96: Once Upon a Marathon: The Ultimate runDisney Guide

3am again . Why did I ever think this was a good idea ? Welcome to the Rise and Run Podcast . Join our group of Run Disney friends . As we talk about running at Walt Disney World and beyond . We'll discuss recent runs , training , upcoming races and surprise topics suggested by you are listeners . Well , the alarm's gone off , so let's go .

Hey running friends , thanks for joining us for the Rise and Run Podcast . See you next time .

Thank you , jeff . In case you missed him , friends , that's last week's featured guest , jeff Galloway , introducing this week's episode . Hope you enjoyed listening to him . I know I always do . Friends greetings , and welcome to episode 96 of the Rise and Run Podcast . I'm Bob and I'm happy to be here this evening with Lexi .

Hi everybody .

And with Alicia . Hello , alicia , I've been ending that way for the last couple weeks and it's really random because I just go in the order that you appear on my screen . And for the last couple weeks and it's funny earlier , when we were recording , you weren't in that lower right position , you were up in the top center .

That's not a bad thing .

No , it's not bad , it's not a bad thing .

I'm more surprised that nobody did hey how you doing since John came in to this room .

We don't usually allude to where our friends are if they're not here , but you guys know where John is .

Three words .

He's down the shore , Down the shore exactly .

We could try and impersonate his voice , like we were doing before we started recording .

John is a legend . Nobody could replicate that .

Oh okay . But there's only one place in the country , and perhaps only one place in the world , where you do not go to the beach you go down the shore , down the shore , jersey . I don't know any other place .

They say that for the Delaware beaches too . Delaware beaches , yeah , but I think once again to the Maryland beaches , and then that's when it starts going away a little bit .

Becomes a beach again , right ? Yep , exactly , okay , well , we hope . We hope John's having a good time . Friends , tonight's show Amanda from Once Upon a Marathon . You're going to enjoy listening to Amanda . She is the online embodiment of what we try to do here at the Rise and Run podcast . She is a wonderful person to help out with information on all things .

Two digits , baby .

Two digits , that's right as of this podcast , as of this podcast released 98 days till Wine and Dine Expo Day for Wine and Dine weekend . If you are training for Wine and Dine , if you're doing the challenge , of course there's different mileage is for different training , for different races .

Well , bob , I said last week , my training was going really great .

Yes , you did . I made note of that .

Then I was doing some returns and I lifted a really heavy bag and I wouldn't say it's an injury , but I created soreness in my shoulder from an old injury . Running has been aggravating it . I've taken that week off . My legs are like I want to run , I want to run , I'm not running . That's been frustrating . I'll get back to it .

By golly it is . You're right , you got to be patient , alicia . I told the story last week . I ran seven miles , then broke my toe . Everything was going well . That's the frustrating part when things are going well and then something happens and nuts , I'm back to not necessarily square one , particularly not in your case .

Thank you , I'd say my training is going pretty well . I have switched things up a little bit because , if anybody knows what's going on in the entertainment industry right now , the writers are on strike and the actors on strike , which means I don't have a job right now .

That collateral damage is the infuriating part .

Yeah , but that gives me a whole boatload of free time I kind of switched around to where I'm going to orange theory four times a week Monday , Tuesday , Thursday , Friday . Three of them are the normal orange theory and then Fridays is called lift 45 .

Good , good .

Good , so this is the second week . Yesterday I did my longest distance on the treadmill in the amount of time that we have , because usually we have about 26 , 27 minutes on the treadmill , which averages that . I mean we're supposed to do 30 minutes for the Galloway plan , so I figure it kind of yeah , it's close enough yeah .

So I feel like I think things are moving .

So I'm really excited and I know a lot of the listeners and you guys know kind of at the end of marathon weekend I was struggling with motivation and not wanting to run and all of that kind of stuff and I have found that I am really looking forward to going to orange theory and that's a welcome change to how I was normally , how I had been feeling about

So yeah , All right , all right , very good , glad to hear it . Well , thank you guys . We'll keep sharing how training's going , but right now let's meet our guests for the week . Friends , when somebody asks me about the Rise and Run podcast , what it's like , what do we do ? I tell them we're a group of seven people who just love to run at Disney World .

No , Bob , you're absolutely right . I would say there's a lot of great resources out there that discuss Run Disney . I mean , I would like to say that we are like the podcast resource of the Run Disney community and then , obviously , there are a slew of people on Instagram that provide some really , really wonderful information .

Thank you . Thank you , I'm excited to be here .

We're pleased to have you . We're going to talk about a slew of topics tonight . The first thing that I want to know is I love your account , not only for the Run Disney content , but just your in-depth research and knowledge about all sorts of topics , whether it's from sports bras to breaking down .

So a few fun facts about that One Instagram slaps my hand all the time and is like you've reached your limit . You're done on story .

Really .

And when they do that , they start deleting the first stories from the story I post . Yeah , even if I've saved it to a highlight , so like it is no man's land , that happens like more often than I'd like to have met To the battery dying .

So make sense .

I never knew about the Instagram thing . I didn't realize there was a limit to how much you can have on your story .

I didn't either , until they told me .

That's absolutely right Because , like I , you know of all the people that I follow , like I put you and like Michael does dis and like neck and neck on the number of you know of stories that get pumped down on a single day .

It's phenomenal to watch but he has less typos than I do , so Okay , that's great .

Hey , so before we dig into the website , you know , let's just back up a little bit . Tell us your running and run Disney backstory .

Oh my gosh . So I think like maybe a little bit surprising , I didn't grow up with Disney . I didn't grow up going to the parks . I feel like a lot of people who are Disney fans grew up with it . I did not . I think I went once , but I've always loved fairy tales and you know escapism .

So so wait , totally random question . So was run Disney or first Disney experience ? Did you run through the parks first before you actually got to experience the parks ?

So I had gone once when I was like 12 . I don't really remember it . I just my parents were a military family , so , like I didn't necessarily live close or that wasn't really .

Right , of course .

Because we didn't even have a Disney login . We're like what is that ? Like can't we just get in line ? Like , is there no other option ?

You know , but back in the olden days of the 2010s .

Yeah , yeah , this was 2014 , 2015 , something like that . So it was just like that was my like . When I think of Disney , it's like that experience of literally just walking up to the gate and purchasing a ticket to walk in . And I remember being on that trip and , you know , like I'm on cloud nine because I'm engaged and like this is an exciting time .

You know that story alone is going to lead into so many other conversations later on .

Oh my gosh .

So I'm very , very excited about that . But before we get to those stories , obviously , like I said in our intro , you post a lot of deep dive information on Instagram . You know whether it's , you know , one of the posts that I love , and I heard you talk about this on KG's podcast a couple of weeks ago .

So , like there was a lot of frustration building with Instagram , I'd save something to a highlight , like hey , here's the deep dive on how to register , right , and Disney will like just barely tweak the registration process , like they'll add a new question or they'll adjust a question , and I can't go back and edit it .

It is something that is Absolutely yep .

It's welcoming to all runners of all paces and all abilities and that's the thing that they stake their ground on . And that's the part that resonated with me and I care so deeply about it .

And also just to give a little background to our listeners , if they have not seen you on Instagram . Your job is in research , isn't it ? Or something of the sort ?

Yeah , I have a very like unique job .

And so , like you're the one that's looking up all of this stuff and I mean , in my opinion , putting it in layman's terms so people can understand what's going on , and you know all of that- yeah , I think it's just like a perfect storm of all things .

I have a very weird job to begin with . It's very research heavy , but I'm also like my roots , like my back . I'm a first generation college student . Like I come from a military family , very rural South , like that's .

Interesting .

The problem , you know , like at some point , it's not the person , it's the device . So , like that's where I live , that's the world I work in and there's all kinds of applications for it unmanned vehicles controlling those drones , flight like air cockpits and air traffic control like the new glass cockpits . That's all .

That's all I did .

I worked in defense contracting , government contracting , for a very long time , but I now work in the commercial world . But all day , every day , I'm doing research with human beings , trying to understand , like , why did you click that button ? Like what made you think that was the right answer ? You know what I mean .

Absolutely , I do yeah .

Let's see . This is why I love doing this podcast , because we transitioned from a Run Disney podcast to a mini episode of Radio Lab from NPR . So , again you get a little bit of everything here . It's absolutely amazing .

Like instead of Skiar Field . I know it is , but it's so research heavy and it's not just research like labs and test tubes , it's research with like people .

Absolutely .

Like I focus on like understanding , information , communication , things like that . So at some point like it just doesn't turn off and I realized I guess I've developed that skill over time . So I'm going and I'm reading about the DeSantis court case and like these are all the violations of the first like not just first amendment .

I was like I forgot about that .

It's like a whole thing with it and it really resonated people like it . I was really surprised that people like the deep dive so much and I guess- .

Oh , I love it because it saves me 20 minutes having to read an article from the New York Times for the Wall Street Journal or something like that .

So thank you . An article that I only like half understand as well .

Well , it's also cause , like I end up reading lots and lots and lots of different sources , and you know , there's different levels of bias and there's like some stuff where I'm like you like fudge that one a little bit , like there's some holes in the analysis . But we'll let it slide for now . So , yeah , I end up reading a lot is what it comes down to .

Well , the one thing you definitely don't fudge on is the way that you laid out Once Upon a Marathoncom , because what I love about it is that you went with a table of contents approach and then you know hyperlinks off of that you know to talk about the different subjects you know .

That would be nice .

Oh , I have opinions on the event guide , but also this is literally what I do for companies . Like that's my job . Well , I mean not in total , but I have switched over to the commercial world and in the commercial world , navigation , finding of information , surfacing the right information at the right time in whatever journey , right ?

But sometimes simple is the most effective , and I think , again , that's what makes your website so special . Now , obviously you know and I'm sure you would be the first to admit this that you know this is a website powered by one person . It's a work in progress and it will continue to get more and more information .

I didn't know this was going to be like a pop quiz . So information that's up there . I have the full registration guide , which is and again , when you go to the website , some of these articles are super long because I chose to give you all of the information , like you can come back later , but I want it all to be in one place all easily accessible .

You know something that I just thought of . You know you were talking about proof of time . I mean , obviously your website is going to be such a valuable resource to the community . What , outside of proof of time , what do you think are the biggest misconceptions that runners who maybe are just entering the foray of the run Disney spectrum have ?

It's all the things that like gives a newbie runner , like anxiety , so like the balloon ladies , the number of people who are like , oh my God , I'm being watched by big brother every second and the moment I fall behind 16 minute per mile , the boogie man's going to jump out from the course .

Oh yeah , if I'm at 1601 , I'm swept , I'm done , I'm done .

And I'm like it's not how it works at all . There are hard sweeps , there are soft sweeps . They're like I mean it's , you know it's not that stressful . So that's a big one that people have tons of anxiety about , really don't understand the way it works , which makes sense . Like you know , disney's that that's where the balloon ladies are .

It's unique . Yes , yeah .

So that's a big one that I think people struggle with . I think if there's other ones . I get a lot of questions around Like how do you change your Disney trip because there's a race involved ? Like what room do you book instead ? What resort do you do instead ? How do you do your day differently ? How do you manage the park miles ?

So you sound like so extremely knowledgeable and , of course , with all your research background , it's just amazing . I wish I wish my brain could be like that , I mean . But with all that information that you've gained through with run Disney , I'm very curious how many run Disney events have you done ?

Quite a few . So I've done every race weekend , including Star Wars , before it became so jealous . Well , I did the 10 K , so I I broke my hip . Oh yeah so I turned 30 and broke a hip . So when they tell you it's all downhill after 30 . It's not true .

It's not true . Yeah , so I was .

I decided to go for my very first ever full marathon . I was super excited about it . I had decided to incorporate it as far as the dopey challenge . I was a couple months into training , had this like nagging pain in my hip . Nothing like bad like two , three out of 10 . Just more so it wouldn't go away .

Oh goodness .

Yeah , and I was lucky that I caught it early . Had I kept going , it would have like completely shared off and that would have been really really bad . Permanent disability injury territory .

Very good .

Like I need it , I like that and I did clear it with my doctor . I just want to be clear that I got permission . I was like this is like a year from now , and he's like , well , you'd probably be okay , you know , a year from now , as long as you're willing to potentially walk it .

You could feel the force , did you guys ?

up as well . Yes , so I went . My sister-in-law is a huge Star Wars fan . Like her , baby showers are to D2 themed . Oh God love it . We did a girls trip and we did Jedi princesses and we each had like a slogan . So it was the light side , ladies . And then I was a tangled Jedi , so I had my robes were like the tangled colors , with the , the sash .

Oh cool .

And my shirt said at last I see the light side .

All right , that's awesome , very clever .

And every single person had like , whatever the princess slogan was , but like , slightly altered to match like a Star Wars phrase , and we made shirts out of them and we did the 10K and it was super fun . And I wasn't at the time a big Star Wars fan , but the race weekend was so immersive and so well done that I'm like I want to come back .

Yeah .

So yeah .

Did you ever make the nighttime wine and dine , Amanda ? No my first race in 2018 .

So I just missed all of them . I did do the tower like the springtime surprise throwback with the tower and the yeah . But I was not there for the heydays .

If it makes you feel any better . My first ever run Disney race was in 2018 . Yeah See , look , twinsies .

Yeah , right .

Have you got a favorite , a favorite race weekend ?

I feel like you know how people are saying , like you're not supposed to have a favorite kid , but you can't .

That's the same thing . Yes , absolutely know that . Yes , so you can pick . You can pick a couple if you want .

And it may depend on the moment a little bit , like you know . So I I love wine and dine . I love that it's smaller , a little bit more fun . I like that . The theming is looser , like princesses , just princesses . Right , you're pretty , you're pretty locked in wine and dine Across the board . Who knows what character is going to be ?

Yes , ma'am , yes , ma'am , Me too . I'm tired of starting and ending in Epcot .

Yeah , Well , it's also like it makes no sense because it's basically the 10 miler course that they have at springtime . Yeah , but worse because they added three mile out and back and I'm like springtime is already a hard sell , right ? Like it's hot , it's expensive , it's miserable . Make it unique with the galaxy's edge toy story course and that be its thing .

Yeah .

And leave Wayne and Dine with Animal Kingdom and all the good stuff .

Yeah , that was fun yeah . Pandora area yeah , that was a lot of fun yeah .

I just I suspect that they moved it because of the construction at TTC and the ability to put people through security .

Yes , I think that's true .

Through security . I don't think that they have an easy way to move people through security at a TTC start right now . So that's my worry .

Yeah , you could be right . They did something like that last year where I know when I drove myself I had to drive to Epcot , go through security , get on the monorail to start the race . I can't remember which race it was , but I remember doing that last year and I think again that was .

So security could be centralized there at Epcot when we did the 5k at Animal Kingdom for the first year of springtime surprise , which is like such a great location . 5k through Animal Kingdom . Yeah , you know we line up in the parking lot . They made us hike all the way to the park entrance to go through the security .

So yeah well , especially since they installed those new scanners . I mean , in my mind it's one of the best investments , that's ever made because , it speeds those lines up so quickly .

She's a fantastic candidate would love to work for Disney and I would love to be their researcher , like I will . I will give you all the information . I will back it up 10 times to Sunday with every data point that you need . That would that would be a dream come true , so I'm all for that . I don't think they accept remote positions and I'm Shucks .

Yeah , that's a nice area .

We personally have discussed this a while back and it's probably one of my most favorite topics to think about . You know I love daydreaming , so If you can dream up any Disney race , what would it be ?

Top three , top three . Let's do top three then . So many , so one . I would totally revamp princess . I think that I appreciate what they're trying to do , where every race distance has a full princess so that , no matter , you don't have to do the half marathon to get a princess moment . I get it , I appreciate it .

Yes , that means .

Yes , you get the and the snuggly duckling crew . You could have like a little charmed angle with the guy that pretends to be the .

Unicorn , that little thing , unicorn that .

Color-changing ink . You put that bad boy in sunshine . It was from like green to pink , like I . Just all of all of the ideas and I like every princess .

I think that would be amazing . You see , this is what apply . Please apply , amanda , mariah . Yeah .

I have the 5k be the brothers , but it's a spinner . One sides them , the other side , you know nice , nice , nice . Oh yeah , so I love that idea for princess weekend . That's how I would change that . I think springtime surprise For all of it being hot and expensive they have this like really cool opportunity To lean into like non-movie IP .

Yes , right .

Though , like there's a lot of love , the way figment took off for wine and absolutely . Yeah , so much love for like park icons and park rides and park Specific things . I would love to see more of that work its way in , and springtime , I think , is like a good entry point for that . Yeah , yeah . So and then They've gotten rid of Star Wars .

So they so the thing with Disney World . They are in a contract with Universal where they can't use certain Marvel characters because they have it in that park . So I know they had Doctor Strange at one point as a character meet and greet at Disney World and I know there's a few others .

But I mean three of the real answers . Yes , it's never gonna happen in Walt Disney World , but I researched this . Like you , talk about deep dives .

I will say Marvel can't be east of the Mississippi .

Very into it . So the ruling on the it's in perpetuity , which is like crazy , yeah , it's a deal forever , yeah . But the way that it's worded it has to do specifically with the theme parks , which is why they're allowed to get away with having the marble shop at Disney Springs , because Disney Springs is not in a theme park .

With so many Marvel characters being introduced right now I mean even some previous ones like Black Panther , they could use at Disney World . Like I said , dr Strange , they could use a Disney World . Mrs Ma , miss Marvel , now , like you got all these great characters that you could totally use for Disney race it's .

It's not universal , it's Sony , but like spider-man's on the boat now Disney wish has spider-man in their Marvel restaurant , so like they've got some deals . I do think it's such a sensitive topic . They would not want to Start doing this , have a fan Reliance on this and then be in a weaker negotiating position . I think that they would want to negotiate first .

I had . I have been looking forward to this interview for so long because I feel like you and I are kindred spirits , because I have been dying for a Muppets race weekend theme and you have been championing that cause for weeks and I just I was so excited to have you on the talk about that and why , again , I want you to apply for this position .

Oh , well , have they not been pushing them up its hard ?

Once and then beaker gonna be schlepping pickle milkshakes .

Well , the Duke , the new Jollywood Christmas party I'm sorry and miss Piggy are hosting like it is . They have really been leaning and happy to it .

Listen , the day , the day it happens , I'm gonna contact you personally and we're and we're gonna come up with a tandem costume and we're gonna celebrate this monumental moment here for it , but my only thing is I need them to go all the way .

Absolutely , I don't want this to be like oh , we're gonna have a miss Piggy and Kermit 10 miler and we're gonna have . You know what I want ? Like the Muppet caper . I want Christmas Carol . I'm like Like we're going full , full right . I need like the , the crazy , you get what I'm saying .

Like Absolutely like . The 5k , though should be like you know how , in the Muppet vision they have at the very end you have Sam the Eagle being like I made this glorious three-hour finale and they're like oh , you got three minutes and you know what that number three could be . Stand for a 5k , I'm just saying . And the metal .

I Already have the outfit . You know , I was Sam Eagle a couple of races ago .

I love it , I love it , and John was animal .

Yes mm-hmm .

But see , here's my question , guys why , why doesn't run Disney have like a panel of runners to consort so that they can get ideas like that would be a great idea .

We did . We did a whole episode on on brainstorming race .

I don't know what they're like . I don't know how Disney handles their consumer insights and their consumer research like they guys . I could solve that for them Because , yeah , there's definitely , there are definitely trends , I think , in the running community . I think they nailed it when they did the 90s marathon weekend . I think oh , absolutely .

So Well , shifting gears a little bit here . You know , one of the other great things that that you offer on your website are training plans , and what's what's cool about them is that they and you mentioned it you know a couple of minutes ago about what makes yours a little bit different . But can you go into those differences a little bit ?

Yeah , yeah . Well , first of all , all the plans on my website are either the Jeff Galway plan or a modification thereof . I mean , he's the guy , he's the one who made them all credit to him right , and he's the Olympian . He's done so much for the community and the running community at the whole . He should get all of that acknowledgement .

We has like the little gems and the mine cart things up , and one of the things that I love about it , too , is that you have created some of the plans that are not quite on the run Disney website Like . The one that I have is wine and dine to Dumbo .

Those are the ones I'm most proud of because , you know , take your example wine and dine to Dumbo . It's like , okay , well , you just ran a half marathon , you should probably take a week off . You know the recovery is important . And then , if you're gonna go back into training , the Jeff Galloey plans often go beyond race distance .

Well , that's perfect . Actually , you should coordinate with Jeff , you know , like a collaboration between the two of you , because when we had them on last week , one of our listener questions was you know how do I tackle this race weekend to this race weekend ? And he was like huh . I need to look into that . So here you have a wonderful you know .

I've never I mean I've seen Jeff from like a distance at the expo's , but like Now he's amazing . I just got my running certification through like coaching certification through the Roadrunners Club of America and Most of that focuses on like the more traditional Hal Higdon , jack Daniels , vdot , like the other methods , which is just totally fine .

I read an article not long ago after he had his heart attack .

That and I forgot I could find it , but it asserts that Jeff Galloey is the most influential person in running in history has to be and you think about it like this man was an Olympian , he probably very easily could have pivoted into coaching elite level , sub elite level and kind of just yeah .

Let me throw out . If you haven't taken the time to go introduce yourself and say hello to him , do it , do it do it like I did at Wine and Dye , if I , if I see you at the expo . I'm going to take you by the hand . We're gonna walk over and see Jeff . He is every bit the gracious and wonderful human being that you think he is .

I believe it . I'm just such a very shy person in real life Like I'm very introverted , I'm very shy , it's that's okay .

That's okay . You need to say hi to Jeff , I do , I do for sure .

Now .

I know at the beginning of this interview you had mentioned something and I said we're gonna talk about this later and I think this is the perfect story to close out this interview . You talked about one of the first times that you know you went to Disney . You know you got very excited when you were walking by the Rapunzel toilets in the Magic Kingdom .

Oh no .

I don't really call it a wardrobe malfunction , but a wardrobe confusion . Can you tell us your corset story ?

So I dressed up as puncie for the 5k for the dopey race , which is my third time attempting dopey , so the first time I broke my head . The second time I got up to like 13 miles , 15 miles , and the pandemic canceled it , so you know . So this was like my revenge comeback race Three years in the making .

Oh no .

So I didn't realize it , because I put the , the braid and the hair on and it covered the shape of the top .

Oh , my Good story though .

Everyone was a good sport about it , even my husband .

Good deal . Amanda , when's your next run at Disney World ?

Wine and Dine this fall .

You probably said that already . We'll see you there . We're going to go visit Jeff .

Yes , absolutely , I'm going to hold you to that .

I promise and I'm not hard to find .

Well , amanda , this was an absolutely fabulous interview . Thank you so much for taking the time , but before we officially let you go , go ahead , plug the website one more time your Instagram or anything else that you want to help promote , to make your amazing endeavors shine even brighter in this community .

Absolutely so . The website is once upon a marathoncom . There you can find the ultimate guide to run Disney , which has all of the information that I know . I'm building that out , so every every day there's something new . The training plans are there , available for digital downloads and purchase as well . And then on Instagram , it is once upon a marathon .

Awesome . Thank you so much . This has been a fabulous interview .

Thank you . Thank you for having me . It's been so much fun .

Amanda . Thanks . I genuinely look forward to seeing Amanda . I genuinely look forward to seeing a whole bunch of people at Disney World , but I'm looking forward to seeing her there . That should be fun . I think the thing I didn't think to ask her I wonder if she registered for any of the Christmas virtuals . But that was today , gang .

I did , bob . My mom wanted to do them , and so in turn , I get to do them as well .

That's cool .

And she doesn't wear sweatshirts , so I get the sweatshirt , so it's kind of a win-win . She gets the medals , I get the sweatshirt .

All the medals are going to go on the Christmas tree , right ? Yeah , you get to see them too .

Yes , so that would be fun .

I could have registered , but the whole not having a job right now thing , I am saving that money .

Yeah .

It's expensive , but it's a new thing .

That's why I want to do it , because you have the medals and the ornaments and the Christmas , and you know that's . I love Christmas , but for right now . I mean , if it stays open and the film industry goes back to the way it's supposed to be , absolutely I'll sign up , but for right now we're going to have to say no .

I think you got a chance Like see . By the way , as of this recording , the virtual runs are still all available , so it did not sell out today . We did have a contingent of rise and runners on a chat group who were helping each other get registered . That worked out very , very well .

So my question I don't know if you guys know , how long did people on average wait to get in ?

I played around with it earlier today and honestly I can't remember what time it was , but I remember I was getting the the wheel but it was like a two minute wait for me and then once it popped up , then I just got out of line . But I mean again , like Bob said , as of this moment of recording , it's still open .

I mean , the artwork looks amazing . I can only imagine what the medals would look like , but it is just . I just put that more towards a live race . Now , if they had a Christmas series running in the parks , you bet I'd be there .

Well , I mean they kind of put it in the perspective a little bit . I mean sure you're getting multiple medals and a sweatshirt and a corksicle . So again you know you're getting a bunch of stuff , but that price is still more expensive than the wine and dying half . And you get a after party ticket included , mm hmm , so mm . Hmm .

Well , I know we were really excited about today with the registration , but I feel like the springtime surprise official themes are going to be released sometime soon . I hope so we're coming up on what . Is it ? Three weeks until registration , Mm hmm , yeah , registration is August 20th .

So you think by next week we might see something .

Well , if we use the resource that our guest talked , about this evening . We can probably do something from there . So , according to once upon a marathon dot com slash , important dash dates , the club run Disney registration is on August 15th . So usually it's that like Wednesday or Thursday before the club run Disney where they usually announce everything .

Everybody has speculations .

Exactly , so we'll find those other three out , you know again very very soon .

Okay , something to look forward to , friends , we've got . We've got new merchandise for the upcoming run Disney season . It is currently available for preorder at rise and run podcast dot com slash shop . There are shirts for each of the race weekends , including the one in Disneyland preorder . And we got hats too , kids .

And , speaking of Carissa and Pellke , we just want to give a massive amount of kudos to the two of them on the initial release of the 321 go podcast . They've been doing really , really well . I know it's been getting a lot of buzz . They've had some wonderful guests . I know that they've talked to Jeff .

Yeah , great Thanks . I've listened to the first episode . They're fun people . That's going to be a fun podcast . Check it out . 321 , go Friends . It's time for the race report . Let's handle the race report just a little bit differently this week . We've got two featured guests . Let's start on Friday . I know some folks ran Thursday .

Yes , bob . So we have a very special guest joining us this week on the race report spotlight . I was on Facebook over the weekend and I was seeing posts from our guest father about a special race that was happening in Green Bay , wisconsin , and all of a sudden I started to see pictures of Lambeau's heel . I thought , oh , this is really cool .

You did .

You did . Now I got to know how did you climb up that wall . I was sitting on my dad's shoulders . Oh , okay , so you got some help . That's cool . So now , before the race actually happened , can you tell our list ? Can you tell our listeners what happened before the race and what you had to do ? Um , they were like it just started raining .

Oh .

And then I was hiding under my dad's shirt , and then I had to walk in under a semi truck and my dad didn't fit under it . What ? Because in the rain .

Oh , that's crazy .

That's great .

So now , where ? Where was the finish line ? Was it on the field ? Was it outside the field ? Where was it ?

It was on like on the . It was on the wall .

Okay . So it was , so it was outside the stadium . Okay , that's really cool .

Yeah .

And then I guess the last question that I got to ask is did you wear a cheese head while you were running this race ? No . No , Okay . Well , maybe the next time you do this race you can wear a cheese head . What do you think ? I don't know , you don't know , okay .

No , okay . Cheese head . No , no cheese steaks either , yeah , no cheese or cheese steak hat .

I like , I like you thinking there , bob , yeah , hey . So last question for you , kiddo , after you finished the race , did you get any ? Did you get a medal , a shirt , did you get any cool prizes or anything like that ? A medal .

Oh , you got a medal .

Nice , super cool . Do you know when your next Disney race is going to be ? I wish I had an answer for that .

Okay .

Okay , Well , you know , I mean Natalie . Can I give some advice to you ? The next time you're cheering your daddy on at a race , make sure that you yell extra loud so he doesn't miss you this time , Because . I heard a story about how you were cheering for him and he ran right past you On Main .

Street . Yeah , on Main Street , on Main Street , I know , on Main Street , wow .

I'll tell you we're never going to let your daddy live down that story .

Were you sad .

Yeah , you were sad . Did he buy you a Mickey bar to make up for it ? No . No . Oh man . Oh , my Two strikes for Hollywood . There she's a Mickey sandwich kind of person , oh , okay , all right , that makes sense . Well , natalie , we're so proud of you .

Okay , that was fun , all right . Now let's , let's go back . Let's hop on our Mandalorian and go back a day to Thursday . We had an unusual Thursday run this week in Rochester , new York , part of the summer in the city , 8k series , the run five , eight , five series . Karen and Karen ran that on Thursday .

P-R . I know I had commented on Lauren's post on the Facebook page . As a Yankees fan myself , I got to admit this is a pretty darn cool race , even though obviously , as a Yankees fan , I'm supposed to hate the Red Sox .

I haven't mentioned this before . Our daughter works security there as a part-time job for the Red Sox , so she was there and yeah , she was sending us videos of the rain and yeah , nobody got hurt or anything , but it looked like a mess .

Wait , instead of the PR bell , can I play Fly Eagles , fly just a little bit , or no ? No .

I guess not .

I wouldn't hurt my feelings , I'm going to read what Tony wrote here . He says I can't help to think how this never would have happened only a few years ago before I discovered the love of running and the example it set for her daughter , natalie , to follow . I think that's pretty cool . Good job , tony .

He did and he made a friend along the way that he's going to do some races with . I just want to give a shout out to Jimmy and Sam , a proud coach again . Great job on this race , good .

Has anybody noticed the amount of Flamingo 5K races that have been throughout ?

the country this summer .

Yeah , there's that a lot . I know Hollywood just did one the other weekend .

I know he signed up for it last minute and actually wore an inflatable Flamingo race . I think it's great that this idea of just bright pink and Flamingo is just running down the street is an amazing idea , yeah .

All right , continuing in Washington DC . The American Physical Therapy Association 5K your way . Heather ran that . Heather said , coming from North Dakota , the DC area was pretty warm . I can't imagine she talked about North Dakota losing a police officer in the line of duty last week .

Thank you , Thanks , Bob , for having me . We kind of created our own race and it was my goal to go out and run seven marathons in seven days . Yeah , you did .

I know I'm going to tell you . I saw this on Facebook , mark , you had a graphic drawn up . You called it what Seven Dwarfs Challenge ?

Seven Dwarfs Marathon Challenge is what we called it . Yeah , so you had a dwarf for each day .

When I first saw it , I thought holy cow , seven marathons . Mark must be getting ready for something . He's going to do a marathon a month for the next seven months , but no , A marathon a day . What made you decide to do this ?

It's actually not the first time I've done it . I've actually done it before , back in 2017 , when I was training for an ultra marathon . We actually , one week we did seven marathons in a week and a couple weeks later , we did eight marathons in a week .

Holy , so it's not the first time . That's amazing . But on top of all that , tell our friends what your average times were for these seven marathons .

The average times , I believe it ended up being 258 , 51 for all seven .

Yeah , I think they were all between and I know you'll correct me if I'm wrong between 255 and 305 . Is that sound right ?

308 , 309 , 19 , actually it was .

Oh , you carried an anchor on that one .

Yeah well , the first day I had a lot of help with it . Over the challenge . The first day went perfect . We went out . I ran a 258 , 57 .

I think you got five of them , didn't you ?

Yes , yes . So after the second day I was like , well , that's out of the picture , I'll just average , I'll go after a 305 . So I started to go out the next day . On the third day then , and we ran . I started as a run for a 305 , and I ended up with a 30156 . And it felt great , I felt really good .

252 , amazing . I have to tell you that honestly , mark . After seeing the first six , that seventh one didn't surprise me . I said I bet he's going to go out all out on this last one . I felt really good .

And after the fifth day I was very confident that I was going to finish the last two very strong .

Oh you sure did .

I did have a lot of help throughout . I did some coreophysical therapy help me out After the first day . I started on Sunday and I didn't go into coreo for they do some recovery with me . They do some ASTEM therapy , some soft tissue massage , some stretching . So on Sunday I didn't go for that because they were closed .

Amazing . Hey , how are you feeling now ? I mean , we're only 48 hours removed from the last one .

I feel fantastic . I was already out Today was my first day back running so I ended up seven miles . My coach has me doing seven miles easy all week and then each day , and then we'll start getting back into it again next week Seven miles easy each day . Yes .

It just rolls off your tongue as though it's nothing . That's it , mark . That's really cool . That's really cool . You did this around your home . You live in the Jacksonville area , correct ?

Yes , we live in South Jacksonville area and I have actually a lot of people get a kick out of it . So my neighborhood , I have a.4 mile loop , so it's less than a half a mile , and I ran most of these . Five out of the seven marathons were run on this.4 mile loop .

Yeah , that's awesome . What were the temps like ? I mean , it's Jacksonville , it had to be pretty warm .

Yeah , it was . It averaged about 80 degrees every day . We had one day that was 76 degrees and that was a bit that really did feel a big difference . It seemed cooler that day , but the rest of them were all 80 degrees , 81 degrees .

You get off early in the morning .

Uh 2.30 in the morning I started just about every run at 2.30 am so .

And you had a support crew out there at that hour .

I did . I have a lot of friends . I'm in a PRS running club that we have about 500 members and as the week went along , I think more people got excited about it . And they came out three o'clock in the morning to run with me . A couple of the times I had somebody out there with me all 26 miles . They were running loops with me .

You have .

Pacers . Uh , yes , yep , I had some Pacers . I had some people on the bike . We did one of the courses we did at our Saturday long run . So it was a 10 mile loop . So I had two guys on a bike that carried all my water and gels for me and stayed with me the whole time .

Anybody you care to give a shout out . It's up to you .

Uh , it's . I mean , there's so many people , it's the entire club .

That's the last day .

I mean it was amazing . Everybody's excited about it . They ended up even for the finish . They even had a finish line tape out there for me . They had balloons , they had cupcakes . I mean the energy was pretty high that day .

It was a lot of fun . That's very exciting and I you hear me say it I think a lot If you listen to the podcast . If I start mentioning names , I'm going to leave somebody out .

Yeah , yeah . I mean I thanked them all on Facebook every day that somebody was out there , because there was somebody different every single day that was out there with me .

That's absolutely fantastic . You didn't just start running in the last couple of weeks , you've been running a long time , I suspect .

Not as long as a lot of people think . I've only actually started running the last 10 years , so I didn't pick up running till I was about 38 years old , I mean I do run here and there after I got to high school , but I didn't have a watch , I had no clue about it whatsoever .

Oh , my goodness , that's amazing . Before we press the record button , mark , you and I were just chatting . You qualified for Boston seven times in a row , and by a bunch , by 15 , 20 minutes each time .

Yep . You brought that up and I really didn't even think about that at all . I have done Boston twice , so it's a good race , but I've done it twice and it's good enough for me . Me preferably . I like Disney . I like run Disney races . That's what . That's what I enjoy to run .

You're in the right place , my friend . You're in the right place . I appreciate that , and I and I guess I understand that , although you would run two marathons in a time , it would take me to do one , so I can't quite wrap my head around that . When are you next heading to Disney ?

We're actually going this weekend just to visit . So we've been season pass holders for 16 years , so we usually go down every two to three weeks . So , oh , good for you . Yeah , so we really enjoy it . That's our home away from home .

Yeah , we get over . Not quite that often . We get over from time to time also , and we do enjoy that . Uh , next Disney run .

Wine and dine . So I do a lot of galloway pacing . So I Okay , yep , I uh . My partner is chris twigs , so he's my pacing partner .

I've heard of him , you know him , I've heard of him . Yeah , yeah , good job yeah .

I've been doing since 2017 . I've run just about every run Disney run as a pacer .

Outstanding . I I'm going to be looking for you there . We'll be there , for sure , cool . Look forward to seeing you at Disney . Anything else exciting coming up ?

Uh , in the next couple months , we have a couple things in plan . You know , like I said , um I I like to challenge myself just as much as I like the race , so we do have some more challenges coming up .

You've done that , I assume .

Yep , I've done it three times back in 2014 15 in that area , so , um . But to get ready for that , you know , we're gonna really amp up the miles for the marathon training and in october we're planning on doing a . We're gonna call it experiment 626 because I'm also a stitch fan . So we're going to go after 626 miles . What ? The month of october ?

Mark your machine , thank you , thank you . It's really . I mean , that's really incredible . It's really amazing , but I love hearing about it . I love talking about it and keep us Up to date . Let us know how that's going . I definitely will . Awesome , mark , it's been fun . Uh , I , I know , and I hope a bunch of our friends were watching on facebook .

Thank you . Thank you , so it was . It was neat to see the enthusiasm of people had a lot of people Messaged me that I didn't even know about . I actually even had someone volunteer to come out and do a character stop for me , you know . So that was that was really cool to see that .

Great job . Great job , my friend , thank you . Thanks for taking the time to talk with us .

We look forward to seeing you .

Yeah , look forward to seeing you real soon . Sounds good . I'm still amazed . I'm still amazed , mark , that was Fantastic . All right , oh , I wanted to make a note that we didn't talk about in that interview . Mark is a galloway runner , he's a galloway pacer and he set all those sub three hour marathons using Runwalk Run .

The rise and run podcast discusses general information about run disney and is in no way affiliated with run disney or the wall disney company . Any information or advice discussed on this podcast should not be considered medical advice and should always consult with your health care provider or event organizer .