 4:So I'm not even sure what the magic shot was. Then my other observation once we got our virtual queue for Run Disney Merch at 2.30 or 3 in the afternoon we went in. I figured in typically 2.30 or 3,. Yeah, you just head in. This time you go back into that area where they're running the snake queue and that was full, so took us a little while to get in there. Eh, no big deal. Expo I didn't see as many friends at the expos I typically do, but princess weekend is just a little bit different and just a reminder that the refillable beer cups are now race weekend specific, which are super cute.
Speaker 7:I love them, but they caught on to us bringing our beer cups on previous weekends, but, um, and that was the other thing Um, they gave us one, and club run Disney. We've. We've often gotten gifts in our bags and we didn't get any gifts this time. We, we got a cupcake, like we normally either get a cookie or a cupcake, and then we had, um, uh, we could greet the queen cookie or a cupcake, and then we had, um, we could greet the queen uh, evil queen, um, so that was our special thing up there. But wine and dine they gave us the refillable cup, um, and we've gotten stadium blankets. We've gotten all kinds of different things.
Speaker 10:We got like the rain, that little raincoat that was in a little thing like you could hook onto yourself. We did. We gave the rain jacket to her. I gave the rain. It was like a little rain poncho, like a disposable rain poncho in a little like a little like pouch.
Speaker 7:No, I must have that somewhere.
Speaker 10:Yeah, I gave. I took the rain poncho and gave it to my husband before the half marathon on marathon weekend because it was raining so hard. I was like here.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, marathon weekend.
Speaker 1:right, we've got running journals, gym towels We've got gym towels. All sorts of stuff.
Speaker 7:Nothing, yeah and nothing.
Speaker 1:Here we are complaining that we didn't get a free gift. Yeah, but for how?
Speaker 3:much. You guys pay for that, though you know something to be said about that, hey, jack, I got to know, though, how was your time at the Galloway booth.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so different experience from you guys. I came in on Friday was in and out with ESPN within 45 minutes. I basically just got my bib and my stuff and I left. But Saturday was a lot of fun. I got there. I was working the booth from 11 to 1. I had so much fun meeting so many people and meeting a lot of the pacers, some of which were new, and if anybody wants to see, maybe if they can get a chance to see some of the pacers, if you're wanting to pace with them, that's a great way to go to the expo and check out, because you might be meeting your pacer that day before the race even starts, which is always exciting.
Speaker 5:You're like oh yeah, come with us, come with us, we'll be in corral, you know, yada, yada. But yeah, I had a lot of great conversations. It was very exciting to talk to Jeff in the morning before the expo doors opened and yeah, I was very, very excited for the weekend. I was worried it might turn out like springtime surprise, like my first time pacing, but that pleasantly happy and I know we'll talk about that later. But yeah, I think if you ever have any questions about pacing, don't be afraid to ask, come over and say hello to us. We'll be more than happy to help you guys out and it's always a blast meeting you guys.
Speaker 4:But yeah, yeah, good deal. I didn't do my typical trick of going back on Friday or Saturday when it's less crowded. I didn't do that. We had other things going on. But oh, I know what I? Yeah, I had other things going on, like a different race in a different city. I knew I was doing something. I couldn't anyway, but anyway, yeah, All right, Expo stuff Good 5K hey, I'm just, this is unrehearsed. If you had one word to describe the 5k, what would it? Be cold you knew it.
Speaker 4:I was counting on that what was the?
Speaker 9:temperature I think it 32. Yeah, I think it was set 40, something like in the 30s. 35, I think it was set 40 something, 31 like in the 30s 35, I think, is what my phone said.
Speaker 4:So colder than marathon weekend. It was a lot like marathon weekend.
Speaker 5:Oh man, that's the best weather.
Speaker 4:I'm really jealous it was windy, you're wrong, jack, it's not.
Speaker 10:It was windy and cold. The marathon wasn't even nice for the 5K.
Speaker 4:What are some of the highlights of the 5K guys? Anybody got one they want to chat about?
Speaker 10:I do. I got to meet some new friends.
Speaker 4:That's great.
Speaker 10:Wonderful Josh and Laura. She's out in Washington.
Speaker 2:State.
Speaker 10:So the three of us met right before the race for the meetup.
Speaker 4:I saw the photos.
Speaker 10:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I think I saw, I think I saw y'all too.
Speaker 10:Yeah, yeah. And then we we went over to the crowd together. We all decided to go to the crowd. We just had, we just had a great time hanging out together. And then we were like Laura's, like what pace are you guys running? And we all found out we're all running completely different races, and so we just kind of, like you know, have a good race. And we took off and see you tomorrow. And then the next morning we all met up again and then we did kind of the same thing all three mornings. And finally that last morning I was like, can we get a picture, guys? And then we became friends so that we can, like you know, keep in touch. And we're like, right before we started the half we were like see you at springtime.
Speaker 4:You betcha?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I think the most exciting thing people liked about the 5K this year is they said the Mylar was okay to run with.
Speaker 4:That's right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Oh, because it's not timed.
Speaker 4:No timing, no timing, that's so true.
Speaker 5:Yep, no, because it's not time, no timing.
Speaker 7:That's so true, yep. So they were telling people. This hurts me to say it but you can keep your Mylar on.
Speaker 4:Pelkey didn't know what to say. You know he's up there and half the time he's got. Yeah, he was at a loss for words.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know you can fold it up, put it in your pocket, cross the start line and then wear your mile. Are again for the 5k or 10k.
Speaker 4:I don't know John Sounds pretty sneaky.
Speaker 2:I'm causing trouble, I know.
Speaker 4:Pretty suspicious.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, I, I left mine on. I did. I left mine on for a while. The course was subtly different than it's been in the past. It was basically the same. It was a little bit different and I found that I kind of liked the changes. It seemed that we I don't know what did we do Get to Epcot a little differently or something. We came in and did that.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it was a different entrance and I think it's because, you know, all the walls are down now in Epcot, so they're like oh, we have more different routes that we can send people through, and I agree it's nice to have a little less backstage it wasn't the same as marathons 5k no, it was very similar yeah, they're all.
Speaker 4:They're all very similar. But no, it wasn't the same. It was okay. There was a difference.
Speaker 7:Yeah, um, so that was good oh, and I wanted to go back and just say pre-race they had um mulan, abu aurora and her prince and the old hag as the character pictures how many did you get?
Speaker 4:all of them you did. You must have gotten it. You must have gotten there really early um, yes, I've learned.
Speaker 7:This is my trick, as I end up taking a lift over in the morning instead of waiting for the first bus. Because you know, officially they've always said the first bus leaves at three in the morning, but there was always a 230 bus that really left in the morning and they've stopped doing that secret 230 bus and so they keep you there till three, and if you're not at security right at three o'clock you might not get through all four characters no, it's tough.
Speaker 4:You could get one, two.
Speaker 7:Yeah. So I get there at like 2.30 and I love hanging out for that half hour before security opens and then we just power walk ourselves over to the lines and that makes me happy because I am a slower runner. So I tend to not stop on the course for photos with characters. Plus, the lighting is way better for those pre-race character pictures, because sometimes on course you'll wait 15 minutes and then you get your picture back and it's real dark or it's over exposed, so I prefer the race course pictures.
Speaker 7:anyway, I love the running pictures because you've got the light on and all this time you spent on your costumes I just like to see how they flow. But I will say I made a rookie mistake with my 5K costume. I put my bib up high and then I had a Merida wig on which is a lot of hair and it's very heavy, and my hair is in front of my bib, completely covering it in every picture. But luckily I was running with nine other Merida's and their bibs were showing, so they're every. All my friends are just sending me all the pictures because I'm not kidding on my um photo pass and there's like eight pictures.
Speaker 4:I understand, I understand.
Speaker 7:So you know if you're wearing a wig, make sure your bib's a little lower.
Speaker 4:Yeah, any other costumes? Anybody else do costumes for the 5K Anything?
Speaker 10:I tried to do a Mulan type costume, yeah. So I was glad for having kind of a couple extra layers because of it. So you know, I had like an apron that I put like the cricket on the front of it. So you know, it's like I had like a apron that I put like the cricket on the front of it so and like a sash to make it look like her outfit. But I did carry my blanket the whole time and because I was so afraid that if I did stop I would get cold. So every picture of me I've got this blanket.
Speaker 7:So it just helps, helps you remember what an experience the race was Right, right.
Speaker 10:Yeah, that's what my husband kept saying. That was the cold race. Yeah, he's like you'll have a story to tell one day about these blanket pictures.
Speaker 2:So you became Schroeder from Peanuts, exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right, right. You know, the week before here in Florida it was above average temperatures, so yeah, we just got lucky, it got really cold.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I did my typical, you know theme shirt from Hawaiian pizza apparel, but I decided last minute didn't matter and I threw a hoodie on and wore that through the entire. Yeah. I'm like I'm not even going to bother, it's too cold.
Speaker 4:No, I did my layers, I I did a long sleeve shirt. I had a nice thermal long sleeve shirt. I brought Gaston's grandfather out of retirement. I have fun with that, with the spray painted wig and all that, and it went. It was, it went pretty well, it was fun.
Speaker 9:Yeah, it was just because Fauna from Sleeping Beauty. So I did all three fairies for the three races. So I started with green cause, mulan and then so on. We'll get to the other ones in the next races. But yeah, something I noticed on the course obviously it was very crowded since it was untimed, but there were. I felt like there were a lot more photo pass on the course than usual. I felt like I saw a lot more green tents and I had like 25 pictures in my finishing album afterwards, which typically I don't think I get as many during the 5k.
Speaker 3:You know, taylor, speaking of photos, that that just led me to something that we didn't really chat about in terms of. I mean, it's not expo related, but this was the first race weekend where run Disney introduced the new photo pass linking system and I know there were some people who were having trouble getting linked up because, you know, maybe like the code that was provided in, or like if you didn't get a check-in pass then you didn't know what your code was, or something like that did. Did anybody have any of those linking issues at all during the course of the weekend?
Speaker 9:I had a panic attack when I realized I only had one code for the 10K and the challenge and it read for both, so my code stayed the same. I only had to enter it that one time and it read for the 10K and the half half, it was perfectly fine.
Speaker 7:So the only issue I heard is someone um, because they did lowercase letters, people were putting in ones, but it actually was a lowercase l or something yeah so that?
Speaker 7:so, because there was that. I know that example because there was a guy on the bus going to magic kingdom and he was like I can't get mine to work and his wife could get hers to work. And then I said, well, so then we started talking through it and he's like, oh, maybe they are not ones, they're actually I. So I, yeah, that's the only issues I've heard of.
Speaker 4:The funny thing, Greg, when you pick up your bib, when I got my first bib, they hand me this thing that says and here's how to get your photo, pass photos. And I'm thinking you know who you're talking to. I know how to get that. Give me a break, I don't need this thing and I didn't get rid of it. I put it in the bag, Uh, but I know it was. Uh, it worked pretty well.
Speaker 1:I did notice they were prepping us for it at Marathon Weekend, Because on your check-in pass at Marathon Weekend you had your code.
Speaker 4:I didn't know that, joe, your bib number.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, I didn't know that, which is their way of saying we're going to change company, we're going to make sure it works. It worked and I do think it was long overdue that they closed that weird little hole that you could get anybody's photos if you just see their bib number like that. That was always strange to me. Like you don't, you don't need to be grabbing other people's photos.
Speaker 3:You know somebody was oh, that's true you know, before we move to the, the 10k, I I did have one outsider's, you know, comment here and I I'm interested to hear our participants thoughts on this. I mean, obviously, for 5k the costumes are, you know, usually you know the most intricate because you know you're going a short distance, everything. I I want to say bravo to the run disney community, you know, for you know really showing up. But you know the number of people that I saw wearing like the mulan's porridge. Uh, I thought that was fabulous and great. I do not know this person, but massive shout out to the guy that made the, the great stone dragon head that like was probably like three feet long. How run disney did not confiscate that.
Speaker 7:I'm not 100 sure, but they did oh, they did oh he made it, he made it by, he made it by like four cast numbers and then he got to the last person before he got to his corral and they said nope you can't, oh bummer I was wondering about that during because they were interviewing him and he was like telling them how he made it and I was kind of like how is he running with that?
Speaker 3:well, no, I mean speaking of the interviewing and I mean right, and this is not only is this a recap, this is also a live planning session for future guests in the rise around podcast folks we're gonna have to talk to. Uh, she goes by the handle on instagram runs on pizza. Veronica, she's kind of like the like. I mean, yes, you know riley. Yes, riley is our absolute favorite sideline reporter in terms of the race announcers and chatting with everyone, but she does this strictly for Instagram, just walking around the family reunion area, and she does this for every race weekend. So for people who can't be there, that's a great account to follow. We'll see if we can get Veronica on the podcast in the future, but you know any other super elaborate costumes that everyone that anyone saw during the 5k?
Speaker 10:I I did see some girls that were dressed up kind of like princesses but they were um, they were beautiful and they were like they all look like models and one of them actually had like the pink pony club, like sash on, but it was like but you could tell it was like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, like you could tell that they were. They were supposed to be princesses but they were like gorgeous. They were like running in front of me at one point and I was just like wow.
Speaker 9:I also think a lot of people had to make modifications to their wardrobe when it turned out to be so cold. That's a good point I had to modify definitely what I was wearing as well and would have appreciated a couple extra layers. But you live and you learn.
Speaker 7:I do that when I'm planning the costumes, I plan it for any temperature, because for the 5K I just wore fleece leggings underneath my skirt and you know, three layer or two layers of t-shirts on top with arm sleeves, and you know, you just and well. The Merida wig itself was nice and warm because it was like a scarf on my neck, so I recommend the wig All right, all right.
Speaker 3:Well, let's move from the 5K and let's hop on our magic carpet and let's start talking about the 10K themed around Jasmine and Jafar Josh, what was your experience during this race?
Speaker 1:Well, the biggest difference was we really lacked our anchor point for our meetup group in the morning? Was we really lacked our anchor point for our meetup group in the morning and it was much smaller group than normal for the Rise and Run crew because nobody could find us Sorry. We normally have a very tall gentleman and he wasn't there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he was a couple miles west.
Speaker 1:But it was much warmer, which was good. It was not actually that much warmer, but it was a lot less windy and it was far more pleasant of a race, temperature-wise.
Speaker 9:Excellent.
Speaker 3:Taylor, how about you?
Speaker 9:Yeah, it was a great race. Definitely adding to it being 10 degrees warmer and less windy definitely made a difference. We stuck our hand outside of our door in the morning. We're like, oh, this is already so much better Weather check hand outside of our door in the morning we're like oh, this is already so much better weather check.
Speaker 9:We got to the races quite a bit later than I like I usually get to the races, so I didn't see anybody really in any of the meetup spots because most people had already kind of funneled to their corrals. Um, but it was a fantastic race. The weather actually made it like really nice. I stopped for, I think, almost every single characters and I was in Corral B, so that was nice that I was able to, you know, not have to worry about too much. I think this is the longest I've ever spent on a 10K course and it's actually longer than my half marathon PR, so it was like two and a half hours on the course.
Speaker 4:Good.
Speaker 9:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Get your money's worth. That's good.
Speaker 9:My dollar per minute on the course was fantastic. So, very impressed with myself.
Speaker 3:Hey, taylor question I have for you because I know for the 10K and for the half they added a corral, so I think it went A to to g. My question for you is has run disney learned how to do their abcs or are we still doing this a, b, c, c, c, d, d, d, e thing?
Speaker 9:it was like a a, b, b, b okay and then yeah, so it still had a lot of like the mini corrals. I think I was in like B3 for the um, for the 10 K Um, but for G I know that they also still had many crowds and I had a friend who was in G and she said they were going four and a half minutes between waves at the end. So people were just waiting around for quite a long time and she started after 6 AM.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow, all right. So that's good to know. Folks for springtime surprise. You know we'll probably still have this situation.
Speaker 9:So go to the corrals together as a group and if anyone has to visit corral p, go there before you go into the regular crowd, because you know that way you don't have to deal with that password stuff from and they didn't have passwords oh, there was no passwords, this time there's no passwords oh a and b pretty much walked straight in up into their chute, and then it was, and then they broke us off into those little mini corrals oh, okay, as you approach the start line, okay but what I noticed half marathon morning was what they had color coded right, but they were not password protected. My friend did it all the way to the front, very last minute.
Speaker 3:Is it two-factor authentication now instead of a?
Speaker 9:password take your phone, yeah but yeah, I know someone who started in d and they started at 5 15, so they sent out the first three URLs very quickly, which was noticeable on the course as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm in B and they were moving us quick Like they hardly had time to reset between three, two, one go, and they must've slowed us down after that because we were I was in like wave three and we were out there in a few minutes.
Speaker 9:That makes it hard, though 504, 505, we were out.
Speaker 10:Yeah, I think the official start time was like 5.06 for us.
Speaker 4:Hard for what, Jay?
Speaker 5:Like when the corrals are being pushed so fast. It makes it hard the first few miles.
Speaker 4:Because you get so crowded and congested.
Speaker 1:And I think that may be the feedback they get towards the end of the race and they slow it down, because we definitely were, they were pushing the first grouse trina, how was your 10k experience?
Speaker 10:it was great. Um, I got a little emotional, um, after I started, um, because my first, my first disney race was in 2017 was the princess 10k, and I did it with a really good friend of mine and I wound up leaving her in the first mile, um, cause I was all new and I didn't know what I was doing and she was a lot slower, and so she's like go so, and then you go down straight and then when you get like right, right at that one mile, you turn back and go back up over like the overpass and we changed that a couple of times over the last few years where they would do something different and so this reminded me very much of that first race that I did. And as I was going up and I found myself like looking down at the people coming behind me, like almost like looking for my friends, which she wasn't there, but it was like I just kind of like found myself like almost looking for her. So it was just a it very emotional and but then I just I had a good time and I just, you know, just kind of like just ran.
Speaker 10:I didn't stop for any characters. I just I wanted to just kind of like just enjoy the park. Someone had made a comment about like taking the like going through Epcot and just like kind of experiencing Epcot when it's so quiet and dark, and so I just kind of wanted to take, you know, those that morning and just enjoy where I was running, and so that's that's what I did. And then, like next thing, I know I was done I was like wow.
Speaker 3:Excellent, excellent, pamela, how about you?
Speaker 7:So before the race there were the four characters that were out, because I, of course, I had to go see all them. It was Jasmine, it was Dopey I always love seeing that guy Aurora and Jafar. So that was. Those are great and fun pictures. So I did that and I think it's the same thing. As Trina said. I for some reason, during the 10K I don't even though I know that I have time to stop for characters I just the 10k, for some reason, I just want to run it and I don't, I don't think about stopping, I just, I just love the energy of going in and out of epcot and around the boardwalk and I don't know. I still. I did stop for lewis because you know he's adorable. Um and then um, and then there's's Princess Daisy at the finish line. You know I always stop and, like, do a little selfie while she's up in her little tower, oh right, yeah, otherwise I didn't stop.
Speaker 7:And the same thing happened to me during Marathon Weekend. I had this great group costume. We were a combination of Minnie Mouse and the movie Wicked, so we had four Minnie Elphabas and four Minnie. What's her name? Glinda? I was Glinda, but I have zero pictures with any of my friends because either there was like two people that were in front of me and there were like three or four people way behind me, but because I didn't stop, nobody caught up and I didn't catch up and so I don't know. I just a bunch of pictures of me out on the course and they're like we don't know who you are. But okay, it was great. I love the 10K. I think it's one of my favorite distances because it's long enough to feel like you had a race, but you're also still feel really good at the end.
Speaker 1:So that's the opposite of how I feel about the 10k I I agree with you on that, josh is a little too short to get into like a long run groove. Yeah, and you're just long enough that you're like, is it over yet? Yeah it is my least favorite, it's okay, no, it's okay, josh jack, not 10k fans, that's all right.
Speaker 4:I mean, it's okay, josh Jack, not 10K fans, that's all right. Unless it's at.
Speaker 5:Disneyland. Disneyland 10K was fun.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the course is just about perfect course distance for Disneyland. Stay five of those six miles inside the parks. Yeah, that's pretty nice. Who made it over to the meetup in the afternoon? I think I know the answer. I did, we did I think it's everybody, and that was wonderful. I'll let you make comments. I always have comments on the meetup, but I'd love to hear what you thought, my friends.
Speaker 1:We are getting crowded out of our spot.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We had to be tucked into a corner.
Speaker 4:Explain what happened Josh to friends who weren't there.
Speaker 1:Right where we normally meet, near the food trucks in that little semi-circle. They had a musician this time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a live performer, live performer. They knew we were coming.
Speaker 1:Sure, it's great for Disney Springs, but bad for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so we kind of tucked ourselves in the corner and we got away with it because it was a smaller group than normal yeah. Quite a bit, I think, just in general. That wasn't the race for Rise and Run fans, I guess, but we still had a good time. We had a good turnout.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, and we still had a good group. We still had a good turnout, but it was a little slower in building and I know right at three o'clock Becky and I are looking around and going where is everybody? But folks did come and you can look from the photo and you see there were, I don't know. There were a good number of folks there. We got rid of a lot of cookies, I know that.
Speaker 9:Josh and I were there hidden away. We were trying to wait for to see people. We were looking for our beacon, aka Bob, and I turned around. I'm like, oh, I think I see Bob, josh is like you do. I'm like, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 2:So that's my big question, guys. So this is the time that Becky made some cookies, but other people brought some cookies, so how did that work out?
Speaker 4:Becky made me some cookies. So how did that work out? Becky made me take cookies. Yeah, we need to work on that. We need to work on it. We did have some other, but we didn't. I expected we would have a whole lot and we didn't, but we had plenty. Yeah, Becky was making sure people left with A giant bag of cookies.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, making sure people left with A giant bag of cookies.
Speaker 4:Yeah, one of the things. On the way back she made me stop and pick up plastic bags. Well, I got them from the house so she could give cookies away at the end, and she did. We had a good time. It was fun, it lasted its normal length of time, it just felt so quiet.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and we had some first time visitors there. That was nice. I tried to introduce them to you, not specifically, but yeah, I want our friends who get there to meet other friends who are there, because that's what's going to bring them back over and over. Not that folks aren't excited to talk with Jack which they are but we want them to meet the rest of the Reisman family too, and I think that worked.
Speaker 1:The smaller group actually helped to break up the normal subgroups that have kind of formed and it was actually kind of nice. I talked to more people that I didn't normally talk to that often.
Speaker 4:That's good.
Speaker 1:And so it was kind of a nice little bonus to just kind of mix it up a little bit.
Speaker 4:I agree, we're going to have to see what happens. Springtime surprise is not typically a huge turnout. The big turnout, of course, is marathon weekend, cause that's the big turnout. Of course is Marathon Weekend, because that's the big weekend. But I don't know if Disney is going to continue to have live music in the afternoon in that area. I have no idea. But what didn't happen? Typically we get there and you've heard me use the expression Becky establishes a beachhead, she gets a table and then the next table moves and she grabs. That didn't happen. We didn't get a table at all because there were enough people listening to the musical performance and so I don't know, we may have to adjust our plans.
Speaker 1:We'll see Disney Springs was uncharacteristically crowded that day.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I thought, yeah, I thought the races in general were crowded too.
Speaker 5:Really. I thought it was the opposite I thought this was the quietest race I've done in a really long time.
Speaker 4:I'm not joking. You're way ahead of most of the people.
Speaker 5:Even just looking at the corrals in general, because it looked smaller, corral C, which is what I was in, only had two waves and the whole corral itself just looked empty.
Speaker 4:And you had D through G behind you On the course, particularly and we haven't started to talk about the half, we will in a second here particularly for the half. It was crowded the entire way, could it?
Speaker 2:have been, because it was President's Week.
Speaker 9:Still, it might be you know, you know yeah, so the whole week I was at the universal, the other park down the street first half of the week and then I went to disney but it was so crowded and so busy the entire week I don't know if it was a combination of, I guess, a lot of the northern schools had off of school that past week, as what I heard from other people, like new york and new jersey and um, with it being the last weekend of festival of the arts, I found that epcot was insanely crowded as well, like the whole week I didn't realize it was the last week of farts because I was like just happy to go get some food.
Speaker 9:Yeah, the lines were like clear to another country. Yeah, it was wild. Never seen them that busy.
Speaker 1:Well, last year Festival of the Arts ended before Princess. They didn't overlap and I was happy they overlapped, but it was very, very busy.
Speaker 5:All right. With a wonderful meetup, there came the half marathon. How'd you guys do?
Speaker 7:How was it? It was great. I thought the weather was absolutely perfect. Back to wearing shorts, no more fleece leggings. I mean it was perfect. I love the temperature. Perfect, I love the temperature. I love the course. I mean I know we just ran that same course in January, but I really like this new course. I like running that path, having the cute little water pageant thing out in the you know along the course and yes, there was a water stop there and you know, same issue with it being tight, but, but they did some changes.
Speaker 5:Mind, they did some changes. I don't know if you did the january races during that um time between the grand floridian to magic kingdom. Did any of you guys notice the small changes they made? Lots?
Speaker 9:of lights and there wasn't a police car lights going right in my eyes this time.
Speaker 5:Well, also, they actually put up some like kind of hay, Some hay, so that people weren't walking into areas or rolling their ankles by accidentally missing the curve of the sidewalk, and they only had the water station on the left side and they kept saying you needed to go over the hay if you wanted to take a picture of the water pageant oh, right, yeah I don't know if I can jump over that hay, so I thought the same thing
Speaker 4:or worse yet, you could jump over, but you can't jump back. Then you'd really be in trouble right, but the hay get people from stopping mid-course to take pictures of water pageant and they.
Speaker 10:There was a lot of people like saying things coming up ahead and when there were like holes and bumps and different, I did notice there was a lot more cast members this time kind of like yelling, you know, when we were coming up on some of the stuff but I would still say it it would be helpful to have a headlamp or a flashlight on the street yeah, um leading up to the grand floridian, because that was pretty dark still there were some divots, like where there was a, you know a water, I don't know, whatever, like there were a steam hole thing.
Speaker 10:Yeah, there was one person who fell like right behind me, like she was running really fast and she just kind of dove into the pavement. But it was like a train at that point, cause there was walls on both sides of us and it was like you couldn't stop. There was nowhere to stop. So everybody just kind of kept going and we're all screaming for medic and stuff and you know, just hoping she was okay and along that same section.
Speaker 1:Even during my walk breaks I didn't want to go to the far right because it was in shadow and I don't. There are holes everywhere. So I kind of felt bad. But I'm like I'm not going to break an ankle just so you can run past me faster, like I feel bad, but I'm going to break an ankle just so you can run past me faster. Like I feel bad, but I'm going to walk kind of on the edge.
Speaker 5:Yeah, my partner for erase pacing, adam and I, we were constantly being like divot, watch out for divot.
Speaker 9:Yeah, I ended up turning on like my phone flashlight and I was pointing it down at the ground because I didn't want to twist an ankle again. Bob was with me when I did that once. I don't need to do that again.
Speaker 4:No, that's right.
Speaker 3:Does anyone know when all that road construction that's around the new Polynesian Tower and the Grand Floridian, when that's supposed to be done?
Speaker 1:Apparently never, oh great.
Speaker 4:It's a good question, Greg. Oh great, it's a good question, Greg, because I was sitting here thinking that the next time that anybody would run that direction will be January of 26. Correct.
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously we won't know this for a really long time, but I would not be shocked in the least bit if we're running that course again, because I think it partially has to do with all the construction that's going on with big thunder mountain right now, which will then lead into cars and villains and everything like that. So obviously the faster that they can get that stretch of road um, you know, tidied up and you know not as divity.
Speaker 9:Then it will be safer for all of us I feel like that's been under construction since after marathon weekend of 23, because we stayed at shades of green and then a month later was when they closed the walkway from shades of green to the poly. So I have I have a feeling it's probably going to be a while, especially with all the construction going on.
Speaker 2:Jack, I have a question for you. So you did something this week. You paced the 220 pace group.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 2:So how did that go for you?
Speaker 5:Oh my gosh, I was nervous going into it because, like my first time doing it over at springtime, it was nerve wracking and it was really hot and there's just a lot of things just happening. It was a lot to take in the first time, so I'm glad that this time the course had a lot of highway. There were narrow parts there were, but it was a lot of highway before you actually got to a park. So there's more time to spread out. I was pacing with Adam and it was fun. We started in Corral Sea. Like I said, there was only two waves. We were in the second wave. We had a good group. We had like maybe, like I think the least amount that we had at one time was maybe like 10 or 12 people. The most we had at one time was maybe like 20 maybe, and it was interesting because springtime surprise there is points where it's just me and my pacers.
Speaker 5:So oh yeah um, but I mean to be fair, we were pacing at a faster pace for that one. This one was like a little bit slower than that one that we had, but, um, I loved it, I had a blast without him. Uh, he is a fantastic race partner and I'm still technically in training so I'm definitely, like you know, listening to him, making sure I understand what I should be saying. How to he just he does everything so eloquently and I felt like I caught on quite a bit. He was a good teacher and I got, you know, into the groove of saying things.
Speaker 5:We played the alphabet game, so you gotta um, for every mile you give a letter of a princess. So at mile one it was letter a, so you have to think of a princess, so aurora, and then the next mile you have to name that one again and then go to the letter b and then, by mile 13, you should be able to, you know, say all the letters of the alphabet um, with the princesses or character names, for that matter. But it was a blast, um, I just felt so honored because, like I think, because I just didn't we didn't really have anybody for the springtime surprise, maybe I like, I think we had six people starting out and then by mile four, they most everybody was gone for springtime and then it was just very quiet, whereas this one, just like I felt like there was such an energy around us and it was so exciting and you could, you could see the people that just like I'm sticking with you to the end and I'm like, yes, you are.
Speaker 2:How'd you guys do? Did you make it in on time?
Speaker 5:Yes. So one thing you should know about pace groups is that you are, so my time that we have to make is 220. But in reality, for everybody except the very first pace group we are, actually our goal is to be 15 seconds under the goal mark. So if I'm doing a 220 marathon or, sorry, half marathon, then our actual goal is 15 seconds lower than that. So it's actually 19 or two hours, 19 minutes, 45 seconds, because that way it gives us a little leeway in case something happens, like, for example, first mile.
Speaker 5:Actually, for the first two miles, we were actually behind our time by a minute and 40 seconds. So we have to gradually, over time, try and get a little faster so we can get back to the average pace, which ours was like a 1041. So the pacers are extremely skilled at making sure that they're being exactly right on point. So that way, when you do cross the finish line, you are going to hit that goal no matter what. And I'm very, very proud to say that we were near perfect. We were two hours 19 minutes and 47 seconds. So we were two seconds um off of the you know of it, but felt really, really good, like literally at mile 12, all of a sudden, you see everybody that was behind us just start running, running forward. And then I I like told Adam was like I'm about to cry. It's like seeing your little babies flying the nest, Leaving the nest yeah.
Speaker 5:I was so proud of everybody and it's like you want them to push forward because you shouldn't want to finish with us.
Speaker 5:You want to finish ahead of us at that point, and so it was really, really amazing to see everybody crush their goals and I'm very excited. I've been working on the January race video, but the one video I'm going to put out first January race video but the one video I've I'm going to put out first actually is going to be the race video I did during this race, Um, if you've ever been curious about running with a pacer, um, this video will give you a lot of insight what it's like, Um, and if you have any questions, you can always comment in the comment section for the YouTube video. The video will be going out on Saturday and, yeah, you'll get to hear a lot of. I don't really know if I'm going to edit that much, because I want you guys to hear about the comments and the commentary that Adam and I have, like the math that we do per mile to make sure that you guys hit it without you know. Yeah, sorry for that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no you got it. You got to adjust mile to mile yeah.
Speaker 5:That's a lot of math. I let Adam math it out. I wasn't going to math it out. We have a little guide and it was interesting to continue to look at the guide, but I relied on Adam a lot for that one. But yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed the video.
Speaker 4:I hope it gives you a lot of insight. I yeah, I'm just so proud of everybody. So if you see photos of jack, you'll see her with a pacing flag in one hand and a camera in the other.
Speaker 3:It's for it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 5:I thought you're gonna say a calculator for a second, but she was having trouble with her math I should have to be honest, but you know you didn't have a spare hand though you know you have a calculator on your phone. Yeah, yeah, you know, I was telling jokes instead of using a calculator. Okay, I thought I was funny, although it was kind of quiet when I said some of the jokes, so sometimes I was like ha ha, ha, you get it.
Speaker 7:Okay, I can't wait to see this video.
Speaker 4:Other comments on the half friends.
Speaker 9:It was fun, I had a great time. I actually met up with Josh before the race and met Trina actually right before the race start, which was nice. So we all said our have a good race, goodbye, and I took off and I got to the castle and I love running down Main Street. I know Bob always loves that too.
Speaker 4:It's the best.
Speaker 9:It's the best, it's the best. It doesn't matter how many times I will do it or have done it. I will still always remember every single moment I get to run down Main Street. And this was actually my fastest Disney half marathon. Not my fastest half marathon, it was my fastest run one at Disney. So I stopped for characters and stopped for castle, but I did kind of like a race pace run, because I am running Shamrock half in a couple of weeks. So I kind of wanted to test out some, um, some speeds and some paces. And I felt really good at the end and I'm walking very well today. So I think I'm in a good place. But I had a, I had a blast. I love the half marathon. Um, I knew exactly when the sun was coming up. I got to put my sunglasses on, I was ready for it and there it was very crowded but it was manageable. Um, further up, I don't know how it was behind me, but I was more, more crowded more crowded, as Bob was going to say.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 9:That was great. I loved it.
Speaker 4:I didn't mind it. You're right, it was main street trip number 15 for me. I and they never get old.
Speaker 10:Never. I figured out during marathon that if you, when you go to the castle, if you go to the farthest photographer, then you don't have anybody to go behind you. So it was like I don't care how long that line is, I'm gonna get in and luckily it was the shortest line yeah and for a split second I thought maybe I'll see if I can jump.
Speaker 10:And then I was chickened out. I was like no, if I fall right now that'd be terrible. So I just ran on and I just had a great race. I stopped for like three characters, the castle and just totally enjoyed it. And I really enjoyed actually running on the highway. This time I think it was just being away from as many people and being able to kind of just do my intervals and just kind of lose myself and then listen whenever there was music that was playing and it just it was very enjoyable.
Speaker 7:I was excited when I got to the freeway because that's where I ran into a group of friends, cause I normally running by myself and I happened to run into a group of friends and we we really just talked the whole way, so it really made the time go fast it does, doesn't it?
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's a section, just talked the whole way, so it really made the time go fast on that section that doesn't have a lot to look at. So I, I, I loved it too. I love every bit of that. But I agree, I love the castle pictures. I love, um, I love the running out of the castle. That ends up being my favorite picture, um, with the castle right behind you and you're running by. It's just different now, because it used to be. You always wanted to be on the left side, but now you want to be on the right side because we're coming out of the other side of the castle. But those are my favorite.
Speaker 7:And I was a Viking goddess and so, instead of jumping, I did one picture of me smiling cute with my sword and then one where I'm like looking angry with my sword, of me smiling cute with my sword, and then one where I'm like looking angry with my sword. So, um, I just, I had so much fun playing out out there with that character I don't know, I didn't say the characters that were before the race for the half marathon. We had the queen, we had Snow White, we had Maleficent and we had Aurora there were also some really great costumes out on the course, I feel like this year.
Speaker 9:I know I saw some um people who were wearing stormtroopers that were completely bedazzled helmet. They were like and they were dressed up in like the crowned athletics, like um, like stepsisters outfit, but they made them that color, so it was really really cool to see some really interesting costumes.
Speaker 7:I was surprised that if they were allowed to be on the course with those masks Because we had during Disneyland we had some masks that were on a stick Not anything that you would ever wear, and one out of the three of us got it got confiscated as we were walking in. So and I know theirs, they actually were wearing them and yeah, and had the little strap on the back. So I was surprised if they. I don't even know, I don't know if they were allowed to bring them and that's a lot of like dragons too, like mass over.
Speaker 5:Well, it's interesting my favorite costume was the one that, like you know, the cake that the fairies make for aurora. I don't know if you saw that costume, but she was literally the cake where it's all lopsided and um has the icing, the blue icing. It was so good, oh well, tell her.
Speaker 3:You said the bedazzled stormtrooper helmet. I figured that would be our buddy adam of the tutu guys, but but I guess not no no, I saw, I saw those um tom and uh yeah, he gets this like slab of purple confetti stuff and just start smearing it all over his chest.
Speaker 5:Before the start line I was like oh, hey, tom. He's like do I look at it all spread out?
Speaker 4:I was like tom, you're fine, and of course they get interviewed right before we go out all right, so the half is the last race of the weekend, but it's not the last event of the weekend. There was yoga on Monday. Did anybody go to yoga on Monday?
Speaker 7:I did. This is Pamela. If I pay for something, I'm going to go to it.
Speaker 4:It was lovely, wasn't it?
Speaker 7:Monday morning it was a lovely morning Soggy and a little cold, but not too bad. It actually was like a warm rain.
Speaker 4:It was raining, friends. Yeah, it rained almost all day on Monday.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so it starts out. You have to remember to there's only one bus that leaves to go to yoga.
Speaker 7:You don't have rolling amounts of buses, so you need to know what time your bus leaves in the morning to go. And you also have to remember to bring your ID with you and your check-in pass, which I remembered, as you know. Those waking moments when you're just about to wake up and you're like, oh, I need to bring my ID because I didn't have it set out with my outfit. Because when else do you need to bring your ID with you anywhere? You don't. And so for yoga you still have to have your ID to show that's who you are. And you get a wristband when you get there to go in. And what happened was we waited outside to get in, they let us in and they walk you in in small groups, so it's all very organized and dignified. You go in and then you walk by and you've got Mickey and Minnie. They're underneath a little rooftop, you know, covered roof. I'm waving at you as you're walking in to get to your yoga mat.
Speaker 4:They're not in the rain. No.
Speaker 7:They're not in the rain, no. And then you keep walking and then as you get further down is it sunset, I don't know which one, is it the main street on Hollywood Studios and you look over to the right side and they have Goofy and his jester outfit kind of hanging out under a little covered area, and then Donald and Daisy were out as well covered, and then they just walk you up and you pick a mat that you want as you get up close. I got in the front row and they have a bottle of water, a little cooling towel kind of like a chamois kind of towel.
Speaker 7:And then your yoga mat and then the straps that go with your yoga mat. Um, I was happy to see a new color, because I have a lot of them. Um, so it's a beautiful purple yoga mat. And then, um, and then you're just kind of sitting there waiting for it to begin. But what people don't realize is you can put yourself at your mat and then you could go back and do selfies with the characters. Not a lot of people were doing that.
Speaker 7:It was very mellow and very quiet that morning. People were like some people came in and just grabbed their mat and left. Some people came and this girl right next to me she just sat under an umbrella the entire time while her friend did the yoga. So she was a good, good friend that just stayed and sat on the mat. I did the entire yoga class. It was fabulous. They handed out towels and I thought, well, that's silly to give us a towel and it's just going to continue to rain. And so we just put those on our mats and it made it less slippery, because yoga mats are very slippery in the rain. And then, halfway through, they gave us another towel to use however we wanted to, and I just had my yoga clothes on, with a light jacket, my club jacket, and then a poncho, and I had an umbrella.
Speaker 2:This is different than most weekends, right? So usually yoga is on Thursday before the expo. Uh, how do you, how do you guys feel about that? Do you like this? Do you like it Thursday, or do you like it on Monday?
Speaker 7:I prefer it on Thursday, um, because I feel like it's a great way to sort of like get things going. Monday morning is hard because you're kind of exhausted from running. Well, you got the expo, which I get up sort of early for, and then you're running the 5K, 10k half, and then on Sunday night you can't really stay out late to celebrate because you're like, oh wait, I've got to get up at 2 in the morning again. So I don't prefer it. I for sure prefer the Thursday, but yet I keep signing up for it.
Speaker 7:So I don't know what I'm telling them.
Speaker 4:Disney likes it because you have to spend an extra night.
Speaker 7:Which a lot of us do anyway, because we like having metal Monday, I don't you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's fine, but it is in fact if you're going to do yoga. You got to spend Sunday night there and I think that's going into the planning.
Speaker 7:And it's not a bad thing to have like a nice stretch after having run all the races, because I know I'm definitely a runner that doesn't always stretch after I run. So it's kind of a nice.
Speaker 5:that part is not terrible so it's kind of a nice. That part is not terrible. I guess my biggest question is with the weather being what it was and it raining. I know as a former cast member working in attractions. One of the places I worked was phantasmic and usually if there is any kind of inclement weather they would do some kind of show modifications. The only way those events would ever get canceled was if there was lightning in the area, which obviously was not the case for this time. But was there a modification that they announced before you got started?
Speaker 7:They did not. They did not announce anything, but I'm sure there was supposed to be something, because we always have like a 40 minute yoga class and then it's followed up with some kind of entertainment. I mean, we've had Dapper Dan's, we've had the full show that they do on the theater, you know, the whole nighttime show. They've done that they have done. Oh, they had the cavalcade of princesses come out so you could do selfies with them. So they've always had something. And it was really awkward, I would have to say a little bit, because Carissa, she came out and she did, and for one last time for the weekend, three, two, one go, and I think the fireworks were probably supposed to go off after she said that, and so there was a delay. And then she said something again and then we just had a boom, boom, boom firework and that was it. And my thinking was I bet they had something else planned, but that's what got canceled.
Speaker 5:I could tell you right then, and now it was modified because I so you know the Fantasmic. They have the whole show, whole shebang fireworks at the end. Well, if there ismic, they have the whole show, a whole shebang of fireworks at the end. Well, if there is rain, they will actually basically have the show just to set off the fireworks because they're already set in where they're at and they'll just keep it a very, very short show. And I know for characters they will not let the characters out more than likely if they're not covered whenever it's raining. So that's very unfortunate. That was the case that you guys had, but, as is for anyone listening, it's it's rare, I'm sure, to have it raining on a yoga day.
Speaker 7:It never has happened.
Speaker 5:Oh no, I shouldn't say that we had rain at disneyland yoga let me two times out of like a very wide span of races. Your odds are in your favor. My friends, that just happened to be an unlucky time, but it sounds like it was still fun.
Speaker 7:I have fun, no matter what is happening.
Speaker 5:I know you're like a ball of fun.
Speaker 7:I just feel like I'm not at work, so I'm at Disney. You know, I just make the most of not at work, so I'm at Disney, I don't? You know, I just make the most of it. That's just sort of my life motto.
Speaker 4:Well, thanks. Another race weekend comes to an end. Hard to believe the 24, 25 race season at Disney World is three-fourths over. We've got one coming up in six more weeks. But, friends, I'm really glad you joined us. Thanks for helping to share, to relive this princess weekend. So, josh, pamela, taylor and Trina, our thanks and we'll see you soon.
Speaker 9:Bye See you real soon.
Speaker 2:I know talking about registration before and I know a lot of you guys do charity. I've been slacking on the charity since, I think, december. I'm going to start the charity thread back up March 1st. If you have a charity that you need to fundraise for, you want to put your link in there, we'll put it in there. So hopefully people will help you and help help you reach your fundraising goals.
Speaker 3:And speaking to fundraising, our wonderful friends over at give kids, the world, had reached out to me day of recording here to let me know that they actually do have bibs. Uh, for all of the races for springtime. Surprise, now again, that is the availability as of day of recording. Um, as of this time, they have slashed their fundraising requirements in half, so, and I believe their fundraising deadline is monday, march 3rd.
Speaker 3:So, if you are interested in a last-minute springtime surprise bib through our friends over at Give Kids the World, shoot me an email at greg at riseandrunpodcastcom and I'll get you connected with the folks over there and hopefully hook you up with a bib.
Speaker 4:Sounds good, hook you up with a bib Sounds good. Since we're in the general fundraising theme, I ran into our Greg or Greg. I ran into our friend Greg not you, greg, another Greg at Princess Week. He reminded me about the run in the Tampa area on March 16th, the Lightning Warriors St Patrick's Day 5K Run and Walk. A couple of Rise and Runners going to be there. If you're in the area, check it out Lightning Warriors St Patrick's Day 5K. You can use the code RISEANDRUN. I think I'm pretty sure that's right for a discount on this race. I'll see you there. All right, friends, we, as you know, from time to time like to share some family news, sometimes good news, sometimes not so good. Greg, you had a family loss this week.
Speaker 3:I did, bob. Yes, over the weekend, uh, my grandmother uh passed away. She, um, she, she went in peace, which, uh, I'm really just glad to report there. She, I mean, she was, uh, actually diagnosed with cancer to make a run disney connection here, she was diagnosed the weekend I was at wine and dine in 2022, but you know, by that point she was 92 years old and you know there's really no sense in treating that. So the fact that she lived with cancer in her body for almost three years, um, you know is, is a really profound thing to say. So I'm I'm glad that that she went peacefully, and I know I didn't I didn't make it a post on the rise run Facebook page, but you know, people who, who know me on a more personal level, you know, did reach out, and I just want to you know for, though, for everyone who did reach out to me over the past couple of days, uh, I just I want to thank you for thinking of me and and sending me your, your thoughts and and your prayers.
Speaker 3:It's, it's much, much appreciated. Yeah, I, I feel like I I am very blessed though, because up until this weekend, I still had three grandparents. Yeah, um, you know my, my, my, my Nana, who just passed. She was a few weeks shy of her 95th birthday and even though my mother is is no longer here, both of her parents are still alive, well and kicking. My grandmother turns 98 in September.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Wow Are making the preparations now. My grandfather turns 100 this October. Shout out to Sam, who put my grandfather's birthday on their family calendar. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, even though it's a tremendous loss, I do count my blessings every single day knowing that I still have these amazing people in my life at such an old age and get to learn so much wisdom through them. But again, to everyone who reached out, thank you so much and, yeah, I'll always have her in my memory, especially. You know I'll share this real funny story with you. So I think most people know that. You know, growing up I was a theater kid and even in as an adult, did theater as well.
Speaker 3:And God, this is about 10 years ago I was in a production of Shrek and I was, I was the title role and so, but I had the whole, the whole costume and you know, and the, the mask, and, and you're all painted in green, the whole nine yards. So my nana comes to to see the show and, uh, you know, first act ends and my dad, who is the, the director, and the, and the, who was the leader of our theater organization, um, you know, comes down and and finds my nana and she goes and he's like what do you think of the show so far, mom? And he goes.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's really great. I I just have a question, though. I thought you said greg was in the show. I knew where you were going. Yeah, and he's like mom, he's the big green guy on stage. She had no idea that will always go down. It's one of my favorite stories of my life. So, thank you guys for thinking of me and allowing me to share this on the podcast but thank you. And I love you guys for it.
Speaker 4:We're sorry for you guys. Great, great memories. I at times like this it's time to look back at the life well lived.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we've got that I wanted to share also. I saw our friend Lola we talked about this a couple of weeks ago who had the emergency seat section. I saw her surviving twin is doing very well and making progress.
Speaker 3:That's great.
Speaker 4:In the NICU unit, so there's a lot of optimism there. Very well and making progress, that's great In the NICU unit, so there's a lot of optimism there. Thanks for keeping us updated on that too, lola. Okay, my friends, it's time for the race report. The race report's brought to you by our friend, tom Stokes. Stoked Metabolic Training, stokesfit slash riseandruncoaching. I had a chance to say hi to Tom. That's about all I did. I saw him in the corrals. You know how you make the. Yeah, you're heading up. You make the big U-turn before you come back to cross the start line. Well, tom was heading down, I was heading up. We got a chance to exchange high fives and move on. But uh, good to see Tom there. I, I have got to get. I'm still in that eight week challenge program. I've been slacking, but I am excited to get back in it and I'm going to stick with his Rise Accelerate program. All the information on Tom's programs are at the top of our Facebook group page in the Featured section. If you scroll to the right you'll see him. He's got some great discounts for the Rise and Run family.
Speaker 4:Before we get well into the race report, of course, we just spent a long time talking about Princess Weekend. Friends, if you put in a race report for Princess Weekend, I appreciate it, I promise you. I look at them, I read them, I look for the PRs, but there's just too many to go through all of them. That's the way it is for every race Disney Race Weekend we can't go through them individually. So for those of you who PR at princess weekend, this bell's for you, and I'm going to single out one person, that is miss Monroe, who I met before the 5k. Five-year-old Monroe did her first ever 5k. So, monroe, here's your PR bell. Now on to the rest of the weekend.
Speaker 4:We had a couple of weekend long events the Cowtown race weekend in Fort Worth, texas, the Cowtown Challenge, and there were different kinds of challenges ran Saturday and Sunday. Let's take a look here. Jason did a 10K and half marathon challenge 10K Saturday, half on Sunday. He said the weather for the 10K was perfect because the temps started at 28 degrees. Jason, that sounds mighty cold, especially for Texas, but no wind. That helps a lot. A lot of fun. Uh, missy ran the 5K at the same time that Jason ran the 10K. A little warmer on Sunday, 45 degrees. He ran this one with Rise and Runner Rachel. They brought a little run Disney to Texas. Lots of crowd support, fun signs I saw some of the photos of those signs and just maybe a little tequila beer and fireball. A 10 out of 10 from Jason for the Cowtown Challenge.
Speaker 4:When did fireball become the official spirit for runners? I see it at a lot of races. Maybe tequila is up there, but I think fireball is number one. Ah, kayla did the challenge. Kayla did the 5K and the half. Kayla did the challenge. Kayla did the 5K and the half. The half was her 50th race since she started with a 5K back in 2019. Kayla's working on 50 halves in 50 states. This is state number three. Awesome Expo Again she talks about. It was chilly at the start of the 5K and a little warmer on the half. She wasn't all that well prepared for the elevation gain on this race, went out a little bit too fast, didn't take her walk breaks until she hit the one-mile mark, but she stuck with it, continued strong, got some liquid motivation along the way. I think we're back to fireball again and she finished in less than three and a half hours, which really pleased her 322. Actually Can't wait to see what's next in her journey.
Speaker 4:There was an ultra on Sunday. Simon was pacing the ultra. There was an ultra on Sunday. Simon was pacing the ultra. There was, as we mentioned, the half on Sunday. Let's see. We already talked about Jason doing it as part of the challenge. Lena did it and Rachel did this one with Jason, rachel's fourth cow town and her 10th half. She was brought to tears seeing her husband and son at the finish line. Good for you, rachel. I know Rachel gets and I say this in a positive way I know Rachel gets positively emotional in a lot of races. Heck, I do too sometimes. So good job. So big event in Fort Worth.
Speaker 4:Also a big event in Tampa. Florida Bunch of folks did the Gasparilla Distance Classic Friends, if you're in the area, this is a fabulous course. It runs right along Bayshore Boulevard, along Tampa Bay, so 98% of this thing is really flat. They have an excellent expo, a chance to visit with both Fitz Kohler and Meb Kovleski. That was fun. Fitz has been on the podcast several times. She is as delightful in person as she's been on our podcast. What a joy to meet her and how exciting to get to meet and shake hands with a, an American racing legend like Meb. So let's see the half marathon went on Sunday. I believe Austin, brian, celia, cody were all there. Laura Ann was there. She paced a group of friends through the first 10 miles and she had to ease up a little bit. She was getting some cramps but she finished with a nice group of people. Our friend Robert did the half and he gave us this race report.
Speaker 8:Hello Horizon Run family. This is Robert from Lutes, florida, with a race report for the Gasparilla Half Marathon this past Sunday in Tampa. It was a great race, well run, with plenty of volunteers, hydration, those important porta-potties and cheering supporters along the route. Weather was darn near perfect, at around 53 degrees at the start at 6 am and probably around 60 when we finished. I ran it with my two adult sons, austin and Cody, and all three of us were able to set a new half-marathon PR. So ring that bell. One of the event sponsors was Bickelope, so there was a free beer at the end, along with bananas, protein bar, a variety of cereal packs and rice and black beans with bread from the Columbia Restaurant, which is famous here in Tampa. So plenty of ways to refuel If you're not doing the Disney Princess next year. I highly recommend this race.
Speaker 4:The 15K. We had several friends doing the 15k. Tiffany was there. Tiffany did her own princess to pirates challenge. She did the 5k at disney world. Then the 15k in tampa. Kevin was there. Uh, thought the 15k was terrific. Now Kevin also ran another race. He ran on Sunday. He ran the half marathon. There are four races in two days.
Speaker 4:In Tampa On Saturday they have the 15K and the 5K and the way they're timed you can actually do them both. I know and I'll talk for a minute actually do them both. I know, and I'll talk for a minute in a minute about doing the 15k. When I finished and I was walking back to the garage to pick up my car, the 5k was just getting ready to start. So you can do that. It's also possible to do the half marathon and the 8k the next day. So there's all sorts of different challenges here and most of them you get a really nice jacket for doing the challenge. So let's get back at it. Let's see, Kevin did the 15k and the half marathon. I think that's the Michelob Ultra. It is the Michelob Ultra Pure Gold Challenge.
Speaker 4:Tara was there. Tara did the 15K and the 5K back-to-back as I just described. Then she showed up at Disney the next day and was cheering on Main Street. That was great. Let's see, Tara says, and this is true. This race has plenty of water stops. There are more water stops on this one than there are at the Disney race. Great volunteers, lots of fun along the course, no long waiting in the corral. It's nice. You can jump into the corral with five minutes to go and get started. In fact, you can wait in the Tampa Convention Center till about 10 minutes before the race, which is nice on a chilly morning, which it was it was chilly Saturday morning. Whereas in Disney World the winds had died down, over here by the bay it was still a bit breezy. Ellie was there. I saw Ellie before the race.
Speaker 4:Ellie and Jen Ellie did her first Gasparilla and her first 15k for her and her friend Pat. So PR is there. She had a great time. She commented she enjoyed seeing Meb at the expo. Meb also also shows up on the course, which I think is so cool. Uh, he was at about the uh between the five and six mile mark. That's really neat. And he's there for we back up the Packers, which was fun. Uh, this was also the first 15 K for Jen PR. Duncan, second time running the Gasparilla, finished this one in under two hours, which is a 20-minute improvement from the last time she did it, and a PR Says that this is just proof that hard work really does pay off if you stick with it. I got to see Duncan at the start and at the turnaround On the 8K.
Speaker 4:Stephanie ran the 8K, as did Chrissy. Chrissy did Pirates to Princess, Princess to Pirates, I don't know. She did the 10K and the 8K. The 8K was on Sunday. Anthony did Princess to Pirates doing the 5k in Disney, the 8k in Tampa. We also we already mentioned that Tara did the 15 and the five and Kevin did the 15 on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday.
Speaker 4:A lot of fun, great event. If you're in the area, even if you're looking for a destination run, this one's highly recommended. Uh, the after after race reception and party is excellent, especially on sunday. Better on sunday than it is on saturday, but it's good on saturday too. So a really fun time, really good race. Unfortunately it's almost always on Princess Weekend. So those are our weekend-long events. Let's see.
Speaker 4:We've got a couple more, starting on Saturday in Wilmington, North Carolina, Debbie and Meredith ran the Wilmington Half Marathon. It's a point-to-point race, Starts at the pier and finishes in downtown Wilmington. Speaking of chilly, 27 degrees at race start, but sunny, that helps a lot. Sunrise on the pier was beautiful. Bunt cake samples at the finish line made for a great day. They tried out and used the Holler Hype app, which I mentioned last week and we're going to talk about a whole lot more next week. Adanya was in Claremont Florida running the Honoring the Fallen 5K. Put some nice photos up there. This is to recognize the service of the police, particularly in the Claremont Florida area. A PR for Adanya. On this one in Greenwood, Arkansas, Joe did the Greenwood VFW 5k again, 27 degrees at start, 32 at finish. Joe didn't want to do it, did it anyway. The three amigos was were there johnny finished first, joe finished second, gary finished third in their age groups you know I have a question about the three amigos.
Speaker 3:Yeah, do you think they decide what order they're gonna finish in?
Speaker 4:like hey guys no, I don't can can can I take this one this?
Speaker 3:week and then you know, and then they rotate or something like that, Joe. I need to know.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking more of like with Ricky Bobby.
Speaker 3:Yeah, can I get one?
Speaker 4:How about.
Speaker 3:I slingshot you in.
Speaker 4:I don't know. I see in Joe's reports I see Johnny finished first a whole lot yeah.
Speaker 3:Just remember, joe if he ain't first, you're last.
Speaker 4:Let's see what else we got, friends. Now we've talked about chilly weather. This one was not chilly. In the US Virgin Islands, the St John Eight Tough Miles Rob was there 28th version of the Eight Tough Miles uh, sunny and warm, of course takes you across the island via the centerline road to the finish near the far eastern side of coral bay. Why are the miles tough? Well, kind of hot and humid and there's a a 1,400 foot elevation change, 1,400 feet up and then back down along the route. Miles one to five, mostly up, five to eight, taking you back down. Rob's already planning this one for next year. He's planning it while he's laying out on the beach recovering from this one. Nashville, Tennessee, still on Saturday, Amanda Hot Chocolate 5K. Looking at the photos, looks like it was chilly in Nashville. Amanda did the PR and fun for this one.
Speaker 4:Sia is out in Westminster, Colorado, doing the Mardi Kral 10K. Snowed the day before, but Saturday was beautiful. The path was mostly plowed, except for two miles. I smile, living in Florida, thinking about a path being plowed. Alicia gets it. She wore some of her dopey outfit for the Mardi Gras theme. It worked well. Most importantly, Sia got a PR in this race. Hasn't really run a 10K in quite a while, so it was nice to see that she could still do it and do it well.
Speaker 4:In Superior, Arizona, the Copper Corridor 50K Trail Run. Copper Corridor 50K Trail Run. Kristen, when she entered this into the race report, originally said she was either going to do the 30K or the 50K. I didn't see which one she did. She didn't follow up. Maybe we'll hear later.
Speaker 4:We had a couple on Sunday out in Las Vegas the Rock and Roll Half Marathon A couple people there. Bethany Vegas, the Rock and Roll Half Marathon A couple people there. Bethany. Second time at Rock and Roll Vegas, Mr Half Marathon PR by less than a minute, but still really happy. She finished much faster and feeling much stronger compared to this same event last year. Well, I mean, that's really the bottom line, Bethany, that's great. A lot of music, better lighting on the course event last year. Well, I mean, that's really the bottom line, Bethany, that's great. A lot of music, better lighting on the course than last year and you just can't beat the lights on the strip. Chris was there, Chris, for the fourth time, but the first time since 2015. 85th half marathon for Chris. It was a blast. He took pictures with a dinosaur, with the disco ball girl, with some Vegas show girls, and on Saturday he also ran the R&R 5K, which completed the remix challenge for him. Sierra made a comment in one of the posts that said she was also there.
Speaker 3:Hey, Jack, I know she's not on the race report, but I want to let you know our buddy, Claudia from Customized Training. She had a great race and she behaved herself much more at the after party than she did with you a couple of years ago.
Speaker 5:I know we got so drunk.
Speaker 4:Let's go up to Lowellachusetts for the greater lowell roadrunners fudgesicle 5k series. Sophie and audrey were there very low-key, no frills race series put them by. The local running club runs every saturday in january and february, regardless of the weather, which in Lowell Mass at that time of year can be really nasty it was pretty cold on Sunday During the final week. Your run is a twosome team and your score is both team members combined. Sophie and Audrey won the sister-sister division. Good job. Let's finish over in the UK, in Pocklington, yorkshire, the Snake Lane 10-miler.
Speaker 4:Katie did this one for the third year. It was the first time she's run since Dopey. As her physio, her PT had her benched for a hip injury. She was under strict instructions to stop if need be but surprisingly, even though she was a little sore, felt great to be back out running. I understand that feeling. Good for you, katie. Slowest time on the course, but no injury, the headwind at times, just proud that she finished. That's the way it should be when you're coming back from an injury. Good job, this was also.
Speaker 4:There was a oh yeah, there was an inspirational question mark sign along the route for the Bishop Wilson, bishop Wilton village. That read and I checked it twice. It's right under a speed limit sign and it says please die slowly. I'm not sure I get it, but it was inspiring to Katie. I'm not sure I get it, but it was inspiring to Katie. Now she says sadly she's going to be sidelined from running again for a while but she'll be back. I know that you will. Good job, there you go, friends. Race report for episode 179. All right, my friends, and if you run, you know you are our friend. It is a Zoom Thursday. Looking forward to visiting with you and maybe sharing one more time your Princess Race Weekend stories. We can start to gear up for registering for Marathon Weekend. Golly man, the time just goes by so fast. Let's see. That's going to wrap it up for 179,. My friends, looking forward to seeing you soon, but until then, happy running.
Speaker 3: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.
