99: Running is More than Just a Race: Insights and Stories from Brittany Charboneau

So happy as always to have you with us , I'm Bob , and I'm here tonight with Lexi . Hello , alicia , hello , hey , hey , hey .

Our friend Abby ran the Madison Mini Marathon and she's going to tell us all about that later on in the episode . My friends , if you enjoy this podcast , please share us with your friends . Spread the love , Grow the family . Let others know about the Rise and Run Podcast . We want to share in the training journey .

We want to see everybody at Disney World coming up pretty soon , so let others know about us . Please remember to follow us on our Facebook page Rise and Run Podcast and our Instagram account at Rise and Run Pod and visit our webpage riseandrunpodcastcom .

If you got a question , a comment , a race report I haven't gotten too many race reports here Got a few questions , a lot of introductions . We really are looking for introductions . You can call us at our hotline . That number is 727-266-2344 . Leave us a recorded message . You know we want to hear from you , Lexi , standing by the phone to take your call .

But in the meantime , magic Bound services are free and they're here to help you out . Like Greg said , he got his today . I have to look to see if I have mine or not . I get them stacked up , you know , and I forget which ones I have , which ones I don't .

And if you're just doing a room only , I think you only have to pay the first or one night's worth for a deposit . So it's really not that bad in the grand scheme of things . No , being fully refundable in the event plans change .

In fact , I think for both Wine and Dine and Marathon Weekend the 5K training plan starts next week . Not sure I'm positive . If you're doing the 5K you'll know when it is . One weekend now , 20 weeks away , the long run , nine miles this week , that's starting to get significant , especially with the heat we're experiencing in a lot of the country .

So we're going to talk about this with Brittany . But look , slow down on your long runs , take it easy . It's best for you to slow down on your long runs . Professional , world-class athletes slow down on their long runs in their training . So you don't need to prove anything . And remember this isn't the end . This nine miles isn't the end .

You're going to do nine miles Saturday or Sunday . Whenever you do it , you're going to turn around and start resuming your training plan on Tuesday so you don't want to burn yourself out . So take it easy . Nine miles this week you can do this Gang . What's going on training-wise ?

This is my third year running burden hand , but the fact that we have so many people from the extra mile podcast , customized training and rise and run my God , is that going to be one big Amish party ? And I am so excited for that weekend .

So again , you know , whatever colors whether you want to wear the extra mile colors or the Galloway colors or the rise and run colors make sure you do it , because it's just going to be such a fantastic time . But anyway , I digress now . This past weekend I had 12 miles , felt really , really good .

I'm so excited because the trail that I use used to drive me nuts . They just added a five mile extension onto my trail so it now connects me to the famous Skookle River Trail here in the . Philadelphia region .

So in theory , if I really wanted to , you know , if I decided to become Jack and start training for ultras , in theory I could run from my house in Chester County , Pennsylvania , all the way to Center City , philadelphia , if I really wanted to .

But in doing so they had to change all of the mile markers because they put them every quarter of a mile and it always used to drive me nuts because I had , like , my halfway point .

I always knew that the distance between two of them was off and I would have to do a loop through the drive through of my , of the local bank chain that's here and always used to throw me off . So I'm so excited that with this extension all the mile markers are now working .

But I know we've talked a lot about running in the heat and I'm looking for some suggestions of the problem is , when I have my hydration pack on , I usually fill up it about I don't know it's a halfway full of water the night before and then I freeze it in hopes to keep the water cold and then , you know , have it melt throughout my run .

The problem is that number one , it gets so hot . And then , number two , I , you know , just give off so much body heat that the whole thing is melted , like you know , a couple of miles into my run and then by the end of the run it's not refreshing water .

So , if anybody has any tips in terms of , you know , freezing your hydration pack or something like that , or having colder water , you know , for those longer distance runs , please post them on our Facebook page .

I would love to hear them because it's one of those things where sometimes I do get a little malnutrition on those long runs because it's like I really want to eat this , but I know I got to , I got to suck some water down and half the times when it's you know , when it's warm . I really don't want to do that , so I'm very interested in tips .

But overall trains going well and I'm excited to keep going .

You know , the opposite can kind of happen , but it , because it's like all insulated , it did help a little bit . But , yeah , freezing it and then also making sure you have like super cold water on top of it that you're putting on top , not like room temperature water .

So let you know how that goes Does it feel back to normal . Yeah , yeah , 95% , it really does . There's a tiny bit of swelling left . It's kind of one of those . Yeah , it does feel back to normal . I've been wearing I haven't worn the wooden shoe for a week now . I've just been wearing two running shoes and I feel pretty good . So I'm pretty optimistic .

I wanted to . I had an appointment with my primary care physician yesterday , just a routine every year I go and I wanted to say to her hey , will you take a look at this ? What do you think ? You know ? Another week , what do you think ? But she was not feeling all that well , so it ended up to be a telehealth visit .

I don't know if you've done those before or not . It's kind of like what we're doing here . I could see her , she could see me . It's like a zoom call . You know , I didn't feel like holding my foot up doing in front of the camera on my laptop and I don't think it would have helped anyway .

So I didn't get that input , but I think I'm about ready to go . I noticed I'm always looking on Facebook for questions to address and I saw this question more than once this week about the magic mile . Some of the training plans must have a magic mile coming up and if you haven't done one before , here's what I think the idea is .

In fact , one of the training plan has three miles , including the magic mile . If I was doing that , the way I would do it is I would take a very slow warm up mile . I mean very slow Run my magic mile . The idea of magic mile is as fast as you can without losing your lunch .

You should finish the magic mile feeling as though I can't go more than another hundred yards or so at this pace . I would have to stop . One of the questions asked was do you do run-walk-run intervals on the magic mile ? Most people do . Most people find it they're faster , actually , than they would be if they tried to run it all the way through .

I mentioned a six minute mile break and our friend Adam said hey look , I can do close to six minutes and I take walk breaks during the magic mile . So it depends . I can't give you a formula for everybody .

I know when I was doing pretty well I would go a quarter mile , walk 10 seconds , and at the half and at the three quarter I'd walk 10 seconds , then run it in . So it's not the same run-walk intervals you're doing during your training . But yeah , you definitely can do intervals . In fact you probably should do intervals during your magic mile .

So then , once you've done that , you've done your warm-up mile , you've done your magic mile , then take a bit of a break , walk a little bit , finish up whatever distances on your training schedule . So in this week it'll be one , one and one . It's usually more than that , it's usually four or five , but the magic mile is included in that distance .

So I hope that helps . If you more information on the magic mile , the Jeff Callaway website's got it .

It will then spit out paces for you at different distances and if you keep scrolling down on that page it's not obvious you have to keep scrolling . It will give you suggested run , walk , run intervals to meet those paces . For example , if you're and I don't have these numbers in front of me but if your magic mile was 12 minutes , put 12 minutes in .

It'll say okay , then your marathon pace would be about 15 minutes . Keep scrolling . It would say for 15 minutes your intervals should be 15 seconds run , 30 seconds walk . Again , I'm making those up , but that's the idea .

And she was saying how she's training for New York and she's getting to a 10 mile run and just being completely exhausted after doing I think she said she was doing like five or six minutes run , two minutes walk or something like that , and that's a different . That's not straight Galloway , because Galloway has much shorter run walk distances .

But whenever you do get your intervals you can kind of tweak them to what your body feels like it needs you know and I know like mid-race . I've changed my interval from 15 30 to 10 30 yes just because I was , you know , feeling extra tired or something like that .

It's not like you have to keep this the whole time , or you are done for yes , absolutely right , you can adjust your intervals .

They run six minutes and walk 30 seconds .

So , for example , if you know if you're training for a 10k , scroll down , see what the pacing should be for race day at a 10k . Then take that number and add two minutes to that and then that will give your training pace yeah , that's a long run training pace .

Friends , let's visit with our guests for the week we first met tonight , special guest here on episode 99 , back in January of 22 , 2022 , early in the podcast history , not long after she won all four events at the dopey championships . And I gotta tell you , brittany , I gotta tell you I was nervous .

I mean , here's a world-class athlete , I'm a schmo and we're gonna talk to and I'm nervous and it took , oh golly , three minutes to realize hey , this person's one of us . Brittany Schrober knows a runner for North Face . She is a member of the US World Mountain and trail running team , a proud member of Team USA .

She's done a whole bunch of other things that we'll talk about as we go along , but , brittany , by golly great to see you .

So they have kind of a limited contract , they are essentially sponsored by the brand and then what's cool is they connect the athletes with a mentor who is an athlete already on the team . So my mentee is , her name is Ruby Lindquist and she is from Alaska .

So as soon as I found that out I was like I have to figure out how I can make a trip happen to go visit Alaska in her neck of the woods . Because , uh , I think we talked about this on a previous episode but I'm fairly new to the trail running game , even though I'm a native coloradoan .

So the thought of and I've just gotten comfortable on the Colorado trails , like I feel pretty good , but the thought of running in Alaska absolutely tears behind me because I know that there's grizzlies up there and so .

I can't go by myself , so I need someone who is very seasoned and comfortable in the Alaskan frontier , and so Ruby was supposed to be racing up there , so I was going to go cheer her on in this race and she ended up not racing but we ended up still getting to spend basically a I think it was about a week together and just she just kind of showed me

her neck of the woods . It was really cool because she's an up-and-coming athlete , she's in her early 20s , and we basically got to spend the week of just learning from each other .

So I got to learn from her and just like that fresh youthful spirit , this kind of naive vibe where you're like , oh man , you have so much career ahead of you , it's so exciting , and you know vice versa for me .

Where it's like , girl , chill , we've got , you got a lifetime ahead of you on the trails , like right , right right and then teach me how to run without being terrified of bears and moose . It was just amazing . I got to sleep in her yurt . She had this glorious yurt in her backyard and I got to wait . What's a year ? Yurt is like this .

Hers was this fancy one , it was a two-story . Basically , it's almost like an octagon shape . It's like a almost like a little tiny house . It's very , very basic and I think what makes it a yurt is the top is like a tent . Okay , so I made that all up . If that's not the actual definition of a yurt that's good enough , yeah .

Just it was technically we were in moose pass which is about 30 minutes outside of seward but kind of a seward area okay , which is , I'm trying to remember , southern coast of the state , right a little bit east of Anchorage or on my way off you know , like it's west and inland yeah , well , other than that I got it , I nailed it right I mean there was

water , there was I don't know like it was , it was bananas and there was no nighttime , so I flew in it to oh , you're there in the summer and one of the only things I wanted to do when I was there . I was like listen , we have to do an 11 pm run because it just feels insane . I'm an old lady , so I go to bed at like .

I don't know I'm going to go to bed at 9 so I had to set my alarm to wake up to go for another run at 11 pm because I was like this is so novel , like this just feels I just have to do .

I might be out of order , but where did the US track and field 50k championships come in ? Is that pretty soon after , or was that before ?

Yep , yeah , that was a qualifying race for what I have coming up this fall , which are the world championships for the 50k on the road in India in India , yeah , wow , that is amazing you kicked butt at that championship though yeah first place , finish right um , I got second , but both of them broke the course record um course record yeah , yeah , um , that was

the woman who won . It was her first time ever running a 50k and she just smashed it . Um so , and she's gonna be competing in India , so we have a really really strong team of women .

I am a trail runner , I don't run on roads and then road runners are just like don't put me on a mountain , which was me in the past , um , but I still just have so much love for the roads . At the end of the day , I just love to run , like it doesn't really matter where , I just really love to run .

So , um , for the 50k road championships um , that was just a specific race that was a qualifier for the world championships that are going to be coming up , but , um , it's basically pretty flat , like the race that we did . Um , for the qualifying race was pretty flat and I'm pretty sure the same is for , um , the race in India as well .

So , um , yeah , the race in Long Island . That was a qualifier . It was 10 laps of a 5k um oh and then um . The one coming up in India is 5 laps of a 10k okay , what would you prefer ?

So I think I'm happy with that and it's kind of fun and novel , because I do a lot of lap training during training just to mentally get prepared for the monotony of it , and it's just . It's actually kind of novel , um , doing ridiculous laps of things . Um , and what's interesting is that and what I really enjoy about it is no lap is going to be the same .

You might be running 20 times around a park . I guarantee if you do it , you're going to have a different experience every single lap and I love to look for the differences . I like to look for the like , what made that lap interesting ?

Or sometimes I've done it where I pick colors and that lap I'm only looking for red things and then I'm going to learn things and then I'm going to only look for yellow things and you'd be amazed at , like , what things you see .

Um , I did it on a trail once , um last year , and you start to pick up the really lovely purple logo on somebody's hydration pack or their shoes , and you just get really tuned into what , what is happening in the moment , versus like , oh my gosh , I have four more laps . You're just like , oh , I can't wait to see what blue things I see on this lap .

So I've actually really enjoyed training for um these laps races , which are kind of unique that's awesome .

I don't know , maybe a silly question the laps is that in some ways for the benefit of spectators ?

Are they gonna care ? Um , so I think it's more uh , just to not have to shut down a big city , like like okay , or something that makes sense but I don't actually know the answer makes sense .

I've realized that I really don't like training by time . I actually like I'm taking that off of the table for this training cycle because it's not going to matter in India . I trust that I got my speed .

I trust that I am going to be building my fitness and I think this layer of the heat and that time of day is novel and it's just like this extra layer of hard . And then the 2020 Olympic trials were also at noon in Atlanta , so I would just train . I would practice that on the weekends when I was training for trials .

Then I would like wait all morning and then go out in the middle of the day to practice that . So I don't know . I mean , I think every race is novel . You kind of just like roll with it and you go with what it is . I just don't want to like spend too much time like trying to stress about the uncontrollables .

Is there anything specifically that you can do in your training that will prepare you for that element as well , outside of the heat ?

I think that one it might just be , because the other thing is like if you , if you train for something like that , is that going to do more harm than good in ?

And so something I thought about was like , okay , I'm going to pretend like this is just a regular run . If I'm on a regular run , I'm not thinking this is so regular and this is so comfortable . This temperature is comfortable . This right now the sun is at this regular temperature .

Like I'm not replaying this narrative of talking about the weather in my head when it's a regular run . So I tried to shift that to any time that I was like , oh my gosh , it's hot . I would just come back to like what I was listening to on the podcast or something else , trying to not put my focus so heavily on the temperature .

I think like if you're just focusing on that over and over , it's going to exacerbate how much it sucks and I'm going to have to practice that , like if I'm racing in India and all I'm thinking about is how hot it is . I'm not really focused on what I'm doing and it's going to be hot for everybody . So I think I was trying to shift that .

And then the other thing I've been trying to tap into my mantra that my sister actually gave me was it's a privilege , not a punishment . And so I was thinking about like I'm really lucky that I get to be out in the middle of the day .

My schedule allows me to be out in the middle of the day to train and prep as best as possible for this race so I can show up as my best and like . And then I just am like trying really hard to just visualize myself in India and what things . How am I going to keep being kind to myself in my head ?

Because that's something that fell apart for me in Austria at the World Championships for Trail that I really want to try to rectify in my head going into India .

Or you have a set determined mindset that you have to do every time for race day ?

Like during all my training I'm playing and I'm just like making games and I'm enjoying it , and then come race day I then go serious mode and then like that goes away and I'm like why am I dropping exactly what I'm training for ? I'm proving to myself in training that that works and I have so much in my arsenal of my races of when I just play it works .

I set and I smashed course records when I just play . I mean Disney , like that was just playing for me .

Like , how can we kind of set ourselves up so that this training cycle could be something that you know is wonderful , instead of a punishment , like you're saying ?

But I think about , okay , my race . I'm in India , I've just finished , or I mean there's a towing the line in India , or I'm just finishing the race and I'm looking back on my season . What , how do I want to feel ? And so I think I want to feel confident . So I want to feel like I gave my best effort in all of my runs and workouts that I could .

I want to like feel like I can . I got as prepared as I can . So , knowing that on these really hot training days , I'm like well , I know I want to show up as my best . I'm going to like really power through this run , even though it is a little bit hot and miserable , I like really want to show up as my best .

Or like what happens if it's even what ? If it's cooler and I did all this amazing training is going to feel even better . Or if it is really hot that day , I'm prepared . So I think like that's a big one .

So I think just like thinking about how you want to feel in like looking back on your training cycle is helpful and I think , yeah , I think for me it's just like remembering that , it's just like the journey , like I really , I really love running and I just want to like soak up every single day and every single moment and do something different and make it

not like take them and not any other way out of it . You know , I think so many people get stuck in this like routine of seriousness that it's like , yeah , we don't have to take it , don't take it so seriously and , especially if you're not an elite runner , please don't take it so seriously .

I mean that directly to myself was like , oh my gosh , just just play , just have fun . You know , I think like just keep that in your forefront , like let that be your guiding light throughout all of your training is like the best piece of advice I can give .

Like I was thinking about that the other day , was like there's like nothing more I would have wanted to do than to just run around , until my parents told me to like just cut it out , and I want to like get back to that , but thinking about things that I can do , as I mean , I want to play and I want to have a good time , but I also have some goals

of maybe , you know , getting getting a little faster so I beat the balloon ladies , or making sure I don't get an injury . Are there any drills or cross training that you would highly recommend to people as a coach ?

I think don't underestimate how far a 20 minute Peloton workout can strength training workout can go in building some of that speed and keeping you injury free . So that's a big one and then , honestly , it's . I listened to this podcast . I should know his name because I keep quoting it . He was this Olympic DeKathlie and he said that .

So he's training for 10 events , like in his discipline . And he said my 11th event is always my mental training . And I loved it because I was like he's treating that mental training as as important as all these other events and so that's important to me this cycle and we have in my training plan .

My coach gave me a meditation row In my training plan that like I have specific , like I've got to do meditation .

I've got to do that mental work every single day because that's just as important as as putting sunscreen on , as tying your shoes , as getting the run in , as taking a rest day , and I don't know if I've treated it that way , but I think , coming off of the race in Austria that was glaring , that that needs some work . So those are like my biggest pieces .

And then , of course , just like please , please , take at least one entire rest day , like please .

We're at a point now where runs are getting long and we're telling folks slow down , go two minutes slower than your marathon pace on your long training runs , and people go . Well , if I do that , how am I going to run fast enough during the race ? Can you help us out please ?

So you're already running on . You're supposed to be running on a little bit more tired legs as it is , but you want to go slower . It's all about time on feet , so it's all about like just getting that time and distancing . The thing that I've seen people do mistakenly is they'll run their long runs way too hard and they hit their goal times .

Let's say they've got a 15 mile run and they smashed it , but guess what , their recovery time is taking so much longer . So then they miss these other key workouts or they're just like overloading the fatigue and you , you know where you're building your speed is in your speed work .

Maybe it's a strategic long run with some speed , Maybe it's a tune up race , Maybe it's , you know , half marathon , things like that . But I think trust your training cycle , trust your coach , trust the trust , the training plan .

I think it's like the thing is like it's there strategically and then just remember like , because people are always like I couldn't , I was barely running race pace for three miles , how am I supposed to do it for 26 ? And it's like I always just say there's all those like pieces behind it . But I always say there's always magic that happens on race day .

Just keep trusting it . And magic happens on race day . And there is all the science of like you've done all the training , then you're tapered and then let's not forget the adrenaline of race day and the like reason we race , but just keep keep trusting it . Slow down to go faster . That is like the game of the game when it comes to long distance running .

Can you talk about the relationship of being coached and coaching someone else and what that has done for your running career and then , in turn , how does that help your clients ?

When we're , when we're training , we're in the trenches , it's like sometimes we just can't see the like those like red beans of light that are just like I'm feeling really tired and I don't know why .

And the coach can look at like , well , yeah , because you stacked a couple of hard runs , you said that you have been really stressed , you haven't gotten great sleep and you are probably under fueled . So I think , having those different dynamics , that the coach can kind of see that and as a coach you get to kind of know that person and all of the pieces .

So it's almost like they're your puzzle piece and you're helping piece things together and you're just helping them move the pieces . But it's really , really helped me . Being a coach has really helped me in my own training because I have to practice what I preach and it's hard .

And there's the days that I'm like we just do your exercises and I'm like I have one exercise all week . Oh my God , if this person would literally just do some mental training . They would kill it . And then those are usually the things that I'm looking at them like oh , or for me , I .

So heat training is a good example , because I have not been training this summer for anything specific . I've kind of just taken the summer to play because I know I've got a big season coming up and so everyone's talking about heat training , all these things , and I'm like , okay , I'm going to just see what I can do to help .

So I'm going to , I'm now in the trenches to , and I'm going to try to figure out what tips and tricks I can give you .

And because I'm doing it myself , or the other thing to being , you know , an elite level in a coach is I'm going to , I'm going to wear the , I'm going to wear the black shirts and I'm going to go out today and I'm going to show you that like I'm going to just make it really , really hard and I'm just going to show you that I know what it's like to

or like . give you an example of like , not a , not in a way of like , look how hard I'm working , it's just like there's another layer . I love , I'm really motivated by seeing other people like do something absurd , because then it makes what I'm doing feel a little bit less crazy .

So I think , if I can be almost that example of absurdity to an extent to you not over the top , where it's dangerous or people would try to address right now , you know , I've got a whole team that's helping and that's very strategic of doing these choices for these races , and I think it's all kind of this like symmetry and like this , like I'm feeling meta

now , where it's like all kind of like this , like groovy , you know vibe going together . We're all kind of feeding off of each other . So I think it's been cool having the experience of being a coach while also training and then also leaning on my coach as as an athlete also .

And seeing your coach go out and run I know a lot of my runners do that as well they're like , oh , I saw you run , so I actually went around and so that's a big deal and it really it really helps with that mental game of going .

Well , like 3am , but that can't stop with it . Exactly yeah they can kind of call you out on your stuff that you normally would just sort of pass off as like , yeah , that's not it Totally . And then you're getting enough calories . Like , are we even realizing ? How are we treating ourselves like athletes ?

Do we have a mental block where we don't think we're athletes and we're just not ? You don't , you know , need that much calories ? And then when they actually add everything up for you and go Well , you're doing this and this and this several days a week , you need this many calories , and you go oh jeez , I'm way below that . That's why I'm tired .

And then also like that coach is there for the amount of times that I've cried to my coach or just complained or just felt like I need to say this because I feel crazy , and she'll either validate it or help me figure out how to get through it . Or we just get creative .

A lot of times when I'm just stuck , that's when we get like really creative on things , and that's also what she's there for .

So I felt I walked away and I was like I'm brave because I ran , so I just you know the little wins .

So it was a really , really quick turnaround . So I again hadn't planned to qualify for that because the 50 K road championships were originally supposed to be at the end of May in South Africa and they got moved now to India in the fall .

So my spring opened up and I was like , well , I may as well just try to qualify for the trail World Championships because my spring is open . So I ended up running that race , I won it and qualified for the World Championships which were one month later .

So that race that we qualified , it was a marathon distance and it was , I think we had like nine or 10,000 feet of elevation gain . It was oh my gosh . And then , one month later it was a turnaround of another marathon at the World Championships and I think it was 12 or 13,000 feet of elevation gain .

The race was just like not going well from the beginning and I ended up just kind of like I had the last two miles of this climb before this eight station , really randomly my belly button started hurting and I was like that's weird .

And then I got to the eight station and kind of everything just fell apart physically and then mentally everything fell apart Because I was having stomach pain and was just really incoherent . They ended up putting me on a helicopter because that's the only way .

Mine was just like over-the-top dramatic with the helicopter and the lake , this whole thing . Like people were like , wow , you really wanted to play up your birthday . I just got the bill for the helicopter also and they sent it to Britney Sturboni of all things . Um .

You know , sometimes people think well , if I , if I DNF to race , it means that I shouldn't do it ever again , or I shouldn't try ever again . How can someone turn that around so that they want to do another race again ? I ?

So in improv there are some really bad sets like I've done some really bad and you walk off stage and you're like that was , that was garbage , but it was a 10-minute set , so I'm just gonna I'm gonna give up improv for 10 minutes Because I love it and I'm gonna learn from it .

Yeah , I think I I let myself have a pity party for it get 48 hours , if I'm honest , because it was the world championships . So I .

What was interesting is that I didn't have my phone for Probably like a good six hours from the time I like got off of the helicopter or like onto the helicopter until , like I was able to get my phone from some of the team USA staff and in that time I'm in this hotel room in Austria .

These doctors are blatantly laughing at me in German and I'm like I I don't know what you're saying , but I I Know what you're , I know how you're making me feel and I get it . I like there's nothing wrong with me . You're not finding anything physical because it's in my brain , I know it .

But it doesn't mean I don't feel humiliated like I'm sitting there , sweaty , I'm covered in dirt , I'm in my team USA Like uniform , I'm just sobbing and I I feel as stupid as they are making me , like that's I . You don't have to laugh at me . I feel that stupid .

But what was interesting was that then I got moved into the room that I had to spend the next night , the whole night , in for observation , and I didn't have my phone and I had to just feel it all , and I think that that was something that I never .

I would have just been on my phone , I would have been like trying to talk to everybody and I just had to sit in it . I had to just like I didn't have another way and I actually really think that helped me a lot , because I had to just process All of my thoughts . I had to process All of my emotions and that range from , again , humiliation .

I felt so stupid , just like any type of just down emotion . I felt it , but I think that that really sped up the process of of that . And then I went . Once I got released from the hospital and I had a tangled mess of my scrunchie in my like wet hair that was like Knot it up . I'm sitting outside the hospital waiting to get picked up by the team .

Usa staff and these Jehovah's Witnesses in German come and try and Like talk to me and I was like this is , this is the worst day ever , like you were just adding icing to the cake and I'm just like a pathetic mess .

Then I went back and I spent the whole day In my hotel room just feeling sorry for myself and then I started to think about Well , I'm in Austria , my team is here , I love running , I'm not gonna let this be the end of my trip like . I'm not gonna let Be that like this whole trip has been rad . This was a really crappy experience .

But everybody also just like was like , oh , that happened to me . Or like they all , everybody on team USA , all my teammates they first asked if I was okay and then they just ripped me apart and in a way that was just like they just made fun of me so hard in a that made it light , that it was .

Like it wasn't this big big deal that I was building up in my head . It was just like you're fine , like your belly button hurt because you're pregnant with kittens probably .

I Got out and cheered for the rest of my teammates the rest of the weekend and made it an epic experience and then I just took the rest of the summer off because I was like I don't need to . I need to like keep coming back to like what do I love about running ? Why do I love it ?

Because I think if I jumped right into training again , I think I was mentally , I was mentally just really burnt out . So I think in a long , in a short now , answer of if you have to DNF , I Never is that big of a deal as you think it is .

You pull it up in your head and you think but honestly , almost every single pro athlete has had a DNF and if they haven't , it's probably because they aren't running long enough . You know like these long races are hard like dopey's , dopey's work your son is hard , half your son is hard .

A 5k is hard and I think , just like you've got to come back to what do you love about it ? And you get to throw and throw yourself a pity party , let yourself believe you are the worst runner in the world , you should not be out there , and then you have to move on . You have to put your shoes back on .

You have to lean on your tribe of fellow weirdos To get you back out there , because you're gonna learn so much from it and I've learned so much already , as I'm heading into this season , from that experience that I'm actually really grateful for , because it's like great , there are some like lights shining on the things that I have to work on .

I got to work on my mental game part . I got to like come back to playing . I got a . There's a lot and that's exciting and that's rejuvenating of like oh , I'm stoked to get to work on this and so , yeah , that's kind of like what I've taken from my experience with the whole thing in an . In a long nutshell , You've mentioned before too .

Then you get to say all of the reasons why that doesn't have to be true totally .

No , like , if you just DNF'd and you're doing another race , maybe you don't even tell people , or maybe you just like . You just like go like there's no expectations , and I think that that's what I'm excited about , for India is like I actually have no idea what's gonna happen , and probably than it just did .

So , okay , it's gotta be better than the bougie helicopter ride and that way there's no pressure .

You know what do you do with those intrusive thoughts and you know , just like , besides telling yourself , no , I'm a runner , like this is fine , you can do it I feel like there's more to that mental game that I know I have struggled with in the past and I'm sure some of our listeners are , you know , going through as we're getting into the training cycle and

you know , prepare , preparing for these races coming up .

And so what I think that I'm focusing on is like I'm prepping mantras ahead of time . So I'm having , I like , made a list of the things that I know are probably gonna be my negative thoughts and I've got a mantra preps ahead of time To what I'm gonna say to counter that .

Because I think what happened with Austria is I spiraled and I didn't have things prepped in practice ahead of time , and so , for example , like what if I don't go ? What if I'm not fast enough , or something like that might be an example . Or like what if I ? What if the same thing happens again ?

I'm like I'm running right now , like I just try to like Bring myself right back to right here , right now , and I again , I just try to catch the what is happening in this moment . Can I , can I , what am I seeing , what am I hearing ?

To just bring me back to the present moment and then Reminding myself like I'm a great athlete or I'm an amazing runner , or I love this , I love this . This is not . Again , it's not a . It's a privilege , not a punishment , that we get to do this .

And if it's feeling like a punishment , then you got to figure out what is making it feel like a punishment , because we shouldn't be . It's hard , like training is very hard , but it should not be a punishment in this grueling thing that we're out there just suffering , because I don't think that that's why we do what we do and it do .

You have to change it up and make it a game . I'm I'm not training by splits this whole season . I'm not gonna look at my times . I don't care , because that's the source of stress for me . I'm gonna . I'm pretending like I'm out on a trail race where I would never look at splits , like why , why would I do that ?

And like that brings me a lot more joy . So I think , just like being really intentional with your training , being really reflective and again , that's where , like , having a coach and having a training plan helps because you get to reflect on those moments and just like I'm gonna put myself out there again , like I'm gonna do it , and that's that's hard .

That's that theater Roosevelt quote . You know that Renee Brown loves too . It's like if you're not in the arena then you don't get to judge me like I'm . I'm gonna do it , I'm gonna be in it , I'm gonna .

either stick with me , my co-host here , or the community at large . You know the last time we had you on . You were the one that you know instilled the idea of PR in and fun and the fact that we have heard that from so many oh my goodness .

Over the course of the last couple of months is incredible , and I think , for this interview , the one that is gonna stick with us is what you just talked about in rewriting your story . And if there is a poster girl for rewriting your story , it is Brittany Sharpen , though , because you know , you know , let's think about the first time you ever joined us .

You told us a story about how you got t-boned by a husky Indian after Boston , and Then what did you do ? You turn that around in .

If you want dopey for crying out and and I understand you , you're not trying to put pressure on to yourself for this training cycle , but you can still rewrite your story and the fact that you know you went through all these trials and tribulations in Austria , you are just destined for great things for the next , you know , year or so I know you are .

And folks again , if you're gonna take anything from this interview outside of her amazing costume styling and Amazing humor , if you're gonna take one thing is when , when things go bad , if you DNF , rewrite your story . And , brittany , I just want to thank you for uttering those words . That that's . That's really impactful . So thank you .

Brittany , the , the daggum , disney run seasons coming up were only like eight or nine weeks away from wine and dine Costumes . Golly , not only did you run and win dopey and costumes , I saw your picture when you were cheering at Boston . Yeah , as a what you tell folks , what you were I was a unicorn on the cob a unicorn on the cob .

And then I made my friends when had to show up as a hot dog , so he was a unicorn dog . I made another one where toast , so he was unicorn bread . Oh , wow , yeah , I was just absurd but , I think , please , I've already had a lot of my runners and just friends that are racing wine and dine Reaching out .

I've now become their costume mentor , like here's what I'm thinking .

In fact , I have to jump off in a couple of minutes because I'm going to see Barbie again . I so I wore all my Barbie stuff like you don't have to do costumes , even just for races . I think that this is what's . What's important About costumes is you can wear a costume at any time . People didn't have to know you're in costume .

So I saw Barbie the other day and I was sort of I was in a costume for myself , but it was just an outfit and I'm gonna be going as weird Barbie tonight because she was my favorite . Yes , like find what speaks to you and just like full . To pit it like we did , we hosted a lot of Spaniard .

This like three weeks and we have a specific costume day and it was really interesting . On the last , on the second week , one of the , a woman who was on the trip . She said I never consider myself a costume person .

I don't really love costumes , but I loved this day because it it automatically sparks this like fun , joyful piece , and I think for Disney races I mean you're already getting that , but why not just layer on the fun and play like why not make yourself it's ?

you put that costume on and you're embodying this joyful character or this villainous character , or I have somebody who's going to be doing sidekicks You're embodying like kind of underdog , just creativity and just again like go be that little kid self of yours that is running on the side of the , that is run , just running , and your arms are going everywhere and

you're just like whatever you can do , like baby from friends dude , honestly , like it's so fun . So I think just put your costumes on and it could be as simple as like I think I'm gonna braid my hair weird or something like that . It could be very , very simple , but I encourage and challenge people to really embrace costume stuff .

That is what makes Disney races unique . There needs to be more costumes in all races , in my opinion , and those Disney races are so special unique because where else are you getting this wonderful community of people that are willing to just like be characters and be in costume ?

And golly , I had a blast .

I'm kind of using it as like this like newsletter sort of which feels like kind of dorky , but I just need a place for my thoughts to exist and to be able to like share my thoughts and weirdness with the people that kind of want a little bit more meat on the bone that maybe aren't digging it on Instagram in the sense of like I'm very wordy on Instagram .

I like to share a lot , but sometimes I want to share a little bit more .

Sometimes I want to give a little bit more insight into what art I'm creating , what makes me tick , what , how I'm trying to like really step into , like owning my weird , so that hopefully it's kind of a permission slip for everyone else to own their weird , so you can sign up for free for this sub stack newsletter on my Instagram in the link in my like link

tree I've put out one . Bob , you were like has there been more ? No , I've put out one so far .

I think my goal is like letting it be as weird and like free forum as I want , but hopefully just to get to share some more , some more insights into my brain that are hopefully helpful and inspiring to other people , as you .

Excuse me , it's Mercuria running on Instagram or mercuriorunningcom , but yeah , that's kind of like where I tend to live . I kind of feel like I pick one zone and I just live on Instagram .

I want to direct your attention to something that we've done as a community here and that is the community chats that we've built up . Now . There's a bunch of them . We have a community chat for every Run Disney event to include the virtual , to include Disneyland .

We have one for all the world majors , because we have lots of friends doing those , and we have a couple others Burton Hand Greg mentioned it earlier . Burton Hand's a big one , but we hope you'll be with us Tuesday morning at the Springtime Surprise Registration Chat as we go through registration together .

Let's talk just a little more about that With us tonight . To talk a little bit is our good friend Mark . Mark's been really helpful to us in some of our registrations , especially recently , and he's going to be with us during this registration process . One of the things I want to point out to you is we have these community chats .

Go to our Facebook page On the left side . There you'll see community chats , but the one you want to look for is Springtime Surprise 2024 . Get yourself into that chat because we will be there 9.45 or so before registration opens and we'll be helping one another out . So let's start here . Let me start by saying Mark , you're good at this .

If you were going to tell folks how to get started , what to do and we always have to , I always have to remind myself . We got a significant number of people doing this for the first time . Now we've got a lot of people who have experienced , but we got a good handful , probably a little nervous , doing it for the first time . What should they be doing ?

How can we help them out ?

Staying calm is important because it really is stressful , it's almost it's somehow it's more stressful than training , even though training involves hours and hours of running . Getting through this one big jump is a hard thing .

If you want to run the challenge and the 5K comes up great , click on it . It does not matter what distance you pick . You're going to have to pick it during registration , so just pick whichever one goes live first If you're following the time .

You'll know that's happened one because you'll see a thousand messages in the chat about it , but your page will also roll over from where it had been to everyone's favorite spinning circle that says thank you for your patience .

It tends to be that the queue clears faster than the estimation that Disney puts out , sort of like the rides at Disney World .

You'll see the words QID and then a whole string of letters and numbers that can be really useful to you if you're going to have to move between devices , if , say , you're on your phone and you're heading into work or any other variation where you might have to move your registration from one device to another .

If you click on the words QID , it'll pop up another window with a link and you can email that link to yourself or text it to yourself and that link will follow you to whatever device you happen to need to be on .

Oops , now it's 32 . I do not know why that happens , but it happens almost every registration . You jump back up and once you do that , you'll end up again . That'll end up going back down quickly .

Oh wait , people are taking longer than my estimate , so I'm going to revise my estimate of how long it takes to get through this line .

In fact it's kind of neat People be chatting , chatting , chatting , and all of a sudden somebody will disappear and what's happened to them is their numbers come up and the heck with the chat . They're busy registering and then they come back later and say oh , I got in .

There are several others who follow the spirit of RunDisney's rules instead of the specific instructions , and who might , through various means , have more than one QID available to them , and our goal with those one is to give ourselves the best chance to get into the event , but it's also to share those cues with other people .

So what you'll see , typically 10 or 15 minutes into the registration process , is people will start saying I have a registration link with 10 minutes left on it . Who wants it ? And we're looking for somebody to say me I want it . Please feel free to raise your hand , but also type something in the chat , because I can't see it if you raise your hand .

Much like the podcast .

We know registration day is one of the most stressful parts of run Disney and I know our goal this time around , when this event starts , we'll be seeing you'll see people post , but especially if there are people who are coming into this event and this is your first ever run Disney event If you are interested in getting in , please say something so we know ,

because we want to see you get in . Our goal , we love this community and we want to see people get into these events .

It's not quite as obvious , and I'll reiterate what Mark said , at least for the first 30 minutes of registration when we're working on helping folks out , we want to give priority to folks who this is their first run Disney event Now on our system here .

Obviously , if you tell us this is your first run Disney event , we'll believe you , and unless Alicia tries to do it , in which case we know better .

When we do get around to helping folks out , priority , at least for the first half hour , to folks who are doing their first run Disney event as we go along , and I think this is going to be OK here . I don't think we're going to get blitzed on this one and I don't think people are going to get shut out . I mean , I say that I don't know .

I've also noticed it . Towards the end , there are so many people we're just throwing links up onto the chat at the very end , and that's right .

But , depending on you know , you can be that person and keep adding them one by one , by one , and then hope at the end and pay for everything , or you can get yours and then you could go in and register one more time again after you pay . So depends on how you want to do it .

So , especially for those of you like me who like to go to Target or Sam's Club and buy them in bulk and get that 5% or 4% discount . But the caveat that I want to let you know about is that when you go to make your purchase , you can only enter one form of payment .

So if you are going to use a gift card and say you're going to register for the challenge , make sure you have a $500 gift card available , so that way the gift card is large enough to cover the entire balance of what is in your card .

I haven't seen any of the charities actually put the info up yet .

Good luck , Friends . Just to reiterate and we might have mentioned it , I can't recall , If you're not sure where those chats are , go to our Facebook group Rise and Run Podcast and Facebook . On the left side you'll see a link for community chats . Click there and the list of all of them should come up . Look forward to seeing you Tuesday morning .

I'll probably get there around 9.45 and we'll all be nervous together waiting to register . Speaking of waiting to register , who's going to register for springtime surprise next year ? I wish I know I wish so Jack and Lexa your nose .

My first ever purchase from Quine Pizza Apparel was the Russell Wilderness Explorer shirt , so I'm covered for all . So I just got to figure out something for the 10-miler .

See , many , many moons ago in a theatrical play , I actually was Pumba and my dad made me a replica costume like they use on Broadway , like you know , with the big front and back and in the movable mouth . I think I dismantled . I don't think I'd be able to run in that , but I mean . But I'm okay on the costume front .

So I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and see if I can make this happen .

I've seen a lot open back and forth between one and dying in Princess lately . If you do decide you do want to end up doing it , just keep watch of that , have your alerts on and then you might have your moment to sign up if you just died later on .

It's going to be a blast , it's going to be a party , but it's , in the sense , the same as H2O Glow . But I'm trying to figure out where that extra money is coming , unless they're going to be upcharging the H2O Glow as well , which I hope they don't do . Please don't do .

I'm going to lower my voice and this is going to be really serious .

Thank you so much . And we also have on this list this week Kelly . Thank you guys so much for this Patreon moment . That was fun . How was my voice ? Was it deep enough ? Like like free ?

I'm still looking for a couple of addresses and if I don't get a reply to my email next week , I'll mention on the podcast who they are . But for the rest of you , paper yons , the stickers have gone out . You should get them shortly and once again , thank you . Want to draw your attention to another friend of the podcast , Pam from Fluffy Physies .

She is still supporting those of us who are running for charity bibs with her fundraiser on her site and she's got a brand new one . I don't know if you've seen it or not . It's gorgeous the Maui Sunset Bath bomb .

Head on over there , see where's a couple you like and you're supporting a great cause . Guys coming up next week episode 100 . Wasn't sure we'd get there . We started this thing out in October of 2021 . But thanks to you , thanks to you , our friends who are listening , not only are we here , but we're here and going strong .

So we're going to celebrate on episode 100 . We've got some surprises for you . We hope you enjoy episode 101 . Our friend Carissa Galloway is back . We've had Carissa before as the race announcer . Now we're going to talk to Carissa the nutritionist . She's got a book coming out called Run , walk , eat , a book on nutrition for runners .

We'll be talking with Carissa about that . All right , my friends , it's time for the race report . Okay , I need to back up one week again . I don't do this a lot . I make exception in rare cases . I missed this one . Mary had scheduled the beach to beacon run , which we had a bunch of folks doing . She didn't do that .

She did the Cervesa shuffle in Saratoga Springs , new York , and the reason I need to bring that back and mention it is that Mary PR'd . We can't not talk about that . But let's get to this week , august 9th , which was a Wednesday , we had a run in Keen , new Hampshire . Where were you , allie ?

They finished 9th and 10th overall , wow Bravo .

Kelly was there and did that one . Sugarland , texas , a 10 and a 15K figment . No , I mean Katrina . Katrina , she was dressed as a figment , she had a really cute outfit . She had the 15K . It was hot . I mean , come on , it's hot . Last 5K was tough . Katrina finished it . Sarah was there .

Sarah did the 10K and , despite the heat , finished it in under an hour . That's always a great goal . If you're knocking out a 10K in under an hour , I think that's pretty dead gum good . In Claremont , florida , there's a series there . I believe they call this series the cool summer mornings runs what ?

Who made that name up for runs in August in central Florida ? Anyway , it's the real Florida runs . They have different themes for them . There are four of them overall . The theme for this one was attractions . It was a 5K . Mary was there with her niece . Mary saw Margaret on the course . They said hello to one another . Mary's niece comments , aunt Margaret .

You sure know a lot of people . Well , she says it's just a loving community . Margaret was there . Weather aside , it was fun . She was surprised she didn't see more many ears out there . The overall theme of this one even though it is attractions , the primary theme of this one was SeaWorld Ton of run Disney attire .

Margaret incorporated some universal into her costume . You know Margaret always does the costumes Great .

So there's no pedals , no chain drive , nothing like that . It's it's primarily just to keep her upright . Well , she maintains a dag gum really good pace on this thing . I mean , she's finishing five case in just a bit over 20 minutes , wow , and usually winning her age group .

But what happened here and it got her upset , and I don't blame her is that the race director after this I think she said this was her eighth , eighth time running in this series , you know , going back a couple years decided that she didn't count , that she didn't qualify because of the a linker , she didn't qualify for age group awards .

So not only did she not get the age group award for this year , the stripper of the previous ones . I think that's kind of rough .

I'll tell you who else smokes on . A goes really fast , leah .

I don't know if she walked this event or not , but I know she is out of the boot and back walking . So , Molly , keep it up . Honolulu , Hawaii , the joint base , Pearl Harbor , Hickam half marathon . Ashley was there running that one . Always good weather to run in Honolulu , at least most of the time .

Alright , from Honolulu we moved to North Plains , Oregon , the ORRC garlic festival 10k . Our friends Sarah and Vanessa ran this one . Sarah said it was beautiful but hilly . It was an out and back and apparently it was uphill both ways . Does that make any sense or not ? She didn't say that . She didn't . She really didn't say that . She said it was up ?

They didn't show up . Oh no , so I know . So there was a construction site in the area that actually shared . They only had one , but they shared it with all the runners . They even moved it so it was closer to the start finish line and kind of probably kind of saved the day that stinks . Yeah , it does , vanessa .

Vanessa was with us last week in the spotlight . Vanessa said the post race food offerings look delicious Breakfast burritos and beer . That's nice breakfast burritos and beer , breakfast of champions , right ? Vanessa didn't get a chance to partake because they had reservations for brunch and mimosas at a different site In Madison , wisconsin , the Madison mini marathon .

Vanessa was on the spotlight last week . This week our spotlight is our friend Abby , who ran this race . Abby , we're glad you're here .

Okay , I'm going to start doing it from now on . So I picked this race out actually months ago to be my hopefully dopey proof of time as well , because I know that it's coming up the deadline .

So I actually joined the 215 Pacers when I first started , hoping that I could stay with them at least as long as possible , at least get close to my 215 if I could . I knew I was right there .

So I actually went out and I ran the first three miles and didn't look at my watch at all , just was running with Pacers and I realized at mile three we were averaging like 930 minute miles , which is faster than I wanted to get .

And after going out so strong , those first three miles , I slowed , slowed way down after those first three miles , unfortunately not smart , move fast Smart move . Abby Didn't get my proof of time , but I really enjoyed the course . It was really pretty . We did run through an arboretum for like a couple miles of it , so it was pretty shaded .

That's cool how long you been running .

And I just happened to log in in like January of what it would have been 2022 . And the Tower of Terror 10 Miler was the only race that was available .

And then we ran through a lot of like the tree areas and the trails so it did get pretty like just dust runners back there . So just running down the main area of Madison where all the hype was and everybody's playing music , and that was the best .

So you're going to go north and then turn around and after you've run 13 miles , there's going to be a sign that says half marathon finished this way , marathon that way . And it is so tempting .

So why should our friends who are listening make the trip to Madison , wisconsin , next August to run in the mini marathon ?

He's used to the much flatter area in Wisconsin around Milwaukee and I gotta say I love Ryan's .

Tammy got to coach her friend's daughter through her first 5K . She did a great job which really made it special for Tammy . Tammy , I think it's awesome the way Tammy shares her love for running and trying to help people Back . She talked about a running group that she's kind of grown there in the Lakeland area up to six people now .

Tammy , that's really cool . In Akron , Ohio , the good year half marathon . Our friend Lori , who has been killing it lately , finished half marathon number 141 . Wow , If all goes well , Lori's going to finish 150 . And I should have double checked this . Either at marathon weekend or in Disneyland it's one of the two .

She's going to finish 150 at a Disney event , but this one in Akron started on the good year test track , ran past the good year world headquarters , the air dock where the blimps the good year blimp used to be built , did a solid , really good finish time for Abby . She's running in two weeks she's running . And now let's put this in perspective .

Okay , this was a half . Last week she did a virtual Olympic triathlon . In two weeks she's doing the Mobius Green Monster Trail 50K . And what's interesting about the Mobius Trail is that no matter where you're going , you're always on the same side . It's kind of a math joke , Appears to be lost here , but anyway .

Oh , speaking of Wisconsin and Minnesota , our friend James , who was on the race report not long ago , did the Gopher two badger half marathon . Started in Stillwater , Minnesota , ended in Hudson , Wisconsin . Part of the route was shaded . That always helps . Started at 7am so it was sunny there already . Wonderful views of the St Croix River , says James .

Saturday at the watershed endurance six hour or three hour race in Edwardsville , illinois , not far from St Louis , our friend Chris decided that the six hour would be a good idea . He started at 6pm , ended at midnight , muggy night . You know how those nights yeah , golly , human nights like that can get it .

One interesting part of this is that part of this race ran over a four foot wide floating bridge with no side rails . It took him out over the marsh . It makes yeah , it's nighttime . It makes 490 degrees turns . That became really fun at night . If you weren't paying attention , you were going to end up in three feet of water and three feet of mud .

But Chris did it Good for him Ran the final lap after more than five hours running . He ran that final lap at a 955 pace and finished lap 27 in six hours with just a minute to spare . Put him second in his age group . Way to go , chris , nice .

Our friend's Kimberly came around the marathon and her husband Josh . Josh ran the half On the marathon . At least . They ran through a tunnel , which Kimberly said was kind of scary for her . She was a little bit claustrophobic . That was tough . It was warm , of course , but there was a lot of shade that helped . So Kim was able to PR this marathon .

Josh did the half and this is kind of cool . I asked for clarification . Josh did the half . The half starts at the halfway point on the marathon , but it starts after the marathon starts . Still , kimberly managed to catch Josh about a half mile from the finish , so they were able to finish the race hand in hand . Way to go .

Despite having those and her words , now the fact that the meatballs almost made a reappearance at mile 1.5 , she ran well third in her age group , sub 15 minutes for a two-milder good run . Monica , her big girls and her big girls aren't that big . The whole chaos crew is pretty young .

They took first and second in the respective age group so you got Monica with a third , the girls with first and seconds , their six-year-old son , six-year-old daughter , I'm sorry , finished fifth in hers was kind of bummed . She didn't get her own trophy .

We had a nice meeting last Saturday with some of our friends , but we got a Zoom Thursday coming up . Good time to talk registrations , springtime registration . Of course we've talked about it already on the episode coming up Tuesday , but if you got questions , that's a great time to talk about that . Hope to see a bunch of the air there .

We always have fun on those Zoom events . Instructions for how to log in are on the Facebook page . Next Saturday Zoom won't be until September 9th . For what it's worth . Becky and I'll be at Walt Disney World , not this well . Next Wednesday and Thursday coming out after this episode . So Wednesday and Thursday of next week , becky and I'll be there .

If you're going to be there , shoot us a message .

You know that by now , maybe even better than I do . Thank you for being with us . We hope you enjoyed this episode . I hope you had as much fun as we had recording it . We look forward to seeing you in just a scant 11 weeks , or maybe sooner , but until that time , happy running .