177: Paralympian and runDisney Champion Brian Siemann

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (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 4 (00:36):
Good morning Rise and Runners.
This is Mary from High Point,north Carolina, about to start
my long run for my 10k training.
With a joke for you why did theorange stop running?
Because it ran out of juice.
All right, have a great runeverybody.

Speaker 5 (00:56):
Hi, this is Lizzie, live from the Rise and Run
meetup at Marathon Weekend.
Happy running and enjoy yourday at Marathon Weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:11):
Happy running and enjoy your day.
Mary Lizzie, thanks for theintros, ladies.
Mary, that joke was fabulous.
That's how come you made it onthe episode.
We appreciate it.
Hello, my friends, Welcome toepisode 177 of the Rise and Run
podcast.
We're so glad you're here withus.
I'm Bob and I'm here this weekwith Jack.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
Hiya.

Speaker 6 (01:32):
With Greg.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Fly Eagles.
Fly On the road to victory.
B-a-t-l-e-s Eagles.
Thank you, Bob appreciate thatWith Alicia.

Speaker 6 (01:48):
What no music Alicia.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
No music, but at least that spelled it right.

Speaker 6 (01:53):
Yeah, yeah, we'll come back to that.
And with John, hey, how youdoing Good, john, I'm doing
great, I'm doing wonderful.
Same reason that Greg is.
It was a big weekend.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Great, I'm doing wonderful, same reason that Greg
is.
It was a big weekend.

Speaker 6 (02:10):
I slept well.
I did sleep well Sunday night,though I didn't.
I didn't, and I was up Mondayand headed into Disney World to
see the one-person parade.
It was a one-float parade, it'snot a, you know, they have the
characters up there with the MVP, but I was glad I did it.
It was fun.
If you don't know what Aliciais referring to, I think a lot
of the country does.
Apparently, the Philadelphiamayor needs some spelling

(02:34):
lessons.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yes, yes, she does.

Speaker 6 (02:36):
E-L-G-S-E-S Eagles, eagles.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
I also saw another video of an Eagles fan, also
spelled wrong, before the game.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
Oh, that was NFL Network.
Yeah, he was maybe E-G-A-L-S.
He probably thought that wasright.
That was not that impressive.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
I mean, that thing took off so much that I know a
lot of local bakeries here wereselling cupcakes and they would
put the letters on the cupcakesbut spelling it the same way
that Mayor Parker spelled it itgot so bad that they actually
had to schedule an interview onWIP, the sports station here in

(03:19):
town.
So she could have a redemptionto spell it correctly.
Very exciting, go Birds.
So she could have a redemptionto spell it correctly.
So yeah, yeah, but veryexciting, Go birds.

Speaker 6 (03:29):
This week's episode special guest Brian Seaman.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh you didn't get Jalen from the parade.
I thought we talked about this.
I got some video.

Speaker 6 (03:39):
Okay, I did get some video, but Jalen's a very
private individual, as you cantell.
In fact, at the point wherethey stopped the float and we
were very close by and they handhim a microphone, he kind of
looked like he was surprised andhe talked for a couple of

(04:00):
minutes.
It was a for.
Oh, here's the thing, kids.
Y'all know how old I am.
I lived through some really badPhiladelphia sports teams and in
my life the Eagles have won theNFL championship three times.
The first time I was six yearsold.

(04:20):
I don't remember it.
So when they do it it's a bigdeal to me and it's an emotional
thing.
And, uh, I'm surprised I'm ableto talk this this week, but I'm
doing okay.
So this is a good thing for meis this one was over early, so I
didn't have to scream the wholetime, or I didn't scream the
whole time, but it was fun.

(04:42):
It was fun.
But let us move on.
We talked about Brian joiningus.
You know, friends, if you'velistened to the podcast we have,
since the very first year,since our very first dopey
weekend, we've had at least themarathon champion on the podcast
afterward the first three years.

(05:02):
Well, the first year wasBrittany Charbonneau podcast
afterward, the first three years.
Well, the first year wasbritney charbonneau, who, by the
way, britney, is now a proudmama.
Britney and her husbandcongratulations baby boy whose
name I cannot remember right now, but I know his name is hugo
hugo.
Congratulations charbonneaufamily.

(05:23):
But Brittany was the first andthen we had the female champion
the next two years from themarathon, brian is the push rim
champion and Brian is aworld-class athlete.
He's won well, you'll hear iton the interview.
Athlete, he's won.

(05:47):
Well, you'll hear it on theinterview.
He's won the Dopey Challenge asa push rim racer for the last,
I think since 2016, as I recall,and he's also a US Paralympic
athlete.
And I'm going to stop therebecause I don't want to give the
whole interview away.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
If you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast, please share
us with your friends andintroduce them to the Rise and
Run family.
We want to share in their RunDisney journey.
Please remember to follow us onFacebook at Rise and Run
Podcast, on Instagram at Riseand Run Pod.
Be sure to check out ourawesome YouTube channel headed

(06:22):
up by Jack, and visit ourwebpage, riseandrunpodcastcom.
If you have a question, acomment, a race report.
You want to do the Eagles chant?
or introduce an upcoming episode, give us a call at 727-266-2344
and leave us a recorded message.

(06:43):
And once again, go birds.

Speaker 6 (06:45):
Go birds.
I'm sorry, it's reflex.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Okay, I got to.
I got to relax for a couple ofseconds.
Okay, there's too much birdsfor me now.
Okay, we also want to thank ourPatreons, who support helps us
keep the rise and run podcastrising and running.
If you'd like to join thePatreon team, please check us
out at patreoncom.
Slash riseandrunpodcast.
And we would want to thank ournewest Patreon, roxanne, who

(07:09):
joined the how you Doin' level.
How you doin'?

Speaker 6 (07:12):
That's the same Roxanne who was on the episode
last week telling us about herDonna Marathon.
So thanks, roxanne.
We appreciate you joining us.
I promise I'm going to let thisgo, gang, I promise, I promise
I'm going to let this go, gang,I promise.
But, john, whilst I was atDisney World yesterday and there
were a lot of people there, Imean, it was slam-packed there

(07:39):
were a couple of guys who cameat different times and walked
down Main Street before theparade started with their Giants
jerseys on, and my buddy, chris, who was with me, said oh, I
kind of feel sorry for them.
I said no, chris, they knowexactly what they're doing.
In fact, one of them had aSaquon Barkley jersey on.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
I bet a lot of them had trouble sleeping at night,
wouldn't you say, bob, maybe?

Speaker 3 (08:02):
I didn't have trouble sleeping.
I was fine with it.

Speaker 6 (08:04):
Yeah, one guy just had a generic giants t-shirt and
the other guy had a saquam.
I did not see for what it'sworth.
I did not see a dallas cowboyjersey in the magic kingdom oh,
that's one thing we could allagree on for sure.
Yes, correct.
Oh, let's see, friends, therise and run podcast, which will
now return to being the riseand run podcast is, which will

(08:25):
now return to being the Rise andRun podcast is sponsored by our
friends at Magic Bound Travel.
Today was Wine and DineRegistration Day, which we'll
talk a little bit more about injust a bit.
We've been encouraging you toget your hotel reservations in
early, but if you haven't doneit, now's the time you got a

(08:48):
particular resort or maybe aparticular type of room that
you're looking for.
Now's the time to reach out toyour Magic Bound Travel Advisor
or submit a new request for aquote at their website,
magicboundtravelcom.
Greg mentioned YouTube in theintro.

(09:11):
Jack, what's new with theYouTube channel?

Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah, so of course, if you guys didn't know already,
our spotlights, or uneditedrace spotlights, are put up
every Thursday.

Speaker 6 (09:24):
that we have on the recording as well, but don't
expect anything exciting Goofups is about the best you're
going to get.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
But it's a great way to see who we're interviewing
for the race report and see theexcitement on their faces as
they talk about it.

Speaker 6 (09:42):
It's fun.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Also, with that being said, John had actually taken
some footage along Main Streetduring the marathon weekend, and
what better way to inspireeverybody running at Princess
than by watching people runthrough Main Street, going
through the castle and seeingmagic happen?
It's going to be a small video,but it's going to be magical.

Speaker 6 (10:02):
I look forward to it.
Thanks, jack.
Let's look at our trainingcalendar.
Friends, uh, princess weekend,we know, one week away, yeah
they come.
You know we, we look when weput them on the calendar.
We look, oh, that's going totake for.
And then all of a suddenthey're here.
Princess is a week away.

(10:24):
Expo day.
Seven days from the day thatthis episode drops, we're in
training week number 17,.
Four miles on the trainingschedule this week.
I recommend that you do it.
I know it's getting close.
I know, as we were fond ofsaying, going into marathon

(10:45):
weekend, the hay's in the barn,the bulk of your training is
done.
But go ahead and do that fourmile or take a nice easy pace
and enjoy that four mile runthis weekend.
Springtime, surprise is nowjust seven weeks away.
This is training week 11.
Four miles here also, friends,this one of the four.

(11:08):
It includes a magic mile, thething that Greg made that nice
reel about.
And then I went out and triedand I couldn't do it as well as
he could, but we did it andthat's our training update.
It's getting smaller, gettingsmaller, all right.
So that's our training update.
It's getting smaller, gettingsmaller, all right.
So that's the training calendar.
What's new on your trainingfriends?

(11:32):
Anything going on.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
Yeah, bob.
So last week I talked about howI had done my first run coming
back from Marathon Weekend, butI still apparently wasn't over
the sickness that I had had.
So I gave myself some time andtoday I did a treadmill run,
because it's absolutely freezinghere and it went really, really
well.
It was a short run, buteverything feels good.

(11:56):
My legs felt good, my breathingfelt good, so I think I'm back
and actually can train forspringtime.
Surprise, yeah, and I'm stilldoing Tom's challenge, so got
the strength training too.
So yeah, I'm I'm happy toactually be back now.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
I kind of went back into training last week.
Um, I know I wasn't here um thelast episode to talk about it,
but um, this week training hasgotten a little bit better.
I had gotten sick not too longafter marathon weekend like
Alicia, and it messed up mycardio a bit.
But, yeah, my knee has been Idon't know if it's runner's knee

(12:37):
, I've never had it before, soit's a new experience.
Poor timing personally, butit's fine experience.
Poor timing personally, butit's fine.
But I went and did my four miletest run because I'm going to
be pacing, be one of theGalloway Pacers for Princess

(12:58):
this year and I don't even knowif I can say what time I'm doing
until they post it.
So I'll leave that out untilit's posted.

Speaker 6 (13:02):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
Yeah.
But yeah, I went and did my run, walk, run, and I was very,
very happy because I have beenmy running the past few times.
I've been trying to go aftereverything.
I just I couldn't get the speedI wanted, I couldn't get the
breath that I wanted.
It was very frustrating and myknee was bothering me.

(13:24):
I was like this is great, greattiming.
And then when I did this fourmile run and I know it was only
four miles, but afterwards Ifelt like I keep going and I was
10 seconds average pace aheadof what I'm supposed to be
scheduled.
So I feel confident.
I have a run tomorrow, which isWednesday, the day I feel
confident.
Um, I have a run tomorrow,which is Wednesday, you know,

(13:47):
the day before a podcast, andthen I have yesterday.

Speaker 6 (13:50):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
Yesterday, and then and then I have my long run
Saturday.
My goal is to get like seven oreight miles to make sure like,
okay, you're good for princess,you're fine, and then taper it
down after that.
But hopefully good things Cause.
That four mile run was reallynice.

Speaker 6 (14:08):
Now, friends, don't do seven or eight this weekend.
Just said she was going to.
She's Jack, and I say that inthe nicest way possible.
But you, you said something inthere, jack, that you just went
right by, and I thought this isa way I answer friends who are

(14:28):
new to the training regimen andnew to running when they say
when does this get easier?
And I don't know that it evergets easier.
But what you said and I'm notgoing to try to quote you, but
something like I just have ashort four miles this week and
just passed it off.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
Oh, I didn't even realize I did that that's right,
that's right.

Speaker 6 (14:48):
And when you get to that point and you will, friends
, you will you'll get to thepoint of looking on your
training schedule and go oh,there's just three miles, just
four miles.
I want you, when you hit that,I want you to remember the day
that you weren't sure you couldrun to your mailbox and now
you're just passing off.
Oh, it's just three, it's justfour.
The big ones aren't cominguntil the weekend when I have to

(15:09):
do 19.
So there you go.
That's a good thing.
Good update.
Thanks, ladies, I appreciate it.
Hey, we got some news fromDisney regarding Springtime
Surprise, which I think caughtus by surprise.
The post-run event, springtimeSurprise Splash got canceled.
I was disappointed.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, Bob, I was kind of surprised to see that news,
especially that they kind ofpulled the plug on it after just
one year.
Obviously, again, we'll neverknow why it got canceled.
I have a couple of theories uh,but but I, I would you like to
hear them oh, I would love tohear okay, actually the first.
I I have to give due credit touh lexi was the one that had

(15:57):
made mention of this uh, butunfortunately she couldn't be
here tonight and that that isnow that Disney is offering that
hotel perk of you know freewater park entry the day of
check-in.
I wonder if maybe that hadsomething to do with it, grant,
who knows what kind of numbersthey've been getting in terms of

(16:20):
guests doing that?
Because it's it's you know,obviously we're only, you know,
six weeks into the year, and youknow, obviously we're only you
know, six weeks into the yearand you know it's been cooler in
Florida, like I know there wasa couple of days where the water
parks were just like straightup cold.

Speaker 6 (16:32):
but I'd go to the water park today.
Okay, all right, it's nice.
It was mid eighties yesterday,yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
So maybe that has something to do with it, but I
mean, in my, my personal opinion, I think it was just not priced
correctly, or or they couldhave done something different in
their strategy, like, forexample, and and we'll get into
this a little bit later in theepisode, but you know, you look

(16:59):
at wine and dine.
If you run, if you run the halfor you run the challenge, the
after-party ticket is includedin your registration
registration, or the thespringtime surprise challenge
registration, then I think itcould have been, you know, a

(17:27):
popular or more popular event.
I should say so.
I think it just just wasn'tselling like they thought it
would, because, I mean, bob, youand I went to it last year
there was a decent amount ofpeople there, but at the same
time, it wasn't overwhelminglypacked either.

Speaker 6 (17:43):
No one packed when it I don't, I'm glad it wasn't
packed.
Packed either no, it wasn'tpacked, I'm glad it wasn't
packed.
Oh correct, exactly, it wasmore fun this way.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, yeah no, I agree.
And the other thing too is andI remember I did mention this
during our Springtime SurpriseRecap last year While I was
willing to pay the money lastyear for the event, and I had an
absolute blast with all of ourRise and run friends at that
event I will say, though, I hadthis, the same type of

(18:11):
experience, sans free popcornyeah mickey bars and mickey ice
cream sandwiches.
That I did two years ago atTyphoon Lagoon, because I know
Allie and I think it was Caseyand Heidi and I we all went and

(18:32):
took advantage of the.
What does Pelkey say?
It's the race them relax whereyou can get the 50% off discount
on the water park ticket.
We did that and that was.
I thought that was a phenomenaldeal and we had a very similar
type experience.
So $35 versus $90 to $100,that's a huge difference.

(18:54):
I think I was with you.

Speaker 6 (18:56):
Greg, oh you were.
You were, yes, but I think weleft early.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (19:00):
For some reason yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
See I keep getting mixed up.
You kicking JJ in the head intothe raft and you and I trying
to gracefully get into a raft.

Speaker 6 (19:09):
I keep getting those stories mixed up.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
Yes, Well, and to put this out there, the summer
event that they have at TyphoonLagoon, the H2O Glow Party, that
is not even as much, as I thinkit was like $70 worth of cash.

Speaker 6 (19:24):
Yeah, it $70.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
I don't understand the reasoning.
Oh, I'm sorry, there was acommemorative item, wetbag.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
I felt like I forgot all about you, but they, they
harped on that a lot and Ialways thought that was funny.
I'm like that was probably someitem I'm never going to use at
all.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Nailed it.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Thanks, but yeah, I just thought it was always so
funny.
I was like, well, I'm not goingto spend $95 for that, I would
rather go and do the H2O glowwhere it's like $65, $70, and I
get the same experience for $30cheaper.
To me, the math never felt thesame, especially if you're going
to compare that weekend to wineand dine.

(20:06):
You can't, it's not.

Speaker 6 (20:10):
No, it's different.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I also believe like what Greg's saying.
Basically, it was almost 60days out that they said they
pulled the plug on it.
So they said, ok, I needed Xamount of registrations by 60
days out, or this isn't feasible.

Speaker 6 (20:25):
Oh, I think that's.
Yeah, I think that's verylikely true.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
And I think the other problem is too.
You look at this.
I know they had the problemwith that, with that yoga, that
one time, like a lot of peoplefly out Sunday.
You know cause they want to getback to work on Monday.
They don't want to do the extraday, so I'm not going to spend
time at a water park that night.
That Monday yoga didn't workout well for them either.

(20:49):
I don't think they ever offeredthat again.

Speaker 6 (20:52):
Right, but the Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
We have Monday yoga coming up at Princess.
Is it really?

Speaker 6 (20:59):
We got the Sunday night after party at Wine and
Dine too.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
That's included, though.
That's the.

Speaker 6 (21:05):
That's the difference yeah, yeah, well, look, I don't
know why they did.
I'm disappointed that they did,because I had a good time, uh,
but you, you still make a goodpoint, greg, about maybe, I
don't know, maybe they'll bringback that half price ticket, I
don't know and I will takeadvantage.
We're getting in on a day earlyon springtime surprise weekend,

(21:25):
so I will take advantage of theday of arrival.
The springtime surprise splashis canceled, so it's a shame.
The biggest shame to me was itwas a great going away party.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (21:40):
So that's that Back to the following season.
Already we're starting toregister for the following
season.
We registered today for wineand dine.
Seemed to go pretty well.
What was your experiences?

Speaker 5 (22:00):
like friends, I was already registered.

Speaker 6 (22:03):
Yeah, Ms.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
Perfect over here.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Okay, I had to register.
It was a little stressful forme because this is the first
time I'm registering.
More than me and my wife, Iregistered.
My granddaughter is doing herfirst 5K run Disney event Very
exciting.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah.
So it sounds like a good idearight now.
You're right that I that's cool, that two 30 wake up call,
that's going to be there, that'sgoing to be the kicker.
I got through it.
But I said, let me.
I told my wife I'm going toregister myself for the
challenge, first, get myself inthat and then go in and get the

(22:41):
five K's for the four of us sothat we can all do the 5K
together.
So at least I'm in thechallenge, which I wanted to do,
which luckily everything wentwell and I got into all three
races and my wife and mygranddaughter are doing the 5K
with us.
Good, and she's already got thecostume set out for us.

(23:03):
Oh, nice, nice, are you going,greg?

Speaker 6 (23:04):
doing the 5k with us, good, and she's already got the
costume set out for us.
So, oh, nice, nice, are yougoing, greg?

Speaker 2 (23:08):
I am unfortunately sitting this one out due to some
uh work commitments and allright and other other future
vacations that I have to budgetfor so unfortunately no go for
me I am going.

Speaker 6 (23:21):
I'm in for all.
It's a tradition for Wine andDine.
Miss Rebecca remains retiredfor this one, so we got that
going for us.
We had a great time.
We used the Wine and Dineweekend chat group, had a bunch
of folks in there.

(23:41):
I did something different thisregistration day.
I wasn't sure how it was goingto work out, but I think it
worked pretty well and I'mprobably going to do it again,
and that is I set up a Zoom calland we kind of just used it as
a multi-person telephone call.

(24:02):
I don't think we used the video.
I mean everybody was up, but Idon't think we used the video.
I mean everybody was up but Iwasn't paying attention to the
video.
We just had a chance to talk toone another and that seemed to
work out real well.
Our good friend Mark, who isalways out there to help the
Rise and Run family.
He showed up and I think Marksaid he had 17 computers and 43.

(24:22):
I don't know, he had a lot ofcomputers.
He had multiple computers andbrowsers open.
He had more computers open thanI have in this house.
So he was very helpful.
I had only two browsers open,but I found things moved really
well today and friends seemed tohave little trouble getting

(24:46):
registered.
I was watching on the chat andfolks were helping one another
out, but by about 1040 or so, 35, 40 minutes after registration
opened, we had more people inthe chat saying, hey, I've got a
link if you want it, than wehad people asking for links.

(25:09):
So that went really well.
I do have some data here fromour friend Ryan, who is always
helping out with this, and wenoticed a couple of things.
The first race to sell out wasthe 10k really that's been a

(25:32):
trend lately, I feel like it wasthe first race in 24 to sell
out, it was the, and 22 and 21,of course, was COVID.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
But 21 was the year in person came back was it.

Speaker 6 (25:55):
I thought so too.
No, I think, I don't know 21got cancelled 2020 got cancelled
.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
21 was the return of in-person racing, because we
started the podcast in Septemberof.

Speaker 6 (26:13):
October 21.
Oh wow, that was our first race.
Yeah, that's for sure.
True, it's odd because I'mlooking at the times on Ryan's
page.
The 5K took six days to sellout in 21.
I don't know, maybe people wereafraid to register.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, because remember the last three events
well the Dopey, our marathonweekend and the Wine and Dine
before that all got canceled.
So people are like why am Igoing to put my money out and
they're going to cancel it again?

Speaker 6 (26:47):
Yeah, yeah, that could be, that could be, anyway,
but look, let's get back towhere we are now.
Yeah, the 10K has been sellingout first, which I always
thought the 5K did.
10k sold out in an hour.
The half was the next thing tosell out.
It sold out in 79 minutes.
5k took a little over an hour20.

(27:10):
And the challenge sold out in alittle over an hour and a half.
Those numbers are all reallyfast.
Compare them to last year.
I'll just take a look at one.
In 2025, the two-coursechallenge sold out in 95 minutes
.
In 2024, sold out in an hour,52.

(27:31):
I'm sorry, 152 minutes, two anda half hours, so almost exactly
an hour more.
This makes me think and again,with folks not seeming to have
too much trouble gettingregistered, makes me think that
disney has somehow increasedtheir throughput in here or
increased their bandwidth, andwe're getting more people

(27:54):
registered in a faster amount oftime, because that that makes
sense to me.
Otherwise, if we had these fastsellouts, I would have expected
a lot of our friends going.
I couldn't get in and we didn'thave that happen.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, that's true, I mean.
The only other thing that Icould think of, too is but at
the same time with the bumped upweekend, there is a similar
conflict.
Typically, you always have wineand dine competing with New
York City Marathon, whereas thatwon't be an issue this year.

(28:31):
Now, the issue will be itcompetes up against the 50th
anniversary of Marine Corps and,granted, I honestly do not know
the field sizes, but I wouldhave to imagine that New York
City is a bigger event thanMarine Corps.
So I wonder if oh, it is.
So I wonder if that maybe had avery small impact in terms of
how registration went as well.

Speaker 6 (28:53):
It is bigger.
I don't know how much biggerand likewise, I don't know how
many entrants are in this Disneyweekend either.
Still, the fact that the factthat we got people through
faster and I didn't see folkslamenting the fact that they
didn't get in Now if you didn'tget in next week- we have an

(29:15):
episode solution for you.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
That'll be next week, but we'll get more to that
later and going back forregistration today, something
else open for registration wasthe New York city marathon,
which was one of the one ofthose years where you can
actually do both.
If you want to do a halfmarathon, 10 K or five K the
week before the New York citymarathon, new York city marathon

(29:40):
registration opens today.
For their lottery, they'renon-guaranteed lottery, they
call it right.
So marathon registration openstoday.
For their lottery, theirnon-guaranteed lottery, they
call it right.
So and you?
So that registration's opentill February 25th.
So if you want to try to getyour hands into New York city,
go to New York city road runnersand register for New York city
marathon by February 25th.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, I know that was a long wait because actually
the the person who provided ourintro today, our friend Lizzie,
she, uh, her and I were textingtoday and she had to wait
multiple hours for her um cuespot to open to input her
information for the lottery.
I know at one point she said itwas like four plus hours that

(30:25):
she waited.
So there's a lot of interest inNew York City this year, for
sure.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
Wow, you know what we miss out on, guys?
And we miss out on this becausewe've been doing this a lot.
I don't know I'm coming up on60 Disney runs and I forget how
exciting it can be to getregistered for your first Disney
race weekend.

(30:50):
I remember 2016 Wine and Dine.
I got registered for the half.
I was jumping up and down.
I was literally.
I went out to the parking lot,started jumping up and down.
I was so excited.
So if if you are there, myfriend, if you are there, if
this is new to you and you gotin for wine and dine race

(31:10):
weekend, I hope you're asexcited as I was and
congratulations.
We look forward to seeing youthere.
It's a big deal.
All right, friends, let's visitwith our guests for the week.
Friends, if you're familiarwith the podcast, you know that
over the last couple of years,we've had a chance to interview

(31:32):
one of the champions from eitherthe Dopey Challenge or the Walt
Disney World Marathon atMarathon Weekend, and we are
fortunate to be able to continuethat tradition this year, as we
welcome Brian Seaman, the pushrim champion for Dopey 2025 and

(31:54):
24 and 23.
And well, brian, welcome to thepodcast.
You can finish and tell thefriends about the rest of them.
When did you get started doingthis and how many of the daggum
things have you won?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really excited to be here.
I guess I got started runningDisney races as a wheelchair
racer all the way back in 2015was when I learned about the
Avengers half marathon atDisneyland and that was my I

(32:30):
think that was my first runDisney event and it was.
I'm just a huge Marvel fan, andso you put being able to go to
Disney and do wheelchair racingand Avengers in like the same
category and sign me up rightaway, take all of my money,
which Disney did and then Ihonestly, had never even really

(32:51):
considered the marathon as likeI really didn't.
I knew very little about it, Iguess I should say.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
And so.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
I saw that there was a marathon and I was like I
didn't even know about the DopeyChallenge either.
This was all new to me in termsof things, that I was a
marathon and I was like I didn'teven know about the dopey
challenge either.
This is all new to me in termsof of things that I was going to
do, and I um, I did themarathon cause I I've done
marathons, for by that point,I'd been doing marathons for
about eight years, and so it wascool.
Again, I got to do a marathonand go to Disney, sign me up,

(33:20):
and that was the year, my firstyear that I just did the
marathon.
I found out that there was thischallenge, the Dopey Challenge,
and I was like, well, thatsounds kind of cool.
So then I signed up for myfirst Dopey in 2016.
And every year I think, justlike everyone else, I tell
myself all right, that was it,I'm never doing it again.
And now this is my ninth Dopey.

Speaker 6 (33:48):
So, yes, I've been doing the Dopey challenge for
about nine years now.
Wow, that's awesome.
Now, friends, as as you'regoing to learn as we talk with
Brian, a little bit more,there's more to his storied
career than just doing the Dopeychallenge.
Brian is a U S Paralympicathlete and has competed in the
world championships, but we'llget to that in a bit.
Let's back up Now, Brian.
I know from doing research thatyou've been paralyzed since

(34:09):
birth, but how did you getstarted into wheelchair racing?

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, that's a.
That's a great question.
My my journey to wheelchairracing is pretty unique and
atypical for a lot of other kidswith disabilities.
When I was growing up you knowthis was the 90s and early 2000s
the internet was not really asprevalent as it is today, and so
I didn't really have theconnections or resources to know

(34:36):
that these opportunitiesexisted for someone with a
disability, and so I kind ofknew about wheelchair basketball
, but it never really interestedme, and the little bit that my
parents had sort of looked intoit, the closest program was
really far away, and so, youknow, I'm also a quadruplet as
well, and so I have three othersisters that are the same age as

(34:57):
me, and so between us, and thenmy older brother, who's four
years older than us, it was veryhard for my parents.
Sports was just not somethingthat I really considered in the
realm of possibility for me, andso I had other interests, like
video games, standard teenageboy stuff, and so I got started
racing though in high school.

(35:18):
On the first day of high school,my then track coach came up to
me on the first day of schooland asked me if I had a broken
leg or if I used the wheelchairpermanently.
And when I told him that I usedthe chair permanently, he said
to me well, why don't you comeout for the track team?
And I sort of looked at him andI said, sir, I just told you I

(35:40):
can't walk.
And he said, yeah, no, I knowI've seen other kids in
wheelchairs compete at our statemeet.
I've never coached a kid in awheelchair before.
I'm willing to give it a try ifyou are, and I hate
confrontation.
And so I said, sure, I was likesure, I'll do this.

(36:01):
I had no idea what I wasgetting myself into.
And, yeah, my high school endedup.
My coach, he and the highschool raised money for my first
racing chair.
They found a junior sports teamthat sort of taught me the
mechanics of wheelchair racing.
I was about an hour away.
And then they I trained with myhigh school team every single

(36:25):
day.
I was a member of the team andso I.
That's really how I got startedand and really changed the
trajectory of my life completely.

Speaker 6 (36:33):
Yeah, that's fascinating to me.
This is coach McLaughlin, right?
Yeah, your high school coach.
I doubt that he's listening tothe Rise and Run podcast, but
just in case I want to give himhis due.
And I was again researching tochat with you.
There were competitions at thehigh school level for disabled

(36:53):
athletes at that point.
Is that correct?

Speaker 1 (36:55):
There were at the state meet.
There was a specific wheelchairdivision.
So I got to race against other,you know, high school students
that were on their track teamsas well.
It ended up actually being a lotof the other like students that
I trained with on my other team, like I knew all of them, um,
because it's it's not a verylarge pool of people to to sort

(37:18):
of choose from in the state ofNew Jersey.
But, um, yeah, otherwise, um,when I was competing, most of
the time I competed it was justagainst my able-bodied teammates
, and so I, um we figured out away for me to participate, uh,
in the same heats as them.
And so, if it was for sprintingevents, I would be on the
inside lanes, because typically,when runners would finish,

(37:39):
they'd run off to the right,towards the fence, because
they're like winded, and I wouldjust keep my chair rolling
around the track on the insidelane.
And then, for the distanceevents, I would actually start
on the outside of all of themand then, as I would build up my
speed and especially as I gotfaster, I would end up.
I would then just sort of lapthem and then it would be my
responsibility to kind of goaround and make sure I didn't

(38:02):
run anyone over over gotcha.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
That segues me nicely into the question I had for you
and that is about your training.
I saw on your instagram page,you know, a couple of videos of
you in essentially what I wouldmaybe call like a like a
stationary chair for you to.
You know practice.
You know your push runmovements.
What type of upper bodyexercises are part of your

(38:25):
training regimen?

Speaker 1 (38:26):
So the videos that you'll see on my Instagram if
I'm on my what we call a rollerand basically it is essentially
like a treadmill.
It's not electronic at all,it's all just based off of our
you know how fast we're movingour arms, but that's what we use
for all of our indoor training,especially here in Illinois.
Now in the winters I'm notgoing outside when it's below

(38:48):
freezing, so a lot of our indoortraining.
They see my upper body and itis very strong.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
Like I don't, see it but.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
I see pictures of myself competing and then I look
and I'm like, oh wow, I didn'trealize my shoulders were that
big.
But we actually do a lot oflower weight exercises than like
resistance bands.
I think a lot of people thinkthat I'm sitting.
You know, when I'm doing my gymsessions, I'm lifting, I'm
doing a lot of heavy benchpressing and I am doing some of

(39:29):
that.
But my coach's philosophyreally is focusing on developing
those smaller muscles andpreventing injuries.
And so we'll do a lot ofresistance band work.
We'll do lightweight shouldermobility, lot of resistance band
work.
We'll do lightweight shouldermobility push-ups, pull-ups,
things like that.
And then we do have someforce-based exercises like rows

(39:52):
and some bench pressing, butthat's just a very small
fraction of our overall liftingworkout.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
So what do you feel like has been the most difficult
part of preparing for like arace like dopey?

Speaker 1 (40:07):
I think that the dopey challenges is unique just
in the sense of it's just theearly mornings, it's getting up
every morning.
I think for a lot of theathletes with disabilities who
use bracing chairs or handcycles, the biomechanics are
really different in terms of itis not as much like force on our

(40:29):
legs because obviously we'renot walking and we're able to.
I can pretty.
The distances are not thechallenging part for a racer,
especially if we've beentraining, if you've been doing
marathons and things like that,but even more of a beginner
athlete as well, you might gettired, but, um, biomechanically

(40:50):
it's not as much impact on ourshoulders and our arms as it is
on a runner.
And so when I see the runnerscoming in through the dopey, I
mean it is such anaccomplishment.
I'm so it's.
It's always it's inspiring towatch because it truly is.
I'm like you have been.
You have been pounding theground for 48.6 miles, um, and
so for us it's a little bitdifferent in terms of um, of

(41:12):
just getting around, but so forme it's always just getting up
early.
That's something that I have to.
I have to prepare myself forevery year.

Speaker 6 (41:19):
Understand, friends.
We invited Brian again becauseof the dopey challenge and our
connection to run Disney.
But it's video, it's audio only, of course.
I'm looking at a young mansitting in front of four Team
USA singlets which I'm going toassume, brian, those are from
your four participations in theParalympics in the Paralympics

(41:45):
they are.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
I finally got my office set up a little bit, and
this was the one thing that I'vealways wanted to do is to be
able to display the uniformsthat we get each of the from our
kits, every game.

Speaker 6 (41:53):
That's awesome, but you started international
competition back in 2011,correct?

Speaker 1 (42:01):
Yeah, my first competition with Team USA was at
the World Championships inChristchurch in 2011.
And that was a really excitingopportunity, I think.
And looking back on it now,that was one so long ago, and I
just think back to my experienceand how nervous I was and I'm
always still nervous when I race, anyway but just how much more

(42:23):
nervous I was, and it's just soexciting, though, when you get
to represent Team USA, when theycall out your name at the
selection and you get your firstkit.
It's truly something that it'sreally hard to explain, and so
being able to be able to do thatfor as many years as I have has
been an honor.

(42:44):
And it's something that it'sbeen so cool.

Speaker 6 (42:46):
It's awesome.
It's awesome and it's also anhonor for us to speak to someone
who's been able to do thatsince 2011.
Your last international waswhat?
Last year's Olympics?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and everyonein between except I think we
lost one international worldchampionship to COVID.

(43:07):
I think, yes, we did.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
We missed.
There was one that was supposedto be in Kobe Japan and that
got rescheduled.
Kobe japan, um, and that gotrescheduled.
And then it was rescheduledactually, uh, in may of this
year of 20, actually, well, Iguess now last year, 2024, and I
I made the decision not to gobecause it didn't really align
with games prep and it didn'treally serve a purpose.

(43:33):
So I was like I'm not going sothat was yeah.

Speaker 6 (43:36):
You were already committed to Paris by then.
I assume yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Team selection hadn't happened yet, but we, the, the
training focus was on that, andso adding a international trip
to Japan while would have beenfun, just so I could have gone
to Tokyo Disney, didn't reallyalign with with going to the
Paralympics.
So so we, we we nixed that fromthe schedule.

Speaker 6 (43:59):
I love that.
Um I one of the things I'venoticed that you compete and
this, I think, is unique to pushhim athletes.
Certainly, I don't know anyrunners that do this.
You compete at distances from100 meters to the marathon, yes,
and you seem, it seems, thatyour specialty is the shorter,
I'm going to call them thesprint distances, the 400, 800

(44:19):
meters.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yes, you are correct.
I'm one of the few wheelchairracers that do that.
I enjoy the challenge and thetraining for marathons and,
despite being good at them, I'ma much better sprinter than I am
a marathoner.
I'm a much better sprinter thanI am a marathoner, and so I
think it's one of those thingsthat I, if I stopped doing

(44:42):
marathons, I would watch myfriends and teammates do them
and I think I'd have FOMO that Ikind of like run Disney races
Whenever I don't sign up forthem.
I'm like I'm missing out on thisreally cool thing and I think
that's why I sign up for Dopeyevery year, cause I I know I'm
going to go and do the marathonat least, and I can't, I can't
not have, I'm going to watcheveryone else have fun.
I have to sign up and do it too, and so so, yeah, so I do all

(45:07):
of the events.
I'm a much better, I wouldclassify myself as a sprinter
overall, and that's what mytraining focus is.
But again, because of the ofthe way that with biomechanics
of wheelchair racing, I'm ableto do both, and so when we get
into sort of like theParalympics and world
championships, things like that,my focus, my training focus,

(45:27):
shifts to sprints.
But we won't necessarily like Idon't completely remove
distance training from mytraining plan overall.

Speaker 6 (45:36):
Well, it's still endurance training for you.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
Let's talk about these international competitions
that you participated in.
2024 for you, sir, was a reallybig year because you came away
with two bronze medals for TeamUSA in the 400 and the 800.
First of all, congratulations.

Speaker 6 (45:58):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
What an amazing feat.
And, just on that stat linealone, we are just so proud and
honored to know you now and tobe chatting with you.
And, granted, this might be adifficult question to answer,
but describe the emotion of youbeing part of two medal

(46:21):
ceremonies.
Obviously, a majority of theworld I mean, we always like to
say the marathoners are 1% ofthe world, but it's even less
who get to have an Olympic medalor a Paralympic medal around
their neck.
Describe that feeling.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
It's something that I can still very vividly remember
and, I think, for everyone tokind of put into perspective my
career.
My first Paralympics was in2012.
And I had, through the seriesof the next, I guess 12 years
after that, of trying to.
You know, I've made Paralympicteams.

(46:56):
I've been so close to gettingonto that podium Sort of I don't
want to say heartbreak, becauseI think you have a different
perspective every single time.
Games gives you new insightsand things like that.
But 2012 was my first games andthat was something that I was
actually ranked number one ortwo in the world at the at the

(47:18):
time, and so I went in with alot of confidence and I came out
with nothing, um, and so thatwas.
That was unfortunate and thatkind of just was a reality check
.
Um.
2016 was I missed the podium bya hundredth of a second and so
that that really sucked.
Um, like, really sucked.
That one.
I I can still remember thatrace vividly.

(47:38):
2020 was the the pandemic gamesin tokyo.
That was just weird.
I missed again.
I missed the podium.
I was in fourth place again.
I always joke that I would getuh, there was gold medals for
fourth place finishes.
I would have one, because itwas a consistent four places.
And then finally, every 2024 wasthe year that everything sort
of came together and that firsttime that it happened, it was

(47:59):
the 400, um, the 400 meter event.
And I remember probably thelast 50 meters of that event too
were I felt pretty comfortable,like I did.
I.
I was in a, I was in an outsidelane and I knew I was like, if
I can get to that, that last ahundred meters, and my inside is
I don't see anyone there, likeI'm going to be good.
And no one was there and I waslike, okay, just like the last

(48:23):
50 meters, like in my head I waslike I think it's going to
happen.
I think it's going to happen,but you have all this adrenaline
and you don't know what's goingon, and so I'm like keep
pushing, keep pushing, keeppushing.
And was real I?

(48:43):
I knew that was the first timewhen I went across the line.
I was like this isn't going tobe a close a hundredth of a
second, like they have to decidewho got it.
I knew that I had gotten it,which was really cool, and so
then what happens is you getescorted from the, from the
stadium.
They bring you back up to yourthe team.
You say tent, you have to bringall of your metal like ceremony
gear with you.
Um, they like check it, makesure you have everything you
need, because nike is veryparticular about everything that
you wear.
So you got to wear the socks,you gotta wear the shoes,

(49:04):
everything, and then you getescorted back down under the
stadium and then you just kindof sit there for a little bit
and you're just watching.
But then they line you up andyou just sort of have this, the.
They just like play this, themetal ceremony music, and then
you just kind of go out thereand it's the first time that
you're on the track and you'renot in your, you're not, you
know, using your racing chair oranything like that.

(49:26):
It's, it's wow.
This is a moment that it's sortof the culmination of
everything that I have I've justworked towards, and now I get
to to be on this podium withwith my competitors and
competitors, and I had friendsand family in the stadium, which
was really nice, and so to beable to see them and to cheer me
on in something is reallysomething that I think means

(49:47):
more to me than the medal itself.

Speaker 6 (49:49):
Thanks for the description, Brian.
I enjoyed just listening tothat.
I got a thrill.

Speaker 4 (49:55):
I could see it in my head happening.

Speaker 6 (49:57):
It's so cool, I got a thrill.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
I could see it in my head happening.

Speaker 6 (49:59):
It's so cool.
I'm one of those kids who grewup and played sports but not
that kind of talent and I watchthese superb athletes.
I always I feel bad.
If you are an Olympic orParalympic athlete, I don't care
if you lose in the firstqualifying round, you're amazing
.
I don't care if you lose in thefirst qualifying round, you're

(50:21):
amazing.
You are at a level in amongstother athletes in this world
that most of us, as my collegebasketball coach, said to me if
only you had any talent you'd begreat.
You guys are at a level that alot of us can't even understand.
But then to get there andfinish fourth by the blink of an
eye even literally less thanthe blink of an eye that's got

(50:43):
to be heartbreaking.
Now you got the Olympic bronzein 24.
You also won world championshipbronze the year before right.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, and it was actually in Paris as well.
So symmetry there in terms ofwe were not at the, the, the um
stadium, uh, for worldchampionships.
It was a different track but Igot to go to to.
So Paris is is now one of myfavorite cities.
It was never before.
It was never before but it isnow Um, I seem to have some good

(51:13):
luck there.
But that was really exciting aswell.
I think the World Championshipmedals were my first
international medals as well andI think that competition there
really helped sort of give methat motivation and confidence
going into the games, knowingthat, okay, I've done it, I'm
racing against the same peopleand we just got to do it again.

(51:36):
So there were some nerves,extra nerves there, because that
internal pressure of, well,what if you don't do it this
time, but you did it last time?
But it all worked out, which isreally exciting.

Speaker 6 (51:48):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
That's awesome.
I have a question about thedelineation between the events
that are part of the Paralympics.
So I was looking at yourprofile and then comparing and
contrasting that to you know thefinal results, because you know
like, I was really interestedto know, like, what your time
was in the 400 and the 800.
And I'm seeing this, this list,so like, for example, you won

(52:10):
your medal in men's 100, T53,but then there's also T52 and
T54.
What, what is the significanceof T53?
Could you describe that to ourlisteners?

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, so for anyone that has yet to watch the
Paralympics and you should butthe Paralympic classification
system exists because there are.
You know, disability is aspectrum and they try to create.
They needed to createclassifications to level the

(52:45):
playing field as much aspossible and so that you are
competing against people asclose to the same level of
ability as you, and so it can bereally confusing because you
have T and like T and then anumber, and if you're just
tuning in for the first timeyou're not going to know sort of
what that actually means.
And so, on the the wheelchairracing side, there are sort of

(53:08):
three main classifications for,for wheelchair track racers, um,
there's T52s, and 51s are alsoincluded in that, but they're
kind of a smaller subset Um, tobe athletes that are
quadriplegics, and so that's thelevel of mobility and function
that they have.
T53 is sort of the middle groundof classification, which is

(53:29):
what I am.
We tend to be athletes who haveno core function, so our
disability impacts our abilityto use our abdominal muscles,
and so I have no control overthat.
Um, which is really importantin wheelchair racing because
when you are going um, you know22 miles an hour around the turn
of the track.
Um, athletes who can rely thatcan utilize their core, the T54

(53:53):
athletes can lock in and theirchair will be locked in so
they're able to maintain thatspeed, um than someone like me
who's fighting his chair fromgoing out because I can't lock
in and so.
So, yeah, so that theclassification system exists,
it's.
There's all different sortsdepending on the disability type
.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
So, if you're visually impaired, there's a set
of classifications If you're anarm amputee, if you're a leg
amputeutee, if you have aneurodevelopmental disability,
um, basically, it's just so thatI'm not racing against an
amputee, because we, ourdisabilities impact us
differently okay, that makes aton of sense now because, you
know, unfortunately I didn't geta chance to watch any of the
track and field events, but Iremember watching some of the

(54:34):
aquatic events and I remember my, my daughter, was like so
locked in to to watching that.
You know, as you described, youknow there were athletes there
of, you know all varying levelsof disability and I found it
interesting that, like the, theone heat of swimming, the
gentleman who won thatparticular event, like she, was

(54:56):
like daddy, he has no arms andwhereas you know, like someone,
maybe a couple of lanes down,you know might have had arms,
but you know, obviously you'renot.
You know the at the same lengthand level and stuff like that.
So seeing that thatclassification now makes a ton
of sense.
So thank you so much forexplaining that to us.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
I greatly appreciate it yeah, and it can get
complicated.
They can can combineclassifications In the distance
events, for instance 1500, 5,000in marathon, the T53 men and
the T54 men.
It's a combined classificationevent, so it does not matter
what class you are.
You race against everyone, andso it can get it's it's its own.

(55:34):
That's a whole other podcast totalk about the intricacies of
Paralympic classificationsystems.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
At the Disney races.
That course is not an oval.
It's got lots of differentterrain to navigate technical
turns and terrain to navigatethe Water Bridge, cinderella's
Castle, this year, going aroundthe new Grand Floridian area.
How does that affect yourracing?

(56:01):
And what's the most difficultpart of the course for someone
in a wheelchair or a hand cycleor whatever they're doing?

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, no, the Disney races, I think, are probably
some of the most technical racesthat I've ever done, Just in
terms of the tightness of turnsand just the logistics of
everything.
I always say I'm very fortunategiven sort of that, I'm by
myself, basically, so I don'thave to navigate around all of
the runners, and so it's a loteasier for me to be able to do

(56:37):
when I'm not trying to make asuper tight turn, Like there was
this year with the grandFloridian that that was a very
sharp left-hand turn it wasactually I was not expecting it
to be as sharp as it was when Idid it and I remember they had a
guy telling me oh, it's a sharpturn, and I was like they
always say that it's likecaution sharp turn ahead.
And I was like yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then I actually realizedhow sharp it was when I was

(56:58):
doing it and I had to kind ofquickly adjust.
So, um, our racing chairsactually have a?
Um, there's a steering cylinderas well as a track compensator,
and so you don't really touchthe track compensator If you're
on the road, you'll primarilyjust use the steering cylinder,
which gives you a lot more, um,uh, range of motion as you are
sort of trying to turn.

(57:20):
And so a lot of times what I doas you know someone who's kind
of done a lot of road races I'llbe able to sort of use my
forearm to sort of push thesteering cylinder to sort of
where I need it to go, and thenI'll be pushing with my right
hand or my left hand, whicheverdirection I'm turning.

(57:40):
So no one, we don't ever likelock in per se, like the track
cylinder, cause once you hitthat, it locks the wheel to the
degree of the turn of the trackor the straight away.
And so the Disney races arereally technical in that regard.
It was really rough.
I remember back years ago foranyone who remembers, when you
used to go through the wideworld of sports and you'd

(58:01):
actually go, could go on a track, but then you'd go off road for
a little bit and so those werealways tough, just to sort of
maneuver.
But yeah, they're verytechnical races and I've had
friends that have crashed atCinderella's Castle before my
coach actually his first Disneyrace ever.
He didn't finish because hecrashed at Cinderella's Castle.

(58:22):
He didn't make the turn.
So he came back years later andwe did it together and it was a
redemption arc for him.

Speaker 5 (58:27):
Brian, we've talked to other cyclist friends in the
past and they had mentioned thatthey have a guide that is with
them the whole time.
Having done the Dopey for somany years with them the whole
time, having done the dopey forso many years, do you have the
same guide every um every year,or have you had multiple um
guides along the way?

Speaker 1 (58:47):
I've had multiple guides most of the years.
I think this is the first.
I think I've had the same bikerthe last two um two cycles,
which has been really goodbecause we're kind of familiar
with each other, and even justover the course of Dopey itself
I'll ride with the same rider inprevious years as well.

(59:08):
So even if I don't have themthe following year, by the time
we get to marathon day we'resynced in and they sort of know
how far they should be in termsof just helping me navigate,
because so much of the coursefor me is pitch black.

Speaker 7 (59:23):
Um it's.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
You know, I get out to animal kingdom and there are
no.
They don't even have lights setup, because most of the runners
are going to get there and it'sgoing to be the sun's going to
be out by then and there's no.
There's no lights out there.
It's pretty dark.

Speaker 6 (59:34):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
And so having us having the cyclist sort of know
kind of be keyed in um becausewe've pushed together the other
races, know that this is how farthey need to be so that I can
see and everything else is, isreally nice.

Speaker 6 (59:47):
I hadn't thought about that.
That's interesting, brian.
We've talked about uh Disney.
We've talked about the uh worldchampionships and the
Paralympics.
I know you did the New Yorkmarathon back in 16, I believe,
2016.
Did it with your sisters.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
I did.
Yeah, it was a.
That was a tough thing to sellthem, to get them to all time to
do a marathon.
How'd it work out?
It worked out really well.
Um, my one of my sisters isreally not a runner.
The other two had run marathonsbefore, so they'd always wanted
to do new york and we kind ofhad to convince the other one to

(01:00:27):
do it and it was.
It took some convincing and Ithink never again, but it was
really cool.
I think that was.
You know, I didn't get to runwith them, um, because I had
finished long before they did um, but but it was really nice
just to be able to kind of sharein that moment.
Um, running has been soimportant to me in my life and

(01:00:52):
getting to, to share the samecourse as them, um, in a, in
something in a race race thatI've, you know I love doing.
We, we were born in Brooklynand so there was some some
hometown connection there aswell it was just really nice it
was.
It was.
It was a really cool experience.
And then, you know, just fastforward to, you know they came
to Paris and and you know theywere the first ones I saw as

(01:01:14):
soon as I.
When I won my first medal, theyhad like oh great they like ran
down to where they weren'tsupposed to be, so it was really
.
You know, we've shared in somany moments together and then
that's just a really cool partof our story as well that's
awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Brian, whether it's dopey, new York City Marathon or
the Paralympics, what is onemisconception or one piece of
information that those of us whoare able-bodied runners would
never, ever know about?

(01:01:50):
You know racing in a push rimor a hand cycle, so that you
know not only you know onlybecause obviously everyone is a
respective of the road.
You know for all, all athletes.
But if, if there was somethingthat you could expound upon us
so that we can be even moreaware in these race situations,
what would that misconception oradvice be?

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
I think that's such a good question and I get asked
it a lot and I feel like I neverhave a great answer.
Because I think, especially atthe run, disney community is
incredible and so inclusive andreally supportive of of athletes
just getting out there andcompeting and racing in whatever
way that they need to.
And I think for me, I think thethe part that I always like to

(01:02:37):
just really emphasize is thefact that our chairs they take
up space and it is really hardto sort of quickly adjust.
And so usually when we're in,when we have a, you know we're
on a certain direction or thingslike that, it can be
challenging for us to quicklysort of move.
And so I think, as as runners,it's important when you're on a

(01:03:00):
crowded course to really respectthe sort of two people, um, her
, um, you know, don't go morethan two wide, so that if there
is a, uh, a chair athlete,they're able to.
They don't have to maneuveraround three, four, five people.
It's a lot easier for them toget around too, um, and to just
listen.
I know that you know we all liketo listen to music and stuff,

(01:03:21):
but a lot of the chair athleteswill they're really cognizant of
the fact that, for starters, ifwe do hit someone, like the
person who gets hit is going tobe a whole hurt, a whole lot
more than the person in thechair, and so they're really
trying hard to not have thathappen, and so they're yelling
and screaming.
And so I think it's justthinking if they say like I'm on

(01:03:42):
your left, that doesn't meanrun to the left, just thinking
about where they're saying wherethey're going or where they say
they are so, and just sort ofthinking of that.
But I think, yeah, the chairsjust can't move as quickly
without, because the wheels arecambered and so they don't move
as quickly, like they can't justquickly adjust or otherwise

(01:04:03):
they're going to flip over, andso it's really hard for them to
make sudden moves.
And so I think that that'ssomething that a lot of people
it's not as easy as maybe arunner, sort of just quick
navigating around people.

Speaker 6 (01:04:16):
All right, brian.
We talked New York.
Have you done any other worldmajors?

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
I have done Chicago, boston, london and New York.
I have not done Berlin or Tokyo.
I was actually supposed to doTokyo and then something with
work came up this year, so notdoing Tokyo.
I would love to do Sydney, asit just got added to the majors,
so I'm very much hoping thatthey invite me, because I will

(01:04:42):
sign up right away to do theSydney marathon.

Speaker 6 (01:04:45):
There you go, excellent.

Speaker 4 (01:04:46):
So are you trying for a?

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
six star, I think eventually, I think I, I that's
on the, the to-do list I.
So I think for me to-do list I.
So I think for me it's hardbecause I, I love the, I love
berlin and tokyo as well, but Ijust they're at weird points of
the season for me, so it's hardfor me to like convince myself

(01:05:11):
to get over there and then dothe other races and chicago,
boston, london and new york.
They do such a great job oflike of taking care of their
athletes that I'm like I reallywant to, I prioritize those
races and so then the timing ofthe other ones makes it hard for
me to then say I'll also dothese ones then, just with my
other commitments.
But I think it is I've, sinceI've done most of them.

(01:05:33):
Yeah, I'm going to do iteventually, like it's just it
might not be right away, butit's going to happen, because I
mean I might as well.

Speaker 6 (01:05:40):
It would be silly not to Well, let's look, let's look
forward, since we're doing thatcompetitively Olympics in 28,.
Do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
I think so.
That's the.
That's kind of where we're myhead's at right now.
I it would.
That will be it.
I will.
That will be.
This is a firm commitment.
Breaking news here.
This will be the.
This will be the last.
This will be my last games,because I don't think there's a
better.
Yeah, that will be five games,five games yeah I.

(01:06:12):
I don't think it will be.
Um, there's really no betterplace to end it than the united
states and I think, um, we'llsee if I can get there.
It's, you know, I'm gettingolder and it's the up and coming
guys are really fast, and sobeing able to, to even just help
them make their dreams cometrue would be, would be fine
with me, but I would like to beon that that team as well, and

(01:06:34):
and starting with them, so andand ending at the at the in LA.

Speaker 6 (01:06:39):
That would be awesome .
We're rooting for you there.
How about Disney?
You got to have some Disneyraces in your future.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
My goal.
I would love one year to do thewhole run Disney calendar.
That, I think, would besomething.
When I'm done professionallyracing, I think I want to kind
of do that, although my walletprobably needs some.

Speaker 6 (01:06:56):
We know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
I don't need to explain that to anyone here.
Um, I think, uh, I definitelyI'm going to be doing the doing
dopey again next year.
You know that will be my 10thand I'll go to try and win it
and I've said that that will bemy last dopey, but we always say
and then we never we neverfollow through.

(01:07:20):
So I'm not I'm saying that toeveryone, but who knows, who
knows what?
What will come after that?
Um, and then I might actuallytry and do the wine and dine
this year, because it doesn'tconflict, it doesn't coincide
with the New York city marathon,and so I might.
I might try and put that on thecalendar as well, just as a
little a warm-up before a newyork, new york city marathon.

(01:07:41):
Get on the roads and runthrough.
I actually don't even know thecourse, so I don't even know
where the course goes.
So it would be the first timein the course oh, you'd enjoy it
, magic kingdom is that only amarathon?

Speaker 6 (01:07:56):
that's what thought Princess and the marathon go
through Magic Kingdom, mysisters have done.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Princess, I cheered them on for that one.

Speaker 6 (01:08:04):
Yeah, those are the two.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
I think that's the tentative run Disney schedule my
goal is to eventually do.
I want to do the whole calendarat some point, just because it
would be fun.
I love to run Disney races.

Speaker 6 (01:08:16):
We call it the perfect season.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Oh, that's a.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
I like that hey, brian, speaking of dopey, you
know for us, you know the ideaof winning, you know, before
meeting you, the idea of winningdopey for us came back to our
friend britney charbonneau.
Have you ever had the chance tomeet Brittany?
And if you have, have you Imean, even though you know again

(01:08:41):
two different types of athleteshave you ever like conspired
together or in chatting, to talkabout, like mental strategies
of winning dopey, since you havea heck of a lot more dopey wins
under your belt than she does?
No, you said that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
So I, um, I, britney and britney actually, um, I did
not.
I.
I got to cheer on the year thatshe won um, and I was so one.
I was just impressed by all ofher incredible costumes that
were just I mean to to be ableto win and then look as
phenomenal as she did was, wasjust amazing.
Um, but she's, she's a greatrunner.

(01:09:20):
Um, a real inspiration of justsort of perseverance.
And, um, the following year sheactually um came up to me in
the starting corral and we wejust chatted a little bit.
Um, just, she knows some of myteammates as well and so it was
nice to have her support.
Um, yeah, she's just anincredible athlete and I'm

(01:09:40):
hoping that she is able to getback on into one of the run
Disney races at some pointpretty soon.

Speaker 6 (01:09:47):
Oh, I think she will.
I think she will.
Hey, this is wonderful.
I've been excited and enjoyedit.
But before we wrap it up I wantto talk some Disney stuff with
a clear disney friend.
Fellow disney geek how manyparks have you been to, brian?

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
um, I've been to disneyland and disney world.
I didn't get to go todisneyland paris in when I was
in paris oh no, you're just toobusy earning bronze medals my
sister planned the trip when Iwas like they're like, oh, it's
your off day, would you want tocome?
And I was like, well, no, it'smy off day, I have to like rest,
yeah.

(01:10:24):
And so I didn't get to go then,and then I got I got screwed out
of going to tokyo disney when Iwas in there for tokyo yeah, it
was the pandemic and so weweren't able to leave, so I've
only done the the us um parks,but that is getting to go to all
of them is is will happen,that'sa guarantee okay I love

(01:10:44):
disneyland.
It is.
It's, there's something sospecial about it and disney
world great.
I love it.
But give me a trip todisneyland any day yeah, there's
something about the originalpark and the.

Speaker 6 (01:10:58):
You know the proximity of the thing where you
walk from one to the other.
That's kind of neat.

Speaker 5 (01:11:02):
I enjoyed that.

Speaker 6 (01:11:03):
Of course, the only time I was there the daytime
high was 107 degrees, I'm notexaggerating.
That was last year at theHalloween race weekend.
Oh goodness, oh, my goodness,it got too hot.
Favorite Disney snacks.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
The pretzels okay which which one, with cheese or
without cheese?

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
with that.
Well, I'll do like, I'll trythat.
I'll like sample the cheeselike we'll do like one with the
cheese, just because you gotta,but I actually just give me some
spicy brown mustard with it andit's, it is like my favorite
snack nice, brian.

Speaker 6 (01:11:36):
It's a delight man.
It's a delight, it's an honorto have you with us.
We're really, really proud ofyour accomplishments.
We thank you so much forspending some time with the Rise
and Run gang.
I'm looking forward to seeingyou at one of these events in
the future, my friend.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me and I will
absolutely try and get to one ofyour meetups.
Me and I will absolutely tryand get to one of your meetups,
either.
If I, if I managed to toconvince my sisters to let me do
wine and dine during our familyvacation, I'll do that one, but
if not, uh, 2026 Disneymarathon weekend, I'm there.

Speaker 6 (01:12:13):
That would be awesome .
All right, Brian, thanks again.
We look forward to seeing you.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 5 (01:12:19):
Thank you so much, brian.
That was amazing.
I loved hearing and visualizingum all of all of the things
that he talked about and all therace finishes and um getting to
be a part of that and um yeah,it was just a really cool
experience and I hope all of ourlisteners loved it as much as
we did.

Speaker 6 (01:12:39):
Is Brian our second Olympian?
Jeff, of course, jeff Galloway.
Yeah, you'll be our secondOlympian.
Yeah, we had Neely made theOlympic trials for the marathon.
And of course, brittany is on aTeam USA but not the Olympic
team.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
She's on the US mountain and trail running team.
So our second Olympian, thirdteam USA, I would call it yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, definitelyVery cool.

Speaker 5 (01:13:13):
All right, so let's move into what is coming up next
.
Princess Weekend.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthe event guide.
Want to start off with the expo.

Speaker 4 (01:13:25):
Yeah, so the expo will take place at you guessed
it the ESPN Wide World of Sports.
Basically, this is the hoursfor the expo on Thursday 2.20.
It's from 10 am to 8 pm.
Friday, 2.21, 12 pm to 7 pm andthen Saturday, 2.22, it will go

(01:13:47):
from 11 am to 3 pm.
Just so you guys know, heads upthe virtual queue for Thursday
for the Run Disney merch it willopen at 8.30 am.
So just kind of set a reminderfor that.
And the Expo check-in pass willbe sent Monday on February 17th
.
So keep a lookout for that.

Speaker 6 (01:14:08):
Yep Jack, I think you and I are the only podcasters
who will be there.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (01:14:16):
When are you getting there?

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
I haven't decided yet if it's either Friday or
Saturday.

Speaker 6 (01:14:21):
Yeah, because you're in the half and that's it.
And I think Becky and I aregetting over there on Wednesday,
so that means I'll be at theexpo probably right around
lunchtime.
I don't like to get over there.
First thing, it's too crowdedand I don't care that much about
getting into the.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
You don't want one of those shiny jackets that
they're going to be selling.
I figured that was right upyour alley, bob, I'm sure
they're great.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
You know the problem I have if Becky will look at a
jacket and say, oh, look at thissweatshirt, it's great.
I go, yeah, I'm going to wearit three times a year or
something.
Three days a year.
Uh, there's a beautiful.
There's a beautiful jacket gotsorcerer Mickey on it, a
beautiful uh sweatshirt we sawit this well, just yesterday, as
a matter of fact.
And she goes it'll last forever.

(01:15:11):
I said, yeah, I know it will.
I'm 71 years old.
I'll wear it three days a year.
Yeah, it'll last forever.
So, so, but I'll tell you I dolike the generic run disney
merchandise.
I'm not going to buy muchweekend merchandise I've got so

(01:15:31):
much but I do like the genericstuff and so, uh, yeah, there's
a chance I'll get somethingthere.
I will get into the virtualqueue and we'll go over and
check it out.
But real reason I go to theexpo is you got to take care of
the paperwork, you got to pickup your bids, got to pick up
your shirts.
But I want to see our friends.

(01:15:52):
I want to see our friends overthere at the expo.
So I'll be hanging out.
I'll be the tall old guy wholooks confused.
Come say hi.

Speaker 5 (01:16:01):
All right.
Moving on to the 5K,transportation will begin at 3
am and I just want to remindfolks that in the lobbyists of
your hotels there'll be abulletin board and if there's
not, ask the front desk wherethe bus location is so you know
where to find it.
There will be no monorail orskyliner transportation for the

(01:16:24):
5k.
Start groups will open at 3 45am.
The start groups are A throughF.
Be sure to check the eventguide to see when your start
group closes to make sure thatyou get there and get in
whatever corral you weresupposed to be in, if you're
wanting to not be pushed backand spec dating is only at the

(01:16:48):
start and finish lines for the5k.

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
Okay, going on the 10k, it's basically the same
information as the 5k.
Transportation begins at 3.
No monorail or Skyliner Startgroups open at 345.
They're adding an extra corral,so start groups are going to be
A through G and again, checkyour event guide to see when the

(01:17:12):
start group closes and there'sbasically only official cheering
at the start and finish lines.
There will be quiet zonesaround Epcot, so, like no bells,
the quiet zone yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:17:27):
I've got to say quiet .
We're rabbits.
You have to tiptoe throughthose.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
Yeah, because you know it is 6 o'clock in the
morning.
They don't want people outsideyelling underneath the hotels
when people come running by.
And if you're going to go toone of the resort areas, best
bet is probably taking an Uberand getting dropped off at one
of the hotels because there willbe no parking.

Speaker 6 (01:17:55):
Oh, yeah, very true.

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
And also, if you're doing the challenge, you're
probably putting your new bib ontoday, because you'll have a
different bib for the challengethan you do for the 5K.

Speaker 6 (01:18:04):
Yeah, there's no, probably about it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
Yeah, yeah, it's not like the dopey weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:18:09):
Right, yeah, right.
Well, this weekend the 5K bibhas no timing chip on it.
Yeah, the dopey weekend.
If you're in Dopey, the 5K bibdoes have a timing chip.
Yep, so you just have the onebib for the 10K and the half
Following the 10K.
We have our group meetup, 3 pmin the food truck area at Disney

(01:18:34):
Springs.
Try to make it, friends.
I hope we get to see you there.
I put out a couple feelers.
Becky's still going to bakesome cookies, so we'll bring
some.
But I invite our other friendswho, if you want to bring
cookies along, especially thosewho live and are driving, don't
need to bring them on theairplane.
Yeah, bring them along, we'llhave a good time.
We'll have a cookie smorgasbord.

(01:18:55):
We'll have a cookie smorgasbord, a cookie buffet, a cookie
potluck I'm running out of terms.
It'll be fun.
So, 3 o'clock.
I also like to remind ourfriends, 3.30 is when we'll take
the group photo and while wehave no definite ending time to
these, a lot of times you'llfind our friends have dining

(01:19:20):
reservations at five o'clock orso.
So, along around four, 30 orfive is when they tend to break
up.
But it's, it's just, uh, it's ahighlight of the weekend for me
.
No doubt about it.
All right.
Then, sunday morning halfmarathon time.
Transportation starts a littleair earlier on Sunday morning.

(01:19:40):
The buses start to roll at 2.30in the morning.
Oh man, I'd be so tired.
Oh golly, monorail's available2.30.
No Skyliner, monorail starts2.30 am.
The corrals start to open at3.15.

(01:20:03):
We go A through G again incorrals.
The information on closingtimes for the corrals is in the
guide.
It is also in the staging area.
If you look around, there'll besigns telling you when the
groups close.
If you're going to your corralwith a group, try to go as a

(01:20:24):
group.
The last couple of racesthey've been subdividing the
corrals and what you don't wantto happen is, let's say, you're
all in corral D but you go atdifferent times and you find out
that you're in Corral D pink,but your friends are in Corral D
, green, and you may not be ableto get with one another.

(01:20:46):
So try to go at the same time.
The half marathon course is thesame as it was marathon weekend,
which means nothing to you ifyou weren't there Marathon
Weekend.
But there's a couple things topoint out.
We started at Epcot, of course,and then it heads to Magic
Kingdom.

(01:21:06):
This is one of the three racesin the Walt Disney World race
lineup that goes through MagicKingdom and through the castle
and, of course, down Main Street, which is the best stretch of
racing in the racing world.
That's right, I said it.

(01:21:29):
Better than the Olympic track,better than no, come on, but
it's wonderful.
It's wonderful.
For those of us casual runners,it doesn't get any better than
going down Main Street andseeing that gorgeous castle.
Now, during marathon weekend,the half marathon got really

(01:21:49):
jammed up going into MagicKingdom.
I would anticipate thathappening again.
Just be patient.
You get there.
Around mile five you start toturn in towards.
You're going in the back.
You're going around what's that?
Bay Lake there.
It's pretty, but it's going toget very narrow.

(01:22:13):
It's going to get jammed up.
Just be patient, you'll getthere.
It's going to be okay, but it'sfun.
Enjoy it, enjoy it.
Look, I remember early on, whenI was still running at a decent
pace, I'd get on Main Streetand I'd run and then it hit me
what in the world are you doing?
Knucklehead, this is gorgeous.
Take your time and enjoy it.

(01:22:35):
So take your time and enjoy it,friends and enjoy it.
So take your time and enjoy it.
Friends, out of Magic Kingdomyou head straight back to Epcot.
We do not loop World Showcase,but we do come in through Epcot,
back out, pass the choir ontothe finish, say hi to Jeff at
the finish, say hi to the raceannouncers and we're done for

(01:23:00):
the weekend, or are we?

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
I was just about ready to say, bob, not so fast,
because the weekend technicallyends with yoga For some reason.
This is, I believe, the secondyes this is the second year, I
believe where yoga has beenplaced on Monday, as opposed to
Expo Day, so early in themorning on Thursday.
But yeah, so just nice gentlereminder there yoga is Monday

(01:23:24):
not Thursday.
Also, the other change, Ibelieve, is that instead of yoga
taking place at Magic Kingdom,it is now happening at Hollywood
Studios.
Really, the big thing here is,yes, there is is bus
transportation, but unlike forthe races, where you know you

(01:23:45):
don't have to be on the firstbus, you know there's other
buses that come afterwards foryoga, this is not the case.
There is one opportunity to geton the bus and that is it, and
those buses start leaving theresorts, starting at 3.30 in the
morning, as I'll explain in asecond.
Some might be a pickup of 3.30,some might be 3.35, some might

(01:24:07):
be 3.40.
Specifically, check the eventguide and, as Alicia said, be
sure to check the poster thatthey have hanging up in the
lobby of each hotel resort.
But essentially, what happenshere is that the buses are
broken down into routes so realquickly I will go through these.
Route one is all the all-starresorts.

(01:24:29):
Route two, animal Kingdom Lodge.
Three is Coronado Springs.
Four and this could be yourfirst situation where it's
multiple pickups, so hencedifferent times Route four is
the Polynesian Shades of Greenand the Grand Floridian.
Route five is Fort Wilderness,wilderness Lodge and the
Contemporary slash Bay Lake.

(01:24:51):
Six is Port Orleans, frenchQuarter and Riverside.
Seven, old Key West andSaratoga Springs.
Eight, caribbean Beach andRiviera.
Nine is the Swan, the Dolphinand the Swan Reserve.
Route 10 is the Yacht Club,beach Club and Boardwalk.
And then, rounding out, we haveRoute 11, and that is Pop

(01:25:15):
Century and Art of Animation andthat is your detailed look into
yoga and the rest of the 2025Princess Half Marathon Weekend
Event.

Speaker 6 (01:25:27):
Guide.
All right, thanks, greg.
All right, friends, I amlooking forward to seeing you
there.
I'll be there all weekend.
Jack will be there part of theweekend and we can't wait.
One final thing to remind youabout for princess weekend next
week on the episode is the rollcall of the runners who will be

(01:25:52):
there that week.
If you don't have your name onthe roll call the race report
file it's in our Facebook group.
It is a file pinned to thefeatured section of the Facebook
group which is easier to findon my laptop than it is on my
phone.
I finally did find it on thephone and you can either add

(01:26:16):
your name there or just put acomment that you're going to be
at the race and we'll add it foryou.
But the roll call is next week.
Friends, as you know, we are, sowe're excited that this is a
family and that we shareinformation with one another on

(01:26:38):
our social media, andoccasionally things come to our
notice that we want to talkabout on the podcast.
Our friend Lola, who ranMarathon Weekend, did the
marathon did Dopey, I believe.
I'm not sure about that, butshe did it while six months

(01:27:01):
pregnant, recently had anemergency C-section.
Earlier in the week she hadtwins, one of whom, miles, is in
the natal intensive care unitand will be for a couple of
months, and her other child,benjamin, did not survive the

(01:27:26):
procedure.
Miles is growing stronger,that's the good news.
And this must be so difficultfor the family.
I just it's hard to imagine thejoy of having the birth of a
son, the anguish of losing oneand then the angst of knowing

(01:27:52):
the other is in the NICU.
Now again seems to be doingwell.
That's great news.
I'm sure Miles is gettingwonderful care.
But Lola and her husband haveto be really, really, I don't
know strained mentally andphysically tired.

(01:28:13):
I just it's a tough thing.
And, friends, I don't want togo on much longer.
All I want to tell you, lola,is the entire Rise and Run
family is thinking of you.
You're in our thoughts andprayers.
Please keep us updated and letus know how Miles is going.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
And while we're talking about news within the
the rise and run family, we alsowant to pass along our
condolences to our friend andco-host, lexi.
She informed us over theweekend that her grandmother had
passed away and hence why sheis not on the episode this week.
So you know, lexi, just knowthat we are here for you not

(01:28:58):
only from a host standpoint, butfrom a rise around community
standpoint, and we are here tosupport you every single step of
the way.
So you know, we don't likereporting on this stuff, but it
it goes to show, like you said,bob, we have such a strong
community that will rally aroundthose in need and and that's
something that we want tocontinue to foster here so that

(01:29:19):
hence why you know we do sharethese stories sometimes, so, but
so.
So, thank you, you know, againto everybody, but again our our
deepest uh, sympathies, thoughtsand prayers to, to lola and and
to lexi this week yeah, andlook, thanks.

Speaker 6 (01:29:32):
Thanks also for thinking enough of the rest of
the family to share that newswith us.
Because it, yeah, we, we wantto know, we wish, we, we wish we
didn't, but we, we want to know, we want to share.
All right, let's move on nextweek.
Our buddy, matt, is back.
Matt is the brains behindteamiz, a vertical warehouse of

(01:30:01):
Run Disney information, andMatt's the guy who created that
application that notifies youwhen spots are opening up in
runs.
So we'll talk with him nextweek.
All right, my friends, it'stime for the Race Report week.

(01:30:22):
All right, my friends, it'stime for the race report.
The race report is brought toyou by Tom Stokes at stoked
metabolic training.
Stokesfit, slash, rise and runcoaching is the website.
Information's on our Facebookgroup, pinned to the featured
section.
Tom's got an eight-weekchallenge going on right now,
like Alicia was talking about,and I'm participating also.

(01:30:44):
I think is a great activity.
But he's got other things.
He's got his Foundationsprogram, his Accelerate program
and his one-on-one coaching.
So check that one out in thefeatured section.
Let's see who was out runningaround the last couple of days.
During the week on theirhoneymoon, emma and her new

(01:31:09):
husband did the Castaway K5K.
Now I've done this severaltimes and it's easy.
I mean, I'm familiar with it,but it's easy.
A lot of people will get backto the beginning and they go all
around 2.7 miles.
It's because you miss a turnand you only do the loop once

(01:31:32):
that you need to do twice.
Emma and her husband missed aturn and they ended up doing
four miles.
I don't know how they did that,but I don't think they cared
that much.
It was nice Lori was on thiscruise also.
I believe it's the same cruise.
They posted around the sametime.
There's only one castaway K.

(01:31:52):
Lori said this is the firsttime that she ran intervals for
two-thirds of this 5K and itfelt great.
Lori's making great progresssince having her total knee
replacement earlier this year.
Heading to the weekend, onSaturday a series of nationwide

(01:32:13):
races called Cupid's Chase.
They're fundraising events forCommunity Options Incorporated,
a nonprofit organization thatprovides housing and employment
for people with disabilities.
We had folks running in severallocations.
Heather was running inBridgewater, new Jersey.

(01:32:34):
In Knoxville, tennessee, meganran it Well, ended up walking it
, and that's okay.
Kind of a mental game for Megan.
She just needed to cross thestart and finish line.
There's nothing wrong with that, megan, glad you were able to
do it.
Jimmy was there at that onealso and Jimmy spent at least

(01:32:57):
part of the race with Megan InGlen Rock, new Jersey.
Rob did the Cupid's Chase there.
Rob said 14th out of 14iterations of this race.
I assume that's there in GlenRock.
I don't know Lots of AchillesInternational runners.
That's pretty great.

(01:33:17):
Rob loved cheering for them asthey finished.
But the highlight this year forRob was the class of cadets
from the Passaic County PoliceAcademy that's the neighboring
county there who ran information calling cadences, or
what we used to call Jody calls,throughout the race.

(01:33:39):
The last one that we have onour list is in Chattanooga.
Amanda did it Her second best5k time of just under 34 minutes
while running for this worthycause.
Let's go to and this place is inFlorida.
I should know how to pronounceit.
I believe it's mccanopy for theflorida track club's mccanopy,

(01:34:04):
10 miler.
It's up up near gamesville.
I believe debbie and jessicaran this one.
This is their first race report, also first 10 miler for both
of them.
So there's pr a hilly, packeddirt course on a beautiful tree

(01:34:27):
canopied road.
We'll see my canopy.
See, that must be it.
Uh, went through a ruralneighborhood.
They got to see cows and horsesand chickens, cranes, and they
made a new friend who joinedabout a third of the way through
.
They were giving Debbie andJessica were giving their
costumes a test drive forPrincess, I believe, and notably

(01:34:51):
the only ones wearing brightcolors and sparkle skirts.
Way to go, ladies.
I'm glad you represented theRun Disney and the Rise and Run
skirts.
Way to go, ladies.
I'm glad you represented theRun Disney and the Rise and Run
crowd.
In Mesa, arizona, jennifer ranthe Mesa Half Marathon.
Jennifer is a really excellentrunner, finished this one in

(01:35:14):
just a bit over an hour and 36minutes Not a PR, but a good run
for her.
She works really hard and theresults show it.
Good job, jennifer.
In Winter Park, florida, theAdventHealth Run for Love
four-miler Tracy.
Solid nine-and-a-half-minutepace for Tracy for this four

(01:35:38):
mile event.
Kept with her same intervalsand her speeds from last weekend
felt really good.
And Jared was at this race too.
In Naples, florida, the NaplesDistance Classic Half Marathon
Rob, he was in Clearwater twoweeks ago.
That half felt great on alooped course.

(01:35:59):
In Naples it was anout-and-back with little
excursion out-and-backs alongthe way and it felt entirely
different.
That's the way it is with racesand runs.
But he crossed the start line,made it to the finish line
uninjured.
That's a success, I agree On tothe next one in seven days and

(01:36:22):
again, I think Rob's talkingabout Princess Not positive, but
I think so.
Let's go to the United Kingdom,the Exeter Riverside five-miler.
Anna was there, beautifulcourse, lots of support, pretty
flat.
It was one sneaky hill at aboutthe second mile.

(01:36:43):
They have sneaky hills inBritain apparently.
And for Anna, a new five-milepersonal best.
In Savannah, georgia, the urgentcare of Berwick Love chocolate
10K.
Melissa ran it.
Thought it was interesting.
She ran this race at 40 yearsold twice Now.

(01:37:08):
What that means is she ran itlast year and this year and in
2024, she PR'd it.
This year she was five minutesfaster for a new PR.
Yeah, the race was like a weekearlier this time, so she ended
up running it twice in one year.

(01:37:28):
Good job, melissa.
The Glam Race 5K was in PalmHarbor, florida.
Our friend Judy did it.
She's with us for the RaceReport Spotlight.
So I remember last week in ourRace Report Spotlight our friend
Roxanne joined us and I saidRoxanne, how's it been that we

(01:37:50):
have never had you on thepodcast.
So I'm looking for someone forthis week's Race Report
Spotlight and I see a friendwho's done races the last two
weeks and I go, judy, how is itwe've never had you on the race
report spotlight?

Speaker 7 (01:38:05):
What do you think?

Speaker 6 (01:38:06):
Judy Don't know, that's okay.
Roxanne didn't know either.
I don't know either, but I'mglad you're here.

Speaker 3 (01:38:11):
We just talk to her all the time, Bob.
That's the thing.

Speaker 7 (01:38:14):
We do, she's on all the Zoom calls.

Speaker 3 (01:38:15):
So she's on all the Zoom calls, so we probably
assumed she was on already yeah,in fact, if I listen real close
, she doesn't live that far away.

Speaker 6 (01:38:22):
Nah, she's a little further away than that.

Speaker 7 (01:38:23):
I almost could yell loud enough.

Speaker 6 (01:38:25):
I can't hear her from here.
If you couldn't hear me overthe football games, I can't hear
you from here, I promise.
Well, judy, thanks for joiningus.
My friend, I'm glad that youtook some time to talk about.
Let's start where I alwaysstart, judy, which is how did
you get started running?

Speaker 7 (01:38:47):
Well, I came.
You know, I came from ageneration where girls did not
play sports.

Speaker 6 (01:38:53):
Yeah, true.

Speaker 7 (01:38:54):
Well, I didn't play any organized sports right Until
high school and I only went tothe high school.
I went to because it had a flagfootball team for the girls.

Speaker 6 (01:39:03):
Really that's interesting and it was a girl's
school.

Speaker 7 (01:39:05):
We played one game but, and then I always played
basketball and stuff in the yardbut I ended up making the
basketball team and the softballteam my four years there.
Got to go to college.
High school you never ranbecause you were always in good
shape.
Got to college and then Ithought, division III, no

(01:39:26):
scholarships or anything.
But at that time, um, and Iasked the coach, how much
running?
And he knew that moment that ifhe told me how much running, I
would do the running and thenthat's some.
So he never told me.
So I then kind of started torun to stay in shape when we had
time off, but no organizedraces, literally until off.

(01:39:54):
But no organized racesliterally until probably about
2017.
Um, we had friends that lived inillinois by us.
They moved, we moved, theyliterally talked us into buying
dvc in 1997, sort of like ifit's good enough for them, it's
good enough for us.
And every time they'd come downfor a race, we'd go over to
visit them and they just got,did a challenge and I'm like I

(01:40:15):
don't understand how you'rerunning 19 something miles in
two days.
And that's when she introducedme.
Well, we don't run the wholething, we run walk and I'm like
you know, by this time my kidswere grown.
You know you go for that period.
If your parents you could runwhen they're little and then
once they start sports, you'renever seeing your house again

(01:40:36):
because you're gone six days outof seven.
So I exercised on and offpretty much their whole adult
life and then it wasn't untilyou know I started doing run
walk.
And who knew?

Speaker 6 (01:40:48):
florida had 15 races every weekend yeah, it's quite a
few, but then until we get tothe sun, that's not a lie, you
could go to probably 15 raceswithin a two-hour radius of our
area at this time of year.

Speaker 7 (01:41:00):
You can, yeah, this time of year and so, in order to
get ready for my very firstprincess, started doing some
local races.
Turns out run into a wholebunch of neighbors, so now we've
got like a little over 60 clubthat run.
We do a lot of the racestogether.
So my first princess was in2018, coming off of meniscus
surgery.
So always been active not realconsistent until 2018,.

Speaker 6 (01:41:26):
I would say real consistent until 2018.

Speaker 7 (01:41:32):
I would say yeah, so your your tie into running ties
right in to run disney almostfrom the get-go.
Yeah, and we've been, like Isaid, we've been dvc members for
quite a while yeah, um, and I'mnot sure how we went these
whole years without even knowingthat existed.

Speaker 6 (01:41:44):
Apparently we never went on a race weekend there are
cast members who don't know itexists.
That always surprises me.
Oh, I didn't know about that,yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:41:56):
But you know, when the kids were little we'd go in
the off times, you know middleof.
November, when nobody was thereTuesday, wednesday, thursday
kind of thing, and I think itmight not have been until my
son's kindergarten teacher wasgoing to Princess.
You get to run through thecastle and once again I kind of
looked and I'm like you know,not knowing now what I.

(01:42:18):
What I didn't know then wasanybody can be a runner and I
was very biased like you don'tlook like you could run, but you
know, if you do the trainingand you wet the heart, you can
run.
So you know, bad on me, butgood learning.
I think it wasn't until reallyFacebook that has really
propelled me to keep on going.

(01:42:38):
Just want to be a part of thecommunity.
I did like for my very firstchallenge.
I followed Jeff's plan to a Tminus the magic mile because I
didn't understand it, you know.
I just didn't understand ituntil I saw him.
You know somebody do a video onhow to do it, but I pretty much

(01:43:00):
follow, you know, his routine.

Speaker 6 (01:43:02):
Good story.
Let's talk about the races.
They were both local and I knowyou want to talk about both of
them.
Let's go back a week to safetyharbor 5k right uh, 10k 10k.

Speaker 7 (01:43:14):
Okay, yeah, they have a 5k 10k half marathon
challenge oh, okay, do that Ididn't that's a nice.

Speaker 6 (01:43:23):
That's a nice area over there.

Speaker 7 (01:43:25):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, years ago, the first half
marathon was my first halfmarathon to do before the Star
Wars, the 2019 Star WarsChallenge, and that was the half
marathon where, once again,didn't know you should race like
you train, and that race was atotal disaster.

(01:43:46):
But because of that really badexperience, my star wars race
was an absolute joy as you learnyour lessons.
But the you know the safetyharbor race, it runs right along
the water tampa bay, um,because the race does not change
.
There are that was one of thesurprise there are hills in

(01:44:07):
safety harbor, you know.
You say florida has no hills,safety harbor does.
And, knowing the course, I knowthat in the last two miles, as
you're going out, it's a bigincline, um, and it's like I
knew, mile three or four, thatI'm not going to make that

(01:44:28):
incline and not be able tofinish strong if I didn't slow
down a little bit.
So actually you start andthere's a big incline right
coming out of the gate, which iskind of.
But it's a beautiful course andthey were handing out Girl Scout
cookies.
Oh yes that was nice and thewhole idea was just to finish a

(01:44:52):
little bit stronger than uh.
You know, I basically used itas a training run, uh, for the
princess 10k so yeah, they, theydo they.

Speaker 6 (01:45:02):
they host a couple of events over there in safety
harbor every year and if you'rein this general area, I'd
recommend you look into thembecause, again, it's a nice
place.
I don't remember the hillsJudy's talking about, but I'm
sure she's not making it up.
I just don't remember them.

Speaker 7 (01:45:20):
Oh, and the half marathon's even worse with the
hills.

Speaker 6 (01:45:23):
So how'd you do with that one?

Speaker 7 (01:45:25):
My time was just expected.
The one thing I am is I am avery consistent miler.
Like I can go on a training runand hit like 1148, 1147, 1148,
1149.
I for some reason have thatability just to be very, very
consistent.
Right, looked at my watch andsaw, you know, 1049 in like mile

(01:45:49):
two.
I'm like uh-oh, we need to slowdown.
But the music was you know.
Yeah, the music had you going.
Music had me going, you had aremedy for it, didn't you?
Yeah, and I thought I'm going to.
Well, I tried, I listen to like12 podcasts a week so I just
thought, well, I haven't heardstephanie and aaron.
Their podcast was new and Ithought, well, you know, not the

(01:46:13):
most fun of topics, but I lovehearing their voice and yeah,
it's a good time being so honestand it just kind of took my
mind away of trying to run fastand they got me to the finish
line they do a good podcast,darren and stephanie do.

Speaker 6 (01:46:28):
It's called uh, pace yourself, it's just cancer.

Speaker 7 (01:46:32):
Judy uses it as a as a drogue parachute to slow
herself down I just likeconsistent voices and that you
know, and then, also listeningto it, I feel like I have the
ability and I can run today.
I don't have those issues rightnow.
Knock on wood.
Um, you know, worst I have is aknee that sometimes cooperates

(01:46:54):
and sometimes doesn't.
Um, and I'm very fortunate Iget to do this today yeah, that
is like a nice reminderlistening to them and then,
exactly just thinking of themlike if they were here, they
would be cheering me.
If I was by no doubt be cheeringthem, yeah, absolutely so
thinking of them like if theywere here they would be cheering
me, if I was by them, no doubtbe cheering them.
Yeah, absolutely, so absolutelyit was like running with
friends, that was, uh, that wassafety harbor.

Speaker 6 (01:47:15):
And then this week, this week was a 5k, wasn't it?

Speaker 7 (01:47:18):
yes, and you were in palm harbor, which and I should
know my geography a little bitit's a little bit further north,
palm harbor yeah, um, yes, andit's west, so it's not too far
alt 19, so it's not far from thegulf we can say it can't be, it
can't be too much further westor it wouldn't be, because you
can see the water yeah, um, sothat was a little uh race that

(01:47:42):
did our one of our benefits, oneof our local high schools I
think this year might have beenthe 11th year Really fun race
because there's a lot ofteenagers, a lot of high school
kids and their teachers, sothere's nothing like being at a
race.
Because that drew my memorythat I remember running a little
fundraiser in high school and Iremember in the yearbook was a

(01:48:05):
picture of me, my PE teacher anda couple of my basketball
teammates running like well.
That would have been my firstunofficial 5k, but it's so fun
to see the young kids sharingyou on and you know it goes to a
really good cause.
And I think it's important forlike kids to see teachers,
because we don't live at schoolwell, like they think, but just

(01:48:27):
to see the teachers in adifferent light and out there
all working towards the samecause.
And that one definitely was nospeed, nice and easy, just
trying not to blow something.

Speaker 6 (01:48:39):
Pardon me if you said this already.
That's not where you teach, isit?

Speaker 7 (01:48:44):
No, I teach in the suburb just north.
Yeah, okay, just north of it.
But neither race had an expo.

Speaker 6 (01:48:55):
No, they're too small .

Speaker 7 (01:48:57):
The Best Am race does have a very nice after party.

Speaker 6 (01:48:59):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 7 (01:49:01):
They usually have a really nice spread for everybody
, and even this little glam racehad a nice little spread.
But we decided not to go outfor breakfast because what's the
purpose of running if you don'tgo out, that's good, you run
for food so, judy uh, what areyou doing next?

Speaker 3 (01:49:19):
did you uh register today?

Speaker 7 (01:49:21):
I did register.
Um, kind of funny.
I got on it like 10 o'clock Ialmost forgot.
But then I saw a note on mydesk.
Oh my gosh, I had to take thekids to music and I logged into
the run Disney thing real quickand, you know, got in and saw
the queue, you know whatever.
Over an hour, get them to music, run back.
And um, stephanie messaged meand handed me a link and I got

(01:49:46):
in like five minutes before Ihad to pick the kids up and then
I gave her my link to hopefullyhelp somebody else and she's
like I'll take care of it.
So yeah, so I got into the 10 K.
So I'm very happy and I'm doingprincess next week.

Speaker 3 (01:50:01):
So you're going to be a princess running princess.

Speaker 7 (01:50:02):
I will be a princess.

Speaker 3 (01:50:04):
Okay, cause I know, I know, I know you hop, hop down
there for the meetups becauseyou're like Bob, you're local
enough where it's a depending onI-4 drive.
You know, it's not that far ofa commute, right.

Speaker 7 (01:50:18):
And usually I don't do wine and dine.

Speaker 3 (01:50:20):
I mean only that one time, like two years ago, that
was the first wine and dine I'veever done and that's where I
met you actually for the firsttime and because as a teacher I
was using the races as like amental break.

Speaker 7 (01:50:32):
But since we get a whole week off at Thanksgiving,
I'm like if I can make it to thefirst week of November, I can
make it two more weeks.
So I just felt guilty takinglike time off when we were
getting a week off in a coupleof weeks, so, but now that I'm
retiring, yes, she is judy'sretiring this I got
those days I gotta use rightyeah well, um, you know, got the

(01:50:55):
room a long time ago and I justthought I'm just gonna sign up
for the 10k, obviously, come tothe meetup and and, uh, cheer
people on and, um, you know, I'mexcited about signing up for
marathon weekend just to do the5k and 10k, but stay in the
whole weekend because I did notrealize how fun cheering was

(01:51:15):
when I was by lexi I had my jawdown.
I was like, oh my gosh, this is,you know, that runner's fight.
This is almost as good as like.
I was in tears watching peoplebe in tears because they were
seeing us.
It was an amazing experience.
And Lexi man, she knows how tocheer, she knows all the

(01:51:36):
locations.
I wish I could have followedher the whole day.

Speaker 3 (01:51:40):
You guys are at a good spot for the marathon.
That's when you kind of needthat a little extra boost, and
it's right.

Speaker 7 (01:51:46):
Well, she was determined to find a better spot
when we started.

Speaker 3 (01:51:49):
Well she's.
She's been around Coronado forthe last four marathon, yeah,
yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:51:56):
And I just wish I could have hopped on that bus
and just kind of followed her,but I didn't need to drive home,
so it's the next day, but, yeah, I'll hopefully be there next,
next year to cheer y'all on forthe marathon, for all of our
friends that are doing thatoutstanding.

Speaker 6 (01:52:12):
That's great.
All right, judy.
Well, now we don't have toanswer the question how come
we've never had judy on the uhspotlight before?
Because you've been here, so weappreciate it.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you very much.
If you're not aware I thinkmost many of you are judy is the
person that handles thedistribution of all of our

(01:52:34):
material, all of our merch.
So if you order a shirt, avisor or anything, judy's the
one who's sending it out to youand she does a terrific job with
that.
In jacksboro, texas, jason didthe north texas ultra 100k.
Temp started at 64 degrees,warmed up, of course, as the sun

(01:52:58):
came up, got close to 80 bynoon but then began to drop
pretty quickly.
Four trips out and back forthis 100k course.
First lap felt great.
Second was a struggle becauseit started getting warm.
Towards the end of the secondone he started questioning
whether he wanted to continuebecause he's got a 100 miler

(01:53:19):
coming up in March.
Gave Coach Twiggs a call,decided yeah, he's probably
going to be okay.
He'd have time to recover aslong as he wasn't feeling hurt
or injured.
So he went back out.
Weather ended up being perfectas the day went on, made some
new friends Finished strong Now.

(01:53:39):
It was 64 at the start, gotclose to 80.
When he finished thetemperature was 44 degrees.
He said it dropped quickly.
It dropped quickly.
There's a miler series inIndianapolis.
This race was three miles long.
Tiffany did it chilly morning,really, prepared for it after

(01:54:01):
Dopey.
Yeah, it was chilly and Dopey.
The miler Series is kind ofneat.
Every year they build miles.
Each month they start withthree, then six and then ten and
that leads them up to the IndyMini Marathon, the half marathon
.
Neat idea.

(01:54:22):
Farrah did the 3,000 DaySpectacular 5K.
Interesting title.
Well, here's why.
The owner of the local runningstore wanted to celebrate his
3,000 day running streak.
So he organized this 5K.
He had reps from eight majorshoe companies there.

(01:54:43):
You did a one mile loop and youcould wear the shoes from one
of the companies.
You could do it as many timesas you wanted.
You had two and a half hours todo one mile loops.
You could try a different pairof shoes each loop.
So Sarah did four, tried outfour different pairs of shoes.
Neat Got a raffle ticket foreach pair of shoes that you try

(01:55:08):
and then they raffled off giftcertificates at the end.
She didn't win but still had agreat time.
It sounds like a neat idea, so3,000 days is over eight years,
Bob.
Yeah, and that's.
I didn't do the math.
That's thanks, john.
That's Eight years, that'simpressive.
There are websites that trackthese streaks and some of them

(01:55:29):
are just insane.
Well, I think eight years ispretty insane, but there are
some We've had folks on who havehad.

Speaker 2 (01:55:36):
Remember we had an episode with yeah, we did our
streaking episode yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:55:41):
Yeah, I don't know if we had anybody.
I forget what the longestperson we had on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:55:45):
It was a while, but I don't know if it was that long
oh yeah, moving to Port St Lucie, florida, the Cupid's Dash 5K.

Speaker 6 (01:55:52):
Amber did this one Great morning.
It really has been nice aroundhere.
This is a small local run.
Temps were around 65.
Lots of love.
This one's for a good cause.
I got to look.
This was an.
I should have put this one, Ithink Well, I don't know, at the
top of the race report we hadCupid's Chase.
I think this is different.

(01:56:13):
I think this Cupid's Dash islocal to Port St Lucie.
But good job, amber.
In Melbourne, florida, the OkapiClip Cloppy 3K at the Brevard

(01:56:36):
Zoo.
Monica did this one.
Now, this is typical Monica andthe Chaos Crew.
Okay, they're good runners.
Her girls are good runners fortheir age groups.
They do a great job, monica'sfast.
So they come up with this planto play for their age groups.
They do a great job, monica'sfast so they come up with this
plan to place for their agegroup so they could win these
cute little stuffed Okapi dollsand a pair of feature socks for

(01:56:59):
the age group placing.
So kids one and two take offwith a friend in the first wave.
Monica stays back with childnumber three to start in the
second wave.
When it gets started, monicatakes off at top speed because
she doesn't want to be the onewho ruins the plan and doesn't
finish in the top of her agegroup.

(01:57:19):
She makes one of the firstturns.
She sees her kids jogging along, having time with their friends
, talking, chatting, checkingout the animals.
She continues, she grabs firstplace in her age group and she
is now the owner of her very ownsolo, adorable little Okapi

(01:57:44):
doll.

Speaker 2 (01:57:45):
You know, bob, I'm not sure if you know this or not
, but did you know that theokapi?
You would think, because it'sgot stripes on its legs, that
it's related to the zebra, butit's actually related to the
giraffe.

Speaker 3 (01:57:58):
What?
Where did you learn that, Greg?
I just knew it.

Speaker 2 (01:58:03):
Oh okay, Obviously Kilimanjaro Safari.

Speaker 6 (01:58:08):
I was just.
I was at boma for breakfastrecently, like thursday morning,
yeah, a week ago, and I don'tknow if we could see the okapi
out there or not.

Speaker 2 (01:58:20):
I always saw the giraffes and I don't recall what
other animals, but yeah Icannot wait to show my daughter
the the pictures from this racebecause, um, like I want to say
I don't know if one of the kidshave posted the photo or
something but I saw a photo ofsomeone from the race that had
the okapi that you can buy thestuffed okapi you can buy at

(01:58:43):
animal kingdom, which my owndaughter owns, and she's she
loves them so much so maybewe'll have to make a special
trip to Florida next year so wecan run the Okapi Clip Cloppy or
however you say, this race.

Speaker 5 (01:58:54):
I was excited about this one too.

Speaker 2 (01:58:56):
Okapis are my favorite All right, Alicia,
we're going to go together andwe'll be a big Rise and Run
event.

Speaker 5 (01:59:00):
All right.

Speaker 6 (01:59:02):
Yeah, there you go, I think you'd have fun.
There you go, I think you'dhave fun.
There was a hot chocolate racein Dallas this weekend.
The 10K.
Britt did it First run of anykind since she hurt herself two
weeks ago and she pushed herselfto a strong finish.

(01:59:23):
In the lovely town of Fairhope,alabama, aaron ran the Pirate
Dash 5K.
Now I heard this story thismorning.
It customized.
Aaron was asked by this sweetlittle eight-year-old boy's mom
from church to run with her son.
So before the race, young fellaasks Aaron, are you going to do

(01:59:46):
that run-walk thing?
She says yeah, I am.
He says well, I'm you going todo that run walk thing?
She says yeah, I am.
He says well, I'm just going torun.
So she asked if he was okay andhe and another young friend
took off running together.
The course was well managed.
There was really no worry aboutthe kids getting lost on the
course or anything like that.

(02:00:07):
But before terribly long doingthe run walk, aaron catches up
to them.
He sees a little guy walking.
If Aaron catches him, starts topass, he takes off running
again.
So he ends up doing his own runwalk.
Based on not letting Aaroncatch him, he does manage to

(02:00:28):
hang in.
Finish just a few seconds aheadof her, aaron finished under 40
minutes.
Not a PR, best time she's runin a while and good for fourth
in her age group.
Nicely done.
Katie Texas the run Houstonseries 5K.
Katrina Lucas and Olivia theBear family.
They should have and Olivia theBear family.
They should have all been therebut the kids were sick.

(02:00:52):
That's going around.
So Kat hadn't run a solo racevocally since 2023.
Given the opportunity, sheaimed for a PR and she got it.
Aimed for a PR and she got it.
And her character stop was withsome local cows no camels, but

(02:01:16):
cows.
Let's move to Sunday, melbourne,florida, the Florida Marathon.
Adam was pacing.
Adam did the 4.45 pace group ona loop course, two causeway
bridges, the final one coming atmile 25.
We talk about the flat terrainhere in Florida and most of the

(02:01:38):
places it is, but the causewaysand bridges here can be really
tough and it looks like this onewas.
This was a very successfulpacing event for Adam.
He came in officially at nineseconds off the mark, nine
seconds under.
Uh.
He had three first timemarathoners with them one doing

(02:02:00):
her long run from Tokyo and thenhe had one who was on marathon
number 38.
He was honored to have two ofthem hang on hit their target
times, even with that lastbridge at mile 25 beating him up
.
That's a tough place for it.
Daniel was there first marathon.
That's a PR Pretty awesomestory here with Daniel.

(02:02:26):
Daniel's an AWD runner with MS.
He started off holding a 1230pace for the first 19 miles.
Rock solid there was doing thisand he hits a stone in the
roadway, I think.
When he says hits a stone, Ithink he means he stepped on a
stone.
Instantly his leg went numb sohe had to slow the pace down,

(02:02:50):
run, walk, run down to 15minutes.
He was a little discouraged.
He was alone.
Then he had some friends reachout on FaceTime who kept telling
him that he could do it.
He kept telling himself you gotthis.
He finished the marathon alittle over six hours.
That's solid, daniel.
He adds if you ever doubtyourself, just tell yourself you

(02:03:14):
got this.
Because, says Daniel, if I cando it, you can do it.
Great run, great message.
Congratulations Daniel and Adamon the Florida marathon in St
Petersburg, florida.
The St Petersburg DistanceClassic 5K through marathon

(02:03:35):
Great event.
I've done it several times.
I did it this weekend.
I did the half marathon.
It went well.
It's a nice area.
This is the event where all thefast old farts show up.
A lot of times I'll go to alocal event and in my age group

(02:03:55):
I'll finish towards the top anda lot of times, a lot of times,
I'll finish at the top becausethere'll only be two or three
people in there.
Well, this one I've run twiceand once I finished ninth out of
nine, and this year I finishedeighth out of nine, even though
I was a minute or two slower.
But the thing about it is theslowest of the 70 to 74 year old

(02:04:19):
age group, I think, finished inlike 247, which, while not
speedy, is not bad for that agegroup.
Uh, I saw a couple of friendsthere.
Let's see Trina and Jeff.
I saw them before the race.
They've got a report.
I'll make it here in just asecond.
The two other friends I've madefrom running in the St

(02:04:39):
Petersburg area, richard andKrista, were also there.
It was great to see them.
They did the 5k.
I saw them before I took off onthe half and then I saw them
just as I was about.
I was darn near at mile 13, Ithink, when I saw them again and
we got a photo there before wefinished.
So nice to see them.

(02:04:59):
As I said, trina and her husband, jeff, was there.
Trina started out a little toofast they were doing the half
the half marathon out a littletoo fast, they were doing the
half marathon.
She upped her running intervalstrong at first, then faded a
bit towards the end.
Jeff ran ahead and for Jeff aPR this week in the half.

(02:05:20):
David was there.
David came up about a 90-minutedrive for David to come up to
St Pete.
He ran the marathon.
He had just set a personal bestat Walt Disney World last month
I went looking for David.
The marathon started first.
I think the marathon startedabout 6 1⁄2, around 6.30.
So I kind of got there just asthe marathon was starting and

(02:05:45):
didn't see David.
Let's see PB at Disney World.
Last month this marathon threeminutes faster, 419, is a new PB
for David.
Now, the way this course runs,the half goes through the town
of St Pete.
Really nice.
You're on the sidewalk,sometimes in the asphalt.

(02:06:08):
Uh, some of the streets in StPetersburg are still brick.
That's kind of neat run on that.
It's not an even surface.
But at about the oh gosh aboutthe 10 mile mark.
The half goes off to the leftand goes past what remains of
the uh Tropicana field where theTampa Bay Rays play, minus the

(02:06:30):
roof on top, so they don't playthere.
The other side goes to theright and heads out on the
Pinellas Trail.
Now, the Pinellas Trail is aneat stretch of cycling running.
It's an old rail line that'sbeen repaved in the rails trails
.

(02:06:50):
I love it when I'm out on atraining run, but if you're
doing a marathon it's boring.
There's nothing out there.
There's there's no spectators,no entertainment, nothing.
It's just a dead out and back.
So David thought that was alittle boring.
Nonetheless, this is awell-organized event.
They got a great medal.

(02:07:10):
David said I knew Bob was thereand I zeroed in on the tallest
guy I could see in the corral,said hi, and it wasn't him A
little awkward.
So that's the St Pete DistanceClassic.
Back to the UK and to Londonwhere our friend Amy was at
Battersea Park for the Swifty 5K, which Amy describes as one of

(02:07:38):
the most poorly organized eventsI've ever been to.
None of the organizers had aclue what was going on.
Doggone thing started 45minutes late.
They had a Taylor look-alikewarm-up that lasted two minutes.
Most people couldn't see orhear anything.
No, chorus music.
How can you have a Swifty runwithout chorus music?

Speaker 2 (02:08:01):
See, when she said that it was very unorganized, I
thought maybe they were playingSabrina Carpenter music instead
of Taylor Swift or somethinglike that.

Speaker 6 (02:08:10):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (02:08:11):
But now the thing I need to know is did Amy run this
race in 22 minutes?
I don't know about you, but shecould have been feeling a
22-minute race.

Speaker 6 (02:08:25):
Alright, that's going right over this old guy's head.
I'm not a.

Speaker 2 (02:08:28):
Swifty, but it gets played enough in this house that
I know that lyric, so it's aTaylor Swift lyric.

Speaker 6 (02:08:33):
Okay, I figured it was Greg, but I'll tell you what
.
Look, on top of all this, itwas raining, okay.
Well, it's London.
I think that's normal.
It was so bad, it became fun.
She didn't run it in 22 minutes, she ran it in less than 27,
though, okay close enough.
Rock solid Rock solid.

Speaker 2 (02:08:55):
I don't know if there's any lyrics that rhyme
with 27 as opposed to 22.
We'll work on it.
We'll workshop it.

Speaker 6 (02:09:01):
Amy, way to take lemons and make lemonade.
Good job.
My friend Plantation, florida,ravi, did the run through
Central Park 5K In Memphis,tennessee, the MRTC Frank Horton
Memorial Winter Off-Road Series8K I have.
Suzanne and Alex were there.

(02:09:23):
Friends, if I go through theFacebook page until about 15
minutes before we have to startrecording, so if I've missed
some of your reports, I'm sorry.
Let's see I've got in Vancouver.
I do have a report from Lauren.
She did the first half halfmarathon.

(02:09:44):
That means something I didn'tstutter.
It is in fact the first halfhalf marathon.
That means something I didn'tstutter.
It is in fact the first halfhalf marathon.
She wasn't sure what wouldhappen with the race, given it
was snow and ice in Vancouver,but the course was changed.
The race went on A little bit,icy, Snowed a little bit, but
they did a good job.
Race organizers kept the thingsafe.
Not a PR, I can imagine, notfor Lauren, I think, spending

(02:10:10):
most of your time trying to stayupright, but it was a PR for
her husband, as it was his firsthalf marathon.
Great course, says Lauren, justnot her favorite time of year
to do it.
All right, I'm looking throughmy notes here, friends, I think
I have the Exeter Riverside raceon the wrong day.
I talked about it on Saturday.

(02:10:31):
I think it was in fact onSunday, but Anna did that one
She'll forgive me, I hope.
In Geneva, illinois, the SuperShuffle year 15, caitlin did it
Cold at the start, feels like inthe teens.
Once they started running shewarmed up quickly.
Lots of folks wore theirfavorite NFL team's gear In

(02:10:54):
Geneva, illinois I imagine it'dbe a bunch of Bears jerseys, I
don't know Big post-race partyat the park.
She went back, ran about twomore miles to finish out the
five she needed for princesstraining.
So we'll see Caitlin here nextweek.
And there we go, friends.
That's the race report forepisode 177.

(02:11:18):
My friend and if you run youknow you are our friend we do
have a Zoom meeting this week,last Zoom meeting before the
princess race weekend.
We can talk about wine and dineregistration, we can talk about
the princess race, we can talkabout just about whatever you

(02:11:38):
want to talk about.
So I do hope to see you there.
Get your names in for the rollcall, keep your training up and
until we meet again, hey, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait.
No, that's not right.
Happy running.

Speaker 2 (02:12:06):
The rise and run podcast discusses general
information about Run Disney andis in no way affiliated with
Run Disney or the Walt DisneyCompany.
Any information or advicediscussed on this podcast should
not be considered medicaladvice and should always consult
with your health care provideror event organizer.

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