210: Inside the World of Disney Adults: A Conversation With AJ Wolfe

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_06 (00:45):
Hey, friends.
Welcome to the Rise and Runpodcast.
I am on the way home from myfirst 50K in Pensacola, Florida,
and I just wanted to encourageeverybody to say that you can
always do it.
And I thank my Rise and Runfamily for getting me here
today.

SPEAKER_09 (01:02):
Thank y'all and happy running.
That, my friends, was Ashley.
Ashley joined us after her first50K in Pensacola, Florida, a
couple of weeks ago.
Thank you, Ashley, for takingthe time to do that and send us
that intro.
We appreciate you and weappreciate you, my friends.

(01:23):
We're glad you're here andwelcome to episode 210 of the
Rise and Run Podcast.
I'm Bob.
I'm here this week with Greg.
Hey, hey, hey.
I had to look twice because itsaid Bob, but it's Craig.
Inside Story Friends.
Alicia.
Hello.
Jack.
Hiya.

(01:44):
And John.
Hey, how are you doing?
I'm doing good, John.
Thank you for asking.
I appreciate that.
Hey, friends, this week,interesting, fun, and
entertaining guest, AJ Wolf.
AJ recently wrote a book.
Maybe you've heard of it.
She's the author of DisneyAdults.
We take a deep dive into that.

(02:05):
And we also talk to AJ about herDisney food blog.
In the race report spotlight, itfinally came about.
We're talking with our friendswho did the Berlin Marathon a
couple of weeks ago.
And because we're at the firstof the month or close to it,
this is the first podcast ofOctober.

(02:25):
We highlight another charity, inthis case, the Parkinson's
Foundation.
Our friend Andrea joined us totell us about that worthy cause.

SPEAKER_11 (02:35):
If you enjoy the Rise and Run Podcast, please
share us with your friends andintroduce them to the Rise and
Run family.
We want to share in their RunDisney journey.
So please remember to follow uson Facebook at Rise and Run
Podcast and Instagram at Riseand Run Pod.
Check out our YouTube channeland visit our webpage, Rise and
RunPodcast.com.

(02:56):
If you guys have any questions,comments, race reports, or just
want to introduce an upcomingepisode, go ahead and call us at
727-266-2344 and leave us arecorded message.

SPEAKER_07 (03:07):
We also want to thank our patrons whose support
helps keep the Rise and RunPodcast rising and running.
If you'd like to join thePatreon team, please check out
patreon.com slash rise and runpodcast.

SPEAKER_09 (03:18):
Thank you, Jack.
You talked about the YouTubechannel.
Anything new there?

SPEAKER_11 (03:21):
Yeah, we'll be having an episode coming out on
Saturday.
And guess what?
It's all about vacation races.
Oh, if you guys are interestedin that or want to learn more
about them, it's going to be afun video.
I'm very excited, and I can'twait to share it.

SPEAKER_09 (03:37):
We've had a couple people do them recently, and of
course, we featured them on anepisode a little while back.
Sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
The Rise and Run Podcast is sponsored by our
friends over at Magic BoundTravel.
And I think it was a pretty busyday for the agents over there
because Disney announced a wholebunch of discounts this past
week.
And uh, John, you were tellingus a story just before we
recorded about you were able tosave some money on your room for

(04:06):
springtime surprise.
Uh, it looks like uh there'ssome room discounts uh that span
from the end of February throughthe end of April.
So if you're looking to maybesave even more money on your
race recations during PrincessWeekend or Springtime Surprise,
be sure to contact your agentover at Magic Bound Travel.

(04:30):
They can get you that noobligation quote.
Or if you already have areservation booked with them,
they could always rebook youpotentially into one of these
packages to save you uh somedough that you know maybe could
get put towards uh a future RunDisney race cation.
So again, visit magicboundtravel.com for all of your
Disney and Rundisney travelplanning needs.

SPEAKER_09 (04:52):
Thank you, Greg.
All right, my friends, let'stake a look at the training
schedule.
Wine weekend three weeks away,three weeks from today is Expo
Day.
Are you getting excited?
I'm excited.
I'm excited.
I always think back, and I tryto put myself in the shoes of

(05:14):
our friends who are doing thisas their first Run Disney race.
And this is an exciting time.
Now, right now, you're in week15, so you've got four miles
with a magic mile on yourtraining schedule.
Next week, you'll have your lastlong training run for wine and

(05:35):
dine, and then once you put thatone to bed, you'll know you can
do it, and it's time for thevictory lap.
So I hope I hope you're excited.
I know we are we're excited tosee everybody again, but let me
let me move on with the trainingschedule before I get you know
too excited.
All right, marathon weekend 14weeks away.

(05:58):
We're in training week 14.
Numbers are piling up.
We knew that they would.
Here we go.
If you're doing the dopey orgoofy challenge, you're doubling
up with five and a half milesfollowed by 15 miles.
Five and a half walk, 15 runwalk, if you're doing the
marathon, 15 miles.

(06:21):
And ta-da! We add this week theDisneyland half marathon
weekend.
This is the first week oftraining for that event.
In fact, training started on theday we recorded Tuesday.
Most folks do Tuesday, Thursday,Saturday.
But it is this week.

(06:42):
This is the first week oftraining, so you have as a long
run this weekend, it's threemiles.
Let's see, when does the nextone start?
Princess doesn't start till theend of October, so we got about
four weeks before that trainingstarts.
And the other thing, I'm lookingat advanced dining reservations,
and nothing coming up now untilNovember.

(07:04):
Uh let's see.
Oh, you know, we're only umwe're only 200 days away from
sailing on our first ever Riseand Run cruise.
No way.

SPEAKER_11 (07:15):
Wow, very crazy.

SPEAKER_01 (07:18):
I mean, I I just saw everyone celebrating that we're
under 100 days to Dopey.
Now the fact that we're 200 fromthe cruise, that that's wild.

SPEAKER_09 (07:25):
It's actually, and again, I always base this on
Thursdays, actually 201.
But come on, you know, I'm I'mgoing with the round number
while we're here recording.
200 days.
Yeah, we're getting here, kids.
All right.
So we talk about training, wetalk about the numbers.
Let's talk about how yourtraining's going.
Greg, how's your training going?

SPEAKER_01 (07:46):
My training is going fantastically, and it's an
exciting time.
So this uh this past weekend, Ihad uh five miles with a magic
mile.
So I got to my local track, andit was for some reason, again,
you know, even though we're inOctober now, it you know, there

(08:07):
are days here where it stillfeels like summer and it kind of
feels soupy.
So I was gonna I was wafflingbetween if I wanted to do a
magic mile or a magic half mile.
And after my warm-up and likethe first lap of the magic mile,
I decided, you know what, I'mgonna I'm gonna cut this at two
and get the half mile, help keepmy data consistent because the

(08:27):
last couple times I've donethis, I've done this as a half
mile.
And I always hold my breath whenI hit the lap button because I'm
always curious as to how it'sgoing to compare to the last
time.
And I remember when I did twomagic miles ago, I the whole
time I'm running it, I'm like,oh, I'm smashing this and I'm

(08:49):
gonna get all these new paces.
I know the fish.
And then I looked down and itwas literally the exact same
time.
So I was like, well, yeah, yeah.
So I mean, great, not thatthere's anything wrong with
that.
No, there's not.
So I I was trying to temperexpectations for this one, and
again, it was a magic half mile.
And when I compared my stats uhwhen I was done with the five

(09:12):
miles, and I I went back throughmy my watch app to try and find
the last time I did this, Iimproved by 15 seconds on the
magic half mile.
In the half, yeah.
In the half, correct.
And so I was jubilant.
I was like Elton John, I was arocket man, I was an astronaut,

(09:33):
I was up in cloud nine, I I waslike, this is amazing.
This weight loss journey hasbeen amazing, this running
journey has been amazing, andthen realization said in holy
crap, I'm gonna get even fasterpaces now.
And and that is borderlineterrifying.
Yes, it's good.

SPEAKER_09 (09:50):
Yeah, no, it's good, it's good.
You're doing a wonderful job.

SPEAKER_01 (09:54):
Thank you, Bob.
But I will say conversely,though, even though it does
terrify me, I have been on thispodcast now for weeks saying
that you know I'm like dealingwith this quasi imposter
syndrome because you know, howam I gonna be able to maintain
this?
And I think this is the weekwhere I gotta tell my monkey

(10:18):
brain to to shut the heck upbecause I have proof in the
pudding now that yes, I can, atleast at shorter distances, be
able to do this and be and besuccessful in it.
Yeah.
So I took that excitement, Itook that jubilation, um, and I

(10:40):
went out and I registered for arace today.
Initially, I was looking for10k, like I talked about last
week, to try and get that POT,and I couldn't find anything
super appealing.
I found one, but when I lookedat last year's results, it had
like a total of like 150 peopleat it.
And I wanted something, youknow, a little bit more of a
beefier race and have those youknow, built-in like phantom

(11:03):
pacers with you, you know, onthe course and such that you
know to help motivate you.
And then as I was doing mysearch, I found a race that I
had done years and years ago.
I'd done in the past, but it'sbeen a long while, and today I
signed up for the Rocky run thathappens here in Philadelphia.

(11:24):
Yes.
So uh what's cool about theRocky Run, when I first did I
did the inaugural year and itwas just a 10K, and for the
longest time, that race wasactually my 10k PR, but now
they've adjusted the the eventto the extent where now it's two
events.
There's a 5k that happens first,and then they do a 10 miler, or

(11:46):
you can do both events and theycall it the Italian Stallion
Challenge, which I think isreally cool.
But I decided for this case, I'mgonna do just the 10 miler so
that way I can, thanks to ourfriend Amanda over at Once Upon
a Marathon, I looked at hergraphic, I saw the time that is

(12:08):
the quote unquote unofficial 10mile time to get the POT that is
the the two and a half hour orfive-hour marathon equivalent.
And so between the new pacesthat I got from Coach Twiggs and
the estimated finish time, andthat time, I get like a

(12:28):
16-minute buffer.
So that that just has me jazzedthat you know maybe I can get
something locked in and have agreat POT for two years.
So knock on wood that uh that Iget that.
But yeah, I'm just over themoon.
Uh, just so thrilled.
And and before I finish up onthis little soliloquy here, uh,

(12:50):
I just want to go and thank uhnot only the Rise of Run
community because everyone hasbeen very supportive of me in my
journeys uh here in 2025, but uha special shout out to the
Galloway customized uhcommunity.
When I shared this news on thecoaching call today, the the
shock and awe and happiness inCoach Twiggs' eyes was awesome.

(13:16):
It it just made me feel so good.
And then everyone else that wasstill in that call and you know
leaving encouraging messages inthe Zoom chat, or people who
were sending me Facebookmessages or text messages, you
know, just congratulating me andtelling how proud I was.
And you know, we even hadsomeone saying that I was now
their inspiration.

(13:36):
I was on the verge of tears thismorning.
You know, they they never cameout, but I I was I was close,
and um, it just goes to show howspecial all of these communities
are and how much they mean tome.
And I just wanted to take somemore time to just extend that.
Thanks.

SPEAKER_09 (13:52):
Yeah, this well, first of all, great job.
Secondly, uh I'm a little upsetwith you because I used to be
able to run with you now.
I uh and um but back in the day,I'll go back a couple years, I
was at about those times myself,and I will tell you that the
Galloway pacer, the Gallowaycalculator uh for me was really

(14:12):
accurate.
Up up to up to about a halfmarathon.
I think uh you know, I'm abigger guy, you're a bigger guy,
although you're getting smaller.
Uh I think that those longerdistances it doesn't equate
right as quite as well.
Uh and I'm talking fullmarathon.
The other thing amused me todayis that when everybody was
trying to do the math and figureout what your time was,

(14:34):
everybody they're doubling anumber and coming up with an odd
number.
And I'm going, you if youmultiply something times two,
it's going to be an even number.
It has to be.
Oh, I think it's 803.
No, it's 807.
No, we figured it out.
Uh, but congratulations, Greg.
That's great.

(14:54):
Keep it up.
You know, if you I get it inthat this is uh new territory
for you, but I'm confident thatthese numbers are right.
They work, they've been provenover years.
And I think you're gonna I thinkyou're gonna do great and have a
great proof of time, and thenyou'll have to wait for me at
the end of the race.
You owe me that, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 (15:15):
I do, I do owe you that.
Absolutely, I do.

SPEAKER_07 (15:17):
So I've been kind of in a similar place of this
imposter syndrome with my pacesrecently.
Um, having taken those twomonths off with having hurt my
back, um I really focused ondoing a lot of strength training
for my legs and doing um that umyoga and and really

(15:38):
rehabilitating my body.
And when I came back intorunning, I happened to be
faster.
I I didn't really do anythingdifferent.
Um and at first I was like,okay, it's just coming back in.
And I've consistently seen thepaces and like you, Greg, I I
almost didn't feel like Ideserved that.

(16:03):
Um because how could I go fromrunning one pace a few months
before that to what I had runyears prior?
Um but with the consistency andand really taking the time to
enjoy my training, um, and likeI talked about last week, um,

(16:23):
just enjoying what is around meand my surroundings, I'm I'm
realizing that um I can do thesepaces and um really, really
grateful for what my body has tooffer and um just continuing to
be really excited for what thisseason has to offer and um
excited to see what I can do atMarathon at well, at Marathon

(16:45):
weekend too, but at Wine andDine.

SPEAKER_09 (16:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
The consistency in training, thewords you said there is
something I want to emphasize toour friends who are we're
starting to see, we see it everyyear as we get closer to the
races.
I'm nervous, I'm scared.
Uh you're allowed to be nervous,you're not allowed to be scared.
There's nothing to be scared of.
But we all know that theconsistency in training, if you

(17:08):
do the training, I promise, Ipromise, you'll enjoy this
weekend.
You have a good time.

SPEAKER_13 (17:14):
I got out again this weekend to train uh Thursday.
I went to my ortho, got my gelshot.
So basically they recommend youdon't run on those for at least
24, 48 hours so that they Iguess they don't leak.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_09 (17:30):
I don't know, but yeah.

SPEAKER_13 (17:31):
Yeah, so I follow that recommendation.
Went out, went out Saturday,Saturday afternoon, because you
know, I I should just get out inthe morning because it's still
summer up here for some strangereason.
81 degrees uh you know, 12o'clock.
Uh got out there and ran andlike but I felt really good and

(17:53):
I realized when I got home I didnegative splits in all my uh
good job and all my paces.
So everything's looking good.
I think uh everything's working,and this week I've been working
uh strengthening uh my my quadsin my hams to keep the uh the
knees uh supported.

SPEAKER_09 (18:10):
Outstanding.
By the way, it's 81 degreesright now here at uh at quarter
to 10 in the evening.
Um Jack, how are you doing?
You're having problems with yourhip.

SPEAKER_11 (18:22):
Yeah, I still am.
I so I talked to Tom about it.
We have some exercises to tryand help and like habitate it,
and so we're gonna do more likeabductor, adductor exercises.
We have some 90-90 stretches,and so I'm just gonna continue
doing that every other day andsee if it gets better.

(18:45):
We I started doing that about aweek ago, I think, a week or so
ago.
So yeah, we're gonna see if thathelps.
Um, but I also am like lookinginto getting this product called
Aletha that Adam had suggested.
It's supposed to help um diginto your psoas muscle and help
release part of that tensionthat's around your hip that's

(19:05):
really hard to get.
Um, so and I've heard that helpswith a lot of hip issues and
back issues.
So I'm gonna wait and see aboutdoing these exercises currently
and then see if I want to investin this little Aletha hip opener
kind of deal.
Um, if I get it, I'll leave areview.

SPEAKER_09 (19:25):
Okay.
Okay.
Do you have to pay Alicia a a uha dividend, a royalty?

SPEAKER_11 (19:31):
I mean, I could.

SPEAKER_09 (19:33):
All right.
All right, I was just curious.
No, I hope you and look, uhinjuries are I'm not laughing.
It's tough.
So I'm I'm glad you're doing allright.
Uh got out this week and had 10miles on my schedule.
And uh let's see, first of all,I don't I don't get on holler
hype all the time, but I didthis time.

(19:54):
And I I thank you very much, allthose you who sent hypes.
I appreciate them.
One of the things that I want todo when I get a hype is I want
to hype back and go, oh thanks,I appreciate it.
But you really can't do that.
Uh so I I'm not gonna mentioneverything, but I wanted to
single out that Jessica, yourdaughter, I think it was Ellie.

(20:18):
Ellie, thanks for the joke,sweetheart.
It made my day, and everybodylooked at me on the trail and
asked, why is that grown mansitting over here laughing while
he's supposed to be walkingaround on the trail?
So thanks a lot, Ellie.
I appreciate it.
I wanted to pass on, I've beentrying to pass on lessons I
learned in this round ofrecovery.

(20:41):
And this one, I I said to CoachTwiggs this morning, I'm in
uncharted territory here.
I'm not sure how to handle thisparticular procedure, but
everything's going all right.
But I tend I really don't tryto, but sometimes I overdo it.
And I do think I got into theoverdo it phase last week when

(21:07):
during the week I tried to runmy weekday uh training sessions
instead of just walking.
I tried to run a little bit, youknow, run walk.
And uh I'm not I don't think I'mready to do that yet.
So I just walked the 10 miles,and my message for this week is
we hear it all the time, and I'mthe worst at doing it.

(21:29):
Alicia's always telling me, Bob,listen to your body, and I'm
going, I don't know what you'retalking about.
And my surgeon said, You gottalisten to your body.
I'm going, Yeah, sure.
But you do, you gotta and whathe said to me, I I'm not I'm not
aggravating anything that'swrong, but I I could be delaying
the healing.

(21:49):
So sometimes you just have toaccept reality and dial back a
little bit.
And that's what I after sevendecades, I think maybe I'm
starting to learn.
I'll get there.

SPEAKER_11 (22:04):
See, I feel you, and I feel like I'm over I've
honestly it's probably why myhips are the way they are,
because I've been overdoing itso much with really pushing
hard.

SPEAKER_09 (22:14):
So it's easy to do, Jack.
We all we all tend to do it.
But you've got to face you know,I always talk about owes and
injuries.
You can run with an owie, butyou gotta stop with an injury.
But the point is you have toknow the difference.
So so that's my message for now.
I got 12 miles on the schedulethis weekend.

(22:36):
I'm going to walk it.
I'm going to walk it at areasonably relaxed pace, but I'm
I don't think I'm going to runany.
I ran a little bit this morning,but not much.
And if I can walk all of Wineand Dine, and I can walk fast
enough to keep up with theballoon ladies, uh I'm going to
that's going to be a success,and then we'll take it from

(22:58):
there.
Caution runners, change of topicahead.
Hey friends, uh Wine and Dinemerchandise was released today.
Do we have any comments on thewine and dine merch?

SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Bob, we'll let you go first.

SPEAKER_09 (23:17):
That's all right.
You know what?
Here's the truth.
I looked at it, and there's alot of this stuff I looked at
and went, oh, that looks prettynice.
But I don't buy sweatshirtsbecause I don't wear sweatshirts
here in Florida.
I'm I'm not joking.
I might wear them a total of 20days in the winter.

(23:38):
Okay, so I'm not gonna buy asweatshirt.
I already have some, I've gotenough.
And it's the same with thet-shirts.
I liked the t-shirts, and Iactually think that the t-shirts
that you buy, uh the I Did Ittype t-shirts, are really pretty
nice.
But I've got so daggum many thatI probably won't buy anymore.

(24:00):
But I I thought the merch lookedgood.

SPEAKER_11 (24:01):
I'm kind of same like you, Bob.
I honestly, when I go to RenDisney events, I really don't
buy anything anymore.
Um, except for like a magnet anduh ornament.
But other than that, I have ithas to be really like a very,
very like unique weekend.
Like if someone's with me, soit's worth celebrating.
But like the merch, I willadmit, if it's your first time,

(24:24):
yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (24:24):
But oh, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_11 (24:28):
I just it it's not, I will admit it's not my
favorite merch I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_09 (24:32):
But it wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_11 (24:34):
Yeah, am I the only one thinking that or is not or
am I just crazy?

SPEAKER_09 (24:37):
Well, both of those could be true, Jack.

SPEAKER_11 (24:40):
Well, thanks, Bob.

SPEAKER_07 (24:44):
So I don't know that there's a lot of variability if
you're somebody like us who hasdone a bunch of different race
weekends, but if you're somebodywho hasn't, one of the pluses
that I saw is they have a lot ofdifferent types of items.
So like they have differenttypes of shirts, different

(25:05):
styles of shirts, differentstyles of tank tops, which I
really appreciate becausesometimes certain builds of
bodies don't look good incertain types.
And so you have differentoptions, which I really
appreciated, and just differenttextures of things too, um,
which was kind of neat to see.
Um I also saw um on their postthat the coffee mugs are gonna

(25:27):
be stackable for the raceweekend, so you can store them
in your cupboards now, um, whichI thought was Starbucks.
Pretty cool.

unknown (25:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (25:35):
Um, but they did say that for the original Run Disney
shoes, the mini Mickey um andthe like the bluish.

SPEAKER_01 (25:48):
The generic Run Disney one.

SPEAKER_07 (25:49):
Yes.
Um, this would be the last raceweekend.
Yeah, you'll be able to do that.
Yeah, I did see that.

SPEAKER_09 (25:53):
Thanks.
Yeah, that's that's good.

SPEAKER_07 (25:55):
Um, so I think those are notable things.
Yeah, they are.
I very, very briefly saw in avideo um some of the generic Run
Disney merch.
Um, and I'm excited to see moreof that.
It looked kind of cool anddifferent.

SPEAKER_03 (26:09):
Um that I like, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (26:11):
Yeah, I always like to see what they have, and
that's I think really the firsttime we get to see it.
And they usually do kind of apreview event um a lot of times
for the content creator, somaybe they'll do that again.

SPEAKER_01 (26:25):
Yeah, Alicia, when it comes to the shoes, that the
part that I'm intrigued by is Iwonder if it's a situation where
it's just going to be Mickey andMinnie, and then the the design
itself is going to get updated,or the fact that we're almost
entering that new version of theshoe season.

(26:48):
If maybe since those styleswould be retiring, and if
there's updates, say to the youknow, maybe it's instead of it
being the Ghost Max 2, maybeit's you know to be the Ghost
Max 3, or is Brooks going tobring this line then to other
shoes across their platform andnot make it exclusively just a

(27:09):
Ghost Max and the adrenalines.
Um I'd be intrigued by that tosee if that pops up uh during
Marathon weekend.
But uh, in terms of just the themerch in general, though, I'm
not running wine and dime, butagain, I'm on a podcast that
talks about Run Disney, so I'llgive my opinions.
Um Jack, I'm like you.
I I think the merch looks nice,but at the same time, if I was

(27:31):
running this race, I wasn'tgonna be super overly excited
about it because from theget-go, I outside of them doing
13.1 in terms of spaghetti and ameatball, I was never the the
biggest fan of the artwork uh tobegin with.

SPEAKER_11 (27:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (27:48):
But at the same time, though, uh, there are they
are being creative with whatthey're putting out there.
Like I I appreciated, I thinkit's on the the 10k I did it
shirt, I think.
In I think instead of saying Idid it, it said like I'm toasted
or something like that becauseit's Olaf and sandwiches.
So I thought that that was a Qplay.
Um, and then going back to alsowhat you were saying in terms of

(28:10):
the different types of items,the one thing that they really
highlighted in that Instagramreel that they put out is that a
jacket, uh you know, I don'tknow if they were classifying it
as like a windbreaker orsomething like that, but that
it's designed that it can foldinto itself into like a nice
little pouch, and even like thehood can be hidden and popped in

(28:31):
and out and such.
I thought that was reallyinnovative and cool.
You know, I like on the shirtsthat I think I think they
started it with SpringtimeSurprise or maybe even Wine and
Dine last year, where eventhough the main design was on
the front of the shirt, the backwas getting like very like
subtle icons of like the parksor the characters that the the

(28:52):
race is associated with.
So um, again, while not a hugefan of the artwork, I I really
appreciate Run Disney'screativity in terms of the
product that they are puttingout there.

SPEAKER_07 (29:02):
They actually had one of those windbreaker rain
jacket things.
I don't remember.
I I own it, it's upstairs.
Princess, the really prettypurple one.
It wasn't Princess because Iwasn't at Princess.
This one is gray, but it'sactually a really great jacket,
and I can wear it for differentweather in different um seasons.

(29:22):
So um around now when it willstart to get cool, and even into
the winter, having it as layersreally does help.
So um I do appreciate thatthey're thinking more about the
people that might be coming downand again having those different
options so that it's not justfor a certain subset of weather,
but also thinking about peoplethat come from the north that

(29:44):
are gonna have colder weather.

SPEAKER_09 (29:45):
So I think we agree the merch was generally fun for
the wine and dine.
If you're new to this, there'swe'll talk more about the
virtual queue in a couple ofweeks about what you need to do
to get into the area where thisprocess.
Merchandises sold, but it's afun thing.

SPEAKER_10 (30:03):
Caution runners, the topic is about to change right
now.

SPEAKER_09 (30:08):
Now, I don't know about you, friends, but I've
waited long enough to ask thequestion: what would Alicia do?

SPEAKER_11 (30:23):
I love this section so much.

SPEAKER_07 (30:25):
Thanks, Jet.
Um, so if you've been around forthe podcast, um, you may have
heard my story before that um myrunning story really happened
because of a dream.
Um, I hadn't done more than a 5Kbefore, and I literally had a

(30:46):
dream that I was going to run ahalf marathon.
Um and I want to know if youguys ever dream, because I dream
quite often.
I want to know if you guys everdream about running, because I
dream quite often about running.
Um and the other day I ran sohard in my dream I ran out of my

(31:07):
bed.
And they say that it could burncalories, so maybe that's a good
thing.

SPEAKER_09 (31:14):
Well, that's why you're getting faster.

SPEAKER_01 (31:16):
Alicia, I'm really concerned for you because the
other week you fell down thestairs.
Now you're running out of yourbed while sleeping.

SPEAKER_11 (31:23):
I think you might need to get guardrails on your
so I'm gonna openly admit, and Idon't think this comes as much
of a shocker, but um, I don'tdream.
So if I do, it's extremely likerare.

SPEAKER_09 (31:40):
Everybody does, but you don't always remember.

SPEAKER_11 (31:42):
Yeah, I guess I just don't remember it or anything,
but like genuinely I don't theremight be a five percent chance I
might remember what I dream.
But yeah, it's it's never aboutrunning.

SPEAKER_09 (31:54):
I have.
I have now I'm Jack, I'm withyou.
I just remember studying that along time ago that everybody
dreams.
And if you ever got a sleepstudy, they'd track your rapid
eye movement and all that.
But it doesn't mean you'llremember it and you think that
you didn't.
And I I it's been a long timesince I've remembered a dream.
But I have dreamt about running.

(32:15):
I have.
Uh, and it's dreamy running.
Usually when I dream aboutrunning, man, I'm like lighter
than air, just flying along.
So you gotta know that's adream.
That's not real.
But yeah, I have.

SPEAKER_01 (32:29):
I definitely dream, but not about running.
Usually I I I know I dreamalmost every night, but the ones
that I can always remember areeither like the terrifying ones
that like are so bad that likewakes me up out of my sleep, or
like, or creates like anxiety.
Like my wife harasses me aboutthis all the time.
The one time I had a terriblenight's sleep because I had a

(32:52):
really bad dream that I I leftmy passport at home while I was
doing international travel.
Yeah, but then at the same time,that I I there's a dream that I
remember as a kid, and and thisis really gonna make people
chuckle.
I'm not gonna get into likeevery single detail of the
dream, but it was so vivid thatuh it involved uh the Muppets,

(33:14):
me getting hit in the head witha baton, and all underscored by
the music of the old televisionshow Unsolved Mysteries.

SPEAKER_11 (33:25):
That's oddly specific.

SPEAKER_01 (33:26):
I know, but and again, it was so vivid as a
child, I still remember it tothis day.
So there's a part of me thatwishes I would dream about
running and running out of mybed as opposed to that.

SPEAKER_11 (33:40):
I feel like I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna have
a running dream or go home.
I'm already home.

SPEAKER_13 (33:45):
I feel like maybe you're gonna dream that you're
home.

SPEAKER_11 (33:48):
Yeah, I think tell us about it, Jack.
I remember like very like Iremember three very specific
dreams when I was little.
But other than that, I don'tremember anything beyond.
I would I I know one of them,like I was a purple, no, not
purple, I was a blue blobmonster that was really nice and
shopping animal.
Have no clue why, but I couldn'twake up from that dream.

(34:10):
It was really weird.

SPEAKER_01 (34:11):
Jack, what if this whole podcast is just a dream?

SPEAKER_11 (34:15):
No, because it's not inception.
I bet you if I twirl somethingright now, I'm gonna know it's
faltering and you know, it's nota dream within a dream, Greg.

SPEAKER_07 (34:24):
But I would be curious for my listeners to know
if if you're somebody who islike Jack and doesn't dream um
very often, or if you'resomebody like me who dreams
quite often, especially aboutrunning, and if you have any fun
stories.

SPEAKER_13 (34:38):
I get some weird dreams where like you fall
asleep, the TV's on, and thenyou kind of wake up and you're
involved in what's the TV showis doing in the background, and
you're like, uh you wake uplike, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, what
just a reality are you in?

SPEAKER_07 (34:54):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (34:55):
Is it really the TV or is it me?

SPEAKER_07 (34:57):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (34:58):
You since the the topic of dreams, and we've
probably gone on, but I'll goback many, many years, and I
used to have a recurring dream,had something to do with
running.
And in the dream, variousdifferent scenarios, but I was
running, and I'd be running ashard as I could, and I couldn't,
I'd either be moving backwardsor staying in the same spot.

(35:21):
And it it happened often enough.
I remember telling somebodyabout it, and it just a chance
conversation.
It wasn't a therapist oranybody, just a friend, and they
said, Well, you know what uhthat's supposed to mean.
That's supposed to mean you'releaving something you don't want
to leave.
And uh it happened at the time Iwas had just finished college,

(35:42):
and I enjoyed my college days.
After the person said that tome, I never had that dream
again.

SPEAKER_07 (35:48):
Interesting.
Yeah, I mean, there's definitelymeanings behind dreams, and
there's a whole whole sciencebehind it, but yeah, very
interesting.

SPEAKER_09 (35:56):
So there you go.
That is what Alicia would do.

SPEAKER_10 (36:02):
Caution runners, change of topic ahead.

SPEAKER_01 (36:07):
I have something that I have to admit this week
on the podcast, and uh thismight come as a shock to some,
but um, I am a Disney adult.
And to that same token, Alicia,Bob, Jack, John, and Lexi too
are all Disney adults.
And if you, listener, downloadand stream the Rise Run podcast

(36:30):
on the regular, guess what?
You too are a Disney adult.
The Run Disney community itself,while large in our eyes, is just
a small subsect of anever-growing culture of people
who love and adore some aspectof the Walt Disney Company.
But one may have to wonder, howdid we find ourselves placed

(36:53):
within this community?
And I guess maybe moreimportantly, why do we care so
deeply?
Our guest this week will be ableto answer those questions for
us.
This week, our guest is theowner of Cambrick Yard Media,
which operates two Disneyplatforms this community knows
very, very well, allEars.net,and the Disney food blog.

(37:14):
But she can now add the title ofNew York Times best-selling
author to her resume, thanks tothe success of her new book we
are going to chat about thisweek Disney Adults Exploring and
Falling in Love with a MagicalSubculture.
We would love to welcome AJ Wolfto the Rise and Run podcast.
AJ, welcome.

SPEAKER_05 (37:35):
Thank you.
I'm so, so happy to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_01 (37:39):
Oh, the pleasure is all ours.
We're gonna start off here witha real easy one.
Okay.
What was your inspiration towrite this book?

SPEAKER_05 (37:48):
So I answer this question differently every time,
but with you guys, I'm gonna befully honest.
Um, I got a call from Simon andSchuster, and they're like, we
want you to do a book.

SPEAKER_03 (37:58):
There you go.
That's another wrong bad.
It's right answered.

SPEAKER_05 (38:01):
Because I don't think I would have had the guts
to pitch a book, you know, withwithout.
I just don't, I it's a it's beena dream for so long of mine, and
I have such imposter syndromethat I'm just like, no, nobody
would want a book.
So they uh they called me andthey were like, hey, we want you

(38:21):
to do a book.
And I said, Great, I would loveto write um this book.
And I pitched them an idea, andthey're like, okay, that's fine,
but we want you to do this bookinstead.
And it's so the the ideahonestly came from my editor,
who is a Disney adult, whoactually moved to Orlando during
COVID from New York, um, andbecause she loved Disney so

(38:42):
much, and she and I met at NomadLounge to talk about book ideas.
And she was like, I think thisneeds to be done.
And I think I was probably justtoo scared to even think of it,
um, because it's such acontroversial topic, in at least
in our tribe, anyway.
Um, but you know, she had a lotof confidence in me and she

(39:05):
said, no, I think we can do it,and I think it should be done.
And if someone, you know, ifanyone's gonna do it, you should
do it.
And so um that's kind of how itcame about.
And I was very honored and andand happy, and I knew I had a
huge uh job ahead of me to do itjustice.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (39:21):
Yeah, and did a fine job of it.
And I think they picked theright person.
Um now I'm curious, if anything,what surprised you the most
while you were researching forDisney adults?

SPEAKER_05 (39:34):
Yeah, a lot surprised me when I was
researching.
Um, but the one thing that I wasvery that I had to change the
whole book around was when Istarted to ask people my
standard question when I wasinterviewing all these Disney
adults was, you know, how howannoying is it that um all the

(39:55):
people in your life make fun ofyou because you're you're a
Disney adult and and they, youknow, the people that you work
with are like, you're going toDisney again, and you're and
your family is like, you'reyou're so crazy.
You're so you're my weird Disneyfriend.
And I said, how I said, that'sreally hard, right?
And they're like, not really.
I don't really care.
They're like, what really stinksabout being a Disney adult is

(40:16):
other Disney adults.
And that shocked me.
And when I heard that the firsttime, I was like, well, I'm just
gonna prepare, I'm just gonnapretend you didn't say that and
keep going with my regular, youknow, chapter plan.
And then I kept hearing it overand over again that people were
just like, yeah, it's a problem,you know, all of these resellers
or all of these people who lookdown on me because I haven't

(40:37):
ridden these particular rides,or all of these people who think
that I'm I'm, you know, less ofa fan than them because I
didn't, I haven't stayed in thishotel or whatever.
Um, and and that it suddenlybecame very clear to me, like,
uh, well, yeah, of course thatmakes sense.
Why would we care what peoplewho aren't in our tribe say
about us?

(40:58):
The people that matter are thepeople who are in our community,
right?
And so those are the people thatare going to have the most
impact on us.
And so that that I really had torun with that, and that became a
big chunk of my chapter four wasDisney adults hate Disney
adults.

SPEAKER_09 (41:13):
That's yeah, it it's odd.
Now, I don't run into thatpersonally, but that that's odd.
And it's interesting that thatwould be what came up.

SPEAKER_05 (41:21):
Well, and I think that we all run into it in other
uh communities that we're a partof, you know, like you see it a
lot in church communities, inneighborhoods, you know, where
there's you know, these littleum, I guess, you know, battles
for superiority.
Uh, you know, you see it in yourin your work community.
Um, and so of course, thecommunity that you're part of on

(41:42):
a regular basis, you're gonnasee those um, you know, those
little hierarchies develop.

SPEAKER_07 (41:47):
So, AJ, what was the most surprising or unusual thing
that um you found when you werewriting this book?

SPEAKER_05 (41:53):
I mean, that was the most surprising thing for sure,
because I was like, that's notcool.
I'm I I'm not ready for that.
Um, but something else that Ireally, really loved, and it
wasn't a surprise, but it wasstill just completely wonderful
was being able to talk to somany different Disney adults.
And I think that's what I reallywanted to do with this book.
It wasn't, it wasn't the goalwasn't to say, you know, Disney

(42:17):
adults are great and you guysare mean.
You know, that what I wasn'tdefending Disney adults.
That wasn't the plan in thebook.
The plan was to deep dive andhelp people understand what a
significantly huge communitythis is.
First of all, that you can'tnecessarily, you know, not
everybody is who you see onTikTok or on Reddit, you know,

(42:40):
in terms of the extremes of thatbell curve.
There's a whole lot of peoplethat are on that little bump in
the bell curve that are very,very normal on the outside.

SPEAKER_03 (42:49):
There you go, exactly right.

SPEAKER_05 (42:50):
And we, but we are we are huge Disney fans, and
that that's you know, thatthat's something that isn't our
entire personality, but it is apart of us.
And I think that what I lovedwas interviewing so many
different Disney adults and somany different Disney fans and
people for whom this is a a bigpart of who they are, but it
isn't their whole personality.
Um, and so kind of getting thatrepresented that um we're a huge

(43:14):
group, we're very powerful interms of what we can make happen
online.
Um, but uh that that you know,you're the guy doing your
colonoscopy could have a Mickeytattoo.
You don't know.

SPEAKER_13 (43:24):
Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 (43:26):
It's just kind of fun.

SPEAKER_13 (43:28):
So do you think the growth of Disney bounding Dapper
days and the fan-driventraditions shows how Disney
adults make Disney their own?

SPEAKER_05 (43:36):
Oh, for sure.
Absolutely.
That was something that I lovedexploring in the book is how um
we may all kind of come to thisbecause we enjoy Disney, but
what's really important aboutthe community is how I guess we
fracture off into these, intothese, you know, subcultures or

(43:59):
subcommunities that are thingsthat um I guess hit kind of two
of our loves, where you guyshave Disney and running, right?
Like that's something that youyou you are passionate about,
both of those things and DapperDays people love, you know,
fashion and Disney.
And so you you're starting tosee a lot of these little um
splinter, you know, you've gotthe Galactic Star Cruiser

(44:23):
community, you know, these thesethings that are becoming their
own subcultures that are stillpart of the Disney adult
community.
That's something I find fastendlessly fascinating.
And I would love to actually diginto more to see how these
online communities are actuallysplintering into even smaller
and smaller communities.
Because I think going forward,you know, in the next 10 or 20

(44:44):
years, your best friends aregonna be online.
They're not gonna be yourneighbors next week.
Well, absolutely.
And it's just such aninteresting thing to to dig
into, is like, you know, are weare we all gonna be WALL-E where
we're just staring at the screenscreen and not actually knowing
the people next to us?
And so it's it's gonna beinteresting.

SPEAKER_09 (45:02):
And then we can do a combination of both because I
I'm on this computer all thetime.
This is where my friends live.

SPEAKER_05 (45:09):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (45:09):
But I get to see them too.

SPEAKER_05 (45:12):
Yeah.
IRL.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_09 (45:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I learned what that meant acouple weeks ago.
That's good.

unknown (45:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (45:20):
Well, it for me, it can either mean Ireland or in
real life, and I'm okay witheither of those.

SPEAKER_01 (45:25):
All right, AJ.
So Disney adults tend to get anegative rap because we can
sometimes take our fandom to theextreme.
But no one questions someone whodresses in full body paint uh to
attend an NFL game.
Or, you know, we learnedthroughout the book that you are
a huge Buffalo Bills fan.

(45:47):
I'm sure they're, you know, theBills Mafia probably has some
insane fans.
They're there are the fans inCleveland that, you know, the
the dog pound, and then you havethe the guys dressed all crazy
out in Vegas for the Raiders andsuch.
No pun intended here, but theydon't get a negative rap.
So why are these fan bases noton an even playing field?

SPEAKER_05 (46:07):
Yeah, this is something I really wanted to
figure out.
I'm like, why are they okay, butwe're not okay?
You know, because they're justas weird as we are.
They spend just as much money aswe do.
Um, because that's something Iwas like, all right, is that we
spend more money than they do?
No, when you actually look atthe data, they don't, you know,
we we spend the same amount.
Um so anyway, I I was digginginto this and trying to figure

(46:31):
out why do you hate us so much?
Um, and the there's lots ofreasons, don't get me wrong, but
one of the primary reasons isthat Disney is for kids, quote
unquote.
That we love something that'sfor children, and it might as
well be, you know, Bob's overthere collecting a bunch of my
little ponies, right?
Like that's kind of the thereasoning.

(46:53):
People are like, why shouldn'tyou have grown out of this by
now?
So I think that has a lot to dowith it.
Um, but what's shocking to me isthat you're seeing more and more
and more Disney adults, andyou're going to see more and
more that there are more adultswithout children at Disney World
than there are adults withchildren at Disney World, which
I think is fascinating.

(47:14):
Um, Disney just opened a lounspecifically for adults in a
prime real estate location inEpcot.
Um, so I think they see thewriting on the wall for sure.
You use statistically, peopleare having fewer kids.
You're going to see more of thatkid alt culture, people who are
happy to engage in the thingsthat they love that maybe

(47:37):
historically have only been forchildren or have been seen as
just for children.
So that's going to beinteresting to watch as well.

SPEAKER_01 (47:43):
Yeah, I love some of the data that you put in the
book, especially talking about,I think it was you had a graph
in there about the number ofadults with no children that
were in lines to see characters.
Like that, like that was justfascinating to see.

SPEAKER_05 (48:00):
Yeah, no, we um we actually did that as just like a
little kind of mini um studywith my with my reporters who go
in the parks every single day.
I was like, okay, guys, for thenext like three months, I want
you to go to these charactermeet and greets, and I want you
to count how many adults are inline without children.
Um, and it was, it was, youknow, they did a great job.

(48:23):
Like they, they, every day wewere seeing the numbers and the
data and and for differentcharacters too, you know, like
what's the situation for MickeyMouse versus what's the
situation for Buzz Lightyear?
Um, you know, it was it wasawesome to see and to have that
data, which I'm I didn't realizeit would be so compelling to
readers, but it really, reallyis.

(48:45):
And they're like, okay, I'm not,I'm not weird.
Like, so what if I want to meetBuzz Lightyear?

SPEAKER_03 (48:50):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 (48:51):
I mean, technically speaking, I just have my
bachelorette at Disney World andwe did Mickey's Not So Scary,
and I definitely stood in linefor Mickey.
Right, we're my bacheloretteparty.

SPEAKER_09 (49:01):
As you should.

SPEAKER_05 (49:03):
So yeah, I think it's I think it's great.
And I think it's very now someof us are very uncomfortable
with characters because we don'tknow what to say to them.
Um, but uh, you know, otherpeople are just like, yeah, man,
I can fully believe this and andgo with this.
So I think that's great if youcan do it.

SPEAKER_01 (49:22):
AJ, for my next question, I'm gonna go back and
reference something you justtalked about.
You know, you brought up theidea of Geo82, you know, the
idea that, you know, Disney isstarting to cater to the Disney
adult than an adults only loungewith high-priced, you know,
bourbon cocktails.
But in your opinion, do youthink the Walt Disney company

(49:42):
loves Disney adults?
Or do you think we are a totalpain in their side?

SPEAKER_05 (49:47):
Great question.
Um, I think it is a little bitof both, honestly, um, which is
probably similar for other bigcompanies and their super fans,
right?
Because we always have uh wealways have something to say.
And we're uh, you know, we'realways we always know a way to
do it better.

(50:09):
Um, so I think we are kind of adouble-edged sword a little bit.
Um, is that the right metaphor?
Probably not.
We're good, we're good and bad.
Um, I think that Disneydefinitely relies on Disney
adults um because you know, whatyou from a data perspective,
what you saw when they weretrying to curb when they

(50:33):
couldn't during COVID when theyhad to curb capacity, they had
to make sure that not that manypeople came in the parks, right?
So who they got rid of firstwere the annual pass holders,
right?
Were the super fans because thesuper fans didn't spend as much
money and the super fans didn'tup, you know, increase their
their yield, basically.
And so they shut down the annualpass program.

(50:55):
So you couldn't get an annualpass.
And then now they're actuallyincentivizing annual pass
holders.
They're giving you a hundreddollar gift card if you buy an
annual pass, not for renewalsfor brand new annual passes.
So they're obviously courtingannual pass holders at this
point.
So I think they they know thatwe are a requirement when they

(51:16):
are trying, when they are in adown turn, a downturn.
Like they know we'll keep comingand they will court us then.
But when things are when thingsare fine, they're like, get out
because we can get people inhere who can pay, who can, who
will buy more stuff.
Um, so it's very interesting tosee it from that perspective.
And it's purely a businessperspective.
It makes perfect sense to me.

(51:37):
I get it, I understand.
We're not as valuable unless weare in, you know, uh crunch
time.
So on the other hand, I think asterms of social media, I think
Disney adults are a very, Ithink we're a difficult element
for Disney because we are sooutspoken.

(51:57):
And there are many ways in whichwe can uh sway other Disney
adults in terms of things thatthey want to purchase,
experience, et cetera.
I talk about it in the book withThe Galactic Star Cruiser.
Everybody was super excitedabout it until they saw the
price, and then all of a suddenthey were like, nope, we hate
it.

(52:17):
Everything about this sucks.
Forget it.
We're not going.
And if you're excited about it,you're a shill.
And I think that's a huge reasonwhy it failed is because you
know, fans wouldn't let otherfans like it.
Um, so I'm I think that that'sanother thing that if someone is
writing a PhD right now, pleasedo a PhD on how online

(52:41):
subcultures affect the thingthat they love, you know, the
thing that they are passionateabout.
One of the quotes in the book,this um one of my people that I
interviewed said, no one hatesStar Wars as much as Star Wars
fans.
And it's the same thing forDisney, right?
No one hates Disney as much asDisney fans.
Like we always have somethingnegative to say about it and
want to make sure that our voiceis heard.

(53:02):
So I think it's it's good andbad, um, but they're definitely
navigating, Disney's navigatingit as well as they can for it
being kind of a brand new thingthat they have to figure out.

SPEAKER_07 (53:14):
So on the flip side of that and moving kind of away
from the Disney company, whatpositive impacts do you think
that Disney adults bring to theDisney community and society as
in general?

SPEAKER_05 (53:25):
Yeah, a lot of positive impacts.
I think that once you have acommunity this big and this
robust, um we really start toshow up for each other.
You saw that during COVID, yousaw that with all of the cast
members who got laid off.
Um, you know, the Disneycommunity created so many uh
incredible programs to help andsupport people who were not uh

(53:46):
working at the time.
You see the Give Kids the Worldsupport.
Um, and you know, every timesomeone in the Disney community
is having a difficult time,there's a GoFundMe.
There's lots of support there.
So I really do think that theDisney community supports each
other in an incredible way.
Um, and I love to see that.
I love to see, you know, dapperdays.

(54:07):
I love to see, you know, the umthe situation with gay days and
how that has just grownsignificantly, you know, out of
nothing to be such a huge event.
Um, so it's it's very cool tosee Disney, Disney adults
supporting one another.
And I think it happens all thetime.

SPEAKER_11 (54:25):
So then on the other spectrum of that, there is also
a dark side to this fandom.
I know.

SPEAKER_09 (54:32):
Up to the dark side.

SPEAKER_11 (54:34):
What do you think Disney adults need to change
their ways about?

SPEAKER_05 (54:38):
Oh, I mean, I don't know they need to change their
ways about anything.
I wish I wish Disney adultscould be a little bit more
positive about things every oncein a while and and give things a
chance to actually, you know,work on their own before they
just destroy them, um, you know,on purpose.
Um But I I think if if Disneyadults have to change anything,

(55:00):
it would be um it would be verysubjective to themselves, right?
So I talk a lot about um in thebook about uh addiction and
being obsessed with Disney andpotentially using Disney as a
replacement for, you know, otherother uh other happiness in your

(55:20):
life, right?
Um and this happened to mepersonally when I lived in New
York City, you know, I washaving a quarter life crisis, I
was feeling awful, hated my job,hated where I lived.
And so I just ran out my creditcards going to Disney all the
time.
And so that was something that Ihad to stop and say, is this
healthy for you?
Is this something you should bedoing?

(55:40):
Is there something in your lifeyou need to change?
Um, and and had to kind offigure that out on my own.
And so that's something that ifyou, if you are a huge fan of
something, if you're obsessedwith something, um, you know,
sort of keep an eye on yourselfand figure out if if you've
crossed a line.
Um, if for some reason you are,this is affecting your ability

(56:02):
to go to work or to spend timewith your family or to interact.
You know, are you losingfriendships because of this?
Uh, you know, is your marriagesuffering because of this?
If that's the case, then it'sprobably something you should
look at and be like, hmm, this,I should, I should dig into this
a little bit deeper.
Um, but it's completelysubjective.
It's a different line foreverybody.
Some people are perfectly okaygoing to Disney World six times

(56:24):
a year, and and everything elsein their life is is even keel,
healthy, and balanced, butsometimes it's not.

SPEAKER_01 (56:31):
AJ, I want to talk about the non-Disney adult,
those from the outside lookingin.

SPEAKER_05 (56:38):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (56:38):
The the first line here of chapter one.

unknown (56:42):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (56:43):
Disney adults are the most terrifying people on
the planet, and they need to bestopped.
Why is it if Disney is notnegatively impacting them
personally, why do they get thecredence or why is it the
popular thing to dump all overus?

SPEAKER_05 (57:07):
Um, well, first of all, I think that the guy who
said that, that's a quote froman article, and I'm like, you
must be really fun at parties,but I you know Yes, I should I
should frame this.

SPEAKER_01 (57:21):
AJ did not say that this was the title of the video.

SPEAKER_05 (57:25):
It was not me, I promise.
It's an art, it's a quote froman article.
Um, but I again, this is sort ofthis particular part of the book
is why do you guys hate us somuch?
Like, what did we do to you?
You know what I mean?
Like, I get when you see, youknow, someone who's doing
something a little weird onTikTok and you're like, why are
they like that?
But you don't have to like hatewith such vitriol.

(57:46):
Um, and so I really wanted todig into that.
I'm like, what does that stemfrom?
Which honestly was prettyinteresting because it also
helped me to dig into hate ingeneral, why people hate, why we
don't like what we don'tunderstand, um, and why we're
scared of the other, you know,people who aren't like us.

(58:08):
And and I think that's probablythe root of everything bad in
the world um is people notunderstanding other people and
what what makes them work.
Um, but I I I think when it whenI boiled down kind of the main
kind of four points as to whypeople hate us so much, the

(58:28):
first is that, like I saidbefore, it is this is something
for kids, and that's superweird.
And I it makes people feeluncomfortable that we like
something that's for children,that's you know, quote unquote
for children, and that theycan't figure that out.
Um, there's also quite a bit ofthere's there's a lot of
prejudice involved as as well.

(58:50):
There are some stereotypesassociated with Disney adults
that people maybe don't aren't,you know, aren't big fans of
those particular types ofpeople.
Um, and so there's that elementtoo.
So I think it it all does boildown to they they hate Disney

(59:12):
adults because Disney adults arethe representation for a bigger
group that they maybe dislike orthey don't understand.
Um, so anyway, it's an it's it'svery well presented in the book.
I will say that it was a hardchapter, a hard chapter to write
because there's a bunch of stuffin there that is, you know,
controversial, divisive, um, youknow, and there's a lot of stuff

(59:32):
there that talks about humannature in general, which I think
is um is something that that alot of folks just don't want to
spend a lot of time thinkingabout.

SPEAKER_09 (59:40):
I think that kind of leads into I you had some
conception, of course, we alldo, when you started writing
this book about Disney adults,but did writing it change your
perspective in any way?

SPEAKER_05 (59:54):
I think that writing it made me understand how
absolutely massive this.
Community is.
And also that it's a spectrum.
The I think a lot of people whothink about Disney adults think
that we're all the same and thatwe all love the same things the
same way, which is not true.
I'm a parks Disney adult.

(01:00:14):
I love the parks and I knoweverything about the parks.
I know nothing about the movies.
Couldn't, could not tell youanything about the movies.
But I think people assume thatDisney adults just know
everything there is to knowabout Disney and are just, you
know, passionate about all ofit.
Nope.
I love the parks.
You may love the music.
You may love the movies.
You know, someone else lovesStar Wars.

(01:00:36):
Someone else loves Marvel.
You know, so it really isfragmented in that way.
There's no way you can knoweverything about everything.
Um, and so that was interestingto me that we all sort of niche
down, actually, in in our in ourthe way we love the fandom.
But also um that it's a spectrumthat some Disney adults are just
like, yeah, I, you know, I likeMickey Mouse.

(01:00:59):
And some Disney adults are justall in, man.
Like their whole house isdecorated.
Uh, they have Mickey tattoos,they are DVC and they go to
Disney World whenever they can.
They see every single movie, etcetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So um, it is a spectrum and noteverybody is the same.
So it's just a huge communitythat that you you can't you

(01:01:22):
can't stereotype it.

SPEAKER_07 (01:01:24):
I think that niche ness is what brings us together
though.
Like we all have differentthings.
John loves Star Wars, um, andall the different pieces that we
bring together, and then we havethe commonality of the Run
Disney and going to the parks.
And so I think that's kind ofwhat makes it um this great
thing.
And I I really did enjoy that inthe book that you got to see how

(01:01:45):
much bigger it is.
And I like you said, I don'tthink a lot of people realize
that it's not so cut and dry.
There's a lot more to um what itis to be a Disney adult.
So I appreciated that.

SPEAKER_13 (01:01:57):
Oh, absolutely.
Okay, so let's get into thefuture.
So uh what role do you think theDisney adults will play in
shaping the parks and thecompanies in the next 10 to 20
years?

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:07):
I think a significant role.
I think what we ran into, whatwe've run into the past couple
of years, especially sinceCOVID, um, is such a very vocal
uh Disney community online umthat we've obviously seen, even
just recently, Disney can'tignore, right?
Um they sort of have to respondto this community, which they've

(01:02:31):
never had to do before.
Like that isn't something theyever had, you know, they didn't
ever have to care what we said.
And now because we have such asignificant megaphone online,
it's very clear what we think.
And and and it can, I think itabsolutely can affect the
decisions that are being made inthe boardroom for Disney.
Um so I think it's it's kind oflike with you know, with great

(01:02:53):
power comes greatresponsibility.
We need to be careful with thatpower.
Um because we can so so manylike this is you know, I'm I say
in the book as well, it's likeif you guys hate everything new
that comes, then you are goingto literally end up with just
this, you know, Disney's gonnadie.
Disney has to evolve or die.

(01:03:13):
That's their only option, andthey always have evolved.
Um, and so the more you kind ofcomplain, the the less Disney
can actually move forward.
Um, so I think what we're gonnasee is is Disney adults
absolutely shaping in the sameway that, you know, remember at
D23 when they're like, here's abunch of blue sky ideas.

(01:03:34):
Well, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:35):
Oh yeah, we all love that.

SPEAKER_05 (01:03:36):
Well, we were all super annoyed, but it was
brilliant because what they gotto do was immediately see what
fans were saying online aboutthose ideas, and they could
actually use that to filtertheir ideas down to the things
that fans were actually excitedabout.
Now, one of the top things thatany business owner knows is

(01:03:57):
don't listen to, you know, don'tlisten to your comments because
your audience doesn'tnecessarily know what they want.
But I think it's also very it'sit's it was definitely a genius
move to kind of immediately getfeedback from everybody of
Villainsland, yes, you know,weird Moana ride over here, no,
you know, like they could seeimmediately what people were

(01:04:19):
excited about and what juiced umall of the conversation.
So I think they're gonnacontinue to do that and kind of
use the audience as a um as aguideline, like a sounding,
which is very smart.

SPEAKER_09 (01:04:33):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 (01:04:33):
One thing I did notice about Disney adults is
they do not like change.
You you take away dinosaur andthe whole communities in an
uproar.

SPEAKER_05 (01:04:45):
But nobody likes change, and that's the thing
that I think Disney understandsis that they're perfectly aware
that you're going to whine andcry and lose your mind when they
take away a certain ride.
But they also know that whenthey take away the ride that
they replaced your favorite ridewith in 10 years, you're gonna
whine and cry because that'sgoing to it.
Like they're just, you know,they're never gonna win.

(01:05:07):
And so it's kind of you know,it's kind of like when you have
a baby and you take away thepacifier and like they'll get
over it.
Um, so I I think that that'skind of what Disney has seen is
like, okay, everybody, you know,everybody's mad about it, but
then 10 years later, everybody'smad when I take this away too.

SPEAKER_07 (01:05:23):
So AJ, moving into a different perspective of
somebody who maybe isn't sureabout being um on embracing
their Disney adult side, um,what advice would you give to
them when they're hesitant aboutthat?

SPEAKER_05 (01:05:40):
I guess I don't I I mean if you like it, you can
like it.
You don't have to go full, likeyou don't have to wear Mickey
ears all day.
I mean, there's no like I mean,there's no there's no quota you
have to hit.
Um, you know, you can just likewhat you like.
I mean, I I'm not necessarilylike a I mean, I love Broadway,

(01:06:03):
but I'm not worried about lovingBroadway.
Um, you know, so I would sayjust don't don't worry about it.
If you like it, great, like it.
Um, but you don't have to gofull throttle.
Like, you know, enjoy and likewhat you like.
Don't hurt anybody and don'thurt yourself.

SPEAKER_09 (01:06:21):
Yeah, I like that.
Can we can we shift gears just alittle bit now and talk about
something that's very dear tous, obviously, the Rise and Run
podcast?
Run Disney.

SPEAKER_11 (01:06:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (01:06:32):
Let's talk about that a little bit.

SPEAKER_11 (01:06:33):
Our love for Run Disney runs deep.
And it was very immediate whenwe were like, ah, she talked
about Expedition Everest to 5Kin the first few pages.
She knows what's up.
So my question argued.
Oh gosh, I know.
I devastated and never got torun that.

(01:06:57):
But since you did get to havethat experience, how was it for
you?
And have you participated in anyother Run Disney races since?

SPEAKER_05 (01:07:07):
I I have.
I have done some Run Disneyraces.
I don't do a whole lot of them.
Um, Expedition Everest 5K wassuper fun.
I actually ran it with myhusband.
I can't remember.
What year was it?
Do you remember?
Well, they did two of them.
I feel like they did two, yeah.
I don't know if it was 2007 or Idon't know if we were married
yet.

(01:07:27):
It was it was like either Ithink you're right.

SPEAKER_11 (01:07:32):
Around 2007.

SPEAKER_05 (01:07:33):
Yeah.
It was definitely 7, 8, 9,somewhere in there, maybe 10.
Um, but um, so that was funbecause we ran it together and
it was the first thing.
It was like one of the onlythings we'd ever like done
together, you know.
Um, but I will say this it oneof my favorite, and I this you
probably you won't count this asRun Disney.

(01:07:54):
Um, but I ran the Castaway Key5K.
That's Run Disney-esque.

SPEAKER_09 (01:08:02):
Yeah, sure it is.

SPEAKER_05 (01:08:04):
When I was two weeks pregnant and nobody knew I was
pregnant except for me and myhusband.
And um it was just like thisspecial little thing that I was
like, you know, this is my firstrace with my kid.
And so I saved the um, you know,all of the the metal and
everything for him so that hethat he knew that was his first

(01:08:26):
race.
That's awesome.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (01:08:29):
If we had known you then, AJ, we have a special gift
for moms who run a Disney eventcarrying baby.

SPEAKER_05 (01:08:39):
Really?
Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_09 (01:08:41):
We have we have a rise and run onesie that if they
let's so cute.
If they let us know about it, weship it out to them.

SPEAKER_05 (01:08:48):
Oh, that's awesome.
I love that.
I was very I was it it just itwas so cool to do that, to do
that knowing, you know, I'm I'mnot alone.

SPEAKER_09 (01:08:57):
Yeah, it's a wonderful it's it's kind of I
mean you talked about it, aboutthe cultures and the
communities, but the whole RunDisney is I think a separate
subculture within Run Disneyadult family.

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:10):
Actually, I'm I I hate to say it, but I had a
whole Run Disney section of thebook and I had to cut it.
So it's too bad.

SPEAKER_09 (01:09:18):
That's too bad.
So for you.

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:19):
Maybe I need to I need to send that to you guys.

SPEAKER_09 (01:09:21):
For your sequel bonus.
We can help you out, that'd begood.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:25):
In the one chapter, you devote the whole section to
the stories of various Disneyadults across all the different
subcultures.
And I think the story that youhighlighted of Julia would
really resonate with ourlisteners.
Could you just share that storyand what about it stuck out to
you so much?

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:43):
Yeah, Julia's awesome, isn't she?

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:46):
Yes.

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:48):
What's great about Julia too is like Julia just she
doesn't, it's she's like a honeybadger.
She doesn't care.
Um she is so great.
So Julia messaged me and shesaid, Hey, um, so I wanted to
tell you my story about um, youknow, doing a Run Disney race as

(01:10:10):
an above-the-knee amputee.
And I'm like, I don't even knowwhat that is.
And so I got on, I got on totalk to her.
I think she's what, she's 20something.
I can't, she's very young.
But when she was 18, um, 17 or18, uh, she was she was in a car
accident and lost her leg umabove her knee.

(01:10:32):
And so she tells a very visceralstory about how she felt, you
know, in that in that situationand how she sort of was like,
oh, well, guess this isn't,guess I'm not getting the leg
back.
What am I gonna do?
And her whole family was gonnado this Run Disney race.
And she's like, okay, I'll dothe Run Disney race.
So she got fitted, she gotfitted for a blade and um tells

(01:10:56):
a story about I she she tells mevery clearly, she's like, I
didn't train at all.
She's like, I should havetrained and I didn't train.
But she's like, so we uh she'sshe talks about running with a
they have cast members that willrun with you if you are
disabled.
And so they can help you wherethey need where you need help.

(01:11:16):
And her particular um, herparticular kind of cast member
helper actually had to, youknow, give her a couple of um
piggyback rides, you know, tokind of stay in front of the
balloon ladies and stuff.
And it was and it was just socool to just hear her talking
about this.
But the bottom line with Juliais that it's not about her leg,

(01:11:37):
right?
It's not like her story isn'tabout her leg.
Her story is about Julia and howcool Julia is and how she can
just freaking overcome anythingand and and how absolutely
normal and regular she is.
Um, so that's what I that's whatI took away from her is she was
just inspirational, but notbecause she doesn't have a leg.

(01:11:57):
She was inspirational.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:59):
Well, AJ, when you do that sequel and it does
include the chapter about RunDisney, be sure to uh hit us up
because we can give you anonslaught of inspirational
stories to uh to help fill outthat chapter or that book uh for
that.

SPEAKER_13 (01:12:14):
Absolutely.
AJ, not only are you an author,but you're also the mastermind
behind the media empire that isDisney food blog.

SPEAKER_09 (01:12:22):
Meaty Media Empire, I thought he said me.

SPEAKER_13 (01:12:25):
I thought he said meaty, which I mean Media
Empire.

SPEAKER_05 (01:12:29):
It's the Jersey X thing, maybe I know I like I
like meaty better.

SPEAKER_13 (01:12:35):
Media Empire, media empire, whatever it is.
That is the that is the Disneyfood blog.
How did that concept of thiswebsite come about?

SPEAKER_05 (01:12:42):
Yeah, I started Disney food blog in 2009 because
I really wanted it to exist andnobody was doing it.
Lou uh Lou Mondolo was doing agreat job with food, but it
wasn't he wasn't doing just likeall the food, every food, you
know.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:56):
Well, he's not a sweet sky, so so that that you
know, that's why, you know,there there was a little void
there.

SPEAKER_05 (01:13:01):
Right, right.
Yes, he would, he definitelywould have done it if he could
have.
Oh, heck yeah.
But I um so I was like, you knowwhat?
I I'm gonna be spending a lot ofmoney when I go because I'm I'm
not local to Orlando.
So I was, you know, I had tospend a bunch of money and take
trips and fly over there.
And then when I got there, I waslike, I want to eat food that
I'm gonna like, and I don't wantto have it be, you know, a

(01:13:23):
surprise.
And at that point, Disney didn'thave menus on their site, they
didn't have pictures of food,they didn't have any of that
stuff, didn't exist.
You know, all ears had all themenus.
That's where you went for themenus, was because all ears, Deb
Wills, would go in the parksevery single day and get the
menus.
Um, and so I was like, well, I Iwould love for this to exist.
So I started to make it.

(01:13:44):
So I would take a trip everycouple of months, stay for three
days.
I would eat six meals a day andjust try to get to all the
restaurants.
Um, and then I'd go to jellyrolls until 145 till the lights
came up at night, editing photosand writing blog posts, right?
Um, and so that's kind of whathappened.
Then the first year I was like,well, this is food and wine.

(01:14:04):
Guess I gotta go to all thebooths because no one else goes
to all the booths.
And so I went to all the boothsand I got all the food.
My I'm all by myself to thepoint that I was hallucinating
booths eventually.
Um, and so that's kind of how itstarted, is I just needed it to
exist and nobody was doing it.
And so we we launched in.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:24):
Obviously, that occurred many, many years ago.
What is the size of your teamtoday in terms of food blog?

SPEAKER_05 (01:14:30):
Today I've got about 50 folks who work with us around
the world.
Um, it's it's awesome.
And I've got teams in Anaheimand Orlando who are in those
parks every single day.
I've got writers all over theplace who are writing and and um
you know, video editors andaccountants and you know, all
kinds of stuff going on.

(01:14:52):
So yeah, it's a great team.

SPEAKER_09 (01:14:54):
If you're not following it, friends, it's
highly worthwhile.
One of my favorite sites tofollow, uh, the blog and the
YouTube channel associated withit.
Outstanding.

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:03):
We work really hard to make it useful.
I mean, that's that's that'swhat I was always every time
someone says to me, How do I dowhat you do?
How do I start a blog?
How do I start a YouTubechannel?
How do I start, you know,social?
And my response to them isalways, nobody cares what you
think until you add value totheir life.
So make it something that theycan benefit from, because

(01:15:25):
otherwise, why would they listento you or even, you know, watch
you if if you're if you're nothelping them somehow?
So it's always about addingvalue.

SPEAKER_07 (01:15:34):
So we have Wine and Dine Half Marathon weekend
coming up around the corner.
Um, and Food and Wine Festivalwill be happening at the same
time.
So I would like to know um whatare your best of the fest
dishes?
Um, I want to hear all of thethings, but also extra points if
you have any plant-based optionsfor friends like me who can't

(01:15:55):
have the animal prize.

SPEAKER_09 (01:15:56):
Bonus points.

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:57):
Absolutely.
I, you know, here's the thingthough, Alicia, it started like
a month ago.
And so my best of the fest listis now gone from my brain.
So I'm gonna have to go find itfor you.
Okay.
Um the things that I know are inmy best of the fest are the um,

(01:16:17):
I always love the poutine.
I think the poutine, the brisketpoutine that they bring to
Refreshment Port is one of myfavorites.
The corned beef um chips over atFlavors from Fire, those are
always, always good.
Of course, everything you'regonna get out of the Canada
Pavilion is gonna be great.
I love the um the uh raclette,the uh the the melty cheese.

(01:16:40):
I used to live in Switzerland.

SPEAKER_03 (01:16:41):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_05 (01:16:42):
Right at the Alps pavilion.
I used to live in Switzerlandand I ate raclette constantly.
Over there, you you buy a littleraclette grill and you grill
your potatoes and your onionsand everything, and then you
have little little uh pans thatyou put underneath the grill and
it melts your cheese, and thenthat's you just eat potatoes and
cheese, and it's fabulous.
Um, so I love that.

(01:17:02):
Um, but there are lots of goodplant-based options as well, as
you know that every booth has atleast one.
Um, and the what shocks methough, I was just at the
festival last weekend.
And I always tell people don'tgo on a weekend if you can avoid
it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:17:18):
Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_05 (01:17:19):
But also, ooh, not a thumbs up, but also don't go to
um, don't go to the festival atnight because all the locals
come at night.
So if you're gonna go go on aweekday at 11 a.m.
Um, but I was just shocked howmany people were in line for
booths that don't have anythinggood at them, you know.
I'm just like, you guys, comeon, like I don't know.

(01:17:40):
This booth over here has lots ofreally, really great stuff, and
the line's not that long, andyou need to go over here.
Like, stop being in line forItaly.
There's nothing good in Italythis year.
Um, but anyway, that's this isthe this is the burden I bear.
I am disappointed pushing therock up the hill.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_09 (01:17:58):
I was disappointed.
I went and uh I think there aretwo booths that just opened uh
Monday.

SPEAKER_05 (01:18:04):
Yeah, yeah.
Coastal Eats and Gyoza.

SPEAKER_09 (01:18:06):
Yeah, I was all set.
I said, Oh boy, a Gyosa booth.
Oh boy, it's right over it'sclosed.

SPEAKER_05 (01:18:11):
You need to go back, man.
It's really good.
It's really good.
So go back and get the Buffalouh chicken.

SPEAKER_09 (01:18:17):
Yeah.
You convinced me.

SPEAKER_05 (01:18:20):
So easy.

SPEAKER_09 (01:18:22):
Oh, yeah, it's not hard.
It's not hard.

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:25):
AJ, I have to wonder, you know, now that we're
within the throngs of the foodand wine festival, obviously you
were you know the first in termsof you know wanting to get out
there and and snap photos of themenus and you know, and all the
various food items.
When you go to the first day ofa festival now and you see

(01:18:46):
everybody under the sun doingeither the exact same thing that
you do or similar, how does thatmake you feel?

SPEAKER_05 (01:18:56):
Um, apologetic.

SPEAKER_09 (01:18:58):
No.

SPEAKER_05 (01:19:00):
Well, okay.
Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_09 (01:19:02):
I see where you're coming from.
Thank you.
Apology accepted.

SPEAKER_05 (01:19:07):
I kind of ruined the festival.
No, I mean, I it it the firstday is awful.
Though that I mean, that's whythe first night of Mickey's Not
So Scary Halloween party costsmore now, right?
Is because all the bloggers arethere and all the buckets were
there.
So um I do feel apologeticbecause I do think I was one of

(01:19:29):
the first to probably start thatum uh whole situation.
Um and I don't know, I guessit's kind of like it it's great
that people are, you know,having a great time creating
content and and doing all ofthat.
And but there's, you know, Iknow that there's also it it
makes it very crowded.

(01:19:50):
It makes it kind of annoyingwhen you've got, you know, these
people just talking into theirphones constantly.
And and um, you know, and I'mI'm not forward-facing, and so
my my content doesn't tend tobe, you know, I'm not talking in
the park at my phone most of thetime.
Um, but you know, it is what itis.
It's where it's where contentcreation and media has gone.

(01:20:14):
Um, you know, it's slowly movedfrom print, you know, print to
online content to photo content.
Now we're in to long form video,now we're in short form video.
So we'll see where it goes next.
Um, but it's just that is partof working in media.
Things are gonna change andevolve, and you just have to
figure out how people want toconsume your content next.

(01:20:34):
But yeah, it is the first day ofthe festival is just bloggers
and well, not even bloggersanymore, just social media, just
TikTokers now.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:43):
But I I imagine though it has to be prideful,
though, for you thinking that ifyou then start it, maybe you
never know.

SPEAKER_09 (01:20:51):
I find it amusing, to be honest.
Becky, Becky and I literally itwas raining, so we're sitting in
the American Pavilion under theroof watching a young woman
spend we left before shefinished, but she had spent one
hour videoing hot dogs.

SPEAKER_05 (01:21:09):
Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_09 (01:21:10):
It was it was amusing.
What can I do?

SPEAKER_05 (01:21:13):
It's you know, it's so funny too, because I used to
I started this before there weresmartphones.
And so I would go in to therestaurants with my DSLR.
And um, you know, when I wouldgo, when I would go shoot at uh
sci-fi din-in, I would have toliterally take my food outside

(01:21:34):
to get a picture of it.
Yeah, um, which would be justobnoxious now if you had all
these content creators just liketaking their food outside so
they could get a picture.
So anyway, I like I yeah, I meanit's I I think that it's just
evolved to be something, but itis also great not to have people

(01:21:54):
look at me like I'm a weirdowhen I take pictures of my food
because they were like, What areyou doing?
Like that is very that is verystrange, you know, you know,
hobby.

SPEAKER_01 (01:22:06):
So well, AJ, this has been an absolutely fabulous
conversation, and we soappreciate your time.
But before we let you go, we'rejust gonna do a quick hit of
rapid fire questions, and thefirst question is gonna come
from Jack.

SPEAKER_11 (01:22:21):
Favorite Disney Park ride, people mover.

SPEAKER_05 (01:22:25):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I I am the uh president of theunofficial people mover fan.
All right, in case you weren'taware, yes.
If you need a treasurer, let meknow.
Everybody is welcome to join.
Um, absolutely.

SPEAKER_09 (01:22:41):
Your go-to Disney snack.

SPEAKER_05 (01:22:44):
My go-to Disney snack right now is probably ooh,
this one just hit me out ofnowhere.
The churro toffee in Disneyland,uh is probably one of my
go-to's.
Um, but also the carrot cakecookie at Hollywood Studios, one
of my favorites.
What?

SPEAKER_09 (01:23:00):
What I have that.
I know you're right.
You're right.
I just lost all respect for you.
I you it's okay.
You can you can shame me.
It's all right.
All right, and I need you to dothat.

SPEAKER_05 (01:23:12):
Yeah, and then you need you to send me a text
message.
Just here's my advice about theKaray K cookie.
They keep it chilled, right?
They keep it in a refrigerator.
So when it comes out, don't eatit immediately because it'll be
real gummy and you'll hate it.
So let it sit for a while, warmup a little bit.

SPEAKER_09 (01:23:28):
Okay, it's a good thing you did that because you'd
have heard about it otherwise.
Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_05 (01:23:32):
No, when they started to keep them chilled
like that, I got so mad.
I'm like, this isn't as good.
And but I just but then I endedup leaving it on the front seat
of my car for a little while,and then it was like a little
oven.

SPEAKER_01 (01:23:44):
Yeah, yeah.
Very nice.
All right, AJ.
Most overrated and underratedDisney dining destination.

SPEAKER_05 (01:23:56):
Overrated, and everyone's gonna hate me for
saying this right now.
But overrated is probably Ohanaat the moment.
Um, it is, I'm sorry, it isreally no, it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:09):
It's a favorite of mine, but I uh but I understand
it though.

SPEAKER_05 (01:24:11):
I truly mine too, and I keep going back and
wanting it to be better than itis right now, but it's it's not.
They're they're cutting somecorners over there.
Um underrated would probably bethere.
I I am just a huge fan of likelike Boma, and I know people

(01:24:35):
like it.
People like it enough for whatit is.
Um, like you gotta get outthere.
And Sanaa is a great restaurant,you know.
That's great.
That you know, don't go fordinner because you won't be able
to see the animals go for lunch.
But um, I think not not enoughpeople are going to Animal
Kingdom uh lodge to eat.

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:56):
You will be happy to know that this past March we did
table service restaurants interms of a March Madness bracket
and BOMA and BOMA was ouroverall winner.

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:05):
Perfect.
Okay, then I then I shouldn'tsay that for for underrated
because it's clearly not withthis one.

SPEAKER_13 (01:25:11):
That's okay.
It's your opinion.
GD Plus, old school fast past,or none at all.

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:17):
Old school fast passed, probably.
Just because I grew up with, youknow, I well, I didn't grow up
with it.
We didn't mean anything when Iwas growing up.

SPEAKER_09 (01:25:23):
No, but we understood it.

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:24):
That's yeah, right.

SPEAKER_07 (01:25:27):
It made more sense.

SPEAKER_09 (01:25:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:25:30):
All right, and the final one best Disney festival
food and wine, following garden,or festival of the arts.

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:37):
Um, I don't like to say this publicly because uh
people will shame me, but I likefarts the best because I think
farts, love it.
I love uh yeah, I mean, um fartsis my favorite.
People don't like that I call itfarts, but I all call it farts.
I know.
I don't know what else you wouldcall it.
Um, but I love that it's it's ata quieter time, so it's usually

(01:26:00):
a little bit less, right?
It's cooler because I I willtell you right now, it is a
nightmare to cover a festivalwhen it's hot outside.
It is just the literal worst.
And um the food is so beautiful,it's just gorgeous.
And so that for me, that's thego-to.
Plus, all the fun Broadwaypeople come and that's fun too.

SPEAKER_01 (01:26:20):
Well, once again, AJ, thank you so much for your
time on this episode, folks.
Again, if you are interested inpicking up a copy of Disney
Adults Exploring and Falling inLove with a Magical Subculture,
you can buy wherever you buyyour books, whether that's
online or in store.
Be sure to check out AJ's lovelyset of pipes over on the Disney

(01:26:44):
Flu Blog YouTube channel, and besure to check that out.
But again, AJ, we cannot thankyou enough for your time.
And uh hopefully we'll see youat a festival booth uh
photographing some piece of uhfood in the future.

SPEAKER_05 (01:26:55):
Yeah, I'm that I'm that I'm that girl taking the
pictures of the hot dogs for anhour most likely.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for letting mecome on.
I was it's just been it's justbeen a joy to hang out with you
guys tonight.

SPEAKER_10 (01:27:08):
now.

SPEAKER_09 (01:27:13):
Fun chat with AJ.
I I said it during theinterview, and I'll say it again
to you friends.
Uh that Disney food blog is uhis a neat thing.
So check it out.
Really, really well done.
I love the YouTube channel.
It's it's just fun.
So it was nice, it was nicemeeting her.
I do hope I get the chance, orthat we get the chance, to meet
her at Disney World at somepoint in the future.

SPEAKER_01 (01:27:35):
Well, speaking of meeting friends down at Walt
Disney World in the future, uh,the one thing that we have
coming up, obviously we'vementioned it several times, is
Wine and Dine Half MarathonWeekend is going to be here
before we know it.
And we just did this a couple ofweeks ago with Halloween.
It is now time to prepareourselves for the Wine and Dine

(01:27:59):
roll call.
Here's the thing, though.
We need everyone's names inASAP.
We have some scheduling thatwe're trying to work out, and we
just want to be able to have themost accurate list possible.
So we are encouraging all of ourcommunity that if you are
running wine and dine thisparticular year, please get your

(01:28:19):
name into the race report asquickly as possible because we
do not want to miss you when wego to record that.
And again, that will play uhjust the week before wine and
dine, so that will be herebefore we know it.
So uh again, uh you can accessthat.
Uh, it is pinned, I think it'sall the way to the right in the
featured section of our Facebookpage.

(01:28:39):
So just up at the top there,just keep hitting that scroll
button and you'll see the GoogleDoc and insert it in there, and
we will be sure to read off yourname.

SPEAKER_07 (01:28:47):
Also, speaking of wine and dine, um, we will have
a meetup on that Saturday ofWine and Dine weekend at 3 p.m.
at the food truck area at DisneySprings, which, if you go down
to Disney Springs and you findthe big balloon that um the air
hot air balloon, go towardsthat, and then there's a

(01:29:09):
Starbucks.
Go to the left of the Starbucksis the food truck area, um, and
that is where we will meet.

SPEAKER_09 (01:29:15):
And look for Alicia.

SPEAKER_07 (01:29:16):
Yep.
I think they should look foryou, Bob, because I'm pretty
short and they're not gonna seeme very well.

SPEAKER_09 (01:29:24):
Uh hey, are we all there for one and no?
Greg's not.
I'm not.
Jack, are you there, Jack?
No, we're not all there, guys.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29:33):
No, but you know who is going to be there?
John.
John.
Yes.
And Alicia and yourself.
Yep.
Allie's gonna be there.

SPEAKER_07 (01:29:42):
Oh, yeah.
Oh yeah.
That would be great.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29:45):
Allie with a knee.
Allie with a knee, yes.
Or or as I like to uh as Ireference her in this house, OG
Allie.

SPEAKER_09 (01:29:52):
Well, yeah, that's true.
And she's also also the reasonwe have Allie without an E.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29:58):
Yes, yes, it is because we had Allie.

SPEAKER_09 (01:30:00):
With an E to begin with.
And then anyway, it's all fun.
It's all fun, it really is.
Um, hey, but this this is kindof not fun.
You use Facebook, you know this.
Group chats are coming to anend.
I'm disappointed.
I love our group chats, butwe're going to have to find a

(01:30:21):
way around them.
And John is working on settingup chats on the Discord server.
And that is the entire extent ofmy knowledge.
I could spell Discord, butthat's about it.
John, do you have any commentsyou can tell anybody or help

(01:30:41):
help anybody with that?

SPEAKER_13 (01:30:42):
Yeah, so we're we're trying to set up a Discord
server on the Discord app.
We're going to try to create asmany channels as we had in the
group chats.
It's going to be by approval.
So it's not going to be open toanyone outside of the Ryzen Run
family, I guess, if you want tocall it.

(01:31:04):
So nobody out there just goingto hop in and start seeing
what's going on.
Kind of like how our Facebookgroups were.
You had to be in our Facebookgroup to see everything.
So uh we're going to do somepreliminary uh testing,
hopefully, in the next coupledays, and hopefully by next week
we might have some kind of uhanswer for you.

SPEAKER_09 (01:31:25):
We'll do what we can to help you because, like I said
to John a couple minutes ago,I'm reasonably technically
savvy, but I'm not sure howDiscord works.
I'm sure I can learn it.
But I'm going to miss the chats.
I really am.
Now the ability to create groupsof named individuals will still

(01:31:46):
have that.
That's not the same as a groupchat.
That's a like a group message.
Those will still exist, butthat's not that's not the same
thing.
So we'll see what we can do towork that out.
And we will try to keep you upto date as we go along.

SPEAKER_10 (01:32:00):
now.

SPEAKER_09 (01:32:05):
Friends, it's uh being it's October.
Did you know that?
Jack, did you know it wasOctober?

SPEAKER_11 (01:32:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (01:32:12):
You did?

SPEAKER_11 (01:32:13):
I did.

SPEAKER_09 (01:32:13):
Yeah, somebody should have told me.
But uh here we are.
It's October.
Uh pumpkin spice lattes are outthere.
The palm trees are staying greenhere in Florida.
So the first podcast of themonth.
It's time to talk charities.
And tonight, an old friendreturns.

(01:32:34):
Andrea's been with us before.
Andrea Herman is the fundraisingevents coordinator for the
Northeast U.S.
for the Parkinson's Foundation.
So we're going to learn aboutthat.
But first, I'm going to welcomeAndrea back to the Rise and Run
podcast.
Thank you for having me back.
It's great to be on.
It's good to see you again, myfriend.
How are things with Myra?

SPEAKER_04 (01:32:55):
Fantastic.
She's been going to the parksall the time.
She's enjoying uh the Trontemporary overlay.
Um, and she is uh continuouslyso grateful and sends me photos
every time she goes.
So thank you again for everybodythat made this happen.

SPEAKER_09 (01:33:11):
If if, friends, if you're not sure what we're
talking about, Andrea wasinstrumental in helping that
wonderful race uh buscoordinator at Pop Century,
Myra, for helping her get herfirst ever Disney World annual
pass.
So that's been fun.
That was a good thing, Myra.
But we're not talking about thattonight.

(01:33:32):
We're talking about theParkinson's Foundation, a
serious something we want to,you know, pay attention to.
Can you tell us, Myra, a littlebit about the Parkinson's
Foundation, please?

SPEAKER_04 (01:33:43):
So the Parkinson's Foundation is one of the
official Run Disney charities,and our mission is to make life
better for people withParkinson's disease by improving
care and advancing researchtoward a cure.
Some of the free resources weprovide for the Parkinson's
community include our helpline.
This is a toll-free number thatanyone, patients, caregivers,

(01:34:06):
medical professionals can callto get answers about Parkinson's
questions, whether it's about adiagnosis, treatment, caregiver
questions, refers to healthcareprofessionals or community
resources in their area.
This helpline is free andstaffed by specialists, and it's
available both in English andSpanish.
Other resources that we provideinclude our hospital safety

(01:34:29):
guide.
We have a medical alert cardthat patients can, people with
Parkinson's can record theirmedical information and
medication if they're travelingor need a record of it.
We have resources for veterans,we have our free uh PD Health at
home online events, which areexercise programs.
And for those that prefer printbrochures and guides, we also

(01:34:51):
have guides and resources thatcan be shipped out for free by
request, also in the English andSpanish.
And I'm mentioning all thesebecause these resources are all
free and available to theParkinson's community because of
our amazing donors andsupporters and fundraisers that
we call our Parkinson'schampions, which includes our
Ren Run Disney athletes, makeall of these programs possible.

SPEAKER_09 (01:35:14):
Yeah, it's uh it's a rotten disease.
I mean, not that there are anygood diseases, but I I lost a
good friend, a good army friendto Parkinson's a couple years
ago.
So it's kind of close to myheart.
Uh how long has the Parkinson'sFoundation been involved with
Run Disney, do you know?

SPEAKER_04 (01:35:36):
Since 2019.

SPEAKER_09 (01:35:38):
Okay.
So relatively new, but that'sthat's good.

SPEAKER_13 (01:35:43):
Andrea, how can uh we our friends secure a charity
bib for any of like Run Disneyor any of the races you guys
sponsor?

SPEAKER_04 (01:35:51):
Sure.
So uh we have Run Disney, uhboth Disneyland and Walt Disney
World, and world several uhother major national events,
including World Majors.
If you go to our websiterunforpd.org, and that's the
number four, run run4pd.org, youwill see the full list of all of

(01:36:13):
our major national and regionalrun events, including Run
Disney.
Or if you're on our websiteParkinson.org and you go to the
search box, just type in Disney,they're gonna come up there as
well.
Um, the events are broken downby the individual race weekends.
And one thing I will say is ifyou're looking at our bibs, our
bib availability is live.

(01:36:35):
So what you see on there iswhat's available.

SPEAKER_09 (01:36:38):
That's that's very helpful.
You were telling us before westarted that a lot of activity
for bibs for the half atDisneyland.

SPEAKER_04 (01:36:49):
Yes, we have very, very limited availability left.
Um, it's possible that thiscould sell out before folks get
a chance to listen to this call.
Um, what we do have some halfbibs still available there and
challenge if people are lookingfor their coast to coast.
Uh for 2026 for marathonweekend, we still have dopey
bibs available.

(01:37:09):
Half marathon and 5K.
Um dopey is 3,000, half marathonis 1,000 and 5k is 750.
For Princess Weekend, we stillhave fairy tale challenge left,
which is 1500.
And for springtime surprise, wehave all distances available.

SPEAKER_09 (01:37:26):
Very good.
Good to know that.
When a friend signs up for a bibwith several charities, they pay
the entry fee, and then thatentry fee counts toward their
fundraising.
Is that the same with theParkinson's Foundation?

SPEAKER_04 (01:37:40):
So for Parkinson's, uh your fundraising minimum
includes your race registration.
Yeah, okay.
So that's part of the total.

SPEAKER_09 (01:37:47):
Yeah, that's another way of putting it.
Good.
Good.
Well, while we're talking justin general about fundraising,
have you got any tips or tricksfor friends who are trying to
raise funds?

SPEAKER_04 (01:38:00):
Sure.
It it's it's um I've been doingRun Disney charity myself
personally for um 2026 will bethe my 15th year of fundraising.

SPEAKER_09 (01:38:09):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (01:38:10):
Um I passed$51,000.

SPEAKER_15 (01:38:13):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:38:14):
And I I'll tell people that I um I learn a lot
every time I do this.
Um the biggest things I can tellpeople uh is first of all,
always pick a charity.
And and that and this just goesbeyond Run Disney as well.
This is any world major, anyevent that you're fundraising
for, is to pick a charity thatreally personally you connect

(01:38:34):
with.
Uh, it's something thatresonates with you.
It's gonna be a lot easier tofundraise if you pick something
you have a personal connectionto.
And I also remind people thatwhen you're fundraising, you're
not just supporting the charity,you are raising awareness of an
issue or a disease or a causethat people don't know about.
Someone's gonna learn about aprogram that can help them

(01:38:55):
because if you you're not just afundraiser, treatment.
Think of yourself as anadvocate.
Um I always tell people my andthis is what I've always done is
the first donation should alwaysbe to yourself.
And let's say, you know, let'ssay you're registering for Run
Disney with a charity.
Like for us, if your fundraisingminimum includes your race
registration, donate the cost ofthe race registration.
You are going to pay it anyway.

(01:39:18):
So add that right on board.
And really, we know you'll hearcharities advise about
personalizing your fundraisingpage and your photo and sharing
your story.
It really does matter.
If you tell people why youpicked this cause, why you
picked this race, what it meansto you, it really does connect
with your donors that much more.
I'll also tell people set a goalthat's meaningful to you.

(01:39:39):
Like, you know, there's thesuggested fundraising minimum,
like for a half marathon, ifmine is a thousand, I'll bump it
up to 1,310 just to tie to thedifference.
Just something, something thatmakes it unique.
The earlier you start yourfundraising, the faster your
momentum gets going, it's thatmuch easier to hit that goal.
And then when it gets to thetime that you're going in for

(01:40:01):
your long miles and your longertraining days, it's just that
much easier when you've alreadychanged your fundraising.
So the most you can do up front,the better off you're gonna be.
And I always remind people thatif you are at a workplace that
matches employee donations or ifyour donors have matching gifts,
get that processed as soon asyou can.

(01:40:22):
Some matching gift programs cantake several months.
That's pretty normal.
So the earlier you can do it,the better.
And also, as we're getting intoOctober, we're getting to the
end of the year.
Match and gift programs willtypically reset at the start of
a new calendar year.
And if you have these funds,it's use it or lose it.
So make sure that you get yourpaperwork submitted.

(01:40:45):
And really, honestly, I wouldtell people if you're
fundraising, if you don't ask,the answer is automatically no.

SPEAKER_09 (01:40:50):
That's right.

SPEAKER_04 (01:40:51):
You know, people are gonna surprise you.
The people that you thought werenot gonna donate are often the
ones that donate the most.
You really, when you're askingfor donations, you don't know
someone's story.
The person that you reached outto can have a connection to this
cause that you didn't knowabout.
Take that time to really gothrough your age or C list of
all the contacts that you have.
Everyone you have a relationshipwith as a potential donor.

(01:41:14):
Who is in your life?
Think outside the box.
Could be your doctor, yourdentist, your insurance agent,
your lawn care company, youralumni association, your
babysitter.
You don't know.
So think about everyone that youinteract with.
And the final thing I was uh tryto emphasize is um you can't
thank people enough.
Keep thanking them, keep yourdonors informed, share your good

(01:41:36):
days, share your bad days.
Do that send off before yourrace, put up, send them your
flat runner photo, thank people,host event.
Just, you know, it's it's theappreciation that they're
they're with you in thisjourney, not just with the
donation, but they want to seeyou cross that finish line as
well.
And think about your otherprofessional networks that you
might not think about, such asLinkedIn.

(01:41:58):
Perfect opportunity tofundraise, and it helps you
avoid any issues if yourworkplace doesn't allow donation
requests.
LinkedIn is public, you'resharing this information with
other people outside of the workenvironment.
So if some companies are verystrict about, you know, don't
solicit at work, don't use yourwork at all.
This is your profile, so that'sconsidered fine.

(01:42:18):
Then the the only other thing Iwould mention is, you know, so
there's a lot of people that,you know, you've if you've
secured your own entry and youstill want to do something, or
you're looking for thatcommunity community service
project, or you're looking for away to get involved and you're
interested in the charity'steam, you can absolutely sign up
as a fundraiser for thesecharities if you've secured your
own bib.
For example, our program iscalled Honorary Athletes, so

(01:42:41):
Parkinson's Champions.
If you've got your own entry andyou want the perks and benefits
of being on a team, the singlet,any team meetups, you know,
every charity has a betterevent, check out these groups.
They will give you the samefundraising tools, tricks, and
support as if you werefundraising for your charity
bib.
And because you already haveyour own bib, all the funds go

(01:43:01):
to the organization.
So every every little bit helps.

SPEAKER_13 (01:43:04):
So if uh somebody fundraises with your charity, uh
what are some of the other perksthat you get uh fundraising for
uh Parkinson's Foundation?

SPEAKER_04 (01:43:14):
Sure.
So we have our our Parkinson'schampions, our athletes, get
their official team singlet.
We have a runner box full ofsome goodies that we send out to
you.
We have virtual coaching, so ourour fundraisers have access to a
certified coach if they'relooking for training tips or
advice.
And I will say that ourfundraising platform, uh, and I

(01:43:34):
say this as someone who'sfundraising myself, is so easy
to use.
We've got great online guidesand tips and tricks for
fundraisers.
We have pre-prepared socialmedia graphics, our fundraising
pages connect to Facebook, uh,really robust platform in terms
of tracking donors, being ableto thank people, uh, send
follow-ups.
So, and also uh one of the otherthings is is multiple ways that

(01:43:59):
people can make a donation.
People can donate via creditcard, Venmo, uh PayPal.
So there's other alternatives,and we have a really easy if
someone has a check, you haveimmediate access to an online
form if people want to mail in acheck.

SPEAKER_09 (01:44:12):
Very good.
Andrea, a lot of greatinformation about a wonderful
and important charity.
So there you have it, friends,the Parkinson's Foundation.
We will put the links thatAndrea gave us into our show
notes and onto our Facebookpage.
Andrea, thanks for joining usagain.
This time to tell us uh about areally important charity.

(01:44:36):
Hey, any when when are we gonnasee you at Walt Disney World?

SPEAKER_04 (01:44:39):
So I'll be I'll be at 9 and 9, I'll be at the
Marathon weekend, and I will beat uh Disneyland to get my what
I'm assuming will be my finallifetime coast to coast.

SPEAKER_09 (01:44:48):
I think I uh Andrea, I'll be at all of those myself.
And the reason I'm going back inJanuary is I think that's gonna
God knows how long it'll bebefore they come back.
So, and I'm not getting anyyounger.

SPEAKER_04 (01:45:01):
No, but you know what?
Those themes in January andDisneyland are just amazing.

SPEAKER_09 (01:45:07):
Yeah, I don't have any idea what they are, but
that's okay.
That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 (01:45:12):
Yeah, they got me at It's a Small World.
That's all right, yes.

SPEAKER_09 (01:45:16):
Okay, we were talking about that.
We were talking about that.
All right, Andrea, thanks foryour time and thanks for the
good work that you do, and welook forward to talking with you
later.

SPEAKER_04 (01:45:25):
All right, thank you again.
Thanks, have a good night.

SPEAKER_09 (01:45:27):
Caution runners, change of topic ahead.
There you go, friends.
Parkinson's foundation.
Uh great cause, great charity,and another opportunity to earn
a Disney race pip.
Uh, looking at announcements,not a Zoom Thursday this week,

(01:45:48):
but we will be back next week,and that will be the last time
that we get together beforeheading off to Wine and Dine.
So that'll be October 9th.
And that'll be our last Zoombefore Wine and Dine.

(01:46:10):
Bring your questions.
It's a great time.
If you're the first time downthere, it's a great time to ask
your questions about what to dofor a Run Disney weekend.
And now, please stand clear ofthe door.
It's time for a race report.

(01:46:36):
Race Report sponsored by ourfriend Thomas Stokes, Stoked
Metabolic Training, Stokes.fitslash rise and run coaching.
Tom had his first free onlinewebinar last week.
You know, I get tied up, and Ithink a lot of us get tied up in

(01:46:57):
the weightlifting andstrengthening part of Tom's
training and teaching.
But Tom's big time intonutrition and very, very helpful
in his nutritional tips andhelping people in losing weight.
So that's another outstandingreason to look into Stokes.fit

(01:47:18):
slash rise and run coaching.
A quick note, I've made thiscomment before, I think, but I
just want our friends to knowthis.
You put your race reports in,that's great.
Every day, almost every day,I'll go into the Facebook group,
and there's a little sectioncalled flagged post or pending

(01:47:40):
approval or something like that.
And I'll find two or three racereports in there, and I have no
idea why they're in there aspossible spam.
No idea.
Once in a rare while, maybe onein 20, somebody will mention a
sponsor or something, and I'llgo, oh well, maybe the Facebook
algorithm thinks this is an ad.

(01:48:01):
But no, most of the time it'sjust an ordinary, hey, I did
this race.
But so the only reason I bringit up, friends, is I can't do
anything to stop it.
As soon as I see it, I go aheadand make sure that they're
published.
But I just wanted you to knowthat if you don't see your post
right away, it's possible thatthat's what happened.
Okay, friends, let's kick offthis race report with our

(01:48:24):
spotlight feature.
We talked about it the lastcouple weeks.
We said we were waiting forfolks to get home from Germany.
We're going to talk about theBerlin Marathon.
And we've got some friendsjoining us this evening to share
their stories from Berlin.
We got Brian.

SPEAKER_08 (01:48:42):
Hey there, guys.
Brian from uh Raleigh, NorthCarolina.
I've completed five marathons,but this was my first world
major.

SPEAKER_12 (01:48:49):
Hi everyone.
My name's Kristen, and I'm fromFairfax, Virginia.
This was my second worldmarathon major.
I ran Chicago back in 2023, andit was my sixth overall
marathon.

SPEAKER_00 (01:49:02):
Hey, this is Michael.
Uh, this was my 13th marathon,and my sixth star completing my
six-star journey.
Outstanding.

SPEAKER_09 (01:49:12):
That's great.
We we absolutely want to hearmore about that.
But one of the things I like totalk with our friends who travel
overseas to marathons is how'dyou get there?
What'd you do when you getthere?
Did you spend time before?
Did you spend time after?
How was it?
Krista, why don't you kick usoff?

SPEAKER_12 (01:49:33):
So I flew from Dulles to um Munich on um
Wednesday night, arriving inMunich on um Thursday afternoon,
and then I had anotherconnecting flight to Berlin.
And interestingly enough,checked into my hotel around um

(01:49:54):
eight o'clock at night, and thenwe're just very jet-lagged.
I didn't really get to sleepthat much on the plane.
So go to sleep, and then twohours later, I hear this banging
on my door from the hotel staffsaying you need to evacuate the
hotel.
And I'm thinking maybe this is afire drill.

(01:50:18):
So my husband and I we go outinto the hallway, and the hotel
staff was like, You need tobring all of your stuff with
you.
You need to evacuate.
So we're like, what is going on?
Um, so there's some otherpeople, um, hotel guests staying
um near the elevator, and theyalso were very confused as to
what was going on.
So we get down into the lobbyand they tell us that they um

(01:50:42):
the police officers downstairstold us that they found a bomb
in the nearby river from WorldWar II.
Um, I guess that this is commonfor them to find when they're
doing construction.
Um, and then we needed to go toa local shelter.
I think it was at like a cityhall, and we would be staying
there overnight until morningwhen they could deactivate the

(01:51:04):
bomb.
So we go to the shelter.
There's probably like hundredsof people there.
Um, we need to check in, and um,we got there later, so there
weren't very many places for usto sit at a table.
So we were just kind of sittingon the floor, and they told us
um the red um German Red Crosscame and said, like, you should

(01:51:24):
make yourself comfortable,you're gonna be here for a
while.
So I was able to get someblankets and we just tried to
lad on the floor to sleepbecause we're jet lagged and we
have a marathon.
I have a marathon in two days.
Wasn't really able to sleep, butthen at 7:30 a.m.
they told us that it was clear.
Um, the bomb didn't pose athreat, so we could go back to
our hotel.

(01:51:45):
Um, but it was just made a veryexciting first night in Germany.

SPEAKER_09 (01:51:50):
Wow.
Yeah.
Hey Brian, can you top that?

SPEAKER_08 (01:51:54):
Well, uh I I had uh uh several sleepless nights, but
not for any reasons other thanjet lag and the air conditioners
in Europe don't work like theydo here in the states.

SPEAKER_09 (01:52:05):
Oh.
And I understand it was warm.

SPEAKER_08 (01:52:09):
It it was quite warm.
So uh it decided to warm upabout I I tell my friends about
18 hours before the race, uh, itgot quite warm.
Um, I think it was in the 80s.
I I don't really recall uhcompletely with everything being
in Celsius around me.
I was just like, okay, it's hot.
Um and then it literally cooleddown two hours after the race.

(01:52:30):
So this was supposedly one ofthe hottest races or the hottest
race I've ever done.
And I've completed all my othermarathons in Florida.
Wow.

SPEAKER_09 (01:52:40):
Wow.
Hey, Michael, getting over, onceyou got over there, when did you
go?
When did you come back?
And how did you get around whileyou were there?

SPEAKER_00 (01:52:49):
Uh so we left uh Orlando Wednesday afternoon and
headed up to JFK and thengrabbed a flight from JFK
directly into Berlin.
Uh got there like eight in themorning, I think, on Thursday.
Uh hopped in an Uber, went toour hotel.
We weren't ready to check inyet, so that was a little bit of
an inconvenience, but it couldbe worse.

(01:53:10):
You know, there could be bombsand whatnot near the hotels.

unknown (01:53:13):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (01:53:14):
Um, and then um the tour company I was with uh had a
bus for us, and we hopped on abus and went over to the expo
like as soon as it opened.

SPEAKER_09 (01:53:23):
Okay.
Well, World Major, how was theexpo?

SPEAKER_00 (01:53:27):
Busy.
Busy.
Um compared to other ones, Iwould say it's on the same level
as Chicago, as far as justcrowds of people, busy energy,
but they're so efficient, andyou could pre-order your
finisher shirts or your your uhjackets, like it was so easy

(01:53:47):
compared to other majors.

SPEAKER_08 (01:53:49):
I would say that the efficiency here makes um makes
Disney look like the Bush Leaguealmost.
Um you turning thousands andthousands of people in an hour.
You you walk in, you get awristband, that wristband lets
them know that you're actuallyracing.
You go up, they print your biboff right there on the spot.
I went from the doors openingwith uh probably thousands of

(01:54:13):
people in front of me in line tohaving my bib in hand in under
25 minutes.

SPEAKER_09 (01:54:19):
Wow.
Wow.
That's that's better than the uhcorral guy at Bird and Hand,
Jen.
Inside joke.
Uh anything exciting at the atthe expo, Kristen?

SPEAKER_12 (01:54:33):
Well, they still I went to the expo on Friday
afternoon and they still had alot of merchandise.
I had pre-ordered a shirt and ajacket um just because I wasn't
sure what the situation would belike if it would be like at Run
Disney, where a lot of the stuffis already picked over.
But yeah, I was just surprisedthat they still had so much
merchandise left at that time.

(01:54:54):
Um, and it was just really,really efficient.
Um, they had the Therabody bootsthat I've heard a lot about from
Run Disney Expos.
I had never tried them before,so I was able to try them there.
And they also they had um a lotof um marathons that were in

(01:55:15):
Europe.
They had representatives there.

SPEAKER_09 (01:55:18):
Okay, makes sense.

SPEAKER_12 (01:55:19):
Um yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (01:55:20):
The squeezy boots, huh?

SPEAKER_12 (01:55:22):
Yes, they're very nice.

SPEAKER_09 (01:55:24):
They're pretty good.
I agree.
Big event, world major.
I didn't look to see how manypeople entered, but it's
normally in the 40 to 50,000range.
I assume Germany is probablyclose to that.
How did they handle the start?

SPEAKER_08 (01:55:39):
Uh so 55,200 people uh were registered to run.
Um so I was I was in the last uhlast start group, last corral.
Um, but it is uh based on myunderstanding, there were four
start waves and it was just fourgroups of people, and they
opened up the gates.
And once they opened the gates,everyone who was behind them

(01:56:02):
just went until the next startgroup, and then they would do a
quick pause after that startgroup, and then they would open
it up again and uh and leteveryone get them.
Um I showed up on timerelatively for my start group,
um, but when I turned around, uhthere was no one behind me, so I
accidentally definitely starteduh the world major.

SPEAKER_09 (01:56:20):
In in that group, anyway.

SPEAKER_08 (01:56:22):
Well, I was in the last one, so I was I was one of
the first across the start one.

SPEAKER_09 (01:56:27):
Wow.

SPEAKER_00 (01:56:28):
I was actually the same corral as him, and it was
it was pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_09 (01:56:32):
You didn't see anybody with balloons, did you,
Michael?

SPEAKER_00 (01:56:35):
No, no balloons, thankfully.
Um, however, one of the weirdestpre-race, I'm not gonna call it
a ritual because it was weird,but they had everyone have their
hands in the air, and then theyhad us going to the left, to the
left, to the left.
Not like dancing, but justmoving our arms back and forth.
And if you step back and look,all you see is this sea of
humanity going from the left tothe right.

SPEAKER_09 (01:56:58):
That's cool.

SPEAKER_07 (01:57:00):
So, speaking of things that um you saw on the
course, did you see any crazycostumes?
I know that we love seeing thecostumes at Disney Races, and I
I know there was some um atBerlin.

SPEAKER_00 (01:57:11):
Uh, there was Pineapple Guy.
I don't know if you saw thepicture of Pineapple Guy.

SPEAKER_07 (01:57:15):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:57:16):
Um, it was also, I don't know if they were from the
States or not.
Bob, you'll appreciate this.
There were these two women in atandem costume with a space
shuttle, and they were trying toset a Guinness record wearing an
actual space shuttle costume.

SPEAKER_08 (01:57:31):
Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 (01:57:32):
That's interesting.

SPEAKER_08 (01:57:34):
I saw a couple people running around in banana
costumes.
I think they were Chiquitabananas because I believe that
they were one of the sponsors.

SPEAKER_07 (01:57:40):
That's great.

SPEAKER_09 (01:57:42):
Oh, that's neat.
Yeah.
Kristen, how'd the start go foryou?

SPEAKER_12 (01:57:46):
It was good.
It seemed like they had, I wasin the last start group as well.
Um, and it seemed like they hadmini waves within the wave.
So that was good that therewasn't, it wasn't super crowded.
I felt like there was plenty ofroom to move at the beginning of
the course.
It wasn't that much of abottleneck.
Um, and since it was so hot,they were also like handing out

(01:58:08):
a lot of water as we were makingour way to the start line.
Um, and they also had water likein the start corrals, and they
had um they also had porterpotties in the corrals, which I
did not realize.
And I was waiting in a reallylong line in the start area.

(01:58:29):
And then once I got to thecorral, I was like, I could have
saved like 45 minutes by justmaking it starting corral.

SPEAKER_09 (01:58:35):
Uh, you live and you learn, right?
That's okay.
Well, tell us about the course,please.
What were some of the excitingthings that you passed?
How was the course?
Be well, you can tell us aboutit being hot too, if you want
to, but we know that.
But how did it go?
Brian, how'd it go for you?

SPEAKER_08 (01:58:53):
Yeah, so the course was great.
Um, getting to run throughGermany, uh, seeing all the
sites.
I've never been to Germanybefore, so it was kind of fun to
to see all the see all thethings and and soak in just the
um the the experience of runningin a different country.
Um first uh first internationalsecond international race.
Um I did one on cast like theofficial one on Castaway K a few

(01:59:17):
years back before they shut thatdown.
Um but so second internationalrace.
Um I thought that it was wellsupported.
Um I heard a couple commentsthat they ran out of some drinks
or waters uh towards the end,but uh I started at the end and
my experience was quite theopposite.
Um they had many water cups.
Uh most people were grabbing twoor three water cups at a time

(01:59:37):
because it was so hot.
And like, I don't know if youguys experienced this, but like
the ground around the waterstation, the aid station, was so
wet that it was like a slip andslide, and like there were
puddles like three to six inchesdeep.
And then the stack of cups onthe side of the road was like a
few feet worth of uh of cups onthe side of the road.
It was uh it was definitely anexperience.

SPEAKER_00 (01:59:58):
Yeah, the weird thing with the uh With the water
stations, they're plastic cups,they're not the typical, so you
can't fold them.
You try to run with a plasticcup, and it just the water's
hitting you in the face, and theprettiest thing.
Um, but one thing that wasreally I thought it was cool
that they did was because it wasso hot, they had people out

(02:00:18):
there with hoses creating these.
I'm gonna call it a shower,where you would run through and
they would just completely coolyou down.
They had them at every kind ofevery other water station, I
think.
That was just volunteers, or wasthat something that the course
had?
That I don't know.
Um, I mean, it was run by thepeople that were volunteering at
the water stations, like a miststation, basically, right?

SPEAKER_08 (02:00:41):
Or is that regular shower?
So some of them were set up onstructures to get even higher.
So it does seem like at leastsome of them were like
engineered to be there by therace coordinators, where some
were definitely held up by theuh the volunteers.

SPEAKER_09 (02:00:55):
What were some of the German or Berlin landmarks
that you passed?

SPEAKER_00 (02:00:59):
I mean, the main one's Brandenburg Gate.
I mean, that's the finish.
That's at the end, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, checkpoint Charlie.
If you look, you you might missit.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:06):
Yeah.
Other than that, as pretty muchis just running running through
the city.
Well, that's still pretty cool.
Now, Brian, this is your firstworld major, right?

unknown (02:01:16):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:16):
Yes.
Okay, but Kristen, you've doneat least two.
You said I think you saidChicago.

SPEAKER_12 (02:01:22):
Yes.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:23):
Any comparisons?

SPEAKER_12 (02:01:25):
I think that both of them just they had a lot of
spectators, which was great.
What I really liked about Berlinwas that my name was printed on
my bed.
So there were so many peoplecheering for me, um, especially
because I was using the runwalkmethod.
And so I was on the right sideof the road, and like there's I
lost count with how many peoplewere cheering for me.

(02:01:47):
Um, so that was reallyencouraging, especially with it
being so hot.
But yeah, overall, I wouldrecommend both of these world
majors.
Chicago was great as well.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:56):
Now, last week in the race report, it wasn't a
spotlight.
We had a one of our friends whoran a race in Paris and said it
was very motivating to havepeople shouting at you in
French.
Was it motivating to have peopleshouting at you in German?

SPEAKER_12 (02:02:12):
Yes.
Yes, I feel like people werepronouncing my name um with a
German accent.
So yeah, it was great.
Yeah.

unknown (02:02:20):
All right.

SPEAKER_09 (02:02:21):
Now, Michael, I that was really this question that
I've asked uh Brian and Kristen,it was really a setup for you,
buddy.
Okay, because you've knockedthem all out now, you've done
all six.
That's really quite anaccomplishment.
Overall thoughts, you don't haveto compare all six, just overall
thoughts now that you'vecompleted the journey.

SPEAKER_00 (02:02:42):
It's funny you say that because coming down the
last stretch, heading toBrandenburg, is where I started
to remember the other finishlines, and it's just this wave
of emotion that came over me.
Um it just gratitude to be ableto do it.
Um starting off in Boston andfinishing in Berlin is that was

(02:03:02):
you know, I now what's next?
You know what I mean?
Like I've done it then, what?

SPEAKER_09 (02:03:08):
Well, I mean, I you know, enjoy it.
I mean really, you know, I Ithink that's a fantastic thing.
You've done it, you enjoy it.
You've had them all.
Um any favorite?
Do you have a favorite of thesix?

SPEAKER_00 (02:03:22):
It's okay.
So anyone in Boston's gonna hateme for saying this.
Um, New York City.
If you could bottle the energyfrom a New York City marathon
and sell it, you would be abillionaire.
That's what I've heard.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (02:03:36):
They're they're really gonna hate you since the
Yankees and the Red Sox areplaying each other, right?
Uh, don't remind me.
Right as we're recording this.
But uh yeah, but that's okay.
I think I think in this case youcan be forgiven.

SPEAKER_13 (02:03:50):
Michael, are you gonna plan on doing Australia?

SPEAKER_00 (02:03:52):
Um if you were to ask me today, I'm gonna say no.
Um I I've thought about it.
Uh it's just the logistics ofgetting there.
And the course, let's I'm gonnabe real honest, does not look
fun.
It it's more hills and more ummore game than New York City
running all those.

SPEAKER_09 (02:04:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We did hear that from ourfriends who ran it, that it was
the hilliest.

SPEAKER_00 (02:04:16):
Yeah, so I'm probably gonna pass on Sydney.
Cape Town, if it comes up, maybewe'll talk.
I don't know, but for now, we'regood.

SPEAKER_08 (02:04:24):
I just entered the uh the lottery for the Sydney
marathon yesterday.

SPEAKER_09 (02:04:28):
I think it's exciting.
I wish you all the best of luckin that.
I I think just going there wouldbe exciting.
That's a marathon in itself.
Uh you're right, John.

SPEAKER_07 (02:04:37):
So, Brian, you just kind of answered my question.
If you plan to do any more umworld majors, um, so it
obviously you have to get intothem, but um, it sounds like
maybe you you would like to.

SPEAKER_08 (02:04:50):
Yeah, so my goal is to uh to do them all over, I
guess, the course of my life.
I don't I don't have any likeneed to get them done
immediately.
And I'm not uh an extremelylucky person.
I've entered uh for like four orfive world majors, and Berlin
was the first one that I'vegotten into.
Um, so uh so I'll take them asthey come.
And then my plan is to do Bostonas my last one.

(02:05:12):
I don't think I'll ever qualifyfor time for Boston, but um, but
I'll do it as like a cherry ontop and uh and fundraise a bunch
of money for them.

SPEAKER_09 (02:05:20):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 (02:05:21):
What about you, Kristen?
Do you plan to do any more ofthem?

SPEAKER_12 (02:05:24):
Yes, I would really like to run New York City.
Um, and yeah, I would like tofinish in Boston if I ever um
complete all the other ones.
And for Berlin, I actually itwas interesting.
I didn't get in through thelottery initially, but I think
that maybe this is the onlyWorld Marathon major that has
this, but they actually have asecond chance lottery.

(02:05:46):
So I randomly entered itthinking there's no way that I'm
gonna be selected.
But then at the end of January,I got an email saying that I um
had been selected and had twoweeks to decide if I was going
to run it.
And I was like, if I get in, Idefinitely need to run this
race.

(02:06:06):
So I was like, okay, I guess I'mgoing to Germany in September.

SPEAKER_09 (02:06:11):
Good for you.
That's outstanding.
Aside from World Majors, whichis just awesome.
I congratulate the three of you,and uh obviously Michael doing
all six, that's remarkable.
But run Disney.
When do we see you again atDisney, Brian?

SPEAKER_08 (02:06:31):
My next Disney race is gonna be Princess.
I will be there for all threeraces.
Um, kind of taking a break, kindof well, I said that.
Um, I I was planning on taking abreak a little bit from the the
Disney races just to kind of goout there and experience some
more like world majors styleraces, and funds are not

(02:06:51):
unlimited as you sure, yes,sure.
Um, but somehow I found my wayinto uh joining y'all for
Princess.

SPEAKER_09 (02:06:59):
Good deal.
We'll be glad to see you there,Kristen.
How about you?

SPEAKER_12 (02:07:02):
I'm running my second Doby um in January, and
then I'll also be there for thePrincess Half in in March.

SPEAKER_09 (02:07:12):
All right, all right, Michael, Wine and Dine.

SPEAKER_00 (02:07:16):
No, um I I'm taking an extended break.
Um I'm trying to venture out.
I've started to create a bucketlist of some half marathons I
want to run.
Um, like Iceland.
Oh, yeah, cool.
Other other places where, again,like you said, like Brian said,
you gotta move the funds fromone place to another to get to
these races.
So uh probably 2027, I'll beback.

SPEAKER_09 (02:07:38):
Okay.
Space Coast?

SPEAKER_00 (02:07:40):
Oh, I'm in for Space Coast.
I'm in for Dora.
Dora's my fifth year.
So okay.

SPEAKER_09 (02:07:46):
I haven't I haven't uh climbed, I haven't challenged
Mount Dora yet.
You gotta get there for theclimb.
Maybe one of these years, yeah.
But uh yeah, see a space coast.
That sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_13 (02:07:56):
So I know besides the marathon, there's other
events there, like like atune-up race, uh like a 5k.
I know there's the inline races.
Did you guys experience any ofthat?

SPEAKER_08 (02:08:06):
Yeah, so I ran the 5K with my wife, um, and that
was really exciting.
It was basically the last 5k ofthe full marathon.
So she and I got to experiencethat together.
And someone very uh politelypointed out on the race that
this may be the last time youremember running this portion of
the marathon, uh, which was verytrue because at that point
everything was kind of a fog.

(02:08:28):
So that was really cool.
And then when when we completedthat, uh, we got to watch the
inline folks come through aswell, which I think is pretty
unique to Berlin.
I don't think anyone else hasany inline skate um races that
go on the same course.

SPEAKER_00 (02:08:43):
My hotel was right in front of the Brandenburg
gate, so we got to stand infront of the hotel and watch the
uh inline race.
And seeing the videos onlinedoes not do them justice to how
fast they're actually going.
It is amazing.
Those athletes are insane.

SPEAKER_13 (02:09:01):
Yeah, I think the finisher, the winner finished in
about an hour.

SPEAKER_09 (02:09:07):
Wow.
I don't think I could ride abicycle that fast.
Uh may I don't think so.
All right, that's neither herenor there.
Friends, sounds like a wonderfultrip, wonderful time.
Thank you for taking your timeto tell us about it.
And we look forward to seeingyou again soon.
Thanks for having us.

(02:09:27):
Thank you.
Thanks.
Okay, let's continue now thisweekend.
Continue on Saturday inColumbus, Indiana, where Ileana
and her father, Nelson, did themill race marathon, first
marathon ever for Iliana.
That's PR.

(02:09:50):
Nelson, her dad, did his second.
And he's a youngster.
He's only 70 years old.
God bless you, Nelson.
That's great, buddy.
Us old guys got to sticktogether.
I honest to goodness, I'm proudof you for that.
That's awesome.
Uh, they this particular race,the Mill race, they finished

(02:10:11):
their four-year medal series.
Iliana made a lovely post.
She spent a lot of time thankingeveryone who helped her on this
journey to her first marathon.
And isn't that the truth?
You know, we all go out, we putin the work, and that part we do
by ourselves, mostly, butthere's a whole lot of folks

(02:10:32):
that have to help us if we'regoing to achieve these goals.
And don't forget those peoplealong the way either.
In Orlando, there was a bigevent.
Lots of rise and runners at theMargaritaville Run 5K, 10K, and
half.
Friends, it is still summer inFlorida, and Saturday was pretty

(02:10:56):
toasty.
Nancy did the 10K, her thirdyear doing a Margaritaville
race, their second year doingthe 10K.
Uh, they ran a little bit, ranthrough a bit of the island H2O
water park and the main drag ofthe Sunset Walk District in
Orlando.

(02:11:17):
Despite the fact that the coursemay have been a little bit more
than 10K, and the weather beinghot, she still beat her time
from last year.
That's pretty good.
Mary did the 10K.
Mary, I hope you saw the photos.
She wore a blow-up GoBro Shakecostume because she's

(02:11:39):
fundraising for the AmericanCancer Society for her run in
Chicago.
She called that thing her ownpersonal sauna.
I can only imagine.
It really looked hot.
Uh, but the vibes were nothingbut great.
She had a good time.

(02:11:59):
Now she's inspired to do othercrazy things.
Mary, you're making me nervous.
Amber did the 5K.
Thanks for all the fun andon-theme holler hypes that she
got.
And for those who asked, yes,there were margaritas at the
finish line.
Well, by golly, I sure hope so.

(02:12:19):
Jared did the half.
Jared said not enough waterstations on the half, and no
electrolyte drinks at all.
Uh running back in the finishline area.
You're running in between cars.
That's pretty much not cool.
I think this is the first timethey did a half marathon at this
race.
Nevertheless, Jared says hestill had fun and he did enjoy

(02:12:40):
the margaritas and beers afterthe race.
Carried it at 10K.
Great setting.
Not a PR.
Too hot to push it.
I agree.
Pretty hot on Saturday.
Uh, she didn't love the the waythat all three races, the five,
the ten, and the half, they allmerge towards the end, makes it
for a really crowded final mile.

(02:13:00):
But she says she'll be back forthis one.
Erica ran her first race backtwo months after a series of
injury challenges.
Uh, no on-course entertainment,barely any traffic control,
which led to some upset drivers.
Yeah, they probably need to,yeah, race directors probably

(02:13:21):
need to iron that out.
But once again, Erica cites thefact that, hey, I don't care
because we got free margaritasat the end.
I may have to do this one nextyear.
Alicia, you don't have to buy.
Ah, Nicole did the half.
She says she's pretty sure shesaw Little Baby Jesus on the

(02:13:43):
course.
Or maybe it was just the heat.
Lots of folks had trouble onthis one.
Uh could have used more waterstops, that's a theme.
David did the 10K, got a PR, butit was only his second 10K.
Well, that David, what thatmeans, is means it's your second
consecutive 10K PR.

(02:14:06):
You got a PR on your first onebecause it was your first one,
and now you got a PR on yoursecond one.
That's great.
Now the other one, the other10K, looks like it was
springtime surprise because itwas the day before the 10 miler
at Disney.
Disney.
Way to go, David.
And then our friend Heatherrolled this one, said the start
was really a mess for AWDathletes.
Accessibility was limited, uh,getting bib pickup.

(02:14:29):
Uh the accessible porta pottywas filled with trash cans.
Not cool.
Uh, but once the race started,things got a little better.
She was on a PR pace, but thenshe had wheel trouble at mile
12.
Wheels started getting wobbly.
Fortunately, she got some helpfrom the lifeguards at the water

(02:14:51):
park.
They found some tools, fixed herwheel, she was able to finish.
So, big event in Orlando.
Let's go to Southampton, NewYork for the Hamptons half
marathon.
Megan ran that one.
Dorothy was in Kennesaw, Georgiafor the Kennesaw Grand Prix
Harvest Hustle 5K.

(02:15:12):
In Milton, Delaware, Tracy ranthe Dogfish 4.81 mile race.
That's right, 4.81 miles.
There's a reason for that.
I don't know what it is.
This is the 20th year that thisrace has been run.
Takes place on a looped coursearound the countryside near the
Dogfish Head Brewery.

SPEAKER_01 (02:15:33):
Such an awesome brewery.
There's so much great metalartwork that is and there's and
they have like this big uh liketreehouse structure there, too.
I I was there a couple of yearsago uh because it's very close
to uh Rehowith Beach, Delaware,which is where I do a lot of my
beach vacations.
And yeah, it is it's an awesome,awesome brewery.

(02:15:55):
And when I saw Tracy Pillow thisreport, I was like, I was so
jealous.
I never knew about it.
So it's definitely on my radarfor the future.

SPEAKER_09 (02:16:00):
Good.
Well, it appears they have acostume contest to see you can
make the most creative costumeout of recycled materials.
So there you go.
You get working, Greg.
You got a year.
Uh uh, some autumn leaves arestarting to fall along the path
in Delaware.
They took it easy, but she'lldefinitely be back next year to

(02:16:24):
do this race with Greg.
Lori in Akron, Ohio, did theAkron half marathon.
Well-organized race.
She's done the half, at least 19out of the last 23 years.
Didn't look at her watch and atall until she crossed the finish
line.
This race just felt different.

(02:16:45):
She felt strong, ran 30-30intervals, and ran, and we need
a bell for this, a post-kneereplacement PR of 2 hours 42
minutes.
In Dunedin, Florida, the DunedinOktoberfest 5K Kimberly was

(02:17:07):
there.
Uh, thunderstorms before.
I mean, this this is my neck ofthe woods.
Yeah, the thunderstorms early inthe morning.
Heavy rain after the race, butit was like a two-hour block in
between, and the weather forthat was okay.
A little warm, a little steamy,but it's Florida.
We get it.
It was okay.
They raced this one on thePinellas Trail, which is a rail

(02:17:29):
trail, great place for running.
Uh, so that's where she does alot of her training runs.
She was familiar with that.
This race had a nice communityvibe, which is typical of
Dunedin.
Dunedin's a really nicecommunity.
Plus, Kimberly got her PR, whichwas massively helped by all the

(02:17:52):
hypes she received.
So congrats on that PR,Kimberly.
In Sacramento, a race like noudder, the urban cow weekend.
That's right.
That's a race like no udder.

SPEAKER_13 (02:18:09):
That's an utter disgrace.

SPEAKER_09 (02:18:10):
It is, but I didn't make it up, John.
It's actually it's on thematerial, it's on the archway
over the finish.
It's a race like no udder.
Bethany was there.
She did a 5K.
She does this race every yearbecause it's so much fun.
Thankfully, it was cooler thanlast year, but still pretty
warm.
A lot of shade on this flatcourse.

(02:18:31):
No PR, but she's been recoveringfrom being sick the week prior,
so just happy to be out there.
Get out there and run and tofinish.

SPEAKER_01 (02:18:40):
I heard the scene was really moving.

SPEAKER_09 (02:18:43):
Yeah.
All right, I'm moving rightalong.
Lauren was in Atlanta for theWest Side Park 10K.
Able to complete this rainy,rolling hilly course with a
9-minute and 36-second PR.
Feeling great, but she knows shecould have done a little better.

(02:19:05):
Well, that's the way to do it.
Is if if you knock that out andyou feel like you can boy,
that's great.
Hey, Alicia Lauren says shedanced in the rain.

SPEAKER_07 (02:19:15):
That's great.
That makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01 (02:19:18):
Well, I'm glad she did that because I hyped Lauren
for this race, and I believe shehad put on Holler hype that she
was aiming for a PR, but thenbecause of the weather and her
being clumsy, she wasn't gonnaget it.
So I was like, don't think likethat.
Just enjoy yourself, and youmight surprise yourself.
And look at that, you surpriseyourself with a nine-minute PR.

SPEAKER_09 (02:19:40):
That's what happened.
All right.
Hey, I mentioned this one.
Now, Melissa was injured anddidn't get to start this race,
but it was up in Banff, Alberta,Canada, and Melissa was
scheduled for Melissa's roadrace.
That was the name of it.
I mean, it's perfect, but itdidn't happen.

(02:20:01):
Next year, Melissa.
Next year.
In West Jordan, Utah.
Jason did the 10K.
His wife Laura and sisterChristy did the 5K at the witch
run in West Jordan.
It's Christy's first race as aPR.

(02:20:24):
The family lives in Florida, soJason was a little concerned
about the 4,000-foot elevationat the start in Utah, but there
were cool temps, no humidity,relatively no humidity, an
awesome trade-off for thealtitude, and Jason got a new
10k PR.

(02:20:45):
And Jason got a the PR that hewas hoping for.
It's four minutes faster thanhis previous eight-year-old
record.
So that's significant, Jason.
Way to go.
And congratulations to Laura andChristy as well.
Denise was, I think, in Hickory,North Carolina, I believe.

(02:21:06):
She did the roof roof 5K.
That's right.
It's a race for puppies.
Fourth in a series of fiveraces.
Part paved road, part trailthrough the woods.
Poured rain.
So muddy.
First run with her dog Oakley,and they both did great.

(02:21:27):
First place in their age group.
I'm not sure if it's Denise'sage group or the dog's age
group.
Doesn't matter.
Great job.

SPEAKER_13 (02:21:35):
Do you gotta multiply that by seven?

SPEAKER_09 (02:21:38):
Maybe John.
I don't know.
Uh let's see.
Ashley.
Ashley was in Miami for theChicken Chase 5,000.
I like them when they name themfive, not 5K, but 5,000.
That's cool.
She didn't PR, but she did getthird in her age group.

(02:21:59):
Really proud of that.
We're proud of you too, Ashley.
Great job.
The medal is one with plastic?
Yeah, squawking rubber.
Rubber, I should say.
Yeah, yeah.
A squawking rubber chicken.
Because it actually makes thenoise.

SPEAKER_01 (02:22:15):
Absolutely brilliant.

SPEAKER_09 (02:22:16):
Yeah, actually got two medals.
She got the squawking chicken,and then they gave her a medal
for her AG3 finish.
So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 (02:22:22):
I loved all the Facebook comments on this one
and the fact that like the sheernumber of people that was like,
this is now a bucket list racefor me.
So I can't wait to see thisregistration blow up next year.

SPEAKER_09 (02:22:34):
Down in Miami, huh?
Up in Connecticut, Sue ran herfirst Connecticut race in a
while.
I don't know where or how long,but she ran it.
Good for you, Sue.
Out in Los Angeles, the LosAngeles Dodgers Sunset Run 5K,
Jackie and Fred.
Fun run around Dodgers Stadium.
Lots of hills?

(02:22:55):
Maybe.
I guess so.
They said so.
I believe them.
They got to walk around thewarning track of the stadium
afterwards.
And let's finish up Saturday inLondon at the Westminster Mile,
which is put on by the LondonMarathon events.
Heather was there.
Over 8,000 participants in thisevent.

(02:23:16):
25 different waves, waves forthe mile.
There were 10 family waves whereadults had to be chaperoned by a
little person who was with them.
They were able to take in orderto be able to take part.
And then they had a superheroeswave where 434 people dressed as

(02:23:42):
superheroes in an attempt tobreak a Guinness world record.
Don't know if they did or not.
It takes a while for Guinness toverify.
Anyway, Heather did an eventsupervised by her nephew
Harrison, who was a littleanxious at the start of the
race, but he found his strideand ended up finishing with a

(02:24:03):
new personal best of 12 minutesand 40 seconds.
Great job, Harrison.
Congratulations.
Now Heather's claiming a PB onthis too because she's never
done a timed one mile eventbefore.
So there you go.
Another personal best.
On to Sunday in Delaware County,Pennsylvania, the Delco 10

(02:24:28):
Miler.
Allie without an E ran it.
Allie says, lies.
I can hear her.
I can hear her in my headset.
Lies.
1200 runners, only four portapotties.
They had real toilets in thepark, but only two of the four

(02:24:48):
flushed, and uh let's move on.
That's disgusting.
And while it was uh netdownhill, it was not all
downhill.
So she ran with Kay, saw Yvette,had a great day, she'll do it
again.
Kay says they lied, but I'll beback next year.

(02:25:11):
When I when I read Kay's, I meanI can hear Allie saying it, and
when I read Kay's, I think backto the first, I don't know,
sometime early that Kay came toa meetup, and I convinced her
that the mango habanero cookiesweren't all that hot.
I didn't think they were,because I usually make them, but
Becky had made them this time.

(02:25:32):
So Kay bit into one and shelooked at me and she goes, Bob,
you lied! I took a bite myselfand I went, Oh, yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 (02:25:40):
I I want to give Kay a lot of credit.
As a Washington Commanders fan,she was very brave to sign up
for this race because needlessto say, she was not thrilled by
the sheer number of go birdsthat uh she heard on the uh the
race course and from me at thefinish line when I was cheering
them in.

SPEAKER_09 (02:26:00):
Hey, you know what was remarkable was the number of
Eagles fans in Tampa this week.

SPEAKER_01 (02:26:05):
Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_09 (02:26:06):
Unbelievable.
Anyway, not a football podcast.
Yvette was at this event.
Yvette loved the crowd supportall along the course, really
nice.
Mostly downhill, she says, fewrolling hills.
Pretty warm, but Yvette finishedbetter than she thought she
would.
She said the food at the afterparty was yummy, and you got a

(02:26:28):
beer and a choice of acheesesteak or a burger.
That's not really a choice, isit?

SPEAKER_01 (02:26:34):
No, it's not.

SPEAKER_09 (02:26:35):
No, no.

SPEAKER_01 (02:26:36):
Bob, I do have to ask, did you see all of Allie's
photos that she posted?
No.
Okay.
You'll get a kick out of this,and anybody who's from the
Philadelphia area will also geta kick out of this.
At the uh the hydration tables,they had these big signs up that
said wooder.

SPEAKER_09 (02:26:55):
Yeah, okay.
I saw that.
Yep.
Yep, yep.
Wooder.
Wooder.
Wooder, not water.
W oater.
W O O D E R.
Greg, if you come down here forspring training, first of all,
we got a room for you.
Secondly, you can buy the clearwooder Phillies t-shirt.

SPEAKER_10 (02:27:12):
Very nice.

SPEAKER_09 (02:27:13):
Yeah.
All right, let's see.
In Pasadena, California at theRose Bowl, the Bimbo Global Race
had an actual live event.
Now that's a big virtual eventthat occurs worldwide.
I didn't realize they had a liveevent.
They had 8,000 runners outthere.
Kayla was one of them.

(02:27:34):
It's free.
The virtual event's free.
The live event was free, is wellorganized.
They had great weather, mid-60s,and overcast.
Uh the finish hit her hard whenthey played go the distance on
her final downhill leg.
The swag, the community, andrunning for a global cause, good

(02:27:57):
deal.
10 out of 10.
She's doing it again.

SPEAKER_13 (02:28:01):
I I tried to do the virtual this year, but I forgot
to put my results in.
Yeah, so no bimbo virtual for methis year.

SPEAKER_09 (02:28:12):
Yeah, I looked in my medal rack.
I've got a bimbo virtual medalfrom probably from during COVID.
I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_13 (02:28:18):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (02:28:18):
Yeah.
Let's see.
Up in Detroit, Christy did theGrowler Gallop 5K with a group
of friends.
And the group of friends waslarge enough to score a tenth in
the race start area.
Got to see a lot of friends fromacross southeastern Michigan.
80 degrees in Michigan, a littlewarm for this time of year.

(02:28:41):
Felt more like midsummer thanearly fall.
I love that.
Great attitude.
Uh perfect weather in Boulder,Colorado for the Boulderthon
2025 10K that Alexis ran.
Now, the race wrote her racereport for her.

(02:29:05):
That's pretty cool.
I've noticed this with Stravanow.
Strava will give you a littleblurb at the end and said, Hey,
you're doing better here.
And you just well, this racereport was pretty cool.
It break broke down differentsegments and how Alexis did.
I love the final line.
Here's the final line quotingfrom the report that the race

(02:29:29):
wrote race wrote for Alexis.
Alexis exhibits promisingresults and remarkable steady
steady pacing, indicating astrong proof of progress.
Well, there you go, Alexis.
In Boca Ratan, Florida, Hollyran the Devil Dog 5K, a 5K that

(02:29:52):
benefits the wounded veteransrelief fund.
Always gets a lot of communitysupport.
This was the first race she did.
Last year, after her dad, aVietnam vet passed away, she had
her four-mile challenge walkFriday, and then 17 on the
schedule for Saturday.

(02:30:12):
So she planned to just walk thisone, but she felt good.
Then she felt really good.
And then she PR'd.
Way to go, Holly.
Bush Gardens, Williamsburg,Virginia.
I used to like that place.
Used to go quite often.
Hannah was there, ran the FiendsFrenzy 5K.

(02:30:33):
First 5K since getting a hipinjection in June.
Set a goal, managed to hit itwith seconds to spare.
So Hannah decided to dress asIsma after her friend Samantha
Lee decided she was going to beChicha for this race.
The park had their scare actorsout.

(02:30:55):
But instead of scaring them,they on each hill cheered the
runners on.
That's not very scary.
In Winter Garden, Florida, Lauraand Sam did the Hickory Hammock
5K.
A small but mighty neighborhoodrace and a tradition that

(02:31:16):
supports the Edgewood Children'sRanch.
This is Sam's third year takenon this course.
And since it's the start of theseason, they took things a
little bit easy on the 5K.
Sam didn't finish with this one.
He headed right back after thefinish and did the kids' race,
creating his own challenge,finishing strong.

(02:31:38):
And because Laura and Sam keepscore, it's a new race season.
Right now, Sam won, Laura zero.
Kayla! Another Quad Cities halfin the books.
They were planning on this raceonly being their long run, but
they felt good.

(02:31:59):
And Mr.
Treadmill, of course, Kaylabeing the treadmill queen.
Mr.
Treadmill is Kayla's husband.
Ran his fourth half, set a newhalf PR! And was the perfect AWD
guide.
What a team.
Good job.
In London! The Vitality 10K.

(02:32:23):
Emily, a scenic city course.
It's basically the final part ofthe London Marathon.
Which Emily completed earlierthis year, but she enjoyed this
route far more this time becausethe temperatures were a lot
cooler.
And set a personal best of 5430.

(02:32:45):
A great 10k time, Emily.
Way to go.
Let's wrap it up in Columbus,Ohio, where Kayla did the big
bad wolf 10 miler.
Weather was very nice, but uh afew pretty challenging hills on
the course.
However, Kayla did PR at an hourand 44 minutes.

(02:33:11):
And there you have it, friends.
The race report for episode 210of the Rise and Run podcast.
As I believe I mentionedearlier, no Zoom this week.
There will be one next week aswe're getting ready for wine and
dine three weeks away.
The excitement builds.

(02:33:32):
It's going to continue to build.
We're looking forward to seeingyou soon.
But until then, happy running.

SPEAKER_01 (02:33:49):
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.
It should always consult withyour healthcare provider or
event organizers.

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