Rise and Run
Rise and Run
187: The Disneyland Hiatus and the Flying Fenglers
When a brother and sister team take on the Springtime Surprise 10-Miler, they don't just participate – they make runDisney history by becoming the first siblings to win both the male and female divisions in the same race. Meet Liz and Stephen Fengler, aptly nicknamed "The Flying Fenglers," whose remarkable running journey began in middle school tracks and culminated in a stunning Disney victory.
What makes their achievement even more impressive? This was their first-ever runDisney experience. Stephen maintained a blistering pace around 5:30 per mile, even while still stopped for character photos – a power move that didn't prevent him from winning his division by 16 seconds. Meanwhile, Liz dominated the women's field, finishing with a commanding three-minute lead.
The Fenglers aren't newcomers to shared victory podiums. Since fall 2022, they've claimed dual male-female wins in over 45 races throughout Connecticut, where they're active members of the Run 169 Town Society, challenging themselves to race in all 169 towns in the state. Their competitive backgrounds include collegiate careers at Southern Connecticut State University, where both earned conference honors.
As Disneyland races prepare to pause after January 2026 for construction projects, we're reminded that sometimes the most magical Disney moments happen when family crosses the finish line together. Subscribe to follow more inspiring stories from the running community and discover how the simple act of running continues to create extraordinary memories.
Rise and Run Links
Rise and Run Podcast Facebook Page
Rise and Run Podcast Instagram
Rise and Run Podcast Website and Shop
Rise and Run Patreon
Passport to Run
Runningwithalysha Alysha’s Run Coaching (Mention Rise And Run and get $10 off)
Rise and Run Podcast Cruise Interest Form with Magic Bound Travel
Rise and Run Podcast is supported by our audience. When you make a purchase through one of our affiliate links, we may earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Sponsor Links
Magic Bound Travel
Stoked Metabolic Coaching
Rise and Run Podcast Cruise Interest Form with Magic Bound Travel
Affiliate Links
Rise and Run Amazon Affiliate Web Page
Kawaiian Pizza Apparel
GoGuarded
3 am again.
Speaker 3: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. Hey gang, it's.
Speaker 1:David from Kennesaw, georgia, better known as Georgia's dad, I just finished the last workout of the eight-week challenge from Tom Stokes at Stokes Metabolic Training. I'm feeling strong and good and just wanted to call in and welcome you and everyone else to this week's episode of the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 4:David, thanks. Thanks so much for the introduction. That's George's dad, david, as he explained to us in that introduction, recorded that one a little while back after finishing Thomas Stokes' eight-week workout plan. We'll talk about that a little bit when we get down to the race report. Hello, my friends, welcome, welcome to episode 187 of the Rise and Run podcast. I'm Bob and I'm here this week with John hey, how you doing. With Alicia, hello. With Greg, hey, hey, hey. And with Jack, hiya, good to see you, my friends, boy. Sometimes I read off the number and I go really 187. Wow, who'd have thunk it right? Hey, you know, just when you thought we were done talking about springtime, surprise, not so fast, my friends, we've got a brother-sister team joining us to talk about the 10-mile run and how they accomplished something that hasn't happened before in run Disney history. The Flying Fanglers are here to tell us their story.
Speaker 2:If you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family we want to share on your Run Disney journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook Rise and Run Podcast. On Instagram Rise and Run Pod. Check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, comment, race report or want to introduce an upcoming episode, call us at 727-266-2344 and leave a recorded message.
Speaker 5:We also want to thank our Patreons, whose support helps us keep the Rise and Run Podcast rising and running, so if you'd like to join the Patreon team, please check out. Patreoncom. Slash riseandrunpodcast and we got a new Patreon member this week. Yes. Thank you so much, Ashley, who joined in on the plastic cheese level A great level.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Ashley joined in on the plastic cheese level a great level. Thank you, ashley. The rise around podcast is sponsored by our friends over at magic bound travel. I'm sure all of our friends at mbt are probably super glued to their computer chairs right now, because day of recording um, our national nightmare is over.
Speaker 3:Disney finally announced that bookings for 2026 are now available. Yeah, to get, uh, your vacations started now. The caveat there, I believe, is you can book trips january through october of 20. They have not released anything for November or December as of yet, but based on the race calendar that at least we know as of right now, that means you could book your marathon weekend, your princess and your springtime surprise. Obviously, the big wild card is going to be one and dine Whether they're going to keep the October date or they're going to move it back to November. We'll just have to wait and see. But if you are interested in a room for any of those racecations or just any other vacation in general, be sure to visit magicboundtravelcom to fill out your no-obligation quote. And again, the website is magicboundtravelcom.
Speaker 4:Hey gang anybody booked yet for the season next year? I did, but not.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Uh-huh Pop. I'm settling on pop Pop.
Speaker 5:Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 3:Yeah, kingdom, yeah, oh, that's right, that was your post.
Speaker 4:Uh post wedding destination, right, yeah, that's a good one, but pop for wine and dine, pop for marathon, and then we'll see. I didn't ask for anything after that, we'll see. I'll be over there for princess and I'll be over there for well. I'll be over there for Princess and I'll be over there for well. I'll be over there for all the races. How many of them I actually run, we'll also see. But I'll be there. Pop's getting to be fun. I enjoy it. Look forward to seeing Myra on the way out. If you stay at Pop, you typically get a preview of the cookies for the meetup, because Becky has them with us in the hotel room and we sit around the pedal bar and have drinks and try the cookies.
Speaker 3:So look forward to seeing you there. So this week I am going to handle apologies and alibis, and I do take full responsibility on this one. Hey, Jack. Hi Happy belated birthday thank you I know, I know you and ally both have birthdays that are very, very close to one another and I know last week during the race report I had called out ally's birthday, but I totally forgot to mention your birthday. So I am incredibly sorry.
Speaker 5:I hope you still love me, but happy birthday I always love you, but to be fair, ally is pretty epic that she is.
Speaker 4:Well, it's nice you take the bullet, greg, but nobody else jumped in either. The rest of us were here. Hey, you forgot jack. We didn't do that. That's like when I was talking and I said that your brother passed away, greg, I said greg's brother passed away. Yeah, you know, it said Greg's brother passed away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to say something to you in the moment, but again, it was such a serious moment that I didn't want to fact check you.
Speaker 4:Okay, I appreciate that, because I just figure you guys don't listen to me when I'm talking, you just hold out.
Speaker 2:And Greg, you're like I have a brother.
Speaker 4:All right, jack. Happy birthday. Thank you, hang on yet another year. We won't miss it next year, I promise. All right, friends, let's take a look here. We'll look at the training schedule. I know that we have no active training going on as far as disney events are concerned right now disneyland halloween. That training is going to start in two weeks. I believe Disneyland Hard training should start around the 6th of March. So we've got that going. On May again, it starts with an M 6th of May. Got an A in it. Thank you, john. How about that?
Speaker 2:I don't want to get called out next week.
Speaker 4:I appreciate it. Let me see. Oh, here's this one's kind of entertaining Friends. We are five days away from registration for Disneyland Half Marathon. We'll talk more about Disneyland Half Marathon and what's going on at Disneyland in just a moment. But this is a big one. This is coming up on Tuesday and a funny story here. I'm on the customized training call this morning and sometimes I get kind of busy. So I sit here on my laptop on the customized call and after maybe 45 minutes or so I'll get on my phone. I'll put my headsets on, I'll listen to the rest of the call as I walk around and I hear Chris Twiggs say hey, today's registration day for Disneyland, isn't it registration?
Speaker 3:day for Disneyland, isn't it? Oh, I did hear him say that, yes, I'm going.
Speaker 4:What, oh my God? I look at my watch it's 9.50. I come running out here. I open it up. First I go to the wrong chat group. I go to the Walt Disney World chat group and say, hey, is anybody here to register? Mark, our friend Mark, was actually sharp enough to realize I was going to make that mistake Because he jumped in. He goes Bob, it's next week. I said okay, so it is, it's next week. It is this coming now. This coming Tuesday. Now the Disneyland Half Marathon chat group will be up and available. There are plenty of folks who have gone through this before to help one another get registered. Problem is I will not be there this week and I really can't do anything about it. I'm driving up to Cincinnati for the Flying Pig. I'm going to be doing the half marathon, so I will definitely be on the road at the time that that's going on. Definitely be on the road at the time that that's going on. Jack, you going to?
Speaker 5:be there in the chat group. Yes, so I am the only one in the gang that is trying to get into Disneyland and I didn't even realize. They made an announcement today that it was not, that this was going to be the last one, and I freaked out on the way home, because that means that everybody and everyone is going to try and probably get in now, and so what I thought I had a chance to get in for a race weekend is now I feel like it's slowly going away. So I am putting my hands together and I am, I'm begging you guys. Can someone please, please, please, please, please, help me get in. Every time I I use my phone or my computer or whatever, a different browser, I always get over an hour in the queue for registration.
Speaker 5:I need some help, because I just do, I never have the luck and usually somebody has to let me in, like last second.
Speaker 4:Yeah, most of us do. When we get in, most of us all see you over an hour. Just depends on when that goes away. Well, jack, I don't know that you've been in one of the chat groups for registration, but you're going to be there with people who have, honestly, friends. I wish I could join you.
Speaker 4:I'm not going to the race, but I still wish I could join you to help out. But, jack, there's plenty of help there, I promise. So that's the place to be. And if you're registering whether you're a veteran you've been through a bunch or whether you're trying to register for the first time the chat group in our Facebook yeah, the community chat inside of our Facebook group, rise and Run Podcast, is a great place to be to get assistance and advice on how to register for the race. But since it's been brought up yeah, this is Disneyland races are back off again for a while, as they do some construction out there in Anaheim. None of us have any inside information, but that doesn't stop us from sharing our thoughts on what we think is going to happen.
Speaker 5:I feel like John, you have to say this for me. He put a message in the chat.
Speaker 2:That I just can't. You have to say it because it's.
Speaker 5:Per John's words, but I also truly mean it, you guys. He says help me rise from one group. You're my only hope.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 5:Please and thank you.
Speaker 4:I like that. Well, there's plenty of help there, I promise you that. But does anybody know what's being? I mean, have some general ideas, I think, of what's going on?
Speaker 3:yes, they in the announcement, they. They talk about construction and the thing that we have to. There's only a little bit that we know, and if you're not in the know, what I would recommend people do is go back in their podcast feed, and we did a wonderful two-part episode over the summer. That was the d23 recap, and we split it up into two parts. We had our lovely friend, amanda from Once Upon a Marathon. She came on and joined us, and in part one of that episode we chatted everything about that got announced for Disneyland. So, from that standpoint, what we know is happening is there will be some type of avatar experience or land. Again, nobody knows where it's going. Everyone thinks, though, that it's going to go in the Monsters Inc area of Disney's California Adventure. Then you have the expansion of Avengers Campus, where they're adding the two attractions there. Campus, where they're adding, uh, the two attractions there, and then the other part of it that you have is a coco uh dark ride that will be introduced, but again, nobody knows where it's going, uh. But I think our friend kelly when we did the uh, the disneyland halloween recap episode. He's been following like construction permits and all sorts of stuff, and and he was. I remember he said during that episode that he wouldn't be surprised if that goes into, like the paradise gardens area of California venture, which is just off of Pixar pier, which again would make sense because Coco is a it's a Pixar property. So those are the only absolute for sure things that we know are going to happen.
Speaker 3:I think the bigger impact of all of this is the Disneyland Forward project, and obviously Disneyland Forward does include all of those already announced expansions and attractions and everything like that. But I mean, this plan is so robust in the sense that they would be expanding, they would be building a parking garage, they would be building a parking garage and I believe that parking garage may go. If I was reading people's Instagram stories correctly, there's speculation that that garage would go where the start finish area has been for the Disneyland races and that there would be like a pedestrian walkway that would get you from that parking garage over Harbor Boulevard onto Disneyland property. Pedestrian walkway that would get you from that parking garage over harvard boulevard, you know, onto disneyland property and then you have a big, massive parking lot that is next to the pixar place hotel, which I think is used as cast member parking. That is now approved by the city of Anaheim and zoned for expansion of hotels and shopping, and whether it's a third gate or it's a dual expansion of both Disneyland and DCA.
Speaker 3:But I mean, california, I think, is going to be under construction for a really really long time and I think you know it just the nature of the Disneyland races, it's going to be really hard to pull off any type of race and I think that's and hence why they made the announcement. And you know some people were saying well, maybe it's going to be like another seven-year pause. Sure, it could be seven years, but it could be even longer than that or, and I hate to say it, it could be no longer. You know, west Coast run Disney, but none of us know and we'll just have to sit and wait and see.
Speaker 5:I will say my D23 prediction is probably going to be spot on from what I said in that episode, just because of the fact that it's going to be really hard.
Speaker 5:I mean I knew this was coming, which is why I specifically wanted to run this Disneyland race one more time, because I knew after this year there's no way that they would have a way for Run Disney to go through the back way from into Disneyland California Adventure, where the Tower of Terror ride is the Guardians, whatever. If that's gone, if the entrance is gone, they have no way of completing the course in a I guess you could say timely manner course in a in a I guess you could say timely manner. So, like I knew this was coming and I'm really, really sad, but at the same time I do agree with you, greg. I mean, my prediction is at least three to five years that they will not do this, because look at how long the um, the star wars, galaxy's edge, took to um close and reopen, and that used to be a place that you would run through during the marathon. I believe it was either a marathon or one of the races you would run through where they used to do the tram tour at Hollywood Studios.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I mean look how long that took. So I mean this is probably the last opportunity. It does say hiatus in their um, thing which makes me hopeful. But some things I've learned about disney is don't what. There's one quote like don't hope a hope, or something like that not not familiar with that one jack it's, it's some it's some like wise move. Oh, you know what I think it was from, like Lord of the Rings. I was watching that the other day. Don't hope on a hope.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 5:Anyways, don't quote me on it, I shouldn't quote things Too late.
Speaker 4:I'm not very good at quoting them. You already quoted yourself, but it's okay.
Speaker 5:I did, but fair.
Speaker 2:I thought about this. I go it's kind of weird timing. I mean this. I go it's kind of weird timing. I mean it's probably good timing, but weird timing. You know that right when registration comes out, you make this big announcement that everything's going going away again for a little time. But then I'm thinking, well, you know, then I saw virtual in there. I'm wondering if they'll do some virtuals for that. I then I'm thinking you know what? The last time they did this they had the Star Wars virtual. Maybe Star Wars is coming back next year, greg, and I'm getting a little nervous about this for springtime.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't think the timing is bizarre at all Because if we flashback just a couple of months ago, if you remember, when they announced the 25-26 race schedule, they purposely left off Disneyland Yep, and that's when the speculation started of will the race even happen or are they still working on permits? Because, again, the other thing you have to remember about Disneyland races is sure, things are happening on Disney property, but you also have to get approval and EMS and permits and such through the city of Anaheim. You know there was, you know, speculation about one of the reasons why it went away to to start with, on that first hiatus was because you know, there's a long story, history of a love hate relationship between disney and anaheim city council. Now it sounds like they're, you know, based on the approval of the disneyland forward project. It seems like everyone's back in the good graces now. But I mean, there's documented history there of, you know people running for city council on an anti-disney agenda. So when they didn't announce it to begin with, I think they were probably just trying to come up with their, their plan to move forward.
Speaker 3:So none of that surprises me and I think the other part that I I think this announcement is very timely on is the, the drum up, the, the demand. You know, like you know jack, how you were saying like you're incredibly nervous and now like this is this? Is it? This is your last opportunity for probably a really long time to be able to get coast to coast. And we have seen.
Speaker 3:You know it has taken the Disneyland races. You know, obviously not the 5Ks and the 10Ks, but it's taken a little bit for some of the other races to sell out because you know you're not. You know there's that stigma of you know, running a half marathon in the streets of anaheim and all that jazz. But the um, you know. The other thing too is I also have learned through my connections with run disney charities is, you know, sometimes it's harder for the charity bibs to also get sold for the disneyland races, like you know. I know our, our wonderful friends over at give kids the world. You know they had put out an email on their listserv the other week about how they weren't, they were no longer going to be having Disneyland races for, you know, this upcoming season. So maybe they got tipped off in terms of you know this was the plan moving forward. So it sells, but it's a little bit of a harder sell.
Speaker 2:So I think they probably again, you know wanted to make this announcement so that they had an easy time being able to sell out when general registration opens on tuesday yeah, what I was saying, what kind of also I was thinking also, was you make the announcement almost a month ago that the race is coming back for january and then all of a sudden boom up yeah well, it's here, but you know we're canceling it after that.
Speaker 2:Not canceling it, putting an I hiatus it was kind of like yeah, give us hope that it's coming and then pull the rug from under your your feet right off the bat. That's where it kind of was weird. Like you're so close, make it a hey guys, we're having the race. Then all of a sudden, boom.
Speaker 3:Well, now it's your last race, thank you yeah, I get what you're saying, john, but at the same time, though, I think if they would have went in the opposite direction of you know, they put out the graphic on the the web page banner saying like 2026 details to come soon, I think they would have taken a bigger pr hit if they wouldn't be like details coming soon and then say, oh, by the way, we're no longer doing the races. I think that would have been worse off for them. Hence why I think that they're making such a big deal now of this being the last run.
Speaker 4:Well, I'm going to let it stop there because we're speculating. Interesting conversation, a lot of valid points raised. I'll remind our friends of this again. But this is a Zoom Thursday and maybe some of our West Coast folks have some more input into what's going on out there in Anaheim. Maybe we can talk a little bit about this on Thursday night. Did I just say Wednesday? Anyway, thursday night, and we'll have our Thursday night soon. I'm sure we'll talk about it regardless.
Speaker 3:I will say this, though it does make I think it's this fall is the destination D23 event at Walt Disney World. So you, know, how they like alternate every you know. So every other year is the big D23 in Anaheim and then in those off years they do a smaller version of it at Disney World. I think, based on an announcement like this and the fact that there's construction and more news, I think it's going to make that conference really, really exciting. So I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeve for Disneyland.
Speaker 4:OK, well, we're going to learn, as you do my friends. Talking about West Coast, let's go a little further. West Reminder the Honolulu Marathon. A bunch of us are going out to Honolulu to help Jeff Galloway celebrate his last at least what he is announcing as his final marathon in December. We still have and I think it's still pinned into the featured section a general interest form. Our friend, sherry, from the Jeff Galloway group, is trying to get some pricing and package deals. So, if you're interested, the Honolulu Marathon December I think it's 14th, take a look at that. And if you're just interested, there's no obligation. If you're interested, just fill out the form, send it to Sherry. All right, friends, let's visit with our guests.
Speaker 4:For the week We've got a couple of special guests. This is a neat opportunity. I'm excited about this. Friends who listen to the podcast regularly know that we occasionally are fortunate enough to get the winner of one of the races. Well, tonight we have two winners. We have the male and the female winner of the 10 miler. They happen to be brother and sister and they happen to be in the Connecticut 169 group that we talked to two weeks ago. I think that's really cool. I am happy to welcome Liz and Steven Fengler, the flying Fenglers, to the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 4:Hi you guys, hey, hello. Thank you.
Speaker 8:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 4:Thank you. This is fun. I'm glad this kind of fell into our lap here Because we did the Connecticut 169, I was able to join your Facebook group and your Facebook group with great pride, as they should have, uh, posted the story in one I don't know what newspaper it was in you remember? Maybe it was more than one.
Speaker 8:Oh, it was multiple.
Speaker 7:Record journal um Current New Haven Register, anything along those lines.
Speaker 4:But anyway, I saw one of those. I thought this would be neat. I talked to the gang. They said, yeah, let's do it, it'll be fun. I would like to start, like I do with many of our guests, and ask you how you got started in running. I love hearing these stories and I'll let you got started in running. I love hearing these stories and I'll let you decide who goes first.
Speaker 7:I guess the older one goes first.
Speaker 4:Oh, you see, you didn't have to say that.
Speaker 7:So I started running when I was in middle school. I started in the spring, so outdoor track of my eighth grade year, I wanted to do distance running. I was doing the 800 and the 1600. That's the longest distance that they have at middle school. I didn't, I wasn't the best at it, I was just getting my feet wet and I didn't mind the environment. I liked it a lot and the way that I look at the season from when I was in eighth grade. It was a real learning movement and during my eighth grade season one of my middle school coaches had passed away during the season from a car accident.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's sad.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and I remember just in eighth grade. I remember just in eighth grade dedicating all of us on the team dedicating the season to that assistant coach that we had lost at the time and just pushed through and carried his memory along and it was overall a good season and a great learning moment for me. Good season and a great learning moment for me.
Speaker 7:And then, going into high school, I wasn't fully on board actually with doing cross country but our older brother actually got me on the team because he was like, oh well, there's not that many girls on the team and you said that you want to do track and if you want to do track and if you want to do track, then you got to do cross country because you need to be in shape for it okay, all right yeah so went out and did it and I was still at like I would say what level I was at in eighth grade of not being like the absolute, like greatest runner on the team, but I was very fortunate enough to have one of the assistant coaches at the high school level basically helped me redefine my running form, was a major factor for me and focusing on that for like the first half of the season and by the second half of the season I was like the fourth or fifth runner on the team as a freshman for cross country.
Speaker 4:That's terrific.
Speaker 7:Just from focusing on running form, yeah, and then going into, like into my indoor track and then outdoor track as well. Freshman year was still a little bit of learning and I want to say I went from like about a 730, I think, to like maybe like a 620 mile. I I feel like I kind of forgot about it. At this point I choose not to remember it, but going in, after going through both of those seasons and going into, like, my sophomore year, I was able to run a lot more and I was able to be the number one runner on the team by my sophomore year.
Speaker 4:Your sophomore year. Wow, it's outstanding.
Speaker 7:For cross country. Yeah, and although I wasn't in like all state or like all conference, like position at that time, I was still like number one runner at the time. And then going through indoor track, which is not my favorite season. Okay.
Speaker 7:The run indoor track. Okay, my favorite season. Okay, the run indoor track. Okay, um, but going into outdoor track afterwards I ended up almost going to the state open, which is kind of like our big state meet for connecticut. I ended up going in the mile and I got my time down to 5, 26, which was good enough for sixth place at the time in the class. So within I guess you want to say like a two year time span, I went from like probably just under 10 minutes to yeah, here's a 526 mile, wow, yeah.
Speaker 4:Wow, that's super.
Speaker 7:Yeah, wow, that's super, yeah. So going into my junior year, I wanted to go onto the state open and I was able to train all summer and focus on that and I went onto the state open for cross country as a junior got all state, all conference and for track I I got all conference and for track I I got all conference. Getting all state and track is a little bit more difficult. But then going into my senior year, I was able to get into the state open again and I went on to run New England's for my senior year, which was my biggest goal and although I didn't get like all New England status, essentially I got, I took I still took in the top 50 at the time for high school for New England, which was overall really impressive to me. And then, going into indoor track and outdoor track, I broke my. I broke the high school mile record for indoor and then I broke the outdoor mile record, which at the moment are still standing at my house.
Speaker 4:Oh, is that, oh, at your high school?
Speaker 7:okay, that's impressive yeah yeah, at the moment they're still standing and then you would think as a senior that for somebody at the level of competition that I was at and recognition, I did not run in college for my first, basically all of my undergrad actually.
Speaker 4:Oh wow, I'm surprised you weren't recruited of my undergrad, actually, oh wow, I'm surprised you weren't recruited.
Speaker 7:So I was recruited. So I was being recruited to both Central Connecticut State University and Southern Connecticut State University and at the time, let's just say, sats mattered more back then for state schools and not everybody's the best quest taker. So they told me okay, well, because of their sat scores and and whatnot, we can't have you into the school and run on the team. And I'm like or you could pay us for the summer program. No, I'm all set. You know what? How about community college instead?
Speaker 4:Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 7:So I have no shame in saying that. I went to community college first and I tried to transfer after one year of doing some credits there, saved quite a bit of money on that oh yeah, and you get it.
Speaker 7:Hey, I taught at a community college for a little while it's a great environment you can get a good education absolutely yeah, there's no shame in it and it taught me a lot and really gave me a good transition from high school to to college, for sure, and I tried to transfer to. I was going to run at Southern Connecticut State University. I tried to transfer to there right after one year of credits of college credits to prove, hey, like I can handle college classes Okay.
Speaker 4:Right, right Exactly, right, right, exactly.
Speaker 7:And turns out, I got to Southern like probably a few weeks before the semester was starting, going through all the recruiting process and whatnot, and they told me that there was a scholarship, entirely paid for for the next semester. I'm like you guys feel like they just dropped a huge weight on me.
Speaker 4:Sure did.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I'm only a year out of high school, but this just feels like a massive weight to me and I'm I'm also, I'm going to go back to community college and I'm just going to keep running on my own and see what I can do on my own. So I continued on and I was able to get my associates at the time. And then what did I end up doing? I ended up transferring back to Southern Connecticut State University because I wanted to go get my bachelor's. So I transfer over to Southern and I somebody saw me from running across the other end of campus because I didn't know where anything really was on the campus. And what do you know?
Speaker 7:The coach that had recruited me at the time was telling me oh yeah, I've seen you running around here from one end of campus to the other to get to class. I'm like oh really, I haven't seen you at all, uh-huh. So she, she confirms my phone number with her and we ended up going out for coffee and I was talking to her about like what I've been up to over the past few years, and then she tells me at the end of the conversation like, oh yeah, here's a physical form in your packet and I want you to come join the team. And I immediately ask because I know I'm scholarship worthy for you will I be getting the scholarship that I was promised years ago? They told me no and I immediately was like, okay, thank you, I'm, I'm, I'm all set, I'm gonna keep running on my own then.
Speaker 7:So I ran on my own and I completed my bachelor's in 2019 from Southern. So a year before COVID hit and my brother Steven ended up running at Southern and was a walk-on at the time, and he walked on in the fall of 2018. And he was talking to the other assistant coach at the time about hey, my sister had this situation happen to her years ago and you know, and like I know, she is scholarship worthy. How about you try and reach out to her? She still has some eligibility left? And so he reached out to me and I talked to him and I was able to get scholarship to run in grad school.
Speaker 4:That's cool.
Speaker 7:At Southern.
Speaker 4:That's good.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Yeah. So I was able to run in grad school and I ran for my final year of grad school and it was. It was an experience. I was glad that I was able to do it. I ended up coming out with all conference, so all any tens is what Southern's in, and then all regional as well, and then for outdoor track I was also all conference and all New England.
Speaker 5:Tell us your secrets. So you said that your coach had you focus on your posture and everything for the first half of your season in high school, right, yeah, yeah. So what's the secrets tell us? I want to get faster arms going cheek to cheek ah, I get that Cheek to cheek.
Speaker 7:Very clever One thing that I remember her saying is cheek to cheek, so like your hands are going towards your face, not like you're trying to stop yourself. Yeah, your arms shouldn't be crossing in front of you.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 7:You shouldn't be looking like you're trying to mix something together.
Speaker 8:You don't want to be a heel striker either. You want to be landing on like Forefoot, forefoot. That's a big thing I remember, because if you're a heel striker, you're doing like a two motion step with your foot instead of a one motion.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're kind of putting the brakes on a little bit.
Speaker 8:Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 4:Steven, how about you? What's your story?
Speaker 8:Oh yeah, oh okay. So my story I started well, of course I'm. I'm the youngest of five of my sisters. Liz is the closest to me in age and to her my brother, my dad and uncles. They all were runners and I looked at that as a potential. I looked at that. I really enjoyed going to their meet. Well, going to my sister's and brother's meets and I looked at it as a potential sport to get into. Whenever the mile test came around, like elementary school or middle school, I'd always look forward to it and trying to run my best and also lap other people too. But, um, but yeah, I really look forward to it.
Speaker 8:So I started officially running in seventh grade cross country track. Um did that in middle school, seventh and eighth grade and I was. I was pretty good. I was like towards the front. It wasn't like the top guy, but I was towards the run like a few guys, the team there, um, and then I can.
Speaker 8:I did continue running through high school in freshman year. That's when I signed up for cross country indoor track, outdoor track. A big part when I was like going through like initially high school, starting off as a freshman, was to how I got better, was not only the form with focusing on form and being a four footfoot runner and not hitting your heel on the ground to be a heel striker but, um, also my sister. We would do uh training runs in the summers. I do them with her and so it'd be great. It was great to have somebody with me um then, and also look up to her when I was in a school and build a um as a role model to run, moving forward.
Speaker 8:So yeah, but my freshman year yeah, freshman year did cross country and track and then, um, I was still not like I didn't. It wasn't all stay, it wasn't making a state opens. It wasn't till about sophomore year when I really refined my form and actually, on the heel striker story, like one, I went to summer camp for uh one year and at scout camp and there was a challenge where you had to um called the canoe in and out, in which you had to get out and in and out of the canoe when the bell rang and get back in and try to paddle your way out to this island and then come back and every time the bell rang to get out again. One time I got out and I hit my heel kind of hard on a boulder shallow. Luckily I didn't fracture it or anything, but I my heel was very sore and at the time I was still a heel striker and when I ran subsequent weeks after that I'd be kind of a I went, became more of a four foot.
Speaker 4:That fixed that problem, didn't it.
Speaker 8:Yeah, so that makes that problem. I don't suggest doing that.
Speaker 4:I wouldn't recommend it either, no, but it worked out that way.
Speaker 8:Yeah, and so that that's what helped me in sophomore year run my first sub five minute mile, get below 11 minutes in the two mile nice, nice so get to the classmates or the state meets that we have qualify for those um and that and so.
Speaker 8:That helped me. Also, focusing on my arms, on my sides, not across my chest, eyes up, shoulders relaxed, all those things helped me out. It was by the end of sophomore year or start of junior year I was more the top distance guy in the team and by that point, yeah, I was more the leading scorer for both cross country and track for the team. And then by senior year was, uh, I was um. Actually in my well in track season I was able to break the two mile record for indoor and outdoor with both of those, so I was able to run under 10 minutes and get down to like a 948 two miles, that's very impressive it was a lot of training, um, especially in the summer.
Speaker 8:You know I didn't do like 700 miles, like about 400 miles in the summer, so it wasn't super crazy, but it was still a good amount of mileage in the summer. To get to that point I was initially when I was looking into um and yeah, but also added that was like and again, the state opens me, state opened me as well for, ironically, the mile, not the two mile, the mile which I got down to fall 32, um, ironically, at that time I was like thinking about, oh, do I run in college? Do I not? Do I, do I not? And I ended up choosing. I took a while but I ended up choosing southern to go to for school. Um, it wasn't because it wasn't because of running, it was, it was because, like, oh, it's pretty close by school, get me into the earth science program. I really liked meteorology and earth science is a pretty good, uh, close match to it. It's close by, uh, pretty affordable. And I was like, okay, well, yeah, let's do that, let's go to southern.
Speaker 8:And I remember orientation a couple months in, one of the orientation ambassadors was on the track team and he was I was talking to him actually no, both of them, both my orientation ambassadors were. But uh, one of them is sean. I was talking to him about track and cross country and he told me about the team and I was like you know what, after about a month I was like I'm gonna, I'll shoot an email out to the coach there, and uh, and so I, I did, and uh, I was able, I was. It was like immediately it was like hey, like he was kind of like I I told him about my times. He's like yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sure, come on the team Come to our practice.
Speaker 8:Sure, yeah, since I joined, though, in like early August. One, I was a walk-on. Two, I had a red shirt my cross-country fault freshman year. So I didn't start competing until indoor track 2018 to 2019. And I was able to. From there, I was able to, I was, I was able. From there I was able to do that outdoor track cross country. I was able to really improve my times. Going in, I was, uh, my 5k was like just under 17 minutes on in the cross country, but once when I started doing on the track in college, I was getting down into like the 15, 13, 15, like 15, 17. So I was really able to start improving a lot. It was a really good regiment of training that we had, and so, but yeah, I did that, and then we unfortunately 2020 things got post. You know know, it wasn't able to right.
Speaker 4:You know what happened. You know what happened there.
Speaker 8:So we got into a track in for that year, um, but right after that then we just had to just focus on training and we had like a couple of like races between our team, like it like for for, like you know, like I'll do a track run but in trying to see what we can do on the track. But nothing, no competitions, till the spring of 2021, when I finally did outdoor track, um and that's, and then I was able to do cross country in the fall of 2021 also, which was the one season that my sister and I overlapped there, there you go All right.
Speaker 8:In our competition, so it was really cool running with her. I mean, it was, of course, my final season though, because I was focused on graduating with my college credits I had earned from high school to graduate in half years. I wanted to graduate early, so I only stuck around for cross country in my senior year before graduating. But it was really great to run with her for a couple of the meets there and uh yeah, that sounds good and and then eventually, my last meet capped it off with nationals in uh 2021, the d2 down in tampa bay, florida.
Speaker 4:So I know where that is, right over there yeah.
Speaker 8:Yeah, it was in the Tampa area. It was at St Leo university specifically.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes.
Speaker 8:Yeah, it was a really. It was a really great way to cap off my college career. And running, we ran, I ran 30, it was on the 10k cross-country course, like 33 minutes somewhere around there. I forget my exact time now, but it was a little bit of a hotter, humid day, of course, even though it's, yeah, it's tampa bay, sure yeah um, and we placed 18th as a team as well, so it was really out of the 33 teams, so it was a really great accomplishment that's very good awesome way to to cap my college career there and there, and so that's where I've kind of keep my running.
Speaker 3:But we're gonna flash back to springtime surprise in just a couple of minutes here, because obviously that's the main reason why we want to chat with you. But this historic top finish for both of you is not new, like you know. When this happened at springtime surprise, as we've done our research, this hasn't been the first time the two of you have done something like this. I, I, would. In my research, I found an article from the, the connecticut current or the hartford current, that said and this article was from 2023, that said that you guys have done this, in terms of being top male and top female, over 45 times. So obviously that number is even higher now. So when did you realize, number one, that the two of you were really good at doing this, and then how did that morph into? You know, let's try to do this as many times as possible and become your quote-unquote thing first off, I joined the run 169 town society back in 2018.
Speaker 7:I had to actually look that date up because I want to call myself a closet member, because I joined in 2018 with I have some intention to to do this. I don't know when I'm gonna fully commit on like doing more towns at the time, but I'll just I'll join it. I didn't start getting serious about it until the fall of 22 and that's when I asked steven on if he wants to join the 169 town society and, hey, how about you come join me and see in some of these different towns throughout the state? And I want to say at the time I was maybe at like I don't know 40 something towns. I really can't remember. When I've told people what, what year that I actually joined, they're like, wait, you joined in 2018. I'm like, yeah, yeah, everybody does it at their own pace. That's why it's a journey, right?
Speaker 8:yeah, I mean, yeah, you got me to join in fall 22. I mean that, like after graduating college, I was like looking at, like I was still running, I still kept training, but it wasn't. I didn't have any set specific goal, like, someday I'll run a marathon, I'll run this race here I'll run. I'll just. I'll run these run in the morning because I like to get some exercise before I go to work. But it wasn't until, like you know, you asked me to want me to do it. I was, you know, at first I heard it, I met, I flashed back to like 2019, seeing, uh, one like 169ers that are racing. One time I'm like why these people aren't ready to race county connecticut.
Speaker 7:These are the people that just want to spend so much money on all this.
Speaker 8:I mean you know you're 18 at the time. You're like thinking, oh yeah $25 like oh man, that's like that's a bargain now it is, it's true oh yeah much, but yeah.
Speaker 8:So she asked me to join it then and I was like I was like no, it's sure, I like I wanted some like a good goal to have, and I think that was a great way to do it. And we we didn't know, I didn't like trying to think of one exactly that started catching on as, like the flying fanglers. I don't know if you remember the specific race, but we it wasn't before. Fall 22 wasn't the first we had won like a couple races in local towns together, like our wallingford turkey trot we have every year. We've won that together multiple times. And then the first race we ever won together was a race in west Haven in 2016. Um, yeah, but there's, but after. But when we joined in, fall 22 is I don't know if it was right away, but it was pretty. It happened pretty quick, I feel like that. We got dubbed the Flying Fanglers.
Speaker 7:I want to say it was probably by sometime in like october of that year of 2022. I would say, um, thinking back to like who there was specifically and how they corral everybody together, yeah, I would say fall late, mid late, fall of 22 sounds about right and that's so impressive, that you have accomplished this feat so many times in such a short amount of time.
Speaker 3:I mean, that is that that's super, super commendable, so okay. So so we got the origin story of the flying fanglers. Tell us now, how does run disney enter? How does Run Disney enter?
Speaker 7:the chat. It makes a lot of things look very small.
Speaker 8:I mean, you were the one that asked me about doing the Run Disney race and I was like no, yeah sure. It was like you saw, was an incredible theme, like we've had the idea, like you had the idea of doing the race, and I was like, yeah, sure, why not?
Speaker 7:I'll hop aboard on that um, I remember asking a bunch of people in the 169 and obviously reading some posts in the group on their run disney experiences, and I knew I wanted to do one someday I didn't know when, because it seems like that every other disney race fills up within two seconds of you constantly hitting submit my credit card. So, um, yeah, this one was, I would say, a little bit of an easier one for us to get into and I felt like that this one was. It's not the dopey challenge necessarily, but it's still all. Run disney races seem very popular no matter what they are, but specifically with the springtime one, I feel like it's the time of year that really plays effect into people signing up on that one.
Speaker 3:So my understanding is correctly. So this past springtime surprise was your first ever run Disney experience.
Speaker 8:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, wow, and you go and you both win the darn thing. I mean that's. That's a heck of an orange story right there, that's for sure.
Speaker 8:Yes, oh, yeah no yeah no, yeah, we, yeah, we were seeing like the results, like, oh, it's possible, I mean like past your results, like it's possible we could win this. I mean it's not like it's the um, one of the world marathons where you're having people right right really like four something per mile.
Speaker 4:You're dealing with very, very good runners, not necessarily elites. Not many Olympians, it happens, but not many Olympians, things like that. This is a question you would only get for a run Disney weekend. Did you do just the 10 miler or did you do any of the challenge? We only did the 10 miler or did you do any of the challenge?
Speaker 7:We only, we only did the 10 miler yeah.
Speaker 4:That's only at Disney. Do we have to say, oh, I just did the, or I just did the marathon, or something that's unique to Disney? That makes sense, though. If you're out to, if you're out to win it, that's me.
Speaker 7:All right, so we know that this was your first run Disney race. How was it, and do you think you're gonna be back for another race?
Speaker 8:it was. It went pretty well.
Speaker 7:I um, I mean, the wake up time was not the easiest wake up at 2 am.
Speaker 4:Okay, find me a work.
Speaker 8:Wake up time at least.
Speaker 7:This is my first race that I've ran in the dark entirely.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 7:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Right, yeah, most of us didn't do that in the 10-miler. We got plenty of light.
Speaker 8:Yeah, it was no, definitely. I mean it was in the dark entirely, but it was great because, of you know, during the day it's 90 degrees, it's sunny, blazing hot, so I'd rather have that in the dark race. I mean, we had some misses in the dark though, in like high school track meets, yeah but you have the stadium lights, that's true.
Speaker 7:So this I was a little skeptical as to what the lighting would be like, because I'm like this is at 5 in the morning. You need a headlamp, you need a bunch of other things. I don't know what do you need for an actual race that you're doing at 5 am?
Speaker 4:in the past.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I was very impressed with the lighting overall throughout it. There was maybe like a couple spots here and there that I was like okay, I'm just going to take this little turn or spot a little bit easier because there wasn't any mornings ahead of it.
Speaker 8:But other than that, the lighting was pretty good overall it was and, yeah, it definitely was, and the race overall went well and I mean I went out like the mid fives, upper fives per mile and I felt pretty good with that and I just held that as a consistent pace or not throughout the race and I wasn't, I wasn't right. I like after a couple miles I was like, okay, I realized I feel like I can win this, I can win this race. I did, I did stop and get a few pictures with some characters actually.
Speaker 4:So kidding Wow.
Speaker 7:No, I was surprised by that one.
Speaker 4:You're just showing off there, Steven. That's good for you, good for you, man Thank you.
Speaker 8:I mean, thank you, I saw, I saw, I saw a few. I'm like I have to get a picture. I mean it's my first Disney race. I wanted to. I wanted to not only enjoy the run, like with the actual run itself, but also, you know, get a couple, get some pictures along the way, and there probably wasn't a line bob right.
Speaker 8:No, there probably was no, someone joked to me during the race like are you like, who was with me at the time? Are you just trying to be the first, first one of all the characters? Like, be the one, and I'm like.
Speaker 3:I just said yes well, steven, I I want to talk about this real quick because I I just pulled up the official results from track shack. Now, elizabeth, you had a almost three minute cushion in terms of the the final results, in terms of your win, but, steven, yours kind of came down to the wire here.
Speaker 3:You won by uh, if I'm doing the math here correctly, by 16 seconds yes so when did you have it in your heart of heart, or or when did you have it in your mind that you were going to pull this thing out? Was this like a neck and neck coming through Epcot, or did you have enough of a gap? Because obviously you know, as we've talked to other winners in the past, you know leaders get a bike pacer and they're there to communicate with you a little bit. When did you have it in your mind that this was going to be your victory?
Speaker 8:I'd say by like seven miles in. I was. Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 8:He was with me. The other next guy was with me through actually like nine miles, but I felt like I had a decent amount of energy left and I felt like I could really pull a strong finish. And so that's. I was like through up till mile nine and then mile nine, I was able to start to form a little bit of a gap, not have it be like two seconds, but it was um I I felt like by mile seven. I was really seeing it.
Speaker 4:And Liz three. Three minutes for you is about half a mile, so when? When did you drop the competition?
Speaker 7:So when we went out from the start, I had one woman that was definitely trying to go with me for the first 400 meters and then, I don't know when, I lost her. I lost her at some point it was early, huh.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it was pretty early. I didn't know how close by, though, she was during the race, as I had the lead biker catch up to me by about mile four. Based on the videos that he captured of me and he was telling me, I want to say by like mile five and six and seven as to okay, like he was talking on the walkie, like first female through mile five, and then I want to say, it was probably within another minute or so that like second female coming through mile five, and I'm like that's a little too close for comfort. Let's see what I could do right now, knowing that the bike support is telling me as to where the second female is, and the bike support person was coaching me throughout it and was enjoying the fact of just taking videos of me throughout the run.
Speaker 7:So, even though I didn't stop for the characters having my own personal videos of me running through epcot studios is even more memorable than going to stop for all the characters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool steven, when you were crossing the finish, were the fireworks still going off for the start line.
Speaker 8:I didn't get a chance to look, but I'm pretty sure they were.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'll bet they were. I'll bet they were Sean.
Speaker 2:That's a good question 58-23, so I think it takes them almost an hour to get out, so they might have I bet they were.
Speaker 8:I bet they were too. I don't recall the exact corral times but yeah, I believe they still were. I do remember crossing the finish line and they were telling me about Liz, like oh, is your well one? They wanted to confirm I was related to her and sibling. And like yes, and like, oh well, can you stay here for a little bit because she's likely going to be the lead finisher.
Speaker 7:And I was like, and I was like astounded, I was like yes, let's go, liz also, I think you're like good, I did my part alright, I get it yeah um, I would say that I overall enjoyed just taking in the scenery around me and waving to all the characters and going at the speed that I was going at and knowing that I have ran a couple of other 10 milers before and some half marathons, knowing how my body would react to if I stop and picture really quick. How will my body react going forward for the rest of the race, like is something going to start not feeling quite right because I decided to stop for that quick picture versus oh yeah, let me stop and get the water or the power more than likely dumped it on all the volunteers now that the races are finished, how'd you guys celebrate afterwards?
Speaker 7:we went to well, we went back to the hotel first and showered and took a nap for a little bit before going on with our day definitely fair good move yeah um, we went to blizzard beach and enjoyed sitting on the lazy river. That was very nice yeah. Relaxing after that and then later on in the day we went to Epcot and we had lightning lanes for a few rides, so we did that and we had made reservations for one of the restaurants in France and Epcot Chefs de France. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Ah, oui, oui. I'm not even into that one Is de France.
Speaker 5:Yeah, ah, oui, oui, oui, oui. I've never been to that one. I've got to try it still.
Speaker 4:That's the one on the ground floor. There it's good.
Speaker 7:It was very good, so we celebrated with that.
Speaker 4:Awesome.
Speaker 8:We got the appetizer with French onion soup. You got like a beef bourguignon. Oh, the beef bourgu like. Uh, I got like a beef?
Speaker 4:Oh, the beef bourguignon. Yeah, it's very good yeah.
Speaker 8:Yes, I had a salmon and then the salmon something.
Speaker 4:I forget exactly.
Speaker 8:And then something French. Yeah, it was a salmon dish, though Um for dessert, and a glass of wine too. Yeah, it was a great one Very good.
Speaker 4:So now that you've had a taste of Run Disney, are there plans to go back and do other Run Disney races?
Speaker 7:I would love to someday. It depends on if, obviously, I could get into them.
Speaker 4:Get registration.
Speaker 7:Yeah, get the registration is the first step, so that will vary over time.
Speaker 4:Hey, let me wrap up with this. Let me ask you how are you doing in the 169 chase?
Speaker 7:I have 10 towns left 10 left.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow yeah.
Speaker 7:He has.
Speaker 8:I have 22 towns left, 22.
Speaker 5:Well, you started later, so that's fair.
Speaker 4:Any, what they call, and I'm see I'm an expert now Any elusive towns on the list yet?
Speaker 7:Yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so sometimes you have to wait on those right.
Speaker 8:Yes, yeah, oh, there's Rocky Hill and Basra, yeah those are the well.
Speaker 7:He also needs Bridgewater, the dreaded Bridgewater, so Dreaded.
Speaker 4:Dreaded Bridgewater. Yeah, I caught that too.
Speaker 8:Why do you say dreaded?
Speaker 7:Because, they have not been steady with any races.
Speaker 4:I get it.
Speaker 5:I was like is there really bad hills?
Speaker 7:No, it's just. It's a town that is not very steady with races.
Speaker 8:Gotcha, there's a half marathon in L very steady with races, gotcha. There's a half marathon in Litchfield called the Halacious Half Marathon, if you really want hills.
Speaker 4:Oh golly, no, thank you, no, thank you.
Speaker 8:So we're getting close, we're very close.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you are, that's. Fine.
Speaker 8:It's just so. We can't do a race, we can't get a new town every weekend now, like we did like two years ago.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, yeah, you can. The first couple of years you can knock them off pretty quick. I think get, maybe get two in a weekend, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 8:Yes.
Speaker 4:Then it get tougher and tougher. Yeah Well, keep in touch. We'd like to hear how you're doing. That'd be really cool, and let us know when you're going back to Disney. We'd love to see you there.
Speaker 8:Yeah, that would be fun. Yeah, yeah, that was a really fun time and warmer down there.
Speaker 4:Yes, here's the sad news and this happens frequently is that this past weekend, the weekend after the races, the weather was perfect it was a high sixties, low seventies and the humidity was way down. But, alas, you know, we it was okay. The weekend we had was not bad.
Speaker 8:So it was sunny, it didn't it didn't rain. I mean, I'm sure it's warm in the races and run Disney.
Speaker 4:Well, Stephen, Liz, great story. I love hearing all about your races and how you got started and all that and congratulations.
Speaker 8:Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:Congratulations to the Flying Finglers for winning the Springtime Surprise 10-Miler and we look forward to talking with you again.
Speaker 8:Awesome. Thank you Look forward to it. Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 4:We all enjoyed talking with Stephen and Liz. That was a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing them at an upcoming event. All right, friends, let's see what's coming up here the next couple of weeks. Undecided exactly on the order, but we've got a couple of interesting things. We've got an interview with our friend Vern Runs on Pizza, the young lady who does the interviews with the folks in the costumes Pretty neat, fun interview we know you'll enjoy that. Of course we're also going to do a Boston Marathon and London Marathon recap here in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 4:All right, my friends, it's time for the Race Report. The Race Report is brought to you by our friend Thomas Stokes of Stoked Metabolic Training. Stokesfit slash riseandruncoaching is the site. I don't know if he's done his scholarship yet or not, but that link is at the top of the Facebook group page, pinned to the featured section is at the top of the Facebook group page, pinned to the featured section. He's got a neat contest going on where you could win a training scholarship at Stoked Metabolic Training.
Speaker 4:Looking at the race report for last week, we start on Thursday a week ago in Tallahassee, florida, the law enforcement torch run for Special Olympics Florida, our friend Lola did her first run since her emergency C-section earlier this year. We're seeing Facebook photos for young son Miles who really seems to be doing well. Hopefully he'll be home pretty soon but it's great to see Lola back out. There Felt pretty good on this one and kind of positive, a little warm and it's pollen season down here. But after the run, after this run, in Tallahassee, the state capital, there was a ceremony for the Special Olympic athletes put on by all the different local law enforcement agencies. Just as Lola and her family were leaving, every officer there suddenly took off in response to the active shooter at Florida State, which is also in Tallahassee, only three miles away. So pretty dramatic events there in Tallahassee for that torch run. But, lola, we're really happy to see you out there.
Speaker 4:On Friday there were a couple of good Friday races, all of them in England, as it turns out, the 70th maidenhead Easter 10. Mylar, the UK's oldest road race. Heather was there, says it was described as flat, with only 70 meters, about 230 feet of ascent, but it was still more than she's used to. It felt like the entire 70 meters was all in mile eight. Heather had to wait until the official results to know that it's another PB until the official results to know that it's another PB.
Speaker 3:I feel like that we should have a special like very British sounding monorail beep for for our friends abroad who go with the PB instead of the PR, I'll I'll figure out a way how to make the give a European flair to the monorail dong.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a somewhat well-known bell that rings over there somewhere in England, but I don't know if that would work or not for us. Anyway, third, third personal best in the last eight months for Heather Great job In Cornwall. In Fowey, the Tunnel 10K. Anna did it An out-and-back from Fowey to Parr through the kilometer-long Pinnock Tunnel. For history buffs, this was built in the 1870s through the Granite Hills and it was used to transport China clay between the ports of Fowey and Parr. For this race, the weather was atrocious Heavy rain for the whole run Even rained in the tunnel. I saw some video on this. There were cracks in the granite and the rain just came pouring through the cracks. Still had lots of fun. Got a course personal best One minute, one second and if you want to see the rain that came through the tunnel, there's a YouTube video Look for Tunnel 10 2025. Thanks for that, Anna.
Speaker 4:Wrapping up Friday in London at Victoria Park, rob did a 5K. A special personal best for Rob. When he started running back in March of 2017, he was just turning up at park runs and managed about a 31 and a half minute 5K. Never did he think that a mere eight years later he would go under 18 minutes in a 5K Way to go. Rob, that's smoking buddy. Let us continue on Saturday and go down to New Orleans, louisiana, for what looked like a really fun event. We had a bunch of folks running the Crescent City Classic 10K. Let's kick it off by visiting with two of our Rise and Run family members, mark and Susan, who ran the 10K. Hiya guys, good to see you.
Speaker 9:Hi, thanks for having us.
Speaker 4:Oh it's fun. Thanks for sharing your time with us. I always say that, but I really mean it, I for having us. Oh it's fun. Thanks for sharing your time with us. I always say that, but I really mean it. I do appreciate it. I know folks like coming on, but it's still. You have to make the time to do it and it is we're grateful that you do.
Speaker 4:We're happy to be here. Good, good. Well, let's see, it's almost cliche. Now I have this standard opening question that I use all the time with our new friends who come to visit us in the spotlight, and that is I'd like to know how you got started in running.
Speaker 9:When Mark and I met during COVID, he was training for a marathon and he was so dedicated to it and I had to put up with his training. So I thought, hey, this could be fun. And then he told me that there are Disney races which I didn't know about.
Speaker 6:That was my first mistake.
Speaker 9:Isn't it ours? Yeah that's true, Yep. So then then we got into training together and since then all of our training runs are together, All of our races are together.
Speaker 4:That's neat. Now, mark, obviously you had started out as a runner before that. Because you don't just go, I think I'll start with a marathon, or do you?
Speaker 6:Well so, no, I didn't really start out with a marathon In like 2018, I was bored. Basically, I needed something to do to get out of the house and stop being a couch potato, and I just liked the idea of running. I was never really a good runner growing up or anything of running. I was never really a good runner growing up or anything, um, but I figured, why not? Why not try it, give it a go? So, um, I was living down in Florida at the time and I could literally just walk out my front door and there was a trail that was over three and a half miles, just straight. What was that? Mark? Uh, the Tampa Bay area uh, rating, uh, yeah, rating panellist trail. Um, no, it was a trail out to a barrier island and, okay, it wasn't like a named trail. Okay, it was just essentially sidewalks and stuff, but it was a straight shot. It was very level and just very easy for me to do. So I started running there and I fell in love with it.
Speaker 6:I really enjoyed getting out there and being by myself out there in my own head, thinking through things and it was great and I just fell in love with it and went from there and did a couple of 5Ks, did a couple of half marathons, tried to get some friends doing half marathons with me, which was not a great idea, and then went on to the marathon.
Speaker 4:Your friends didn't like that idea.
Speaker 9:I think they didn't like training for it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they didn't like it. Ah, there you go.
Speaker 6:So I had a friend who was like after my first half marathon he's like I really like what you did, I want to do that with you. And I'm like, great, here's a training plan, let's do this. And I think he did two training runs the entire time. So, we get out there to the half marathon, and we essentially walked the entire thing at that point because that's all he was able to do. Okay, the last couple miles I was carrying him along, basically. Oh, wow.
Speaker 6:I mean it was still fun. I think he had a good time, but I don't think he did any more running ever.
Speaker 4:But that was the end of it. Huh, yeah, okay, fair enough, it's fun. It's fun to ask the question. I should sit down and categorize the answers. A lot of them oh, I was an athlete in high school and I just kept it up A lot of them what I heard here. I wanted to do something. I was tired of just sitting around, and then a lot of them, and you had an element of this too. Well, there was this guy or there was this girl, and so it's fun. Yeah, all right. Well, great, now look this one in New Orleans looked like it was fun. It was a trip for you. It was a vacation run for you, right?
Speaker 9:Yes, it was. It's a good excuse to get out and see a new town. So we've been trying to sign up for some races that aren't here and aren't Disney, because that's an addiction. We want to see other things too, and that's an addiction. We want to see other things too, and that's tough.
Speaker 4:No, I think that's neat. When did you get to New Orleans?
Speaker 9:We flew in on. Thursday Thursday morning it was pretty early, and then we flew out.
Speaker 4:On Monday so you had some time to visit the city. We did. Sampled the jazz, the food.
Speaker 9:We ate a lot of food. The drinks.
Speaker 6:Way too many beignets.
Speaker 4:The beignets? Yes, of course, you made it to Café du Monde.
Speaker 9:We did.
Speaker 4:Of course you did.
Speaker 6:You have to. Café was better though.
Speaker 4:Yeah, mm-hmm.
Speaker 6:Okay, if you ever go.
Speaker 4:Good to know. I haven't been in years. I have been, but it's been quite a while since I've been to New Orleans. It seems like it's a pretty big event. Any idea how many runners.
Speaker 9:We had searched, actually the morning of, and it said that it was sold out and that last year there had been 20,000 people. Yeah, so yeah, it's bigger than I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 4:Do they have a nice race expo? So yeah, it was bigger than I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 9:Did they have a nice race expo? Yeah, the expo was a decent size. It wasn't Disney, but it was still pretty big. The pickup was easy for the bibs. They had a good number of vendors, lots of gear and stuff and they had some of the more local sponsors, different run clubs, and they were giving out gumbo and jambalaya.
Speaker 4:Of course.
Speaker 6:There you go. They actually had a parade through the expo, yeah.
Speaker 9:Jazz band. That was neat, oh, that's cool. And then the dressed up characters yeah.
Speaker 4:That's cool.
Speaker 6:It's actually the biggest expo I've seen outside of Disney.
Speaker 4:All right. Well, with 20,000 runners, that's to be expected, that's pretty good. Let me say, though, now weather. Now, the weather was pretty good, wasn't it?
Speaker 9:Oh, the weather was beautiful until Monday, so yeah, but for the race it was, it was lovely the day leading up to it, it was absolutely perfect. So, yeah, we, we had, um, we had clouds. It wasn't too hot, it was muggy, but that's okay, yeah, um, but, and there was a good breeze and it was nice, it was very nice.
Speaker 4:Yeah, uh, you're where you live. You get the muggy too, so they get it a little more down there being right off the Gulf, but I know you get it too.
Speaker 9:Yes, we do.
Speaker 4:It wasn't foreign to you. That's good.
Speaker 9:Right, we are used to running in the heat and the humidity.
Speaker 4:Right? Well, tell us about the race please. How did it go? Did you see what were some of the interesting aspects of the Crescent City Classic?
Speaker 9:One of the cool things was it started at the Superdome.
Speaker 4:Saw that.
Speaker 9:Yeah, so we took a Uber there that morning and had to walk a little bit to get to our areas, but it was very well marked. We found everything pretty easily. They had entertainment, of course, and we started. I think we were only we were in a later corral because we're slow pokes, but it was only maybe 20 minutes after corral a.
Speaker 4:It's not bad. It's not bad.
Speaker 9:Yeah, it was. It was pretty quick and we were towards the front of the corral, which was great and I don't. I don't know that there was much of a time limit. They had people in strollers and and different groups, but I we weren't worried about not finishing. They different groups but I we weren't worried about not finishing.
Speaker 6:They were very generous with time limits.
Speaker 9:Yeah, no balloon ladies.
Speaker 6:No balloon ladies Okay.
Speaker 9:Yeah, it was. It was flat, of course. The breeze between the streets was nice, like you would run just through the cross sections and just get a really nice breeze. There were, music there was, there were people along the course cheering us on. We got to run through the French quarter and we got to run through some really pretty areas and it was, which was really cool.
Speaker 6:It was mostly straight too. There was very few turns in the entire course.
Speaker 9:Yeah, I think we turned near the casino and then maybe one or two others, but it was pretty great.
Speaker 6:It wasn't a loop, though you had to get transport back from the finish line back to the start line, so it was very straight.
Speaker 4:So it was point to point. Yeah, was travel arranged? Was that an option, or did you have to figure it out for yourself?
Speaker 9:Well, they did have some parking areas, I believe, and they had shuttles that took you to the Superdome to begin, but for us, we just took an Uber from our hotel. We stayed in the Garden District, which was really nice, and it wasn't too far maybe 10 minutes and traffic wasn't terrible, although they did have, of course, some roads closed, but our driver got around it pretty well. So we got there pretty quick, which was good, and right before the race we we had a, a leftover muffaletta from the night before would you recommend that for a pre-race meal?
Speaker 9:it was great.
Speaker 6:It was great, it worked yeah sounds like it did yeah, it did have shuttles back from the finish line to the start line, which was nice too.
Speaker 9:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Old school buses.
Speaker 9:Right School buses, like current school buses, which are so tiny.
Speaker 4:Are they really?
Speaker 9:Yeah, I remember the seats being bigger, but yeah, I think we were smaller, you were smaller Right Right. I've noticed that a lot. When I look at pictures from things from my youth, I go look how running somewhere close. So we could have done that, but we don't know it very well. So we were tired and we smelled bad.
Speaker 4:That's okay. It's a run. The city's putting on a run. Everybody understands that, or at least they should.
Speaker 9:Apparently, there was something on the internet the last few months a dog that had escaped several foster homes or or something and we didn't understand what was going on.
Speaker 9:But there was a woman dressed as a dog and her running partner was a guy with a dog catcher's uniform and um and net and everybody kept saying it's scrim, it's scrim and we didn't know we didn't know who that was yeah on the afterwards in the uber back we asked the driver what was scrim and they told us that there was a neat story involved over the last few months how this, this, this dog had gone viral, escaping different foster homes and adopted homes like jumping out of the second story windows of buildings to get away and stuff.
Speaker 9:So it was. It was a neat thing that we we actually we started around the same time and kept about the same pace, so we would see them chasing each other, and it was. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4:So you'd hear the, you'd hear the uh, it's scrim the whole race, Right yeah. And there were signs.
Speaker 9:Somebody said run like scrim, and then there was the woman dressed as scrim. So it was. It was really cute.
Speaker 4:Very cute. Sounds like a good, really sounds like a good one. I'm going to. We had other folks running. I'll read what they had to say when we're done here, but it just sounds like it was a good event. You're going to do it again.
Speaker 9:Maybe, maybe. I mean, it was a good time of year, like we said, the weather was perfect, but I don't know.
Speaker 4:That's a bit of a trip. I get that.
Speaker 9:It definitely is yeah, and for us it's a couple connections, I think next year. I think it's right around springtime surprise also, so we'd have to pick.
Speaker 4:That's significant, yeah. So what are we doing next at Disney?
Speaker 9:Next we have Wine and Dine.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 9:Maybe Princess too, if that works out.
Speaker 4:I think that's next at Disney For a lot of us. We got the one at Disneyland. Of course, we got the word today this will be the last Disneyland for a while.
Speaker 2:I was just looking at this race on. You said very lenient cutoff times will be the last Disneyland for a while. I was just looking at this race.
Speaker 9:You said very lenient cutoff times. Same for us.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm looking at the results. It says you must finish the race by 11.45 pm. So, that's very lenient, I think.
Speaker 9:so that's very lenient, I think I guess that's for all those that were drinking the beer along the course that's what just I was just thinking I was gonna ask what?
Speaker 2:yeah, it had to be a real party along the course yes, absolutely, absolutely there were.
Speaker 9:I I have never. This was only my second non-run disney run. So, um, I was surprised at folks giving away free beer. I think there was a fire truck at one point giving away free beer.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 9:Yeah, but it was very, very New Orleans and people were super nice to each other and very gracious and very easy. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Good deal.
Speaker 9:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for stopping by to tell us about it. Absolutely Thanks for having us. We will see you in October.
Speaker 9:October.
Speaker 4:Great, All right guys have a good night. Thanks.
Speaker 4:Bye. Well, as we mentioned, we had other friends in New Orleans. Mandy was there, said it was an awesome event. She didn't hydrate as well as she probably should have, didn't have the race she was hoping for. Still loved the event. Taryn was there. Taryn was hoping to PR. That didn't work. That's okay, says. It's actually her worst Crescent City Classic time, but still it's a pretty good time. Just a little over an hour. That's pretty good, Taryn. Always next year and the year after that she lives in that area. Christine finished showed us a shot of that neat-looking medal. I forgot to mention that Season and Mark were wearing their medals when we were talking to them. They're neat-looking medals. They look like a street car on the medal. They're very nicely done. Stevie was there. Stevie PR'd. Hold on, a unique PR for Stevie. He finished this race in eight beers, two shots and a piece of bacon. That's a PR I could never touch. I promise you I could never touch.
Speaker 2:So congratulations, yeah, that road bacon Bob, right, yeah, right.
Speaker 4:Right, you know where I was talking with Season and Mark. You know where else you can get bacon at a race at least that I know of Space Coast. There's always bacon at Space Coast.
Speaker 3:Well, I hope you get some bacon when you're up for Flying Pig.
Speaker 4:That would be very appropriate, probably Chili.
Speaker 2:Streetside Chili maybe.
Speaker 4:Cincinnati, chili.
Speaker 2:Yeah, skyline Chili, skyline Chili.
Speaker 4:Skyline on one side of the road and Gold Star on the other. That would be appropriate. Let's see here Carmel, indiana, the Carmel Marathon weekend. Kaylee ran the 10K, brandy was in Houston. Brandy did the green 10K for Earth Day. Great looking costume, brandy. Very lovely really with the flowers on it Looks so good. She became a character style. There you go.
Speaker 4:Let's go to Washington, north Carolina, the Exodus 5K Krista. First race report from Krista, first official race in almost a year. Beautiful day. Started her training a little early for the Halloween Chills and Thrills Challenge in Disneyland. Most exciting of all, a PR at this 5k for Krista.
Speaker 4:Up in Milwaukee, the Brew City Marathon half marathon 10k 5K. Noelle had a proof of time goal but that doesn't always work out. Got to mile 10 and that was that. Ended up walking the last three miles. No problem there, noelle. That happens quite a lot. It happened to me on many occasions. Amy did her first half marathon since Disney back in January. Amy did her first half marathon since Disney back in January In Newport, rhode Island, the Newport Road Races Marathon and Half Marathon.
Speaker 4:Let's see. Laura says it was a chilly morning. Elevation on this one was kind of crazy. Felt like every new street was a new hill to climb and they didn't. They worked it out so that it was all uphill. They didn't have a bunch of downhill to compensate. I think they probably did, but it feels that way sometimes. Jake was there, did the half. Jake said a six-minute PR Finished in two hours 23 minutes. That's a Disney proof of time. Beautiful course Takes you by the ocean, newport's famous mansions, even Jay Leno's house. If you've never been up to Newport, the mansions there are unbelievable. They're from another era and they are just astounding.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say have you ever been to Jay Leno's house?
Speaker 4:I probably is too Probably is but they're gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Piedmont Park's in Atlanta. That's where they had the Atlanta Donut Dash 5K. Lauren did this one. This is Lauren's first post to our Facebook group. She had 11 miles on her training schedule so she ran to the race and ran back, didn't PR but did get a third place age group finish a first time, placing what we call a podium finish for Lauren. Good job, lauren. Not too far from Greg in Quakertown, pennsylvania, the rock, the knock. 5k, 10k half. Brianna did the 10K After PRing a 10K two weeks ago and being two weeks away from Broad Street run that's coming up Hughes. This one is a catered training run. Beautiful course, a little hilly, a little hilly, my God.
Speaker 3:I did this as I think this was my first race post-COVID. I did the half and I thought it was just going to be like one course. No, it was the same course looped three or four times and the hilliest course.
Speaker 3:I mean, it was great preparation for Bird in Hand, Don't get me wrong, but I think this might have been hillier than Bird in Hand because you were doing the same thing over and over. So, Brianna, you picked a heck of a race as a catered training run to get your prep for Broad Street. So good on you, girl.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is good training and Broad Street's flat, so you're in good shape there. Two bald eagles on the course, Too far away to be considered character stops, but she did get some photos. Look pretty nice, Brianna, good job. There was a small local 5k somewhere in Pennsylvania. I don't know where it was. I know Chrissy was there and I know she knocked it out in under 30 minutes. 74 degrees at 8am in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was. It was quite warm this past week. I did nine miles last weekend with actually our buddies Allie with Annie and Kay. Oh yeah, we were all commenting the entire time that we were running that it was not the most pleasant conditions to be running in.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a little early for those kind of temps in that part of the country. She commented that two years ago there was a foot of snow on this. On the same day in winter garden, florida, the hippity hop five K a couple of folks there. Heather did this one as a fun laid back race with super cute shirts and medals and so many folks from the Run Disney start lines. She was the only racing chair for this race but she finished fourth overall in her age group at just under 26 minutes. Best part of this one going back to finish with her best friends Amanda and Winnie and seeing so many Rise and run and run Disney folks there. Amongst those folks, mary. Mary said it was fun but started late in the morning so it was a little warm. And it was. It was warm and it was very sunny. That makes it tough and Laura and Sam did this one. They closed down Hollywood Studios the night before, so they weren't exactly the most energetic. Sam is continuing with his ritual of sprinting when he sees the finish line. Laura's comment is I need to do some speed work. I'm starting to beat her on that. Laura, you can get them, I know you can't. And in Laura's defense. If they ran the entire thing she could still beat them. But look, those days are coming, laura, you know that.
Speaker 4:All right, there was a hippity hop half marathon somewhere I'm thinking maybe Peoria, arizona. Kim was there. Wherever it was, she said a PR of 2 hours 46 minutes. Kim says the Galloway Method continues to help her speed work with each race. Keep building on it, kim, that's great. Claremont, florida.
Speaker 4:Jason was there for the Earth Day Recycle Runs, a two and five mile challenge. He set out a goal to PR every race distance this year. He PR'd the marathon in January, pr'd a 5k last week week and so now we can add both the two and the five mile distances to this list. Two PRs. Jason didn't look at the official two mile results until he got home. Turns out he was a third place age group finisher and his five miler, which came second, he says, turned out to be his fastest race at any distance and I believe what he's talking about is his pace in minutes per mile. So great job.
Speaker 4:Out in las vegas, the catch the bunny 5k, chris with woody and jesse. We know them. The famous Vegas Beagles came in 27th overall. Chris came in first in his age group and Woody and Jesse were the number one and two dogs. Now, woody and Jesse wouldn't let Chris tell who finished first, so we'll just have to guess. Tell who finished first, so we'll just have to guess.
Speaker 4:Roxanne was at the Orlando Executive Airport for the Run for the Angels 5K. This is an organization of volunteer pilots. They use their own aircraft fuel time. They provide free air transportation to medical facilities for folks who can't afford to make other arrangements. It was a hot day, the sun was beating down and there's no hotter places on the planet on a hot day than a runway with the asphalt. There's no shade, so Roxanne had to change her plans up a little bit. Still, it was a fun race and a great cause. Let's finish up Saturday in Temple, texas, the Bunny 10K. Amanda finished first place overall. Wasn't really going for a POT, just using it as a workout and scoping out the course for future races. But a win's a win and she'll take it. Heck yeah, girl, good job.
Speaker 7:Great job, Amanda.
Speaker 4:Yeah, of course. On Monday we had the Boston Marathon. We're going to try and get as many of our friends who finished Boston to visit with us next week. Right now I just have a list of names. Boyd was there, as was Sherry, jason, bob and Kristen, jason, bob and Kristen and singling these folks out Danielle, julia and Steve all completed their sixth star. Congratulations. Congratulations to everyone.
Speaker 4:Yeah, congratulations to everyone who finished Boston Boy. They had a nice day for it and the weather there can be just terrible, but this year was outstanding. Just a little bit cool, nice and clear. That was great. But congratulations to everybody. But the six star is a big deal, guys. That's exciting. All right, my friends, and if you run, you know you are our friend. This is a Zoom week. As I mentioned earlier is a Zoom week. As I mentioned earlier, instructions on how to log into the Zoom call will be on the Facebook page. We hope you get a chance to visit with us. We'd love to talk with you, especially since we're not going to see you for a little while. I'm told the crickets are back. It's that time of year, so do not adjust your radio, don't go looking through your car to try and find the bugs. They're all behind me. So we throw them in at no charge. Hope you enjoyed this episode of the Rise and Run podcast. We are so grateful that you took the time out of your busy lives to join us. Have fun.
Speaker 3:And until we meet again, happy running 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.
