Rise and Run
Rise and Run
186: 2025 runDisney Springtime Surprise Weekend Recap
The curtain closes on another magical runDisney race season as we unpack the highlights, challenges, and unforgettable moments of Springtime Surprise Weekend. From unexpected fire alarms at Animal Kingdom Lodge to Bob's show-stopping Groot costume that captured runDisney's official attention, this episode brims with stories that showcase why this community continues to thrive.
Brooks made its grand entrance as runDisney's new footwear and apparel partner, bringing four exclusive shoe designs and size-inclusive options that impressed even skeptical runners. The virtual queue system operated smoothly, erasing concerns about long waits and immediate sellouts.
The races themselves delivered on character experiences, with more stops than previous years including rare appearances from Mando and Grogu that generated impressive lines through Galaxy's Edge. Course improvements like relocated hydration stations demonstrated Run Disney's responsiveness to feedback, though Greg continues his campaign for Powerade during the 10K.
Perhaps most meaningful was our Rise and Run meetup, where approximately 60 community members gathered to celebrate friendship and running accomplishments. As hosts, we reflect on how these connections have deepened over time, creating a welcoming space for both longtime friends and first-time attendees.
With anticipation building for the Disneyland Halloween weekend and its attraction-themed medals, we close this season with gratitude for the community that makes every mile magical. Looking ahead to our fifth season of podcasting, we're eager to continue sharing this journey with you—whether it's at registration day, race weekends, or our inaugural podcast cruise in 2026!
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3 am again. Why did I ever think this was a good idea? Welcome to the Rise and Run podcast. Join our group of Run Disney friends. As we talk about running at Walt Disney World and beyond. We'll discuss recent runs, training, upcoming races and surprise topics suggested by you, our listeners. Well, the alarm's gone off, so let's go.
Speaker 1:Hey y'all. This is Matt Scott from Louisa, Virginia. I just hit a PR and a half marathon at the Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon in an hour and 45 minutes. I can't wait to see everyone at my first Disney marathon next year. But enough about me. Here's Bob and the gang, and welcome to the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 4:Thank you, matt, for the intro. We appreciate it. That was a little while back. Matt knocked out that hour and 45 minute half marathon. That's impressive. I think it was a St Patrick's Day run. He mentioned seeing us at the full in January. Matt, if you're planning to see us at the full in January, I hope you plan to wait at the finish line for a long time. Anyway, thanks for the intro, buddy. Hello, my friends, welcome to episode 186 of the rise and run podcast. We are delighted, as always, that you're here with us. I'm bob and here this week with jack, hiya with greg, hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 4:With alicia hello with john hey how you doing and with Lexi.
Speaker 5:Hello.
Speaker 4:Good to see you, my friends. Full house tonight, that's always fun.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know if it's going to be a full house much longer. Bob, Did you hear the news?
Speaker 4:Maybe, not.
Speaker 2:This is my last episode with Rise and Run.
Speaker 4:Oh, I did hear that news. Yeah, this is is not april fools. You didn't sign that contract apparently I did.
Speaker 2:Uh, I I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't know what I signed, or when I signed it or what I signed it with, uh, but for those of you that uh are not aware, uh, it was announced on um this past week's episode of the We'll Run For podcast that I am their new fourth host and apparently I signed a contract and, yes, I won't be with Rise and Run anymore. It's going to be really sad. The problem is that they just don't tell me when they record. So it's a really, really awkward uh situation and relationship right now, but uh, no, but no folks, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 2:I promise I will.
Speaker 4:We'll run for a gang. I love you. You know I do.
Speaker 6:I don't think so yeah nobody can see jack's face, but I think she actually believed you, greg.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for those of you that don't know the full backstory, when I attended our lovely friend Aaron's memorial service, when I greeted Michael outside the funeral home, he just looked at me with a straight face and he goes.
Speaker 2:You know it was Aaron's dying wish that you replace her on the podcast and I am gullible as the days are long and I was like you have to be kidding me, correct? Like there, there's, there's no way. So, even even from the grave, that woman is still trolling me to this day so there you go, aaron I. I love you so much. Uh, so, but. But no, folks, I'm not going anywhere, but um, or they can continue to troll me all the, all, the days long kudos to michael for an awesome sense of humor, absolutely in a tough situation.
Speaker 4:Yeah, impressive. So let's all. Right, gang, let's get back on track here. Episode 186 this week, our springtime surprise recap, delayed by a week, but we think it's worthwhile.
Speaker 6:And if you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to our Rise and Run family, because we want to share in their Ren Disney journey. Share in their Ren Disney journey. And please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast and Instagram Rise and Run Pod, or visit our website riseandrunpodcastcom. You can also check out our YouTube channel, which is the Rise and Run Podcast. If you have a question, comment, race report or you want to introduce an upcoming episode, you can call us at 727-266-2344 and leave a recorded message.
Speaker 7:We also want to thank our patrons, whose support keeps the Rise and Run podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the patron team, please check out patreoncom slash rise and run podcast.
Speaker 2:I also want the record to show that our patreon money does not go towards paying for my dbc. I pay for that out of my own pocket. It's another will run yes, it's another will run for rumor that is going on right now. So, uh, so yeah. So, folks, please know that your money is not financing, uh, my future vacations. So I just want to get that out in the open as well, too.
Speaker 3:But anyway moving right along.
Speaker 2:The Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by our friends over at Magic Bound Travel. We got some really, really exciting news from our friends over at MBT. They have officially launched our Rise and Run podcast private Facebook group. So if you are joining us on the inaugural sailing of our version of a podcast cruise, which, believe it or not, you ready for this one, folks, this upcoming Sunday, easter Sunday, is one year until we sail Yep.
Speaker 2:That is super, super exciting. So if you are currently booked to be on that cruise in April of 2026, you should have received an invite from your MBT travel advisor to join that group, get the latest information, ask all your questions. But if you're still on the fence about the cruise, obviously we still have plenty of time. But if you'd be interested in joining us after Springtime Surprise next year, be sure to visit magicboundtravelcom to get a no-obligation quote from an MBT advisor and we would love to have you on that cruise.
Speaker 4:There's also a link posted in the featured section on our Facebook group page. Excellent.
Speaker 6:And speaking of cruises, did you guys see all the disney destiny stuff that came out yesterday?
Speaker 2:it looks really really cool okay.
Speaker 6:So you guys know I'm a huge villain fan no, really yes, surprise, and they are going to have villains roaming the ship cool, and I'm freaking excited.
Speaker 2:They're also gonna have a fashion show with carilla deville and she's gonna roast you as you're walking the runway so if lexi takes an extended break from the podcast, we'll know where she's currently residing, because she probably will not get off the ship.
Speaker 6:I probably won't, I'm probably just going to stay there forever. And it's also Hercules themed and they did a promo of the lead singing and it's just go the distance. And I got chills and just go to the Disney Cruise Line website and watch the videos and watch Instagram. It's amazing. I'm so excited. Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 7:Speaking of things that we're really excited about, we have all of our lovely chats for the Rise and Run podcast that you can join. We have world major ones and things like Bird in Hand, and I created a new Facebook chat today for plant-based Rise and Runners. I had a couple of people reach out to me at Springtime Surprise after talking during our March Madness about being plant-based, and so I thought it would be fun to have a place to share recipes. So if you are a plant-based Rise and Runner or you've been thinking about wanting to eat more plant-based, join the group, and if you've been thinking about wanting to eat more plant-based um, join the group, and if you have trouble finding it, feel free to message me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it's a neat idea. Glad you did that, alicia, that's cool. I want to take a minute, friends, uh, last two weeks have been a little challenging and if if I've been late in, I've been late in returning messages or seeing your emails or getting race reports, responding to race reports. Let me explain briefly. My Becky's brother has lived with us for the last six years. For the last six months or so he's been in poor health all the time. I chuckle. I chuckle because he's been in poor health since I've known him and I've known him 47 years. But his health really took a downturn around the holidays and he's been. He was in the hospital. He came home on Thursday and Sunday morning like at 1230 am he was back in the hospital. So we got that word.
Speaker 4:Over there in Disney they actually did a cardiac procedure, a surgical procedure, on him on Monday, which made Becky and I kind of optimistic because we thought, well, well, good, maybe they, they found something and maybe this will help him out. When we went to see him on Tuesday, things were not good. They seemed to get worse Wednesday and Thursday. But when we talked to the nurse on Thursday we got some optimistic news hey, this is getting better and this is getting better and we have these plans. And then Friday morning I got a call saying that you need to get in. A doctor needs to talk to you.
Speaker 4:Greg had given me power of attorney over, uh well, life and death calls. He didn't want to linger on. So, uh, greg's brother passed away on Saturday. He was 79 years old. Uh, heavy smoker it's. It's trite and it's a cliche to say he's in a better place, but he is. He passed quietly. Becky and I were there. His immediate family lives here. His wife died six years ago. Sadly, she died of complications from breast cancer. But Greg passed Saturday. His son he had only one son, his son and his wife and his son, todd, had two daughters, so they were all there. They're grown up, young women and married. So six of them were there with Greg all morning and they left when Becky and I got there in the early afternoon and Greg passed about 30 minutes after that.
Speaker 4:So I'm not saying this to bring anybody down. I really just wanted you to know what's going on in my life there and why. For the last couple of weeks maybe I haven't been able to put the attention to the podcast that I wanted to, but I want to pull out of this section and we've talked about this before our friend Lola, who had the two babies, miles and Benjamin, and you may remember that Benjamin passed away at birth and Miles was severely premature. Miles seems to be doing from everything I see and I'm not a medical doctor, but from everything I see, miles seems to be doing from everything I see and I'm not a medical doctor, but from everything I see, miles seems to be doing great, and Lola and the family seem to be very, very optimistic. At first the projection was that he'd come home in May, and I'm guessing that may still be the case, so we're looking forward to sharing that news, lola, when that happens.
Speaker 4:All right, gang, let's take a look at the training schedule. Uh, we'll, yeah, we'll have a training schedule again eventually. In fact, it's not too long now. I think it's only two more weeks before the Disneyland Halloween training schedule will start up. I think that's right. We're currently 20 weeks away from Disneyland Halloween and I think the training schedules are 18 weeks, although I think actually one week of all the Galloway training schedules is a week after the race. I know that's the case. I know that's the case. So I think we may have three weeks until we get to the Disneyland Halloween training.
Speaker 4:Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Registration Day is 12 days away from the day of release of this podcast, so it's not this coming Tuesday but the Tuesday after. Not this coming Tuesday but the Tuesday after. I'll remind you, friends, that you want to hook up and join up with us in the Facebook community chat groups the things that Alicia was just talking about on registration day. We'll see if we can't help each other out. Since we were talking about the Disneyland half, we got some news from Disneyland on themes that dropped this week. They seem to generate some excitement. What do we think?
Speaker 5:Love them, good Love them. I'm excited to race.
Speaker 4:So you're going to go then.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Because of the themes.
Speaker 5:Oh no, I was going to go regardless. Well, run by him, run through him quick, jack, in case anyone listening doesn't know what they are, yeah, so for the 5K you have Joy, 10k is Sorcerer Mickey, for the half it's a small world, bless them. And then, of course, dumbo for the challenge.
Speaker 4:Those are good themes. They really are. I'm not usually enticed by themes for races, but those are pretty good.
Speaker 7:I think they're good artwork too.
Speaker 2:Oh beautiful, yeah, artwork was spectacular.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice. I mean I'm very intrigued. I'm very intrigued. Obviously, this is a massive step in the right direction, based on the themes for this weekend this past year when everyone was trying to figure out not necessarily cohesive theme across all the weekends, but especially that Safari Mickey for the half marathon, like you know, especially that, like safari mickey for, like, the half marathon, like no, no, nobody knew what that was.
Speaker 2:I mean, to me this is the first time in my time of following run disney where we are getting an in-person race that is themed to an attraction and I think everyone was thrilled to see that it was small world and it's got that mary blair type, you know artwork style to it. So I hopefully, if it sells really well and and disneyland does a really good job of you know, bolstering up the theming during the weekend and hopefully that's super well received and we get our wish of, you know, attraction-based race weekends, you know, in person in florida and they'll sell like gangbusters I didn't realize it was all attractions, because it makes sense, because joy, they have the um oh the emotionalotional Whirlwind, then the 10K could be either assumed that it's Fantasmic or PhilharMagic.
Speaker 5:And then it's a Small World and then Dumbo's a ride. Look at that.
Speaker 4:Small World has a special place in my heart since I first rode it when I was 10 years old, 61 years ago.
Speaker 7:And the one at Disneyland is really cool yeah.
Speaker 2:Pay Me is one of those guys who actually thought them introducing the Disney characters in the Mary Blair style into that attraction was a really, really nice touch, because I know when they made that decision you swore there were going to be people with pitchforks and fire ready to burn that thing down to the ground.
Speaker 5:But then they did it for Tokyo Disneyland with. Groot and I will tell you personally loved it. Rode it multiple times with Groot. It was amazing.
Speaker 4:Groot is part of the Small World ride in.
Speaker 5:Tokyo. They did an overlay for like six months or something like that.
Speaker 4:Ah okay, that's pretty overlay for like six months or something like that. Ah okay, Well, that's pretty darn cool.
Speaker 6:It was cute. I mean I saw the artwork. I mean not the artwork, the promotions and stuff for it.
Speaker 2:Well and Jack, and there were other Marvel characters besides Groot, but Groot was like a constant throughout the ride correct.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it was Groot on vacation going around the world seeing all of his friends friends, quote-unquote Marvel friends and all the is a small world friends as well across the world, and it was really cool.
Speaker 4:It's like a neat idea on.
Speaker 5:You like, oh, where is it? Oh, it's there. It's there. And I will say, if you want to watch the ride POV, it's up on on our bellhops from another Dimension YouTube channel.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Neat. Now I skipped right over asking you if we have any training updates. This is kind of the training doldrums times. I'm still going out because I've got a couple races coming up. But yeah, I think that's a topic. We'll devote a little bit more time to that next week, or, yeah, then an upcoming episode, because I hear it from other folks too, Now that the Disney race season is. Yeah, I sure do, and I've thought about this for a while.
Speaker 4:You know, when we had Jeff on the last time and he mentioned that he was planning to do his final, his farewell, his retirement marathon in Honolulu in December of this year, I started thinking about joining him, and I'm not alone. I did in fact register and sign up. I've got my airfare, I've got my room reservation, but there's a pretty good size group heading out there and if you are interested, it's on our page and I think I pinned it to the to the featured section. But Sherry Witt, who is very actively involved with Jeff's group, is trying to get a list to see how many people are interested in going and to perhaps look for pricing and packaging deals for rooms, for a couple of excursions, for some meetups with Jeff, maybe a meal or two together.
Speaker 4:It sounds great. They're going the 10th through the 15th of December. The race is on Sunday, the 14th. That's when I have my reservations. I would love to see a lot of our Rise and Run friends there, but I know, again, it's expensive, it's a tough time of year. It just sounds like a lot of fun.
Speaker 5:Is Becky going with you?
Speaker 4:She is, she is. I thought it would be smart if I was going to Honolulu.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, wise.
Speaker 4:We lived there four and a half years. Becky's actually a graduate. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Hawaii.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's cool, she got her degree there you know, bub, I hopped on the customized training call uh, a little late this morning, did I hear correctly? And you know, maybe this might help entice people to sign up for it is. Is that weekend a dopey simulation weekend? Huh, I thought I heard Coach say something this morning.
Speaker 4:I had to leave a little bit early, okay, so maybe I missed that. I do think I heard Chris say that they got 40 responses. They got responses from 40 people. Again, we know from our experience with the cruise that doesn't mean 40 people are Okay. Don't know. Again, we know from our experience with the cruise that doesn't mean 40 people are going. It probably means more than that, but not everybody will go. Uh, it's. Yeah. I'm going to pretend like I remember the race. I don't. Uh, I remember a couple of things about. I remember cramping up really, really bad at mile 20. I remember wanting to finish in four hours. I finished in under four and a half, but I was much younger kids. I was just shy of my 35th birthday. It's beautiful, it's going to be warm, the weather in Hawaii, the high that day will probably be right around 80, but it's Hawaii and it's gorgeous and it's fun, and I think the cutoff limit for the marathon is like 17 hours or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like I actually I don't think there's any time limit on it.
Speaker 4:Oh, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't whether they publish one or not, I don't know, but it's really. You could easily walk the whole thing. I recall one hill in particular in the vicinity of Diamond Head. That's tough, but other than that, and the course is. I did look at the course. It's similar, but it's changed a little bit from when I did it back in the 20th century. Anyway, friends, if you can, I recommend it. I think it'll be really really neat. But speaking of really really neat, we just came back from a really fun event, the springtime surprise event. Remember when they changed it to springtime surprise, and a lot of us are still a little disappointed. It's not the star Wars races anymore, but yep.
Speaker 6:Just John. Quick answer John.
Speaker 4:I put that one on the tee for you, buddy. I know I'm glad you knocked it off, but it has become an event that we enjoy, an event to look forward to, a little bit of melancholy at the end as we say goodbye to one another. But let's relive it one more time and let's kick it off as we always do. We get down there. First place we go is the Expo. Thoughts on the Expo.
Speaker 7:boys and girls, thoughts on the expo. Boys and girls, it was very well organized yeah, I agree, it was I took john's spot. Yes, thank you. Yeah, for the virtual queue. Usually he gets number four and I got number four this time four and so usually we're opposite.
Speaker 7:He's been through um and then here I come later and it was. I got to go through the gates before they were actually officially open because my time had been called to go into the building, which was kind of cool, but then we had to wait in the building until they actually opened the expo um. But I agree, things organized. I thought it was going to be chaotic being there that early Um, from what I've heard for past expos, but it it went really well.
Speaker 4:It did I. I don't know if the numbers were down, maybe a little bit, although we did see the numbers, didn't we?
Speaker 2:They're about the same as they're about the, about the same, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I was very surprised the last couple races. I guess I got there around 10.30, and I expected long lines for bibs. Uh-uh, uh-uh, not at all. Just walked in, made your way around the building, you know, when you get halfway around, they got that serpent. Got that serpentine queue.
Speaker 4:Nope, yep, we didn't do that either fly right past it and somebody said yeah, well, actually everybody's lined up downstairs. I went downstairs with my expo pass with my number going joking to somebody. I don't really need the number, I just need to find the longest line. And when I found my number I looked there was nobody at the booth. I was all by myself. So that went amazingly well. How did you guys do on?
Speaker 2:that you know I didn't pull a john. You know I was probably in like the 60s or the 70s for our boarding group, so it just it made the most sense. So, you know, john and I went together, we got in line, uh, together bibs first, you know, and take care of all of that and we started lining up. They were, they were weaving us through the baseball stadium, but it was it. It actually kind of reminded me, lexi, that time you and I went through the, the baseball stadium that was that was marathon weekend of 23, where we waited forever and ever oh, yeah, but but this this was always moving.
Speaker 2:It was really quick, you know. Probably I don't think we ever really stopped, to be honest, but it was just that you know the sheer influx of people getting in there. But you know, picking up my daughter's bib and then picking up my bib was a breeze. The one change that and I'll be interested to see and granted, I know we'll get into a bigger discussion about Brooks in terms of the expo for this weekend but because of needing the additional area for the shoes, they moved the big numbers that everyone can get their photos with.
Speaker 2:They had moved that down to the bib pickup area and while I was glad to see that that helped utilize the space a little bit more, I will say and this is like such a minor thing and it's not even really a complaint is I think the photos look better when they're over with the run Disney merch, because you have the nice dark background and everything you know. Just, you know the numbers really pop where here, the way that they had them set up. You could kind of see the ceiling of the Expo Center and everything like that. Still, I think it was a smart move for them to do that. So it's good to see a little bit more bustling activity in that area, now that you're having not only bibs, the numbers, but also the character greetings in there as well too. So I thought it provided a nice little entertainment touch as well.
Speaker 5:I will say, though I'm glad that you can test to make sure that your bib works now.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 5:I don't remember if they had that for Princess or not, I don't recall. But in the Bib Expo area, where you pick it up, you can go on a mat and see if your name pops up. And I was like, oh, this is nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jack, I think they started that when I remember watching Instagram stories. They actually started that at Disneyland, disneyland right, oh, really Okay.
Speaker 6:That's really nice, especially given the bib problems that happened at Marathon Weekend. I know Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:That was what made that happen. I don't care, I, I know Absolutely. That was what made that happen. I don't care, I'm so far back in the pack. I don't, I finished. They give me my medal. I'm happy, let's see. Well, let's take the conversation to, of course. We went down, we got our shirts. What did you think of the Brooks shirts? We went down, we got our shirts.
Speaker 7:What did you think of the Brooks shirts? So my initial reaction and I messaged you guys was I didn't feel like I liked them. I felt like the texture was more grainy, which I still do feel like. I don't know if I would necessarily run in the shirts Right, but I wore them the whole weekend after, like the consecutive races, and I absolutely love the fit. However, I've seen people on Instagram saying that they don't prefer the fit, depending on the sizing of the shirt. Um and so for me personally, I really like the fit of these t-shirts comparative to what the old run Disney ones were.
Speaker 7:But I do understand they're not for everybody. They are very. I got the female version of it and it's very true to fit of like the curvature of my body. So if that's not your cup of tea, maybe that's not going to be great.
Speaker 4:I think they are smaller than previous shirts.
Speaker 7:Yes.
Speaker 4:But I'm okay with that. I kind of liked them. I agree with you, I would not run in it. Uh, for one thing, the the way that the graphic is placed on there, it's not really breathable there. But I don't tend to run in my race shirts. Anyway, I wear them after the races and enjoy them, and I'm fortunate I can wear them around here most of the year. So, yeah, so I I. I agree, I think they were. I was pleased with the Brooks race shirts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of the idea of comparing and contrasting, uh, our friend anna, uh, she goes by mad girl.
Speaker 2:2 on instagram she did an excellent job and I think she saved her stories in her highlights of her of her instagram profile, um, laying one of the new brooks shirts down against one of the run Disney shirts and then comparing and contrasting and giving her thoughts. So if you have not participated, you know whether you're signed up for Halloween or wine and dine or marathon weekend. You know you'll be able to at least get a sneak peek in how, how they compare to one another.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's worth it, it's worth looking yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me personally, I I I was a fan of the shirts. I would I would call the quality of them to be slightly better than the run disney one. I wouldn't say it's a monumental difference just just a slight one yeah I thought the printing of it was very nicely done.
Speaker 2:The thing I'll be interested to see, though, is how they hold up in the wash, and, if you know, things do start to peel. So I'll be, you know. I'm sure all of us will be able to report back on that. The fit itself. For me, they fit better on me now. I will say I have lost some weight between marathon weekend and springtime, so I'm sure that that probably contributed a little bit to it, but you know, I I overall I was very pleased with it. I think in the future I don't know if the graphic, the graphics, need to be as big to encompass so much of the shirt like I mean the only one I've worn so far is the 5k1 and I mean they really filled up that shirt with that great so well, that's true so, um, but no.
Speaker 2:So overall, I think it was a great step in the right direction and hopefully they just they continue to improve on it yeah, something else with this shirt, so I don't think it's.
Speaker 3:It's coming up close. But when your POT is done for Wine and Dine, that's the last time you can change your shirt size also. So if you're looking at the shirts and realize, oh yeah, I took a large for springtime but I had to change it to an extra large, you can just change that now and then have to not have to worry about uh exchanging your shirt.
Speaker 4:You can do, yeah yeah so along that line.
Speaker 7:Greg, you said that you can see how the shirts are gonna compare and decide what you want to do for the upcoming races. I'm curious do you guys think that we'll still get long sleeve shirts for the fall season, or do you think they'll stick with the t-shirts? Because in the past we've always had springtime those type of ones were t-shirts and then the rest were long sleeve.
Speaker 4:I think we'll go back to long sleeve. I'm just guessing. What did they do?
Speaker 3:in California. I mean, I'm just curious, was that short sleeve for the September race?
Speaker 4:I don't remember I got at least the challenge shirt was short sleeve because I had it on recently and somebody asked me why I was wearing a Halloween shirt, so it was short sleeve. Maybe Don't know, alicia, it's a good question.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I was just curious. It made me think, when you said that, greg, that I wonder if they'll be short sleeve or long sleeve.
Speaker 2:I think they would do long sleeve, because the only other Brooks shirt that I have is when I ran the Rehoboth Beach Marathon a few years ago. Their race shirt was a Brooks shirt, and that was long sleeve as well too, so they definitely have it as part of their inventory, so I would imagine them staying true to it.
Speaker 5:I still think that the champion race shirts are Agreed.
Speaker 5:I'm going to go a thousand percent better than the ones that they've been having. Even no offense brooks. Um, I think I love my 10k shirt, but I might not wear it because the graphic on it is so stiff that that's either going to tell me that the graphic's going to fall off or the shirt it's going to rip because the graphic is so stuck on that it's going to stretch, or whatever of it. Hopefully, sooner or later, you guys will bring back Champion, because I keep still wearing my 2018 Princess Half Marathon shirt and it has never been damaged. It's never had anything peel. It's so comfortable, so breathable, it has wicking fabric and those are the ones I always grab yeah, I'm afraid to wear any of my ones that I have now
Speaker 4:so, but anyways okay, virtual cue and off to the official run disney merchandise, including, for the first time in, I think, six years, the Race Weekend shoes. Despite the gloom and doom forecast, this went pretty well.
Speaker 5:Can I just put something out there that just felt very Indiana Jones-like. I don't know if you guys felt this, but when you were going into the Disney merchandise area you see that each shoe had like their own glass case, almost thing. Did it not feel like at the beginning of the Indiana Jones stunt show you had to have a bag of sand and then get the shoes and try and put it over so you can get it and steal it? You know what I mean. Like it just looked like it was there for you to grab.
Speaker 3:Jack's stealing shoes now.
Speaker 4:I didn't go there, but that's fine, jack, I think that's an interesting idea, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I know I didn't buy shoes, but who I know, John, you bought shoes.
Speaker 3:I bought shoes.
Speaker 2:All right. So, bob and John, so what was your shopping experience like? Because, I'll be honest, leading up to the weekend, the you know, we didn't hear anything until a couple of days before. And then, when they put out the information, the updated virtual queue, the wording of it was very, very confusing. But you know, as you know, we all remarked the process was smooth. But but tell us about the intricacies of your, your brooks shoe shopping experience actually I wasn't going there to buy shoes.
Speaker 3:I I did that. I'm like I saw the pictures, okay. But then when you see them on people's like because since we were later going into the queue, we're walking around the expo and I'm seeing them on people's feet I'm like they don't look that bad. I mean, you know, I'm I'm like they look better than I thought. I'm like, nah, you know. Then then I said let me just take a walk in the room.
Speaker 3:So I walked in the room and it was, and I said, if you knew your size, you could go to the back wall and just mark on the piece of paper your size. You know 10 and a half wide and the shoe and and go and get it. But I said I never had, I never wore the max before, so I didn't want to. You know, try them on and then find out, oh, I should've gotten an 11., I should've got a 10. So, but they brought you. You stayed in a little queue line. Some guy came out, brought your sneakers over. You could. You could have had somebody fit you or you could have did a self-serve fit. I had somebody come over and fit me, checked it out, asked him about the maxes and he goes yeah, they're. They run true to size as other brooks's, and they seem to do it. And then off to the uh, the official room. Then they just say, they hand them your paper and you say oh, 10 and a half in the mickeys. Boom, pay up.
Speaker 4:And uh go yeah, I had like a 75 number in the queue and I didn't have any trouble. I uh, I made a mistake. I didn't I must have missed a sign. I went straight to the run pickup area or the shoe pickup area where they told me no, you got to go across the hall. I've been wearing Brooks running shoes for years so I knew my size. I didn't have many options. It's the largest size they have, so I kind of that was going to be it, but that's the size I wear anyway and I was very happy. I've been looking forward to getting these shoes for a while. Now I don't know what. I'll do what they had there. For those of you who weren't there, they had two pair of Ghost Max, one a Mickey design, one a mini design. They had a springtime surprise design shoe, which was pretty, but I think it was a uh that was all.
Speaker 2:It was also a max too. That was the max too.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:But they, for some reason they didn't, didn't have it in widths, yeah, so it was just the uh standard width only. And then the other one was a generic run disney shoe which looked nice, but it was in their uh stability shoe, uh adrenaline yes, thank you. So it appears, then, that the next running event which is well, I assume they'll have them at disney, they'll have a shoe for that race and I assume they'll continue with the Mickeys, the minis and the run Disney generic I don't know.
Speaker 3:No, well, actually, if you were inside their room, they had a picture of the four shoes for this race weekend and then underneath it, four empty boxes saying coming soon. So I don't know if they're doing four new shoes for the next race weekend, but that was something else. I was kind of surprised that they had what someone said 26,000 pairs of shoes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, those are the numbers I heard too.
Speaker 3:So there was a lot of shoes there that weekend and I mean I know people that went on saturday afternoon and were still able to get shoes, so I was shocked that they actually did not sell out they actually opened shoes on the website after the weekend was over to where you could purchase them, which now they went super fast
Speaker 2:yeah, but I think that's great that you could purchase yeah yeah, I'm actually on the brooks website right now and it looks like a majority of them are sold out online. The only one they're saying they're member exclusive, so I guess you have to join like brooks membership club, but there's nothing to that. Yeah, but as of now you can still get the men's springtime surprise, the men's Minnie Mouse, and everything else is sold out.
Speaker 4:They made a men's Minnie Mouse. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they did. Yeah, I did not buy shoes. If I was going to buy shoes, they would have been the generic run Disney Adrenalines, because that's my bread and butter shoe. Okay, the only downside was they weren't offering that shoe in a wide, so hence why I decided not to do it. But the thing that I wanted to commend Brooks on is one being extremely size inclusive. I mean, I was flabbergasted that, in theory, they had up to size 15s available. So, bob, you know you, you were the first person I've thought of when I saw, you know that, that statistic up there of um. You know the, the range that they were going to offer.
Speaker 3:I was like that's great.
Speaker 2:Who knows how many size 15s they actually had, but the fact that it was, it was going to be available, and then I also had enough yeah
Speaker 2:yeah uh, and then the other thing that I wanted to commend them on, you know, similar to what you guys spoke about before, is the fact that they had so many on site that if you were one of those resellers who went in, bought a shoe the first day and then put it up on ebay, you kind of got a little bit of egg on your face. I understand that a majority of them are sold out now, but if you were trying to make a quick buck that weekend and you know, you probably had some difficulty selling your you know, your shoe on eBay because they were still available the entire expo and then again, when they released them online, but you had.
Speaker 4:You had to be there in Florida, so if you wanted them and you weren't in Florida, then you may have got them on resale. What really killed the resale was when Brooks put them online Correct yeah, on resale. What really killed the resale was when Brooks put them online, correct yeah, which I'm glad they did. I think that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's now we know going forward that they're going to do that.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I think that's cool.
Speaker 3:The other thing I liked about the shoes and Bob knows this, this thing too when you get a wide shoe, you get like three color options. Three color options, you get, you get. You get black, blue or gray. So, okay, I do have some black in that shoe, I do have some gray in that shoe, but I have red and I have yellow. So there's a lot of colors in that shoe. I finally got a wide shoe that has some colors in it. That's not black, black or gray.
Speaker 4:I'm pleased with them. I like them. I got the Mickey shoes. I like them. That's what I wanted. I do wear them. I'm not going to run in them. I thought I might. But I'm not going to run in them. But I will wear them around. I think they're neat. I'm glad I got them and it worked out real well.
Speaker 2:I mean, the other thing that surprised me about the whole partnership in general is because it's a smaller weekend was fully expecting. You know. I know several of our friends uh, jocelyn and and kristin and uh and lisa are part of like what disney has dubbed like the influencer team for for run disney, and you know they always get those special merch previews the night before. I thought we were going to have a similar situation like that in terms of you know they always get those special merch previews the night before. I thought we were going to have a similar situation like that in terms of, you know, the the shoes being um, you're drumming up that excitement but they kind of push that out to a more national perspective like, uh, the dizz and wdw news today.
Speaker 2:And you know more of like the. You know the the park influencers that you know you see on youtube all the time. You know they were the ones that were invited for the media event that happened the day before. So maybe the fact that it's a national brand, you know they really wanted to bolster that up. So I would say, while the communication in the beginning, I you know what was a little lacking and a little confusing at times. I think Disney and Run Disney really knocked it out of the park with this launch. So good on them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exciting. I don't plan to buy another pair for a while. But yeah, I'm in, I'll get another pair somewhere down the road. All right, expo was fun. Got a chance to see a lot of friends, as we usually do. Weather was wonderful, a little warm, but not too bad.
Speaker 2:we go now to early, early, early Friday morning and the 5k some of us got to have an even earlier morning because, as carissa and the other race announcers, uh highlighted on social media that weekend, and I was part of this as well. Uh, I had a extra early wake-up call at animal kingdom lodge. Uh, because the fire alarm went off at 12.01.
Speaker 6:Oh no.
Speaker 2:No yeah. So I was startled. I mean, clearly I knew it wasn't my alarm and so I went into a little bit of a panic mode because I was like, okay, well, if this is a true emergency, do I grab my running clothes? Do I grab my bib.
Speaker 4:What do I do here? I'm laughing because our friend Brandy grabbed her bib and her shoes and left the room. She was going to run in her pajamas, but she had her bib and she had her shoes.
Speaker 2:In talking with a cast member. You know, I found it really interesting. I mean, obviously something did happen, because we did hear, um I, I don't know the new name, I just know the old one I I heard reedy creek fire trucks, uh, you know, driving around property, but then, grant, we never saw them, because the cast member was telling me that I think this makes sense from a risk management standpoint. There are multiple entrances and exits that emergency vehicles can get to the property.
Speaker 2:But the other part that really struck me as interesting was the entire building was not evacuated. They have such an intricate alarm system that they literally only alerted the people that need to be alerted and unfortunately I was one of those lucky ones. Um, but thankfully we were only outside until, I would say, about 12, 30 or so, and then we got let back into the room. But but the problem there was is that none of us. We were just so amped up on adrenaline having to rush out of there that we tried to fall back asleep and we just couldn't good luck, yeah so we just all stayed up.
Speaker 2:We watched tv for an hour. Uh, shout out to bluey, god bless I mean I I, I love that little dog with all my heart. But and then, um, you know, my daughter and I and my wife, we uh got on that first bus. Let me tell you because we were ready to go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I got on the first bus. Also. I was at Pop with a couple of my Disney daughters. God bless them. That's a term that Becky came up with and I love it. They were bound and determined we were going to get on the first bus. So they were knocking at my door at 2.20. And I was ready to go. That was fun. Who else did the 5K?
Speaker 7:I did. I enjoyed the 5K. I wasn't sure how this weekend was going to go, but I knew for sure for the 5K that I was going to stick with people and there was a whole group of us and we had a lot of fun. It was really cool to see Greg's daughter, riley, experience a run, because the last time that she did one I wasn't with you guys and yeah, it was just.
Speaker 2:It was really fun to get pictures with everybody and stop at all the character stops yeah, this was my kiddo's second disney 5k and um, you know, I guess thanks to the fire alarm I didn't get punched in the face this time so so I'm gonna, I'm gonna chalk that up as a big win and you know, and thanks to to bob's disney daughters for being daughters, for being pretty far up in that Groot line that they had for the pre-race characters, so I was able to send her.
Speaker 2:She was dressed up as Groot, so I just let her join the extended family. We had an absolute blast. She enjoyed every single moment of it. I think one of my favorite moments, looking back on it now but also I don't want to call it a scary moment, but a concerning moment, and, alicia, I know you and I continue to still laugh about this is the tape got drawn like right in front of us so we were right in, you know, and I was kind of hoping to be in the back of the tape so that way, you know, we could safely get off.
Speaker 2:And I was like, okay, well, we're gonna be in the front. So I, I got a strategy, so, like I leaned down and I said, okay, sweetie, I need you to run for this first group so that we can get out ahead. And I said, stay over to the right. So then, and I'll tell you when to to start and great, she did exactly that. But her and Kay ran like bats out of hell and they got so far ahead of us.
Speaker 2:And let me tell you that kid put on some jets I've never seen before, because she never, never, ran that fast in all of our training runs. She has never run that fast in softball. So I'm not sure where she channeled that from. Maybe it was the power of k, I'm not sure, um, but that was really cool to see. But the biggest thing that I just wanted to impart is um, she had so much fun and I think part of the reason why she had so much fun is because she fully got adopted into our rise and run family and I want to just go out and thank each and every single person that came up to her, commented on her costume, wanted her to be part of group photos.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, and it wasn't you. You know, just like us, like hosts collectively, it it was our extended family. It was, um, you know. You know, even though they harassed me, my wonderful friends from the we'll run for a podcast. They thought everything was adorable, they were taking photos. So the way that she just got embraced, um, you know, it truly went to go to show why I continue to run these races, week after week after week, um, and I'm just so thankful for it. Um, bob, uh, she wants me to remind you that she still owes you three more 5ks now and then we'll, uh, we'll consider, uh, longer distances in the future, okay, fair enough, okay, you're okay.
Speaker 1:Well, you have a confused look on your face, so so that line distances in the future.
Speaker 2:Okay, fair enough. Okay, well, you have a confused look on your face. That line, because she's got the memory of an elephant. When we interviewed her as part of the Race Report Spotlight back in Wine and Dine 2022, you asked her if she was going to run another race and her response to you was that she would do four more 5Ks with you. So she's keeping tally, just for you All right, all right.
Speaker 4:5k was fun. Kids, I am Groot. It was by far the most elaborate costume I've ever worn. It's the most elaborate costume I've ever worn. It's the most elaborate costume I will ever wear. I cannot, that's the max.
Speaker 4:It was hot. Fortunately and this happens almost every day the temperature cools off until right after sunrise. So the temperature got cooler as the day as the race went on and the winds picked up just a little bit and that helped me out. I was able to keep that thing on most of the time. I took the headpiece off sometimes when we got into queues for photographs, but it was a blast. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the look on people's faces. I enjoyed the comments. I had that camouflage paint on the it's supposed to be military grade camo, it was not because it ran pretty bad. So I started to sweat and, son of a gun, I was sweating waiting in the corral. You know it was just that hot, but it was a. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing something like that again.
Speaker 4:A friend, mary, told me a cute story. I thought and I don't know if it was this, the 5k or the 10k, but I think we were all on the bus coming back together and I got off first, and then, apparently, there were two women between mary and me and one said to the other yeah, that's Bob. And Mary says, oh, I know him, you must listen to the Rise and Run podcast. And they looked at her and said, huh, no, we don't know what that is. Well then, how do you know Bob? Oh, we just know him from his costumes. I'm going this this is new.
Speaker 2:Well, I was going to say, I mean, let's think about it, you have now entered the echelon that is, the fame of Kay and Cindy Copley and Hollywood. You made the run, Disney Instagram, and that's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2:And I mean, I'll be honest, I think the next time we do a Council of Costumes episode, I think you need to remove yourself as host and just strictly be in a guest role deal. And I mean, I'll be honest, I think the next time we do a council of costumes episode, I think you need to remove yourself as host and just strictly be in a guest role it was a lot of effort went into that thing and I I gotta thank my friend and, uh, she's our part-time housekeeper, comes once a month.
Speaker 4:Uh, becky peitch, who was really that, was really the brains behind that and she showed me what to do. Now I did a lot of the work, but so did she, and it came out pretty well. Yeah, I knew something was when I crossed the finish line. You got all the finish line photographers, but they were two separate photographers who came running, I mean literally running over to where I was, and I knew that was probably the run Disney photographers, so it was fun.
Speaker 3:I, I, I cheered for the 5k this this week. I cause I just made it's just a last minute trip for me, so I came down and cheered for the 5k, one of the highlights of my cheering or maybe a low light I'm cheering with. Not, not, not, not, not, not, not. Cheering with your wife was a low light, but light light, but I'm cheering with not. Cheering with your wife was a low light, but I was cheering at the buses and someone comes and goes. Hey, rise and Run podcast. Hey, bob, how you doing? I'm like I was mistaken for.
Speaker 3:Bob.
Speaker 4:That's okay. That makes me proud, john. One last comment on the group costume. I got back to the hotel room. That thing was. It was hard to put on, but Becky got up and helped me and it wasn't too bad. And then my Disney daughters helped. I couldn't put it all together and sit on the bus, so I had to keep some of the leg pieces separate and they helped me put it all together and we got off the bus. When I got back to the hotel from sweating so badly, oh man, that the the top part of that was really hard to get off. I mean Becky's pulling one direction, I'm pulling another. We finally got it off. Did Myra help you at all? It was not easy. Myra was funny. No, myra did not help at all, but she was funny. After yeah, I finally had to tell her after the 10K because I had a wig and a beard on for the 10K. I said Meyer, tomorrow will be special, you get to see what I look like. But yeah, it was great to see her there. Oh, that's another thing. That was kind of funny.
Speaker 4:We got there so early. We're waiting for the buses and there's one bus in line at the front, clearly, and then the second bus beeps his horn and starts waving people on. So it's not easy climbing into the seat with this outfit on. I get up there. Here comes myra, no, no, no, no, no. We have to go in order. Everybody off, oh geez. The other thing I was. Even though it was hot. I didn't stop for anything to drink until like the two mile mark because, although it was in two parts, I could not fit into one of the porta potties. So I thought about it. Uh, so I had to be discreet there. But yeah, that was the highlight. That was the 5k. It was fun, all right, let's, let's spin it around to 10k time. How'd it go, kids?
Speaker 5:oh, yeah, uh, I guess I will go first on this one. Um, so, at classic jack, I did not try on my costume until like right before I left and it's been sitting packaged right by my couch and um, so the like two days or a night before I unpackaged it and I was like huh. So this is what it looks like fully. You know, done whatever, and I have my puppet dinosaur and the whole idea was the thing was going to fit in my pocket, so I didn't have to carry that, the sign and my camera all at once. Turns out the dinosaur doesn't fit in the pocket, it's, so I guess I was gonna try and hold three things at once you could juggle them jack.
Speaker 5:Just keep one in the air all the time well, jack tell everybody who you were dressed as first oh yeah, I'm sorry, I dressed as dr seeker from dinosaur and, uh, my mom, who she did such a good job, she made my sign that said, um, let's go get that dino it looked great.
Speaker 5:It was a great costume, one of my top favorite costumes, for sure but uh it uh, it was good. I I love that so many people got the costume because it wasn't an exact replica of what his was, because I couldn't find a tie that looked exactly like his, but it was a uh, a raptor tie that I thought was really fun it was good um so many cast members was like ah, and it made me happy and um yeah I I like trying something new.
Speaker 5:Usually I'm like a disney character. I guess he's a disney character sure yeah, but he will be out another time.
Speaker 2:But I will say don't try and get three things in your hands, knowing you can't put anything away now my question is because obviously you know you are super speedy and you just went up because I know you had like a character and time goal for this one. But my question for you is did you have to, because you know the mouth can move on?
Speaker 5:your little dinosaur puppet was the dinosaur's mouth holding your camera so no, he was that would be a visual to see okay but um, no, it was such a good, it was a good race. It was just really hot. It was a long sleeve doctor's jacket, basically with a button up underneath, and I was sweating a river like I, you would. You would think I came off tiana's bayou, but I did not like that was, that was a river and um, it was a lot of fun. There was no like, honestly, there was no way to get a pr?
Speaker 4:uh with that kind of no, not in that kind of costume, no, I was.
Speaker 5:I was trying to figure out how to hold everything so I could still get a good picture, but I realized around mile three that if I took the puppet and I carried it like a football, it wasn't so bad. I've never been a footballer before, but I thought that actually went really well. And I was recording my video for you know, to record the race, and I tried to do it where it's like hello there. Uh, my name is jack and I'm one heck of a paleontologist myself and like I had so much fun, you guys, I was okay if I could talk about it really quick. So this is going to be one of my most favorite run videos I probably ever created, because I recorded the entire attraction and so I'm going to have the audio overlaid with the race, so that way, like at the very end.
Speaker 5:You get to the finish line and he's like we're not going to make it, we're not going to make it. Go, go, go. You know I go through the finish line. I'm so excited to share this. It comes out on Thursday on. Bellhops from another dimension.
Speaker 5:I'm very, very excited I think, it's gonna be fun and um dr seeker will come out again because they should not make this ride extinct and you know, everybody loved it and it should stay, and I think I have some people right here they john right there and alicia for sure right there. We are all you. Please do not make it extinct. Dr Seco needs to stay. He needs to stay a doctor.
Speaker 7:I don't care about the rest of the land, just keep that thing.
Speaker 3:The truth is they keep extending the dead letter closing it.
Speaker 2:Right? Well, that's the part that I was going to bring up. Here is the three of you have been lamenting for months and months, and months. Oh, my pure dinosaur is going away. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Mike Muppets is gone in like two months. And also, massive shout out to everyone who came to our impromptu meet on Friday afternoon to wish the Muppets farewell. Thank you for doing that. We got a lovely group photo. Massive shout out to that uh cast member who was willing to organize us all in front of the miss piggy fountain and then scan about 86 magic bands so that everyone could get a copy of that photo. But yeah, my muppets is going away and you don't see, yeah, and I'm devastated, but you don't see me crying on the podcast every single week it would still be here and being extended listen, this is all I'm going to say.
Speaker 2:Is I got my retribution, or my revenge, in my office right now sitting on my run disney slash, disney shelf? Uh, I might have taken some 3d classes, you did not, I'm jealous.
Speaker 5:okay, you know what, greg, I am going to put this out there. The muppets are not on the disney's hollywood sign okay, you know what's on the animal kingdom sign dinosaurs. Dinosaurs, okay, yep, and fantasy type characters that were never created. Hollywood sign Okay, you know what's on the Animal Kingdom sign? Dinosaurs Okay, yep, and fantasy type characters that were never created, ultimately, but you know, dinosaur was on there.
Speaker 2:You still get your attraction for six months, okay. Fozzie and Kermit are gone in two months. But anyway. I digress my heart hurts.
Speaker 4:Alright, kids, anybody else run the 10K. I think we all did. I think.
Speaker 7:We did you All right, kids, anybody else run the 10K? I think we all did. I think we did. You know that we're not going to make it. We're not going to make it. That's all we're going to talk about A huge group of us. We all started together in C and we stopped for pain and panic and I don't know about the rest of you, but I was sure panicking because here was coming the balloon ladies and I was like, oh, we never saw them though.
Speaker 7:I didn't see them, but I saw all the sweeper vans and things coming real quick.
Speaker 2:Oh, I never saw that Okay.
Speaker 7:Yeah, they were on the curve coming up the hill so I don't think we could actually physically see them, but yeah, they were a half a mile behind us when we lost that line.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't realize that, and that's when I was like guys, we gotta go.
Speaker 4:That's eight minutes, though it is.
Speaker 7:And we would have been fine. But I was panicked, but otherwise it was a great run. But not pain, that's good.
Speaker 2:You must have been in the back of the group, because I think I was towards the front of our group in the line and I think I did hear that you know, like a few, a few people were considering bailing and I was, like we've already been standing in this line for how long? We're like more than two-thirds of the way through, like we gotta, we gotta see this out, and great, and we never, we never saw any pacers or vans or or bikers or for the rest of the race. So it all, it all worked out pretty well was that, john?
Speaker 5:yeah, I wasn't expecting that from you, john.
Speaker 2:I would have expected a different song all that being said, uh, I, I had a lovely race. Uh, we were. We were the, the baristas of of ancient greece, which was a lot of fun it was interesting, even though I don't drink coffee, but I decided to be a team player and you know, and kept going with it.
Speaker 2:Um, one thing that I learned in this race I will I will never run in the wig again. Um, to quote Allie boy, that was a humid race and I was, you know, jack, to use your phrase you used a couple of minutes ago, I was sweating the river as well. In that I was impressed, though my Pegasus wings did hold up the entire race and then the elastic snapped in the family reunion area, so those wings saw the trash can, so I didn't have to bring those home to Philadelphia. As everyone knows, I love that course. I love the company that I had. I thought the characters were very, very nice. So those are all the positives. There is one thing and I am going to continue to harp on this until we see a change is one thing, and I am going to continue to harp on this until we see a change. Run, disney, if you are listening. Please, for the life of you, start providing power aid during the 10 because I am sorry.
Speaker 2:you cannot have carissa and john up on stage preaching over and over and over about taking proper hydration and making sure that you're taking your electrolytes when you yourselves are not providing electrolytes on the course. Now, I know that they could probably come back and say to me well then, it's your responsibility to bring your own electrolytes, which I all know we can, but for the price that we're paying and the deal that you have with Coke because Powerade is a Coke product it really shouldn't be that hard to be able to provide that for you. So I'm going to bring this up every single 10K until they bring it up, because if we're going to promote runner safety and security through this and making sure that runners stay healthy, to me I don't think it's a hard ask. I know there are things that we can complain about with Run Disney, and some of those things that we complain about are either really difficult to change or just can't be changed in general, and that I understand.
Speaker 3:This is something that can be easily adjusted and it doesn't have to be at every water stop correct, because I mean the thing about the.
Speaker 2:The first hydration uh, stop for the 10 miler is usually just water. They usually don't start the power until the second or or even third one, whether that's a half, a full or the 10 miler.
Speaker 4:Well, I'm going to lighten things up just a little bit, thank you, and this will be a topic of a future podcast episode. But I love the fact that John Pelkey is now experienced race guy who's giving out the advice from his multiple races that he's done, and I think that's kind of fun.
Speaker 2:And super exciting that he I mean Grant, I know Chris and John did a special episode of 321 Go a couple of weeks ago, but John also announced it at the race that he is going to be running his first ever half marathon this fall. So congratulations, Pelkey.
Speaker 4:Good for him. Yeah yeah, we'll hear from him again here in a little bit. Wigs, greg, I've got a box of wigs. I literally have a box labeled Run Disney Wigs. One of my friends who has kind of joined the group in the last year said to me at one point after my fourth or fifth race, or maybe even at the meetup oh, that's what you look like. I've never seen you without a wig. Plus, I had a full beard on this one.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh, that's right. You're such a good costume Both of you are great.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed it, by the way, I am so glad that you were able to get your photo with Tom before they headed out in the corrals. That was a ton of fun to see Herc and Zeus properly together.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah, he's a good guy and I'm glad we did that too. But I walked the 10K, as I explained to I guess it was Chris Twiggs at my age. Every now and then something hurts. That shouldn't hurt and instead of running, you walk. And it worked out because it left me in good shape for the 10-mile or the next day. I got a chance for the third time to literally cross the finish line behind the balloon ladies, but that's because I probably had three or four minutes on them at the end and I stop and talk with John and Riley and Carissa and spend a couple minutes there, and I was almost positive. I was with Stephanie. I almost always am on the 10Ks and once again we got done talking with our friends, turned around, looked up and went oh, those are the balloon ladies. So that was fine, it was fun. I enjoyed that event. Like I said, took it easy. It was warm, not quite as warm as the day before, but it was still warm and it was okay. It was fun. All right, we knock out the 10K, go home. Yeah, I'd already cleaned off the makeup from the day before. I didn't have any makeup on this one Time for our Rise and Run meetup, gosh, they're always fun.
Speaker 4:Becky and I got there pretty early this time and when we got there, number one there was not a musician, like there was. Yeah, I was glad to see that. Yeah, I was very glad to see that. So we get there. I think we got there around 2.30. Wanting to establish, as I call it, the beachhead, our Rise and run friends had beat us to it and already had secured three tables, so by the time we got there, we were in great shape.
Speaker 2:Well, they were just rope dropping Becky's cookies. That's why.
Speaker 3:They were rope dropped on Wednesday night, bob. Oh yeah, yeah, wednesday night, bob.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, yeah, wednesday night. Yeah, if you stay at Pop, there's a perk to staying at Pop you get Myra and you get a preview of Becky's Cookies. Of course I have to go back to the room to get them, but that's okay, it was fun. Hey, I'll let you guys talk about the meetup, because I golly I it's a highlight of the weekend for me.
Speaker 3:He said the meetup was great. You know, seeing everybody show up, uh, talking, meeting, meeting all new people, like making new friends. You know, like it's weird, like I don't know if you guys have the same feeling, Uh, they could. Hey, john, how you doing, what's going on? Like, okay, who are you? Now they know us, but we don't really know all of them. It's kind of weird, like, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I know you like hockey, I know you like this, oh, I'm like, okay, good, you actually listen to the podcast. But it was pretty cool like meeting all these friends that you know, making new friends at the event. And I went around, tried to get some intros, but some people got them, some people are a little shy. I mean, it's no big deal, just, you know, just doing our thing. You know, just don't have to, you're not required to do one to be at the meetup, but you know it was fun. And something else that I've noticed uh, we have not outgrown dockside margaritas really uh, when I was leaving margaritas.
Speaker 5:You mean, is that where you guys?
Speaker 3:oh, I wasn't there that was the original place where we had but if you, when we were walking out, there's a bar in the front. Oh which is dockside margaritas remote booth. So we still have dockside margaritas.
Speaker 4:I wonder where you're going, John, because we couldn't have a meetup at dockside anymore, maybe if they reserved the whole place? No, even then it wasn't.
Speaker 2:Even then, no, correct no.
Speaker 3:We probably had a good 55, 60 people there in the photo, just look at the photo, it was a decent-sized group.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was a nice-sized group. I don't think it was quite 100, but it was a nice-sized group it was great to see. Early on I ran into a young lady who I do not remember her name, but she said this was my first time showing up at a meetup and I noticed her. I said well, you're going to enjoy it here. Let me introduce you to these folks here and again. Don't know how you introduce her to and because she said it was her first, every now and then I I wanted to make sure she was comfortable. I'd look to see. She was always with another group and that's just the way the whole thing goes is that people come, they meet people they already know, they get to new, new, no new people and, uh, it's people. And it's absolutely a highlight of the trip and a big reason that I keep doing all of this. I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean for me, regardless of the number of people that show up to a meetup, they continue to have an even more profound impact on me as each one occurs, you know, weekend after weekend. And I mean sure you know we can all easily admit that. You know there are, you know, people in our community that have become extremely, you know, close friends of ours. You even outside of of run disney races. But what I am just so proud of us as hosts is that you know, I think we do a really good job and do our due diligence to make sure that you know those friends that we have. We know we can chat with them whenever, whenever we'd like that. You know, we really do go out of our way to make sure that someone who we might not talk be able to talk to as often, or someone who is brand new, to make sure that they are truly welcomed into our community, making sure that they feel comfortable. You know I'm glad that we're able to expand the family in that way, but the part that really just always warms my heart is just hearing someone else's accomplishments or hearing how the community has impacted them in a positive way, whether that's from us individually or just the community as a whole. It really goes to emphasize this isn't the right phrase but the mission statement of the Rise and Run podcast in terms of really expounding upon the idea of inclusivity and running.
Speaker 2:And I'm so thankful that people take the time out of their vacations to come down and chat with us and and make other friends. Uh, as well too, we need more good in the world and I'm glad that our podcast is able to provide that to to so many. And I, just, you know, I feel like I say at the end of every like you know, meetup recap, but I, you know, I hope it continues to grow, I hope it gets better and, you know, it grows so much that we even outgrow the food truck area, because I, I think, I, I think there's an opportunity for that and and I'm, and I'm looking, really looking forward to seeing, seeing where that takes us in the next couple of race weekends. So, thank you everybody.
Speaker 7:I agree, Greg. It was really cool. I got to see a lot of people that I've met before and continue to establish those relationships, which I really appreciate. But I also got to meet some new people and I got to overlook and see friends talking to new friends or friends that they've met through the podcast.
Speaker 7:And it's just cool to step back for a second and see the community continue to grow and and truly, this family that we've created be such a profound thing and, yeah, thank you everybody who is a part of it, because it's really amazing.
Speaker 4:I need to order more buttons. I got time, but we're out of buttons and we'll see you at the next meetup. Okay, sunday, last day of the Run, disney 24-25 race season, the 10 milmiler we kick it off at 5 am. Guys, how'd it go?
Speaker 3:It went really well. I was a little nervous about the heat, you know. I mean because I haven't run anything in that kind of weather, you know, for a while and you know coming from what 45 degrees I'm like, now we're at 70. I'm like this is going to be a little hot and it's a little afraid of overheating or overdoing it, you know, because of the weather. But you know, got got together with with the crew. We were all incredibles. We were, you know, we had a. We had a good what 15person group when we started and then it kind of dwindled down a little bit. We still had a big group to start and we had fun. We had a good time going through all the characters. We had some what do you want to call them? Uh, pacers that went ahead and got in line for us and held the spot, you know, and boom popped in.
Speaker 4:You mean our fast pass runners, our fast pass runners.
Speaker 3:Yes, our fast pass runners came in, hopped in. It took us one photo, we didn't take individuals got in, got out boom and knocked it out. I mean it was fun. I mean mean I was fun, I had a good time, I, and the most positive thing was I felt good afterwards.
Speaker 4:I didn't, you know, have any major pain, which is a positive, yeah as mentioned, a little trouble on the 10k but felt much better on the 10 miler, so I was able to keep up with the group. I was happy for that. Shorts and a t-shirt. I was very happy for that. After two days being so, I didn't have any trouble there, had a good time. Uh, my only problem is when we get those big group photos I'm always in the back and nobody ever sees my bib. So I have to count on you guys to send me copies of the which I normally get. So I'm not complaining, but it was fun. I don't remember anything specific. At the end, of course, as always, I stopped and chatted with Jeff I. That's another, but a good event yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 7:Um, I usually do the races by myself, um, but last year for springtime surprise I stuck with the group and this year I did the same thing and it was fun to get to again establish more relationships and and run as a group and um, get all the pictures and, yeah, just experience a different side of friend disney that I don't get to experience when I'm by myself.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I was really grateful for it yeah, overall, I had a really fantastic, uh, ted myler experience.
Speaker 2:You know, again, I was part of the group, I was part of the gang that grant, I was the outlier. I know the the whole group costume was, um, incredibles themed and I already had a baymax shirt that I had made. So I wasn't you know with the amount of money that I invested in my uh, my rocket raccoon and my uh, my pegasus barista. I I knew I needed to recycle something. So my apologies to the group costume for being the uh, the Baymax outlier, but when we saw the leaked list, we saw that Baymax was the first character stop. So Allie without an E and I, we both had Corral B, so we decided to take on the role of being the fast pass, but then I guess somebody else was an even faster fast pass than we were. So then you know it was, you know, gave us the opportunity to get a really good, um, you know, early photo with baymax, and they kept going on. I, I really love the first half, or, yeah, just under half, of that course. I will say that that my four and a half until eight. It didn't feel nearly as empty and sluggish as it did the last two years I was more distracted by the group that I was with or Disney had more entertainment out there, so it didn't seem nearly as bad. But when you have so much to see and do in that first half of the race and then you go a 5K with just Highway, that does make it a little tough. So thankful for the group that I was with with just highway. You know that does make it a little tough, but you know, so you know. Thankful for the group that I was with. But the the big thing that I do want to say and I know we had, we had briefly chatted about this um, leading up to springtime surprise, and I grant it, I know I went on my rants during the 10k about powerade and stuff like that. But here I want to give run disney their flowers and finally listening to runner feedback and moving that hydration stop from off of the international squeezeway and doing it right at jelly rolls and the atlantic dance hall, because that made things a much smoother process getting from the boardwalk up to hollywood studios and it just I mean great, it's still cramped and it's still early on the race, so you know. So you are still going to have that, but it definitely alleviated any absolute traffic jams and standstills and all that jazz. So, uh, you know good on them for listening that feedback and making that change.
Speaker 2:And speaking of aid stations, I just want to give a massive shout out to our friends over at the Dopey Strong and the Run Fit Fab podcast, led by our wonderful friends Kristen and Devin, they had the most incredible support station hydration stop You're right in that Epcot bus area. I mean, they had everything from salt shoes to gummy bears to cooling towels. It was a tremendous undertaking that they provided to all the runners, you know, regardless of what their needs were whether, again, you needed a cooling towel or you just needed a big bear hug, you know from them it was just. It was a wonderful jolt that we needed to finish off that race, especially in that heat.
Speaker 2:So again, I was really glad to see the two of them Saw Carrie as well from Zippity Tees and you know a bunch of our friends like Shaleen there providing support to all the runners. It really brought a smile to my face. It was exactly what we all needed. And, ladies, I hope you continue to do these type of aid and support stations in future races, because I think that does a lot of good in the world. So thank you again for providing that to all of us. Really, if there was the only thing that I could say, to run Disney to improve upon the race and I'm not even sure if this is possible, but I almost kind of think running that exact course but in reverse would actually be, better in terms of maybe spacing people out and having something to look forward to in terms of the entertainment.
Speaker 2:I guess the only downside to it would be you wouldn't get the going down sunset boulevard, because it's nice being able to run down sunset to see Tower of Terror in the background. So I guess that's the only downside to it. But if they're looking for feedback on it, that would be the biggest thing I would say. But overall, fantastic race and a fantastic end to the Run Disney season.
Speaker 7:I do have to say that, overall, for the whole race weekend, they had a lot more characters than I remember having before. And to your point of entertainment, greg, of like not feeling um bored or like that, there wasn't enough entertainment there definitely was for this one. I felt like there was every so often something that kept our, our, interest. So, um, I do think that they are taking that feedback, so hopefully they'll listen for the powerade yeah, and big props.
Speaker 2:I know we didn't stop because if we thought the pain and panic line was insane, the, um, the, the mando and grogu um character stop. And galaxy's edge was even wilder. Yeah, you didn't realize that jack.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she didn't run the 10 mile, oh, oh that's true, that's true, okay, I definitely did not realize that at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Amanda was out, I think like right before. I think it was like Ronto's Roasters, I think in that general area.
Speaker 3:All the way in the back, all the way in the back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the thing is, the line stretched from that marketplace area and it stretched all the way to Rise of the Resistance.
Speaker 5:He's so hard to get a picture with.
Speaker 2:in general, but good on them for bringing an extremely rare character out. I mean the other one too. I think this was for the 5K. They had Doctor Strange out, oh yeah, and that generated quite a lofty line. So good on Run Disney for really bringing some high-level character stops for these races.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not many Marvel characters they can really pull out on Correct yeah, well, I mean great.
Speaker 2:And it also made sense too, because it kind of fit the theme of celebrating heroes and such. So that made a lot of sense. But again, when you bring out a really rare character like that, it's going to generate a pretty massive line.
Speaker 3:So the only one downside I think we had this weekend. I mean you had a theme where the characters all wear masks. What happened, I think, was on Sunday and Monday morning we had our race photos in our photo pass. They're there I I didn't wear a mask, I just wore sunglasses, but I was in some group photos and some where they wore masks. My bib was showing. So I knew because I saw it and I downloaded some of them early was on was showing. But now once they I guess they went back in and looked at everything anyone that had a actual mask on, they deleted the photo pass photos from the app, even though of your eyes, to clarify.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mask over your eyes, Because some of our friends were missing Mrs Incredible or Jack Jack and they had the masks on for the characters. And now those photos are out of our photo pass and even though we did not wear masks, which I thought was kind of a strange thing to do, yeah, I mean, especially since you're promoting a race theme where the all the characters wear a mask.
Speaker 2:So maybe that might make them be more conscious of the racing decisions in the future.
Speaker 3:Was it really a mask? I mean, and I know, and I know, like some of the photo, I know, when we started in the beginning, before we started the race, when we got a group photo at the uh by the, by the, the uh, the characters, they said, oh, you can't wear your mask. So the, the girls had them on their head, but other racers, other photo pass.
Speaker 7:People didn't care, they took the picture here's what I don't understand about it people who painted it on their face that literally couldn't take it off. It sounded like they got their pictures.
Speaker 4:It's not a mask. Yeah, it's a silly thing. I think it's silly, but that's not a mask. That's like my face was completely painted with Groot.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But my, my my sunglasses as Frozone were probably more restrictive viewing than their mask because it was skinny and blocked all my eyes. But that, that was fine.
Speaker 2:No, john, it's funny you bring up those inconsistencies, because the same thing happened to our buddy, adam of the two, two guys during the 10K. So for for that race, tom was Herculescules, so he had like the hercules shirt on and I I want to. I can't remember what. Maybe adam was phil, or or something.
Speaker 2:So I think he wasn't wearing his shirt and I remember seeing tom's uh instagram posts and instagram stories of you stories from the Tutu Guys account and essentially they were in one photo. I don't know if it was maybe outside the park where they let Adam just be as he is, but then when they got their photo with Hades and Epcot they, I guess, apparently gave him a hard time that he needed to be wearing a shirt, so Tom had to take off his Hercules cape and drape it over Adam so that they could take the take the photo. So you know there was inconsistencies there that how is it OK for one photopass photographer but then it's not for another? So you know, maybe it's just something that you know they need to tweak their policies or change the wording on it. You know a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, like I said, I would have been really upset if I had a really killer finish line photo and there is like somebody behind me with a mask on and then all of a sudden, it's gone because they pulled that photo. I mean, like I said, go with the consistency. I guess they probably had some kind of double scan later on that pulled all these photos out.
Speaker 5:So I do know, working as an attractions cast member, they do go through all the pictures, at least for the attractions, and somebody does something crazy, or let's just say say, feels like a guy might want to be like pull up a shirt, show his abs or whatever. Those photos will get bleeped out and they will not be shown. So I'm not surprised. But at the same time it's a running weekend, but they were. Why is it not okay? You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:They were in your account originally. That was the problem.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and you can wear sunglasses, sunglasses which cover your eyes.
Speaker 2:There's so many questions I have.
Speaker 5:It seems extremely silly, extremely silly.
Speaker 3:Like what's a mask. I think someone else was saying they were concerned about wearing full face makeup too, because the bike face is being covered now.
Speaker 4:So Sunday ends the 10-miler. No beach visit, no blizzard beach visit this time, unfortunately, uh the we. We always skip over the yoga. What? When was yoga? Was yoga?
Speaker 2:thursday morning thursday morning yeah, for the expo, expo, yeah, anybody go?
Speaker 4:no nope, yeah, I didn't know no, but I mean.
Speaker 2:The only thing to say about yoga is somebody on social media had brought it up that they noticed that run disney did slightly adjust the dates for springtime surprise in 2026 yeah, right, and that the date now the weekend, now goes into monday, right.
Speaker 2:But even though they don't have the details up yet, everyone's assuming now that, right, when is it that the date now the weekend now goes into Monday, right. But even though they don't have the details up yet, everyone's assuming now that they're going to do what they do for Princess and that they're going to move yoga from Thursday to Monday.
Speaker 4:But again, we won't have final confirmation of that until the theme and registration details come out, but I think, I think that's uh, I think that's pretty certain, why not? That's another night you got to spend, exactly so. But.
Speaker 2:But now here's the thing if you want to, if you want to do the uh I guess you maybe could still do the cruise and yoga, but it could make for a stressful morning.
Speaker 3:So uh, yeah, if you're contemplating those things.
Speaker 2:just stay tuned to runDisneycom for sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's how I was going to finish up here, saying that, while it was sad to leave everyone and it is it's tough this time next year we'll be leaving and heading over to Port Canaveral and we'll have another week together. So I'm looking forward to that very, very much. Well, gang, another successful race weekend. Sorry to see it go. Looking forward to the next one. Now we're into season five of the Rise and Run podcast. We've been through four full seasons, full running seasons. We start on our fifth one here with our next episode. Well, actually, with this episode, got some interesting stuff coming up. I'll just tell you that next week we're going to sit down and chat with the brother and sister who won the male and the female 10-mile race at Springtime. Surprise, the Flying Fanglers will be with us, so be sure to join us for that. We've got things lined up, my friends, and we think we'll do our best to get you through the long summer days until we're back together again. All right, my friends, it's time for the race report.
Speaker 2:Bob, I really wish we would use the pew pew pews this week because you know, as you well know, that originated with our buddy and former co-host, allie, who just had a birthday this past week. So happy birthday, allie.
Speaker 4:Happy birthday, allie. Nobody knows. Well few people know what you're talking about, though, greg. Very few I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't know how many of our friends have been with us at this point in the episode to hear you and jack and whoever is gonna go, so you know I'm gonna make a mental note now that maybe this would be a really good trivia question for the Rise and Run podcast crews next year, so I'll make a note.
Speaker 4:What happens is, when we're live, just the group of us. I'll always use that line. All right, it's time for the race report, and the gang will go pew pew, pew, pew. You don't hear it, but it's become expected.
Speaker 2:So that's what Greg's talking about, I think there was one episode it might have been episode 100 where I think we kept it in and we didn't use the sound effect.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay, yeah, all right. Well, that's cool. Hey, regardless of pew pew or not, the race report brought to you by our friend, thomas Stokes of Stokes Metabolic Training, stokesfit slash rise and run coaching. Tom talked about his scholarship contest that he's got going on and I have been late with a number of things as I explained earlier in the episode. With a number of things as I explained earlier in the episode, and I have just now recently posted that link to our featured section. So take a look there. That's a good deal, that's a great offer Tom has for our Rise and Run friends.
Speaker 4:All right, because last week's episode was recorded, we're going to go back on the race report and capture a couple of the highlights that I noticed. Again, friends there, there are getting to be a whole lot of these and I really do my best to grab them all, but it's possible I've missed one. If I did, I I apologize. I hope not. We're not going to reread them. I'm just going to go over the folks who had some comment about their race and really probably just pick up a line or two. For instance, last Saturday, this would have been the Saturday of springtime, surprise.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 4:Yep, yeah, thanks that Mandalorian, it always gets me. There was a cheap marathon in Derry, new Hampshire, and Chadwick was there for his 31st birthday. It marathon number five. He did it in just over two minutes. His buddy, joel, drove up all the way from Clearwater. That's a heck of a drive. Joel had to stop at the half, but it was his first half marathon, so Joel PR'd Nice.
Speaker 2:You know, Bob, do you want to take a guess as to how cheap the cheap marathon is?
Speaker 4:$19.85.
Speaker 2:Not that cheap, but I just went on their website. Registration apparently is now open for the cheap marathon in 2026. And you can run both the marathon or the half marathon for the discounted price right now of $49.99.
Speaker 4:These days. That's a low price, that is cheap, that's good, All right, no false advertising there. In Lynchburg, tennessee, home of Jack Daniel's Whiskey, marla did the Oak Barrel Half. Marla says add this one to your bucket list. It's a great event. Let's see Tracy's in. I'm going to say it's Chikasha, oklahoma, could be Chikasha, could be Chickasha. I'm not sure which syllable to accent, but the first annual Second Base Savers 5K. That sounds like a cancer charity. Run cold, cold felt like 28 degrees. The signage on the course wasn't very good. Tracy went the wrong way that's never good no, I've had that happen to me.
Speaker 4:It's it stinks and it's because of signs. Uh, would have been first overall. Female wound up being sixth and 13th overall. Still a good race, tracy, sorry, you got lost on the course, it's not your fault. Like I said, I've been there and it's a bad feeling. Charleston, south Carolina, the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K. Dylan was there, said the bridge is pretty steep but the views from the top were great. Millie and her son were there and Millie PR'd this race. On Sunday the big event was the Cherry Blossom Runs in Washington DC. Kay did the double blossom, the 5K on, I think Saturday the 5th. Yeah, that's right. On, I think Saturday the 5th. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yes, because she called this the I think, the Wood Challenge, Because she did the 5K with us At Disney. Yeah, yeah, at Disney, At Disney. And then flew up to DC for both of these races.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 10-miler on Sunday. So there you go. Kay completed the double, did a great job. We had a couple folks do do the 10 miler on Sunday. I heard from Bren in 2.07. So there's her PR. Our friend Tara from Canada PR'd. Katrina PR'd 26 minutes less than her first 10 miler three years ago.
Speaker 2:That's incredible.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's nice. Taylor said she is celebrating the miles that she did, regardless of how her goal went, and that's the right thing to do. Not every race is a PR. It'd be boring if every race was a PR. Brian was there with Taylor and then, finally, kristen was there and Kristen PR'd.
Speaker 2:You know. Bob, did you know that the Cherry Blossom race has a character? Stop quasi at the start-finish line? No, stumpy Okay. Race uh has a character. Stop quasi at the the start finish line no, uh, stumpy okay, the uh. It looks. I'm not now to me. I think k had posted the photo with stumpy. He kind of looks like a cigar a little bit, but I guess he's supposed to represent a tree stump but it's it's good to know that even outside of disney um there are race mascots. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:There is In any race Kay's that has a character's top, because Kay's always a character. She had her cherry blossom costume.
Speaker 2:Yes, she did.
Speaker 4:We're going to hear about it again here in a minute, I think. As we go to this week's runs, let's go up to the Great Pacific Northwest around Puget Sound, the Birch Bay 30K. Heather says this is her furthest distance to date. She stuck to the Galloway method. Good for you. She's happy that she was able to walk the next day without limping. That's made her a believer in the run walk run method. Way over in Madrid, spain, our buddy Dan did the Madrid half marathon. His wife Tanya says he had a great time and she was an excellent cheering squad. I imagine that was a lot of fun. In Atlantic City, new Jersey, christiana did the april fool's half, gutted it out, finished in under two and a half hours. Good enough for a run disney proof of time and a 30s pr. I know what she's saying. This is her 30 to whatever PR Ran by Lucy the Elephant. You ever seen Lucy the Elephant? Craig?
Speaker 2:I have not, but I'm sure John has. I've seen plenty of pictures of Lucy, but never have seen her with my own two eyes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I cannot recall. I think I have, but if I have, it would have been a long time ago. Let's go to Scranton, pennsylvania, the Scranton Half Marathon. Steve was there a second time running this one. This year's medal is number one of four. All four, when put side by side, will create a Scranton skyline. I don't know if Dunder Mifflin's on that skyline or not.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to remember. I'd have to go back and look at the Facebook post, but I feel like when Steve had posted about this, that the medals were going to be a slight homage to the office.
Speaker 4:There was some reference there.
Speaker 2:When you put them all together. Yeah, there was some reference there, very, very creative.
Speaker 4:Yeah, now let's finish up. Two weeks ago in London with the Brighton Marathon, megan was there. Megan ran a personal best four hours and 33 minutes. That is a 50-minute PB. Holy cow. Yeah, not only is it impressive that you knocked off 50 minutes, that four and a half hour marathon, that in itself is terrific. So well done. All righty, friends, let's move up to the week that we would normally cover, which is last week.
Speaker 4:Let's go to Saturday, over in Belgium and Brussels, the European running championships. They had a 10K, a half and a full and Jonathan was there running the half. Jonathan represented the nation of Israel in the half, finished second among his countrymen, seven minutes faster than his last half a month ago. The next championships are in 27. He's saying he's thinking he might do them. I'm thinking he has to do them. You know you're representing the homeland. Now, jonathan, top three finisher, you got to go. I usually don't explain this, but there were only two Israelis in that race and Jonathan pointed that out. He said I think the rest of the people from Israel ran the 10K and the full. He ran the half.
Speaker 2:Regardless, we're still really proud.
Speaker 4:That's still good, my friend, it sure is it's still good. In Orlando Tracy did the Run Monopoly Series Half Marathon Neat medal.
Speaker 2:Oh, incredible medal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, tracy wasn't too excited about the race itself, though.
Speaker 2:a really long time, really long line for race day bib pickup oh, I thought you were gonna say it wasn't good experience because she ended up in jail yeah right, she couldn't pass go right.
Speaker 4:Uh, started almost half an hour late. The course wasn't measured right, it was short. She says not a, except for the start thing, which did have the go square painted on the ground. There was no other Monopoly related things on the course. Nothing at the finish, nothing at the after party. I hope she gets some good photos because her outfit was terrific and it was.
Speaker 2:And she also says the metal was cool you know, it's a shame that they didn't pass out two hundred dollars as you crossed.
Speaker 4:There you go that'd be all right. I like that heck. I'd take on i4 for that. By the way, improvements to i4 are supposed to be done next month around uh celebration, where it always backs up. I am hopeful that's going to be helpful. I'll know soon enough because I'm going to be there in June.
Speaker 4:Up in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Half Marathon and Marathon. Heidi ran the half ended up with a 13-minute PR, some of which Heidi attributes to your words of encouragement and support in the Holler Hypes. I still read this, friends. Every week I read people talking about the Holler Hypes they get and how great it is. And it is really a neat thing. Dan was there. Dan ran the full. This is his first non-run Disney full. He went in with a goal to go under four hours. Boy, that's an ambitious goal and he nailed it. 358 and change. I think that is tremendous, a huge PR. After this race he headed back home to watch his daughter play a hockey game and then ended the day with her at her school's daddy-daughter dance. Dan, not only has that a great run, that's great commitment, buddy, to run a four-hour marathon and then go to a dance with your daughter. You got to love that. Well done.
Speaker 4:Burlington, vermont, the half marathon unplugged. Lucy used this as the back half of her last long training run for an upcoming marathon. Now dig this she ran 10 miles first before she got to the half and then she PR'd the half in an hour 46. What a stud, absolutely, lucy. Nicely done, emily. In Baton Rouge, louisiana, the Fat Boy 5K Put a lot of pressure on herself with this one Because it's her only 5K this season and the last race she PR'd was a 5K last year. Well, go ahead and ring the PR bell, because she PR'd by 27 seconds and placed second in her age group with a time just a tiny bit over 23 minutes for the 5K. Nicely done, emily.
Speaker 2:You know I need to reach out to Emily because I'll be in New Orleans in a couple of weeks for my buddy's bachelor slash bachelorette party.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 2:I need to see if maybe there's a 5K going on there that weekend, because I've run, just like you know, around the quarter or whatever. But to be able to do a race down there would be absolutely awesome?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it would be. Emily was at the meetup. I'm almost 100% positive, so I remember talking to her real quick. I don 100 positive because I remember talking to her real quick. I I don't know. I think I've met emily before, but she's tiny and I couldn't see her because most of her photos she's jumping and she's oh, yes, yep so let's see.
Speaker 4:Emily says the most coveted part of the race is the coffee mug that the first 250 male and female finishers get. She added a second one to her collection. Nice job, emily. Good way to go. In North Georgia, the Chickamauga Chase 15K. Amanda her first 15K, that's a PR Knocked it out in less than two hours. Tampa Florida has a very popular event, the TPA 5K on the runway. Tpa Tampa International. Laura Ann was there. Great race. It sold out in less than eight hours. I didn't realize that but I didn't try to register anyway Next year. Laura Ann managed her best 5K time in over a year, said they had great food afterward. They have really good restaurants at the Tampa airport.
Speaker 2:I remember us talking about this race last year and someone commenting on the post-race party. Food was excellent.
Speaker 4:There's a very famous Cuban restaurant in this area, the Columbia. There are like four or five of them and one of them's in the airport, so they were part of that also. So that's a good deal. Speaking of great restaurant change, the Chick-fil-A 5K in Ocoee, florida. Chick-fil-a Columbia not quite in the same league, but Chick-fil-A is still great. Let's see. Jason and his wife Laura did it. Met up with several rising runners, ended up running the whole thing with Kayla. Was going for a PR but ended up with a much bigger PR by cutting two minutes and 37 seconds off of his previous time.
Speaker 2:Awesome job Jason.
Speaker 4:Definitely earned the Chick-fil-A sandwich. At the finish line. There's Kayla. We already mentioned Kayla. Jason's wife, laura I'm pretty sure I read Laura's name. Mary was there. Wonderful race. Only goal was to beat her nephews One day. The time will come when they are faster than her, but not today, kids. Good for you. Mary. Roxanne Got to meet up with some Rise and Run friends. Gorgeous sunrise, great weather and weather has been great here lately Second place age group and a free Chick-fil-A sandwich. One of the very last races I did in Alabama was Chick-fil-A 5K and I'm pretty sure I won my age group. The thing I remember about that I had a period of time where I was missing a tooth, so I was. I was waiting on a replacement, so my race photos of that are interesting.
Speaker 2:All right, bob, I have to ask now what is your go-to favorite sauce at Chick-fil-A?
Speaker 4:Well it's, it's actually the Chick-fil-A sauce. Okay. Yeah, their own sauce. In fact, Becky and I were there this morning.
Speaker 2:I'm very excited because I am a huge fan of the grocery chain Aldi, and apparently Aldi has now come up with their own copycat version of Chick-fil-A sauce, so this household will definitely be stocking up on that in the future.
Speaker 4:Because you know you can get that. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:I have a bottle in my fridge right now.
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah okay, Run Sunset Beach. Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Debbie and Blake did this 5K virtual. You don't always talk about virtuals, but I'm really glad to see that Debbie got back out there.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely yep.
Speaker 4:We talked about Debbie last week and the problems she has. So that sounds like it's going well. Beautiful day. Medals and shirts are in the mail on the way to him. Blake's recovering from a I think, an arthroscopic knee procedure, saying his knee's still sore. I get that it takes a little while, but that's one of those things where and I've had it done twice where it hurts and you figure it's going to hurt for a long time and then all of a sudden one day you realize, hey, you know what it hasn't hurt the last couple of times I've run. It just kind of slowly goes away. So, blake, I hope you have the same reaction that I did.
Speaker 4:Up in Minneapolis. There was a hot chocolate run. Amy, jen and Shauna did that. All ran to 10k. I didn't see a report but I hope that went well.
Speaker 4:In Orlando, the SeaWorld Seven Seas Food Festival, 5k. A couple people doing that, krista and her husband Phil. Weather was perfect and I've mentioned it already I know I have. But gosh, I wish this weekend would have been last weekend, because the weather has been ideal down here for the last couple days. Got to run through SeaWorld, there, sesame Street, land, a lot of fun, lots of characters. All got a free sample from the food festival. Metal was pretty good. Erica was there. Course covered the entire park First time doing this race. We'll definitely be back. Denise ran the Easter Egg Scramble 5K in Hickory, north Carolina, and placed third in her age group. Way to go, denise. A couple people in Nashville for the Music City, not music Music City. Dairy Dash 5K. Kyla had a course PR on this one. So much for the course PR. She was more excited about the ice cream and the metal. At the finish, jimmy was there. 2500 runners but no corral start, just all right, you guys line up, go other than that.
Speaker 2:Super flat and a good course sounds like a good time you know, I almost commented on this race on facebook because when I was in high school there's actually a town in Pennsylvania I think it's up in the Scranton area called Music. Oh yeah. And I did a lot of marching band competitions up there. I remember the big competition was Music on the Mountain and I remember I always looked forward to it because that was the first time I ever got to march on AstroTurf.
Speaker 3:It was at the.
Speaker 2:I don't know if they're still there, but it was at the stadium where the Yankees AAA team, I think, used to play. So when I saw music I was like, oh, this is a Pennsylvania race. And then when I saw it was not Pennsylvania, I was like, oops, I better not do that. So I don't make a fool of myself. But congratulations everybody.
Speaker 4:Sounds like a great run.
Speaker 4:Let's see. Our friend Amy was in East Aurora, new York, for Pasquale's Pizza Run 5K. Our friend Sarah was somewhere. I got to tell you friends sometimes I know you know where the race is, so I think it slips your mind. Sometimes I used to look them all up until we started to get so many. I just don't have time to do it. So Sarah did a Rock the Parkway half marathon. So somewhere there's a parkway, somewhere Sarah did the half and she rocked it to a shiny new PR. Just as importantly, a Disney proof of time.
Speaker 4:In Dearborn, michigan, christina ran the Martian Invasion of Races half marathon. She had lots of really good things to say about this event. Long report but lots of really positive things. Great race. Definitely recommend it if you're in that part of the country. Columbia, south Carolina, dylan did a half marathon in the Governor's Cup road race. I really thought I saw something from Dylan. It might have been on Instagram, I'm not sure, but I don't have a report here, so I hope that went well. In Lisbon, ohio, megan did the bunny hop 5k fastest 5k since 2022, got lots of compliments on her ears. They were her mickey type ears were peeps bunnies. How appropriate, megan. I heard today. The number of and I'm not going to quote it but the number of and I'm not going to quote it, but the number of peeps that are made a year is staggering. It's a lot of marshmallow. It's in the billions, wow, yeah, like it was like two and a half billion or something.
Speaker 2:I wonder if you melted down the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. If that would be enough marshmallow to make all those peeps.
Speaker 4:You know, Greg. Here's what's in in it and I remember this from this morning's. It was a little news thing corn syrup, sugar gosh it's not marshmallow and air was. There were four things. Air was the other one. They puff them up well, you know what?
Speaker 2:I'll just drive about an hour north of my house to the just-born factory, because that's where they make peeps in Bethlehem, pennsylvania. So I'll run over there real quick and ask them and then, I'll report back for next week.
Speaker 4:But I remember hearing they said corn syrup and sugar and I'm going yeah, well, corn syrup and sugar, that's sugar and sugar. Oh, bunny Hop 5,. Let's see, let's go to Richmond. I may be pronouncing this one, kay's, back on the report. I may be pronouncing this one, kay's, back on the report. Ucrops Monument Avenue, 10k, u-k-r-o-p. Ucrop. I think she found out the race had a costume contest, so she reused her cherry blossoms. Good for her. That's a nice costume, kay, you look good. Kay always looks good. I think that's great. Pr'd this 10K by a minute and five seconds, hey.
Speaker 2:Bob, do you have that special PR bill still?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, this one. That's just for you, kay. Pr bill just for you. A little sentimental. This race was her first 10K 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:Great job. Kay Really proud of you.
Speaker 4:Me too. I was going to press the button again, but I'll ago. Great job, kay, really proud of you. Me too, I was going to press the button again, but I'll give you a break. In Gladstone, virginia, the James River Trail runs 50 miler. Brian did his first 50 miler. Brian was on the report last week too.
Speaker 2:Yep Ran cherry blossom than this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he's been busy. First 50-miler, second ultra, so of course a PR in the 50-miler, Five 10-mile loops through the James River State Park A little muddy, Still runnable. Taylor, his wife Taylor and his daughter were there to support him for the entire 13 hours. That's great Nice. Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 2:I'm not friends with Brian on Instagram, but I am with Taylor and it was great to see Taylor's updates throughout the day. So great job, Brian.
Speaker 4:All right, let's go to Luckenbach, Texas, for the Outlaw 10K. Joseph was there. I left off the Waylon and Willie part Wasn't feeling it at first but took the miles in stride, got his B goal, which is a sub 60-minute 10K. I think that's always an outstanding goal. Absolutely. Six in his age group. Great music, great barbecue and shiner beer afterwards. Am I so old that the Lukenbach Texas reference? I'm the only one that knows it.
Speaker 2:I guess so.
Speaker 4:Whalen and Willie and the boys.
Speaker 4:Yeah sorry Some of our friends are going to know that I promise that's a country classic from the mid to late 70s. Yeah, I'd say 76, 77, something like that. Canal, fulton, ohio, the Canal Way, classic, spring, pe peeper. Two and five miler laurie. Laurie's still killing it, coming back from her total knee replacement. Uh, this was her fastest mile since the surgery. Her fastest mile was mile five. At the end of the five miler, the two milers first. So her fastest miler, fastest mile was her last mile of the day in just a little over 11 minutes. She's doing a great job. I'm proud of her. Let's see. Grace ran virtually the Virginia Tech 3.2 run in Remembrance in Blacksburg, virginia. In Jacksonville Joy was at a wine and chocolate 5K. Her reward two glasses of wine, no PR, no metal, but after two glasses of wine didn't care.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I wouldn't care either, but she did get a wine glass, which is pretty nice. All right, let's go to Sunday. Over to the Netherlands, our friend Laura. This is her hometown. I believe I'm going to do my best.
Speaker 4:Laura, enschede, the Enschede Marathon in the Netherlands. Laura ran the 10K. First she cheered for John for running his first non-run Disney half and he finished with a PR at 1 hour 57 minutes. Then she'd had the 10K. She was going to take it easy, but a couple of ladies made some comments in the corral to kind of set her off about people being in the right corral. So she ran a lot harder than she anticipated and did a great job. She got London in two weeks.
Speaker 4:Don't want to go too far. Hey, we were talking earlier in the episode about Honolulu. The Hapalua half was in Honolulu this weekend. Jackie and Fred were there, had an awesome time. Gorgeous views.
Speaker 4:Almost anywhere you go on that island the views are gorgeous. Weather was great. A little warm Again, no surprise there, not too bad. Lots of treats at the end, well-organized race. It's the marathon group that puts on the half marathon. So if you're coming out there in December, as a bunch of us are, do some hill training. Diamond Head's beautiful but it's tough and I kind of remember that there's just one stretch that's pretty significant going around Diamond Head. Let's go to Kennesaw State University in Georgia, the Hooty Hoo 5K Georgia's dad you may know him as David went out fast, ran with a buddy who paced him hard, hung on as hard as he could, barely looked at his watch, trusted that his friend wouldn't let him crash and burn and when he rounded the corner for the final stretch, could not believe the number on the race clock. He mentioned Aaron. He said he challenged Aaron, who always talked about challenging your goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, crushing your goals.
Speaker 4:Crushing your goals and sprinted hard, crossed the finish line at 24.56, nearly a two-and-a-half-minute PR. First place age group. Earned two slices of pizza and $40 to the Texas Roadhouse.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm a little disappointed because when I read this, because I fortunately will get to see David and baby George this weekend- and. I thought that David was going to take me out to Texas Roadhouse this weekend and use his winnings. But, unfortunately, according to the fine print on the certificate, it is only eligible to use at the Texas Roadhouse in Kennesaw.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I figured that would be the case, so I'm going to have to pay my own way this weekend, I guess. But David, congratulations as you said for Aaron. But David, congratulations as you said for Aaron. Way to crush your goals.
Speaker 4:Yeah, let's go to Cape May, new Jersey, for the Vineyards 8K, peter, was there Free wine from the Willow Creek Winery Sounds good, peter. In Ann Arbor, michigan, the Big House 5K. Wonder where they ran that.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say Michigan State.
Speaker 4:Don't say it out loud, greg, big Blue fans are going to come after you. Man Doug and his son Noah ran there PR for his son Noah. Noah beat last year's time by more than four minutes. Of course, ann Arbor, we're talking about the University of Michigan, new York, new York. The New York Roadrunners retro four-miler Megan was there. Now there are two races here and I think they're in different locations. But here's another one. Amanda, you didn't tell me where it was, you just told me that you ran the Do Not Stop 5K and Do Not is all run together to look like Donut, and anyway, it was confusing. I think Amanda was in Chattanooga, I think. Regardless, amanda did this sweet race that landed her second fastest 5K time by 13 seconds. So that's great. But then there's another one where Alex and Angela did tell me the Do Not Stop 5K was in Altoona, iowa. So I think it's possible they were two races in two different locations. Anyway, alex and Angela both managed to PR and they got to enjoy some post-race donuts. No, no, donuts, donuts, Donuts, yeah.
Speaker 4:Moving on to Tomball, texas, the Vintage Park 5K. Jordan ran this one, went in with a goal time of anything under 40 minutes. Looking for a PR Knocked it out in 37 minutes. Yeah, jordan, way to go. That's a PR. Avery was in East Hampton, massachusetts, for the Fort Hill Brewery Half. Gotta love them brewery halves, avery. I hope you enjoyed it. Nancy, I'm pretty sure, was in Doral, florida, for a half marathon. No POT, but smashed four minutes off of her half marathon. Pr and age group first. Nancy nicely done. Fancy Nicely done.
Speaker 2:Excellent job.
Speaker 4:In Naperville, and it's got to be Naperville, Illinois, because I can't think of another one. There probably is another one. Half marathon. Jennifer, her first half marathon PR Goal. To come in under 230 in her first half For your first half, that's an ambitious goal, Good job. Wanted a POT, she got close. How's 213 sound? That really isn't close. Is it Smashed it? Good job, job. Also, Jennifer mentions the hypes that came in at just the right times. Gang, I don't know how you do it, but funneling those in at just the right times is really impressive. Last event we have on the race report Carol did the Castaway K 5K right after Springtime. Surprise. I think folks put those in there just to let us know they're on the cruise I know and we're not and they're all having a great what I mean.
Speaker 2:Great, I know we're doing this quasi after springtime next year, I mean, and I know royal doesn't have a sanctioned 5k, but I mean, what one of these days I need to do a cruise post a race weekend? Because, yeah, that's the, as Pelkey says, the ultimate way to race and relax.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm trying to think. I know back in the day when they actually had a recognized and organized run that you paid for after marathon weekend and a metal metal Yep, or a metal metal, I got them backwards the T and a metal metal Yep, or a metal metal. I got them backwards, the T and then the D yeah, but they don't do that anymore. So, yeah, I'm not sure. I think I've done that thing four times, I think. Anyway, it's fun. There you go, folks. That's it. Race report for episode 186. All right, my friend, and if you run, you know you are our friend. That does it for episode 186 of the Rise and Run podcast. We hope you enjoyed reliving springtime surprise weekend with us. We know we enjoyed sharing it with you and then sharing it again on this podcast. No Zoom this week. We'll be back together again on our Zoom call next week. We got events coming up over the summer. Hope we're going to see some of you at some of them.
Speaker 2:Until we do meet again, happy running the rise and run podcast discusses general information about run disney and is in no way affiliated with run dis, disney or the Walt Disney Company. Any information or advice discussed on this podcast should not be considered medical advice and should always consult with your healthcare provider or event organizer. Thank, you.
