Rise and Run
Rise and Run
183: The Appetizer to the Sweet 16
This week's episode opens with a deeply moving tribute to Erin Petz, a cherished member of the running community who recently lost her battle with cancer at just 43 years old. The hosts share personal memories of Erin's vibrant spirit, contagious laugh, and unwavering kindness that touched so many lives through her podcasting work on "Will Run For" and her presence at countless runDisney events.
The episode then shifts to exciting news that had the runDisney community buzzing—the long-awaited return of the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend (January 29-February 1, 2026), with registration opening April 22nd for Club runDisney members and April 29th for general registration.
Detailed previews of the upcoming Springtime Surprise weekend follow, including transportation logistics, course highlights, and the return of the popular Rise and Run meetup at Disney Springs on Saturday at 3pm. A special Muppet Vision 3D farewell gathering is also announced for Friday at 2pm.
The team continues their March Madness Dining Challenge with passionate debates about Walt Disney World's best restaurants, featuring several upsets and Cinderella stories advancing to the Sweet 16. Special guest Thomas Stokes drops by with training program updates and announces a six-month coaching scholarship opportunity.
Whether you're preparing for next week's races, planning for Disneyland's return, or simply seeking connection within the running community, this episode beautifully balances celebration and commemoration, reminding us that through both joy and loss, this community remains steadfast
Erins Charitys
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The running community and the Rise and Run family has lost a treasured friend. Erin Petz lost her battle to cancer and passed away last Friday. She was just 43 years old. Many of you knew Erin well but, whether you realize it or not, nearly all of you who listen to this podcast knew who she was. Maybe you listen to her on the We'll Run For podcast with her husband, michael and her dear friends Tom and Diana, or maybe, more recently, you listen to her on the Pace Yourself is Just Cancer podcast with Stephanie.
Speaker 1:If nothing else, she's been with us several times. If nothing else, she's been with us several times Once to talk about We'll Run For, more recently to talk about Pace Yourself. Or, of course, there were those two epic Family Feud episodes that we will treasure and never forget. She was a delightful young woman, quick-witted, just plain fun to be around. She was one of many people we look forward to seeing at run Disney events. And now, well, there's going to be a noticeable void next week when we get there for springtime surprise. Before we launch into this week's episode, we want to dedicate a few moments to remembering our friend.
Speaker 2:I remember the first time that I met Erin and I thought to myself whoa, what a badass woman. She was someone who, immediately, I was grateful to know. Whenever I got to say hi to her at a race, I was excited for it. She was strong, confident, funny, loud in the best way possible, so loving and so full of life. Although I did not get to spend much time with her, I'm so much better to have known her. If you were someone whose life was made better by Erin's presence, I hope you continue to live every day to think about her soul, her amazing laugh and have fun like she did. And to our listeners who didn't know Erin, here are a few things that she taught me that may help you grow in your own life Laugh out loud at everything, including yourself. Be strong and unapologetically. You Be fierce and confident, even when sometimes you struggle at those. And lastly, and maybe most importantly, pet all the dogs. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, those. And lastly, and maybe most importantly, pet all the dogs. Yeah, yes, yes. Any listener of the will run for podcast knows that that gang has taken and will continue to take any and all opportunity to not only troll the rise and run podcast, but especially me, especially Greg, as it should be.
Speaker 3:And over time, I feel like these mentions or trolling attempts occur earlier and earlier in their episodes each week, and I think it's in that spirit that it's extremely appropriate that we celebrate Aaron at this given point in time in our episode this week. In my eyes, aaron always wore her emotions on her sleeve. In the same token that she'd be willing to call out the ridiculousness of a runner's behavior at a run, disney expo or race, she would be equally as supportive to cheer on a fellow runner and hand them a margarita at mile 25 of the Walt Disney World Marathon. The kindness and generosity Erin showed me over the years is something that I truly will never forget. I can remember she told me of her diagnosis just days before my first ever looped ultra. At that time I was incredibly nervous because I had never run an event like this before and I had a million and one questions, but in hearing her terrible news I felt like I shouldn't bother her. As you know, she had much bigger fish to fry in her life, but in typical Aaron fashion, both before and during the frosty looper, she made it her priority to make sure that I felt right at home and she put all of my nerves to rest. That level of kindness and generosity extends to so many throughout our various running communities, and while that I am extremely angry that cancer exists and took someone far too young.
Speaker 3:Sad that Aaron is gone, but over the last several days I have been able to find some joy. The sheer number of social media posts that eulogizedanigans the list just goes on and on and on To those in our Rise and Run community. If you would like to show your support for Erin, please consider donating to Unite for Her or the Animal Welfare Association of New Jersey in her memory. I would also like to create a team, or teams, to run the Loopy Looper 12-hour relay this August in Aaron's honor. If you are seriously interested in being a part of this event, please be sure to send me an email at greg at riseandrunpodcastcom. Tom, diana and especially Michael, please know how incredibly sorry I am for your loss and know that I am here to love and support you all in any way that I can, even if it does mean admitting that plastic cheese are not nachos.
Speaker 1:And that's a big admission. I have mentioned this in the past. While I would not say that the We'll Run For podcast is the reason there is a Rise and Run podcast, it was kind of the last link in the chain and that's what led to this thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, in closing, long live the patriarch of the We'll Run For podcast.
Speaker 1:Patriarch of the We'll Run For podcast. Friends, we'd like to leave you with a couple of thoughts. Friends, we'd like to leave you with a couple of thoughts. First, the outpouring of love and support to those who were closest to Aaron is probably a little overwhelming right now. In time, though, that's going to fade. There's nothing sinister about this. It's a normal part of life. So in the coming days, especially during holidays or other important times in Erin's life, think about reaching out to her loved ones and friends just to see how they're doing, and that goes for you as well, friends. When you find yourself thinking, however, share those thoughts with a mutual friend. You don't need to have any magic words, you just need to be available to listen. And finally, this In the next few days, weeks, months, you're going to see or hear something from out of nowhere that is going to make you think of Erin. When that moment happens, and it will remember her, think about how lucky you were to know her and smile 3 am.
Speaker 3: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.
Speaker 6:Well, the alarm's gone off, so let's go. Good morning Rise and Run podcast. This is Brandi from Houston.
Speaker 2:Texas about to take off at the Lucky Tron 10K. Have a great race, everybody. Bye.
Speaker 1:That's Brandi who left us that intro and it's Greg's fault that she did Of course it is. She's about to take off on a run. Brandi, we'll see you next week as you are wrapping up your perfect season. Hello, my friends, Welcome to episode 183 of the Rise and Run podcast. We are delighted that you've joined us this week. I'm Bob and I'm here with Jack.
Speaker 7:Hiya.
Speaker 1:With John hey, how you doing. With Alicia, hello. And with Greg.
Speaker 3:Hey, tom and Diana. This is Greg. This is what my? Voice sounds like, so nice and clear for you.
Speaker 1:Hey, hey, hey, there you go Understood. Friends, this week's episode we are going to get into round two of our March Madness Sit Down Dining Challenge. Get into round two of our March Madness sit down dining challenge and our friend Thomas Stokes you know him as the tutu guy or the muscle mouse or maybe you know him as Tom Tom's going to be with us here during our break in the March Madness brackets to talk about some of the stuff he's got going on that you may be interested in.
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. Please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast and Instagram Rise and Run Pod, Check our YouTube channel and visit our webpage, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, comment, race report or want to introduce an upcoming episode, please call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.
Speaker 2:We also want to thank our patrons, whose support helps keep the Rise and Run podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the Patreon team, please check out patreoncom slash rise and run podcast. We also would like to thank our new patron, Bobby J, who joined the plastic cheese level.
Speaker 1:Thanks, leisha. Hey Jack, anything new on YouTube.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so last week I put out what it's like to run with a Galloway Pacer. You guys asked the questions and I had Chris Twiggs and Adam answer them.
Speaker 1:Good sources Jack.
Speaker 7:Right, that's what I thought, and I know CC was having a very hard time trying not to answer all the questions up on Facebook. But yeah, if you guys are curious, I know the race is next week, so it's a great way to learn more about pacers, if you're considering it. Also, if you want to see what it's like during a race, go ahead and check out our Princess Half Marathon video and you get to actually see what it's like literally running with a pacer for the race.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 3:The rise around podcast is sponsored by our friends over at magic bound travel. There was, um, some monumental news, uh, disney's park news. That, uh, that dropped this week. That, um, you know, to me I I think needed to get some more play, and that is. In just a couple of weeks here the Walt Disney Company is going to be releasing a brand new merchandise line of a Goofy movie celebrating the 30th anniversary of the greatest animated feature studio has ever done.
Speaker 3:I think some of it's going to be available on Shop Disney, but I think a good chunk of it is in Walt Disney World. So if you're like me and you need to be able to be like Joe Exotic from Tiger King and never financially recover from the amount of money that I'm going to spend on this merch, our friends at Magic Bound Travel can help you plan a trip to do just that. So be sure to visit magicboundtravelcom to fill out your no obligation quote.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's cool. Thanks, greg.
Speaker 3:You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Let's look at our training schedule. Friends, springtime surprises next week, seven days away, seven days to the expo. You got four miles on the training schedule this weekend. I recommend doing them. It's the haze in the barn, as we are becoming a popular phrase in terms of training, but this is a good way. Don't get worn out. Relax. Do a nice easy four before you get down to Disney World. Talk about this one more in just a second. In fact, you know what I'm going to pass this up. We'll talk about this whole thing in a moment. Before we get to this topic, which I'm being very secretive about, but probably everybody listening already knows about it, do we have any personal training updates? We'd like to talk about friends.
Speaker 1:A short one one well, let's go ahead jack yeah, um, I did a 10 miler on saturday let's see. Only jack would call a 10 miler a short one.
Speaker 7:Well, I meant like a short comment, you know, but um no, and it was very pleasant, good, cool it was it was very busy out on the trails, but you know it's fine, but it was very pleasant. Good Cool. It was very busy out on the trails, but you know it's fine, but it was very, very nice to just kind of be out there and be one with nature. I guess one would say Nice.
Speaker 3:I did my simulation last weekend and I'll admit I was a little nervous about it because, as most people could tell maybe notiana uh that I was dealing with a really bad science infection last week and uh, so I was a little nervous in terms of how that was gonna go.
Speaker 3:Walks were fine, but it was that it was the last day that, um, I was a little concerned about and again, this is the blessing of having a coach. So I, you know, I I reached out to coach twigs explain the situation of not feeling well. But, you know, feeling like I needed to get the miles in but also didn't want to do anything stupid to hamper myself going into springtime. Surprise, and you know it was very fortunate that we came up with a plan. He's like okay, you don't need to do all 12, but I need you to do a majority of that. So I got my eight in. So it wasn't the true full final simulation like I wanted, but it was enough that I feel very confident going to next weekend and just cannot wait to see all my co-hosts here and I can't wait to see so many more friends just in a week are you doing the challenge?
Speaker 3:yes, I am doing the challenge. Or maybe I should have kept it under wraps and saved that for the roll call that we'll do later. Oh my bad, we'll fix that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fix it in post, Greg. Okay, we'll do. I had the simulation also. It was supposed to be 3, 6, and 12. The 3 went off, the 6 I did on the treadmill, the 12 became 11 because, as I explained to Coach Twiggs this morning, I actually calculated my route incorrectly and I was too lazy to do anything about it. So I figured three, six and 11 was enough. I'll pass on to you friends.
Speaker 1:You may know, you may remember, that I'm an ambassador for RunGum. I believe in the product. I use it myself quite a bit. Run Gum and Speed Labs are like sister organizations. Speed Labs has their own website, speed Labs sells. They call them gummies, but they're not gummies in the consistency of gummy bears, they're more like gummies in the consistency of gumdrops. I tried those for the first time this weekend. When they first came out with them, the ambassadors introduced them and we basically said no, go back to the drawing board. And they did and I think they're just fine.
Speaker 1:The advantage to the gumdrops is when you're chewing the gum, you've got to come up with a place to dispose of it With the gum. If you're chewing the gum, you've got to come up with a place to dispose of it With the gumdrops, that's not an issue and I thought they were pretty good. So if you're interested Speedlabs, speedlabscom I've got a discount code for you, bobr20. Save 20% either at Speedlabs or at RunGum. So if you're interested, look into that or let me know and I'll help you out, if I can. What I was alluding to earlier what I was being kind of coy about got some big news. What I was being kind of coy about Got some big news. It is now 33 days until we can register for the Disneyland half marathon weekend. Boy, I didn't know that we'd see it, gang.
Speaker 7:Who told you so? You guys are all non-believers.
Speaker 1:I'm a believer man. I never said no, but I was definitely a pessimist y'all were and I use the word y'all ever.
Speaker 7:I just sort of put that out there no, I mean it.
Speaker 3:I I'm very glad to see that that it's coming back. I mean, the thing, though, that, you know, made me truly think like, was it going to happen was? I remember, I think it was, when we did the Halloween recap with our friend Kelly over on the West Coast. I remember, you know he kept talking about how much we have no timeline on this whatsoever, but the Disneyland forward project that got approved. You know so the fact that there forward project that got approved. You know so the fact that there's going to be, you know, new lands, new hotels, new shopping.
Speaker 3:You know they announced this week that the, the disney junior dance party that's in california venture shutting down. So, like I, I have a feeling that they're going to be ramping up to do all this stuff and building more parking and pedestrian bridges and everything like that. So, like to me, all of that kind of lined up and made sense in terms of like, maybe there would be a pause. But, again, I'm glad to see that, even if that stuff does happen, that there's still going to be a race weekend and people can still get their coast to coast medals.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 7:See, like my assumption was similar to yours, but I wonder if this might be the last one before they pause it because possibly yeah yeah, but if you look at, like the world of avatar that they're putting in disney's california adventure which, no offense, makes no sense why it's even over there, but I I'm excited for it nonetheless, um, anyways, okay, um, that most likely is going to be where monsters incorporated is that whole area is only being used basically for that attraction and I could just bet that's going to be closed off and that's one of the main areas that people enter to go through the um, to go through the race, um, coming from disneyland to california, and um, if they close that, that's one of the big entryways to get into dca.
Speaker 7:So my assumption is they just might not be closing that until after the holidays or whatever. And then, yeah, so I'm gonna try and sign. I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to try my best to sign up for all the races and if you're not signing up, help a girl out, because I would love to do them. And um, I'm I suck at getting into the cues, absolutely suck you know.
Speaker 1:You know we're there, you know how to.
Speaker 7:You know how to find us I know I'm trying to do the 5k and 10k at the very least, or the challenge and five yeah, so, oh yeah, we'll be there on registration day for you and for all of our friends thank you. Oh, and I'll pinpoint it, my mom's actually considering going to disneyland and it'll be her first ever time to disneyland wouldn't that be cool, I know yeah she's gonna be like where's the castle, mommy, have to squint a little bit you're throwing shade in the castle you're gonna get in trouble a little bit.
Speaker 7:I love the castle but I'll admit, when I first got, when I went to disneyland for my first time, my friend had us cover our eyes and when she had us open them I didn't know where it was at. To be honest, I couldn't see it right away and just as a quick point of information.
Speaker 3:I know we talked about days, but but if you're a date type, person registration for Club Run Disney opens on April 22nd. Right and general registration is on April 29th.
Speaker 1:Right, that would be 33 days from now. Yep.
Speaker 3:And the official dates of the weekend is January 29th through February 1st of 2026.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 3:300, 308 days from now, greg just not that anybody's counting, no, no, not that you're counting or the Google sheet is counting, correct, but but it looks like it's in. It's going to be the about the same gap amount of time between Marathon Weekend and when Disneyland was here in 2025. So if you got that PTO people, go ahead and use it.
Speaker 7:Do you think we're going to get a theme within the next week or so?
Speaker 1:After springtime I would assume, so, yeah, with four and a half five weeks to registration, I say, yeah, within two or three weeks, almost have to. Well, I don't know if you'd have to, but yeah, I would.
Speaker 7:I would certainly hope so yeah, star wars, star wars, star wars, star wars please john, your look, I can't john's convulsing in the background. How am?
Speaker 3:I going to pay for Marathon Weekend and a Disneyland Star Wars, if that's what it is.
Speaker 5:And a cruise and a cruise.
Speaker 7:Am I the only one going?
Speaker 1:It sounds like it Jack yeah.
Speaker 7:Bob, you're not going to give it a second chance.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'd love to, but I don't think I can work it out. Look, that's good news we got uh disneyland halfback. I, our west coast friends will love it and a lot of folks will head out there. Um, hey, I'm gonna toss this out. Major league baseball starts well, actually today, I know, which is great for baseball fans, but that's not why I'm bringing it up.
Speaker 7:Oh, why the?
Speaker 1:reason I bring it up is that Springtime Surprise is the last race of the run Disney season. Wine and Dine always falls at the end of Major League Baseball season, usually when the World Series is on. Although Wine and Dine is a little early this year, I don't know if we'll be in the series or not, but my point is that Major League Baseball season is starting and once baseball season is over, we're back together for Run Disney Springtime Surprise Event Guide has been out for a while, but we've taken to waiting a little bit before we review it, not going over point by point, but just hitting the highlights on what's going on this weekend, and let's start with yoga.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this weekend starts off with yoga. It's going to take place at Hollywood Studios. Starts off with yoga. It's going to take place at Hollywood Studios. One thing to note is that there is only one bus pickup for the event. That occurs at 3.30, 3.35, or 3.40 in the morning, depending on your bus route. So be sure to confirm the pickup time. In your resort lobby there should be a bulletin board. Otherwise, ask at the front desk to make sure what time it's going to be. Check-in for yoga begins at 4.15 am. Be sure to bring your photo ID and your check-in pass, and then yoga itself will begin at 5 am.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's actually the kickoff of the weekend's festivities. That is the same day as the Expo. I love the Expo. It's one of the highlights of the weekend for me because I get to see so many friends. I'll get there Now. This is just me personally, and I'm going to ask my friends here how they're doing. I'm actually going to arrive Wednesday and I'm going to spend Wednesday at the water park, since we get water park admission. Oh, by the way, friends, the temps will be plenty warm for the water park by the time we get there. It has been a cooler than average late winter, early spring in Florida. All that's gone. Right now we're back.
Speaker 3:Well this is just the makeup for a cold marathon in Princess. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, if we had had springtime, surprise what was it a week ago? It wasn't like those races, greg, but it was still chilly here. It was in the 40s getting up in the morning, not anymore. It was, I think, 67 or 68 when I woke up this morning. And that's what we're looking at for the weekend. Don't be. If you go to look at the long range forecast, you're going to see daytime highs in the upper 80s, maybe even 90, depending on what forecast you look at. You're not running at that time. Okay, you'll be done well before that, but it's still going to be kind of warm.
Speaker 1:However, we're talking about the expo right now, of course, over at why world of sports Thursday kicks off. If you're one of the regular people, that kicks off at 10 AM, of course the club run disney folks are there earlier than that. It's 10 to 7 on thursday. Friday, noon till 7, saturday, just a couple hours, 11 until 3 and that's it for the expo. If you've been before, you know this. If you haven't, for the run disneyend Merchandise, there are two different parts of this expo. You've got the General Vendors Expo where you pick up your race shirts and visit with Jeff Galloway and Chris Twiggs and other great vendors there. It's a normal race type expo that's wide open during the same hours that we just talked about. But for the Run Disney Pacific merchandise on the first day on Thursday, you need to enter a virtual queue. That virtual queue opens at 8.30. So it's just like a virtual queue for a ride and in fact I think it's the only virtual queue left at Disney right now, that's correct.
Speaker 1:It is oh finally, yeah, but you need to. The rules are I believe you need to be within 40 miles of Walt Disney World to get into the queue Virtual queue and then you can get in for the Run Disney Merch. You're going to get an Expo check-in passed. That's going to be sent sometime on March 31st, so that'll be coming along pretty soon. Have that on your phone when you get into the expo. If all goes wrong, there are ways. They're not going to kick you out if you don't have your expo check-in pass. It's just going to be much easier for you if you have that on your phone when you show up at the expo.
Speaker 3:Now here's the question I have what do we get first, our check-in passes or information on how to buy these Brooks Run Disney shoes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, we don't know.
Speaker 5:We don't know. It's a great mystery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been. I'm a Brooks fan. Brooks and New Balance are probably my two favorite brands, mostly because they get sold in widths. So I've been on the Brooks mailing list for a while and I get the notifications. And if you look in the notifications about the Run Disney shoe, it's exactly the same thing on the Brooks page that you would see in the event guide right now. Basically it says coming soon. We don't know what that means.
Speaker 7:To a theater near you Remember those videos you used to see.
Speaker 1:In a world.
Speaker 7:In a world where Run. Disney meets Super Shoes.
Speaker 1:That's right where Brooks makes shoes. Brooks makes some great event shoes, but typically they're out a couple weeks prior to the event. So I'm excited about the return. I don't know what they're going to do. My hope and it's just a hope, it's not even a speculation, it's a hope is that they make them available and we order them online and have them shipped to the house. But we'll see. I remember the New Balance days when you had to. That was another virtual queue. You had to get a reservation to try on the shoes, and. But we have no idea, friends. We have no idea what's going to happen with this. I'm I'm still, I'm still excited about it, but we'll see. What do you guys? When are you getting to the expo jack? How about you?
Speaker 5:friday it's my mom's first time going to an expo all right yeah that'd be cool, John, you're going on Thursday right, I'm going on Thursday, hopefully getting a good cue spot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, John will get number two.
Speaker 7:Yeah, John if you find any cute like Herculean stuff, let me know. I'll let you know I'll Venmo you.
Speaker 1:Thursday Alicia.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm doing the challenge. So yes, I will be at the expo on Thursday.
Speaker 1:How about you?
Speaker 3:Greg, yes, thursday. For me. Timing will probably be all dependent on what time I get for the virtual queue and such. But yeah, I will be there most likely sometime in the morning on Thursday.
Speaker 1:All right, so Jack will be there Friday. The rest of us will be there sometime Thursday.
Speaker 7:You don't hate me.
Speaker 1:No, we don't hate you. How could we hate you, Jack? You're just too darn lovable. But hey, I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of friends at the Expo. I love it. The Expo is a lot of fun. That's Thursday. We kick off friday with the 5k yeah.
Speaker 3:So we're gonna be our inner peter quills, we're gonna grab our walkmans and we're gonna listen to some tunes during this groot themed 5k. I am groot, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are, yes, you are.
Speaker 3:All right. Transportation for this race, and actually all races for this weekend, begin at 3 am. There will be no monorail or Skyliner, so you'll be getting on the bus, and if you are getting the bus at Pop Century, please be sure to say hello to our beautiful friend Myra. She's just a huge fan and we love her to death.
Speaker 1:So be sure to chat with her. You know what I forgot about that? I'm at Pop.
Speaker 3:Oh, you are Nice. Oh yeah, all right, I expect many selfies. Robert, who else is at Pop?
Speaker 7:Just me I think it's just you.
Speaker 1:I think it's just you, yeah, Just you, yeah. There will be other Rise and Run friends there.
Speaker 3:I know, oh, 1,000%. Yes.
Speaker 1:I'll see you at PAPA.
Speaker 3:Maybe even Wednesday night we'll get together by the pool, all right, then, once we do get to Epcot on hopefully, a bus that does not get lost the start groups will open at 345 in the morning For all races this weekend. The start groups are a through f. Just to save time here, just be sure to check the event guide for when your start group closes and, as we've learned in the past, make sure to keep your party together in case they do close off, correct, you know? Especially if there's, like you know, three b's and three e's, yeah or whatnot yeah so go, go to corral p together if you're gonna
Speaker 3:run. Uh, run in the group. Uh, as usual for a run. Disney 5k spectating is only at the start and finish lines. Uh, here for this particular race, I'm just going to go over the course real quick. First mile is in the parking lot and outside the park. We're going to be coming into epcot slightly differently. Um, on this one we're actually going to be coming in to the park between test track and mission space. Usually that's our exit to get out of the park, so very nice that we're going to be going in that way.
Speaker 3:Uh, go through world celebration and then do an one full loop around world showcase with a water stop, uh, just before mile two at the american adventure. Uh, then, as you finish your World Showcase loop, you're going to weave between Journey into Imagination, the Land, go behind the Moana Journey of Water, which to me, I think, is turning into one of my favorite photo spots in recent memory. With Run Disney Races, we do do a quick U out in front of spaceship earth and those produce some really, really spectacular pictures. So be if they do have a photo pass photographer there where you can, you know, stand and pose. Make sure you get that one. That would be a good one. And then it looks like we are doing our exit out through the bubble gum bathrooms and then into the finisher shoot. And um, in the words of Groot, I am Groot, that's your 5k.
Speaker 7:That's too cute.
Speaker 3:Oh my god hey, gang, just wanted to interject here. Uh, something that I forgot to mention when we were recording the other day, a little unofficial meetup, uh, that we are doing on Friday so that is the day of the 5k is what I am dubbing, along with my wonderful friend Lizzie, a salute to all attractions, but mostly Muppet vision 3d figure to be fun as a rise and run group, just to get together to bid final farewell to this amazing show and and honor Jim Henson's legacy. So if you're interested in joining us again, this is extremely, extremely informal we are going to be meeting on again Friday, april 4th. We're going to meet at 2 pm in front of the Miss Piggy Fountain, in front of Muppet Vision. We'll hang around there for maybe 10 to 15 minutes or so, maybe grab a group photo, then head on in and say farewell to the Muppets and then, you know, if people feel so inclined, they could walk across the street, get some rad pizza hang out in the Muppet wedding venue that's on the second floor there at Pizza Rizzo. But again, you know, just a nice time to get the community together again.
Speaker 3:But just want to reiterate, and I know Bob will mention this in just a couple of minutes. This is not replacing our traditional meetup. That will still be happening on Saturday at the Disney Springs food truck area. But again one more time. If you're interested in this little Muppet Vision 3D, farewell. But again one more time. If you're interested in this little Muppet Vision 3D, farewell. It'll be Friday afternoon at 2 pm in front of the Miss Piggy Fountain. And now back to the podcast.
Speaker 7:I had to lead after Greg with that Jeez, my explanation's not going to be as good folks, Sorry Jack listen, I think you can go the distance on this one.
Speaker 7:Oh, stop it. You can't, because if you put your right arm up and your left arm up, you got two hills that you're conquering right there on your biceps. Look at that, you're starting out the 10K, right you guys? All right, you guys. So for the 10K it's very much mirror imaged in terms of before the race, everything that happens before with the 5K and the 10K. So transportation begins at 3 am and, just like the 5K, there will be no monorail or Skyliner. So please make sure you're at those bus stops early.
Speaker 7:The start groups do start at 3.45 am, or at least they open at. So, like Greg was saying, go ahead and make sure you go ahead and check that um, check the guide to see when each one opens, each corral that opens. There are um six corrals, a through f? Um. So, again, like I said, just make sure you check the event guide to see when your start group closes as well, because I've made the mistake one time and I arrived when I thought I still had time and they said, nope, corral is closed and you have to go to the next one that's open. So just a heads up go ahead and check the event guide to make sure you know when the corral is open and when your corral closes.
Speaker 7:So for spectating you guys, for this you can. I mean the normal ones, you can spectate at the beginning. You know the start line and the finish line. But I mean, if you really want to go full out, you know well you can't go full out because it's technically a quiet zone. You can cheer around the boardwalk. You just won't be able to ring bells of any kind or really yell, but you can have a sign it's a quiet zone. Yell, um, but you can have a sign. Yeah, you can have a sign and and pretend like you're screaming and shaking the sign and you know, getting all excited and we'll love it. All the same, it's a lot of fun. I love cheering, um, I've cheered over there during the quiet zone before and it's still a lot of fun, even though you're quiet.
Speaker 3:you know the only thing that's running through my head now isn't isn't top gun, the movie that's got danger zone yeah danger zone song in it.
Speaker 3:So just think top gun. But but that's a danger zone, it's the quiet zone and I will say this too I give credit to anyone who spectates at the beach club and yacht club during this race, because I don't know if anyone else experiences this on as I always like to dub the perfect run disney course is the smell of bacon that wafts onto the course around those resorts. Maybe, if you haven't experienced it this time, when you're, when you're running around there, smell, keep, keep your nose out for bacon and and see if I'm right or not.
Speaker 7:I'm hungry already and just to kind of talk about the course really quick. You will be going the distance, especially since you won't be getting inside the park at Epcot until around mile three. So you're going to be starting the parking lot, you'll be exiting out through the Epcot gates and on an overpass and then you'll be heading back towards Epcot and you'll be entering by Figment. It looks like I think that's around where Figment is, isn't it yeah?
Speaker 7:okay, and then you get to do a nice little hello there Canada, uk, but yeah. So once you go through the boardwalk you're going to go around World Showcase for your last hurrah, for your last mile, and finish in the epcot parking lot. I think this 10k course looks epic, very excited. Um, if hercules is not out there I might cry, but I hope to see the hercules characters out there. I hope to see a lot of people dressed up as pegasus that'd be so much fun. And and Megara and all that jazz. Oh my god, if someone dresses up as Phil with the horns, I think that'd be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:After the 10K, saturday afternoon the legendary Rise and.
Speaker 1:Run meetup occurs in Disney Springs in the food truck area at 3 pm. Gosh, we hope to see you there. We understand if you can't make it. We know this is your time, maybe to travel to Disney World with your family. But, gosh, if you can get there, please do. Friends who come come back because they have such a good time. We start at 3. As close as we can to 3.30, we'll take a group photo. So if your time is short, try to be there at 3.30. And then, to be totally candid, we just kind of end when we end. Most people have dinner reservations that start around 5 or so we end. Most people have dinner reservations to start around five or so, but more often than not we have to kind of watch our watches and break things down in time to make those. So weather should be ideal, it should be fun and we hope to see you there. And we hope to see you there. That leads us to Sunday and the last race of the 24-25 run Disney season, the 10-miler.
Speaker 5:Okay so the 10-miler, like all the other races, transportation begins at 3. No monorail or Skyliner. Start groups open at 345. And start groups A to F Expectating same as all the other races is basically the start and finish line. There is that quiet zone around Epcot. Getting there is a little tricky sometimes because you can't take a bus to those resorts. Yet Uber does work. Where did Jack? Jack when you and Diane cheered that year?
Speaker 7:Jack and Diane, where did you?
Speaker 5:That was John Cougar, it was Yep.
Speaker 1:I believe you, john, you know it better than me. I thought, yeah, 80s music is like my jam. No, you know it better than me.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it was actually yeah, it was John Cougar. At that time, you guys Ubered to the-.
Speaker 7:Swan and Dolphin Swan. And.
Speaker 5:Dolphin.
Speaker 7:That was the best place to and then walk to where you had to go yeah, it was like literally a two, three minute walk after that, because I don't think disney will let you enter where boardwalk is. You have to like get dropped off somewhere else if it doesn't work, don't blame us. That's what worked the last time I mean, it worked perfectly fine with me. Nobody questioned me. I can't. I walked out of the car with a sign in my hand, so it's not like they didn't know again.
Speaker 5:This race starts in the uh epcot parking lot. Does basically a loop around world showcase. Exits it out by uh this behind the skyliner. Does a course loop by the boardwalk, this time not by the uh yacht and beach club, uh, down the international squeezeway, as you call it.
Speaker 3:By the way, can we talk about this real quick? Thank you, run Disney, for finally listening to us. If you take a look at this map, the last two years they have put a water stop in the middle of the squeezeway and it created such a logjam. If you zoom in on this map, it looks like the water stop is going to happen somewhere like right at the end of the boardwalk before we go on there. So thank you, run disney, for listening to all the feedback about that. Anyway, my apologies, john I digress, go ahead.
Speaker 5:That was uh, that was a great point about no water. Stop on the squeezeway, and then we get actually some good part time in Hollywood Studios. I know during the marathon we just dip in and out, but here we're going through basically all the lands Galaxy's Edge of course, toy Story Land, then out back by Fantasmic, and then we got some nice highway miles to go then it's really quiet but you know, it's only like a 5k really between getting out of when you actually leave Hollywood Studios to when you start getting back into Epcot yeah, maybe a little more, maybe a little more than that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you're in the ballpark, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's Not too bad. By four and a half miles till you get back into the parking lot of Epcot, come out the front, go right in front of the lagoon, back down and around, the normal way we go out for marathon and finish up at the finish line.
Speaker 5:A good place to finish and one good, good point there's a lot of water stops here. There's some water stops. That first water stop. You're going to say I don't need it yet, but with the forecasted weather I would not pass up your water stops in this race.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, stay hydrated and the other thing I would like to see them correct, but again we will have to wait and see is for as much as they always tell us, to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I understand only doing water for the 5k, but I hope they bring electrolytes Back for the 10k Because I feel like the last couple of races they've only given us water For that and if we're going to preach Having our electrolyte drinks along with With water, hopefully they do provide that. But again, we'll just have to wait and see.
Speaker 5:And paper cups.
Speaker 3:Yes, and paper cups.
Speaker 5:That one year they gave us plastic. It was horrible. Alright guys, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I have paper cups. Yes, that one year they gave us plastic. It was horrible. All right, guys, that's it. Man, we're look, we'll be there next week and we'll see you there.
Speaker 3:Let us now get back to our March Madness countdown.
Speaker 1:I'm excited you have the controls.
Speaker 3:Alright. So hopefully in this round we can provide a little bit more excitement than the actual March Madness provided us, because there weren't many Cinderella's and there weren't many upsets and there weren't many buzzer beaters. I know we got some chalk in our bracket, but I know the one region does get really, really interesting. So hopefully we'll be able to provide some excitement for everyone this week. Now, since Jack is joining us this week and we're so glad to get her perspective on these matchups so that we can get our Patreons involved, I will abstain from voting this week so that way, in the event of a tie, we can go to our lovely Patreons who also voted on these second round matchups. So let's get going. Just as we did last week, we'll start up in the plastic cheese region in our first second round game the number one seed sanaa versus the number nine seed morimoto, asia and jackson's. Uh, you're brand new to this. We'll start with you first. Which one of those two do you prefer?
Speaker 7:I haven't been to Morimoto's and I have been to Sanaa, so I would definitely do Sanaa.
Speaker 3:Okay, sanaa, alicia, how about you?
Speaker 2:I like both of these, but I'm going to go with Morimoto.
Speaker 3:John, what say you?
Speaker 5:I've never been to Sanaa. I heard it's really good.
Speaker 3:I really like morimoto okay, so right now it's 2-1. Morimoto. Bob, how do you feel about this one? I?
Speaker 1:wonder what's going to happen now. Sanaa is one of the better restaurants on property. It's very good. It's renowned for their bread service.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is.
Speaker 1:If you ever get there, you really have to order that.
Speaker 3:Or two.
Speaker 1:But when you get to Morimoto's and I'm putting Morimoto's over the top here, which means I'll get to talk about it more next week Morimoto's.
Speaker 3:All right, we have delivering. Just as we talked about A major upset, our first number one seed to go down, morimoto Asia, goes on to the Sweet 16. If you're interested, the Patreons heavily disagreed with all of you. In our Patreon vote, sanaa won 70% to 30 percent on that one, but very interesting, all right. So now I love you, but sayonara, all right, here we go. Our second matchup. This is a battle of epcot restaurants. We have the four seed garden grill versus the five seed beer garden.
Speaker 1:Oh, bob, I'll start with you on this one. I'm first. I want to make sure jack's okay jack, are you okay? I mentioned this last week that I only recently went to Garden Grill for the first time. A couple of trips ago, I just wasn't that impressed. It's not bad, I just didn't think it was great, whereas I've enjoyed the beer garden on many occasions I like the atmosphere, I like the entertainment, I like the food.
Speaker 3:Beer garden- All right, john, what about you?
Speaker 5:Tiki-taki, tiki-taki, oi, oi, oi.
Speaker 3:There.
Speaker 2:Like I said last week, there's not anything for me at the beer garden, so I'm going to say Garden Grill.
Speaker 3:All right, Alicia's hanging out with Chip and Dale rotating in the restaurant. Jack, what do you say?
Speaker 7:Ach, ich liebe Biergarten. There we go.
Speaker 3:All right, so Beer Garden moves on.
Speaker 1:Because it's going to. Once they're gone, we're not going to talk about it anymore. One of the things that I found annoying about Garden Grill is when it rotates and you go past the part that's got the dog barking on the porch. Yes, Somebody shut that dog up. Oh man, I love it.
Speaker 5:Trust on that steak down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 5:All right, I love it Trust on that steak down. Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 3:All right, Our next match up here in the plastic cheese region. We have the three seed the hoopty do musical review versus the number six seed, Shiki Sai.
Speaker 7:Where is that?
Speaker 3:John up there. Shiki Sai is in the Japan Pavilion. It was the former Tokyo dining location.
Speaker 7:Oh.
Speaker 3:John, I'll start with you on this one Hoop-dee-doo review. Okay, alicia.
Speaker 2:Hoop-dee-doo review.
Speaker 1:Bob, yeah, I think I'm in a minority on this one. I thought Hoop-dee-doo was fun, but I didn't think the food was special. That was okay, and I just have a penchant for Asian food, so I like Shikisai. All right, so it's two to one.
Speaker 3:Hoop-dee-doo Jack. Do we have a tie or does Hoop-Dee-Doo move on?
Speaker 7:So I've only been to Hoop-Dee-Doo when I was seven and I remember loving the entertainment, but I don't remember anything about the food and I love me. Some good old you said like Japanese food, right, sushi, oh yeah, oh sushi, oh, I'm there, yeah alright, alright, jack's going cheeky size, so we are tied at two.
Speaker 3:so that means we go to the Patreons and this was our most lopsided votes of the second round. Hoopty Doo Musical Review moves on with a 96 to 4% vote.
Speaker 1:I'm not surprised at that, and that's fine.
Speaker 5:It's like that, yukn game the other day that was a nail-biter.
Speaker 3:No the.
Speaker 5:UConn women game.
Speaker 3:Oh, uconn, women. Oh, yes, yes, I saw that yeah. All right, and our last matchup in the plastic cheese region. This is the Battle of the steakhouses the two seed, steakhouse 71, versus the seven seed the cellier, alicia Well.
Speaker 5:I mean, let's go to our vegan eater. I got a quarter if you want to flip it.
Speaker 7:That's pretty much what I'm doing in my head, but I'm gonna go lasalle lasalle, all right, jack all right, I just want to make sure the steakhouse 71 is the one that's inside contemporary contemporary oh, that's hard. Um as much as I love Steakhouse 71, I really, really, really do Le Cellier.
Speaker 3:Okay, 2-0. Le Cellier Robert.
Speaker 1:This is difficult. I agree with you, jack, it's a tough one. Menu's more varied at Steakhouse 71. Le Cellier has lunch and dinner, but it's the same menu. But boy, the steak at Le Cellier is really good. And sometimes you got to consider values. Le Cellier is a little more expensive, oh golly, by the narrowest of margins I'm going to go Le Cellier.
Speaker 3:All right, so it moves on. But John, what would you vote here? I was going to go LeSoyer, all right, so it moves on. But John, what if you? What would you vote here?
Speaker 5:I was going with Steakhouse 71, not because of the steakhouse, but they have that seven layer cake they used to have up at the top.
Speaker 3:Oh yes.
Speaker 5:Of the world at the DVC lounge at the top of the. Oh my God, they like towers at the top of the oh my God, Bay Lake Towers.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm, the top of the World Club, yeah, yeah yeah, top of the World, yes, All right. Well, I'm sorry it doesn't move on for you. Le Cellier moves on. All right. That completes our games in the Plastic Cheese region. We continue to move down the bracket. We're now in the Banana region and our first matchup here is the number one seed Wine Bar, george, versus the number eight seed Whispering Canyon, john. I'll start with you on this one.
Speaker 5:I never been to Wine Bar George yet, so I really can't comment on that. But I do really like Whispering Canyon and I need some ketchup right now. Okay, all right, but I do really like Whispering Canyon and I need some ketchup right now.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, so everyone send their ketchup bottles to. New. Jersey for John Jack.
Speaker 7:I feel I must not eat out a whole lot. I've actually never been to either, but I've always wanted to go to Whispering. I might have gone to Whispering like when I was little, but I would love to go there for a dopey weekend.
Speaker 1:Okay, bob Gosh, I think we got an upset here Whispering.
Speaker 3:Canyon. It's a city, baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's Whispering Canyon. The food is good not great, but good. I think in Disney terms it's a decent value and it's a decent value and it's certainly a lot of fun Whispering Canyon.
Speaker 3:All right, it moves on. But, alicia, how would you have voted?
Speaker 2:I would also vote for Whispering Canyon A clean sweep.
Speaker 3:Look at that. All right, all right. Our next matchup is probably our biggest Cinderella story matchup that we have here on our bracket. We have the 12 seed Splitsville versus the number 13 seed Yachtsman Steakhouse.
Speaker 2:Alicia.
Speaker 3:I'll go to you.
Speaker 2:So remember how I said I don't beat me, I don't, but I'm actually. I did um, and I actually do enjoy the vegan option at yachtsman, so I'm gonna choose yachtsman. I. I love splitsville, though, and I go there quite often, but um, for the terms of this game, I I'm going to choose Yachtsman.
Speaker 3:All right Yachtsman for Alicia Jack.
Speaker 2:Splitsville.
Speaker 3:Splitsville. Okay, john.
Speaker 5:I'm going with Yachtsman.
Speaker 3:Yachtsman 2-1. Yachtsman, bring us home, bob.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 3:Bob has his face right there.
Speaker 1:Golly, they're getting tougher, as they should, as we progress along Gosh, and this is silly. I've yet to get to yachtsman for the steak I. I've read that it may be as good as any steak on property didn't you have a steak when we went for ali's birthday?
Speaker 3:I could be wrong, but I I don swore you ordered the steak.
Speaker 1:I don't remember, greg, okay, I don't remember. And if I did that's a bad sign, because if I did order it and I don't remember it, that's not good. I think Splitsville may be the most underrated place in the park.
Speaker 3:So let's move Splitsville along, let's go split, all right, so that gives us a tie, and the patreons were extremely split as well oh see what you did there in a 51 to 49 percent. Wow, the 12 seed splitsville moves on, wow oh, wow all right, our next quasi cinderella matchup here in the region the three seed over in Animal Kingdom Lodge, jiko, versus the 11 seed, ohana Jack. What do you say?
Speaker 7:I get the restaurants mixed up a little bit.
Speaker 1:Animal Kingdom Lodge yeah, Ohana.
Speaker 3:Okay, Ohana.
Speaker 1:Bob Good. Let's see Jiko Ohana. Okay, ohana, bob Good. Let's see Chico Ohana, without much commentary, ohana.
Speaker 3:All right, 2-0 Ohana Alicia. Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. All right 3-0 it moves on, but, john, I'm not voting. Alicia, john, how would you? How would you have voted on this one?
Speaker 5:I would have. They would have fouled me late. I would have dropped him in. We've got Ohana all right love it all right.
Speaker 3:So two double digit seeds in the sweet 16, gotta love it. All right, our last matchup here before we go to commercial break the number two seed, topolino's's terrace versus the seven seed hollywood brown derby. John, I'll start with you okay, so two places.
Speaker 5:I have not eaten yet, but I do hear a lot of good things about topolino's.
Speaker 3:All right, topolino's for John Alicia.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go with Brown Derby.
Speaker 3:All right, bob is pondering into the skies of the greater Tampa area right now, so I'm going to let him think a little bit longer. Jack, what do you say?
Speaker 7:Brown Derby.
Speaker 3:Brown Derby. All right, so 2-1 Brown Derby. What is it going to be, bob Once?
Speaker 1:again. Friends, this is difficult. These are both very good restaurants. You can't go wrong at either one, but I have to pick one, and I'm going to pick the one that says Patreons. What do you think I'm voting? Topolino's.
Speaker 3:All right, he's going Topolinoolinos. So we look at the patreon vote. In a 60 to 40 percent vote, the italian name for mickey mouse moves on topolinos terrace. All right, so that get. That puts us at the halfway mark of our second round matchup, so we're going to go take a quick commercial break with one of our corporate sponsors. Bob, take it away.
Speaker 1:All right, yeah, let's take that break and let's use that time to visit with a good friend of ours. Hasn't been here for a little bit, thomas Stokes. Tom, how are you, my friend? Good to see you.
Speaker 4:I'm super fantastic. Thanks for having me back, guys.
Speaker 1:Oh, tom, how are you? My friend? Good to see you, I'm super fantastic. Thanks for having me back, guys. Oh, that's great. We're always, always happy to see you, whether it's here or at Disney World or as part of one of your training programs. Speaking of, you just wrapped up a challenge. How did that go, tom?
Speaker 4:It went amazing. It was probably. I've done a few of these challenges now this one was the most fun, most interactive for me and I'm a big numbers metrics guy. We had 150 between people.
Speaker 4:I already work with opening the doors to them and just new people. We had 150 people Awesome. Take this eight-week challenge on and we had over 4,800 workouts completed in eight weeks. I set the expectation of three workouts a week. That's your goal during an eight-week challenge. So the fact that across 150 people, eight weeks, that we had that many workouts done, was like that, blew my mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 4:It was an absolute blast.
Speaker 1:So you've got the results already. I assume you've already made public the results for.
Speaker 4:I have, but I have to shout some people out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, please do.
Speaker 4:Because I know they're listening and I could give them some love and I'll tie this into something. But our first place winner was Matt Chamberlain, great guy. His wife took part in challenge as well. This this man lost 20 pounds in eight weeks, which, oh, that's great. It's a little on the you know, it's a little on the far end of the spectrum of actually what you should see on healthy loss. One to two pounds a week is generally what you want to see. So he went above and beyond and, matt, I got to call you out in front of the entire rise and run family. He did it on a diet of chipotle and chick-fil-a okay, his go-to. He followed the macros I set.
Speaker 3:He got the workouts in and he still managed to shed 20 pounds off well, it makes sense because they've been downgrading the size of the bowls and the burritos over years that their ce, before he got fired, had to make the public comment about. So that makes a ton of sense.
Speaker 4:If you listen to my last call, I may have complained about the exact same thing for the portion sizes. Depending on who's behind that counter, I get very flustered.
Speaker 3:You just got to pull your cell phone out and record them while they're, while they're making it for you a large.
Speaker 4:I'm six foot two. I need more than this little scoop. So he absolutely crushed. It came out. He was actually on a journey before we started, so he lost 35 pounds over the course of a year and then just hit a brick wall, really dialed in over those eight weeks and now we're down another 20 pounds and he's going to be working with me for the next six months to cross that next line on his goal.
Speaker 1:Outstanding Congratulations. Good stuff. Anybody else you want to highlight?
Speaker 4:Yeah, just, there was so much hard work, especially from people I know listening to this show. People I know that listen to this show. Much hard work, especially from people I know listening to this show. People I know that listen to this show. And just two, two big ones that I've seen constant, constant want to improve and keep dialing things in and keep getting better at what they're doing. And that's Heather Madsen. She is straight out of the Dakotas, so it's so, so much fun for me to coach people all over and just get a different vibe. What is your struggle working out in snowy Dakota? She ain't going for a run outside right now, I'll tell you that, but she gets a little cross-country skiing in. Oh, great exercise. Excellent progress over the challenge. Excellent progress over the challenge. And then my girl, Val, who I'll see at springtime. This was my. She was my first one coaching somebody from Argentina, where I'm like oh, valeria, yeah, you know, val Sure do.
Speaker 4:What a time to be alive, where you know you guys have that impact on somebody down in Argentina that comes up here for races and for her to come into my world. And yeah, she, she's just been consistent since we started working together. It's another kilo down, coach.
Speaker 4:It's another kilo down if you're, I am right on track and it's just like a ray of sunshine where I see a lot of people. You know, early January it's like, oh my god, it's God, it's fitness, it's getting shapesies and I need to drive myself nuts, I need to go a little crazy and I can't do this. I can't do that. She does it with a smile on her face all the time. She's like whatever I have to do, we're going to make it work. And I just weekly check-ins with these guys. It's so much fun just to hear their journeys and struggles, struggles are a big part.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, that's a great segue because, well, congratulations to all those. I know at least one person just fell off the face of the earth in this last challenge and he'd been doing pretty well. But I look, look, friends, I was going to. I was going to ask Tom this question personally as an aside, but I have a feeling I'm not the only person in this category, so I want to ask it publicly for, hopefully, the benefit of some others. And that is. I joined up in July. We did that summer challenge. I loved it. I stuck with it all the way through. I went through. After that I'd been going well. You know, I cut my thumb, couldn't live for a couple of weeks. But then, a couple of weeks later, I was ready to go back and, tom, I just did not get back into it and I found every excuse in the world not to go. And now I want to start over what's? What do I need to do?
Speaker 4:Oh, there's a, there's a whole, a whole lot of ways to unpack this, but I remember that. I remember you cutting your thumb and then when was that? Just before Thanksgiving, just before Thanksgiving, just before Thanksgiving. And then what'd you have going on for the next month and change.
Speaker 1:And then we got the holidays, and then we got dopey and then, but it became one excuse after the other.
Speaker 4:That's what I was thinking. Dopey in particular. I think a lot of listeners here probably forget even about the holidays because we are so deep in a dopey and marathon weekend training, and life gets in the way. I've been in this industry for 15 years, so it's a very common story. Life gets in the way, life happens. Mothers I hear from all the time. I got pregnant and I just never started again. And now my kid's six and I just don't know what to do. Never started again, and now my kid's six and I just don't know what to do. And life gets in the way and it's really one day at a time. Take one day at a time and commit to it.
Speaker 4:If you've ever heard my story when I, you know I was two, 50, 260 pounds, just not not happy, and I drove to the gym and sat in the parking lot for 30 minutes on on the day that I said I'm going to start, I'm going to start and you know a lot less confidence than the guy you see running around Disney in a two, two and no shirt on. But I was just. I sat there in Danbury, connecticut, outside of New York sports club for 20, 30 minutes and I was like I don't. I don't even know how to start. I don't even know how to do it. I don't know what to do.
Speaker 4:And the next day I went in, I signed up for a membership, I let them give me a tour, I sat in the sauna, I sat in the steam room and I left again and I just didn't know what to do. And finally, one day I hopped on a treadmill and then I kind of watched people lifting weights. So you've got the plan ahead of you. It's about just taking that first step and diving back in and saying all right, I'm going to make a little time for this today, and Bob, you don't have to excuse me, you're retired, you're just making a group costume and hanging out with these lovely people.
Speaker 4:Yeah See, I was going to go this week but I had to make my costumes and and just you know, you're out here with this great community running about 52 Facebook chats where you're keeping everybody motivated, keeping everybody apprised to all the information. Make some Bob time. Make some Bob time. Yeah, tell people it's non-negotiable, it's my hour day. I'm going to get that in, no matter what.
Speaker 1:I can do it. I can do it. I personally want to get in touch with you, tom, to talk about starting over, but just I wanted friends to know that this happens. It happens to a lot of people, and just it's worthwhile. I felt better, I ate better, my weight was better, and now I'm just a mess. You're not a mess. You're not a mess.
Speaker 4:I would say you know, I didn't think of this. That's one of the best parts about running those challenges and getting to coach people's hearing they feel better and they're performing better. Where it's like nine, nine times out of ten, maybe 99 out of 100, somebody's going to call me I want to lose 10 pounds. I want you to be able to run your race injury free. I want you to be able to, you know, get stronger. And, bob, I know a lot of what we said. What are we? 71 now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I look at some 71 year olds and they can't, can't, get out of the off the bed, out of the couch, you know, off the couch, out of the bed. I'm like. Well, I want to look like Bob, so I'm going to keep doing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I appreciate that. I do appreciate that, but I don't care about those guys. They made that decision. Okay, they made that decision. I decided I don't want to do that, all right, good, good, we'll get back. Tom, I'll get in touch with that and if you're out there and you're in the same boat as I am Tom's here to help.
Speaker 4:And you know I said that to myself this morning. I got up early, 5 am wake-up call and then I said I got to. What is it like? 20 hours away I got to talk to these guys and what am I going to say tonight? Because we don't go over anything beforehand, we just chat with each other. And I had this realization. I'm like you know how many people listen to this while they're running. You guys are listened to the most while people are on these training runs, while they're putting in work on themselves. So if you're out there running right now, I've never let the coach in me come out Like keep putting one foot forward. You're doing great, Keep pushing. Let's get a little faster, Get a little stronger. If you are on that final mile right now and life sucks, just keep going, because you've got a whole group of people that believe in you, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, well said, my friend. All right, thanks, tom. What lays ahead for training?
Speaker 4:programs. I always like to do something a little fun and Alicia reminded me she goes. You know you always have something to announce before we come on and I'm like I'm holding off on the next challenge until July. It'll run eight weeks, right up until Labor Day. So if anybody wants to do math on what that is, you'll know. When we start that Sunday before Labor Day, we'll finish Maybe a little before that's what we did last year isn't it?
Speaker 4:That was what we did last year, so I'm going to mimic those dates. But then, when she asked me this question, I started getting the wheels turning and I realized, well, I've been coaching for 15 years. There's a little. Something happened in the world five years ago that kind of upended my life. It shut gyms down and it had a lot of sense of uncertainty in my life and I said I'm going to take a leap into this online world and see if I can help people out. While they're dealing with COVID and struggling, they can't work out right now. Can I help people stay on their fitness goals virtually? That's blessed me to be able to work with people in Argentina, Canada, California, all over the place, and it's my. Technically, April is my five-year anniversary of doing this virtually. So five-year anniversary I'm also I'm turning 40 this month, Just a kid, so I got a little catching up. So it's a big April for me, knowing it's Stoked Metabolics five year my 40th and I'm blessed to be able to do what I love every single day and that's work with people and help them on their goals.
Speaker 4:So I want to just give something back, and it's not going to be easy, but I want to give away six months free coaching to one person. One person. I'll have a form up on my website. All you got to tell me is why you deserve it more than Bob does. It shouldn't be hard. Why you deserve it. You know I have some questions on there. Why is life changing for you? Yeah, and we're going to give away six months free coaching to whoever you know comes out and says yeah, I need this because I fell off like Bob did. But I fell off 20 years ago and it's only gotten worse.
Speaker 1:There you go, friends. That's one heck of a deal, Tom.
Speaker 4:So it should be live by the time this episode is at stokesfit slash scholarship.
Speaker 1:Okay, stokesfit, slash, scholarship Outstanding and friends, I kid you not, it is worthwhile. I've been active through most of my life, but in terms of strength training, this was the most active. I was in strength training up until November, but I'm going to get back again because it was just worthwhile you talked about. I haven't gosh. No, I'm not superstitious, I'll say this out loud. I haven't had an injury since I started the strength training and I had a period of time there where it was tough for me to go more than a couple of months without an injury, so that's helped also.
Speaker 4:Don't jinx me, Bob. I got a good streak going there.
Speaker 1:No, I don't believe in that stuff. We're good to go. Hey, Tom, we'll see you next week at Disney World, right?
Speaker 4:I can't wait. I got a perfect spot for you and my costume crew.
Speaker 1:Oh, outstanding. Any hints on the costumes have you shared?
Speaker 4:yours recently.
Speaker 1:I think I have All of them. I haven't, but I have the two. I have Groot for the 5K and Zeus for the 10K, and between those two costumes and the forecast temperatures, hey, I may drop 20 pounds, tom. So I don't have anything for the 10 miler.
Speaker 4:The 10K is the easy one. If y'all can't guess this, I have concerns. I have been waiting for a Hercules theme since I got into Run Disney and dressing like a lunatic and making my father proud. So I have been waiting for this and we're going Hercules.
Speaker 1:Well, that was a no-brainer, and Zeus was a no-brainer for me too, it's going to be perfect. Gonna be perk's dad, perfect, right, but the wig and the uh beard, they may be a little tough. We'll see, you're gonna be fine.
Speaker 4:We'll see sweaty but fine, and I will not be mr incredible, so you can run through all the incredibles and try to figure out who I'm gonna be for for that one. Oh okay, how about the 5K? The 5K, that's the one I came up with at 5 o'clock this morning as well, and I pivoted because everyone said do Drax, and I do not want to put gray makeup all over my body and tattoos at 2 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1:I can't do it. It'd be yeah, I get you.
Speaker 4:It would be good, though, I'll be taking recommendations for blue body paint. That'll be the only hint.
Speaker 1:Ooh, okay, we'll leave that one. Hey, it's only a week away, friends, only a week and a day away, so we'll find out soon enough. Regardless, though, we will see you soon, my friend. Once again, thanks for joining us, thanks for all you do for supporting the Rise and Run community, because you do quite a bit above and beyond your your training here. That is appreciated. Thank you, guys. You're welcome and we'll see you soon.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:Well, tom, thanks so much for joining us to give us those awesome updates about the challenges, but we need to keep moving on with this episode and finish up the second round of our Rise and Run March Madness. So let's continue on. We now head to the Sports Bean region. On, we now head to the sports bean region and our first matchup there is the number one seed, boma, versus the number eight seed, skipper's canteen, alicia.
Speaker 2:I'll start with you these are both really good. Um, I'm gonna go with b. I like all the different flavors and spices in there.
Speaker 3:Excellent Jack.
Speaker 7:Easy Boma.
Speaker 3:All right, 2-0 Boma John.
Speaker 5:Well, I'm going with Boma.
Speaker 3:All right, and.
Speaker 1:Bob, what do you say? This is the first time in this round that I think the decision has been pretty easy. Skipper's Canteen is quite good, and again we're at a point where we're comparing two good restaurants, but Boma's a favorite, so let's make it a clean sweep, alright.
Speaker 3:Clean sweep for Boma, excellent, alright. Next up, the four seed Olivia's, and again, that is over at Old Key West Versus the five seed the Boathouse down at Disney Springs. John, I'll start with you.
Speaker 5:It's a really good you know. This is why they're both a four and a five seed. They're really close, but I'm thinking I'm going with the Boathouse.
Speaker 3:All right, Boathouse Jack.
Speaker 7:I've never had it, but I've been really wanting to eat at the Boathouse.
Speaker 3:Okay, so 2-0. Boathouse Bob.
Speaker 1:First time I went to Boathouse. I didn't like it, but we went back. Yeah, I don't know, anything can happen. Becky and I were there. Maybe, who knows, we didn't enjoy it that much, but we did go back and we've gone back repeatedly since. We enjoy it very much. Let's go Boathouse.
Speaker 3:All right, Alicia, is it a clean sweep for Boathouse or no?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll go with Boathouse.
Speaker 3:yes, All right. So the five seed upsets, a mild upset, Mild upsets, the four there, all right. Next up, we have the three seed sebastian's bistro versus the six seed ale and compass bob.
Speaker 1:I'll start with you I this time am going ale and compass, please okay. Alicia, ale and Compass, please Okay.
Speaker 3:Alicia.
Speaker 2:Hmm, this is hard because Ale and Compass just changed their menu. I guess I'm going to go by what I've had, and in that case I'm going to choose Sebastian's. Okay.
Speaker 3:Won the one so far, john.
Speaker 5:First time going to Sebastian's was Mar One, the one so far. John, First time go to Sebastian's was a marathon weekend and I just realized that's one of the best banks for your bucks out there at Disney.
Speaker 3:I agree with you.
Speaker 5:Yep, and the food is really good, so I think I'm going with Sebastian's.
Speaker 3:Okay, two one Sebastian's Jack.
Speaker 7:You and I went on a lovely dinner at Sebastian's a couple of years ago, but I don't want that to influence your vote oh no, that's exactly why I want to choose Sebastian's, because the food like me and you were both commenting like that restaurant is so underrated and it's actually. I was surprised how much I really liked it, so all right all right.
Speaker 3:So Sebastian's moves on. All right, and the last matchup here in the banana region. The two-seed Chef.
Speaker 7:Artsmith's.
Speaker 5:Homecoming versus the seven-seed Tiffin's John I'll start with you. I have not eaten at any of these restaurants, but so I'm going to pick dinosaur.
Speaker 3:T-Rex did not make the field job.
Speaker 5:No, dinosaur.
Speaker 3:The ride. I know, I know Okay.
Speaker 5:Cause I'm still kind of not getting over that yet. But I I hear that Art Smith's really good for that comfort type food, so I'm going with Art Smith.
Speaker 3:All right, Alicia.
Speaker 2:Homecoming.
Speaker 3:Homecoming Bob.
Speaker 1:Yeah, art Smith, good, I mean, the food's excellent. The menu's kind of limited. It's mostly chicken, but there are other options. Tiffin's, before we let it go. Tiffin's is a very good restaurant. It's upscale, I'm almost certain. I said this last week. The Nomad Lounge outside is one of our favorite places in Animal Kingdom. But my vote's for Arch Smith's Homecoming All right, is that?
Speaker 3:a clean sweep Jack.
Speaker 7:Absolutely not Tiffin's.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay. Well, unfortunately it doesn't matter, though I know. Thank you for your input though. All right, we're down to our final region here. In round two we head to the Cliffs Block region and our first matchup the one seed Raglan Road versus the eight seed Narcooses Jack. I'll start with you.
Speaker 7:Raglan Road.
Speaker 1:Okay, bob, as I said earlier, these get difficult. I yeah, I don't know that Raglan Road deserves a one seed, and it's been a while since I've been to Narcooses Value entertainment, raglan Road.
Speaker 3:Okay, alicia.
Speaker 2:Narcoosies.
Speaker 3:Narcoosies. So 2-1. John, it comes down to you.
Speaker 5:So I want to make it easy. I'm going with Narcoosies. We're going for an upset here.
Speaker 3:Oh, here we go. We're tied at two. We check the Patreon votes. This was another close one. Not as close as the. You had a 51-49 somewhere. Yeah, the Splitsville and Yachtsman. Not that close. But the Irish dancers might have taken an extra step, like Maryland did in that game versus Colorado State, but they take the win 55% to 45% over Narcoossee's. The one seed survives and advances. All right, our next matchup, another battle of Epcot restaurants. Another battle of Epcot restaurants. The four seed Via Napoli versus the 12 seed. Rose and Crown Alicia start with you.
Speaker 2:Via Napoli.
Speaker 3:Via Napoli Jack.
Speaker 2:Via Napoli.
Speaker 3:All right, Two oh John.
Speaker 5:Via Napoli.
Speaker 1:All right, Bob, Any, any, Any differing thoughts? No, not really. I mentioned last week. The last couple times we've been to Rose and Crown have not been great, so I will make it unanimous. The Annapolis.
Speaker 3:The four seed moves on. Okay, next up. I think this one is going to spark some debate, but we'll see if I'm right here. The three seed Tusker House. I think this one is going to spark some debate, but we'll see if I'm right here. The three-seed Tusker House versus the 11-seed Roundup.
Speaker 7:Rodeo Barbecue Jack, I'll start with you, so I don't go to. Rodeo Roundup on race weekend for a reason, but I absolutely love the food, so I'm going to go to Rodeo.
Speaker 1:Okay, Bob. Well, no matter which one you choose, if you leave hungry it's your own daggum fault. Yeah, there's plenty of food at both of them. Again, both quite good. A lot of fun at Roundup. Rodeo character dining at Tusker House. I think I like the variety at Tusker House just a little more, so let's go there.
Speaker 3:All right, one to one, alicia.
Speaker 2:I haven't been to Roundup Rodeo, so I'm going to say Tusker House.
Speaker 3:Okay, two one, john. Are we sending it to overtime or does Tusker House move on?
Speaker 5:Tusker House moves on.
Speaker 3:Oh man, this one hurts my heart a little bit, because I love Roundup Rodeo Barbecue.
Speaker 1:It's good. Oh, it definitely is good. There's some good ones falling, by the way it's just that little bit of extra at Tusker House.
Speaker 3:No, I get it. It's got a good variety and again it's got characters. So that's nice, all right. Our last and final matchup for this week. We have the seven seed California Grill versus the major Cinderella in our bracket. So far, the 15 seed Space 220. I'll start with you, john.
Speaker 5:I'm going to go with California Grill.
Speaker 3:California Grill Bob.
Speaker 1:Space 220 is fun and if you get a chance, go. California Grill is an excellent restaurant. A little expensive, of course, but the views, the food, california Grill.
Speaker 3:All right, 2-0 for California Grill Jack.
Speaker 7:I really, really, really, really want to eat at Space 220. So if I'm going to choose which one I would want to eat at the most, it would be that one.
Speaker 3:Okay, alicia, what say you?
Speaker 2:California Grill for me.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 3:And the top of the contemporary moves on the seven seed makes the sweet 16. All right. Well, that concludes round two. Some nice upsets and some chalk in here, so it's going to make the sweet 16 really, really interesting. Now give an update on this for our Patreons. The sweet 16 matchups Patreons, you will have the opportunity to vote on those. The sweet 16 matchups uh. Patrons, you will have the opportunity to vote on those. Uh, so be sure to tune into your uh inboxes, uh, to get the notifications for those matchups so that you can vote for when we record next Tuesday. But we are finishing out the bracket next week, so patrons will be able to give their voice for the sweet 16, but by the end of next week. So patrons will be able to give their voice for the Sweet 16, but by the end of next week's episode, we are going to crown a champion, cut down the nets, play one shining moment all the beautiful things that happen at the end of an NCAA tournament. So thanks again for playing and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 1:It's fun, it's fun, it's fun. We always leave these recordings hungry. It's late at night and I end up going into the kitchen looking for something to eat, but it's enjoyable. Hope you're enjoying playing along with us friends, and I also invite you to let us know when and where you disagree.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was surprised. Not too many people let us know that we were really wrong on social media last week, so maybe we weren't wrong and listeners do agree with us.
Speaker 1:It was a little easier in the first round in most cases Not all cases, but in most cases, friends. I heard from our friend Alec at Kauai and Pizza Apparel little easier in the first round in most cases not all cases, but in most cases, friends. I heard from our friend alec at kawaiian pizza apparel. She is working on a special alien shirt for us. It'll be a. She'll use the alien shirt that she has right now, but she's designing, working on a design that incorporates our logo, and she had a couple other things she wanted designing, working on a design that incorporates our logo, and she had a couple other things she wanted to spiff up a little bit. She did tell me that she'd keep the price at $30, which is where she had it for the Dalmatian shirts and it really it's a. It's a good quality shirt for the money that she's asking. So as soon as we have a graphic or a photo we can show you, we'll make it available to you. I also heard from our friend Melissa who is now running Fluffy Fizzies. Don't forget Fluffy Fizzies. They're still out there. They will not be at Springtime Surprise, but I think next race season she hopes to be much more actively involved. You still can use our discount code on the Fluffy Fizzy's website which, if memory serves me, was happy running. Okay, thank you, you didn't see it, friends. Alicia was shaking her head. I appreciate that, friends. It's time for a rise and run tradition. It's time for the springtime surprise roll call.
Speaker 1:Let's take a look at the list of folks who have told us they're going to be at Walt Disney World for this challenge. We have decidedly fewer names on the list this year than we did in 2024. I have a feeling that's just because people didn't drop their names into the race report and that when we get there we're going to find just as many friends as we usually see. Nonetheless, here's our list. We'll start with the challenge. Go through to the 5k when you hear your name. Here's the rules. When you hear your name, you need to stand up, remain standing until we finish that category and then you can be seated. The one exception, of course, is if you're in the aircraft and the fasten seatbelt sign is on, we'll cut you a break. And seatbelt sign is on, we'll cut you a break.
Speaker 3:Starting off our friends doing the Baymax Big Hero 6 Challenge this weekend. I am like Baymax and I am not fast, hence why I love this challenge. But here we go. Here are our challenge runners. We start out Allie without an E. Andrea is doing her first challenge. Andy Annie, this guy that we know named Bob Brandy and yes, I know, brandy, it's my fault. Our wonderful card exchange organizer, jenny, is running the challenge and this is her first ever springtime surprise. Carolyn and her husband, don Carrie R, carrie V, and completing their fourth challenge will be Charlie. We have.
Speaker 5:Christina, cody, debbie Dylan, dorothy, doug Duncan. First challenge Ellie, Emily and Fred.
Speaker 1:Since Greg told you I'd be running the challenge, it's only fair that I have Greg's name here. Riley's going to be with him. Riley's doing her second Disney 5K.
Speaker 3:Second yes.
Speaker 1:Very nice Hannah's there. Heather is in the push rim division and we have another Heather on the course with us. Heidi will be there, as will Jamie Jared, jason, jen F and Jen K.
Speaker 7:We have Jenny and Cameron, jeremy John, first ever challenge, jordan, josh L, joshua P, julie A, julie H, which 5K will be her 100th front.
Speaker 1:Disney race Wow.
Speaker 7:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:We have Kate, and then we have Keith, who is doing his first run Disney challenge we also have Kim S last race of the perfect east coast race season Kazay, larry, laura, ann, laura, sam's mom, lauren, lori, liam first challenge Lizzie and Lucy, who is Michelle's daughter, all right, we have another Lucy, who is running their first challenge.
Speaker 3:Our Council of Costumes. Member Margaret is running. Member margaret is running mark and he thinks he might be pacing. Uh, mary, joe, mary, megan, melanie michelle, who's lucy's mom, rachel and riley.
Speaker 5:We have rob rob and his stepson zach, who's doing his first challenge.
Speaker 1:we have two ryan's running Samantha, sarah, cheryl Lynn, sonia, stephanie and Sunny Rounding out the challenge Tara, tiffany, trish, andrew, emily and Ralph, and all the way from Argentina, valeria. There we have it, folks, our challenge runners. You may be seated.
Speaker 2:I forgot my name on the list, so I will also be there for the challenge.
Speaker 5:You forget your name on every list.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Let's move on to the 10 milers.
Speaker 7:All right. Starting off with the 10 milers, we have adam who is pacing, anita, ryan, christina, courtney, debbie for springtime surprise. You're gonna be so surprised you're gonna. This is gonna be your favorite event. We have emily. It'll be her birthday, happy birthday. We have Haley and Heather completing her coast to coast, and we have Heidi and Holly.
Speaker 2:We also have Jennifer, jessica, our very own, john Kelly, kevin Lindsay, lori, nona, robbie and Ryan.
Speaker 3:And rounding out the Mrs Incredible 10-Miler, we have Ryan, trina and Jeff Troy and Christina and Valerie.
Speaker 1:All right, 10-Milers Looking forward to it For the 10K.
Speaker 5:now we have Allie with an E, but not our Allie. Angela, anita, avery, christina, denise, emily, erica, Holly, jen and Jessica.
Speaker 1:Judy will be there, although I don't think she's bringing any shirts with her. That's our Judy who does all our shipping. She's bringing any shirts with her. That's our Judy who does all our shipping. Kevin, lindsay, melinda, melissa, molly, renee, ryan, sarah C and Sarah G and that's it for the 10K.
Speaker 7:All right, you guys For the 5K. We have Angela, Denise and Jerry Kay, who's excited about running, with Riley. We have Logan and Jared's son. We have Misco with mom Kazay. We have Renee Robert Sam, son of Laura, sarah, skylar and Stephanie.
Speaker 1:Friends, your Springtime Surprise 2025 Race Report Roll Call. Thanks for submitting your names. Looking forward to seeing you in just a couple days. All right, my friends, it's time for the Race Report. The Race Report brought to you by that fellow you just heard at the break Thomas Stokes. Stokes Metabolic Training, stokesfit slash riseandruncoaching is the site where you can learn about Tom's several programs that he has to offer.
Speaker 1:Let's kick it off, friends. After last week I said I wasn't really going to talk about the Holler Hypes anymore, but so many of you mentioned them in your reports that you're putting on Facebook. I think it's really neat, so I'll just leave it at that. If, by some chance, you don't know what I'm talking about, look up in the featured section on the Facebook page and download that Holler Hype app. It's a lot of fun. All right, let's start. On Saturday Got a couple of races in Long Island in New York the Kings Park 15K Megan was there. York the Kings Park 15K Megan was there. Kelly and Kim were in Annapolis for the Annapolis Running Festival. Chessie, our race report spotlight. Amy, hi, how you doing? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Gosh, we're glad you're here. I'm always happy when friends take the time to visit with us. So, amy, what's the weather like? Well, now you live in Wisconsin, right, amy? You don't live in Minnesota.
Speaker 6:Correct, I'm about 30 minutes east of St Paul, so just over the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.
Speaker 1:So you had a little drive for this when you drove into Alicia's neck of the woods. Huh.
Speaker 6:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, how's the weather right now?
Speaker 6:Today it's gorgeous 50.
Speaker 1:Okay, different definitions. Yes, 50. Okay, different definitions. That's good, though that's not bad, especially still kind of early springtime up north, I know it's. I know it can get nasty. How was the weather for the race?
Speaker 6:It was. It was a nice day. I thought nice and sunny to start off the day. It was about 19 degrees at kickoff.
Speaker 1:That's cold, but was it windy?
Speaker 6:Uh, just a slight breeze, I mean it wasn't bad yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, again from experience, if you got that sunshine and the wind's not too bad, you can deal with some really cold temps. Um, I'm, I'm going to come back to it, but I kind of broke with tradition, amy, I didn't ask. Standard race report, spotlight question number one how'd you get started with running?
Speaker 6:I always wanted to be a runner and so for several years like I tried to get started and it just didn't stick. And then, after my second kiddo, I just needed something to get out and so I joined a like First Steps running group, local group and just met a lot of really great runners there and kind of kept at it.
Speaker 1:It's a nice community.
Speaker 6:Yes.
Speaker 1:Running community. Yeah, from my days, even back into the 1980s, I can remember you had a couple. Every now and then you run into somebody. But by and large, and especially this community that we hang out here with, either with Rise and Run or with Run Disney, it's a lovely community. I want to go here because you made a great comment in your Facebook race report. You called this and I may not be quoting exactly right the most Minnesotan of all races. Is that about right?
Speaker 6:I'd agree. Yes, I definitely think so.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope so, because you're the one that said it. What earned it that distinction?
Speaker 6:So I definitely think that this is like the most Minnesotan race, because it's like the quintessential, like Minnesotan, like oofta or oh you betcha, don't you know, kind of yeah you did.
Speaker 1:You did throw in, don't you know, in there in the race, in your report, but you didn't put an oofta in. And John, john, what's an oofta?
Speaker 5:Oofta. Ah, that's a good one for me.
Speaker 1:All right, Amy, tell us.
Speaker 6:You know, just as far as like the race, I think it's a really great experience. I mean, you're running right along the banks of the Mississippi and downtown Minneapolis and you get to run past some um really neat historic places like the mills mill ruins, so old flower mills, um, usually you cross over the Mississippi along the stone arch bridge and so it's just a really nice, beautiful course. It's a great way to like celebrate like the Minnesota winter spirit, kind of like hey, it's spring, it's time to kick off the nicer running season. But then you finish the race with like a festival at the end. So you know it wouldn't be a Minnesota race if you didn't have tater tot hot dish.
Speaker 1:All right, there's another one. Yep, I let you slide on oofta. I'm still not sure what that is, but what's a tater tot hot dish?
Speaker 6:Tater tot hot dish is like it's just so, it's deliciousness I saw the picture.
Speaker 1:It looked pretty good yep.
Speaker 6:So if you've never had it, you know it usually has a meat, usually hamburger, um corn or green beans. There is tater tots mixed in tater tots on top and then usually it's like a cream soup, like all mixed in it's kind of like a minnesota pot pie yes, yep oh, but the crust is tater tots yes
Speaker 1:well, that's that's interesting.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I just found out about a hot dish, like last year, when someone's talking oh, we're having hot dish, I'm like hot dish. Oh, it's a hot plate. No, it's a hot dish. I'm like hot dish, oh, it's a hot plate. No, it's a hot dish, it's a food I'm like. Now I looked it up, I go, I got to try that one day.
Speaker 6:Yep Like a casserole for the rest, of you know like.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's too dull. Yeah, hot dish is better.
Speaker 6:Hot dish is better.
Speaker 1:Your family ran with you, correct?
Speaker 6:Actually some friends.
Speaker 1:Friends okay.
Speaker 6:Friends that I run with usually.
Speaker 1:And I saw lots of flannel in the photos.
Speaker 6:Mm-hmm. Coincidence. We were lamenting a little bit. The theming of the race has changed a little bit over the years. There used to be a Minnesota Icon costume contest. There usually is a lot of flannel. That's kind of fun to see. In past years I've seen Babe the Blue Ox and Paul Bunyan, of course, so that's kind of fun as well. Other part about the festival too, that's kind of neat. So not only do they serve hot dish, they have a meat raffle at the end and then also, like they have, the kids' races are, it's the tater trot.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool, that's cool. So let's see flannel, you grew a beard for this too, I think.
Speaker 6:We did. Yeah, I made some for my friends, and so it actually worked out well, since it was a little bit colder, with the weather that day.
Speaker 1:Her face is nice and warm. Yeah, I'll. I'll know for our friends listening that Amy is currently clean shaven no more beards. Oh man, it does sound like fun, amy.
Speaker 5:I'm looking at first. I'm looking at the pictures. I'm thinking the brawny guy at first. You know the brawny paper towels. Is this supposed to be somebody from like Minnesota?
Speaker 6:Just I think, probably a quintessential lumberjack.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 1:All right. So I'm taking it that if we find ourselves up in the northern US around Minneapolis, st Paul, in the early spring, this is the place to be. Huh.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I definitely think so, and you kind of think you know other Minnesotan races like you have Grandma's and. I think of that one as like that's Minnesota, nice, whereas Hot Dash is like the traditional, like polka music, you know kind of just get out there and really enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, polka music, you know kind of, just get out there and really enjoy it. Yeah yeah, grandma's is the one I think everybody knows. But this sounds good, it sounds, sounds great. Amy, amy, what's coming up for you?
Speaker 6:I have a couple of local races here, um in the city still, and then my next big uh run disney race will be um marathon weekend. I'm take Dopey for the first time.
Speaker 1:Oh, good for you. Nice, nice, quite a challenge. Stick to the training, my friend. That's the hard part, weekend's the reward. But you can do it, hey, if John can do it and I can do it, you can do it. I know you can.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Amy, thanks for taking the time to join us on the spotlight. We appreciate it and we look forward to seeing you in January. Thanks for having me All right, continuing on. In Chattanooga, tennessee, amanda ran the Heine's Thrive in 2025 Rump Run. Of course, it's a scenic, beautiful challenge. The cause is also near and dear to her heart as a healthcare professional she talks about and I think it's worth taking a minute folks. Colonoscopies save lives. They're a pain in the well, you know, but colon cancer may be the most preventable, treatable and beatable cancer if you get there on time. I have done this procedure multiple times. The procedure itself is no big deal. You sleep through it the day before is not pleasant.
Speaker 7:I've done it before too.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, good for you is not so much. I've done it before too. Yeah well, good for you. But uh, it's. It's amanda. You are correct, my friend. No one should die of colon cancer. It is preventable as long as you take the time. Moving on, let's go to london, eng. The run through QE Olympic Park 5K. Miranda was there.
Speaker 1:Sabrina was in West Palm Beach, florida, for the Mind and Body 5K. Been a little quiet since Sabrina finished dopey. Her goal was to give it her all in this one and she succeeded in doing so. Just a little over 30 minutes to knock out this 5k, a pr and a third place age group finish. Congratulations, sabrina. Still in florida, cape carl the walk, wiggle wag 5k. Our buddy Rob had his puppies with him. Great race for the Cape Coral Animal Shelter, made even better by the fact that Rob's dogs finished first and second by a snout in this race. That means Rob did pretty well too.
Speaker 1:Plant City, florida, the Spiked Apple 5k Laura Ann. This one's at Keel Farms. For those of you who are in the area, that's about halfway between where I live and Disney World. Great course to walk Really isn't good for running. A lot of loops around a farm. Mud, wet grass, still great. Metal Got a donut, a wine glass and a pour of cider at the finish. Oviedo, florida, the spring rising.
Speaker 1:10k and 5k. Mary. This is a local race, beautiful morning to give it everything she had. The 5 and 10Ks start together so Mary's sister was able to pace her for the first two miles of the race. Mary says that between wearing her Rise and Run shirt, the holler hype she got, and then her sister, not only running with her at the beginning but meeting her up for the last three-tenths of a mile, really helped to push her to a new shiny PR. Good job, mary.
Speaker 1:Catherine Lee was in the Mainley Marathons Appalachian Race Series race in Virginia. She ran the 10K in this series. Great race, really close to the area that she normally trains on, so it's a super short drive for her State-specific medals in this race series. They were great. There are seven different races in the series in different states, series in different states. She ran this as the 10k, as I mentioned, and she ran a 10k PR.
Speaker 1:Kim was in Blakely, georgia. The peanut proud, 5k and fun run Perfect day for a new three minute PR for Kim. This is a local race. It's part of the town's peanut festival. Although it's a smaller race, she still found some fellow run Disney athletes, made some new friends. She had five miles on her training calendar so she used this 5k part of a catered training run, hanging out enjoying post-race refreshments. And surprise, surprise, she hears her name called first place in her age group Kim way to go. There was a park-to-park 10K I believe this one was in New Orleans. Mandy ran it Really good race. At the four-mile water stop she saw her cousin and niece who were volunteering there Said she saw nine dogs along the route, one that she resaw and got to pet at the end and get a power-up lick for the finish.
Speaker 1:In Tyler, texas, kevin and Jessica ran the 10K at the Tyler Azalea Run. Jessica wanted to beat her PR with a sub 55-minute 10K. Really didn't feel great from the beginning. First three miles, excellent. But didn't feel great. Knew deep down she couldn't keep it going so she kind of threw in the towel, didn't shut it down but slowed down a bit after mile three. But you know what? Still finished in under an hour. I think that's a benchmark and still an outstanding run. Jessica, kevin says he was in the back getting his money's worth out of the race. I understand that too buddy Way to go.
Speaker 1:Let's go to Sunday in Lake Mineola. Well, actually it's in Claremont, florida, the Lake Mineola half marathon 10K and 5K. Heather ran the half. It was an out and back in one direction and back to the central start finish area. Then another longer out and back in another direction. The out felt like it was going to last forever. The second one did was really nice towards the end as it's part of the park run course over there in claremont heather was familiar with, so she knew how to pace last couple of miles. End result people keep getting these shiny new. In Heather's case, a PB. She took four minutes, almost five full minutes off of her previous personal best, got a Disney proof of time for next season. She rang the PB bell. And then Mary Jo turned right around at the same race and rang the PR bell. You know the difference Hannah's from the UK, so she rings a PB bell, mary Jo's from the US, she rings a PR bell. It's just one of those things.
Speaker 5:I thought it was. This is my whole theory on it. Pr was in a race. Pb is your best time you ever did. That was my thought on it, but maybe I was wrong.
Speaker 1:Over in the UK they call it PB almost universally. Over here I think everybody calls it a PR, so it's just a peccadillo, a peculiarity of the language. Anyway, for Mary Jo on the 10K she ran short run intervals with shortish walk breaks. Mile four she realized she was doing better than she thought she was, had a shot at that PR, so she pushed the last two miles Even when it looked like she might not make it. She kept going PR'd by two minutes, negative splits throughout. Now Jared was there also. Jared ran the half the Run Houston series at Daikin Stadium. All right, boys and girls. Where's Daikin Stadium? Who plays there?
Speaker 3:Daikin Stadium? I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:It's a recent name change, the Houston Astros.
Speaker 5:It used to be Minute Maid Park, right yeah?
Speaker 1:Another question, though what was it before? It was Minute Maid Park. Astrodome no no minute made park Astrodome no no, it wasn't the Astrodome. No no, the Astrodome has been gone for a long while.
Speaker 5:It's still there, it's just they don't play it anymore. I think.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure then I have no idea. Well, I thought you were on to something, Greg, because the trick answer was it was Astros Field, but that was only for a very short period of time. Before that it was Enron Field, Remember.
Speaker 3:Enron, oh, enron. I wonder why they changed the name yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep. Anyway, katrina Lucas and Olivia were there finishing their third run in in the Houston series, where they are now well-known for their costumes. They ran this one as the Demon Slayer family and they're looking forward to seeing Houston-area friends at races. In April Avery was in Salem, massachusetts for the Black Cat 10-miler. Salem Massachusetts for the Black Cat 10 miler. Our friend Heather rolled around the Lupa Palooza in Jacksonville, florida. Heather, I'm glad you did this race, just so I could say. Lupa Palooza Wasn't sure she was going to do it but her friend Lisa gave her much needed assistance. She had some mechanical issues early, some nausea. Late had her doubting herself. She still did it, though just a tiny bit under 51 miles. In a little less than 12 hours she's now officially a 50 miler, crushing her race distance PR by 12 and a half miles. Pr by 12 and a half miles. Congratulations, heather.
Speaker 1:In Essex, england, amy ran the ATW Lee Valley Runfest 10K. Lovely run in a nature park. It's their running club's home park. Nice and close to home, that's always pleasant. Amy says she had never seen a bell at a race before that she'd run, so she had to run a PB so she could ring the bell and that was really fun. Chicago Illinois had the Shamrock Shuffle 8K. It's part of the Bank of America Chicago Distance Series. You run the Shamrock Shuffle, the Chicago 13.1, and the Chicago Marathon. You get a special challenge medal as well as guaranteed entry into the next Chicago Marathon. That's a big deal. Carrie was there, said it was a brisk and windy start, but still enjoyable. That's why they call Chicago the brisk city.
Speaker 6:No, no, it's the other one, the windy city.
Speaker 1:That's it. That's right. Energy was strong, kept her going. Such a great traditional start kickoff to the race season in that area. Dan was there. Dan's family joined him. His wife and 10-year-old daughter ran together. Dan ran with his 12-year-old son. It was a fun race. Felt pretty good the whole time. Ended up pretty satisfied with just a little over a 40-minute finish time in this 8K. Doesn't really matter, it's a PR because it's Dan's first 8K. In fact, it's his whole family's first 8K, In fact it's his whole family's first 8K.
Speaker 1:So PR for all of them. I listened to Dan on Customize this morning. It was funny. He said his 12-year-old son didn't like the whole run-walk thing. He kept getting frustrated on the walk parts and turning around and looking back at Dan. So Dan says next year, now that he's seen the lay of the land, next year he's going to let his son run the whole thing by himself.
Speaker 1:Up in Syracuse, new York, they had a Syracuse half marathon. Allison said it was cold, it was hilly, couldn't make up those two minutes, just couldn't make up those two minutes. What't make up those two minutes? What two minutes, you ask? Well, allison finished at two hours and two minutes. She's happy with her time for being such a hilly course, that's just plain flat. A good time, allison. 202. I know it's nicer if you can get under tube. That's still a great time. After party's top notch for this race, now she's got a huge, cool new medal. Justin agrees yeah, it was cold, but at least there wasn't any snow. His daughter gave him some mini Oreos around mile eight and a half to give him a little boost towards the finish. Loved all the support on the course from the residents that came out to cheer and hand out adult beverages. Adult beverages to go with mini Oreos, that works. Missed the PR by two minutes, but PR'd and fun, which is the best kind of PR Way to go.
Speaker 1:Justin, down in Davie, Florida, the South Florida Sunset Challenge 5K. Davie's a small town just a little bit north of Fort Lauderdale. Lots of colleges in Davie for some reason Must have special tax privileges there. Anyway, our friend Robbie ran that one In Peoria, arizona. Didn't know there was a Peoria Arizona. I've heard of Peoria Illinois but there certainly is a Peoria Arizona. I've heard of Peoria Illinois but there certainly is a Peoria Arizona. Part of the Arizona Walk of Courage, the challenge. The changed by Fire 10K Stacy says it was a beautiful morning. Didn't quite get a PR but did get a third place age group finish. That's cool.
Speaker 1:Molly did her first official race back since an injury last October. This race supports a local charity that supports burn victims and their families. Had a great race. Was so happy to be back with her running family again In Pflugerville, texas. I don't know which is better, lupa, palooza or Pflugerville. Anyway, in Pflugerville, texas, amanda did the Metal Madness 10K. Really doesn't like running on fine gravel, which is what this course was, but she did her best. Part of her wanted to stop, but she persevered and wound up with not only a Disney proof of time, but first place female finish. Way to go. Amanda Jimmy was running in Knoxville. The Moon Pie moved 10K. Moon Pie yep, but RC Cola, no, still not feeling well. Kept moving. Jimmy finished second in his age group.
Speaker 3:I think this was my favorite medal of the weekend, was it? That thing looks so cool.
Speaker 1:Nice. Well, let's finish the race report. Race weekend in Seattle, where our friend Vanessa did the cherry blossom half. Lots of rainy fun. It's Seattle, it's supposed to rain, right. New course, this year she missed running and seeing the University of Washington campus, but this was a lovely course Lots of cherry blossoms, well supported, highly recommended If you're in that area out in the great Pacific Northwest. Got to add one more here. Got to add one more here. A post our friend alan made that jennifer nemer ran a marathon in antarctica and was wearing one of alan young's bracelets on the race. So I think that makes six continents.
Speaker 1:Now for the wow, I'm not sure that's amazing congratulations, jennifer allen. That's pretty cool. All right, friends. That wraps up episode 183 of the rise and run podcast. Thank you again for joining us. We hope you had a good time. We're looking forward to seeing you next week. We're also hoping to see you tonight, thursday night, on our bi-weekly Zoom call. Instructions for joining are pinned to the featured section on our Facebook page. We hope to see you there. Just seven days till race weekend, friends. 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 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.
Speaker 2:Bye.
