Hi team, I'm Fitz Kohler, your very jolly fitness pro in race announcer from fitsness.com. And welcome to the Fitsness Show. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Whatever the heck holiday you celebrate. Best of us for the rest of us. Happy that. And today we're going to do a holiday episode.
I don't think I've ever done an official holiday episode before, but I got this hankering and I invited slash bullied, pestered, harassed my noisiest bestie, Rudy Novotny, my partner and Team Noisy to come on the show. And believe it or not, he was all begrudging about it and said, I'm not the guy. He was being a bit of a Scrooge, but here he is anyways. Hello, Rudy. Merry Christmas. Oh, ho, ho, Kohler. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you, your family, and everybody.
Oh my goodness. See, I told you you had an on switch. We were backstage and Rudy was like, I'm not going to be able to do this. I was like, dude, you've got such an on switch. You're going to be fine. And there you are belting out the big ho, ho, ho. Well, yeah, it's a little work this year, but it's okay. And thank you for asking me on, bullying me, cajoling me, and threatening me to be part of the show. How's my you? What's going on? Merry holidays.
I have wrapped about a thousand presents and I have about a thousand more to wrap because I am that mom. I am over the top and that's just fine. And so, yeah, I'm in the middle of it, but I'm also relaxing and grateful to be home and not traveling. And so, as you know, when I finish up a race and I get home, all I want to be is ugly and in sweatsuits. And I have a conflict back for quite a few days already. So I feel great. What about you?
I'm just kind of hanging out and actually enjoying my sweats. Right now I have a sweatshirt on that you gave me. I've got my Gators sweatshirt on. Go Gators. And we're having a very summer-like West Coast winter, which I don't know, you know, for Christmas and the holidays, you know, I'm from the East Coast. I'm from New York and New Jersey. So I do enjoy the holidays. I do enjoy the colder weather, even a little snow. So ain't quite the Christmas festive here, but yeah, just kind of hanging out
and being comfortable and doing, doing little, which is wonderful. So let's start there. Would you prefer to have a white Christmas or a sunny Christmas? Oh, I'd prefer to have a white Christmas. Sure. Yeah. That will not be happening. The only way you can have white Christmas in California is to go to it, you know, make the effort, You know, go to Mammoth, sometimes Big Bear, you know, a little further south than Mammoth. But yeah, that would be great. That would be really fun.
You know, I'd probably just stay inside and look out the window, but it's still nice, you know, still a white Christmas. You know what? I was watching the morning show news the other day, and it was snowing in New York, and one of the anchors referenced mood snow. They're like, I just want mood snow, meaning they don't want a differential amount of snow that blocks them inside and makes their life miserable. But when they look outside, they could see the snow falling and it gives them
that festive mood. I would like that too. I mean, I've spent 100% of my Christmases in Florida. So I've, I actually had snow once golly, I think it was maybe seven years ago. And. We had already opened presents and, you know, we had heard scuttlebutt about there being some flurries and that about, I don't know, 10, 11 o'clock in the morning, I'm sitting at my back door and I hear people screaming and I go outside.
You can hear my neighbor screaming and all the little snow flurries are coming down. And then I started screaming and all the colers went outside and it was very cold, but it was a tiniest amount of snow. But we were out there like fools in our backyard doing snow angels. And it was great. It was great. I would very much like to have a snow, a white Christmas once. That would be cool. Never heard mood snow before, but I get it. That's actually a really cool term.
And that makes a lot of sense. so i i just gotta i have to understand you're saying that you guys actually got enough snow that it covered the ground no no oh i'm sorry melting and we were just you know floridian fools like yeah just making angels in the grass really but you know okay okay when i heard snow angels, you know. Just checking, just checking. I had a hard time. I had a hard time envisioning a, a, a gator snowman.
Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty weak. I mean, I think the most festive things that happen in my state are the poor iguanas. It just freeze. And then the trees, and then you got to know that they're still alive. They're not really dead. They're just frozen and don't throw them away or whatever, they will come back to life with just ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, those are weird little traditions. And we'll be right back.
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But you've also celebrated Hanukkah, right? Yes, yeah. My wife and I brought my daughter up in the, you know, I was raised Catholic and my wife was Jewish, so we kind of made a conscious decision to bring our daughter up in the Jewish faith. And yet, you know, I still enjoy all the culture and, you know, a lot of the religious views of the Catholic Church. So I, you know, still embrace those.
So my daughter gets the best of both worlds. We celebrate Christmas and with a little dreidel and latkes and a little Hanukkah flavor. So, yeah. Well, I tell you what, when I was in college, I dated a Jewish guy for a few years and we talked marriage. And I mean, I could have been this awesome Jewish mama lady because of latkes. It's all about the latkes for me.
And so I have been declared an honorary Jew by my friends, but it would be, it could be really nice to be a real one or at least be in a Jewish family where there was latke palooza throughout December. That was it. Latke palooza. in my dreams. Do you know that this year, both Christmas, Christmas is the same day as the first day of Hanukkah. It is. Yeah. I don't know how often that happens, but it certainly is happening this year. So yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll figure that out.
Yeah. I love it. You know what? I like when my Jewish friends are also doing festive things on Christmas day. I tend to have a few Jewish friends come over and do Christmas with me every year, but I don't know. I like it when most everybody is doing the holiday thing on the same day. Yeah. You know, a little bit of this and a little bit of that and just a, you know, a good time for everybody to celebrate and be grateful for all the wonderful things we have in our lives.
Yeah. So, and so I celebrate Christmas too. Everybody should know that's, I was also raised Catholic. I don't practice hardcore right now, but that was the holiday I was given. And I, and I do love Christmas. Now, what were Christmases like when you were a kid? Oh man. You know, my, my parents would go over the top and it was, it was, it was fantastic.
Christmas was always very, very special. You know, I was the oldest of six. So I, And, you know, Christmas for us would be my father taking us into New York City, which was amazing. New York City in the holiday season is absolutely spectacular. So we'd go into the city. We'd go to the FAO Schwarz toy store. Just hard to explain how incredible that place was. And a couple other stops, Rockefeller Center, see the Christmas tree, and go to a wonderful dinner.
And that was a very, very special part of the holiday season. And just celebrating with the family. And it was always, our Christmas was always, our major Christmas celebration was always Christmas morning. Okay. Okay. And get up and just, you know, six kids, we would just lose our minds. And then I was probably, I was talking about 12, 12, maybe 13 when the transition took place.
And oh yeah and the celebration was changed to the night before okay i had a really hard time with that i was not in everybody i think i'm pretty sure that everybody else was fine with it and for some reason and i can't really give you a lot of specifics it just i guess i'm a hardcore traditionalist and I don't go easy into change. And it just really bothered me. I just was cheating. So when I was a kid, my parents also went bonkers for Christmas.
And that's why I carry on the tradition. There's easily... 80 presents under my tree already. I mean, it's just obnoxious. And I remember our whole entire living room was filled once Santa came, but on the, it was a very Santa focused Christmas season and we'd go see Santa and Santa's still my favorite human on earth. I just freaking love it. Made me so happy.
I was elated to go see him. In fact, our local fire department, I believe on Christmas Eve would bring Santa Claus through our neighborhood and we'd get to go out in front of the house and wave at Santa. And we always had matching pajamas, my sister and I, and I was the youngest of three. My brother was nine years older. My sister was six years older.
So I don't remember my brother having the PJs with us, but I remember these long red and white striped nightgowns with a bonnet, the sleeping bonnet. But yeah, so we would have Christmas Eve, like family over. And My mom always had catered stuff, whatever. There was, what do we call it? Lunch meats? Is that what we call it? And deli platter and all the things and the cookies. And then after Santa came through the neighborhood, they would put me to bed. Of course, because I was the youngest.
And so Santa could come. And eventually, Santa would come and they would wake me up. And so I, I grew up, we would, as soon as Santa arrived, my mother was in my room, you know, rattling me saying, guess what? You know, I heard something and Santa's been here. And I come out all bleary eyed and the room would be just loaded with all the presents.
Now my parents brought up Santa and then we would, we would open them up at night and And then it really worked out for my parents because everybody would go back to bed. I remember watching the midnight mass a lot. The Pope was on at midnight doing his thing. So we'd go to sleep after midnight. But then when I woke up in the morning, I got to go out to the tree and just play with my toys and dig through my stuff. And my parents got to sleep.
They got to sleep in. And yeah, because they woke us up as soon as Santa came, they didn't have to worry about us getting, beating them to the punch and getting to the tree before they did. So, and then I think we would just go to my uncle's and I had a ton of cousins and we would, you know, exchange presents and then play ghost in the graveyard all evening. And it was fun. It was good times. Now, did you get, were you getting a lot of clothing and stuff like that?
I remember I asked because I remember for me, I was just one of those kids, but how nice a shirt. Well, what did you get? What did you get the most of? Toys and stuff, you know, and just kind of various, you know, kind of fun stuff. And I just, you know, up to a point, you know, as I got older, clothing was fine. But I remember deep disappointment with anything that was cloth or Luke's shoes. Oh, that's great. Right, right. Socks and undies. Yeah. I, my mom did a great combination and
Santa always brought great toys. And then as I became a teenager, the clothes thing became more exciting. Now, what was, do you recall your favorite Christmas gift? Like, what is that one gift you are so grateful you received as a kid?
Well i okay so i remember i i don't know what the age was hopefully we're talking about really really young but i remember getting a big yellow dump truck like a tonka if that and maybe that dates me i'm sure it does big yellow yeah i'm sorry they still make them and kids still get Yeah, big, big yellow Tonka dump truck. So the back went up and you put dirt in it and, you know, make a mess everywhere. That was awesome. I love that Tonka truck. Yeah, that was a big deal.
And then, and then one time getting a radio in the, a transistor radio. Oh my. It was long before digital, you know, it was AM, FM and exciting as hell. And you know that was those were some of the early ones that i recall yeah you know lots of stuff.
My the gift i begged for was the barbie dream house and i was a i was obsessed with barbie i had all the barbie things but they the dream house came out i think i might have been about five and i do remember telling my mom and my grandmother they were sitting at the kitchen table my mom and her mom. And I was telling them I really wanted the Barbie dream house. And my mom said, I'm so sorry. We can't afford it. And I remember sobbing, just having this meltdown.
And she would say, I'm so sorry that we're not going to be able to do that this year. And I woke up on Christmas Eve and Santa had left me the Barbie dream house and it was unwrapped next to the tree and I lost my marbles. It was my, I would say that's got to be my favorite childhood gift I received. I got that dream house. Well, yeah, I mean, it's not, you know, it's not your parents' problem, you know, that, you know, they can't afford anything because Santa's the one bringing it. Come on.
Right, right. Sarah, Santa probably never let me down. I was very fortunate. Santa stepped in. Yeah. And I always made my way over to Santa to make sure he knew what I want. I think that's a fail. Sometimes our kids don't visit Santa, then how is he supposed to know unless you tell him or maybe even write it down, right? Right, right. So your parents would take you routinely to go see Santa, and you would let Santa know about your list and all your wants and the whole nine yards.
Yeah, and I was never afraid of Santa or the Easter Bunny or any of those things. What about you? Do you remember if you were afraid of Santa ever? Nah, nah. I knew he was the guy I needed to talk to. I needed to put my order in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'd go year after year and do the obligatory pictures with Santa. That are clearly somewhere. My sister Nancy probably has them. She's kind of the holder and keeper of all the Novotny stuff. The stuff.
So how did Christmas work? I know you celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas, but how did Christmas work as a parent? Well, just, you know, I presented Christmas to my daughter. You know, Jenna would come over, you know, My wife and I were divorced, and Jenna would come over and spend part of Christmas Day with me, and we'd open presents, and she always had something nice for me. Sometimes something, you know, handmade, which is, of course, very, very special.
I know you're a big fan of anything made by your kids, which I think, if I'm not mistaken, you still request. Isn't that right? Request last demand. That's it. What do you want, Mom? I want you to make me something. and they're 21 and 19 and I'm so hopeful. I mean, Christmas is a couple of days from now. I'm desperately hoping that they have come up with something for me or I'll be sad.
You know what? You have two wonderful children. Somehow I am sure that they will come through with something handmade. Yeah. You shan't be disappointed, Kohler. No, I shan't. I shan't. You know, Christmas has been, I think, equally as exciting as a parent for me as it was as a kid because I love that Santa was coming to my house and that magic really was so special here and. Provided the same type of Christmases that my parents gave me, no matter how fiscally hard things have been.
You know, when you're a young person starting out, a new kid, everything's expensive. We made sure that they had the same type of experience walking out Christmas morning. And, you know, of course, Santa brings what he brings, but I've spent many Christmas Eves hiding in my room, wrapping millions of things. I used to barricade my children into their side of the house. Now it sounds like I've, we call it the Kohler mansion. It's, it's less than a mansion, but that's just a name.
Anywho, there's this little, there's, you walk through a hallway and then their rooms are there, but there's a little entryway. And so Ginger, gosh, she would get so excited about Santa that she couldn't go to sleep. And sometimes she would throw up, literally puke with excitement at four and five because she couldn't wait for Santa. So, you know, I didn't want her to bust Santa when he showed up because I don't
know what it is. Does he disappear and not leave the gifts? I just never wanted that to happen. So I have this collapsing wooden thing. I don't know. It's kind of a room separator. And so I would put that over the hallway, barricade my kids into their hall, and then put a comforter over it so they couldn't see through it. So if Santa was in the middle of laying gifts, they couldn't come out and see Santa.
But that was a lot of effort. Parker would go to sleep like an angel, just pass right out, sweet baby, sleep with his poo bear tucked in the arm and just not move all night. Ginger, Ginger needed access. So that made things tricky, but it's been so exciting to be their parent. even now, Before I left for Rocket City Marathon, I wrapped only one present and I put it under the tree. And so Ginger was still at college and Parker was home. So I put one present for him, just left it there.
And so cute because I came home. I said, are you excited for Christmas? He said, yeah, there's that present underneath the tree for me. And he's still the baby, right? So I'm still working my little magic. And we used to have Elfkins or the, you know, the elves that fly around the house. And so now that elf isn't flying around a house anymore. But Parker, when he was younger, he was obsessed with a show called, oh my gosh, Once Upon a Time, I think. It was an ABC show.
And it took fairy tales and brought them into reality. Like there was a Snow White and there was a, oh, I don't even know what all the characters were. But someone might recognize this. But the evil queen, her name, the actress is Lana Perile. And a pretty woman, I don't know, he might have been eight years old and obsessed with her. She was 35, 40, and this was the love of his life. And so we bought him this cardboard cutout of Lana Perile.
And so we still have it. And now all month, we've put this Santa hat on her. And she's been bouncing around the house, surprising us. So you wake up in the morning and you're startled because there's a six or five and a half foot tall Lana Parile standing in the shower. You come out of your bedroom and she's right there staring in your face. So she's kind of our Christmas elf right now, flying around the house, showing up in surprising places. Lana Parile is our Christmas elf.
Well, that sounds like fun. You know, it's it's. It's the traditions and the legacy that we, you know, carry forward in part from our families and from, you know, like we're talking about here, you know, what we did when we were growing up, what our parents brought in from their own personal experiences and, and then what we do with it. You know, some of these things might be changed a little bit.
There may be a lot of things that are the same, but it's part of the really fun celebration of the holidays and the way we personalize it. And again, the aspect of tradition is always very strong on the holidays. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, me too. And I just, I don't have the amount of family around here. There's nobody in Gainesville but us. and there's nobody for hundreds of miles.
So it's just us. And so I think at first I felt a little like, oh my gosh, we used to have these huge Christmases and now it's just us, but we've turned just us into a really good time. I mean, I think Christmas Eve, we go to a restaurant, we eat somewhere on Christmas Eve. And then lately, well, we've always gone from dinner to look at Christmas lights. And for a while we had fun. We would look for deflated inflatables.
Inflatables that had been knocked over. That was kind of the highlight of our lights. And then last year, last year, we got my Wrangler and pulled the roof down and we turned on the worst Christmas music you could imagine. And we blasted it out of my Jeep as we toured some Christmas lights. And it's just fun. You know, like everybody's really sarcastic here. So it's just, it's just us, but it's silly and it's great.
Well, let me ask you a question then. Can you give me an example of a piece of really bad Christmas music? Okay. Yeah. So I'm so glad you asked. So there's a YouTuber lady. She's very famous. Her name is Trisha Paytas. And I'm sure the grownups probably have no idea who she is, but she's a sensation. a YouTube. She has a podcast. I think it's called like Just Trish or something.
She's a wacky girl. I think she used to be a prostitute or a stripper and she used to have drug problems and she's revamped her life and she's really getting her stuff together. But she's wild. She will get on YouTube and just, she will just showcase her whole day. I mean, people will watch her on YouTube for hours. And she thinks she fancies herself a great singer. And so she has sang some very bad songs. And those are the ones that they're just comical.
Now, interestingly enough, she was just on Saturday Night Live a couple of weeks ago, and she went on tour, LA, San Diego, and New York sold out, four sold out Merry Trishmas shows. And she's going to have her own Broadway show in February. So this woman that we die laughing over her terrible singing has become wildly successful for her very funny, unabashed performances. But yeah, those are the kind of songs we cruise around to. It's just really bad Christmas songs and it makes us happy.
So you talked about actually traveling around Gainesville, looking at some of the perhaps exceptional displays. Is there still a lot or are you seeing more or less of that in your area? I would say equal or more. Yeah, I don't see the Christmas spirit fading out around here. I think people are really pumped about it. And yeah, there's one neighborhood called Tauna Tioga that they just do a beautiful job. The houses are higher priced houses and they go all out for Halloween.
They go all out for Christmas. And then there's some real blue collar neighborhoods that also go all out too. So we spend some time in each. And then I would say the decorations on And my house used to be a lot more glamorous when they were kids. And now they're a little more simplified. But we still have lights. And there's a Santa out in front. And then a little dog that looks just like Joey. So, I don't know. Joey! Joey! That's right. That's right. Well, so let me guess.
The dogs get gifts for Christmas, too, of course, in the Kohler household. Of course. Of course. Much like Riley's always had gifts. In fact, I like shipping gifts to you for Riley. That has been very fun over the years. I'm so sorry, Riley's not going to be with you this year. Yeah, that's really sad. I miss him so much. And this will be the first Christmas in 12 years without him. So, oh, yeah, there's that. So, but you know what? Guess what? I will have two four-footed guests here for
Christmas. little Bentley, little scruff named Bentley and a cute little corgi named Pandy. I'll be doing a little dog sitting. So I'll have some warm-blooded barking friends celebrating with me for Christmas. So I got that going on. Yeah. And I'm so happy they're going to be with you. And chomping at the bit, super excited over here for when you decide to get up and go rescue yourself.
A new best friend. I know that's coming soon. Well, I don't know about how soon, you know, I, in my head, I do have plans to do that at some point in time. It's, it's something that you just need to be ready to do. And perhaps I'm getting more ready as time goes by, but we'll, we'll, we'll see how that develops. But yeah, yeah. And I, I watched TikToks of rescues And it just, just reduces me to, to a sobbing mess if I don't mind admitting it. So anyway, I think, I think you're almost ready.
Okay. Well, we'll see. Merry Christmas and happy new year to all the kitty cats and all the doggies and all the bunnies and the horses and all the animals that we have and have become part of our family. And we love so much. So much, so much. Yeah, Joey is dressed in his Santa outfit today, and he looks particularly adorable. All right, moving on. What is, who is your favorite Christmas character? I'm talking icon, like Frosty or Santa or anyone in the Christmas or holiday
arena. Who's your favorite? And you can pick a couple if you like. You have a couple of special. I'm trying to come up with one and you give me, you make it okay for me to have several. You know, I'm just going with, I'm going untraditional. I just love the Charlie Brown Christmas and watching them, you know, that type of thing. You know, and of course my birth name is Rudolph.
So, so I grew up with my favorite character and I guess, you know, the truth is my favorite character is the one and only rudolph the red-nosed reindeer that's the fact jack that is a fine choice and only a psychopath wouldn't love rudolph i have to say santa i do love the grinch and we have some special ties to the grinch it's my favorite cartoon so you i was going to ask you what your favorite cartoon but you like the charlie brown christmas i love the how
the grinch stole christmas and then And I also love on the Rudolph cartoon, the abominable snowman, that guy just kills me. He's dizzy. Yeah. He's got a toothache. I think he's very, very funny. Yeah, that is a good one. You know, and of course there's all the movies and the TV shows and everything. For me, I personally would not admit how many times I've seen it, but the Home Alone series, particularly the first one, that's so much fun to watch. I love that.
So that's your favorite Christmas movie. It's probably up there in my favorites. Yeah. Yeah. And it's fresh on the mind because I just saw it again. Yeah. Those are great movies and such great acting on behalf of Kevin. My favorite Christmas movie is Elf. Yeah. It used to be Die Hard, but it's Elf with Will Ferrell. Buddy the Elf. I think he's so funny. That's a movie that I could watch most days of the year and giggle every single time. It's just so silly. Just absolutely so silly.
And the movie, as you mentioned, that is always a part of the big controversy of, is it really a Christmas movie or not? Dying hard. Exactly. Totally is. Definitely is a Christmas movie. I got it. I got it. I think it plays every day from like Thanksgiving until New Year's. Right, right. Yeah, no. Great, great movie. Oh, the other movie I love so much is the How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Jim Carrey. Wow, did he do a wonderful job. That's another total giggler.
And then my other obsession with that is the fact that Ginger played the Grinch in her fifth grade play. and she almost outgrinched Jim Carrey. She was wild and so bold. And when I was watching her in that elementary school cafeteria, when I was watching her grinching it up, because we had rehearsed her lines, but she didn't perform at all at home. So I had no idea what to expect. When she got on that stage and she started grinching, I just, I've never been so exhausted in my life.
It was so emotionally taxing watching her do this incredible thing and she had the whole cafeteria in stitches and now it's on my youtube page it has been since then it's got almost 50 000 views my kid as the grinch so we love the grinch around here okay well now i'm admittedly biased because i am a a huge fan of the entire Kohler tribe. But having said that, I'm glad you framed that whole piece about the Grinch because the truth is that Ginger is.
Was a better Grinch than Jim Carrey. And Jim Carrey was phenomenal. But I'll never forget the first time you showed me that clip that I think is about, I don't know, I think it's about 10 minutes long or longer. It's like 40 minutes, the whole play. She was unbelievable. I mean, thinking about that right now, I am shocked that she's not solidly found her spot in Hollywood. And I know she's happy doing what she's doing then. And that's all wonderful, but that was an epic performance.
She grinched out anybody else that's ever been the Grinch. Well, thank you. I agree. And I actually encouraged her to act. And she just said, mom, it's not very practical. It's not a practical career. And I thought, okay, so maybe, maybe one day she'll give it a try. Okay. What is your favorite Christmas song or favorite couple of Christmas songs? Well, okay. So it might tend to be more in a religious event, but Silent Night is beautiful. I mean, that's just a really, really beautiful song.
And, and what else? That's among my favorites. And, you know, Holly Jolly Christmas. I could actually just put on a Christmas station and just listen to it all. But those are probably among my favorites. How about you? I love Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You. And I really like, I mean, I like them all. But Justin Bieber's Drummer Boy. I love Melly Kalikimaka.
And then Sleigh Ride. sleigh ride is a really fun song i performed that in the chorus in elementary school and i just thought it's you know it's a nice upbeat fun song so yeah those are all good i don't think i've heard, anything but all i want for christmas is you so far so i'm probably gonna have to turn on some christmas music when we're done recording as i wrap presents and listen to that okay what's your favorite what's your favorite christmas cookie.
Um well okay so my favorite christmas cookie is gingerbread cookies or gingerbread anything i it's not something that i would eat typically during the year so boy when those come up and gingerbread cookies yeah nom nom nom give me a glass of milk and a whole bunch of gingerbread cookies i said milk and yeah gingerbread cookies love it love it little little uh little icing little icing trim on those and i'm good to go nice nice i'm gonna let everybody in
on the scoop that when i met rudy novotny he said milk as if m-e-l-k and i was like milk it's not milk it's milk there's an i there and so he has worked so hard and that was perfect pronunciation Well done. I'm glad you like it. I'm glad you like it. You set me up. And my favorite Christmas cookies, I think a good old fashioned sugar cookie with frosting is a real winner.
But the other day I was at, I don't know, I went to get a spray tan or something and they had a box of cookies up front and they were chocolate wafers covered with white chocolate frosting with peppermint candy canes blended in. Oh my gosh, they were really good. So I think that peppermint chocolate cookie could vie for my top spot right now. Nice. I'll try a couple of those. Send them over. Yeah, I know you.
Rejects a cookie. So if you were going to do, if you were going to perform a Christmas song karaoke style, that's right. You're out in front of the crowds, all the runners. It's a running party and it's karaoke. and we have all bullied you into getting on the stage, what song are you going to rock out karaoke for the runners? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the very shiny nose. And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows.
Come on. My name is Rudolph. That's got to be my song. You got to go for it like that. That was really good. Not too bad. All right. Unsurprising. I think I would sing You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. Because you can talk through it as opposed to the thing. And as you know, my singing voice is not so hot. It's nowhere near yours. So I could be, you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. And nobody's ears would bleed. Well, it seems that you guys are totally set with the Grinch.
The Grinch is a big Kohler fave. Yeah, it is. Who could go wrong with the Grinch? even though we're pretty positive people. And we will be right back. Are you looking for the perfect gift for a loved one battling cancer? The Cancer Comeback Series by Fitz Kohler offers hope, inspiration, and practical guidance. With your healthy cancer comeback, my noisy cancer comeback, and the Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal. These books are a lifeline for all patients and survivors.
Right now, you can order autographed copies at a special discount. Show your support and help a loved one go from sick to strong. Visit Fitzness.com today. That's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S.com. Fitzness.com. We're back. What's the favorite gift you've ever given somebody for Christmas? Oh, man. These are really tough questions. All right. I'm going to tell you mine while you think.
Yeah, go ahead. Please. Please. Best gift I ever gave was my best friend, my dog, Piper. I adopted her and presented her to the kids on Christmas, I think, 2007. Oh, no, 2009. So, yeah, Christmas. Piper is the best Christmas gift I've ever given. Okay. Oh, well, that's, that's huge. Okay. You know, I, as I'm thinking through one year, you know, I've been in California now, 50 years, a long time, by far and away, most of my life.
And I didn't get back to the East coast to see my family and friends very often. And my sister, Nancy plotted with me to surprise my mom and dad one year and we set it all up and, and that, that was it.
It was, it was literally like, it was, we, we pulled off this whole thing with my calling and talking to my dad and my dad saying to me, you know, how, you know, how wonderful it is to have all the kids over, but it would sure make it all come together if there was any way I could ever be part of it. But since it is the night before and everything, it's just wonderful to be talking. And then I knocked on the door of my sister's house that my dad was in.
And my sister was, my sister was, dad, would you go answer the door? Dad, go answer the door. No, no i'm talking to your brother and all this this little fight broke out with my dad and finally he goes to the door and i was there so that's one of my favorite gifts if i if i'm allowed to call it that that i remember and and my dad just you know my dad just melted into my arms and it was very special it was sweet it was good times.
I love that. I love that. That's really sweet. Yeah, that's what our parents want. They just want us, right? Right. Yeah. That's, you know, and to know that we're happy. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very fortunate. My mom's still around and she's going to come visit me in January. And I'm really excited. Okay. Regifting. Okay. Or no-kay? I'd say totally okay. I give a lot of stuff. I just, I just get a lot of stuff. So yeah. So my, that's my personal angle on that. And it's because I have re-gifted.
I don't, I don't do it routinely, but I just get a lot of stuff and it's with all the vestive intentions and I never return it. So it's like, there it is. Why not re-gift? I don't think there's anything wrong with re-gifting. I'm with you. I'm with you on that. Yeah. Given with love, received with love and, and passed on with love. That's, you know, Yeah. Thank you. Regifting. Yes. Okay. If you were going to buy all of our running friends, a gift, what would you buy for them?
What would you gift them? I should say. Yeah. What would I gift them? Well, okay. Well, it, it isn't a thing, but I would start with gifting them just a healthy year of running. And, and, and just being active and getting out there and enjoy and enjoying, enjoying their running, whether it's just running or racing or whatever, uh, an actual gift item. I mean, I'm really a big fan of the stick or anything else like that. It's a massage tool. If you don't know, he's not talking about a stick off a
tree. It's a massage. Thank you. That's a good point. Wow. Rudy's a cheap bastard. Yeah. Yeah. The massage tool known as the stick and there's a number of other iterations out there.
It's just really an outstanding tool as long as you use it you know and and i i've been using mine plenty lately i think i got about three or four of them and yeah something like that either that or maybe for lack of better term a thumper what i don't even know what the like a theragun yeah theragun thank you theragun or that type of item yeah boy my bank account's going to be really low. And I'm going to get these for all our, all our running friends. Now, now they're going to contact me.
Hey, I heard what you got me. Here's my address. Thanks. So I'm going to look like a cheap SOB because in my mind, I was thinking I would gift everybody an audio clip with their own private go, a big Susie set go or Barbara set go. I would, I would want to gift that to everybody.
Great idea. I love that. I absolutely love that. You know, we, that's been requested of us, you know, many, many times ago, or maybe, you know, some, some kind of private motivation, you know, we've both gotten those calls. So no, I like that. Very nice. Very nice. That's not cheap at all. You know what? You should make one for me because you are my favorite race announcer. And that would be really fun to have your voice help me start off all of my workouts.
There you go. Well, you know what? You give me one, I'll give you yours. I'll give you mine. Okay. Okay. Okay. What a deal. Well, listen, thank you for giving me the gift of your time and your energy today. Thanks, Fitz. I honestly didn't feel like doing this.
And I honestly am very, very glad we got together and spent the time i i love chatting with you you are not only my favorite race announcer you're also my favorite podcaster and interviewer you are so gifted you make it so easy and fun thank you very very much i i appreciate you uh you're not letting me grinch out. Yes i had to arm twist everybody let me remind you there was arm twisting twisting and rudy had is on switch set. So thank you for turning on. Okay.
Communication tip. What is your pointer for our listeners on communicating? Okay. My communication tip is really kind of basic, but I believe very, very important. And that is, you know, we're also tied to our phones. It's just a way of life. It's just the way it is. And the truth is that just because your phone rings doesn't mean you have to answer it. Don't let your phone run your life or make some effort to make it run your life less.
Just because it rings doesn't mean you have to go answer it. Just because you hear that text tone doesn't mean you need to dash upstairs, dash downstairs, whatever it is, and change whatever you're doing or the focus of your current moment to go be a slave to your phone. And to be fair to everybody, I'm not lecturing anybody, I'm offering this up so I can hear myself say it. And so I can be the first to modify my behavior and be... Subject to my phone less. That's my communication tip for you.
Absolutely brilliant. I love it. Thank you. And I went a little step further. I've turned off all of my notifications. So on occasion, someone can call and I'll hear it ring. But if you text me, I do not get an alert. And I get texted by all sorts. I'll meet someone at a race and they'll text me 500 times over the next course of the next year. I can not allow that to interrupt my quality time with my children or anyone else or my dogs or myself.
So all notifications are off. I've got Ginger and Parker can break through in a crisis. And yeah, that phone is not my boss. So brilliant. Okay, Rudy, it's on the, at the risk of being redundant song of the week, what song do you want people to add to their playlist for the holidays while they're working out? This is a song that they can listen to while they're on their Peloton like you, or they're lifting weight or they're smashing the pickleball or dancing the polka.
Okay. And okay. But you want a holiday twist to it. Okay. All right. Well, I'm a Jersey guy. I grew up with him. Bruce Frankstein, Bruce Frankstein doing Santa Claus is coming to town. I thought you were going to go with run, run Rudolph, but Santa Claus is coming to town is another great choice. Excellent.
Of course. there you go well hey as we close up again i want to wish anybody listening and i hope it's a bunch of people the happiest of the holidays any holidays that you celebrate with your family and friends and a absolutely spectacular new year of course that goes out to you fits and the hotties and i know you've got a lot of listeners so to each and every one of you all the best ho ho ho. Thank you, Rudy. Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy everything, everybody.
Thank you for listening to our holiday show. This has been a lot of fun, and I hope all the things you want or need are under your tree or your menorah. And yeah, watch what you put in your mouth. Have a great time. I hope Santa's good to everybody. Get to work. I love you. Bye, team. Hi, this is Rudy Novotny, the voice of America's Marathons. We all love how much running has benefited every aspect of our lives, so much so that most of us only wish we'd started sooner.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to gift the opportunity to children of today? Well, you can. The Morning Mile is a before-school walking and running program that gives children the chance to start each day in an active way while enjoying fun, music, and friends. That's every child, every day. It's also supported by a wonderful system of rewards which keeps students highly motivated and frequently congratulated.
Created by our favorite fitness expert, Fitz Kohler, Morning Milers across the country have run over 2 million miles and are having greater success with academics, behavior, and sports because of it. The Morning Mile is free to the child, free to the school, and is inexpensively funded by businesses or generous individuals. Help more kids get moving in the morning by visiting MorningMile.com. Champion the program at your favorite school or find out more about sponsorship
opportunities. That's MorningMile.com. Long may you run.