Rise and Run
Rise and Run
212: Doug Gordon on the Peoplemover Future: Life After Cars, Disney Style
The countdown to Wine & Dine is on, and the energy is real. We swap last‑week training moves, practical travel advice for 2026 bookings, and a surprisingly useful shoe debate: are Brooks’ Stitch-themed Glycerines a smarter buy than limited race-weekend drops? Then we bring in a conversation that will change how you see your run, your city, and your next trip to Disney.
Author and advocate Doug Gordon (Life After Cars) joins us to explore a world with fewer cars and more options—walking, cycling, transit, and micro‑mobility that actually fit everyday life. Doug uses Disney’s transportation web—monorail, Skyliner, ferries, buses—as a live model for moving huge crowds smoothly without private cars. We talk runner safety and the power of systemic fixes: lower speeds, protected lanes, better crossings, and design that invites lingering, not just passing through. He connects Epcot’s original vision to what we crave today: places that feel good to move in.
We also spotlight the Chicago Marathon with a stacked roundtable. Hear an expo that hums, a 5K with countries on bibs, and race-day stories that span sub‑three breakthroughs, 60‑minute PRs, back‑of‑the‑pack grit as the course comes down, and a tribute run that turned grief into a 15‑minute PR. Charity teams like American Cancer Society, Ronald McDonald House, and Achilles International show how big-city chaos becomes community. The crowds? Electric from start to finish.
We wrap with meetup details (find us by the bleachers), the short‑fuse Disney gift card reminder, and a race report that tours PRs, spooky sprints, endurance milestones, and firsts worth framing. If you love runDisney, safer streets, and finish-line feelings that last, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend, and tell us: what small change would make running safer where you live?
Doug’s Links
Life after Cars Book
The War on Cars Podcast
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Good morning, Rise and Runners. This is Denise. Good morning, it's Angela, and we're from Hickory, North Carolina. And we are rising and running on this beautiful Saturday morning. Happy running.
SPEAKER_16:Denise and Angela greeting us on a sunny morning in Carolina. Welcoming you to episode 212 of the Rise and Run Podcast, friends. We're tickled to death that you're here with us. I'm Bob, and this week I'm joined by Jack.
SPEAKER_05:Hiya.
SPEAKER_16:By Lexi.
SPEAKER_05:Hello.
SPEAKER_16:Alicia's here too.
SPEAKER_05:Hello.
SPEAKER_16:As is John. Hey, how you doing? And Greg. Hey, hey, hey. It is a full house in this week before wine dine. Yeah, baby. Hey, our guest this week, our buddy Doug Gordon, is a co-author of a book titled Life After Cars. Kind of interesting. We talk with Doug about his book, about some of the ideas, and kind of relate it to Disney World and Disneyland a little bit. We hope you enjoy that. In the race report spotlight, a bunch of friends joined us to talk about their experience at this week's Chicago Marathon.
SPEAKER_07:If you enjoy the Rise and Run Podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family. We want to share in their Run Disney journey. So please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast and Instagram at Rise and Run Pod, check out our YouTube channel, and visit our website, Rise and Run Podcast.com. If you guys have any questions, comments, race report, or just want to introduce an upcoming episode, go ahead and call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.
SPEAKER_06:We also want to thank our Patreons whose support helps keep the Rise and Run Podcast rising and running. If you would like to join the Patreon team, you can check out patreon.com slash rise and run podcast.
SPEAKER_16:Hey Jack, anything new on YouTube?
SPEAKER_07:So it's not necessarily new, but it's still really, really good information and still pretty relevant. Um, we do have an episode on our YouTube channel that says 16 tricks and tips for wine and dine weekend. And if this is your first wine and dine run Disney weekend, that is a great resource to kind of watch before you head out to um the race weekend. So if you want to go ahead and check that out, go ahead and check out our YouTube channel.
SPEAKER_16:Good. Thanks, Jack.
SPEAKER_17:The Rise and Run Podcast is sponsored by our wonderful friends over at Magic Bound Travel. Uh, just learned a little bit ago that, and I don't know why Disney does this, but they only put the first like 10 months of the year on sale for the following year. But apparently, now you can book all of 2026 for your Walt Disney World vacation. Now, here's the funny thing, and and here would be my piece of advice to you we do not know the race calendar yet for next season. Yeah, right, right. 26-27 season. So, in the event that Run Disney shifts wine and dine back to November for next year, I would implore you to contact your Magic Bound Travel agent now and get a room on the books for early November, just in case, so that way you get that lowest rate. Again, you can head over to MagicBoundTravel.com and get that free no obligation quote from our friends over there at MBT.
SPEAKER_16:I think that's excellent advice, Greg. Hey, let's take a look at the training schedule. Wine and dine mentioned it at the top of the episode. I don't need a menu, you know it. We're a week away, my friends. Golly, I know every after every springtime surprise we look and we go, oh, it's gonna be a long time until we're all back at Disney World again. And while the Disney race season has begun at Disneyland, a lot of us head over to the Florida location. So one week from today is Expo Day. We'll see you there. Now, you've done your long training. Most of the training's behind you. You heard Coach Twiggs say that last week. But you've still got four miles this weekend. Get out there and do it. Don't just stop. Get out there and do it. You'll have uh you'll have some training runs the week of the race. I like to get that first one in. The second one, I don't know. I may skip it, but by that time we're okay.
SPEAKER_17:Hey, listen, with the amount of walking you're gonna do just at the expo alone, you're gonna get a couple of miles on your feet.
SPEAKER_16:I love the expo, man. Maybe we'll talk about that tonight. Maybe. We'll see. We got a lot of other things to do. Marathon weekend, Disney World Marathon Weekend. It's 12 weeks away. That's coming up fast. Week 16 on the training calendar. 17 miles is your long run if you're doing the marathon. And in a departure from previous Galloway training schedules, if you're doing goofy or dopey, it shows a 4 to 6 mile training run. So I guess you get to pick. Now, coming up, and it's it's not too far away, it's after we get back. Early November is advanced dining reservations for marathon weekend. We'll remind you of that again. Disneyland half marathon weekend out in Anaheim, the last race out there for a while. 15 weeks away, you're in training week three. Your long run is three miles. Hey, we don't we occasionally comment on other than Disney runs. I want to make a comment that Space Coast, Space Coast over in uh the eastern coast of Florida is now a little over six weeks away. It's right after Thanksgiving. That's a great event. There's still time to get into it. So if you can, just look it up and check it out.
SPEAKER_20:I know it's a question people are gonna ask us. Uh I'm doing wine and dine the next week. Can I s can I swap my 17 miles for marathon weekend and add them to that day? That that's a perfectly good option. So if you're doing them, if you're doing marathon weekend and then and you know you're gonna get the 13 next week, you can push that back a week and do it the week of the uh marathon of uh the half marathon for wine and dine. So in this add the extra couple miles. So you're not if you don't want to do 17 and then 13 the week after.
SPEAKER_17:John, that's a really good point. And the other thing I'll bring up um based off of that is if you are one of those people that has been training exclusively on the wine and dine training program, but are doing the marathon during marathon weekend, but you haven't been following the marathon training schedule, the Galloway team on the Run Disney website under training actually has a very specific plan for people going from wine and dine to the marathon. So if you need a resource, that is a perfect one to follow. And it talks a lot about those things that Coach Uh Twiggs brought up last week about the idea of you know supplementing that mileage that you quote unquote missed by breaking it up as a walk and then also doing the run walk so you're not pounding your legs for so many miles. So if you happen to fall into that situation, definitely take a look at that training plan.
SPEAKER_16:All right, let's talk about training updates. Let me start out. I uh let's see. I saw the surgeon on Wednesday, which is the day before we released the day after we recorded, and got a terrific report. I like that guy. He's really, really been, I mean, he's made a difference in my life. And uh we were chatting a little bit. It was it was a six-week post op review. There was supposed to be a three, a six, and a twelve. Uh he told me I didn't need to come back for the twelve because everything looked so good. He gave me a bunch of little exercises he wanted to see me do while we were there in the examination room, and I ripped through those pretty quickly. And he says something which I love. He says, uh, Man, I want to be like you when I get older. I thought that was a really nice thing to say. But what he was commenting on was staying active, and so there's a goal for all of us to stay active for as long as we can. Bottom line, I still have to be a bit careful, but in terms of getting back into running now, I can concentrate on getting back into run, walk, run. Uh I'll be walking most of uh of Wine and Dime weekend, but that's just from conditioning. And then after that, we'll start working on getting back to uh condition to do the Honolulu Marathon and to do the marathon at Walt Disney World. So this whole thing could not have gone any better than it did. And a big part of that, and I hope I hope that you who are listening believe this, a big part of that was the support that I get from this family, because it means that much to me, and it genuinely, positively, absolutely helps me keep going. So thank you.
SPEAKER_17:Uh, in terms of my training update, uh, something that I have learned in the last two weeks is uh I think I'm falling in love with speed work. Which is something that I I don't think I would have ever said before. Uh yeah, so when I had that crazy magic half mile that I did the other week, that floored coach, it you know, like I said, it gave me the confidence to go out and I signed up for a race. So I'm doing the uh the Rocky run 10 miler in the beginning of November. And I I told Coach, I said, I want to run it for time. And you know, as soon as you utter that phrase to him, that automatically puts speed work into your training calendar. But because it's so close to the race, what we have to do is essentially my drill run is now getting replaced with the speed work, okay, and then still focusing on the long runs then on the weekend. So the last two Thursday runs that I've had, uh, I've done speed work and doing eight hundreds. And again, it was a it's a scary number, and I'm like, all right, because it's in theory, you know, not too much slower than what I was running my magic half miles in. So, but I've done over the the course of the last two weeks, I've done eight of these eight hundreds, and I I think I've hit the time on seven out of eight of them. So it's so it's giving me a lot of confidence. Now, I'll be, you know, again, you always do your speed work faster than you do your, you know, what would be your race pace, you know, to help build that confidence in you. So that I think that's really helping me out, you know, mentally get prepped. You know, and I'm thinking to myself, okay, you know, because usually when I do four eight hundreds, by the time you do a warm-up and a cool down, I'm I'm pretty close to five miles. And I'm like, okay, and I look at down my watch and it's under an hour, and that that makes me happy. And I'm like, okay, if I just doubled that, that's pretty close to a PR for me. So the fact that, and you know, I'm doing recovery walks builds into that as well, too. So that's it's really starting to help build. I'm not trying not to, you know, get overzealous or get cocky or anything like that, but it it's it's giving me the confidence in the right way that hopefully I can go um you know, smash this thing. I can you know go you know 10 rounds with Apollo Creed on this course, and you know, I gonna I can have Mick in the background telling me that you know women weaken legs and I can just chase around chickens for 10 miles. Yeah, so I'm excited.
SPEAKER_16:All right, good great stuff, Greg. That's wonderful. Thanks. Keep it up. I'm excited for you. I can't keep up with you anymore, but you know, you'll wait for me when you're done. I know you will. I will.
SPEAKER_07:No, I know I haven't been running, but I've been doing repay replacing my running with walking. And as you guys know, I've been um training with Tom since June. So here's an update on that. I sent him a message this morning. I went on the scale and I was like really nervous because I'm like, I haven't weighed myself in a hot second, especially the bachelorette, because I know I ate lots of good food at Disney. But um, but yeah, so um since starting back up with Tom, since June, I've lost 7.1 pounds and I've lost an inch and a half around my waist. Yeah, and I'm like, okay, so when I try, because I know I fit into my wedding dress the last time I tried it, uh when we picked it up, but it was like really, really it was tight. I like it zipped up, but it was tight. So I want to breathe. So I'm hoping that like when I go and put it on again um soon when I do my fittings, I'm gonna be like, ah, that extra inch or a half an inch is gonna be extra. Sorry, words are hard, but inch and a half is gonna be great. So, yay! So I just wanted an update on that. Hopefully, I'm gonna start running soon. I have the um, it's called the Aleth Aletha or Aletha. It's like the mark that they sell. It's like a hip hook, and I've been doing that consistently for a week. Um, I'll probably end up doing a product review on YouTube for that if you guys are curious if you've been having some hip issues um with it being extremely tight. Um I think it's doing some good. I think I still need to figure out how to use it a little bit more. I'm having some help from some from some friends, but um hopefully it gets me back to running because I would really love to run the marathon in January. But if I'm not running by probably after the first week of November or second week, I think I might just call it and just say, hey, I'm gonna cheer. Because I I the marathon, you have with all the races, I mean, I'm just gonna say this. It's just like you have to respect the distance. And if I'm not doing the mileage to be able to train for that kind of distance, then I should respectfully know that I should probably say, you know what, I'm not ready for it, my body's not ready for it. Right. And this is coming off an injury, and I'd really rather not aggravate that if I already know I'm gonna be riding a Disneyland races, the 5K and 10K a few weeks later. And that is something I really want to do because that is the last time. Who knows when? So um, if that's the case, then you know it is what it is. I'd rather be safe than sorry. And I you know what? I've had a track record too. For whatever reason, every other marathon a weekend, every other race weekend with that, like marathon 2019, amazing year, 2020. It was a good year, but you know, like it's it's like I have a really good year every two years. It's really weird. And I'm hitting that odd year.
SPEAKER_20:Oh, okay. It's like it's gonna be an even year, Jack. It's gonna be 2026.
SPEAKER_07:Well, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_09:Odd look, John.
SPEAKER_16:Yes, we did. And John John did too, but you know, he likes to mess with you. Ah, he likes to mess with you. But yeah. I was gonna say, if you wanted to, you could walk the marathon with me.
SPEAKER_07:I've I've definitely thought about that. Um, I do know we have to drive home after the race. Um, yeah, so that's the other part of it. Um I will let you know though, Bob, for sure. I didn't even think about that.
SPEAKER_16:Oh, great, Jack. I mean, I uh I know you're still having that hip problem, but hopefully it's getting a little better for you. It sounds like it is, and I hope you get to get back for training and and and get get a chance to run that marathon because you don't want to hang around with me.
SPEAKER_12:Caution runners, change of topic ahead.
SPEAKER_16:With wine and dine coming up, there are a couple things to talk about, but I think I'd like to start over here with John's list of the top 10 things to look for at Wine and Dine Race Weekend.
SPEAKER_17:John, I have a question for you. Is this a David Letterman top 10 or just like a regular top 10?
SPEAKER_20:Well, it's like a David Letterman type top 10. Because I always know I got into this whole YouTube rabbit hole, and then somehow Stacy shot pops up. Remember Stacy?
SPEAKER_16:Oh, yeah, sure, sure. The Disney spokesperson, yeah.
SPEAKER_20:Stacy, the top things to do with Disney. And then Letterman, I'm like, oh wow. I love that.
SPEAKER_17:That's that's a heck of an algorithm, you know. Oh, my algorithm.
SPEAKER_14:It's awesome.
SPEAKER_17:All right. Well then it so if it if it is inspired by David Letterman, does this list come from the home office in Omaha, Nebraska?
SPEAKER_20:Actually, no, it does not. It comes from the home it comes from the home office in the Epcot parking lot.
SPEAKER_17:Oh, okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_20:Okay, so coming in at number 10. Top 10 things to look for at Wine and Dine Race Weekend from the home office in the Epcot parking lot. Number 10, that magical bus ride at 2 a.m. where strangers become instant best friends over costume tips.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_16:Number nine awake. Yeah.
SPEAKER_20:Number nine, the start line DJ convincing thousands of sleepy runners that dancing at 3 a.m. is a great idea. It's a good idea. Number eight, character stops where you're questioned, waiting five minutes for Remy is worth missing a PR.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, it's worth missing a PR. It's not worth getting passed by the balloon ladies, though.
SPEAKER_20:Number seven, that spectator with a sign that says, You're crushing this like Alicia crushes grapes. Number six, that wine and dine shuffle walk back to your resort where your legs say nope, but your body says yes. Absolutely. Number five, runners debating if Epcot margaritas count as proper hydration.
SPEAKER_17:Oh, it's a liquid. Yeah. There's got to be a little bit of water in there.
SPEAKER_07:You can put the salt rim, sodium.
SPEAKER_17:Okay.
SPEAKER_20:There we go. Number four, characters so obscure you Google the mid-run to figure out who they are.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_20:Number three, spaceship Earth glowing in the distance, which is your beacon to the finish line. Yeah, it is. Number two, the gospel choir near the finish, bringing you into the final stretch.
SPEAKER_16:Oh, yeah, that's a serious one there, man. That's a good one.
SPEAKER_20:And the number one thing to look for at Wine and Dine Race Weekend, the finish line, where sweat, smiles, and friends make it all all the miles worth the while worth the while.
SPEAKER_08:Absolutely. Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_16:Good job, John. I like it. I do. It's fun. So there you go. There you go, friends. If you haven't been before, there's your top ten things to look for. And let's while we're talking wine and dine, let's talk about a couple other things. Um stitch shoes are the new shoes breaking out for race weekend. Who's buying a pair of stitch shoes?
SPEAKER_20:Uh I will probably have to buy a set of stitch shoes for my granddaughter because that is her favorite character. Well, that's a good reason. But I am not telling her about them until we get in there, so she is surprised.
SPEAKER_17:But what if she listens to this podcast? Then you just ruined it. She ain't listening to the podcast. She's not a subscriber, John. What is wrong? Come on. What kind of grandfather are you? I know. I'm surprised she's not a Patreon.
SPEAKER_06:You gotta train them up right, John.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah. Elise, are you buying stitched shoes?
SPEAKER_03:So I wear adrenalines and these are glycerins, which I've never tried before. So I I may have to try on the glycerins and see how they feel on my feet. I don't think they would be a running shoe necessarily, but I love stitched, and so I think they're super, super cute. Um, so possibly.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, I'll tell you, glycerins are nice shoes. Uh I the first pair of glycerins I wore was the first marathon I did at Disney World. And I remember coming out, that's back when we would come out of ESPN, right? About mile 22 or 23, whatever it was. And I I literally remember wearing those glycerins and thinking to myself 23 miles into the run, boy, these are really good shoes because my feet were so comfortable. Uh I will not be buying a pair of stitch shoes, but I think they're I think they're great. I have, in fact, as we're recording here, I'm wearing my Mickey Mouse shoes, which are ghosts, not glycerins. Glycerins are even uh softer though, even more cushioned. So they're a comfortable shoe. And for what it's worth, I think 175 is the list price of the stitch shoes. Yeah, but if you go on the Brooks website to buy a pair of glycerins, just their regular pair, they're 165. So it's not like it's a not like it's a big plus.
SPEAKER_07:I've never bought uh Brooks shoes before.
SPEAKER_16:Well, and not that this is a shoe episode, but Brooks and New Balance both sell their shoes in widths, and that's a big deal to me. So I can get a wide shoe from Brooks. So I wear those two brands quite a bit. So I'm pretty f familiar with them.
SPEAKER_17:Well, here's a conversation I'd like to have with you guys about this, and that is obviously we are still we're still a week out, so there's still time for Brooks to uh you know make uh an announcement about a specific wine and dine shoe. Based on this news, now I understand why Brooks made this announcement because obviously when you go throughout any Disney park, there is stitch merchandise everywhere. The live action remake made Disney over a billion dollars this summer, so obviously that character is a cash cow for them, or in this case, I guess a cash alien. So do we think do we think that since we haven't heard about a race weekend shoe, do you think they're moving away from that idea? And and if so, are they maybe going the the old school new balance route? And as opposed to shoes themed around a weekend, do you think we're gonna see more shoes themed around characters?
SPEAKER_06:The only thing that I have to say about that is back whenever we first had the shoe release, there was a picture that had the four that we got and only like four spaces left for the season.
SPEAKER_17:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:That were like question marks. So I'm kind of thinking this may be the only one for wine and nine. I don't know.
SPEAKER_16:No, we don't know, but that's okay. It's a good guess as any.
SPEAKER_07:Honestly, I'm guessing that's probably based off of sales of previous uh race weekend shoes because if they thought it was gonna be a huge hit and then they had a plethora left behind, um, not saying that they're bad shoes, but like I'd probably be more inclined to wear a character shoe than I would a race weekend shoe. Um, especially if it's like dated or anything, you know, like 2025 or but like I don't know.
SPEAKER_06:I yeah. Um I'm the opposite. I would rather a race weekend shoe because at least with the colors, I mean, I don't know. I'm I'm let personally I'm less likely to wear a character unless it's one that I am like a huge fan of. You know, I'm not a Stitch fan, so um, there's no way I'm gonna buy the shoes. But if they came out with a Chip and Dale shoe, heck yeah, I would be buying that.
SPEAKER_16:You could have Chip on the left and Dale on the right.
SPEAKER_06:Right, wouldn't it be so cute?
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, well, I mean, if you'd like it, sure.
SPEAKER_20:Sure. I think getting away from the race weekend shoes gives them more of a chance to get a bigger stock out there, also so that they don't have to say, okay, oh, if I have you know extra shoes, I could keep selling them and not have to worry about not have to worry about, yeah, I got all these extra wine and dine shoes that no one wants to buy.
SPEAKER_07:Yep, the race weekend's already gone. So if anything, if it's after the race weekend, then it'd feel like you know, I should probably put them on sale because it's after the fact, it's not during the race. So I feel like what John's saying is more prevalent with you can sell it all year or however long you want.
SPEAKER_17:So I think I'm of the camp that we could see them going away from the weekend shoe per se and moving towards the character shoe for the sole reason that I think Disneyland Halloween was their transition period because when you look at the shoe that they released for that race, it was cute. The shoe itself was mostly Ursula themed, but obviously they put the Disneyland logo on the back of the shoe, and in theory, that was the only indication of it being the race weekend shoe. You know, it's not like it featured other villains and such. So I I like I said, I think they're probably taking um a page out of you know old school, you know, new bounds back when you know those shoes were flying off the shelves back you know ten plus years ago. Uh and I it should be an interesting business venture if that's the uh decision they decide to go in.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, I just think it's funny that you said the sole reason when you were talking about shoes, and we all let you go on it, but let's move along. Um wrapping up a couple of odds and ends about uh wine and dine weekend, expo passes should be out on Monday. That's always fun. Just another step along the way. Get your expo pass, you get your bib number. You won't know what your corral is, but it'll be fun because everybody on the socials will be speculating which bib numbers go in which corrals. And a lot of times they're pretty close.
SPEAKER_06:Bob, did you say step along the way to transition from the SHIEU talk?
SPEAKER_16:I did. I did that on purpose. I'm glad that was very astute of you to pick up on that.
SPEAKER_06:I didn't want to let that one go too.
SPEAKER_16:That was good. That was good. You should be getting an email. In fact, by the time you're listening to this, you should have it. An email with your$15 gift card code that has to be used pretty much before you leave. It has a short expiration date on it. It might be the week after the race or so. But it's fifteen bucks. Just tell yourself to use it. It's so easy to forget, but it's yours. You paid for it. So use it, use it at the after party. How heck, use it the first afternoon that you're there at uh the food and wine festival. Use it at the expo. Yeah, can you use it at the expo?
SPEAKER_20:Yeah, it's a gift card. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You can use it anywhere that you can use a Disney gift card, but reminder that that's for individuals doing the half marathon or the challenge.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, right, right. It's it's just like the after party. Which, by the way, you should have your after party tickets by now.
SPEAKER_12:Caution runners, the topic is about to change right now.
SPEAKER_16:This is a good time to ask What would Alicia do?
SPEAKER_03:Well, Bob, I think that's a great transition. Um, because, well, my what would Alicia do this week is kind of twofold. So the first part is to trust your training. We're coming into a race weekend, which is super exciting. Um, so trust that training that you've done and make sure that you're still continuing to train up until we get to those races. But then also our friends who are doing marathon weekend, I know we're getting into those really, really long miles. Um, so trusting that training. Um, but on the other side of it, I know we've talked to you, Bob, about um having surgery and kind of recovering from that. And John, you had mentioned last week that your knee was bothering you, and Jack, your hip. And then myself, um, the other day I woke up and my ankle has been bugging me. Um, so being mindful of your body and listening to what it needs. So, John, you had mentioned um that you cut your run short. I am able to walk. Um, and Jack, you said you were able to walk as well for your injuries. Um, to just listen to what your body needs so that it doesn't turn into anything serious. Um, yeah, trust in your training and listen to your body are the biggest takeaways.
SPEAKER_16:Get to the start line.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, there's two lines you want to finish, but you gotta there's two lines you want to cross. But you gotta cross that start line if you're gonna cross the finish line. Absolutely. So good advice. Good advice, Alicia. Thanks. And that by golly, that's what Alicia would do.
SPEAKER_12:Caution runners, change of topic ahead.
SPEAKER_20:You might know our next guest as the host of the New York City Rise and Run Meetup featuring the Will Run for podcast. Or you might recognize him at Run Disney events with his trademark purple hat. But today we're going to talk to author Doug Gordon, co-author of Life After Cars, Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile. Doug Books challenged us is to imagine a world that moves a little more like Disney World, where the streets belong to the people, not traffic, and transportation feels more like the monorail than the morning commute. Doug, welcome aboard. Oh, I love that intro. That was amazing.
SPEAKER_00:That was like a better summary of the book than I ever could have come up with. All right, good night. Good night, everybody.
SPEAKER_20:Right. Yeah, that's it. So, Doug, what inspired you to start this book?
SPEAKER_00:Well, um, I've been a safe streets activist in New York City for a really long time, um, focused on pedestrian issues and cycling issues and things like that. And um started a blog a long time ago. I've been writing about these issues for a long time. My background is in television production. And um in 2016, my co-hosts and I um we had talked about starting a podcast. It it you know how these things can be. It didn't really pick up until 2018. We're like, let's finally do it. And um, we started a podcast called The War on Cars, which is a sort of tongue-in-cheek reference to the things people say when you try to repurpose street space away from automobiles and towards people-centric uses like cycling, walking, and transit. And um, so we've been doing that for a really long time. And then in 2022, 2023, both an editor and a uh pair of agents came to us and said, Have you ever thought about writing a book? It's like, it seems like there's something about this subject that's kind of in the zeitgeist right now, you know, especially post-COVID, where people had been, you know, picking up e-biking and a lot of cities had turned to outdoor dining to get them through the pandemic. Um, so we, you know, put our pens to paper or fingers to our keyboards and started working on this book.
SPEAKER_16:Now we understand the the premise of the book, but you gotta, I think that there must be times when you feel like you're tilting at windmills here or that it's a real challenge. You have to get people. So how do you envision a realistic transition to a post-car society?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I should be clear that like the book is called Life After Cars, but it's not life without cars. Like the idea of the book is that we understand that, you know, 99% of the United States, you need a car to get where you're going. And even in the places where you can get around with good transit and walking and cycling, I live in Brooklyn, you know, like I have two subway stops within a five or 10-minute walk of my house. I don't own a car. I have, you know, more bikes than children. Um, then like even in an environment like this, there are people, elderly people or people with mobility issues, who need access to an automobile, either their own or someone else's, to get to the places they need to go. So the argument we're sort of making in the book is not so much like, no cars, never. It's more that like in the US specifically in North America, really, we have overdeployed cars and we want to envision a world where maybe you are in a two-car household, but you could envision yourself, like, what if we could get what rid of one of those cars, right? What if one of us in, let's say, a married couple or in a family or just roommates, right? Could say, like, I'm gonna work from home and then I'm gonna e-bike to the grocery store just to get that gallon of milk instead of taking the Ford F-150, right? Like doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Um, we want people to have options. Um, that's really sort of the goal of the book is to envision a life where, you know, it says freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the automobile. And that's a pretty deliberate choice and a provocative one to say that. But if you think about what like the word tyranny means, it's sort of like an environment or a system in which you can never stop thinking about this thing that dominates your life. And for Americans, that's the car in many ways, right? Like you take the kids to school in the car, you go grocery shopping in the car, you a lot of people listening to this probably have to get in the car to go someplace where they can start to go running, for example. Um, you know, our whole lives are centered around the car. And I have lived in very car-centric places. I've lived in Atlanta, I grew up in a suburb north of Boston, and it, you know, not every place has to be Brooklyn or Manhattan. Things can be your sort of more traditional American Norman Rockwell-esque main streets, um, Main Street USA, where um, you know, you don't need to get in a car for every last thing that you do. And that's sort of the argument that we're we're making. Um, cars have their place, they've just been placed in probably too many places, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_16:It does. It does make it does. We yeah, we are you're already getting into some Disney parallels for us, uh, Main Street USA being one of them. How many, you know, and I'm off the board here as far as the book, but I think people don't realize sometimes they stop and think about it, how many different modes of transportation there are at Walt Disney World aside from your car.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's really funny because like part of why I'm a Disney Parks fan is because of the urban design and my fascination with how they just move so many people. And for those of us who do run Disney, of course, that's never more evident than on a race morning where you wake up and you walk outside of your hotel and there are 10 buses lined up, you know, if you're a pop century, like you know, and they're ready to um just get you all to the start line. And then as soon as you're done, usually you can pop back on a bus and then get on the Skyliner and walk through Epcot or get on the monorail. Like there's so many different ways. There are ferries and all the rest. Um, and you know, a lot of that is for many Americans, right? Their only experience with taking any sort of public transportation um to get where they're going. It's funny, I feel like the bus gets a bad rap at the Disney resorts. I love the bus because I'm just so used to taking them in New York City.
SPEAKER_05:I love the bus too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think the buses are great. I think some people, you know, obviously prefer the monorail resorts or being able to walk to the front of Magic Kingdom from contemporary. But uh, yeah, like that is kind of the fascinating thing. And something we talk a little bit about in the book is that we intuitively understand that a life with fewer cars in it is better. And the revealed preference there is where we choose to go on vacation. Usually, except for you know, a road trip that takes you across country or like out into nature to go camping, you you tend to not center your vacation destinations around the need to drive every day. Um, you go to Disney and you ditch the car at the front gate, you know, in the lot or at the hotel, um, and you rely on the transportation there. You go to a boardwalk town and you rent a bicycle and you, you know, or go for a stroll on the boardwalk at the beach. You go to like Mackinac Island in Michigan, right? Which is a car, mostly car-free island, or you go to Paris or Amsterdam or London, you know, any of the great European cities, and you don't ever walk around those places and think, oh man, I wish I had spent more time sitting in traffic. You know, you think you think strolling those places is incredible. Um, and that's so we intuitively do understand that the problem we have as Americans is like envisioning how could we bring some of that back to where we live, you know, so that I didn't have to get into a car for every last thing that I do. And again, I like to drive, you know, like I I have owned cars in the past. I love like the road trip. I drove across America after I um graduated college, and it was really great to see the country that way. Um, but you know, not having to do it for every last trip is is sort of what we're getting at.
SPEAKER_16:I was just thinking about uh I'm heading to a cruise here. You talked about I'm not gonna take my car on the boat.
SPEAKER_00:So no, that would not work if you took your car on the boat, nor would it work if everyone tried to park on Main Street USA for sure.
SPEAKER_16:You know, carrying on just a little bit further with this, Doug, the idea of Disney and Epcot and the way Walt, who never lived to see it open, of course, but the way he originally envisioned it. I remember seeing a piece on uh Disney Channel, I guess, where Walt was doing some planning for the New York World's Fair. He's in New York City and he looks over and he sees uh the plans for the transportation system, the subway, and the highways that are being built in and around New York City, and he goes, That's the way to move people around. And that's what I want to do in my experimental prototype community of tomorrow, which we know didn't turn out exactly what Walt wanted, but that was the direction he was going on that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's really interesting because when you look at the history of the Disney parks, they're intricately tied to transportation, right? Like you can go all the way back to Walt's childhood and his upbringing and his fascination with railways, right? And um, and how much those factor into the design of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, you know, right? They're encircled by the Disneyland Railroad, for example. Um, and so they do play a big part. And Disneyland's location in Anaheim is part partially chosen because that's where two new highways were converging that could bring people, you know, basically from elsewhere in California down. So like cars and transportation are just part and parcel of the Disney Parks story. And also, you know, at the time that Disneyland opened, and at the time that the World's Fair was happening, where what where Disney was doing stuff with uh the Ford Motor Company, for example, um, you know, cars were seen as the wave of the future. They were this sort of like highways where you could whisk people in and out of cities at at high speeds. That was kind of seen as the way things were gonna work for the next hundred years. There's a reason Autopia, a car-driven attraction with gas-powered cars, which we look at as like almost antiques in the electric vehicle age, is in Tomorrowland in Disneyland, right? Because at the time in 1955, it was seen as the wave of the future. Um, and interestingly, I'm working on an episode for the podcast about Disney's plan to switch those vehicles to electric, hopefully next year. Um, and yeah, and then you know, you switch to Walt Disney World and you know, moving the park sort of away from like being surrounded by highways and roads and all of the bad negative things that that was associated with. That was part of the plan. But yeah, you know, Epcot, um, there's a really great film that you can find on YouTube, it's probably included in what you were watching, Bob, of Walt Disney talking about the plans for Epcot. And it was supposed to be like the city, the Progress City, USA. It was supposed to be a city of the future with monorails and people movers, where you would leave your cars on the periphery of the city and take a people mover or a monorail into the center, which would be completely car free. Your houses wouldn't have garages, and you would live in this experimental prototype city of tomorrow. And in his version of the city of tomorrow, it involved very few automobiles. Um, and it's funny because there is actually, I looked up a great quote from Walt Disney, which is like this could be taken straight out of our book. He said, I'm not against the automobile, but I just feel that you can design so that the automobile is there, but still put people back as pedestrians again. You know, and and what we sort of get at in the book is, you know, think about when Walt Disney was born and where he lived. He lived in a life he lived a life before cars, right? And he would have seen the world get better in some ways as cars grew, but worse in a lot of other ways, with injuries and deaths and pollution, especially in California where he was living. And um, so he would have known, like, yeah, we can return to traditional values, not sacrifice technology, because Epcot was supposed to be loaded with new technology, but have fewer cars in there. So yeah, you know, unfortunately that vision didn't pan out. Um, and now it's more of a sort of permanent world's fair or IP-based park, but it's, you know, the DNA is still there.
SPEAKER_03:So you just mentioned something about um the injuries that can happen. And in the book, there's a lot of different facts on how um injuries of car accidents and then also pedestrians being hit um happen throughout the time that cars have been a thing. Um and I wanted to ask you, looking at the book, what is the way that um people can give up their cars but also be safe with doing that, with being um a cyclist? Or I mean, we know as runners that like when we're out there, we have to be hyper-vigilant because there are cars. Um so if somebody wants to kind of move away um and move into a less car world, how can they do that safely?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a funny question. And um, first of all, I just want to say I didn't say like thank you just for having me on the show because this is a departure of topics of sorts for you. But I think, you know, cars and the relationship to us as runners is is like you're saying, Alicia, very important. I was before I was preparing for this, I was thinking of you all heard the story of that super runner, Fuja Singh, who was like allegedly 114 years old and died in India. Um, he was still running marathons, apparently. He died, he was hit by a driver in a hit and run. Um, you know, what a way to go after 114 years and being that physically active. But yeah, you know, so we do all the things, right? Like we wear reflective clothing and bright clothing, or we have lights on our sneakers or headlamps when we go out early, especially now as the clocks are about to change and it's getting darker, depending on where you live. Um I, as an advocate, tend to focus more on systemic solutions to these problems, right? There's a lot of, um, as Americans, we're often, there's a lot of rugged individualism. You're responsible for your own health and safety. And I think, yeah, you know, that's a it's good advice to tell someone when you're running on a busy road, you know, run opposite of traffic, make sure you're really being safe. A lot of drivers are looking at their phones and not expecting to see people on the side of the road, cyclists or runners. And so, yes, you do have to take some individual responsibility. But the message we're putting out in the book is actually more that there are systemic solutions. So that can be, you know, advocating in your community for sidewalks, you know, finding a popular running route, right? Where and saying, hey, wait a minute. Like, we know dozens of people love to use this road for their regular training or for walks. Like, could we get a sort of wider shoulder there? Could we get some sort of separation that the town or city could install so that drivers can't hit a person or that they have enough space to be separated from them? Um, could the speed limit be dropped? Because we know that, you know, a pedestrian hit at about 20 miles an hour has a fairly good chance of um just walking away with minor injuries. And that goes up exponentially as the speed of the car goes up. And with the size of cars these days and SUVs, um, you know, getting hit by a car at 40 or 45 miles an hour is almost certainly a death sentence for most people. So, you know, lowering the speed limit has been a really effective thing in places, especially where you expect there to be a lot of pedestrians, you know, near schools, um, near parks, near senior centers, those are really that's a really effective way to do it. Um, sometimes you need to do a little more than just put up a new sign that says 25 miles an hour instead of 35 miles an hour. You need to actually build things into the road that will slow drivers down. But that's that's my biggest advice to people is like if you love running and you love runners' safety or cycling and training, like you kind of have to be a little bit of an advocate. You know, find out who's in charge in your city and ask them like, why is this road where people love to run on or bike on or just walk on to get to school or whatever? Why is it so dangerous and what can we do about it?
SPEAKER_06:So bringing it back to Walt Disney World, um, in a lot of ways, the Disney parks show us that people can rely on other kinds of transportation besides cars. Um, and you know, they have the skyliner, the monorail, the buses. Do you see the Disney parks as like a real world model for a car-free future? Or um, you know, something to base it off of?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think it's sometimes helpful to to think about how Disney sees itself, right? Like a lot of attractions are sponsored by major corporations, even Tron, I think, is sponsored by Enterprise, a rental car company. Um, so like even they expect you to go to the park and take something home, right? And like when you then need to rent a car, when you go on your next vacation, not to Disney, they're like, oh, Enterprise. Like, like there's something about the Disney parks, right, that influence our lives when we're not in it. Um and Disney has always been that way, whether it was the original version of Epcot, where these were all sort of like science and education-based pavilions that wanted to teach people stuff. And many of those were sponsored by big corporations, include, if you're old enough, you remember like Universe of Energy, right? Um, and things like that. And people do take those lessons home. Um, Tomorrowland was really supposed to be like this is the vision of the future. Um, the various ways in which we transport ourselves around, the monorail. While Disney, um, they had he had visions of monorails up and down California to get people from LA and various places outside of Anaheim to the parks. It wasn't just going to be this sort of like hotel loop that it does now or into Tomorrowland. Or in Disney World, you know, the monorail was meant to be expanded and was when Epcot opened. Um, the people mover, you can go to the Houston airport and you can find the only other Wedway, I think Wed, you know, the only other imagineering designed people mover, I believe, outside of Disney World is at the air, one of the one of the airports in Houston. I can't remember if it's Hobby or George Bush, but there is the same technology that moves the people mover in Tomorrowland in Walt Disney World. It's a slightly different designed vehicle, but it's the same sort of like magnetic squares that push the vehicle forward. And there was this idea that like they would sell this technology to other cities. I think on the individual level, like I, you know, people get familiar with using the bus or they get on a train, they understand, like, oh, I have to get up for the old person who needs to sit down on the bus. Like stuff that I take for granted as a New Yorker. It's fun to watch people do at Disney World. I was also thinking about just how much we walk at Disney World, you know, um, I the average person in Disney World gets between 15,000 and 30,000 steps per day, as opposed to three to 5,000 steps at home, which is far less than the sort of conventional 10,000 steps that we often are told to do every day. So, you know, even I, as a New Yorker who walks everywhere, I go to Disney World and my step counts are just not even including the races, are just incredible. So I think it does teach people like, huh, like I can lug a stroller, you know, onto a bus. I can take a mobility scooter onto the monorail. Like maybe I don't have to get a car for every last thing that I that I do.
SPEAKER_06:I think about like whenever I'm traveling, um albeit Europe or Japan or Disney World or anything like that, you know, how different my step count is, um, like you were mentioning, but you know, also conversely, how difficult it is to even get 10,000 steps in a day at home. Um, and how you have to make a conscious effort to, okay, I have to go walk somewhere so that I can get steps. And I mean, I live in Atlanta, and I'm trying to think of like, you know, how can we take the world that I live in where yeah, there are sidewalks, but I kind of have to use my card to get around, you know, and as much as I wish that you know, where I live was like New York City and I could walk everywhere, that's not what that's not realistic for me. Um so like you mentioned earlier being an advocate, but like how with the life, you know, after cars and not having cars, with that mindset, how do you transform that into suburbia suburbia?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I think I used to live in Atlanta and I had the same problem. You know, I lived in a like relatively new housing uh apartment complex and there was a pool and a fitness center. But like once I was home from work, like I had to make if I had to go get something, I was like, oh, I need to get in the car. Like there was a sidewalk up to the main road, but crossing that main road to the grocery store was like you were taking your life in your hands if you tried to do that. And so it was just easier to drive. And that was what I defaulted to all the time. And, you know, yeah, and and I I do like to say it doesn't have to be New York City, it doesn't have to be Manhattan, it doesn't have to be Chicago, you know, the loop or something like that. When you think of like traditional American suburbs before World War II, like what we call streetcar suburbs, like the Chicago suburbs. I'm thinking of, you know, Alicia, you're in Minnesota, like there are neighborhoods in Minneapolis that are like perfectly walkable, but still have single family homes. Um, it can be things, it really comes down to zoning, you know, making sure that like it doesn't have to be that there's like a massive downtown, you know, around the corner from you where you have everything you need. But what if there was like a little market, you know, just walking distance. So you didn't have to cross that big road. So when you needed eggs because you forgot them and you're baking something, you don't think to yourself, oh, you know, I gotta get in the car. I gotta go find parking, I gotta then drive back. And oh, it's five o'clock on a Friday and it's the traffic. I think a lot of it comes down to zoning. Um, and we can repair a lot of those places. Something we talk about a lot in the book is the concept of repair. You know, Atlanta, there are neighborhoods where like just a few little tweaks, they wouldn't turn into Manhattan, but they might make it a little more possible for you to drive, let's say, 10 to 15% less, right? Um, and that's that's sort of what we're going for. I I sometimes liken the activism that I do to like a meatless Monday sort of um activism where you know you're not telling people to who love cheeseburgers and a good steak to quit it entirely. You're just saying, like, what if you made little tweaks to your lifestyle? Or what if you went to the city council meeting and said, how come this road is so dangerous? There's a school on one side and a park on the other, and no way for the kids after school to go to the park without driving. That makes no sense. And so just fixing one intersection, you know, I think especially now where the problems our country and our world face are so big and it just feels like nothing can be fixed, and our politics are so broken. What I love about Safe Streets advocacy is like you can fix that corner that is dangerous. You you can be a squeaky wheel and get a safer crosswalk or a traffic light put in. And it's very rewarding. And it's the kind of activism that kids can do, that older people can do, and that benefits everyone. So it's sort of a long-winded answer of like, yeah, like Atlanta's not, it took, you know, it took a long time for Atlanta to look the way that it looks today, and it will take a long time for it to look like something different. Um, and it probably won't look like anything we can imagine right now, but there are ways to fix it.
SPEAKER_16:Interesting, Atlanta. I know you don't have to go far. Go to Peachtree City, just outside of Atlanta. Yep. And people are driving golf carts.
SPEAKER_00:Or the villages in Florida, right? You know, like same same concept as well. Right. Golf carts. And and that's the thing. It's like sometimes this movement gets reduced to like, oh, you want everyone to ride a bike and not everyone can ride a bike. But like, yeah, golf carts and other mobility devices are a really good option for people. You know, the average trip um in the United States is under three miles. I think something like about six about 50 to 60 percent of most of the trips that we make are under six miles, and most of them are under three. And for most able-bodied people, that is a walkable distance, a bikeable distance, or an e-bikeable distance. Um, and yeah, you know, there are things you have to consider like weather and terrain and that kind of stuff, and it has to be a safe route in order for you to want to get into the golf cart or the e-bike. But these are distances we've, especially this community of runners, um, can do.
SPEAKER_16:A favorite comedian of mine whose name is escaping me right now, Deadpan Deliveries, every place is walking distance if you have enough time.
SPEAKER_00:That's gotta be Stephen Wright, right? Stephen Wright, yeah. Stephen Wright, yeah.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_16:That's a good one. Uh and there is an element to that too. I mean, um, my supermarket's an easy walk distance for me, but even at a good pace, it's gonna take me 30, 35 minutes to make that round trip.
SPEAKER_07:Whereas if I get get in the corner, and depends on how much you're buying and stuff too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you want the walk to be pleasant, right? It's not just about how far things are. Like something can be very close, right? It can be less than a mile away. But if what's between here and there is either a dangerous road or just kind of an unpleasant walking environment, even if there are sidewalks, you don't want to do that, you know. Right, yeah, you know, like there's all sorts of reasons. And again, that's why it's not an absolute movement, right? It's like there, I I use a car every now and then, like to get to the airport early in the morning, like I'm I'm calling Uber, right? And like, because there's no public transportation that's gonna get me where I need to go and the time I need to do it, even here in New York. And um, so again, it's not an absolutist movement at whatsoever.
SPEAKER_20:If Epcot was built as Walt imagined, right? With people movers, monorail, and no personal cars, do you think it could have changed how America's cities were developed?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think part of the reason you're seeing, like I said, this is a kind of like zeitgeisty book. It's really in the ether right now. Part of the reason you're seeing so much interest in this isn't just because of like COVID, and as I was mentioning, you know, the uptake in e biking and outdoor dining, but um we're all traveling again post COVID, right? And you know, people do go to European cities or they ride a train in Japan and they think, oh man, like that's amazing. So we have Have these real world examples, um, this being the United States where everything's like a little more based in capitalism and corporate culture, the idea that like if we had Walt's vision of Epcot with like corporations switching out appliances in your home and you know, new transportation technology, you can totally imagine it being a place where urban planners would come to today to like test stuff out in a controlled environment before unleashing it in the streets of you know Minneapolis or Atlanta or Miami or something like that or a small town somewhere. You you can absolutely see like all the driverless car technology that we're seeing being tested out in Arizona or San Francisco or a city near you soon, that like they would partner with um Waymo or something like that to have cars running around Epcot and testing out new people mover technology. And you could see it being like a learning hub for urban planners and politicians and electeds. Thankfully, like I said, I think people are you can go to Montreal, right? And you can see bike lanes that are being used all winter long and a hilly city with where people bike, and um, you know, Minneapolis is building some of the best bike infrastructure in the country. Again, a very cold city, um, and yet really hardy people who use the infrastructure because it's safe. Um, so I think like the answer is yes, and like we would probably go to Epcot for all the reasons I've decided, but there are so many examples now around the world that people can point to, including my own backyard of New York, where we're just like putting in new bike lanes, new busways, new pedestrian plazas, it seems like every day.
SPEAKER_07:So if you could design a new Disney park or land inspired by life after cars, what would it look like?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I think it would mostly just look I love the radial design of um Magic Kingdom and Disneyland. Like I love this idea that you walk in and it's like a movie set and it just opens up and spreads out before you, and you always have the anchor of the castle to come back to. So I wouldn't, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I wouldn't go too far from that. You know, maybe I'd update some stuff, but I'm just such a classic lover of that park and how it's designed that I don't know if I would change much. Like maybe that's not a satisfying answer. I wish I'd thought about it more ahead of time. Um, you know, if you really think about Main Street USA, there are cars on Main Street USA, right? There's the omnibus and there's the horse-drawn trolley, and there's like the old timey smaller car. And you either take that because it's just fun. I've ridden those because it's like it's just so cool to be in those. And, or because they're there because like if you need a little help walking down the street, you know, um, you can have that as an option for you. Or you can take the train and just bypass Main Street altogether. Um, so it's kind of perfect in its own way. You know, you think about the design of the buildings. I was talking about earlier, that like it matters what's between here and there. When you walk down Main Street, a lot of those stores, I think especially like on the right side of the street, like there's nothing in them, right? They're just facades. Um, and on the left side of the street as you're walking down, it's like all just one big sort of, they used to be separate stores, but now it's just like all one big continued arcade, essentially. Um, but the the experience of walking down that street is great because there's so much to look at, right? There's so much, there's so many other people to see. That's part of the fun of going to Disney World. That's what it means to build great places. It's like, what is a place that just feels good to walk in? And we all know it when we're at Disney World because we the places we like to all be in are that. They have a lot of cool and interesting things. And there are places to sit. That's the other piece of like in a city. We're talking a lot about walking, about running, about cycling. But part of what makes a really great city a great city is when you have the ability to linger. And, you know, we don't really have the ability to linger in a lot of American cities because the experience of traffic whizzing by and the noise and all the rest makes lingering unpleasant. Um, but that's not the case. Like there's that one place in Disney World where we can sit off on the right on Main Street and like sit on a bench, you know, and just watch. That's incredible. I that's a great place to sit.
SPEAKER_06:You know, the way that Main Street was created with the stores and everything was a marketing reason. Um, because whenever you're walking, uh typically you walk on the right side of the street. And when you're coming into Walt Disney World, you're more focused on getting to the castle. But whenever you're exiting the park on what will what then would be your right side, that's where all the shops are. So that you can see the case.
SPEAKER_00:They want you to pick up some souvenirs on the way out.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:That's how they get you.
SPEAKER_16:Um and you know why we walk on the right side?
SPEAKER_00:Because that's where we drive. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like taking the escalator in the UK, you you you do it the opposite way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_16:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_06:Um, I I do have an additional question. Um, what are your thoughts on Carsland replacing the Liberty Square, like the Liberty um book?
SPEAKER_00:I love the Carsland in Disneyland. I actually think it's like one of the best designed new areas of any Disney park that I've been to. And um, so I'm I am on the one hand looking forward to new, a new piece of the park, you know, new something new coming in. Um as it's funny, I am an advocate and I often come up against people who are very like against change, right? You're putting a bike lane on my street and you're gonna ruin it. I've lived here for 50 years and we never needed a bike lane before, and it's ugly and I don't like it, or like City Bike is gonna ruin New York City, pedestrianizing Times Square is gonna ruin New York City. So I've heard all of these things before. So when I when I hear the reaction to what's coming to um, you know, the the rivers of America and that the cars area is gonna take that over, I definitely understand the folks who are like, you're gonna ruin Disney World. I've been coming here for 50 years, why do you have to change this? But at the same time, like in much in the way I think cities should be dynamic, like the park can be dynamic too. I I'm bummed to lose the rivers and the view of like looking out and seeing, you know, Thunder Mountain and the reflection in the water and all of that. I think, and there's some argument to be made that like in Florida, having water nearby is nice because it makes it a little cooler sometimes. But things change, cities change, Disney was always designed to change. That was always Walt's philosophy of sort of, and it's very much the New York City philosophy. There's a great E. B. White quote that like New York will be a wonderful city if they're ever finished with it. Um, and I think that that my dad used to joke that like as soon as they finished fixed the the beat the Bronx Cross Express, the Cross Bronx Expressway, they'd have to start over and finish again. And that's what Disney is, right? Like it's always in a state of repair or construction or something new. So I don't know. I I I like change. It's it's fun to experience new things. Okay, Doug.
SPEAKER_20:So uh your book, uh, what's the name of it again? And where can we get it?
SPEAKER_00:Uh it's called Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile. Uh it's I've written it with two other co-authors, and you can go to lifeaftercars.com. Um, it will be available at every bookstore you can imagine. Ask for it. We really love independent bookstores. If you can support them, um, go ask for it at your local bookstore, walk, bike, or even drive there. It's okay. Um, you can ask them for the for the book. In fact, it might even make it more fun if you drive there and get this book. So, yeah, lifeaftercars.com. And another question, which is really important when are we going to see you again down at Disney? Um, not soon enough because I love all of you guys, and I'm so thankful that I like was able to see you in tiny form on my screen tonight. But I will be at um marathon weekend. I'm doing my second dopey. And then because of Book Tour, I'll be in Florida in February. So I'm gonna pop over for Princess, and I'm just doing just the half. And then I can't miss springtime surprise, so I'll be there for that. So this will be a big 2026 Run Disney season for me.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah. So we're just missing you at Wine and Dine. We get the rest of them.
SPEAKER_00:That's I will be cheering on a bunch of Run Disney runners here in New York City and hosting the once again the Rise and Run Meetup. Sorry, yeah, the Rise and Run meetup host featuring the hosts of uh we'll run for because Mike is running. Michael is running New York. Yep.
SPEAKER_16:Hey Doug, thanks for joining us, man.
SPEAKER_00:We appreciate the time. Uh, I appreciate all of you so much. Thank you.
SPEAKER_12:Caution runners, the topic is about to change right now.
SPEAKER_16:Doug's a good guy. That's a good book. And you can decide if you're interested or not. He makes a lot of good points. And I just looked it up on Amazon. It is uh it's number one in uh what did I say in urban development or something. Anyway, it's number one in something. And what I really wanted to tell you was there's an audiobook available also. And I know Doug and one of his co-authors recorded part of it. So we hope you enjoyed that. Something to think about, huh? Hey, uh back on wine and dine a little bit. Our meetup. The cookie lady was working today. She had the Keebler Elves over here helping her. They are we're we're going to be heading over a bit early. So cookies are in production for our meetup on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the food truck area at Disney Springs. And by gosh, guys, I just hope that the weather is close to what it is right now in Florida. It's just about perfect. It's really, really pleasant. It's still high in the 80s in the middle of the day, but you get up in the morning temperature in the 60s, the dew point is down to 61, 62. It just feels very nice right now. So hopefully that will remain. Now, before every race, uh we get together, we congregate by the bleachers. As you I'm gonna I'm gonna address this to folks who haven't been there before. You get off the bus or you get out of your vehicle driving into Epcot, you go through Epcot security. Just follow the crowd, it'll go around, it'll go through the area where all the names are on the wall, and it'll take you, and it'll take you into we can call it the family reunion area, but that's for after the race. It's the same place, it's the gathering area before before you go into the corrals. So when you get there, you look towards the stage, and uh set back quite a little ways from the stage, there are a series of bleachers. We are, as you're looking at the stage, we hang out on the left side of those bleachers. So come by, say hello, uh I'll be there, Alicia will be there, John will be there. We are we'll be excited to see you, and we'll be excited to introduce you to the rest of the Rise and Run family that'll be hanging out there. That's before each race. And heck, maybe you can meet up with somebody and do the race with them. That might be fun. All right, as you know, Facebook decided to end group chats. We don't know why. I I wish they hadn't because they're a big part of our Facebook page and a big part of what's helped to build this family. Regardless, they're gone. What we're working on is setting up equivalent chats on the Discord server. We are working on that. We'll have more information for you as soon as we get a chance to test it out. We want to make sure everything is just right before we release that. Okay, no Zoom this week. The next scheduled Zoom would be next week, but we're going to be at Disney World for that. So the next Zoom meeting that we'll have will be the Thursday after we get back from Disney World. And I don't know, we'll have to find something to talk about, but I think we'll be able to figure something out. Coming up next week, episode 213. Why, that's the one where we are at Disney World, and mostly we'll be talking about wine and dine weekend. And now, please stand clear of the door. It's time for a race report. The race report, sponsored by our friend Thomas Stokes of Stoked Metabolic Training. You heard Jack say she had just gotten back with Coach Tom. I need to do that too. I was I had to I had to stop, but I can get back now, and I'm gonna do it after we get back from wine and dot. I want to get back to heading to the gym. I'll have to be careful, but I can do some strength training again. And I'm actually looking forward to getting back and being part of that also. So Stokes.fit slash rise and run coaching for more information, or just take a look in our featured section on the Facebook page. Well, as you know, friends, it was Chicago Marathon weekend, and Rise and Run was well represented in the Chicago Marathon. I thought that was awesome. And the are we are also well represented here in the race report spotlight. We got a bunch of friends who've joined us, and I am going to ask them to introduce themselves, starting with Jake.
SPEAKER_18:Hey, uh it's Jake Walker from Boston. I uh this was my first world major and my second marathon of the year and of my life.
SPEAKER_01:Um, my name is Mike Norton, um from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Um, this is my sixth marathon and second time doing Chicago and third major.
SPEAKER_19:Hi, I'm Taylor Thompson. I'm from Winchester, Virginia. And this was my seventh marathon, um, but first world major.
SPEAKER_21:Hi, I'm Natalie O'Malley. I live in Omaha, Nebraska, but originally hail from the Chicagoland area, which you can usually tell by the way I say Chicago.
SPEAKER_14:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_21:This was my first world major and first non-Disney marathon. I've done the Walt Disney World Marathon three times.
SPEAKER_16:Uh-huh. Uh-huh. What happens if people try to put uh ketchup on a hot dog in Chicago, Natalie?
SPEAKER_21:Not safe for work.
SPEAKER_15:All right, let's continue on.
SPEAKER_09:Hi, uh I'm Jennifer. Um, from originally from Chicago, and no, you don't put ketchup on a hot dog. Secondly, um, this was my ninth marathon, second time doing Chicago.
SPEAKER_16:Um, and I guess Jennifer and Natalie, I'm not from Chicago, but I would not put ketchup on a hot dog either.
SPEAKER_02:Hi, I'm Heather Cohen from St. Cloud, Florida. This was my um second Chicago, fourth world major, and somewhere between 25th and 30th marathon. I'm not quite sure.
SPEAKER_23:Hi, I'm Dan Kelly. I live in Lyle, Illinois, which is a suburb about 30 miles west of Chicago. Not originally from there. I grew up in the central Michigan area. Uh, but I'm also team no catch up on a hot dog, by the way.
SPEAKER_15:All right, you shouldn't. Just for the record.
SPEAKER_23:You can see this this was my fifth marathon, third marathon this year, first time doing Chicago, first world major, and this was only my second non-Disney marathon.
SPEAKER_08:Hey, I'm Katie Mulkhi. I'm up in Fishers, Indiana. Um, this was my second marathon, first world major. Um, but technically I put an asterisk next to my first one because it was the marathon 2020 in Disney, and I was far enough back that I got cut a little bit of a coarse you know, cut.
SPEAKER_15:So the heat, yeah.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, so this one was my first full full, if you will.
SPEAKER_04:Tracy Corus Howard, I'm in Altamont Springs, Florida. This is my sixth marathon, my first world major for Chicago. Um, and yeah, just was super excited to do that.
SPEAKER_16:Well, great. All right, that's all the time we got for tonight, guys. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you joining us. It's a big crowd. I'm glad you're all here. Uh thanks. Well, look, I let's take things sequentially. Uh, we're represented pretty well from throughout the country, but how let's start with uh the uh world major marathon expo in Chicago. And Natalie, anything special about the expo that you'd like to talk about?
SPEAKER_21:There's a lot going on there. Um, I'm used to you know the Disney of it all with our expos. And uh it was in the best way. There were so many different vendors. Um, I haven't been to the McCormick place in a really long time. So it was great. I loved the excitement and energy in the room, the constant cheering, the uh all the different photo ops. That was very Run Disney reminiscent. Um, every time I saw a different person in a Run Disney shirt, I felt at home. It's like, oh, okay, friend, dopey shirt, friend, uh, zippity t-shirt, friend. Um, so it was great. It was great to see people, it was great, uh, all kinds of different every vendor you could pretty much think of, uh, it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_16:Any any great giveaways, Dan?
SPEAKER_23:You know, Bob, they had some good samples. I honestly didn't spend that much time at the expo. Funny story, I was actually there twice because I went the first time unplanned and decided to try and go in early. I was getting a little antsy, a little FOMO. So Friday afternoon I scooted in thinking I was gonna get in there and get my bib and get the expo experience, but I had a work call I needed to jump on, and I got really stressed about like getting in and out. So I kind of just got my bib and my shirt and walked around a little bit on Friday. But was so worried about it. I forgot to pick up this item that I had pre-ordered a couple of months ago. So then I got an email on Saturday morning. Hey, come pick up your thing, or we're gonna put it back and charge you a restock. So I was like, okay, well, guess what? I was gonna meet up with some Run Disney friends uh for dinner on Saturday night anyway, so I just went in a little earlier Saturday afternoon and got a chance to go in, pick that up. A tip for everyone don't get the FOMO. The the merchandise is not like at Disney where it sells out quickly. There was lots of merchandise that I saw the whole time, and frankly, it was a lot less busy on Saturday afternoon. Much more chill experience on Saturday afternoon than it was on Friday. Um and I actually bumped into Run Disney Zone with Carissa Galloway at the expo on Friday afternoon. Yeah. I would also say that the expo experience there bib pickup and shirt pickup was a breeze compared to at Run Disney. It was much more efficient and quick.
SPEAKER_16:They've done this before.
SPEAKER_23:Just a few times. 47 times, I believe.
SPEAKER_16:Mike, had you been to Chicago before?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I have been to Chicago. I did uh the marathon there last year. Um that was my first major um last year. Um and um it was quite the experience last year because I had never done a big major marathon like that. So it was a little bit eye-opening, the amount of people um that we saw. And this go-around was a little bit different. I was less stressed um than I was last year, and this year also my wife um had her own booth at the expo, so we kind of added on to that. I was running and she was running a booth.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I remember seeing that. I remember that post. That's that's cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_16:So it was it was you can put a you can put a plug in if you want.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh her company, her side business, I should say, is uh called Gold Leader Displays. Um, she creates custom metal displays. Um, and I don't they're beautiful. Um, and it it was different. Um, she was nervous. We were ner I mean, we were nervous because it didn't know how it would go, but we had a lot of great conversations with people. We got a lot of interest, and just it was it was just a really good time, I think. It was a different side of things being on a convention at that large scale, um, and just the amount of people that it that there was. Um, but it was quite fantastic.
SPEAKER_09:I was just gonna add on to the the bib pickup system, like that was quite efficient. Like that was Disney efficient, like better than. Like you put your IDs at one point and then you walked over to a number tent and the lady already had your envelope for you. It was it was it helped the flow really fast because 53,000 runners, you know. And even though you had a specific time, I don't remember what I had signed up for a month ago. Um but as you know, Bob, this morning I was an emotional mess. I was an emotional mess the entire weekend. I showed up, she handed me my bib, and I even posted, I have cried twice getting my bib in twenty-three. I shouldn't have been there and this weekend. And then when my husband just kept looking at me, it's like, Why are you crying? I'm like, Because it's just been nine months of just you know, all all the hard work, right? And so I walked I walked into that expo in tears.
SPEAKER_16:Well I know your story, but if you want to share a little bit here about why this this is right, I was gonna say you were the only one crying at the expo, so you got a friend. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09:Well, this you know, it's twenty years ago that I ran this race. Um and so that was a big deal. I'm like, I wanna go back and do it. It's twenty it's been twenty years. I want to try and see if I can keep my time. Yeah, okay. Whatever. But three years ago on the on the 12th was when I got the phone call from the doctor that I was breast I had breast cancer. And when then I wasn't supposed to do dopey. I did dopey anyway. Um so yeah, all the feels. This was like this was the the book end of that this story that started three years ago. Um so I think that's kind of where all the emotion uh came from.
SPEAKER_16:Oh, understandable.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah and for how the ending happened, and we will get that when we get get there. Um so yeah, that that's that's the that's the short crux of that that story. Um but I thought did pickup was very Disney um uh efficient in that regard.
SPEAKER_02:So something unique about the expo at Chicago. I did not take advantage, but it's actually an opportunity to get a Paralympic classification. They have a classification panel that they hold um at the expo. So I just thought that was interesting that they had that opportunity there.
SPEAKER_20:Okay, so it's the expo. You're done with the expo, but I know before the big race on Sunday, there's a 5K on Saturday. Did anyone do the 5K? Taylor, tell us about it.
SPEAKER_19:Yeah, the 5K was really, really cool. Something I really liked about the 5K bib specifically was that they had the country from where you were from on your bib. And I loved looking around in my corral and seeing where everyone was from. Like there was uh a dad and his two sons from Norway, and then there was another family from Canada. I saw like the UK. I saw a little bit of everything, but it was just really cool to look around. And you know, that's what running's all about, brings everyone together. Um, so yeah, I did the 5K. Um, it went by really fast. I was like, wow, okay, this is great. I'm ready for tomorrow. I also did a shakeout on Friday, and I saw Connor Mance during my run.
SPEAKER_14:Oh no.
SPEAKER_19:Very excited about that.
SPEAKER_14:Oh bet, yeah.
SPEAKER_19:My fangirl, just just a little bit, but I didn't stop him during his run because he's got important things to do.
SPEAKER_16:Oh, he probably was going by too fast anyway.
SPEAKER_19:He was in the opposite direction.
SPEAKER_16:Did he didn't he not send an American record? Yeah, yeah. He shattered that.
SPEAKER_03:Shattered, yeah. I know when we talked to the Berlin folks, they did the 5K ran part of the course. Was that the case, Tracy, that you ran part of the course for this one too? Or was it a different course?
SPEAKER_04:I believe it was part of the course. Uh so I have a horrible sense of direction, which is why I do like 50 races a year. So I just follow the lines, but I'm pretty sure, and somebody else can chime in and say yes, I'm pretty sure it was part of the course. And it was just nice to get a taste of running around Chicago and the weather was beautiful. Um, one of the cool things I liked about the 5K versus the marathon, the shirts for the marathon, I know we'll get there, were terrible, like worse than like the worst Run Disney shirts. Like, I'll never wear it. But the 5K, they gave us these awesome, like little hat beanie things. And I actually wore that during the run. A lot of people did because it was chilly enough for that. So it was uh it was perfect to be like I had a tank top and um um a skirt on, like I normally do, but the the hat kept the uh the heated enough to not need to like wear pants for that. So uh the hat is definitely something I couldn't wear again versus the shirt that they gave us marathon.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I thought the 5k was amazing. Um, they gave wheelchairs a head start and there was only maybe four or five of us. So I was completely alone on the course for about a mile and a half, which was just a really neat experience. And then probably my favorite part of the whole thing was the other mile and a half. Um, even though I was immersed in runners, I kept hearing lead wheelchair, lead wheelchair, lead wheelchair on the radio. And to have that experience in a world major was pretty cool. That's and I think I set a 5k official race PR.
SPEAKER_16:All right, good for you.
SPEAKER_18:It's really, it was really a neat way to be able to involve family in, you know, not everyone obviously can do the marathon, but um, there were so many families there who had their their kids with them, spouses. It was really um a great event on on Saturday morning. Weather was perfect and uh a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_03:All right. So we've gone through the expo, we've gone through the 5K. Now let's get to the big day. Um, we have the marathon. How did that go, Katie, for you?
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, um, I was so excited the week leading up to this race. Um, I think I annoyed people at work. I think I annoyed my family. I just kept saying, like, I'm so excited for the unknown. I think for the first time for a race, I felt fully trained. I went to that 29 miles that she told me to.
SPEAKER_14:Yeah.
SPEAKER_08:Um, and so I was so excited. And then the morning I woke up and I was angry. I didn't want to be there. I was mad that I was doing it. I was in such a weird headspace, um, which is so unfortunate. Um honestly, I stayed in a negative headspace for the majority of the race. So it wasn't my personal best race day. Um, I had to push through a lot mentally, and then the physical pain came on naturally. Um, but by mile, once I hit mile 24, I knew I was gonna make it. I was coming close to the end. Um, so it's one of those races where I feel like I don't know if I have much to celebrate, but I did do it. I didn't earn a star. Um I started in the last corral, um, which I'm not typically in the last corral in a Disney race. Um, no shame though. But I think for the first time I noticed firsthand a course being torn down while there's still runners out there.
SPEAKER_14:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_08:And it's just so disheartening to see. Um, and I feel awful for the people who were behind me and who were being chased by garbage trucks picking up the water stations and things like that. Um, and so that was the unfortunate piece. But the back of the Packers were so strong together. And I hope that if anyone else was in that back of the pack, like you felt the heart from everyone back there. So I mean, it was a good day, like the weather was good until it warmed up a little bit. Um, but like personally, it just wasn't my day.
SPEAKER_16:Well, look, congratulations. You still knocked out a world major marathon, and that's one more than I've ever done. So, and a whole lot that's one more than most of the rest of the world has ever done. So, good for you. Natalie, how did it go for you?
SPEAKER_21:Well, um, so to take just things back, I ran for the American Cancer Society as part of the big villains team. And uh that was the perfect, and that's the reason I decided to join was that I saw it was the last push was oh, it's a bunch of Run Disney people? I'm in uh in terms of joining the fundraising charity team. So Starting the race and you know, having a walkout to the corral from the Palmer House, a whole pre-race based space, your own private gear check. It just took the enorbity of a race with 53,000 of your closest friends and then sort of shrunk it into, okay, here's like a small group because there were almost a thousand determination athletes. And it was it was great. Um, in terms of how my race went, I didn't quite have the best day for me. I had a really good first half, and um I learned that the Gatorade Endurance on the courts and I are not friends. So um, all things considered, and you know, taking it back to the purpose for which I ran American Cancer Society and um actually yesterday, by the time everyone's hearing it, is my dad's uh passing aversary, death aversary from pancreatic cancer 11 years ago. So taking it everything back to the purpose for which I was doing it, I was like, I can deal with a little tummy trouble. And taking it back to like the grit and the determination that I had to personally have and what I try, you know, I'd say it wasn't the race I trained for, but it was a tough training block. And I had all that mental resilience and I pushed through it. I pushed through everything I needed to do. So, and I was still within pretty good spitting distance of my PR, which considering, considering everything that went on, you know, I think, you know, it was electric. It was amazing. I had my family out on the course. They all had uh these fat heads of both my childhood dogs and the most current dogs because I ran up and I was like, oh, that really looks like Cali. And she's named after Cali River Rapids. And I go, wait, that is Cali. And I like ran past my family. Um, my in-laws and my husband were there too. It was my husband's first time spectating a marathon. They all had Mickey ears and posters, like Disney themed posters on, and they caught me a couple times on course. And it was fantastic to have the support of, you know, other friends from college who have matriculated back to Chicago, other just friend people I know, like, oh, I saw you. And it was great. So even though it it might not have been the day I like wanted, but it was the day that kind of it invigorated my soul in a lot of ways, and it really it made me feel, you know, despite it not being what I wanted out of it. Um it was it was one of the proudest marathons I'll ever I'll I'll be proud of myself for because I gridded through that. And now I just have, you know, a little redemption tour that I'll have to make.
SPEAKER_15:Very good.
SPEAKER_02:So kind of like Natalie, I always do my majors with Achilles International. It's a great organization and it really takes a really large event and um brings it down to something more manageable, particularly for some of us who have a difficult time navigating uh large cities like that. Um, I do have to say our weekend started out a little bit rough. We learned Friday morning that a teammate who was supposed to be racing with us um had been killed during her last training push on Thursday. Um, she was struck by a truck and um sadly lost her life.
SPEAKER_14:Yeah, that's awful.
SPEAKER_02:It it's absolutely horrible. And she would have been the biggest cheerleader out there, but we took that and instead of letting it ruin our weekend, we took it as motivation. And um, I don't know if this is where you want this in the report, but I use that as motivation to attempt to PR. My goal was to get sub four, and I got 350-59, which was a 15-minute PR. So even though I was a little tearful on the course, you know, a little heavy hearted, um, I think she would have been proud of me for that.
SPEAKER_16:Oh, yes, yes. Uh, I I have no doubt that she would have. Well, what was let's uh let's say her name, please.
SPEAKER_02:Uh her name's Corey Peterson. Um, she's a Marine Corps veteran who races in a pushroom like me with Achilles International.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, we're so sorry that happened, but I I'm sure you're right. I'm sure she's proud of you. I'm sure she wouldn't would have wanted you to continue and push as you did. So thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_23:I felt my training block for this one went really, really well. I felt strong, I felt ready going in. What I didn't realize was was just the immensity of the event, really. And also that world majors, especially, and this this I talked about this morning on the customized call with Coach Twiggs. His opinion, which I now share af after having experiences, is that world majors are not necessarily always lined up to be the best races to go have your absolute fastest. Oh, right. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but it's very difficult to do, especially if you're not from a privileged position at the very front of the race. You know, I started in eight, so I was kind of in the middle, you know, towards the end of wave two. Um, you know, but I went in having worked so hard and really focused on my training, I felt like I was ready to go. I thought I was gonna go out and just crush it. My magic mile said one thing, and then I kind of had like a secondary goal. And in the end, I you know, I when I I think really when I when I realized I wasn't going to meet my primary goal, not that I gave up on the secondary goal, but it became less important to me because the other side of the coin was I also realized, hey, you're running a world marathon major, you need to experience this too. And so I kind of leaned into that pretty quickly. Like, you know, I just when I was like, look, if I'm not gonna go out there and blow this out of the water, I'm gonna make sure that I enjoy what I'm doing. And the crowd did not disappoint. I mean, I don't know if anybody would disagree with that, but I don't know how you could because holy smokes, the crowd, the the the whole thing, there was not a dead zone on the course. It's like I've told a couple people today and yesterday as well that at worst, it was kind of like if you were in a smaller race and there was just sort of like people every so often along the street. There was never anywhere where there was nobody, never anywhere where there was nobody. And most of the course, the atmosphere was just electric. I could not believe it. And you know, I mean, all the different neighborhoods having lived in the Chicago area now for gosh almost 15 years, like it just I have a new appreciation for the city and the people that live here and the support that they showed for all these runners being out there. And you know, some of the you know, some of the different areas with some of the different neighborhoods, I was a little concerned based on certain things going on, like whether it would be as good as it was, but it was outstanding. And that's my biggest takeaway from the whole thing. It's just you know what, I went out there, I got a star, I completed a world marathon major, and oh my god, do I love this city and the people that are in it? And it's it was just a remarkable experience that I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_16:What's fun here, Dan, is that because I can see everybody, we all can see one another, is that you're saying as you're saying uh how wonderful the crowd support was, I'm watching nine heads just bob up and down. Yeah, so that was great.
SPEAKER_18:I just I would echo what Dan said, and and we had very similar experience, slightly different times, but differ uh a different similar experience in that I realized about I had a great first half, second half didn't go as well as I wanted, or I was training for maybe for the same reasons Dan was just talking about. But there came a point at just about mile 19 or mile 20. It's the the Pilson neighborhood of Chicago. And I'd lived in Chicago for a year, many years ago. I didn't really know the neighborhood, but it's a neighborhood with a lot of um Mexican immigrants, and it was I got unbelievably emotional, you know, um running through there because it was the most vibrant uh you know group of people cheering on um all kinds of uh people trying to hand out, you know, not not aid stations that were approved, but just people who brought, you know, uh gummy clusters and and uh you know their own water or alcoholic drinks or whatever it was that were um you know uh just being generous and playing bands playing and music, and it was such a celebration. And after a week of listening to some of the stuff that that Dan was talking about and people being afraid, it was such a delight to be a part of, you know, uh that neighborhood being able to celebrate and have some fun and and release and let loose. And it just made the whole thing worth it to me. I I I got such a boost at that uh mile 20. It was really, really a hell of an ex a heck of an experience. Awesome, awesome.
SPEAKER_04:So this was a redemption marathon for me. Uh it was my sixth marathon, but I've only really run one just for myself before that. And that was my first marathon where I was in Baltimore in 21. I kind of trained myself. I didn't have a coach, you know. I mean, I I went with a plan and everything, but um I had bad knees and I I didn't really do strength training like I did for this marathon. I did everything right for this marathon. The last one, I think I could have done a sub-five, but I did a 533. My left knee went out on me at mile 16 on a downhill in Baltimore, a lot of big hills, and I had to power walk the last 10 miles. So it was rough. And so I've been waiting for a chance to run for me, and that was this race. And I did everything right this time with Coach Twiggs, and maybe I didn't totally follow it. I only went up to 20 miles, but I know my body and I knew that I couldn't do more than that because I I my knees and stuff, and it all worked out. I um I PR'd by 36 minutes. I did a 457. My goal was to go under five hours. I ended up running the whole time. I just felt great, like an 11-minute mile. I was just pretty steady all the way through, all 26 miles. I walked, my watch said like five minutes like through some water stops. Um my my calf seized up a little or my um quad seized up a little bit around mile 21, and I was a little nervous, but uh the biofreeze stations were awesome. They had like a spray spot where they just sprayed you down and like taking advantage of that, like got me through and and um um salt stick shoes. Oh my god, they were the best. So I did everything I wanted to do and I felt great. I was taking stairs like a champ. I I did eight miles walking around the city yesterday. So everything just lined up for me, the strength training, especially, but the electric crowds were were really what did it. I mean, I I knew a lot of people there um that were cheering, but I hugged the right side because I thought I was gonna do walk breaks and I didn't get to see a lot of my friends, but you would have thought everybody was my friend. I took people's advice and I wore a shirt with my name on it, and everybody was cheering. Oh, Tracy, you got this, like the whole way. So it felt like everybody was out there for me. It was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced, and I would recommend it to anybody. I'd heard all this and that's why I wanted to do it, and nothing disappointed. And the weather was perfect.
SPEAKER_19:Um, this was an awesome race for me personally. Um, I this was my seventh marathon, as I said in the beginning. I've done four Disney marathons, all part of Dopey. So you guys know how that goes. You don't try to PR your marathons in the middle of Dopey. That just is not a thing. And I've rode Everest twice. So, you know, we're we're just there for vibes and having fun. I've done two standalone marathons. My first was Marine Corps in 2023, and it was 80 degrees. It was really warm. They cut the course early, the gauntlets all shut 30 minutes early. Um, I made it through everything, but it was very warm. So I finished in just under six hours. And then last year I did Rehobith and it was six degrees. I was not very excited about that one and also struggled a lot just because it was a smaller course and it was also mostly an outback on like a trail type surface. And me and trails are just not friends. So that's okay. I'll I leave it to the ultra runners. I'll stay on my road. That's totally cool. Um, so after that, I knew that I really, really, really wanted to do Chicago. So I was able to I put in for the lottery. I did not get accepted through a lottery, but I went in anyways and um went in with girls on the run. Um, and I started my running journey with girls on the run when I was 10 years old. And every single chance I get, I try to give back to them because I don't think I would be where I am today without girls on the run. Um, so it was it was incredible. Um, I had a rough start to my training block. I got injured in May and I was just having like some glute and hip stuff, and it just would not go away. After six weeks, I finally went and saw a sports medicine um doctor, and they gave me some PT for two weeks, and all of a sudden I was cured. I should have done that. Right.
SPEAKER_12:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_19:Um, and learned all the things. You know, I'm also a coach and a running coach, and I just really thought I knew, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna seek out the professionals for this one. So um I was really glad I listened to my brain to finally go in and get it. So I officially started training um around the middle of July, really. Um and of course, as most of you know, when we've done marathons before, we know how it feels. The harder miles are gonna be harder as you keep going the longer miles. Um, but every single training run from mid-July went amazingly for me. I did tiny little circles around my neighborhood and on Strava. I found out you can go 15 miles in my neighborhood on the sidewalks without repeating a single one. Um, so that was fantastic. And then getting to the race, um we did a whole cross-country trip to get there. I have some family in Iowa and we visited some friends in Arkansas. So it was a two-week-long adventure to finally get us to Chicago. And race day happened. I was in wave three, um, Corral L. So um I, yeah, L was the best. There's people holding up signs or their hands saying, L this way. I had no idea what I was walking into. And knowing Dun Disney, I just go into my corral. And that's kind of what happened here. L was already had its own corral like ready to go. And then they I watched like a time-lapse video of them pulling in all the corrals from all the different spaces. And it was really cool. Like you said, I think they've done this a couple of times. Um, but starting off the race, it felt really strong. Um, and then a quarter mile in, my shoe came untied. So I pulled over and um retied my shoe. I was like, okay, if this is the only bad thing that happens today, then I'm totally okay with um how that goes. And like I said, my training went really well. It felt really strong. So coming into this race, I had high expectations for myself. I really wanted to get a sub five. I knew I could do it. I just, you know, I just felt in the back of my head, that's what I wanted, my goal for a long time. Um, and I started off and at halfway I was at a 220 half marathon. And I was like, okay, yeah, we're we're doing this today. Like if I, even if I slow down, I did like the mental math in my head. I'm like, even if I slow down this amount, this, I'm still going to do this today. And as the course went on, it got hot. But yes, the crowd was insane. Um, I almost got overstimulated a little bit on the course, just because it was just so much. I like, I at one point I was like mile like 17 or 18, and there was like one minute of like everyone was silent. And I was like, I need this minute to myself right now, just to like get myself back together to go complete it. Um and yeah, it was great. My husband and my four-year-old were out there on the course cheering. They got to see me quite a few times. They were a little upset I was running so fast because they had a hard time reaching me at some of the points because the transit was so crazy, filled with a million people, apparently, according to the Chicago News. Um, and my little brother lives um about an hour outside the city. So he came in with his girlfriend. And my dad and my stepmom drove in from Iowa to come see me. And that was the first time them seen me run a race like this. And so it was really special for me. Um, and I came through the finish line at just under five hours, and it was a 60-minute PR from my previous record. So I was really, really happy about that. So it for me, it was it was the best day ever. And I'm still like in disbelief that it actually happened.
SPEAKER_18:My son, who uh my wife told me um uh as they were waiting for me uh at the at the finish, I wish I wish my dad were Connor Mance, so we'd only have to wait for two hours instead of five.
SPEAKER_15:That's pretty good. Uh let's see, Mike, tell us about your race.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Well, as I said earlier, I I did uh Chicago last year and um it didn't end up how I wanted. Um I was still able to finish it and and everything else. And after that, I really wanted like a redemption thing. So I had qualified enough to do it again this year. Um but I later on, uh earlier this year, I had done Boston, and then two weeks later I did the uh York marathon here in Pennsylvania. Um but then after that I was trying to change my mindset of just running in general and not be so fixated on the whole running because it can start to consume you. And the the summer training block, um uh I had a little bit less load as as far as volume and everything else. And I'm trying to just change the mindset. And the whole my whole motto this time for this training block was chase happiness. Um, because I'm not a pro runner and won't ever be, but I'm a family man, and you know, we balance family life and work and everything else, you know. Prorunners that that is their job, and that's what you know, they can dedicate all that time to it. So my goal was to just chase happiness this summer. Um, I had less uh volume for mileage, and my whole I I've always wanted to do a sub three, and um the weather was perfect um Sunday. I mean it it was just so ideal. Um started in Corral B, which was crazy, you know, to be up there with you know everybody else. It just I felt privileged. Um and uh everything was going smooth until about mile 21. And you know, then that's when your whole mind, you know, starts to uh become dark and it starts messing with you, and you really have to dig deep and you have to take off that restrictor plate, and you really have to show what you're made of and and dig really hard. And I was able to do that, and uh I finished it in 258, uh 57.
SPEAKER_16:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Um, so uh that's awesome, buddy. That's awesome. That's awesome. But I think it was like changing the whole mindset of things, not thinking about that sub three, and just like even not having that higher mileage, it can still work. You don't have to have such a high mileage, but if you chase happiness, you'll get there, whatever you're striving for.
SPEAKER_16:I like that, Mike. I like that a lot, and congratulations on that sub three. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_09:So I ran for Ronald McDonald House. Um, and because I didn't get in on lottery, and I immediately signed up for Ronald McDonald House. As you know, that that's their home is Chicago, and their team has grown to 1,200 members. Our group picture was huge. They raised three million dollars. We raised three million dollars. That that equated to 30,000 nights for families at the Ronald McDonald House. I highly, highly, highly recommend if you don't get into Chicago and I won't do Chicago again, um but to run for them. Their tent was second to none. I didn't have to worry about breakfast. I didn't have to worry about my husband eating lunch because I had I had raised enough for him to get in the tent and have a huge bed of burgers and and pulled pork and oh my god. I mean, it was just and there was a DJ from the Blackhawks and all the things. I mean, and then come to find out my sorority sister hooked me up with another sorority sister that works for 80 pie, and the Ronald McDonald House, you know, did this whole deal. So she sees me walk in, she's got her blue balloons, and oh my gosh, she totally took care of us, and like seven or nine, seven or eight of us other sisters that I had never met before. I guess they always have a small team of 80 pie sisters that run because that's our philanthropy, is Ronald McDonald House. I've been supporting them for 30 years. Anyway, so she took care of our bag and and our private gear check and all of that. It was the if if if that's the one takeaway, because when I get here to my race, that's probably that was probably the best part of my day. Was meeting news. Um and and my race, I had like everyone, you know, I had my training was was great. I mean, I did what the coach told me to do. I don't think I missed a workout. Um and but and the weather was perfect, things we can't control. But it just wasn't in the cards for me. Um I I went out probably too fast, and and when the holler hypes came in, um one was like, Don't be don't be huffing and puffing. And I'm like, I did a self-check, I'm like, I was kind of huffing and puffing, maybe I do need to slow down. Um and and then by mile nine, my cra I was like, Why are my toes? Why can't I feel my toes? And so I was having severe cramping and spasms in my leg to my toes. Um, and I had I did have a couple people meet me, you know, see me on the course, and one was another shorty sister um that lives in Chicago. So um, so that helped get my energy going. Um, but it was the guy on Whacker with the hyperbolt machine massage gun that helped me get my calves back going. With handing out pickle juice. And oh my god, he must have worked on both legs for about a minute each. He was good with that gun. And as I'm standing there, another person from home runs up to me and sees me, and then we run for a little bit. So I had some some some light in my day of you know, struggle. Um, even texted coach and he holler hide me. Um some so some some tips, but it just I had I was trying to walk fast and the ending is like like um Katie said, you know, I've never seen, I've never felt so much pressure to to like keep going because they were closing the course on us. And and I was telling this to when I was finished that the Chicago even yes, it's a world major, it's not what it was when I ran it 20 years ago, that they were not kind and respectful to us in end to get finished because when I crossed the finish line, they were literally wouldn't let us walk down Columbus. I had to get back to my tent because that's where my gear was, that's where my car key was, and they wouldn't let me through, and they wouldn't let any of us from John McDonald House through. And one lady from the from the race said, Well, you're late, and I lost it on her. So the end of my race is that that's my last memory, is that this lady was late, and I wound up paying my husband was pissed because we wound up getting a hundred dollar peddy cab to get back up with Michigan Avenue to the tent to get then I had to fight to get back into Grant Park to get my stuff from the tent where people were still hanging out.
SPEAKER_16:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_09:So it's the end of my race um was not pretty.
SPEAKER_16:I'm sorry about that.
SPEAKER_09:And but you know, like you guys all said this morning, you know, it I I did all the miles, I did all the training, and um it just didn't I mean I love I love Chicago. I I and it the weather came came for us, and yes, even the back we still saw people passing out stuff even late in the day. Um and that was great. And and I even thanked those that they were picking up the the timing mats, leaving the little one for us. And I everyone, I every time they I you know, we cross over that little section, I just thanked them like thank you for leaving the timing mats out. I mean, I get you need to clean up the roads, but it just I I just felt so defeated um and that they just did not give any respect to us and end.
SPEAKER_16:No, I I understand, Jennifer, and I'm sorry that it I'm sorry you had a disappointing finish, but again, you should be proud of what you did, and I know you are, so congratulations for that.
SPEAKER_09:And and and I and cats off to Ronald McDonald House. I mean, if you ever don't get in Chicago, try that route. They are they're competitive to even get into them. Um they're they've grown, but their tent is uh second to none.
SPEAKER_16:Okay, outstanding. Yeah, outstanding. Well, that's good. There you go. We'll leave on an up note there. Ronald McDonald House, second to none. Well, look, friends, uh wonderful event. Chicago, you had great weather. Uh, and I'm we're all proud of you. So, congratulations on knocking out your world major and dropping by to tell us about it. And we look forward to seeing you all soon.
SPEAKER_19:Thanks, Bob. Bye, Bob.
SPEAKER_16:Thank you.
SPEAKER_19:Thank you, Bob. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_16:All right, thanks everybody for participating. Uh, before we leave the Chicago Marathon, I want to recognize uh folks who did the 5K. Indra did it, it was extra special because it was her first race back after having a baby in May. She lives right near the finish line. So on Marathon Day at 6:30 in the evening, they went out for a walk with the baby. Saw a few marathoners still out there finishing, and she thought that was pretty exciting, motivating, happy to see it. Uh, Margaret and John were there. Margaret continues to dominate in the costume category, even on the 5K. Uh, Tiffany ran this one comfortably. Uh, she ran a comfortable hard pace, finished in under 25 minutes, second fastest 5K in the year. That's pretty cool. Uh, we heard from Tracy, Jonathan was at the 5K also.
SPEAKER_17:You know, I know he might not be in marathon shape, but does anybody know if Pope Leo was there? Because isn't he from Chicago?
SPEAKER_16:He is from Chicago. But uh, if he was, he did not put his name in the race report, Greg.
SPEAKER_17:That's a shame.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah. Uh let's take a look at others who ran the marathon. I want to recognize them. Ashley, we had two Ashleys. Ashley L and Ashley R were both there. Second Ashley said she almost PR'd and comments, Chicago sure knows how to party on the course. Uh, Carolyn and Jen ran together. Jen's fourth star. Fought hard and they reached their goal of five hours and a 24-minute PR. Great weather, especially compared to Florida training runs. Had a great cheer squad to support him. Christina did her first marathon ever. We know what that is. That's a PR. DW was there. Uh we heard from Heather who rolled through it. Another friend Heather was there. Jenna did her first world major. Jeremy was there. Jonathan was back for the marathon. Julia was there. Margaret was back. Mary. Mary fell the day before. I don't think she was running the 5K, but she fell. She banged up her knee pretty bad. Still able to gut it out and finish the marathon. Monica. Monica was there. Tammy did her first non-Disney marathon and her first world major. And knocked out a marathon PR. Tara and Carlos, first world major for both. We heard from Tracy, but we had another Tracy there. Tracy doing her first non-run Disney marathon and first world major. Second marathon overall and a 36-minute PR. So there we go. That is all of our friends who ran the Chicago Marathon. Alright, so let's go back to the rest of the race report schedule and start a week ago today, on Thursday over in the UK. Our friend Andy ran the Run the Tyne Four Bridges event in Newcastle upon Tyne, Andy's hometown. Interesting race. The idea was that there's no set route. You just get objectives that you don't find out about until you've checked in about 30 minutes before start time. The rules are you've got to reach four checkpoints on the four bridges that cross the river Tyne. And he said he felt a little out of place. I think he's talking about with the format, not with the area, because as I mentioned at the top, that's his hometown. But he's glad he challenged himself to do something different. In the end, completed this thing, took just about 3.6 miles and Finished in just a little less than 37 minutes. And he sounds like fun. I bet you will be able to see more about it on the roller coaster of running on YouTube. In Cincinnati, there was a race weekend, and on Thursday they did the Queen Bee Bass Shakeout 5K. Julie was there because Julie is part of the Queen's Court. How does that happen? Well, she's done every Queen Bee since it first started. It's always a lot of fun, great swag, cute medals. You get the Snout Stinger medal, which we'll explain a little bit more in just a moment. In fact, here it is right here. We come back on Saturday and we'll start with that Queen Bee half marathon in Cincinnati. Nikki was there, as was Julie. Great weekend that the Pig Works puts on. That's the group that does the flying pig race. And our friend Emmy is uh a worker for the Pig Works. You've heard from her before. Now, if you did a race during Flying Pig Weekend, and then did one of these Queen Bee races, as Julie did, you earn the Snout Stinger medal. Not a road apple, but a snout stinger. Now, this race was hilly, not quite as hilly as the flying pig marathon, uh, but the water stops are just as much fun. There's so much to eat, so many treats on the course that you really can't eat everything that's offered. And I remember commenting while running the Flying Pig half that this may be the only race that I run where I'm going to gain weight. Julie wants to remind all of us that Pigworks throws a great race weekend, which they do. And they'd love to see all of us the first weekend in May at Flying Pig. And I'm not sure you'll see all of us, but I'm sure you'll see some of us. Julie, it really is a good race weekend. In Shreveport, Louisiana, Lauren did the 10K at the Autumn Breeze Road Race. She was visiting family for the weekend. Decided what the heck, might as well throw in a race, need the training time anyway. So her niece sent her on her way with a good luck wish, and it brought her another 10K PR. For Lauren, four 10Ks, four 10K PRs. This time she beat her previous, which had been set two weeks ago, by over six minutes. We had a weekend event in Amelia Island in Florida. Half Marathon weekend, but on Saturday, Trina ran a 5K with her sister and brother. This is a weekend event that Trina's been looking forward to for the last two years. We'll hear more from her on Sunday. Up in New England, the Boston 10K for women. Sophie and Lauren was there, as was Heidi. Heidi is very thankful for how the race went. For Heidi. Lost her father this summer. We're sorry to hear that, Heidi. So running hasn't really been a priority, but somehow she managed to keep a good pace. It was a struggle, but she's glad she didn't give up. And we're glad of that too, my friend. Even when life is hard, Heidi says, you can still do hard things. And Kirsten was at this event also. On Jekyll Island in Georgia, the Under the Oaks half marathon. Let's see. Mel and Lisa and Megan were there. Now, there were two races on Saturday for Mel and Lisa. We'll get to the other one in a minute. Uh Lisa ran this one with Megan. Lisa didn't finish this one. Been having some anxiety issues, a bit of a panic attack, a little over nine miles in. Decided to be smarter to drop out of this one. Megan entered it at the last minute as a catered training run for the Marine Corps Marathon. Now, Megan says it's a beautiful course. Definitely want to add this one to her must-do list. That second race, this one in Middleburg, Florida, was the Halloween Havoc at Dunn Cemetery. And again, Mel and Lisa did this one, and they did it as kind of the sweepers for the race. In fact, it's a four-mile, well, 3.75, four-mile event in the woods, in the dark. And Mel and Lisa dressed up as the balloon ladies, carrying balloons, and they walked trail for the race. In Lancashire, Illinois, the Des Plains River Trail half run. David did this one. Slow but beautiful fall half marathon, kicking off training for Princess 2026. Jared was in Windermere, Florida for the Windermere run amongst the lakes. And Noelle was in Milwaukee for the spooky sprint half marathon. Her first race back from a foot injury in June. It was the same trail that she hurt her foot on, but this time she paid attention, kept one foot in front of the other. She says the course wasn't measured properly, and a bunch of runners were saying that. She came across the finish line with about 12.6 miles on her watch, a time of 241. At the finish, she was surprised by her boys being there. They picked her medal for her. Again, this reminds me of a race we talked about last week where runners were picking medals based on classic horror film characters. For this one, Nicole's boys picked a Counterocula medal. Let's go to Haynesport, New Jersey for the Haynesport Endurance Run. Kent was there. Kent did the 12-hour event. Two years ago, Kent had all sorts of problems, got a spinal infection, set him back for most of the year. So his first goal on this race was to go 50 kilometers, shoot for a PR at that distance, but then he decided he could go all the way to 50 miles. Was hoping for 5 hours 30 in the first 20 miles, got five thirty-four. That's more than a 40-minute PR from his last long run. In all, he got a 66 minute 50 mile PR of 10 hours 33 minutes and 50 seconds. That's good for 12 of 69 on the 12-hour course and second of the 12 on Sunday. Our friend Michael from the Will Run for podcast was also at the Haynesport event.
SPEAKER_17:And I believe he knocked out 100 miles. Oh wow. I believe. I want to say he he shared he shared this beautiful video from when he did this race last year of Aaron bringing him in. Uh because this was I guess this race last year was his first 100 miler. And uh so I think that was the impetus, is that you know he wanted to go out and and do it again. And yeah, I think he got 100 miles and I think an average pace of 15 minutes a mile. So bravo.
SPEAKER_16:Yeah, yeah. That's that's outstanding. Michael, great job, buddy. Up in Ashland, Wisconsin, Amy and Shauna did the half marathon at the whistle stop half. Caitlin was at the Pottawatomie State Park in Door County, Wisconsin for the Run Wild 10K. A beautiful day. The finish line just a few steps from the shoreline of Sturgeon Bay, so the views were spectacular. They had one big hill, but it was the perfect opportunity to walk and take in some fuel. This is Caitlin's first 10K outside of a Run Disney Challenge, but she still got a photo with a bear and a PR. Oh, the bear, by the way, that you had a photo with? Uh Smoky Bear. In Cumberland, Ontario. Tara and her husband Phil did the fall colors run. This is Phil's first 10K. With the Hills and an extra long surprise loop at the end, Phil finished strong, although he commented that it's more mental than physical to finish that last mile. Well, there you go, Phil. You learned something. That is that's the case. That's the case on almost every run, my friend. Uh Tara's real proud of Phil's accomplishment. Tara ran, but she didn't tell us how she did. She just told us how Phil did, and that's cool. So Phil's first 10K, that's a PR. In Auburn Dale, Florida, about halfway between where I'm sitting now and Disney World. The Badge of Hope Haunted 5K at Camp Margaritaville. Morningstar and Sarah both enjoyed this smaller race vibe, the sunset start time, the coarse decorations, and the zombies. Of course there were zombies, right? It's a haunted 5K run. Metals and real bathrooms, not just porta potties. Michelle was in Taylor, Texas for the Taylor Good Life Run 5K. She PR'd this event. Coming in in under 45 minutes. She says she'd like to thank Jeff Galloway for giving her a doable and enjoyable running method. Taylor, I hope you're going to be at wine and I'm sorry, Michelle. Taylor is where she ran. Michelle, I hope you're going to be at wine and nine so you can thank Jeff himself. It means a lot to him, it really does. Let's wrap up Saturday in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where Missy did the Rocktoberfest half marathon. She got to meet up with some fantastic ladies from a local Run Disney group to run with. Once again, she had to show up with her sparkles. That's great. She may not run fast, but she sparkles the whole time why she's out there. Good job, Missy. Moving to Sunday, heading to Canada, where Lori ran the Valley Harvest Marathon in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. This was a two-loop marathon course. It was hard, it was hilly, but the weather was great. And she managed a nine-minute PR and finished under four and a half hours. Nicely done. Very nicely done. Good enough for second place in her age group. Lori is in search of a Boston qualifying time. She's only nine minutes and 47 seconds away from it at this point. She feels confident. We feel confident for you, Lori. Good luck with that. And congrats on your run. In Washington, D.C., Kate and Divya were at the Army 10 Miler. The predictive reign for this one held off. Divya says she was a couple minutes slower than last year, but still had a great time. Wants to thank everyone for all the holler hypes, and that was a theme of a lot of the race reports. The hypes are really appreciated, friends. Divya also always appreciates the Army service members giving up their time to help make this an amazing event. And the post-race swag ain't too shabby either. On Staten Island in New York, the New York Roadrunner Staten Island Half, Brennan was there. Brandy was in Sugarland, Texas for the Sugarland Half. So, alright. Mile nine, Brandy makes a decision. She's joining the Yak and Yeti Club and puking her guts up. Took me a while to get the Yak and Yeti joke, Brandy, but I got it. I'm slow. It takes a while. Stopped her watch, sat down for a couple minutes, and had a long talk with herself about what's a legit reason for DNFing. Decided that vomiting wasn't one of them. An injury, yep. Losing your lunch, nope. She was able to rehydrate, kept going much slower. Gave a repeat performance at mile 12. But come on, who's going to stop at mile 12? You gotta be crazy, right? So she charges on, finishes this one, this catered training run for Dope. Way to hang in there, Brandy. We're proud of you. In Falmouth, Massachusetts, Ashley ran the Cape Cod Marathon Relay. Fall arrived in New England, brought some rain and wind, but nothing could bring down the spirit on this relay team. They finished this marathon relay in three hours and 50 minutes, which was easily 40 minutes faster than the anticipated finishing. Five different legs of different distances. Navigating the course was a little bit difficult, but it was a great day, a great race, and a really neat looking medal. And it was, you get a chance to see a photo of it, it's a nice marathon medal. In Ohio, the Youngstown Peace Race 25K. Megan did this one to celebrate her birthday and to run her first ever 25K. So that's a PR. Megan gave us a long race report. It's worth reading. She talks about the dedication involved in finishing last in a small race like this, although she still kept a pace good enough to beat the balloon ladies. While there was no published cutoff time, they started closing water stations down on her towards the end. Not cool. On the positive side, though, the race crew did stay at the finish line to help and congratulate her at the finish. She said a bunch of pre-race goals met all but one of them, a time goal she missed by only two minutes. Megan, good job. Good job hanging in there. Congratulations. Back to Amelia Island, Fernandino Beach, Florida, for the half marathon this time. Nancy says it's a beautiful course. Race is very well supported. She started with the two-hour 45-minute pace group and fell back and teamed up with another runner for a while. And then almost caught back up with that group by the end of the race, finished in 245-51. That's a 12-plus minute PR. Jen was at the event. She paced the 330 group on the half. Jenny and Cameron ran this one. This was the second race of the weekend for Trina. She ran with the three-hour pacers, but that was a little ambitious for her. She continued the race a little slower. She spent a big part of her youth in Yulee, which is in that area. And once she let go of their time goal and started looking around, she really, really began to enjoy the course. Ended up finishing just a little over three hours, so no disappointment at all. And Joy was at this one, half marathon number two for Joy. Life's been getting in the way lately, so she didn't train as much as she would have liked. We hear that quite a bit. Her goal was 230, and thanks to Chris and Lauren, the Galloway Pacers, she was able to PR at 228. Now her hips and toes are currently still protesting, but it was worth it. In Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Royal Victoria Marathon. Melissa was there. Melissa, as did many of our runners, wants to thank you for all the holler hypes. They really helped her, really helped her, and you came through for her. That was great. An incredible feeling to suddenly have that extra energy for a few more kilometers. Wasn't sure she'd finish, and although it was her slowest full marathon, she's still very proud of this one at the finish line. Lauren ran the marathon there, managed to hit a PR of just a little over four hours. It was cold and wet, but a great course. Maybe the best she's seen in a while, because the support on the course itself was kind of sparse. It's the 45th anniversary of this event, so they got a jacket as a souvenir item. That's really neat. Christy was there. Christy ran the half, had the latest episode of the Rise and Run podcast in her ears, which kept her motivated and cruising well under her goal paces. Well, that's outstanding, Christy. Not a PR, but her fastest half in 16 years, and a solid proof of time for springtime surprise. So congratulations, everybody in British Columbia. In Mandeville, Louisiana, the North Shore half marathon, 10 miler and 5K. Emily was there running the half for her first race of the season, and it's a PR. Hour 49 minutes and the half for Emily. Great job. A two-minute improvement over her spring PR. Gotta love a flat course, just a little smattering of locals out to cheer on the runners. Lisa was there doing the half, as was Mira. Mira wasn't going for a PR at all, but with attempts in the 60s after training in the summer heat, it'll do it to you. She beat her previous half PR by seven minutes. She's not upset about that at all. Can't wait to see everybody at Wine and Dine. There you go. Summer training and all that heat cools off. Fall PRs. And I'm probably going to mispronounce this one, but in the Netherlands, Eindhoven, I believe, the Eindhoffen Marathon. Danny did this one. 38,500 people over two days and four distances at this race weekend. This is Danny's first full outside of Dopey. Course was relatively flat, had some overpasses. Danny's A goal was 345, his B goal was under four hours. That would have been a PR. But at least he wanted to finish and have fun. The course was fun with lots of people watching. He ended up running a 13-minute PR of 354, breaking that four-hour mark. Way to go, Danny. Jared did the you can finish distance dare, a two-miler and a five-miler at the University of Central Florida campus in Orlando. Where else would you have a pumpkin spice 10K, 5K, and 1 miler than Seattle, Washington? Hira was there, as did Lace and her son Leon. Lace said it's sweater weather in Seattle. Race began where you could enjoy a warm cup of soup with real cheese and not plastic cheese. Lace, I don't even know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_17:That's downright blasphemy.
SPEAKER_16:I agree. And she got a pumpkin spice beverage at the end. Now, Leon, Leon did get a new 5K PR and got to ring the PR bell and gets to hear this PR bell. Christina ran the half marathon near the campus of the University of Georgia. Weather was great this weekend. So happy with how she ran the first seven miles, but around mile eight, started to have a little pain in the knee. Knew the time goal wasn't going to happen, but she persevered, finished strong. The last quarter mile is really fun because you get to run through Sanford Stadium. Crowd support was great. Hills were tough, especially in the last three miles. Down in Dania Beach, South Florida, the Dania.5K Robbie, our man in South Florida, did that race. The first sign of fall in South Florida. Temperatures are in the 70s. Nice flat course through the parking lot of an upscale mall. In Cornwall, Connecticut, Rachel ran the Mohawk Mountain half marathon. 3,000 feet of elevation gain, including climbing up and down a ski slope three times. Sounds like fun. The views were great. Weather was perfect. Good practice run while training for Dopey, including having to be up super early to get to the start line in time. Now Rachel's in Connecticut. This was town 164 of 169 for her. And one more race, this one on Monday, which was Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Phaedra did the Turkey Trot 10K in Woodstock and set a new 10K PR. There we have it, folks. Congratulations to our friends in the race report for episode 212. Alright, my friends. And if you run, you know you are our friend. We made it. We're here. It's race season in Florida. We can't say it enough. John and I will be there with Alicia. We're looking forward to meeting you, whether we've met before or we haven't. We're excited about it. It's the reason we go. It's one of the reasons. It's the big reason I go. It's one of the reasons we all go. So please come say hi. Hopefully, we can see you at the meetup on Saturday. As I mentioned, no Zoom this week. We'll have a Zoom after we get back from Wine and Dine weekend. But until then, my friends, happy running.
SPEAKER_17: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 about it is discussed on this podcast. It should not be considered medical flights. It is always considered flight or not.
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