104: Lacing Up for Success: Adventures and Insights from the Running World

Hello and , believe it or not , with the bear who wandered in to the Magic Kingdom this week . Hey , hey , hey .

But I've been working with my vocal coach , blue , over in the Jungle Book and , needless to say , I want to really nail that audition for Bear Necessities , so I felt like I needed to be in my element as a method actor and performer . I needed to be where I was going to perform .

Our race report spotlight our friend Mandy is back with us . Mandy not only finished the Cowboy 100 in Nebraska , the 100 mile run , but she well , I'll let her tell you about it when we get to that in the race report .

Please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast , on Instagram at Rise and Run Pod , and visit our webpage , riseandrunpodcastcom . If you've got a question or comment , a race report as you'll hear , we actually have one later on in the episode or you want to introduce an upcoming episode , as Valerie just did , give us a call 7272662344, .

Leave us a message . Friends , the Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by our good friends at Magic Bound Travel . Magic Bound Travel is there to help you with all your Disney vacation , your run Disney needs , your trip to Olani , your cruise on the Disney cruise line or your Royal Caribbean cruise . Take a look .

Magicboundtravelcom is the website Looking at training schedules and where we are in the countdown to getting back to run Disney events . We're down to six weeks . Six weeks till wine and dine . We're in training week number 12 . The long run this week , whether it's for the half or for the challenge , the long run this week for wine and dine is 11 miles .

Marathon weekend is now 15 weeks away . We're back to one of those situations . We're in the off week going alternate , long short , long short , and once again we've got a situation where the marathon training schedule calls for four miles and the challenge is called for three . I'm not sure why that is , but that's okay , that's what's there .

And in Disneyland we're in week two of training . The long run for the Disneyland races is four miles this week .

We are getting closer and closer to that day when we'll all be back together . News from Disney this week we saw the Disneyland medals for the race weekend in January .

But you can look at those medals at least some of them and go , yeah , that's Disneyland style of art .

I have noticed a topic in our Facebook group that I would like us to spend a little time talking about , and it goes to somewhat wine and dine , but mostly to marathon weekend and the longer challenges in marathon weekend .

I know we've got a lot of folks new to this , but people are looking at the long runs and saying , oh gosh , I don't think I can do this . Help , when does it get easier ? What do I do ?

Just the one thing that we love to do , as not just run Disney runners , but I just think runners in general is that okay , we find that race and we make that schedule , or we have someone make that schedule for us and we look at it big picture .

And I think when we take that wider view of things , I think that is when we allow ourselves to doubt ourselves and let those negative thoughts creep in and know that you should not let that deter you . The best advice that I can give and I always hate sounding cliche , but I think the best way to approach it is do it like a lot of like NFL teams .

Do it Like you'll see the post game pep talk from the coach in the locker room after the game that like , this week we went one and oh , and next week our focus is one and oh , we're not worrying about the . You know the long range of the season we need .

We need to win this week and I think that's the best way to approach it is just look at your week , look at those midday . You know runs and what you need to do with those . It's okay to look at that long run and but just focus on that week and those specific runs and I think that will make things a little bit easier for you .

But also have that positive mindset that you can do difficult things and when you get done with them you're going to be so darn proud of yourself that it's going to give you the confidence in that two weeks when you know the mileage ups again , you're going to be able to tackle it like a boss .

No , you're not ready right now , in this moment , you're no .

But if you keep following the training plan and you keep doing what you know you need to do and and stick with what plan , whatever one , you're following , then you're going to make it to the finish line , because that's why you have a training plan , that's why you go out every , you know , three times a week or however , whatever you're doing right now is

because it's prepping your body for this weekend and then next week is going to prep your body for the next weekend , and then you slowly build and don't get overwhelmed with oh , in X number of weeks I have to do all of these miles because you're not there yet .

I think you're going well , I can actually do this and that thing will help you a lot . Your mind's telling you you can't . You just got to tell your mind I can do this .

Oh , I believed in myself , I stuck with the training and I did it .

We said that from the beginning . It is hard , but you can do hard things . I Get asked through Facebook or through some social media when does this get easy ? I would say , as a rule of thumb , it never gets easy . You just get a little faster . But instead of looking forward , look back . Look back .

Remember when you thought Seven miles was huge and you couldn't do that . Now you're probably at a point of thinking oh yeah , I can do seven . Seven is no problem . Yeah , we're getting around 12 and 13 . The other thing I would say is that for most of the country , the weather is going to get a little better and it's going to help you out some .

You're not going to be that the heat is a killer . That's going to get a little bit better . So , as All my friends here have said , take them in little bites . Progress is not linear . In training . There are going to be days where you go out and you feel awful . There gonna be days when you go out and feel great . Don't overreact to either one of those .

Just keep moving forward , left foot , right foot . Repeat , I don't know who said that first , but I like it . Okay , friends , let's visit with our guests for the week . Friends , our guests tonight is the general manager of Jeff's Fidipides stores in the Atlanta area , an expert on running shoes . Eric , welcome to the rise and run podcast . Thanks for joining us .

We know what works for us , but we love the opportunity to someone who has a big overall picture of what's going on in the world of running shoes , and we asked our friends who listen to submit some questions for us . Now , guys , I'm not putting names to the questions because some of them I've combined and some of them I've mixed up just a little bit .

So we but what we're trying to do is get the spirit of all the questions answered without doing everyone individually . So let's get started , and I think we'll start with the one question we had that came to us on our hotline from Amy .

Purchasing last year's models makes it easier on my wallet , but am I sacrificing quality over quantity ?

From year to year , is is more the same than different , so it's very unusual , but not impossible , to have a drastic change in size , fit or feel , but sometimes that does happen . Sometimes it happens intentionally and sometimes it happens unintentionally .

It is always best , if possible , to make your purchases through an in-store fitting process that will assure you that the version that you're getting hasn't changed so substantially in one particular way Compared to the one you've owned , so that you are equally satisfied , if not more so let me follow up two things Do shoes have a shelf life .

They're probably some kind of a shelf life if all they do is sit on the shelf , but if that's all it is and they're in a decent environment , it's extraordinarily long in . Once they're sold in use , most of the higher quality run shoes can be used successfully for At least about 400 miles .

There's a lot of factors that come into play with that longevity , including surfaces , whether how you treat the shoes in between running in terms of cleaning or not cleaning things like that , the amount of tread use , that that gets done , but that that's a very reasonable Figure to use , and mileage is the best estimator .

customer satisfaction is more important than making sales . If you do the first , the second follows . So it's really great if you can have access to a store that you know is has quite quality employees .

They sell some of the better shoes and they appear to you to be knowledgeable and they're not pressuring you to to make a sale or or just take the first shoe that they're that you're offered , and that type of assistance usually results in great outcomes . There's there's many things that that you gain from that fit process .

You might find some variations from store to store . We have a method that we've home for many , many , many , many years and it has worked for us and our clients , and they tell us that .

Now , to answer your question about the virtual fitting , when you cannot get to such a store firm and there are many reasons why that might not be might not be possible we realized this some time ago , even before COVID and we we are able to set up appointments and there's no cost for this in which we are able to either Watch you do some walking and or

light jogging over a very short distance , even in your house , or , alternatively , you can set your iPhone , or whatever you have as a recording device , up on the floor and just put a record session in progress and and run away from it , or walk away from it and come back to it and send us that footage one or the other and we can tell a lot in a short

period of time about what your your gate is and and learn a little bit more from talking with you at a distance and you put those two together and , while I'm just going to talk about that , and while it may not be exactly the same experience as being in the store , it is a very good start on narrowing the field and getting you focused on things that are

your most likely to be successful in . Yeah , very helpful , and I used to live in a place that didn't have a good running store , so it would be important in those situations .

Now that's for current model year shoes and if you're buying shoes that have gone out of season then you should expect to pay a fairly substantially less price for them , a good discount on them , and , as we discussed , sometimes there's very little difference or meaningful difference to the client about the changes that may have resulted from a newer version .

Most of the manufacturers at the higher quality end of the running shoe business are manufacturing a shoe that would be suitable both for training , for racing , for doing gym work . I mean , there are . There are some shoes , depending upon the models , that you would want to gravitate to or avoid , depending upon your usage .

But it is not necessary to have multiple shoes for multiple purposes . There are some people who find it helpful and there are some times that that truly is of service .

Some people like to rotate between maybe two pair , maybe to give one pair of rest , particularly a model that does benefit from about 24 hours of recovery , to be able to get you that same level of performance . But that's not true of every shoe . Oh , interesting .

And some people use different shoes for different things , because they need a little bit more tread when they're trail running , for example , or they don't care about as much of that when they're doing the gym work , for example .

So , whether that's you know , a 10 K that leads into a half marathon the next day , or you have the goofy challenge or the dopey challenge and you know you just talked about , you know 24 hours to get a spring , you know back into it . You know .

If you feel like that's necessary for our listeners who are doing those challenges , would you recommend that they actually have two different sets of shoes to race in , or do you think they'd be okay with getting in the way with the same pair of shoes over the course of multiple races on back to back days ?

If you've done the distances that you're doing or the alternating usages that you're doing before , and have been successful with just using a particular pair of shoes , I would say , continue on and do that .

Otherwise , if you feel like on longer runs you like to finish as fresh as you started , and if you're the kind of person and it's this is an if that cushioning really does that for you , then maybe you want to do that and use a more springy bouncy type shoe for your training purposes , if that's something that you find is successful and pleasurable .

Some people do the exact opposite and some people just run in the same shoe for both training and whatever distances are running . A lot of that is personal preference and experience . I don't see that there's a easy answer to say thou shout . Under this circumstance .

That helps increase efficiency and more forward momentum and things like that , and they do improve times . There's been data on that that I think you can get as much as a 5% last time I checked improvement on on times and performance , depending upon those types of shoes . Those shoes tend to be expensive , extra expensive . There's many types of them .

There are sort of entry level plated shoes that are usually made with something like nylon as the material . There's composite that sometimes have some carbon but also something else as part of it , and then their pure carbon fiber ones , and those are usually the most expensive . The shoes are typically very light in weight and extremely springy .

We have clients who may buy those shoes and they're never going to compete in a timed event , but they just like the experience of them .

We also have maybe more elite people who buy them because they know they can get a better performance and just like them , and we have also had clients who have nothing to do with anything involving a plate , but they just like the color of the shoe . So you'll find them on all kinds of feet .

But it certainly is not a requirement and you should definitely try them on before you make the investment to make sure that you know what you're buying .

One thing to inquire about with a knowledgeable salesperson is whether the model you're looking at and considering has a decreased life expectancy than the customary 400 miles , which many of the models do have that as a characteristic .

You find those circumstances because the shoe wasn't designed for everybody .

It was designed for a whole lot of everybody , but not literally everybody , and there's often some aspect of the shoe Either it's fit , it's feel or it's performance that might not be exactly aligned to you , and while all of your friends are capable of getting a good performance out of it and it feels great and they're happy with it , for some reason you're not .

That's where specialty run stores come in , in order to help you discover that , to understand it and to provide you with options .

Most manufacturers don't make shoes that correct for supination . There's a certain amount of that that kind of comes with the territory , but there's an entire class of shoes that are made for pronation , to help correct your foot function and level your foot through the stride .

The category goes by different names anti-pronation shoes , stability shoes , guidance shoes other terms . Most quality running stores will have both types of categories available to you , and a good running store will do something that might go under different terms , but we call it a foot analysis or functional analysis .

Some people might call it a gate analysis , Not simply . We're in our stores , we watch you walk and jog if you are doing jogging for a fair distance away and back to us and we're finding out whether you need motion control or you don't . Some stores use technology .

We found that that's not really adding a lot of value from our point of view , but that's our method and then we will experiment with different shoes .

The caveat , I think and this was part of where maybe the question was getting to is in many cases , a neutral foot can wear some but not necessarily all stability or motion control shoes and the danger there that needs to be appreciated .

I can demonstrate with a typical stability shoe like this Soccany guide , and on the inside of this shoe around the arch , is a very hard , dense piece of material and this is technically called a medial post , which is one of the two main methods that these types of shoes work .

And this post think of it as an on switch that is constantly pushing up , and so if you're pronating , rolling in this upward push is keeping you from doing that , and that's how these types of shoes work For a neutral foot .

If this upward push is too aggressive , it starts pushing you out and that creates a problem that you didn't have before you walked in the store and everybody should want to avoid that . There's another type of technology that's developed , and the good example of that is shoes in the GTS line by Brooks .

This happens to be a Brooks adrenaline , and you will not find a medial post in the current versions of the Gretelin or the Glycerin GTS or a couple of other ones that they have .

Instead , these types of shoes have guide rails that live inside the shoe one on the inside edge and one on the outside edge and your foot lives between the lane created by the guide rails . If you are a pronator and you want to start rolling in , the guide rail stops you and just kicks you back into the center .

So you're not pronating , but there's no active always on switch pushing you up from the bottom . So even a neutral foot can very often be very successful in a shoe such as the adrenaline or any of the other Brooks that use that technology . Those are the basic differences between those two major categories .

runners or older runners or people just feel like they just need that stability . Is there anything specific that we should be looking for in a stability shoe that will give us the most comfort while we're running ?

There are many I could have named , but I'm just going to choose that , and the Bondi has a whopping load of cushioning material . By design . I can have two clients that could be the same height and weight , maybe even the age , and one could be on one of our fitting benches and the other could be on the other .

One has the Bondi on and says this is absolutely the most cushioned shoe I have ever put on my feet , and the other has the Bondi on and they say this feels like a brick . And they're both right for them . And that's something that good quality running stores and their staff should be realizing and navigating with help from the client .

Because whatever you call it and whatever the design intention of the manufacturer is , the only ground , truth is literally what the individual who's wearing the shoe is reporting back as their subjective experience , the only thing that really , in our view it's personal preference Sometimes .

If you tell us that you're doing a certain thing , then maybe we have some functional things to consider and we might steer you to at least try someone as opposed to the other .

The only scientific truth about cushion versus the other technology the more cushiony material that you have between yourself and whatever it is you're landing , the less of the shockwave of contact energy is going up your anatomy .

And for people who don't want that , don't like it sometimes that's people who've had knee surgery or post hip replacement or back troubles that can be a good thing . But by again , by no means is that an edict for everyone .

And the reason there and why it's a question I think at all is because once you start getting out of the regular widths in both men's and women's , and you're getting into either the narrow's or the wide's or extra wide's , the number of color options that manufacturers make decreases logarithmically .

Like a Brooks Dyad , for example excellent shoe , especially for people who need wider toe box shoes , and it comes in three different widths . You're going to have two , maximum three color ways in that shoe if you're a 4E double wide men's shoe .

Same would be true for women's , but with the more popular and that's a very popular shoe and you still have more than one .

But with other popular shoes Brooks Ghost , just to choose one , hokka's , clifton's , bondi's , just as Suzy's , another Asics and Sockinies and several others make shoes that come in at least five or six different color variations for women and men . Even when you're going to the wider size , stores can't stock every one of them .

So if you're interested in something , you saw it online , you have a friend who's wearing it and you're going to a quality running store . If they don't have it , ask them if they can order it , and if they can't order it , check online at the manufacturer's website .

They might be able to have the exact shoe in their own personal inventory that they reserve for online clients , in the size and color that you're interested in .

Several folks mentioned that they were kind of stuck between sizes and when you get up past 12 in men's shoes , no longer half sizes , maybe a 12 and a half , that's about it , and it's 13 , 14 , 15 . If you're stuck between sizes , and sometimes neither one is right , what's the best thing to do ? Go to the bigger size or go to a different model ?

Typically , unless that differential is huge , the big foot wins , the longer foot wins and the other one has to follow along . But it is still the responsibility of the provider to make sure that everything is working as best as it could and you're not causing a problem by having such a wide differential .

If it's a very huge differential , some companies will allow you to do a prorated purchase of one size on one foot and one size on the other foot .

But a good running store will explore other options for you with you to make sure that they have exhausted the possibilities of going to models or brands and models that are shaped just ever so differently in the right place for where you need it to be , so that you can offset these foot fit differentials .

Very common for feet to be asymmetrical and from our point of view we work from wherever the longest digit is . So if it's the second toe or the big toe or the third toe , that's less important to us than just using that as our benchmark of reference .

So we're making sure that we're sizing a shoe that is well enough off the front of your foot so that none of your digits are in contact or at risk of coming in contact with the shoe , but it's not so far off as to essentially provide you with a tripping hazard , and we have a little thumb width kind of zone of acceptable length that we work on .

It's important to remember too that changing the length of the shoe changes all of the architecture of the shoe in terms of its measurements . Growing a shoe longer makes the heel open up and a little bit wider in the forefoot . Taking it down a notch , half a size of size , is going to tighten everything up around you proportionally .

So it's very important that your person who is servicing you and wherever you're getting your shoes , is keeping you up to date and checking in with you about how things are working when they are upsizing or downsizing you . And one more point about sizes .

The higher end running shoes , at the 400-mile quality level they're over the decades , have just kind of standardized across all the manufacturers on a sizing chart that's off sync with the other shoes in the world your dress shoes , casual shoes and even your lesser quality running shoes by about this much .

And this much is typically about a half size , maybe a size rarely , but sometimes a little bit more than that .

So when somebody comes in and say I wear a size 9 , and that may or may not be in reference to the types of shoes that we're selling and we come out and fit them and they ultimately go home with a 9 and 1 half or maybe sometimes a 10 , we are careful to explain to them that it has nothing to do with your foot and everything to do with a sizing

chart . That's just grown over the years as a mismatch chart .

fact that you do experience changes in foot diameter or size or whatever your issue is , so they can help understand how much that's going to impact the types of shoes and what they're emphasizing in terms of the geometry of the shoe to be able to accommodate you in as many different circumstances as your foot is probably going to go through Should .

We can look at tread wear and see if that indicates whether you're naturally everting or pronating and how long you've had the shoe compared to how much tread is left , and that tells us certain information .

We can look at the shoe's upper and determine have you worn a hole through the very tip of your foot which might suggest that a toe or toenail is coming into contact with the top of the shoe and gradually abrading it away ? And do we need a higher toe box shoe or perhaps a little bit longer shoe to avoid that ?

We can see that there might be some abrasion either in the heel or around the edges of the heel counter the part at the top of the shoe where you put your foot into . Sometimes that's an indication of foot strike .

Whereas you pass feet right to over left and left over right , you come into every so often incidental contact between some part of the left shoe against the right shoe and vice versa , and these are all very helpful signs to us to take into account in terms of how we're going to address those issues , tips we can give you for keeping them from happening again ,

what to do after they happen and the shoe selection that would be best for you .

In most instances , can you retire your running shoe and continue to walk in it . If the reason you retired the running shoe wasn't because you were hurting in it , sure do it . But if you were , or if you start to hurt after you , do that stop .

What are your thoughts on those and what are the benefits of adding something special like that on top of your shoe purchase ?

These are all about enhancing art support in a shoe , and there are typically two kinds One that focuses almost , if not exclusively , on comfort , and the other category , which is focusing almost exclusively on art support . Comfort is secondary .

We and good running store staff would try and fit you and send you home with a shoe who is doing everything that you want the shoe to do , including having an arch in the shoe that is as Cinderella a fit with your natural arch of your foot as possible .

To the extent that you can achieve that , you may not need any supplemental support like the art supports that we're talking about .

To the extent that there's a little discrepancy , like a little daylight shining through as opposed to something that's massive like that , then art supports may be a very good enhancement , and what they're basically doing is working on top of the natural arch of the shoe and enhancing that , hopefully in a way that is aligned as perfectly as possible with your arch .

There are two dimensions to consider with that the height of the hill and its position forward or backward . So we always talk to clients in those terms how does the arch feel ? Is it properly placed forward , backwards , or hitting you right in the middle , where you want it to be ? Is it too high , is it too low , et cetera .

And that helps us understand whether and which kind of supplemental art support would be appropriate for them . And then we get them to try that on in the store so that they have at least an initial sense of how that's going to work out together with the shoe .

Sometimes we have to change the shoe in order to have that work out well , if they're not sacrificing something in the process .

It's that little thing you can dig your thumb into and pull out , and what we typically do is remove that when placing an art support in the shoe .

And the reason we do that is because if you leave them both in , in many cases not necessarily all , but in many cases one on top of the other stacks your foot up so high that now you're coming in potentially into contact with the instep of the shoe , or it is elevated your heel past an invisible line that every shoe has at or above which you've lost so

much contact with the back end of the shoe that now you're starting to get loose in the shoe , and those are things that we definitely want to avoid . So with any shoe you can get pain at the top of the foot , and I'm going to try and demonstrate what I think you're talking about here , just picking this bondi again just as illustration .

So this would what we would interpret as the top of the foot , you're running up against the instep here and the answer is going to be all about the architecture of the shoe in this dimension compared to the architecture of your foot .

And if that instep is laying lower in the wrong place or for too long and you're semi-flexing through your step or your stride , you can get this pounding down on you and this dimension now is too tight . And there are a couple of things that can be done .

Go to a different shoe that doesn't have this as low as it is relative to the needs of your foot , or if it's minor but important to address and it's localized , let's say , right here , we will reevaluate the lacing mechanism and maybe take the lace completely out of the shoe , maybe starting it here , but we will loop it through vertically before we start crossing

over at a higher point , and that's creating what we call a window in the lacing system in which there is relatively less upward and downward pressure and sometimes that's just enough to make a shoe perfect .

Another nice lace trick that we haven't talked about is most of the shoes , when they're new , are born with their lace leaving one eyelet open towards the rear , and in some models this eyelet is relatively close to the original lace and sometimes it's as much as three quarters of an inch rear work .

If we have a client who loves everything about a shoe that we have and maybe any of your listeners who have shoes at home might relate to some of this but for the fact that they're feeling loosey-goosey in the back end , it's a very simple thing to take the lace out of the eyelet that it was born in and skip that and go straight through the back eyelet .

What happens with that is you're reaching further back towards the back end of the shoe and when you tie your knot it snugs that back up just enough so that you've decreased your motion or eliminated it hopefully , and that also reduces the risk of moving forward in the shoe .

Then , yeah , okay , great , okay , eric . I've got one last question from a friend who loves her Vibram five finger shoes . They , I think they look funny , but she loves them and that's great . So she's asking is there any other information you have on minimalist shoe options ?

Loss shoes typically mean two things in the current use of the term . One is that the structural supports of the shoe have been de-emphasized .

That's not its primary purpose , so they're generally not quite as supportive , and sometimes significantly less supportive , than many of the other running shoes , and for feet that don't require that level of support , that could be an option , but you should pay attention , especially if you are someone who might be flirting with pronation or something like that .

The other thing that it's also come to mean is that your foot's position inside the shoe is more level with the earth , meaning that your heel and your toes inside the shoe are approximately or exactly on the same plane . You don't have your heel raised higher than your toes . That's what we call zero drop , a technical term called drop for that . Zero drop .

Yeah , zero drop is the word for a low cut , low shoe . That doesn't mean the shoe doesn't have an arch . It can definitely have an arch . Just talking about what happens up front compared to what happens at the very back . This is a theory that goes back to our evolution as a species and our natural weight distribution .

It is common to find that there's sometimes a more equal distribution of weight in a zero drop shoe or the lower drop that you have , but usually these days you see lower drop shoes and deconstructed shoes all be in the same package . They usually go together .

Bottom line to me , maybe , if I could say maybe the most important thing we talked about don't ask your buddy what shoes to wear . Go get a professional fitting somewhere . I think that is extremely important In the case of somebody who maybe doesn't have a good running shoe store in their area . They can use Fidipides . What's the best way to do that ?

How can they approach you and how can they get a good virtual fitting ?

We also encourage people to call us , and you can find our numbers online for either our Ansley Mall store in Atlanta or our Sandy Spring store just up the road . We are very happy to talk to people and we can do phone consultations and answer questions , and then we can also schedule virtual fittings if that's something that you're interested in .

We love talking to people and there's a lot that we can do with that .

And once again I want to thank Eric for spending the time to answer those questions about a very , very important topic running shoes . Hey , we had a contest it's still going on A chance to be a Rise and Run podcast . Co-host Greg , how's it going ?

So first of all , I want to be able to draw attention to that incredible feat and congratulate Mike , pam and Ricky and Scotty G over there on a job well done .

But the one thing that they had mentioned as part of their fundraising efforts is that they were doing a raffle , and one of the things that they were doing is they were raffling off the opportunity to be a co-host on their podcast and I was like that is an absolutely brilliant idea .

So I pitched it to our gang and everyone was in agreement on it and the way that our community has responded to this . All we were asking was for a donation of $5 or more to both Bob and I's fundraising efforts for Marathon Weekend this year on behalf of Give Kids the World , because I think collectively , bob , you and I were what ?

Just a couple hundred dollars away from reaching our goals and all of a sudden I put up the post and the donations come in fast and furious , to the point where I think by the middle of the afternoon , bob , you were less than $100 away from making your goal . So I made it my sworn duty to make sure that Bob got over the hump by the end of the day .

And I remember crawling into bed that night and someone made a donation and , bob , you were only $8 away and I looked at my wife and I said I'm giving Bob another $8 . So we got him over the hump .

We got a couple more donations over the weekend and everything like that . So , like I said , bob is done . I'm about $125 away from hitting my goal . So we are going to leave this open until October 3rd at 5 pm Eastern . That's when we will cut things off .

And then , when we go to record that week's episode , we will do one of those famous you know put everybody's name onto one of those spinning wheels .

I'll have Alicia help me with that and we'll get our winner picked and then , like I said , we'll contact the winner and you will get to be a co-host on this podcast for one episode sometime this fall before we get into the race season .

But so , again , on behalf of myself and Bob and everyone at Give Kids the World , thank you so much and let's keep raising great money for a wonderful , wonderful cause .

All right , maybe not , maybe not . Maybe we'll give them a little more advanced notice , but I'm excited about that too . That sounds like it should be fun .

We have to say that it's just a generic elephant .

We have an affiliate link with Alec it's Rise and Run . But if you're getting the 30% discount that she is giving right now for her 30th birthday month , then the Rise and Run code won't apply , but it will again in a little bit . So Kauai and Pizza apparel , check them out also .

And , with all the support we've been thanking you for and appreciating , we want to mention that you can also support the podcast through our Patreon link . Lexi , what's that link ?

We know we asked our patrons which they want us to do first a episode on budget at Disney or an episode on running at Disneyland and it came out dead even in the polling . So we tossed the coin in the air . We're going with Disneyland first and budget to follow soon after . Friends . It's time for the Race Report . Friends .

Let's start with our special guest for the evening . She's been with us a couple times . You heard her most recently in episode 100 when she referred to us as a baby podcast , which I haven't gotten over yet . Mandy .

That's about a quarter of a mile long , Beautiful bridge , old road bridge , but there's a little incline there , but the rest of it is relatively flat , Unfortunately for me . I also didn't know that it was just uphill a little bit all the way . It's flat , but it was a gradual incline the whole way .

I think there's like a 2,400 feet of vert over that 100 miles . So it wasn't much .

That's outstanding , and what made you decide to take on this one ?

And we have a background in the cattle industry . So a race that's called the cowboy 200 . I'm like , wow , what is that ? I see it's in my backyard . I'm like , okay , I'm in . So I look at it and there's a 200 mile option , which I think is a little crazy , and there's a 100 mile option .

And about a year and a half ago I found the race and I was like you know what ? I think I'm going to take a stab at that . I think that'll be fun and it'll be a beautiful run . I love Cal Country . Let's see how we get along .

And so last fall the race was actually the first weekend in November and it was the inaugural year and my husband and I ran the 150 or 50 mile aid station in Ainsworth , nebraska , last year . So I wanted to do that because I wanted to see what I was getting myself into . I was like what does the suck look like ?

And as those people came through and the 200 milers came through , the 100 milers came through our aid station , everybody was awesome . They had great attitudes , they had smiles on their faces and after I crewed that or ran that aid station , I was like you know what I'm going to do . This thing I can do this .

It's there , it's not too hard , I have to put in the work and I can do it . So it pulled me in because of the name of it and where it was , but I just decided that I was going to put in the work and I was going to get it done .

I get stuck in a certain pace and I'm like I don't think my runs are good unless I'm running under nine minutes for a long run per mile . Because I run 740 in a road marathon and if I'm not at that nine or below or bumping in those eights on some of those long runs , psychologically I think it's not good that I shouldn't do that to myself .

So this one was a little bit different for me because I got to put around a little bit and let my pace go , because I had to .

It was just a really more laid back situation and I think that's another thing about the ultra trail community that's real different than the road community is that people are pretty dog gone , laid back and it's just not so uptight all the time and I really love that . And that was the difference in the training . Training went well . I didn't have any injuries .

I didn't have any setbacks . I had a little itchy calf , a little bit coming off of a 50K that I won in June that I had to take about a week and a half easy on it because I pushed it pretty hard . It was a hilly or trail 50K down in Kansas , but other than that everything was perfect . Taper was perfect .

So we had a professional camera crew along and they weren't really on my crew , but they were there . So and of course Ed handled everything in the back of the house . He handled moving our . We have a big trailer that has a camper in the front of it . Basically it's like a toy hauler , but only it's for cows . So we we moved it to the 50 mile mark .

So he had it all set up and everything . And , and then the last person that was integral on my crew was my pacer , jade . He was a . He was a student of mine when I taught art back in the early 2000s .

He was a student of mine and I never lost touch with him and he started running some marathons , half marathons , and I asked him to pace me the last 25 .

But that's cause , and I should let you say this that's cause they didn't have a first overall .

And one of the reasons why is because I , a friend of mine , sent me a little video of an ultramarathon or that said I'm not tired , I feel great . And that's what I said to myself the whole entire time I'm not tired , I feel great .

So I think for me , it took me a few days to process running 100 miles and what I came up with today as I unpacked all of my gear , bags and all of the things . I really just think that the human body is an amazing thing and it will do anything you ask it to do .

You just have to ask the right questions and you have to put in the work and you have to be consistent . So , for me , running those 100 miles makes me feel limitless . It makes me feel like that I could do anything I wanted to do at this point . Do I ? Should I , you know , can I write a book ?

Can I , you know , make more money , can I do all the things . So for me , the 100 miles taught me that anything that I want to achieve in the life , in this life , for me I can do it . I just have willing to put in the work and embrace the suck of whatever that is .

As that's an ultramarathon thing , you just have to embrace the suck on whatever kind of goal you have and you can do anything you want to do . And we get told that a lot as kids , but there's a whole lot of truth in that statement .

I mean it just makes and all the you know a lot of people are worried about it and , oh my gosh , I don't fuel and I don't know how to fuel and I feel like you know whatever else , but if you're running an ultra , you have to have your nutrition on point or you're just dead in the water . So I think that's something that needs to be addressed .

We hear that a lot and I hope some of our friends are starting to believe it . I think they are , but Lessons on nutrition .

We get to , we get to mile 90 , basically , and there's a little unmanned aid station . We fill up our flasks and and my husband calls him and he , they , look at the tracker . Because all of us had those GPS trackers and everybody , anybody could watch where we were at .

And my husband called and the guy from the UK's name was Calvin and he said Calvin , running with you guys , jade was like no , and he goes , but looks like to me he's on top of you guys . You guys got to go . And at this point Jade kept telling me he goes , we just have to hold our position .

We have to hold our position in this because you're gonna come across the line first . We aren't , we aren't messing around . And I was like , okay , jade , you know whatever . And he , he , he gets a phone call from Ed and he gets off the phone and he said , hey , he goes , we got to kick this up , he goes , we got , we got to go .

And at that point we were doing the Jeff Galloway deal and and we were , we were running Four minutes on or three minutes on . Three minutes off is what our interval was .

So we were run , walking those , and we were puttin in the in the runs and just walking and chatting because we were , we were catching up , had been a long time since I'd seen him and so he looks at me and he said we got to go , we , we got to go because Calvin's catching us , we got to go . So we start kicking this deal up .

And he really kind of jazzed me up pretty good and we , we kicked those off and we were running somewhere between nine minute pace and eight minute pace 90 90 miles into the ultra .

We got to hold this and I , I remember saying to him I was like you know , I'll still be first-place female , it'll be fine if he comes up on me , I'm just gonna let him go . And Jade was like , no , we're gonna win this deal . We got it . We got to go , come on . We got to go . And At one point I was like you know what ? I'm the American here .

This is my state . I'm winning this sucker . I can't let somebody from the UK come in here and win this ultra . I have to win this deal . And Jade was like you know , I had the same thought . We got to win this thing . So we keep pushing , we keep pushing .

We come up to a that little hill at right that's outside of Valentine , nebraska , there , and and my phone rings and it's my mom . Of all people , is my mother ? My mom's calling me , she's calling me , she's calling me . I keep sending her to voicemail because I was like , oh my gosh , I , you know he's behind me .

I had to keep going and we're really pushing through these intervals and by this time my my hip flexors tired . It's hurting when I walk . It's hard for me to get rolling again because everything gets tight in that three minutes and we changed our intervals to two minutes for a while . That wasn't working because it was too hard to get back going again .

So we went back to the longer intervals and so , on the third phone call that my mom's called me and three times in three minutes , I answer it and I'm like what , what do you want ? And she's like and she's like I said I'm trying to beat somebody , you have to stop calling me . She's like okay , bye .

So so we get to the bridge , we walk across the bridge and I'm yowling and pain at this point because my hip flexors hurting pretty good and I make it across . We walk across the bridge . It's foggy , it's cool . We get across the bridge and we we start another interval and we run kind of a little bit and jade physically turns around .

He looks back at the bridge and he says to me Calvin's on the bridge , I can see his light and I was like he goes , we got to go , we got to go , we got to go , and so , um , we ran the last , we Didn't do any intervals , the last two miles , um , because I knew that if I started walking , there's no way I could get running again .

So I hadn't run a nine minute mile since mile six , like yesterday yesterday . And so we cross the finish line . We get done . We go into this little brewery . That's there . That's the finish line . I flopped down , get your picture taken , and after a little bit I looked at jade and I said you were lying to me , weren't you ? He goes .

That I'm also the kind of person that I've been in track long enough that if you turn your head around to look what's behind you , your coach is going to slap you in the back of the head . So I never , ever turned and looked , never looked for myself . I just blindly believed my pacer the whole time .

He's really fast , he's got really super high goals for speed and he ran that little slow putsy marathon with me and he actually he was brilliant , brilliant fantastic once again , the , the champion of the cowboy 100 , my friends , mandy , congratulations and thank for joining us . Thank you so much . It was great being here mandy , thanks again .

On friday this was the air force marathon weekend . Friday Featured the air force 5k at right paterson air force base in Dayton , ohio . Heather was there in the wheelchair division , got to do this one with her friend heather , her husband and daughter , mark and liz phillips Both finished . In fact , they finished both the 5k on friday and let's move to saturday .

Oh look , mark and liz phillips finished a 10k at the air force marathon weekend In Dayton . Heather was back to the marathon this time .

This particular race and this is one of the really great runs in the country the air force marathon was the site of heather's first half back in 2007 and her first full in 2009 , and to celebrate this time she did about 25 of the 26 miles with a flat front tire on her chair . That's not fun .

I can't imagine pushing that dagum thing along with a Flat front tire , which I am not going to try to say three times real fast . In fact , what happened to her at one point ? She fell into a pace group for a while . She happened to fall into coach twigs's pace group On this race .

Heather got to do the run with her friend crystal , so Mark and liz did the 10k , heather did the full and jeff was there . Jeff did the half marathon On to still water minnesota where jill did the log run 10 miler . She tried Last weekend for her proof of time for disney . Didn't quite get it . Decided to try one more time .

Finished this 10 miler just a little over an hour and a half , which is a five minute pr for jill . Great job In fishers , indiana . The geist half marathon weekend . Callie ran the 5k Registered on thursday to run this one on saturday . This is this is nice . The weather , I guess , is improving in indiana .

This was the first run that callie did in a long sleeve shirt . Good for you . I'm glad it's cooling off in some places . Doesn't bother me at all that it's still hot , never mind . Anyway , uh , callie's doing a long sleeve 5k route went through a new beachfront park that she hadn't been to yet . She wanted to get to it .

But she kept having trouble getting a parking permit , some kind of a problem with an app or something like that . But they worked out . She got to see it . The geist half in the fishers indiana in Bar harbor main which I realize is supposed to be pronounced by a haba the bar harbor half marathon . Hidey was there .

New london kinetic is staying in new england . The bozera Volunteer fire department 5k hope I pronounced that right sue . Sue was there . Sue's a 169er . In fact she's got a photo of the 169 crowd that was there . It was a pretty good crowd there Of the 169ers .

I'll explain in a moment if you're new and I'm not sure what I'm talking about , because this is the only race that Is in new london each year . So they showed up there 169 . There are 169 towns in kinetic at the sponsor races and folks in the area try to get all of them . In fact , sue For her , this was number 139 out of 169 .

Pretty good , uh , cool weather , hilly , challenging course , but it's all about the friends you meet along the way . Amen , sue , well said . Appleton , wisconsin . Tony , the fox city's half marathon . He didn't want to do it , he just you know you get those mental times . I don't want to get up , I don't want to do this thing . He did it anyway .

Everything felt good . He knocks out his first sub two hour half and sets a nine minute pr .

So , um , you know , so bravo to him and um , and I can't wait to see what you keep doing hollywood . Yeah Well , it's helped a lot of us .

That was really cool and I believe the race benefited the Milton Hershey school , which is a wonderful , wonderful school in organization In the town that provides a lot of wonderful educational opportunities to disadvantage you . So Definitely one I'm gonna have to keep on my radar for next year .

Melissa got a two decades pr as she hasn't run as far as a half marathon since 2005 .

Well , we count that Pam Pamela not Pam Pamela Ran the 10k , was listening to the podcast with while she was running well , actually walking Listen to the pod for support walked her first 10k Since her hip replacement surgery and we're going to give her credit here because her Garmin said she had a 10k pr Now To qualify that .

Pamela has run faster 10k but it was a pr on her Garmin accounts and look as if this our first effort after having that hip replaced Not that long ago . So , pamela , I'm glad to see you're out there and doing great . My friend , we look forward to seeing you At wine and dine , I'm pretty sure At the naval submarine bay in kings bay , georgia .

The submariner 10k Melissa was there . In Hendersonville , tennessee , amy ran the Hendersonville half marathon . Out on the left coast in Huntington beach , california , the surf city 10 , dude , I think you have to say that when you're saying California in surf city , I think you have to say dude , I'm not sure Camille would know .

Camille ran the 10k there her dad walked . The 5k Course was a mostly straight piece of the pacific coast highway . That sounds gorgeous . Second 10k for Camille and a pr . In London , the batter sea park half marathon . Our friend Rob Rob was there . Hadn't heard from Rob for a little while .

He's been battling some injuries A doctor injury , a little recent sciatica . So he decides on Friday at 11 pm To sign up for a half marathon that is run on Saturday . He finished , he did not pr . Then he goes to the west ham football match . For those in the us , west is west ham is the team that Nate went to coach in Ted lasso , that's west ham united .

Uh , and then . Well , I'll get back to and then in just a moment . So Remember we're leaving Rob . He's signed up at 11 o'clock on a Friday night for a half finished . It Goes to see west ham and then . But meanwhile we've got a couple more Saturday races the Cascade Express half near Snokwalomi pass in Washington Jessica was there .

Fun course , there's a two and a half mile tunnel they run through here .

Vicki , 10 years running this event , woke up . Weather forecast was all over the place , but when she woke up in the morning she woke up it was raining . It rained pretty much all day , which slowed everyone down because the ground was so wet . No one wanted to slip . Vicki finished this half at 139 , really really good pace .

But running such an individual sport , this was kind of slowed by her standards . Still felt really good about it . All things considered , she was 56th overall in the event , seventh female and second in her age group . So that's a good run . All right back to London . When we last visited with our friend Rob , he had finished a half .

He was at the West Ham match . He decides , instead of going home , to get a hotel room and run another half marathon the next day , the half at the Goodwin Motor Circuit .

The thing was he didn't have a change of clothes , so he goes to the shop at West Ham at the stadium , buys a new running top , says quote luckily I wore undershorts for the first half on Saturday , so I wore my other shirts , shorts and the new top on Sunday finished his second half , amazingly with his phone battery still working .

So after not hearing from Rob for a while , he does two halves in two days . I'm proud of him . Way to go , man . And he's got a lot of time . Proud of him . Way to go , man . And that shirt was pretty cool yeah , the one he bought at the football match pretty cool . In Washington DC , the DC half . Kate was there .

Pretty nice weather , glad to hear that . Training for Space Coast . This was what Kate called a B race , meaning she's . I think a lot of us would call it a catered training run . But despite that she managed to set a new PR at this distance by eight minutes . Our previous PR was the same race last year . Very excited , good job , kate Lawrence .

An 82 second PR and a sub 128 pace for a half . That's moving out swiftly . Finally , taylor was there . Half marathon number 16 from Taylor felt great starting out . Then about the one hour mark it kind of hit her and she knew she wouldn't keep the pace up for the next seven miles .

So she goes to plan B , which easy running through the finish , did just that and managed a course . Pr . People , I gotta figure out how you're doing this Now . You're backing off , going easy and PRing . I'm gonna work on that . In Windsor , connecticut , the Tabern Trot three and a half mile race . Erica was there .

It's the first race report for Erica , but that's all the information I have . Grant , in Sydney , australia , the Sydney half marathon . In Des Moines , iowa , the greater Des Moines women's half . Tracy was there , half number three . It's supposed to be a catered training run but the excitement got the better of her .

Still , a great run , just a little bit off a PR . Finally , age group . Third , though third place age group . That's cool . Tracy , tracy's daughter , tessa ran the kids one mile run and her son from college came down and hung out with them , which was , in Tracy's word , icing on the cake . In Poughkeepsie , new York , the Dutchess County classic half marathon .

Megan ran that one . St Petersburg , florida , the Fort DeSoto distance classic 10K . Bob was there . Very hot oh , that's me , it was hot gang . It was hot At race start . The feels like temperature was 93 . Dewpoint was 79 . I was not fast at all in this one wasn't trying to be . This is my first .

This is my first run , walk , run event where I was able to run , walk , run , the entire thing . Nowhere near old paces still felt pretty good . Second place in my age group . All I will tell you is that there were at least three people in my age group . I was giddy . I was absolutely delighted by that .

Not a big deal at all , but , boy , it made me feel good .

That's a nice course over there , fort De Soto , right by Tampa Bay , flat course .

Grace was there her last long run before the Berlin Marathon , which is Berlin this weekend this weekend Bob this weekend yeah , I thought it was . Yeah , so Berlin . So Grace will be in Berlin . She's probably on her way , loves this race . Out-and-back course starts and ends near Yankee Stadium . Grace is a Yankees fan .

She's shaken off a sinus infection and then she's on to Berlin . Michelle ran this one , ran the race for the first time today . She's looking for a Galloway group in the city to run with later this month . Katie was there . Katie had a tough time getting to the start . I think she was just in long lines everywhere for parking , for transportation .

She stuck with her run , walk , run intervals , had a great time . She's also looking for a Galloway group in New York City . I know they're there , katie and Michelle . I'm sure you can find them . And finally , laura posted some photos that she took at the event . But no comments from Laura .

In Ottawa , canada , the Canada Army Run , our good friend Tara left us this report .

Good catered training , run 16 miles for my Chicago races coming up and it was fantastic that 5K had families , had young ones , older ones , veterans , people with rec sex of 50 pounds going all the way through the 5K and some of them going all the way through the half as well . Just unbelievable , incredible strength and spirit of these people .

Love the race , love the hills on the half but finished strong and had a great time . So now to rest up and be prepared for Chicago . Thanks , guys , and happy running .

Riley talked about battling the giant hills , Lifetime race number 93 , and she's got the goal to hit race number 100 at the Disney World Marathon in January . That's pretty cool . Jen was there . Jen did a post race photo with her friends and some beer from the Treehouse Brewing Company . And Madge was there .

Madge attacked on a few miles before the start and use this one as a partially catered 20 mile training run .

And I'll tell you , I've had Treehouse beers before . My favorite is Supertree . It's one of the best breweries beer I've ever had before . Like it's so good that like you can't even buy . Like literally my buddy drives up to Massachusetts and back to get this beer because that's the only way that you can get it .

I will have to think about it , greg , that's not a bad idea . Let's move to Greensboro , north Carolina , the South and Brewing Growler Gallup 10K , another brewery sponsored race . Jeremy and Ellen both ran this one . Raleigh , north Carolina , the Carolina Hurricanes 5K at the PNC arena there . Mary Beth with her son Barrett Favorite event , a PR for Mary Beth .

Yay , barrett's first official 5K , that's a PR .

Annapolis , maryland , the run for the lighthouse Kerry was there . Salem , oregon , the Willamette Valley half marathon Kristen ran that one . Celebration , florida , jody the superhero race against Cancer 5K Another PR , new 5K PR for Jody . Great job , second place in her age group . She says she's annoyed because she thinks she could have broken 30 minutes .

She came in just over 30 minutes . That's a great goal for a 5K 30 minutes . She'll get it next time . Amazing post-race breakfast in this one See , greg , now that's what I'm talking Post-race breakfast and stuff like that . Let's finish with a couple from Colorado the fall equinox half marathon in Fort Collins Amanda and Joy were there .

And in Brighton , colorado , the Adams half marathon Ryan treated this one as a training run , really pleased with his time , just over two hours . Ryan made a post a while back , said he thought he was getting old and his best running days were behind him and I said come on , man , no way , he's 43, .

Ryan , you got plenty of miles left and this one well , just over two hours . Your next one's gonna be just under two hours . Good job , john , you got a run you wanna talk about here .

Maybe I'll follow the dots , although it's really early in the morning over here , but anyway , good luck . We look forward to hearing from you , my friends , and if you run , you know you are our friend . That's a wrap on episode 104 , we hope you enjoyed it , hope you learned maybe a little something about your running shoes .

We sure appreciate you spending the time with us . Until we meet again , happy running .