Rise and Run
Rise and Run
188: Dr. Michelle Quirk - Coach and Host of the Mindful Marathon
Have you ever wondered if you're a "real runner" because you take walk breaks? Dr. Michelle Quirk, pediatrician and running coach, sets the record straight in this episode, sharing why walk intervals are not only acceptable but beneficial for all runners. Her thoughtful advice for beginners—remember your "why," start slow, and focus on effort rather than pace—offers a refreshing foundation for anyone lacing up for the first time.
The conversation with Dr. Quirk delves into practical wisdom that both novice and experienced runners will appreciate. She explains how to distinguish between normal muscle soreness and potential injuries through timing, location, and relieving factors—information that could save you from sidelining yourself unnecessarily or pushing through a genuine problem. For parents, Michelle offers sage advice on introducing children to running in a healthy, sustainable way that keeps the focus on fun rather than competition.
Following our expert interview, we're treated to emotional firsthand accounts from three Boston Marathon finishers, including two who completed their Six Star journey at this iconic race. Their descriptions of the overwhelming crowd support and the profound feeling of turning onto Boylston Street for the final stretch will give you goosebumps. As one runner put it: "If you ever want to feel like a rock star, run the last half mile of the Boston Marathon."
The episode wraps with our comprehensive race report, highlighting achievements from runners across the country and around the world—from PR-breaking performances at the London Marathon to the quirky "Reverse London Midnight Marathon" where participants run the course backward starting at 12:01 AM. Whether you're training for your first 5K or your sixth major marathon, this episode offers both practical guidance and the inspirational stories that make our running community so special. Join us as we continue to rise, run, and celebrate each step of the journey together!
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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. Hey, rise and Run family, this is Dan Kelly from Lyle, illinois, calling in and you're listening to the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 3:Dan calling us from Illinois and leaving that splendid introduction. See how easy that is. Perfect, right to the point. Thanks, dan, appreciate that. We have some. John went around. We have some intros John picked up at springtime so we may start using two intros every week. We get caught up a little bit, but for now we got Dan helping us open episode 188 of the Rise and Run podcast. Hello my friends, so glad you're joining us. This week I'm Bob and this week I'm here with Jack.
Speaker 4:Hiya.
Speaker 3:With John, hey, how you doing. With Alicia, hello. And with Lexi, hello. Good to see you, friends. On episode 188. Dr Michelle Quirk joins us. Michelle's a pediatrician, a run coach. We think you're going to run Disney fan. We know you're going to enjoy that interview and we had several folks run Boston a couple weeks ago. Three of them joined us to tell us their stories. Great interview for the Boston Marathon. Stick around for that one. We'll put that in just before the race report.
Speaker 5:If you enjoyed the Rise and Run podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family. We want to share in their Run Disney journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast, instagram at Rise and Run Pod. Check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage at riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, comment, raise support or want to introduce an upcoming episode, call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.
Speaker 6:We also want to thank our Patreons, whose support helps keep the Rise and Run podcast rising and running. If you would like to join our Patreon team, you can check out patreoncom slash rise and run podcast and we have one new Patreon. We would like to welcome Amy at the plastic cheese level.
Speaker 3:Welcome, Amy. Thank you, Friends. The Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by Magic Bound Travel. Hotel reservations have opened for next year for Walt Disney World. Those of you who registered today for the Disneyland half marathon for Walt Disney World, those of you who registered today for the Disneyland half marathon in January Disneyland reservations are not open yet, but contact our friends at Magic Bound, Get in the queue so that when reservations do come open they'll be able to help you out as quickly as possible.
Speaker 6:Magicboundtravelcom is the website Check them out and I know they have been so busy and all of the travel agents. We have been so busy over the past week making sure to get quotes out and everything and they've worked really hard. I know they have.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, I know I've already got a response and I'm already set for marathon weekend and working on the rest. All right, a quick apologies and alibis Golly Race report. I do my best, but every now and then one slips by and it frustrates me. Sometimes I think it might be the Facebook algorithm. Things get put off. I won't catch them all, but there's a couple I want to catch up on.
Speaker 3:In Peoria, arizona, chase ran the Hippity Hop Half Marathon two weeks ago. He ran a PR and got a proof of time and we featured the Crescent City Classic in the spotlight. The race in New Orleans Mira was also at that race. Let's look at the training calendar. Friends. Now registration for Disneyland today. So we're looking to next season. We had a gap. Now we finished Springtime Surprise. We had a gap where nothing was on the training schedule. Well, hello. Next week training officially on the Jeff Galloway plan. Now Training officially starts. Next week is week one for Disneyland Halloween races. Yeah, that event is now 18 weeks away, 126 days till the expo out there in Anaheim. Next week we start training on that one. And it's also those and a lot of our friends run bird in hand. That's the same weekend, so bird in hand is also 18 weeks away.
Speaker 2:And it's really nice, Bob, because I looked at the schedule just for the half. It's only a nice, easy two-mile run starting off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, jeff's plan is to start you off easily and build. But there we go. That's good. I'm excited that we're getting back into some training. Speaking of training friends, we have any updates on training from the gang.
Speaker 4:It's not so much of an update but a story, a short one. Okay, you know you're with the right person that when you're running outside he's cheering me along the way. Yeah, the way. Yeah, like right after work I went outside to go do my run because there's this really beautiful fountain outside the studio that Lexi and I work at and I was like I can't miss this run and David had his car in the shop so he took the train over to my, my job, so that we could both drive back home together, and he was chilling with me going for my run still and like, literally, it's just the cutest thing. He'd be like go, jack, go.
Speaker 4:He'd be like cheering me along the way and it's like I'm trying not to run fast because like it's supposed to be a chill run, but at the same time it's just kind of like I feel the energy, I feel the crowd of one. Oh he's cheering for me right now on the. I feel the energy, I feel the crowd of one. Good stuff. Yeah, oh, he's cheering for me right now on the side over here.
Speaker 2:You can't see him. Great podcast Jack.
Speaker 3:There he is. Oh, podcast Jack. I know you guys can't see him.
Speaker 4:But he's like so extremely supportive and I'm forever thankful to have him in my life. Good stuff but yeah it was a good Monday, good stuff, but yeah, it was, it was good Monday.
Speaker 3:Good stuff. I don't have anybody cheering me on my training runs. If I'm lucky, when I get back, Becky will let Lily come running outside to greet me. That's as good as it gets.
Speaker 2:Well, bob, for your training runs, just log into Holler Hype, because I know all our friends are having a great time or having a great time with holler hype. They're getting their their hypes, or no? Encouragement out in the course. So I mean if you haven't joined it yet. Log into and download the holler hype app and get some holler hypes good john, good comment I.
Speaker 3:After we initially talked about that, I said, all right, I'm not gonna talk about it for a while. But yeah, you're right, it's so popular and I knew it would be. I knew this family would just love it. But Hollerhype H-O-L-L-A-R-H-Y-P-Ecom, and you can go to the Apple store or the play store and download it and when you log in initially, use the group, use the code rise and run all one word and that'll put you into our mega group and I don't know how many. You can look on our Facebook page I don't know how many people talk about the number of hypes and how excited they are to get them and it just works out really well, and I think we actually had someone's.
Speaker 2:I saw a story on facebook that someone was running by a lake yes and they found out that they run that same lake and now they're doing training runs together.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, there's a post on facebook and I don't have the names, but yes yes there's a post on facebook for both of them, so that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Hey, we had a registration event today, as of the day of recording, two days ago by the time you're listening to this Registration for the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend in late January. I think the half's actually on February 1st. I know Jack was there. Jack, I think it was just you and me in terms of people who were online doing that. I thought it went great. What'd you think?
Speaker 4:So I'm glad that I logged into that Zoom that you posted in the half marathon chat, because I was like you guys are just so nice and so chill, like I always know, like everybody was so nice in the community, in the running community, but like it was just a good time being with friends. To be honest, it was a good time hearing. It was funny Whenever the thing went off. How does the thing go? Yeah, and you're like, oh, somebody got in and we cheer for each other.
Speaker 3:If you were on the Zoom call and someone got in and they played the chimes when it was your time to register?
Speaker 2:we'd all hear it. It's like an angel got its wings, bob, yeah, yes, there you go, john.
Speaker 4:Beautifully said John, but yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the group chat worked well, but the last couple of races I've also opened up a zoom so that we can not necessarily watch each other because we're busy doing other things, but we can talk to one another and it makes things just a little bit easier. But gosh, I think, especially in the last two registrations, it seems to me that disney has increased their bandwidth or their ability to process the registrations faster, because it went by pretty quickly today and everybody that I saw in our group, either in the zoom or in the chat, got what they wanted yeah, well, it was also like really weird because, like everybody was saying, oh, I'm going to sign up for this race now that it's going to be the last one for a while, and it's just like I don't know about anybody else.
Speaker 4:But that scared the living crap out of me. I was, I was worried because this was one I wanted to do even before that was announced. I've been wanting to do it again for a while, since the first time in 2024. Yeah, so I was just, I was really worried, but I'm glad I was able to get in so I I looked at some numbers for that.
Speaker 2:So the 5k sold out at 10 46, so that about 46 minutes. It's about average. The 10k was a little strange. It sold out in 48 minutes but it opened up again at 11 13, yeah, which was a little strange. The half is still open as of recording. Yeah, dumbbell sold out at 10.52. The kids race an hour and nine minutes and yoga an hour and 12. So I mean, with the yoga and everything, I guess the theme of the yoga was really big. So everything's basically sold out for the half. But it's been opening and closing all day. Some of the events.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I even heard that marathon weekend, the half marathon, was opening and closing a little bit today.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, I'm not surprised. They usually have, like another race weekend pop open and close during those registrations.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was super fast and it was just the half. But yeah, I heard from one of my clients that said that they were trying to get it.
Speaker 3:Didn't notice, although I believe it Just didn't notice that Wasn't looking for it. I did notice the Disneyland races popping open and closed and, as a surprise and I was going to try and keep this quiet, but enough people know already I was not going to register for anything. In fact I was supposed to be on the road today and not here for the podcast recording or not at the registration this morning, but plans changed so that I could do all of those things. And during the Zoom call, during our Zoom get get together last week, the thursday night zoom, talking to friends, I realized if disneyland stays down for five or six years which some people are speculating I'm looking at being 77, 78 years old the next time it opens up. I hope I'm still participating in the events then. But gosh, there are no guarantees. So I talked it over with Becky and she said yeah, I think you need to go, I'm registered for the half, so I'll see you in California in January.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:We can be at the meetup together yes but it did go well. Congratulations to everybody that got in. Uh, it was fun. Like you said, jack, it was fun seeing everybody on zoom this morning. Okay, next registration is eight weeks away. Princess registration is next.
Speaker 4:In June. Who's doing that one?
Speaker 3:It comes up in 54 days.
Speaker 6:Wow, anybody here?
Speaker 3:I'll do something that weekend yeah.
Speaker 6:Oh, the perks of living down in.
Speaker 3:Florida. Yeah, that's it. I'm going to drive over there and I'll do something. Whether it's the half or whether it's several, I'm not sure, but I'll do something. I'm going to enjoy it. I'm not going to miss the opportunity.
Speaker 4:When do you think the Princess in the Springtime Surprise artwork will come out?
Speaker 2:Themes Two weeks before probably, like usual I think after this, now that this registration is gone, I think it'll probably come out a little quicker. I think they can't. We're coming out almost a month in advance now.
Speaker 3:The uh, the artwork that's true, because disneyland came out way early you know you'd think as many times as we've gone through this, I'd have notes on this, as to when, and i't. I try to re answer the same question every year and I don't have notes. I should have notes from year to year. This time I'm taking notes.
Speaker 6:Well, we have springtime surprise to look forward to, springtime surprise registration, since that coincides with the cruise the rise.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's important. That's still a ways off. Now it's uh 89 days, so it's uh 12 and a half weeks star wars, star wars you're killing me jack all right, friends, let's move along here.
Speaker 3:let's move along and visit with our guests for the week. Friends, one of my favorite things about doing this podcast is all the wonderful people. We get to talk to, some folks who we know well, some folks who are meeting for the first time, and that's the case this evening as we welcome Dr Michelle Quirt to the Rise and Run family. Michelle is a running coach, a run Disney runner and a pediatrician, and in her spare time she hosts the Mindful Marathon podcast and she's here with us this week. Michelle, welcome to the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 9:Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here with you all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're glad you're here. We love it when friends spend some time with us. I think this will be fun. Michelle, I know how much time I put into a podcast. How in the world do you find time to do all of those things in addition to a podcast?
Speaker 9:I think I have a lot of help. That's my number one answer. That's good, I have a lot of help and I also I like to keep a lot of boundaries. So when I'm doing doctoring stuff, I'm doing that. When I'm doing run coaching stuff, I'm doing that and I have I batch a that. When I'm doing run coaching stuff, I'm doing that and I have I batch a lot of my coaching and podcasting.
Speaker 3:So that's how I get it all to fit in. Okay, cool, what got you started? I mean, what inspired you to go into medicine and pediatrics, and then, later on, what inspired you to become a running coach?
Speaker 9:I think, probably, when I think back to when I was a kid, I probably to some extent always wanted to be a doctor, but I don't know where that came from. There are no doctors in my family. I was always the kid who was checking out my dolls and my Disney characters, my Fisher Price stethoscope case yeah yeah, so that was me as a kid.
Speaker 3:You played Operation a lot where you posed the guy.
Speaker 9:No, no, I never really liked that game and maybe that's why I'm not a surgeon, I don't know. But yeah, when I ended up, I was interested in science and I think I made the decision, probably pretty early on in college, that I was going to go pre-med. But for a while I thought maybe I would do research, but I realized quite quickly in the lab that I like talking to people and I didn't really want to spend my life in a lab, and so I think it's really, yeah, the love of people and helping people that brought me to medicine, and I think that kind of spills over into run coaching. But I didn't find running until much later. Well, tell us about that. I was, you know, not much of an athlete and I used to look at the track team and the cross country team and think that they were made of some kind of different genetics than I was, because I was just so bad at running, like I couldn't even do the 5k or the mile run that they would make us do, you know? And so, yeah, I always wanted to run, but it seemed like something that just wasn't available to me. And so, anyways, fast forward, I finish medical training and residency and all of that, and I really was.
Speaker 9:After all of that, I think I was really burned out, although I didn't have that word at the time. So this is maybe like 15 years ago. I found myself in my first job like newly married, moved to a new place, and I was really not exercising or taking good care of myself at that time and I had a moment when I was like standing in a patient's room and talking to him and his family about the importance of exercise and good nutrition and getting sleep and all of these things, and here I thought you know, I'm not doing any of those things Like something really has to change. And so that was really the turning point, I think. I went home, I dug out my running sneakers in the closet and I just decided you know what, it's okay if I can't run a mile or a 5k right now. I'm just going to go five minutes around the block. Better than being on the couch. Yeah.
Speaker 9:And so that's how it started. I literally did like five minutes a few times a week and I worked my way up to 10 minutes to 15. And then I signed my husband and I up for a 5k. We were living in Gettysburg, pennsylvania, at the time, and that was the first race I did. That was 2013.
Speaker 3:In Gettysburg you did your first race, yeah.
Speaker 9:The Skirt of Gettysburg, 5K.
Speaker 3:Okay, because it just so happens, there was a half in Gettysburg this last weekend.
Speaker 10:Ah, okay.
Speaker 3:I know one of our friends did it. We'll talk about it in the race report later in the episode.
Speaker 9:It's a cool place to run. Yeah, it's a pretty place to run.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a pretty place to visit too, of course. In addition to the history, it's just a nice place to visit, yeah. Yeah, you kind of touched in on this and we'll talk about running a little bit. I mean, you've already given most of the answer to this question, but let's flesh it out. At this time in the run Disney season, which is what we talk about a lot and I know you're a run Disney friend and fan also yes, definitely, registering and getting ready for next season so it's kind of a time where we pick up friends who are going to do their first Run Disney event, which in many cases, is their first running event of any kind. I think Run Disney does a good job of that. What kind of advice can you give to those folks who are just getting started?
Speaker 9:Yeah, I think let me give three things. How about three tips? Yeah, wonderful. Yeah, I mean, I remember that point in my life and thinking about that first 5K, like I was so excited to sign up for it, but I also had a lot of fear about being able to do it. So I think the number one thing I would do is just remember why, like remember your why. Why are you signing up for the race? Why did you want to go on this journey in the first place? And just spend some time thinking about that, because when things get tougher later on in the training, you can always go back to your why.
Speaker 3:Which they will.
Speaker 9:Yep, they always do. And then my advice for beginners of all types, no matter the distance, is really start low and go slow, so you don't have to hit any records or beat any time that you may have in your mind. So, whatever you do, just start nice and easy and you can work up from wherever that base may be for you, so that may be from the couch, that may be from a place of walking a few times a week, but wherever you are is a fine place to start. Just remember to ramp up nice and slow. And my third piece of advice, which ties into that, is to spend some time thinking about your level of effort.
Speaker 9:So level of effort scale I use with all of my runners, no matter, you know, from the beginner to the advanced. But for those who are just starting out, I like to talk about it like the pain scale. So like level one would be a brisk walk and 10 is like the bear is chasing you and you're huffing and puffing and red in the face. So we don't, we don't want to be a 10 when we're out there, you know, practicing for our first race. So I like to have beginners stay in like a two to four out of 10. So I call it easy pace or other coaches may call it conversation pace. So if we're out there jogging or we're doing a run walk together, we could talk. You know, maybe not as easily as I'm talking right now, but pretty easily. So that's a way to measure for yourself, you know, without any watch or device or not even worrying about the numbers. Like, check in with yourself and what is your effort and keep it nice and easy. And that's a great way to start out.
Speaker 3:Can I carry on a conversation? Yeah, that's good advice.
Speaker 5:Michelle, I also think that's great advice For those of us who aren't beginner runners. What advice would you give to runners during this off season to keep them motivated?
Speaker 9:Yeah, this is a good one. I think I would fall into that category because I did the springtime surprise weekend and then I don't have much on the calendar until later on this summer. So I'm in the off season and I think for a lot of us it's a bit of like a letdown, like after all of this excitement and you go into this race weekend and have such a great time and see all of your friends, and then it's like okay, there's nothing on the schedule for a while. What do I do with this time? So a couple of things. Um, one would be you know, use the time to rest and recover which we. You know we're a couple of weeks out now and so we may have already done our rest and recovery, but there's a lot of people who are just finishing up. You know, a big goal race for the spring or a spring marathon, for example. So take this time and rest and give yourself like the appropriate recovery before you start into something else.
Speaker 9:But I also love the summer as a way to maybe get the family involved. So sign up with a you, with a friend's family, for a local 5k, for example. Just something fun to do with others that maybe you don't have a time goal and it's nothing that has to be too serious, but just to keep everybody interested and maybe share your love of the sport with people who may not always do the races with you. So summer's a great time to do that. And another thing that I like to do is, if you're taking a trip anywhere, like summer vacation, look up a destination race like wherever you happen to be visiting. I love the website runningintheusacom, but you can kind of search right.
Speaker 9:You can search wherever you're going to be, the type of race you want. They even have triathlon, swimming events, cycling, whatever you like to do, but you can find almost anything anywhere at any time. And then you can do a race in a different place.
Speaker 3:Running in the USAcom Sounds good.
Speaker 9:Yeah, we've done that a lot and it can be last minute.
Speaker 5:Alicia, you've looked at that one, huh, I have, because minnesota is a bigger state and so we have races all over, and having it the winter in the middle of it, um, it's hard to find races sometimes, so I use that to see, um, what is available. I haven't used it for when I'm traveling, I have done destination races, which is fun. But, yeah, I've also used it to help my clients as well find races local to them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's interesting the time of year you can see where the race is Wintertime. They're in the south Now they're moving. We're going to get out of them in the south it's going to be too hot. They're going to come up around Alicia's area, up around you and John Michelle, and yeah, so not that they ever stop anywhere, but they do tend to move around.
Speaker 6:And that also goes with international. I know Jack and I have both done a couple of races internationally and it's as simple as uh. Races in paris this week, or you know just playing google.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this weekend.
Speaker 6:Um, google is an amazing, amazing tool. Um, and I mean you can. You can go on a trip and cater your trip around the race, or um, as a way of just getting in, you can just go and be like oh, I'm going to do a 10 K just to say that I ran while I was in Barcelona, or you know something crazy like that too.
Speaker 3:What about cross training this time of year, Michelle?
Speaker 9:Yeah, that's also a another nice thing about the summer. So if it is really hot to run where you are or you just want to take a little break from running, it's a great time to do the other things that you love to do but may not always have the time for. So I have a lot of athletes who like to cycle or they play tennis or they swim, and sometimes in the middle of a big training cycle for a long distance race, there's not as much time for those things. But it's also a great time to do strength training, which I know a lot of runners don't always love to do strength training, but it's a great time for it.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's a great time and it's very worthwhile.
Speaker 2:Yes, michelle. Going back to getting the family involved in the off season, I know some of us have children, I have grandchildren, my granddaughter's doing her first 5k at Wyn Dine, so what advice would you give parents for your younger runners?
Speaker 9:Yeah, this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. But I love talking to the younger runners and seeing young people really excited about running. I think that the main thing is to keep it fun, like keep the goal as fun. And it's nice to know, right so, if Wine and Dine would be in November, so if that's going to be the first 5k, you know, it might be a good idea to do a couple of local runs just to get practice, like see how, see how things work in a race setting, and not have the first run be in run Disney. I mean I feel like it's a whole different atmosphere and a lot more people.
Speaker 9:So just getting kids used to the race atmosphere and really just focusing on the fun. So not so much worrying about times and any kind of specific hard training but to focus on fun, especially in the summer. But I think kids just really enjoy sharing this with their family and friends. So as many family members as you can bring along for the ride. I know we've done various turkey traps and got my niece and nephew and my mom and aunt and uncle. Anyway, we get the whole family involved. Sometimes you know they're a little bit unwilling at the beginning, but it always ends up being a great time.
Speaker 4:Are there like any specific concerns or cautions when kids want to start running competitively?
Speaker 9:Yeah, yeah, I would always say, you know, definitely, although I am a doctor, right, I'm not your doctor or your kid's pediatrician. So definitely talk to their doctor before starting any kind of new exercise regime, whatever that is running included. But the general things I will say is that most of the time kids can run quite easily and sometimes more easily than adults. I think the important thing is to make sure that they're not running really really long distances. So for a half marathon and a full marathon, I like kids to be through puberty, like through adolescence, there are some specific concerns about bone health and stress injuries. For those longer distances, but for you know, like a 5K and a 10K, most young kids can do those pretty easily. But again, I would, yeah, keep the focus on fun. I feel like sometimes we can get very competitive with ourselves and our times and a lot of athletics for kids can be really competitive and I love to keep these runs as something fun and low stress.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sometimes mom and dad don't help Right With the pressure. So you know, disney has the rule five-year-old for a 5K, 10-year-old for a 10K. That sounds good. Huh, yeah, that sounds good. I love seeing the kids run, especially the 5K runners. Oh yeah, the little ones. I think it's awesome running with mom and or dad. I think it's fantastic. Let's see Michelle back to running in general. Back for beginners now. What do you think some of the biggest misconceptions beginners have about running?
Speaker 9:Yeah, I think there's a lot. I'm trying to go for my top two or three. Probably. Maybe number one is that to be a runner, you can't walk, like for a long time I thought that Very good, yeah, and you guys, I know that you have had Jeff Galloway on and I love Jeff Galloway and his run-walk method and that's how I got into the longer distances when I started with half marathon and marathon and so, yeah, the fact that you can't walk, I don't know, I thought that for a really long time Like, oh, I'm not a real runner because I took this walk break, especially at the aid stations, like you want to do that. That's a good thing.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 9:So, yeah, that's one, and then the other might be yeah, to call yourself a runner, you have to do a marathon. I think I thought that for a long time too, and I've had a lot of athletes say like, oh, I'm not a real runner, I haven't done a marathon, yeah, but you've done lots of other distances. Like, if you run, you're a runner. So I feel like those are, those are like the two, the two big ones, but yeah, I don't know. What do you guys think?
Speaker 3:You get a lot of support for those here, I promise.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because yes, we are. We are very much a lot to Mr Galloway, and he's the reason I'm still out. There is no question about that for me, so that's great.
Speaker 5:I think that's the biggest one that I hear too is well, I hear from all these people that I'm not a real runner because I walk. And no, you are. Like you said, michelle, if you run, you're a runner. So I I a hundred percent agree.
Speaker 9:Yeah, and also maybe that you have to be a certain age right Like I, my mom did. Uh, we did the half marathon in Disney in 2016 and that was her first half marathon and she was almost 70.
Speaker 3:So All right Way to go, mom. Yeah, I like hearing that. That's good stuff. Old folks rule.
Speaker 2:Okay, michelle. What's one other piece of advice you would wish every runner would take to heart?
Speaker 9:I think for this one to keep your easy runs easy Good.
Speaker 6:Yeah, good, absolutely.
Speaker 9:Yes. So again, this is going back to the level of effort scale. But most of us, at least when we start out, I certainly was this way. I was running my easy runs way too fast and I don't think I realized it at the beginning. But as the training progressed I wasn't able to hit paces for the speed work or in the long run that I was aiming for, and part of the reason is because I was not giving my body the chance to recover from the harder efforts and really running the easy runs easy. So I think it's easier said than done, I admit that, but with time and practice we kind of learn to embrace the easy runs. But that is probably the biggest, the biggest one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's that, that that's. That's kind of hard because you're looking at progress. I go. Well, I'm getting slower, but but in the long run I will be faster. It's a weird process.
Speaker 6:It is Speaking on that. Um, how do you feel like runners can balance a drive to improve with the need for rest and recovery? Because we all know you can't go out every single run and do race pace every single time, but we're also runners and we want to get better, so how do you figure out which one to target?
Speaker 9:Yeah, A lot of this has to do with, I think, trusting the process and looking at weeks and months at a time and not just one run at a time. So if we really have speed goals and pace goals for a big race up ahead, a lot of runners spend, for example, for a half marathon you might spend 12 to 15 weeks training for that. For a marathon that might be 16 to 20 weeks, plus maybe some additional time of base training before that. So that's a long time and during that time you can make the focus different paces. So if you want to get faster and do speed work, that would be just one small component of the whole training. But we want to have the body be able to do the speed work and then recover enough for you to be able to do your long run on the weekend, for example.
Speaker 9:So it's kind of looking at a week and balancing the training. The majority of the week is still going to be at an easier pace, but we have that so that on that one day when you have the speed work, you're able to hit the paces and then allow the body to recover and kind of absorb that effort and make all of the changes that happen in our muscles and our liver and all of these wonderful changes that you know three weeks from now we're able to sustain that pace that we practice three weeks in the past and eventually we get to that race pace. So it's looking at the training cycle, I think, as a whole, and maybe not just from run to run, but of course it feels great to run fast in the moment. It's just hard to take a step back and say, okay, I can't do that every day because I won't be able to continue to hit those paces and my body won't be able to make the changes that it needs to make for race day far in the future.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We emphasize that when we get into the training for a marathon weekend or some of those long challenges, is that you've got your long race weekend but you've got to go back to training again next week, so you've got to be able to do it at a pace which leads us to. We do everything we're supposed to, we pay attention, we go easy on our easy runs and then something starts to hurt, and I use the expression how do I know the difference between an owie and an injury? How do I know okay, this is just a tweak, I can go through it. Or, man, it's time to stop. Or maybe it's time to stop and see the doctor.
Speaker 9:Yeah, yeah. This is a great question. I'm glad we're talking about it. It comes up a lot Again. Let me give you three things so I'm liking this, Michelle.
Speaker 3:Three main points, that's good we can, we can remember those. I appreciate it.
Speaker 9:Otherwise we could write a book and we'll be here till next week. But these are the three main ones. So the first one I would say is think about the timing of the onset. So if you're feeling sore after a long run or after speed work, that makes a lot of sense and most of us will be sore. So if it's happening after a big effort or after you did lots of hills or this weekend my husband and I went hiking and we did like a four mile uphill hike and everything hurt, that makes a lot of sense and so that is usually regular soreness. That will go away quite quickly.
Speaker 9:But if you notice that the owie is happening, like during your warmup or in the middle of a run, that would raise some flags for me Like, okay, why is it happening in the middle of the run? I haven't done my big effort yet, I haven't done my long run this week. This is happening on an easy run. So think about timing of onset. The second thing would be location. So for this one I think bilateral, both sides of the body versus one specific part. So usual soreness after a long run or speed or a hard effort, you would feel that both sides. So maybe you're feeling a little bit of soreness in both of your calves, your glutes, your hamstrings, but if it's always like one hip or one knee, one ankle, one area of the foot that raises more flags for me, so one area that's really bothering you versus generalized soreness in multiple sections of the body.
Speaker 9:And then the third would be relieving factors.
Speaker 9:So if you rest after your long run or your speed work or your hill workout, if you take a rest day and the soreness gets better, that's always a great sign.
Speaker 9:But if the soreness persists or if the pain is still there, even when you're walking up and down the stairs or doing your laundry, and you're like, hmm, that knee is still bugging me, that would also make me scratch my head and say, maybe time to get it checked out. My head and say, maybe time to get it checked out. So always, you know, if you have questions concerns aches pains, don't ignore them. Maybe that's the big, the biggest piece of advice. Like a lot of us run to tune out, and I am not an exception to that, but I want you to tune in when things maybe feel a little bit off and, just if you're, if you're questioning it, think about it and and write it down, like keep a little journal for yourself so that you can follow it and that will help your doctor later on also in figuring out what may be wrong if you end up going to see them.
Speaker 3:That sounds like excellent advice. Appreciate that, Michelle. This has been terrific. It's been fun, but I'm not ready to let you go yet. I want to learn a little more. How about telling us about the Mindful Marathons podcast, please?
Speaker 9:Sure, yeah, so this started a couple of years ago, jack, you will like this. I started the podcast because a friend of mine who is a physical therapist at the hospital where I used to work, he ran a hundred mile trail race.
Speaker 9:And I wanted to interview him about the experience because he was very humble about the whole thing and I had a gazillion questions for him and we compared notes for training and fueling and that kind of stuff and I was like, matt, I would love to just like interview you. And he's like nobody wants to hear about this. I was like no, no, I really think so, and so surprised.
Speaker 9:Yes, so I did it as like a YouTube video, put it up there, and then I started interviewing other friends who were runners and then started interviewing some of my clients who were runners and it sort of morphed into a conversations, sort of podcast, and then now I decided to do some solo cast episodes. So it's a mixture of like an interview show and then running advice mixed in.
Speaker 3:So that's how it started. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, I've listened to several Thank you. Michelle's not as long-winded as we are. Her podcast probably averaged 20 to 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:They're perfect for those tuesday, thursday runs. Yeah, yeah and they're.
Speaker 3:They're enjoyable. Mindful marathon this is the name of that podcast. You can find it. You can find it wherever better podcasters sold right.
Speaker 4:Uh, spotify apple yes, that stuff good so, with all the episodes that you've recorded already, what is your favorite episode that you've ever done on your podcast that you feel like is like the must listen to?
Speaker 9:I have about. I'm up to about episode 35.
Speaker 4:Oh, okay.
Speaker 9:Okay, so it's fairly new, I think I would pick. I'm going to pick the recent one. I interviewed some friends with a local nonprofit here called the Students Run Philly Style, and I love them, I love their group. They are a group in Philly. Other cities have, like Chicago and LA have, a students run group, but they work with middle school and high school students to run the longer distance races here in Philly. So we have the Broad Street Run, which is a 10 mile race that's happening like this coming weekend, and then we have a half marathon and a full marathon in the fall and they have coaches paired as mentors with the students. And these are students who were essentially like me, like not runners, not on the cross country or the track team, just wanting to run for fun. And so, anyway, I interviewed two of the students and one of their mentors and that episode was probably my favorite. It was just a lot of fun, the kids were really uplifting and it was just like a joyful episode.
Speaker 3:I love that it's good.
Speaker 4:Wait. So are there any episodes that you are going to be recording soon, that you're super excited about that will be coming out?
Speaker 9:Let's see yes, I did a springtime surprise. Recap that that was really, really fun as you should that one already came out, but that was really fun, and that was the first time I did my own race recap, so that was a fun one too. That's just me talking, so if you want a solo cast, go for that one.
Speaker 3:She missed the meetup, though, jack oh yeah can I tell you why no?
Speaker 9:that's okay, you can yeah, of course we were doing a monorail crawl for a friend's 40th day outstanding.
Speaker 2:And? And did you run the 10 mile the next day?
Speaker 9:yes, oh man, I I had non-alcoholic beverages so you mentioned springtime.
Speaker 6:Surprise, do you have a favorite run?
Speaker 9:disney weekend, I think probably marathon weekend yeah, I think yeah, yeah, that was my first half marathon and my first full marathon, like. A lot of firsts happened at that weekend, so I mean, they're all really special, but that one is especially. And have you done Disneyland? Yes, not all of them, but a few of them, and I love Disneyland and it's much easier to get my husband to go to California than it is to go to Florida. So I think, he prefers the Disneyland. Okay, that's fine. He's not as much of a Mickey fan as I am.
Speaker 2:I understand that. You're a run coach also. Where can listeners connect to you and learn more about your coaching services?
Speaker 9:I would say two places. The easiest is the website. It's mindful-marathoncom or. I'm pretty active on Instagram and I'm at mindfulmarathon, so you can follow all my adventures over there.
Speaker 5:All right, michelle, so we have loved hearing from you. Where will we see you next? Are you going to be at a Run Disney race soon?
Speaker 9:I am hopeful to be at Princess Weekend. So let us hope that the registration goes okay, because that is the next one that I'm planning to sign up for.
Speaker 3:Okay. Very cool yes. Yes, michelle, it's been grand. Thank you for joining us, for educating us a little bit and just having fun talking with us. We've really enjoyed you being here.
Speaker 9:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 5:It was fun. That was such a fantastic interview with Michelle. I know I got a lot out of it and I hope our listeners did too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was fun, wasn't it, Alicia?
Speaker 5:It was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, alicia's going to talk to us about her run coaching here in an upcoming episode in the next week or two. I think we've got it on the schedule.
Speaker 5:Yep, I think that's what we have.
Speaker 3:Chat with Alicia a little bit, but good stuff. Thanks, michelle and thank you Alicia. A reminder on the Honolulu Marathon. I only bring this up because I know a bunch of us are going, a bunch of the Rise and Run family, a bunch of the customized training family, because of Jeff Galloway announcing it would be his last marathon. There's still a questionnaire and interest link on our Facebook page. Our friend, sherry, is trying to find out what interests, how many people are interested in going and perhaps getting package deals for hotels and maybe some excursions. That's still all very much up in the air but if you fill out the interest it will help her to get an idea how many people are going over to Honolulu in December and maybe an idea of what can be arranged. More details on that as we find them out. I know Sherry just today, the day of recording, just now got back from London. She doubled up recording. Just now got back from London. She doubled up. She did London after Boston.
Speaker 3:Speaking of Boston, before we get to the race report, our spotlight this week, talking to a few friends who did this recent Boston Marathon Friends, let's step back just a week or two here and we love to give time and credit and props to our friends who do world majors. So we had to finish not terribly long ago. We love to give everybody time to get home because folks tend to travel to the majors. Well, let's talk about the Boston Marathon, the 120,. Help me out. Sixth, ninth, ninth, I was close. Running of the Boston Marathon occurred just a couple of weeks ago. We had several friends there, but we've got three of them joining us tonight. Please say hi to Julia, to Danielle and to KG. Thanks for joining us, guys.
Speaker 11:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's fun. Let's see. I'm going to real quick go around the room and let you tell our friends where you're from. And how about just telling us if this was your first major, if not, how many you've done, or just a little recap? Julia, I'll let you start.
Speaker 10:Sure, I'm Julia. I'm from Pittsburgh, pa, and Boston was actually my sixth World Marathon major, so I picked up my six star medal in Boston, which was just an amazing experience all around.
Speaker 3:Yes, I knew that. I did know that you put it in and you should be proud of it. And that's cool, Danielle. How about you?
Speaker 11:Hi, I'm Danielle. I am from South Windsor, connecticut, and, just like Julia, boston was my sixth world major, so I also picked up my Abbott majors medal. Took me 18 months to do and it was the journey of a lifetime, and I'm kind of still riding the Boston high a week later. So it was an experience, and so, yeah, I finished the sixth and I will be off to Sydney for number seven in August.
Speaker 3:Oh man, that's really cool.
Speaker 11:Thank you.
Speaker 3:KG. You're up, my friend.
Speaker 8:Hi everyone, kg here. I am from Medford, mass, which is just outside of Boston, and this was actually my second time hitting the start line of Boston and, spoiler alert, it was my first finish, so big redemption tour this year. It's really exciting that's cool.
Speaker 3:I'm excited for all of you. That's outstanding news. All right, let's see we you know sometimes, and let's go ahead and talk a little bit. Sometimes I like to talk about the expos for the world majors. Any comments, anything exciting, any observations on the expo?
Speaker 8:I really enjoy the expo and I think, especially for folks that go to a lot of run Disney races, it feels very similar but it also feels, I think, a little bit more hectic. And for someone who grew up in the Boston area, finally getting to the Boston Marathon Expo just feels even more, almost like momentous. Like you walk in and you're like wow, it is huge. And for everybody listening if you think the snake room is bad at a run Disney race, for everybody listening if you think the snake room is bad at a run Disney race the amount of lines and curves and swirls that you do through the Heinz Convention Center at the Expo is incredible. They are so organized, there are so many people and again, it feels a little bit hectic but it also still feels smooth. I think they do a really nice job at also making it feel inclusive.
Speaker 8:I think for me, my favorite part of the expo is seeing the giant Boston Marathon wall that has the names of every athlete that's running the race or participating in the race and seeing how excited everybody gets when they find their name is so cool. So it's like cool to find your name. But if you ever go, just stand there for a few minutes and watch everybody else find their name on that wall. It is such a cool experience to see how excited everybody gets like, oh, there I am, I'm really doing it. It's like one of those moments where people are like, oh, this is really happening.
Speaker 3:I think those moments are the best.
Speaker 8:I'm on the wall, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good. Danielle, did you find yourself on the wall?
Speaker 11:I did. I was like the second or third row from the bottom near the floor. So I had to like crouch down between people's legs and like leave and like find my name. I was like there I am. I'm like upside down on the floor, I'm like it's there, it's there. No, boston is a very well-oiled machine when it comes to the expo and everything around it. My only criticism of the expo is that there weren't a lot or a ton of exhibitors or outside vendors, and I know that's because I think Adidas has kind of pushed a lot of the vendors out. So I would say the run Disney exhibitor room is better than what Boston has. But the flip side to that is that off of Boylston Street and Newberry Street, that's where all the pop-ups were, which I wish I knew going in because I missed a lot of it. Like every, a lot of different athletic stores had pop-ups or companies took up little spaces and had their own events with like shakeout runs, merchandise, specials, group events, and I've heard that was pretty incredible.
Speaker 8:And one of the secrets, if you're in the area or from the area too, is a lot of those shops like Marathon Sports, for example, on Boy area too is a lot of those shops like Marathon Sports, for example, on Boylston Street, has a lot of the official merch and they usually have more sizes and it's a little bit easier to get in, get the merch you want and then leave, instead of the massive lines in the Adidas section. So I feel like that's a little local pro tip. If you're heading to the expo and you're looking for the merch and don't want to wait in really long lines, definitely hit up those those shops in the pop-ups.
Speaker 11:Dick's Sporting Goods had a lot of the same merch too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Okay, julia, kg and Danielle talked about finding their names. I'm just curious, and I don't know the answer to this one Was there a special area, was there with folks who were earning their six star, where they had names also?
Speaker 10:Yes, so we had our names on the six star hopeful wall and then at the Abbott world marathon majors booth they also had a wall. I think they do it for the past like year of finishers. I think the number of six star finishers is hovering over like 22,000 at this point in time, so they don't have all of the names on there, but they'll have them for the next couple of races. So I'm actually doing Chicago in the fall and I'm excited to see my name on that finisher list when.
Speaker 10:I go back to that expo.
Speaker 11:I'm spectating Chicago and New York so I'll see it there and I'm hoping they have it up for Sydney. So, if I find it in Sydney, Julia, I'll let you know.
Speaker 10:Yes, take a picture of my name, I will Thank you.
Speaker 11:I'm so excited. Finding our name on the Hope Falls list was really really cool too.
Speaker 3:That is. That's really fantastic. We had several others. I'll mention them after we're done here. I I know we had several. We had a couple folks who went from boston to london and knocked out a six star at london. I don't none of you went to london this year, did you?
Speaker 10:no, they said they did announce that there are I think 67 people that got star five in boston and then went on to get six in London the following weekend.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think a couple of them are friends of the podcast. I know at least one.
Speaker 11:I actually went to London to spectate the marathon right after Boston. My best friend is actually one of those people who got star number five in Boston and star number six in London. She and I were supposed to run London together last year for star number five in Boston and star number six in London. She and I were supposed to run London together last year for star number three and she broke her leg four weeks before on a training run like five miles in. She slipped on ice and she needed surgery and she tried to get permission to do the race on crutches and everybody told her no.
Speaker 11:But she still flew to London three weeks post-op with her boot and knee scooter to be sure that I still had somebody there to spectate for me. So she followed me around two different checkpoints in London still recovering from surgery and it pushed back her. We were both planning on finishing in Boston but because she deferred London she was going to go this year. So after she still flew to London to spectate me, I flew to London to spectate her. So it was really cool to be on the spectating end of the World Majors ride last week and to watch all the six-star hopefuls get their medals, including my best friend who was one of those 67. So that was really cool.
Speaker 3:We know the Boston Marathon is point to point.
Speaker 10:Did? I assume you stayed around the finish and took a bus to Hopkinton. Is that how it worked? It's actually very efficient how they were shuttling people on, but that's how they bus everyone out to what's called Athletes Village, where you kind of hang out for a little bit before they call you to get into your corrals, because the start line is actually about a mile from the Athletes Village. So you get called to the start line and then you file into your corral from there.
Speaker 2:Is that a free service or is that something you need to sign up for?
Speaker 10:And it's free. It goes by your wave, so it's different times for different waves and it's free. Now there are some other folks that you can, you know, have chartered buses that go up there and that would be for an additional cost, but for the masses going on the school buses, that's all included.
Speaker 11:I was very surprised at how again a good, well-oiled machine that was. It was a big crowd, for you know that's way for people who needed to get there at 9 am, but it was really efficient. It took a bit to load everybody but there were like 20 different queues with rows and rows and rows of buses so they were just getting them off and they had dedicated like parts of the street blocked off just to get the buses to I-90, to get them on the road, and it was. I was pretty much in awe of how well, like, down to a science, the execution of the Boston Marathon is.
Speaker 3:Keiichi, I know the elites go off first. Do you get a chance to see that?
Speaker 8:We did not, so I was also in wave four. So by the time we got to Hopkinton most of them had already either finished or were pretty close to it.
Speaker 3:That's not fair.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I feel like that's always tough. What's exciting, though, is, by the time you're either in the corral or on your way, there's lots of excitement and chatter about where the elites are, how things are going, things like that, and I think that makes it just as fun, because you're kind of like celebrating and talking about it with other people that are just as excited about actually experiencing it.
Speaker 3:And you're about to hit the same course, which is a neat thing.
Speaker 8:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Eventually, Danielle. You had wonderful weather, didn't you?
Speaker 11:We did. It was a beautiful day and I know historically for the Boston Marathon KJ, I'm sure you can back this up. Boston is very hit or miss this time of year, oh yeah.
Speaker 11:It could be really hot or really cold, or a swimming pool or completely dry, and the Boston Marathon is known to get a fair amount of range in weather. But it was beautiful. This year it did warm up a little bit during the race. I think it got to the 60s at one point with no shade. But by the time most of us in Wave four finished, the clouds started to come in and it just it took the edge off. Just enough at the end that it was sweltering, but it was one of the best weather days for a race, in my opinion at least.
Speaker 8:Yeah, and in comparison to last year it was hot. Last year it was like mid-70s no shade whatsoever the entire course. And this year I remember a lot of folks when you're like before you actually hit the city, people were like it's cooler in the city. The temps are going back down.
Speaker 8:So a lot of people were like they could see that people were hot and they're like don't worry, you're going to hit some more clouds as soon as you get into the city. So, I think a lot of people that spectate Boston as well kind of know what the runners are thinking by the time they're hitting Brookline and actually getting into the city too.
Speaker 11:And that is about what happened. By the time we hit the city limits, the temperature dropped and we had the cloud cover. A friend of mine from high school, her husband, ran Boston a few years ago and I promise this is a relevant story to the weather. Her husband ran Boston a few years ago and I promise this is a relevant story to the weather. The year he ran, I think it was in 2018 or 19.
Speaker 3:18 was the worst weather ever, he said he hit all four seasons in one day.
Speaker 11:It started high and then got low and then started downpouring and then he said he got all four seasons in one day and it was one of the oddest days of the Boston Marathon ever. And I heard them like, okay, I remember hearing about that now, but to talk to someone who actually ran that year, I only.
Speaker 3:I only remember watching 18. So I only watched the elite and that was about the worst weather I could imagine. It was like 35 degrees, about 30 mile an hour winds, and it was pouring rain. It was awful. That was the year Des Linden won.
Speaker 8:It was very fun to spectate. I will say oh boy you're. You're pretty courageous, you're a trooper in that weather that was actually my first year back to spectate the boston marathon since the marathon bombings and I had a bunch of friends that were running that year, so it was a very big race in general and I mean boston knows how to get after it and if you give them any kind of crazy weather, people will be outside drinking and trash bags and whatever else you got to keep them dry. They'll figure it out.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, julia, you're now in Hopkinton. You're toeing the line for the Boston Marathon and your sixth world major. What's going through your mind?
Speaker 10:Just excitement, you know, ready to get going. I think that it's something that I had been working towards since my very first marathon, which was Chicago 2019. And the fact that I was about to accomplish this momentous goal that I had been working toward for so long, it was just, it was surreal, for lack of a better term. I couldn't believe that it was actually happening. And, of course, you know, I think the the best, two best places are at the start line and the finish line of a marathon. And at the start line, everyone has that nervous energy. You're kind of all in it together. Everyone has that nervous energy. You're kind of all in it together. And the start of a marathon is like the camaraderie is just if you need anything.
Speaker 10:Hey, does anyone have a tissue? Does anyone have chapstick? Does anyone have, you know, an extra bottle of water and people just start like throwing things at you. It's one of the most fun places in the world, because you're all excited and ready to go and everyone kind of knows that they're about to share this experience with the people around them, and there's only you know, less than 30,000 people that can say they shared that experience on that day, which is so cool.
Speaker 3:How about you, Danielle?
Speaker 11:It was realizing that it was a culmination of this epic journey of the mayor of the world majors, and there was so much excitement walking out to the start and the music was blasting. The crowds are roaring. Everybody in the crowds were just so excited. And so the start line of the Boston mayor the corrals are on an uphill. You crest the hill and the race starts going down. So for me I know I could feel like the energy and the excitement building the further up the hill I got and you crest it and you hit the start and it's just everything like release and you just went. It was incredible. It was so much fun. It was just realizing I was actually crossing the start line was yeah.
Speaker 3:Keiji how are you feeling at start time? Now you had a different challenge because you tried last year, didn't make it. There's no. You know that's no big deal, we know that happens. But how are you feeling at start?
Speaker 8:You know it was. It was great because, like you mentioned, last year I had my first ever DNF after a lovely little visit with the EMT at mile 14 or so. Last year and both years I ran with the Doug Flutie Jr Foundation for Autism in honor of my nephew, and two things that I said when I hit the start line this year. One is that I am not allowing a single negative thought to cross my mind this year.
Speaker 3:Good for you.
Speaker 8:I was like if it doesn't feel great, I can say it doesn't feel great, but I'm still going to keep going, and that was my mindset through the whole entire race and I think that actually made a big impact on the day for me. The other thing was thinking really about why I was running the race, not only just for redemption, for myself, but for my nephew, for everyone in the autism community. The Flutie Foundation is also the sponsor for the adaptive program and we had 17 adaptive runners on our team this year. So really like running alongside these incredible athletes that you know are benefiting from. You know, the money that we all raised for the Flutie Foundation just gives you such a great reminder of why things like this are important and the impact is bigger than just than just you and, like you said, julia, you know all the people that you're running with and being able to kind of keep that forefront was was huge for me.
Speaker 3:That's great. All right, let's get to the course Highlights, please.
Speaker 11:You don't have to go mile by mile, but how about some highlights? Danielle, I'll ask you to kick it off. I would say when we were in all of the individual towns, like Framingham, natick and Wellesley, and each town showed up in their own way to spectate and every town was a party for me, just people overflowing the streets, screaming your name.
Speaker 3:Honestly, you wore it on your shirt, of course.
Speaker 11:Yes, I have a Boston shirt.
Speaker 3:I have a Boston shirt.
Speaker 11:If you ever want to feel like a celebrity, put your name on your shirt running a world major. I never felt more cool in my entire life than running the Boston marathon or running any of the majors. But for me, I have my own opinions about the course itself, but the thing that really did it for me was the support, as KG says. For me was the support. As KG says, boston turns out, boston shows up for this marathon in a huge way and everywhere where I would have needed an ounce of support, there were hundreds and if not thousands of people lining the street in these little mountains and that was a highlight and towards the finish, was probably my highlight of the course In general. The support is what made the course awesome for me, yeah.
Speaker 3:I think it's a huge source of civic pride for the city of Boston. I really do, and it's well-deserved. Kg, I'll come back to you. What were your highlights?
Speaker 8:I would say very, very similar. Especially, I was very back of the pack, like very, very late as it was, and every person that walked by me because at that point I had probably moved over to the sidewalk and there were people that were like you got this, you can do it, keep going. People cheered until the last person crossed the finish line, which you see on the news and it's incredible. But to see people out there all day long was really unbelievable and I think the other part for me that was really exciting is especially after last year. Finally, seeing the congratulations on hitting the summit of Hot Break Hill was was pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, julia, julia, I'll give you the same question, but I'm going to toss in something else here. How does it compare to some of the other world majors?
Speaker 10:I found this course to be technically the most difficult, but I think that, as you know, danielle and KG have both said the why you run this race isn't because of the course.
Speaker 10:Why you run this race is because of the history, because of the spectators and because of the runners around you. So I was, you know, constantly reminding myself you are running the Boston Marathon. You know, like you're not going to remember what time you hit or what time you didn't hit. When you retell the story in 10 years, you're going to remember the experience and the energy and how excited you were the whole time. And I, you know, anytime I would start to hurt or get in the pain cave, or those creeps would, those thoughts would creep in of oh, I just wish this were over. I, you know, had to pull myself back to reality and say no, you are running the Boston Marathon. This is a core memory. This is such an experience that you will take with you. Enjoy it the sights, the sounds, and I think that you know my highlights are probably just the support along the way. Obviously, the Wellesley Screen Tunnel is, and I was blowing kisses the whole way to everyone that was there the kids, the college students that were from Boston.
Speaker 10:College. You know they're all having a great time, everyone having like lawn parties, and there were spectators that literally had tables set up with anything that you could possibly want, because they were there to support their runners. And I will say, you know, having run all of the majors, the last half mile when you make those turns you know on to Hereford and Boylston are just incredible and you feel like such a rock star and you're completing something that you know is the culmination of thousands of training miles, years of work and it's just such an amazing feeling to to cross that finish line and get it done that that absolutely nothing compares.
Speaker 11:It was approaching here. For that it truly hit me like a ton of bricks that I was finishing the Boston marathon and that I was finishing the six-star journey. I actually had a personal bust in Boston, but I knew I was doing it and that I got to finish this historic race for the most. I ran for an amazing charity to support them and I was cresting the last bit of on things Commonwealth as a street and I could see the road start to turn. And then I saw the Hereford sign and just started bawling. That was the moment I knew I did it. I I had over 25 miles. I had less than half a mile to go.
Speaker 11:I was there and I'm there. I'm doing this, doing it. I'm actually, it's actually happening. And I'm texting my husband. I'm like, right, doing it, it's actually happening. And I'm texting my husband. I'm like right on Hereford and I'm like running up the hill left on Boylston. I'm like hyperventilating at the top of the hill, and then I just you make the left-hand turn and it's less than half a mile. It's like three-tenths of a mile, four-tenths of a mile, and you just see the big finish line in the distance and it's just a straight down and the straight of boils like boilson was packed. It was packed and you could hear people for miles.
Speaker 11:I actually turned my music off the last mile just to listen and just be in it, and that is probably one of the best things I've ever done in a race was not listen to the music I love it wow, like I think you cagey and joy you can vouch, the crowd cares you like, pretty much carries you to the finish line if you ever want to feel like a rock star, run the last half mile of the boston marathon, because, yeah, I.
Speaker 10:it's like six people deep, just a wall of sound around you and it's just amazing.
Speaker 3:I love the excitement. I really do, and KG, julia and Danielle beat me to my last question because I was going to ask you turn left on Boylston. What are you thinking?
Speaker 8:I am also cheesing and like tearing up so hard over here because, as someone who grew up here, my whole life I've worked on Boylston Street. I went to school in the city Like hearing people not from Boston talk about how impactful the city is for them and the race is. I could literally listen to it all day long and cry. It's incredible.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's fantastic, yeah, and.
Speaker 8:Boylston Street is very special to me. Like I said, I worked there for a long time. I was there for the Boston Marathon bombings and there's just so much history and like personal memories on Boylston Street for me that it's such a special place. And, like everybody said so far, like you turn and you're like, oh my God, this is it, like we're doing it, we are almost there and it just gets louder and louder as you go up Boylston, then it's just something you really can't do justice in words. You have to really experience it.
Speaker 3:Well, you three are doing a really good job of it. You really are. I appreciate it.
Speaker 11:I don't. I even feel the tears welling up now.
Speaker 1:I believe you.
Speaker 11:It's not something that happens very often. I can't remember the last time I cried at a race. That wasn't because I was in pain, but it's just. It's one of the most core memories were made that day at the Boston Marathon. It's just the crowds, the energy, the impact, the memories, the history and just knowing. Oh my gosh. I am one of the people crossing the finish line at this amazing event and I know for me. My family flew in from out of town to be here and they've never spectated me before and I have memories of me and my daughter hanging over the barricade and everybody's screaming and my dad's like that's my girl, my girl's running the boss of the marathon, my girl's finishing.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's wonderful.
Speaker 11:And I'm just like I'm not going to make it over here, guys. That's wonderful. I actually stopped and I'm like crying and I'm like throwing up hearts and I like book it to the end because I knew I was doing it. But I saw that same energy that my family gave me, Like everybody was throwing themselves over, like you've got this, you're at the end, you're going, you're going, you're going, and it's amazing how much that sticks with you.
Speaker 10:The support is just unreal. And I'll say you also never know who you're impacting with your journey.
Speaker 10:So, I have been posting about it probably a little bit too much. I'm going to stop soon because I've got some other races coming up. But people that I went to college with or to high school with that I probably haven't talked to in 15 years were commenting on my post saying like you're inspiring me on my own journey and things like that. You're inspiring me on my own journey and things like that. So it's just, you know, like you have your own personal experience where you're getting energy and inspiration from those around you.
Speaker 2:But you also don't know who you're inspiring with your journey as well, which is something that I thought was really cool and something that, you know, I didn't even know was happening until these people were saying, no, it's very true, very true. Boston Marathon's completed. What's up next for you guys, and when is the next time you're going to be at Disney? Julia?
Speaker 10:So I actually have the Pittsburgh Half Marathon and 5K Challenge Love, a Good Challenge coming up this upcoming weekend, and then the Brooklyn Half two weeks after that, and then I'll go into building towards Chicago Marathon in October I will be at Weinensein in the fall, as well as doing my sixth Dopey Challenge in January.
Speaker 2:Okay, All right, danielle.
Speaker 11:My next big race on the calendar is also the Brooklyn half? Um in May. Um, gearing up then for um, I have some other New York roadrunners, 10 Ks and five Ks. In the meantime, um, I'm running the Sydney marathon in September and August. I'm we'll be down for wine and dine to spectate. I am up for the. I'm going to be running the Every Woman's Marathon in Scottsdale, arizona, this November and I am on tap to do my second Dobie in January and then princess in February, because I'm a princess every year.
Speaker 2:Okay, Jay, let's go. What do you? What do you got coming up you?
Speaker 8:know I am trying to give myself a little bit of a rest. Okay, which is nice. So my next race is the Run to Home Base in Boston. I'm doing the 5K, which supports veterans' mental health, and you actually get to cross home plate at Fenway Park.
Speaker 3:Fenway yeah.
Speaker 8:Yeah, it's one of my favorites that I do every year and then got in today for the 5K for Disneyland and I'll be at Miss Piggy Yoga, because there was no way I was missing anything. Miss Piggy themed in January and then I will also be at Princess, my favorite race weekend.
Speaker 3:KG, have you done a Boston wrap on your podcast yet?
Speaker 8:not yet the podcast, because Boston has been such a big focus, been on a little bit of a hiatus, but lots, lots more to come.
Speaker 2:I have to have.
Speaker 8:Julia and Danielle come do another extra spot yes, you should Sure, yes, you should.
Speaker 3:So, friends, if you want to hear more live in the KG life, yes, look for it. Guys, that was awesome. That was one of the better summaries we've had Well, maybe ever. That was just a great job. Thank you so much for joining us. It was fun and we really look forward to seeing you soon.
Speaker 8:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 3:It was fun, exciting and wonderful talking to Danielle, julia and Kristen, you know, as KG probably. I don't want to forget other friends who ran Boston Boyd, sherry, steve. Steve also completed his sixth star, jason I hope we hear from Jason because Jason ran Boston and then went to London and completed his sixth star in London. Bob was at Boston, as was Devin. Congratulations everyone. Let's see my friends. It's time for the Race Report. The Race Report is sponsored by Thomas Stokes. Our friend Tom of Stoked Metabolic Training, Stokesfit, slash Rise and Run Coaching is the website. You can find more information pinned the featured section on our Facebook group page. Friends, let's start the race report.
Speaker 3:On Friday in Louisville, kentucky, part of a race weekend, the inaugural running of the Kentucky Derby Festival 5K. Ashley was there, about a thousand runners for this event. We're going to hear more from Ashley next week about this race. So let's move on. We had another weekend long event in Eugene, oregon, eugene Marathon weekend. Jonathan was there. Jonathan did the Krusty's Double Stack Challenge 5K and half marathon, both races ending at historic Hayward Field on the University of Oregon, jonathan saying maybe the most iconic running track in the US. Yeah, I would not argue that. I can think of a couple others, but that certainly is way up there. You get to finish this race in the stadium where the world and US champions have finished their races. Kind of a feeling like no other. Says Jonathan, no matter how tired you are to finish, you're going to run those last 200 meters as though you're just starting your race. He had four goals for this trip to the States the two Eugene races which are done now, a run on the Nike jogging track at their headquarters in Beaverton and then doing the Save the 10,000 virtual run.
Speaker 3:A race from another podcast. I think that's Des Lindeninden's podcast. I'm not sure and I'm not being obtuse. I'm not sure the name of it. I'm almost positive. But others there, brandy was there. Brandy ran the half, uh, lost her race to a pair of pancakes. The race mascots Flap Jack and Flap Jill, who giving these big costumes. She posted a video of it. It's kind of fun and they run five minute miles. She had a great time there. Christina was there. Christina ran the half started fast, kind of congested as they ran through the streets of Eugene. The runners in Corral Sea had a nine minute per mile pace that she kind of got swept up in A little faster than she wanted to start but she was fine. The finish, as Jonathan said, is amazing. You get to run into the stadium, finish on the track. They had great post-race activities. That's up in Eugene Sounds good guys.
Speaker 3:Saturday, the other half of that event in Louisville, kentucky, and, as I mentioned, we'll get Allison not Allison, ashley and Sarah to join us next week, but on Saturday they ran the Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon, the half marathon, neat event, 12,000 runners for this. One. Starts in downtown Louisville, goes through the historic old Louisville, does go into Churchill Downs, finishes back at Waterfront Park. Let's see. Ashley had a three-hour goal and just missed it. Three hours, two minutes. Sarah was there. Sarah said a PR, but it's the kind of PR I want to wait and let her tell you about Again. We'll hear from Ashley and Sarah next week.
Speaker 3:Rob was in Punta Gorda, florida, for the Gator Wilderness Camp 15K trail run. Lots of fun, nice wooded course. The best part was the Gators slowly approaching the 15K start line, which was right next to the lake, which I'm going to say was probably decent motivation to get off to a good start. Best post-race setup Rob's seen in a while. Lots of good food at the finish line.
Speaker 3:Marty was in Atlanta, did the run-like wild 5K at Zoo Atlanta. There was a rock and roll series run in Nashville the St Jude rock and roll running series. Jennifer and her daughter was there. Jennifer says when she looked up the results this morning there was an article in the Tennessean that popped up and the first thing she noticed was a picture of a woman wearing a Rise and Run t-shirt. Pretty cool. Now Jennifer's daughter is named Baker Baker. Nice job, young lady, a 30-minute half marathon. Pr Baker. This PR bell is for you. Anthony was there rocking the half. Leslie was there, as was Amy. Amy said no PR, but she still felt amazing, even on the Nashville Hills I've run in Nashville a little bit. Yeah, I sure can get hilly Ran a minute faster than her magic mile prediction time. Good for you, weather was outstanding. She was rocking her Rise and Run t-shirt, met a friend who took her medal photo on the bridge, who also listens to the podcast. That's pretty cool. This one gave Amy the confidence she needs going into the flat Broad Street 10 miler.
Speaker 3:Lori was in Canton for the draft day 10K Canton, ohio. One in four in a series of races that will total 26.2 miles. Drizzly cool day. Weather's off and on up in that part of the country. Back to layers again. Another race that gives you a Chick-fil-A sandwich at the finish. That's always a good thing.
Speaker 3:Lisa in Nevada, for the biggest little half marathon in Reno, was expecting rain, got snow snow in April in Reno. They were able to wait under shelter until race start. In honor of Aaron, lisa stopped and gave out pets to all the furry supporters along the way without having to adjust her pace and after doing a 5K and 10K two days prior, she PR'd this half and got a lovely new piece of hardware. Gotta love the bling, lisa, good job. Gotta love the bling, lisa, good job. Patrick was in Atlanta running the Move for Grady Grady Foundation run.
Speaker 3:Lessa was in Elizabethtown, tennessee, for the Music and Miles Half. Her goal for the year and she expected to do this in November, by November anyway was to have a sub three-hour half marathon. Well, today, meaning Saturday, she reached that goal already. So that's I'm assuming that's a PR. Lessa, congratulations, I'm glad you're excited about it. That's cool. Congratulations, I'm glad you're excited about it. That's cool.
Speaker 3:Dorothy's in Kennesaw, georgia, the Fit City 5K this is race one of the Kennesaw Grand Prix Course is close to her home. So she's actually been on her 49th try. This is eight and a half years after setting a previous record. So good for you. Dorothy's added some strength training at the Y and coach Chris's speed work really paying off for good stuff. Speaking of draft day, our buddy, tony was in Green Bay, wisconsin, where the NFL draft was held. Running the draft day 5k along the Fox river, he broke his PR that he'd set only a few months ago, running a 23, 20, 5k, closing in just a couple seconds away from his seven 30 per running a 23.20.5K, closing in just a couple seconds away from his 7.30 minute per mile goal. Tony, that's outstanding, good job.
Speaker 3:Robin was in Milford, michigan, for the Michigan Made Half Marathon. A couple of hills that showed up during the race surprised her. A small race, everyone was really kind, supportive of one another, and she ran a 20-minute PR. Let's go to Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma City Memorial 5K. Anna was there in New Holland, pennsylvania, not far from where they run Bird in Hand, the Garden Spot Village Half Marathon. This is in fact a sister race of Bird in Hand. If you run this half and then run the one in September, you get the coveted Road Apple Award.
Speaker 3:At the end of the Bird in Hand race, steve and ally were there. Ally, without any ally. Heard her back thursday morning washing her foot in the shower ally, you're too young for that, all right, you shouldn't be injuring yourself by washing in the shower. But she wasn't sure that she wanted to start the race. But she woke up feeling pretty good. That's always nice. Fortunately Steve was there. They ran together this one's hilly, a little bit of horse poop to dodge along the way. It rained the whole race so that made some of the spots a little, we'll say, messy. So there they are, and both Steve and Allie now are halfway to their poop on a plaque. Award coming up at Bird in Hand. Next race up for Steve is the Maine Coast Half Marathon this Saturday. Let's see the Erie. Runners Club 224.4,. Michelle did it left us this recorded report. Good morning Rise. And. Runners Club 2-2, 4.4. Michelle did it. Left us this recorded report.
Speaker 7:Good morning Rise and Runners. This is Michelle from Erie, pa. I just finished the 4.4 of a 2-2 run and it was well prepared. I had all of my 2-2 running fans from Disney in my mind and we had a great race. Happy running to everybody, cheers.
Speaker 3:Jennifer with her running buddy, juliet ran the Girls on the Run 5K in Lewisburg, pennsylvania. Rain stopped right before the race started but part of the course was muddy, like huge mud puddles Kind of, I think. For a girls on the run race. I can imagine having fun in that, but I'm not sure. 63 degrees at the start, it's a nice temp, a little humid, lots of fun encouraging one another during that race. Way to go, jennifer and Juliet.
Speaker 3:Out in Utah, the Salt Lake City Marathon. Emily we're getting a report from her sister, sarah, because Emily's not on Facebook. Emily said there was a change to the course after she signed up that included more elevation gain. That didn't stop her from PRing by 20 minutes. Nicely done, emily and Sarah. Thanks for the report.
Speaker 3:In Lake Wylie, south Carolina, debbie did the 10K and Blake did the 5K in the Run for Life series. Out there, redemption run for Debbie Personal record of just under 58 minutes on a hilly 10K and first place in her age group. Way to go, debbie Finishes downhill. She was pumping her fists with excitement and celebration, knew she'd hit her goal, also a little teary-eyed because she was just so relieved and happy to be running and feeling good. And, debbie, we're happy for you, I promise I'm glad. I know you had a scare a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully that's all behind you. It sure sounds like it is. It sounds like Blake is recovering from his knee surgery pretty well also, so that's very encouraging and exciting. Really happy to hear it.
Speaker 3:Let's go to Juliette, illinois, for the Rock Run 5K. Kelly and her husband, dave, did this one Small local race around an industrial park, not much to look at, but Dave's work was one of the race sponsors. They paid for the race entry, so can't complain about that, and they got her done in Juliette. Let's finish Saturday in Chesapeake Beach, maryland, where Carrie and Catherine did the eighth annual Shatter, the Stigma 5K. This is a rail trail run which. This part of the rail trail is a boardwalk over wetlands and paths that follow an old railway path. Now, rail trails are fun. I'm not familiar with boardwalk rail trails, but this looks great About 10 minutes from their house. Does training runs there regularly. The course is mostly flat, except there was a steep hill at mile two. Both Catherine and Kerry got 5k prs.
Speaker 3:We move to sunday a running event that's on a lot of folks bucket list the big sir international marathon weekend. Bunch of different races here 5k, 12k, 11 miles, 21 miles in full. A couple of unusual distances. Our friend jack, the camden county runner, did the full. Bethany did the 12k. It's her first ever 12k, so we know what that means. She gets the pr despite making several stops on this breathtaking course hilly but cool and a hundred percent worth it. Now jen did the 11 miler. Also complements the organization of the race countless volunteers passing out water, electrolytes, flute and fruit along the way. One of the highlights for this weekend for Jen was meeting up with Bethany. I think that's terrific. Jen doesn't mention it as her only 11 miler, so I'm going to just assume she's done it before and I'm going to pass on the PR bill. You can correct me if I'm wrong. Jen Staying out in California another popular event.
Speaker 3:This one was postponed due to the LA fires not long ago. But the Rose Bowl Half Marathon in Pasadena starts and finishes at another famous stadium. Fred and Jackie did this one. This race completes the Conquer LA Challenge. For them. This challenge is 48.6 miles. You get six medals for it. Sound familiar. That's why Jackie likes to call it the SoCal Dopey, both of them excited to finally finish this one. Kayla was out there too Great weather. The final miles were the toughest. On this one she had a minor fall at mile four, dropping her out of the three-hour pace group, but she continued with her run-walk-run intervals, finished at the stadium, felt great. Good job. Friends. Let's go to Australia.
Speaker 3:The Ballarat Marathon this weekend includes a 5K and a mile championship on Saturday, a full half and a 10K on Sunday. Rebecca Jane and her husband, john, were there. Essentially they ran as the sweepers, the six-hour balloon ladies. If you will not john balloon people, balloon persons it'll have to be, since it was rebecca and john. Uh, the events only in its second year, gaining rapidly in popularity in australia. You run around a lake which was beautiful, stunning views, black swans and ducks, a highlight. A roar of cheering as they passed, a pub full of athletes and their families with their back-of-the-pack running group Pacing six hours thrilled, to finish at 5.59.38. Pretty daggum good. 39.38. Pretty daggum good. Hopefully that confirms her pacing gig for Sydney in late August.
Speaker 3:John deliberately dropped back just a little bit to finish with. I think it was an 82-year-old gentleman who finished this race in just over the six-hour time. There was also a gentleman, mick Marshall, who in this marathon broke the world record, becoming the first person ever to finish a sub six-hour marathon on crutches. Oh, my goodness, wendy was there also. Good to hear from Wendy. She's out running. I know ross is uh recovering from an injury not injury illness and he's doing some running also.
Speaker 3:But wendy did this marathon. She met rebecca at the expo and she got introduced to the 530 pacer. She opted to start with them but wendy felt really strong. At the halfway point Ross told her she was seven minutes ahead of that 5 30 group. Lots of entertainment on the course, nice crowds again, the scenery was glorious, everything went her way. So she finished and this was her first marathon. This is a PR five hours, 10 minutes, wendy. Way to go.
Speaker 3:A biggie in bloomfield, connecticut. We've been talking about it for a while the balloon green 5k. Sue, it's the big day. Sue finished town number 169 of the connecticut 169. Uh, this is, I believe, bloomfield. Bloomfield is the town where sue grew up, so it was a perfect way to end this quest. Great flat race with her running friend friends feels great. Now can't wait to get back out there and run the races that she most enjoyed in the quest and do them over again. Way to go squat.
Speaker 3:The sacramento, california, the american river parkway 5k bridget was there took advantage of being on a trip to the area. Rainy and cool weather in sacramento, some smaller hills on the race, but this is a great way to see a spot she might have missed otherwise. They even had bagpipers at the start. In portland, maine, the, the Portland 10 miler. Heidi ran this one, rainy and cold, for this race. She's on track for a PR up till about seven and a half miles and her knees started acting up. Must have been all those hills. Sure, could have been Heidi, but good job sticking it out and finishing In Rochester, new York, the Rochester Regional Health Flower City Challenge Half Marathon.
Speaker 3:A couple of friends running this one, amy. Amy says everything about the race was just about perfect. Course went through some beautiful areas of Rochester. She even picked up a running partner for 10 or so miles when a struggling runner asked if she could run walk with her. And then Amy winds up with nearly a 12-minute PR. Congratulations, amy. You've just been doing really well lately. We're proud of you. Really well lately. We're proud of you. Allison says she fueled and hydrated wonderfully and just missed her two-hour goal Just a tiny bit over two hours. Allison, you'll get that. Haley nailed a goal. She was after the 2.30 half marathon, did it and finished with an 11-minute PR. Nice job everyone.
Speaker 3:Let's go to Toledo, ohio, for the Glass City half and marathon. Nicole with her sisters, kristen and Mallory. Nicole decided to register when she saw she had 13 miles on her training schedule anyway and her sisters were already registered. So what? The heck Course was pretty nice, one of her favorite parts. There were two churches in the second mile of the course and they had priests outside throwing holy water on the runners as they passed by. I think that's cool. A little bit confusing. At the end of the course Now, even though they ran a pretty decent time, they were towards the back and there weren't many runners with them and they were afraid they were lost. Now they saw a runner a couple hundred feet in front of them, followed him. They finally caught him and passed him and he goes. Oh good runners. I thought I was off course but, like I say, they finished in 240, which is more than respectable, and after party was excellent. So all's well that ends well. Weather was beautiful, turned out being a great day. The vintage 5k ink in Texas. Katrina and her children did this one. This is the running family. They walked this event because they were wearing stitch onesies which were probably kind of warm. The kids are looking to do their first ever 5 and 10k at Marathon Weekend in 2026. At Marathon Weekend in 2026.
Speaker 3:In Northern Virginia, megan ran the Alexandria Half Marathon. Weather was cool and nice. Beat her previous half marathon time by over 40 minutes. That's a major PR, megan. Megan says this is scientific proof that glitter makes you run faster. I'll take your word for it, megan. I'm not going to test it out Again. We've got a report being submitted. Beth is submitting a report for her husband, mike, who did the Gettysburg Blue Gray Half Marathon in Pennsylvania. Mike finished the race at 2.37. Just missing that Disney POT. Still nice race, really great looking medal for this one.
Speaker 3:Let's go out to Maui where Valerie ran the Maui Half Marathon first time at this event. Not a lot of crowd support, but the way it was set up, there were a lot of fellow runners supporting one another, a lot of out and backs on the course, a little difficult emotionally running in the Lahaina area following all those devastating fires. Valerie's 12-year-old son PR'd in the 5K. Their daughter also PR'd and won her age group with her husband pacing her. And Valerie said a Hawaii PR. Of course, the big event this weekend and I haven't forgotten, the London Marathon. Now we're going to have the London Marathoners join us in a couple of weeks, so I'm just going to hit the highlights here for now.
Speaker 3:Anna ran this one felt good until mile seven foot started giving her problems. She adjusted her intervals, visited the med tent, got some painkiller, installed her British stiff upper lip and carried on. Ashley ran it a little warm and all of our runners commented on how warm it was, great crowds. Carolyn was there with Jennifer. Sherry ran this one Also ran Boston. Devin did that same double up, also running Boston. Gabby did it Marathon number 12 for her Finished strong, happy and healthy. That's the way to do it. Grace comments on the heat but still said she had a great experience. Jason finished this one. That finished off his sixth star. Jason was also in Boston.
Speaker 3:Two Jennifers Previously mentioned running with Carolyn. Jen Rickerson, star number three, for Jen had a lot of fun on this one. Jennifer Hudson, marathon number seven. Star number two Laura was there. Our friend Laura from the Netherlands said time flew by Great marathon really loud. She heard her name. She had her name on her shirt, as many do at world majors, heard it a thousand times. Tara earned star number four and, while not running, I have to give kudos to Heather, who operated the aid station at our comfort station a personalized aid and comfort station at mile 17. A lot of the runners commented on how nice that was.
Speaker 3:And then let's finish up with our friend Amy, who did what's called the Reverse London Midnight Marathon. The way this works is it's unofficial, but they get together at 12.01 so that they are officially running on the same day as the marathon. They start at 12.01 and they run the course backwards. They don't run backwards. They start at the end01 and they run the course backwards from. They don't run backwards, they start at the end, run to the start. Amy will get a virtual medal for completing the distance.
Speaker 3:She put a great story in facebook. It sounds like it was a long, fun day because after she finished, she's cheering for the marathon participants who started just a few hours later. Uh, in fact she commented after the run. She waited in a coffee shop to meet her friend. She's cheering for the marathon participants who started just a few hours later. In fact, she commented, after the run she waited in a coffee shop to meet her friend and then they went on to spectate the main event. So that's it, folks. That's the race report for episode 188. All right, friends, no Zoom this Thursday. We'll be back on Zoom next Thursday, my friends, and if you run you know you are our friend. I hope you enjoyed episode 188. We had a lot of fun recording this one. Be a little while till we're together again, but it won't be too long.
Speaker 1:But until that occurs, until we meet again, happy running. The Rise and Run podcast discusses general information about Run Disney and is in no way affiliated with Run Disney or the Walt Disney Company. Any information or advice discussed on this podcast should not be considered medical advice and should always consult with your health care provider or event organizer. Thank, you.
