248: Ready, Set...Train! Chris Twiggs Kicks Off runDisney Training

Summer training has a way of turning simple runs into big questions: Why is my pace suddenly slower, how do I stay safe in the heat, and what actually matters in the first weeks of a runDisney build? We sit down with our friend Coach Chris Twiggs to get real answers you can use right away, whether you’re gearing up for Wine & Dine, Marathon Weekend, or dreaming about Dopey.

Chris takes us from the mountains to the sidewalks, starting with the Hardrock 100, a legendary 100-mile loop in Colorado with 33,000 feet of climbing, high-altitude reality, and the famous finish-line rule: you kiss the rock. From there, we move to the training most of us are doing now. We talk consistency over speed, how to stop comparing yourself to last season, and why “pixie dust” is not a training plan even when the races are full of magic.

The heart of the conversation is heat training and performance. We break down what heat does to your body, how to acclimate on purpose, and how to cool yourself during runs. Chris shares clear red flags to stop a workout, plus hydration and electrolyte cues that too many runners miss. We also cover treadmill strategy, long-run pacing as a speed limit, and why your treadmill is usually more trustworthy than your watch indoors.

We also spotlight the Miles To Go 5K in Orlando (with a virtual option) and celebrate race weekend stories, including Nannah’s first marathon at Grandma’s Marathon and her mom, Ellen’s, half marathon PR. Listen, share with a running friend, and leave us a review, then tell us: what’s the one habit you’re locking in to stay consistent this season?

Chis Twiggs’s Links
Hard Talk Podcast
Customized Training

Miles to Go Links
Miles to Go Website
Miles to Go 5K Regitration

Rise and Run Links
Rise and Run Podcast Facebook Page
Rise and Run Podcast Instagram
Rise and Run Podcast Website and Shop
Rise and Run Patreon
Runningwithalysha Alysha’s Run Coaching (Mention Rise And Run and get $10 off)
Johns Fundraising Link For The Special Forces Foundation

Transcript

Crossing Boston Without Racing

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Hey, rise and run fam. This is Amy from Nashville out on a run in Boston. I just crossed the Boston Marathon finish line. I'll never run Boston, but that was amazing to get to do this weekend. So get out there, get your fall training runs in, and we'll see you soon. Happy running.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Amy from Nashville crossing the Boston Marathon finish line, but not at the Boston Marathon, and that's okay. Got to make the turn onto Boylston Street and walk down there. You know, the line's painted there. Uh and you you can see it at any time. And be before I go further, hello,

Welcome And A Shoe Size Surprise

SPEAKER_00 1:27

my friends. Welcome to episode 248 of the Rise and Run Podcast. We're glad that you're here, even though I'm rambling on. Uh we're glad that Amy left us a uh an intro. I'm Bob and I'm here this week with Jack.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Hiya.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

With John. Hey, how are you doing? And with Alicia.

SPEAKER_05 1:44

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

And Greg is missing this week. So we're gonna mess up a lot in the course of our recording, so we give him a lot of extra work to do and editing. No, we're not gonna do that. Uh back to a quick story. I d I I know I'm kind of out of sequence. But that Boston, I've seen it one time on Boylston Street. I was up there also, and there's a running store very close to it. And uh years back, maybe eight or nine years ago, I was visiting my daughter up there, and I went into that running store to get a pair of shoes, and I did what any good coach or shoe expert will tell you just go in and say, Hey, I want shoes. Don't tell them what size you are, don't let the professionals decide what you need. So I had been running in size 13 running shoes for years, like from the time I was in high school. But I walked in, I said, I want some shoes, but I think you need to measure me. It was a young lady who measured me, and I did say something about being a 13, and she looks up at me and she smiles and she goes, Sir, you're not a 13, you're a 15, maybe a 16. Oh, well, that would explain why my toes hurt. Anyway, Amy, see what you did. You made me think of that story, and I've been wearing 15 15s ever since. Hey, this week we got a wonderful interview with our good friend coach Chris Twiggs. He's back. It's been a little while since Chris was with us. We talk hard rock, we talk training, we talk summer heat, we talk what's going on with customized training. So we know you're going to enjoy that. And we got a nice spotlight. Our friend Nana did her first marathon at grandma's, and her mother did the half, so they joined us. And then as a little extra, Tracy and Danielle dropped by to tell us about a really important charity run that they're sponsoring in the Orlando area.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

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

SPEAKER_11 4:19

We also want to thank our Patreons who support help 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.

Training Plans And Key Dates

SPEAKER_05 4:31

Well, we already know what the themes are for springtime surprise. We chatted about them last week. But the real question is if you know you're running it, have you tried and booked your hotel room yet? Well, this is probably the time to really start looking into it. And Magic Bound Travel can do all that and more. They can set you up for a really amazing trip, whether it's your first time doing this race weekend or you're pro at it now. Go ahead and check out Magic Bound Travel at magicboundtravel.com.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Good deal, Jack. And hey, while we're at it, anything new on YouTube?

SPEAKER_05 5:06

Yes. So we, of course, the Run Disney Resort series is continuing on, and we we will be running this week at the uh Caribbean Beach Resort and Riviera Resort. I it was a beautiful run. I cannot wait to share this with you. This will be coming out uh Thursday morning, so the day of this episode. So if you are looking for a run to do on the treadmill again, or you just want to go have a relaxing little background view of the resort while I'm running, go for it. This is a fun time, and I look forward to sharing more.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I like it, Jack. Good job with those. Thanks. Hey, a quick apology. Last week's race report, the Eagle Eagleman Eagleman triathlon. I referred to the one of the people that finishes Carol, and I should refer to her as Carol Grace. I don't always know, especially ladies. Sometimes ladies will use their maiden name in their Facebook name, and I can't always tell if you go by one or two names, but I want to get it right. So Carol Grace did that one. Congratulations, Carol Grace, on finishing that triathlon. Let us take a look at the training schedule. And I have buttons up here for different sound effects, but I don't have one for a drum roll. If I did, I'd use it because wine and dine training has started. Wine and drying training began this week. If you're a typical Tuesday, Thursday runner, it actually began today, the day that we're recording. This is training week one. We are 17 weeks away from the Wine and Dine Expo, 119 days. Your long run this week on the Jeff Galloway training schedule is three miles. Now, next week we start marathon weekend training. Little unusual in past years, it's been the other way around. Marathon weekend training has started first and then wine and dine, but a little bit of a shift in the dates for those races. So Wine and Dine this week, marathon next week. I saw our friend Mark posted some training schedules. He does a nice job of creating great-looking training schedules, and he posted those to our Facebook group page. Let's see, we are 12 days away from registering for the last race of the season, springtime surprise. That registration day is the 7th of July, and that's for those who are not in Club Run Disney for the rest of us. Club Run Disney folks registered a week earlier. Uh we've been we've been talking other races. I'll to do that again next week. We'll leave it go for now.

Real Talk On Summer Heat Running

SPEAKER_00 8:00

But with the training starting for Wine and Dine weekend, friends, what kind of training updates do we have?

SPEAKER_05 8:08

Well, it technically hasn't happened yet, but this weekend I'll be going back into my training and I will be doing an eight-miler, which honestly to me right now just sounds like a lot because I'm just trying. I what I've been doing since being here in Orlando is I'm just trying to get used to the heat. It's a whole different beast than being in Georgia. It's like doesn't matter if I'm waking up in the morning. It's gonna be mid-70s already, regardless of what time I wake up. So it's like, do I run in the sun? Do I wake up early and still feel the heat? I I'm still trying to figure it out. So this will be my first kind of long run. And I'm genuinely looking forward to it because I'm going to learn how to figure out and problem solve probably during it. Um, and I think that's always a great experience to have is always learning something new and learning how to solve that problem as it happens so that you're ready in the future. So I'm looking forward to that. And I've just an I already know I talked about it for the YouTube stuff, but I'm I'm genuinely enjoying running at all the resorts. Um I'm crazy thing is, is I'm I'm actually almost done with running at the resort.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, is that right?

SPEAKER_05 9:24

Yeah, I just gotta edit. But um yeah, it's just uh yeah, it I it's been a spectacular time um running. And I also want to put this out there if you are planning to run while you're on vacation this summer at one of the Disney's resorts, I know the bus thing for Disney Springs is an issue apparently to try and get to resorts, you know, or whatnot. I haven't had any issues getting to a resort to run at it. Um, and I I I haven't used Disney Springs at all as an option. There are so many different ways. You could park at um any of the four parks, especially if you're staying at a resort, you're not being charged to park anyways at the hotel or sorry, you're not being charged to park at the parks, correct?

SPEAKER_00 10:14

At the parks you are, yes. Even if you're staying at the party, if you're staying at a resort. Oh, I'm sorry. If you're staying at a resort, no, you're not charged to park at the parks. You're right.

SPEAKER_05 10:27

Yeah, that's what I thought. And or if you're an annual pass holder, or if you don't even have a car, you can still pop over to one of the parks and then take a bus over to wherever you want to go to do those runs. I am so excited, and I can't wait to take you guys along for these long runs on the Disney resorts without it being a race. I want to explore all the sidewalks that Disney has to offer.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Oh, good luck.

SPEAKER_05 10:52

But um, but yeah, anyways, for this run, I'm just trying to get used to the heat. And um, I know we'll be talking to Chris Twiggs in a little bit, but what he's saying in this interview, I'm very excited about because we talk a little bit about heat training, and I need to get my act together with some of the stuff that he's saying, and I don't want to reveal it because I don't want to ruin the interview, but I'm gonna be working on my heat training this summer.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Well, you you're in the right place to do it. Hey, I want to make sure I said that correctly, and and you did too, Jack, because I have an annual pass, so I don't pay for parking. If you're if you're staying at a resort, I know you do not pay for parking at the resort. Do you pay for parking at the parks if you're staying at a resort?

SPEAKER_11 11:36

I believe not. I believe you do not have to pay for parking if you're staying at a resort.

SPEAKER_05 11:40

All right, I just googled it. Here is the AI answer. No, you do not pay for a theme park parking if you are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel. So, hey, you guys, there we go.

SPEAKER_11 11:53

Okay, and I know you get free parking as a DVC member, also, but that's only if you're on a DVC reservation. So if if if you're a local that has DVC and you try to park, you will have to pay. Good stuff. Any other training updates?

SPEAKER_04 12:10

So I actually did an eight-mile run last week. Um, I'm training for an upcoming 10-miler that's local to me. But I found that I got to mile five and I went, oh, whoa, I'm already to mile five. And there's not an official what would Alicia do this week, but I just want to remind our friends that like you're gonna hit some of these miles that you've never done before. Obviously, you've done eight miles before, but in your training, you're gonna hit mileage that you haven't done before. And there will come a point that things become easier, and you'll have those runs where those you'll get to a point where you go, Oh, I'm already there, or oh, that doesn't feel so bad. Um, and I had one of those moments, and I have been looking forward to this long run for two weeks because I had missed the week before. Um, I had twisted my ankle. Oh I I'm accident prone, you guys know this too to the podcast. Um, I'm fine. But I was really looking forward to it, so I was glad that it it felt really good. And yeah, when I got to that five miles, I was like, sweet, all right, I'm already done with five miles. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:17

That's the best feeling in the world.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Later in the episode, I'll refer to the two most commonly asked questions, but there's another question that people tend to ask, which is if I'm doing all this training, when does it get easier? And my answer to that is it basically doesn't, but a day will come when you look at your training schedule and you go, Oh good, I only have five miles this week.

SPEAKER_15 13:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

And you will you will get there. Now you may you may not be, you may be there today, but you may not. You may be looking ahead. So it's going to come just just stay, and you're gonna hear this word again, just stay consistent. That's really key. John, anything going on in training?

SPEAKER_11 14:00

I gave me a long run last Saturday because I'm doing a five-mile race actually today, right? Because it's today. Uh how'd you? I I don't know yet. Um I'm it's it's it's still morning. This case drops at four o'clock. The race is until the 7 30 at night, so it's still have some time. Oh, okay. Uh but yeah, so I this is that race is usually my kickoff training we race for Disney running because it always lines up. It's the last good Thursday, it's the last Thursday of June every year, which is basically the time that Run Disney training gets off. So hopefully uh I when I'm done, I'll hop on the Zoom call and talk to you guys uh oh outstanding Thursday night.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Outstanding, yeah, that'd be great. Um yeah, training for me is like it is for most of you. Jack, you talked about training in the heat. Golly, I've been here I've been here six years. Seven years, seven years now. Golly, time flies. Uh I don't know that you get used to it. I think you get used to uh making accommodations and working through it. Something I've noticed, I'm doing some hill training. That's right, I'm doing hill training in Florida. We talked about that before. Uh but and I'm and that's to get ready for burden hand. But uh I'm doing the same training that you all are. One thing I have done, and this I think has to do with being just a little bit older, I pay I'm paying a little bit more attention now to heart rate. And if my heart rate gets up beh beyond a certain limit, I the last couple races, last couple races, last couple training sessions, I've been walking through the next run break. So if I'm doing, let's say if I'm doing 3030s, and right now I'm using 160, 165 as an upper limit, which for a fellow my age is pretty high. Uh, but it's it's okay. I mean, I can handle it. But that's kind of my flag to go, all right. It's hot, your blood's pumping faster to try and dissipate some of that heat. So give it a rest, slow down through one walk break, and through yeah, walk through one of your running breaks. And by the time that I do that, I'm usually down to 140s, so I'm good there. So that's a little tip that I've been doing, and maybe it'll help you out. Getting ready, getting accommodated, uh, acclimated and used to the heat, it's just a hard, hard thing. If you can avoid direct sun exposure, it will help you. The sun heats, the sun does not heat the air, the sun heats the things that it strikes. The sun heats the earth, the earth heats the air, but the sun strikes you and it heats you too. So if it's a cloudy day, if you can stay in the shade, that will help you out. But it's this there's no good answer, there's no right answer. But we got the training going, and uh I hope, friends, that you have too.

Tracking Weather And Training Notes

SPEAKER_11 17:13

I have an app that integrates with my Strava. Uh it's it's called uh Killmat.app. So basically it tags all my uh runs on Strava with the with the with the start time, what the what the temperature, uh the feels like, the humidity, the dew point, the wind speed. So if you can always go back and look at what the weather was on your on your runs. It's a it gives you a little more detail, a little more detail than what Strava kind of uh gives you. What's that called, John? It's called climate.app. And I've been using it for a while, and it it tells me all the stuff that happens, all the stuff I can do. And like I actually it's just a free version, and but there's a pay version where you can add more stuff to it. I think it's only like five or ten bucks a year. So I I got that. It's it's pretty cool. I'll take a look at it.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Speaking of the beginning of training, one thing that I learned years ago from our friend Laura from the Netherlands is she got a notebook um and she just wrote it out um as like a training notebook and would write um how her run went and everything. And to your point, John, about paying attention to the temperature, writing things down like that can definitely help to go back not only to see your progress, but also to see, okay, I felt poorly or great during this run because of XYZ. And obviously, there's variables that may affect it one way or another that you could have a good run and not it could still be hot, but it's just another thing that might help people, especially if it's your first marathon or your first half marathon, to just kind of have a place to go back and look at things.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

I think that's a great idea. I used to do that, Alicia. I used to keep a spreadsheet. And uh I may start doing it again because I find it to be a motivator also. Yeah, when you finish, you uh you fill out your your training log. Golly, years ago, way back in the last century, the 1980s, uh I did the Honolulu Marathon in 1988, and I had a friend made me our we each had our own personal bound training journals. Golly, I wish I could find that thing. It's gone forever, but it would be really neat to look at now.

SPEAKER_09 19:38

Caution Runners, change of topic ahead.

Coach Chris Twiggs Returns

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Hey friends, he hasn't been with us for a while, but a long time friend of the podcast is back. Chris Twiggs. It's good to see you again, my friend. Welcome back to Rise and Run.

SPEAKER_12 19:55

Bob, thank you so much. It's always wonderful to talk with my friends at the Rise and Run podcast. Um, you know, I I I hear you guys, you guys talk to me every week, and uh, I talk back, but you don't usually hear me. So today at least you get to hear me.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah, I was going through my messages just a moment ago and I realized you had messaged me about uh our places to eat. Oh my gosh, yes. And you said something about sushi, and I thought about it, and when I look back at my places to eat, I had nothing but fish dinners. I had uh the fish pie at the yacht club and uh and uh the beep uh berry bop and the sushi. Yeah, anyway. But that's that's not this episode. Oh no, that's no, we won't go back and and and nitpick the other episode. That was good, though. I really did enjoy that. It was fun. You know, I have to remind myself constantly that we get new poke, new folks into the rise and run community all the time. Now, a lot of our friends are getting ready to start their training. In fact, it started this week for Wine and Dine, and for the Marathon Weekend will start next week. So we're excited to talk to you about that. But I want to start out talking about something very near and dear to your heart.

Hard Rock 100 Explained Simply

SPEAKER_00 21:14

And as I'm looking at you here on the screen and that beautiful backdrop in Colorado, you are out there for the Hard Rock 100. Now, a lot of our listeners know about it, but they don't all. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the Hard Rock 100?

SPEAKER_12 21:31

I I would be honored to. The Hard Rock 100 is a 100-mile run that is a big loop in southwest Colorado. Uh, the concept of the run was to connect four mining towns in the San Juan Mountains and cover a lot of the trails that the hard rock miners used to get to the various. Mines in this area. And hard rock mining is um is digging in, blasting, jackhammering, getting in through massive slabs of rock to remove the minerals. And they're not doing much of that in this area anymore, but all of these towns played their role in that. And uh so we start and finish in Silverton, Colorado. And on even years, hard rock runs in the clockwise direction. Odd years, it runs in the counterclockwise direction. So 2026 is an even year. So we go from Silverton to Telluride, Colorado. From Telluride, we come to where I'm sitting right now, which is Uray, Colorado. And then from Uray, we go to Lake City, Colorado. And Lake City, then we go to Silverton. One big loop, 100 miles, uh 33,000 feet of climb, 33,000 feet of descent. Uh, so I don't know why people get all uptight about it. It's it's net zero uh elevation, but um, but it's as you can imagine, it's quite a challenge. We have 48 hours to complete the course, and there will be 147 people uh out there with numbers on starting July 10th, trying to make it all the way around the big loop, our tour of the San Juans in 48 hours. And then there's a big old rock that has the race's logo painted on it at the finish line, and our time stops when we kiss the rock. If we don't kiss the rock, our clock keeps going. So uh so that's the rule. We have to kiss the rock at the end. And this year, uh, thanks again to our wonderful friends at Era Vipa, uh, we will have a um a live stream that will be running for the entire 48 hours. And so people can get on and they can watch the competitors uh up at up front, trying to see how fast they can go, and then they'll get to see some of the other more um human interest stories, uh, people like myself that are gonna take longer than those, but uh, you know, but are are excited to be out there.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

We casually mentioned 33,000 feet of climb. Off the top of my head, Mount Everest is 29,000 something.

SPEAKER_12 24:20

They say they say hard rock is like going from sea level to Mount Everest and back. Um so it's uh thankfully we don't actually have to go to that high. Our highest point's 14, just over 14,000 feet. Um, but we do our low point is 7,800 and our high point is uh over 14,000.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

So I know I've mentioned this before when we've talked about it. If you were a pilot at 14,000 feet and above, you'd have to wear supplemental oxygen. You don't do you don't do supplemental oxygen.

SPEAKER_12 24:53

We do not do supplemental oxygen. Uh no. Um, that's not available to us up there. So it's why I am talking to you from Ura, Colorado now instead of from Florida. I've been out here for, yeah, been out here for about a month and um building those red blood cells that'll help me carry the oxygen to my muscles uh so that I can have a chance of finishing this thing. I learned my lesson the hard way. My qualifying race for hard rock way back in 2004, my qualifying race was the Leadville hundred, and it only goes up to 12,600. It doesn't come up this as high. But I know, right? But um, but I came straight from Florida to do that event. And I was um I I was fortunately, I didn't experience any altitude sickness or anything like that, but um, but I was I went much, much slower. When you're at altitude and you're not used to it, uh you just you just go a lot slower.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Um, so and I don't you may have mentioned, and if you have, forgive me. How many times now will this be for you? This will be number 18. I thought so.

SPEAKER_05 26:03

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_12 26:05

Yeah, this will be number 18, which I think uh I believe will put me tied for sixth all time in terms of number of finishes. I think that's right. Um, so uh yeah, I'm I'm hard to hard to believe a guy from Florida would would be able to do it this many times. Just to be given the opportunity to do it this many times and just blessed for that.

SPEAKER_04 26:30

So, Chris, you had just mentioned the Leadville 100 miler, and as crazy as it sounds, there's a number of hundred miler races across the country. But what makes um hard rock different from the rest of them out there?

SPEAKER_12 26:43

Yeah, well, it's they call hard rock calls itself a graduate, uh a graduate level 100 miler, which means you have to do another 100 miler that is on their list of qualifiers in order to qualify for hard rock. So it's it can't be your debut 100, which a lot, believe it or not, a lot of people will run Leadville as their first hundred miler. I I didn't, um, but a lot of people will. And uh even Western States, which is the oldest hundred miler in the United States, um, is being run this weekend as we're recording this. Um, that that race, uh, there are some people that run that as their first hundred miler. Um, but Hard Rock requires people to go to do a qualifying race that's at least 100 miles, and it has to be, there's certain conditions it has to meet to be a qualifier. Um, so it's called a, and and because it's called a graduate level race, one of the awards that we get uh on Sunday at the awards breakfast is actually kind of a diploma. And uh if it's your first hard rock, you get a master's of mileage, and if it's your second or subsequent uh hard rock, you get a doctorate of distance. And um one one year I was actually given uh a professor of peaks award. So um yeah, so it makes it kind of fun.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

It does.

SPEAKER_11 28:08

Okay, so you said a qualifier. Now, do you have to qualify every year? Or if you do one like like one race, like Leadville was your qualifier, then you ran hard rock. Now, since you ran hard rock, that's your qualifier for next year.

SPEAKER_12 28:23

That's exactly right, John. Because I uh run hard rock, that's my qualifier. Now, I didn't run hard rock last year. I wasn't lucky enough to get in through the lottery, but uh because I finished hard rock in 2024, that finish qualified me for 25, uh 26, and 27. Hard rock is the only thing that will qualify someone for three years. Most of the qualifiers will qualify someone for two years. Um Leadville's not no longer on our list of qualifiers. Um, Western State's no longer on our list of qualifiers. They've they've changed over the years as more challenging events uh have come along. But most races, if if um if someone did a qualifier for this year uh and didn't get in, they would still be qualified for next year. But if they don't get in next year, they'd need to re-qualify. So for me, at least uh as long as I finish this year, that would keep me qualified for 27, 28, and 29 going forward.

Altitude Prep For Flatlanders

SPEAKER_05 29:26

So for someone who lives in Florida, both me and you live in Florida, how do you train for a race that essentially is like running through four different seasons of the of the year? You get to experience almost four because you got the snow, you got the rain, you got the hail, you get the summer feeling. Like, wow, how do you train for something like that, especially with the hills when you live in a flat place?

SPEAKER_12 29:50

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. And again, I'm here. I'm in Colorado now. Right, right. Um, so typically what I do in a typical year, I will build my weekly mileage up pretty high uh so that I've got a good base. And then I come to Colorado. And I and since I've been here, I've been putting in anywhere from pretty much anywhere from 60 to 80 miles a week on trails, um, mostly on, you know, on the trail that that Hard Rock will be on. So I'm climbing, you know, climbing up uh on Saturday. I I came from here in town and went so I was at about 7,800 feet down below town where the aid station will be, and went out of town, climbed the trails to get up to where the engineer aid station will be, which is right around 12,000 feet, and then came back. And that was, I don't know, that was some, it wasn't a really long hike. That was only maybe um 16 miles or so, 16, 17 miles. I've done a couple of 22. Yeah, I've done a couple of 22, 23 mile hikes that have got, you know, anywhere from from six to 10,000 feet of vertical uh in them, you know, of climb in them. Uh so that's that's what I do is I get out here early, I get on the trails, and I climb and I climb and I climb and then run down. Um so I I it can be done. One could train back in Florida for stuff like this. And that's what I've had. Um, Adam Earle, for example, who I know you know very well. Oh, yeah. Um, you know, he he doesn't typically travel to the place where he's gonna be racing until pretty close to it. And so he's had to do his training on um a lot of stairs, honestly, a lot of stair climbing. Um, I've got another client who's doing a race out here the weekend after Hard Rock. Um, Jason Huffman's doing High Lonesome. And he has done a lot of climbing on a stair climber, uh, tons of. I've had him do, you know, up to seven or eight thousand feet of climbing on a stair climber in one workout just because he got to.

SPEAKER_05 32:01

You know what's funny you say that is like when we were looking for apartments here in Florida, one of my biggest things was I hope it has a stairmaster because I have big plans for next year. And I was like, I don't know how else to trade it for it because it's not like I have stairs, I'm not gonna annoy my neighbors by going up and down the stairs over here, but stairmaster would work.

SPEAKER_12 32:21

Stairmasters are good, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:23

My other question for you really is like, so if no one's ever been above what 7,000 feet of elevation, think of it kind of like if you were to watch a water bottle on an airplane. When you see it later on, it's kind of all crinkled and everything. And you're like, wow, because it compresses because you're so high up. Now, when you are running at that kind of level, how if you were going to plan a race who for someone who's never done a race that has such high elevation and they don't have a way of training for it, how early should they arrive for a race to get acclimated for something like this?

SPEAKER_12 32:59

Yeah, you know, it's interesting, Jack. It actually works kind of the opposite. We were uh I picked up my son in Grand Junction today, and we stopped at a lower elevation, a lower lower altitude to buy um to buy some groceries and uh including a bag of um uh it was uh nori seaweed. And when it got up here to the house, it's all puffed up. It looks like it's ready to explode. So it gets bigger, right? Um so fortunately our bodies can adapt a little bit better than that. So we don't burst uh as we as we climb. But um you need to get here, you need to get at altitude as early as possible, to be honest with you. Um two days is better than one day, four days is better than two. The optimal, the the the where you where you um where the the rate of benefit starts to level off is right about three weeks. And so if you can be if you can be at altitude three weeks before your event, you've pretty much gotten your body adjusted to that, to that altitude. Um but if you can't afford that, again, if you can't afford three weeks, do two. If you can't afford two weeks, do one. Um but the earlier you get there, the better, because your body immediately starts creating the red blood cells that it needs to carry the oxygen to your muscles. And that's what has to happen. There are ways to stimulate that growth at sea level. And so they're not they're not free ways of doing it, but there are ways of doing that. And so there are machines that you can uh that you can rent or purchase that um simulate high altitude. And so you can breathe on those or you can attach them to tents, for example, and sleep in them. And that will put your body in a position where it it doesn't have the available oxygen that it needs. And so it starts creating more oxygen, more, more, um, more red blood cells to deliver that for you. And you can monitor that. You put on a pulse ox when you're using the machine or when you're in the tent, and you can see that the the um your pulse ox, the the oxygen in your bloodstream goes down as you're using that. But over time, you get you get a higher uh supply of that because of the um the creation of more red blood cells. Some people, where you see people use this a lot, Tour de France is getting ready to come up. I'm a junkie for watching the Tour de France, and a lot of those cyclists will have rooms in their homes that are basically at altitude, rooms that have um lower oxygen and they are able to um, you know, they're able to simulate being at high altitude because of that. I don't have the money to have a whole room like that, but thankfully I have a job that allows me the flexibility to travel out here. Um, and also, even more importantly, I have in-laws who own a house here. And so um I am forever, forever grateful that they allow me to come out and uh and use this space to live and work from and then train from as well.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Well, Chris, it's an amazing, amazing event, and we're proud to know you. We're proud that you've done it for these last several years. But let's shift gears.

Early Training Priorities For RunDisney

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Let's talk about events that a whole lot more of us are going to be participating in, and and you'll help us with these too. We started training this week for wine and dine using the Jeff Galloway training plan. Yeah. Next week we'll start training for the marathon weekend. What should we be focusing on right now?

SPEAKER_12 36:46

Hey, what you should be focusing on right now is consistency. Um, don't worry about how fast you're going, don't worry about how far you're going. Just get out the door, right? Or get on that treadmill, whatever it is. But but work on consistency. We know that a really good um a really good frequency is three times a week. If you've got two short runs during the week, and then we start building that long run on the weekend, or you know, some people, some people's weekends, so to speak, is Wednesday and Thursday because of the way their jobs are. Yeah, whatever it is. But but if you can just get out there three days a week, uh that's you know, work on that consistency. And if you're doing nothing, if if you're listening to this and you're doing nothing right now, well, let's let's start with one day a week. Get out there tomorrow as you're listening to this, or getting out get out there today, and then maybe two days, and then by the end of the month, you're doing three days. And that's and that's enough. You don't ever have to go beyond those three days a week, but it really helps to have those three days a week. So I would say that's the number one thing to focus on is building that consistency.

SPEAKER_11 37:55

What are some of the common mistakes people make during the first month of training?

SPEAKER_12 38:00

Oh my gosh, how many times have we heard people get out there and they are trying to run as hard as they can, as far as they can? Uh, that's that's a thing. The the biggest mistake that I see is people trying to do too much too soon. And that either either comes from not having done it before. This is their first time doing a race or first time doing a race of this distance. And so they're pushing really hard, or they're comparing themselves to where they were last season. And I know it's easy to do, and I know it's tempting to do, but uh one thing that that I will tell you is that when I run hard rock this summer, I will be the oldest I have ever been when I ran hard rock. And when I when I run wine and dine uh this fall, it will be the oldest I have ever been when I ran wine and dine. So we we really can't compare ourselves to last season. It's fun to do that. And we can talk about PRs, we can talk about decade PRs and those sorts of things. And I love those too. But especially when we're getting back into the training, let's not worry about where we were last year. Let's not worry about where we were even a few months ago. Let's just talk about where we are now and start moving in the right direction toward what new goals we're gonna have for this fall.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Is there anything special people doing it for the first time should be thinking about?

SPEAKER_12 39:23

Yeah, I think um, again, that consistency is key. Um, I think community is really important as well. I mean, obviously, people that are listening to this podcast, they they have a great community. If they haven't gotten involved with the Facebook group, if they haven't gotten involved with the Zooms that you folks do, I hope that they will do that. But even listening to the podcast and hearing the encouragement and hearing the countdowns about the training, that helps them understand that they're part of this community. Um, and that's a big, big, big deal. Uh, so I that's what I really want people to know is that they're not in this alone. They're not in this, uh, they don't have to reinvent the wheel, right? We've got training plans that are out there. If they want more support, there are there are amazing coaches that are there to help them. Oh, Alicia is a fantastic coach that's here that knows all these Disney races inside and out. Obviously, we've got coaches at Galloway that um that love these events as well. And there are there are coaches that are right there in their own neighborhoods that might be able to help them too. So depending on what they want and and what they think they would benefit from, take advantage of some of those resources as well. They don't have to do this alone.

SPEAKER_04 40:36

That's great advice to give to our listeners. I'm curious what you think is the biggest misconception about Disney race training.

SPEAKER_12 40:44

Oh, so I think I think there are two ways, there are two ways that people, the mistakes that people make, right? One, maybe are the people that have never gone to a Disney race or seen a Disney race who who focus on the race part and they think that it all has to be tough, hard work, long runs, you know, lactate threshold and all of this stuff, VO2 max and throw out all the terms. Um and they think that it's gotta be hard. No pain, no gain, all of that stuff. And that's not true at all, right? The Disney races are supposed to be fun, the Disney races are supposed to be about community, and the training should be fun, and the training should be about community as well. So I think there's that one side that people err on when they think it's gotta be hard and tough and brutal, and the sort of thing that your your PE coach put you through when you were in middle school. Then there's the other side, and the other side I worry a little bit that some of our listeners might err on the other side. The other side is that um, what is the term that I saw online that that pixie dust is a good training plan? And that's that's not it either, right? That that you're just gonna show up, and even if you haven't really trained, that's a Disney race. I'm gonna be fine. I will, I will magically be able to go 13.1 miles ahead of the balloon ladies, and I will magically feel fine the entire time and and all of this stuff. And no, folks, no, it's it's fun. It's the the magical part is all of the fun stuff that happens out there, but um, but there's not magic in training. You've actually got to put your put your shoes on and get out there and do it. It's it's fun if you're ready for it. Yes, it's and I and that's absolutely true. And sometimes I'll have people that have, they say, Oh, I don't really have a time goal. And yet they'll see that I'm taking them up to higher mileage than they expect. They'll see that maybe I've even got some faster running on there than they expect. And and they might ask about it. I'll say, look, if you are trained to run 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds per mile faster than you intend to go, it's gonna feel a whole lot better. You're gonna have a whole lot more fun if you're taking it easy relative to what you're trained to do.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Yes. You you talked about um pixie dust training. All right, friends, what are my two favorite questions that we get every year about Marathon weekend?

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Is it too late to start training?

SPEAKER_00 43:18

Is it too late to start training? Somebody around Thanksgiving will go, is it too and my answer is always no. You're just not going to enjoy this very much. The other one is uh what's the weather gonna be like? What's the weather?

SPEAKER_05 43:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Now uh you talked about some folks who started Leadville as their first 100. We'll have a lot of friends who will take on the goofy Rope Challenge as their first m first marathon. And they've they've been successful. They have been a lot of our friends have done it and been successful. What separates the folks who are successful? In finishing uh, let's say dopey as opposed to those who struggle?

SPEAKER_12 44:05

Well, I think I think a lot of it is their mindset. I think a lot of it is their their drive, their ability. I mean, we know that dopey, one of the biggest challenges is waking up and getting out there day after day. And that's all about your mindset. That's all about your attitude. And so I think that's that's one of the things that's that's crucial to be able to succeed with dopey or with goofy or with any of the challenges for these weekends, honestly, is having that mindset that I'm gonna get up early, I'm gonna get out there, and I'm gonna do it. And we can model that in our training. We can model that by getting up early and doing our training runs early. People love to complain about how hot it is in the summer, but no matter where you are, and no matter how hot it is, at least it's gonna be a little bit better if you get out there before the sun comes up. So if you're waiting until noon to do your training runs, it's always gonna be hot. It's always gonna be miserable in the summer. So having that mindset of I'm gonna get up early, I'm gonna get out there, I'm gonna do that, that will serve you well when you do those events. So I think that's the thing that really makes the difference. Um, the training, I mean, I hope that everybody is gonna be consistent with the training. I hope everybody is gonna follow the training plans. So I'm gonna assume that those people that that are successful or not successful, the difference isn't their training. I'm gonna assume they've all done the training. If they haven't, well, there's your problem. But but if we assume they've all done the training, then it's the mindset that makes the difference.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Well, there's your problem. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Now you transition into something I wanted to talk about.

Heat Acclimation And Cooling Strategies

SPEAKER_00 45:50

And I'm fond of saying if it's hot where you are, it's hot. We just later on in this episode, we talked with a friend who did uh uh the marathon up in Minnesota, and she said it got hot, 75 degrees. And I go, 75, but it's it doesn't matter. It's hot where they are. So this may be I think the toughest part. I've done, I'm not doing dopey this year. I've done five of them, but I'm gonna be training for the marathon, so I'm putting in long miles. The hard part to me is going through this training in the hot weather. So let's start with this. What does heat actually do to our pace and our performance?

SPEAKER_12 46:30

Slows us down. Whether we like it or not, it slows us down. And it doesn't matter if you live in Anchorage, Alaska or if you live in Miami, Florida, it slows us down. Uh, it just does. And it's because our bodies are are having to focus on other things, right? We're we're sweating way more than we would just because we're exercising. We're sweating because our body is trying to cool us off. And so our energy is being used in other ways beyond just running. The great thing about running in the cold is that the body doesn't have to focus on that, right? The the activity of running warms us up, and but we're not overheating. And so we've got way more available energy to put into the act of running. That doesn't happen as you warm up. So that's what's going on. There are things we can do to make it easier on ourselves, right? And mostly those have to do with either acclimating to the heat or cool and or cooling ourselves down while we are exercising in the heat. So we cool ourselves down by exercising in the heat, by remembering to hydrate, remembering to take electrolytes, and then doing things like dumping water on our head, um, you know, washing, washing our upper body when we can. There's a spot that I love to go to when I'm running back home in Florida that is right on the beach. And there is an outdoor shower there that people use to rinse off when they come out of the ocean. And I'll hit that thing about every two or three miles on a hot day. Um, it's awesome. It's awesome. It really, really does help. Um, Jack, I'm sure, knows from doing ultras that one of the things that ultrarunners like to use are ice bandanas. And so I have some, I have some ice bandanas out here. You can make them yourself, but I've got some that that come with zippered pockets in them. And so my crew will be putting ice in those things for me when I come into the aid stations, and I can put those around my neck, and those will help cool me off as well. Um, and then as far as acclimating to the heat, one of the things that we can be doing right now, honestly, Bob, is getting outside. You don't have to run in the heat, but get outside and do a lunchtime walk. And if you get outside in the heat and you do a lunchtime walk three or four days a week, what happens is your body starts to acclimate to that heat. Your body starts to get used to that heat. And what actually happens physiologically is you start, you become a faster sweater. You sweat more readily. And be and if you can sweat more readily and your sweat becomes more viscous, that cools you off faster than if you are not acclimated to the heat. Um, we get into a lot of trouble, and we Floridians are really bad about this. We get into a lot of trouble because we say, Oh, yeah, I live in the heat. It's, you know, it's hot here all the time. I'm gonna be doing fine in that. Well, do you really live in it? Or do you live in an air-conditioned house? And then do you get in an air-conditioned car and you go to your air-conditioned office, and then you get back in that air-conditioned uh car and you go back to your air-conditioned office. And then when you do go outside, it's after the sun has gone down and it's not very hot. And that's my reality. Honestly, that's my reality back home. Uh, so am I acclimated to the heat when I live that way? Nope. I've gotta I've gotta force myself to get out in it. So um, if if you just just living where it's hot doesn't really tell you that you're acclimated.

SPEAKER_11 49:48

Now, people like me and Alicia who live in the northeast or the central, our training now is is warm, let just like the rest of the area. But now come, especially for marathon weekend, November, December. It's cold. So now where do we lost that acclimation? What can we do to keep trying to keep that going?

SPEAKER_12 50:11

Yeah, so there are a couple things you can do. Um, one is you can make yourself warmer when you do go out uh by putting on extra layers. Um, you might look like a Michelin man, but you can you can do it. You can put on extra layers, and that'll cause you to sweat quick more quickly, uh, you know, faster when you get out there when you're um when you're exercising. The other thing you can do, and there's been a little bit of research on this that I've been interested in uh and reading recently, and that's the use of saunas after exercise. And so if you have access to a sauna, uh you can after your run, if you're at a gym, for example, that has one, or if you have one at home, go into a sauna for 15 or 20 minutes and uh immediately after that exercise, and that will, boy, you're gonna be sweating, uh, and that will help you get acclimated as well. And this is something I was really interested because I was fascinated by Des Lyndon's uh marathon desab uh race that she did, a stage race in the Sahara Desert. And this was one of the things that she used uh as part of her heat training protocol was sauna training. So I think that's a really good one. And if you don't have a gym that has a sauna, you can actually pick some up uh pretty cheap. And hey, we're while we're talking, it's Amazon Prime Day right now. You know, so you can find some really cheap home saunas, either an infrared unit or one that runs on has like a little boiler and um and creates you know steam, and it's like a little steam room. They're not very expensive, and they'll do the trick, John. They really will, and you'll be glad uh that you've done something like that if you show up and it becomes another, you know, really hot wine and dine or a really hot marathon week. And we've even had really hot marathon weekends.

SPEAKER_00 51:55

Yeah, we have.

SPEAKER_05 51:56

So just to kind of wrap this up with the heat and everything, to put this in perspective, summer just started on the 21st. As we are recording this, this is the 23rd, which is mind-blowing in my opinion. Whatever. With this heat being so, I mean, right now in Florida, it's just hot, and I can only imagine everywhere else. I mean, even when I went up to Cedar Point, it was like, what was it in the high 70s? Uh last this last week. And I tell you what, being in the sun, no matter where you're at, it's gonna be hot. So when you're out and doing those trainings, what are the tall telus signs that you're pushing too hard in the eat in the heat?

Heat Danger Signs And Electrolytes

SPEAKER_05 52:38

And then when does it come to a point that maybe you're like, maybe I should cut a workout short?

SPEAKER_12 52:44

Yeah. Um, number one thing that I would say is if you're out and you're running in the heat or doing whatever in the heat, and you notice you had been sweating and you notice you have stopped sweating, your workout is done. Oh, yeah. Your workout is done. All right. So that's it. Call it. Um, so that's that's that's pretty bad. Earlier signs or other signs, um, if you one of the things you have to watch out for in the heat is hyponeatremia. You start uh, you start sweating out so much liquid that you get an electrolyte imbalance. Uh, you'll notice if your lips start to tingle, if you're if you're wearing rings, uh, if your hands start to swell and you can kind of feel your ring is really tight, that's another sign uh that that things are not going the right way. You need to rebalance your electrolytes, you need to take in, um, and and then it's an electrolyte issue. It's not necessarily a um just just water issue, which is why you need to be in this in the summer heat, you need to be doing more than just drinking water. You need to be drinking something that has electrolytes in it, or you need to be supplementing with salt. Um, Jeff Galloway's favorite uh supplement like that was a product called Succeed or S caps as simply a buffered salt tablet. And you would take one of those an hour uh if it's kind of normal hot, you would take two an hour if it's if it's really hot. And uh so he really liked that. There are other products that have electrolytes built in that are also rehydration um, you know, fluids, things like scratch, things like tailwind, things like noon, um, there are lots of products that are out there. So find one that works for you that you can really make make friends with. Um so those are kind of the things that I would say are the big signs that you need to look out for. Obviously, if he goes beyond that, if you start getting nauseous, um if you if if if if if if if things start happening to you like happened to me at the Keys 100 a couple of years ago that we talked about on your podcast, that's a sign that that's a sign that you probably need to uh to to call it quits on that workout. I don't know how you did that. No, I don't know how you did that. Yeah, the video and the sound effects. The sound effects are the best part as well.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

So, of course, obviously we've talked about getting out there early before the sun rises, especially if you're in places like Florida where it's hot, but not everybody has that luxury. So a lot of our friends may be utilizing a treadmill in this time of the heat. What should they be doing to try and um use a treadmill versus going outside? Um, is there anything that they could that they should change with their training for that?

SPEAKER_12 55:24

You know, not necessarily. It in a way, it depends on their treadmill. Um, that because some treadmills now are really good at using the run walk method and make it very easy for us to use the ratios that we're comfortable with. Some treadmills are not good at that. And so if your treadmill is not good at that, you need to find what's gonna be that happy medium, what's gonna be that pace that allows you to hit the time, the pace, the pace that you want to go, and the ratio that you can easily manipulate on the treadmill to be comfortable with the run. If I'm doing a long run, I don't tend to do more than five miles at a time on the treadmill. Um, so if I have a 20-mile run and I have to do a treadmill, I'm really doing four five-mile segments. So I'll do five miles and then I'll get off. I may only be off for five minutes or so, but I'll get off, I refill my rotten my water bottle, I'll go to the bathroom, um, I'll check my email and then hop back on. Because if I'm doing 20 miles all in one shot on the treadmill, I'm gonna lose my concentration. I'm gonna get lazy, I'm gonna fall off that thing. I just am. And so I don't like to do more than if it's gonna be a really long run, I don't like to do more than about five at a time. Remember for the long runs, this is true whether you're outside or whether you're on the treadmill, for the long runs, you don't have a goal pace for those long runs. You have a speed limit for those long runs. I mean, I I I suppose there could be some coaches that are gonna give you a specific pace to run for the long runs. I don't do that. I doubt you do that, Alicia. I uh, you know, I just want people to get the distance in on the long runs for the endurance. And if that means they go, if I say your speed limit is 12 minute miles, that just means don't go faster than that. And so if you get on the treadmill and what's comfortable for you on the treadmill is 14 minute miles, great, no problem. I don't mind that. If you say it's 16 minute miles, I'm fine with that. You say it's 20 minute miles, okay. As long as you've got the time to do it, the distance is the distance. So um don't get caught up on trying to go a certain pace for those long runs. Um, and then the one other thing, and this is a trick that a lot of people have what's tricky about treadmills for a lot of people, they try to look at their watch, they set their watch for an indoor run, and then they realize well, my treadmill is telling me I've gone this far and this fast, and my watch is telling me I'm going that far and that fast. Look, the treadmill knows how long its belt is. The treadmill knows how many times that belt has gone around since you've gotten on it, which means the treadmill knows how far you've gone. Your watch thinks it can guess about what your stride length is and thinks it can guess about what your cadence is. And it's really, really good about it outside when it can combine that with GPS data. But inside, it doesn't know. So some watches have the ability to sync with a treadmill, or and some treadmills have the ability to sync with the watch, in which case you're fine. It's going to show you the exact same information. But if you're looking at two different numbers between the watch and the treadmill, believe the treadmill. It's probably right. Yes, the treadmill might not be calibrated correctly, but it's probably more correct than the watch is guessing for all of that.

Treadmill Tips Plus Pacing Reality

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Chris, let's talk about something that has been around for a while. I've been with you for quite a while, and that is customized training. And you know, with with Jeff's passing, I think there were probably some changes in customized training. So for friends, again, let's assume that friends are new and don't know what that is. Let's talk about that for a moment. And then for those of us who've been around for a while, what are some of the changes that are going on?

SPEAKER_12 59:16

So I thank you, thank you, Bob, for asking. And and I I think customized training is what what I designed it to be was what I wish had existed when I was coming up through my training. And it is a way to have a coach write a training schedule for you that is just for you. It takes into account where you are currently in your fitness, it takes into account what your goals are, it takes into account all the races and things that you have on your on your horizon. It takes into account other responsibilities that you have with work, with family, with travel, all of that stuff. And it combines them into a schedule that will take you from where you are now to where you want to get. Beyond that, it's not just a schedule that you put up on your refrigerator and follow, but then it's having a coach there with you to make changes and adjust that for you week to week or day to day, whatever it is, so that as life happens, you can pivot and still hopefully you'll still be able to achieve your goals. And that's the thing, right? We have our Galloway schedules that are up there on Run Disney site. And they're they're great schedules. They're fantastic. And if you can guarantee that nothing is going to happen to you between now and race day to keep you from getting in one of those workouts, that's all you need. But I can't promise that for myself, and you probably can't promise that for yourself. And so having that guidance uh along the way is really, really beneficial. So that's kind of what customize was created as. Now, what customized has become is something I never could have done on my own, and that's a community. Um, it is it is the community of our customized uh family who get together on those Tuesday Zooms, who encourage encourage each other on Facebook and in the Galloway 360 app, and uh who follow our adventures. You were talking earlier uh about Chad out there doing his 10-day event while we're recording this. And he's part of Customized. He was on the Zoom this morning from the track as he's walking around. And it's it's being on there to celebrate the folks that were in Customized that are in Customized who did the grandma's marathon this last weekend and talk about the the wonderful PRs that they hit and the fun that they had at that event. And it's talking about the training that other people have coming up and the events that people are nervous about or excited about. And we get together on Tuesdays in the morning and in the evening, and it's you know, it could be on a short day, it's an hour and a half, on a long day, it's three hours, uh, talking about all of this stuff. And it's just that community is something I I never anticipated, never could have done on my own. And that is that's what customized has become. And it is, it is the thing I'm absolutely the proudest of uh in my in my professional life because it's touched way more people um and has sustained way more people and has motivated way more people than I could have done on my own.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

Well, it sure has, and I'm certainly one of them. Are there any changes in the structure to the program that you see coming up?

SPEAKER_12 1:02:55

Yeah, actually, there are not changes. There are a couple of additions that I see coming up, some some things on the horizon that I think people will be excited about, um that uh that will just be some add-ons to our to our customized. But in terms of there's no like basic changes to uh to what customized really is.

SPEAKER_11 1:03:22

Okay, Chris. So I'm training for wine and dine right now and and marathon weekend. But now all of a sudden I decide I want to throw a half marathon in between those two. What would you guys do for us?

SPEAKER_12 1:03:35

Yeah, so it's it's cool. I um there there's this trend from some people, and I don't I don't blame some of the listeners if they've fallen into this, but there's this trend. It's like, let's ask Chat GPT to create a training program for me. And uh and so I was I was assured by a programmer not long ago that my job is secure for a while because AI stinks at at doing these sorts of things, right? Because the change that you need, John, is different from the change that that Jack needs. It's different from the change that Alicia needs. It's we're all we're all individuals. And so what I do for you is maybe different from what I do from somebody else because it depends on well, is this half marathon a goal race that you're throwing in? Or is this a catered training run? I love that term, right? Is it a is it a run that we're gonna do basically as a long run, but we're gonna take advantage of the fact that we've got someone else letting up setting up the route and we've got police protection and we've got food and we've got celebration afterwards, and for gosh sakes, we got a medal. Why not? So uh is it that type of a run? Or uh, you know, and and where exactly does it fall onto this? So what what I do is I figure all of that out, right? I figure out what exactly does this event mean to you? Uh is it more important, as important, less important than those other events? How close are we already to that mileage already on that, on the schedule for you that weekend? And then, yeah, and then we make it happen because I don't want to tell a runner, oh, you can't do that race, right? I want to figure out a way to make it happen. There have been times, there have been times over the years when I've had to tell one of my runners, I really think that this one is a problem. I really think that this one is a sticking point, and and we might need to choose between these events because this is gonna be hard. Um, and sometimes they've said, yeah, you're right, I really didn't want to do that one anyway. And sometimes they've stuck to their guns and they're like, nope, I've got to do these. And okay, so here's what we do. And I hate, I hate being in positions like that because sometimes it increases your risk of injury. And the last thing I want is for somebody to get injured because you know, there are lots of training schedules and training plans and coaches that can that can help people get to the finish line really, really fast. And that's great. And I've got a lot of runners that get to the finish line as fast as they've ever gotten, and I'm proud. That and that's great. But I'm really more concerned at getting you to the starting line healthy. That's way more important to me is that you get to the starting line uninjured and ready to do the event. And that's where the difference is, I think, between some coaches and other coaches and other plans, because some of those others who are all about getting you to the finish line fast, there are a lot of people that fall, you know, fall on the shoulders of the road who never made it to the starting line because they got injured before they got there.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:30

So, Chris, I I've been coaching for now three years and I've seen some changes in technology and how that affects coaching, but you've been doing this for a lot longer.

Tech Changes Coaching And Racing

SPEAKER_04 1:06:41

How has technology changed how you coach your clients?

SPEAKER_12 1:06:45

Well, so when the telephone was invented, that was a big, big deal. Um so um, yeah, so I there have been a lot of changes, right? Um, believe it or not, believe it or not, when I started doing all this stuff, uh nobody had GPS watches. GPS wasn't a thing. Um and even when I was first started pacing, I uh my first few marathons that I paced, there was no GPS. And it's funny to me because now I have so many people, and I know Alicia, you get this too. I have so many people that will ask me, well, how fast do I need to be running during that run, during my run segment to uh to hit that overall pace? You know, you want me to average 10 minutes a mile on this run. So how fast am I running when I'm running? Well, then how fast am I walking when I'm walking and all this kind of stuff? And that all flows from these GPS watches that people are wearing that they think tell them accurate information down to the millisecond. And we know it doesn't tell us accurate information down to the millisecond. I mean, it gives us pretty good information in retrospect. We can go back and analyze the data. But while we're running, is it really telling us exactly how fast we're running rate this second? Probably not. Especially not when you realize that if you're running, I mean, you could do this. Try this sometime, borrow somebody else's watch and run with one GPS watch on your left arm and one GPS watch on your right arm and go for a five-mile run and come back and tell me, did you run the same speed? No, my left arm ran farther and faster, and my right arm ran slower and shorter. Um, so so the GPS thing has been has been one of the biggest things that has been both a blessing and a curse. Um, and obviously I run with a GPS watch. I wouldn't be without one. And now the battery life on some of these watches is amazing. And I've got a watch now. The battery life is long enough that I can have the GPS watch on. I can have the GPS on for all of hard rock. Even if it takes me the entire 48 hours, that watch will will sh will track me that entire time. Not only will it keep track of where I've gone and have a GPS route after I've finished and tell me how fast I'm going and how far I've gone, it will also pull up the map of where I'm going because I can download the GPX route onto it. And if I want to, it'll play music while I'm doing it. So I'm listening to music and I'm, you know, it's doing all this stuff. And when I finish, the battery is still gonna be at about 50%. It's incredible what the technology in these in these watches, you know, can do now. Um, so that's really been the biggest thing. Um, you know, they're uh obviously the other big thing is is in shoes. Um, these super shoes are incredible. I was talking to somebody, oh gosh, yesterday who is really interested in in getting into doing some longer races than they've been doing. And this is someone who's about my age and so had done a lot of races like in the 90s and the early 2000s, and is now kind of getting back into it. And they were asking, well, you know, is a super shoe really something that I want? I'm like, well, I mean, you're talking about she's she's talking about big goals and she's talking about Boston qualifying and stuff like that. I I I think, yeah, I think you probably are are leaving speed out there on the table if you don't pick up some shoes, some super shoes and try them on. Now, not everybody responds to the same super shoes the same way. And are you gonna be best in Nike? Are you gonna be best in Brooks? Are you gonna be best in Socane and Mizuno and what? I don't know. Um, but you're probably gonna be faster in super shoes than not. So it's worth checking those out and trying those out. That's the other big, big, big difference. Um, and that's probably, I would say those super shoes are probably what has been responsible for Boston having to lower their qualifying times uh over the last few years because people are able to hold, like people like me are able to hold on to their speed longer than they would have otherwise as they get older. And um, and other people that might never have been able to hit those times when they're young are now with those super shoes, they were able to hit those. And unfortunately, Boston's only gonna let in the number of people they're gonna let in. So just because you got faster doesn't mean you're gonna get in, because they might not only might they move those qualifying times, but then you might need a buffer of four, five, six minutes over that qualifying time. Um, so those, yeah, those two things are the technology-wise, yeah, GPS and um and the super shoes are things that were not around when I started coaching and they're everywhere now.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:45

Well, heck, we had we had two runners go under two hours in London. Unbelievable, right? Yeah, no, no disrespect to their talent and their work and all that, but the shoes had something to do with that.

SPEAKER_12 1:11:57

Of course they did. But but right, but the guys who finished finished in in third, fourth, fifth, tenth, fifteenth, fiftieth, one hundred and twentieth were wearing super shoes as well. Now, maybe not at the top of the line that they had, right? They obviously were the sponsored athletes that had the the cutting edge shoes that you and I would have to pay $500 to get, and they got three pairs of them to train with. But um, but yeah, I mean, so yeah, they were the best, they were the best humans out there on the course with the best technology on their feet, and that combination gave us a time that just a year ago we would have said something like that was still 10 years in the future.

SPEAKER_11 1:12:40

Oh, I think you're right. I know it's kind of crazy. You think you're on a two a sub-two-hour marathon and you I mean second. Yeah, and you're second, you're a footnote, you're just a footnote.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:51

Oh yeah. Chris, love having you. It's been fun. Thanks for a lot of wonderful information.

Rapid Fire Advice And Dopey Mindset

SPEAKER_00 1:12:57

Before you go, let's fire some rapid fire questions here, huh? You do that. Let's go. We I think we got one for each of us.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:05

One thing every dopey runner should do this week.

SPEAKER_12 1:13:09

One thing every dopey runner should do this week is start tracking your sleep. Pay attention to your sleep score. Let's get that those high sleep scores.

SPEAKER_11 1:13:17

One thing every dopey runner should stop doing immediately.

SPEAKER_12 1:13:21

Well, one thing every dopey runner should stop doing immediately is uh over drinking caffeine. Uh, if you can wean yourself back, I'm not saying get rid of caffeine entirely, but if you can wean yourself back, then when you need caffeine, like on a dopey weekend, it's gonna have an impact on your system and you'll you'll be appreciative of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:40

Most underrated training tool.

SPEAKER_12 1:13:42

The Galloway timer. That that little that little green, that little green beeper. It's you know, it's not expensive, it's not complicated, but I use it for I use it in different ways for all sorts of workouts, and I would never be without mine. Even during hard rock, I will be carrying one because I'll be using it for sections. Yeah, there's one section in particular in particular this year. It's somewhere around mile 65 to 75. Somewhere in that range, there's an area that's mostly flat, not completely, but mostly flat. And um that's the only way I will be able to force myself to do any running at that point, is when I have that beating going on.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:21

Okay. And I want you to make a prediction. What's going to be harder, Chris? The toughest climb on hard rock are coaching the customized training dopey runners through all the heat of the summer training.

SPEAKER_12 1:14:34

Oh, well, I'll tell you what, this will be my 18th Hard Rock hundred. So I know it'll be hard, but I've done that a bunch of times. Oh, these dopey folks. Um, I haven't done it 18 times. Customized hasn't been going on that many years. So that's that's gonna be tougher, but we're gonna get through it. I'm doing dopey as well. I'm I'm one of I'm one of us. I'm gonna be doing it too. So uh I I'm not asking anybody to do anything with dopey training that I'm not doing myself. Is this the first time you've done that? No, I did dope last year for the first time. So um, so quick, quick story. Last year was the first time I did dopey. I had decided because I'd coached several people through it, that I owed it to them to practice what I preached and to do it myself. So I told Jeff I was doing dopey. I did dopey. And I remember I was in the booth with Jeff on Saturday after the half marathon. And I said, Jeff, I don't know how you did five of these and still came in and worked the booth. And this is, I said, there's no way I'm gonna be able to do this again. It's just too hard. And he said, he said, Chris, you've got some really good pacers that help out in the booth, and they will absolutely step up and they'll they'll cover more hours if you need more time to sleep or whatever you need to do. If you want to do dopey next year, you can absolutely do it. I said, Jeff, I was really hoping what you would say is, Chris, you're way too important in the booth. There's no way that we can let you do it. So fast forward to um fast forward to February when when Jeff passed away. And um, and I was contemplating after that and for the weeks between that and the memorial, uh, I was contemplating the future and and Weston and Galloway and I, you know, put our heads together and talked about what we were gonna do. And um, and you've seen like we talked about customized earlier. We did add four new customized plus coaches um that are helping out tremendously. My son is one of them. I'm I could not be more proud of him as a runner and as a coach. And uh, and that's been a good change. But but as we were talking through things, I said, you know, Jeff, over the last few years, Jeff had empowered Weston to make a lot of our business decisions and be there as we were negotiating contracts with different sponsors and different races. And Weston really was was taking the lead in all of that. And Jeff was empowering me to do more of the coaching and writing the schedules for Run Disney and um and put and putting together uh plans that we were presenting to various partners and doing a lot more of the coaching. He still had his one-on-one clients, but but he had really empowered me and had empowered Weston to do what we were doing so that when he was gone, things could continue. Things can continue, things can go on. And if Jeff had not empowered us to do those things, we wouldn't have been able to do it. And then I realized if I if I tell myself I'm not doing dopey because I'm too important, I have to be in the booth. If I tell that, if I tell myself that, that is exactly the opposite of what Jeff did, right? Jeff empowered me to step up and to take on more responsibility. And I need to do the same thing for my pacers and for my program directors and for those other coaches. So when we're down there at Wine and Dine, we'll have have uh a couple of those customized plus coaches. I think it there's a very good chance at Marathon Weekend, all four of them are gonna be there. And I need to be able, when I'm doing Dopey, I need to be able to empower those coaches and those pacers to take on time there in the booth so that I can go out and do Dopey. And that's the best way for me to do it is to force myself not to be in the booth so much. Um, so Jeff really was talking to me in that when I made that decision to sign up for for Dopey, Jeff was really talking to me there.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:26

Nice, yeah, I understand. And for friends who may not know this, uh, in addition to 18 hard rocks, Chris is a perfect marathoner. I am in Walt Disney World. I am.

SPEAKER_12 1:18:39

And that's and that's that may be the thing that I'm the most I to proud to say I'm proud of, that doesn't, that's not the right way to put it. Most excited about. I'm most excited about being uh a perfect marathoner. Um, I mean, honestly, I Alan will tell you the same thing. We got these nice jackets at year uh 30 and uh say perfect marathoner on them. And uh and Alan will tell you the same thing. It's the most expensive jacket I own. They gave it to me. They gave it to me, but it's the most expensive jacket I own because I had to pay. I think we paid for at least the first 20, maybe the first 25. I think it might have been the first 25 marathons we had to pay for. Now they give it to us for free, but um, but but we had to pay, so that's pretty darned expensive, uh, expensive jacket. But I'm the most excited about being a part of that group because of Alan and because of um so many other people that I get to see really only once a year. Alan, I get to see at a bunch of the races, but but but some of them that only come back to Disney for that race because they don't live in Florida, it's harder to do. And I love getting together with those folks. We gather at the back of Corale because they because they put us in Corale, which is nice of them to do it, but none of us is fast enough to be in Corale on our own anymore, you know? Um, so we gather at the back of Corral A and meet each other. And and uh, and of course, I'm blessed that I get to be in the booth most of the time uh that weekend. And so a lot of them come by to booth to see me and and get selfies with me. And of course they used to see Jeff as well. And Jeff did the first, gosh, I don't know how many first 25 at least, I think, of the marathons. He did he did a bunch of them. Uh at least I know the for for sure the first 20, because they gave us a ring and he has that. Oh, I knew that. So yeah. So he did a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:24

Maybe even a few more. And uh not only perfect, but the youngest of the perfect.

SPEAKER_12 1:20:30

As it turns out, I am the youngest. And um, yeah, I'm not sure when that became at I know at the 10th year I was identified as the youngest. Um, I don't know if at five, if there was somebody that was younger who just didn't do who just didn't do six or seven. Um, but yeah, starting at year 10, they put they did a parade. It was in the animal kingdom, and they put us in this cool parade, and they put me on a float sitting with the person who at that time was the oldest. And uh, and so that was how I found out. And then it um my local newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida interviewed me, and they they knew that I would, they were the actually the ones that told me that I was the youngest. Um, so that was that was pretty cool. Uh yeah, so we'll I I hope that means that I hope that doesn't mean that I have a target on my back that the other perfect are gonna try to take me out. I wouldn't think so. I think we're all pushing for all of us to make it a bunch more years. I hope so too.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:32

Chris, it's wonderful. It's always wonderful talking with you, whether it's here or at the booth or uncustomized training. Uh we learn a lot and we appreciate you. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_12 1:21:43

It is absolutely my honor. Uh, don't forget to remind everyone that there is a nice little secret uh registration uh either either code or a link up there. That's for that's for regular customized training. Uh if they're looking for something else like Customized Plus or Customized Essentials, they can find out about those things uh on jeffgalloway.com. And uh, but I'm and it it's it's uh I'm always here. I'm a part of the community, happy to answer questions. If people tag me in the Facebook group or whatever, I'm happy to answer questions and do those sorts of things as well. Um love it, love it, love everything that you guys do for sure.

SPEAKER_09 1:22:22

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

Miles2Go 5K Charity Spotlight

SPEAKER_00 1:22:27

Friends, you know, we like to highlight charity events, especially when we think our Rise and Run family can help out. So we've got a couple of friends with us this evening who are preparing for an upcoming charity run that they want to tell us about. Danielle and Tracy, glad to have you here. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:50

Thanks for having us here. Yeah, thanks. All right, Danielle. So it's my understanding that you are the founder of the Miles2go charity that we're gonna be talking about tonight. Do you want to give our listeners an overview of kind of what uh Miles2Go is?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:05

Yeah, for sure. I would call myself the co-founder along with my son Miles when he was nine. I mean, long story short, when he was nine years old, eight and a half years ago, uh, we were at a red light in the middle of Orlando and he wanted me to give cash to someone that was panhandling. And I didn't not want to help him. I just didn't really know that that was the most effective way. And I explained to Miles why that might not be a great thing to do because he could buy something that ends up hurting himself. So at nine years old, he kept it really simple. He's like, okay, then we'll do something else. And you know, kids don't overcomplicate things. So we went home and figured out what something else was. And our something else ended up being a Miles2Go bag full of essentials. It's it's valued about $35. There's socks, t-shirt, toilet trees, high protein snacks, all kinds of good stuff in there to help you get through your day. So that's what Miles2Go is. We've given out 15,000 of these bags now in the past eight and a half years. Uh, and that's with help from our community. And our biggest fundraiser of the year is our Miles2Go 5K.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:12

I think I have heard of that before. You asked earlier before we came on the air if we'd heard of it. And until you explained it, I went, no, but I I'm pretty sure that I have. That's remarkable.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:22

And I do think a lot of people have the same idea, right? Like we have the people have the same heart. We want to help each other, and we just don't know how. So we like to make that really easy and accessible for everybody. So when you when you buy a registration for our run, that funds an entire bag of essentials for someone in need. So it's a real one-to-one kind of thing, and you can feel like, hey, I just came out here and had a good time. But that results in somebody knowing that they matter and knowing that they're seen, loved, and you know, they have the essentials that they need.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:55

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_11 1:24:57

Okay, so this 5K race, uh, I mean, you guys are in Orlando, I guess, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_11 1:25:03

But we can do this virtually, correct?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:05

Absolutely. It can be done anywhere. We send the runner t-shirt, the really cool custom metal, the all the swag that comes along with it. You can do it anywhere.

SPEAKER_11 1:25:13

And besides this 5K, is there any other way to help out?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:17

Yes, yes. We accept volunteers of all ages. That was something that was always very important to us as a nonprofit started by a child was that, you know, if you're three years old and you want to come serve, you're absolutely welcome. If you're 95 and you want to come serve, we'll find something that you can do too. So there's that way by volunteerism, there's following our Instagram, there's going onto our website and shopping from our store. We actually have an online and brick and mortar shop in Dr. Phillips part of town. And 100% of our profits go to buying the things that go into our bags. So you can buy a pair of pajamas or a candle or a cute t-shirt, buy your Father's Day gifts, Mother's Day gifts, and all the things. And all of the proceeds go to our mission. We don't have any salaried employees at all. I'm a crazy person that works for free and we have volunteers. So that's there's all kinds of ways that you can um participate, whether that's financial or you know, through making some Instagram posts or uh so many different ways. We really don't say no to anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:24

So, Tracy, you're gonna be doing this 5K as well. Um, how did you get involved in learning about um Miles2go and this organization?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:34

Yeah, so actually I had a couple of our uh fellow running friends coming to town looking for a race uh that weekend a couple years ago and told me about it. And you know, me, I'm always up for running a race and do like 45 a year. So I'm like, yeah, let's let's go, let's let's do this. And it's for a great charity. That sounds awesome. I wasn't familiar with them at the time. Um, so I signed up and um had a blast. And I also found that the little shop she was talking about, I've spent a lot of money there. But um when I went in to pick up my bag, I noticed that it was inside a sports medicine uh place that I didn't know about either. And I, you know, I started going there. And so I started seeing Danielle on a regular basis. And after the race, I was like, hey, this was awesome. And you know, can I give you a little feedback on like what was awesome and what could be, you know, maybe improve next time? Like there, you know, so she listened to what I had to say. And um, after you know, many conversations of me going in for therapy and also shopping, uh, she was like, you know what, would you like to be on our race committee? And I was like, Yeah. So this is my second year um on the committee trying to help put the race together. And so um I I think um, you know, it kind of helps with my experience with all the races and things that I do to kind of bring some of that to the table and um try to bring in my running friends and all of that. So it's part of why she's on here tonight was I was like, hey, maybe my friends at Rise and Run would like to hear about this event and this local charity. For our local Orlando and, you know, just regular Florida people. If anybody wants to come to town on September 19th and run an amazing race, it's a fun for the whole family. It's a chip time. There is uh it's a loop course. There's a lot of shade, even though it's September, you know, it can get warm, but it's it's not too bad. There's a lot of activities before, during, and after, a lot of good vendors and raffles and silent auctions and ice cream and dogs to pet, dogs to adopt, uh, just fun for the whole family. It's it's a really great time. So runners, walkers, baby carriages, walking dogs, everybody's welcome.

SPEAKER_11 1:28:41

I am looking at your registration signup. And you can make a team, it looks like. So it says a team of more registered by August 20th gets a unique logo on their shirts.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:53

Yeah. So if you have a team of 10 people or more, and you, you know, it could be your group of friends or your work, your your sports team, whatever it is, if you have a logo, then we'll put it on the sleeve of the shirt. Actually, I'm wearing a couple years ago t-shirt right now, but uh put it, we put it on the sleeve for you at no charge.

SPEAKER_11 1:29:12

10 rise and runners out in the Orlando area. You can have a special uh Rise and Run team logo shirt, possibly.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:19

Absolutely. So when you go to register, register as a team, just call it Rise and Run. Let's make it easy. And speaking of registering and Rise and Run, there is a special promo code for your listeners. Real creative, rise and run with no spaces. One word. There you go. Okay, there you go. At run signup.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:40

So, Danielle, I'm curious, do you personally hand out the bags that you've made from Miles2go? Um, and if so, do you have a story that you would like to share of how impactful it's been to um the people that you're you're helping out?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:57

Yes, yeah, for sure. So I have not handed 15,000 bags out personally. Right. So so how we started and the and the vision was for that everybody in Orlando to have one of our bags in your car. So when you're in that situation, like Miles and I were in 2018, you have something to give. So instead of avoiding eye contact, you will be excited to hang your head out the window and say, hey, I've got something for you. This was made with care and love, and I think you're gonna love it. And and it really changes the way that you look at a red light because you want the light to stay red and you want to be able to share and you want to see the person enjoy what's inside of the bag because it is quite a surprise because people haven't received a gift like this in probably a very long time. But I could think um of a couple really great moments where I've gotten to give bags out. But let me say too, the way that we got to 15,000 is not just, you know, people like myself passing them out and Tracy passing them out, but we also partner with other nonprofits that are doing really complex work. What we do is very simple. It's impactful, but it's very simple. So we partner with places like the Christian Service Center, the sharing center out in Longwood, the Hope Center, like everybody. If anybody wants our help, we're gonna say yes, Shepherd's Hope. Uh they see people experiencing homelessness for other services on a daily basis. So that their clients that come in for help can leave with a miles to go back. So we just dropped off a hundred more bags at the sharing center today. So that's how like that very large quantity happens. Uh and I'll say one of my favorite stories is I was volunteering personally at another nonprofit's event. The speaker that night spoke about how the services that he received at this nonprofit led to him being able to get his own apartment. So it was really his success story of coming out of homelessness. Beautiful story. So at the end of the event, I'm helping with the silent auction and like getting ever all the prizes to all the winners. And when I was done, he approached me and he said, I've been waiting for you to get a break and be by yourself all night. He's like, I want to let you know when I was receiving services, I also received miles to go bags. And I saved every one of the little cards because it let me know. And I'll tell you what it says. It let me know that somebody cared. And when I was my most lonely and at my worst, it gave me hope. So that his name is Hendricks. Um, I'll never forget him. And then he recorded a special message for me to pass on to my son Miles. Uh, but that you matter card is what he was referring to. So there's 15 things in a bag. This is just like a little postcard size thing that says that this bag was put together with love and care. And we just want you to enjoy it and let you know that you matter. It's simple, but he had eight of them on his nightstand and now his apartment. And we we know that what we're doing is not necessarily putting a roof over someone's head, but to give someone hope and to let them know that they're loved can just give them that extra bit of uh fulfillment so that they can make the next step, you know, to improve their life.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:24

That's marvelous. Listen, this is wonderful, a wonderful organization. Congratulations on everything you've done. Let's wrap up one more time with when and where the race is and how friends can register.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:37

Okay, September 19th, it is at Bill Frederick Turkey Lake Park. Anybody can come, all ages and abilities. Uh, they can register at runsignup.com, search for the miles to go 5k, and don't forget to use your special promo code RISEANRUN with no spaces.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:58

And for our local listeners, if you're not familiar with that, it's kind of near Universal, Universal Studios in Orlando. It's kind of in that area, the Dr. Phillips area.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:06

Well, Danielle and Tracy, thanks for joining us and telling us all about this. We wish you the best of success, continued success in this wonderful uh philanthropic activity you've taken on. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:20

Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:23

Caution runners, change of topic ahead.

Zoom Invite And Community Updates

SPEAKER_00 1:34:28

Thanks, ladies. Sounds like a really, really great event. And information is on our Facebook page. They're going to make a post telling you how you can register for that charity event. Coming up Thursday this evening. It's a Zoom Thursday. Hope to see you there. We got stuff to talk about. And we can turn it into a rise and run uh World Cup watch party that nine o'clock Team USA is playing. So something to look forward to. Hope to see you on Thursday evening. And now please stand clear of the door.

Race Reports From Around The Map

SPEAKER_00 1:35:13

It's time for a race report. Abord Montangancy, Alejado de la Cebs. The race report brought to you by our friend Tom Stokes of Stokes Metabolic Training, Stokes.fit slash rise and run coaching for more information on the various opportunities Tom has available to members of the Rise and Run family. I've gotten way behind and I'm embarrassed by it. And but I know that Tom will forgive me, and as soon as I say, hey, I'm ready to go, he welcomed me back because he's just that kind of guy. I think it's working. I'm trying to butter him up. You think you think it'll work? What do you think, Jack?

SPEAKER_05 1:35:56

Yeah.

unknown 1:35:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:00

But I really do. I stuff's been going on. But come on. I I just gotta snap out of it and get back to. I know the importance of the strength training. I need to get back to it. Alright, let's take a look at the report. We alluded to it when we talked to Coach Chris Dwaygs. Well, wait, we didn't allude to it. We spoke directly to it. Our friend Chad is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, doing six days in the dome, which is a 10-day event. He's running in indoors in a hockey arena. Good temps for running. That's helpful. As of this morning, as of Tuesday morning, he was on day five of this race. Initially, he had planned to try to get 50 miles in per day, but he's already done 300 miles. So he's ahead of the pace. So he's got some options. Maybe if we're lucky, he'll join us on Thursday night. Tell us how he's doing and how he exercised those options. Oh, and by the way, it was really cool, and we saw Chad this morning on the customized training call. He's wearing his rise and run shirt. Ready to go, Chad. Proud of you, buddy. All right, this weekend Sarah did a 5K and half marathon. 5K, I believe, on Saturday, half on Sunday, at the new River Gorge Trail Festival in Fayetteville, West Virginia. I saw a great photo, and I know I got notice that she completed both of those runs. So way to go, Sarah. So let's move to Saturday. Couple big events Saturday, but let's start with the one up

Grandma’s Marathon Spotlight Stories

SPEAKER_00 1:37:45

north. One of the country's great marathon weekends occurs in and around Duluth. Grandma's Marathon and the Gary Björkland half. We had a bunch of folks there. We'll go over that in a minute, but first, I would like to welcome to the race report spotlight our friend Nana. Nana, great to see you. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:11

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:13

Oh, you bet. We it's our pleasure, I promise. So Nana, you live up in that area, correct?

SPEAKER_07 1:38:21

Um, I grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. I don't currently live there.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:24

Oh, okay. I gotcha. I got you. Well, yeah, that's that's pretty close. So you you had to travel to the race then this time?

SPEAKER_07 1:38:31

Yes, I had to travel from currently I'm living in Missoula, Montana. So it's a direct flight into Minneapolis, and then um it's a two and a half hour drive up the north, up north. Um, it's usually a little bit longer if you stop at Toby's halfway in Hinckley, which everyone does.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:48

Now wait a minute, that's inside knowledge. Stop where?

SPEAKER_07 1:38:50

Toby's is like halfway between the Twin Cities and Duluth, and it's a bakery, but they're best known for their like cinnamon rolls or like sticky buns. So you just you know you get halfway to Duluth, and then you're like, I really wish my hands were full too, and then you stop and you eat and then you keep going.

SPEAKER_11 1:39:09

That's fantastic. That's wonderful. Okay, Nana. This is a question we ask uh people on the uh spotlight. When did you how did you get started running?

SPEAKER_07 1:39:18

I have a younger sister, and we all go to Disney World, and she and my mom noticed that Disney World had races that ran through it. So we all were like, oh, let's just do a 5k, that would be kind of cool. But um, we went to go sign up and we didn't know anything at the time. We just were like, well, just sign up for this 5k, it'll be easy. And obviously, as we all know, it's not that way. So that sold out, and and suddenly my little sister was like, let's do a 10k. And I was like, okay, that's doubling the mileage, but we can do it. And I'm like, all right, I'm gonna do six miles, and then that sold out. And without asking, she got us all into the half and was like, surprise, we're all doing 13 miles.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:00

And and when was this?

SPEAKER_07 1:40:02

This was um it was the oh shoot, I don't remember. Princess Weekend when Tiana was the half marathon. So was that 2024? I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:14

So it was recently.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:15

Yeah, yeah. I did not, I was not a runner. Well, that's not true. I did a little bit of track in middle school, but like barely anything. So this was an I'm a new runner, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:25

Yeah, that's cool. I think it's fun to ask that question because we can almost divide the answers into thirds or quarters, and I would say roughly 20 or 30 percent of our friends go, Well, I didn't know you could run at Disney, and then I found out, and so now I'm a runner. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:46

All right, Nana. So we have you here to talk about Grandma's Marathon, um, which we'll get into in a minute about how beautiful the area is. But why don't you tell us about um the expo and um the start of the race and how that went?

SPEAKER_07 1:41:00

Real quick, Duluth is a like a smallest town of 80,000 people. But when grandma's happens, that population doubles because a lot of people show up. So the expo is different than Run Disney, like you don't have to get there early to get merch or anything, but you definitely have to like have your patience of being around a bunch of people. Um but it's located in the convention center in Duluth, and there's only one, so you know where you're going if you're if you're there. And uh I don't know, it's it's the energy was really good. Um, there's one section of it that is like all merch and kind of shopping around. And because I grew up in Duluth, and and as anyone who is from Duluth, you're gonna run into people you know. So it was really nice to see people left and right be like, oh hey, it's nice to see you. Um yeah, and then picking up your bib is easy. It's just like they give you your bib number ahead of time. So you go up to wherever you are under those numbers, they give it to you, and then you check your bib on the timing mat and they send you on your way. They honestly didn't even check my ID. They just kind of were like, Oh, Nana Myers. There you go. So that was that was wild. And if I wanted to, I could have picked up my mom's. And so, like, so different than Run Disney, where you have to be there physically, but you can just pick up anyone's bib.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:13

So, for the start of the race, how do corals and things work for this one? Are there like set um corrals and is it the same type of thing that we have for Run Disney or is it a little bit more free-for-all in that sense?

SPEAKER_07 1:42:28

Uh, it's it's similar and different. So, first you have to get on a bus, which is similar to Run Disney, and get bused to the start line. You can't like you can't drive yourself there or get dropped off. Like a bus has to take you there. Um, and then there for the full marathon, there was the elite and then the like uh wheelchair division, and then A, B, and C. So you got your assigned your Corral ahead of time. Um, but they just everyone was just kind of hanging out up on this like grassy hill. It's actually just um a car dealership that we all wait for at the start. So we're all hanging out there, and then they say, okay, we're like 15 minutes from the start of the elites. So they kind of ran down and then got in line to go for it. And then um they're like, okay, we're 20 minutes from the corral A. But once the elite started, everyone kind of descended onto the road and just waited. And there were like everyone was mixed together, pacers were everywhere, which was awesome. And you just went towards the front when it was your corral. But there were no waves or anything. Everyone, the whole corral started at once.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:31

How was the weather, Nana?

SPEAKER_07 1:43:33

Oh, it was so beautiful. You could I couldn't have asked for a better day in the first couple hours. Um, it was a little bit overcast. I think it was like 56 degrees, so kind of a little bite in the air, which was perfect.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:46

It's freezing.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:50

That's no. That's like a perfect June day. Um and then uh, but yeah, it was gorgeous and a slight breeze off the lake, and the lake is always cold, so the breeze was a little bit chilly. Um, so like not and not humid, which is amazing for summer in Minnesota, um, and not buggy, which also is amazing for summer in Minnesota. But I don't know about other runners. I was out there all day. So towards the afternoon, the clouds cleared, the sun came out and came out in full force and scorched me. I'm so sunburnt everywhere.

SPEAKER_15 1:44:28

And it got really hot.

SPEAKER_07 1:44:30

It was like mid-70s, so I don't know about you, Bob, but for me, that's really hot.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:35

So you know, you know what I say. If it's hot where you are, it's hot, and that's a perfect example. Perfect example. I I can imagine it was pretty hot for you. 75 with the sun beaten down. Yeah. So good on you for uh for sticking it out. Tell us about the course.

SPEAKER_07 1:44:53

Yeah, so it's a point-to-point race. So we start in two harbors, Minnesota, which is approximately 26 miles north of Duluth. Um, and you run on what's called the scenic route. So leaving Duluth, there's a highway and then there's like a scenic route to go to two harbors, and we run on the scenic road. So you're following the is the word topography of like the route of the lake and its natural contour on land. And it and so it it's got rolling hills and it it goes like left and right a little bit, but for the most part, you just get on the road and run straight for 26 miles until you see the harbor, and then you're done.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:32

So I saw pictures and videos from a few people on um social media about that they had um little sprayers that people put out and and bands that come out. How are those things um while you were going around along on the course?

SPEAKER_07 1:45:48

Yeah, the community was amazing. Um, once it got pretty warm, those sprayers were awesome. So someone had attached a hose, and this happened a lot of times, up a ladder. So I don't know how they attached it, but the hose went up onto a ladder and then sprayed down on people so you could just run through it kind of like a rainfall, and that felt amazing. Um, and then I didn't see any. Oh, I did see a band. Um, this is interesting. I actually grew up square dancing, so I knew the band, and that's probably why I didn't think band. It's a screen band. Um, so they were playing fiddle tunes, which uh is we have a big square dancing community in Duluth. Um, so that was a a band that plays for square dancing, and that was kind of fun to get like you pick up the pace a little bit when you hear the music. Um, and then that was all on the North Shore on the scenic route. Once you turn onto London Road, which is one of our busier roads in Duluth, the London Road community just really showed up. There were people passing out hot dogs and and coke and beer, which was great, and watermelon, and someone was handing out pickles and pickle juice. Um, and I devoured a hot dog that honestly revived me.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:57

I was having a hard time and still on the course, still on the course?

SPEAKER_07 1:47:01

Yeah, still on the course. They were just here, like, here you go, have a hot dog.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:05

So, where about when in the race, this marathon, did you devour your hot dog?

SPEAKER_07 1:47:10

Uh I think it was mile 19.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:12

Oh golly, you're brave.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:15

I was starving.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:17

But it worked for you, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:47:18

Yeah, it did.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:19

Oh, I'm glad to hear that.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:21

I think at that point, if I like, you know, like nothing new on race day, and I've never run with a hot dog before, but at that point I was like, I'm desperate for it anyway. Might as well try it.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:31

Ah, I love it. Note note to friends considering grandmas train running by eating hot dogs.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:38

Um, my mom might have better information about London Road, because by the time I got there, I mean, I took I did a seven-hour marathon, so people were clearing out.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:46

So, Nana, were you at the course by yourself or was anyone else there with you?

SPEAKER_07 1:47:51

No, I brought along my mom who decided to run the half marathon.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:55

You did? Well, how about that? And would that happen to be to be the woman sitting next to you right now?

SPEAKER_15 1:48:02

Yes, hello, Alan.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:05

Welcome, welcome to the Rise and Run podcast. We're glad you joined us. Now, Alan, you did the Gary uh yeah, Gary Bjorkland half, right?

unknown 1:48:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:14

Good for you. Good for you. Now, that was also point-to-point, right? Yes. And so, same deal, you uh you bus from the end to the start of the half?

SPEAKER_06 1:48:25

Just a little north of McQuaid Harbor, then back into Duluth.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:30

Okay. So was it a separate bus for the half and the full, or did the okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:37

The half started a little bit earlier, like an hour or so earlier than the full marathon. So they had the buses all stationed and the various locations. It was clockwork. They've done this before.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:48

They have indeed.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:50

And uh, so they took had all the half marathoners come up. I'm gonna say about a half hour and a half earlier than the full marathoners. It got us up to our point, and then we took off from there. Three corrals, only three.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:05

Okay, all right. So then obviously, I would say for the most part, you got done before the marathoners since they were yeah, an hour and a half behind you, and then so yes and no.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:17

Uh, we saw the wheeled racers coming.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:20

Yeah, yeah. They make they make a pretty good pace. That's true.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:24

Fabulous. We're screaming for them.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:26

Oh, yeah, yeah. How was the course for you for the half?

SPEAKER_06 1:49:31

It was beautiful. You know, you can't beat Lake Superior, you just can't. And it was always to the left. The whole time.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:40

The whole time, huh?

SPEAKER_07 1:49:41

If it's to the right, you made a wrong trace. You're going the wrong way in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:48

Yeah. Okay. Awesome. How'd the race go for you, uh Ellen?

SPEAKER_06 1:49:53

It went really well. Like ridiculously well. I'm getting text messages from my kids. Mom, Florida! You're going to I'm doing 1530. I felt like I'm burning any asphalt here. So anyway, um I actually PR'd the race.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:12

You can say it. I knew you did.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:15

I knew you did. So we get the we get the PR a bell out for mom. And of course, Nana, this was your first marathon, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:50:22

Yes, it was my first.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:24

That's a PR.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:25

It was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:29

That's awesome. Hey, do you know why they call it Grandma's Marathon?

SPEAKER_07 1:50:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:34

Well, tell us.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:36

You might know more than me, but there's a there's a restaurant in Duluth that sponsors it and it's it's called Grandma's Restaurant.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:42

It was it was based on an old story in Duluth. Some grandma had a bordello down on the canal for all the boats coming in from everywhere because Duluth is an international harbor. So yeah, but the Fellucci's own it.

SPEAKER_11 1:50:57

So you ran a marathon. You know, what's next for you?

SPEAKER_07 1:51:03

Ignoring the calendar of what's actually next, I have my eyes set on Dopey.

SPEAKER_11 1:51:08

Okay, so you're not registered for Dopey yet, but that's your next anything coming up at Disney?

SPEAKER_07 1:51:13

Yes, we're doing my mom and I are gonna do the 5K at Line and Dine, the Aristocrats. And then I'm gonna go do the Mary Poppins half because Mary Poppins is my all-time favorite Disney movie. Um, and then the entire family, which would be like, well, not the entire family, but my little sister, uh, my older, sorry, my little sister's husband, my older sister's husband, and my older brother's wife, and my mom, and then and Edie and Edie, who's my sister's mother-in-law, are all doing princess in February. And that's the entire family tree. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:50

Wow. That's cool. That's cool. I Ellen, I think we got your future races in that answer, also.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:57

So there's a couple more in there, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:59

Go ahead, tell us.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:00

Oh, I'm doing the Orca 8 in West Seattle, and then I've got there's another really beautiful race here in Duluth called Bridge the Gap. It's a 10-mile race. Uh covers some of the same territory, but also the Seven Bridges Road area up by the National the uh Hawk Ridge Observatory. Gorgeous race. I'm coming back for that too.

SPEAKER_07 1:52:21

Outside of Run Disney, um, Missoula Mount, Montana, where I live, has an amazing run community. And we're in like our trail running season. So I have a I think it's a 15K up at Blue Mountain, which is just like a small mountain in in Montana.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:36

Well, it sounds great. Look, this I started off by saying I I consider this one of America's great marathons. You got the world majors, Boston, New York, Chicago, but then you know, you got grandmas, you got Marine Corps, you got, and I'm gonna blank out on some others, uh, flying pig, but there are a bunch of them that are that are special. Glad you got to do it. Thank you for telling us all about it, and we wish you the best going forward. Hope to see you soon.

SPEAKER_07 1:53:06

Thank you. Thank you, us too. We'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:08

So, as we mentioned, we had other friends who ran at grandma's. Carlos and Tara were there doing the full. Uh, Tara's third time at the race. Tara did an 11-minute PR. Now she said we did. I don't know if Carlos and she ran the whole thing together and did this 11-minute PR, but they finished in 4.14. I think that's a wonderful marathon time. She's been chasing this win for her last three marathons. Sometimes everything just falls into place. Happy to do that one and to set a new goal. Holly was there. We were just talking with Tracy on that charity run. Tracy and Jen ran the half together. Uh, they're on a journey to medal in all 50 states. Everybody who did this said the weather was great. Start time temps in the 50s. They had some character stops, a couple beer stops, time at their charity booth. They surprised themselves with a 250 half. Enjoyed a good chunk of the middle of the race with Stephanie Roberts. Favorite parts was the choir of singing and dancing grandmas. That's Tracy and Jennifer. Melissa was there for the half, her fastest half in her fifth decade. That's a decade PR. The setup and support in the race is tremendous. Thanks to her friends Kat Lou for running with her. Monica was there. Shooting for a BQ, didn't make it, but but set a seven-minute marathon PR. And I I'm pretty sure Monica's Monica's close to that Boston qualifying time. Uh wonderful finish line reception from her friends who dressed in granny outfits.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:56

It's still amazing to get seven mile seven minute PR, though.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:00

It is, especially, and Monica's pretty fast.

unknown 1:55:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:03

Okay, so you know, if if I pick up seven minutes on a marathon, that's no big deal. Seven-minute gain on a six-hour and twenty-minute marathon, not that big a deal. Monica's running much faster than that, so seven's a pretty big deal. Uh Ryan was there, did the 5k the day before, and then did the full on Sunday, was hoping for a PR. Didn't hear from him. Anthony did the full, didn't hear from Anthony. Uh Dan did the full. Dan talked about the train ride to the start line. See, it's point-to-point race. Nana and Ellen talked about getting on the bus, but there was also an option to take a train. Dan did that. He said, eh, worked out. The train left later than it was supposed to. It was slower than the bus getting to the start line. But, and this was a big plus, have your own private Corral P. Well, not private, but there is a bathroom on the train. So when he got to the start line, he didn't have to get in those ridiculously long lines for the porta potties. Now, Dan didn't quite hit his A goal, but he he really had an excellent run. He finished sub four and PR'd this race. Beautiful scenic course, neat race. Uh, after the race, he stepped into Lake Superior for a moment, and it was almost like an ice bath. The temperature water temperatures in the 50s, but it worked for him, really helped him out. So good job there. So, congratulations, Dan. Congratulations, all of our grandma's marathon and Gary Bjorkland half marathon finishers. Glad you enjoyed

More Race Wins And Fun Mishaps

SPEAKER_00 1:56:44

that wonderful event. There was another big event in Queens, New York at Flushing Meadows Park. I always look at that and I always see the leftovers from 1964 World's Fair. Younger people look and see the scenes from Men in Black, but it was the New York Roadrunners Citizens Queens 10K. New course due to construction around City Field, had them making 50 turns on the race course. 5-0. That's a lot of turns in a 10K. Yeah. Grace was there, so says there's always great energy around the race. She was pleased to finish with negative splits. One step closer for her to completing her nine plus one and four out of six for entry in the next year's New York City marathon and half. Jen was there. The course was crazy. She barely looked up because she was afraid of tripping during the turns or maybe hitting a pothole or something. The race announcers called it a spaghetti course. She wanted a PR, but she was thrilled that she finally got a popsicle at the end. And the brownie bites were also incredible. Vivi was there and looking down the whole time, terrified of falling. And Rob, not only the turns, but he didn't expect to find road apples on the course. He went in hoping for a better time than he ran. He ran a 53-51, which a 10K is excellent time, Rob. But given the number of runners, couldn't quite do what he wanted. Not too disappointed, though. Now I saw the video of Rob ringing a bell at the end of the race, and I thought it was a PR, but it wasn't. It was a bell that he got to run for being a 9 plus 1 qualifier for next year's New York City Marathon. So there we go. Let's go to Jacksonville, Florida, where Carrie Ann was at the Metal Madness 5K, 10K half. She did the 10K. Thought you got to pick out a random medal left over from past races, but nope, they just got a generic one. Really disorganized on this race. She ended up doing seven miles in this 10K because the course was marked wrong. But uh wound up placing first overall female and setting a new PR. Well, there you go. Congratulations. Unfortunately, they did no awards, so she went to celebrate at the beach later. Brooke was going to do the Possum Trot 10K in Roswell, Georgia, but got food poisoning, wasn't able to start. Hope you're doing better, Brooke. Food poisoning is just awful. The only solace is that it usually doesn't last too long, so I hope you're doing better now. So we go from the Possum Trot 10K to the hog jog 10K in Florida, Indiana. Kyle left us this race report.

SPEAKER_10 1:59:41

Hey uh rising run, folks. It's Kyle from the Boylanaker State uh calling in with a race report from this uh past Saturday, I guess that would be June 20th, in Florida, Indiana for the uh hog jog. Uh 10Ks are typically not uh distance I excel at, but I had a really great morning um at PR. And got to celebrate after the race with a um pork burger and some watermelon. So it was a great day here in the Boilermaker State. All right, guys, have a good one. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:17

Thanks, Kyle. Angela was in Des Moines, Iowa for the night run 5K. Definitely some bumps on the road related to communication overall and course directions. She was definitely told there was no medal for 5K runners, but was pleasantly surprised at the end that there was one. Overall, night was a lot of fun, and she's gonna do this again. Joe at Fort Smith, Arkansas, did the Kegs and Kegs 5K. He says we walked and we drank over six beer stops. Great way to stay hydrated when it's 85 and feels like 93. Okay. Finished up with bacon wrapped hot dogs and almost a pineapple dole whip. Joe. That doesn't sound like a race, that just sounds like a walking party. Kylie and her husband Drew were in Bell Buckle, Tennessee for the RC Cola and Moon Pie 5K. Uh set a coarse PR, a little bit over her overall 5K PR on this warm June day. Found that said she placed 9th to 30 in her age group. That's not bad. That's pretty good. Third time doing this race. It's just a fun race, fun place to go. It's a cute small town, Belle Buckle is. She's not a moon pie girl, but you get one at the finish line, and they sell so many different kinds there. I've been to this place, it's not far from the uh Lynchburg, Tennessee Jack Daniels distillery. And I was up there one weekend and we went to Bell Buckle, and she's right. It is a neat little town, and they have a moon pie festival there. I'm not sure why, but they do. So Bell Buckle, Tennessee is associated with R. C. Cola's and moon pies. Richard did the Sugar Daddy 10K in Santa Clarita, California. Of course, mostly on a horse or bike path. Volunteers really helpful, guiding them down the path so that nobody got lost. There were some rolling hills, but overall nothing really too big. Kind of cool. But then it got sunny and warm once the sun came out up over the hills. Uh, Richard got a PR for the 10K for the last 10 years. That counts. Decade PA PRs absolutely count. Uh long drive, but he would definitely do this one again. Christy and her son Isaac did this one, their second time doing it together. In this race, Isaac shaved three minutes off his previous 5K time for a PR and placed third in his age group. Way to go, Isaac. Congratulations. Christy, I know you're proud of him. Rob was in Hopkinton, Massachusetts for the Hopkinton Against the Tide 10K. It's a double loop within the beautiful confines of Hopkinton State Park. Of course, it was nearly all hills. Rob kept an agreeable pace throughout and was super pleased with his one hour and one second finish. He's getting hooked on Holler Hype. Again, every week somebody mentions Holler Hype, and I just want to point it out. Okay, I'm gonna give it a shot. In Zor, Ohio. Does that sound right? Zor? I've never been there.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:47

I've never heard of that before. Okay. And I'm from Ohio.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:51

How about the how about the Tuscazor Raw 25K? Anyway, whatever it was, Lori did it. She ran it with her husband Peter, who registered 10 minutes before the daggum thing started started. They hiked the whole way on a pretty challenging trail course. A lot of elevation change, a genuine river crossing where you had to hang on to a rope so that the current didn't drag you downstream. I think it was a good three or four feet deep. Inaugural running of this event, great fun. Sounds like Lori might try it again. Trish and her dad were in Newville, Pennsylvania for the Fountain Festival 5K. Dad finished first in his age group. Way to go! Congratulations. And Trish finished second in hers, winning a gift certificate to a local running store. That's a successful race. Way to go, congratulations. Back in West Virginia, the Barrackville Covered Bridge Festival 5K, Rich was there. Starts out at a town hall, meanders through town, including a couple of out and backs, some hills. It finishes at a covered bridge, appropriately enough. As a member of the Marion County Running and Walking Club, Rich got a pepperoni roll to commemorate the day. Let's go to Cape May, New Jersey for the Cape May point five miler. Rosemary did that one. Fast flat course along the coast there. Fun but hot. Play second in her over 70 age group and set a PR. Way to go, Rosemary. I think I got the name of the one that Steve did correct, and it's the Vestal XX 20K in Vestal, New York. A notoriously hilly course, but great running weather. Steve had real trouble with his calf at the end, and with about a quarter mile left, this calf just seized completely. He really couldn't move. Was really discouraged. Didn't even want to check his time. Later found out that he PR'd by seven and a half minutes. Way to go, Steve. Congratulations. Christy was in Charlotte, North Carolina doing the Run the South 10K. You know, you're winning when your outfit matches the medal, and it wasn't planned, and it was perfect. It couldn't have been any better. The colors were absolutely perfect. Today she might not have hit her A-goal, but that's okay. She felt like she had a great race, did a great job of pushing all the way through. Kimberly was there also. I did this race a couple years ago. This time of year in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is hot. And I did the half and the daggum half finished on an outrageous uphill. So Christy and Kimberly, congratulations. Not an easy course, not an easy day. Way to go. Let's go to Canada, Waterloo, Ontario, specifically, where Phaedra did the Waterloo Classic. Actually, she did the Big Dipper Challenge. 5K Saturday evening, 10K on Sunday. New PR on the 5K. And then the 10K was her second fastest ever. And this was her first time using Holler Hype. Wrapping up Saturday, Jimmy and Amanda were in Ringold, Georgia, doing the chicken and waffle 5K. Only 38 runners. The timer didn't work, so there weren't any age group awards. They had no shirts. And the race started 45 minutes late. But other than that, it was really good, says Jimmy. Now Jimmy was the only person who dressed up for he dressed up as the Swedish chef, so he won a rubber chicken. Let's go to Sunday, the BAA Boston 10K in Boston, of course. Jake was there. Beautiful morning in Boston. Great course that finishes in the Boston Common, just past the Marathon line on Boylston Street. Jake finished in 54-14, a three and a half minute PR for the 10K distance. Great job, Jake. At mile five, his son met him and had a chance to share just a few minutes, a few moments running on the course together. Jen was also at this event in Boston. In Burlington, Vermont, Lucy did the Parkway mile, shortest race of the year on the year's longest day. One to break six minutes, missed it by eight one hundredth of a second. I'm counting that as a win, Lucy. Out and back course, pretty flat. H group third place finish. That wins you a free brownie. In Easton, Massachusetts, Kimberly did the Father's Day 5K. Kimberly is down 110 pounds. And this was her best 5K finish in 15 years. Kimberly, congratulations for both of those. Marnie and her two sons were in Mututcheon, New Jersey for the fuse 5K. Good time running for a good cause. One of her sons, the tall one. If you oh, that's right, you're not looking at pictures. One of her sons finished age group second. Uh Marnie was age group six. Good run. Let's wrap it up in Texas, where we have the humble Texas Stars and Stripes 5K. Katrina, Lucas, and Olivia were there walking this one with a positive split. It was just right up the road from where they lived, which made Bib pick up and getting to the race really easy. This is their seven out of ten 5Ks this year for the kids who, along with Katrina, were repping Coach Tom with his eat the dang churros t-shirts.

Closing Reminder To Stay Consistent

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And that'll do it, friends. That's the race report for episode 248 of the Rise and Run Podcast. Friends, and if you run, you know you are our friends. Looking forward to see you on this week's Zoom. That's later tonight. Consistency is the key. You heard Coach Twiggs say it. Let's get started in that training. Let's not worry about how long it's taking us to finish the times. Let's just get out there and do the training. Let's be as consistent as we can. Motivation is great, but it wears off. Dedication is what makes you succeed in these events. So we'll all be out there doing it, but until we meet again, happy running.

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And it's in no way affiliated with Run Disney.