232: 2026 Princess Half Marathon Weekend Recap

A weekend of sparkle, sneakers, and shared heart. Princess Half Marathon Weekend brought out everything we love about runDisney—creative costumes, cool-weather miles, and castle magic—but also the kind of community you can feel in your bones. We navigated an expo frenzy as Brooks’ princess-themed shoes sent lines snaking across the building, watched Disney pivot fast to keep characters and bands on course during a misty 10K, and soaked in small moments that turned into big memories: a family’s first 5K together, a triumphant TinkerBob, and the scent of BoardWalk bacon drifting through a fast, happy morning.

The half marathon became a quiet masterpiece. Overcast skies, steady breezes, and a surprise wave from Cinderella, the Prince, and Fairy Godmother lifted runners through those famous Magic Kingdom miles. Near the finish, a semicircle of fairy godmothers dusted us with wishes, and the course felt less like a race and more like a rite of passage. Some of us set PRs. Others walked every step on purpose. All of us leaned on run-walk-run, hydration, and patience—the essentials Jeff Galloway taught us so many times.

And then the finish line gave us a moment we’ll never forget. A chair where Jeff once stood filled with Mickey gloves, ribbons, and a lone Gymboss. Pacers gathered with flags, cheering wave after wave just as Jeff would, offering thumbs-ups and “you did it” to faces still catching their breath. When the sun finally broke through, it felt like a blessing on a weekend that was both hard and healing. We also check in on races from Tel Aviv to Seattle and Atlanta, sharing wins, decade PRs, and lessons that carry beyond the parks.

If you ran, cheered, or simply needed a reminder that miles can mend, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and tell us: What’s your favorite Princess Weekend moment—or your best Galloway memory? We’d love to hear it.

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Transcript

Welcome, Housekeeping, And Jeff’s Passing

SPEAKER_20 0:45

Hello, friends and run family. This is Marielle calling you from the suburbs of Philadelphia. Go Birds, Go Phillies. I just finished a five-mile training run outside on a glorious 45-degree sunny day. It was a pleasure meeting some of you at the Disneyland meetup, and I'll see you again soon at springtime weekend. Happy running.

SPEAKER_12 1:04

And happy running right back to you, Marielle. And a generous go birds and go eagles while we're at it. Hey, Mariel started it. I'm not trying to bring anything up. Thanks, Mariel. Welcome, friends. Welcome to episode 232 of the Rise and Run Podcast. We're very happy that you're here with us. I'm Bob, and I am here this week with Lexi.

SPEAKER_14 1:27

Hello.

SPEAKER_12 1:28

With John. Hey, how are you doing? With Greg. Hey, hey, hey. With uh Lisha.

SPEAKER_11 1:34

Hello.

SPEAKER_12 1:35

And with Jack.

SPEAKER_11 1:36

Hiya.

Patreon, March Madness Bracket, And Travel

SPEAKER_12 1:37

Good to see you, friends. Full house this evening. Uh if if we seem a little subdued, a little less excited than we normally are, of course, we're still dealing with the passing of our friend and Run Disney and running legend, Jeff Galloway. It's a topic we we certainly don't want to overlook. You'll hear us talk about it some in the Princess Weekend recap, but we want to talk about it at the end of the episode. And uh so we'd ask you to hang on, pass the race report, and we'll share some of our thoughts about Mr. Galloway.

SPEAKER_11 2:14

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 the Run Disney Journey, so please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise Run Podcast and Instagram at RiseRun Pod, check out our YouTube channel, and visit our webpage, Rise and Run Podcast.com. If you have a question, comment, race report, or want to introduce an upcoming episode, just go ahead and call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.

SPEAKER_17 2:45

We would also like to thank our Patreons whose support helps keep the Rise and Run Podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join our Patreon team, please be sure to check out Patreon.com slash rise and run podcast. And this week we would love to welcome David, the newest member of the Plastic Cheese level. And uh and patrons, be sure to stay tuned to your inboxes. You should have gotten your first set of emails over this past weekend. Uh we're in the month of March. And uh, if March means one thing, it's the most beautiful time of the year outside of uh the holiday season, and that is March Madness. And obviously, we will continue on in that tradition here at the Riseron Podcast. We have another bracket and this year's theme Disney Animated Movies. And uh I I just got done um making the bracket the other day, and as I told my beautiful co-hosts here, uh we thought last year was contentious when it came to uh table service restaurants. I think things are gonna get real interesting with this one. So Patrons, you get to exclusively choose who uh wins those first round play-in games. So the uh eight sixteen seeds that uh just squeaked into the tournament. So uh you'll be able to vote on those, and then for the first couple of rounds, you will be our tiebreaker uh when it comes to the field of 64. So again, you'll be getting email alerts for each one of those matchups. So be sure to uh click on those emails and place your vote. And like I said, we'll start March Madness in two tournament kicks off two weeks from today. So very, very exciting, and we'll be there right along with the action.

SPEAKER_12 4:43

Yeah, well, first of all, thank you, David, for uh becoming our latest patron. Greg, I I listened to you talk and you kind of sent me reminiscing a little bit, and I've listened, I have lived through the growth of that bracketology thing to the point where it has become I think it it's one of those things that now transcends the sports world, and people just throughout the US understand what brackets are and what the what March Madness is all about. It's grown to be that big. I can remember in high school making out brackets and doing it, but there weren't many other people doing it back in those days.

SPEAKER_17 5:23

No, but yeah, it was you know, fun fun story here, Bob. Uh speaking of bracketology, the one time when I was a senior, if there is one person that is synonymous with uh bracketology, that is uh Joe Lenardi of uh of ESPN. Uh he's a local guy here in Philly, and uh needless to say, a very, very enthusiastic uh Greg who was in the basketball band uh during the Atlantic 10 championship game, my senior year. Uh Joe Lenardi walked right in front of me during that game because he is the color commentator for uh St. Joe's basketball. And uh Temple was playing St. Joe's in the uh in the championship game, and uh I got a little too hyped and started yelling at Joe Lenardi, and uh he turned around and said some not so nice things back to me. So uh so yeah, so uh I I have a very special relationship with uh the lead bracketologist over here. You're like this, huh? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, real real close. I got you.

SPEAKER_21 6:22

I got you. I thought you were going Dick Dick Vitel.

SPEAKER_17 6:24

No, I I love Dickie V with all my heart and and Bill Rafferty, yeah, but uh Joe Flanardi, not so much.

SPEAKER_21 6:32

I guess he's not gonna be a guest. Okay.

SPEAKER_12 6:34

No, no, not at all. They ever tell you about the time I ran into Joe Fraser? It's it's yeah, yeah, it's one of my favorite stories. Um hey friends, back on track. Here we go. The Rise and Run podcast, sponsored by our good friends at Magic Bound Travel. MagicBoundTravel.com. Place to go for all your Run Disney, Disney Park, Disney Cruise, Royal Caribbean Cruise, Universal, um, all those great, great resource for you. A lot of our Rise and Run friends now are agents with Magic Bound. We also know that any agent that you get at Magic Bound, uh, if you're interested in a Run Disney event, they will be Run Disney veterans.

SPEAKER_21 7:20

Bob, also, I I saw Naggie put out today that uh some of the shows are starting to show up on the uh so uh if you want to get a show reservation, I guess uh start going on your app and making those reservations.

Training Plans And Marathon Weekend Registration

SPEAKER_12 7:34

Yeah, if you're heading on the cruise with us in uh, by the way, that sales in 46 days. Oh gosh. Is that possible? Yeah, wow. Uh anyway, also if you're heading up the burden hand, they still have some rooms left on those bookings. Again, the website's the place to go for that. Although that that burden hand link is also pinned to the featured section of the Facebook group page. All right, magicboundtravel.com is the website. Check them out. Let's take a look at our training schedule. Of course, the only Disney race left in this season is Springtime Surprise, which is six weeks away. Friends, we're in training week number 12. Your training assignment, if you choose to accept it for this weekend, is the three-mile walk and a nine-mile run walk run. Of course, nothing else on the training schedule. The next big date is 12 days from today. That's not this coming Tuesday, but next Tuesday for the general population is registration time for wine. Uh not wine for Marathon weekend. Marathon weekend, the uh Club Run Disney registers next week. It's the Tuesday after that for the rest of us.

SPEAKER_17 9:02

Since this is the first time in a while that we've had a full house here, speaking of marathon registration, can we go around the horn real quick and see what we're uh what we're aiming for for trying for, yeah. St. Patty's Day, since none of us are club. Yeah. Jack, what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_11 9:19

I look forward to running the marathon with Rachel, and um, we plan on trying to make it to the store Star Wars area when it's dark. That's our goal.

SPEAKER_12 9:29

Yeah, that'd be cool if you could.

SPEAKER_11 9:31

Yeah, we're gonna try and book it and then after that celebrate that we do.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Oh, if you can get to that when it's dark, you can we can thrawl in from there, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 9:39

Yeah, yeah. Alicia, are you planning on the same as you had the past couple of years? Just the marathon?

SPEAKER_13 9:45

Yep, that's my plan. Um, it's still my favorite distance, so I'll be back again. Um, and I don't think I'll do another marathon before that, so that will be number 10.

SPEAKER_17 9:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_11 9:55

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_17 9:57

Lex how about you?

SPEAKER_14 9:58

I still haven't decided. I either want to do the 5k and 10k, or I want to say the 5k and the half is what like I want to do.

SPEAKER_17 10:13

Well then you should do that.

SPEAKER_14 10:15

But but then but then I love Chippendale, and so they're always the 10K. So that makes me want to do the 10K, but I don't want to do three races.

SPEAKER_17 10:28

So I don't know. That's stay stay tuned for the epic conclusion of what will Alexi decide.

SPEAKER_21 10:32

Or what's gonna be open at the time you register?

SPEAKER_17 10:35

Or that too.

SPEAKER_14 10:36

That's probably what's gonna be what it's come comes down to.

SPEAKER_12 10:39

All right, Bob, how about you? Well, the 5k has become a traditional race. We we need to come up with the group costume. I'll put something on Facebook here in the next couple of years. Oh, don't worry.

SPEAKER_17 10:49

Um, I I received a message from our friend Ileana. She has a whole list of ideas for you, so you might want to get in touch with her. Good. We can put it on.

SPEAKER_14 10:58

That was another thing, too, of me wanting to do the 5K because I haven't been able to participate the past big costumes that we've done.

SPEAKER_12 11:07

The other thing, boy, the last couple of marathons I've done have been difficult, but uh I think I'm gonna sign up for it uh as long as my buddy the birthday boy. By the way, today's Alan Young's birthday. Today, the day we're recording.

SPEAKER_11 11:24

Oh, happy birthday, Alan.

SPEAKER_12 11:26

It was uh Rachel's Rachel's birthday, as we'll hear from Rachel in just a little bit. And it's Alan's birthday. He you guys know he's older than I am, right? That would do.

SPEAKER_21 11:37

And you're never gonna let him forget it.

SPEAKER_12 11:40

Absolutely not. That's why we keep him around. Well, you think I like that guy?

SPEAKER_21 11:47

You want to be younger than somebody around here.

SPEAKER_12 11:50

You got it. No, it's a real, it's a real uh it's a real honor just to know Alan. He's a great human being. He and his wife, Grace, both terrific people. Uh anyway, Alan's doing that marathon. Not that I'm going to catch up to him because I won't. I did catch up to him at the Half and Disney land, but that was different. Uh he started in C corral, I started in D or B and C, I can't remember, but I was only one corral behind. And it that that wasn't too tough. He starts the perfect start in A. I start somewhere towards the back. That's the real challenge. So I won't get up with him. Uh, if I do the marathon and I think I will register for it, it will also be my 10th marathon. Not again, not that that means there's no award for that. You know, and you don't get your name doesn't get registered in the book somewhere or anything, but yeah, it would be significant.

SPEAKER_21 12:41

So I'm thinking 5k in the marathon also, because I think the half might be a little tough to get into this year because it is an anniversary. It's an anniversary year. Yep. And I don't want to do goofy.

SPEAKER_17 12:57

Well, John doesn't want to do goofy, but I think I want to do goofy. So that's that's where that's where my head's at. I mean, think things could change in the the next uh two weeks or so, but yeah, that that's where my my head is leaning right now.

Princess Weekend Guests Introduced

SPEAKER_12 13:14

So there you go, friends. Uh 12 days from today is registration time. We will get together on Zoom on registration day. Can't help each other as much as we used to. We don't know. Things change every time. So we'll see what we can do. Uh, hope to see you there. More on that. Also, before we register for Marathon Weekend, I want to talk to my friends. Just be just you and me. I just want to talk to you. If you're out there considering doing your first dopey, I think it's great. I think you should do it, but we're gonna have a little little chat first, just so you understand what you're getting ready to do. All right. It'll be fun. Uh let's see. We've got a Zoom Thursday coming up this week, this evening, in fact, as this episode releases. Uh Zoom Thursday, it's already the instructions are already pinned to the featured part of the Facebook group page. Come on by, share your princess stories, share your Jeff Galloway stories, or let's just chat and have fun as we usually do. Caution Runners, change of topic ahead. Well, the big Run Disney event this weekend, of course, this past weekend was Princess Weekend at Walt Disney World. It's time to give a little recap. Tell talk about how things went, some of the highlights, some of the important things that happened during the weekend, and as we frequently do, we've asked some friends to join us and help us recount these last three races. So, friends, I'd like you to introduce yourself, please. And Jonathan, I'll let you start.

SPEAKER_19 15:03

Hi, I'm Jonathan from Texas, and I did the Fairy Tale Challenge.

SPEAKER_12 15:07

All right. And you also did the 5K, right? I did, yes. Okay, so got all three.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

I'm Tara Wagner. I'm from Maryland, and I also did all three races this weekend.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

All right, I'm Rachel. I'm from Fort Worth, Texas, and I also did all three races.

SPEAKER_12 15:25

And has a birthday today.

SPEAKER_17 15:27

Guys, I just realized we forgot the cake.

SPEAKER_11 15:29

Don't worry, I still have some wedding cake in the refrigerator I can pass along.

SPEAKER_21 15:35

You gotta wait a year.

SPEAKER_11 15:36

Yeah, you gotta save it, Jack. That thing's probably close to probably green. I'm afraid to look under the tin, to be honest. But I have cake here for you. I don't know if you want to eat it.

SPEAKER_12 15:51

You can text it to him. All right, Mark's here with us too. Mark, why don't you introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_15 15:57

Um I'm Mark. I'm from Greensboro, North Carolina, and I also ran the 5K in the fairy tale challenge. And Mark was a pacer for the hat. Yes, I was.

Expo Highlights And Brooks Shoe Frenzy

SPEAKER_12 16:09

You guys have probably seen Mark out there pacing. You probably recognize his voice, if not from pacing, from uh helping us with the impossible dream on uh Marathon weekend, prior to Marathon weekend. So, well, as we like to do, friends, let's review the weekend and let's kick it off by talking about the expo. Expo day was Thursday. Uh I'm gonna let Tara and Rachel start out here.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Rachel and I are very spoiled. We're both Platinum Run Disney members, and so we had a very easy expo. Um, we got there early. We got to go and select whatever merch we wanted. We got to peruse the beautiful new shoes they put out for this weekend for the uh Princess Weekend. They put three different Princess Pacific shoes out um between the two of us. We bought all three of them.

SPEAKER_10 17:05

I was gonna ask that. I was like, but they're the one, especially. Oh my god, it was so pretty. I was jealous.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Yeah, so the shoes were a big hit. Other than that, I didn't buy too much of the expo, just a tank and a pin.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

I did buy shoes. Um, I did buy the tank and I also bought a the weekend jacket, but um I also my mom was with me, so I also got her a jacket and something. Uh, but oh, the shoe ornament. Oh, okay and the uh the stackable mug because I already had the other two mugs from the other two weekends. So yeah, it was it was good. It was light shopping, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Relatively light.

SPEAKER_17 17:55

Relatively ladies, I have a quick question for you about uh the Brooke shoes this go-round because based on all the social media coverage I saw, I mean, you know, you see the typical lines of you know queuing inside that really hot room with no ventilation across the way from uh from where everything is. But a lot of people were commenting on the line for the Brooks shoes. Would you say that that was more populated this time around than other particular weekends? Or did I mean I again I know you're platinum, but did you have to wait a while, or did you talk to anyone else who had to wait a while?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

We walked right up, we walked right up and got what we wanted and left within five minutes. So we really can't give you the details about that, but I think there's other people in this call that probably can, of course, because we know I know Bob had to go and place a special order and go back again, I think. Yeah, to be a little time.

SPEAKER_12 18:54

I'll get to it, but I'll let Mark or Jonathan chime in if they had an experience with it. Do you guys did you guys get any shoes?

SPEAKER_15 19:00

I didn't go for shoes. Uh my my Thursday was spent at the Pacer Booth. But from what I heard from there, um, yeah, the the line was impressively long, just from people who were coming back and talking about it. And it was long the whole day, which has not been my experience at other weekends.

SPEAKER_12 19:19

How about you, Jonathan? Shoes?

SPEAKER_19 19:21

I didn't know, but it looked really cool.

SPEAKER_12 19:23

Okay. Becky wanted shoes this time. I didn't want to, but Becky wanted Becky wanted the Rapunzel shoes. Um we had group number 99, which for me is not too bad. Uh normally I'm at like group 200 or something, but at group number 99. We didn't get called till oh golly, well after 2 o'clock. And then we had dinner reservations at 4.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

We ate at Brown Derby on Thursday.

SPEAKER_12 19:52

Oh yeah. Yeah. So I had to get to Hollywood Studios. What happened was story follows. We finally get in. And 2 30, so I'm thinking, all right, 2.30, you can take us an hour, and we can get to Hollywood, it'll be okay. Becky needs to try on the shoe. She doesn't know her size in Brooks. So she goes over. I get in that the uh serpentine cue inside that area you're talking about, Greg. It was monstrous. It was really long. And as I'm standing there with a bag of stuff that Becky had purchased earlier in my hands, I realize what I do not have in my hand is my bag with my shirts and my bib. So I go to Becky, she doesn't have it. I go, ah, it shucks. So I take off, I go back, we have been sitting on a bench outside the uh area, nothing there. Then we had before that we had been sitting on a bag bag sitting on a bench right outside the expo. Now it's been 20 minutes or so, but I get there and I look and sure enough there's a bag there. There are two people sitting there. I said to them, Is Excuse me, but is that your bag with the shirts in it? And the woman looks at me and goes, What's your name? I said, Bob. This is yours. So all's well that ends well on that one. I get back, Becky is done trying the shoes on, she's in that serpentine line, and I go, There's no way. We're not gonna get out of here in time. So I said, Come on, Becky, we'll come back tomorrow. We'll come back on Friday. It's never crowded on Friday. Wrong. The line in there was shorter, but once you got through that line, you went into the sales area, the line was even bigger in there. It was monstrous. And then the word comes out, we're out of Rapunzel shoes. But you can order them and we'll drop ship them to you. That line is over there. So we go to another line. We get into that line. It snakes back and forth. Now we're in the Brooks area. Guess what? Another line. I'm not making it up. I don't know how long we were there. When we finally got to the uh to the sales point, Becky says, I need a pair of eight and a half. She goes, Oh, I think we still have those. So Becky got to leave with her shoes. So uh there you go. You asked about the shoes, Greg. There you go. Okay.

SPEAKER_17 22:48

Well, I I find this really interesting because you know, when we had the discussion about the shoes last week, you know, I had made the comment about, you know, would the idea of more character-based shoes perform better than a generic weekend shoe? And I think this is a little bit of the proof in the pudding because I think since the Brooke partnership that launched coming up on a year now, at least from the social media side of things, of from not being there, this seems like this was the most popular race in terms of the Brooks collaboration. So clearly, I think this is a good litness test for them in terms of how they're gonna move forward with uh new designs.

SPEAKER_12 23:31

Yeah. Well, well, having purchased them at springtime last year and then again at marathon this year, that experience was nothing like this. This was it's not even comparable. I mean, we basically walked in on those.

SPEAKER_11 23:45

These shoes, like I'm like looking at pictures, and now I just realized there's no Merida themed shoe. I thought I got myself confused with the Moana one. Now the Moana one looks amazing, and just the same. But the shoes in general look so well themed, and they what's nice is they're not necessarily they are weekend specific, but they're not at the same time, like they're character specific. And I feel like you could buy these shoes beyond just the weekend, and I think that's what and they they did a really good job with them this year for sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

We had a lot of comments from people in the in the parks. So a lot of people asked about the shoes, um, and and often asked, is that is that a Run Disney thing? So like some people knew that something happened with it, but it was pretty cool. You know, people were definitely interested in them.

SPEAKER_19 24:34

Um, I think that on the Rapunzel shoes, I think that screwed out the shoelace is um Rapunzel's hair.

SPEAKER_12 24:41

Right. That was very nice. And then they had the flower uh attachments on the laces. Yeah, they they look, I mean, they're great.

SPEAKER_17 24:50

Would you say that the Rapunzel shoe was the shoe of the weekend that where it was the most purchased?

SPEAKER_02 24:57

Either that or Marlana.

SPEAKER_17 24:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

But I think the Rapunzel one was the one we heard sold out. I'm not sure if we heard that.

SPEAKER_12 25:03

It was the Rapunzel, yeah. The Rapunzel one was sold out. Yeah. Obviously not completely, but it was mostly sold out.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

And and they were letting people order it. So if people that were at the expo wanted the shoe but couldn't get it in their size or whatever, they were allowing people to order it. Which is very nice.

SPEAKER_12 25:20

That's that's a good move. That's a good move. It was. Um before we before we leave talking about the expo, uh, I want to ask my friends, the big thing about the expo for us, and I mean we mentioned it at the top of the episode, and we're going to talk about it again in the end of this episode, is that Jeff wasn't there. That had an impact on the episode. And I like to ask my friends what they how that affected what they thought about that.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

For me, it was um very weird to go to the Galloway booth and not have Jeff there. I think um we all knew that was gonna be the case, you know, going into the expo. Um, it was good for me to see Mark there. It was good for me to see Chris there. It was they had um poster board set up for us to be able to put messages on it. They'd already like filled numerous poster boards. I mean, I and they also had a book for us to write messages to the family. Of course, that was a tearjerker, and I was very, very glad they had Kleenex on the table there. Um, because I think just person and Mark can speak about this, I'm sure, because he was there and there all day. Um, but it was good to be there. It was good to talk to others who um loved Jeff, cared about Jeff, um, got so much from Jeff and from everything he's done for Run Disney and for all of us. And um, it was hard but healing, I would say. Um not not just that experience at the expo, but the entire weekend um was really um a very hard but healing uh event.

Remembering Jeff At The Expo

SPEAKER_03 27:15

And the timing is just very I I don't want to say serendipitous, I I don't know the word, but it's just very fitting that there would for his passing that there would be a race weekend and an occasion for the community to be together and to love on each other and to carry the torch and to to be there and to heal and to grieve. I just I yeah.

SPEAKER_12 27:51

I think uh I'll speak for myself. Original thought was why now, why on a race weekend? And it wasn't long before I realized there's no place I'd rather be. Uh I'd rather I had all my friends there to share the the weekend with, and we didn't have to just do it over social media. So I thought we ended up being pretty lucky that w many of us were there together.

SPEAKER_15 28:18

Yeah, it was it was quite an experience. Um and I did, I spent pretty much the whole day on Thursday in the PACER booth because we needed people. Um we had originally planned to have the PACER booth set up with the opportunity for people to do videos to send Jeff get well messages because that's that's where we were when we were packing up and when we had our PACER meeting before the event. It wasn't until Wednesday when people were already in transit I literally found out in the airport uh that we found out it wasn't going to be getting um get well messages anymore, and we had to kind of adjust all of our plans. But I think that was kind of the story of the weekend for me is people kept coming by the booth. One to offer condolences, which was lovely, but only it was sort of this reflective condolence because everybody that was saying I'm sorry for your loss was also grieving that loss at the same time. It wasn't just the pacer's loss or Chris's loss, it was the entire community was grieving together. But it was also so organic. We had four sheets of poster board the first day. We ended up filling over two dozen over the course of the week.

SPEAKER_12 29:35

Yeah, I think twenty-seven was the final count.

SPEAKER_15 29:37

That was that was the number I heard, yeah. And and the ribbons, people kept coming to the pacer booth and saying, Do you have memorial ribbons? And for the first day, it wasn't that we had memorial ribbons, we were all wearing them because people had brought them to us. Not because we made them, but because people had them for us and we gave away every bit that we had every time somebody dropped them off in a matter of minutes. It was it was a very special experience. Like Rachel, I I don't know that English has a good word for for joy and grief and celebration and heartache all mixed up into one moment. Maybe there's a better one in a different language, but I don't know it. But it was it was all the emotions. Yeah. We spent a lot of time smiling through the tears, I think. We did. And it it was wonderful to hear the stories, and it was wonderful to share that space with people. And like like you said, it as much as none of us would have ever wanted this, it happening when it did, was just about as fortuitous a time as it could be.

SPEAKER_12 30:50

Jonathan, do you have any thoughts that you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_19 30:54

I'm really sad uh about Jeff's passion. Um he has inspired many in a Ren Disney community, and his uh Run Walk program has been really beneficial to many, many Ren Disney people and his legacy will live on.

SPEAKER_16 31:14

Caution runners, the topic is about to change right now.

Princess 5K: Costumes, Family Firsts

SPEAKER_21 31:20

Okay, so the expo is over. It's time for you guys to go to bed. I hope you guys got to bed early because the next morning you have a 5K. Tell us about the 5K.

SPEAKER_15 31:30

I I can tell you that I did not sleep well because I was the expo all day, and then I had to actually get to my hotel room and unpack. Um, and I never sleep well my first day in a new bed. But for me, the fun thing about the 5K was that I got to do something I almost never got to do. I had a lot of new experiences this weekend, which was that bizarrely I was in Corral B, which I have no business being in by my actual pace, but 5K's are that way at Disney. We all know this. So for the first and likely only time in my life, I got to start. Corral B isn't a Corral, you just walk into the starting shoot, which was a bizarre experience to begin with. And it meant that I actually finished before everyone started. Um, I wasn't trying to run particularly fast, it was just that I got to start that early. So I actually got to, for the first time ever, be that person at the beginning of the start line by the buses cheering people on wearing. Good for you. Which I've never gotten to do, but felt very fitting to the whole weekend for reasons we'll get into when we talk about the half. That, you know, it was very much that this is this is who I want to be. This is what Jeff would have done. This is how I want this weekend to go. Let's go make everybody feel good about the race they're running.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

Well, we had it, we um we walked the 5K. We walked actually all three races this weekend, which was something new for us to do. Um, so but being uh, as I said before, being platinum, Rachel and I were assigned Corral B. And your mom is also in B, right?

SPEAKER_03 33:08

Yeah, miraculously.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Miraculously, her mom was also assigned a B. So we all got to go out of B, which was great. Um, so yeah, I mean, the 5Ks are great, obviously, you know, walking around the world showcase and enjoying all those things. We um dressed as Princess Doctors, which was really fun. Princess Doctors. So um Rachel's mom um uh is a retired doctor. Rachel's a nurse practitioner. I'm not a doctor, but I just play one on TV. Um actually in a holiday in, right? I run Disney races. Um, but I was I was Dr. Bell, Rachel was Dr. Umora, and um Cindy, Rachel's mom was Dr. Dr. Cinderella.

SPEAKER_09 33:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Um we missed our Dr. Meredith. Um Ellie was supposed to be Dr. Merida with us, and Ellie couldn't make it to this race weekend, but um, we enjoyed that um that experience. So we had a lot of fun doing that.

SPEAKER_03 34:11

We did. We had bedazzled stethoscopes, we had bedazzled hospital badges with our princess names on them. It was a lot of fun. And we had a jacket, it was chilly that morning, so the lab coats were perfect. Um, and at the end, we even stopped by medical and took a picture with them, and they were like, oh my god, we're like, You need a doctor? Call Princess.

SPEAKER_15 34:37

It was spectacular, it really was.

SPEAKER_03 34:40

It was fun.

SPEAKER_19 34:41

So um it was my mom's first 5K. She has never done a Run Disney before, or a 5K. So I was really excited to do it with my mom and um show her all the dis all the Run Disney excitement, and it was fun to be on a course with my mom and um tell her when the photo pass uh green tint is coming up and to look uh on the side. Um and my mom enjoyed it. Um and I'm really proud of my mom. And she told me that she's hooked now on Run Disney events and that she wants to do a 10k next.

SPEAKER_12 35:21

Great. Great. I would imagine, Jonathan, that that sometimes on the course people recognize you and say hello. Is that that true?

SPEAKER_19 35:31

It is true.

SPEAKER_12 35:32

What did mom think of that? She thinks that's she thinks it's cool, uh she thinks you're a superstar, I'll bet. That's my son, the superstar. That's great, man. That is awesome. I'm glad to hear that.

SPEAKER_19 35:46

Thank you. Um it was just it was just awesome uh doing the 5k um for her first time.

SPEAKER_12 35:55

I think that's very exciting.

SPEAKER_16 35:57

Caution runners, change of topic ahead.

SPEAKER_13 36:02

All right, so speaking of 10Ks, maybe your mom will want to do Princess Next year, Jonathan, but let's move to the 10K day. How did um that one go for you, Mark?

SPEAKER_15 36:14

10K day was rainy.

SPEAKER_13 36:17

Was it alright?

SPEAKER_15 36:19

A little bit, yeah. Yeah, not terrible in the morning before the race. It cleared up before the race started.

SPEAKER_11 36:26

That's good.

SPEAKER_15 36:27

Um, but it it was definitely a little a little soggy before we got out on the course.

SPEAKER_17 36:33

Hey, Mark, before you actually get into the race itself, uh why don't you talk us through the night before? Because obviously, you know, as you mentioned, it was a little soggy and a little rainy. Or, you know, so obviously Yeah. So you know, Run Disney was, you know, obviously being preemptive in terms of they needed to make a decision. You know, just talk the listeners through that and and what I mean, obviously the race went off, but you know, talk about that and how you physically and mentally prepared for that because obviously it seemed a little late for them to make that kind of call when you have to wake up six hours later.

SPEAKER_15 37:09

It it was so yes, we the forecast was calling for rain, but it was also calling for lightning. And we know, of course, rain's not going to shut down around Disney event, but lightning absolutely will. So there was a lot of talk. Is the race going to happen? Is it not? And that was the chatter all the day through the expo. And Run Disney had put out a statement, I think we first saw it around four in the afternoon saying, We will update you at 8 p.m. And silence beyond that. And from what I've heard, it was silence across the board, even within Run Disney, which is atypical, because they usually start talking to the logistics people and the cast members before an announcement like that goes out. But from what I've heard, not even they had heard what was going to happen, and then so people kept waiting, kept waiting. They're at eight o'clock, they did post, yep, we are gonna have a race, which is tough. When you have the early wake-ups, you um when you have to wait till eight p.m. to find out whether or not your uh your race is actually gonna happen. It it is literally cutting into people's sleep. Um I was I was in my room literally in bed just on my phone, waiting. Okay, okay, okay, is it gonna update? And it took a minute or two on my phone at least to get the actual update, and I actually saw it on chats before and I saw it on social media. So yes, we we did get to start with the will will they won't game before the 10K started.

SPEAKER_21 38:40

It was kind of funny. I was at my house refreshing my browser like I was trying to get into a Run Disney uh race queue.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

I I've done that kind of thing, John, when you're not there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_15 38:52

The like I said, the the race itself, it it was it was raining, it was very misty the morning of the race. It was it was rainy, it was light sprinkle, it wasn't terrible, certainly nothing compared to the half marathon a couple of years ago where it just poured. And uh my, as I said, the theme of the weekend for me was new experiences. I did last start at the 10K, uh, which was a lot of fun. Um also hard because one of the things, and I know Brian Davis said this when he was on a few weeks ago, was talking about the fact that you know, enjoy this experience, especially you first timers, because you'll never get to have it again. After you do this once, it's never gonna feel the same. But also remember one of the kind of the rules of the Dead Last Start group is this has an expiration date. There's gonna come a day when you can't do it anymore. And that particular sentiment was extra poignant for the weekend. True. Seeing the corrals empty, I think, was the weirdest thing. Looking out across completely clean, Disney goes quick cleaning those suckers up and just looking across seven empty corrals was a bizarre feeling.

SPEAKER_17 40:04

All right, Tara and Rachel, in terms of your 10k experience, obviously, you know, a little misty on the course and such. How did because based on photos that I saw throughout the entire weekend, they still had characters out. So how did they handle the elements but still be able to provide all of that course entertainment?

Course Entertainment And Tinkerbob Returns

SPEAKER_03 40:24

So I feel like I compared it to the experience that we had with the half of a half in 2024. Whereas um when that happened, everything was pulled. Like there was nothing on course, right? This felt like they pivoted. They kept the entertainment, they kept the characters on course. The course is my favorite. Um, and we were still able to enjoy things. Everything was undercover. Um, like the connections creations breathway was where the Hawaiian drum course was.

SPEAKER_17 41:07

Yes, please talk about that because that looked amazing.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

And I was dressed as Milana. So I and she was Tua. And so we just felt like we were home with our people and we were doing the shaka and it was awesome. And we were dancing. But aside from that, um, like all the characters were in like underneath covers, like porticos or um just kind of tucked away right off course. Like it was, it wasn't like you really had to walk really deep into the pavilion or anything in the different countries. They were there. And that was super great because it really felt like they were trying their absolute best to make sure we had a valuable experience and that we were taken care of as runners as far as satisfying our want and need to have entertainment and characters and all sorts of things. I'm sure if there had been lightning, that would not have been the case. We wouldn't have even run. But um, you know, it was just really nice to pivot instead of pull.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Yeah. A few things changed. They didn't have like photographer at the Epcot ball.

SPEAKER_09 42:26

Right.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Um anything that would have been like out in the middle of where they would have gotten rained on or potentially, I guess, lightning would strike them, but I think it was more the rain. Um, so I I you know there were a few things that were missing, but and there was no characters outside the parks in any way. Like usually you have a few characters before you get into the park. But all in all, I think we were just very happy to it. It's a great course anyway. It's you know, it's you're in and out of Epcot three times on that course.

SPEAKER_03 42:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

Um, and going around um, you know, the boardwalk. And so it's just a really great course. And I think um I think everybody really enjoyed it and was very happy to see um everything that was out there for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

And there really weren't that many choke points. Like there really weren't.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Um that might have been a Corel B perk. We don't, I don't know. I remember how bad that part of the course was. Oh, we have a walk in Marathon weekend going out of G during the marathon course. I do remember the choke points on that course, but I didn't we didn't experience them in our very privileged uh location.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah, and the they were still cooking bacon at Beach Club. So we smelled it. It was still happening. Beach club bait.

SPEAKER_12 43:38

And the cinnamon at Norway.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_21 43:42

Was there pre character pre race characters?

unknown 43:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

They pulled them though.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

They pulled them pretty early. They were only out for a short time. But yes, there were pre race characters.

SPEAKER_03 43:54

And then they were there after the race was over, because of course the drizzle and The rain has stopped then.

SPEAKER_12 44:01

Yeah, pr pretty much by the time I got on course and I went out of Corral E. Uh, the rain had stopped. Um, so it it wasn't a little bit while we were waiting, and that was it. Jonathan, how was your experience?

SPEAKER_19 44:13

It was uh fun. Uh um, I didn't start from many characters on the course, but I think it was good that the Encounter characters were out. Um, and they had like barely any line from the time I uh went by, but it was a fun course, and all in all it was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_17 44:33

Well, I think there's one aspect of the 10K, and it's an important one that has not been discussed yet, uh, and that is the triumphant return of Tinkerbob. How was that experience, Bob?

Half Marathon Weather, Castle Magic, And Pixie Dust

SPEAKER_12 44:49

That was a spur of the moment. Actually, that was Becky's idea. I didn't have much going, I didn't have much plan. And she goes, Tinkerbob. So uh we broke it back out. We uh I've I've done it, I think four times now. Three or four, once in California. I remember doing that. Rachel and Terror remember that. Yeah, instead of uh well I hadn't I the only I did the red glitter lips for Cruella de Ville. And uh Alicia critiqued my lip application, so I went more overboard this time, and I went green, and I was not easy, I was not hard to see. Uh it was fun. My friend Stephanie also dressed as a Tinkerbell. My hair was better because hers was real, but um what else did I? Oh, and Becky had bought me a little Tinkerbell uh character, you know, the kind with the magnet that sits on your shoulder, which worked because I always tell people they say, Oh, you're Tinkerbell. I said, No, I'm I'm Tinkerbell's uncle, Tinkerbob. Tinkerbell is very small, and I'm not. So that's how that worked. But we walked the entire event. And it was fun, and I always go back to the lesson that Brittany taught me, taught us, is that the costumes are not so much for you as they are for everybody else, and people certainly got a kick out of it. And so I don't think she's retired. I think she'll be back. I'm not gonna overdo her, but I I suspect she'll be back again. Only thing I was going to add to what our friends have already talked about is that Disney did a nice job. The bands, the high school bands that were out there, they were undercover. They put them someplace that they could get like back, even though they may have been back off the course just a little bit, you could still hear them. And then by the time we finished, the uh the choir was out and they were fine. So they didn't have to, they were not undercover that I recall. I think they were out uh in the open. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they were out. They were out on the right side, as I recall. You know, a lot of times you you make that Epcot finish, uh, you make a left turn and then a right turn towards the finish area. The choir is at the end of that stretch. Well, they were earlier, and they were just before you make that left turn. But I so I think they were out in the open. But they were there. I always appreciate them. So I had fun. Now we were worried. I'm gonna I'm gonna transition here a little bit. The weather had cleared, and at times the weather had cleared to where it was pretty nice. And then I again, from my recollection, after my two-hour and 20-minute 10k or whatever it was, uh, it was pretty cloudy. And I was looking at I mean, I was checking my daggum phone every 15 minutes. Not that it makes a difference, but I keep checking, and it goes, uh, chance of thunderstorms starting at 3 p.m. Oh, crazy. And it did, and it didn't look good. We went to uh R Smith's homecoming for brunch, and I'm on the phone all the daggum time, and I'm going, oh, highest chance of rain's at three. Bottom line, I a lot of us think Jeff had something to do with the weather for the 10K for Saturday because actually the weather for the event itself was ideal. It was cool, it was breezy, it wasn't cold. Uh it was good weather. I didn't run much, I don't think I ran at all on the 10K. But uh it was good. And by the time we got to the meetup, uh, once again, the weather was just fine. So I'll back off now. And if you were at the meetup, I'd like to hear what you thought about it.

SPEAKER_02 48:56

I mean, I I I I don't I think it's just sort of works out how how the meetup works out. When I got there, Mark had a table, and then I saw a few other people around. I'm like, wait a minute, I think they're rising around people too, and table by table, and then I'm like, oh, one just opened up. So I sat down and then two people joined me and they were rise around people, and that was that's like by 245, you know. So people just sort of just know that it's happening, and people start taking over the entire area. By the time you know you got there, Bob, with all the cookies and stuff. I think the whole area had been completely staked out.

SPEAKER_12 49:31

Well, first of all, now that you're now that you mentioned it, I remember what happened. Around two o'clock, it did start to rain. It didn't pour or anything, but it started to rain, and it started to rain enough that the people who were in the food truck area left. And then around 2:30, it either stopped or it got really light. And so we were able to attack and get in there. Now, you mentioned the cookies, of course. Becky works her tail off on those. I must thank a couple of friends. Uh, Richard and Krista come here. They live here, they live not far from me at all. And they come and they help us decorate. Richard's son Barrett comes over. Uh, he's 13 years old. He loves to come help us decorate the cookies. Uh they help us um wrap them up, they help us wrap them into those individual packages. In fact, if we did it wrong, Barrett would correct us. No, it doesn't go that way, it goes this way. Okay. And uh the other person I want to I want to uh thank, and Becky mentioned this to me, is Kyle. Uh Kyle was there. I'm not sure I had met Kyle before. Kyle's taller than I am. He's a young man. Uh he's not he's not Kelly uh taller, he's probably an inch or two taller. But he's a tall, a tall, thin young man, very helpful. And he brought some no-bake cookies, and they were very, very good also. So it wasn't obviously it wasn't the marathon crowd.

SPEAKER_21 50:59

Um but I saw like it was a pretty decent sized crowd, which I did a count, I did a count on the photos, which I've done the last couple times. 83 people in the photo. You can't beat that.

SPEAKER_12 51:10

I was guessing 85, John.

SPEAKER_21 51:13

Well, I didn't see Becky in it, so that's one. And then she was and the person that took the pictures, too. There you go, 85. We got it.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

Yeah, so um I had asked my mom what she thought about the size of the meetup, and she had been in Princess of 2024, and she was like, this was at least three or four times the size of what that was in Princess 2024. So she's uh she really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_12 51:45

She is is Cindy coming to tell us all about it?

SPEAKER_18 51:48

Yep.

unknown 51:48

Tell you.

SPEAKER_18 51:50

Well, uh, I I was really impressed by the crowd because I honestly I I for a while I thought that maybe it was uh uh we were being encroached upon by some passers by because and then when when everybody that was uh around was visiting, they uh all everybody was visiting with uh all of the the new people, their old friends, their their best friends, their peeps, you know, and and it's just such a close group, and it's such a positive group. I just uh the it's it's hard to describe when you're you're uh you're looking at it from the outside like I was in 24. And now that I was here with people that I know.

SPEAKER_12 52:48

Yeah. Well, they all came to see you. Oh, I'm I'm sure you knew that, right?

SPEAKER_18 52:55

Right, Dr.

SPEAKER_12 52:56

We typically only get 20 or 30.

SPEAKER_18 53:00

But it was, you know, and and I I met a lot of new friends again just this time.

SPEAKER_09 53:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_18 53:06

Because there were just so many people there. It just it's uh I was very impressed with the turnout, especially of the weather, you know.

SPEAKER_12 53:16

Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah, I think the weather kept it down a little bit. But um yeah, I'm I'm glad you were there. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I appreciate the uh, you know, I'm not gonna say outsider point of view, not you're not an outsider, but uh you don't come to them all the time. So you have a different point of view from those of us who are always there. And I look at this one and go, uh, this was kind of this is one of the it's probably one of the smaller ones of the last five or six we've had, but still, it's fun. And I know every time we line up for that photo, as I said earlier, and I look into the group, I just I'm I'm so proud of all of you and everything that's been built around here. So John, you you got a post how many people were there in 2024?

SPEAKER_21 54:03

2024, I count I just count the photo because it was easy. 35 people.

SPEAKER_12 54:08

35.

SPEAKER_21 54:08

They're just basically lined up in a row, uh double, double, double deep, two people deep. So it was pretty easy.

SPEAKER_12 54:16

Yeah. Uh it's certainly all the all the meetups have certainly grown and they they become very special. And I like to say it, and I think there's a lot of truth to it, is that people who show up for the meetups come back because they realize how much fun they have, and they look forward to meeting those friends that Cindy was just talking about, the friends that they make at the meetup. They look forward to seeing them again.

SPEAKER_16 54:40

Caution runners, the topic is about to change right now.

SPEAKER_14 54:46

So now we have moved on to Sunday, and it's the day of the half. So uh Jonathan, tell us about how your half went.

SPEAKER_19 54:56

It went really well. I PR'd and a boy.

SPEAKER_09 55:01

Congratulations.

Finish Line Tributes And Pacers’ Farewell

SPEAKER_19 55:02

Thank you. For the first, and it was actually my first and was also my friend's first half marathon that I got to run with two, so that was exciting. So I was originally in crowd D and I um and then I had to jump down to Crowd E to be with my friend. And so for the first two miles, I was doing one minute run, 40-second walk, and then after two miles, I ran 130 uh and 40-second walk uh through the rest of the half marathon, and and um we then I I we danced up for characters that had long lines, and um it was really fun. I um it was probably the best half marathon besides don't be that half done.

SPEAKER_12 55:54

Outstanding.

SPEAKER_19 55:55

Thank you. How about you, Taylor and Richard? How was your half marathon?

SPEAKER_02 56:00

We we got we did the opposite. So in so instead of um our a PR for us, we had our I guess PR in an absolute slowest half and the slowest half ever. Because we walked the entire thing, which was which was new. I'd I'd never walked in and only walked uh half marathons.

SPEAKER_03 56:20

I kept trying to run. I was like, girl, let me let me go just a little bit. And she goes, No, you cannot. You were told absolutely not.

SPEAKER_14 56:28

You were told.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

I was like, I'm just gonna glide.

SPEAKER_02 56:31

I'm like, that's not gliding.

SPEAKER_03 56:33

Yeah, I really didn't I was gliding, and she's like, that's not gliding. Stop it, stop it. You guys should have been on this congeniality. I'm gliding here.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Yeah. We had a good time. We we we um I mean we started, I mean, we got a little slower by the end in our walk, but but our walk pace was like a 1609, I think, in the beginning. It's really good. Yeah, first six miles. I don't know, whatever. Um, and then I mean bathroom steps, I think, really changed our pace. Yeah, but um, yeah. So um we hydrated well. It was not hot the entire half marathon. It was over with overcast and breezy and breezy. Honestly, I thank Jeff for this at the end of the race. I said Jeff saved us because it could have been so much hotter and I've had so much hotter half marathons and and spending over four hours on the course. Um could have been.

SPEAKER_14 57:33

I wish all the listeners could have seen the dance that Rachel just did with the wind.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

It was breezy. It was breezy, it was overcast, um, but not rainy at all. Um and um, you know, uh the princess, I mean the princess half marathon course is the same course as the half marathon at at um at marathon weekend, which is amazing because of, you know, going around um, you know, the the lake at at Magic Kingdom, um, going up Main Street, going through the castle. I mean, that part is amazing. There's also a lot of highway miles. Um so on one hand, it's kind of a boring course, except for the part in Magic Kingdom. Um, but it's always amazing too.

SPEAKER_03 58:19

It is.

SPEAKER_02 58:19

And then there was a little surprise um at the castle that I don't know if you guys know about. So when you turn um the corner and you're looking at the castle, there was Cinderella, the prince, and the fairy godmother waving up on the back balcony.

SPEAKER_03 58:36

And they were waving at it.

SPEAKER_12 58:37

Oh, yes, they were. They shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_03 58:38

There was a photopast person there.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

So every person that walked there was like that's really the funcast, but um, everybody's mouth was open and their eyes are up looking at um girls that they're in the castle. So that was a really fun surprise that um was was something new for this race.

SPEAKER_21 58:58

Was the castle all finished? Painted?

SPEAKER_02 59:01

No, no, the back was the back is, the back is, which is where which is where these guys were. Um but the the back of the castle is finished, but the front, um, there's cranes um up.

SPEAKER_03 59:12

Which made for some interesting photos during the day. The cranes are lowered by mid-afternoon. So a lot of people like Metal Monday, I heard it was super crowded anyway, despite the cranes. And then a lot of people waited until the afternoon um to get their pictures taken. So the cranes were in the way. But I mean, you can still take great photos.

SPEAKER_17 59:41

Well, I have a question. Since they started painting the the back side of the castle first, does that make it the ninth wonder of the world? The back side of castle.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

Yeah, oh, and uh, I don't want to forget there was one other um surprise on the half marathon course, another extra little pixie dust that they did on the well, there's other surprises that marked.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:05

Literally, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

But um, what they did do at the last corner where you're turning um right before the end of the race, they had a line, well, uh a semicircle around that corner of fairy godmothers that pixie dusted you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:22

So it was called a princess pit stop, and they set us through, and it was the cutest. They were caped in the blue face.

SPEAKER_12 1:00:38

I didn't get close enough to see. I I saw it, of course, but I was on the other side of the street and I didn't go over. Uh I didn't even think about the fact that all the stuff would blow back on them. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

Yeah. I really, I really, really hope they keep that. I think that's a that's a perfect thing to do during the Princess Half Marathon, and I really hope that they keep that.

SPEAKER_11 1:00:57

Did you guys make a wish as they pixie dusted you?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

I made a lot of wishes this week. But yeah.

SPEAKER_14 1:01:05

I think one thing we didn't address yet, what were your costumes for the half marathon?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

Oh, well What was I? I dress I dressed like Merida, actually. Not not anything very very I just wore a sparkle skirt and a shirt and um a visor with a crown on it for Merida.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:23

And you were I was Pocahontas with all the colors of the wind that I attached. I had different colored leaves that I attached to my tutu. So I was running with all the colors of the wind. Well, walking. I was gliding.

SPEAKER_21 1:01:42

You don't want to leash your mad at you, come on.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:01:48

I was extremely dull. Um it had cooled off Saturday night. So as I was walking back into the hotel, I thought, geez, I I'm gonna be really cold with a short sleeve shirt on and I don't have a Mylar or anything. So I wore a long sleeve t-shirt. Turned out to be perfect because the weather was just cool enough. And I was I was running 1530s uh with Stephanie again, and we ran I think 1530s for I don't know, maybe the first 10 miles or so. And uh and at that point went, what the heck? Walked more than we ran. But uh two comments, yeah, comments on the course. Of course, anytime you run down Main Street, that's a good course, but aside from that, that half-math on course is pretty dull. Um the other thing being Princess Weekend, and this is not unique to Princess Weekend, but it's more pronounced on Princess Weekend. And I may ask my friends Mark and Jonathan if they've noticed this. It's not unusual to step into the men's room and find five or six women in line for the stalls. Candidly, don't bother me. I understand it. I even tell the ladies, got it, just do what you gotta do. But uh it does take me aback at least at the beginning. So there you are, guys. Get used to it, and there you are, ladies. If you need it, I I've never heard a guy complain about it, you know, go, oh man, you get these women out of here, or anything like that. It's just we get it. We understand why it's necessity, you know.

SPEAKER_21 1:03:27

I got I did that once. I ran into the men's room and I had to do a second guess that you do a double take. Did I run into the wrong bathroom?

Race Report From Around The World

SPEAKER_12 1:03:36

Yeah, yeah. We do a double take. But golly, I I you only have to look once at the lines for the ladies' room to understand uh why why some women take that option. And I'm just here to say, if that's what you want to do, then do it. And I don't think you're I really don't think you're getting any pushback from any of the guys, at least none of the ones that uh I've never heard anything. So uh other than that, Princess Weekend uh finished the half. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna let Mark go here in a minute. Uh I think I'll segue just a little bit. By now, you know, we've dealt with Jeff's passing for a couple days, had a couple days to think about it, and uh they had a little shrine set up there. Again, I'll let Mark talk a little more about that. I had pretty much steeled myself to going, okay, I'm gonna be alright when I finish this time. I'm not gonna choke up. And uh I didn't till I saw them daggum pacers all lined up and started going down the row. And I started going, and especially I got right to the middle, and I went, you guys dig nab it. But it was totally appropriate and totally beautiful. And uh Mark, I'll let you I'll let you bring us home, please.

SPEAKER_15 1:04:57

So I knew Sunday was gonna be hard. More than usual. I love pacing, as do all the pacers that we we have. I mean, all of us do it because we we love it. But knowing that we were gonna be the first pacers to cross the finish line without Jeff. We knew it was we were in for a tough weekend. An emotional weekend, we've talked about that. And like I said earlier, so much of the weekend was organic. So much of of the weekend was just this recurring ways of people getting excited and reaching out and and wanting to say thank you to Jeff in every way they could figure out a way to bringing ribbons to the to the booth. And I mean, I saw far more people than I expected, including Ron Disney staff wearing Ron Disney ribbons. It wasn't just the runners. Jeff had an impact on everyone. And I think that's where the this This came from is that we found out on Saturday. Besides just all of the weight that comes from pacing and wanting to make sure everybody has a good race and the things that pacers normally do. They had the pacers one as as um uh uh Bob alluded to, they set up a chair where Jeff uh would normally stand at the end of the race. And actually they put it out at the 5k and the 10k too, but it really became a thing at the half marathon. 5K it was just kind of there and there were a few ribbons and the 10k people started leaving things, but by the time I got to that uh that chair on at the half marathon, it was covered. And it had Mickey hands like Jeff used to use to give people high fives, and it had a a thumbs up attached to it, just like Jeff would always give people a thumbs up when they were coming around that last bend and cheering them on, and it was covered in ribbons and bracelets and many other sundry things. The thing that got me was the gym boss. Somebody left their gym boss on on the chair, and for some reason that more than anything else just hit me hard. But on on Sunday when there were pacers, the other thing they had done is set out traffic cones and we left our pacing flags by the chair. And you may have seen pictures of that on the on the social medias of of various stripes. And after we finished they looped us back around to where Jeff uh used to hang out and cheer people on.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:49

And that's what we did.

SPEAKER_15 1:07:52

In some cases, for the really fast pacers, you know, the the 145 and two hour pacers, they were there for hours. Just like Jeff used to be. And we stood in that spot, that kind of little alcove near the end of the race where Jeff was set up for the last few years. Cheering people on just like Jeff used to. And there is nothing like it. I mean, I said this weekend was full of new experiences, and there was simply nothing like the gift of standing there at the end and watching everybody come in. We I mean, I know it's been said on the podcast over and over again, and I certainly encourage it that cheer when you can. Like you cannot at the end of the at that finish line watching people finish is an amazing experience. But seeing people make that turn and see that chair just covered in in memories and and fond wishes for Jeff. And watching people have those moments as they were processing that emotion and hugs and high fives and thumbs ups and telling people how proud we were, how proud Jeff would have been. How proud Jeff was as he always was an experience that I don't know. I I obviously do not have good words to describe.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:39

And the end of the race.

SPEAKER_15 1:09:46

Oh you may know, you may not, that uh Run Disney makes a great big deal out of the final finisher. And and they should. I'm I'm so glad that they do. And so we were there and we were cheering. And we weren't sure exactly how long we were gonna be there because as I said, everything this weekend was organic and was kind of evolving in the moment. At one point we were gonna run in with the final pacers, one point we were gonna run in with the last runner, but what ended up happening after the final runner came in, after the balloon ladies had passed, after the 330 group had gotten in. Well, a little before the balloon ladies, really. Carissa and my goodness, I I have I I cannot imagine how Carissa was feeling. I I have no words for the amount of of grace and professionalism and and uh everything that she uh showed this weekend had all of the pacers come in at the end. With our flags.

SPEAKER_12 1:11:05

Yeah, it was a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_15 1:11:07

It really was. I'm I'm sorry that I am uh failing to be particularly uh um good about explaining it because I'm just sitting here crying, as I'm sure anybody who's listening to me can tell it was an amazing experience to to have that moment for Jeff to remember everything that he was and everything he meant to this community and having Krissa be the one to say it through all of the emotions I have no doubt she was feeling. So there's some emotions for you.

SPEAKER_12 1:11:42

Yeah. Now this was so unplanned that as I recall, the first couple of pages across didn't know about it.

SPEAKER_15 1:11:52

And we weren't sure how it was gonna work. We knew about it, but like the mechanics hadn't been worked out about like who was gonna meet us and how we were gonna get into the the backstage area. Um or and I'm not sure. I I wasn't I'm not that fast. I wasn't anywhere near that side of the race. It was it was a really special experience. It was a real gift from Run Disney, and it was their idea, it wasn't ours. It was somebody from Round Disney who said something needs to happen, somebody needs to be in that spot. It needs to be more than just a chair, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:12:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 1:12:30

You know what though, with the when you guys cross the finish line and the confetti poured again for you guys, that itself is such a a very beautiful moment in a get me cry of a great moment to celebrate life for and honor somebody who's done so much for everyone. It was beautiful.

SPEAKER_15 1:12:56

It it was it was wonderful. I'm never gonna forget it.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:02

And you know what was just so beautiful about that point was that was when the sky opened up and the sun came out and it was shining on that finish line in those papers.

SPEAKER_12 1:13:18

I'll I'll go back to what I think I said at the beginning was it was hard to be there, but there was no place I would rather be. All right. It was as as we knew it would be. It was a fun weekend, it was a great weekend, it was an emotional weekend. I'm gonna ask my friends, any last thoughts? Jonathan, any last thoughts about the weekend?

SPEAKER_19 1:13:41

It was a really fun weekend and emotional weekend and uh Run Disney uh created a fantastic uh weekend for all of us.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:54

It was a it was a mixed weekend. I mean, we had a lot of fun, obviously. Always have a great time at Disney, always have a great time at Run Disney. Um with you know, all the things for Jeff. I think it was a very special weekend. It was a very um, it's gonna be hard to to have another weekend that can compare in that way.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:17

I I also think, you know, just looking ahead to the future weekends, like we're very blessed that we were able to be there for the timing, right? But I'm thinking about everybody who's coming the springtime who hasn't had a chance to agree and do things in person and those people that won't be back for a while. So um just thinking about them. Um and yeah, it was boy, it was a roller coaster of emotions, and there were so many core memories, and I'm just I'm just feel so fortunate to have been able to get there.

SPEAKER_15 1:15:04

I'll just say I I put up a post on the Facebook group earlier today, and I'll just kind of reiterate that I am so grateful for everyone in this community. I'm I'm so grateful for everyone who's run with me. I'm so grateful to everyone that has become a runner because of Jeff. And he's still proud of you, and so are we.

SPEAKER_12 1:15:31

Hey, I got an idea. Let's do it again in six weeks. What do you say? I think I could get down with that idea. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:41

Okay, yes, let's do it.

SPEAKER_12 1:15:43

Jonathan, Tara, Rachel, Mark, thanks for joining us. Thanks for helping us recap a very special race weekend. We look forward to seeing you again real soon.

SPEAKER_19 1:15:56

Bye, bye.

SPEAKER_12 1:15:57

Bye.

SPEAKER_16 1:15:58

Caution runners, change of topic ahead.

SPEAKER_12 1:16:03

Well, for those of you who were there, I hope you had a wonderful time at Princess Weekend. For those of you who weren't, I hoped you got a feel, a little bit of a feel for what went on this particular and unique race weekend. And we hope to see you there maybe, maybe next, maybe next time. Maybe next time. Princess is a good weekend. It uh and those who go seem to enjoy it. Let's see. Upcoming episodes next week. I think some of you know Dr. Alley. I know you do because some of you recommended her to us. So she'll be here with us. Dr. Allie is a physical therapist. She'll be here to talk about physical therapy stuff. Injuries and recovery. I think it will be an interesting episode. Friends reminder, please hang with us to the end of the race report. We want to take some time to share our thoughts about Jeff.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:06

And now please stand clear of the door. It's time for a race report.

SPEAKER_12 1:17:20

The race report sponsored by our friend Thomas Stokes, Stoked Metabolic Training, Stokes. I didn't get over to the gym at all. And I am in fact up three pounds this week.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:46

Boo.

SPEAKER_21 1:17:47

Boo bob boo. That that that's give yourself a couple days to re-measure. Yeah. Probably a lot of sodium over the weekend, you know. Yeah. A lot of good food. A lot of good food.

SPEAKER_12 1:17:58

Yeah, you ate with Rachel, so you know you're eating good. Rachel's mom. Yeah. It was good. How'd you do this week, John?

SPEAKER_21 1:18:06

I did good. I went to the gym uh and uh I think I'm down six pounds starting from that. Uh oh, good for you.

SPEAKER_11 1:18:12

Wow, congrats.

Long-Form Tributes To Jeff Galloway

SPEAKER_12 1:18:13

The whole thing. Yeah. I'm uh I'm still down from when I started, but only by like about a pound and a half. So all right. We'll see. I'm I'm still very serious about it, and I still appreciate Tom's help. Tom's help. He does a good job on this thing. Hope if you're in the challenge, hope it's going well for you. I'm getting back to the gym tomorrow morning and let's get serious. Okay, let's take a look at the race report and start on Friday in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Tel Aviv Half Marathon. Jonathan was there for the second year in a row, third time overall. Not a PR, but seven and a half minutes faster than last year. That's significant, Jonathan. That's great. Felt great throughout the race. That's always important. Says felt great throughout the race, which reminded me why I really like half marathons. I can understand. Good weather for this one. Hey, he won a free entry to the post-race VIP lounge. They had a free 15-minute massage and lots of free food and drinks. But he's got an issue now. This is his second year in a row, and it's either this race or a series of races. They have a three-part medal, and he's earned two of them. It must be this race because next year's falls on Princess Weekend as well. And Jonathan really wants to be over here to do Princess, so he's he needs your help, friends. Does he do Princess and do the Tel Aviv marathon virtually and then get somebody else to pick up the third part of the medal for him? Or does he I don't know. Those are the options. He's got a bunch of options. Whatever it is, Jonathan, good luck and great job this weekend. And my friend, we hope you're staying safe, also. Serious note there. Uh last I checked with Jonathan. He's okay, but that's gotta be a little rough. Let's go to Saturday. The New York Roadrunners Al Gordon 5K in Brooklyn, New York. Rob was there. Rob comments, and I've made this comment myself before that volunteers at winter races deserve a whole lot of credit. And they do, because while the runners can move around and stay warm, the volunteers just kind of have to hang there. So it was cold and it was stuffed to still a lot of snow on the ground on the roads. Black ice in spots makes for some treacherous running. Rob was surprised at how many people were out in the park on a cold 8 a.m. morning in New York. Race announcer in this one honored Jeff Galloway before the national anthem, which was a nice touch. Carrie Ann, who was with us on the spotlight not long ago, was in St. Augustine, Florida, Florida, at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm for the Raptor Run 3K. What they do is they let the Raptor runner start 30 seconds before everybody, and the goal is to catch up to the Raptor. Carrie Ann says, Well, at least I saw him at the end, and that's not too bad. Great weather for this one. Great people in the race. Sounds like fun. Zach was in Cape Vincent, New York for the Denfit Winter Soldier Half Marathon. I think this may be Zach's first race report. He didn't say so, but I think it is. Despite getting over a cold and the flu, he managed to finish in two hours and eight minutes for this half marathon. Very good pace. For second place in his age group. Nicely done, Zach. Congratulations. Rob, not the Rob we talked about at the beginning. That was New York, Rob. This is Florida, Rob. The 27th annual Eight Tough Miles Road Race Festival in St. John's, the U.S. Virgin Islands, second straight year. Rob doing this one. About 1,500 people started this one in Cruise Bay, and they run the centerline run road up over the mountainous terrain, 1,400 feet plus of elevation. First five miles take you up. Last three bring you down to Coral Bay on the east side of the island. He beat last year's time by about a minute and finished first in his crew. His crew consisting of his stepson, brother-in-law, niece, and her boyfriend. Good job, Rob. In Texas, Jennifer ran the Woodlands half marathon. And Jennifer has a new decade PR. Yeah, they count, Jennifer. The decade PRs count for sure. Jennifer ran this one today for Jeff. Been a hard weekend of running races for all of us, but we are here for each other, and she's right. And Jennifer says she can't thank the community enough. Well, Jennifer, you're a big part of it, and we thank you as well. We honor Jeff's life. Let's see. Jennifer's time for this decade PR? Two hours 54 minutes. Nice job. Sub three. Way to go, Jennifer. There was an Alamo, Alamo Marathon Weekend Donut Dash 10K in San Antonio, and Joseph was there. Finished this 10K in 53 minutes, 10 seconds. That's booking. Fourth in his age group, 61st overall out of 533 racers. 10K time was an 11-year 10K PR for Joseph. Congratulations, Joseph. Joseph adds this one was for Jeff. I don't want to omit those guys. I know they're important to you. Mandy was in Louisiana, Westwego, Louisiana, for the run on the bio Bayou 10K. I can speak, I promise. Says her back wasn't feeling as bad, and one of the sponsors of this race is where she goes for physical therapy, at least where she did a few years ago. So one of her favorite physical therapists stretched her out before and after the run. That's a nice perk. After finishing, she was walking around and noticed a table off to the side with some stuff, with some flowers on it. No one by the table. She walked over to see what it was, and it was there as a tribute to Jeff Galloway. In Woodville, Alabama, Erin ran the Race to the Cave 5K. Chilly morning in Alabama. About 39 degrees at the start. Racing out and back. Then the last 1.2 miles is inside of cathedral caverns. Interesting. Lots of hills on the course. She tried to channel Jeff's advice of I love hills. I remember Jeff telling stories like that. I love hills. I love rain. Try to psych his opponents out. She was cautious running in the cave as it's pretty dimly lit, and there are parts of it that are wet. Saw somebody slip and fall. You run all the way to the end, you collect a glow stick from a staff member there. That proves that you ran all the way to the end before you turn around and come back. Not the best time, but she took her time inside the cave. That's fine. After the race, she had about a three-quarter of a mile walk back to the car, but at least that was downhill. And it wasn't in a cave. Right. Our buddy Joe ran the run with the Knights 5K. I assume that's in Fort Smith. The three amigos were there. Johnny got second. Joe got third, and a nice little third place medal for it. I think that's great. A stuffed up head kept the third amigo Gary down in this race. On Sunday, the New York Roadrunners, Washington Heights, Salsa Blues, and Shamrocks 5K. Again, this is Rob who was there. I believe this one was canceled. Nope, nope, nope, no, it wasn't. Nope, nope. Rob reported on it. Tired of being cold when he runs. Sorry, buddy. I won't tell you what the temperatures are down here. The icy rain and snow didn't help. I I hate that. This time of year when it just comes down as just a mixture. You get that a lot in Florida, right? Yeah, no. But no, I remember that from you know where I lived. And uh that was always my least favorite time of the year. Was when you were coming out of winter, but you were, yeah, whatever. All right. Anyway, see, Rob said there was a percussion group playing their hearts out on the bus stop shelter on the course. That helped make his day. Out and back along the same road, so you could see the leaders who reached Rob before his corral even got to mile one. Uh circled the Cloysters Museum, got an unobstructed view of the morning mist under the George Washington Bridge. I imagine that was pretty spectacular. Last half mile of the race is downhill, makes for a nice finish. In Atlanta, Georgia, it was Publix Atlanta Marathon weekend. We had a couple people there. Tiffany ran the half. Ashley ran the marathon, as did Lauren. Lauren says Atlanta turned up the heat, which handed her a plan C for this race. So she adapted, dug deep, finished. Her co-walker and Run Disney best friend Ashley flew in from Denver to run the half, like the supportive queen that she is. Lauren says, To my family, friends, and the Rise and Run community, you got me to 26.2. I carried you with me every mile. Appreciate the holler hypes. Lauren, I say thank you, but that gummit, you know darn well. You did it. You did the running, friend.

SPEAKER_21 1:28:44

Bob, was that the uh race that they messed up on in Atlanta?

SPEAKER_12 1:28:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah, John. Go ahead. Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_21 1:28:50

Yeah, so this is interesting. Well, this was like the in Atlanta, there was the U.S. half marathon championship. I think it was like$20,000 in prize money. Uh the lead, the lead car or lead biker who was ever leading the the leaders in the race took a wrong turn at mile one. And the third the fourth place person won the race because they got went a wrong way and missed the entrance, the exit of the uh course. Oh wow. Yeah. So and there's a whole big controversy going on. Yeah, basically saying, yeah, we messed up, but here's the results.

unknown 1:29:30

Right.

SPEAKER_17 1:29:30

Yeah, but it's apparently it it potentially affects the the national team or something like that. But I I know they've been putting out a lot of statements and stuff like that saying that this race doesn't officially decide the team, but obviously it plays a big factor into it. So uh it's gonna be a very, very interesting story to follow.

SPEAKER_12 1:29:49

Yeah. It will. Yeah, it yeah. There's not much that can be done. You can't rerun the race. It's uh it's unfortunate. Hey, we had a world major this week. Tokyo was going on the same time that we were in Disney World for Princess. We're going to talk to our friends, several of our friends who ran the Tokyo Marathon on next week's episode. We like to give our friends who are, especially uh the overseas majors, give them a chance to relax and get home before we talk about it. But just a real quick run through. Uh, Carolyn was there, ran with Jen, Ashley was there, Hannah, Carrie, Karen, another Carrie, and Tara are all on the list of folks who ran Tokyo Marathon. We'll hear from a bunch of them next week. In Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, they ran the Hampton Half Marathon. No, they didn't run it. The Hampton Half Marathon was scheduled. Lauren and Rob were scheduled to do it, but it was canceled due to four to s four to six foot snow drifts along the course.

SPEAKER_09 1:31:01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:31:02

That would be tough to run in. Just a little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 1:31:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:31:07

Although, you know, Alicia does that like every other week, I think.

SPEAKER_13 1:31:11

Not quite, but no.

SPEAKER_12 1:31:14

No. Anyway, yeah, that's the one I I got my mixed, I got my canceled races mixed up, but that was the one that got canceled. Uh there was one in Little Rock, the Little Rock Half Marathon. Elizabeth did it. Two years ago, this was the race that started her pursuit of 50 states and 50 half marathons. Seems like the entire city comes out to support it. Lots of lovely neighborhoods. Joining the yearly themings, there's dancing, there's therapy dogs at the expo and on the course. A lot of aid stations, some not official, stocked with lots of snacks, lots of different beverages. That's the second race I've heard of communion on the course. I'm pretty sure they did that at Donna. Almost positive the Donna Marathon at Communion on the Course. Let's see, Elizabeth says the lipstick stop a tenth of a mile before the finish. I wonder if they had glitter lips. Anyway, legendary medals in size and detail. Good post race, food and drink, great race. Made her love and enjoy traveling. Made uh also, Jeff, also serious note, Elizabeth, in her race report, made a beautiful uh tribute post to Jeff Galloway. Too long to read here, but really nicely done. Out in California, the LA Chinatown Firecracker 5K Kate was there. The festivities were a total blast. The hills uh less of a blast. She's glad she decided to walk this 5K with friends. Lace and her son Leon did the Sketchers Hot Chocolate 5K in Seattle where it was kind of chilly. They race out and back from the Space Needle. Made the hot cocoa and chocolate treats at the finish all the more delicious because of the chilly weather. Not sure if it was a PR in time, but they sure had fun during the race. Leon thinks the best thing to dip in chocolate is marshmallows. Lace thinks it's a fresh banana. What do we think, crew? What's the best thing to dip in chocolate?

SPEAKER_11 1:33:28

Cheesecake.

SPEAKER_12 1:33:30

Ooh, interesting approach.

SPEAKER_11 1:33:32

Caramel.

SPEAKER_12 1:33:33

Strawberry. What was that you said, Lexi?

SPEAKER_14 1:33:37

Caramel.

SPEAKER_12 1:33:38

You dip caramel in chocolate? Hmm. All right. How do we do that? All right. Oh, those little squares.

SPEAKER_13 1:33:44

Yeah, the little squares. All right. Okay. Okay, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_12 1:33:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you. Yeah, yeah. Strawberry. You gotta go pretzel here. Pretzels are good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:33:53

Pretzels are good. The first thing I thought of is like the Dairy Queen. I don't know if you guys have Dairy Queens. Yeah, the dip. Oh, yeah. But like the dipped ice cream with the like the hardened shell. That's the first thing I thought of.

SPEAKER_12 1:34:04

Yeah, it's a good one too.

unknown 1:34:06

All right.

SPEAKER_12 1:34:06

Laysay.

SPEAKER_17 1:34:07

Here, I just saw an idea for you for the cruise. What you need to do is when we're on the cruise ship, you're gonna have to go. I don't know what deck it is, but you can get the ice cream and then run down to what is it, the wind jammer, like the buffet. Don't they have like a chocolate fondue fountain? You just dip your ice cream coat underneath that chocolate fondue fountain. That'd be beautiful.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:26

But that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_21 1:34:28

Well, you can give it to Greg.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:30

Yeah, I'll bring it, I'll deliver it to you.

SPEAKER_12 1:34:33

Perfect. Let's finish the race report in Middlesbrough, UK, where Andy and Jamie did the borough half marathon. Andy says he wished he was in Princess, he wished he was in Florida for Princess Weekend, but this might have been the run that he needed to build some confidence as a runner. First few hundred meters in the first mile felt rough. To the point, he wasn't sure he was going to maybe have his first DNF, but he kept going. He did what we talk about a lot do a mile, do 10 minutes, see how it feels. He did. It worked out, and from that moment on he felt like it he kind of snapped into a rhythm and a comfortable pace. Did a good job. Ended up being the most comfortable he's felt on a long time. Knocked it out in just a little bit under 209. So that's a great pace. Andy, good job. Andy's on his way to a sub-2 half marathon. Yeah, he is. Uh hey, that's it, folks. That's friends. That's uh the race report for episode 232 of the Rise and Run podcast.

SPEAKER_16 1:35:47

Caution runners, the topic is about to change right now.

SPEAKER_12 1:35:52

We started at the top, and we addressed the fact that we lost Jeff. We didn't want to spend a lot of time talking about it and then going into uh the rest of the episode. We knew the energy level would be down if we did, but we really, we really do want to take some time now and share some of our thoughts.

SPEAKER_13 1:36:15

So having been part of Run Disney for a number of years now, obviously getting to meet Jeff back in 2016 was a super big honor. And moving through the the ebbs and flows of where my running journey has gone has been very influenced by his knowledge and knowing him as a coach. Anytime I talk about the podcast, I talk about how amazing of an experience it is to know the people we know. And I always will have brought up and will continue to bring up Jeff Gelloway's name and how much of an honor it is to have known him. And every time he would come on to the podcast, not only as a runner was I inspired, but as a coach, I always learned so much. Um, and I know that anybody who has been in the running community, especially Ren Disney, has known his name, but to get to call him a friend of the podcast and be a fellow coach with him was really, really special. And I'm I'm very honored to have known him and have him know this little piece of my life. Um, and I will forever be grateful and continue to coach in his honor and help others know about the Ramak method.

SPEAKER_11 1:38:00

How do I start this? Um I guess first off, uh I just want to say to Jeff that you can hear me, and uh just thank you for everything. Because you I know I said this in the weeks prior uh episode, but you are Run Disney and you are the heart of it, and you will always be the heart of it. Um and that's with every Jim Boss going off, you know what I mean, during the course. That's a beat of Jeff's heart right there. And it's just he will always be remembered as someone who has the biggest heart, who's always there for the people that he loves and loves the sport. And um I know I was a bit late in the game of doing run, walk, run. And I think actually my first race was doing run, walk, run was a as a pacer. And um very grateful to have had the experience to be one of the Jeff Galloway pacers uh for Red Disney. And I'm kicking myself that I did not do this past weekend. Oh but yeah, but I but I I know I'm moving to Orlando in about a month and a half, so I look forward to pacing again and honoring Jeff. But I I very much um am very grateful for Jeff and um and getting to hear him for the Galloway race weekend that he did in Atlanta, where we got to interview him and hear about his story um before the Olympics, the trials, and then like during the Olympics was just so fascinating. And getting to chat to an Olympian in general is just a huge honor.

SPEAKER_14 1:39:51

You know, I think um, you know, we've talked about how Jeff was synonymous to Ren Disney. Um, but I think, you know, for so many of us here on the podcast as hosts, but also listening to the podcast, um, and people who don't listen to the podcast, we would not be running without Jeff Galloway. We wouldn't even know that it was possible. And you know, being able to realize those dreams of half marathons or 5Ks or marathons or dopey challenges. Um he helped us visualize and accomplish, you know, what I know I would say five or six years ago I would say would have would have been impossible. And I think that will continue to leave a mark on the community, on the running community in general, and on the Run Disney community because with every single race weekend we will get to achieve these things because of Jeff. And uh it has been such an honor being on the podcast and um like Alicia said, being able to call Jeff a friend um and not just you know, someone that was unreachable. Um he was so present for his runners, for everyone at Run Disney. You know, one of the things that stood out the most whenever you went to talk to him was just how personable he was, even if you never spoke to him before. Um, it was like you were just talking to your grandpa or your best friend, or you know, um and I think you know, we all say thank you to Jeff Galloway for bringing us together as a podcast and as friends, and um you know, as listeners and who were also friends. Um I think we just we just say a resounding thank you.

SPEAKER_17 1:42:36

You did it. You did the hard work. Those were the words that Jeff Galloway uttered to me as I was a blubbering mess, as I was just steps away from finishing not only my first marathon, but my first ever Run Disney Challenge. Well, those words are simple, they are truly powerful. Jeff possessed this special power akin to a modern day superhero. He could not read minds or fly, but he had a special gift. He had the ability to look someone right in the eye and knew the exact encouraging statement needed in that particular moment. What's even more impressive is that this man had the stamina to provide those words of comfort and encouragement to each and every single member of this community, whether it was for days upon end at a Run Disney expo or at the finish line of a race. And this special power was not exclusive to Run Disney. I can recall a very chilly uh Jeff Galloway half marathon weekend in Atlanta in December of 2017, where he waited at the finish line to congratulate every single runner and was gracious enough to stand for a photo if you wanted to. And here's the wildest part of it all. He's the Olympian. While we should be the ones looking up to him, Jeff Galloway made it more of a priority to look up to us. That level of support and commitment is just not often found in this day and age. And while he may be physically gone from this earth, the spirit of Jeff Galloway will live on forever. Not only did Jeff teach thousands upon thousands the skills needed to successfully take walk breaks to preserve energy in our running adventures and prevent injuries, he taught us something far greater. He taught us to show grace, encouragement, and respect, not just to our fellow runner, but to our fellow man. He instilled that persona onto so many within the running community that the spirit of Jeff Galloway will never be forgotten. There is no sugarcoating it. Running these next couple of weeks or months or even the next year will be difficult at times. But find comfort in the fact that with each step you count, each sip of de-fizzed Coca-Cola you drink, and each beep of a gym boss you hear, remember that Jeff Galloway is running right alongside of you with an ear-to-ear grin and two thumbs up telling you you did it. You did the hard work. Jeff Galloway, I thank you so much for changing my life. But just as importantly, thank you for introducing me to so many friends whose lives are also changed so that we may also continue your legacy for an eternity.

SPEAKER_21 1:46:06

I'll be a little short and sweet here. Uh it was a, yeah, I like I said, met him in 2022. Uh the first time I saw him on the course, I saw him on the course marathon weekend 2022. I didn't stop and say hi to him. You know, I figured, you know what, he has better things to do. But the second time I saw him springtime that next year, run and a half, the 10 miler, sorry. And I came up and said, Hi, I'm a I'm a sweaty mess. He just puts his hand around you. Let's get a selfie. And I'm like, wow. Like I'm like, this is cool. I mean, this guy's putting his hand around some sweaty dude that he just met. And like he was like your best friend from ever. So that was one of the big things I saw about him. So I think that was great. And I think that's what a lot of people did. And I mean, looking at my Facebook feed in the last couple of weeks, seeing not just like running stories talking about him. Uh, I was on a basketball s basketball site that was talking about how he got everybody into running and be people think that they can that think they can run, know that they can run, even though people tell them they probably weren't gonna run when they were in high school. And that's about it.

SPEAKER_12 1:47:21

Thanks for your thoughts, friends. I was uh I was in Walt Disney World Wednesday night, I'd finished dinner. Got a call from Coach Twiggs telling me that Jeff had passed. Uh wasn't long after that word got out. Uh, first thing I want to do is is thank all of my friends who reached out uh to share their thoughts with me through messages. I felt very close to Jeff Galloway, as as you know. In fact, the last time he was on the podcast, we talked about that. Uh it was one of my great joys in life to call Jeff a friend. And while I did have that joy, we all lost a great friend. Jeff was a great friend to all of us. He taught me or reinforced for me many things, most of which had nothing to do with running. Uh, I recall just like Alicia talked about, first time I met Jeff was at the expo in 2016. I I I can't recall. I probably was not there on the first day. I mentioned it, I remember it wasn't terribly crowded. I looked across the room and I I had read his book, so I knew what Jeff looked like. Uh, and I told Becky, hey, I want to go talk to that guy. I want to tell him how much help he's been to me getting ready for this first from what for me was my first half marathon in 25 years. Uh I remember I I was like all of you. You know, I was a fanboy. I didn't know I stuttered and stammered and didn't know what to say, and right away I was his buddy. I mean, he was I was a runner, so he was a friend. We say that at the end of every episode, but I didn't get that from Jeff, but he certainly personified that. I guess I guess a funny story I I remember from that is I asked Becky to take a picture, and I don't know what she did, but we walked away and we realized we didn't have the picture, so about 10 minutes later I walked back and he was fine. He was happy with it. Uh I remember the first time, it took a couple years, but I remember the first time Jeff Galloway addressed me by name when I walked up. Hi, Bob. I thought, oh boy, I've made it now. I've made the big time. Jeff knows who I am. A couple other memories I want to share. One of them you've heard. A bunch of times, and one I haven't shared with anybody until now. I think I told Becky, maybe I can't recall. You know, the first one of those is I don't know, it was the first or second time I was there for Jeff's Race in Atlanta. I don't think it was the first time. Greg, I think I was, I get confused. I think I was there for you for that first time. I remember that cold, drizzly, rainy day. But at one of the times, uh he had a host hotel, and I stayed in the host hotel and made a weekend of it. And Jeff was coming down the hallway, just the two of us in the hallway. By this time, we've seen each other often enough that he knows this tall, goofy-looking old guy has something to do with running, and he knows that he knows me, but uh, it's before he knows my name. Nonetheless, he stops, we talk, and I asked him, I said, Jeff, you see tens of thousands of us, and you can't possibly remember us all, but you greet each one of us like we're members of your family. So, how how do you do that? And he looked me in the eye and he said the words that I have taken to heart and never forgotten. He says, You can't fake that. And uh and and that has really genuinely stuck with me. And I try to live that way. I do live that way. I knew that I knew it. I knew it. It wasn't something he taught me, but I he just reinforced it in such a simple and distinct way that I I just never forgot it. Second story I want to share with you is uh the last time that Jeff had an organized race in Atlanta. I I'm pretty sure it was the last time. Early on in the week, there was a uh it was a get-together at at one of the bar and grills in Atlanta, and I always I always looked for time to speak with Jeff one-on-one, and I and I had a good opportunity there. Um and I shared I shared something with him that was it's true. You know, my father passed away that's nine years ago now. My dad passed away in in 2017. And I told Jeff Galloway, since my dad's been gone, you have probably been the most influential male figure in my life. I that meant I'm glad I got to say that. Hey, here's a lesson. If you if you want to share something with somebody, share it. Don't wait. Don't wait till it's too late. So I did, and I could tell he was touched, but I meant it. And uh and I I got a chance to tell him that, and I'm grateful, I'll always be grateful that I did. Now the last time I saw Jeff was out at Disneyland. Oh boy. Again, I got a good ten or fifteen minutes to talk with him, and he was just he was as fired up and in such a good mood, and he was doing as well as I can remember since before he broke his knee. He kept. He was walking, he was standing more, he was making plans to go on walks for training. He was doing well. I even, you know, I never took Jeff's word for it. I had to ask Barbara. Barbara would say, yeah, he's actually doing very, very well. We talked for a while. We talked about a lot of things. We talked about the resiliency of runners and how as you get a little older, you may be more likely to get injured, but you know you can recover if you just give it time. And uh when we when we got ready to part, I said to him, Hey, Jeff, I'll I'll shoot you an email here in a couple of days, a couple of weeks to see how you're doing. And then I took a step or two away and I said, Wait a minute, Jeff, I'm gonna see you in just a couple weeks. Uh and he said, Yep, I'll see you at Princess. That's the last uh last thing Jeff Galloway ever said to me. See ya, princess. Listen, friends, I I want you to understand something that's very important. You need to understand how much Jeff Galloway loved every one of you. I doubt he ever heard an episode of Rise and Run, to be honest. But he would never stop telling me how much he loved what we were doing to build the running community, the community he loved so much. He didn't listen to the podcast, but he knew what was going on because you told him. You told him every time you showed up to talk to him in a Rise and Run t-shirt or told him you heard him on the podcast. He was genuinely, absolutely so proud of all of you and all of your accomplishments. And he just loved how we in this family shared in that pride and that joy. Uh, I want to leave you with this. Uh it was uh, as you've heard us talk throughout this episode, the weekend was challenging, but we were all so glad that we were together, we were in the right place. So Sunday afternoon, the races are over, and Becky and I head to Epcot. Now I forgot my race shirts, I wasn't wearing my medal. But I saw so many people with finisher shirts wearing their medals, wearing smiles on their faces, and I couldn't help but think Jeff Galloway did a lot of that. Jeff Galloway caused a lot of that to happen. And it was one of those situations where you smile through the tears because I just, I just a big smile came on my face, and even though it was tough, that's how I want to remember Jeff Galloway. I want to remember him, and when I do, I want to smile because he just brought such great joy to all of our lives. Well, friends, and by now you know if you run, you are our friend. It's been I need the words. In some ways it's been difficult to do this episode, but the fact that you're that you're part of this family makes it makes it a little bit easier. So until we see you again, happy running.

SPEAKER_17 1:57:20

And is in no way affiliated with Run Disney or the Walt Disney Company. Any information on WordPress discussed on this podcast? It should not be considered medical flights. It is always considered with a healthcare flight or that's organized.