245: Bibbidi‑Bobbidi‑Broken: The Princess Registration Delay

runDisney training may be between big weekends, but our brains are still in race mode. We start by mapping the season ahead, talking base building, long-run confidence, and how to sneak in hill work even when you live somewhere flat. We also share one of our favorite community rituals: a collaborative Spotify training playlist that turns solo miles into a shared soundtrack and helps you find new “go-to” songs when motivation runs low.

Then the mood shifts to the headache a lot of runners felt this week: Princess Half Marathon Weekend registration gets postponed. We talk through what it’s like to sit in the queue, how tough it is when people rearrange work and family schedules, and why the added service fee makes the whole thing sting more. We also wrestle with the uncomfortable question: if races keep selling out fast, what pressure would actually lead to better registration tech and clearer communication?

From there, we go full gear nerd with a roundtable on running technology. Garmin vs COROS watches, Shokz bone conduction headphones, hydration vests, the Gymboss interval timer for run-walk training, Strava add-ons, and the new gadgets that tempt us, including ENGO sunglasses with a heads-up display. We also share honest buyer’s remorse, from fueling experiments that wreck your stomach to lights and accessories that never live up to the ads.

We wrap with a spotlight that brings the fun back: Andrew the Puppet Runner joins us to share his free summer virtual race (5K, 10K, and half) and why he’s connecting it to fundraising for No Kid Hungry. If you enjoy practical training talk, real world Run Disney updates, and gear advice you can use right away, hit subscribe, share this with a running friend, and leave us a review so more runners can find the Rise and Run family.

Puppet Runner Virtual Race

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Transcript

Welcome And Episode 245 Kickoff

SPEAKER_07 0:46

Hi, this is Ashley, and we are at the Pesky Parrot on Utopia with the Rise and Run Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Thank you, Ashley. Thanks for the introduction from the Pesky Parrot, of course, as they've been for the last few weeks. Hey, my friends, welcome to episode 245 of the Rise and Run Podcast. You know, every week, gang, every week, I read off the number and then I think about it. I go, Dang, nah, that's a lot of episodes. Keeps piling up. Closing in on 250. It's a big deal. It's a big deal because of you, my friends, who are listening. We appreciate you. Were it not for you, there'd be no podcast. I'm Bob, and I'm here this week with John. Hey, how you doing? With uh Alicia.

SPEAKER_08 1:33

Hello.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

And with Greg. Hey, hey, hey. Hiya, friends. Uh, exciting things to talk about this week, I guess. Typically on a week like this, we would review be reviewing. Hold on, Bob.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Do you want to delay this conversation by 24 hours? Or or maybe provide an update in 30 minutes?

SPEAKER_02 1:51

That's the problem. Is you yeah, you get into the Mandalorian. If we delay by 24 hours, it's 24 hours. You know, by the time we by the time we get it uh out to our friends, it's old news. That doesn't mean we're not going to talk about it. I know we will. We're going to discuss some uh some running tech, some personal opinions on running tech equipment that we use or perhaps just know about. And maybe we can share something with you. In our it's not a race report spotlight, but in our spotlight this week, our friend Andrew the Puppet Runner has some exciting news about a virtual run that he's got available for his Run Disney friends.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

If

Patreon Shoutout And Host Banter

SPEAKER_00 2:33

you enjoy the Rise Around Podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family. We want to share in their Run Disney journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise Around Podcast, on Instagram at Rise Around Pod, check out our YouTube channel, and visit our webpage at RiseRoundPodcast.com. If you have a question, comment, race report, or want to introduce an upcoming episode, please call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

We also want to thank our Patreons whose support helps us keep the Rise and Run Podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the Patreon team, please check us out at patreon.com slash rise and run podcast. We have a new Patreon uh we'd like to bring in who's joining the how you doing level. His name is Michael from Well Run for. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Really? What? What? But you know what he's gonna do. He's gonna tell Tom what you say.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

Well, this is the thing. I I think he's gonna mooch off of this because Tom's refuses, or you know, because God forbid he joins the Patreon because then he would have egg all over his face. So Michael's probably joining the Patreon so that he can download that episode and then send it to Tom. We might have to check some IP addresses and stuff like that to get this locked down here. So so I think that goes to show that now half of the hosts of the Will Run for podcast are Patreons of Rise and Run. We all know Diana's not gonna join because she doesn't even listen to her own podcast. So we know that the odds of her joining. So we just need to get Tom on board. So maybe maybe we need to start a new campaign. We'll we'll we'll have to see. But but but Michael, thank you so much for your patronage, and we greatly do appreciate it. Along with all of our Patreons in the Rise Run community, we can't do it without you. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Maybe we need some more Tom exclusive material out there.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Well, that's the thing. I'm inspired now, so probably in the next couple of days, I'm gonna think of maybe a Greg Solo show idea here and just run with it. But I'll have to figure out a way to include Tom to just to pull them in.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

So, work around or not, Michael, thank you. And we're glad you joined. We really are. We're glad you listen. Of course, you know we're always listening to you guys as well. The Will Run Fair podcast. One of our favorites, and really one of the links in the chain that led to the development of this podcast. I've I've always uh been clear about that.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

Okay, I got it.

Hoagies Vs Subs Regional Names

SPEAKER_04 4:53

Top five hoagies I would order from Wawa that I would want to lady in the tramp with Tom.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Wow. There's that there's a visual again for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, it is. I saw this guy, I follow this guy on he comes to put my reels all the time from Facebook. He's from Philly. He goes, Where's the uh hoagie and sub sub Mason Dixon line? Oh, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Ooh, interesting. That's a good question. And and I think it's right around the Mason Dixon line.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

No, well we don't call them hoagies here. I yeah, I was gonna say, John, I would have to think it would probably be somewhere I would say just south of you because the area where I grew up, uh, which is about just shy of two hours north of Philly, as a kid, I called them hoagies. So, and I think where I grew up is like right along the lines of like central Jersey, so not quite North Jersey. So I think that that could be the the the Mason Dixon Hoagie line there. So we'll we'll have to figure that out.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Any anybody has ideas on this, let us know.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Well, if you order them, if you order them from Wawa here, they're hoagies.

SPEAKER_09 6:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

As they should be. As an interesting aside, I drive by Wawa now and I go, gee, I miss Wawa, because I don't put gas in my car anymore.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

That's why I would get it yours, uh, doesn't have the Tesla charging stations?

SPEAKER_02 6:25

No, not yet. Not yet, okay. Not yet. I I hope they will well I wouldn't I hope they will get one, but it wouldn't matter to me because I charge at home. It's much cheaper to charge at home. Got it. But uh yeah, I've been to in fact on our way back from Disney this last time we stopped at a Wawa and used one of the shoot superchargers. Yeah. But uh I know as as you go north out of even north of New York, things change. I remember stopping in Connecticut. Now this was in the 1980s, and you didn't order a hoagie, you didn't order a sub, you ordered a wedge. They served wedges in Connecticut, at least it's some of the delis. And then when you got into Massachusetts, grinders. Grind grinders, yes. I've heard grinders.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

A wedge just sounds like a salad. Yeah, to me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

That's the best salad no man.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Oh, there is a wedge, there is a wedge salad, of course.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

But that and that's the only place I've ever seen that.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

And there's some other places call it a hero. And I forget.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Hero, that's right. Yeah, a hero. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Boy, this is the content that everyone came for this week. Sandwich talk with Rise and Run.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

All right, I'm dropping the mic. Okay.

Sponsor Spot And Season Timeline

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Uh, speaking of uh the uh yeah, speaking of sandwich talk, the Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by the folks at Magic Bound Travel. That's right. Yeah, yeah. I used to be good with segues, but ever since we have Riley who transitions us from one section of the episode to another, I don't have to think of him anymore, so I'm kind of out of practice. But yeah, speaking of sandwich, I'm sure if you're eating a sandwich and thinking about taking a trip to uh Disney World Universal, a cruise, your friends at Magic Pound Travel will be there to help you out. We always point out that their services are free and that if you're using them for a future run Disney event, such as uh assuming there's going to be a Princess Weekend, you could probably get a uh na now's still a great time to make your reservation for Princess Weekend. You can always put down your deposit, you can always cancel it if you don't get in. But MagicBoundTravel.com is the website. Please check them out. Well, let's look at a couple of things. We are a couple of weeks now. We're three weeks away from starting training for wine and dine, and four weeks away from starting training for Marathon Weekend. Typically, in man in the years that we have been on in the preceding four seasons, uh speaking of which, Frankie Valley just no, never mind. Oh, what a night. Did you know he just announced that uh he had was had ended uh this tour that he's on. He's on a tour. He's 93 years old. I'm pretty sure he's lip singing that entire tour. Oh, I he's walking out on stage, if nothing else. But but he's he stopped that. But God bless him. Anyway, the it's typical that marathon training starts before wine and dine training by a week. Usually I associate marathon training, usually starts end of June, which it does this year, starts June 30th, which is the Tuesday. Uh and then typically wine and dine starts uh right around 4th of July. But because wine and dine has been bumped up this year to late October, uh even earlier in October that it's been in the past. So wine and dine starts first, that starts on the 23rd. Um Princess Registration, well, we don't know when that's happening. Uh let's see. Springtime surprise registration is only five weeks away. Maybe we'll have to see. Uh uh looking at the other events that are big in the rise and run community. Greg Loopy Looper, 58 days. 58 days away. That's uh that's pretty cool. I know you got a big group coming to that. That's neat.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

Yeah, I mean, in theory, we have eight teams. So that's great. And that's the and that's the the four relay teams. So that's 32 people right there. And then I know we have a couple of uh one-offs who are doing events on their own. You know, our newest Patreon, Michael, uh, he just announced he's doing the 100 miler. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_08 11:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

I know uh I believe Ileana's husband is doing the 100 miler. Oh, another will run for host Brianna's doing the 12 hour by herself. I think Steve, um, our buddy Steve from New York is also doing the 12 miler, and then I think Heather might be rolling. So, like I said, we have even more members of the Ryzeron family who aren't in relay teams that are also going to be there. So it's gonna be a wonderful day.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah, that's great. That's great. I hear people talking about it all the time. I hear about it on customize and other places, and I think it's great. I hope you have a great time. Let's see what else is coming up. Bird and ham, we're now into double digits, 99 days, until we're together out in south central Pennsylvania. Looking forward to that. I know that's gonna be a big group. We're gonna have, and I'm putting this is where I say something, and then somebody else does all the work. And that is I assume pretty soon we'll be taking reservations for uh the buffet at Don't Tell Me, Don't Tell Me. I always forget it. All right, go ahead and tell me. Shady Maples. Shady Maples. Yeah, I know a lot of people are looking forward to that. What shady maple or the race? Both. Yeah, I think both.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

No, I think they're looking forward to the Rita's. Now that we figured it out, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

There's a Rita's three-quarters of a mile away from here. I went once. I'm not a huge fan. It's okay. Yeah, that's about it. We're nice. Not a huge fan. Hey, Space Coast is another one where we get a bunch of rise and run friends. About half a year away, 172 days. Marathon's full up in that one. They are running a waiting list for the marathon, but entries are still available Space Coast for the half marathon. Those of you who done it in the past would recall that they used to run a north and a south half. For the last two races, it's just been the south course for the half marathon.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

I know we have a decent amount of people that are going to be at that. And then um, I know of the a lot of the stoked um from Tom Stokes' crew is going to that one as well. So oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Excellent race and gets a good crowd. Hey

Community Playlist For Training Miles

SPEAKER_02 13:26

John. Hey, what's up? You got a mixtape going again for the training 2026 training season, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah, so I guess training's going to be starting soon. So uh for the last couple of years I've made a Spotify playlist that we can all share. Starting to today, if you uh on the Facebook page, I put a link to our Spotify uh account. If you would add that to your playlist, and you could collaborate and add two songs, maybe three, just you know, that you go to you go to and that gets you going in in uh training. We have some songs up there already. And uh hopefully you guys can get a really eclectic uh group of music like last year.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yes, I was going to use that word, John. It becomes the very definition of an eclectic mix of music, which the different age groups we have in this wonderful family and the different different musical interests. Uh I'll listen to it and I'll go four or five songs going, I have no idea who this is or what the song is.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I know people in the in the past years have said that they really enjoyed and they found songs that they had never heard of that they really enjoyed.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

So yeah, I'd probably put them on. But it's good. It's good. I love you guys for it. It's great. Well, thanks for doing that, John. That'll get big. I mean, it's gotten huge in previous years.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

We had like almost six, seven hours of uh.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Oh, I thought we had more than that. Wow, I okay. I thought we had even more than that. Not that we need more than that, but I thought we had even more than that. Oh, friends, I know we are between official training periods in the Run Disney World, but there's other activities going on as we've talked about. So

Base Building And Hill Work Ideas

SPEAKER_02 15:04

we're still training. What's new in your training?

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Training for me uh probably falls into the realm of you know this concept that we talked about maybe a couple of weeks ago, and that is just either establishing or keeping a base. And that has been working really, really well for me. I've uh coach Twiggs has had me keep my base at every couple of weeks at 10 miles. And so I went out and I did that this past weekend, and by the time I I finished with it, I I think for me, like 10 is the new number in terms of like like before, like a 10K was like, okay, that you know, that's a good distance where I can feel accomplished, I can get a good workout in, and then, but also like not be gassed for the rest of the day. And I think as my training has increased over the last couple of years, I think I can confidently say that that number has started to creep up towards that 10. You know, like you know, in that way, like I know, like, hey, this is a distance that I can practice getting good Pots with or something like that, but yet it's still under that threshold of a half marathon. So, you know, like I know it's gonna have me out there for more than 90 minutes, but I'm not gonna be out there for hours upon hours, which is really nice. So that's been working really well. I mean, I will probably be keeping up with that probably for like another month or so, and then that's when my focus will shift to training uh for guiding for New York City, and then and then, like you said, Bob, we're you know, month out from you know starting, you know, our marathon weekend training for those of us doing the just the marathon or goofy or dopey.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yeah. Anybody uh adding hills to their training for bird in hand? Or New York for that matter.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

No, that's true. Yeah, I I will I I I don't know when coach is gonna have me start on those, but usually what he'll do is instead of the uh the drill runs Thursdays, I agree. Sometimes he does call it hills and drills. Hills and drills, right? Uh, but you know, usually I like to put a little bit more emphasis on the hill itself because it it really can do wonders for you, especially for those of you coming out the burn hand. It's gonna be really, really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Within the first mile of my uh my run when I on my long runs, usually I hit a hill, which is a nice uh little hill going up. Uh it's almost it's more than a quarter, but less than a half. So I gotta go up that hill just to get to get to some flatland again. Then we have some nice little maybe rolling hills across the way. Yeah, I I that that that's my hill, but then I will try to get some hill training in maybe a little bit closer to bird in hand.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

John, you you're doing um Tom's summer challenge that just started yesterday, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Nice. I'm also gonna be doing that. Um last week I talked on the podcast that um I wasn't feeling the best, and my body definitely let me know that it was hurting um after my stomach problems. So I I took most of the week off last week, but I'm back to it and things are things are going good. And so I'm really excited for this training season. I think that it's gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

I'm in that uh trough like you were, Alicia, where illness is bugging me a bit right now. I mean, I I hope to get through it pretty soon. I had started some hill training, Chris had put some on my schedule. That's right, hill training in Florida. What you do where I live, there are some hilly areas in central Florida, uh, but the Pinellas Trail is a rail trail, but it has overpasses over some of the major highways. And uh yeah, it climbs 50 or 60 feet in maybe three, four hundred yards. So it's not it's not a mountain, but it's something. And it's something that's easy to repeat because you you crest that thing, you go down the other side, you come back up and do it again. So good hill training there. I I did get one of those in. I got a treadmill event in this morning. I just walked and I walked on one of these pre-programmed courses where the elevation of the treadmill changed as I went along. So that was worthwhile. So I'm trying to I'm trying to hold it together until I can get back into it full swing, which hopefully will be uh less than a week.

SPEAKER_09 19:58

Caution

Toy Story Time Jumps And Disney Voices

SPEAKER_09 19:59

runners, change of topic ahead.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

On many occasions at this time of the episode, I would ask, what would Alicia do? But I'm not gonna ask that. I'm just gonna say, hey Alicia, what's up?

SPEAKER_00 20:16

I was thinking today, we uh when we did our March Madness this year, we did it on movies, and Toy Story got pretty high up there. Um and if you've been anywhere, they're majorly advertising Toy Story 5 that's coming out. Um and it got me thinking, because I was watching the advertisements for it, the commercials, that Bonnie, who is the new like main character, first it was Andy, and now it's Bonnie. This one, she's gonna have this iPad leap thing, but she's still a little young girl. So I looked it up, and in the first two movies, Andy was young, and then by the third one, he he jumped to 17 years old, and Bonnie was four. So that's Toy Story three. Toy Story Four, she was only five, and now she's only eight. My question is, why do you think that Andy grew up so fast and Bonnie is taking forever?

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Mandalorian.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yep, yep, Mandalorian. Gotta be.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

I'm like, this is really bothering me that like they just Andy was like all grown up, and now Bonnie's, I feel like she's taking five years to grow one year.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

I thought you were gonna say that Bonnie's five and Andy's 37 or something.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Well, I think so. I was looking at it and I feel like every when I looked up the age gap for it, when in Toy Story 3, when Andy was supposedly going off to uh college, so he was like 17, 18 years old, but then when I looked Up for Toy Story 4, it had him in his 20s, and I was like, wait, Bonnie's only a year older, and he's five years older.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Same thing happened in like Rocky. In Rocky Four, like Rocky's kid's like nine years old. And then he he he comes back from Russia and his kid's like 15 going into high school.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Right. Like, okay, how did that happen?

SPEAKER_08 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

I just thought it was interesting that she's still the this young young kid. Um, but we've had so many, so many years in between the movies. But um do you guys think you're gonna go go see that one or looking forward to it at all?

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Oh, absolutely. Good chance. Good chance. Good chance. I don't go very often anymore, but yeah, it's a good chance. I've seen all the others, and I it's not ironic, but coincidentally, on the Zoom last week, I was sitting at Kidani Village on the porch there for the Zoom, and behind me was what they call the community room.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

And we came in afterward, and Toy Story 3 was playing.

SPEAKER_08 23:09

Oh, great.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Uh Becky and I watched a bunch of it. We were there with uh Laura and her kids, uh uh Sam and Alex. I was saying you mean Sam and Sam's mom. Sam and Sam's mom, right. And uh but we we had to leave, so when we came home, the next day we watched Toy Story Three again.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

That's great. I read an article that basically Toy Story ended after three. These are just alternate stories, someone was saying.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Oh, okay. You know, you talk about time shifting, and the only reason I'm gonna bring this up because there is a tie-in not to Run Disney but to Walt Disney World and Disneyland. And that is the and I guess he's soon-to-be former voice of the uh Carousel of Progress, Gene Shepard. You hear me talk about it. He was a big uh he was a big part of my growing up because I listened to him every night, WOR in New York. And he used to tell stories about World War II. And then as the years went on, he certainly wasn't he suddenly wasn't a World War II era guy anymore. He became a Korean War guy. That's just because he was getting too old and he didn't want people to know how old he was, so he started talking about the Korean War. Same thing my dad picked up on that big time. Dad was a Shepherd fan. But yeah, I'm gonna that he had a I guess we all have unique voices, but he had a very distinctive voice. And you'll you'll continue to if you don't hear him in uh carousel of progress, you'll continue to hear him on WTBS for 24 hours every Christmas as a narrator and author of the Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

The most overrated Christmas film of all time.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

The greatest Christmas movie ever made.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

I know people are upset about the carousel of progress, but I I like that they're going to continue to evolve it because that's what Walt wanted.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Oh no, it's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

But I'm the only thing I miss is the voice. Uh yeah, yeah. By the way, friends, if unlike Greg, if if if unlike Greg, you're correct and you enjoy that movie, the book is entitled In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. And it's written by Gene Shepherd, who is a man, but he spelled his first name J-E-A-N. And I think it's still in print. It's a collection of short stories, it's a great read. So there you go. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

I I I'm just excited to see if Uncle Orville finally makes his way out of the bathtub in this Carasoma Progress. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

I bet you won't. No, because the time shift is so different in this one, right? So it's more like our generation of time, not you know, like this was built for the World's Fair in 1964. 64, yeah. So now we're gonna be like from it's be like somebody going to the World's Fair in 2027 or whatever it comes out. Yeah, 60 years later. Yep. Like going by that, like one of the movies we reference a lot in this podcast is Back to the Future.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Back to the Future, they jump back in time 30 years. That's like going back to 1996. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_09 26:32

Oh my god. Don't remind me, John.

Princess Registration Delay And Frustration

SPEAKER_09 26:37

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

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Hey, we had a little excitement this morning. We were we thought we were gonna register for the third race of the Run Disney season, but surprise, surprise. You all know what happened if you were in the queue. The only positive I have to say about this, and this is by the time the podcast comes out, we will probably know what's going on and when we're going to register for Princess. As of the time that we recorded, the last information we saw was that we'll get more information by 8 p.m. Wednesday, and that the registration will not occur this week. So we are I don't know, are we assuming it's going to occur next week? I don't I don't know if that's a good assumption or not. Wait, did they say this week? They said it would not occur this week. It would not occur this week. Uh so I I next Tuesday at the earliest, maybe I do I have no information on that. They did say they we would have 24 hours notice. So you know I feel I really genuinely feel bad. We had a bunch, we had the Zoom call today as we always do, and we had a bunch of people who took time off from work.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, that's too bad. When I mean a lot of people do that, or they're like trying to multitask and do things, and yeah, people have lives, and yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:16

Yeah, but I wasn't able to be part of the Zoom this morning because I had other obligations virtually for work that required me to use Zoom. So what was I mean, once the let's go with the first update when they said that there'll be an update at 1030 each. 1030, right? What was the vibe like in in the in the Zoom call?

SPEAKER_02 28:39

It was a hang loose. It the Zoom call's fun. It's not quite like our Thursday Zooms, because we generally have a topic to talk about on the registration zooms, but uh everybody was relaxed and having fun, and to be honest, it stayed that way all along. Uh people were frustrated, but it it was still you know the the good old rise and run family, and we were happy to be chatting with one another. If if there's a positive, the last time I recalled this mess was and I uh it's 2023, Dopey. Was it 23?

SPEAKER_04 29:15

So it was so it occurred in April of 22 for marathon weekend of 23.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Dopey 23. Yeah, the thing that they did there that was awful as far as I was concerned, they just they just kept stringing us along. Don't refresh, don't refresh, we'll be back. And it was like one o'clock before they finally started. At least for this one, at 11 p.m., they got to say it's all right, gather up your books, get out of class. We're not gonna do it today. Come back later, we'll tell you what's going on. So at least we didn't sit there. I mean, I literally I remember sitting in the dining room for hours because heck, I'm in the queue. I don't want to leave. I'm one of the fortunate ones who has the time to do that. But what a mess. Well, wasn't there another registration?

SPEAKER_04 30:08

I I want to say it was a princess, where something similar happened, everyone got strung along, and then they made an announcement that it was going to occur either like third, you know, like obviously registration was on a Tuesday, so either it was a Thursday or it was the following Tuesday or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

I do remember that. I don't know. I can't remember the year though.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Greg, I think it was a Disneyland race.

SPEAKER_04 30:30

Disneyland, okay. I think it was Princess, okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Because that was the topic today when somebody asked have they ever put it off to a different day. And I said, I remember saying honestly, I did not remember it. And a couple of my friends chimed in, a couple of our friends chimed in and said, Yeah, there was one. And I they said it was Disneyland. I think they said 2025 Disneyland.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

But it's the first time, yeah, one of the first events they came out with.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

I mean, the the the the the way I look at this is that this is now the third time that something like this has happened since coming out of COVID. And I don't know about you guys, but for the Walt Disney company to be a top 50, a top 25 Forbes, you know, recognized company, it is it out of bounds for me to say that like stuff like this is kind of like inexcusable because like the the the way I I look at it or the way that I justify that thought is that while I myself have never participated in it, I have known of where I've seen things online that you know I've talked to friends, especially our West Coast friends, for like if you want to get tickets for the Oogie Boogie badge or like you know the those highly sought-after events in Disneyland or even like D23 or something like that, they're using a very similar system. And if you think about it, Run Disney is just a very small subsect of the Disney community. So if if you never hear about this stuff with Oogie Boogie Bash, and clearly that is exponentially more people than what Run Disney is dealing with. It's either time for a new system in turn or like a new third party, because I my guess is that this is not done in-house at Disney. So obviously, this is getting vendored out. Is it you know, to me, three strikes and you're out kind of situation, but I don't know, because I agree, you know, like you guys were saying earlier, you know, the the fact that you know people take the time off from work, rearrange work schedules, childcare, the the whole nine yards, and then to have this result, and and I I saw this hot take on Instagram today, and I agree with it. We now have to pay an additional 6.6% fee to cover the service charges, and this is the type of service that people are getting. Yeah, but conversely, and on all of that though, I don't have a lot of confidence that this is gonna change because these races will continue to sell out in under two hours. And the only way that change is going to happen, or fast and effective change is gonna happen, is if we start speaking with our wallets, and clearly that's not gonna happen because we love the product too much, or for those of us that okay, maybe we're gonna take a step back or something like that, there's gonna there's a line of people right outside the door that are willing to come in and take our place. So, how you know, how are we gonna see change if this is the result that we're gonna get from it?

SPEAKER_02 33:41

No, we we we were making that point this morning too.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

They use the they use the they use a front end called Qit. And a lot of companies use that same front end. I mean, we had the same problem uh couple years ago with Ticketmaster when uh Taylor Swift went on sale and people were crashing the servers for for that. You know, but it it's a so qit's used by a a lot of big companies. So I don't know what happens. Was it something on their end that got that got hosed up? Was it something on Disney's end? I mean, there was a lot of Disney races that went perfectly fine. So I mean, you know, and there like you said, the other products go like the oogie boogie bash, the uh the pass holder previews, they all go the same way and they seem to go fine.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Right. Yeah, I'm curious to see if it was like something that like was more out of their control. Not that we're necessarily gonna know, or if it's something of like they really underestimate how many people want to try and get into these races because Princess has almost always actually, I think for as long as I've done Ren Disney, it always sold out pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

So that on top of all the people that are finding Ren Disney now and the races that are selling out on top of that, like maybe their system got overloaded and they weren't prepared for it, but they should be.com. Uh I know it's it's the papers, the papers. Uh uh that nj.com might say, hey, Walt Disney World Princess registration opens up June 2nd. Like I've never seen an article in New Jersey.com about Disney and print and the races.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

Well, I mean, and the thing that I find interesting too, you know, now obviously we've had registrations since the announcement, and they haven't been effective, but I mean, you made that whole big campaign push during Marathon Weekend about how we're expanding the size of the 5Ks across all of the Walt Disney World races. So you're inviting more traffic to your site, and yet you're using a technology that can't handle it. I mean, that that's just it's really interesting to me. Yeah, it's hard to do that. Now, the the other thing that I was gonna bring up, but grant, I'm not into it, I don't know coding, so I don't know if this has anything to do with it. I'm wondering if the writing was on the wall really early on, because I remember waking up this morning, day of recording, and having a a Twitter alert from Team Run Diz saying that the waiting room was already open.

SPEAKER_08 36:32

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 36:33

And I was like, well, that seems odd. Why why would they have this thing open hours before registration goes live? So I'd be interested to see if they already knew by that point in time they had an issue on their hands.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

No, that that that was the case the last race. That was the case marathon. It opened early, and it had the same header saying it explained. So if you're in the queue before registration starts, you'll get assigned randomly. Once registration starts, you get assigned sequentially. But yeah, that was the same thing last at least, at least for marathon. I don't remember for wine and done.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Yeah, they they said it in front, it's they say in front. Registration's happening today. If you're here for anything else, please come back on real time.

SPEAKER_04 37:20

You know, Bob, I know you were talking about the positive, and and I guess you know, if we are gonna give Run Disney their flowers and something, it's that, yes, they made a decision at least you know, within an hour of hey, we're gonna postpone this. But I would say the other real winner from this situation is probably all of the charities. Because if people are probably, you know, obviously, you know, the big theme out of wine and dine was the sheer number of people that did not get in. And obviously the charity boom was big. The same, you know, similar thing happened with Marathon weekend. People probably don't want to deal with this horse hockey anymore. Oh, they don't so they probably go straight, you know, straight to the charity. So they're they're greatly benefiting from this, and I'm I'm at least glad to see that that a lot of worthwhile causes are gonna be raising some important funds because of these unfortunately stressful situations.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah, we'll see. There's a lot of we'll see's, but in terms of data, in terms of knowing what to expect, I I promise you, Disney has Disney could tell us down to the person how many people they expect, how many people they have expect to have lined up at 10, at 9 45, at 10.08. They know they know what the numbers are like, they've got reams and reams of data. And uh I I'm at a loss to explain what happens.

SPEAKER_04 38:50

Even though we couldn't register today, Bob, let me ask you this. I know Jack was trying to get in, I think, for just the half marathon, I think. What were you aiming for today?

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Um, I was going to register for the challenge.

SPEAKER_04 39:04

For the challenge, okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

And I still plan to do that. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_04 39:10

Well, I mean, obviously, you know, once Run Disney, you know, does make a decision, they'll announce it on all of their socials and we'll be sure to reshare that. So obviously, yeah, keep keeping ear to the ground and trust me, yeah. Whether it's from us or somebody else, people will know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

It'll it'll echo, you'll feel the force. It'll echo throughout the universe when they're going to do this. All right, well, uh wish we had more information for you, friends, but we're just like you waiting to see what happens.

Running Tech Roundtable Favorites Flops Upgrades

SPEAKER_09 39:41

Caution runners, change of topic ahead.

SPEAKER_04 39:46

As you know, Bob has alluded to, you know, in this episode, you know, we're at the time of the year where we're in the valley of the Run Disney season. And you know, what is special about this time of the year within the training season is that I think here on the podcast, it gives us the opportunity to talk about various topics that, you know, during the course of the of the season, we just might not have time to chat about. And the one thing that I think excites a lot of us, not just the hosts, but you know, within the community in general, is this ever-advancing idea of running tech, running gear, running technologies. So we thought this would be a great discussion uh to share with you all this week. And we're gonna approach this and we'll do this a little bit of round robin style here. The first thing we're gonna we're gonna tap into is what is some of our favorite running tech or gears or apps uh that we use? Then the second question we're gonna tackle is what is something that we've purchased that just did not live up to the hype, or an app that we've downloaded that really wasn't effective for us. And then we're gonna round it out by talking about what is something that we have that we want to upgrade, or something new that we want to try within the running sphere. So I I think this is gonna be a fun, lively, and insightful conversation. So we'll go back to that first question and we'll go ladies first here. So, Alicia, what is something for you in terms of running technology or applications or gear that is vital to you on in almost every run that you go on, whether it's a training run or a race?

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Yeah, so I actually wrote down one for each of those categories. This was the easiest question um for me to think of because obviously it's my favorite. Um, so for my tech, that's my favorite. I said my Garmin. I absolutely love my Garmin and recommend getting one for a running watch. For my gear, um, I really like my unjingy running vest, water hydration vest. Um, it's really lightweight and I really like that. And then for the app, I said holler hype. I I cannot get enough of that app. Like our community is so amazing, and to get to hear people's voices every time I go out on a run is just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

You know, Alicia, every time I hear about holler hype, and I I love it. I think it's wonderful, I feel a little guilty because I don't participate in it as a as a listener or as a hyper very much. And I keep thinking I should do that more. But I've yet to fall into the habit, I guess, of doing it. Do you send hypes out?

SPEAKER_00 42:40

Um, I definitely try to if I am able to, but I go through spurts where I will I'll see the notifications and I'll be like, oh, I'm gonna hype all these people, and then I go through long periods of time where I haven't. I would also like to do it more, but I feel like I should be hearing from people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Yeah, I feel like I should do it more. Uh maybe I'll try. Uh it means a lot to a lot of people. Right. So maybe I'll give it a try.

SPEAKER_04 43:10

So Alicia, what is it specifically about your Garmin watch that that you love so much?

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Um, well, so before this, what have I had as watches? I've had like basic um like Timex running watches. Um, I've had even a more basic Garmin when I first started. I've had um Fitbits and that type of stuff. I really just like that the Garmin has extra features. Um I like that it has the tracking that can link to my phone so that my mom can watch my live tracking. Um, I like that I can program different workouts. So if I'm doing like a speed workout or different things, I can program that ahead of time. Um overall, I Just really enjoy the features. I do actually use my watch a lot at work for like if I need to do um like use a timer, that type of stuff. I use it for that. So um it's just kind of an all-around everyday thing that I use. And I know people love like their Apple watches and stuff. That's one Apple product I never had. Um I I go with my government every day.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

And you can even find out what time it is.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Yeah, right. Fun fact, my time is in military time because when yeah, when I first started um working in long-term care years and years ago when we had paper charting, um, we had to write everything in military time. And so I switched everything to that, and that's what I go with now.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

For what it's worth, mine's not.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

I got rid of that stuff a long time ago. I use a Samsung Galaxy watch. And I got it as my primary watch because I like the fact that it relays messages, etc. And it was not a good running watch. The first this is probably my third generation of Samsung watches. It was not a good one. It was too heavy, too big, and it just wasn't, I didn't do it. I but uh yeah, it does an adequate job. It does all the things that you're talking about. It syncs with Strava and it syncs with Samsung Health. And yeah, it's a good watch.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

Just out of curiosity, Alicia, what gar or what model Garmin do you have?

SPEAKER_00 45:32

I have the Forerunner 245, the not music one. Because there's a music version and a not music, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:41

So so the so that's still a thing that the one that uh links like directly with Spotify, right?

SPEAKER_00 45:46

I think so. And I mean, it's been a number of years since I got a new Garmin, which is one thing that I do appreciate, knock on wood, that it's not gonna go out on me, but they do last for a long time. Um, and so I haven't had to upgrade it. Um, I know that there's new things out there, and I think probably a lot of the new ones automatically just have that in. But when I got the 245, it was an option to choose with or without it.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

I think it's still with or without music on some of them.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

Yeah. The Samsung Watch will link to Spotify, but I don't use it. Uh I end up using, I guess, a piece of tech that I like a lot, the uh I like the Shocks, Shocks headphones. And if I need to pause the shocks, it's just as easy for me to reach up to my ear and press the button one time as it is. The other things I like, equipment-wise, kind of the same. I've got two pairs of sunglasses that I wear that I can play music through. One of them is shocks. I have a pair of shocks sunglasses. I don't know what happened to them. I think the company decided they were not a successful item, but they had them at the Walt Disney Expo a couple of times. I never saw them on their website. Not once. But I love them. Uh that of my ways of listening to music, that's probably my favorite. It's very easy to control. And I like that they're good sunglasses. So I like that part of it too. But yeah, my my you can control Spotify from my Galaxy Watch. I just don't do it.

SPEAKER_04 47:17

John, what about you? What what types of tech and apps and and all that fun stuff uh do you really enjoy on your runs?

SPEAKER_01 47:25

On my runs, I I I also have my Garmin watch. I mean, my Garmin watch and my shocks, those are the two things that I I take on every run. I mean, basically. I don't bring anything uh else. I used to wear a heart rate monitor years ago. Oh yeah, way back. But now these these and I actually tested it. Uh the heart rate monitor and the one on the one they take off your your back of your wrist. The wrist, yeah. They're pretty darn close. I mean so I mean that's one less thing I'm wearing. I still got the things at home, but it's it that that's something that I I've I've I like like Garmin. I got a 255. It's uh it's non-musical. So when I like that, uh it's uh I get you get a love-hate relationship with your Garmin, you know. Like, like it tells you, oh, you know, you're unproductive. Oh, uh your HRV is really low today.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

Yeah, right, right. Like, oh my am I dying? What's going on here?

SPEAKER_00 48:27

I love when I just got done with the workout, and it's like, you need 62 minutes of rest or 62 hours of rest. I'm like, yeah, yeah, okay, that's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04 48:37

Clearly, this watch has never done dopey before. Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

That was funny. The first time I did Dopey wearing this watch, it's like uh recommend recommendation after the 10K for rest. I'm like, well, we ain't rested for another two days.

SPEAKER_00 48:53

Right. Which shocks do you have, John? Uh I just are they what the one with like the wire behind it?

SPEAKER_01 49:00

The blue ones, Alicia. Yeah, the yeah, the the shocks. I think they're the are they the open air? I don't know if they're I don't know. I know mine are waterproof because I wear them on open run, open run. That sounds right, yeah. They're not expensive. There's more ones that there's uh there's the waterproof ones, there's the swim ones. I don't even you know need those, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

I think there's a tech item, and maybe this is me being an old guy and watching the evolution of running equipment. I think we fail to recognize how much technology goes into our footwear. That there's been tremendous, tremendous advances in running shoes over the last couple years, and that's a technological change. It's we don't think of it in that regard, but but it definitely is. I do not have any experience with the uh the super shoes. I don't know if any of our friends here do.

SPEAKER_00 49:54

I don't personally. I I have clients that use the super shoes, but um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

If you don't if you don't think there's a difference in the technology of the shoes, I'll bet you the guys who ran the sub two-hour marathons did.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

Right.

unknown 50:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

Yeah, but those shoes they say are only good for a marathon.

SPEAKER_00 50:15

Right. They're only good for a short period of time. I need the super shoes. Yeah.

unknown 50:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

So $500 for a pair of shoes that are gonna run you about 26 miles.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

Well, they they for an average, well, you're right. An average runner is probably not gonna buy those shoes. But for someone who does events at Disney, I think you'll get more than a marathon out of them. But the fact is they are going to wear out quite early. They really do. You're not gonna train in them. So I don't know. I'm not gonna find out. I'm not gonna spend the money, I'm not gonna find out.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

Unless someone wants to gift them to you, Bob, right? Well, we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 50:53

Yeah, they try that size, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Uh probably no idea. What about you, Greg?

SPEAKER_04 51:00

So there's two pieces of technology that I really enjoy. And the first is, and I don't know if Garmin has an equivalent or not, because I use a Koros watch. Right. But a couple years ago for Christmas, I asked for the Koros foot pod that can attach. Either I can put it on, they give you an adapter so that you like attach it to your shorts, or there or is there's a different clasp on it that you can weave it through the laces of your shoes. And what I appreciate about having that is that you can run like a series of tests and it can get you more accurate data in terms of the distance of your gate, which then can give you more accurate stats of your cadence. And but the other part that I really like about it is that especially for either indoor track running or for treadmill running, it can give you a little bit better sensing of your pace and mileage in those indoor settings. Uh, so I mean, I know it's an additional thing to buy, but I I have always found that to be really, really beneficial. And then the last thing I'll mention, I know it's something else that we have to add on, but I'm actually shocked that none of you have brought it up yet. And that is the gym boss. To me, that that is an essential piece of equipment because I remember when I first started my running journey and I learned about the Galloway method, I specifically went out and I bought a watch that had an interval timer built into it. And I remember that like those first two Garmins that I had, you know, you could set the interval and it would just repeat and repeat and repeat. But what I learned was, and and what I didn't like about it was that okay, if I'm done with 6030s and I need to bump down to a 3030 or something like that, I'd have to end the run, restart it, so then I could set the new interval. So that for me, the fact that with the gym boss, you be able to change that on the fly without having to adjust my watch at all is really been a godsend. And I am so appreciative of that thing. And especially now, even the uh John, what the the latest one, the charge? Charge, yeah. The charge. So the fact that you know you don't have to use batteries anymore because I would always get terrified before, especially before a marathon, I would always take those out, you know, replace the batteries to make sure that it wouldn't die on me that's a good idea in in the middle of the race. I remember this happened to me at Broad Street the one time, is my gym boss was malfunctioning because and because it was one of those where it just poured on us the entire time and some water got in there and it was not working properly. So the fact that with the charge, you know, it's just that little charging cable, the odds of you know water getting in there are less, so then it would function better for you. Um, you know, that's just been really, really helpful for me.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

I've I should have said the gym bus too. That's something else I always run with. Actually, I run with two of them because I I'm strange like that. So like I like me at Alicia experienced this at the 10 miler. We're running, we're running, we're not paying attention. I didn't pay attention to the final beep after the 99 intervals ran. And we're like, man, this is a long interval. What's going on? Like it should be beeping anytime soon. Then I go, oh, we ran out of interval. So now I kind of could, oh, we're down to like 90 uh we're down to like nine intervals left. Let me uh what do you call it? Take my other one, set that one up and get it ready so I can just keep going. Or if I don't know, or if I want to change intervals.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

I don't know how you miss that because when when I hit that, it just starts beeping continuously. When I hit that 99.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

We were probably talking and we just probably never never realized it.

SPEAKER_02 55:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Yeah, I didn't hear it beeping though.

SPEAKER_02 55:08

Yeah, it mine will beep when I hit 99, mine will beep continuously until I shut it off.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

And the other problem is when you're at a Run Disney race, everyone's beeping. Correct. Yeah, yeah. Is that my gym boss? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:23

Yeah. But if you hit 99 at a at a Run Disney race, somebody's gonna tell you because that thing's gonna be obnoxious going off over and over.

SPEAKER_04 55:30

All right, so let's move to the part of the conversation where, you know, if you know, maybe we get so lucky that companies are listening to us, they're not gonna like this part of the episode. And that is, and Bob, I'll start with you. What is something running related that you have purchased or used or an app where all of a sudden you used it and you were like, Nope, I don't need to use that again?

SPEAKER_02 55:54

This hurts me. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 55:56

But I think I know where you're going with this.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

When Jeff came out with uh and and Jeff didn't do it, when but when Galloway Productions came out with the first Jeff Galloway running app, it was not for Android phones. And it would shut off on you automatically, and I used it once, and that was it. Because I was kind of stretching, Greg, to think of something until you mentioned that, and I went, ow. Now, I think that's been improved, but I'm gonna candidly tell you also I don't know, I didn't go back and check. It was working well for Apple, but it wasn't working for Android.

SPEAKER_04 56:35

Yeah, I remember one of my biggest frustrations with it was again, I'm an Android phone user as well. Where if I went to go turn off my screen, it would it would pause the app. Yeah, it would shut off in that way, you know, you you weren't getting the notifications. And for me, there was a lot of promise to it because I really enjoyed hearing those encouraging messages from Jeff, and especially now, I would love to hear those. You know, maybe maybe I need to get back on the horse and and and give it a try because uh to be able to have them in my ear would you know really be beneficial. Yeah, I miss that guy. I know me too. Well, I'll say the one thing that I purchased that um I guess I have a little bit of buyer's remorse with, and that is it's a company called NYX, and they are a biosensor uh patch company. So the one thing I I was running into, this was maybe gosh, two years ago or something like that, was I remember I would come back from a run, a really long run, and I would eat you know be like standing in the shower or something like that, and I would get just feeling awful and then lightheaded, and I didn't know what was wrong with me. Almost to the point, like the one time, like I almost had to just like sit down in the shower to make sure that like I didn't clank my head off you know a wall or spic it or something like that. I think overall, I think I diagnosed it down to that was when I was experimenting with Tailwind, and I learned I just learned that unfortunately Tailwind and I are not friends, but the the thing that what led me to purchase these NYX patches was maybe I wasn't taking in enough hydration. So essentially what you would do is you would attach these patches, and and then it would go into like a plastic cartridge, and then you would stick it to like your bicep or something like that, and then it would measure how much you're sweating. Oh, yeah, and then it would give you a recommendation then of okay, this is how much fluid you need to take in in order to keep your your body properly hydrated. And in theory and in practice, it it sounded you know masterful to me. And then all of a sudden, so I started like looking at the data trends, and then I would, you know, I would fill up my bladder and you know, I look like, okay, you know, take in like three ounces of water or whatever. Well, this thing was telling me to be drinking constantly, and it was to the point where I was running out of liquid or I was running out of you know liquid fuel really, really early on. And then two, it was telling me to ingest so much that like my belly just felt bloated full of all this liquid, and I just I did not enjoy that sensation at all. So I think the technology in practice is a really good idea. I just I I'm not sure if it was up for prime time, or you know, maybe I just you know, even after reading the instructions, maybe I wasn't using it properly or something like that. So unfortunately, I bought like one pack of these patches and you know to give it a try, and I've never gone back to it since.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

Oh, interesting. Because I was looking at that a couple and then maybe not a year ago, that that the NYX, the NYX, NIX, right? Yep. I was looking at them, I go, I mean, I'd like to, I would like to get that, you know, like but you know, because I sweat a lot and I'm don't know what I'm you know, what my proper hydration would be, how much sodium I can tell some days like when the sweat's pouring in your eyes and you can't see because it's burning like salt. But I let's see how much am I getting enough salt? Am I getting enough re electrolytes back in my system? But maybe uh I should rethink that that that what do you call product?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:39

But again, that's just my experience. Your experience could be vastly different than mine. Like I know I I got the recommendation from our buddy, our favorite pacer with a cape atom. Like he, you know, he has talked glowingly about this product, and you know, he answered all my questions about it, and I I know it's something that he enjoys using, but again, you know, it just you know just didn't work out for me. But all right, Alicia, let's move to you on this one. What do you have buyer's remorse with?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:03

So it's not on a tech piece of it, but it is running related. So the first thing that did come to my mind is you already brought up the product Tailwind. I know you and I tried it around the same time, and I also had the same experience, which it's a great product for a lot of people, but I had a lot of um stomach upset with it. Um also um compression socks, I think they're great for a lot of people. I naturally have bigger calves and bigger thighs, and so not that it goes up to my thighs, but trying to put them on, I feel like is not worth the the piece of the recovery that I end up getting from it. There's other things I can do for recovery. So that's one thing that I've bought a couple pairs of them and they just sit there because I don't don't use them.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:49

But I don't either. You know, some folks run in them.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

Yeah. Uh Meb Meb runs in compression sleeves on his legs. Yeah. So but I'm with you. I'm I'm not big on them either.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

I run I I anything oh for the 10 miler and up, I run I run in uh compression sleeves on my calves.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:09

And and they they seem to work. I mean good.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:12

Yeah, I have no doubt that they work. I just for me it it it's such a bother to put them on. Oh, indeed it is. I know for a fact they do help. I just the reward and and the piece trying to get them on. I'm just like, it there's other things I can do.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:29

I remember reading Meb's book, 26 Marathons, and he had he had a problem with his sleeve and one I forget which race it was, but he's debating with himself do I take the time to take this off and fix it or not? And he eventually decided, no, it just takes too much time to put him back on. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:47

All right, John, do you have any thoughts on the matter?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

I had some stupid headlight I bought that I kind of didn't remember. No, yeah. You know, I put it on, then it you tighten the screw, and then you run, then the headlights pointing down at the ground, and you gotta fix it again, you know. So I mean, but now I got that uh that that what's the name of that vest? Nox gear. Oh yeah. Nox gear vest, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

So you all have that and you like them.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:13

Oh yeah, that's a that's a great item. Um I bought I bought shoe lamps. Oh, interesting. I wore shoe lamps once.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

Once they were worthless. All right, so we chatted about what we really like, what we didn't like, but if uh I guess you know, John, if money was no object, what is something that you currently own that maybe you would want to upgrade or just something you're super intrigued to try in the running technology space?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:48

Yeah, I saw these on uh on an ad on Facebook. I think it was Facebook, or was it something they're called Engo sunglasses? They're it's like a heads-up display in your in your so like while you're running, you you instead of look down your watch, it's got like a little heads-up display in the in the corner of the glasses, so it's like what your pace is, what your heart rate is, all that I guess all your data from your watch is going to your topics.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

Like the meta glasses, but like a meta glasses, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:21

I don't I have I have an early pair of meta glasses. They don't I don't have a heads-up display in there. Okay, I can ask for information like what's my current pace and like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:32

All right, friends. I I just looked this up. Uh, it's spelled E N G O. Yes, and go, yeah. And it looks like there's a couple of different models, and it looks like the cheapest model right now is retailing for just under $350.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

For a pair of sunglasses, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:52

For a pair of sunglasses, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

I lose constantly. Constantly.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:00

Okay, yeah. I'm looking at some photos now. So, yeah, see, you can see the time, your looks like your lap pace, your your heartbeat. Interesting. I have never heard of this before. No, I'm I'm so glad we did this conversation now because I would I would have had no idea. That's so cool. All right, Alicia, if you're going shopping for new running gear or you or a new maybe it's a new app you want to try or something like that, what what are you gonna give a go to?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

So for things that I I do genuinely want to upgrade is my headphones. I have um open ear headphones, and I would like to get the the shocks open ear ones, but if money wasn't an piece of the puzzle, um I would love to get an ice bath. I have taken a cold shower every day for I don't know, going on two, three years. Um, and so I really enjoy. That piece of it. It really helps my mental health. So I would love to have an ice bath.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:06

Good for you. And I understand they're good for you. I'm not going to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

Yeah, it's not for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:12

I get a kick out of uh people talking about taking a cold shower or the last minute of your shower, just turning on the cold water. And I think, well, let's see. If that extended my life by six months, and I spent three of those six months in a cold shower, it wouldn't be worth it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:32

Yeah, that's like the whim. That's the Wim Hof method. I uh if you've ever read the book Wim Hof, he's like the they call him like the ice, the ice guy. Like he's that that's his way of getting himself healthy, says his ice bath, and that's something that he goes by.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:47

Yeah, there's some medical evidence to support that for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:50

There is. I mean, there's some medical things. Don't just go and do a cold shower or an ice bath if if you aren't um up to date on things or um if you have some medical conditions, especially if you have a heart condition, yeah. Right. So I'm not giving the advice to go do it. I'm just saying that that's something that I would like um like to have.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:11

I got an outdoor shower here, which I will use from time to time. It's not, but it's not freezing cold. I mean, the water's in the hose and the hose is outside. So it in fact you have to let it run for a couple seconds because the first couple of seconds of the water is pretty hot.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:28

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:29

But then it gets down to being cool. Uh and I'll do that sometimes, but that's about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:34

I know we all have Strava. I mean, Strava's like what we if it if it's not on Strava, it never happened, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:07:40

Right, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:41

But there's a there's a really good extension to Strava called PB PBR.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:50

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:51

You you go open up pp viewer.com and link your Strava account. It pulls all your Strava data and you can sort all that data, okay. What was my fastest 5k in 2026? You could sort in that data. You could it then it gives you your average pace, your miles, it's all that data in your Strava gets pulled in. You can put it in Excel into a spreadsheet. And if you're a data junkie, things perfect for you. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:19

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:20

I think it would make me sad.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

I used to do this much faster.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:26

That's like I I know, like when you when you do your Strava, it goes uh similar runs and you you see your line going, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:36

Now, John, uh question on this one is do you have to have a paid Strava account for this to work, or can it work with just the the free version?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:45

That's a great question because I do have a paid account, so I have that. So do I've had I've had one for many years, so I don't know if it's uh that, but I it should be able to pull it. I don't see why not.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:59

Now that you say this, let me ask you and Bob, since Bob, you know, you said you you do it as well, explain to me what is the benefit of having a paid Strava account? Because I I get the you know the the push notifications for hey, you know, free trial ends and you know we'll give you this discount or whatever, but I've never seen the benefit to it, so tell tell me what the benefit is.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:27

I forgot that. Yeah, I've lost track, Greg. Yeah, the the honest answer is I've lost track. I I don't know uh what I can get to that you can't. Maybe I can I think I can find that out.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:38

Well, I think one thing that I can do, because I did this for you once before, Greg, was I could create routes.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:45

Yes, that's one thing for sure. Um I just go on map my run then on a computer and and make myself a route and send it to myself and then still use Strava.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:57

Yeah, I'm I'm looking here, Greg. I'm looking at Strava now and I'm looking what is available only through subscription subscription and in dashboard setting goals, uh uh training logs, training plans I don't use. I do use the fitness and freshness number. It's a it's a number that Strava will assign to your current state of training. It's not an absolute, I just use it for relative. Like I I look back and some dopey years back I was at 70 something and now I'm at 30 something. Uh so that's yeah. What else you got, John?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

We also have uh if I've if it's still there, I haven't opened it up in a while. Uh those two those two guys we had on uh years ago. Oh, yes, the recovery guys, yeah. The recovery app came came came in with it right now too. So that was real real good. I was using that a lot. They do have a lot of other perks, like uh they have they have a training plants. I mean, like like Bob said.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:00

Do you guys get different challenges? Like you know how you can sign up for the the challenges?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:05

It's hard for me to know because I I only have what I have, so it's hard to know. But I can create a route, uh, use heat maps for what's active in my area. Do you get heat maps on yours?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:19

I I honestly don't look into the data that much on Strabova, so I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:27

All I know is that I thought it was worth it, and I continue to get it.

SPEAKER_09 1:11:32

Okay, very nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:34

Yeah, for me, I I have a couple things on on my wish list for the future. Um, Alicia, I'm right there with you in terms of headphones. I really, really enjoy my shocks, and I have the I have an older model of the open airs, you know, the one that you know does connect um you know in the back. Because I I love the idea. I think, and and again, go ahead and make fun of me on social media for this one. I think I have very, very oddly shaped ears. So like when the whole idea of like the Apple AirPods came out and and such, anytime I have ever tried to put an earbud or something like that in my ear, it immediately falls out. Yeah, so like so like when the when the concept of bone conduction came along and be able to listen to audio, that was like my saving grace. And plus, I like the safety feature of it too, the fact that I can hear what is going on while you know listening to a podcast or my music or or such. The part that I'd be intrigued by is not that I think it ever bothers me with like with like the band in the back, but now that they have been able to do the same technology where they just wrap over each ear individually, I'm wondering if I would find even more comfort in that as opposed to having the band on the back. So I I'm intrigued by that, but at the same time, I'm also like, well, that would also scare me too, because like what if I lose one and have to replace it? At least I know like you know, everything's gonna be connected and they're pretty secure on there. So that that's one thing, and then the other thing that that I really will make the investment in down the line is, and I really have nothing bad to say about the Koros brand of watches. Um, you know, I've been using mine probably now since late 2022, early 2023.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:32

Yeah, it's been a couple years.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:34

And again, I've had no issues with the watch, it's got a lot of great features that I use. You know, the their app is is pretty intuitive. But if there's one thing that Garmin has that Koros doesn't, and I forget which one of you brought it up earlier, it might have been you, Alicia, is I miss the live tracking. You know, you know, the fact that you know, if I have to go out in the long run, especially in the fact that you know, like this fall, you know, training for New York, training for Goofy, and you know, my wife just wants to be able to get a bird's eye view of how far I'm you know at doing so that way she doesn't have to like text me and have to worry about like pulling out my phone and stuff like that. I I truly, truly wish that you know Koros had that feature. Now, I think the reason why I had moved away from Garmin to Koros is at that given year, Koros was they were the battery life watch. Right. That's right, and they and they and they cornered the market on that. Obviously, I think Garmin has really upped their technology in the last couple of years to be able to you know stay on even par with Koros uh in relation to that. I mean, no, I don't think I would ever go this far into it, but yeah, I mean I know Garmin's even got those watches that like have the solar you know charging to them. So like even when you're out on the run, your watch is getting charged you know by sunlight. Yeah, but you gotta run with a solar panel. That's kind of tough.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:05

So like an umbrella or what is how does it work?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:08

Maybe you know, maybe it's like one of those umbrella hats uh Coach Twiggs wore hard rock or the one here. But yeah, so eventually, you know, once my Koros watch does uh bite the dust, I I will definitely be going back to Garmin. But again, it's been a reliable enough product that I truly don't know when you know that that's gonna happen. So those are the two things on my wish list.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:31

Yeah, yes, good.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:32

So we've talked a lot about various you know sectors of of the running sphere. We've talked apps, we've talked watches, we've talked footwear, sleeves, headphones. I feel like we've covered a good gamma here. So hopefully this conversation was uh a good foray into what we like, what we don't like, and uh you know, maybe if you're in the market for some of these new products, hopefully we've uh helped inspired you or or uh at least led you in a direction of where to look for um the you know the latest and greatest when it comes to running tech.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:03

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

Zoom Plans And Summer Challenge Note

SPEAKER_02 1:16:09

All right, thanks guys. Good stuff. Uh just looking ahead a little bit, we just finished a zoom. Well, we finished one this morning, Tuesday. We'll start one again sometime when registration comes back. But as as our Thursday evening zooms go, the next one will be next week, June 11th. Really hope to see you there. We've been getting a few new faces to drop by, and I think that's really wonderful. I love meeting, seeing new people. We get to we get to know you a little bit through Facebook, but we love it when you come to the zoom zooms, and you can see us all, and we're all about two inches tall in the little square there, and it's uh it's a lot of fun. So we enjoy those. And now please stand clear of the door.

Spotlight Virtual Race With Puppet Runner

SPEAKER_02 1:16:59

It's time for a race report. The uh race report sponsored by Tom Stokes, Stoked Metabolic Training, Stokes.fit slash rise and run coaching. Uh, we alluded to it earlier in the podcast. Tom has started his summertime challenge. So if you're in there, I I will get in there, gang. I I alluded also to the not being in the best of health right now, but I will be. And it's a great thing. It's a really, really great thing. So uh if you're in it, great. Uh I hope to see you at one of Tom's future uh Zoom calls. And if not, there are still other plans that Tom has available you may be interested in. Before we get into this week's report, let's visit with a friend of ours. We know him as Andrew. You may or may not, but you see him at nearly every race with his friend Remy or whoever he happens to be running with that week. The puppet runner is here with us, and he's got something he wants to talk about. He's got a neat idea, a virtual run he's got going. And he has even joined us from Walt Disney World, where he's at Fort Wilderness. Andrew, welcome back to the podcast. Great to see you.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:18

Hey, it's great to be here with y'all again. Yes, I am the man on the scene today. I'm in the middle of a very muggy Fort Wilderness.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:28

Oh, golly. Yes, friends.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:30

We're in full swamp conditions out here. It's it's delightful.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:33

Well, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining us. You're getting really popular on these runs. You're becoming a uh a character stop unto yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:40

Yeah, I think I think Disney Security has just about had it with me. Um no, actually, I've yeah, I've the the lines have gotten a little bit um cumbersome when people are stopping to take pictures. I actually crashed a Disney Security meeting um after I was cheering on the boardwalk. I saw them all gathering uh over there where jelly rolls was, and uh they were I I kind of stuck my head in going, hey, I just want to tell y'all I really appreciate everything you do, and I'm so sorry for any trouble we caused you for for getting together and and uh chatting on the side. They were really sweet. They're they're they're great, they're a great group of people. So I was glad I got to tell them. I'm so sorry. I'm not meaning to make a roadblock for you. I just have a I just have a lot of awesome friends, that's all.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:25

That's that's a fact. We all do, and that's the one thing uh Sir, we need you to step back a little bit, please. That's the that's oh I get off the course. That's the most I've ever heard from them. But that's neat. But Andrew, what you got going on?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:39

Tell us about this um this virtual run you're you're well I don't know about y'all, but the the Run Disney season is not fair. We we finished up a springtime surprise, and it is an infinity before wine and dine rolls around. Seems like it. It really does. And I was I was missing the Run Disney community, and I wanted a chance to run with everyone in some way, and I need any motivation I can get to get me out and running during the summer. I have an interesting little catch 22 about the summer. Uh, because I'm a teacher and I have to work less during the summer, I have more time to run, which is awesome. I also live in the middle of Georgia, where it's basically like you know, running in a ceramics kiln during uh during the summer. And so you're like, yay, I have time. You go outside and go, oh gosh, I'm dying. So anything that can get me moving is good. And I've enjoyed virtual races from time to time. Um, sometimes they motivate me more than others, and uh, but I love just the camaraderie that's that's in a race. I was like, I want to have a race for all for all my friends, and I'll do it, I'll do it a nice virtual race online, and I'll make it free, and I'll set it up so we have all of June to do it, and I'll set up three race instances. So I have a 5k, a 10k, and a half marathon for those who really want to melt and uh have it set up so people can go on runsignup.com and sign up for free. And you just submit your time anytime during the month. Um, it's completely free. Um and uh run sign up has been great. Um, I really appreciate what they bring to the running community. Um, they're they're uh I I was so afraid that um when I was setting it up with them that you know there'd be some kind of issue, and they were wonderful. I mean, and I'm a free race, I'm not making them any money. And they were calling me saying, Hey, how can we help you? How can we set it up? Which is that's nice, just amazing. Yeah, that's so that's there. Right now we are creeping up towards a hundred people signed up already. Wow. And uh we have this entire month, I think I have registration set to close like at noon on the last day of the month. End of the month, okay. Lots of time to sign up. Um, while the race is free, I am tying it to um raising money for no kid hungry. Um, I was really excited to have a chance to run for them. I thought if ever there was a perfect organization for a guy who runs as a chef carrying a little chef um to to represent, it would be no kid hungry. And I thought doing a summer race would especially be meaningful because the summer is a tough time for kids who can't get food. Um, they uh the school lunch programs I used to I used to teach in the public school system in South Florida, and I know how important that school lunch system was to a lot of my kids, and when you hit the summer, a lot of those go away. And that one meal the kids could count on is now no longer there. And no kid hungry works hard to connect the kids with food year-round and to fill those gaps. Um, and that's something I can get behind. And so I was really excited that I was able to to uh to run for them, and I'm I am running goofy for them this year. And so I've I've kind of tied this to it. It's the race is free, but for those who are who you know who feel called to uh to donate to No Kid Hungry, um I'm I'm definitely look excited to support them and try to get some donations their way. Now, the race is about as no frills as you get. Um there's no shirt. Uh there were no bibs until someone who signed up made bibs and put up nice blanks. So in the photo section, there's bibs so you can download and make yourself a bib. Um very cool. I got in, I got on Facebook somebody, but she had made like bibs for me. I was like, this is very cool. So we have bibs, but no t-shirts, no banana. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:01

No cheese.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:01

Um no plastic cheese. No plastic cheese. I've oh it's a BYOP. Bring your own banana. It's bring your own E BYOE, it's bring your own everything. Uh but for those um the for those who do donate to No Kid Hungry, I have gotten some uh like race wristbands made up and and uh I always have my puppets. And so I'm gonna to those folks I'm gonna send a little little happy care package uh after the race. But but they're gonna have to run it and put in a time. All right, that's it's it's we we we're we're we're gonna we're gonna push ourselves that far. So but uh it's people are open to to register for one or all three. I have no limit. I'm gonna try to run all three. And uh I have an event for it on Facebook, and uh hopefully we can get some discussion going there. I hope we get people sharing pictures of them doing it so we can kind of have a it's not just a virtual run, but it's kind of a summer celebration of our community, and uh I it I just want to feel like I'm running running with this group. I just think that'll be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:10

All right, Andrew. So you've mentioned that it's through um run sign up, but how can people find it? Is there um a web link that they um can go to?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:22

Sure, and I will I will post the link. The easiest way is probably go to run sign up and look for just do a quick search on Puppet Runners Summer Virtual Race, and it'll pop up, pop up easily. Probably even easier than uh than trying to type in a long link. But uh I will I will definitely post into the Ryzen Run group a link to that. And um, I have a separate link that I will post to um to donate for no kid hunger. There we go. Um I'm not doing any of those donations through the uh through through the race website because I wanted it to be really free, no strings attached there. So uh so there's a separate link for that for any for anyone who is interested in that. Um there's also a um you can also reach that through through Facebook. There's a Facebook event. You just look for Puppet Runner for through for my page over there. Um there's also information about it on puppetrunner.com. So all of those places have have links and information on both the race and no kid hungry.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:22

Well, Andrew, thank you so much for all the details, and I can't wait to see how you incorporate your extended family of uh of puppets into this race. And I I guess the extended family can also extend to the Run Disney community as well, but obviously got to include your puppets as well. So thank you so much uh for providing us all these details, and uh, we look forward to seeing you on a course uh you know coming up uh this upcoming season.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:48

That's great. I really appreciate the chance to talk with you and uh send this invite out to everyone. It's great to talk with all of you today. Can't wait to run with y'all again, either virtually or in person.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:58

You know, great Andrew's Andrew's become, as I said at the beginning, a really good friend of the uh of the Rise and Run family. You will see him. He shows up before the races, and if he doesn't stay long, he will always drop by and visit with us in our little meetup area prior to the runs. Then he gets out on the course, and he's becoming uh, as he should be, a very well-known character out there as a lot of fun. He's he's a nice man, uh, a lot of fun. And I'm gonna take a look at that. I'm going to sign up for something, so I'm gonna take a look at that virtual run he's doing, and I hope you will consider it also.

Race Reports From Around The World

SPEAKER_02 1:27:34

All right, let's take a look now. I got a late report here, but and I typically don't do this, as you know, my friends, but this one's understandable. This one was the Cape Town, South Africa Marathon. It was a week ago. Matt did it. He says it was every bit the African major we were promised, and as many of you are aware, this will probably become world major number eight. The not too distant future. True road racing, stunning views, the best organized expo, and porta potties. Anywhere. Cape Town showed up to prove it belongs to the world stage. That's a hallmark of world majors is the support from the city that's hosting them. Course is challenging, long inclines, a few hills, then some really fast sections to make up for it. A little bit warm started in the mid-60s, but plenty of water power rating, Coca-Cola at the stops. Local race fuel like salty potatoes and fruit at many points. I have read that salty potatoes are great. More potassium than a banana, I believe. I think Carissa would second that. Now Matt fought through some tough times at the leg cramps in the second half, not unusual in a marathon, especially on a warm day. So he finished off the pace that he wanted. No regrets, though. Amazing experience. His wife and two of their Disney friends were there. So Matt, glad we were able to catch up on that one with you. Now, going back just to Wednesday of this week in North Carolina, the Brindley Beach Lighthouse 5K series, Skyler ran it. The races they go weekly in Corolla, North Carolina, throughout the summer. Become an annual tradition during their vacation each year. He finished in just under 22 minutes this year. Whew! Good pace. Seventh overall, first in the age group. Skylar, nice job. Let's go to Saturday. Go to Saturday, go to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Talk about our buddy Joe running the Survivors 5K. Only two amigos this time, but a lot of good folks out there. I am impressed when I see Joe's reports with the number of senior runners they'll get out in Fort Smith, Arkansas, because Joe ran third in his age group. And Joe's in the over 80 age group, if they have one. Sometimes they cut it off at 70 and above. Regardless, he did well. He got third. They didn't have any third place medals, so they gave him a second place medal. Buddy Gary got fourth this year. Good job, Joe. Panama City Beach on the Florida panhandle. Kylie did the Jams on the Coast 5K. It's Kylie's 28th anniversary race, not 28th times at this race, their 28th wedding anniversary. Their plan was to go out and have fun, and that is what they did. Hot and humid. Oh yeah. I'm surprised they're still doing races, even up on the panhandle in Florida. Muddy at the start-finish line due to the days upon days of rain, and it rained during the race. They just lasted and kept going. Really fun vibes, cute metal. Now, back to the beach to enjoy it. Florida had been in an extreme drought. I mean, that's the word that they use for it, extreme drought. But we started getting rain, and especially the panhandle and the southern parts of Georgia and Alabama got drenched. So Kylie saw that on this one. In Boston, Massachusetts, the Fenway Park Half Marathon. Jake did it. They also ran a full and a relay race, and they run it all in Fenway. The half is 56 and a half laps around the park. They started in center field at 5 in the afternoon. They start in the visitors' clubhouse, where the lockers were individually marked for each runner. I don't think they had a lot of runners here, but it was neat. Just like you're a ball player, you had a locker there with your name on it. So Jake had one of those. Then you walk through the tunnel into the visitors' dugout, out on the field. They were able to keep whatever they might need during the race in the dugout. That's pretty neat. The race, to say the least, was a little bit repetitive, 56 and a half laps, but it was great fun. Everybody was encouraging each other all throughout the race because they spent a lot of time near each other. Jake was the first male finisher in the half marathon. They broke out of finisher's tape. He got to run through the tape. Yay, Jake, way to go. And he got a prize. They gave him an authentic number 26 plate from the Green Monster. You know, the Green Monster out there is still a manual. There are still people in there pulling signs and putting numbers into slots. It's not an electronic scoreboard.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:38

All right, John, I have to ask you this. As a Yankees fan like myself, would you ever run this race? You know what? I might do it. I would do it wearing Yankees gear because I mean I I I have never I've never seen uh Fenway, and it's on my list of like historic ballparks that I need to see. But yeah, I I would do it, but but wearing Yankees gear.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:02

Yeah, you need to do that. Fenway and uh and Wrigley. You need to do that. You know what the third oldest stadium is in professional baseball now?

SPEAKER_04 1:33:10

Ooh, um I'm gonna go Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:15

Dodger Stadium. Dodger Stadium.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:17

Oh, Dodger Stadium.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:18

Yeah. You wouldn't think so, but it is. Um yeah, it was it was old Comiskey, but that's been gone for a while. Anyway, it looked like a neat one. I I think Jake did a great job on this and looked like fun. All right, let's continue in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where we had a K-9K race that Liz did supporting K-9 law enforcement professionals, both two-legged and four-legged. Uh, hey, Liz's first 9K. We know what that means. She actually kept a good pace. Volunteers are great. Lots of respect and honoring of the officers before and after the race. Clara was in Des Moines, Iowa for the damn to DSM half. It's a point-to-point race. Uh, it starts at, well, I think she's going to tell us here in a minute. It's her 25th half. Went great. Not much humidity. Made a rain shower. Perfect timing. Started at mile nine. Yeah, and a half marathon. That's great. It starts in at the Sailorville Dam. Then it runs along the river to downtown Des Moines. Now, I thought because it was the DSM half, it would have gone to the airport because DSM is the what they call the Ikeo identifier for the Des Moines Airport, but it didn't. Just goes downtown. The Hills killed her because she trained in Florida. But she finished with a decade PR. Caitlin was in Fargo, North Dakota for the Fargo half marathon. Nice and flat. Lots of awesome support from folks all along the course. Fitzkohler was the race announcer. I haven't talked to Fitz for a little bit. I saw her at Gasparilla earlier this year. She's still doing well, getting out there, doing a lot of race announcing. It makes her a fun morning. It was hot in D in uh Fargo. The first few miles were okay, then the sun came out. Bless the people with their sprinklers and hoses. And then Kayla made some reference to a woodchipper at the end. And I gotta tell you, it took me a minute to add two and two. The wood chipper Fargo.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:35

The movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:36

Yeah, yeah. Great movie. Kind of a gory scene, but lots of fun. Jay's in Wausaw, Wisconsin. Doing the run for their lives 5K. Jay and his dad did this. I think the family did it, but Jay and his dad were wearing their Dalmatian shirts from the marathon a couple years ago. Jay says the kids Amelia and Abby walked with their Aunt Christy and her Dachshund the entire way. Jay's wife Cindy started the race with him. Didn't like the pace he was doing. Dropped back to run with Papa Kevin. Still couldn't find her groove, so she waved him on, rocked her own thing to a nice 13 minute pace. Pretty good for a speedwalker, yeah, it is. Now Dad, Papa Kevin, aforementioned, cruised himself right into a second place age group finish. Way to go. Jay was able to run a good race. He set a new PR by almost four and a half minutes in this 5K. Sounds like a great event for the whole family. Let's go to Sunday. I was going to pronounce this city Carmel because there's a Carmel somewhere, but I heard somebody talking about it on Customize this morning, and it's Carmel. Carmel, Indiana. It was the marathon weekend there. We had a couple folks running. Kathy was there for the 5K. Said temperature's nice and cool, mid-50s, great flat course. Speaking of flat, they had pancakes for breakfast afterward. That's appropriate. Heather was there, ran the half. So they put on a great race. Despite her starting out a little too fast, she hung on for a PR. Improved her best time, which was set back in 1997. So that's awesome, Heather. Got a PR Pilsner in the beer tent, and the pancakes, as she also mentions, were delicious. Riley was in Dexter Ann Arbor for the 5K. Or I think Ann Arbor's the city. I guess it's the Dexter 5K or the Dexter Ann Arbor 5K, or I'm lost in all that. But Riley did it. Did it with the three sons, aged 12, 10, and 8. Perfect weather, beautiful shady course along the Huron River. All three of the children PR.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:18

Are there kids named Charlie Robbie and Sonic?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:20

Ah, John, I'm glad you did that. I'm glad you did that because the theme song was going through my head. Yeah, same thing with me. Yeah, Fred McMurray and yeah. Yeah, good stuff. Uh thank you, John. I feel a little less old now. Mandy's in Mettery, Louisiana for the Rivershack East race, a two-mile run along the levee from the Rivershack Bar to the Huey P. Long Bridge and back. And Mandy was running with Ainsley's Angel, pushing a chair with Ainsley's Angels. First of a two-run series. Hot and human until the race started, and then it started pouring rain. Fun run. She hadn't participated in this kind of run for a long time. Their second run with Ainsley's Angels made it even better. Two-mile race PR from Pandy. MJ in Youngstown, Ohio for the Seoul II City Half. Again, perfect weather. Glad to hear that some of you folks are having great running weather. That's that's good. Upper 40s at the start, only rose into the 60s. Last year there was a huge hill at mile nine, kind of killed everybody. This year, either they moved the hill or they changed the course because the hill's now about mile eight, followed by three more tough ones after that. It's one of those. I love when the race directors, it's net downhill. Jeff Galloway used to do that for his racer. It's net downhill, Bob. It's net yeah, but Jeff. Anyway, uh had to go up 581 feet, come back down 735. Uh, nice to have a crowd still at the end. One guy asked MJ if he could run her in. That's really nice. He assured her that when he got to, he joined her and said, I promise you, this is the last hill. And he was accurate. Uh 25 minutes faster than last year for MJ and a nine-minute half marathon PR. Congratulations. Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Laura was there for a 10K. Not her not her day, not her best day, but she finished, and that's what matters. And Laura, we all know it. They're not all our best days. That's what makes running a mystery. You can go out feeling great and not have a great run. You can go out feeling lousy and set a PR. It just happens. It happens to everybody. Uh good weather. She got to see a lot of active animals after the race as they wandered through the zoo. That a 5K and a 10K. This helps keep the Lincoln Park Zoo free for everyone. She'll always do it, always do the race to support the zoo, but she likes the 5K course a little better than the 10K course. It's shorter. You gotta like that. Let's go to Vancouver for the Bum Run 5K. Michelle certainly did. A lovely flat 5K out and back along the Jericho Beach in Vancouver. Proceeds for this race. Go to screening awareness for colorectal cancer. It's a fun race to run before boarding a Disney Cruise line ship tomorrow. And she got a PR to boot. Well, every run's a fun run if you're boarding a Disney cruise line ship the next day. So good job. And congrats on the PR, uh, Michelle. Let's go to Newport, Rhode Island, where they had a Newport 10 miler. Sarah. Sarah and her husband do this race every year. This year, her stepsister joined also. May have been the best weather yet. Uh she personally believes this is the best course in Rhode Island with 10 scenic miles of ocean views, mansions, and it starts and ends at historic Fort Adams. Rhode Island's not very big. How many 10-mile courses can there be in Rhode Island? Oh man, all my Rhode Island friends are gonna be mad at me now. Let me see if I can make up for it. She talks about those mansions. There's an area there called Cliff Walks, which dates back historically the Vanderbilts had a home there. And when I was fortunate enough to be flying in New England, we would come down the coast there, and those places are just unbelievable. Unbelievably big, beautiful. And I when she talks about seeing the mansions, I assume that's what she's talking about. Uh let's see, local brewery, Ragged Island's a sponsor. You get a beer or two in the fort at the finish, live music. Pretty much the best finish line on the East Coast. That could be, could be, it's possible. Uh Julia was there and did it for the first time. Let's finish up across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom at Hartleypool, England. A city, I'm gonna say about 45 minutes southeast of where our friends Andrew and Jamie live in Newcastle. Now, this was an inaugural event. It was supposed to pour rain, but it didn't. Instead, it got hot. It's been hot in Europe and in the UK last couple weeks. The organizers had to make last-minute changes to this inaugural course, resulting in many out and backs and two loops around a car park. You know what a car park is, Alicia?

SPEAKER_00 1:43:41

A parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:42

That a girl. I know I could count on you. Translating English to English. My proudest moment of translating English to English was years back on a marathon when I was with another British friend, and he went to the aid station and asked for a plaster. And they looked at him funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:58

A band-aid?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:59

He wants a band-aid, yeah. That was uh Peter, right? Yeah, uh uh Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:07

It would take me a minute, but I would I would get there.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:10

You're right. And I couldn't remember. I know I had his name wrong all that time, but anyway. I haven't heard from him basically since that run. All right, back to back to Andrew and Jamie. Jamie finished in 154. That's a that's awesome. Uh Andrew is trying to break two. He wants to break two at the Great North run in September. He shaved another couple minutes off of his last half marathon, finished in 204. Now, the fun part of this one, Hartleypool has a tradition. There's a legend, and I'm I'm going from memory. I read this, but I didn't make any notes on it. A legend that during the Napoleonic Wars a French frigate was sunk in combat off the shores of Hartlepool, and the only survivor was a monkey that the French captain had dressed in a French sailor's outfit. So the monkey comes ashore, and the residents of Hartlepool not knowing French and never having seen a monkey, and never having seen a French person try the monkey as a spy and hang him on the beach. Now, is that true? You have to look it up for yourself. But I will tell you that Hartlepool has a uh has a football club in the British National Division, I believe it's called. That's the that's the fifth level. That would be like Class A baseball, kind of. There they the folks have adopted the story, and the mascot for the football club is Hangus the Monkey. So there you go. So we wrap it up in UK with the story of the Hartley Pool half and Hangus the Monkey, who got hanged as a French spy. There you go, friends. That's the race report for episode 245 of the Rise and Run podcast.

Heat Training Mindset And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 1:46:10

Well, friends, and if you run, you know you are our friends. It's been a pleasure spending time with you. Hope your training's going well. We know that uh it's starting to get hot throughout this the US. Slow down. Summer training equals fall PRs. You'll see, I promise. Happens every year. So keep it up. Have fun. Till we meet again. Happy running.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:52

The rising run podcast is general information about running Disney.