174: Walt Disney World 2025 Marathon Weekend Recap

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
3 am again.
Why did I ever think this was agood idea?
Welcome to the Rise and Runpodcast.
Join our group of Run Disneyfriends.
As we talk about running atWalt Disney World and beyond.
We'll discuss recent runs,training, upcoming races and

(00:27):
surprise topics suggested by you, our listeners.
Well, the alarm's gone off, solet's go.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hello, my friends.
Welcome to episode 174 of theRise and Run podcast.
We are so glad that you're here.
No recorded intros, friends.
We may have some from MarathonWeekend, but they're not ready
yet.
We may have a couple of thosenext week, but I still would

(00:59):
like to invite you to call ourhotline number.
We'll give it to you in just amoment and give us some more int
interest.
I enjoy those.
Well, friends, we're gladyou're here.
I'm Bob, and this week I'm herewith John.
Hey, how you doing.
I caught John in the middle ofa yawn there.
You couldn't see it, but I didWith Alicia Hello, with Lexi

(01:23):
Hello, and with Jack Hiya.
Good to see you, my friends.
We'll hear from Greg later onin the episode.
Poor Greg, poor Greg's in Maui.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Oh, poor Greg, Poor Greg.
It's such a hard day for him.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Isn't that sad?

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Poor Greg Having a night time.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I hope he's having a great time.
I hope he's having a great timethis week.
Episode 174 is our marathonweekend review.
It's about a week late.
We normally do it right after,but we had a couple other things
going on so we're going tocatch up with it this week.

Speaker 6 (02:06):
We had a great time, but we'll be talking about that
a bunch here in just a fewminutes.
If you enjoy the Rise and Runpodcast, please share it with
your friends and introduce themto the Rise and Run family we
want to share on your Run Disneyjourney.
Please remember to follow us onFacebook at Rise and Run
Podcast and on Instagram at Riseand Run Pod.
Check our YouTube channel andvisit our webpage,
riseandrunpodcastcom.
If you have a question, comment, race report or want to

(02:28):
introduce an upcoming episode,call us at 727-266-2344 and
leave us a recorded message.

Speaker 7 (02:36):
We also want to thank our Patreons, whose support
helps keep the Rise and Runpodcast rising and running, and
we would like to welcome a newPatreon.
We would like to welcome Josephin the plastic cheese level.
So if you want to join thePatreon team, check out
patreoncom slash rise and runpodcast.

(02:57):
Thanks, lexi.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Jack, what's up on the YouTube channel?

Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah, so this week, by the way, we will be doing the
spotlight videos that you canactually watch now.
So when we talk about thespotlight, it will be up on
YouTube as well.
But, yeah, the video inaddition to that this week is
going to be the pop-up.
We've talked about it so muchover the past few months and so
now you guys get to see what itlooks like for it there over the

(03:22):
past few months, and so now youguys get to see what it looks
like for it there.
So if we ever do another pop-upagain with Run Fit Fab, then,
yeah, that's what the experiencewill be like and we're excited
to share it.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Friends, the Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by
Magic Bound Travel.
We've got some exciting cruisenews for Magic Bound pound
travel, but I'm going to letthat go until next week.
Boy it's.
We're getting a great response.
Information is available on thefacebook page.

(03:55):
I saw maggie made a postearlier today, so check that out
.
But I wanted to remind ourfriends.
Now's the time to get yourresort reservations for next
season.
Now's the best time to do it.
Go ahead and put your depositsdown on your room.

(04:16):
If, for some reason, you don'tget into your race, you'll get
your deposit back, no trouble.
But this is the time to lock in.
The best rate and this is oneof the reasons I like.
Using MagicBound Is down theroad.
If Disney announces discounts,I don't have to sit here and try

(04:39):
to find the discount and thentry to find my reservation and
change it.
They'll take care of it for you.
So magicboundtravelcom is thewebsite.
Check them out.

Speaker 7 (04:51):
And I just wanted to add to Bob, as as a travel agent
myself um, whenever you bookwith Disney at any time, the
more people that book a specifictime period, you know, the less
rooms are available, whichmeans the higher the price.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (05:15):
So that's what.
That's kind of explaining whatyou said, bob, a little more in
detail.
Now is the best time to get theprice.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Oh, there you go.

Speaker 7 (05:24):
The day after registration, when everybody is
trying to book their room, thenthat's when the prices start up
and up and up and up.
So if you book it now and justput down your deposit, then you
don't even have to worry aboutit and you're already locked
into that lower price.

Speaker 6 (05:40):
Dynamic pricing huh.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Mm-hmm.
All right, friends, let's takea look, as we do, at the
training schedule.
Next week, one week away, thedisneyland half marathon boy
they.
That comes up quickly and Irealize not as quickly this year
as last year because it was thevery next weekend, but it does
pop in real quickly.

(06:02):
Uh, seven days to the expo weektraining week 17,.
Four miles this Saturdayrecommend you do that.
I will remind you again at theend of the episode.
But there is a meetup plannedfor the Disneyland half marathon
Now.

(06:22):
None of the podcast gang willbe there, but several of our
friends who are going to bethere said they wanted to have
one and I think it's great.
There's a terrific place for it.
It's in the picnic area.
If you are in the I don't knowthe esplanade or the open area
between DCA and Disneyland andyou face the front entrance to

(06:46):
Disneyland and then look to yourleft, there are some restrooms
over there and the Lost andFound is over there and there's
a picnic area.
It is labeled.
It's not easy to see becauseit's behind some hedges, but
it's a great place.
So, 3 pm Saturday, I hope a lotof our friends get to enjoy
that.

(07:06):
Princess Weekend, my friends, isa mere four weeks away.
We're in training week 14.
And if you're doing thechallenge, you've got a four
miler followed by a 12 and ahalf mile event First springtime
surprise.
And a half mile event Firstspringtime surprise.

(07:26):
Now 10 weeks until the lastrace of the run Disney season at
Walt Disney World.
Oh man, the time goes by fast.
Training week eight this is yourfirst double up a one miler and
a seven miler and I want tobring to your attention that
February 2ndnd, which is notthat far away, february 2nd is

(07:52):
the first day that advanceddining reservations are
available, based on you arrivingon expo day.
So if you're arriving daybefore Expo Day, it will be
February 1st.
You can do the math in yourhead after that.
But February 2nd is the ADR day, based on Expo Day.

(08:14):
And I do have one more datehere, and I won't do this every
time, but I'll do it this timethat cruise that I'm so excited
about, a mere 453 days away.
Not that I'm counting oranything, but that's coming up.
Hey, training update kids.
Anything to talk about intraining right now?

Speaker 4 (08:37):
You know what, the Dopey Challenge, which I know
we're going to be talking about,the races in a little bit.
Like I'm very, very happy thatright after the race I never sat
down.
I stood for three or four hoursafter cheering, seeing
everybody getting pictures andeverything.
I didn't sit down and I'm gladbecause my muscles are very

(08:59):
thankful for it that it didn'tget static in any way.
And then I've been walking somuch this last week because I
was in Japan.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Oh, good for you yeah .

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Yeah, and so literally me and Lexi went from
Orlando on marathon day and cameto Atlanta and then a few hours
later I flew out to Japan andthis was like I got so much
walking in.
It was really great recovery,but my knee still bothers me.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
I'm sorry to hear that yeah nothing serious, I
hope oh, I hope so.
I hope not too yeah, yeah, anyother training updates, friends,
I'll toss.
I'll toss one out there, I'lltoss two thoughts out there.
If after dopey weekend, I findit hard to get back to training,

(09:44):
we'll talk a little bit moreabout it.
But I took last week off BoomDone, nope.
Tuesday, thursday, saturdayNope.
I started back up on Monday andI started back up with Tom
Stokes' latest Stoked MetabolicTraining Challenge which went
live on Monday.

(10:04):
So I had not been to the gym.
You know, I sliced my thumbreal bad, but that healed pretty
well.
But by the time it healed I wasdeep into dopey training Bottom
line.
I haven't been to the gym sinceThanksgiving and coming out of
there yesterday a little hard toraise my arms over my head and

(10:25):
stuff like that, but that's okay, that's okay, we got that going
on.
So that challenge is going on.
Uh, I think you had a prettygood response to it and I'm
looking forward to that.
I also got back to training thismorning.
I got on my treadmill, did somerun, walk stuff.
Look it it is.

(10:46):
We'll.
We'll maybe talk a little bitmore about this in the upcoming
weeks, but it's a challenge togetting past the post dopey
blues if you will.
But don't give up on all thework you've put in you have and
get back out there.
Walk like Jack's been doing.
Uh, just just get back outthere.
Walk like Jack's been doing.
Just get back out there, getback into your training schedule

(11:07):
.
Find yourself, if you're notscheduled for a race, find
yourself a race to train for andyou'll be happier for it.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
It's always good to kind of also with.
That being said, stick withyour base.
You know what I mean.
You may not be training Ifyou're after this race weekend.
You're like're like, okay, Idon't have anything for a while.
At least keep with the base ofit like say like yeah like a
seven or eight mile base, andthen you're good if you,
especially if you're doing likehalf marathons and whatnot

(11:37):
alicia is shaking her head, yes,because she is a um, uh,
running coach, so she knows butalways having a good base so
that way you're not startingfrom the very bottom again.
You don't have to do doubledigits, just do, even just
halfway.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
It depends what you're working on.
Yeah, but don't just I know youkind of have to force yourself
back out the first time Do it.
Just get out there.
I think you'll find that prettyquickly, you'll feel good and
you'll be glad you Do it.
Just get out there.
I think you'll find that prettyquickly, you'll feel good and
you'd be glad you did it.
Friend, princess courses werereleased this week.

(12:13):
We have found that it's best towait until we get close to race
time to go over those, becauseif we talk about them now I'm
not going to remember.
Heck, we could talk about themon Thursday and I wouldn't
remember.

Speaker 6 (12:28):
And Bob.
Some of us are runningDisneyland next week, so they're
wait.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 6 (12:33):
Should I make it a left-hand turn?

Speaker 3 (12:35):
at the Magic.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
Kingdom Wait good one .

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Good point.
We don't want to confuse anyone.
Thanks, john.
That's a good point.
So we'll look at the princesscourses, but also released this
week wine and dine themes forthe October races, I always toss
it open, gang.
What did you think?

Speaker 2 (12:57):
I have mixed feelings about it.
What?
Yeah, I have mixed feelingsabout it.
I agree with that reaction.

Speaker 7 (13:03):
What.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
I feel like they thought a little bit more about
the themes.
However, some of them I feellike could be better than others
, like the challenge.
That doesn't mention that it'san anniversary year when I have
10 years of perfect status andI'm mad about it.

Speaker 7 (13:24):
I understand.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
I don't agree, but I understand that's okay, we can
agree to disagree when theweekend comes, there'll be a way
to recognize that your your, uh, your ribbon with your metal
yeah, it will save yeah, it'llhave the 10th anniversary on
there.
We'll get some kind of.
We'll get some 10th anniversaryon there.
We'll get some kind of.
We'll get some kind of a gift.
I mean, you'll get some kind ofa gift for being a perfect.

(13:50):
We'll all get something.
And it's become a luggage taglately.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Yeah, I don't mind a luggage tag.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, but I got more luggage tags than luggage right
now, which is okay.
I mean it doesn't hurt anything.

Speaker 7 (14:03):
I still have my luggage tag from Princess 2018.
Me too, yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
I don't know what all I have.

Speaker 7 (14:15):
I know we got one last week for Goofy.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
That's fine, I didn't get one.
You didn't get a Goofy luggagetag.
No, you have to do the Goofychallenge.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
Goofy or Dopey yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:24):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (14:24):
I didn't do those, okay, well actually, which I
noticed today for the first timethat on my marathon weekend
jacket in the bottom corner theyhave a little uh goofy, uh
anniversary Uh it says like 20years, 20 years of goofy.

(14:45):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
That says that it's marathon weekend and it said 20
years on it 20 years of goofy asopposed to 20 goofy years.

Speaker 7 (14:54):
Those are different.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Those are different things.
Other other thoughts on thethemes for wine and dime weekend
.

Speaker 6 (15:02):
I realized they actually thought this one
through.
I think in a way, uh, with youknow, 5k is breakfast, 10k is
lunch, the half is dinner andthe challenge is dessert so I
saw the macaroni is uh set up asuh 13.1 in the ball, the

(15:27):
porridge had the 5.5K in theporridge ball.
For the 5K, I'm just trying tofigure out what they're doing
with Olaf and the fairies.
Well, remember when he singshe's got like the picnic.

Speaker 7 (15:44):
Yeah, when he does sing in summer he is talking
about a picnic.
I I loosely give that to him.
Yeah, I think they're awesome.
I I love mushu being on on allof the stuff.
I love lady and the tramp beingall in all of the stuff.

(16:04):
I love Lady and the Tramp beingall of the stuff, and I'm a big
fan of the fairies because theydon't get on anything Okay.
So, yeah, I say they knocked itout of the park.
Good I can't do them.
I can't do the races but, Iknow.
I'm so upset about it.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Well, I'll be there.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
We'll try to be there .
Yeah, I'll be there.
We'll try to be there.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, I'll be there, I'll be there yeah, of course,
practically perfect in every way.

Speaker 7 (16:36):
They need to do a Mary Poppins one.
They do yes.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
I think that's inevitable.
Yeah, I have my typicalreactions.
They're fine.
I don't, you know, I don't getexcited about the themes.

Speaker 7 (16:51):
Oh, bob, I'm more excited about being there.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
That's really what gets me excited.
The themes yeah, they're cool,they're nice.
I have to think of a.
I got to think of costumes thatgo along with at least a couple
of those now.
To think of a uh, I gotta thinkof costumes that go along with
at least a couple of those now.
Yeah, I went from zero costumesnow to having to do elaborate.
Thanks a lot, guys.
It's you know whose fault it isthat?
Daggum britney charbonneau.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
It's her fault oh, I thought it was my fault.
You were pointing you're next.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Jack, you were next, you were.
You're the britney started it.
Britney started that ballrolling, and what really pushed
it over was when you said whydon't you do Sam Eagle?
That did it, yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Yeah, I got my creative juices flowing.
Wait till you hear what I'mdoing for springtime.
Ain't no one going to have thiscostume, even though I might
say it out loud, and somebodywill end up having it.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Save it.
Save it for the pod Jack, Saveit for the pod Jack, Save it for
the space hub.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
I love that characters that are never on any
of the medals are on these ones, with the exception of Olaf
because he's been on a virtualmedal before.
But like Lady and the Tramp,like how rare is that, mushu?
How rare is that Now they needto give Mulan a little bit of a
higher distance, just sayingBecause she'd always be put on
the 5K.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
We had a lady in the tram for Wine and Tine before.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, when was it?
It hasn't been since I've beenrunning.
When was it, Alicia?
It's been a while.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
It has been a while, but we did Well for me it's been
a long, long time.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
You know who I thought of when I saw that Our
buddies Tom and Adam, the Tutuguys.
They did.
Lady and the Tramp.
I think this weekend.

Speaker 7 (18:29):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, just to jump the gun just a little.
If only they'd known, yeah, Iknow, come on, run Disney.

Speaker 7 (18:38):
Tell us ahead of time , yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
I really wish I could do this for you.
They'll think of something.

Speaker 6 (18:43):
Yeah, so that weekend our friend Joe, everyone knows.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Joe, oh yes, yes, yes .

Speaker 6 (18:50):
Our friend Joe is going to try to get into Wine
and Dine oh he will.
He will.
We'll get him.
Help to get him in.
He celebrates his 80th birthdaythis year and it's a little
earlier because of the way theymoved it up, but I think it's
three weeks.
He celebrates his 80th birthdaythis year and he wants it's a
little earlier because of theway they moved it up, but I
think it's three weeks earlierhe wants to celebrate his 80th

(19:12):
birthday by doing wine and dineand he's inviting us all to help
, help and join him.
Join him so.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Oh, absolutely and actually, and I thought about
trying to keep this secret, butthere's really no way to so
listen, I'll just get close tothe microphone and I'll whisper.
Okay, so Joe can't hear me, butI think I'd like the podcast to
do something special for Joe,whether we get T-shirts made or

(19:39):
something that would be so fun Ithink it would be neat, and we
start the expo off on mybirthday, is that right, john
we're?
Down there for our weddinganniversary Mine's a week later.
Yeah, A week earlier, sorry,number 48.

Speaker 6 (19:59):
For me and Becky, when we're down there I'll be 30
this year.
Wow, getting old John.
I know I'm getting year wow,I'm getting old.
Okay, I know, I'm getting oldall right.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
So hey, look, we got that to look forward to.
We're already talking about thenext race season.
My goodness, when doesregistration for that come about
?
Uh, it is february 11th, notthat far away.
I think.
It's only about what's thatabout?
Three weeks away?
Yeah, three and a half weeksuntil registration day.
That's, and that's registrationday for everyone.
If you're a club run disney,it's the week before it's

(20:31):
february 4th so so it's justaround the corner also craziness
it is well, let's let's getinto our primary topic for the
evening.
We're two weeks back now fromanother awesome Walt Disney

(20:53):
World Marathon weekend.
Let's relive it one more time.
What do you say?
Let's kick it off with the Expo.
Thoughts on the Expo.
How did it go?
When did you get there, whatwere the crowds like and how was
it for you?
Let me start off.

(21:14):
I'm going to bet Alicia wasprobably there as early as
anyone.
Did you get there on Wednesday,alicia?

Speaker 2 (21:23):
I did.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
I got there.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
When did it open?
10 am.
I got there right right at itopened um, and it was still a
little bit of time until myvirtual cue.
So I decided to go give my biband I was really glad that I did
, because it's it was still apretty long line when I went in,
but when I came out, it was allthe way on the baseball fields

(21:49):
and all of the things, and yeahthere was To get your bib.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
The line was on the baseball field.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Well, the one for the bib was all the way down to the
buses.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yeah, and then the one coming out of the bibs All
the way down to the buses.
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yes.
Wow, and then yeah, it wascrazy.
And then when you came out ofthe bibs, they were on the
fields.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, yeah, I saw that Right.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, which was both were crazy.
So I was glad that I got all ofthat taken care of, because
yeah, they were.
It was crazy, it was crazy busy, but I got to see a lot of
great friends there, which wasfun, and get some friendship
bracelets and pictures, so thatwas good, as always.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, I enjoy the expo.
I enjoy the expo.
We got there actually a littleearlier than I thought we would.
Actually a little earlier thanI thought we would.
We had some stuff going on hereat home and we weren't sure
when we were going to be able toleave, but we ended up getting
there.
Well, what Becky and Itypically do is make a lunch

(22:56):
reservation and go over afterlunch.
This time we just went straightto the expo, so I think we got
there a little before 1.
Now, the crowd to pick up thebib was not that bad.
It was outside, but it wasn'tthat bad.
I forget this every time, thatonce you get in there and you go

(23:20):
around and it's like okay, herewe go, not so fast, my friend,
you've got another serpentine togo through before you get
around.
That takes a little while.
It wasn't bad.
The line to pick up your shirtsand go to the vendor expo was

(23:43):
as you described.
It was down still by thebaseball fields.
Expo was as you described.
It was down, still by thebaseball fields.
But instead of winding aroundand going back up on the second
floor, you went back in on theground floor there and that
moved really pretty quickly so Ididn't have too much trouble
with that.
Now, when we got there,unfortunately Becky wasn't
feeling well.
I love, as I said just a minuteago, I love going to the expo,

(24:06):
meeting friends, old and new.
I was not there long at allthis time, I'm sorry.
I wish I could have been, but Iwasn't, so we got out of there
in relatively short order.
I did go back on Saturday, lastday of the expo, to visit with
Jeff and Chris, got a fewminutes there.

(24:27):
That's always nice.
Glad I had a chance to do that.
I hope friends, I hope you hada chance to stop by Mr
Galloway's booth and talk withJeff and Chris and any of the
other Pacers or other greatpeople that hang around there.
That's always a lot of fun.
Any other expo comments?

Speaker 6 (24:46):
I was there.
I was there early cause Iluckily got group two, so I got
right into the uh run Disneymerch early.
Uh, but when I did get out, theline wasn't as long as Alicia
said it was.
At that point it was stillzigzagging up at the top there.
So we got in and it moved veryquickly.

(25:07):
It moved very quickly, whichwhich was which was really good.
But when we left the buildingwe were the first group to walk
across the baseball field to getinto the uh, into the expo, so
you know, so didn't have to godown upstairs or downstairs, so
that was kind of a nice littleuh perk yeah, that actually was

(25:27):
almost better in that regard, itwas a long walk around to go
from point a to point b, butthen, yeah, like I said, we went
inside, uh, got our, got ourshirts, I got kt taped up on my
uh, my heel and uh.
Then we stopped by Jeff's booth,talked to them, saw Chris, saw

(25:49):
Adam, saw some of our otherfriends around, and then we left
before you got there, so wedidn't see you, unfortunately.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
It's okay.
We had plenty of opportunitylater in the week.
Yes, yes, we did.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
I was going to say I had a Jack moment.
So when I was in line for thebid pickup, I went there first
thing, like 30 minutes beforethe expo even started, and I'm
standing in line.
And then I was talking tosomebody from one of our
listeners, rise and Runners, andthen I realized I've been

(26:25):
trying to send out text messagesand it's not sending.
It kept saying my networkwasn't working.
I was like, oh my God, I'm in adead zone.
And then the Rise and Runner Iwas talking to she's like oh, do
you have your bib?
What's it called the thing youneed to pick up your bib?

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Oh, your Expo Pass.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Yeah, my Expo Pass, and I couldn't pull it up
because nothing was working andI was getting extremely nervous
because I was like what am Igoing to do?

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Go ahead, Tell us what happened.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
So she texted.
So she's like okay, here, logon to my phone and then, great,
screenshot.
She texted it to me and then weboth realized I can't use a
text message because I can'teven get a text message, and the
results ended up being that myphone was on airplane mode.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
And didn't realize that.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
So here I am for like five minutes freaking out,
because I'm like oh my God, I'mnot going to get my bib.
And no, I had it on airplanemode.
I don't even know how it gotthere.
That happens, Jack Number one,you would it on airplane mode.
I don't even know how it gotthere.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
That happens, jack Number one.
You would have gotten your bib.
They would have found a way todo it.

Speaker 7 (27:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Number two.
I mean, I give you grief allthe time, Jack, but I can't even
give you grief about this one.
We've all done that.
We've all done that.
Oh gosh, I'm in airplane modeand it is funny Sometimes, in
airplane mode, and it is funny.
Sometimes you don't know how itgot there.
Sometimes I do.
Sometimes I go, oh, I was on anairplane, but yeah, well,

(27:50):
that's the good news is, youfigured it out and your phone
wasn't broken, so that's goodtoo, it was solid after that,
how did things go?

Speaker 4 (27:59):
um, pretty good, but that was really.
I want to say this expo wasprobably the busiest, I think
I've ever personally seen it.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
It was pretty busy.
It sure was.
It's tough to compare topre-pandemic because I honestly
can't remember that well anymore, but it was pretty busy and the
numbers are definitely back upfor the Disney races.
Lexi, how'd you make out?

Speaker 7 (28:22):
I didn't get there till Thursday afternoon.
Lexi, how'd you make out?
I didn't get there tillThursday afternoon.
So I still got a little bitbefore.
Y'all ran the 5K before I evengot to property.
Yeah, but no, I mean.
So on Thursday my flight wasdelayed about 45 minutes minutes

(28:43):
, and so I literally got on thebus, got to my hotel, dropped
off my bags at the luggage, wentto the expo and did one loop.
I was like and grabbedeverything I could, and then I
had a dinner reservation and Ihad to go to sleep for the 10k.
So, like I spent barely anytime at the expo, I basically

(29:07):
said hi and bye to coach twigs.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
I was like hi, okay, I have to go because I have a
reservation yeah um, yeah, andthat was it wasn't, I would have
guessed that thursday wouldprobably have been the lightest
crowds yeah, because on fridaythe goofies are coming in.
You know nothing.
Nothing personal folks.
If you're goofy, that's okay.
People call me goofy all thetime, but yeah, but Thursday

(29:32):
really was the 10K runners and Idon't know, I just figured
Thursday might've been thelightest day.

Speaker 7 (29:39):
Yeah, I mean I didn't have any weight going to get my
bib or shirt or anything.
And then whenever I went intothe Run Disney merchandise they
were pretty much wiped cleanfrom the sweatshirts.
But, I got one of theathleisure sweatshirts.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (30:00):
The ones that say Every Mile is Magic, so fun
story.
I was standing there and Iasked a girl holding on to one.
The girl looked to be likesimilar size to me and I was
like hey, where did you get thatone?
And she was like this is thelast one.
I was like okay, that's fine,if you decide you don't want it,

(30:22):
I would love to try it on, butyou know, it's like no pressure
anything.
I just wanted to say that.
Well, about 10 minutes passedand she came back.
She's like it's a little toobig for me, so you can have it
if you want.
And I was like no, it's nice.
Um, and then everybody wasasking me like where'd you get
that?
Like I'm sorry, it's the lastone so anyway, but well.

(30:44):
Anyway, but I got it.
Every Mile is Magic.
I'm wearing it today, yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
And sweatpants.
I'm finding that and I thinkit's a function of the fact that
I've done so many races that Idon't care that much about the
race weekend merchandise, butthe generic Run Disney
merchandise I think it's prettynice and I'm glad they've kind
of upped their game there in thelast couple of races.
I'm excited for the New Balanceshoes, but I think we're still

(31:11):
a race or two away on those.
I think springtime was what Iheard Springtime is what I heard
yeah, so maybe we'll hearsomething soon.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
And also, I think on Thursday or Friday, they dropped
the puffer jacket vest.

Speaker 7 (31:25):
Thursday.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
Thursday yeah, so that wasn't there on Wednesday.
When the bulk of the crowd wasthere Thursday, they dropped
that nude vest out, so that'skind of interesting that they
saved it until the second day.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
No wonder.
I didn't see it when I wasthere and then I saw pictures of
it and I was like I didn't seethat.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
It made sense they hid it from you, all right.
Well, it was fun.
But now we get down to marathonrace weekend and we start
thursday with the 5k, and it wascold, but by golly it was fun.
Uh, 5k comments, let's see, Idid it, john and jack did it

(32:08):
right correct okay, um, I'llkick off.
I guess I had to get up a littleextra early because I had never
put glitter lips on before.
That was exciting.
I gotta tell you.
They're not that hard.
It wasn't that tough and Ithought I would hate it, but I

(32:34):
hardly even noticed it and I'llcomment again at the end when it
come to getting them off.
That was a little different,but that was fun.
I had purchased some blanketsbecause and we're all going to
say this it was cold, and Igrabbed a white blanket and I

(32:56):
took it out back here the daybefore at my home and spray
painted black dots onto my whiteblanket so I could wear it with
my Cruella costume and it wouldlook right and it did.
So I enjoyed doing that.
I got over there and man, aswe've talked about with the expo

(33:16):
, that 5K was there were.
It was just crowded and I wason one of the first buses.
Just a lot of people there.
That was fun.
I got in there.
Lots of photos, lots of smilesand laughs, which is the reason

(33:36):
that we do these costumes.
There were people in puppyshirts everywhere.
We got over by our meetup placeand there was like no room to
move.
We're looking for a place toget a photo and John suggests we

(34:00):
go over by the stage.
Well, you take it there.

Speaker 6 (34:02):
John yeah, so we said we went by the stage.
I went up to the dj and I saidhey, can you do me a favor?
Uh, can you take a photo of ourgroup?
And he's like sure, and helooks out and he sees like 200
puppies invading the stage yeahhe's like oh wow and that's
luckily he was up there.
We, I think we got a prettygood shot, considering you know

(34:26):
how far away he was and how faraway we had to be so that
everybody can actually be in thepicture.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Yeah, I mean in fact we.
That stage area is pretty big.
I don't think everybody did fitand I saw a lot of comments
from folks who said, oh gosh, Ididn't get there for the photo.
People ask me how many puppieswe had total.
My best guess is over 200.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
I don't know, honestly, but there's a when I
was cheering there were a lot ofpuppies, like after I got done
with the 5k, there were a ton ofpuppies that was the hard part
trying to find somebody in thein your group.

Speaker 6 (35:07):
Oh, let me go find.
Uh, yeah, oh, she's dressed ina puppy suit.
Yeah, that's not her.
That's not her.
Yeah, uh, okay, that's it.
It's like it's like everyonewas a puppy pre-race.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Everywhere you looked pre-race, everybody was in my
Pre-race.
Everybody was in Mylar.
Once the race started,everybody was in Dalmatian spots
.
I've got to go.
I've got to once again giveMonica credit for the idea and
Alec at Kauai and Pizza Apparelcredit for helping us with those

(35:42):
shirts and selling them to usat a good price.

Speaker 6 (35:45):
I think the funny thing was Bob, didn't Monica
miss the photo?
Oh yeah, that didn't surpriseme?

Speaker 3 (35:52):
That didn't surprise me.
Monica operates on chaos crewtime, so she gets there when she
can, but I did see her on thecourse a couple of times and
yeah, and she was tickled todeath too.
And yeah, and she was tickledto death too.
We're going to do something atthe 5K in 2026.
I don't know what, but we'regoing to do something.

(36:14):
We'll figure it out.
We had some ideas presented tous.
We will work on it, I promise,and we'll let you know as soon
as we decide on something.
But that was, it was just a lotof fun and it was just great to
see everybody together likethat.
Now, my last comment is theglitter lips.
Okay, went back to the room,took a tissue no, that didn't

(36:40):
work.
Wet the tissue what did?

Speaker 8 (36:43):
no, that didn't work that didn't work.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Becky had some.
What did?
No, that didn't work.
That didn't work.
Becky had some kind of makeupremover.
She sprayed.
No, I eventually just took thelotion that's on the counter in
the resort and took a littledrop of lotion and just rubbed
it.
Boom, that was it.
That was it that worked.

(37:05):
So that's how to get rid of theglitter lips.
And yeah, I don't know if I'lldo that again or not, but it
wasn't, I don't know.
It was fun, gang, it was fun.
I know people got a charge outof it and to me that's what it's
all about.

Speaker 7 (37:21):
Did you PR in fun?
That's the question.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
I was right up there, Yep sure did.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
Oh, I can't wait to see what the 5K will be next
year.
I won't be able to go becauseobviously I'm getting married
and I won't be able to do theentire weekend.

Speaker 7 (37:38):
Maybe we can do a little 5K on the ship and dress
up and take pictures so we canlike photoshop ourselves
ourselves yeah, there you go Ilove that.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
That does have to happen.
I I'm obsessed with that idea.

Speaker 6 (37:52):
Now you're welcome yeah, we got it.
We got it.
Right now we're all dressed asjack skellington oh, stop it, I
have a costume.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
But yeah, this 5k was a lot of fun.
I this was like the first 5kwhere I like actually ran it,
because all the other 5ks I'vedone at Disney World I've always
kind of walked it.
But this was a nice test for mebecause it was exactly three
and a half weeks since Ifinished my 100 miler and so I
had only been running a week anda half prior to that 5K.

(38:24):
So like I'm just very, verythankful because the longest
distance that I'd done priorafter that 100 miler was a five
miler.
So the 5K went great.
I went out too fast because Iwas.
It was so cold, I just wantedto stay warm.
It was like what, like high 30s, low 40s for the race.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Yeah, it was.
I don't know if absolutetemperature, but it feels like
high 30s for sure.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
Yeah, but that was really cold so I didn't know how
fast I was running until afterI got past the first mile marker
and I was like, oh, slow down.
But yeah, it was a great race.
It was definitely a little bitof a woof for me, fun intended.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
Cold was the theme of the weekend, I think.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
Yeah, I could just definitely tell my body was not
fully recovered at all.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
I went out of the last corral, which I said I
would do, and I'm guessing about50 people Went with me by the
time we finished.
It was me, Becky and Diane.
Even John had ditched us.

Speaker 4 (39:35):
Was John catching the puppies for you?

Speaker 6 (39:37):
Yeah, I was catching the puppies.
I was the puppy catcher.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
He was.
We lost John, I don't knowwhere.

Speaker 6 (39:44):
I turned around and I didn't see you guys.
I mean, how am I going to missa six-foot?
Gorilla.
I don't know All I saw waspuppies and I'm like where's my
wife and where's Bob and where'sBecky?
I'm like, okay, I just kind ofkept going.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
So Rebecca's now retired again from 5Ks We'll see
it was fun To all of you whoparticipated.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for making that happen.
I hope you enjoyed it too.
The comments I got fromeveryone is that they did, and

(40:23):
we did get a lot ofencouragement to try and do
something again next year.
So we will All right On toFriday and another cold morning
for the 10K, and I got to admitto you, friends and I should
make notes immediately after theraces.
I don't remember a whole bunchabout the 10K.
I know that I ran with a lot ofour hashtag run dopey friends,

(40:47):
because I had one of theircheerleader shirts, so that was
fun.
I had pom-poms, but they endedup going to somebody else, which
is fine.
Uh, who, who else did the 10kto this week?
Jack, of course, did dopey lexi.
Did the 10k go ahead?
Guys?
What'd you think?

Speaker 7 (41:05):
I thought it was great.
Um, I was in for just the 10kum and I started in corral d.
I think this is the only 10kI've ever run in history where I
have kept my gloves on thewhole time.
For whatever reason, whenever Irun my my gloves are the first

(41:29):
things to go.
I I don't know.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Um but.

Speaker 7 (41:32):
I even kept hot hands inside my gloves.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 7 (41:36):
Like because I was so cold.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Those things are great yeah.

Speaker 7 (41:40):
They're amazing.
Um, I use like 15 of them allweekend, um, but anyway, so, um,
yeah, I just, you know, kept mypace um, saw some friends on
the course.
I saw a jar um from ox andspoon.

(42:02):
Get all of that gang um gang.
Who else did I see out there?
I don't even know.
I stopped for character.
I saw Captain Hook and MistressMee and it was just a grand old
race you and I almost finishedtogether, almost we even had the

(42:23):
conversation when we werecoming up to the finish line
that we have never finished arace together.
And then you stopped with Rileyand the other announcers.

Speaker 5 (42:33):
Right.

Speaker 7 (42:33):
And I was like, okay, I'm going to stop too, but
there was like a wall of peoplethat kept me moving forward and
I was like, oh, okay, I'm goingto finish now.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Yeah, I'm not going to.
If I mention names of folks, Ileave somebody out.

Speaker 7 (42:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
But I will mention that I was with Stephanie at
that point and actually for alot of the race and we talked
with.
We didn't spend a whole lot oftime with the race announcers,
but we spent enough.
We were just chatting casually.
I lost track of you and then Isaid, okay, well, let's go.
And I looked forward and theballoon ladies had already

(43:14):
crossed.
This is the second time I'vefinished an event behind the
balloon ladies.
The other one was exactly thesame way.
I stopped to talk with Jeff orthe announcers or somebody, and
the ladies came up along behind.
Yeah, I went out at E andreally didn't care about pace
and had a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
So my 10K Do as I say , not as I do, and here's why I
say that.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
Oh yeah, we know, jack, we follow that rule.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
I have a lot of great advice.
I just, for whatever reason,don't ever remember it when I
need to remember it um, thisgoes with the fact that, um,
your costume.
You should probably try on yourcostume a while before you
actually leave for the trip, andI had bought the costume like

(44:07):
right after halloween.
I was so excited.
I remember going into lexi'soffice at work and I was just
like, look, I got my costume.
It's jack skellington.
I'm so excited.
And so I didn't try it on theday before I left for the

(44:28):
weekend and realized that thetop was too tight and I could
barely move like my armsproperly.
And I said, well, it's happening.
And so I mean, if I broke alittle bit of thread, it's fine.
Maybe I'm just like musclemouse now.
Ha, ha, Tom.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
Ah, there you go.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
But yeah, the top was definitely tight.
I still wore the costume, Istill had a fabulous time during
the race, except my kneesstarted really bothering me the
last two miles and then it endedup being an issue for the rest
of the weekend Because, again, Iwent out too hard, because I
was so cold.
I just wanted to get warm yeah,um, but yeah it was.

(45:11):
It was a fun 10k, not otherreally news beyond the fact that
you should try and your stuff,in case you need to get a
different size.
Um, I will learn that lessonsooner or later.
I did not learn that as wellfor the half marathon.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Yeah, it's funny you mention that because Becky was
giving me grief for wearing theCruella dress around the house
too often.
So that's a joke, kids.
Okay, Somebody laugh please.
That's a joke.

Speaker 4 (45:40):
Lexi's laughing Her mic's off.
I'm cracking up over here andI'm muted, dang it.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
She'll tell you that's true.
She does that all the timeWhenever I dress Tinker, bob or
Cruella, have I done?
I don't think I've done anyother female characters.
I'd have to think about it.

Speaker 7 (46:01):
I don't think you have.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
No, I don't think so.
But Becky will say oh yeah, hewears it around the house all
the time, it's not true, Not?

Speaker 7 (46:12):
true, we all know who we believe, bob.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Well, yeah, I'm sure you do, that's okay.
That's okay, it's about havingfun.
All right, 10k Wasn't so coldfor the half.
But we had another surprise itwas wet Thoughts on the half.

(46:40):
My friends, jack, was it justyou and me?
I think it was Bob.
Okay, well, this won't takelong.
Go ahead, jack.

Speaker 4 (46:46):
Yeah.
So I will say the half marathonwas my favorite race during the
entire weekend.
I had an absolute blast, exceptfor the corrals.
Huddled up and wore a like aponcho, that, um, my, my friend
who I was staying with, um,dylan, uh, she had given me one

(47:08):
and I'm so thankful for itbecause, like sitting in in the
corrals with the rain, I waslike, oh my god it's, I'm
getting ptsd again from fromdaytona 100 when it rained and
it was windy like please don'tlet that be a thing, please,
please and then, right when therained and it was windy, I was
like please, don't let that be athing, please, please.
And then, right when the racestarted, it stopped and I was
like, thank God, but I had somuch fun, I had the best costume

(47:34):
and everybody during the racewas like Mia, mia.
I was like ha ha, that's me,because I was dressed up as Mia
Thermopolis before thetransformation and I will be
wearing that costume again.
I mean, the jacket's a bittight and it's long sleeves,
because I wear a white button upunderneath a long sleeve jacket
as well.
So it was definitely soaked insweat, or you can call it maybe

(47:57):
a little bit of rain, we'll callit a mixture, but that was by
far one of my favorite costumesI think I might have ever worn.
And the first character stop.
You know how like the signsalong the way within the first
mile were giving you all of thelike different movies right off

(48:18):
the bat yeah right Based off ofthe decades.
And the first one was theDalmatians 101 Dalmatians.
And I was like, oh my God,cruella is going to be the first
one.
And she ended up.
And the first one was thedalmatians 101 dalmatians.
And I was like, oh my god,cruella is going to be the first
one.
And she ended up being thefirst one.
So obviously I had a stop forher and I, when I got to see her
she looks at me, she's like myhighness and she kind of does
little bow I was like yes and um.

(48:40):
And then after, right before, Isaid hey, I just ran a 100
miler.
Well, technically 101.
And she's like, oh, that's amile per every puppy.
And I said, sure was.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Cool.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
And then, I think around mile three-ish, I met up
with our good friend Doug, who'sone of the Rise and Runners,
and we had an absolute blast.
We enjoyed the rising runnersand we had an absolute blast.
We enjoyed the entire race.
We got the most epic castlepictures, we had a lot of
amazing chats and then he hewent ahead after around mile 10.

(49:17):
I was going to be chillingbecause my knee had been
bothering me the entire time, soI stuck with my little run-walk
pacing kind of deal for thelast few miles, but that was an
absolute blast.
I am bringing that costume backagain.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Oh my goodness, Cool you should.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
You should.
How was it for you?
You were way ahead of me.
I went out of D and I walked atan okay pace, not a race pace,
but I walked at an okay pace,not not a race pace, but I
walked at an okay pace.
How was it for you heading intoMagic Kingdom?

Speaker 4 (49:50):
So I think me and Doug got lucky.
Um, we were, I think by thetime we entered Magic Kingdom we
were.
We were with a lot of, like, Ithink, sea corral people.
Um, from what I can tell fromthe bibs, um, it wasn't bad.
I mean, if you want to, foranybody that's running the
Princess Half Marathon the nextmonth, if you want to see what

(50:11):
that course looks like, a greatexample is going to be my half
marathon video that is up on mybrand new channel with my fiance
, which is called Bellhops fromanother dimension, but it gives
you a very good idea of what thecourse is like.
And I mean, it was crowded, butit's only because of the fact

(50:32):
that it's so slim.
And we were saying, me and Dougwere saying to each other, if
we were in a back corral, we canonly guess how crazy crowded
that is.
And I bet you people could onlyjust walk at that point because
of how slim the area was to getinto Magic Kingdom.
I mean, we love the course, wehad a lot of fun, but we did

(50:52):
mention that, oh my gosh, if wewere in a further back corral,
that's going to be rough.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Okay.
Well, you don't have to guess,because I was in a further back
corral and it was crazy.
It was as crowded as any placeI've seen it.
It was more crowded than thetypical rush you get between
Hollywood Studios and theBoardwalk area.
As soon as you, as soon as yougot where you could see the the

(51:24):
boat lights for the boat paradefrom there into Magic Kingdom,
it was, it was just slam packed.
And in fact I joked to somebodythe only thing missing is a
water stop, and 100 yards aheadof us was a water stop, so it
didn't bother me.
I'm not trying to run it, I'mjust walking to beat the balloon
ladies, which I do most of thetime.
But it did get very crowdedthrough there and I worried

(51:49):
about going back the next dayfor the marathon.
But as I'll let you know injust a minute, it wasn't the
same.
I'm not sure what happened.

Speaker 4 (51:58):
I could probably answer that for you just really
quick, and I know we're going totalk about it for the marathon,
but, like I think, because itwas further along during the
race wasn't?

Speaker 3 (52:09):
it.
It was a little bit yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
There is a lot more time for people to spread out, I
think that's, that's gotta bethe answer, because that that
did happen.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Um, I don't want to jump ahead of us, but I was
concerned about it, but myconcerns were were wrong.
It was really crowded for thehalf.
It wasn't bad for the full.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
But I will say I feel like a lot of the reason why it
was starting to get crowdedCause if like again, if you look
in my video on YouTube for thehalf marathon, um, a lot of
people were stopping along theway to take pictures of the
parade.
Yeah, because that was amazingseeing it out no, it's neat yeah
over it, but there were a lotof people literally legitimately

(52:52):
stopping along the route that'salready been in the first place
just to take pictures, and I,and I get it despite the cast
members doing everything theycould to tell people don't stop
here, stop up there didn't'tmatter.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
I felt bad for them.
They were trying, but it didn'tmatter.

Speaker 6 (53:07):
Yeah, I didn't run the half this year, I did cheer
it.
It's the first time cheering onMain Street, which is probably
awesome.
We saw the first Roll Disneyperson come through all the way
to the Balloon Ladies comingdown Main Street, so it was
really fun seeing all you guysrunning down, cheering with you

(53:28):
guys and, uh, I mean then wetook the monorail back to epcot
and cheered all you guys oncoming on the finish line I
think it was.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Yeah, main street, we get to going into magic kingdom
and I I can't think of anythingin racing.
I love more than the right turnon the main street, but as
we're heading in, I'm talkinghere, I'm I'm really not feeling
it.
This is like my 14th or 15thtime and, yeah, I'm happy, but

(53:59):
I'm really not feeling.
It made the right turn on mainstreet.
The crowd was there, oh manthere's nothing like it there's
just nothing like it, and so Ispend all of main street, you
know not, not not quite chokingback tears, but you guys know
you get.
You get a little emotionalabout it, it's just yeah, golly.

Speaker 6 (54:25):
So a lot of people, bob, with holding back tears,
are just crying seeing thatcastle.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
Seeing the castle is a big part of it.
Being on Main Street is a bigpart, but the crowd is such a
big part of it.
Yeah, all those people that youdon't know and you're never
going to see again.
And we, I mean, we're'refortunate, we know a lot of
people, but we still don't knowmost of them.
Didn't matter, didn't matter.

(54:51):
It just really really touchesme and I enjoyed it.
I don't I.
The other thing that I reallyreally enjoy is the choir at the
end of the races.
And, uh, they, they were therefor all four races different
choirs, but uh, for some reason,the one at the end of the half

(55:12):
really got to me a little bitmore than the others.
So it was, uh, it was a goodrace.
I.
I found a trick and I had aponcho with me and golly it, it
rained really hard before I gotin the corral I tend to hang out
a while in the staging area Gotreal windy and rained hard, and

(55:32):
then, as Jack mentioned already, the rain did lighten up quite
a bit.
I found that, however, if Iwanted it to rain, all I had to
do was take my poncho off andput it in my belt, and it would
start to rain again.
So, for my friends, I wore theponcho most of the time to keep
the rain away.
You're welcome.

(55:53):
So we finished the half.
We stay dry.
The weather gets a little bitwarmer, not too bad, just enough
for us to enjoy our meetup onSaturday afternoon.
And once again, all I can sayto our many, many friends is you
never cease to amaze me.

(56:13):
This was spectacular gang.
What were your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (56:19):
It's just always so much fun.
I feel like Bob when I wouldlook over you, and I have a
totally different perspectivebecause you can see all of the
people.
Yes, we do.
I was on my TV show, trying tosee who was all there, and I was
like I really wish I could seethis from Bob's perspective of
seeing over everybody, because Iwas like I don't know half of

(56:42):
the people that are here becauseI can't see them, when I could
move around and see withoutwords.
Really, like truly, it wasamazing to see so many friends
and look around and see so manyamazing people.
Um, yeah, just, yeah, it'swonderful yeah, I felt so bad.

Speaker 7 (57:03):
There were a couple of times that I would be talking
to somebody and I could seesomeone in my peripheral vision
waiting to talk to me and I'mlike I want to talk to everybody
and I just like I want to talkto everybody and I just, and
then I just like, I love, I loveit so much I've started
bringing two bottles of waterbecause I talk so much and my
throat gets sore.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
I went back to the room to get water because I was
like I know I'm going to needthis.

Speaker 7 (57:26):
Yes, yes, but I just love it.
I love talking to everybody andsome people are like, oh, why
can't I talk to you?
I like, yes, you can talk to me, come on.
They're like I don't mean tointerrupt, I'm like you are not
interrupting.
This is fantastic.
But I, I love, I love meetingall the friends.

(57:47):
I love, you know, seeing thepeople that I've talked to via
chat or seeing their posts, andyou know, I'll see somebody like
I know you, but I don'tactually know you because I've
just seen your picture on socialmedia.
But I just it just makes myheart so happy to be there the

(58:07):
whole time.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
And it looked like it got even bigger than I remember
from last year.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Oh, it was yeah, yeah , no doubt.

Speaker 6 (58:17):
I, we basically come commandeered.
The first couple of years wewere only commandeering down
below.
I think this year wecommandeered below and above the
whole area.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (58:28):
I also want to notate Usually I'm kind of late due to
, like, transportation, you know, and whatnot, whatnot, but you
better bet I was there beforebob yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Uh, and it wasn't that I was late, no, you were
just.
I think it was like 20 till 3or something when becky and I
got there.
Yeah, we were at the expo bob.

Speaker 6 (58:47):
That's why we stopped on saturday because, yeah, you
want to check her.
I wanted to check my bib tomake sure it worked for Sunday.

Speaker 4 (58:56):
We haven't even chatted about that yet.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
Then we left and we came down there, and that's why
we were a little late.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
Well, again, we weren't late, we were still
early, but yeah, it's neat, Idon't know how to put it into
words.
My friends, I just I enjoy itthat much.
It's so wonderful to see you,one of the things I try to
impress upon our friends,especially those who go for the
first time.
I'm delighted that you come tovisit with us, but I really,

(59:32):
really encourage you to visitwith the rest of the Rise and
Run family, because that's whatit's become.
If you look around, you may findany one of the Rise and Run
podcast gang talking to one, two, three, couple people.
But then look at the rest ofthe group how many folks are

(59:54):
talking to one another who havemet each other either through
Zoom calls or through priormeetups or at the races, and
that, to me, is the thing that Ifeel the best about.
I think that is just wonderful.
So, yeah, we're going tocontinue to.

(01:00:15):
We're going to.
Not only are we going tocontinue to do this, we may.
We may see if we can make itbetter in some ways, but it's
fantastic.

Speaker 6 (01:00:23):
It was.
It was really fun.
I mean, I I really enjoyed it.
The amount of people that wasthere, like Bob said, like we
didn't need to be there, right,you know, cause everyone was
just there having fun, talking,uh, doing their thing, and I
just think that what, what, what, what?

(01:00:43):
I see there is, just like uh, aone big family of people.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Yeah, that's what it's become.

Speaker 6 (01:00:49):
Probably never, probably never met for the first
time A lot of these people thatday.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
As, as I mentioned to friends, those who come to this
meetup, any one of our meetups,any one of the weekend meetups
and again there's going to beone in Disneyland at three
o'clock on Saturday in thepicnic area, those who come come
back because they'll meetsomeone they'll want to talk
with again, they'll want to meetnew people.

(01:01:16):
It's fantastic.
You know one of the things, andI don't know we've been talking
for a while now as many peopleas we see on a weekend.
It always surprises me when Icome back and I go through our
social media and I go oh, shewas there and I didn't see her.
Oh, I didn't know he was there.
And there'll be so many peoplewe didn't see.

(01:01:39):
And I want to see everybody,but I know it's not possible.
I have one last closing commenton the meetup and that is this
Becky and I mostly Becky, but Ido work also love making the
cookies, but it's getting to betoo much, it's getting to be too

(01:01:59):
big, too much.
So I am going to, informallynow, but formally later, ask
some of our friends if maybe youcan help out and you don't have
to bring a lot.
But we'll have a cookiesmorgasbord, we'll have a cookie
potluck.
Now, having said that, I dopromise that we'll continue to

(01:02:20):
bake the Cherry Habanero cookiesand bring those with us.
More to follow on that.
All right, we've made it throughmost of the weekend.
We line up.
Now Marathon morning it's backto being really cold again.
We've made it through most ofthe weekend.
We line up.
Now Marathon morning it's backto being really cold again, but
at least the rain is gone.

(01:02:40):
Lexi, I know you did the 10K,the rest of us, I know we're all
at the marathon.
All right, gang go Go, jack youfinished it first.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
That's good okay um, it was good.
I mean, I had a lot of fun.
I?
Um my knee bothered me theentire time.
Um, so I I went.
This is probably my slowestmarathon.
Oh, no, it is my slowestmarathon, but I had.
No, it is my slowest marathon,but I had an absolute blast,

(01:03:15):
though I actually had my watchon.
You guys would be so proud ofme.
I didn't use it the entire like, I had it on the entire time.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
We're always proud of you, Jack.

Speaker 4 (01:03:25):
Thank you.
But, like whenever I was readyto use the Galloway Method, I
would start, like once I waslike, okay, I feel like I'm
ready to go do some run, walk,run again.
And it was very helpful towardsthe end when my knee like you
know how you're so frozen in thebeginning of the race because
it was cold, and then, liketowards the end, my right leg

(01:03:47):
started getting very stiff tothe point that it wouldn't
really bend while I'm running.
So it just kind of I mean, itwas fine, like I wasn't, like I
wouldn't say I'm going to pullmyself out of the race because
I'm injured, but it wasdefinitely a huge difference
from what I'm used to and it wasdefinitely bothering me, but,

(01:04:08):
like I don't know why, it justwas really stiff.
So having the run-walk-runreally helped my body recover in
a nice way so that I'm notrunning, like I usually do,
through an extended, extendedperiod of time, oh yeah right.
So the Galloway method wasdefinitely used with, I think,
maybe like the last eight to 10miles.
Um, but it was a good race.
Um, I mean, I was pretty proudof what I was able to do.

(01:04:32):
Um, I saw a ton of characters,but I didn't really see too many
characters until I didn't startseeing characters to probably
like right before Magic Kingdom,like Jack Skelligson was my
first one by Grand Floridian Wasit was that for this race?
Yeah, that was this race.
But, yeah, I've met so manyrunners throughout, um, uh, the

(01:04:56):
whole entire race.
It was so lovely chatting witheverybody.
I even ran.
I even ran with one of ourrising runners and had so much
fun.
We did a few miles together, um, but yeah, it was.
It was a good race.
The weather I like running incold weather.
I rather run in cold weatherthan I would hot.
Um, I think it's always thebest to run in.

(01:05:18):
I had my costume wasspecifically chosen since it was
exactly one month from that day, from when I finished my 100
miler.
So cruella de dopey and I hadto pick a character that I knew
that I was gonna want to havethat exact personality that I
think is similar to mine, so Ichose Anna from Frozen and I was
frozen as.

(01:05:38):
Frozen.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
There you go.
Timing was right.

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
She's a very happy-go-lucky character.
Nothing can make her unhappy,in a sense that nothing can go
wrong.
She can do anything cool.
I want to embody her, and sothat's gonna say a lot like jack
oh thanks yeah but yeah, I mean, I had so much fun.

(01:06:03):
I got to see your guys's umfinishes, um, which were a lot
of fun.
I saw lexi along the way overat coronado, which was a great
boost, but she saw me I think.
I don't know if you realize Iwas hurting, but I saw Lexi.
I was like I'm doing okay, butI'm glad that this is almost
done.
And you were still cheery to me.

(01:06:23):
Yeah, I mean I was in a cheerymood but I was like oh yeah, I
also don't know what you guysthink about having the world
showcase at the beginning versusthe end, but honestly, I just
thought I was going to be upsetby it, but I was just thankful
to be done.
So the fact that I didn't haveto run feel like I was running
such a long distance aroundworld showcase, wasn't?

(01:06:43):
It was actually really nice, Ilike the layout of the race.
But, yeah, really quick thoughfor rising one run.
We'll be getting an additionalvideo on our YouTube.
I know I mentioned it duringthe live pop-up, but it's going
to be the Cruella de Dopey.
You'll be getting the Dopeyraces from me as well as the

(01:07:10):
part of the 100-miler, with someoverlay of some commentary from
yours truly me, and it's goingto be a fun.
Just a recap documentary of myexperience with this challenge
and the challenges of thechallenge and how fun it was.
All in the same, if you do wantto see each individual race, you
can actually check those out onbellhops from another dimension
and you can see what thecourses are like through that.

(01:07:31):
But if you want to see like mywhole experience into one video,
it will all be put up ontoYouTube within the next few
weeks.
There's just so much footageand some of the stuff that I had
recorded, especially during theraces, that are just for this
video.
I'm very excited to do it.
It's just there's like four orfive hours worth of footage, so
it's going to take me a hotsecond to put it out, but I'm

(01:07:54):
very excited to share it withyou guys.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
Okay, so you guys haven't heard from me yet, since
I only did the marathon Justthe marathon.
Just the marathon.
Yes, I wish I could say that itwas the race that I wanted.
I worked really, really hardthis season and unfortunately I
didn't get my PR the time that Iwanted.
But I did get to see so manyfriends along the way, which was

(01:08:21):
really cool, because frompretty much the beginning on, I
saw somebody at least once everymile.
It was really cool to look overand just say hi to a friend or
even stop and run a fewintervals with friends.
Um, and I saw Bob along the way.

(01:08:41):
I saw Jack before the race,cause I was right at the front
of the prowl that was so nice.
Um, I saw John and Greg in theirwhole crew.
I want to give a special shoutout to Kay, who I kept
leapfrogging.
We were leapfrogging each otherfor a while along the race.

(01:09:02):
Her and I did a few intervalstogether and she just really
helped me and I know I helpedher along the way and I was just
really grateful to see her.
I saw a bunch of my clients,which was really fun, and I even
got to do some of the last milewith one of my clients.
So overall it was not the racethat I wanted.
My muscles were tense becauseof the cold.

(01:09:24):
You would think Minnesota girl,I would have been okay.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
But I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
But overall I'm just so grateful to my body to do my
eighth full marathon and get tosee so many people.
It was a really hard marathonbut I finished and all my
clients finished, so I'm justreally proud of what went down

(01:09:52):
for that weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:09:53):
I started this marathon with Greg and a bunch
of our friends I don't want tomention them all because I
probably going to forget one ortwo but we had about four or
five other people that westarted with and then grabbed
and added people along the way.
But I was a little nervousabout the course.

(01:10:14):
I was a little nervous aboutgoing through, uh, grand
Floridian to the magic kingdom,from what I heard from people
that it was horrible, it wasokay, it was no problem.
So so got out there, I think itwas okay.

(01:10:34):
It wasn't, it wasn't great, butit was doable.
The only thing that I thoughtwas kind of odd which I don't,
which they need to adjust isthey need to adjust the water
stop to put it on the oppositeside, because all the runners
are running on the left and allthe walkers are on the right and

(01:10:55):
then you have to try to cutacross to get to the water stop
and then you're got a trafficjam right there.

Speaker 7 (01:11:02):
I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 6 (01:11:04):
Yeah, that was the only thing that I thought was a
little bad about that area.
But you said, running down mainstreet, coming down the back of
a magic kingdom, we met up withAlan and his crew.
We'll get to run with Alan fora while, which is always a

(01:11:24):
pleasure, you know, tellingstories, seeing what's going on.
But then we had that parkinglot.
But then the best like mile orso, whatever you want to call it
, between the Magic Kingdomparking lot and Animal Kingdom

(01:11:44):
was a Star Wars fiesta, yes,which I was like wow, we have
not just one Star Wars character, we had four Star Wars
characters out there that I cansee, which I'm like too bad.
I wasn't fast enough and I wasable to get there at night or in
the morning when it was stilldusk, because it looks like the

(01:12:06):
lights would have been reallycool that were blinking in the
woods and the laser sounds andthe smoke fog machine.
It was really cool.
So hopefully Star Wars Weekendis coming back pretty soon Next
year.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
Springtime surprise Star Wars yeah, that would be
nice, do it, do you?

Speaker 6 (01:12:21):
stop for characters.
We stopped for Darth Vader.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
Okay, good.

Speaker 6 (01:12:25):
Then we had a group shot.
I had a single and I had agroup shot, so that was really
great.
Coming out of Animal Kingdom, Icramped up, my back started
cramping up, which was not fun,which I did not like.
So that was a rough struggle upuntil we got to Epcot.
But one thing I did do, and ifanyone ever found it, I did find

(01:12:49):
a wedding band on the course.
Bob, you have yours, that'sgood, I have mine yeah.
Mine was at home safe and soundbecause I probably would have
lost it myself.
So I did turn it into guestrelations and hopefully I did
post it in some of our boardsthat there was a lost wedding

(01:13:10):
ring.
Did find it on the course.
Hopefully that person got itback, because I know I'd be in
deep trouble if I lost mywedding ring.
Did find it on the course.
Hopefully that person got itback, because I know I'd be in
deep trouble if I lost mywedding ring.
But yeah, so of course I saidgoing down by mile 19, met up
and saw Judy and Lexi cheering.
Lexi's been cheering at thatspot for the last four years,

(01:13:32):
for my last four marathons.
Hopefully next year I'll seeher there at that same spot.
Giving us that mile 19 boostbefore we hit Blizzard Beach and
hitting that finish line wasgreat.
Like Jack said, coming intoEpcot and say, well, we're at
mile 26 already, this is likephenomenal.

(01:13:52):
I'm done.
I don't got to that last hill.
Going up into France now from afrom United Kingdom going over
to France would have been realfun, I think at that at 26 miles
, true, yeah, that was a.
I think the weather was alittle iffy too, which kind of
cause it goes.
It was cold in the morning,then it started getting warmer,

(01:14:12):
so I think that kind of did notdo well for a lot of people with
the marathon.

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
So I have a question for everybody who ran the
marathon really quick.
I'm just curious about whatyour thoughts are.
What was worse running aroundblizzard beach parking lot or
the magic kingdom parking lot?

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
I didn't care about either one.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
to be honest, there was people that were talking
about it around me, so I wasjust curious.

Speaker 6 (01:14:36):
Actually they were the same.
I mean it wasn't bad.
I think making up the miles inthat parking lot to get rid of
World Showcase kind of madesense.
I mean, the only problem is, ifit was a hotter day it might
have been a different story.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
The parking lots are bad on bright, sunny, hot days
because there's no relief fromthe sun and the asphalt soaks up
all the heat.
But other than that it's justlike running along the road.

Speaker 6 (01:15:05):
We didn't really have the sponges out this year.
We didn't have oh, that's right, we didn't have the ice packs
in that blizzard beach when wegot there.
Oh, i's right, we didn't havethe ice pack sitting at Blizzard
Beach when we got there.
Oh, I didn't see them.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
Usually there are tons of them.
It didn't get that hot.

Speaker 6 (01:15:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:18):
But there were so many more water stations this
time around, I think so.
Oh, I know, Like I turnedaround and was like there's
another water station.
I wasn't even thirsty at thatpoint, but I still had some, you
know.

Speaker 6 (01:15:35):
I don't know.
I thought it was about normal.
What about the change in thechocolate?

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
People were not happy .

Speaker 4 (01:15:41):
Everybody around me was like what is this?

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
People were setting them on the garbage cans.

Speaker 6 (01:15:47):
They were the sponsor .
It was the sponsor because theywere giving away at the expo.
They were one of the sponsorsthey were giving away at the
expo, so they're like one of thesponsors.

Speaker 3 (01:15:55):
They were given away at the Expo.
I think they're fine.
I do.
I like them.

Speaker 6 (01:15:58):
My big thing is and this may be me is they should
have the chocolate before thewater.
Stop, because sometimes you getthat dry chocolatey taste in
your mouth and you're like aglass of water would be really
good right now.

Speaker 3 (01:16:14):
Yeah, yeah, all right , my thoughts on the marathon.
A lot of friends know that I Iget the opportunity to push my
friend Woody during the marathon.
I've done it for the last twoyears and I've pushed Woody at a
couple of other half marathonstoo, so I know the family very

(01:16:35):
well.
I'm going to take a break hereto say that Woody's mom, kim, is
one of the most amazing peopleI know.
That I think of what she has todeal with in her life.
She has Woody to take care ofin her life.

(01:16:57):
She has Woody to take care of.
Her husband has some healthissues.
She's got a younger son who's ahigh school senior and through
it all, I have never seen Kimwithout a smile on her face.
So I think she's just anamazing, amazing person.
I wanted to say that here.
But I get the chance to pushWoody.
I love it.
I love doing it.
We get along well.
We can communicate some notlike he communicates with his

(01:17:19):
mom, but we can communicate alittle bit.
It's the biggest privilege Iget when I go to one of these
events.
Now last year when I did it,there were others around and I
only probably pushed between 18and 20 of the 26 miles.
I know it sounds like a lot,but I did get a break this year.

(01:17:42):
I didn't.
Uh, kim was having someproblems early on, problems with
her knee and problems with herhip.
I'll get to that in a minute.
We start right after the firstgroup out of corral C, so
basically we start in C1.

(01:18:02):
One of the things about pushingthat chair is that it requires
your undivided attention for theentire 26 miles or you're going
to run over somebody.
The front wheel of that thingis about six feet in front of me
and I spend the whole timestaring at that front wheel so I
don't hit anybody.
Um, and I managed not to hitanybody.

(01:18:25):
Actually, like last year, Imanaged not to hit anybody until
I crossed the finish line andit wasn't my fault.
But, uh, the finish line and itwasn't my fault, but uh, as as
we got so, as much as I love,like you guys talked about,
everybody's talked about thestar wars area.
I don't remember any of itbecause I'm just looking at a

(01:18:46):
wheel.
I don't remember seeing any ofthat.
There were many, many friendsalong the way that I heard from,
but I could not turn toacknowledge and I wish I could
Some friends got past me andthat was neat.
I enjoyed that and Iappreciated it because I needed
it.
But there were a whole bunch offriends who I heard from but

(01:19:09):
couldn't acknowledge.
I'm sorry, I just couldn't turnaround but couldn't acknowledge
.
I'm sorry, I just couldn't turnaround.
I was glad because I did thehalf and I got into those
bottlenecks and I was really,really worried, coming up to
that with that chair, that itwas going to be a huge problem.
It wasn't so bad as we talkedabout.
When we talked about the half,the crowd was a bit thinner
going through there.

(01:19:30):
It wasn't all that bad.
We made our way down MainStreet One of the things if
you've seen us run together.
You know Woody loves to do thefist bumps, so every opportunity
I get I will get close to thecrowd so that we can roll by and
fist bump the whole way.

(01:19:51):
So Magic Kingdom was a littledifferent for me.
Again, I didn't see anything.
I just saw people and I sawfists and that was pretty neat.
Around halfway, around halfwaybefore the halfway mark,
remember, we left out of C1, thesix and a half hour pace group

(01:20:11):
passed us and I said to Kimwe've got to pick this pace up a
little bit because we'refalling back and we're not going
to make it if we don't pick thepace up.
And she told me she couldn't.
So we had a discussion, thethree of us, believe it or not.
Kim says, uh, what do you?

(01:20:31):
What do you want to do?
I'm going to let Bob go and youcan stay with me, or I'm going
to fall back and you can staywith Bob.
And Woody wanted to stay withBob and, to be honest, I was a
little nervous about that.
I hadn't been one-on-one withWoody and he requires some
special attention along the way.
But we made it work.
We picked the pace up a littlebit.
We actually caught back up tothe six and a half hour group.

(01:20:56):
Uh, but doing all 26 miles, gang, it was tough.
It really started to wear on me.
I was really excited coming outof Blizzard Beach because I
could see behind me.
Now, coming out of BlizzardBeach, I could see behind me and
I could not see the balloonladies.
So at that point I realizedthat I could probably do 20

(01:21:16):
minute miles and walk it in andwe'd finish.
It was still tough John, youtalked about the hill If we had
had the finish to that half.
If we had had finished to thatfull, like we did that half, you
know where you go up to the twobig hills going into Epcot Not
sure I'd have made it.
I probably could have gottenhelp along the course, but not

(01:21:37):
sure I'd have made it.
I was really, really startingto feel it.
That hill into Hollywood musthave been fun too.
It sucked, but at least it wasshort.
Yeah, at least it was short.
Even that little pop-up goingoff the boardwalk into Epcot was
a challenge and again I got akick out of it last year because

(01:21:59):
I had help when the hills camealong.
That was my turn and I was finewith it.
I was good with it.
Early in the race I was actuallyrunning up the hills a little
bit because sometimes I thinkthe momentum helps you.
I wasn't running up the hillsat little bit because sometimes
I think the momentum helps you.
I wasn't running up the hillsat the end.
I'll tell you that it was rough.

(01:22:20):
I'm always honored.
I'm glad, happy that I was ableto do it.
I'm happy that we finishedanother one together.
I know it means a lot to Woody.
I did see Kim.
She got picked up.
I think she said she got pickedup around mile 18 or 19.
So she was there at the endwith a smile on her face, of
course, but I'm glad we finished.

(01:22:44):
But I'm telling you, gang, I'mdone with Dopey.
I've done Dopey five times.
I'm 71 years old and I wouldlike to thank Mr Galloway for
the last time he was on thepodcast saying that he did five
dopeys and that was enough forhim.
So that works, that works.

(01:23:05):
I can use that.
The training just becomes toomuch.
For the four days.
I tried to count in theofficial finishing numbers.
Because of the problems withthe timing chips, it was
difficult to tell how manyfinishers, but I think there
were only 15 or 20 finishersolder than me out of the whole
group.
I'm not done running.

(01:23:26):
I'm not done.
In fact, my plan right now isto do the marathon next year, do
the 5k and the full.
My plan right now is to do themarathon next year, do the 5K
and the full.
But I think five dopies is anice number to quit on, and this
way I get to go out on my termsand I don't get to hear all
right, old guy, get in the bus,we're taking you the rest of the

(01:23:47):
way.

Speaker 7 (01:23:51):
So that was my marathon.
They don't say that, Bob.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
They'd say it to me.
All right, old guy, get off thecourse.
You're out of here.

Speaker 6 (01:23:59):
You still got some glitter over there, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:24:03):
I just wanted to say a little bit about cheering.
It was so much fun.
Judy and I got out there atabout 8 o'clock probably 8.15,
with two other of our rise andrun friends and, um, we got to
see jack, which was fun, and westarted off right in front of

(01:24:24):
coronado, but we had to followthe rules of the road.
The policemen were not lettingpeople into the median to cheer,
so we were like on the oppositeside, um, from where the
runners were going, and I wasnot a happy camper, um, I was
like I need my hugs, I need tobe in their faces, like I need

(01:24:45):
to be, um, and so then anotherspectator told us that on the
opposite side of coronado waswhere we could get like on the
road, where we could see peopleand hug people and all that kind
of stuff.
So we skedaddled on over thereand that was so much fun, just
getting to see everybody.
There were a lot of people Ifeel like there were a lot of

(01:25:08):
people struggling at that pointso I got a lot of points and a
lot of Hays.
So I got a lot of points and alot of haze, um, but, uh, I got
a lot of hugs and if you eversee me, uh, cheering on a course
, do not be afraid to come hugme.
I love sweaty hugs like it istotally fine.
Don't be like, oh no, I'm allstinky.

(01:25:29):
No, like, give me a hug, thisis the time that you need a hug
is in the mile 20.
Um, but it was just like.
Um, it was so good to seeeverybody and cheer everybody on
.
And um, for the people whocommented on facebook, like I

(01:25:51):
just, I'm just, I'm holding aheart to you guys, to the camera
, even though you can't see.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
Well, you have to hold it to the microphone.

Speaker 7 (01:25:59):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:26:00):
This is an audio podcast but it was just.

Speaker 7 (01:26:04):
I'm so proud.
I'm so proud to be part of therise and run podcast and to see
all of our listeners and it wasamazing.

Speaker 6 (01:26:13):
This marathon was tough for me, and I know it was
tough for a lot of other peoplein this race, where you were
thinking am I going to finish?
What's going to happen?
I know some of us, some of ourfriends, did not finish this
race.
They DNF'd.
They DNF'd the half, they DNF'dthe fall.
Guys, don't give up.
Just keep that goal in yourmind.

(01:26:35):
It's always going to be there.
You know, just try again.
Sometimes the stars don't alignfor you and you just don't get
what's done.
I know some of our friendstried really hard.
They're getting pulled out atmile 18, mile 19, mile 20, which
I know would be reallydevastating.

(01:26:55):
But keep your heads up, get outthere.
That gold's still alive.
It's always going to be aliveuntil you either accomplish it
or you give up on it.
So don't give up on it.

Speaker 3 (01:27:07):
All right, my friends , you've heard from all of us
and I think, if Greg can put theMai Tai down, he's got a few
things he'd like to add aboutMarathon Weekend.

Speaker 8 (01:27:19):
Aloha friends, greetings from the beautiful
island of Maui here in Hawaii.
Once again, I'm very, veryblessed to be able to be on a
work trip in such a beautifulplace.
Blessed to be able to be on awork trip in such a beautiful
place, but at the same time,though, I must say I am sad that
I had to miss, uh, the mainrecording um with my rise and

(01:27:42):
run co-hosts talking about anabsolutely epic marathon weekend
that we just had two weeks ago.
So I just just wanted to take afew minutes here, while I'm on
a break from work, to share mythoughts on all the things that
I did experience during MarathonWeekend and Walt Disney World
just a couple of weeks ago, andI'll start off with the expo.

(01:28:05):
I arrived in Orlando onSaturday morning, and thank God
I did, because we had a briefsnowstorm hit us that morning,
but thankfully I was able to getout and was on the first flight
, and that caused no issuesoutside of a little bit of
de-icing.
So obviously, I did not attendthe expo until the very last day

(01:28:31):
, and I will say there, as muchas I love an expo, there is a
huge advantage to going on thelast day, and I will say there,
as much as I love an expo, thereis a huge advantage to going on
the last day in that there iszero lines whatsoever.
So that was awesome.
The first place that I headed towas to go pick up my bib.
That was, again very smoothprocess because there was barely
anybody there, but it did takesome time.

(01:28:52):
I know one of the main, shallwe say, hot topics during
Marathon Weekend was the timingchip issue.
So while I was there I madesure that I was not one of those
bibs that was affected for justthe marathon.
So glad everything was smoothsailing on that point.

(01:29:14):
Then I headed over to the mainexpo hall.
I got to see coach twigs, whichwas really nice, and then, very
serendipitously, while I waswalking down the steps, who was
talking to coach twigs?
But Bob.
So I got to hang out with Boband Becky for a little bit
before heading over to themeetup, as, as well as John and

(01:29:34):
his wife Diane Didn't reallyspend a whole lot of time there
because I knew I was on a timecrunch because of getting in,
having to get all my stuff andthen getting down to Disney
Springs for the meetup.
So, you know, didn't reallyspend a whole heck of a lot of
time no ciders or anything likethat.
And then, once I was donepicking up my bib and my shirt,

(01:29:59):
I headed down with Bob and Beckyand John and Diane, down to the
Run Disney merch.
And first of all, I want to givea absolutely massive shout out
to my friend, tara, who was ableto pick me up some various
items on the first day of theexpo, including yes, if everyone
was, I know there was alistener that asked John on

(01:30:21):
Wednesday.
Yes, tara did get me one of thePowerline shirts, so I'm very,
very excited about that.
But I will say, though and thisis no surprise, because it was,
you know, saturday afternoon,but the merch was extremely,
extremely picked over, um, Iwill say there was a lot of.
If you were really interestedin, I think it was the generic

(01:30:45):
weekend tank top, they had aslew of those um, but everything
else was, you know, there was afew things here there, like you
know, dopey obviously verypicked over, goofy was picked
over, uh, because of theanniversary year, uh.
So, again, I just want to thanktara for being able to get me
and I did it shirt and thepowerline shirt, and I think I
also got the?
Um, the generic marathonweekend short sleeve as well too

(01:31:09):
.
Two notes that I did want tomake, though I I have praised
run disney in the past for past,for the quality of the Run
Disney merch to be pretty good,but for some reason I think
there's a slight miss this year.
I wore my Idited shirt in thepark after the marathon on
Sunday and after one wash I'malready getting some weird

(01:31:29):
pilling which I don't understand.
So hopefully that's just aone-off there, but really the
the one thing that I did want topoint out is I was a little
nervous going into this expobecause, as I talked about
during the whining dying recap,that I really didn't buy
anything because the styling ofthe shirts was different and I

(01:31:53):
felt like I needed the size up,and by the time I got there on I
think that that expo I arrivedon Friday and they were sold out
of the larger sizes.
So, based on my experience atthe expo and then talking to
others and then seeing alsocomments on social media as well
too, is that apparently forthis expo, run disney did not

(01:32:14):
have any sizes over 2xl, and Iwill say that while I myself
wear a 2xl um, I was a littledisappointed to hear that they
weren't offering, uh, 3xl andand that's, and and.
The reason why I think I'm alittle disappointed in that is,
you know, run disney is aproduct that is inclusive to all

(01:32:37):
runners, regardless of yourpace and the shape of your body,
and such.
So to you know, to limit ourfriends who maybe need that size
, I will say I was a littlebummed about that.
So, run Disney, if you arelistening, I understand you know
you have to, you have to makethe correct decisions in terms
of quantities and the sizing.

(01:32:57):
But if we can see the return ofsome 3XL merchandise for our
friends who you know that istheir size, I think that would
be the smart way to go there.
Yeah, so, like I said earlier,bob was at the Expo at the same
time as he wanted to talk toCoach Twiggs and to Jeff Jeff,
so he very graciously was mychauffeur down to the meetup in

(01:33:20):
Disney Springs on Saturdayafternoon and I gotta say, folks
, wow, wow, wow.
You know I never think that ameetup can get better from the
last one and you all outdidyourselves this time.
I mean I just want topersonally thank each and every

(01:33:40):
single one of you who came tothis meetup.
I have to imagine it is ourmost attended meetup to date.
You know it's getting to thepoint where you, you know we are
just filling up that space somuch and you know, I think we're
gonna have to get a wide anglelens on the professional camera

(01:34:01):
to be able to take these groupshots, because it's it's getting
harder and harder to fiteveryone into, you know, one
photo frame.
So, um, I will say again thankyou to everyone who came out.
Uh, I will say now, this timearound, as compared to wine and
dimes I know I mentioned thisduring that recap show is I was
more betterly prepared for thisexpo in terms of hydration,

(01:34:23):
because, I know, at the end ofwine and dine, I was actually
getting quite hoarse and uh, andI felt like I was starting to
lose my voice.
So I made sure that I was wellhydrated for this one.
Still, being able to talk to somany friends, both new friends
and old friends, it just, itreally makes, you know, those
two, two and a half hours um,just fly by and just bring me so

(01:34:48):
much joy in my life.
So, to everyone that I got thechance to talk to um.
You know, thank you for forchatting with me and and I hope
that you all continue to come tothese amazing meetups.
And I will say the last noteI'll make on the other meetup is
I was very excited because oneof the new friends uh that I got
to chat with was our guest uhfrom two weeks ago, uh, caesar

(01:35:12):
Samoyoa, our Broadway star andrun Disney fanatic.
He came to the meetup and itwas an absolute pleasure to meet
another guest in real life andit was funny.
I believe I was talking withour friend Doug and who lives in

(01:35:33):
Brooklyn as well, and he wassaying to me that you know, we
should put out an interest formfor anyone who's in the
Northeast and who is a bigBroadway fan that maybe we could
get a group rate to go see JustIn Time when it opens up on
Broadway here in about twomonths or so.
So that's something that wemight have to kick the tires on.

(01:35:53):
But again, it was just.
It was so great to see Caesarand just see him get welcomed
into this community was reallywonderful to see.
Now, in terms of the running,like Alicia I ran just the
marathon, so I jotted down a fewnotes here just to give my

(01:36:14):
recap of the marathon.
So I jotted down a few noteshere Just to give my recap of
the race, and the first thing Iwill say is this was the first
time I stayed at a monorailresort for a race weekend and I
got to say it's an absolute gamechanger.
Now, grant, while I was bummedthat I wasn't at pop and I

(01:36:36):
couldn't see our awesome friendmyra, you really cannot be
staying at a monorail resort andgetting over to epcot now,
grant, I was also fortunatebecause I was staying at my home
dvc resort of the polynesian,so I didn't really need to go
over to the great ceremonialhouse.
I could just walk straight overto the TTC.

(01:36:58):
So my buddy Abel and I, who wasalso staying at the Poly, him
and I did that, and the thingthat I got concerned about was
that the monorail was opening at2 30 as opposed to the buses
starting at 2.00.
And now I can understand that,because the monorail is just so
extremely efficient and so beingable to sleep for an extra 30

(01:37:24):
minutes was absolutely awesomeand a game changer, and it's
something that I might have toconsider for future race
weekends, that's for sure, likemost of the other races for the
weekend.
It was quite cold.
You know, I was, you know, fromthe Philadelphia area.
I was watching the hourlyforecast like a hawk.
In terms of how did I want toprepare for standing in the

(01:37:45):
corrals?
And I thought I would be okaywith just an extra long sleeve
shirt and some mylar, and Idon't think that was enough, but
, um, that's okay, ended upditching the mylar right before
the race and then the extra longsleeve I think I took off right
before we got into epcot tostart the race.

(01:38:06):
So, but then once, then youknow, like jeff galloway said on
stage, sure it's, it's prettymiserable, you know, standing
out in the corrals, but once wegot running, you you really
could have not asked for betterweather.
But I was very thankful I gotto spend the entire race with so
many Rise and Run friends, somany to the point where I don't
want to name names because thenI would forget someone and I

(01:38:29):
just don't want to do that.
But you know I won't go so farto say that the miles flew by,
because I mean it's a marathonfor crying out loud, but it made
the distance a lot moretolerable.
Just, you know, being around.
So you know, many people that Ijust I love and I cherish and I
was, you know, including John,and I was very, very
appreciative of that.

(01:38:50):
That was part of my raceexperience.
Obviously, we had a brand newcourse, uh, and you know just
wanted to share a couple ofthoughts on uh the course.
The first is I actually reallyenjoyed that stretch from where
we exited epcot, uh, going tomagic kingdom and essentially
doing it in reverse.

(01:39:10):
You know, you cut out a largechunk of cone alley and then,
you know, got to run through thegrand floridian and then along
that that new pathway that theybuilt a couple of years ago to
get you from the grand flow overto magic kingdom.
I I did read the the horrorstories about how that was a log
jam during the half marathon,but I will say it really, you

(01:39:35):
know was it was backed up atsome points but it really was
not as bad as the half marathonmade it seem.
Uh.
So I I did enjoy that aspect.
I thought it was a great call byrun disney to pull out the
electric water pageant.
Uh, there on the seven seaslagoon.
I I thought that was absolutelyawesome and I really, really

(01:39:55):
appreciated that I will say,since the weather was cooler,
both of the parking lot sections, so both the TTC and Blizzard
Beach were a lot more tolerable.
Now, if this was, like you know, the last two marathon weekends
where you know it got reallywarm, maybe my opinion would be

(01:40:19):
a little bit different.
But I will say, as long as theweather cooperates, um, those
out and backs, uh, weren't tootoo bad.
Now, as for world showcase, forme this is a huge catch-22.
While I greatly miss the finalvictory, lap um around epcot and

(01:40:40):
again, run disney.
If you are listening, pleasebring it back.
But on the other hand, I willsay that, especially once you
exited animal kingdom, it didmentally help, knowing that you
were closer to the end than youthought.
You know, usually you're nothitting mile 23 until you're,

(01:41:06):
you know well, past HollywoodStudios and the fact that once
we entered Hollywood Studios, Ithink our group was like trying
to figure out, figure out, likewait, we only have a 5k left and
this is what we still have todo.
So I will say, from a mentalside of things uh, that
definitely did help.
But if there is a way that wecan bring back world showcase,

(01:41:27):
please do it.
Run disney because again, it'sa literal and figurative victory
lap.
I love all of the cheering thatoccurs not only by the cast
members, the cultural castmembers in World Showcase, but
just you know the crowd as welltoo.
But I will say, even though wedidn't run by Mexico, mad Props.

(01:41:49):
I saw at least three peopleright at the entrance of World
Showcase who had trays ofmargaritas ready for people to
pass out.
I thought that was absolutelyhysterical and brought a big
smile to my face.
So for those of you that didthat, bravo.
But yeah, run Disney.
If we can figure out a way tobring that back, let's do it Now

(01:42:11):
.
I will say, in terms of thecourse and in terms of going in
reverse, I would actually not beshocked if next year we have to
do something similar becausefrom what it sounds like that
big Thunder refurbishment isgoing well into early 2026.
So I have a feeling that thatis still going to be impacted.
So don't be surprised if wehave a similar course next year.

(01:42:32):
Don't be surprised if we have asimilar course next year.
Next thing I want to point outis I wanted to give major kudos
to Run Disney for plentiful andwell-manned aid stations.
I have to go back and check oldcourse maps to compare and
contrast here, but I felt likethere were more hydration stops
than usual.
Stops than usual, I mean so farto the point where I made the

(01:42:57):
decision last minute that I wasnot going to bring my hydration
vest with me and I was justgoing to solely rely on the
Powerade and the water that RunDisney gives us.
And I got to say it was justthe right amount.
And there was a lot of it andlots of people passing out the
cups, as compared to my thoughtsduring wine and dine.
So bravo there.
And then you know.

(01:43:17):
Finally, in terms of the race, Ireally only had two goals in
this race and those goals wereto potentially ride everest.
But if I, if I knew I couldn't,it wasn't gonna be that big of
a deal.
And by the time we got toanimal kingdom, uh, they did
have a cast member out front ofthe ride on the ground.
I don't know if this was ananimal kingdom cast member or a

(01:43:40):
run Disney cast member, but theywere saying that you can get in
line, but if you did, there wasa pretty good chance that you
could get swept.
Now we had a huge buffer on theballoon lady.
So I think they were more sosaying this from the perspective
of what the current wait timeof the line was, whether you
decided to go through theregular standby line or in the

(01:44:02):
single rider line as well too.
So, you know, once we heardthat as a group, we collectively
decided to pass on that.
But I will say this was myabsolute slowest marathon to
date and I really don't care,because I got an absolutely
massive, massive, massive PR andfun and between the people that

(01:44:26):
I was running with and seeingfriends on the course and all
the costumes and stopping for acouple of character stops, um,
you know, once we hit that starwars mile, I knew we were gonna
have to stop for john, uh,because you know he's just been
clamoring for that.
So, you know, maybe next timewe can, you know, run a little
faster so we can see all ofthose cool effects in the dark.

(01:44:48):
Um, but yeah, it was a great prand fun and for me, the
highlight and I know I was Isaid I wasn't going to name
names before, but I do have togive one shout out and that is
the biggest highlight of therace for me was watching Allie,
without an E, cross her firstever marathon finish line.
That was such a special momentfor me.

(01:45:10):
I'm so incredibly proud of herand all of our Rise and Run
family, regardless if you didjust the 5k or you did, dopey, I
am so proud of each and everymember of our community and the
things that you accomplishedthis weekend, whether you
crossed the finish line or youdidn't.
The hard work that you put inshould be commended and the

(01:45:33):
amount of pride that I have forthis community there's just no
words to describe it.
And actually, now that I thinkof it, one other highlight for
me for this race was I had theabsolute honor and pleasure of
serving as a AWD guide for ourfriend Rachel.

(01:45:56):
Rachel, you have become such awonderful friend over these last
couple of years and when we hadthat discussion at the meetup
on Saturday, I was thrilled tobe able to do that for you.
So you know, obviously myresponsibility was to stay as
close to Rachel as possible tocall out any audible cues that

(01:46:21):
she might not have been aware of.
But I got to say you know, eventhough I was doing my absolute
best to protect you, you know,during the course of those 26.2
miles.
You know there were times whereyou know you were protecting me
or you know you were soconfident in your paces that you

(01:46:42):
actually got ahead of me and Ihad to catch up to you.
So it was a great team effort.
I thoroughly enjoyed my guideexperience and I hope it's
something that I can either dofor you in the future or I can
do for others in the future aswell, too.
So again, that was also anotheranother great highlight and
moment for me during thisparticular race.

(01:47:03):
So those are my thoughts onmarathon weekend 2025.
I need to get back to work here.
I have a few more videos toshoot and edit before hopefully
being able to lay out at thepool with a Mai Tai in hand and
hopefully seeing some humpbackwhales in the ocean.
But don't worry, I will be backon the mic in next week's

(01:47:26):
episode, so looking forward tochatting with you then, and
aloha.

Speaker 3 (01:47:32):
All right, greg, thank you.
I'm glad you got a chance tomake the input.
My friend, another greatmarathon weekend is done.
I actually know how many daysthere are to the next one, but
I'll let that go for now.
Let's catch up on some things.
Friends, just an admin note.
Friends, just an admin note.

(01:47:53):
We have all the wonderful chatsthat we use for each race
weekend, and what I had beendoing is creating one for each
year, and I realized that it wasprobably easier and maybe even

(01:48:15):
smarter to just take the yearoff and just run the thing
perpetually, because what Iwould do, I would delete one and
then add another.
So henceforth we'll have onefor each of the majors, because
we have a lot of folks runningthe majors.
We'll have one for each of theDisney race weekends, california

(01:48:35):
or Florida, and they just won'tbe dated, so it should actually
make them easier to find.
So if you're wondering whathappened to the numbers, that's
what happened.
Serious note every once in awhile, something will come to
our attention through socialmedia or just through our
friendships and I want to passalong our condolences from the

(01:49:01):
entire Rise and Run family andour good friend Stephanie lost a
very important person in herlife.
This week Her aunt passed away.
I know that was rough, I knowthat it was expected.
I know that doesn't make it anyeasier.
And, stephanie, from all of uswe love you and we're just sorry

(01:49:26):
for your loss.
Not that it's in the same vein,but in general I've noticed a
lot of our friends are losingtheir four-legged friends and I
got to tell you it gets to mewhen I see that and I'm not

(01:49:47):
going to mention individuals,it's happened several times in
the last couple of months, butwe're also sorry about that too.
Moving on to a little cheeriernote, I want to remind our
friends who are running atDisneyland that we haven't done
the Disneyland roll call yet.

(01:50:07):
I did see some activity in thatchat saying hey, I don't know
how to get on.
I always give directions on theway to do it, but I always use
my laptop and if you're using aphone, this is much more
difficult.
But if you're on a laptop ordesktop and you can get to the
top of the Facebook groupthere's a featured section there
and the race report is all theway out to the right.

(01:50:30):
You can put your name there,but you can also send me a note
or drop a note in the chat.
Chat's kind of risky.
I might not see it, but I'll dothe best I can and we will do
the Disneyland race roll callnext week.
All right, my friends, it's timefor the race report.

(01:50:52):
Got a rather brief race reportthis week, which is good because
we've all been doing a lot oftalking.
Race report brought to you byour friend Tom Stokes.
Stokes Metabolic Training,stokesfit slash, rise and run
coaching is the site to go to.
Tom started a new eight-weekchallenge this week.

(01:51:15):
It started on Monday of thisweek.
I noticed a lot of friends arein it.
I think it's a great idea.
I actually got back to the gymfor the first time in a while.
I'm having a hard time raisingmy arms over my head, but it's a
good thing.
Take advantage, take advantageof Tom's training, take
advantage of the plan, takeadvantage of his knowledge about

(01:51:39):
nutrition and see if you can'tmake some of those Zoom meetings
that Tom has.
All right On the race report,I'm going to go back to January
11th for the Lake Mead Nevadahalf marathon.
I missed this one earlier.
I got caught up in marathonweekend.
Lance said this race featuredbeautiful scenery and if you see

(01:52:00):
the photos Lance posted, itindeed did.
Runs through a couple ofrailroad tunnels, which is kind
of cool.
About 380 total runners acrossall the distances they had there
.
Little hilly made it for a bitof a challenge for apparently
lance lives in sea levelflatlander.

(01:52:23):
Next stop he'll be at thedisneyland half one.
I want to mention our friendHeather missed Marathon Weekend
because she was on her firstDisney cruise.
Been planning this one over ayear.
Skip Dopey, to get that littlerubber medal that they give you

(01:52:44):
for doing the Castaway Cave 5K.
It was actually nice weather.
It's usually hot even at thistime of year.
It's quite frequently hot forthat event, but it was in the
70s, saw a lot of run Disneyfolks on the course, probably

(01:53:07):
the most expensive and slowest5K ever, but you had a great
time.
Let's look at this race weekend.
Let's start on Saturday withthe Park Avenue 5K presented by
Track Shack at Winter Park inFlorida.
Tracy was there, sub 35K.
I think that's excellent, tracy.
I think that's a real benchmark.
Moderate effort, always a greatrace.

(01:53:27):
They give you tickets forpost-race food from local food
vendors that come out.
Sounds like a neat idea.
Great to see so many friends.
Uh, keeping the miles rollingafter dopey marathon weekend.
Jared.
Jared and his daughter Lilywere also there.
I'm pretty sure they signed upfor it.

(01:53:49):
They were on the race reportbut I did not see a finishing
report, although I noticed thatthey put one in last year, so I
got to assume they did.
It looked like they had a lotof fun last year.
I got to assume they were back.
Let's go to Kirkwood, missouri,for the Snowball Series 4-Miler.
This is race two in a four-raceseries.

(01:54:09):
Katie was there.
It's been cold I mean cold isthe word of the week throughout
the United States Temps in thelow 30s at the start and they
dropped with the wind gust.
Most of the course was clear,but there were some spots that
you could have used ice skateson it.
Course volunteers and I thinkwe overlook course volunteers

(01:54:33):
not usually, but it's even moreimportant when the weather's
like this Volunteering is justtough.
They were amazing, did a greatjob.
Did a great job of keeping therunners away from the ice,
telling the swimmer to slow downand walk when you couldn't
avoid the ice.
After the race grabbed a coffeeand a sandwich from one of her

(01:54:54):
favorite local spots.
Despite the cold and the ice,katie still highly recommends
this one.
Jimmy, jimmy just wanted to be aunicorn this week, so he did
the.
I Just Want to Be a Unicorn.
5k in Knoxville, tennessee.
Opted out of the half becausehe hadn't been feeling well,
fighting illness recently, butwalked the 5K Still finished age

(01:55:19):
group third place throughwalking, had a nice
sub-14-minute walking pace.
That's a good walking pace,jimmy, nice job.
Our buddy Mark was inGibsonville, north Carolina, for
the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot5-Miler I think some soldier
named this one.
This is the first in a seriesof four trail races.

(01:55:40):
Local one is full of surprises.
He DNF'd this one a couple ofyears ago after doing his first
dopey.
The half marathon involves tworiver crossings, but not on a
bridge, just run across theriver by about two miles.
The trail was mostly just slickand muddy.

(01:56:01):
Mark was a little not sure ofhis footing so it was mostly a
walk from then on in, but he didfinish Great looking medal.
It was mostly a walk from thenon in, but he did finish Great
looking medal.
It's one of these that itbecomes part of.
It's a series, so each medalgoes together to make one grand

(01:56:25):
medal when you're all done.
Mark commented as Jack has manytimes just love the trail
running community In StAugustine, florida, the Matanzas
5000, 5k and fun run.
Joy was there Powered by coffee,water, and Dayquil Woke up race

(01:56:47):
morning feeling a whole lotbetter than when she went to
sleep, so figured she'd go outand take this one easy.
Now she's sitting on the couchrelaxing, reading, hoping
everyone had a great weekend.
Hey, here's a guy who's afriend to a bunch of us.
Coach Chris Twiggs did theDaufuskie Island Marathon and a
half.
I'm not sure what she did.

(01:57:08):
Let me see.
Here In South Carolina he wasthe guest speaker at the pasta
dinner the night before.
Really neat event Runners takea ferry from Hilton Head to the
island for the start.
A lot of them come over thenight before to enjoy that

(01:57:29):
wonderful pasta dinner and theoutstanding guest speaker.
Then they stay in an Airbnbclose to the start.
Everybody's greeted withpre-race cinnamon rolls,
everybody Vegan and gluten-freeoptions available.
These things are apparentlylegendary.
And you get coffee.
Legendary and you get coffee.

(01:57:51):
13.1 mile loop under beautifulcanopied roads, along the beach
on a paved bike path.
Following the race, a brunch isserved with salads, barbecue,
veggie burgers, lots more.

(01:58:11):
Chris did do the marathon,didn't PR, but he did manage a
three-minute negative split inhis second marathon in seven
days, thanks to his Gallowayintervals, of course.
Chris, being a perfectmarathoner, did the marathon at
Disney.
Look, if you don't go to theWDW Marathon weekend or even if
you do and you're looking forsomething completely different,

(01:58:32):
check out the Daufuskie IslandMarathon in South Carolina.
Can I say something?

Speaker 6 (01:58:37):
to Chris real quick.
Yeah, chris, I took your advicein Jinji Socks Game Changer.

Speaker 5 (01:58:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:58:46):
No blisters for this marathon.
Thanks for the advice.
There you go, that's a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:58:54):
We had a couple of weekend long events.
Let's start with the one thatwe're going to spotlight this
week.
Now, one of those weekendevents is a little bit different
than the others, and I've askedour friend Rob to come here and
talk about his weekend.
Rob hi, how you doing?

Speaker 5 (01:59:14):
I'm doing great guys Bob, fantastic to talk to you
again, and John, always good tohear and see you.

Speaker 3 (01:59:21):
So thanks for having me on.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate you spending thetime with us.
We're going to talk about yourweekend, of course.
Now the spotlight's been gonefor a little bit, we get real
busy around dopey time, so we'reback.
I have to remind myself how wedo this.
Let's start with that standardrace report spotlight question

(01:59:46):
rob, how'd you get startedrunning?

Speaker 5 (01:59:49):
well, uh, john will appreciate this.
The the short answer is uh, theforce, and what I mean by that
was uh.
Back in when my wife and Imoved down from kentucky to
florida in 2011, my wife was arunner and I was not not
whatsoever, had no desire to,but I sure liked going and

(02:00:09):
watching my wife's runs.
And when she started doing thisthing called run disney in 2012
, I started following along andI'd come and I was in the cheer
section when it was.
You had to pay for it and itwas I remember.
Yes, sir and uh, would, wouldyou know, chase her around the
course for every race that shedid, try to see her as many
times as possible?
Uh, and swore myself nevergoing to do it.

(02:00:33):
My stepkids ran some races.
My, my, my triplets ran racesdown here.
I was not going to do it, I washappy just being the guy in the
stand.
And then they announced thatthey were going to bring over
the star wars themed races fromdisneyland to disney world and I
was I was born in 1969, so Iwas an eight-year-old child when

(02:00:55):
Star Wars hit the theaters.

Speaker 3 (02:00:56):
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 5 (02:00:58):
And so you can imagine that I've been a Star
Wars fan for my entire life.
And when they said we're goingto do Star Wars races in April
of 2016 at Disney World, that'swhen I decided I've got to get
off the couch and start running.
So January 1st 2016 was myfirst training day.

Speaker 3 (02:01:15):
All right, that's a good one, rob.
That's the stories tend tobreak into.
My significant other was arunner, or I was trying to date
this person, or as a runner, orI was a high school.
Anyway, you're the firstfilm-based runner, so I like
that.
That's a good story and I'mgoing to toss in here.
I'm not.
I'm not no spoilers here.

(02:01:36):
How about cycling?
When did you get started withthat?

Speaker 5 (02:01:40):
I started cycling about the same time because I
wanted to do something cross fitkind of cross training wise,
and that just seemed like anatural thing to do so I I used
my stepson's dirt bike at thetime.
Oh, which was was a challenge,because I'm six, four, my

(02:02:01):
stepson is five, nine, right,but I'm gonna work yeah, yeah,
knees up to your chin and allthat, yeah, so that that was
same time, 2016, I startedriding my bike around on the
nights.
I was not running, so well, I'mgonna.

Speaker 3 (02:02:18):
I'm gonna hold a question here for a little bit,
because I'm assuming you're notriding that dirt bike anymore.
Um, so let's talk about theweekend.
You didn't it?
It wasn't a duathlon, becauseyou're separated by a day, but
you did a 5K on Saturday andthen 100K on Sunday.

(02:02:38):
Tell us about it, tell us whereit was, how it went.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:02:44):
So this is an event they hold every year called the
Tour de Cape, and it's in CapeClaw, Florida, and it's put on
by the Cape Claw Parks andRecreation and on Saturday it's
just a 5K fun run basically thesame kind of fun runs that you
have every weekend all over thecountry.
There were probably about 150,200 runners or so.

(02:03:04):
It was just a straightout-and-back course from a park
over in the Cape that I've runat before a few times and so
just you know, did that, andthen but you did this, coming
off at least the marathon.
Yeah, coming off.
I did goofy, plus the 10K theweekend before and of course, as

(02:03:29):
happens about 50% of the timeafter I run a marathon, I caught
a cold slash the post-marathoncrud.
So the entire week leading upto the Cape Coral event I was
dealing with a cold and a runnynose and everything, so I kind
of jokingly called it the SneezyChallenge.

Speaker 3 (02:03:50):
Yeah, I like that very clever.
Well, hey, what the heck?
10k, half and full and youleave out the 5k yeah, you know.

Speaker 5 (02:04:01):
So there's a.
I have done dopey seven yearsin a row, and so this would have
been eight.
Okay, okay, my wife we're goingto saint john next month for a
race, ironically and we're goingto spend a week there, and my
wife said look, we really can'tafford to do four nights at
Disney followed by a week in StJohn.
So I initially just signed upfor the Goofy and then, a few

(02:04:24):
weeks ago, I ended up getting a10K charity bid because one of
the charities I've run forbefore called me up and said hey
, we've got a bid left over.
We'll sell it to you for cost.
Do you want it?
Twist my arm.

Speaker 3 (02:04:35):
I gotcha All right, I understand.
I understand more now.

Speaker 5 (02:04:38):
I wish I had been there.
I would have loved to have beena puppy.
Yeah, and bark the entire 5krunning away from Bob.
I guess it is.

Speaker 3 (02:04:48):
That was the plan.
Yeah, yeah, it worked out well.
We talked about it earlier inthe episode um, so the 5k was
fun.
You get a good night's rest.
I assume the weather was decentthis last weekend you know it
was good weather.

Speaker 5 (02:05:04):
I mean, you know it's four in a race season, so you
know you, you've got the nicecool temperatures in the morning
, uh, and you're just hopingthat there's no fog and no rain.
And we were fortunate both daysthat it was just cool.

Speaker 3 (02:05:19):
Yeah, got it.
So then you had the bicycle100K the next day.
Now again I'm going to pickback up.
I'm guessing you're not ridingthat little dirt bike anymore.

Speaker 5 (02:05:34):
No, my wife for one of my birthdays back in 2017 or
2018, somewhere in there.
She saw me out riding in theneighborhood one day on the dirt
bike and she just thought itwas the funniest thing.
I'll bet.
And she got me an actual decentuh road bike, uh, the uh.

(02:05:56):
The bike shop not terribly farfrom our house actually had a
sale on this bike because it wasfour inches taller than the
normal bike and so you have tobe essentially all right six
foot four or taller rightthrough this thing to work, so
she got it at a 50 off discountoh nice.
What kind of uh, it's a bmcsomething or other, white with a

(02:06:20):
bunch of gears that I rarelyuse.

Speaker 3 (02:06:24):
Yeah, I get it, I get it, I.
I do rod.
I haven't ridden in a while.
I got a cannondale and my wifebought it for me too, but we
worked through the shop.
Nice bike.
The bike is better than therider yes, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (02:06:38):
I've had people come to me on the bike and ask if I,
if I rode seriously and I'm,like you know, as serious as it
takes me to get out of my garageand through a couple of
neighborhoods and back home andinto the recliner.

Speaker 3 (02:06:51):
Then yes, I ride seriously, so how'd the ride go?

Speaker 5 (02:06:54):
It was really good.
This is the first time I've.
You know, I just started ridingin races.
This year I did a 40K.

Speaker 3 (02:07:04):
That's an odd distance.

Speaker 5 (02:07:07):
The end, excuse me, a 40 miler.
Okay, the end of December downin Naples, florida, okay, and so
this one popped up and I waslike you know, let's push myself
.
I kind of want to get to apoint where I can do, as as half
an Ironman, the 70.3.

Speaker 6 (02:07:21):
So let's see, can I?

Speaker 5 (02:07:23):
do a 62 mile bike ride A hundred.
K and I signed up for it andcouldn't have asked for better
weather.
And the Cape Cod police wereout.
They had most of the majorintersections not completely
blocked off, but when they saw agroup of cyclists coming
through, they got out there andheld traffic up for us.
So there was never any, neverhad any fear.

(02:07:45):
It wasn't like a road racewhere they block off traffic
completely.

Speaker 3 (02:07:50):
Gotcha right.
That's safe completely.

Speaker 5 (02:07:55):
Oh, oh yeah.
That makes a difference, and thebiggest challenge with it other
than it was, you know, 50longer than my previously
longest bike ride was the wind,um yes which you know, which I
knew, wind could be an issuebecause just riding around for
fun, sometimes you get out thereand the wind is blowing against
you and you feel that.
Well, this morning the wind wasat our backs for most of the

(02:08:18):
first part of the ride, whichwas going north through Cape
Coral, which meant that comingback home, for the last 25 to 30
miles that wind was in our faceand I went from the first 25
miles of the race.
I probably averaged about 19 to20 miles per hour.
I finished the race at a 14.6mile per hour pace.

Speaker 3 (02:08:42):
Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 5 (02:08:44):
That tells you how slow and how much of a clog.
And just yeah, it's hard.
And, being being as big as I amand my back isn't quite as
flexible, I couldn't get low toget aerodynamic.
And then after a while, whenyou have to get up out of the
saddle because your your glutesstart hurting and you got to

(02:09:06):
stretch those out, it was like Iwas, I was putting a sail up
yeah, I get, I get it.
Honestly, I get it, but you know, I got to the finish line and I
felt good.
Nothing was sore other than mycheeks from the wind blowing on
them.
And they had lunch, they hadbeer, it was all free.

Speaker 3 (02:09:26):
Oh, beautiful.

Speaker 5 (02:09:27):
You know I always say any race where I leave the
start line and get back to thefinish line in one piece is a
success.
So it was absolutely a success.

Speaker 3 (02:09:37):
Do you find that there are people in line behind
you, Rob, using you to draft?

Speaker 5 (02:09:42):
A couple of times, in fact.
I sat down to eat lunch.
A lady came up and sat downnext to me and she thanked me
for being her uh, her blockerfor a little while.
That was probably a mile, mileand a half.
Uh, I'm not used to that.
That's one of the things owningmy second ride with a big group
.
I'm not used to looking in therearview mirror and seeing a

(02:10:03):
bunch of people behind me there.
So I was trying to make sure Ididn't do anything dumb and
swerve or cause an accidentthat's it right, just do it.
It'd be like an indy 500 pile upor several people running into
me behind because I was dumb inthe front.

Speaker 3 (02:10:18):
So yeah, I one time towards the one time, towards
the end of 100k, I got into apace line and boy, what a
difference.
I mean two or three miles anhour easy.
And uh, we got all finished andI thanked the group for letting
me ride and it was a young ladyriding behind me and she says
well, she was pretty, she'spretty young and I'm not.
She goes, sir, I'll ride withyou anytime.

(02:10:40):
It's like riding behind a truck, that's great.
So uh recommended rob the, uhthe the tour to cape 100, I mean
for the cape.

Speaker 5 (02:10:55):
Uh, you know I've done the 5k a few times in the
past and now that I'm kind ofdoing the cycling thing, I'll
absolutely put it on thecalendar and, a matter of fact,
next year I'm going to have thegoal of making it my first 100
mile ride as they have thatlevel as the next one up.
So if I can go from my first100K ride there to a 100 mile

(02:11:15):
ride within a year, I think thatwould be a nice accomplishment
to celebrate this turn aroundthe sun.

Speaker 3 (02:11:23):
I think you can do it .
It's a challenge, but I thinkyou can do it.
That's great.
Well, rob, thanks for joiningus.
Buddy, I appreciate it.
It sounds like fun.
We need to get to.
I need to get back on my bike.
How close are you to FortDeSoto?
You know where that is.

Speaker 5 (02:11:41):
Yeah, I know where Fort DeSoto is.
It's an hour and a half northof me.

Speaker 3 (02:11:46):
Okay, I'm much closer .

Speaker 5 (02:11:48):
No, but I, you know, my stepson or my son, is up
there usf in college and we justgot his bike sick.
So I, you know, maybe that'swhat you know maybe I'll start
working with him on doing somerides and stuff around and I'm
actually going to bring my bikeup.
I'm coming to clearwater thisweekend coming up for the 5k and
the half marathon oh up therethis weekend and I was going to

(02:12:11):
ride the bike around clearwateron saturday after.
Okay.
So, rob, thanks, I'll let yougo, gentlemen, thank you guys.
I really appreciate it, lovethe work that you guys do, I
know.
I tell you that in person everytime I see you thanks, rob.

Speaker 3 (02:12:23):
The other weekend long event was the houston
double in houston, texas.
Uh, 5k and a half.
Catherine did it.
I saw that she did finish the5K, said the weather was really
good and she was looking forwardto the half.
But I didn't get a report onthe half.
On Sunday in Texas, the AustinInternational half, formerly the

(02:12:48):
Austin 3M half.
This is race number five in theAustin Distance Challenge.
Derek did it.
Derek was wondering if, becauseit was a newly named race, that
was an automatic PR.
Sorry, no, nope.
Cold Start, temp 28.

(02:13:09):
Wind chill in the teens.
Winds gusting to 30.
That's rough.
Michelle was there Alsocommented on the wind and the
cold.
But Michelle does get a PRbecause this was Michelle's
first half marathon.
Her highlight, she says, wassomebody handed her a taco.

(02:13:30):
That was her highlight.
It was a gesture that kept hergoing.
Jill was also there.
Jill PR'd as well by 13 minutes.
That's near a minute a mile ina half marathon Fastest course
Jill's ever been on.
Hit mile one and she thought itwas a mistake because she got

(02:13:53):
there so quickly.
By the time she hit 10, wasfeeling great.
Not a lot of crowd support,which again 29 degrees, 16
degree wind chill.
I'm not standing out andcheering, but still a great race
.
That was the Austin halfmarathon.

Speaker 6 (02:14:11):
International marathon.
How's that international?
I don't know.
That's a great race.
That was the Austin HalfMarathon International.

Speaker 3 (02:14:14):
Marathon.
How's that international?
I don't know.
That's a good question.

Speaker 6 (02:14:16):
I don't think there's any other country 13 miles from
From Austin From.

Speaker 3 (02:14:20):
Austin?
No, I don't think so.
I don't think so.
Yeah, Don't know.
Okay, just curious on that one.
That's a good question.
Maybe we'll find out later.
If we find out, we'll reportback to you.
Let's go down to Key West,florida, the Key West Half
Marathon.
Britt was there, as was Holly.

(02:14:41):
Holly did her first half.
There's another PR.
Beautiful course.
This one the city came out tosupport.
I imagine.
The weather was pretty niceSome on-course entertainment,
lots of water, rest, gatoradestops Overall great time.
The medal and this isappropriate for Key West is a

(02:15:02):
hangable bottle opener.
Let's wrap up the race reportwith the I have a Dream 5K in
Las Vegas.
Pretty sure this one was Sunday, although undoubtedly it was
for Martin Luther King Day.
Sarah was there.
She walked it one week afterdoing Dopey, a little chilly,
but it warmed up once she gotmoving.

(02:15:23):
Best of all, she got to meetfellow Rise and Runner Chris
Chris was there.
Chris was there with Woody andJesse, his beagles.
Runner chris chris was there.
Chris was there with woody andjesse his beagles.
Chris was 15th overall in this5k, third in his age group, and
the beagles both finished firstin their age groups or in their

(02:15:46):
species group or whatever.
Anyway it was.
There we go.
Gang race report for episode one74.
All right, my friends, and ifyou run, you know you are our
friend or reminder.
No zoom call this week, we willhave one next week, even though
it is the start of Disneylandhalf marathon weekend, I think

(02:16:10):
it being 5 PM on the West coast,maybe some of our friends will
be able to hop in and tell ushow things are going out there
in California.
Look, whether you made it toDisney for marathon weekend or
not, whether you finished yourfirst 5K or your 15th dopey, or

(02:16:31):
if you didn't finish, if youtried your best like John talked
abouty, or if you didn't finish, if you tried your best like
john talked about earlier andyou didn't finish, know that we
still love you, we're stillproud of you.
Get back out there, get back toyour training.
You can do it in the meantime.
Happy running time.

Speaker 1 (02:16:55):
Happy running.
The Rise and Run podcastdiscusses general information
about Run Disney and is in noway affiliated with Run Disney
or the Walt Disney Company.
Any information or advicediscussed on this podcast should
not be considered medicaladvice and should always consult
with your healthcare provideror event organizer.

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