Rise and Run
Rise and Run
206: Filming the Finish: Andres Vargas Journey in Crossing the Line
What drives someone to document their first marathon journey? In this captivating episode, we dive deep with filmmaker Andres Vargas who created a professional documentary about training for and completing his first marathon at Walt Disney World. Despite having no prior filmmaking experience, Andres crafted a compelling story that captures both the physical demands and emotional rollercoaster of marathon preparation.
Andres shares the raw moments behind his training - the doubts, breakthroughs, and why he felt compelled to document the entire process. His story resonates whether you're a seasoned runner or someone contemplating your first long-distance event. The conversation explores the unique magic of Run Disney races, from the overwhelming energy of the expo to the emotional experience of running through the parks.
The team also discusses training updates as marathon season approaches, with valuable insights about tracking shoe mileage, strength training benefits, and recovery strategies. Bob opens up about his recent spinal surgery and lessons learned about listening to your body and working with medical professionals during recovery.
As Disneyland's Halloween race weekend kicks off, we present our first Rise and Run roll call of the season, recognizing over 130 podcast listeners participating in the various events. The episode concludes with inspiring race reports, including Ashley's story of completing her first 50K ultramarathon after losing 80 pounds on her health journey.
Whether you're training for your first 5K or fiftieth marathon, this episode offers both practical advice and the emotional fuel to keep you moving forward on your running journey.
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Expo lights and cheering lines, costumes, bright and hopeful signs. We're not alone. This path is wide, with every listener by our side, from training tips to tales that shine Inspiration in every line. We may fall, but we rise again, fueled by community and friends. The road is long, but we belong In this rhythm, in this song.
Speaker 2:Rise and run from start to the run. Together we shine like the morning sun. Rise and run. We rise and run. We rise and run.
Speaker 3:Friends, it's Run Disney time. Run Disney races are back in California. They're starting Expo Day. Day of release. Welcome to episode 206 of the Rise and Run podcast and the first episode of this Run Disney season. I'm Bob. This week I'm here with Jack, hiya, with Alicia Hello. With Greg, hey, hey, hey. With Lexi, hello, and with John and Bob. Really, how are you doing? I'm doing more on that later, john. Okay, I'm doing good that later.
Speaker 6:John.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm doing good. Thank you for asking my friend. Thank you so much, but yeah, let me talk a little bit that in a little bit. This week our friend Andres Vargas created a terrific video which I cannot urge first time Disney marathoners more to go ahead and watch Links on our Facebook page Great thing. But we talked with them about the making of the video and about running your first marathon at Walt Disney World. I think you'll enjoy that. In the Race Report Spotlight, listen as Ashley tells us how she blames her first ultra on Jack.
Speaker 7:If you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to our Rise and Run family. We want to share in their Run Disney journey. Remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast, instagram at Rise and Run Pod. You can visit our website riseandrunpodcastcom or check us out on YouTube. If you have a question, comment, race report or you want to introduce an upcoming episode, you can call us at 727-266-2344 and leave a recorded message.
Speaker 3:And I want to thank our friends for doing just that. We got four or five messages for introductions, so we're good for a couple of weeks. Thank you very much.
Speaker 8:We would also like to thank our Patreons, whose support helps keep the Rise to Run podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the patron team, please be sure to check out patreoncom slash rise and run podcast. And this week we want to welcome two new members to the rise and run patron family. The first is Timothy, who joined at the hey, how you doing level, and also Catherine, who joined at the plastic cheese level. Thank you so much for your support.
Speaker 3:Indeed. Thank you very much.
Speaker 9:Do I squeak like that when I say, hey, how you doing?
Speaker 3:Not a bit, john, not even a little bit.
Speaker 9:Okay, just short. I'm just getting a little complex here.
Speaker 3:That's why Greg's your favorite host yes, he is Friends of the Rising Red Podcast sponsored by the good people and our good friends at Magic Bound Travel. Magic Bound is a place to go for your run Disney, your Disney tourism, your Universal, your cruising. All of those Help with all of those reservations and all of those travel arrangements. Magicboundtravelcom is their website. Remember, you can get all of their advice and all of their services at no charge to you. Well worth it, good people, they'll help you out. Check them out.
Speaker 3:I wanted to. Before we get into the training schedule. I wanted to recognize, not an apology and alibi, but I definitely wanted to recognize our friend Chris. Chris sent us a nice note on Facebook referring back to our episode that we did with the folks on the National Marrow Donor Program, and I genuinely appreciated this, because we do these parts and we don't know if they have any impact or not. Well, at least in Chris's case, it did. He went ahead and registered for the National Marrow Donor Program. That's a big deal, chris. Good for you, congratulations. Thanks for doing it. Thanks for sending us a note and telling us about it. All right, let's look at the training calendar. There are now zero weeks till the Disneyland Halloween Challenge.
Speaker 3:I hope you're out there in California having a wonderful time. I have not looked at the weather report. I've listened to your chats. I've read your chats. I know it's supposed to be hot. I really hope it's not as hot as it was last year. That's some of the hottest weather I can recall. But I just hope you're having a great time. Hey, don't forget now, if you're at the Expo, drop by the Galloway booth, see our friend Jeff and our friend Chris. Another rise and run pal who's going to be there, russ, he may have some of Alan's Grace and Alan's bracelets to give to you if you want. So go by by there, say hi, tell them you heard about him on the Rise and Run podcast.
Speaker 8:Bob. I checked in with the unofficial weatherman of Run Disney, our buddy Ryan Teets, and I'm looking at his latest story right now we're looking for race weekend highs in the mid to upper 80s, but again that's in the uh, mid to upper 80s, but again that's in the. That's in the afternoon, so not during race time oh, that's lovely and lows, probably any. I would say mid 60s for the low. So I mean, compared to last year, that's drastically different and very pleasant compared to 106 degrees.
Speaker 3:The humidity, the dew point in that part of the country is generally tolerable lower than it is, certainly lower than it is here and lower than it is in a lot of other places. So that sounds terrific. I hope you all are enjoying that good weather and hope to have your wonderful time at the Halloween race weekend. The Wine and Dine race weekend is seven weeks away. We're inside 50 days, guys. We're in training. Week nine on the schedule three miles, including the magic mile Marathon weekend is 18 weeks away. Still a bit more than 100 days out. 125 days out. We are in training week 10 on the experienced runner marathon schedule 15 miles for the long run On the dopey goofy schedule 11 miles for the long run on the dopey goofy schedule 11 miles for the long run and the only non-run Disney race that I track here, bird in hand. Hey, I'm flying up today, guys. Becky and I are probably, if you're listening, thursday morning. We're probably on our way to the airport or on an airplane heading up to Pennsylvania.
Speaker 8:That's so impressive that you bring your podcasting gear with you on the plane.
Speaker 3:So I can do it live, live from 30,000 feet.
Speaker 8:So impressive, Bob.
Speaker 3:I remember last week I did it live from the operating room.
Speaker 8:You were under anesthesia. We're still giving the race reports Impressive.
Speaker 3:All right. Talking about training, who's got a training update gang?
Speaker 4:All right. Talking about training, who's got a training update? Kang? So you guys know I've been training with Tom because I just need to get whipped back into shape and I know I don't know how long ago we talked about this. I was really worried that I didn't fit into my wedding dress. Well, I may have only lost like two or three pounds. Fit into my wedding dress Well, I may have only lost like two or three pounds. But I mean, I've been gaining muscle and I lost an inch around my waist and I got to pick up my dress this past Saturday and I fit into it.
Speaker 4:I was so excited, yes, but I am snug, like I can't. Snug like I can't. There's no wiggle room, uh. So, um, don't wiggle. Working out, yeah, yeah, I'm nice and snug, um, so I'm gonna keep doing what tom's telling me to do. Seems to be working because he's awesome. But also, like I know, I've been having hip issues too and I've been doing what John said and I got those resistance bands immediately after that last recording where he told me I think it was like two weeks ago when we had it, but you're telling me to do the resistance bands, to do, like, um, around your what? Your thighs or your knees or whatever. So I've been doing those after my runs. I've been doing Alicia's stretches that she has sent me because you guys are all family and you're amazing, so I've been doing some of those stretches. It's getting better. It's still issues, and I got new shoes, because I also want to point this out that you sometimes maybe it's a good idea to track the miles on your shoes.
Speaker 4:I didn't realize that the shoes that I had been running in have been so worn out. Those were the same shoes that I had been training in for my 100 miler and I yeah, both of the pairs that I had because I switched shoes for that race. I remember one of those pairs I had bought, like, I think, Black Friday, when it was discounted, and within the first month and a half of that pair alone, I had to have at least done 200 miles on one pair of shoes in a span of a month and a half, because we went straight into dopey and so um shoes generally you guys can correct me if I'm wrong they're usually only good for about three to 500, 300 to 500 miles.
Speaker 4:A lot of factors, jack, but that that's about right, yeah, right, yeah, I mean, I know, for me, being a big person, by about 300 they're done yeah, and so like I actually got new shoes this weekend and it's like running on clouds and like you know what, I wonder if this was one of the issues was because I hadn't had the right pair of shoes.
Speaker 6:So this is your guys.
Speaker 4:Yeah, this is your guys's note. If you need new shoes, go get them.
Speaker 9:Don't injure yourself because of it so so jack uh on strava, you can put the shoe you run in in your report. Oh so you put your shoes in, say, at the end of the run, and it tiles the miles for you. So you know, okay, I did. You know in my, whatever you wear your Brooks, I'm at a hundred miles on this. So you kind of know, well, I'm getting up there. You know. Better start thinking about what I need to do or rotating.
Speaker 8:And Jack actually even on top of Strava. Most of you know, the watch apps also have a two, because the one with my chorus watch I actually can put in both, uh, of the pairs that I have and when I'm done with my run, actually from my watch, it asks me to select which pairs of shoes that I ran in that's so fun so, yeah, so there's lots of tools for you to be able to track garmin too.
Speaker 9:Yeah, I. Usually I do it in Strava.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I have my Garmin. I'm hesitant to wear the watch for my race on Saturday Cause I don't like looking at the times of what I'm running, cause I feel like it plays games with my head and my mindset. But I am going to try. I know I shouldn't be using new shoes for a race, but I just don't. I can't use those other shoes. They race, but I just don't. I can't use those other shoes. They don't have any more comfort in them and they have gone way past the mileage I know for sure.
Speaker 7:So we'll see. I'm gonna echo the shoe talk, um, because I went and got refitted at Big Peach Running Company, um, a couple of days ago, and it's been probably five years, maybe six years, since I've been fitted for running shoes, because I just wear the same like, the same brand, the same model every single time and I will say, if it's been a long time you should go, because the technology that they have now even different from you know, six years ago it's really cool and like. They took scans of my feet and then she put me in a neutral shoe and did a slow motion video of me actually running and I noticed that, um, I can't, I think it's my right foot. I have to go back and look at the video, but my right foot like really turns out whenever I run. Um, my left foot stays pretty straight, so I'm like, hmm, that's probably a hip weakness.
Speaker 7:And then my ankle collapsed. You could see my ankle collapsing on the neutral shoe as she slowed it down. It was fascinating. But, all that being said, I'm still A6 GT 2000. That's the same shoe that I've been running in.
Speaker 3:I had to laugh, thinking of a slow motion video of me running. It would be a video of me running, but that's okay.
Speaker 7:But anyway, so yeah the shoe. It was fascinating just seeing all of the different things that she can compare in just comparing my right foot to my left foot.
Speaker 8:Well, I'm going to keep the shoe conversation going here, because I also bought a pair of shoes this weekend and I don't want to fully endorse it yet, but I want to put it on everyone's radar. So I am mostly a Brooks loyalist. My usual go-to pair of shoes are the Adrenalines, and then last year I started mixing in the Glycerin Maxes, which I really love those shoes, even though it's technically a neutral shoe, and like you, Lexi, I need that extra stability because of folding in. But I didn't get a chance to get to my local running store based off of everything I had to do this weekend. So I was like, oh, I'll just go online and I'll just order them, you know, directly through brooks and I I don't know what I clicked on, but apparently brooks has Brooks Restart and you can buy gently used shoes directly from Brooks at a discounted price. So and I agree, they do not have every single make and every single model and every single it's whatever the you know it has been essentially sent back to them, and then Brooks labels them as either like new, great or good and then, depending on that designation, that's how they price them.
Speaker 8:So I got an exact pair of Adrenalines that I am currently running in. Retail price on. A brand new pair would be $140. And again, the designation of this shoe was like new and I got them for 91. So I'm still waiting for them to get shipped to my house. So once I see them you know I can take a look at the undersoles and everything like that, and I'll be. I see them, you know I can take a look at the undersoles and everything like that, and I'll I'll be sure to give, uh, you know, a full review. Um, you know once, uh, once, I have a couple of miles on them and such. But if you're ever, you know, in the market and you don't want to pay that full market price, there is, you know, that option.
Speaker 9:And, and before anyone asks and I know we're going to get to this conversation in a little bit no, they did not have any of the run disney shoes on this website any good running store or running company, they'll give you a 30 day sometimes 60 day, uh, you know trial period to see if you really like the shoe or not.
Speaker 8:So yeah, yeah, and I think when I was reading the fine print of this program, that still applies to these shoes as well too.
Speaker 8:So, essentially, if I get them and there's lots of tread missing, even though they claim to say like new, I'll, I'll just send them back and then I'll go get a brand new pair, but, uh, but in terms of training, uh, running has been going really well, but, um, I I wanted to give my win for the week and, uh, my inspiration for this win comes from you, lexi, when you were talking about the roman chair.
Speaker 8:Uh, last week and being afraid of it, I went into my gym on sunday and I stared down that assisted chin-up dip machine and I watched a couple of YouTube videos to make sure that I again didn't make a Wile E Coyote-sized hole in the ceiling and I had to tinker around with it a little bit. I had to put on the max resistance just because of my body weight and my upper body strength and stuff like that, and I was able to do about two sets of three in terms of pull-ups and dips. So I'll call that a win and we'll keep looking, we'll keep working for the future to increase that. And no body parts were injured and no damage was done to my local gym.
Speaker 7:Hey, that's awesome. Yeah, I realized that I didn't actually give a training update when we just talked about shoes, but for the past two months, because I started training with my personal trainer at the gym June 1st, he specifically told me he did not want me running yet, um, mainly because whenever I was having some um, uh, when I, when I tried to run a couple months ago, I was having some knee problems and we didn't want to exasperate that and figure that out and everything but um, I talked to him at my session um this week and we are starting to do some incline walks and today I did treadmill and I burned 350 calories um so that's my first journey to get into springtime surprise shape and I will just go ahead and tell you guys.
Speaker 7:But, um, I haven't really seen a difference on the scale yet, but I'm kind of starting to see a little bit of a difference in myself in the mirror, like my shoulders chest area. Kevin said he can't see it yet. My trainer was like, yeah, I see it, but I don't know if he's telling me the truth. But they say you can see it after eight weeks, your close friends and family can see it after 12. And the rest of the world can see it after 16. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:I found a little different. I found that the people you see every day a lot of times don't notice because things happen so slowly, correct, but if it was someone like like if you saw one of us, somebody you know well, but we haven't seen you for a while, we'd notice right away. So you know, there's that out there too.
Speaker 8:So so good for you, lexi, I'm glad to hear it sounds good like say, I'm really glad that you brought up your incline walks in terms of the treadmill, because I have been seeing this trend on social media and, granted, it's saying it's backed by science and who knows if that's true, because, again, it's social media and we all know we have to take everything with a grain of salt. But apparently you're true.
Speaker 7:Greg you can't put anything on the Internet. That's not true, greg. You can't put anything on the internet that's not true.
Speaker 3:I know that's the rule I live by.
Speaker 8:But apparently there is this popular workout that involves it's called the 12-33 workout.
Speaker 8:So what you do is you set the treadmill incline to 12, set the treadmill incline to 12, you set the speed to three and you walk for 30 minutes. But the caveat is you can't hold on to the, the bars you know to have, like the um, the heart rate monitors on them and such, and apparently this workout is great for not only cardiovascular but also, you know, help building some muscle in terms of you know your lower body and such, you know, especially in your, your glutes, because of you know how steep that treadmill is. So I think there's a lot, you know. I think there is a you know, some credence to maybe why your trainer, you know, is having you do those inclined walks because you know maybe there is sound science behind it and it's going to be a great workout and, you know, because it's going to make you work but at the same time it's also not going to overexert you because you're keeping that speed, you know, at a, at a 20 minute pace. So so good for you.
Speaker 7:But a 12% incline yeah. It's's hard I was doing four and a half and I was huffing, puffing but it's like I feel like people think it's an easy workout.
Speaker 4:It's not no because that's what? Um? So when I do my workouts with tom, afterwards I will add on, because we had talked about adding on incline, and that's exactly. I knew exactly where greg was going, because that's what I do.
Speaker 8:Exactly, I knew exactly where greg was going because that's what I do right after the workouts. I will say when I when I try it, I only do it as so when I do my strength training workouts, usually I'd like to incorporate five to ten minutes of some type of cardio before I start, and sometimes I will employore that 1233 principle. But I'll admit, jack, I actually like that better, or find it easier, than going on that dreaded stair climber or stair stepper machine.
Speaker 4:Oh my God, I love that.
Speaker 8:That thing is like the third circle of hell for me.
Speaker 7:That's literally what I was about to say. I was about to say, I was about to say what are your guys's thoughts about the stair master clear climber thing?
Speaker 4:okay if I, if I can just put one thing into that. The only reason why I like the stair climber is this is if you're doing a trail race and you're not able to get the hills, that is going to be the best thing for you to get into that hill climbing to train for and I absolutely hate it, but if you, if you only have flat areas around you, that is the best way that you can get exactly what you need for a trail either that or if you ever isn't there, that race in new york city where you climb the empire state building yes, yes so if you ever, if you ever decide to do that, the stair master is the perfect uh machine for you see, I did this stair master for the first time a couple weeks ago and, um, my trainer's doing it like every two weeks, probably in the cycle of what we're doing, and man, that thing works.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's crazy, and I mean I wasn't even going very fast and my heart rate was like way on up there. So, yeah, I think I'm going to'm gonna have a love hate relationship with that, but also I would I don't know if it's just a mental thing or if it was just the fact that it was a new thing that I hadn't tried yet I would rather do the stair climber than climb actual stairs up and uh, yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 4:That's fair also, alicia, if you're still thinking about the Great Wall Marathon. Great way to train.
Speaker 10:That's actually what I did when I did the thousand plus stairs in Hawaii is, I went to the gym and did the stair master. So I was going to say there there's definitely times that I feel like it's beneficial, but I don't know that I would recommend doing it every single know that I would recommend doing it every single time. I would switch up the routine and do some other things. But yeah, there's definitely benefits of doing doing all of the things.
Speaker 9:I haven't been on the Stairmaster since I went to Jack LaLanne's gym back in the uh early nineties. Hopefully they changed since then, because they were horrible back then.
Speaker 3:I don't think I've ever done it, John they're still horrible.
Speaker 3:Alright, friends, training update. I'm going to take a few minutes here and then hopefully going forward. I'll just have much less to say. First and I say this a lot and I can't say it enough God bless all of you, the support, the love, the help, the consideration. I just cannot put into words what it means to me and it helps me. It literally, and I know what that word means helps me. I think about you and I gain strength from that. So I can't say it enough. Thank you so much, and I kind of hope that's how we feel about one another. I kind of hope that's how we feel about helping each other through the training times. We feel about helping each other through the training times.
Speaker 3:Second, I want to keep this in perspective. Look, we all have stories, we all have problems, we all have injuries with running. Some are a whole lot worse than what I'm going through, a whole lot worse, but this is kind of significant. Let me give you a little history. This can be hard to believe, but sometimes, when things aren't going well, I tend to downplay him just a little bit. You know, I know I see the look on Jack's face. He's going Bob, you? No, yeah, I do. I do downplay things just a little bit because you know, everything is awesome and I don't want to be a downer, I don't want to bring anybody down. But this problem I have with spinal stenosis first showed about nine years ago and it would show with pain shooting down the legs and it wouldn't last long, it would go away. I did have it looked into, got an MRI. Doctor said yep, you got some stenosis here. It's not serious right now. I think you're going to be okay. And it didn't take me much longer than that to recover and I went without any real trouble for years and started kicking in around springtime. Surprise, I remember I've told this part of the story already.
Speaker 3:I remember being on the 10K with my friends and saying, look, I don't think I can run this, I think I'm going to have to walk this one, because what happens is you get pain down your legs and it's significant 10K. I did 10 miles the next day, I was okay, came back and proceeded with my training and things started to get worse. I'd be walking to the car and it would be oh, and my sweet wife would say what's wrong? I'd say, oh, it's that leg thing, it'll go away and it would take a little while, but it was coming more and more often. What I started to do with my training. I started to do two days in the pool to leave the stress off my legs and do the long run in the street, and I was getting by with that. I got by with that till we got up to about 10 miles and then it was starting to get difficult.
Speaker 3:Now you know, you know I had surgery on my back, but the problem really was with my legs. So about three weeks ago, 12 miles on the schedule on Saturday. I knew I was hurting but I was going to do it anyway and I went out to do it and I could not, really, without a great deal of pain, I could not walk to the start of my 12 miles, so I got back in the car and said I'll do it tomorrow. I did. I did it the next day. I finished it on the treadmill. And this is just how. This is kind of stupid, my friends. I don't mind saying this, but by the time I finished I was in such great pain that I needed Becky to help me from the treadmill to my bed. That was about four feet away, so things were clearly not good. She says you're calling the doctor? I says yeah, I'll call tomorrow. But when I called and described my symptoms I think I pretty much my doc's about 30 minutes away she said I will. Well, her attendant, after talking to the doctor, said Dr Nelson is going to see you. It was in like 35 minutes or so, so I had to get right into the car and head over there. It's not spinal.
Speaker 3:Stenosis comes in varying flavors, if you will, or varying shades, varying extremes, but when you get to a point of having numbness in the legs, then the medical people think this is pretty serious, and I was. I was getting numb enough that I couldn't feel particularly my right leg and it was hard to walk. I mean, it was, it was physically difficult to walk because I can move my leg. I had strength but I couldn't feel it and it just I was afraid I was going to fall. So I saw my doc on that Monday. She sent me off to MRI with it had stat stamped on the request and six different places.
Speaker 3:She sent me to a surgeon. She says I know how important it is to you to get back up fast. I want you to go see this surgeon. So I saw him the next week. We talked through a bunch of things, but he had the same reaction, and I think we've talked about this before too. Doctors now will say well, we can do A or B or C or D, what do you want to do? But if you really listen to what they're saying, they'll kind of tell you. Because he was saying to me now, the surgery is not a difficult procedure for you. The incision is only a couple inches long, said. I think it'll help you a lot. What do you want to do? I said I think we need to do the surgery, doc, because I want to get back to this as fast as possible.
Speaker 3:I was scheduled for like 10 days later, which gave me 10 days to worry about somebody working on my spine and spinal cord. You know to consult with Dr Google, of course, as we all do. That just makes you nervous and I'm starting to wonder, because there would be times when I feel, ok, I could sit down and it wouldn't hurt. But by golly I couldn't stand up more than a minute and I really couldn't walk more. I didn't like having to walk to the bathroom. That's how bad it was. So I'm going through my head. Do I really? Yeah, yeah, all right, let's go by.
Speaker 3:The time I got to the scheduled surgery day, I had a hard time walking into the clinic. I genuinely did. The procedure, much to my surprise, took about three hours. I was. I didn't know. I went to sleep. I woke up a couple seconds later. Becky, what time is it? She says it's almost 11 o'clock. Well, it was almost. It was a little after seven. I remember that for sure when I went into the OR. But here's the good news the next morning and I put this little reel up on Facebook the next morning I went out and I walked a little bit less than a mile.
Speaker 3:I didn't walk very fast, maybe an 18 minute pace, but I walked. I was a little surprised at how tired my legs were, but I was also surprised I had forgotten in the previous months what it felt like to be able to move your legs without thinking about it. So that was a huge relief. That worked. So everything's looking good.
Speaker 3:I feel genuinely and generally pretty good. I'm pretty optimistic. No running or weight training for at least six weeks, but I can still walk. I've been walking. I've been out. The surgery was on a Thursday. I've been out for a walk every day. I only did a little over a mile today, but I'm up to two and a quarter and I'll probably do two and a half tomorrow before I get on the airplane to go to Burden Hand, where I'm going to be not running the half marathon, but it's daily walks now, at least for a while. The point of all that is once again to go back and say thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, to reassure all of my friends that I'm doing. Look, I'm doing fine. Well, I think I'll get back to running. I really do. Even if I don't, I'm doing fine.
Speaker 3:But there are lessons here that I want to share, and one of them is if you think you need to get to the medical team for something, go. I didn't really put this off, I really didn't, but go. My thoughts used to be if the pain kept you awake, it's time to go have it looked at. Well, I probably should have done that a while back, but that's okay. When you're recovering and I know many of you are pay attention to your medical team.
Speaker 3:I may want to run, but I won't do what they tell you. If you think you can do more, tell them, hey, doc, or hey, a physical therapist. I think I can do a little more. If they think you can, they'll let you. If not, they'll tell you why you shouldn't. But pay attention to them. Above all and I've learned this, unfortunately, over the years when you're recovering from an injury, be patient. You got to be patient. I know it's going to be at least six weeks before I can test out running, even if then. But I know I have to be patient and just take things as they come. Look with you on my side. I know I can't fail, like everything we do. We'll work through this together. And I have one last bit of good news for those of you who are going to be at bird in hand Come Thursday morning, before I step on the airplane, I'll be able to take a shower again, so that should be helpful.
Speaker 9:Well, that's great Bob.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right, friends. Thanks, Caution runners. Change of topic ahead. And now it's time for what Would Alicia Do?
Speaker 10:What would Alicia do? Alicia would dance in the rain after a run. Why did I do this? Well, I didn't know that it was supposed to rain today and I had four miles on my schedule. And I stopped to go in the port-a-potty and all of a sudden I heard little droplets on the roof and I was like, huh, what is that? I thought maybe some acorns or something was falling from the tree above it and I come out. I'm like, oh, it's raining. Okay, a little bit of rain, not a big deal. I thought just a little bit. I'm running around the corner and the guy that was walking with his dog was like you better start running faster.
Speaker 10:I think it's going to pour you better, start running faster. I think it's going to pour. I said, okay, it's just a little bit of rain. I got about a mile later and, sure enough, it started to pour. But why I wanted to tell this story is because I know a lot of people will think oh the rain. I really don't want to go out for a training run. I'm going to move it to this day because that will be a better day, and sometimes you can, sometimes you can move it, but we really don't know what race day is going to be like, and so I say, embrace it and if you have a chance, like I did today, dance in the rain and take it all in. But I do have a question for you guys of what is the worst weather that you've ever run in, or what is your favorite season to run in? Because fall is my favorite season to run in and we're getting into that and I'm so excited for the crunchy leaves.
Speaker 8:I can't wait see, I really thought this question was going to be Lexi. What would you do if you were in a porta potty? And all of a sudden you heard stuff on the roof and sheer terror just comes over your face.
Speaker 7:I would not be in the porta potty, that's the answer I would not be there worst weather I ever ran in was my.
Speaker 8:It was my dopey simulation. And for the marathon portion of this, it was my dopey simulation. And for the marathon portion of this simulation I signed up for the Rehoboth Beach Marathon. I did it because it was a race I always wanted to run and Rehoboth Beach is the place where I go to for my summer vacation. So I'm like this is perfect. And then I saw the weather forecast and I knew that it was going to come, but every hour-by-hour forecast was just showing that it was going to be a little bit of rain in the beginning and then maybe after an hour or so it was going to be gone. It probably started raining on me around mile three and I was like, okay, strapping mentally, here we go hour 90 minutes and then this thing will be done. It rained on me from mile three until mile 26 and in that last point two.
Speaker 8:That's when it finally decided to stop, and mentally it was the most draining thing ever, because not only was I physically exhausted from a dopey simulation, but then I was mentally exhausted from just dealing with the weather and the fact that like there was a small portion of the race that was on a trail. So I was at that point, like you just stopped running because you were trying to avoid like the massive mud pits that you know were on this course and such, and I remember I had like two mylar blankets wrapped around me at the end. I just like I felt like I was convulsing at the end and I was like never, ever again will. I hope that I don't have to. You know experience, you know this type of weather. So, yeah, that was, that was the absolute worst.
Speaker 4:I have been blessed with a lot of good weather races, except for Daytona and and that was one of the hardest, one of the harder training races I've had. And I picked that race because I thought there would be good weather and I wanted my 100 miler to be as quote unquote easy as possible and it wasn't supposed to rain or storm or any of that stuff. I'd even like I saw that might be like a 10 or 15% chance it might rain Like the day before I was supposed to leave brought a rain jacket that was not a rain jacket to me and it started raining somewhere after mile 50 or 55.
Speaker 4:And it lasted for about six or seven hours after.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got hammered. I remember that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that I. That was the most miserable experience I've ever entertained the thought of. And um, just in that segment, let me. Let me restate, just in that segment. And sometimes you know what not every race is what you hope or plan it to be, and sometimes you have to train for the worst and hope for the best. And I mean I still finished the race and I'm really proud of it. I still don't really believe that I finished it in my head because I feel like I did, I did, but I feel like it might have just been slight PTSD from how bad the weather was. Um, but I mean I look back at it and I'm, like you know, I'm proud that I pushed myself through, because I know there was a lot of people that dropped and I didn't realize how many people that dropped during that race until like mile 93, when I was at my like last day station and I was like, oh wow, that sucks and let's keep going.
Speaker 4:But I think, learning from that experience, I already have an idea of what my next 100 miler is going to be. I want a redemption and I feel like when you have a race like that and it's so bad that you want like the weather is so bad, you want like a redemption of that distance again.
Speaker 3:So yeah, hey, jack, listen to the race report spotlight, we may have a partner for you.
Speaker 4:Come on, jamie, yes.
Speaker 7:I would say the worst weather that I have run in would have to be, and Jack you be. And Jack, you know this day, um, it was the day that you turned purple, um it was purple a lot. I know but it was like. It was like really, really cold and we were going at our old apartment and we were going out to run together. It was like the coldest I think Atlanta has been since we've lived here. Um, run together, it was like the coldest I think atlanta has been since we've lived here.
Speaker 4:um, it was just me and you living at 1606 oh and oh, my god, I don't even think we felt any of our limbs no, it was so cold like I don't think I've ever been that cold um we went and trained, though I'm proud of ourselves.
Speaker 7:We did, we did, I think we both. We both did a few miles, um, but uh, yeah, that would probably be the worst weather that I've trained in. Um, there was also one time that it snowed in when I was living in richmond, and, um, I wanted the experience of running in the snow because in my mind, it was beautiful and and amazing, and that run turned into a walk because I kept slipping wait, you have one of those videos up on passport to run and I watched it recently.
Speaker 7:It was your first time I do have it up on passport to run and you made a little mini snowman and you threw a snowball for your first time yeah yeah, all of those things are true I watched it recently. I don't know why, but I was like, hey, let's watch this I haven't done a plug for passport to run um, but yeah, that was.
Speaker 10:That was probably the worst weather, but my favorite weather to run in is also fall, yeah perfect fall friends as you can see from this, not every race is going to be great, not every run is going to be great. You possibly could have weather that's not ideal, but I hope that you think what would alicia do and maybe bring a smile to your face and maybe you can dance it out in the rain during the race. Just be careful and don't fall like jack does wow, it's true, but wow and that is what would alicia do caution runners.
Speaker 3:The topic is about to change right now hey game. We had a lot of shoe talk earlier, but only a casual reference. Disney has revealed the new run Disney shoe for the Halloween race. It looks like is it just the one pair, or are there actually two colors purple and black of this shoe?
Speaker 3:There are two different colors of the same model of shoe, but different colors of the same same shoe same model of shoe, but different colors, yeah of course they'll be available out at disneyland and if last time at disney world, there's any indication they were on the brooks site on monday, so they may be there. We have absolutely no idea. I you know, I joined that group that's supposed to get informed when these things are happening. I never read anything. I never got an email, did anybody else?
Speaker 10:No, I didn't get anything.
Speaker 3:The Run Brooks alerts I get the alerts. I get the alerts when Brooks says, oh, we have a sale and this and that, but I didn't get anything about the Run Disney show. Any comments on them, any thoughts?
Speaker 7:Oh my gosh, I love them. Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 3:Dark yeah, the, the like the insole does. Yeah, not the insole, the outsole yeah.
Speaker 7:I'm just so upset that I can't wear either of the models of shoes, because if there's any shoe that screams Lexi, did you see the laces?
Speaker 4:Oh, I know, I saw the laces. I saw the little like fabric medallions. I was like, hmm, she wants those shoes. Well, I think you know it's neat that they're doing them.
Speaker 3:I don't know if they'll be available at Disney World or not when we get there at Wine and Dine. I think it's neat that they're doing them.
Speaker 8:I'm really glad that they went all in on a theme, I think, that's obviously released with Springtime Surprise, and to be able to come up with a concept of a shoe based on that theme. I think was really difficult and I they did a nice job with, like the, the color palette that they selected to to match, you know, the, the weekend and such. But when you have a theme like halloween, you really it was really nice to see them really just dive into it and, you know, between the colors, the fact that they it's got you know the, the disneyland logo real big on the back of the heel, I think was a really cool feature. You have, you know, as you were mentioning before, ladies, the, you know ursula's like tentacles as the laces I, you know it again. I was just overall super, super impressed.
Speaker 8:Now, maybe they went all in because you know Disneyland races are going to be going on a hiatus for quite a while uh, coming up here pretty soon. So maybe they wanted to do something really you know, extra for. But at the same time, seeing now two weekends now and the progression that they've made from one weekend to another, that gets me really, really excited for Marathon Weekend, princess, and then Springtime to see and Wine and Dine as well too, what they come up with. And I have the confidence. Now Maybe I might not get the themed weekend shoe, but now I'm excited enough that when I'm down there for either but I usually need a wide and I think in that that run disney generic shoe I think they were only offering, you know, like the standard width or whatever. They didn't. I think they were only doing the wides in the ghost max twos. I believe so. But again, I appreciate that they let you go in and try on the shoes prior to go ahead and making the purchase. So yeah, job well done, brooks, and run Disney.
Speaker 9:Okay, also our friend Matt over at Team Run Diz created a run Brooks alert tracker on Telegram. So when they go live on the Brooks website he'll have alerts going out the sizes that are available. So if you're not there that weekend and you need sneakers, that's the way to look at him, good old Matt. And also he's also having on Telegram his for this weekend the balloon lady alert. So every mile they'll tell you where the balloon ladies are at. Cool Caution runners. Change of topic ahead.
Speaker 3:Friends, it's not unusual for we here at the Rise and Run podcast to get an unsolicited email or an unsolicited message saying hey, I've got this product, I've got this idea, I've got this video, you need to put me on the podcast. And once in a while something comes along that we do, but more often than not I kind of just ignore it. So I get a note from Andres Vargas who says I've made a documentary about running my first marathon at Walt Disney World and I'm thinking, oh yeah, that's nice, let me look. And I did and I went hey, it's pretty good by golly. This is. This is not a guy walking around with his handheld and jiggling. This is pretty dadgum good. And so I watched it all. I really, really thought that you, our friends, would like it. And I got right back with Andres and said hey, my friend, how about joining us on the podcast? And lo and behold, here he is, andres, welcome. Thanks for hitting us up with this thing.
Speaker 11:No, thank you so much for having me. I have to say it's an honor, because when I decided to run the marathon, you guys were some of the first people I listened to, so to be here is very much a full circle moment, so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:So I thank you so much for indulging my email.
Speaker 3:Hey, well, look, thank you. That means a lot to all of us and I think it means a lot to the folks who listen too. So, yeah, it's a fun, very well-made, very professional video. We have put it up on our Facebook group page so I know some of our friends already listened to it or watched it, watched it, but we're going to go into some detail now. We're going to talk a little bit about the documentary itself and then I want to get even though you covered them in the doc, I want to talk about some of your reactions being the first time marathoner, because we have so many of those friends listening and they've heard this from us. Now, if it's their first time maybe not, but they've heard it from us before I want them to hear it from a different point of view. So, Greg, why don't you kick us off, please, let's just start super simple here.
Speaker 8:You made a documentary about running your first ever marathon. What came first the registration at runDisneycom or the idea that you wanted to run the marathon?
Speaker 11:uh, the idea to run a marathon came first. Um, I really wanted to. It was actually, ironically enough, two years ago, exactly where I decided to do one um and initially and I talk about it in the doc I wanted to do the new york marathon. And, as I'm assuming all of you know and and the listeners know you know, it's really hard to get into that unless you find some loophole or a way of fundraising to get in. And since I didn't get in, I immediately remembered that around that same time frame is when the registration was going to open up for the marathon here at Walt.
Speaker 6:Disney.
Speaker 11:World and that following week I signed up, I went to work, I brought in whatever device I could bring into work and I happened to work at Disney, so it was fun to kind of go there and actually every browser I could find I opened it up when I was in the waiting queue. Waiting, waiting. Yeah, we know the deal.
Speaker 11:Yeah, and ironically, I found it, I got one in, and then at that point, this whole crazy idea, because even before then I was thinking, could we do a documentary, was this a possibility? And then, once I registered, it became a whole reality for me.
Speaker 3:Cool. I saw that some of the footage in there is Disney property. Did you work with Disney at all in this? No, not at all.
Speaker 11:And my wife works in communications so she was allowed to kind of give me some insight into what I can and cannot do and obviously we give credit and make sure that they're known their footage. But yeah, this was all self-made. You know one person, a couple of people making that happen.
Speaker 3:Wow, our friend Julie wants to know why you decided to do this.
Speaker 11:So when I was humoring the idea of running a marathon, what I started doing is watching videos of people's experiences running whatever marathon I could find.
Speaker 11:Just to kind of get the idea of like, not only the physical part but the mental side of how Hawaiian people do this, and the one thing I noticed in the majority of what I saw was they only really talk about the marathon itself. They rarely talk about all the work beforehand which, as we all know, there's a lot, right, there's a much more miles before the marathon than the actual marathon itself, and me, being a first-time runner, I really wanted to know what is that experience like? Great, that sounds great doing the marathon, but what do I need to do beforehand? So around that time, on the side, besides my work at Disney, I run a small nonprofit for scholarships and our main motto is really about awarding perseverance to students. So students who show a lot of perseverance in their lives and are able to show that they deserve these scholarships and whatnot.
Speaker 11:And I figured, well, there's a great opportunity to not only tell that side of the story for marathon prep, but also tell a story within that of perseverance of the story for marathon prep. But also tell a story within that of perseverance, right, someone taking on a task like this, both physically and mentally, and wanting to kind of overcome that for whatever reason that they have. And from that point on, it's really where this whole thing sparked and I started getting all these ideas of like oh, we could do this, we could do that, and overall that's kind of what sprung the whole thing. And now we're here two years later, which is pretty crazy. But yeah, kind of what sprung the whole thing. And now we're here two years later which is pretty crazy.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, very happy with it. Well, andres, I've mentioned already, this is really a professional production. It looks great. Now I think you've hinted a little bit about it, but what skills did you bring to the table before you got started in this video documentary?
Speaker 11:absolutely nothing really that's the honest truth so really wow the only real thing that I brought is I'm a big music fan. I love all types of music, a big soundtrack buff. When it comes to that, most people call me a nerd and I, you know, I studied a little bit of music so I learned how to do that and I did a couple projects for friends who had done short movies and stuff like that and I've done music for them movies and stuff like that and I've done music for them. So this was a very big undertaking for me to take on kind of the creative side of it, and not only did I do the music for the documentary, but it was really much about producing it and directing it and coming up with the story.
Speaker 11:So one of my buddies who I've known for over 20 years. He some of the movies that I've helped him make. I brought him as my producing partner on this say, hey, man, this is my idea, what can we do to make this a reality? And as much as he gave me great input and helped me get ideas about equipment and framework and all the stuff that I had no idea what to do about, he gave me a great foundation to really say, ok, now that I have this foundation, how do I take what I have in my mind and make it a reality? So I honestly didn't. I came in with just a big vision and a lot of hope that this was going to turn out well.
Speaker 3:Well done, my friend. You, you absolutely would have fooled me on that. I I would have figured you told me that you were a film major in college or something like that. Really excellent.
Speaker 11:I'm just a boring engineer, that's all I know.
Speaker 7:So, andres, what would you say is the hardest part of making the documentary? What was the biggest struggle that you had?
Speaker 11:The biggest struggle was, honestly, the audience, because I didn't want to make a documentary just on the idea of running a marathon. I'm a big Rocky fan. I love Rocky and for me it's not just a boxing movie. There's so much more to that. Boxing just happens to be the thing that evolves around right. So that was kind of my idea behind this is yes, this is about running, and if you are a non-runner, you're going to learn a little bit about the process and what it takes to prepare for a marathon. But how do I appeal to the non-runners without overburdening them with all that information? Because I know a lot of people who do not care about running.
Speaker 11:They have no ambition to do anything like this. How do I?
Speaker 9:do that.
Speaker 11:So that was really the struggle throughout the entire year of making this whole thing was like all right, am I?
Speaker 11:doing enough of either side where I'm not overly doing it and I'm going to appeal to all the different types of audiences. And then the only other hardest part was really, you know, part one and part two of the documentary. We had months to plan. We had months to film. You know we had to do any redos. We had time to do it. With part four, which is mainly the marathon, we had one shot. There's no redos. You either get it or you don't.
Speaker 11:So there was a little bit of pressure added to the whole experience when it comes to actually running the marathon, with making sure that I got everything, because that was technically the climax of the whole thing is the marathon itself, so those were probably the biggest, hardest things to get over with, for sure.
Speaker 10:So, Andres, how has the response been so far? And to that as well, Julie wants to know is there anything that has surprised you from the response to the video?
Speaker 11:The response has been very positive. I'm very relieved by that. I have had a chance to talk to different types of people from all the different types of audiences that I mentioned earlier. You know I've had people from this community who've run, who've reached out saying this has been great, really love how it came out, made them want to keep running races, which is great. That's awesome.
Speaker 11:And then I had definitely had the non-runner people who were like I still don't care about running, but I was so motivated by just following someone's story and wanting to know what the ending was and it was engaging enough to keep them going and the most biggest response that I got was from someone who told me that you know, recently they're going through a little bit of a rough time trying to figure things out and the motivation that they got from the documentary has allowed them to keep going with whatever it is that they're doing, which was great. I mean, that was kind of the goal from the very beginning is, again, I want there to be soul in the whole thing. I didn't want it just to be about running.
Speaker 3:So I'm very relieved, honestly, about the response I'm very happy with it and that's there for our friends who are listening tonight and wondering this is my first marathon, I need some help, I need to talk to somebody. Well, here you go, let's transition a little bit, and, even though I do know that a lot of these are answered and are covered in the video, these are the kind of things I think are important to our friends, and that is actually preparing for and running the marathon.
Speaker 9:So we know that Walt Disney World wasn't your first choice for the marathon, but what inspired you to sign up for your first marathon, like was it? You know, just to do it, lose weight. You know, just see if I can actually do this.
Speaker 11:Around August of 2023,. I was wanting to get back into something physical. I had just finished a big role in this other nonprofit that I was working with, so I had some time on my hands and you know, I started thinking about what can I do? That's new, maybe golf or something, I don't know.
Speaker 6:What could it be? And then I saw that.
Speaker 11:Well, I used to do a lot of running, so that was something I used to not really be a hundred percent disciplined in, but I knew enough to kind of keep me well informed more than the average person, I guess and I figured, as much as I had done half marathons, I had done other things in the past and I had done run Disney events in the past as well.
Speaker 11:I had no ambition whatsoever to do a marathon. But then I figured, well, if there's something that's going to keep me committed, if it's going to keep me to have to train I know it's going to be a huge thing Maybe doing a marathon is the thing that I can get into. So that was honestly the very first thing that got me wanting to do this. And then, as I mentioned in the documentary, there were a few personal things that were going on around that time that I felt that maybe I just need to get into something productive, that I really want to be able to feel a sense of accomplishment and the hope was, even though I had my doubts that, you know.
Speaker 11:Hopefully finishing a marathon was going to get me to feel that sense of accomplishment that I've been urging for for a bit.
Speaker 4:Whenever I feel like I need to be inspired to go out and go and run. Because, like, especially during the summertime, it is really hot to go outside and go and run. Because, like, especially during the summertime, it is really hot to go outside and get those long distances in. Because right now we're in the timeframe where we're probably all in double digits training for the marathon right now, and some of my favorite things to get inspired of are running videos, running documentaries. I go all in and watching those and so it's so exciting to see a documentary style for the run. Disney races and marathon distances are just extremely hard in general, and what you don't see enough is how training is and what it's like to be training for these kinds of distances. So my question for you is what was your training like? Were there any challenges or surprises along the way? How was it?
Speaker 11:Oh, I had definitely had my moments. You know, I didn't want to jeopardize my training for the sake of the documentary, so those filming days were just very spread out because I just wanted to really focus on the training days. I didn't want to jeopardize that. That was the priority Initially. Some of the things that really got to me is, obviously I wasn't as fast as I used to be, so that was the first thing that I noticed. And you know, as I say, in a documentary there were some moments where you see young folks running down the trail and I'm like what happened to me? What's going on? But I had to stick to it, you know. But you know, I did discover actually that from the first couple of long distance runs that I did, that I had flat feet, which I didn't know until that point. So my feet were really starting to hurt me initially and I was like this is not new, I've done this before. Why is it starting to hurt me now?
Speaker 11:And then I'm going to a specialist doctor and then he was able to say nah, man, you've got some flat feet. You need to get some soles or some decent shoes if you want to do this marathon thing. So initially there was already these obstacles along the way that were going to keep me going, but fortunately they did all the necessary prep, got the necessary equipment and ended up doing really well. But after those first long distance right after the half marathon, like 14 miles above, there were days when I got home and I was just torn down. I was like I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this. I would break down with my wife to say this just seems too big for me, I don't know if I can do this.
Speaker 11:And on top of that I got this documentary that I'm making at the same time and all that. It was just a lot of pressure and honestly, obviously, pressure that I had on myself as well. But like training for a marathon and all that, there are going to be those down moments and then at the end of the day, you just have to remind yourself why you're doing it and then, hopefully, you get there, which, which, thankfully, you know I ended up doing that. But yeah, there were plenty of days where, just like I, you know, my pace was slow, you know off days.
Speaker 11:Off days were general.
Speaker 4:You know, it's always so refreshing to see the struggles, because that's where honesty and humility come in. And I feel like you don't see it enough on so refreshing to see the struggles, because that's where honesty and humility come in. And I feel like you don't see it enough on YouTube because you see people like why do they just look like they're just always on their A game and I'm like no, it's okay to show that not everything's a smile. There is going to be a struggle, it's okay to shed a tear and it's just really nice yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good lesson there.
Speaker 11:It's funny because when the moments I was breaking down, I almost went get the camera. This is going to be great for the documentary. You're in the moment you can't really think about those other things, yeah.
Speaker 9:The day has come. So I guess you said you work at Disney, so you know the Disney atmosphere, but what was your first impressions of the run Disney marathon weekend atmosphere?
Speaker 11:It was massive. I mean, even though I had done a couple of those, I've done the minor ones, but the marathon was just a whole different beast. And it's funny because that Saturday my wife ran the 10K. So you know, that's great and there's enough people doing that. But I don't know if it was me, but I always remembered back in the day when I ran for those first ones, that the marathon would always take a couple days for it to fill up, and then when I did the one here, in 15 minutes it was already gone, already gone, yeah.
Speaker 11:So the amount of people that were there, I was just like this is insane and but again organized again. It's funny when I see it day to day at work and then when you see it for this weekend and you see how it immediately shifts. I was just so impressed with the amount of logistics and all the things that they do to make it happen, but the atmosphere of how people are just so excited. It's funny because I mentioned in the documentary how I didn't care what other people were saying, they were so happy and I wasn't, because I was just so thinking about getting this whole thing done. But it just creates a great atmosphere to want to do this, you know, and there's the characters and there's the amp you don't find this anywhere else, right, you don't find-.
Speaker 11:Oh, I agree, assholes and all that. It's just a unique special experience for sure.
Speaker 10:So, having done other run, disney races and then coming into marathon weekend, it's its own element, um, and you get to see that in the documentary. I really appreciate that, um. You get to walk through the steps of everything, um, but was there anything that really surprised you at the expo, um, and how do you feel going into that expo before actually getting to the race day?
Speaker 11:to that expo before actually getting to the race day. What's funny was for the expo I took time from work and I ran and I drove over there to the ESPN building just to just to get footage that my first part of the day was footage documentary because my wife was going to leave work at the end of the day to come meet me. Then we were both going to go get our bibs and do the whole official stuff. So I spent almost the entire day at the expo. My nerves just went up from zero to 90 pretty much. I was just like this is so big and I don't know. I think I wish.
Speaker 11:I think with the pressure of getting the documentary done, it probably took a little bit away of the overall experience, but I think overall I'm glad that I was able to capture something that I didn't. I don't think I've the documentary done. It probably took a little bit away of the overall experience, but I think overall I'm glad that I was able to capture something that I didn't I don't think I've seen before in other videos where you actually see, you know the whole process of getting your stuff and feeling the nerves with the whole situation and everything and that was the whole thing. I wanted it to be real. I didn't want to like you guys mentioned earlier, like I didn't want it to be a video where it just showed all the niceness of it, Like you're going to get it, but you're also going to get.
Speaker 11:this is the real part. You know there are people that are going to be nervous about this and you don't really see that and I felt it there. I was like, is anyone scared?
Speaker 9:Like am I the only one that's feeling this right now? I'm pretty sure I'm not, but you know what things for sure.
Speaker 11:So what day did you go? Did you go on the uh first day or, since your wife was doing the 10k, did you go thursday?
Speaker 9:I went the very first day. I think that was the wednesday.
Speaker 11:Yeah, yeah, yeah I got there, first things, I wanted to get some merch as well.
Speaker 11:So I was there with the virtual queue and everything, um. But yeah, we wanted to get everything done because originally the plan was we were going to drive, because I live in Orlando, but we were going to stay overnight at one of the resorts because it just makes things easier to just wake up and go straight to the marathon. And the plan was that Saturday we were going to go ahead and do all the bib stuff and film everything. But, as you guys know, the expo stuff they close early. So we're like we're not going to have enough time, we're going to be rushed. So we decided to just do it during the week, get it all done, we're not gonna be rushed, we'll get all the merch that we want, great. So yeah, we, we wanted to take advantage of that and then get it out of the way and just worry about what we needed to worry about later all right, andres, I'm going to flash forward now to part four of the documentary, which is the actual race itself.
Speaker 8:You eloquently put it in in the video, but talk to the listeners about the thought process and the emotions that were going through your head as you're crossing the starting line well, the reality was I was saying some words I probably can't say on here, but I was.
Speaker 11:I was very much freaking out a little bit. For sure. I was going like, wow, this is actually happening. As exciting as it was to be there with all the people and you have the announcers and you have all the fireworks. Everything was going on. When you cross that finish line, the reality is now like you are now in the marathon and I kept telling that the first mile I was like I'm running a marathon, this is it, this is everything you know.
Speaker 11:I don't know about you guys, but for me, from that point before, it was a year of thinking about it, prepping for it. It's all in this one moment, right. So a lot of nerves, a lot of fear, but ultimately, like I said in the documentary, I just had to think about my pace. I had to think about my strategy, that I had already come up with running and walking and all that and just go from there and sticking to that and reminding when I need to film what I wanted to film during the race. All that stuff was happening. So, as I mentioned before, I think the added pressure of the marathon was on me as well.
Speaker 7:It's on top of the nerves of doing my very first marathon. So, um, you mentioned this in the documentary, but, um, what were some of the moments that you struggled during the race and how did you push through them?
Speaker 11:so there have been a couple um. The first really was I don't know what it was, but after mile one I really need to go to the I don't know what it was that got me.
Speaker 11:So that was the first thing, and luckily we were getting into Epcot so I was able to find a decent bathroom to get that taken care of. But the second hardest part was definitely after mile 13. I started feeling very nauseous and I had never, ever, felt that before after a race. So I was getting a little concerned because I my, my, my, my fuel. I wasn't changing anything. I didn't change anything. I had tried everything and I already figured out what I wanted to take with me and this had worked.
Speaker 11:What's going on? And the only thing I can think about that was the cause was really, um, probably just the nerves of everything. And on top of that, as you guys know, they give you nothing but powerade besides water, and it's that lemony, lemon type one that I don't really like. So I don't know. It was that combination with everything that I was already taking that maybe did something. I honestly don't know, but that was a little bit of a moment that I was a little concerned with, but I was able to kind of get over that pretty quickly. Um, and then I don't know about you, but I kept hearing that that that stretch between Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach is just that long nothingness.
Speaker 4:Treacherous yeah.
Speaker 11:Yeah, it's just. Yeah, it was a pain and that's the only part I regret not filming. But again, I was so in the moment that I was just like I need to get through this hurdle to get to the next part of it. And everyone was hurting and, like I said in the documentary, there was a person there that was hurting just as much as I was, but we both were like let's just keep going. We know this is part of it, go, go. And that, for me, has been the best part of the whole experience. Is that community of people wanting to you guys doing this podcast, wanting to educate everybody Like is this community has been so unique and so rewarding to get me to the end.
Speaker 3:That was such a great part of the whole thing. Absolutely All right. So you had some troubles on the course. Any favorite spots on the course?
Speaker 11:Obviously, running through the parks is amazing. I mean, that's just a unique experience, you know, especially when you work there, Like you're always there and you're walking around To be able to run. It is so unique.
Speaker 3:I haven't asked you yet where do you work?
Speaker 11:I work on the food and beverage line of business. I'm a program manager there. We're the ones that develop all the crazy ideas of the new food and beverage things coming up at the parks here in Orlando.
Speaker 8:You were the one that made the decision to put the octopus tentacle in that drink at Beacon Barrel. No, no, but I know who did?
Speaker 3:yeah, I was going to go with the pickle milkshake oh, the pickle milkshake.
Speaker 11:I know exactly who did that. Um, that's pretty cool, yeah. Yeah, it's a really cool job for sure, um, but yeah, so there's definitely that part. And then then there's the part where, I mean, everyone's going to say, magic Kingdom, running through the castle is such a big highlight with the people. And it's funny because I did the half marathon before in 2020 at Disney and I don't think I appreciated it at that time than I did this time around, maybe because of the whole experience side of it experience side of it but it was such an amazing moment and we highlighted in the documentary in a special way because, like we need to highlight this, this is a cool moment to have everyone cheer for you.
Speaker 11:That's, that's the best part. Um, I'm a star wars nerd, so running through that one particular road is I mean, come on, that's really cool. Um, and I don't even think I recorded much of that, I was just watching everything's going. This is so cool. And then that last stretch between Hollywood Studios into the finish line, just getting back into the parks having all the crowds and finally realizing that you're about to finish, I mean the energy was so high for me at that point that I finally started enjoying the marathon at that point.
Speaker 4:So now that we're talking about finish lines, one of my favorite things to watch are the people's reactions crossing the finish line. So I'm just curious what were the kind of thoughts that were coming through your head as you're crossing the finish line? Your emotions, what were you feeling?
Speaker 11:I was really hoping they were filming the whole thing. That was the first thing I was thinking of. Oh no, it was, like I said, a year of thought, said a year of thought, of year of preparation. I remember leaving around the mission space area of epcot realizing I'm about to do that final real turn in the back lot and all that I started feeling very emotional about the whole thing. I was like, wow, this is it? Like there's no, even though my watch died around that point, I was just like I don't care, we're about to do this, you know, know, let's go for it.
Speaker 11:And it was all kind of fate and I mentioned in the documentary just being able to get near the finish line and see my wife pop up in the stands. I was like this is the perfect moment to be able to have that in the crowd of people that are there, right. And then, when I crossed it, the relief of like this is done, but not in a bad way, just like wow, I accomplished this thing. Wow, the doubt, all that just went away immediately and it was just the amount of happiness of being able to be done with it and getting to see my wife and we're both happy with the whole experience that we wanted to share in that victory it was a mix of things.
Speaker 11:it was bittersweet and it was definitely then welcomed by an unwelcomed almost wanting to throw up again Cause I was just like, wow, this is not good. Then I just caught up because I'm pretty sure they're filming me. So I'm like, let me not try to do that right now. But yeah, a lot of emotions, definitely a lot of emotions for sure.
Speaker 4:How did you celebrate, cause I mean, this is a long time coming.
Speaker 11:You better celebrate big, man I had so many plans, I had so many thoughts of what to eat and unfortunately we got home and I jumped right into the nice bath just to kind of get my body back into some normalcy, and I went right to sleep, sleep, so I didn't get to celebrate that night. So then following day I had taken off work so I knew I needed to recover a bit and then I said now let's go to my favorite colombian restaurant, let's get the biggest dish that I could get, and I ate that thing, followed by the best food coma of my life.
Speaker 4:Wait what's your favorite restaurant?
Speaker 11:it's a colombian restaurant that's near here. It's near Lake Mary, where I'm at. Oh okay, yeah, very good.
Speaker 10:So you did such a great job with this documentary, but if you were to have done it over again, is there anything that you would do differently this time?
Speaker 11:I want to be honest with you guys. The proudest thing about this whole thing was, I would say, about 90% of it came out exactly how we had hoped. So it's very hard to say that there's really anything I would change If I had more resources.
Speaker 11:I mean I would have loved to have gotten a drone, maybe got some cool aerial shots. That's more of like nice to have, more than anything you know. But you know, the whole experience has been so creatively fulfilling outside of the marathon side of it all, because I never really share my creative side. So this is a new thing for me to be that vulnerable, to allow that side of me to come out of it, and especially the music side, because I don't know if I haven't told much many people, but I had about almost 90 percent of the music already done before we filmed anything, because I had all these ideas coming to me and I was just like, let me put it somewhere and then ultimately, what ended up happening is I ended up using that as a blueprint. So I knew, based on the music and the vibe, I know how to film this, I know what I want for this moment. I know all these things.
Speaker 11:So when we started editing everything, it was just a matter of taking the pieces and putting it together Right. So, editing everything, it was just a matter of taking the pieces and putting it together right. So for me, again, very creatively fulfilling. I don't know if I would go back and do anything different. Um, it will be more resources than anything to be able to get more creative, but other than that, I'm very, very happy how it turned out.
Speaker 10:So, with that same question, is there anything that you would have done differently for your first marathon if you could do it all over again?
Speaker 11:I would enjoy it more. I think I was just so nervous. And with the added pressure of it. Of the documentary, I just, yeah, I wish I would have just absorbed it a little bit more. To be honest with you, and I remember watching the footage back, I don't remember parts of it. I don't remember going to the bathroom in that car. It was just this whole thing that just went by so quickly and I wish I would have taken more pictures with characters. You know the whole thing.
Speaker 11:Yeah, just the kind of the basic you people, you would expect from people from that run the disney races. I think I would have.
Speaker 8:I would have taken it a little bit more for sure all right, I'm going to shift back to the documentary itself here. Being a video and audio editor myself, I I always want you to try to find subliminal messaging, or or why was that edit made for that particular reason. And there was one thing that stuck out to me, and now I need to talk to the creator himself In all of your interview footage. For the first probably hour anytime we saw you talking to your producer, your footage was black and white, but right at the end the footage is color, corrected from black and white to color. What was the reasoning behind that aesthetic choice?
Speaker 3:I know, I know, I know the house landed in Oz. Ah, okay, I didn't think of that.
Speaker 8:That is literally it.
Speaker 11:Good, good, good, good, good guess. Um, so the idea. So I'll tell you a bit of the backstory. So initially that would be the one thing that changed drastically from the very beginning with the interview stuff because the idea was we're going to film me at different points of the training throughout the year of how I'm feeling about everything and everything, all that and their first couple attempts were just awful.
Speaker 11:I came out very flat, very like this is just doesn't seem appealing whatsoever. The setting was all wrong. I just I was not happy with it. So I told everybody let's just save the interviews for the very like after the race, where I have time to reflect. And we turned the whole interview side of things as more of a reflection than anything else.
Speaker 11:So then we it gave us time to be a little bit more creative. So we ended up getting a backdrop and all this, all that stuff. And I said, wouldn't it be cool if, since it's a reflection, it's black and white, as if we're telling the story, but then when we finally get to the end and we're in present, it goes into color. So we're now in today. That was just a quick last minute. Let's just go into that switch, show all the color with the metal and the ears and everything, and then slate the black for the ending. So that was really the only reason we did that very nice, that's cool, that very creative.
Speaker 8:All right. So now that the race is done, the documentary is done, what's next for you?
Speaker 11:Ironically enough, in about a day or two I'm heading out to California. Very good, I'm going to be doing the Halloween half there. We go. Might as well get done the coast-to-coast. Might as well do that. Yeah we'll be there. Me and my wife will both be there. I'll be racing, she'll be spectating. We'll be at the expo on friday and then disney all day on saturday and obviously on sunday for the race. So if anyone happens to recognize us, we'll be there um, but immediately.
Speaker 11:That's kind of it. After that we're just gonna keep doing our normal routine and the holidays are cracking up pretty quickly now, I guess. So just trying to take it easy. This has been a big two-year journey for me. It's. It's consumed a lot of my time, so I'm happy to to take it easy. This has been a big two-year journey for me. It's consumed a lot of my time, so I'm happy to share it now and have people watch it and talk to you fine folks about it and see, kind of let it live what it has. It's meant to live however it is. So yeah.
Speaker 9:You talked about, you're doing this with your wife. So how supportive was your wife during this? Because I know you're going out there, you during this, because I know you're going out there, you're running probably five, six hours on a weekend gone. Things aren't getting done at home. How supportive was she during this whole process? Very, supportive.
Speaker 11:I honestly do not think this experience would have been done without her. Any idea I do, and I try to say this as a good husband. I talk to her before I do it, so if she gives the go-ahead, I go, okay, great, because I know this is going to take time. It's going to be a commitment, for sure, and the personal reasons that I mentioned in documentary so much are related to her as well, so she knew the behind the scenes, how important this thing was going to be for me and ultimately for the both of us.
Speaker 11:So she was very, very supportive of the whole thing and was such a trooper some days when I said, hey, I really want to get this footage. Is there any way you can maybe come out with me? You can take the bike.
Speaker 9:You can be creative as well.
Speaker 11:I'd be happy if you can kind of throw in your ideas as well. And she did. She was a trooper. She took the bike one instance and rode it for 13 miles as I was doing my 13 mile training run, and she was there. And even on the day of the marathon my producing buddy had gotten sick and, as you all recall, it was freezing that weekend. So I said, hey, man, I'd rather you be home getting better, because I do not want you to get out here and stand hours in the cold and get worse.
Speaker 11:Right, she took up that responsibility. She went to Magic Kingdom, she filmed all that aspect of it and she went around and did what she needed to do for the documentary, and some of the best shots in the documentary are thanks to her. So to really, the ending, where you see both of us hug after I finished the race, in my honesty is the culmination of the support that she gave me, which is why I was like I'm going to leave that in there because that's it. That's the whole point of this whole thing.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I couldn't for sure have done it without her. 100%, wow, say that. I certainly hope our friends who are running for the first time take advantage of watching this and getting an idea. Again, it's some of the things we've said before, but Andres does a wonderful job. That question that John had at the end there. Nobody does this alone, nobody. You have to have support. It's there. And I want to tell you something, my friend, that I sit and listen to you. I sit and watched your video and I've if all goes well, I'll complete my seventh Disney marathon this year. The emotions do not change all that much. That's something else that I think is unique to run Disney. I'm still going to choke up when I go down Main Street. I've been down Main Street I don't have the numbers in front of me About 15 times, counting halves and princess and all that. It's like the first time every time. And the finish by golly get to that gospel choir. Oh baby, what a feeling that is seeing those folks there.
Speaker 11:Yeah, and I can't wait to experience that over there in California and see how unique that one is. I haven't done that one over there, so it's my first travel race, so I'm really excited to do that Look.
Speaker 3:Thank you, my friend. Thank you for filming this. Thank you, I think you've done a really, as I said in the beginning, just a terrific professional job with this. I'm blown away that this is really your first effort in something like this. It's fantastic. It hit home to me an experienced Disneyland guy, disney run Disney guy but I really think it's going to speak to our friends who are doing this the first time and I think it's going to help them maybe, maybe settle some nerves, maybe answer some questions. Maybe they didn't even know they had these questions and you're going to be able to answer them for them. So we wish you a lot of luck with it and we thank you for joining us.
Speaker 11:Oh, and I thank all of you for having me and indulging my email, and I'm a big fan, so this is. This has been a pretty cool feeling for sure, so I hope to see you guys in Cali at any point and, yeah, good luck as well to your races, for sure. Thank you. Caution runners. The topic is about to change right now.
Speaker 3:Well, I enjoy talking with Andres and I hope, if you're out in California, get a chance to say hi to him. That'd be pretty cool, and I hope to see him at Walt Disney World and, gosh, who knows, maybe I'll run into him over at the park one of these days. Friends, it's time for the first roll call, the first Rise and Run roll call of the 2025-2026 race season. Now, for those of you who are new to this, the way this works is that we call your name, we call first names. Only when we call your name, we expect you to stand up and remain standing until everyone's name has been called for that race, and then we'll give you all a big round of applause and you can have a seat.
Speaker 3:So, without further ado, I'd like to start the roll call. I'd like to start by recognizing again our friend Rob, who does a great job tracking things for us. He sent us the numbers that we have for this year's Halloween races and, again, I don't know, once you get out there, there may be more folks than this out there, but we have a total of and I'm doing math in my head real fast is 133 names. That's maybe 60% of what we had last year we're down in all the races except for the half marathon. Last year we had 22 names there. This year we have 29. And that's including the kid races.
Speaker 3:So I'm going to start with the kids races. We've got three folks entered in the kids race. Aiden is going to be doing his first run Disney event, emmy is doing her first run Disney event with her mom, taylor, and Mason is doing his first run Disney event with his mom, kayla. Now we had four people who somehow on Facebook said to us I'll be there, but they didn't tell us what races they were running. So Courtney, jennifer, julie and Mandy will be there. If you see him, say hi, ask them what races they're running. Let's head to the Chills and Thrills Challenge.
Speaker 10:So Andrew will be there. Angie, anita Anna's doing the Coast to Coast. Bethany Brandi with an I. Brandi with a Y. Brooke doing her first Coast to Coast and first half marathon. Carolyn and her daughter doing the Coast to Coast Challenge. And Chase Carolyn and her daughter doing the coast to coast, challenge and chase.
Speaker 8:We also have Chris, Cindy Davis, Dina Divya and she is doing her coast to coast and it's her first time at Disneyland. Have an awesome time. We also have Ellen, Emil, Erica. We have two Heathers One will be rolling and one will be running and Holly.
Speaker 9:We have Jackie, we have Jeff doing coast to coast and first Disneyland. Two Jennifers, both doing their first Disneyland and coast to coast. We have Karen, we have Kate, we have Catherine, we have Katie, first coast to coast and first Disneyland. Katrina coast to coast and first Halloween challenge. Three Kelly's one with her husband, dave, one who is very tall and one who is doing their first Halloween challenge and first coast to coast.
Speaker 4:All right. Then we have Kazay, who's doing their second Halloween challenge, kristen, laura and coast to coast and First Time Disneyland. That's amazing. We have Lauren, who's also doing their first Disneyland race and Coast to Coast oh, that's going to be a lot of fun and doing the 10K on her 40th birthday. We also have Lisa we got Margaret Mary, melissa, morgan, first Disneyland and Renee Roz, sammy Shannon.
Speaker 7:We have Sonia Stacy Steven is doing his first Coast to Coast, sylvia is doing her first Run, disney Challenge, sin is doing her first Coast to coast and first Disneyland.
Speaker 3:And Taylor All right, so that's it. That's the coast to coast, not coast to coast. That's the Halloween challenge. Runners from Rise and Run? All right, y'all can have a seat now. Let's now look at those who are doing the half marathon.
Speaker 10:First off, we have Alan and Grace Andres, who is tonight's guest, doing coast-to-coast, anna, brandy and Thomas, coast-to-coast Brianna, coast-to-coast Brittany, coast-to-coast Carol, cheryl doing coast-to-coast, chrissy and Christine doing Coast to Coast and First Disneyland.
Speaker 8:We also have Cindy Courtney with Coast to Coast and First Disneyland Race, dorothy, coast to Coast, duncan, also Coast to Coast and First Disneyland Race In the same boat. We also have Elizabeth First Disneyland race in the same boat. We also have Elizabeth first Disneyland race and coast to coast. Aaron is also doing coast to coast and first Disneyland. John, first half marathon and coast to coast. Jonathan and Kayla both doing coast to coast and Lori.
Speaker 9:Okay, we have Lindsay doing coast to coast. We have three. We have three Lisa's Lisa D, lisa S doing coast to coast and Laurie Okay, we have Lindsay doing coast to coast. We have three Lisas Lisa D, lisa S doing coast to coast, lisa W, megan doing her first coast to coast and this is a redemption run for Megan, michelle and Patrick.
Speaker 3:And those are our Disneyland Halloween half marathoners. I hope you're having fun, gang. All right, you can take a seat Time for the Halloween 10K runners.
Speaker 4:All right. So we have Cassie, fred, giselle First run Disney race, you're going to have a blast. We got Jackie, kristen and Tracy, leslie, molly Phaedra, who's also doing her first run Disney race, and Ryan.
Speaker 3:Not a whole lot of folks just doing the 10K, because a lot of folks are doing it in the challenge 10K is a fantastic run out there at Disneyland. All right, let's wrap this up now with the Halloween 5K runners.
Speaker 7:We have Allison, andrew, angie, anna, bethany, brandy, brooke, carolyn and her daughter doing coast to coast, cassie and Chase.
Speaker 10:We have Cindy C, cindy L Davis, dina, erica, heather Holly, who's kicking off her perfect season, jackie Jennifer doing first race of a perfect season, and Karen.
Speaker 8:Kazay is also running her first race in an attempt at the perfect run Disney season. On both coasts we have our buddy, laura Ann Lindsay, lisa London, margaret Morgan Paris running their first 5K, riley and Roz.
Speaker 9:Rounding out the group. We have Stacy, stephen, sylvia, sin and Taylor, and there we have it.
Speaker 3:The 5K wraps up our Rise and Run Roll Call of racers for Disneyland Halloween weekend. We have one more item. Our buddy Margaret is doing the yoga. All right, margaret, all right friends, we all hope you have a fantastic run, disney race weekend. Now don't forget I know I've said it already if you're going to the roll call golly, I've done this podcasting thing before I know how to speak, I promise. Anyway, when you go to the Expo, stop by and say hi to Jeff. Will you Tell him? We said that you had to do it. You won't regret it. And if Chris Twiggs is there, say hi to Chris also. Let's see. Please don't forget the meetup at two in the afternoon on Saturday in the picnic area which is directly outside of the entrance to Disneyland. If you're looking at the Disneyland entrance, turn left to the 10 o'clock position. In those tall hedges over there are the picnic area. You'll have a good time. I promise Caution runners. Change of topic ahead.
Speaker 8:I just wanted to pass along some news and notes in terms of the the rise around family, because you know, we, we care about each and every single one of you and and want to be able to provide support and and and celebrate as well too. And two, two noteworthy items came across our radar this week. The first is we want to, from everyone here at rise around, we want to send out our condolences to our amazing friend, devin. She posted on social media over the weekend, uh, that her father had passed away.
Speaker 8:And, devin, we, we are absolutely gutted for you and and you have played such an instrumental role in this podcast, from creating our logo to being a guest several times, and you're just having a wonderful collaboration, especially last year at marathon weekend during the the run fit, fab pop-up and everything like that. Again, we are here to support you every single step of the way in terms of this healing journey and we are just so incredibly sorry for you and we're thinking about you. And, again, if there's anything that we can do, please let us know. But on the flip side of things, we also want to send out our congratulations Our buddy, hannah over at the Stride Sisters podcast. We found out over the weekend as well, got engaged, and we were just chatting with her the other day about some some news that we're not ready to announce just quite yet, but it was very cool being able to chat with her, uh, the other day and find out this exciting news as well.
Speaker 3:So, uh, all the best in your wedding planning and I guess, if you need any advice, talk to jack all friends, this is not a Zoom Thursday, but next week will be, and next week should be a fun one, because next week we'll be able to talk Bird in Hand, we'll be able to talk Disneyland, we'll have all sorts of neat things. So mark your calendar for, not the 4th of September but the 11th of September, for our next Zoom, Upcoming episodes in the next two weeks. Speaking of those two big races where lots of rising runners will be in attendance, we're going to recap both of them, so we hope you will enjoy those. And now, Please stand clear of the door.
Speaker 3:It's time for a race report the race report sponsored by our friend Thomas Stokes of Stoked Metabolic Training. Tom just wrapped up his eight-week summer challenge. I'm hoping I haven't talked with Tom about it yet. I hope he's available. I'm hoping he'll join us next week to tell us about that and to tell us what else is coming up with his training plan. Stokesfit slash Rise and Run Coaching is the site if you want to check it out, especially now if you've just finished your series and you want to stay with Tom. That's the way to go. Get in touch with him or head to that site stokesfit slash riseandruncoaching and check it out, starting on Saturday this week in Belmar, new Jersey, not far from our buddy John Yep.
Speaker 9:Belmar.
Speaker 3:It's not far from you, is it John?
Speaker 9:It's probably about 45 minutes Okay.
Speaker 3:So considering not on a Jersey shore weekend, it's not. Yeah, I was going to say 45 minutes, considering Jersey traffic has what? Eight miles or something.
Speaker 9:It's like, it's like I-4. If you hit it right, you're fine, I know Are you going to stay parkway on a summer in the summer. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It could be three hours. Okay, all right. So that's where Belmar is, friends. If you were wondering, michael and Terry were there looking resplendent in their Rise and Run race hats Really good weather this weekend. This race offered prize money so it attracted a kind of fast field, a little intimidating. Terry and Michael did their best to ignore those fast folks and run their own race. It was their first five-mile race so they both PR'd. Terry blew away her previous best paces for any distance, let alone a five miler. She beat her 5k pace by 20 seconds per mile, beat her 10k pace by a minute, 16 per mile. This pr in the five miler. And, as we said, her husband, terry pr'd also. Kelly was there. Kelly said there were great crowds cheering everybody on, playing great music, plenty of water stops that's always helpful. Kelly loves running for a great cause and the medal doubles as a bottle opener. We were talking about that last week Bottle opener medals. Here's another one Kelly's first five-miler gang. So good job, kelly.
Speaker 3:In Baltimore, the third part of the B3 Challenge, third and final part, the Charles Street 12-Miler. Kelly was there, as was our will-run-for friend Tom. I know this is a favorite race of Tom's Runs from Towson, maryland to Camden Yards in Baltimore, net downhill, lots of opportunities to run fast, run fast. I don't understand the term, tom, but okay, I'm sure it means something to you. Good job, tom used it as a catered training run. He's getting ready for Marine Corps coming up in a couple of weeks. That's not this weekend, no, it's a couple of weeks, same weekend as uh one and nine. Yes, thank you. It sure is. Tom was able to maintain his pace, his target pace, throughout and, as I mentioned, he affirms at the end here this is one of his favorite races of the year yeah, way to go, tom, super, super proud of you.
Speaker 8:And I also know his wife, uh, diana, was there as well too and I gotta say reading you know I know she didn't post a race report, but just seeing her post in general really made me emotional because she had shared a story about apparently aaron had finally been like you know, I'm gonna run this race, and obviously she didn't have that opportunity. And in her honor, diana wore one of Aaron's skirts and tank tops for that race.
Speaker 8:So in theory she was there and you know, again crushed her goals and again we're just. We're so proud of our friends over at a will run for yeah, it's very touching.
Speaker 3:I'm glad she was able to do that. I'm sure it meant a lot to her Diane too.
Speaker 8:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Oh, let's see.
Speaker 3:Our friend Brooke was at the Mission Resort and Club in Howie in the Hills, florida, doing the run. The Resort 5K Avery did the run for the river half in Schenectady, new York. Really good weather. First few miles on a road, last 10 miles on a bike path through the woods next to the river. To me that sounds pretty pleasant. I hope it was. This was Avery's and this is a big deal. First ever sub two hour half and a six minute PR. Great job. Yeah, that's one of those benchmarks. At two hour half that's a big deal, all right.
Speaker 3:Charleston, west Virginia, the Charleston distance run. Ileana's son, carter, on Friday ran and earned a medal and snacks at the kids race. Way to go, carter, congratulations. Now mom Ileana ran a 15 miler on Saturday, nervous for this one because of the hills. Imagine hills in West Virginia. Whoever heard of such a thing? The biggest hill? I would not like this. The biggest hill in Charleston is appropriately named Capital Punishment Hill.
Speaker 3:Ilyana says what truly tested her were the last three miles. They were flat, never-ending roads leading to the football stadium where the finish line stood. What helped her was her supportive husband, stephen, and the kids cheering her on, the wonderful volunteers and the friends that she saw along the way. Good run, ileana and Carter. I don't want to forget Carter. In Vieira, florida, monica and the Chaos Crew, plus friends, were at the tailgate to Myler. All of the Chaos Crew kids improved on last year's time and Monica's oldest daughter beat her Shh, don't tell anybody. No, actually she demolished her by 14 seconds anyway. First place age group for her daughter, first place age group for monica and for two of their friends in their respective age groups. The after party included pizza, wings and beer, as all proper tailgate events should, and tons of awesome giveaways, including an autographed football and a blackstone griddle, none of which went home with Monica or the crew.
Speaker 8:Oh, that would have been a heck of a prize to come away with. Yeah. I'd take a blackstone over a medal any day of the week.
Speaker 3:Or a football A.
Speaker 3:Blackstone over a football Medal football kind of a toss-up. All right, let's see. We've been to Charleston, now we'll go to Charlottesville, virginia, charlottesville women's four-miler. Lillian ran that one In Canada on the runway at the Waterloo Regional International Airport in Breslau, ontario, the Runway 2025,. Phaedra did a five-miler. This is Phaedra's first race report and first five-mile run. For one of those you get a PR bell. Beautiful day, 12 degrees centigrade, let me think let's see that's going to be about low 50s in Fahrenheit and sunny. The medal is a spinning propeller, which is kind of cool for an airport run, fun to fidget with on the way home. Next up, our first run Disney race.
Speaker 3:This weekend in California, a couple of runners in Gaithersburg, maryland, for the Kentlands-Lakelands 5k run walk. Divya was there One of her favorite races, mostly because she grew up in that area. Running the challenge this weekend meaning she's running the challenge at Disneyland. So she tried to use this one as her mind of the marathon or workout that was on her training plan. Managed to run one negative split. Didn't get the second one, that's OK. The third mile was mostly uphill. That makes it tough to run a negative split. Still proud of herself for holding back on the first mile. Good, a negative split, still proud of herself for holding back on the first mile. Good job, divya. We're proud of you too. Danielle was there, ran this one. This was her first year running this one and she loved it. In Carmel, indiana, the Indy Women's Running Festival, julie ran the half marathon, kathy ran the 5K. We take you now to Manahawken, new Jersey, john. Yes, that's down south. More Okay For the Manahawken. I got that. How about Barnegat Fire Department? Does that sound right?
Speaker 9:Yep, barnegat, bay, barnegat.
Speaker 3:Fire Department stop, drop and run 10K. Kayla and her dad, dominic, did this one. Kayla's goal she was looking for a new POT for Princess Weekend. Before the submission deadline, shooting for a one-hour 10K finish in 58-13. That's awesome. That's a five-minute PR and an age group second-place finish. Outstanding Kayla, dominic finished just a mere two seconds behind Tougher age group. For Dominic, though, he finished age group four, which is still excellent. Andrew was in Pittsburgh for the Steelers 5K. He recently got a treadmill to help him with training. It felt a lot better to get back out with other people and other runners. No pr, but this is his best 5k as a dad. Greg, he wants to know if that counts for a pr bell what the heck?
Speaker 8:why not? Although I will follow up that PR bell with go birds.
Speaker 3:That's fair. Yeah, I think it's. I think it's good. First, best, best time as a dad Congratulations, andrew.
Speaker 3:The Choctaw Labor Day 5k in Tuscahoma, oklahoma, sari, her sister Emily and their aunt all ran it together. Great day to run with the Choctaw tribal community. Morning temps were cooler than they'd been cooler than average. Their aunt completed her first 5K and Emily and Sarah both PR'd theirs. Now I snuck in one weekend event already, but here's another one.
Speaker 3:Alexis, in Virginia Beach, virginia, did the Live the Life Challenge On Saturday. He did a 5k. The weather was really great and she PR'd that 5k. Then she had a 10 miler on Sunday. This is her second 10 miler after springtime. Surprise Started off running and walking for a mile and she got to mile eight where she had to go back over the Rudy inlet bridge, which apparently is a struggle. The last stretch miles nine and 10, she was ready to be done, but she got to the boardwalks, walked till she had about a tenth of a mile left, then ran to the finish line where, by golly, she also PR'd Two PRs in a weekend. That's great, alexis, good job. Okay, let's move to Sunday. Go up to the Panhandle, pensacola, florida, for the Wildcat 100. And our friend Ashley is here for the Race Report Spotlight. Hi Ashley, how you doing.
Speaker 6:Hey Bob and gang, and I already know what question you're going to ask.
Speaker 3:First, how could you possibly know? How could that be?
Speaker 6:I know, I know, but how did I start running A lucky?
Speaker 9:guess what do you think, John? She put one foot in front of the other and got faster and faster, and that's how she started running. Is that how it started?
Speaker 3:You could say yeah absolutely Tell us your story, Ashley Go ahead. Yeah, absolutely Tell us your story, Ashley Go ahead.
Speaker 6:So I started back running springtime of last year. I had some friends that were doing a bunch of the Run Disney races that I had worked with, and she actually was wearing a spirit jersey one day, and so I kind of inquired about it and from there I signed up for the challenge and I just I started running. At the time I was already training for a physical agility test that I was having to do at work and it kind of just bled over and so we did springtime of I believe so it's 2025 now so I did springtime of 24 and fell absolutely in love with it, got my mom on board, she started with me and we've done springtime wine and dine and then we'll be back at wine and dine this year.
Speaker 3:That's great. You've led me to another question what kind of line of work requires a physical agility test?
Speaker 6:So actually at that time I was in law enforcement Okay that makes sense. Yeah, since then I actually have moved over to teaching, and so now I am a sixth grade math teacher in Pensacola.
Speaker 3:That requires a whole different kind of agility. I think Correct, A whole new level of physical Correct, that's pretty good. Well, you're going to tell us about this race this weekend. It was an ultra. Why don't you tell us about it please?
Speaker 6:So I did the Wildcat 100. I specifically did the 50k um and it's something I've trained over the entire summer for um doing, of course run, walk, run, um. I really honestly, when jack did her 100 I think I was listening to that episode and went on ultra sign up and started looking at races that were like near me and I found this one that was, of course, in August and I was like that's what I'm gonna do. I was like, if you actually do it? And after hearing Jack's like full story, I was like I am a thousand percent going to do it.
Speaker 6:So I spent a lot of my summer that of course I'm a teacher, so I had it off um running and I have a set of twins and so, like I would push them in the stroller, I would do all the things just to get prepared. And so race day finally came around. It was a little wet and a little bit more than money, but it was a fantastic race day and I um was able to pick up a pacer two pacers actually. One was my sister, which she does not partake in running, but she did a few miles with me, and then one of my good running friends and fellow church members was able to come out, and she did 13 miles with me, so I was very thankful.
Speaker 3:Oh, great, yeah, Was this a looped course, ashley with me, so I was very thankful.
Speaker 6:Oh great, yeah, was this a looped course, ashley? It was a looped course, um, and I think of it as loopy looper, um, because it was a half mile loop.
Speaker 3:Um, oh wow, Half mile loop Two and a half, so two and a half Okay.
Speaker 6:Okay, good, that's a little better. Yeah, it was a two and a half mile loop, and so half of it was like I would say a little less than half, was paved road and then the remaining was like free trail running, and so it took a lot of grit and determination, but it was really nice being able to like see friendly faces every single time you went around. Everybody was so encouraging and I think that's it really brought back like a good run Disney vibe to the course, because everybody was just so happy, so friendly Each time you went around. They were always so encouraging and that was really nice.
Speaker 3:How was support on the course?
Speaker 6:It was fantastic. And so, um, I want to like brag on the race directors and the people that actually put on that race. Um, they, whenever we went and got our packet on that like Friday night, they had hand wrote me a note, um and put it in the packet, just like welcoming me to like the Wildcat family, um, welcoming me just to like the ultra family in general, and so that was very like touching, just from like just a handwritten letter standpoint, you know. And then today, once I got home, they had mailed out a card that just said thank you for like joining the race. We're so excited to cheer you on. And so the support was fantastic.
Speaker 9:There's another story you forgot to tell us. I guess also that you posted up about. You have a special, another incentive. You have something else you maybe want to share about this race that you won.
Speaker 3:She has no idea what you're talking about, John.
Speaker 6:No idea whatsoever, ashley, tell us about your weight loss journey. And I knew I needed to, like, start making a change, and I knew that I was not going to grow up my children in the healthiest way possible. And so my mom started just kind of leaning towards a way of losing weight. She was diagnosed with diabetes and such and I saw my life going down that path and I absolutely did not want to go down that path my own self. And so, like, slowly but surely, I started doing all the things you need to lose weight and I've been able to lose over 80 pounds, and my mom has been able to lose over 100 pounds herself.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 6:And running has just played such a big role in it, and I truly do not believe that I would have been able to go the 30. I actually did 33 miles um, there's a little overage there but I don't believe I would have been able to do that without having the weight loss that I have, and I'm just so thankful for that no, I think you're right and, by the way, john, we were both messing with you.
Speaker 3:She knew exactly, but we she?
Speaker 3:figured as she wrote it I think she knew she was playing along. I don't know. I'm just going. I like your virtual fist bump, ashley. There you go. Nicely done. Hey. That's a great story. That is really, and I think it's motivational. I know we have other friends who I don't want to say struggle that's not the right word but have same goal, have the same goal to drop some pounds. I need to drop some pounds. It's not unusual and I applaud you for it. It's not easy and you've done a wonderful job. So congratulations for that, thank you.
Speaker 9:So, Ashley, I think you said you'll be coming down to Wine and Dine this year.
Speaker 6:Yep, I will be back down at Wine and Dine this year, although that's not the favorite Springtime is the favorite but I will be at Wine and Dine.
Speaker 9:Anything else, or just because of school it's tough to get off.
Speaker 6:Yeah, no, oh goodness. There's so much on the race calendar, so any of the Atlanta Track Club races me and my mom always go down and partake in. So I'll be doing those along with. Because Princess Weekend and Atlanta Marathon falls on the same weekend, we will be going to Atlanta, so I'll miss out on Princess, but of course I'll be back for springtime.
Speaker 6:Here's a, here's a really interesting question have you ever run a marathon before? I have, so I did Atlanta Marathon this past year, which was fantastic as my first marathon and probably one of the hilliest marathons in America.
Speaker 3:It can be. Atlanta can be really hilly.
Speaker 9:I was just thinking okay, she did a 50K.
Speaker 3:Obviously she did a marathon.
Speaker 9:She did a marathon, but then you but did you're doing? The fish didn't stop, yeah, didn't stop, yeah, so just kept going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's great. Well, look, ashley. Thank you so much spending some time with us on the race report spotlight. Great job on your first ultra. We'll be sure we'll be sure to put a pr bell in there somewhere and and listen. Congratulations to you, and to your mom too, on getting that. You know, dropping your weight and getting more to a healthy weight. That just is going to benefit your lifestyle tremendously.
Speaker 6:Thank you all, thank you all.
Speaker 3:The big one on Sunday was in Sydney, australia, the Sydney Marathon. Now I know a bunch of folks went and ran that one, but the only person putting in a report on the Rise and Run Facebook group page is Carrie. I've invited Carrie to join us next week for the spotlight to tell us all about it. She'll be here for that, but in the meantime, this was Carrie's 10th marathon, second world major. She PR'd this one seven minute PR. This was that's great. This was that's great.
Speaker 3:This was apparently not an easy one. Coming from Florida, this was the hardest and hilliest marathon she's done. Started with the 515 group led by Chris Twiggs and stayed with them for quite a while, finished at about 520. Good job, carrie. We look forward to hearing more about that. All right, let's go to Charlotte, north Carolina, for the Around the Crown 10K. Missy did this one for the second year in a row. Wait a minute now. This is the second year in a row that she ran a week post a COVID infection. So she's thinking that maybe signing up for this run is cursed for her.
Speaker 3:I would say so I don't post it, come on, all right. Well, I'll tell you what. Missy signed up for it again next year. We'll be sure to watch and and we'll be rooting for you Still went, had a great attitude, sparkles on her face and a smile that's the best way and she shared a bunch of photos in her posting, including one with a new friend. She's posing for a photo and a fellow that she does not know at all I don't know if you saw this picture or not, it's kind of wacky Gets next to her and poses right next to her. But Missy said well, if you run, you know he must be my friend, and went on with that attitude. Way to go. Proud of you. Missy Kristen was also there for that race. Let's go to Tupelo, mississippi Made a 14.2 mile run there.
Speaker 3:Spencer did it. This race, of course, tupelo's in Elvis's birthplace. The slogan of the race is trample the weak, hurdle the dead. Okay, yeah, they always use a skull and crossbones on the metal and this year had an Elvis theme, so Elvis was in the middle of the crossbones. Hey, spencer had a good run 14.2 mile or hour and 50 minutes. Hour and 5-0, 1-5-0 for 14.2. That's you know. You can do the math. The way this works is they have a marathon and a half marathon. Now the marathon goes out and goes to a turnaround point and comes back for the 26.2. At that point you're already at 13.1. This 14.2 takes you 1.1 back to the start, so that's why the unusual distance. But that's a great race, spencer. Good job.
Speaker 3:In Fairfax, virginia, our friend Jennifer did the Donut Dash 5K. I'm chuckling because Jennifer has spent a great deal of the summer whipping her body into awesome physical shape. She'd been doing a lot of bodybuilding and lifting so I think this donut dash may have been a reward. She's back in marathon training now and Jared Jennifer is also a good runner. So let's see, this race was on a hilly course so she did some speed work at kind of tempo effort midway. She was midway through a long run. She did three miles before and three miles after, making a total of nine ran this one in 22 minutes 36 seconds. See, I told you she was pretty good runner, first place in her age group. Not an all-out effort for her, but still a good run. Definitely happy with it. And that's impressive, jennifer. Nice job.
Speaker 3:Andrew did the Bound for Boston Half Marathon in Atlanta, georgia. He was wondering if he'd get close to his 16-year-old PR or at least get a run Disney POT PR. Or at least get a run Disney POT. Didn't get the PR, did get the POT finished third in his age group. You know, earlier in the podcast we were talking about recoveries. Andrew's a year out from completely rupturing his hamstring, so within a year he's back to a POT Andrew. That's pretty darn good.
Speaker 3:Let's finish up on Monday, which was a holiday here in the US. It was the Labor Day holiday, the traditional end of summer holiday weekend. And for a traditional American holiday, what better place to kick off the Labor Day race weekend than in Philadelphia, pennsylvania. For the Labor Day 5K, sean. Another week, another race, another PR. Nicely done, sean. This time the 5K along Kelly Drive and the Parkway in Philadelphia Next week. Well, we're running either in central Pennsylvania or California. Sean is going to be running at the airport in Philadelphia, so if you're on your way to or from Disneyland you might be able to wave see Sean running down the runway. Yvette was at that 5K also. It was free and you got a medal. Did you know they had a free run in Philadelphia, greg?
Speaker 8:No, I believe. If I read the report right, I believe this was the inaugural event for this, so this one was definitely not on my radar ah, okay, uh, let's see wasn't a pr, but she pr'd a few segments according to her garmin.
Speaker 3:You know how that works. She felt strong. I think that's wonderful. Again, this is a pretty part of the city. It's a nice course. It ends Sean described where it ran. It ends at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps, a classic place to end a Philadelphia race, the base of the Rocky steps. Who was it? It was Andres earlier talking about Rocky being one of his favorite movies. It's my favorite movie of all time.
Speaker 8:I really wish, though Originally they had the Rocky statue at the top of the stairs. Yeah they did, and then they moved it down off to the side. Maybe it was just a congestion thing.
Speaker 9:They actually probably was Before that. They had it at the top of the stairs, Then they moved it out in front of the spectrum for a while yes, they did, you're you're correct then, I think, when they brought it back. They put it down below, because it's not really art. It's movie prom. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 8:All I know is any race that I've ever been to that starts and finishes at the art museum there is always a run disney adjacent line for you to be able to get your photo uh, with your medal in the statue so why not?
Speaker 3:why not? All right, let's go to macon, georgia. The macon's labor day road race 10k. Andrew did this one. You may know andrew better as the puppet runner this. This is Andrew's favorite Labor Day tradition. It's fun running with friends, going by familiar places like his church and the theater at which he'll be performing in Into the Woods later this week.
Speaker 3:Beth was there, they say. The course is mostly flat and downhill, except for the three or four brutal uphill portions, the temperatures were much cooler than they were in previous years. Her son high-fived her as she got to the finish line. Then she enjoyed a pumpkin spice protein shake to kick off off Run Fit Fab official dopey training season. Hoping for a proof of time, missed it by oh, five seconds, beth. That's rough, you'll get it next time, beth. Catherine was there. Even though she started out not feeling strong, she managed to shave seven minutes from her previous PR and earned this PR bell.
Speaker 3:And the last Labor Day race was up in Walpole, massachusetts, the Labor Day road race. Heidi and her oldest son did it. Her son's just started running. This was his first race, so special for both of us special for mom and special for son because it's a PR. He did great. It was fun to run together. And finally, a little special honorable mention Our friends Kay and Sam ran their very own virtual 5K at Walt Disney World. Congratulations everyone.
Speaker 3:That wraps up the race report for episode 206 and brings this episode to a close. My friends and if you run, you know you are our friend it's been a pleasure a long this time, but let's say we're getting into the longer training miles, so we hope we can be with you for maybe just a little bit longer. Good luck, stick with it, remember I think we're getting into the hard part of all this. If we're getting ready to run for the January races, you're starting to head into the hard part. It's a long way from when you started. The end line's not in sight yet, but by gosh, this is where the hard work comes. This is where you make the money. We're starting to see some of those fall PRs. So keep it up and happy running.
Speaker 8: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 healthcare provider or event organizer.
Speaker 1:From start to the run. Together we shine like the morning sun. Rise and run, we rise and run, we rise and run.
