Live better and longer with The Fitzeness Show, hosted by fitness expert, author, and TV personality, Fitz Kohler. She'll tell you why diets are dumb, supplements are snake oil, and the truth about how you can earn a lean, hard, pain-free, and athletic body. Now for our favorite bossy blonde, Fitz Kohler. Music. Well, hi, team. I'm Fitz Kohler. your very noisy race announcer from Fitsness.com and welcome to The Fitsness Show. Please excuse my much lower, raspier voice today.
I just yesterday finished the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic and that worked my vocal cords quite a bit, as you can imagine. So I sound a little huskier, but still me, still me. Maybe with my husky voice, I sound a little more intimidating. Right? Maybe you guys are afraid of me now. That would be kind of fun. There's a weird one out there who thinks it's sexy. I know some people like that, but then there's probably a bunch of you who find it annoying.
So I apologize, but I wanted to get the podcast done because apparently that's one of the things I do is I record podcasts and I publish them. And if I don't, it makes somebody sad. And I certainly don't want to do that. So listen, we're going to cover a lot of basics here or basis here. This is kind of like a fitzy gossip show. I'm going to tell you lots of things and then also answer a few questions.
But yeah, we're going gossip. So first of all, I want to tell you that last week was a funny week, but I took my dogs to the dog park in the morning, which is what I do. I wake up if I'm at home in Gainesville and I don't have a speaking engagement or something. I reserve the first few hours of the morning for Piper and Joey and we go out, we go exercise, we go to the park, the dog park, or we go to a place where there's a trail.
And one of the things I love about both of these parks is the variety of activity and the variety of people pursuing physical activity, right? So I'm not there just with blinders on. I'm always giddy fitness expert thinking, hooray, people are exercising. People are outdoors. People are being active. So the place where I go walk trails and normally we walk through the woods. It's so wonderful. But there's massive soccer fields that are sometimes football fields that are
sometimes, God, what do they have? I think they had those. What's the Harry Potter sport where you Quidditch? I've seen Quidditch out there. There are tennis courts. There's. The type of tennis you play where you whack the little, what do they call it? A birdie or something, a little mish situation. They've got that. There's a cricket field. And every weekend, there's this huge group that goes out and plays cricket. There's baseball. There's softball.
There's a basketball court that is often occupied by pickleball players. It's just all this stuff. Oh, and disc golf. There's a lot of disc golf. So I love being out there. And I just, I really revel in all the different types of activities people are pursuing. And then there's another place I go where for right now, my main focus is the dog park. When I, my kids were little, we used to do the playground at this park.
There's also a skate park there where there's people on roller skates and skateboards and scooters. And then there's a big field where we see football. We even see jousting and what are we calling it? I don't know.
It's a group of people that dress up like they're from medieval times and they practice to perform at a medieval fair so they do a lot of fake fighting swords and whatnot one day actually walking from my car to the dog park walked along with a wicked witch that sure was a woman in a witch outfit but you know it's fun and they're active and outside and i think cool so the other day, I pull up to the dog park and park the car. And before I get the dogs out, I look over and I see.
A big bat on the ground, kind of near the playground. And it looks like two people are doing it and somebody's watching. And I was like, this cannot be going on. It was 9 a.m. I'm looking, thinking, is she naked? And then in my mind, I was convinced this young woman was naked and she was getting really freaky with some guy. So I had considered maybe not doing the dog park, but I thought, well, the dogs aren't going to be scarred by it. And I really want them to play.
So I get the dogs out of the car and we start walking forward. And what I realized is they're not at all having sex out in public at the dog park or the park. They are wrestling and the young woman's not naked. She's wearing a flesh colored body suit and tights, which I think is a questionable choice. Pretty much anybody. Yeah, I don't know what the value of a flesh colored outfit is, but it was a father and his kids. There was a daughter and a son.
And I guess the father and daughter were just wrestling when I was looking over it. It did look like they were having some pretty wild sex. And I was confused. I was intrigued. And I just thought, oh, I'll get on with it. But then I was really excited because, again, that fitness expert thing kicks in, and I just thought, wow, well, that's something I haven't seen here before. I've seen a wicked witch jousting with a medieval king, but I've never seen a.
Wrestling. So it was cool. It was cool and kudos to that dad for having the mat and teaching both his son and his daughter the art of wrestling. It's a really vigorous sport, very demanding. You've got to be very strong, very flexible, very agile. It's a very athletic sport indeed. So yeah, they weren't, they weren't having sex and I would thank God and thank God it wasn't an older guy and a younger gal. I would have, and then I would have really had to intervene.
I would have made my little dog, Joey, start biting him. But so there, that you have to know. And then the next day I took off, I had to go to New Jersey for a day for some meetings. I was in and out in 20 hours, but a couple of things. When I got there, it was covered with snow. And it's actually the second time I've seen snow this month, which some of you may not get it, but to a Floridian, it's very exciting. You actually count the amount of times you've ever seen snow.
So I got to see it twice this month. But when I got to New Jersey, the snow was everywhere. It was all over the place, very winter wonderland. And I checked into my hotel and I had a little bit of time before my meeting. So I went out and beyond the parking lot, it wasn't a field, but it was just a lot of green space. It looked like a big place where there's normally grass and trees and so forth. So I thought, okay, I'm going to go over there and I'm going to make a snowman.
Because who doesn't want to make a snowman, right? It's so fun. I was very excited. I get over there and start digging into the snow. And the snow was so freaking weird. It was so disappointing. I pick up some snow and it looks like a sidewalk. Like if I had broken off a piece of sidewalk, it was just hard and flat. And I tried so hard. I tried stomping on it. I tried punching it with the base of my hand, which hurt. And I just really wanted to make even a tiny little snowman and it didn't work.
It was, it was, it was tragic. It was very tragic. And then I thought, well, I'm not getting something right. So I actually posted a little video on Instagram. If you haven't seen it, go to Fitzness on the gram and you could see my Floridian snow fail. But people did explain that there's different types of snow, which again is something most Most Floridians don't know that there's a variety because you know what, when the rain comes down, it's just wet, right? It's just water.
Some of it's heavier, like heavier rain, lots of water, but the water itself isn't varied. So good for you for having all this snow knowledge and all these types of snow. So I hope somebody enjoyed the type that I was trying to play with because I didn't think it was very fun. But it was absolutely beautiful. The snow I had seen the week prior was in Kentucky, and it was just kind of smooshed up on the side of the road.
And I understand that's probably the snow that people complain about, but I was still very excited to see it. I couldn't play with that snow either because it was in a blob next to the road. But anyhow, snow, snow, snow. We don't have any here. We have rain today, but it's, it's been beautiful. Yay, Florida. Okay, so. New Jersey. I finished my meeting very early the next day. And instead of flying out at 1 p.m., now the times matter. The whole flight situation matters.
I'm supposed to fly out at 1 p.m. from Newark. And I'm done early. So I say, I'm just going to the airport. I just go straight there because I don't want to be away from my dogs anymore than I have to. So I go to Newark and I go to the gate agent. I say, hey, listen, can I get on this plane? And they're like hemming and hawing. I said, listen, I'm a Diamond Medallion member. Does that help at all? So yeah, I have flight.
I have surprise, surprise. I have status within an airline because I fly so much. So I'm not really that girl. I'm certainly not a Karen. And I was very nice about it, but I just kind of, Hey, I'm also Diamond. Can you get me on this plane? So the gate guy said, yeah, we'll get you on the plane. So I was happy to be on the plane. However, it was, the turbulence was so bad that this flight attendants were not allowed to serve us. They were not allowed to give us water or snacks or anything.
I was also fairly starving. I'd run to the airport and I was like, I'll just eat on the plane, have a snack. And I did not. So hungry, hungry for two and a half hours on the flight to Atlanta. And then I get off and I see that there's a earlier flight that would get me home to Gainesville earlier. So the flight I was booked on was 4.30 and there was a 1.30 something flight available. So I went straight from my gate and I had my luggage in hand. I just, no, that's a lie.
It doesn't matter. Who cares about the luggage? Anyways, I go to the next gate and they're boarding and I say, hey, I am here early. I want to see if you have any seats on your plane. And Oh, by the way, I'm a diamond medallion. Cousin, why not work it, right? And so they say, well, we have a waiting list for standby. And I just kind of made a sad face. I said, well, that's a bummer. If you can squeeze me on, please do. And the guy gave me a look and he said, okay, we got a seat for you.
So he gives me a seat and I get on the plane. Again, I'm so grateful. I'm so excited. I'm getting home, I don't know, five, six hours earlier than I had previously done. Been scheduled to. So I'm winning, right? I'm having a winning day. Everything's going right for Fitz Kohler. Thrilled to be on this plane. So once again, so much turbulence. They won't give us snacks. They won't give us drinks. The pilot comes on and says, okay, flight attendants must stay seated.
Sorry, folks, you got to be thirsty, which is fine. And so we're getting close to Gainesville. It's only about a 50, 50-minute flight from Atlanta to Gainesville. and we're getting close to landing. The landing gear comes down and you know, you just kind of relax into it. Yay, we're landing, I'm home, hooray. And then as soon as we're supposed to touch the ground, we take off instead. All of a sudden I feel, vroom!
And the plane just launches straight up into the sky and it sounds like it's taking off again. And we are just, we are getting steeper and steeper. That was kind of the unnerving thing. It wasn't just a 30 degree angle. When he pulled up, we went up at a 45 and then it was 50. And I swear to God, it felt like we were going straight to the moon. And in my mind, I was thinking, did we, were we going to hit another plane?
We've seen quite a few aviation nightmares happen across this country recently. And I thought maybe we were going to crash to another plane or maybe the pilot was a lunatic and he just decided he was going to smash us into a wall somewhere. So, you know, you have a few minutes thinking, damn it, this is scary stuff. So eventually, and apparently, so my brother-in-law is a pilot. And he told me, in that situation, it's a very busy time for a pilot.
So he didn't really have time to get on the intercom and start explaining himself, which totally makes sense. Dude, I just want this person to do their job. It doesn't matter. I'll wait. I'll wait patiently and wonder. But I'm happy the pilots were doing whatever it took to keep us safe. But eventually he came on the intercom and said, hey, sorry, we aborted the landed. or what does he say, rejected the landing.
It's a very windy situation. There's heavy winds. So we're going to loop around and try again. And so now you're thinking, okay, the wind's still there, but now we're going to go try again. So everyone's kind of a little uneasy. We're all looking at each other. Nobody's really saying anything to each other, but it was interesting as we looped around. It took about five minutes to do this big circle and we started making the approach
again. And the plane started just kind of wobbling from side to side, up and down. It got real bouncy. And I just thought, okay, this is it. We're going to crash. And I'm going to die. And I didn't like that. Right. I didn't like that. But I also didn't freak out. I just was resolved. I thought that was a very interesting response to a very scary situation. I just thought, OK, well, I can't control anything anymore.
So, you know, if this is it, so be it. which I'm grateful I had that kind of peace. Instead of just being freaked out, I just, yeah, I had made my choices. And how ironic would it have been for me to go down in a plane that I had fought so hard to get on? I had to convince two different gate agents in two different states to let me on these bouncy, bouncy planes that would eventually perhaps lead to what I thought was going to be a crash.
So it was just one of those moments of like, well, here you go, sister. You made this bed. How weird. It's Alana Morris' old song, Ironic, right? So we're about to land. And then I thought, should I text the kids, right? Should I tell them I love them? I wanted to give them one last message from mom, right? It was pretty intense. And then thankfully, I didn't do that. And we landed safely. And then we hit the ground and then it was like he slammed on the brakes.
I really don't know what the hell was going on, but all of a sudden everyone on the plane and kind of lean forward and took a deep breath. So I made it. That's, that's the boiler alert.
I survived. We all survived and we weren't one of those tragic tales we've been hearing about on the news, but yeah it was it was interesting irony and then also I just thought I'm really grateful for the response I have you know it's really important for me to control the things I can and that's one of those things I try to embed in your beautiful little brains right is control what you can and then the things you can't control let
go if you have an a-hole relative you can't change them. Let it go. Your boss is being mean, you can't change that. Let it go. Find another boss. Do the things that you can, right? If you've got cancer, keep exercising. Eat nutritiously. Control all the factors that you can to improve your outcomes. But yeah, so I let it go and it felt good. And I got off the plane. I really was grateful, grateful to be on the ground in Gainesville. And I did go from snow to tank tops and flip-flops.
It was 80 degrees and humid and spectacular. So welcome home indeed. Now, the times I did get bonked around for real were this month. I just think it's kind of interesting. Something I haven't told you is I normally smash myself in some regard when I'm working. I run around a lot as a race announcer. As many of you know, I don't sit down. Most race announcers do. They sit under a tent in a chair and they read a computer.
And I'm a little bit more aggressive than that. I'm constantly this way and that way and trying so hard to engage with our athletes to celebrate them in special ways. And so a few weeks ago at the Donna, the Donna National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer, I left there. And gosh, that was a wonderful weekend. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But I left with this massive bruise on my arm.
I had no idea it was there. I came home, I took off maybe a hoodie and I looked in the mirror and I see this giant bruise on my bicep. And I thought, well, how did that get there? And sometimes you get a mystery bruise. Maybe you walk into a counter and you hit your hip and you're never going to remember that situation. But this bruise on the inside of my bicep, I mean, it looked like someone grabbed me, right? Like a bad guy grabbed me and we were.
Fighting or something. I just thought, what in the world? And so for about 24 hours, it just really, it just boggled my mind. I was confused, and I was curious, and I kept trying to relive it. What did I do? What did I do? And then thankfully, I finally had the revelation. I was on a lift, a scissor lift. I'm sure all the boy listeners know what that is, and maybe some of the savvy. Women lift centers may know too.
I did not know what a scissor lift was until I was invited to get into one, but we use it at the Donna next to my start line. So it can elevate me and I can connect with everybody. I can see them. They can see me. It's much better that way. So on marathon morning, I'm in the scissor lift. I had Amanda Napolitano, our race director. We have Joan Benoit Samuelson, who's a women's running legend. She's the first female ever to win gold in the marathon in the Olympic Games,
1984, Los Angeles. She's a queen. She's a race director. She's wonderful. But anyway, she's a big part of the Donna Marathon. So we're up in the scissor lift. All the runners leave. And now the guy brings us down. The guy. You know what I'm talking about. The guy in charge of the scissor lift, whoever that is. But he brings it down and then he starts helping people out of the scissor lift because it's still the platform that we're standing on is pretty high off the ground.
So he helps them. And then he reaches out gentlemanly as a hand to me. And I said, oh, sorry, I can't yet. I have to get my stuff. So I turn around and I have a little table up there with my notebook and my cowbell and my backpack and my microphone. There's a variety of things. So I opened the little scissor lift door and I try to get down. Now I'm facing forward and there's stairs, but the stairs go straight down. It's a 90 degree angle. They're not.
They're not at a 45-degree angle like most ladders would be. It's just steps that go straight down. So I go down facing forward, and I'm going to reverse descend with my heels on the set. This is my big game plan. And so I'm doing that, but it's wet. And what happened was I ended up grabbing, as I started sliding, I grabbed my right arm around this pole, this metal bar part of the scissor lift, to hold myself up. And then I start coming down. I'm dangling.
And thankfully, Joan, our icon, she was there and she turned around. She grabbed me and she gently lowered me to the ground. So that's apparently where I smashed up my bicep on that scissor lift, which isn't it funny? Sometimes you have these mystery bruises. You think, where in the world did that thing come from? But this was so significant. I started to question my sanity for how could I not remember where that came from?
And I've had so many times. I remember it was about two years ago at the Buffalo Marathon. I'm going between the stage, usually between, this is where the problems happen. It's a finish line. I have a stage or a tent. So often there's stairs up and down the stages. Sometimes there's security I have to get through. They're there to protect me, which is nice sometimes, but I got to get past them. And then there's kind of a smallish area between my stage and then there's fencing.
And so I got to run between the two. And there's all sorts of chords from the timing and the sound system and all the things. So I remember a couple of years ago running, trying to get past all that nightmare. I think I had a good friend. It was probably Beth Kent or Babs running up and I wanted to get to them. and I just, man, ate it. Face down, knees and hands and everything. Fortunately, I was behind the mesh banner on the fencing, but people across the way still saw it.
They pointed it out later. They're like, we saw you go down. But anyways, I popped back up, kept going, had some good bruises on my hands and knees. But in Gasparilla this weekend, I'm not sure what the heck happened. But now on the back side of my tricep, on the other arm, I have another big bruise. And all I can imagine is I smashed it into one of those big beams between the finish line and my stage. There's a lot of danger that goes into race announcing.
I don't know if you guys realize this, but it is a very hazardous job. That's right. So at least the way I do it. And some of you may be just saying your stupid bits, just sit down in the chair and read from the computer. And if I did that, I probably would not have any bruises at all, but I just can't. I can't bring myself to do it. So anyways, if you see me all bruised up anywhere, I want to assure you I am not beaten. I am not abused by anyone other than myself and my quick actions.
And I did not crash in a plane. So hooray. It's great. I'll take all the little bruises I can get in exchange for that. And we will be right back. Do your hips, glutes, quads, and hamstrings need extra support while running? Of course they do. Both soothing and comfortable, compression tights by Leo Reve boosts blood and lymphatic circulation while increasing muscle pliability, which helps prevent fatigue and injury.
Made for men and women of all speeds, check out the superior balanced compression tights made right here in America. Visit leoreve.com. That's L-E-O-R-E-V-E-R.com. We're back. Okay. The other thing I want to talk to you about is sleep. So we're pretty serious about exercise, very serious about watching what you put in your mouth. But sleep also is really, really important. With our February Love Your Body Challenge, I built in several naps. I hope you've been taking them.
I have. And some of you put me on a little pedestal. Like, I'm so great. I'm just a regular girl exercising. like you all are. One of the things that really helps me go, keep going is napping. I'm a big napper. I just find sleep to be so vital because if I'm not sleeping, if I don't have rest, then I can't be intelligent and I can't perform the way I want to. So sleep really matters. So I mentioned I was at the Donna. That was Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
I announced three days worth of races, a VIP shindig one night, and I went straight from the Donna to the airport and flew to Louisville, Kentucky for a big old running conference where I was also announcing races and speaking and so forth. So I get into Louisville at midnight on Sunday after the Donna. So Donna, when I'm up at 4 a.m. and then at midnight I get into my hotel.
Mind you, as I was walking into this hotel, which is also a combo conference center, I just thought I will creep in and I will go straight to bed and nobody will see me and I won't have to be social. But when you check in, you have to walk. It's almost like Vegas. You have to walk through this big kind of casual dining place with your luggage to get to your room. It was kind of weird. But I didn't want to talk to any of my friends. Mind you, they're my friends and I love them.
But at midnight, I had my hoodie and I put it on and I pulled it down and I tied the string so maybe people could only see my little nose. And I looked down and I was Looking at my phone, I was trying desperately for nobody to see me. And thankfully, I was not interrupted on my way to my bedroom. But isn't it interesting how you can hide from the most wonderful people when you're desperate for sleep? I just thought, oh, my God, I got to get to my room.
I think I didn't go to sleep. So I did. Next morning, I announced a race. It was my, I think it was my first time ever announcing five races, five days in a row. Or it was more than five races, but five days in a row is a record for me, which hooray, because I love race announcing and I would do it every day if I could. So never have, I don't think I've ever been to Louisville, Kentucky. It's probably great. I can't really speak to it. But I announced a race that morning again.
So I'm in at midnight. I'm up at 5 a.m. to announce this 5k for the running industry. And then I spoke a couple of times during the conference, and then they have parties at night. This is one of the great parts about going to the conferences. There's big companies that are trying to woo business from many of the race professionals. So they have cool parties at cool places. Now, mind you, I usually get an invite, but the reality is none of them are specifically targeting me for invitations.
It's think of the companies that do race registrations, right? So they want, let's say, Boston Marathon to hire them because then they make all the money from Boston for helping athletes sign up and managing all of that. So it's big business. And I don't hire those people. I don't hire vendors within the running industry. So I don't think I'm their target market. I'm definitely not. Usually I get an invite. But we're sitting around. They had an event at Churchill Downs, which is super cool.
Never been there. And then they had another one at the Louisville Slugger headquarters. And so I ended up getting invitations to both. And I was hoping for an invitation. But by the time it came, I was so tired that I said, no, thank you. And then I went to bed. I think it was by 530 that night. That's right. Instead of going out to Churchill Downs or the Louisville Slugger HQ for parties, I went straight to bed.
And I got a dress. Ladies know that the second you take off your bra, you're like, I'm done. That's it. The bra is off. I'm not putting one on again. And a big stupid t-shirt I had. And I have never been so happy not to be at a wonderful party. It's just so important. So I hope that sometimes you say, no, thank you. I hope that you are willing to sit things out sometimes when you need it. I don't know how I would have functioned the next day if I had not gone to sleep.
I just don't. I don't know how I would have done it. And I've had this longstanding regret when I was in my, when I was 20, I worked on a cruise ship, which sailed around the world and they had the Northern Lights. I think I was in Russia that day or Russia or Sweden. Anyhow, the thing to do was to get up and go to the top deck of the ship at one o'clock in the morning to see the Northern Lights. And boy, did I really consider it. But then I just decided, no,
I'm too tired. I'm not waking up for it. And I didn't. And so I have spent a long time, regretting not waking up to see the freaking Northern Lights. What was I thinking? But now I know I'd removed that regret from my very short list of regrets because when I said no thank you to Churchill Downs, I decided, okay. Sleep. That's the priority here. Maybe I'll get back to Louisville. I bet I probably will. And I bet I'll probably go to Churchill Downs.
If anyone is going and needs a date or a friend or whatever, invite me. I would like to go do that thing. But now I've removed that Northern Lights regret from my list because sleep is just really a high priority for feeling great and functioning at a high level and for your immune system and your mind and your body. You know, you're so much less likely to exercise if you're tired. So I said, no, thank you. I feel very, very proud of that.
Again, I told you this show is just going to be like Fitz gossip, right? I have to tell you things, but I have to tell you these things. So thank you for listening. Very, very important. Okay. We did do a full Donna Marathon recap. Me and the race director, Amanda. However, there are some things I just want to tell you. This is one of the events I most look forward to every year. When I'm hosting their show, I feel like I'm hosting their show.
So I don't always say everything that's on my mind, but I very much look forward to this event, it is so expertly produced. And it really is one of the finest events in the country and the joy there. This is how I described it to the race professionals. So when I was in Kentucky, I was with some friends who work Track Shack Orlando and they work the Disney races and they were asking how the Donna was because they've never experienced it.
I said, think of how happy the Disney finish lines are. And they looked at me and they nodded. They said, oh yeah. I said, now multiply that by 20. Multiply that by 20. And you may have a tinge of how freaking awesome our experiences are at the Donna. It is so much joy and so much love. And then of course, our Saturday event is at Jacksonville Jaguar Stadium, which is so cool. Usually we're on the field, right? We start and finish the right on them.
Race on the field races on the field Saturday there's and everybody's ended up on the jumbotron it's so wonderful this year we started outside the stadium because they're doing construction but it wasn't any less it wasn't any less at all it was equally awesome uh equally exciting equally filled with love and they they brought a jumbotron outside for our athletes just it's. So good. We have hundreds of women that come in from around the world who have had breast cancer who come and run.
But then we have thousands and thousands of people. Some maybe don't know anything about breast cancer. And then, of course, we have those who are running in honor of somebody, one of the friends who has it, who beat it, who died from breast cancer. You know, there's a whole mishmash. It's the vibe. It's the vibe. And I'm so happy to be a part of it. You know, of course, I am the ringleader in many ways. But sometimes I show up at an event and sometimes the crowds are duds.
It's very rare. I do sometimes get a rotten egg. But there's never a rotten egg. It's the production. It's the marketing and the messaging and the people show up and they're ready to have a great time. And so Amanda and Donna and their team, they always make it, they ripen these people up. So by the time I say good morning, they've got big smiles and so much warmth they generate back in my way.
And then, of course, we gather all the breast cancer crushers in front of the start lines on Saturday and Sunday to get a group picture. And it's one of those things that gets me every time. Now, mind you, I've pointed out all the women. And I want you to know we had four male breast cancer crushers that came this year. Usually we only have one, Jim Keegan, but we had Keith and Mike and I think the other one is Dave. There was four.
And it really was great that they showed up to make themselves known. And we were able to convince, I think, the other men on site to, you know, if they feel or see something weird with their in their chest, say something right. And a lump anywhere, a weird lump anywhere isn't okay, right? It just isn't okay. So... You got to be responsible for your health and speak up. It does happen to men.
But yeah, as we gather around in those circles, first we take a photo and then I have all the breast cancer crushers huddle up. And it's just this year, I mean, Donna's always in the middle there, right? Donna Deegan, the Donna of the Donna Marathon. She's had breast cancer three times. Thankfully, she's 18 years in remission now. So I'm convinced it's never coming back for her.
But on Saturday, we have this huge group of people who've had cancer, breast cancer, and we put our hands in and Donna and I just locked eyes. And then instantly we were both like, just I mean, we could have both just burst into sobs. You know, it's it's there's a lot of joy. It's a lot of joy just to be surrounded by this grit and this grace and these people who are coming out to just do something wonderful, knowing what they've overcome.
And here's the deal. I never think about my breast cancer when I'm out there. I never, ever, ever think, oh, I just don't. I don't think about me. But I can't unknow what the experience is like. And God, it was rough. You know, it was the worst. And so I look at these women and men and it just stabs me in the heart every time because I suffer for them. You know, so many of them are still going through treatment and I hate that anyone has to.
So when you see the proof, right, you see these beautiful eyes and these smiles and some nervous expressions and we're all there together. I just. Yeah, it's, it's emotional. Makes me want to punch breast cancer in the face. If it had one, I would take it down, but it's also just really meaningful. It's a big celebration. And yeah, so Saturday, right before I had us break, Donna looked at me and we just, we both almost lost it.
Sunday when we gathered up, she instantly said, Fitz, don't make me cry today. I'm not trying to, I promise. So fun, fun, fun. But Saturday, incredible. We had an event on Saturday night, which was new to me. They used to have a fundraiser celebration. So a fancy VIP style party for people who have done significant fundraising. I think raised $1,000 or more. And some of these people have raised for $8,000, $20,000. So it was glamorous and beautiful. And I got to wear a pretty dress and host
the party, which I enjoy doing. I just love, I love being able to, you know, steer the ship and make sure things are quick and efficient and fun. And yeah, we had a great time. It's just such a happy environment. I hope if you decide to come run the Donna, you may take, interest in the fundraising program, raising a thousand bucks, believe it or not, is pretty easy.
Even if you live in the sticks and everyone you know is poor, you can gather up a thousand bucks and that money will go to a great cause. The other thing I'd like to point out is our finish line Sunday. And it's now two years in a row now that it's been extra wild, not only because it is extra wild and happy and fun.
And last year it was all torrential rains and dancing in the rain and stomping on puddles, but there's a fraternity Sigma Nu from Jacksonville University that shows up along with quite a few other colleges and student organizations, and they're massive contributors to our race weekend. But the Sigma Nu guys are so freaking fun. So last year, I was able to bring them over by the finish line on the inside where the runners are coming in before they cross the finish line.
I had our athletes cross the Sigma Nu dudes and they were so good. And so we had a more milder group of volunteers and I went walking towards them, maybe at the five hour mark of the marathon to grab some of them and bring them forward. And then all of a sudden I see this pack of guys who are not like the others. I said, are you guys Sigma Nu? Yeah. Okay. I need you guys up here. And I brought them inside the finish line. And I said, you guys need to do some rowdy frat guy shit. You got that.
And they delivered in spades. They were so freaking fun. It felt like being at a frat party. And then because they were so rowdy and wild, the other student groups came out of their shell and I brought them inside the finish line. It's just, it's a wonderful, warm and exciting way to welcome our athletes after a very long day on their feet. And they just made it so much fun. So, Donna, for the win, you must put this one on your race schedule.
We have a one-mile, a 5K, a half-marathon, a full-marathon. We also have a 110-mile ultra-marathon. And that one, if you're not psycho enough to do it over the two days, I totally understand. We have a virtual event. You can register in October, and it'll keep you on track doing at least 110 miles of exercise between October and February. I did it this year, and my belt buckle race medal should be arriving very soon. I'm super excited about that. So Donna, great, great, great.
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. And then Gasparilla this weekend. Holy, holy crap. This thing, it just, it gets better every year. And when I started announcing Gasparilla, it was in 2021, maybe? No. Yeah, it was 21. And so Gasparilla survived in February of 2019 because it happened before the world shut down. And then the next year, it was pushed back from February to May. And the Tampa city officials were going to not give us a permit.
And Susan Harmelinger, race director, she was genius. She goes, OK, we're going to make it a virtual race. But can people come and do the virtual race on our street, Bayshore Boulevard? And they said yes. And basically, I mean, it wasn't the same event, but we had a serious, fantastic, busy day of racing. And that was my first year announcing Gasparilla, which was so much fun. So since then, it's progressively gotten more and more back to normal. I've become the announcer in the pirate gear.
And we have four different races, two each morning. And I tell you, every race has their own shirt. Every race has their own medal. There are three or four different challenges you can do. So maybe a combination of this race and that race. Thousands of people do all four races. There's epic parties that take place every day post-race. The beer is flowing like crazy. Public supermarkets goes crazy giving out snacks.
There's Columbia Restaurant, which if you know what that is, you know it's a treat. They serve black beans and rice and all this stuff. So it's freaking wonderful. And I really look forward to it. And I don't know why I like dressing up like a pirate so much, but I do. I look forward to it like you wouldn't believe. And so usually there's been a costume shop in Tampa that would just bring over cases of pirate gear to my hotel and I'd be able to soar through it,
pick out what I like and then wear it. And then she would bill us for whatever I wore. This year, those people are out of business. So I did some shopping online and was super happy with the gear I came up with. And I tell you, it's Monday. So I just took off my pirate outfit yesterday. I had three pirate outfits because we had three days of racing, but I miss it.
I miss it. I'm going to find a way to start wearing some of my pirate nonsense in my regular, regular world and see if I get away with it, right? Perhaps, perhaps. But anyways, not only about the cool costumes, which they are cool costumes, but lots of people dress up, which is fun. Hey, if you are a Disney runner and you've been doing princess every year and you're one of those people who says, Fitz, I want to do Gasparilla, but it's always the same weekend as Princess.
Okay, well, next year, it's not. In 2026, Gasparilla and Princess take place on different weekends. So you can do Pirates and Princesses, and you should, or just do Pirates, because Pirates is by far, in a way, better. I've done Princess, and it's great. But Gasparilla is above and beyond to the nth degree. You will lose your mind. We actually, we have a bunch of people that do, they'll do.
So we have Bob from the Rise and Run podcast. He showed up. He did the Princess 5K, came and did Gasparilla 15K Saturday morning. He said he came out just to see me, which made my noisy heart so happy. And I love this man. He is just such a sweetheart. And their podcast is wonderful too. Y'all should have a listen. And then after Gasparilla, he drove back to Orlando to do the Princess half. So there was a bunch of mix and match athletes, which I really respect.
Because what a fun spirit and a commitment to doing all the things, right? You know, in order to be in multiple places in one weekend, that's a special opportunity. And kudos to all the folks who did that. So highlights this year, Friday night, they added... A dog event. It was Pepper Jacks, our parrot mascot, Pepper Jacks, hot diggity dog, dog walk. And we had 200 dogs. We had multiple great dames and Irish wolfhound, some ginormous dogs, dogs that were bigger and heavier than me.
And then we had the little toy Yorkshire Terriers that were five pounds, little old chihuahuas and all the dogs. We had the purebreds and then the rescues. It was just wonderful. And I mean, again, joy. That's what I'm after. I'm a joy junkie. These events are happy because dogs are fun, right? People show up and they got smiles on their face. They're so proud of their own dog. And then they're so excited to meet the other dogs. And all the dogs were good
dogs. They might've barked to interact, but nobody snarled and bit. They were just lovely. Susan and her crew were brilliant because on the race bibs, on top it had the human's name. And underneath it had the dog's name. So maybe it said Lisa and then Mr. Underpants or whatever. So as these dogs were roaming around, I was able to say, hey, Clyde. And Clyde would look at me like, you know me? Wow. But it was really interactive and very fun. And proceeds went to the Merciful Projects in Tampa.
They are a rescue. they have 180 dogs that they've saved from euthanasia. And this is a thing, y'all do what you want to do. But one of the reasons I don't love breeding is because I truly believe that every dog bred is another dog dead. So if you choose to have a dog that you have custom built for yourself, you're not rescuing a dog that desperately needs a home and eventually that dog will be put to death.
So this organization rescues dogs that are on the brink of actual death and they get them adopted. And then they also find fosters. And so the foster situation is great, not only at this project, but I assure this is probably the situation in your neck of the woods too, with the pet rescues nearby. If you foster a dog, traditionally the rescues will pay for that dog's food, pay for that dog's medical expenses. And sometimes people are.
I don't think you do have to bear the burden of whatever the dog costs if you're fostering because the rescues take care of that. So it's just wonderful. They brought out quite a few rescue dogs and I used my big mouth in a variety of ways to try to get them adopted. I'm not sure if it worked, but I'm hoping somebody this weekend heard me and has gone over to bring home a new best friend because it matters. And of course they make our lives so great. But that was a lot of fun. Dog, dog, dog.
Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Gasparilla, for adding a dog race because I know you didn't do it for me, but hot damn, it made me happy. So what a wonderful start. Also, the Expo is very special, Gasparilla. It's packed with vendors, packed. And then there's all these food people giving out snacks. Guys, I'm talking to you. If you're one of those guys who loves roaming around Sam's or Costco because you're going to get snacks, if you go to Gasparilla.
And you don't even have to run the race. You can just be someone who drives to the Tampa Convention Center. You can walk in for free and you can have free snacks. So that's really cool. They have pickleball. They have health testing by Cigna. I think you can get your bone density tested and some other things. And then one of, I think is a great highlight. You can come and meet me and Meb. That's Meb Kofleski, which is one of America's favorite runners.
He's won the Boston Marathon the year after the bombing, which was a very big deal. He's won silver in the Olympics for America. He's won the New York marathon. He's just, he's very talented. He's retired from competitive running now, but he's probably the nicest human on the earth. He's so great. So I am always very privileged and pleased to be able to share a booth with Meb. They set up time.
So Friday from 11 to noon, we're there for an hour and then we disappear and come back from three to four and then we show up Saturday from two to three. So it's just these limited timeframes. But I posted an Instagram and Facebook reel. A few days prior to the Gasparilla weekend starting. And I told you, I said, if you were going to be there, do not be shy. Please say hello because it just kills me. Sometimes after race weekend, people will reach out LinkedIn or Instagram, say, hey, I saw you.
I really wanted to meet you, but I didn't want to bother you. Or I was too shy. And I think, oh my gosh. I mean, we're only together certain times, right? I come to your town or you've flown in from a different town and let's meet, let's meet. If you're one of my listeners, certainly I wanna meet you. If you've run one of my races, of course I wanna meet you. If I've helped you get fit, I wanna meet you. Even if you've never heard of me, I just like meeting people.
So I encourage folks, come introduce yourself to me. Meb is there specifically to encourage and support the athletes. That's his whole role. He doesn't have any task. He doesn't have to yell go. He doesn't have to organize people. He doesn't have to do anything, lift barriers. all he's there for is to be friendly runner guy and be sweet. And I'm really there to support you all. So, so many people lined up and showed up and they would come and said, I saw your reel.
So here I am. So if that's you, thank you very much because it made me so happy when you're a good listener and I got extra hugs and extra love and we did book signings and it was just was, it was a lot of fun and Meb's great if I'm posing with some some of my people who showed up to visit me Meb will jump and jump into our picture which bonus Meb right and then sometimes Meb will say Fitz get in this one and we just we work really well together and he's he's just a delight so.
One of the things I thought was very sweet so I didn't see him Saturday during the races I was just very busy doing my thing and he was out on the courses doing his thing but, But Sunday, he came to the start line for a little bit. And we just had a great chat. And you know what's cute? This was the highlight of our pre-race chat. I don't think he'll mind you sharing. He ran the Boston Marathon last year. He did it as a fundraiser for the Meb Foundation.
And he had an injury the week prior. And so he ran it in a lot of pain. And he also had the pressure of media following him for a long time. He was thinking, dude, go away. hey, I need to walk. And so finally, even though the camera was on him, he just broke down and walked. And I thought, oh, that's so real, right? That's the rest of us. Because these runners, the elites, they're not actually superhumans. They're just people that have trained their body.
Maybe there's some genetic blessings there, but they've been disciplined and smart and they've done the work and off they go. But yeah, so Meb was talking about just the burden of the cameras on him while he was desperate to walk. And then finally he walked and it was slow and it was hard. And then he said it was equally painful as when he ran the Boston Marathon and won it.
And I also think that's really good information to know that these insanely fast humans that could keep up this absurd pace of five minutes and something per mile for 26.2 miles, that it actually hurts. Because when you look at them, sometimes you don't think it hurts. You just think, oh, they're having an easy ride. It's so easy for him. And so he said it wasn't, it wasn't easy. And I love that. And then also very cute, very humble.
So it's interesting in our industry, we don't have a lot of household names, right? So whoever you are, if you went to your next door neighbor's house and said. Hey, do you know who Shalane Flanagan is? You might get a lot of blank stares. Do you know who Deslandin is? You might have no idea. But runners, we know each other, right? We're interested in the sport.
So we keep an eye out but we don't have a Simone Biles or we don't have a LeBron James or Tom Brady we don't have any of those in running and so Meb came by the finish line. And I went over to see him and gave him a big hug and said do you mind and he said no so I grabbed him by the hand and we have bleachers at our finish line so stood in front of the bleachers and I said blah blah blah he was one of the most iconic runners in America and then he looks over at me he goes
They have no idea who I am. It was just so cute. And there was a lot of people who definitely knew who Meb was, but it's just very humble of him. There's not a bit of ego. And I adore him. It's a privilege. It's a privilege to spend time with him. And he loves getting to know you. So please come run Gaspar Lift. If nothing else, just to meet Meb. He's always out somewhere on our courses. And you can give him a high five or a hug, have a selfie, have a hug.
He'll sign your bid and he's just, he's just adorable. So love that. What else? Two of the highlights of this race weekend are the sisters, Jessica and Natalie. And I mean, A, the thing I like is they're sisters who love each other so much, but they're both super fit. They're both super beautiful and they're both creative and fun and extroverts. And so every year they dress up and they're always top secret costumes. So we don't know what they're coming up, but they show up and delight us all.
Last year, they were both Jack Sparrow, really good Jack Sparrows for one day. And the next day, they were pickleball players from the villages in Florida with big booties and funny wigs and stuff. So on Saturday, they came. And I actually predicted they would come as Pepper Jack, our parrot mascot. They did. They came as Pepper Jill's. But holy crap, they were in these red kind of fuzzy bodysuits.
And again they're built they're really fit so they had they had kind of i think pantyhose a kind of hooters waitresses wear and then a red bodysuit and tail feathers on the back and beautiful they're just beautiful they're beautiful sexy parrot ladies and they're they're super fun i think on my instagram you could see some video of me dancing with them or at least it will go up soon if it's not already
and then on sunday they dressed up as skeleton pirates black spandex bodysuits with bones and flowers. And then they had half of their faces painted. Oh, and they did, they actually did kind of, they looked a little like me. They had long blonde curly or wavy wigs. It was very sexy. They were beautiful. So anyways, I look forward to seeing them. And I know everybody else does.
Our start lines were wild. And this is where I... I just feel like I'm the happiest person that has ever lived is when I show up at a start line and I've got 9,000 people and they're rowdy and they're ready and they've got happy attitudes and they want to have fun. Oh, I just mixed up some new music, which, you know, you mix some music to me. I think it's going to be great. Everyone's going to love it. It's going to energize the crowd. You never know if it's really going to work, but it did.
And of course, I had four different start line mixes for each start line and so forth. But yeah, lots of dancing, a lot of shouting. A lot of playing. I told terrible pirate jokes for each corral. Do you want to hear a terrible pirate joke? A very cheesy, awful pirate joke? Actually, I'm going to tell you two. But what you have to do for the first one is when I tell it, you have to laugh really loud. Are you ready?
Remember, laugh really loud. I'm listening. Okay, the first one is, what kind of cell phones do pirates prefer? IPhones. Okay, so good laughing. Thank you for humoring me. Okay, and now I'm going to tell you a cheesy pirate joke ripped from, I think, the 8k that I shared this one. But this time, instead of laughing really loud, I want you to groan. I want you to groan audibly and show a lot of disgust and disdain for my bad choice and joke telling. Are you ready? Okay.
What do you call a pirate that likes to skip school. Captain Hookie. Yeah, there you go. So like a damn fool, I stand on my stages and for each race, I tell them at least one or two cheesy pirate jokes. And I don't know if it endears me to those people or if they are absolutely repulsed by me, but I'm not taking it back. I think it's very fun. And if nothing else, I enjoy, I enjoy the eye rolls.
You know what I'm saying? I enjoy when I tee up a bad joke and some chick in the front, she just rolls her eyes like, shut up, noisy lady. It just delights me. And it's fun. And they're wholesome. I got to go with the wholesome stuff. Actually, yeah, I wouldn't go with a tacky joke anyways, but I do try to keep it clean. What else? The band, the finish line band, or not the finish line band, our finish line party. That's the thing. Finish line party is wild.
Normally when I finish announcing a race, That means a dead last finisher has come through. Everybody's gone. All the beer is put away. The party's over. Gasparilla, the party keeps going for several hours. So I get done and I get shuttled over to the finish line party and there's still beer and there's still fun. There's still people. And the Greg White Jr. band, you have to look this guy up. You know, there's something magical about a quality cover band.
We all have our favorites, right? Everybody loves Chris Stapleton or Taylor Swift. But what if you could have a band that can really do justice to Chris Stapleton and Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber or whoever you like, right? So these guys are mostly country, which works really well in Florida. And they're so good. And they just, you know, hit after hit after hit. It was so much fun. We were all dancing. I say we were all, lots of us were dancing. I was dancing.
Also, they give out free beer to the runners. But what does the announcer get, right? So the runners got me some beer, which I enjoyed. And normally I don't drink much, but I did have two beers each day and they were quite refreshing and made me quite happy. And so the other thing is I mentioned to you that I got shuttled over. One of the wonderful niceties of this weekend, I almost feel it's semi-essential too. So the first year I announced Gasparola, it was the hybrid year.
We only had one start and finish line and people could just go do their distance from the start and finish line. I probably yelled go about 600 times that weekend. The second weekend or the second year, all four races were happening and they have very different start lines, all the same finish line. But I pretty much got lost trying to get from the start to the, I'm sorry, from the finish lines to the start lines.
It was chaos. It was absolute chaos. And you have to get through thousands of people. And I had to do it in a hurry. And because of that, our race director, Susan, she had assigned me. A wonderful human each day, and my own golf cart. And so her wonderful humans are Mary and Mickey. I had Mary on Saturday, Mickey on Sunday. And A, I want them to be my best friends and come move into my house because they're wonderful. But they would pick me up at the hotel at 5 a.m.
Or whatever time they were coming to get me and then drive me over to the first start line. They're just so helpful. It was like, I mean, just like having a best friend there. And they helped me with things. It's always very dark. So, you know, at one point, Mickey was holding the cell phone flashlight over so I could read my notes and, you know, what can I get you? They're so thoughtful and helpful. And it really is. This is one of the most possibly actually this is the most
demanding race of the year as far as road racing. This is the most demanding one. It's it's big and I love it. I don't want any I don't want any of my efforts lessened in any way at all. However, this support system they've provided me with Mickey and Mary and the vehicle to get me to and fro is just so helpful. Oh, and we have so much fun. And we don't have a horn on these golf carts. So trying to get through the crowd. I'm using my cowbell to try and alert people
to move out of the way. But just so wonderful. And then Jenny. Jenny was Meb's handler. But Jenny was awesome. And she was just amazing. Extra helpful to me too. And that's the running community, right? I think about it. If I wanted to build a lemonade stand and I wanted two people to just come help me make lemonade and sit at a stand, I'm not convinced I could do that, right? I don't think I could get two people to take two hours out of their day to come do lemonade stand with me.
And I don't say that to be like, oh, what was me? I just don't think I could. I think people are busy. They've got stuff to do. But Susan Harmeling and her team at Gasparilla. They get thousands of people to give up their Friday and their Saturday and their Sunday and probably a whole bunch of days in advance to show up and volunteer to make this magnificent, monstrous event happen. It. It's just mind-blowing. There are so many moving parts, and there are so many people who know what they're
doing, and they do it well, and they're all over the community. It's so widespread. Remember, half marathon, 8K, 15K, 5K. It's not all the same course. They're going in different directions at different times, and there's hundreds of cops and hundreds of firefighters and Tampa General Hospital medics, and it's just mind-blowing. And they do it for Susan. They do it for the Publix Gasparola distance class. It's just, it's very impressive to see.
And, you know, I do, I think, I'm not convinced I'd get a lemonade stand out there to help me, right? Sometimes I'm like, share a post and nobody will share a post, right? So the fact that they can get all of this to happen and all of these people to show up is just so impressive, so impressive. And I'm grateful for every bit of it. I love them all. Thank you to all the athletes, all the pirates, all the people who showed up. And yeah, I do have a crazy bruise.
But you know what? It's a crazy bruise with fond memories attached. So I don't know how I got it, but it doesn't matter. Hooray, Gasparilla. And if you want to know, I'm still on a high. Like you guys, I've said it before, but you're my crack cocaine. Get me connected with, thousands of wonderful humans. I like to exercise. I like to give hugs. I like to have fun. And I will write off that for a very long time. Yeah. Oh, so the other thing I did was two live news spots.
And one of the reporters asked me, how do I keep up the energy? And I almost said on live news, these runners aren't my crack cocaine, but I didn't. I tamped that down. You got to edit, right? I don't have to edit as much for the Fitz in a show, but I edited for those folks. And I think it was a good, good thing. So anyways, thank you for listening to my spiel. You know what? I promised Q&A. I'm not giving you Q&A today.
There's just too much. I've been going for too long, but I promise the next show is only going to be Q&A. I'm going to record a Fitzy Mini real fast. It's going to come out next. And I'm sorry for making you wait for Q&A. We're not having it. Communication tip of the show. We couldn't do without that. I want you to add these fun vocabulary words to your repertoire of words, because stop saying awesome. Stop saying amazing, right? We can do better.
Okay, so we're going to add some fun ones, starting with skedaddle. So if you got to go do something, instead of telling people, I have to leave, I have to go, you say, I got to skedaddle. That's funner. That's fun. And as you do skedaddle, maybe do a little kick. Let's just even a little low kick with your heels to add some fun to the action too. But skedaddling is a nicety. When somebody says something that might be a little spicy, something that might
be mean or inflammatory or exciting or sexy, call them saucy. Use the word saucy. It might be a saucy dance, a saucy outfit, a saucy attitude, saucy conversation, and saucy. So we got skedaddle. Saucy. And then if you like something, instead of just saying, I like that, it's cool. You say, that's enticing. That'll make you sound a little more highbrow. Okay. So saucy and skedaddle, a little more fun, enticing, highbrow, and then use them.
And then message me and tell me that you use them and tell me how you use them. You could tell me that you were getting your kids ready for school and you said, let's skedaddle. Whatever it is. I want examples. I want proof and you should give it to me. Okay, song of the show. It's by Rosé and Bruno Mars and the song is Apt and that's short for apartment, but it's APT and it's a really fun dance song. It's actually one that I added to my new Startline mix and it went over like gangbusters.
So you should download it to your playlist and you should listen to it while you're on the rowing machine or while you are doing bicep curls or while you are hanging from a monkey bar at the playground to stretch your lats and your back and your torso. So those are the exercises I'm assigning you to this song. And now, after talking for an hour with this husky voice, I am going to shut up.
I love you all. thank you for listening. If you haven't done so yet, please kick like, click like, and follow on the Fitznes show, and maybe share it with a friend, leave a review. You know, you know how that works. Do all the things. Don't make me happy. Get to work. 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 a 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
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