206: Filming the Finish: Andres Vargas Journey in Crossing the Line

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Expo lights and cheering lines, costumes, bright
and hopeful signs.
We're not alone.
This path is wide, with everylistener by our side, from
training tips to tales thatshine Inspiration in every line.
We may fall, but we rise again,fueled by community and friends
.
The road is long, but we belongIn this rhythm, in this song.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Rise and run from start to the run.
Together we shine like themorning sun.
Rise and run.
We rise and run.
We rise and run.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Friends, it's Run Disney time.
Run Disney races are back inCalifornia.
They're starting Expo Day.
Day of release.
Welcome to episode 206 of theRise and Run podcast and the
first episode of this Run Disneyseason.

(01:07):
I'm Bob.
This week I'm here with Jack,hiya, with Alicia Hello.
With Greg, hey, hey, hey.
With Lexi, hello, and with Johnand Bob.
Really, how are you doing?
I'm doing more on that later,john.
Okay, I'm doing good that later.

Speaker 6 (01:24):
John.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Okay, I'm doing good.
Thank you for asking my friend.
Thank you so much, but yeah,let me talk a little bit that in
a little bit.
This week our friend AndresVargas created a terrific video
which I cannot urge first timeDisney marathoners more to go

(01:46):
ahead and watch Links on ourFacebook page Great thing.
But we talked with them aboutthe making of the video and
about running your firstmarathon at Walt Disney World.
I think you'll enjoy that.
In the Race Report Spotlight,listen as Ashley tells us how
she blames her first ultra onJack.

Speaker 7 (02:12):
If you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast, please share
us with your friends andintroduce them to our Rise and
Run family.
We want to share in their RunDisney journey.
Remember to follow us onFacebook at Rise and Run Podcast
, instagram at Rise and Run Pod.
You can visit our websiteriseandrunpodcastcom or check us

(02:34):
out on YouTube.
If you have a question, comment, race report or you want to
introduce an upcoming episode,you can call us at 727-266-2344
and leave a recorded message.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
And I want to thank our friends for doing just that.
We got four or five messagesfor introductions, so we're good
for a couple of weeks.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (02:59):
We would also like to thank our Patreons, whose
support helps keep the Rise toRun podcast rising and running.
If you'd like to join thepatron team, please be sure to
check out patreoncom slash riseand run podcast.
And this week we want towelcome two new members to the
rise and run patron family.
The first is Timothy, whojoined at the hey, how you doing

(03:21):
level, and also Catherine, whojoined at the plastic cheese
level.
Thank you so much for yoursupport.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Indeed.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 9 (03:30):
Do I squeak like that when I say, hey, how you doing?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Not a bit, john, not even a little bit.

Speaker 9 (03:38):
Okay, just short.
I'm just getting a littlecomplex here.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
That's why Greg's your favorite host yes, he is
Friends of the Rising RedPodcast sponsored by the good
people and our good friends atMagic Bound Travel.
Magic Bound is a place to gofor your run Disney, your Disney
tourism, your Universal, yourcruising.

(04:06):
All of those Help with all ofthose reservations and all of
those travel arrangements.
Magicboundtravelcom is theirwebsite.
Remember, you can get all oftheir advice and all of their
services at no charge to you.
Well worth it, good people,they'll help you out.
Check them out.

(04:28):
I wanted to.
Before we get into the trainingschedule.
I wanted to recognize, not anapology and alibi, but I
definitely wanted to recognizeour friend Chris.
Chris sent us a nice note onFacebook referring back to our
episode that we did with thefolks on the National Marrow
Donor Program, and I genuinelyappreciated this, because we do

(04:50):
these parts and we don't know ifthey have any impact or not.
Well, at least in Chris's case,it did.
He went ahead and registeredfor the National Marrow Donor
Program.
That's a big deal, chris.
Good for you, congratulations.
Thanks for doing it.
Thanks for sending us a noteand telling us about it.
All right, let's look at thetraining calendar.

(05:13):
There are now zero weeks tillthe Disneyland Halloween
Challenge.
I hope you're out there inCalifornia having a wonderful
time.
I have not looked at theweather report.
I've listened to your chats.
I've read your chats.
I know it's supposed to be hot.
I really hope it's not as hotas it was last year.
That's some of the hottestweather I can recall.

(05:36):
But I just hope you're having agreat time.
Hey, don't forget now, ifyou're at the Expo, drop by the
Galloway booth, see our friendJeff and our friend Chris.
Another rise and run pal who'sgoing to be there, russ, he may
have some of Alan's Grace andAlan's bracelets to give to you

(06:01):
if you want.
So go by by there, say hi, tellthem you heard about him on the
Rise and Run podcast.

Speaker 8 (06:07):
Bob.
I checked in with theunofficial weatherman of Run
Disney, our buddy Ryan Teets,and I'm looking at his latest
story right now we're lookingfor race weekend highs in the
mid to upper 80s, but againthat's in the uh, mid to upper
80s, but again that's in the.

(06:27):
That's in the afternoon, so notduring race time oh, that's
lovely and lows, probably any.
I would say mid 60s for the low.
So I mean, compared to lastyear, that's drastically
different and very pleasantcompared to 106 degrees.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
The humidity, the dew point in that part of the
country is generally tolerablelower than it is, certainly
lower than it is here and lowerthan it is in a lot of other
places.
So that sounds terrific.
I hope you all are enjoyingthat good weather and hope to
have your wonderful time at theHalloween race weekend.

(07:06):
The Wine and Dine race weekendis seven weeks away.
We're inside 50 days, guys.
We're in training.
Week nine on the schedule threemiles, including the magic mile
Marathon weekend is 18 weeksaway.

(07:27):
Still a bit more than 100 daysout.
125 days out.
We are in training week 10 onthe experienced runner marathon
schedule 15 miles for the longrun On the dopey goofy schedule
11 miles for the long run on thedopey goofy schedule 11 miles
for the long run and the onlynon-run Disney race that I track

(07:50):
here, bird in hand.
Hey, I'm flying up today, guys.
Becky and I are probably, ifyou're listening, thursday
morning.
We're probably on our way tothe airport or on an airplane
heading up to Pennsylvania.

Speaker 8 (08:03):
That's so impressive that you bring your podcasting
gear with you on the plane.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
So I can do it live, live from 30,000 feet.

Speaker 8 (08:10):
So impressive, Bob.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
I remember last week I did it live from the operating
room.

Speaker 8 (08:15):
You were under anesthesia.
We're still giving the racereports Impressive.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
All right.
Talking about training, who'sgot a training update gang?

Speaker 4 (08:24):
All right.
Talking about training, who'sgot a training update?
Kang?
So you guys know I've beentraining with Tom because I just
need to get whipped back intoshape and I know I don't know
how long ago we talked aboutthis.
I was really worried that Ididn't fit into my wedding dress
.
Well, I may have only lost liketwo or three pounds.

(08:44):
Fit into my wedding dress Well,I may have only lost like two
or three pounds.
But I mean, I've been gainingmuscle and I lost an inch around
my waist and I got to pick upmy dress this past Saturday and
I fit into it.
I was so excited, yes, but I amsnug, like I can't.
Snug like I can't.

(09:10):
There's no wiggle room, uh.
So, um, don't wiggle.
Working out, yeah, yeah, I'mnice and snug, um, so I'm gonna
keep doing what tom's telling meto do.
Seems to be working becausehe's awesome.
But also, like I know, I'vebeen having hip issues too and
I've been doing what John saidand I got those resistance bands
immediately after that lastrecording where he told me I
think it was like two weeks agowhen we had it, but you're

(09:32):
telling me to do the resistancebands, to do, like, um, around
your what?
Your thighs or your knees orwhatever.
So I've been doing those aftermy runs.
I've been doing Alicia'sstretches that she has sent me
because you guys are all familyand you're amazing, so I've been
doing some of those stretches.
It's getting better.
It's still issues, and I gotnew shoes, because I also want

(09:55):
to point this out that yousometimes maybe it's a good idea
to track the miles on yourshoes.
I didn't realize that the shoesthat I had been running in have
been so worn out.
Those were the same shoes thatI had been training in for my
100 miler and I yeah, both ofthe pairs that I had because I
switched shoes for that race.
I remember one of those pairs Ihad bought, like, I think,

(10:18):
Black Friday, when it wasdiscounted, and within the first
month and a half of that pairalone, I had to have at least
done 200 miles on one pair ofshoes in a span of a month and a
half, because we went straightinto dopey and so um shoes
generally you guys can correctme if I'm wrong they're usually
only good for about three to 500, 300 to 500 miles.

(10:40):
A lot of factors, jack, but thatthat's about right, yeah, right
, yeah, I mean, I know, for me,being a big person, by about 300
they're done yeah, and so likeI actually got new shoes this
weekend and it's like running onclouds and like you know what,
I wonder if this was one of theissues was because I hadn't had
the right pair of shoes.

Speaker 6 (10:58):
So this is your guys.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah, this is your guys's note.
If you need new shoes, go getthem.

Speaker 9 (11:04):
Don't injure yourself because of it so so jack uh on
strava, you can put the shoe yourun in in your report.
Oh so you put your shoes in,say, at the end of the run, and
it tiles the miles for you.
So you know, okay, I did.
You know in my, whatever youwear your Brooks, I'm at a

(11:26):
hundred miles on this.
So you kind of know, well, I'mgetting up there.
You know.
Better start thinking aboutwhat I need to do or rotating.

Speaker 8 (11:34):
And Jack actually even on top of Strava.
Most of you know, the watchapps also have a two, because
the one with my chorus watch Iactually can put in both, uh, of
the pairs that I have and whenI'm done with my run, actually
from my watch, it asks me toselect which pairs of shoes that

(11:55):
I ran in that's so fun so, yeah, so there's lots of tools for
you to be able to track garmintoo.

Speaker 9 (12:00):
Yeah, I.
Usually I do it in Strava.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, I have my Garmin.
I'm hesitant to wear the watchfor my race on Saturday Cause I
don't like looking at the timesof what I'm running, cause I
feel like it plays games with myhead and my mindset.
But I am going to try.
I know I shouldn't be using newshoes for a race, but I just
don't.
I can't use those other shoes.

(12:23):
They race, but I just don't.
I can't use those other shoes.
They don't have any morecomfort in them and they have
gone way past the mileage I knowfor sure.

Speaker 7 (12:32):
So we'll see.
I'm gonna echo the shoe talk,um, because I went and got
refitted at Big Peach RunningCompany, um, a couple of days
ago, and it's been probably fiveyears, maybe six years, since
I've been fitted for runningshoes, because I just wear the

(12:53):
same like, the same brand, thesame model every single time and
I will say, if it's been a longtime you should go, because the
technology that they have noweven different from you know,
six years ago it's really cooland like.
They took scans of my feet andthen she put me in a neutral

(13:16):
shoe and did a slow motion videoof me actually running and I
noticed that, um, I can't, Ithink it's my right foot.
I have to go back and look atthe video, but my right foot
like really turns out whenever Irun.
Um, my left foot stays prettystraight, so I'm like, hmm,

(13:41):
that's probably a hip weakness.
And then my ankle collapsed.
You could see my anklecollapsing on the neutral shoe
as she slowed it down.
It was fascinating.
But, all that being said, I'mstill A6 GT 2000.
That's the same shoe that I'vebeen running in.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
I had to laugh, thinking of a slow motion video
of me running.
It would be a video of merunning, but that's okay.

Speaker 7 (14:12):
But anyway, so yeah the shoe.
It was fascinating just seeingall of the different things that
she can compare in justcomparing my right foot to my
left foot.

Speaker 8 (14:24):
Well, I'm going to keep the shoe conversation going
here, because I also bought apair of shoes this weekend and I
don't want to fully endorse ityet, but I want to put it on
everyone's radar.
So I am mostly a Brooksloyalist.
My usual go-to pair of shoesare the Adrenalines, and then

(14:47):
last year I started mixing inthe Glycerin Maxes, which I
really love those shoes, eventhough it's technically a
neutral shoe, and like you, Lexi, I need that extra stability
because of folding in.
But I didn't get a chance toget to my local running store
based off of everything I had todo this weekend.
So I was like, oh, I'll just goonline and I'll just order them

(15:11):
, you know, directly throughbrooks and I I don't know what I
clicked on, but apparentlybrooks has Brooks Restart and
you can buy gently used shoesdirectly from Brooks at a
discounted price.
So and I agree, they do nothave every single make and every

(15:38):
single model and every singleit's whatever the you know it
has been essentially sent backto them, and then Brooks labels
them as either like new, greator good and then, depending on
that designation, that's howthey price them.
So I got an exact pair ofAdrenalines that I am currently

(16:03):
running in.
Retail price on.
A brand new pair would be $140.
And again, the designation ofthis shoe was like new and I got
them for 91.
So I'm still waiting for themto get shipped to my house.
So once I see them you know Ican take a look at the

(16:24):
undersoles and everything likethat, and I'll be.
I see them, you know I can takea look at the undersoles and
everything like that, and I'llI'll be sure to give, uh, you
know, a full review.
Um, you know once, uh, once, Ihave a couple of miles on them
and such.
But if you're ever, you know,in the market and you don't want
to pay that full market price,there is, you know, that option.

Speaker 9 (16:40):
And, and before anyone asks and I know we're
going to get to thisconversation in a little bit no,
they did not have any of therun disney shoes on this website
any good running store orrunning company, they'll give
you a 30 day sometimes 60 day,uh, you know trial period to see
if you really like the shoe ornot.

Speaker 8 (17:01):
So yeah, yeah, and I think when I was reading the
fine print of this program, thatstill applies to these shoes as
well too.
So, essentially, if I get themand there's lots of tread
missing, even though they claimto say like new, I'll, I'll just
send them back and then I'll goget a brand new pair, but, uh,
but in terms of training, uh,running has been going really

(17:23):
well, but, um, I I wanted togive my win for the week and, uh
, my inspiration for this wincomes from you, lexi, when you
were talking about the romanchair.
Uh, last week and being afraidof it, I went into my gym on
sunday and I stared down thatassisted chin-up dip machine and

(17:45):
I watched a couple of YouTubevideos to make sure that I again
didn't make a Wile ECoyote-sized hole in the ceiling
and I had to tinker around withit a little bit.
I had to put on the maxresistance just because of my
body weight and my upper bodystrength and stuff like that,
and I was able to do about twosets of three in terms of

(18:06):
pull-ups and dips.
So I'll call that a win andwe'll keep looking, we'll keep
working for the future toincrease that.
And no body parts were injuredand no damage was done to my
local gym.

Speaker 7 (18:20):
Hey, that's awesome.
Yeah, I realized that I didn'tactually give a training update
when we just talked about shoes,but for the past two months,
because I started training withmy personal trainer at the gym

(18:41):
June 1st, he specifically toldme he did not want me running
yet, um, mainly because wheneverI was having some um, uh, when
I, when I tried to run a couplemonths ago, I was having some
knee problems and we didn't wantto exasperate that and figure

(19:02):
that out and everything but um,I talked to him at my session um
this week and we are startingto do some incline walks and
today I did treadmill and Iburned 350 calories um so that's

(19:31):
my first journey to get intospringtime surprise shape and I
will just go ahead and tell youguys.
But, um, I haven't really seen adifference on the scale yet,
but I'm kind of starting to seea little bit of a difference in
myself in the mirror, like myshoulders chest area.

(19:53):
Kevin said he can't see it yet.
My trainer was like, yeah, Isee it, but I don't know if he's
telling me the truth.
But they say you can see itafter eight weeks, your close
friends and family can see itafter 12.
And the rest of the world cansee it after 16.
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
I found a little different.
I found that the people you seeevery day a lot of times don't
notice because things happen soslowly, correct, but if it was
someone like like if you saw oneof us, somebody you know well,
but we haven't seen you for awhile, we'd notice right away.
So you know, there's that outthere too.

Speaker 8 (20:38):
So so good for you, lexi, I'm glad to hear it sounds
good like say, I'm really gladthat you brought up your incline
walks in terms of the treadmill, because I have been seeing
this trend on social media and,granted, it's saying it's backed
by science and who knows ifthat's true, because, again,
it's social media and we allknow we have to take everything

(20:58):
with a grain of salt.
But apparently you're true.

Speaker 7 (21:02):
Greg you can't put anything on the Internet.
That's not true, greg.
You can't put anything on theinternet that's not true.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
I know that's the rule I live by.

Speaker 8 (21:08):
But apparently there is this popular workout that
involves it's called the 12-33workout.
So what you do is you set thetreadmill incline to 12, set the

(21:31):
treadmill incline to 12, youset the speed to three and you
walk for 30 minutes.
But the caveat is you can'thold on to the, the bars you
know to have, like the um, theheart rate monitors on them and
such, and apparently thisworkout is great for not only
cardiovascular but also, youknow, help building some muscle
in terms of you know your lowerbody and such, you know,

(21:52):
especially in your, your glutes,because of you know how steep
that treadmill is.
So I think there's a lot, youknow.
I think there is a you know,some credence to maybe why your
trainer, you know, is having youdo those inclined walks because
you know maybe there is soundscience behind it and it's going
to be a great workout and, youknow, because it's going to make
you work but at the same timeit's also not going to overexert

(22:15):
you because you're keeping thatspeed, you know, at a, at a 20
minute pace.
So so good for you.

Speaker 7 (22:20):
But a 12% incline yeah.
It's's hard I was doing fourand a half and I was huffing,
puffing but it's like I feellike people think it's an easy
workout.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
It's not no because that's what?
Um?
So when I do my workouts withtom, afterwards I will add on,
because we had talked aboutadding on incline, and that's
exactly.
I knew exactly where greg wasgoing, because that's what I do.

Speaker 8 (22:45):
Exactly, I knew exactly where greg was going
because that's what I do rightafter the workouts.
I will say when I when I try it, I only do it as so when I do
my strength training workouts,usually I'd like to incorporate
five to ten minutes of some typeof cardio before I start, and
sometimes I will employore that1233 principle.

(23:05):
But I'll admit, jack, Iactually like that better, or
find it easier, than going onthat dreaded stair climber or
stair stepper machine.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Oh my God, I love that.

Speaker 8 (23:18):
That thing is like the third circle of hell for me.

Speaker 7 (23:22):
That's literally what I was about to say.
I was about to say, I was aboutto say what are your guys's
thoughts about the stair masterclear climber thing?

Speaker 4 (23:33):
okay if I, if I can just put one thing into that.
The only reason why I like thestair climber is this is if
you're doing a trail race andyou're not able to get the hills
, that is going to be the bestthing for you to get into that
hill climbing to train for and Iabsolutely hate it, but if you,

(23:55):
if you only have flat areasaround you, that is the best way
that you can get exactly whatyou need for a trail either that
or if you ever isn't there,that race in new york city where
you climb the empire statebuilding yes, yes so if you ever
, if you ever decide to do that,the stair master is the perfect
uh machine for you see, I didthis stair master for the first

(24:17):
time a couple weeks ago and, um,my trainer's doing it like
every two weeks, probably in thecycle of what we're doing, and
man, that thing works.

Speaker 7 (24:34):
Yeah, it's crazy, and I mean I wasn't even going very
fast and my heart rate was likeway on up there.
So, yeah, I think I'm goingto'm gonna have a love hate
relationship with that, but alsoI would I don't know if it's
just a mental thing or if it wasjust the fact that it was a new

(24:54):
thing that I hadn't tried yet Iwould rather do the stair
climber than climb actual stairsup and uh, yeah, that's fair.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
That's fair also, alicia, if you're still thinking
about the Great Wall Marathon.
Great way to train.

Speaker 10 (25:11):
That's actually what I did when I did the thousand
plus stairs in Hawaii is, I wentto the gym and did the stair
master.
So I was going to say therethere's definitely times that I
feel like it's beneficial, but Idon't know that I would
recommend doing it every singleknow that I would recommend
doing it every single time.
I would switch up the routineand do some other things.
But yeah, there's definitelybenefits of doing doing all of

(25:32):
the things.

Speaker 9 (25:34):
I haven't been on the Stairmaster since I went to
Jack LaLanne's gym back in theuh early nineties.
Hopefully they changed sincethen, because they were horrible
back then.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
I don't think I've ever done it, John they're still
horrible.
Alright, friends, trainingupdate.
I'm going to take a few minuteshere and then hopefully going
forward.
I'll just have much less to say.
First and I say this a lot andI can't say it enough God bless

(26:07):
all of you, the support, thelove, the help, the
consideration.
I just cannot put into wordswhat it means to me and it helps
me.
It literally, and I know whatthat word means helps me.

(26:27):
I think about you and I gainstrength from that.
So I can't say it enough.
Thank you so much, and I kindof hope that's how we feel about
one another.
I kind of hope that's how wefeel about helping each other
through the training times.
We feel about helping eachother through the training times
.
Second, I want to keep this inperspective.
Look, we all have stories, weall have problems, we all have

(26:50):
injuries with running.
Some are a whole lot worse thanwhat I'm going through, a whole
lot worse, but this is kind ofsignificant.
Let me give you a littlehistory.
This can be hard to believe,but sometimes, when things
aren't going well, I tend todownplay him just a little bit.
You know, I know I see the lookon Jack's face.

(27:14):
He's going Bob, you?
No, yeah, I do.
I do downplay things just alittle bit because you know,
everything is awesome and Idon't want to be a downer, I
don't want to bring anybody down.
But this problem I have withspinal stenosis first showed
about nine years ago and itwould show with pain shooting
down the legs and it wouldn'tlast long, it would go away.

(27:38):
I did have it looked into, gotan MRI.
Doctor said yep, you got somestenosis here.
It's not serious right now.
I think you're going to be okay.
And it didn't take me muchlonger than that to recover and
I went without any real troublefor years and started kicking in
around springtime.

(27:59):
Surprise, I remember I've toldthis part of the story already.
I remember being on the 10K withmy friends and saying, look, I
don't think I can run this, Ithink I'm going to have to walk
this one, because what happensis you get pain down your legs
and it's significant 10K.

(28:25):
I did 10 miles the next day, Iwas okay, came back and
proceeded with my training andthings started to get worse.
I'd be walking to the car andit would be oh, and my sweet
wife would say what's wrong?
I'd say, oh, it's that legthing, it'll go away and it
would take a little while, butit was coming more and more
often.
What I started to do with mytraining.

(28:47):
I started to do two days in thepool to leave the stress off my
legs and do the long run in thestreet, and I was getting by
with that.
I got by with that till we gotup to about 10 miles and then it
was starting to get difficult.
Now you know, you know I hadsurgery on my back, but the

(29:11):
problem really was with my legs.
So about three weeks ago, 12miles on the schedule on
Saturday.
I knew I was hurting but I wasgoing to do it anyway and I went
out to do it and I could not,really, without a great deal of
pain, I could not walk to thestart of my 12 miles, so I got
back in the car and said I'll doit tomorrow.

(29:32):
I did.
I did it the next day.
I finished it on the treadmill.
And this is just how.
This is kind of stupid, myfriends.
I don't mind saying this, butby the time I finished I was in
such great pain that I neededBecky to help me from the
treadmill to my bed.
That was about four feet away,so things were clearly not good.

(29:54):
She says you're calling thedoctor?
I says yeah, I'll call tomorrow.
But when I called and describedmy symptoms I think I pretty
much my doc's about 30 minutesaway she said I will.
Well, her attendant, aftertalking to the doctor, said Dr
Nelson is going to see you.
It was in like 35 minutes or so, so I had to get right into the

(30:18):
car and head over there.
It's not spinal.
Stenosis comes in varyingflavors, if you will, or varying
shades, varying extremes, butwhen you get to a point of
having numbness in the legs,then the medical people think

(30:38):
this is pretty serious, and Iwas.
I was getting numb enough thatI couldn't feel particularly my
right leg and it was hard towalk.
I mean, it was, it wasphysically difficult to walk
because I can move my leg.
I had strength but I couldn'tfeel it and it just I was afraid
I was going to fall.
So I saw my doc on that Monday.
She sent me off to MRI with ithad stat stamped on the request

(31:03):
and six different places.
She sent me to a surgeon.
She says I know how importantit is to you to get back up fast
.
I want you to go see thissurgeon.
So I saw him the next week.
We talked through a bunch ofthings, but he had the same
reaction, and I think we'vetalked about this before too.
Doctors now will say well, wecan do A or B or C or D, what do

(31:25):
you want to do?
But if you really listen towhat they're saying, they'll
kind of tell you.
Because he was saying to me now, the surgery is not a difficult
procedure for you.
The incision is only a coupleinches long, said.
I think it'll help you a lot.
What do you want to do?
I said I think we need to dothe surgery, doc, because I want

(31:47):
to get back to this as fast aspossible.
I was scheduled for like 10 dayslater, which gave me 10 days to
worry about somebody working onmy spine and spinal cord.
You know to consult with DrGoogle, of course, as we all do.
That just makes you nervous andI'm starting to wonder, because
there would be times when Ifeel, ok, I could sit down and
it wouldn't hurt.
But by golly I couldn't standup more than a minute and I

(32:11):
really couldn't walk more.
I didn't like having to walk tothe bathroom.
That's how bad it was.
So I'm going through my head.
Do I really?
Yeah, yeah, all right, let's goby.
The time I got to the scheduledsurgery day, I had a hard time
walking into the clinic.
I genuinely did.
The procedure, much to mysurprise, took about three hours

(32:33):
.
I was.
I didn't know.
I went to sleep.
I woke up a couple secondslater.
Becky, what time is it?
She says it's almost 11 o'clock.
Well, it was almost.
It was a little after seven.
I remember that for sure when Iwent into the OR.
But here's the good news thenext morning and I put this

(32:54):
little reel up on Facebook thenext morning I went out and I
walked a little bit less than amile.
I didn't walk very fast, maybean 18 minute pace, but I walked.
I was a little surprised at howtired my legs were, but I was
also surprised I had forgottenin the previous months what it
felt like to be able to moveyour legs without thinking about

(33:17):
it.
So that was a huge relief.
That worked.
So everything's looking good.
I feel genuinely and generallypretty good.
I'm pretty optimistic.
No running or weight trainingfor at least six weeks, but I
can still walk.
I've been walking.
I've been out.

(33:38):
The surgery was on a Thursday.
I've been out for a walk everyday.
I only did a little over a miletoday, but I'm up to two and a
quarter and I'll probably do twoand a half tomorrow before I
get on the airplane to go toBurden Hand, where I'm going to
be not running the half marathon, but it's daily walks now, at

(33:58):
least for a while.
The point of all that is onceagain to go back and say thank
you for all your thoughts andprayers, to reassure all of my
friends that I'm doing.
Look, I'm doing fine.
Well, I think I'll get back torunning.
I really do.
Even if I don't, I'm doing fine.
But there are lessons here thatI want to share, and one of them

(34:22):
is if you think you need to getto the medical team for
something, go.
I didn't really put this off, Ireally didn't, but go.
My thoughts used to be if thepain kept you awake, it's time
to go have it looked at.
Well, I probably should havedone that a while back, but
that's okay.
When you're recovering and Iknow many of you are pay

(34:47):
attention to your medical team.
I may want to run, but I won'tdo what they tell you.
If you think you can do more,tell them, hey, doc, or hey, a
physical therapist.
I think I can do a little more.
If they think you can, they'lllet you.
If not, they'll tell you whyyou shouldn't.
But pay attention to them.

(35:09):
Above all and I've learned this, unfortunately, over the years
when you're recovering from aninjury, be patient.
You got to be patient.
I know it's going to be atleast six weeks before I can
test out running, even if then.
But I know I have to be patientand just take things as they
come.
Look with you on my side.

(35:31):
I know I can't fail, likeeverything we do.
We'll work through thistogether.
And I have one last bit of goodnews for those of you who are
going to be at bird in hand ComeThursday morning, before I step
on the airplane, I'll be ableto take a shower again, so that

(35:52):
should be helpful.

Speaker 9 (35:53):
Well, that's great Bob.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
Yeah, all right, friends.
Thanks, Caution runners.
Change of topic ahead.
And now it's time for whatWould Alicia Do?

Speaker 10 (36:11):
What would Alicia do ?
Alicia would dance in the rainafter a run.
Why did I do this?
Well, I didn't know that it wassupposed to rain today and I
had four miles on my schedule.
And I stopped to go in theport-a-potty and all of a sudden
I heard little droplets on theroof and I was like, huh, what

(36:35):
is that?
I thought maybe some acorns orsomething was falling from the
tree above it and I come out.
I'm like, oh, it's raining.
Okay, a little bit of rain, nota big deal.
I thought just a little bit.
I'm running around the cornerand the guy that was walking
with his dog was like you betterstart running faster.
I think it's going to pour youbetter, start running faster.

(36:58):
I think it's going to pour.
I said, okay, it's just alittle bit of rain.
I got about a mile later and,sure enough, it started to pour.
But why I wanted to tell thisstory is because I know a lot of
people will think oh the rain.
I really don't want to go outfor a training run.
I'm going to move it to thisday because that will be a
better day, and sometimes youcan, sometimes you can move it,

(37:20):
but we really don't know whatrace day is going to be like,
and so I say, embrace it and ifyou have a chance, like I did
today, dance in the rain andtake it all in.
But I do have a question foryou guys of what is the worst
weather that you've ever run in,or what is your favorite season

(37:41):
to run in?
Because fall is my favoriteseason to run in and we're
getting into that and I'm soexcited for the crunchy leaves.

Speaker 8 (37:47):
I can't wait see, I really thought this question was
going to be Lexi.
What would you do if you werein a porta potty?
And all of a sudden you heardstuff on the roof and sheer
terror just comes over your face.

Speaker 7 (38:02):
I would not be in the porta potty, that's the answer
I would not be there worstweather I ever ran in was my.

Speaker 8 (38:14):
It was my dopey simulation.
And for the marathon portion ofthis, it was my dopey
simulation.
And for the marathon portion ofthis simulation I signed up for
the Rehoboth Beach Marathon.
I did it because it was a raceI always wanted to run and
Rehoboth Beach is the placewhere I go to for my summer
vacation.
So I'm like this is perfect.

(38:35):
And then I saw the weatherforecast and I knew that it was
going to come, but everyhour-by-hour forecast was just
showing that it was going to bea little bit of rain in the
beginning and then maybe afteran hour or so it was going to be
gone.
It probably started raining onme around mile three and I was

(38:58):
like, okay, strapping mentally,here we go hour 90 minutes and
then this thing will be done.
It rained on me from mile threeuntil mile 26 and in that last
point two.
That's when it finally decidedto stop, and mentally it was the
most draining thing ever,because not only was I

(39:23):
physically exhausted from adopey simulation, but then I was
mentally exhausted from justdealing with the weather and the
fact that like there was asmall portion of the race that
was on a trail.
So I was at that point, likeyou just stopped running because
you were trying to avoid likethe massive mud pits that you

(39:43):
know were on this course andsuch, and I remember I had like
two mylar blankets wrappedaround me at the end.
I just like I felt like I wasconvulsing at the end and I was
like never, ever again will.
I hope that I don't have to.
You know experience, you knowthis type of weather.
So, yeah, that was, that wasthe absolute worst.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
I have been blessed with a lot of good weather races
, except for Daytona and andthat was one of the hardest, one
of the harder training racesI've had.
And I picked that race becauseI thought there would be good
weather and I wanted my 100miler to be as quote unquote

(40:28):
easy as possible and it wasn'tsupposed to rain or storm or any
of that stuff.
I'd even like I saw that mightbe like a 10 or 15% chance it
might rain Like the day before Iwas supposed to leave brought a
rain jacket that was not a rainjacket to me and it started

(40:48):
raining somewhere after mile 50or 55.
And it lasted for about six orseven hours after.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, you got hammered.
I remember that.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
Yeah, that I.
That was the most miserableexperience I've ever entertained
the thought of.
And um, just in that segment,let me.
Let me restate, just in thatsegment.
And sometimes you know what notevery race is what you hope or
plan it to be, and sometimes youhave to train for the worst and

(41:23):
hope for the best.
And I mean I still finished therace and I'm really proud of it
.
I still don't really believethat I finished it in my head
because I feel like I did, I did, but I feel like it might have
just been slight PTSD from howbad the weather was.
Um, but I mean I look back atit and I'm, like you know, I'm

(41:43):
proud that I pushed myselfthrough, because I know there
was a lot of people that droppedand I didn't realize how many
people that dropped during thatrace until like mile 93, when I
was at my like last day stationand I was like, oh wow, that
sucks and let's keep going.
But I think, learning from thatexperience, I already have an

(42:07):
idea of what my next 100 mileris going to be.
I want a redemption and I feellike when you have a race like
that and it's so bad that youwant like the weather is so bad,
you want like a redemption ofthat distance again.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
So yeah, hey, jack, listen to the race report
spotlight, we may have a partnerfor you.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
Come on, jamie, yes.

Speaker 7 (42:30):
I would say the worst weather that I have run in
would have to be, and Jack yoube.
And Jack, you know this day, um, it was the day that you turned
purple, um it was purple a lot.
I know but it was like.
It was like really, really coldand we were going at our old
apartment and we were going outto run together.

(42:52):
It was like the coldest I thinkAtlanta has been since we've
lived here.
Um, run together, it was likethe coldest I think atlanta has
been since we've lived here.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
um, it was just me and you living at 1606 oh and oh
, my god, I don't even think wefelt any of our limbs no, it was
so cold like I don't think I'veever been that cold um we went
and trained, though I'm proud ofourselves.

Speaker 7 (43:15):
We did, we did, I think we both.
We both did a few miles, um,but uh, yeah, that would
probably be the worst weatherthat I've trained in.
Um, there was also one timethat it snowed in when I was
living in richmond, and, um, Iwanted the experience of running
in the snow because in my mind,it was beautiful and and

(43:39):
amazing, and that run turnedinto a walk because I kept
slipping wait, you have one ofthose videos up on passport to
run and I watched it recently.
It was your first time I do haveit up on passport to run and
you made a little mini snowmanand you threw a snowball for
your first time yeah yeah, allof those things are true I
watched it recently.
I don't know why, but I waslike, hey, let's watch this I

(44:01):
haven't done a plug for passportto run um, but yeah, that was.

Speaker 10 (44:09):
That was probably the worst weather, but my
favorite weather to run in isalso fall, yeah perfect fall
friends as you can see from this, not every race is going to be
great, not every run is going tobe great.
You possibly could have weatherthat's not ideal, but I hope
that you think what would aliciado and maybe bring a smile to

(44:32):
your face and maybe you candance it out in the rain during
the race.
Just be careful and don't falllike jack does wow, it's true,
but wow and that is what wouldalicia do caution runners.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
The topic is about to change right now hey game.
We had a lot of shoe talkearlier, but only a casual
reference.
Disney has revealed the new runDisney shoe for the Halloween
race.
It looks like is it just theone pair, or are there actually
two colors purple and black ofthis shoe?

(45:10):
There are two different colorsof the same model of shoe, but
different colors of the samesame shoe same model of shoe,
but different colors, yeah ofcourse they'll be available out
at disneyland and if last timeat disney world, there's any
indication they were on thebrooks site on monday, so they
may be there.

(45:31):
We have absolutely no idea.
I you know, I joined that groupthat's supposed to get informed
when these things are happening.
I never read anything.
I never got an email, didanybody else?

Speaker 10 (45:43):
No, I didn't get anything.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
The Run Brooks alerts I get the alerts.
I get the alerts when Brookssays, oh, we have a sale and
this and that, but I didn't getanything about the Run Disney
show.
Any comments on them, anythoughts?

Speaker 7 (45:57):
Oh my gosh, I love them.
Yeah, yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
Dark yeah, the, the like the insole does.
Yeah, not the insole, theoutsole yeah.

Speaker 7 (46:08):
I'm just so upset that I can't wear either of the
models of shoes, because ifthere's any shoe that screams
Lexi, did you see the laces?

Speaker 4 (46:19):
Oh, I know, I saw the laces.
I saw the little like fabricmedallions.
I was like, hmm, she wantsthose shoes.
Well, I think you know it'sneat that they're doing them.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
I don't know if they'll be available at Disney
World or not when we get thereat Wine and Dine.
I think it's neat that they'redoing them.

Speaker 8 (46:39):
I'm really glad that they went all in on a theme, I
think, that's obviously releasedwith Springtime Surprise, and
to be able to come up with aconcept of a shoe based on that
theme.
I think was really difficultand I they did a nice job with,

(46:59):
like the, the color palette thatthey selected to to match, you
know, the, the weekend and such.
But when you have a theme likehalloween, you really it was
really nice to see them reallyjust dive into it and, you know,
between the colors, the factthat they it's got you know the,
the disneyland logo real big onthe back of the heel, I think

(47:23):
was a really cool feature.
You have, you know, as you werementioning before, ladies, the,
you know ursula's liketentacles as the laces I, you
know it again.
I was just overall super, superimpressed.
Now, maybe they went all inbecause you know Disneyland
races are going to be going on ahiatus for quite a while uh,

(47:45):
coming up here pretty soon.
So maybe they wanted to dosomething really you know, extra
for.
But at the same time, seeingnow two weekends now and the
progression that they've madefrom one weekend to another,
that gets me really, reallyexcited for Marathon Weekend,
princess, and then Springtime tosee and Wine and Dine as well

(48:06):
too, what they come up with.
And I have the confidence.
Now Maybe I might not get thethemed weekend shoe, but now I'm

(48:39):
excited enough that when I'mdown there for either but I
usually need a wide and I thinkin that that run disney generic
shoe I think they were onlyoffering, you know, like the
standard width or whatever.
They didn't.
I think they were only doingthe wides in the ghost max twos.
I believe so.
But again, I appreciate thatthey let you go in and try on
the shoes prior to go ahead andmaking the purchase.
So yeah, job well done, brooks,and run Disney.

Speaker 9 (49:01):
Okay, also our friend Matt over at Team Run Diz
created a run Brooks alerttracker on Telegram.
So when they go live on theBrooks website he'll have alerts
going out the sizes that areavailable.
So if you're not there thatweekend and you need sneakers,

(49:23):
that's the way to look at him,good old Matt.
And also he's also having onTelegram his for this weekend
the balloon lady alert.
So every mile they'll tell youwhere the balloon ladies are at.
Cool Caution runners.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
Friends, it's not unusual for we here at the Rise
and Run podcast to get anunsolicited email or an
unsolicited message saying hey,I've got this product, I've got
this idea, I've got this video,you need to put me on the
podcast.
And once in a while somethingcomes along that we do, but more

(50:07):
often than not I kind of justignore it.
So I get a note from AndresVargas who says I've made a
documentary about running myfirst marathon at Walt Disney
World and I'm thinking, oh yeah,that's nice, let me look.
And I did and I went hey, it'spretty good by golly.

(50:28):
This is.
This is not a guy walkingaround with his handheld and
jiggling.
This is pretty dadgum good.
And so I watched it all.
I really, really thought thatyou, our friends, would like it.
And I got right back withAndres and said hey, my friend,
how about joining us on thepodcast?
And lo and behold, here he is,andres, welcome.

(50:50):
Thanks for hitting us up withthis thing.

Speaker 11 (50:53):
No, thank you so much for having me.
I have to say it's an honor,because when I decided to run
the marathon, you guys were someof the first people I listened
to, so to be here is very much afull circle moment, so it's
pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
So I thank you so much for indulging my email.
Hey, well, look, thank you.
That means a lot to all of usand I think it means a lot to
the folks who listen too.
So, yeah, it's a fun, verywell-made, very professional
video.
We have put it up on ourFacebook group page so I know
some of our friends alreadylistened to it or watched it,

(51:28):
watched it, but we're going togo into some detail now.
We're going to talk a littlebit about the documentary itself
and then I want to get eventhough you covered them in the
doc, I want to talk about someof your reactions being the
first time marathoner, becausewe have so many of those friends
listening and they've heardthis from us.

(51:48):
Now, if it's their first timemaybe not, but they've heard it
from us before I want them tohear it from a different point
of view.
So, Greg, why don't you kick usoff, please, let's just start
super simple here.

Speaker 8 (52:03):
You made a documentary about running your
first ever marathon.
What came first theregistration at runDisneycom or
the idea that you wanted to runthe marathon?

Speaker 11 (52:18):
uh, the idea to run a marathon came first.
Um, I really wanted to.
It was actually, ironicallyenough, two years ago, exactly
where I decided to do one um andinitially and I talk about it
in the doc I wanted to do thenew york marathon.
And, as I'm assuming all of youknow and and the listeners know
you know, it's really hard toget into that unless you find

(52:38):
some loophole or a way offundraising to get in.
And since I didn't get in, Iimmediately remembered that
around that same time frame iswhen the registration was going
to open up for the marathon hereat Walt.

Speaker 6 (52:49):
Disney.

Speaker 11 (52:49):
World and that following week I signed up, I
went to work, I brought inwhatever device I could bring
into work and I happened to workat Disney, so it was fun to
kind of go there and actuallyevery browser I could find I
opened it up when I was in thewaiting queue.
Waiting, waiting.
Yeah, we know the deal.
Yeah, and ironically, I found it, I got one in, and then at that

(53:09):
point, this whole crazy idea,because even before then I was
thinking, could we do adocumentary, was this a
possibility?
And then, once I registered, itbecame a whole reality for me.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
Cool.
I saw that some of the footagein there is Disney property.
Did you work with Disney at allin this?
No, not at all.

Speaker 11 (53:29):
And my wife works in communications so she was
allowed to kind of give me someinsight into what I can and
cannot do and obviously we givecredit and make sure that
they're known their footage.
But yeah, this was allself-made.
You know one person, a coupleof people making that happen.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Wow, our friend Julie wants to know why you decided
to do this.

Speaker 11 (53:52):
So when I was humoring the idea of running a
marathon, what I started doingis watching videos of people's
experiences running whatevermarathon I could find.
Just to kind of get the idea oflike, not only the physical part
but the mental side of howHawaiian people do this, and the

(54:13):
one thing I noticed in themajority of what I saw was they
only really talk about themarathon itself.
They rarely talk about all thework beforehand which, as we all
know, there's a lot, right,there's a much more miles before
the marathon than the actualmarathon itself, and me, being a
first-time runner, I reallywanted to know what is that
experience like?
Great, that sounds great doingthe marathon, but what do I need
to do beforehand?
So around that time, on theside, besides my work at Disney,

(54:35):
I run a small nonprofit forscholarships and our main motto
is really about awardingperseverance to students.
So students who show a lot ofperseverance in their lives and
are able to show that theydeserve these scholarships and
whatnot.
And I figured, well, there's agreat opportunity to not only
tell that side of the story formarathon prep, but also tell a
story within that ofperseverance of the story for

(54:57):
marathon prep.
But also tell a story withinthat of perseverance, right,
someone taking on a task likethis, both physically and
mentally, and wanting to kind ofovercome that for whatever
reason that they have.
And from that point on, it'sreally where this whole thing
sparked and I started gettingall these ideas of like oh, we
could do this, we could do that,and overall that's kind of what
sprung the whole thing.
And now we're here two yearslater, which is pretty crazy.
But yeah, kind of what sprungthe whole thing.
And now we're here two yearslater which is pretty crazy.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
But, yeah, very happy with it.
Well, andres, I've mentionedalready, this is really a
professional production.
It looks great.
Now I think you've hinted alittle bit about it, but what
skills did you bring to thetable before you got started in
this video documentary?

Speaker 11 (55:30):
absolutely nothing really that's the honest truth
so really wow the only realthing that I brought is I'm a
big music fan.
I love all types of music, abig soundtrack buff.
When it comes to that, mostpeople call me a nerd and I, you
know, I studied a little bit ofmusic so I learned how to do
that and I did a couple projectsfor friends who had done short

(55:51):
movies and stuff like that andI've done music for them movies
and stuff like that and I'vedone music for them.
So this was a very bigundertaking for me to take on
kind of the creative side of it,and not only did I do the music
for the documentary, but it wasreally much about producing it
and directing it and coming upwith the story.
So one of my buddies who I'veknown for over 20 years.
He some of the movies that I'vehelped him make.

(56:11):
I brought him as my producingpartner on this say, hey, man,
this is my idea, what can we doto make this a reality?
And as much as he gave me greatinput and helped me get ideas
about equipment and frameworkand all the stuff that I had no
idea what to do about, he gaveme a great foundation to really
say, ok, now that I have thisfoundation, how do I take what I

(56:32):
have in my mind and make it areality?
So I honestly didn't.
I came in with just a bigvision and a lot of hope that
this was going to turn out well.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Well done, my friend.
You, you absolutely would havefooled me on that.
I I would have figured you toldme that you were a film major
in college or something likethat.
Really excellent.

Speaker 11 (56:52):
I'm just a boring engineer, that's all I know.

Speaker 7 (56:57):
So, andres, what would you say is the hardest
part of making the documentary?
What was the biggest strugglethat you had?

Speaker 11 (57:06):
The biggest struggle was, honestly, the audience,
because I didn't want to make adocumentary just on the idea of
running a marathon.
I'm a big Rocky fan.
I love Rocky and for me it'snot just a boxing movie.
There's so much more to that.
Boxing just happens to be thething that evolves around right.
So that was kind of my ideabehind this is yes, this is

(57:28):
about running, and if you are anon-runner, you're going to
learn a little bit about theprocess and what it takes to
prepare for a marathon.
But how do I appeal to thenon-runners without
overburdening them with all thatinformation?
Because I know a lot of peoplewho do not care about running.
They have no ambition to doanything like this.
How do I?

Speaker 9 (57:43):
do that.

Speaker 11 (57:44):
So that was really the struggle throughout the
entire year of making this wholething was like all right, am I?
doing enough of either sidewhere I'm not overly doing it
and I'm going to appeal to allthe different types of audiences
.
And then the only other hardestpart was really, you know, part
one and part two of thedocumentary.
We had months to plan.
We had months to film.
You know we had to do any redos.
We had time to do it.

(58:05):
With part four, which is mainlythe marathon, we had one shot.
There's no redos.
You either get it or you don't.
So there was a little bit ofpressure added to the whole
experience when it comes toactually running the marathon,
with making sure that I goteverything, because that was
technically the climax of thewhole thing is the marathon
itself, so those were probablythe biggest, hardest things to

(58:25):
get over with, for sure.

Speaker 10 (58:30):
So, Andres, how has the response been so far?
And to that as well, Juliewants to know is there anything
that has surprised you from theresponse to the video?

Speaker 11 (58:37):
The response has been very positive.
I'm very relieved by that.
I have had a chance to talk todifferent types of people from
all the different types ofaudiences that I mentioned
earlier.
You know I've had people fromthis community who've run,
who've reached out saying thishas been great, really love how
it came out, made them want tokeep running races, which is
great.
That's awesome.

(59:01):
And then I had definitely hadthe non-runner people who were
like I still don't care aboutrunning, but I was so motivated
by just following someone'sstory and wanting to know what
the ending was and it wasengaging enough to keep them
going and the most biggestresponse that I got was from
someone who told me that youknow, recently they're going
through a little bit of a roughtime trying to figure things out
and the motivation that theygot from the documentary has
allowed them to keep going withwhatever it is that they're
doing, which was great.

(59:22):
I mean, that was kind of thegoal from the very beginning is,
again, I want there to be soulin the whole thing.
I didn't want it just to beabout running.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
So I'm very relieved, honestly, about the response
I'm very happy with it andthat's there for our friends who
are listening tonight andwondering this is my first
marathon, I need some help, Ineed to talk to somebody.
Well, here you go, let'stransition a little bit, and,
even though I do know that a lotof these are answered and are

(59:49):
covered in the video, these arethe kind of things I think are
important to our friends, andthat is actually preparing for
and running the marathon.

Speaker 9 (01:00:00):
So we know that Walt Disney World wasn't your first
choice for the marathon, butwhat inspired you to sign up for
your first marathon, like wasit?
You know, just to do it, loseweight.
You know, just see if I canactually do this.

Speaker 11 (01:00:21):
Around August of 2023,.
I was wanting to get back intosomething physical.
I had just finished a big rolein this other nonprofit that I
was working with, so I had sometime on my hands and you know, I
started thinking about what canI do?
That's new, maybe golf orsomething, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:34):
What could it be?
And then I saw that.

Speaker 11 (01:00:36):
Well, I used to do a lot of running, so that was
something I used to not reallybe a hundred percent disciplined
in, but I knew enough to kindof keep me well informed more
than the average person, I guessand I figured, as much as I had
done half marathons, I had doneother things in the past and I
had done run Disney events inthe past as well.
I had no ambition whatsoever todo a marathon.
But then I figured, well, ifthere's something that's going

(01:00:57):
to keep me committed, if it'sgoing to keep me to have to
train I know it's going to be ahuge thing Maybe doing a
marathon is the thing that I canget into.
So that was honestly the veryfirst thing that got me wanting
to do this.
And then, as I mentioned in thedocumentary, there were a few
personal things that were goingon around that time that I felt
that maybe I just need to getinto something productive, that
I really want to be able to feela sense of accomplishment and

(01:01:20):
the hope was, even though I hadmy doubts that, you know.
Hopefully finishing a marathonwas going to get me to feel that
sense of accomplishment thatI've been urging for for a bit.

Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
Whenever I feel like I need to be inspired to go out
and go and run.
Because, like, especiallyduring the summertime, it is
really hot to go outside and goand run.
Because, like, especiallyduring the summertime, it is
really hot to go outside and getthose long distances in.
Because right now we're in thetimeframe where we're probably
all in double digits trainingfor the marathon right now, and
some of my favorite things toget inspired of are running
videos, running documentaries.

(01:01:51):
I go all in and watching thoseand so it's so exciting to see a
documentary style for the run.
Disney races and marathondistances are just extremely
hard in general, and what youdon't see enough is how training
is and what it's like to betraining for these kinds of

(01:02:12):
distances.
So my question for you is whatwas your training like?
Were there any challenges orsurprises along the way?
How was it?

Speaker 11 (01:02:20):
Oh, I had definitely had my moments.
You know, I didn't want tojeopardize my training for the
sake of the documentary, sothose filming days were just
very spread out because I justwanted to really focus on the
training days.
I didn't want to jeopardizethat.
That was the priority Initially.
Some of the things that reallygot to me is, obviously I wasn't
as fast as I used to be, sothat was the first thing that I

(01:02:42):
noticed.
And you know, as I say, in adocumentary there were some
moments where you see youngfolks running down the trail and
I'm like what happened to me?
What's going on?
But I had to stick to it, youknow.
But you know, I did discoveractually that from the first
couple of long distance runsthat I did, that I had flat feet
, which I didn't know until thatpoint.

(01:03:03):
So my feet were really startingto hurt me initially and I was
like this is not new, I've donethis before.
Why is it starting to hurt menow?
And then I'm going to aspecialist doctor and then he
was able to say nah, man, you'vegot some flat feet.
You need to get some soles orsome decent shoes if you want to
do this marathon thing.
So initially there was alreadythese obstacles along the way
that were going to keep me going, but fortunately they did all

(01:03:24):
the necessary prep, got thenecessary equipment and ended up
doing really well.
But after those first longdistance right after the half
marathon, like 14 miles above,there were days when I got home
and I was just torn down.
I was like I don't know if I'mgonna be able to do this.
I would break down with my wifeto say this just seems too big
for me, I don't know if I can dothis.
And on top of that I got thisdocumentary that I'm making at

(01:03:46):
the same time and all that.
It was just a lot of pressureand honestly, obviously,
pressure that I had on myself aswell.
But like training for amarathon and all that, there are
going to be those down momentsand then at the end of the day,
you just have to remind yourselfwhy you're doing it and then,
hopefully, you get there, which,which, thankfully, you know I
ended up doing that.
But yeah, there were plenty ofdays where, just like I, you

(01:04:07):
know, my pace was slow, you knowoff days.
Off days were general.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
You know, it's always so refreshing to see the
struggles, because that's wherehonesty and humility come in.
And I feel like you don't seeit enough on so refreshing to
see the struggles, becausethat's where honesty and
humility come in.
And I feel like you don't seeit enough on YouTube because you
see people like why do theyjust look like they're just
always on their A game and I'mlike no, it's okay to show that
not everything's a smile.
There is going to be a struggle, it's okay to shed a tear and

(01:04:32):
it's just really nice yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
Yeah, good lesson there.

Speaker 11 (01:04:35):
It's funny because when the moments I was breaking
down, I almost went get thecamera.
This is going to be great forthe documentary.
You're in the moment you can'treally think about those other
things, yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:04:45):
The day has come.
So I guess you said you work atDisney, so you know the Disney
atmosphere, but what was yourfirst impressions of the run
Disney marathon weekendatmosphere?

Speaker 11 (01:04:59):
It was massive.
I mean, even though I had donea couple of those, I've done the
minor ones, but the marathonwas just a whole different beast
.
And it's funny because thatSaturday my wife ran the 10K.
So you know, that's great andthere's enough people doing that
.
But I don't know if it was me,but I always remembered back in
the day when I ran for thosefirst ones, that the marathon
would always take a couple daysfor it to fill up, and then when

(01:05:21):
I did the one here, in 15minutes it was already gone,
already gone, yeah.
So the amount of people thatwere there, I was just like this
is insane and but againorganized again.
It's funny when I see it day today at work and then when you
see it for this weekend and yousee how it immediately shifts.

(01:05:41):
I was just so impressed withthe amount of logistics and all
the things that they do to makeit happen, but the atmosphere of
how people are just so excited.
It's funny because I mentionedin the documentary how I didn't
care what other people weresaying, they were so happy and I
wasn't, because I was just sothinking about getting this
whole thing done.
But it just creates a greatatmosphere to want to do this,
you know, and there's thecharacters and there's the amp

(01:06:03):
you don't find this anywhereelse, right, you don't find-.
Oh, I agree, assholes and allthat.
It's just a unique specialexperience for sure.

Speaker 10 (01:06:19):
So, having done other run, disney races and then
coming into marathon weekend,it's its own element, um, and
you get to see that in thedocumentary.
I really appreciate that, um.
You get to walk through thesteps of everything, um, but was
there anything that reallysurprised you at the expo, um,
and how do you feel going intothat expo before actually
getting to the race day?

Speaker 11 (01:06:37):
to that expo before actually getting to the race day
.
What's funny was for the expo Itook time from work and I ran
and I drove over there to theESPN building just to just to
get footage that my first partof the day was footage
documentary because my wife wasgoing to leave work at the end
of the day to come meet me.
Then we were both going to goget our bibs and do the whole
official stuff.
So I spent almost the entireday at the expo.

(01:06:58):
My nerves just went up fromzero to 90 pretty much.
I was just like this is so bigand I don't know.
I think I wish.
I think with the pressure ofgetting the documentary done, it
probably took a little bit awayof the overall experience, but
I think overall I'm glad that Iwas able to capture something
that I didn't.
I don't think I've thedocumentary done.
It probably took a little bitaway of the overall experience,
but I think overall I'm gladthat I was able to capture

(01:07:19):
something that I didn't I don'tthink I've seen before in other
videos where you actually see,you know the whole process of
getting your stuff and feelingthe nerves with the whole
situation and everything andthat was the whole thing.
I wanted it to be real.
I didn't want to like you guysmentioned earlier, like I didn't
want it to be a video where itjust showed all the niceness of
it, Like you're going to get it,but you're also going to get.
this is the real part.

(01:07:39):
You know there are people thatare going to be nervous about
this and you don't really seethat and I felt it there.
I was like, is anyone scared?

Speaker 9 (01:07:46):
Like am I the only one that's feeling this right
now?
I'm pretty sure I'm not, butyou know what things for sure.

Speaker 11 (01:07:59):
So what day did you go?
Did you go on the uh first dayor, since your wife was doing
the 10k, did you go thursday?

Speaker 9 (01:08:02):
I went the very first day.
I think that was the wednesday.

Speaker 11 (01:08:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah I got there, first things, I
wanted to get some merch as well.
So I was there with the virtualqueue and everything, um.
But yeah, we wanted to geteverything done because
originally the plan was we weregoing to drive, because I live
in Orlando, but we were going tostay overnight at one of the
resorts because it just makesthings easier to just wake up
and go straight to the marathon.
And the plan was that Saturdaywe were going to go ahead and do

(01:08:29):
all the bib stuff and filmeverything.
But, as you guys know, the expostuff they close early.
So we're like we're not goingto have enough time, we're going
to be rushed.
So we decided to just do itduring the week, get it all done
, we're not gonna be rushed,we'll get all the merch that we
want, great.
So yeah, we, we wanted to takeadvantage of that and then get
it out of the way and just worryabout what we needed to worry
about later all right, andres,I'm going to flash forward now

(01:08:49):
to part four of the documentary,which is the actual race itself
.

Speaker 8 (01:08:56):
You eloquently put it in in the video, but talk to
the listeners about the thoughtprocess and the emotions that
were going through your head asyou're crossing the starting
line well, the reality was I wassaying some words I probably
can't say on here, but I was.

Speaker 11 (01:09:15):
I was very much freaking out a little bit.
For sure.
I was going like, wow, this isactually happening.
As exciting as it was to bethere with all the people and
you have the announcers and youhave all the fireworks.
Everything was going on.
When you cross that finish line, the reality is now like you
are now in the marathon and Ikept telling that the first mile
I was like I'm running amarathon, this is it, this is

(01:09:36):
everything you know.
I don't know about you guys, butfor me, from that point before,
it was a year of thinking aboutit, prepping for it.
It's all in this one moment,right.
So a lot of nerves, a lot offear, but ultimately, like I
said in the documentary, I justhad to think about my pace.
I had to think about mystrategy, that I had already
come up with running and walkingand all that and just go from

(01:09:59):
there and sticking to that andreminding when I need to film
what I wanted to film during therace.
All that stuff was happening.
So, as I mentioned before, Ithink the added pressure of the
marathon was on me as well.

Speaker 7 (01:10:13):
It's on top of the nerves of doing my very first
marathon.
So, um, you mentioned this inthe documentary, but, um, what
were some of the moments thatyou struggled during the race
and how did you push throughthem?

Speaker 11 (01:10:26):
so there have been a couple um.
The first really was I don'tknow what it was, but after mile
one I really need to go to theI don't know what it was that
got me.
So that was the first thing, andluckily we were getting into
Epcot so I was able to find adecent bathroom to get that
taken care of.
But the second hardest part wasdefinitely after mile 13.

(01:10:48):
I started feeling very nauseousand I had never, ever, felt
that before after a race.
So I was getting a littleconcerned because I my, my, my,
my fuel.
I wasn't changing anything.
I didn't change anything.
I had tried everything and Ialready figured out what I
wanted to take with me and thishad worked.
What's going on?
And the only thing I can thinkabout that was the cause was
really, um, probably just thenerves of everything.

(01:11:12):
And on top of that, as you guysknow, they give you nothing but
powerade besides water, andit's that lemony, lemon type one
that I don't really like.
So I don't know.
It was that combination witheverything that I was already
taking that maybe did something.
I honestly don't know, but thatwas a little bit of a moment
that I was a little concernedwith, but I was able to kind of
get over that pretty quickly.
Um, and then I don't know aboutyou, but I kept hearing that

(01:11:34):
that that stretch between AnimalKingdom and Blizzard Beach is
just that long nothingness.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
Treacherous yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:11:40):
Yeah, it's just.
Yeah, it was a pain and that'sthe only part I regret not
filming.
But again, I was so in themoment that I was just like I
need to get through this hurdleto get to the next part of it.
And everyone was hurting and,like I said in the documentary,
there was a person there thatwas hurting just as much as I
was, but we both were like let'sjust keep going.

(01:12:01):
We know this is part of it, go,go.
And that, for me, has been thebest part of the whole
experience.
Is that community of peoplewanting to you guys doing this
podcast, wanting to educateeverybody Like is this community
has been so unique and sorewarding to get me to the end.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
That was such a great part of the whole thing.
Absolutely All right.
So you had some troubles on thecourse.
Any favorite spots on thecourse?

Speaker 11 (01:12:26):
Obviously, running through the parks is amazing.
I mean, that's just a uniqueexperience, you know, especially
when you work there, Likeyou're always there and you're
walking around To be able to run.
It is so unique.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
I haven't asked you yet where do you work?

Speaker 11 (01:12:40):
I work on the food and beverage line of business.
I'm a program manager there.
We're the ones that develop allthe crazy ideas of the new food
and beverage things coming upat the parks here in Orlando.

Speaker 8 (01:12:50):
You were the one that made the decision to put the
octopus tentacle in that drinkat Beacon Barrel.
No, no, but I know who did?

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
yeah, I was going to go with the pickle milkshake oh,
the pickle milkshake.

Speaker 11 (01:13:05):
I know exactly who did that.
Um, that's pretty cool, yeah.
Yeah, it's a really cool jobfor sure, um, but yeah, so
there's definitely that part.
And then then there's the partwhere, I mean, everyone's going
to say, magic Kingdom, runningthrough the castle is such a big
highlight with the people.
And it's funny because I didthe half marathon before in 2020
at Disney and I don't think Iappreciated it at that time than

(01:13:30):
I did this time around, maybebecause of the whole experience
side of it experience side of itbut it was such an amazing
moment and we highlighted in thedocumentary in a special way
because, like we need tohighlight this, this is a cool
moment to have everyone cheerfor you.
That's, that's the best part.
Um, I'm a star wars nerd, sorunning through that one
particular road is I mean, comeon, that's really cool.
Um, and I don't even think Irecorded much of that, I was

(01:13:52):
just watching everything's going.
This is so cool.
And then that last stretchbetween Hollywood Studios into
the finish line, just gettingback into the parks having all
the crowds and finally realizingthat you're about to finish, I
mean the energy was so high forme at that point that I finally
started enjoying the marathon atthat point.

Speaker 4 (01:14:09):
So now that we're talking about finish lines, one
of my favorite things to watchare the people's reactions
crossing the finish line.
So I'm just curious what werethe kind of thoughts that were
coming through your head asyou're crossing the finish line?
Your emotions, what were youfeeling?

Speaker 11 (01:14:26):
I was really hoping they were filming the whole
thing.
That was the first thing I wasthinking of.
Oh no, it was, like I said, ayear of thought, said a year of
thought, of year of preparation.
I remember leaving around themission space area of epcot
realizing I'm about to do thatfinal real turn in the back lot
and all that I started feelingvery emotional about the whole

(01:14:48):
thing.
I was like, wow, this is it?
Like there's no, even though mywatch died around that point, I
was just like I don't care,we're about to do this, you know
, know, let's go for it.
And it was all kind of fate andI mentioned in the documentary
just being able to get near thefinish line and see my wife pop
up in the stands.
I was like this is the perfectmoment to be able to have that

(01:15:09):
in the crowd of people that arethere, right.
And then, when I crossed it,the relief of like this is done,
but not in a bad way, just likewow, I accomplished this thing.
Wow, the doubt, all that justwent away immediately and it was
just the amount of happiness ofbeing able to be done with it
and getting to see my wife andwe're both happy with the whole

(01:15:31):
experience that we wanted toshare in that victory it was a
mix of things.
it was bittersweet and it wasdefinitely then welcomed by an
unwelcomed almost wanting tothrow up again Cause I was just
like, wow, this is not good.
Then I just caught up becauseI'm pretty sure they're filming
me.
So I'm like, let me not try todo that right now.
But yeah, a lot of emotions,definitely a lot of emotions for

(01:15:51):
sure.

Speaker 4 (01:15:53):
How did you celebrate , cause I mean, this is a long
time coming.

Speaker 11 (01:15:57):
You better celebrate big, man I had so many plans, I
had so many thoughts of what toeat and unfortunately we got
home and I jumped right into thenice bath just to kind of get
my body back into some normalcy,and I went right to sleep,
sleep, so I didn't get tocelebrate that night.

(01:16:18):
So then following day I hadtaken off work so I knew I
needed to recover a bit and thenI said now let's go to my
favorite colombian restaurant,let's get the biggest dish that
I could get, and I ate thatthing, followed by the best food
coma of my life.

Speaker 4 (01:16:31):
Wait what's your favorite restaurant?

Speaker 11 (01:16:34):
it's a colombian restaurant that's near here.
It's near Lake Mary, where I'mat.
Oh okay, yeah, very good.

Speaker 10 (01:16:39):
So you did such a great job with this documentary,
but if you were to have done itover again, is there anything
that you would do differentlythis time?

Speaker 11 (01:16:49):
I want to be honest with you guys.
The proudest thing about thiswhole thing was, I would say,
about 90% of it came out exactlyhow we had hoped.
So it's very hard to say thatthere's really anything I would
change If I had more resources.
I mean I would have loved tohave gotten a drone, maybe got
some cool aerial shots.
That's more of like nice tohave, more than anything you

(01:17:12):
know.
But you know, the wholeexperience has been so
creatively fulfilling outside ofthe marathon side of it all,
because I never really share mycreative side.
So this is a new thing for meto be that vulnerable, to allow
that side of me to come out ofit, and especially the music
side, because I don't know if Ihaven't told much many people,
but I had about almost 90percent of the music already

(01:17:34):
done before we filmed anything,because I had all these ideas
coming to me and I was just like, let me put it somewhere and
then ultimately, what ended uphappening is I ended up using
that as a blueprint.
So I knew, based on the musicand the vibe, I know how to film
this, I know what I want forthis moment.
I know all these things.
So when we started editingeverything, it was just a matter
of taking the pieces andputting it together Right.

(01:17:56):
So, editing everything, it wasjust a matter of taking the
pieces and putting it togetherright.
So for me, again, verycreatively fulfilling.
I don't know if I would go backand do anything different.
Um, it will be more resourcesthan anything to be able to get
more creative, but other thanthat, I'm very, very happy how
it turned out.

Speaker 10 (01:18:10):
So, with that same question, is there anything that
you would have done differentlyfor your first marathon if you
could do it all over again?

Speaker 11 (01:18:18):
I would enjoy it more.
I think I was just so nervous.
And with the added pressure ofit.
Of the documentary, I just,yeah, I wish I would have just
absorbed it a little bit more.
To be honest with you, and Iremember watching the footage
back, I don't remember parts ofit.
I don't remember going to thebathroom in that car.
It was just this whole thingthat just went by so quickly and

(01:18:42):
I wish I would have taken morepictures with characters.
You know the whole thing.
Yeah, just the kind of the basicyou people, you would expect
from people from that run thedisney races.
I think I would have.

Speaker 8 (01:18:51):
I would have taken it a little bit more for sure all
right, I'm going to shift backto the documentary itself here.
Being a video and audio editormyself, I I always want you to
try to find subliminal messaging, or or why was that edit made
for that particular reason.
And there was one thing thatstuck out to me, and now I need

(01:19:12):
to talk to the creator himselfIn all of your interview footage
.
For the first probably houranytime we saw you talking to
your producer, your footage wasblack and white, but right at
the end the footage is color,corrected from black and white

(01:19:36):
to color.
What was the reasoning behindthat aesthetic choice?

Speaker 3 (01:19:41):
I know, I know, I know the house landed in Oz.
Ah, okay, I didn't think ofthat.

Speaker 8 (01:19:47):
That is literally it.

Speaker 11 (01:19:49):
Good, good, good, good, good guess.
Um, so the idea.
So I'll tell you a bit of thebackstory.
So initially that would be theone thing that changed
drastically from the verybeginning with the interview
stuff because the idea was we'regoing to film me at different
points of the trainingthroughout the year of how I'm
feeling about everything andeverything, all that and their
first couple attempts were justawful.

(01:20:10):
I came out very flat, very likethis is just doesn't seem
appealing whatsoever.
The setting was all wrong.
I just I was not happy with it.
So I told everybody let's justsave the interviews for the very
like after the race, where Ihave time to reflect.
And we turned the wholeinterview side of things as more
of a reflection than anythingelse.
So then we it gave us time to bea little bit more creative.

(01:20:31):
So we ended up getting abackdrop and all this, all that
stuff.
And I said, wouldn't it be coolif, since it's a reflection,
it's black and white, as ifwe're telling the story, but
then when we finally get to theend and we're in present, it
goes into color.
So we're now in today.
That was just a quick lastminute.
Let's just go into that switch,show all the color with the

(01:20:52):
metal and the ears andeverything, and then slate the
black for the ending.
So that was really the onlyreason we did that very nice,
that's cool, that very creative.

Speaker 8 (01:21:01):
All right.
So now that the race is done,the documentary is done, what's
next for you?

Speaker 11 (01:21:09):
Ironically enough, in about a day or two I'm
heading out to California.
Very good, I'm going to bedoing the Halloween half there.
We go.
Might as well get done thecoast-to-coast.
Might as well do that.
Yeah we'll be there.
Me and my wife will both bethere.
I'll be racing, she'll bespectating.
We'll be at the expo on fridayand then disney all day on

(01:21:32):
saturday and obviously on sundayfor the race.
So if anyone happens torecognize us, we'll be there um,
but immediately.
That's kind of it.
After that we're just gonnakeep doing our normal routine
and the holidays are cracking uppretty quickly now, I guess.
So just trying to take it easy.
This has been a big two-yearjourney for me.
It's.
It's consumed a lot of my time,so I'm happy to to take it easy
.
This has been a big two-yearjourney for me.
It's consumed a lot of my time,so I'm happy to share it now

(01:21:52):
and have people watch it andtalk to you fine folks about it
and see, kind of let it livewhat it has.
It's meant to live however itis.
So yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:22:00):
You talked about, you're doing this with your wife
.
So how supportive was your wifeduring this?
Because I know you're going outthere, you during this, because
I know you're going out there,you're running probably five,
six hours on a weekend gone.
Things aren't getting done athome.
How supportive was she duringthis whole process?
Very, supportive.

Speaker 11 (01:22:19):
I honestly do not think this experience would have
been done without her.
Any idea I do, and I try to saythis as a good husband.
I talk to her before I do it,so if she gives the go-ahead, I
go, okay, great, because I knowthis is going to take time.
It's going to be a commitment,for sure, and the personal
reasons that I mentioned indocumentary so much are related

(01:22:41):
to her as well, so she knew thebehind the scenes, how important
this thing was going to be forme and ultimately for the both
of us.
So she was very, very supportiveof the whole thing and was such
a trooper some days when I said, hey, I really want to get this
footage.
Is there any way you can maybecome out with me?
You can take the bike.

Speaker 9 (01:22:59):
You can be creative as well.

Speaker 11 (01:23:01):
I'd be happy if you can kind of throw in your ideas
as well.
And she did.
She was a trooper.
She took the bike one instanceand rode it for 13 miles as I
was doing my 13 mile trainingrun, and she was there.
And even on the day of themarathon my producing buddy had
gotten sick and, as you allrecall, it was freezing that
weekend.
So I said, hey, man, I'd ratheryou be home getting better,

(01:23:24):
because I do not want you to getout here and stand hours in the
cold and get worse.
Right, she took up thatresponsibility.
She went to Magic Kingdom, shefilmed all that aspect of it and
she went around and did whatshe needed to do for the
documentary, and some of thebest shots in the documentary
are thanks to her.
So to really, the ending, whereyou see both of us hug after I

(01:23:46):
finished the race, in my honestyis the culmination of the
support that she gave me, whichis why I was like I'm going to
leave that in there becausethat's it.
That's the whole point of thiswhole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:24:01):
So, yeah, I couldn't for sure have done it without
her.
100%, wow, say that.
I certainly hope our friendswho are running for the first
time take advantage of watchingthis and getting an idea.
Again, it's some of the thingswe've said before, but Andres
does a wonderful job.
That question that John had atthe end there.
Nobody does this alone, nobody.

(01:24:23):
You have to have support.
It's there.
And I want to tell yousomething, my friend, that I sit
and listen to you.
I sit and watched your videoand I've if all goes well, I'll
complete my seventh Disneymarathon this year.
The emotions do not change allthat much.

(01:24:48):
That's something else that Ithink is unique to run Disney.
I'm still going to choke upwhen I go down Main Street.
I've been down Main Street Idon't have the numbers in front
of me About 15 times, countinghalves and princess and all that
.
It's like the first time everytime.

(01:25:10):
And the finish by golly get tothat gospel choir.
Oh baby, what a feeling that isseeing those folks there.

Speaker 11 (01:25:22):
Yeah, and I can't wait to experience that over
there in California and see howunique that one is.
I haven't done that one overthere, so it's my first travel
race, so I'm really excited todo that Look.

Speaker 3 (01:25:32):
Thank you, my friend.
Thank you for filming this.
Thank you, I think you've donea really, as I said in the
beginning, just a terrificprofessional job with this.
I'm blown away that this isreally your first effort in
something like this.
It's fantastic.
It hit home to me anexperienced Disneyland guy,
disney run Disney guy but Ireally think it's going to speak

(01:25:58):
to our friends who are doingthis the first time and I think
it's going to help them maybe,maybe settle some nerves, maybe
answer some questions.
Maybe they didn't even knowthey had these questions and
you're going to be able toanswer them for them.
So we wish you a lot of luckwith it and we thank you for
joining us.

Speaker 11 (01:26:12):
Oh, and I thank all of you for having me and
indulging my email, and I'm abig fan, so this is.
This has been a pretty coolfeeling for sure, so I hope to
see you guys in Cali at anypoint and, yeah, good luck as
well to your races, for sure.
Thank you.
Caution runners.
The topic is about to changeright now.

Speaker 3 (01:26:31):
Well, I enjoy talking with Andres and I hope, if
you're out in California, get achance to say hi to him.
That'd be pretty cool, and Ihope to see him at Walt Disney
World and, gosh, who knows,maybe I'll run into him over at
the park one of these days.
Friends, it's time for thefirst roll call, the first Rise
and Run roll call of the2025-2026 race season.

(01:26:54):
Now, for those of you who arenew to this, the way this works
is that we call your name, wecall first names.
Only when we call your name, weexpect you to stand up and
remain standing until everyone'sname has been called for that
race, and then we'll give youall a big round of applause and

(01:27:14):
you can have a seat.
So, without further ado, I'dlike to start the roll call.
I'd like to start byrecognizing again our friend Rob
, who does a great job trackingthings for us.
He sent us the numbers that wehave for this year's Halloween
races and, again, I don't know,once you get out there, there

(01:27:37):
may be more folks than this outthere, but we have a total of
and I'm doing math in my headreal fast is 133 names.
That's maybe 60% of what we hadlast year we're down in all the
races except for the halfmarathon.
Last year we had 22 names there.
This year we have 29.

(01:27:57):
And that's including the kidraces.
So I'm going to start with thekids races.
We've got three folks enteredin the kids race.
Aiden is going to be doing hisfirst run Disney event, emmy is
doing her first run Disney eventwith her mom, taylor, and Mason

(01:28:21):
is doing his first run Disneyevent with his mom, kayla.
Now we had four people whosomehow on Facebook said to us
I'll be there, but they didn'ttell us what races they were
running.
So Courtney, jennifer, julieand Mandy will be there.
If you see him, say hi, askthem what races they're running.

(01:28:43):
Let's head to the Chills andThrills Challenge.

Speaker 10 (01:28:49):
So Andrew will be there.
Angie, anita Anna's doing theCoast to Coast.
Bethany Brandi with an I.
Brandi with a Y.
Brooke doing her first Coast toCoast and first half marathon.
Carolyn and her daughter doingthe Coast to Coast Challenge.
And Chase Carolyn and herdaughter doing the coast to

(01:29:09):
coast, challenge and chase.

Speaker 8 (01:29:10):
We also have Chris, Cindy Davis, Dina Divya and she
is doing her coast to coast andit's her first time at
Disneyland.
Have an awesome time.
We also have Ellen, Emil, Erica.
We have two Heathers One willbe rolling and one will be
running and Holly.

Speaker 9 (01:29:29):
We have Jackie, we have Jeff doing coast to coast
and first Disneyland.
Two Jennifers, both doing theirfirst Disneyland and coast to
coast.
We have Karen, we have Kate, wehave Catherine, we have Katie,
first coast to coast and firstDisneyland.
Katrina coast to coast andfirst Halloween challenge.
Three Kelly's one with herhusband, dave, one who is very

(01:29:54):
tall and one who is doing theirfirst Halloween challenge and
first coast to coast.

Speaker 4 (01:30:00):
All right.
Then we have Kazay, who's doingtheir second Halloween
challenge, kristen, laura andcoast to coast and First Time
Disneyland.
That's amazing.
We have Lauren, who's alsodoing their first Disneyland
race and Coast to Coast oh,that's going to be a lot of fun
and doing the 10K on her 40thbirthday.

(01:30:21):
We also have Lisa we gotMargaret Mary, melissa, morgan,
first Disneyland and Renee Roz,sammy Shannon.

Speaker 7 (01:30:34):
We have Sonia Stacy Steven is doing his first Coast
to Coast, sylvia is doing herfirst Run, disney Challenge, sin
is doing her first Coast tocoast and first Disneyland.

Speaker 3 (01:30:52):
And Taylor All right, so that's it.
That's the coast to coast, notcoast to coast.
That's the Halloween challenge.
Runners from Rise and Run?
All right, y'all can have aseat now.
Let's now look at those who aredoing the half marathon.

Speaker 10 (01:31:11):
First off, we have Alan and Grace Andres, who is
tonight's guest, doingcoast-to-coast, anna, brandy and
Thomas, coast-to-coast Brianna,coast-to-coast Brittany,
coast-to-coast Carol, cheryldoing coast-to-coast, chrissy

(01:31:32):
and Christine doing Coast toCoast and First Disneyland.

Speaker 8 (01:31:35):
We also have Cindy Courtney with Coast to Coast and
First Disneyland Race, dorothy,coast to Coast, duncan, also
Coast to Coast and FirstDisneyland Race In the same boat
.
We also have Elizabeth FirstDisneyland race in the same boat
.
We also have Elizabeth firstDisneyland race and coast to
coast.
Aaron is also doing coast tocoast and first Disneyland.

(01:31:57):
John, first half marathon andcoast to coast.
Jonathan and Kayla both doingcoast to coast and Lori.

Speaker 9 (01:32:07):
Okay, we have Lindsay doing coast to coast.
We have three.
We have three Lisa's Lisa D,lisa S doing coast to coast and
Laurie Okay, we have Lindsaydoing coast to coast.
We have three Lisas Lisa D,lisa S doing coast to coast,
lisa W, megan doing her firstcoast to coast and this is a
redemption run for Megan,michelle and Patrick.

Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
And those are our Disneyland Halloween half
marathoners.
I hope you're having fun, gang.
All right, you can take a seatTime for the Halloween 10K
runners.

Speaker 4 (01:32:39):
All right.
So we have Cassie, fred,giselle First run Disney race,
you're going to have a blast.
We got Jackie, kristen andTracy, leslie, molly Phaedra,
who's also doing her first runDisney race, and Ryan.

Speaker 3 (01:33:01):
Not a whole lot of folks just doing the 10K,
because a lot of folks are doingit in the challenge 10K is a
fantastic run out there atDisneyland.
All right, let's wrap this upnow with the Halloween 5K
runners.

Speaker 7 (01:33:16):
We have Allison, andrew, angie, anna, bethany,
brandy, brooke, carolyn and herdaughter doing coast to coast,
cassie and Chase.

Speaker 10 (01:33:34):
We have Cindy C, cindy L Davis, dina, erica,
heather Holly, who's kicking offher perfect season, jackie
Jennifer doing first race of aperfect season, and Karen.

Speaker 8 (01:33:53):
Kazay is also running her first race in an attempt at
the perfect run Disney season.
On both coasts we have ourbuddy, laura Ann Lindsay, lisa
London, margaret Morgan Parisrunning their first 5K, riley
and Roz.

Speaker 9 (01:34:13):
Rounding out the group.
We have Stacy, stephen, sylvia,sin and Taylor, and there we
have it.

Speaker 3 (01:34:21):
The 5K wraps up our Rise and Run Roll Call of racers
for Disneyland Halloweenweekend.
We have one more item.
Our buddy Margaret is doing theyoga.
All right, margaret, all rightfriends, we all hope you have a

(01:34:44):
fantastic run, disney raceweekend.
Now don't forget I know I'vesaid it already if you're going
to the roll call golly, I'vedone this podcasting thing
before I know how to speak, Ipromise.
Anyway, when you go to the Expo, stop by and say hi to Jeff.

(01:35:04):
Will you Tell him?
We said that you had to do it.
You won't regret it.
And if Chris Twiggs is there,say hi to Chris also.
Let's see.
Please don't forget the meetupat two in the afternoon on
Saturday in the picnic areawhich is directly outside of the

(01:35:27):
entrance to Disneyland.
If you're looking at theDisneyland entrance, turn left
to the 10 o'clock position.
In those tall hedges over thereare the picnic area.
You'll have a good time.
I promise Caution runners.

Speaker 8 (01:35:46):
I just wanted to pass along some news and notes in
terms of the the rise aroundfamily, because you know, we, we
care about each and everysingle one of you and and want
to be able to provide supportand and and celebrate as well
too.
And two, two noteworthy itemscame across our radar this week.
The first is we want to, fromeveryone here at rise around, we

(01:36:07):
want to send out ourcondolences to our amazing
friend, devin.
She posted on social media overthe weekend, uh, that her
father had passed away.
And, devin, we, we areabsolutely gutted for you and
and you have played such aninstrumental role in this
podcast, from creating our logoto being a guest several times,

(01:36:30):
and you're just having awonderful collaboration,
especially last year at marathonweekend during the the run fit,
fab pop-up and everything likethat.
Again, we are here to supportyou every single step of the way
in terms of this healingjourney and we are just so
incredibly sorry for you andwe're thinking about you.
And, again, if there's anythingthat we can do, please let us

(01:36:50):
know.
But on the flip side of things,we also want to send out our
congratulations Our buddy,hannah over at the Stride
Sisters podcast.
We found out over the weekendas well, got engaged, and we
were just chatting with her theother day about some some news
that we're not ready to announcejust quite yet, but it was very

(01:37:14):
cool being able to chat withher, uh, the other day and find
out this exciting news as well.

Speaker 3 (01:37:19):
So, uh, all the best in your wedding planning and I
guess, if you need any advice,talk to jack all friends, this
is not a Zoom Thursday, but nextweek will be, and next week
should be a fun one, becausenext week we'll be able to talk
Bird in Hand, we'll be able totalk Disneyland, we'll have all

(01:37:41):
sorts of neat things.
So mark your calendar for, notthe 4th of September but the
11th of September, for our nextZoom, Upcoming episodes in the
next two weeks.
Speaking of those two big raceswhere lots of rising runners
will be in attendance, we'regoing to recap both of them, so

(01:38:01):
we hope you will enjoy those.
And now, Please stand clear ofthe door.
It's time for a race report therace report sponsored by our
friend Thomas Stokes of StokedMetabolic Training.

(01:38:24):
Tom just wrapped up hiseight-week summer challenge.
I'm hoping I haven't talkedwith Tom about it yet.
I hope he's available.
I'm hoping he'll join us nextweek to tell us about that and
to tell us what else is comingup with his training plan.

(01:38:44):
Stokesfit slash Rise and RunCoaching is the site if you want
to check it out, especially nowif you've just finished your
series and you want to stay withTom.
That's the way to go.
Get in touch with him or headto that site stokesfit slash
riseandruncoaching and check itout, starting on Saturday this

(01:39:06):
week in Belmar, new Jersey, notfar from our buddy John Yep.

Speaker 9 (01:39:12):
Belmar.

Speaker 3 (01:39:13):
It's not far from you , is it John?

Speaker 9 (01:39:15):
It's probably about 45 minutes Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:39:19):
So considering not on a Jersey shore weekend, it's
not.
Yeah, I was going to say 45minutes, considering Jersey
traffic has what?
Eight miles or something.

Speaker 9 (01:39:27):
It's like, it's like I-4.
If you hit it right, you'refine, I know Are you going to
stay parkway on a summer in thesummer.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
It could be three hours.
Okay, all right.
So that's where Belmar is,friends.
If you were wondering, michaeland Terry were there looking
resplendent in their Rise andRun race hats Really good
weather this weekend.
This race offered prize moneyso it attracted a kind of fast
field, a little intimidating.

(01:39:59):
Terry and Michael did theirbest to ignore those fast folks
and run their own race.
It was their first five-milerace so they both PR'd.
Terry blew away her previousbest paces for any distance, let

(01:40:21):
alone a five miler.
She beat her 5k pace by 20seconds per mile, beat her 10k
pace by a minute, 16 per mile.
This pr in the five miler.
And, as we said, her husband,terry pr'd also.
Kelly was there.
Kelly said there were greatcrowds cheering everybody on,
playing great music, plenty ofwater stops that's always

(01:40:45):
helpful.
Kelly loves running for a greatcause and the medal doubles as
a bottle opener.
We were talking about that lastweek Bottle opener medals.
Here's another one Kelly'sfirst five-miler gang.
So good job, kelly.
In Baltimore, the third part ofthe B3 Challenge, third and

(01:41:11):
final part, the Charles Street12-Miler.
Kelly was there, as was ourwill-run-for friend Tom.
I know this is a favorite raceof Tom's Runs from Towson,
maryland to Camden Yards inBaltimore, net downhill, lots of
opportunities to run fast, runfast.

(01:41:33):
I don't understand the term,tom, but okay, I'm sure it means
something to you.
Good job, tom used it as acatered training run.
He's getting ready for MarineCorps coming up in a couple of
weeks.
That's not this weekend, no,it's a couple of weeks, same
weekend as uh one and nine.
Yes, thank you.
It sure is.
Tom was able to maintain hispace, his target pace,

(01:41:56):
throughout and, as I mentioned,he affirms at the end here this
is one of his favorite races ofthe year yeah, way to go, tom,
super, super proud of you.

Speaker 8 (01:42:05):
And I also know his wife, uh, diana, was there as
well too and I gotta say readingyou know I know she didn't post
a race report, but just seeingher post in general really made
me emotional because she hadshared a story about apparently
aaron had finally been like youknow, I'm gonna run this race,

(01:42:26):
and obviously she didn't havethat opportunity.
And in her honor, diana woreone of Aaron's skirts and tank
tops for that race.
So in theory she was there andyou know, again crushed her
goals and again we're just.
We're so proud of our friendsover at a will run for yeah,
it's very touching.

Speaker 3 (01:42:45):
I'm glad she was able to do that.
I'm sure it meant a lot to herDiane too.

Speaker 8 (01:42:50):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:42:52):
Oh, let's see.
Our friend Brooke was at theMission Resort and Club in Howie
in the Hills, florida, doingthe run.
The Resort 5K Avery did the runfor the river half in
Schenectady, new York.
Really good weather.
First few miles on a road, last10 miles on a bike path through

(01:43:15):
the woods next to the river.
To me that sounds prettypleasant.
I hope it was.
This was Avery's and this is abig deal.
First ever sub two hour halfand a six minute PR.
Great job.
Yeah, that's one of thosebenchmarks.
At two hour half that's a bigdeal, all right.

(01:43:39):
Charleston, west Virginia, theCharleston distance run.
Ileana's son, carter, on Fridayran and earned a medal and
snacks at the kids race.
Way to go, carter,congratulations.
Now mom Ileana ran a 15 mileron Saturday, nervous for this

(01:44:03):
one because of the hills.
Imagine hills in West Virginia.
Whoever heard of such a thing?
The biggest hill?
I would not like this.
The biggest hill in Charlestonis appropriately named Capital
Punishment Hill.
Ilyana says what truly testedher were the last three miles.

(01:44:25):
They were flat, never-endingroads leading to the football
stadium where the finish linestood.
What helped her was hersupportive husband, stephen, and
the kids cheering her on, thewonderful volunteers and the
friends that she saw along theway.
Good run, ileana and Carter.

(01:44:47):
I don't want to forget Carter.
In Vieira, florida, monica andthe Chaos Crew, plus friends,
were at the tailgate to Myler.
All of the Chaos Crew kidsimproved on last year's time and
Monica's oldest daughter beather Shh, don't tell anybody.

(01:45:14):
No, actually she demolished herby 14 seconds anyway.
First place age group for herdaughter, first place age group
for monica and for two of theirfriends in their respective age
groups.
The after party included pizza,wings and beer, as all proper
tailgate events should, and tonsof awesome giveaways, including

(01:45:35):
an autographed football and ablackstone griddle, none of
which went home with Monica orthe crew.

Speaker 8 (01:45:42):
Oh, that would have been a heck of a prize to come
away with.
Yeah.
I'd take a blackstone over amedal any day of the week.

Speaker 3 (01:45:50):
Or a football A.
Blackstone over a football Medalfootball kind of a toss-up.
All right, let's see.
We've been to Charleston, nowwe'll go to Charlottesville,
virginia, charlottesvillewomen's four-miler.
Lillian ran that one In Canadaon the runway at the Waterloo

(01:46:12):
Regional International Airportin Breslau, ontario, the Runway
2025,.
Phaedra did a five-miler.
This is Phaedra's first racereport and first five-mile run.
For one of those you get a PRbell.
Beautiful day, 12 degreescentigrade, let me think let's

(01:46:34):
see that's going to be about low50s in Fahrenheit and sunny.
The medal is a spinningpropeller, which is kind of cool
for an airport run, fun tofidget with on the way home.
Next up, our first run Disneyrace.
This weekend in California, acouple of runners in

(01:46:54):
Gaithersburg, maryland, for theKentlands-Lakelands 5k run walk.
Divya was there One of herfavorite races, mostly because
she grew up in that area.
Running the challenge thisweekend meaning she's running
the challenge at Disneyland.
So she tried to use this one asher mind of the marathon or

(01:47:16):
workout that was on her trainingplan.
Managed to run one negativesplit.
Didn't get the second one,that's OK.
The third mile was mostlyuphill.
That makes it tough to run anegative split.
Still proud of herself forholding back on the first mile.
Good, a negative split, stillproud of herself for holding
back on the first mile.
Good job, divya.
We're proud of you too.
Danielle was there, ran thisone.
This was her first year runningthis one and she loved it.

(01:47:38):
In Carmel, indiana, the IndyWomen's Running Festival, julie
ran the half marathon, kathy ranthe 5K.
We take you now to Manahawken,new Jersey, john.
Yes, that's down south.
More Okay For the Manahawken.

(01:47:59):
I got that.
How about Barnegat FireDepartment?
Does that sound right?

Speaker 9 (01:48:04):
Yep, barnegat, bay, barnegat.

Speaker 3 (01:48:05):
Fire Department stop, drop and run 10K.
Kayla and her dad, dominic, didthis one.
Kayla's goal she was lookingfor a new POT for Princess
Weekend.
Before the submission deadline,shooting for a one-hour 10K
finish in 58-13.
That's awesome.
That's a five-minute PR and anage group second-place finish.

(01:48:27):
Outstanding Kayla, dominicfinished just a mere two seconds
behind Tougher age group.
For Dominic, though, hefinished age group four, which
is still excellent.
Andrew was in Pittsburgh forthe Steelers 5K.
He recently got a treadmill tohelp him with training.

(01:48:48):
It felt a lot better to getback out with other people and
other runners.
No pr, but this is his best 5kas a dad.
Greg, he wants to know if thatcounts for a pr bell what the
heck?

Speaker 8 (01:49:01):
why not?
Although I will follow up thatPR bell with go birds.

Speaker 3 (01:49:08):
That's fair.
Yeah, I think it's.
I think it's good.
First, best, best time as a dadCongratulations, andrew.
The Choctaw Labor Day 5k inTuscahoma, oklahoma, sari, her
sister Emily and their aunt allran it together.
Great day to run with theChoctaw tribal community.

(01:49:31):
Morning temps were cooler thanthey'd been cooler than average.
Their aunt completed her first5K and Emily and Sarah both PR'd
theirs.
Now I snuck in one weekendevent already, but here's

(01:49:51):
another one.
Alexis, in Virginia Beach,virginia, did the Live the Life
Challenge On Saturday.
He did a 5k.
The weather was really greatand she PR'd that 5k.
Then she had a 10 miler onSunday.
This is her second 10 milerafter springtime.
Surprise Started off runningand walking for a mile and she

(01:50:18):
got to mile eight where she hadto go back over the Rudy inlet
bridge, which apparently is astruggle.
The last stretch miles nine and10, she was ready to be done,
but she got to the boardwalks,walked till she had about a
tenth of a mile left, then ranto the finish line where, by
golly, she also PR'd Two PRs ina weekend.

(01:50:38):
That's great, alexis, good job.
Okay, let's move to Sunday.
Go up to the Panhandle,pensacola, florida, for the
Wildcat 100.
And our friend Ashley is herefor the Race Report Spotlight.
Hi Ashley, how you doing.

Speaker 6 (01:50:59):
Hey Bob and gang, and I already know what question
you're going to ask.

Speaker 3 (01:51:04):
First, how could you possibly know?
How could that be?

Speaker 6 (01:51:09):
I know, I know, but how did I start running A lucky?

Speaker 9 (01:51:13):
guess what do you think, John?
She put one foot in front ofthe other and got faster and
faster, and that's how shestarted running.
Is that how it started?

Speaker 3 (01:51:23):
You could say yeah absolutely Tell us your story,
Ashley Go ahead.
Yeah, absolutely Tell us yourstory, Ashley Go ahead.

Speaker 6 (01:51:29):
So I started back running springtime of last year.
I had some friends that weredoing a bunch of the Run Disney
races that I had worked with,and she actually was wearing a
spirit jersey one day, and so Ikind of inquired about it and
from there I signed up for thechallenge and I just I started

(01:52:01):
running.
At the time I was alreadytraining for a physical agility
test that I was having to do atwork and it kind of just bled
over and so we did springtime ofI believe so it's 2025 now so I
did springtime of 24 and fellabsolutely in love with it, got
my mom on board, she startedwith me and we've done

(01:52:22):
springtime wine and dine andthen we'll be back at wine and
dine this year.

Speaker 3 (01:52:27):
That's great.
You've led me to anotherquestion what kind of line of
work requires a physical agilitytest?

Speaker 6 (01:52:33):
So actually at that time I was in law enforcement
Okay that makes sense.
Yeah, since then I actuallyhave moved over to teaching, and
so now I am a sixth grade mathteacher in Pensacola.

Speaker 3 (01:52:48):
That requires a whole different kind of agility.
I think Correct, A whole newlevel of physical Correct,
that's pretty good.
Well, you're going to tell usabout this race this weekend.
It was an ultra.
Why don't you tell us about itplease?

Speaker 6 (01:53:05):
So I did the Wildcat 100.
I specifically did the 50k umand it's something I've trained
over the entire summer for umdoing, of course run, walk, run,
um.
I really honestly, when jackdid her 100 I think I was

(01:53:26):
listening to that episode andwent on ultra sign up and
started looking at races thatwere like near me and I found
this one that was, of course, inAugust and I was like that's
what I'm gonna do.
I was like, if you actually doit?
And after hearing Jack's likefull story, I was like I am a
thousand percent going to do it.
So I spent a lot of my summerthat of course I'm a teacher, so

(01:53:48):
I had it off um running and Ihave a set of twins and so, like
I would push them in thestroller, I would do all the
things just to get prepared.
And so race day finally camearound.
It was a little wet and alittle bit more than money, but
it was a fantastic race day andI um was able to pick up a pacer
two pacers actually.

(01:54:10):
One was my sister, which shedoes not partake in running, but
she did a few miles with me,and then one of my good running
friends and fellow churchmembers was able to come out,
and she did 13 miles with me, soI was very thankful.

Speaker 3 (01:54:25):
Oh, great, yeah, Was this a looped course, ashley
with me, so I was very thankful.

Speaker 6 (01:54:30):
Oh great, yeah, was this a looped course, ashley?
It was a looped course, um, andI think of it as loopy looper,
um, because it was a half mileloop.

Speaker 3 (01:54:45):
Um, oh wow, Half mile loop Two and a half, so two and
a half Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:54:46):
Okay, good, that's a little better.
Yeah, it was a two and a halfmile loop, and so half of it was
like I would say a little lessthan half, was paved road and
then the remaining was like freetrail running, and so it took a
lot of grit and determination,but it was really nice being
able to like see friendly facesevery single time you went
around.
Everybody was so encouragingand I think that's it really

(01:55:10):
brought back like a good runDisney vibe to the course,
because everybody was just sohappy, so friendly Each time you
went around.
They were always so encouragingand that was really nice.

Speaker 3 (01:55:21):
How was support on the course?

Speaker 6 (01:55:24):
It was fantastic.
And so, um, I want to like bragon the race directors and the
people that actually put on thatrace.
Um, they, whenever we went andgot our packet on that like
Friday night, they had handwrote me a note, um and put it
in the packet, just likewelcoming me to like the Wildcat

(01:55:46):
family, um, welcoming me justto like the ultra family in
general, and so that was verylike touching, just from like
just a handwritten letterstandpoint, you know.
And then today, once I got home, they had mailed out a card
that just said thank you forlike joining the race.

(01:56:06):
We're so excited to cheer youon.
And so the support wasfantastic.

Speaker 9 (01:56:12):
There's another story you forgot to tell us.
I guess also that you posted upabout.
You have a special, anotherincentive.
You have something else youmaybe want to share about this
race that you won.

Speaker 3 (01:56:24):
She has no idea what you're talking about, John.

Speaker 6 (01:56:37):
No idea whatsoever, ashley, tell us about your
weight loss journey.
And I knew I needed to, like,start making a change, and I
knew that I was not going togrow up my children in the
healthiest way possible.
And so my mom started just kindof leaning towards a way of

(01:57:00):
losing weight.
She was diagnosed with diabetesand such and I saw my life
going down that path and Iabsolutely did not want to go
down that path my own self.
And so, like, slowly but surely, I started doing all the things
you need to lose weight andI've been able to lose over 80
pounds, and my mom has been ableto lose over 100 pounds herself

(01:57:24):
.

Speaker 3 (01:57:24):
Oh, that's great.

Speaker 6 (01:57:26):
And running has just played such a big role in it,
and I truly do not believe thatI would have been able to go the
30.
I actually did 33 miles um,there's a little overage there
but I don't believe I would havebeen able to do that without
having the weight loss that Ihave, and I'm just so thankful
for that no, I think you'reright and, by the way, john, we
were both messing with you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:46):
She knew exactly, but we she?
figured as she wrote it I thinkshe knew she was playing along.
I don't know.
I'm just going.
I like your virtual fist bump,ashley.
There you go.
Nicely done.
Hey.
That's a great story.
That is really, and I thinkit's motivational.
I know we have other friendswho I don't want to say struggle

(01:58:08):
that's not the right word buthave same goal, have the same
goal to drop some pounds.
I need to drop some pounds.
It's not unusual and I applaudyou for it.
It's not easy and you've done awonderful job.
So congratulations for that,thank you.

Speaker 9 (01:58:22):
So, Ashley, I think you said you'll be coming down
to Wine and Dine this year.

Speaker 6 (01:58:28):
Yep, I will be back down at Wine and Dine this year,
although that's not thefavorite Springtime is the
favorite but I will be at Wineand Dine.

Speaker 9 (01:58:37):
Anything else, or just because of school it's
tough to get off.

Speaker 6 (01:58:41):
Yeah, no, oh goodness .
There's so much on the racecalendar, so any of the Atlanta
Track Club races me and my momalways go down and partake in.
So I'll be doing those alongwith.
Because Princess Weekend andAtlanta Marathon falls on the
same weekend, we will be goingto Atlanta, so I'll miss out on

(01:59:01):
Princess, but of course I'll beback for springtime.
Here's a, here's a reallyinteresting question have you
ever run a marathon before?
I have, so I did AtlantaMarathon this past year, which
was fantastic as my firstmarathon and probably one of the
hilliest marathons in America.

Speaker 3 (01:59:20):
It can be.
Atlanta can be really hilly.

Speaker 9 (01:59:22):
I was just thinking okay, she did a 50K.

Speaker 3 (01:59:26):
Obviously she did a marathon.

Speaker 9 (01:59:28):
She did a marathon, but then you but did you're
doing?
The fish didn't stop, yeah,didn't stop, yeah, so just kept
going.

Speaker 3 (01:59:33):
Yeah, that's great.
Well, look, ashley.
Thank you so much spending sometime with us on the race report
spotlight.
Great job on your first ultra.
We'll be sure we'll be sure toput a pr bell in there somewhere
and and listen.
Congratulations to you, and toyour mom too, on getting that.
You know, dropping your weightand getting more to a healthy

(01:59:55):
weight.
That just is going to benefityour lifestyle tremendously.

Speaker 6 (01:59:59):
Thank you all, thank you all.

Speaker 3 (02:00:00):
The big one on Sunday was in Sydney, australia, the
Sydney Marathon.
Now I know a bunch of folkswent and ran that one, but the
only person putting in a reporton the Rise and Run Facebook
group page is Carrie.
I've invited Carrie to join usnext week for the spotlight to
tell us all about it.
She'll be here for that, but inthe meantime, this was Carrie's
10th marathon, second worldmajor.

(02:00:22):
She PR'd this one seven minutePR.
This was that's great.
This was that's great.
This was apparently not an easyone.
Coming from Florida, this wasthe hardest and hilliest
marathon she's done.
Started with the 515 group ledby Chris Twiggs and stayed with
them for quite a while, finishedat about 520.

(02:00:43):
Good job, carrie.
We look forward to hearing moreabout that.
All right, let's go toCharlotte, north Carolina, for
the Around the Crown 10K.
Missy did this one for thesecond year in a row.
Wait a minute now.
This is the second year in arow that she ran a week post a
COVID infection.
So she's thinking that maybesigning up for this run is

(02:01:08):
cursed for her.
I would say so I don't post it,come on, all right.
Well, I'll tell you what.
Missy signed up for it againnext year.
We'll be sure to watch and andwe'll be rooting for you Still
went, had a great attitude,sparkles on her face and a smile
that's the best way and sheshared a bunch of photos in her

(02:01:31):
posting, including one with anew friend.
She's posing for a photo and afellow that she does not know at
all I don't know if you sawthis picture or not, it's kind
of wacky Gets next to her andposes right next to her.
But Missy said well, if you run, you know he must be my friend,
and went on with that attitude.
Way to go.
Proud of you.

(02:01:51):
Missy Kristen was also therefor that race.
Let's go to Tupelo, mississippiMade a 14.2 mile run there.
Spencer did it.
This race, of course, tupelo'sin Elvis's birthplace.
The slogan of the race istrample the weak, hurdle the
dead.
Okay, yeah, they always use askull and crossbones on the

(02:02:17):
metal and this year had an Elvistheme, so Elvis was in the
middle of the crossbones.
Hey, spencer had a good run14.2 mile or hour and 50 minutes
.
Hour and 5-0, 1-5-0 for 14.2.
That's you know.
You can do the math.
The way this works is they havea marathon and a half marathon.
Now the marathon goes out andgoes to a turnaround point and

(02:02:40):
comes back for the 26.2.
At that point you're already at13.1.
This 14.2 takes you 1.1 back tothe start, so that's why the
unusual distance.
But that's a great race,spencer.
Good job.
In Fairfax, virginia, our friendJennifer did the Donut Dash 5K.

(02:03:02):
I'm chuckling because Jenniferhas spent a great deal of the
summer whipping her body intoawesome physical shape.
She'd been doing a lot ofbodybuilding and lifting so I
think this donut dash may havebeen a reward.
She's back in marathon trainingnow and Jared Jennifer is also
a good runner.

(02:03:22):
So let's see, this race was ona hilly course so she did some
speed work at kind of tempoeffort midway.
She was midway through a longrun.
She did three miles before andthree miles after, making a
total of nine ran this one in 22minutes 36 seconds.

(02:03:45):
See, I told you she was prettygood runner, first place in her
age group.
Not an all-out effort for her,but still a good run.
Definitely happy with it.
And that's impressive, jennifer.
Nice job.
Andrew did the Bound for BostonHalf Marathon in Atlanta,
georgia.
He was wondering if he'd getclose to his 16-year-old PR or

(02:04:05):
at least get a run Disney POT PR.
Or at least get a run DisneyPOT.
Didn't get the PR, did get thePOT finished third in his age
group.
You know, earlier in thepodcast we were talking about
recoveries.
Andrew's a year out fromcompletely rupturing his
hamstring, so within a year he'sback to a POT Andrew.
That's pretty darn good.

(02:04:26):
Let's finish up on Monday, whichwas a holiday here in the US.
It was the Labor Day holiday,the traditional end of summer
holiday weekend.
And for a traditional Americanholiday, what better place to
kick off the Labor Day raceweekend than in Philadelphia,
pennsylvania.

(02:04:47):
For the Labor Day 5K, sean.
Another week, another race,another PR.
Nicely done, sean.
This time the 5K along KellyDrive and the Parkway in
Philadelphia Next week.
Well, we're running either incentral Pennsylvania or
California.

(02:05:07):
Sean is going to be running atthe airport in Philadelphia, so
if you're on your way to or fromDisneyland you might be able to
wave see Sean running down therunway.
Yvette was at that 5K also.
It was free and you got a medal.
Did you know they had a freerun in Philadelphia, greg?

Speaker 8 (02:05:25):
No, I believe.
If I read the report right, Ibelieve this was the inaugural
event for this, so this one wasdefinitely not on my radar ah,
okay, uh, let's see wasn't a pr,but she pr'd a few segments
according to her garmin.

Speaker 3 (02:05:40):
You know how that works.
She felt strong.
I think that's wonderful.
Again, this is a pretty part ofthe city.
It's a nice course.
It ends Sean described where itran.
It ends at the base of thePhiladelphia Museum of Art steps
, a classic place to end aPhiladelphia race, the base of

(02:06:01):
the Rocky steps.
Who was it?
It was Andres earlier talkingabout Rocky being one of his
favorite movies.
It's my favorite movie of alltime.

Speaker 8 (02:06:11):
I really wish, though Originally they had the Rocky
statue at the top of the stairs.
Yeah they did, and then theymoved it down off to the side.
Maybe it was just a congestionthing.

Speaker 9 (02:06:24):
They actually probably was Before that.
They had it at the top of thestairs, Then they moved it out
in front of the spectrum for awhile yes, they did, you're
you're correct then, I think,when they brought it back.
They put it down below, becauseit's not really art.
It's movie prom.
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 8 (02:06:42):
All I know is any race that I've ever been to that
starts and finishes at the artmuseum there is always a run
disney adjacent line for you tobe able to get your photo uh,
with your medal in the statue sowhy not?

Speaker 3 (02:06:55):
why not?
All right, let's go to macon,georgia.
The macon's labor day road race10k.
Andrew did this one.
You may know andrew better asthe puppet runner this.
This is Andrew's favorite LaborDay tradition.
It's fun running with friends,going by familiar places like
his church and the theater atwhich he'll be performing in

(02:07:20):
Into the Woods later this week.
Beth was there, they say.
The course is mostly flat anddownhill, except for the three
or four brutal uphill portions,the temperatures were much
cooler than they were inprevious years.
Her son high-fived her as shegot to the finish line.

(02:07:41):
Then she enjoyed a pumpkinspice protein shake to kick off
off Run Fit Fab official dopeytraining season.
Hoping for a proof of time,missed it by oh, five seconds,
beth.
That's rough, you'll get itnext time, beth.
Catherine was there.

(02:08:03):
Even though she started out notfeeling strong, she managed to
shave seven minutes from herprevious PR and earned this PR
bell.
And the last Labor Day race wasup in Walpole, massachusetts,
the Labor Day road race.
Heidi and her oldest son did it.
Her son's just started running.

(02:08:25):
This was his first race, sospecial for both of us special
for mom and special for sonbecause it's a PR.
He did great.
It was fun to run together.
And finally, a little specialhonorable mention Our friends
Kay and Sam ran their very ownvirtual 5K at Walt Disney World.

(02:08:51):
Congratulations everyone.
That wraps up the race reportfor episode 206 and brings this
episode to a close.
My friends and if you run, youknow you are our friend it's
been a pleasure a long this time, but let's say we're getting
into the longer training miles,so we hope we can be with you

(02:09:14):
for maybe just a little bitlonger.
Good luck, stick with it,remember I think we're getting
into the hard part of all this.
If we're getting ready to runfor the January races, you're
starting to head into the hardpart.
It's a long way from when youstarted.
The end line's not in sight yet, but by gosh, this is where the

(02:09:36):
hard work comes.
This is where you make themoney.
We're starting to see some ofthose fall PRs.
So keep it up and happy running.

Speaker 8 (02:09:55):
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 healthcare provideror event organizer.

Speaker 1 (02:10:15):
From start to the run .
Together we shine like themorning sun.
Rise and run, we rise and run,we rise and run.

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