112: Rise and Run Rewind: Floating Thoughts, A Conversation with the runDisney Balloon Ladies

Ready for a running time machine ride? ...Dare we say we hop into our Man-Delorean? Buckle up, as we journey back into the cherished memories of runDisney. Join us as we reflect on the evolving landscape of these events, from shifting start times and bib numbers on waivers, to the uniquely themed New Balance shoes that were once the hallmark of runDisney events. We'll be reminiscing about the things we miss and speculate on what might make a comeback.

What about the "balloon ladies" that are essential to runDisney events? Ever heard of them? They're our guests for this Rewind episode of the podcast, Molly and Sue! These inspiring women are the pace setters, defining the race cutoff time and encouraging runners to maintain that all-important 16-minute per mile pace. Listen in as they share how they adjusted their training regimen, their motivational strategies, and the techniques they use to keep runners in line. You might pick up a few helpful tips for your own races!

As we wrap up this episode, we'll touch upon our future episodes and how we continue to foster a sense of togetherness and camaraderie. So, lace up your running shoes and come along on this nostalgic journey with us through the past, present, and future of runDisney events.

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Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:04

3am again.

Speaker 3: 0:07

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

Speaker 4: 0:36

Welcome to the Rise and Run Podcast. Welcome to the Rise and Run Podcast. Welcome to the Rise and Run Podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:46

It's Brittany. Thanks, brittany Gosh. I enjoy hearing from her, even if it's just a recorded intro. She is so talented All those races.

Speaker 5: 0:57

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 0:57

Where's they come from? Well, when you study at Second City, they probably teach you how to talk in more than one voice.

Speaker 2: 1:04

That is true, she's no slouch, she's fun to have and I appreciate it. I'm glad she's a friend of the podcast and, speaking of friends, welcome my friends. We're glad you're with us for episode 112 of the Rise and Run Podcast. I'm Bob and I am here with Alicia. Hello With John hey how you doing. And with Greg.

Speaker 3: 1:30

Hey hey, hey.

Speaker 2: 1:32

Friends, this is. It's one of those situations for us where we couldn't all be where we needed to be when we needed to be. So a big chunk of episode 112 is going to be a rebroadcast of a favorite of ours, the episode that featured the balloon ladies, so that'll be coming up. There are guests tonight. There will not be a race report spotlight because we're just too many weeks out of order to do that. If you ran last weekend, we will mention where we think you ran, but we'll catch up in episode 113. I promise we'll catch up in 113. If you ran, we're not going to ignore you. We're going to bring that up next week. My friends, if you enjoy the podcast even one that's recorded out of order and kind of crazy like this, please, please, share us with your friends, introduce them, bring them in as members of the Rise and Run family. We love you all. We love seeing the podcast grow. We enjoyed the heck out of seeing a bunch of you at Wine and Dine. Please remember to follow us on Facebook.

Speaker 2: 2:57

Rise and Run podcast is the group On Instagram. We're Rise and Run pod. Hey, check out our YouTube channel and visit the webpage riseandrunpodcastcom. You got a question, a comment. You got a race report you'd like to give us. You want to introduce an upcoming episode? Give us a call. The number is 727-266-2344. You can leave us a recorded message. The Rise and Run podcast is sponsored by our friends at Magic Bound Travel. Magic Bound Travel the place to go for your Disney vacation and your run Disney needs. In fact, I just recently heard from a friend at Magic Bound. My agent, missy, saved me a couple hundred bucks on a room. She found a discount that was available and said hey, bob, good news. So they're at work for me and they will be for you to visit them. Magicboundtravelcom is the website.

Speaker 3: 4:07

And if you're interested in supporting the podcast, we are on Patreon. You can join that exclusive group by visiting patreoncom. And just as a reminder, we are in the middle of our contest right now where we are going to be raffling off a 40th anniversary popcorn bucket from the Tokyo Disneyland Resort. Our great friend Tara went over there a couple of weeks ago and just got us a lot of awesome merch to give away. So again, to enter that contest, all you have to do is become a Patreon member between now and November 20th and your name will be put into the drawing. It doesn't matter what level you join. As long as you join within that timeframe, you are entered for a chance to win that popcorn bucket. So again, the website is patreoncom and thank you so much for all your support. And to our Patreon's who are already members, thank you for continuing to support us as well.

Speaker 2: 5:15

And Greg. Our friends who are already Patreons are already automatically entered. That is correct, yes, yeah, and it's a neat bucket. I hope I win. I'm going to enter. I know I can. I'm going to enter Lily, my dog. Okay, is she eligible?

Speaker 2: 5:34

No Family members, I'm going to grab it All right, all right, yeah, friends, it's pretty neat. So again, thank you to our Patreons and those who may want to join us. There you go, there's a contest. Good luck to everyone. Hey, let's take a look again at. We're allowed to sequence, to take a look at the training schedule here Marathon weekend we're into week 21 of training for marathon weekend and this week's weekend run is seven miles, including a magic mile. I find it interesting that Jeff's plans do not have a magic mile until we're well into it and then towards the end there's a bunch of them that are kind of thrown in there. So remember, the magic mile is more of a diagnostic tool than a training tool. Run it, use it. If you have questions on how to use it, let us know. But what you're going to want to do is take your magic mile, put it into the calculator on Jeff's page and then use that to find your training paces for your weekly and for your long run training days.

Speaker 3: 6:50

And always remember, as part of that seven miles, the magic mile is done. On mile two You're taking your mile slow, warm up again two minutes slower than race pace. Then in that second mile that's where you're kicking in the high gear. Usually then you know take that, you know maybe half a mile, you know cool down or something like that and then finish up your the rest of your seven at that long run pace.

Speaker 2: 7:16

If you're training for the Disneyland race, for the half marathon, your weekend distance is nine and a half miles and we're on the princess training schedule. We're into week four of the princess training schedule where the weekend run is two miles. It's still early, folks, the numbers will come up, I promise. Friends, on this abbreviated program, we did have one thing just amongst ourselves we wanted to chat about a little bit. The four of us here have run I don't know how many Disney races we've run amongst us. It's got to be close to a hundred. But there are things that happened early in our run Disney careers that don't happen anymore and we just wanted to talk about the things that we miss and hope maybe we'll see again someday. I'm going to ask Greg if he'd like to kick it off.

Speaker 3: 8:19

Oh, okay, lots of pressure here. I've been thinking about this one a lot and this thing is not monumental by any means whatsoever, but when it comes to the swag that we get as part of our race registration, I miss the champion race shirts. And I think now, greg, I will say and I'll knock on wood here since they've moved to the new t-shirt stylings and the screen print and everything like that, I have been very fortunate. None of mine have really peeled or got stuck together like we've seen some of our friends happen, and they post about it on social media. So I've been very, very fortunate in that respect.

Speaker 3: 9:10

But I go back to my first Winondine shirt from 2016, or my Marathon long sleeves from 2019. And just, it's a thicker shirt, it's a better quality shirt. The printing on it is really, really fantastic. The quality is so much better, and I mean those shirts still, to this day, last me, which is crazy. So I understand champion, probably they get those printed is a lot more expensive than what we get now. But at least there's one thing I could ask to bring back, it would be the champion shirts.

Speaker 2: 9:49

So it's shirts for Greg. What is it for you, Alicia?

Speaker 1: 9:54

Well, if we're talking merchandise wise, one thing that I miss is the stemless wine, the glass, glasses that they had at Winondine. I had a tradition that I would get one every Winondine. That I did because I'm a perfect for the challenge. And then last year the year before they stopped doing it and I actually had to get one from the Food and Wine Festival so that I could still have that tradition. But it's not exactly the same. So not the same merchandise that I missed from Run Disney.

Speaker 2: 10:24

Yeah, that's too bad when you, when you start a collection like that and then it gets kind of pulled out from under you.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:33

John, do you have one or two?

Speaker 6: 10:35

You could probably guess what my first one is.

Speaker 2: 10:39

Oh yes, I can, but I won't. I won't steal that thunder.

Speaker 6: 10:44

Star Wars weekend.

Speaker 2: 10:45

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6: 10:47

I mean I also I liked about it was, I guess, since they didn't have the California race in January, that you get the virtual half, and so you get the virtual half medal and you can get the Kessel Run Challenge and all that fun stuff. Oh yeah, that's, that's what I really wish they put back.

Speaker 2: 11:05

I got you. I got you. Yeah, I kind of miss that too, john, I did a virtual Star Wars. That's the only Star Wars event I got a chance to do, but you know that I believe that's going to come back in springtime surprise one of these years. All right, I've got a couple. I'll start with the easy one. We need the dad gum chips back in the box.

Speaker 7: 11:30

Amen.

Speaker 6: 11:31

So we can all scoop the chips.

Speaker 2: 11:32

Okay, bring back the chips. That was a low hanging fruit for me. I've got some others. I'll save them. I'm going to come back and I got a note saying Greg has a course that he misses.

Speaker 3: 11:52

Well, okay, so this is going to be a slight violation, because I don't think any of us have experienced this, but just watching videos on YouTube and stuff like that, I understand that none of it can ever come back, especially based on the fact that every race weekend now has has a challenge associated with it. And run Disney. If you could figure out a way to bring back a nighttime race, I would forever be in debt to you. I mean, I look at friends pictures, you know, when they got to run through the Osborne family lights. Talk about another thing that I insanely miss.

Speaker 2: 12:40

I would have loved to have done that. I'm scratching two things off of my list that I made.

Speaker 3: 12:45

Oh, sorry, it's okay.

Speaker 2: 12:47

Nobody. This is good I've not run out. Okay, I have others, but Osborne lights and night races. I am with you 100%.

Speaker 3: 12:55

And then you know, and then also you know, just going back to Bob, I think you and I talked about this a little bit when we were on Andrew's YouTube channel running in roller coasters a few weeks ago. You know there was something really, really exclusive about running wine and dine. That was. It was the only half marathon where you got three parks, and I can't. It's been many, many years since you have gone Hollywood Studios, epcot and Animal Kingdom in the half marathon course. So if they could some mashup of that. But I mean, just think of how cool it would be to do that night race and then to be able to go right into the after party. That would just be phenomenal.

Speaker 2: 13:43

Yeah, I think it would be fun. I want them to bring it back. I missed it. I think we all missed it. We all missed it by yeah, because we all did.

Speaker 4: 13:49

By year On year. Yep, yeah, bye, bye.

Speaker 2: 13:51

Bye. I don't think this qualifies as something I miss, but I'm getting a little tired of every event starting and ending at Epcot that limit things that goes to my next one, bob, is that I really miss the 5k for wine and dine.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Being in animal kingdom, I have this core memory of you my mom, myself and Becky doing the 5k and we like Went over the hill by where you could see the big tree and it just happened that these birds like Such a cool moment and I don't know that that Memory would happen again, but just getting to know that was awesome looking them it was.

Speaker 1: 14:39

It was something that I Really appreciated and I agree, everything seems to be the Epcot route and, yeah, it would be nice to have a little bit different variety once in a while.

Speaker 2: 14:50

I once you started, I knew where you were going. Becky talks about it to this day. Well, absolutely and it was so it was almost surreal. I almost thought that it was Artificial. I wasn't sure, but they were real, live birds, but the way the light caught them from the bottom and the, the darkness, and oh yeah, that was yeah, I just got chills when I was talking about it, cuz it was amazing Cool thing, John, do you have another one?

Speaker 6: 15:18

I'm not gonna put you on the spot if you don't one of the things is the little later start time they used to have. Yeah, it was a half hour later. Yeah it that half hour makes a big it does.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Yeah, that would I. I'll go along with that if we could. I don't see that coming back.

Speaker 6: 15:34

No no.

Speaker 2: 15:35

I have. I have two more. One I know is not coming back, one I think could. The one I knows not coming back, and this is just a personal thing Back in the day, when Disney had to send out waivers that you would sign and then bring with you to the expo, you have your bib number on there. So you get them about yeah, you get them about 10 days, two weeks before the race. You'd know your bib number and then there'd be a posting of what bib was in in what corral correct.

Speaker 2: 16:06

And the fun to me, the most fun part of that was the social media interaction. Hey, alicia, I'm in, see what corral are you in? And John's and be, and yeah, that was fun. That's not coming back, it's not.

Speaker 3: 16:22

Yeah, it's a shame too, because you know, just on one of our, our zoom calls the other week, you know we had this wonderful discussion Because you know our buddy mark, you know put together that awesome Google sheet of you know getting people paired up for wine and dine, and I know he he wants to continue to do that.

Speaker 3: 16:42

For the rest, they're the race weekend, right, but the really tough part about it is nobody knows what corral they're gonna be in so you know that, you know they have to make that, you know distinction so late in the game, or hey, I want to run with a galloway pace group and but I don't know if that pace groups gonna be in my car Stuff like that you know, so that you know that information would be really helpful. But no, I agree with you, baba, I don't see that ever coming back.

Speaker 2: 17:06

It was. It was a lot of fun. It was just another thing to look forward to is another, another box to check on my way to a Disney race. I've got my. I've got my waiver. I would always print them out, sign them and then Leave them in my car in the parking lot when I went to the expo. I have to print them out again but that didn't matter. Here's one I miss and I think it's possible this could return someday. New balance used to make shoes for the run Disney season Yep.

Speaker 7: 17:40

They were unique.

Speaker 2: 17:41

They were cool. The problem I had that was back in the day when I was running wine and dine, and it was the only. It was like two or three years, for wine and dine was the only race I went to. New balance would Introduce their new shoes Marathon weekend. By the time wine and dine came around, they were really shopped over. They had few left and they had none in my size. I didn't have a chance, but that that was so dagum popular that if you wanted a pair of those Disney shoes you had to make a reservation, yep, to go in and get fitted or to go in and shop for your shoes. So I don't know. I'm I think I know other companies Make shoes for specific races. I know.

Speaker 6: 18:38

I think Brooks does.

Speaker 2: 18:39

Yeah, yeah, john, you're right John. Brooks does for Boston, that for sure that I think they do from New York. They may do them for all the US majors. So I don't know. I know if there's money to be made, an organization is going to scarf it up, but I don't know what the dollars and cents are on it. I just would like to see it come back.

Speaker 6: 19:00

I thought it was a neat thing join your virtual queue number two for your shoes. Oh gosh, can you imagine? Yeah, oh, oh yeah and, and my virtual queue for my shoes is the same as my.

Speaker 2: 19:15

Rurrow. But yeah, they would have a big. It would be in one corner of the expo. They'd have a big section.

Speaker 1: 19:23

I had two pairs of them. I had ones that were bell and they were a yellow color, and then I had ones that were black and white and they were polka dot, that were mini and yeah, they were just really fun to have and like special thing that went with run Disney that you could really only get at the expose. So I agree, bob, I miss that.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Yeah, and even though they were New balanced running shoes, you weren't gonna run at them. You were gonna save them for unique occasions. The one time I tried it was like a formal Mickey Mouse shoe, but I didn't. I think they had a, they had think they had one pair that was two sizes too small and I tried that wasn't gonna work excuse me, sir, do you have a Donald duck in size 15?

Speaker 2: 20:08

Yeah, that's exactly right, and then it's just kind of look at your funny, but there we go. There's some things. Maybe you've got some too, maybe. Then certainly some of our friends have been going to Disney runs longer than we have. Maybe you've got some other things you can think of that used to be around, aren't around anymore and you kind of miss them, in which they'd come back.

Speaker 3: 20:32

Oh, absolutely. We should definitely put up a Facebook post and, you know, an Instagram chat about yeah because I would love to hear you know people who have, especially who people have been running Disney even longer before we have. I'd be really interested to hear some Old stories there.

Speaker 6: 20:46

Yeah, alan, be great for that.

Speaker 2: 20:48

Oh yeah.

Speaker 6: 20:49

Yeah, you sure could. Oh and Bob, I am surprised you did not ask for the hummus to come back.

Speaker 2: 21:00

I, John. I like hummus. There's hummus in my refrigerator in the house. I snack on it frequently, but I don't want it in the box after the run cheese, baby Cheese. So let me summarize here my lips ships right. Right, the Osborne lights aren't coming back. The night races? I don't know they might. I mean, we almost had one at springtime surprise a couple years ago, or in fact I think they did have.

Speaker 6: 21:23

We did, but it got rain shortened.

Speaker 2: 21:25

Yeah, that bit about finding your bib number. That's not gonna come back. The Disney shoes maybe, but dad gum at the taco chips need to be back next week. Okay, all right, friends. Hey, listen. As I said, this is largely a repeat episode, so that's it for our opening block. Let's revisit that wonderful time we spent with the balloon ladies. My friends, we've had a lot of guests on the rise and run podcast, but we have some really special guests with us tonight. We are so excited Kathleen and Molly are with us now. They those names may not mean a whole lot to you taken out of context, but if I said we got two of the balloon ladies with us tonight, you're gonna know exactly what we mean. Kathleen and Molly, thank you so much for joining us. We're delighted to have you here.

Speaker 8: 22:25

Happy to be here. You're welcome. Thank you for having us.

Speaker 2: 22:28

Oh, that's great. We've been talking about this for a while and we think it's gonna be fun. Hey, let's start here, if we could please. This is something I'm curious about is how did this whole thing get started? How did this balloon lady thing begin?

Speaker 7: 22:45

So it really began with um track shack, who's our local running company. They're the ones who do the timing and everything, and now do the volunteers and everything else out of disney. Um, they just needed somebody to help out so they knew when to cut the race when the race was over. And actually it was kind of just rising to my opinion my Uh feed yesterday that it will be 15 years in February that we started. Oh.

Speaker 2: 23:14

How about?

Speaker 7: 23:15

that started with princess 15 years ago.

Speaker 8: 23:19

And here's a fun fact, we used to provide our own balloons, because I have picture from my my first princess race and I think that was an oh eight. And uh, I have a mylar balloon that I bought from the dollar store that had the the mickey characters on it and I thought, hey, we should have something on us so people can recognize us. So One of the original pictures I have in front of the castle is with a, a mylar balloon of muffy, not the big fancy uh, mickey ear balloon that you see today.

Speaker 4: 23:51

So you originated the term balloon lady.

Speaker 7: 23:54

We kind of got deemed it by accident actually.

Speaker 9: 23:58

Oh, that's so cool.

Speaker 2: 24:00

If you hadn't brought the balloon, kathleen, you would just have been the ladies, and that's that's not anywhere not near as cool, is it?

Speaker 7: 24:07

right, the first couple of races that we did, we didn't have balloons and we barely knew who the run disney people were, so we tried to wear brighter clothes or different clothes, and that didn't really matter. So that's I think when we started. I think sue and Kathleen and Was it trudy?

Speaker 8: 24:26

Nancy and trudy, that's right.

Speaker 7: 24:30

Yeah, trudy was in there originally too, so then we started bringing balloons.

Speaker 1: 24:34

Very cool.

Speaker 9: 24:36

When did disney provide the balloons? They're like man, this is so cool and like they just kind of do they offer it to you now, or?

Speaker 7: 24:44

now. Now they do originally, I would say, one of our podcasts way back in the day Kind of got a little heated because people found out that we spent a dollar on our own balloon. And they couldn't believe that disney would let us spend a dollar on our own balloons. So they started providing them.

Speaker 8: 25:06

Yeah, so when we get to this bag tent in the beginning, they're the, the balloons are waiting for us, and we just then get them all orchestrated and attached to ourselves.

Speaker 2: 25:17

So, if I can kind of summarize, back in 2007, track Shack says hey, we're putting on the race and we think it'd be really neat if we had somebody who could define what the cutoff time was. And they approached y'all and you said great, now, at that time, how were you ready to run, not run or walk? Nice, I'm pretty sure you'd walk most of it 16 minute miles, had you prepared for that, or it was just kind of like. You know, I think we can do it. Let's give it a try.

Speaker 7: 25:52

I think we were just training with the marathon groups because we just have been training for so many years, so we were ready to go whenever anybody needed us for anything.

Speaker 8: 26:03

Yeah, and I think I was fresh off, I had done the Chicago marathon, I think before my first one, so I already had the miles on my feet. I think that was my second marathon by that point in time, so like I'd done the distance before, so it wasn't like I'd be going it for, at least for me personally and Molly had done some other races before that, a lot of races before that too, so we were sort of walking into it, knowing that we have done the distance before.

Speaker 8: 26:30

So we could do it again that sort of thing. We just had to adjust our pace.

Speaker 2: 26:34

Yeah, there you go. I understand that. That makes perfect sense to me and I think adjusting the pace probably took a little while to get yourself to a solid 16, because you do the best you can to hit that 16 minute per mile, every mile, correct.

Speaker 8: 26:49

Yeah, and one of the things I just want people to know is that every 16 minutes our watches are in lockstep with the Disney folks, the folks that are on the bikes. So every 16 minutes we hit one of the mile markers and if we're there five seconds early, we wait the five seconds and then we get going again on the 16 minute pace.

Speaker 2: 27:15

I got you. So you recalibrate so that you're at every mile marker, at some multiple of 16 minutes, correct, and you will start not only from the back. You'll be dead last starters. In fact, you kind of pause a little bit before you start, don't you?

Speaker 7: 27:32

Yeah, Once we cross the start line, we gather up with the Disney bikers and then we all start our watches together.

Speaker 2: 27:41

I got you, I got you, sue. The entire field is in front of you.

Speaker 9: 27:46

Yes.

Speaker 2: 27:47

Yeah, okay, yeah. Then the Disney bikers ride out there and they tell the back of the pack runners things like you're only three minutes ahead of the balloon, ladies, you're only four minutes ahead of the balloon, ladies.

Speaker 7: 28:02

I wish they wouldn't do that, because they also clear the bathrooms and they also clear the character line, so that we don't have to. We used to be the ones saying hello the balloon ladies are passing. Get out of the bathroom, hurry up.

Speaker 6: 28:17

Yeah.

Speaker 7: 28:18

And Disney started putting the bikers in charge of that for us, which is very, very helpful.

Speaker 2: 28:24

I think I get that. I do get that and I think that is important, but I would rather they give the message at your three minutes behind the or three minutes ahead of the 16 minute pace, because it makes it sound like you're the sweepers and in fact you're not.

Speaker 8: 28:41

No, no. We are not the sweepers. We are the visual representation. This is what we tell everybody. We are the visual representation of what the 16 minute pace and the line is. So we keep as even of a pace as we possibly can, knowing that we're going through all the same tight squeezes that the rest of the folks are going through when it gets crowded after Magic Kingdom. We're in that crowd with everybody else.

Speaker 2: 29:10

Yeah.

Speaker 8: 29:12

So we do our best to keep that pace as much as possible, but we're not the one who says come on, bring the bus on. No, no, we're not the folks that control that there you go, there you go.

Speaker 5: 29:26

I've heard some people even say that the balloon ladies will chase you down and tag you and that's how you get on the bus and that's absolutely ridiculous, right? You guys don't?

Speaker 7: 29:35

do anything like that. That would be way too much effort.

Speaker 8: 29:41

And, honestly, like what we end up doing a lot of times is like we see some folks that are kind of struggling and we say, okay, you know, and because a lot of people are going through people's names obviously are on their beds, we say you know, hey, susie, come on, you got this, you got this, you don't want to get picked up. We try to bring them along as much as possible. But some people in their heart of hearts just know they're not going to make it.

Speaker 8: 30:07

And these races and I'll say this to all blue in the face these are mental. Once you get into a half marathon I heard you guys interviewing a couple of weeks ago on a half marathon folks and a full marathon especially A lot of that is mental. You know it's a physical. Obviously it's a huge physical thing to complete a half marathon or a marathon, but it's mental and if you are not mentally in the game, you're not going to finish.

Speaker 8: 30:34

You know, so we do our best to encourage folks and pick people out of the crowd and say okay, you know we're going to keep going, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, but there's only so much we can do.

Speaker 5: 30:45

I've seen it. You guys are really good cheerleaders. I've seen you kind of pick up the spirits of some of the people around you that you can see have almost given up, and then they hear you saying you know, you've got this. Just you know, keep bent, bend at the elbows. I remember hearing Molly say that once in a night.

Speaker 5: 31:03

Bend at the elbows and you got. You can just keep putting one foot in front of the other. You got this and you can see their spirits just go. I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to keep doing this. So it's, it's a really awesome um. You know you provide a service of being the 60 minute pace miles, but you also are the best cheerleaders in the whole dang race. You really are.

Speaker 8: 31:24

We try our best and we try to banter off of each other a lot, you know, just to kind of keep conversation going and people somewhat interested. I'm sure some people want to tell us to shut up, but we, you know, molly and I, we pick on each other in fun of course and just try to keep things lively and light, you know, because it doesn't get hard out there.

Speaker 2: 31:46

It certainly can. I think you provide a wonderful service to run Disney runners and I think it needs to be understood and recognized and hopefully that some of our listeners who may get a chance to meet you maybe. But I want them to understand and recognize what it is you do and that you're doing it for them really, because, well, what else is there? So 16 minutes a mile, so you pretty much walk the entire time.

Speaker 7: 32:15

Yeah, Unless we are behind. If we get behind or we get in a bottleneck, and then you usually hear us say we have to run to keep pace, Don't? You don't have to, but we are behind pace. You know, at certain points, other than that, we are usually walking.

Speaker 2: 32:33

Got it, Got it. Yeah, we had discussed earlier the choke points coming from Hollywood Studios over to the boardwalk big time, choke point, and you can get behind there, I'm sure. How do you train for this?

Speaker 7: 32:48

I train with the Galloway Group locally and this year is actually the last. Two years is my. I'm only walking. I am not running at all anymore. So I do speed work during the week. I do what Galloway recommends Tuesday and Thursday speed work, and then I get my long miles in on Saturdays.

Speaker 2: 33:08

Right, right right. Typical Galloway training plan.

Speaker 8: 33:11

So I run typically after kids has been a little bit rougher than before kids.

Speaker 8: 33:18

I typically try to run twice a week, usually on Thursday mornings and Saturday mornings with my group, and then I got a peloton a couple of years ago, so I try to get a couple of rides in during the week at night, like after the kids go to bed and everybody else is down, just to get some cross training in. But usually I'll do longer miles on Saturday and and, like Molly, we just keep it up all year, no matter if we have a specific race we're training for. We know Disney's coming up like we're out there every Saturday doing some sort of mileage.

Speaker 3: 33:52

So I'm so glad that you mentioned the Galloway training program, but I also want to backtrack a little bit to the bike paces as well too, and my question relates to when you really think about it. There's a lot going on in the back of the pack. You have, you find ladies, you have the run Disney bike paces and then you also have the Galloway 16 minute pace group. So, whether for the half that's the 330 or for the marathon, you know the seven, you know seven hour limit there, Obviously each one of you are separate entities. Would you describe and explain to our listeners the purpose and the responsibilities that each one of those groups has, Because someone very well might see, okay, they see the, the 330 or the seven hour pacer go by, maybe thinking that that's you all, when theory maybe it's not. So you just, you know, differentiate all those different groups for our listeners please.

Speaker 7: 34:55

So the Galloway paces do intervals. So they usually will start at the further ahead in the corral than we do and they key. They do intervals usually 30, 30s, 20, 30s, something like that. We try to push them and play games with them so they stay in front of us because we don't like being too close to them. We tend to stress their groups out, but we do play Marco Polo a lot lately. That's fun.

Speaker 7: 35:24

Um, the Disney bikers. We have a couple of different sets of them. We do have two of them that are typically the flaggers. Those are the ones that bike to every mile so that we know if we are on pace and then they can flag as soon as we're at the 16 minute pace. There are other bikers that are kind of floaters, that will go in between and kind of keep people up to speed, check on people if they're injured, see what's going on. They have a couple that do bathrooms, they have a couple that do the. The character stops, and then we've got the medics around as well. So everybody has their own job to do. We are just the visuals for everybody to know where that end is.

Speaker 6: 36:12

I know there's more than the two that you're on on this call right now, but do you guys do like all the races so like, are you doing the 10 K to have the marathon or do you guys pick and choose what races you guys do?

Speaker 7: 36:26

So we currently have five balloon ladies and we rotate throughout the races. We kind of have a pecking order in a way is the way I like to say it those of us that have been around and then we have a couple newer people Um Kathleen's the only crazy one who continues to always want the marathon.

Speaker 7: 36:48

Um I am training for the marathon this year as well, and one of our newer balloon ladies, heather, is also training for the marathon. Other than that, the 10 K's, the halves, the challenges, it depends on the race. Nancy is not a big fan of princess, so she doesn't like to do princess at all. Um, and it just depends on who's available. If we have something going on, um, like this year, connie is actually doing dopey, so her and Nancy are. I think they're pay. They might be pacing a couple of the races like the 10 K and half, maybe I can't remember. So, um, we kind of pick and choose.

Speaker 8: 37:31

Yeah, For me it's hard and with the two kids now and Molly has two kids too, but um, it's hard to do. The back to back races is hard because again, everybody knows you got to wake up at the two, 30 in the morning to get down to make a drive down.

Speaker 8: 37:47

I four because I don't. I don't spend the night down there. So to get there, to be in place and make sure you don't have any issues, because I have to trap the issues a couple of times get in there, um. But I did do the princess back to back to 10 K, the half that that was great. I had a great time doing it this year. But I like doing the full. I like doing the one day, um, and I really enjoy that.

Speaker 5: 38:09

You can't see it behind Kathleen, but she's saying this and there's probably like 45, 50 medals.

Speaker 8: 38:19

My husband made fun of me because I was trying to figure where I was going to do this, because he's getting the kids down and everything for bed. And I said we'll do it this way and I'll face my medals. Very proud of you.

Speaker 2: 38:28

Yeah, very nice, very nice yeah.

Speaker 4: 38:33

I was like I'm going to be in ahead of the balloon lady. So I haven't. Really, there's only one race that I got close enough to you guys that I was like, oh, I gotta step it up. Um, but for our listeners who are worried about their pace I know I'm kind of worried about my pace for the marathon Um, what's the process that happens in the back of the pack? Like you know, you guys pass, um, you're maintaining the 16 minute mile. What happens next?

Speaker 8: 39:03

So we keep a general pace, the 16 minute pace, and and that Disney has um pretty much established, but it changes. It can change from race to race, um pickup point. So we keep the pace, we keep the pace and then at certain points of the race Disney decides that's where they're going to cut off, to kind of keep things going so they can start opening the park back up. So really we don't get too involved with that side of things. Our responsibility is just to stay on that 16 minute pace and try to get as many people at least our perspective to get as many people through there, encouraging them kind of cheering them along to keep going through so they don't get picked up. I'm not sure if that answers your question or not.

Speaker 7: 39:55

We're always going to tell you go until Disney tells you otherwise, unless you are truly injured, if you truly have something going on. But, like Kathleen said, a lot of this is mental, if we can get you through a mental spot and you know, everybody hits a wall at a different point. So we just tell you keep going until Disney tells you otherwise, or until you see those motorcycles and those police, you just keep going.

Speaker 2: 40:26

Right, right, very good.

Speaker 5: 40:28

It sounds like you guys know some of the places that you can no longer be swept by too. So I feel like that's, if you do meet the balloon ladies, they may be able to sort of kind of get you through that to that point. I know, nothing's a guarantee, but that might be a that's a nice advantage.

Speaker 2: 40:48

So let's. Let's is that there are points in the race and I don't know if you know them or not, and I'm not even sure I'm saying this I assume there are points in the race where you're you're not going to get swept anymore. Is that correct or no?

Speaker 8: 41:00

So so, like we tell everybody in the race and in the back of the pack, you are not safe until you cross the finish line. That's good advice.

Speaker 2: 41:07

That's good advice.

Speaker 8: 41:09

Because because I have seen this where you finally get to Epcot and everybody's like, oh, let me get my beer, let me get my drink and let me do all the things I want to do, but if you take your time you fall behind. You know, at a certain point Disney is going to say we're done. You know we don't we don't know that point. That's good, we just, we just encourage people to keep moving and just move in.

Speaker 2: 41:33

Thank you, that's a great answer, thanks.

Speaker 5: 41:35

So my question was if you fall behind the balloon, ladies, you can still finish the race. And I think you you kind of answered that question that if you keep moving. Yeah, if you keep moving forward, you can still finish.

Speaker 7: 41:51

Yeah, if you're moving on your own accord at a good pace, you are not stopping and getting your beer and you're not, you know, stopping for a five minute bathroom break. If you are moved and you're not injured, you know if you're crawling or you know you have a boot on or a walker or whatever you have. There could be a point where Disney we have seen it they bring golf carts in. Yes people up at the very end.

Speaker 2: 42:17

Yes, I wrote a golf cart, but I was injured. I well, we shared this story. I had my knee replaced. I knew I wasn't going to finish and I got to that point and I said that's it, I'm done. And Disney was great. I mean, the golf cart was there and like 30 seconds and that was it. That's a. That's a different thing. Kids, that's yeah. That's a different thing than what we're talking about here, than than sweepers and and not keeping up to the minimum.

Speaker 8: 42:43

And that's another thing Disney is pretty good about and we try to flag people. If you know we're chatting with somebody and they're just not doing, ok, we'll flag one of the medics down and let them know, or flag one of the bike people and they'll get a medic in there right away.

Speaker 2: 42:57

Yeah, they were all over it.

Speaker 5: 42:58

So, on the same sort of vein, if you start in front of the balloon ladies, let's say a couple corals in front, you, you're. You don't really have to keep a 16 minute per mile pace to finish the race either. You should aim for it, but you might have a buffer of 20 minutes or something like that. Is there a way to find out when you guys cross the starting lines? Or it's like tracking a balloon lady, kind of frowned upon.

Speaker 8: 43:24

I think people track us all the time.

Speaker 2: 43:26

They do, they do they all know Molly's name. Yeah, and your bid number gets circulated online, right?

Speaker 7: 43:33

And unless it's a security threat or there is heightened issues going on, everybody would be able to find us somehow, some way, and I don't know. I never put my bid number out there, but everybody seems to track it?

Speaker 2: 43:49

Yeah, they do, but again, I can tell you from experience, Ali. The other thing that happens is the Disney cyclists will tell you where the balloon ladies are, and so they may tell you. The balloon ladies are four minutes behind you. All right, and I can look at the race and go okay, I've got four miles to go and I got a four minute buffer. So if I walk 17 minute miles for the next four miles, I'm going to finish it approximately the same time they do.

Speaker 3: 44:17

So there is information being disseminated at the back of the pack and Bob thank God you are so good at math, because I remember that was the exact situation you and I had during the race, during the half marathon last year. Because you know what does Galloway say when you're doing Goofy or Dopey walk the half.

Speaker 2: 44:34

Walk the half.

Speaker 3: 44:35

And this was my, you know, I think I was in star group five or something like that, and I remember we I think the only place we stopped for a picture was Cinderella's castle.

Speaker 3: 44:44

Yeah, and it was my first ever experience with the bike paces. Now, thankfully I never saw you find ladies, but you know it was my first experience hearing that and I remember the first time they said something I got a little nervous and then, thankfully, bob was there with me, being the statistician that he is to be like Greg, as long as we keep doing what we're doing and I know we can do it we're fine. And as soon as he said that, then that's when my nerves, you know, chilled, in that I was able to enjoy the rest of the half.

Speaker 5: 45:12

And I was with you guys, walking with you, and that's when I was fudging. I started fudging with my shoe and like some moleskin, and that's when I had the extreme pleasure of meeting the balloon ladies and they are the sweetest people that I've ever met, so I knew that they needed to come on the podcast to show everybody that there's nothing to be afraid of. Yeah, you actually are a pleasure to meet.

Speaker 8: 45:40

Well, I will tell you one recommendation I would have for folks, if they're. You know you're training, you're training, you're keeping the 60 minute pace. When you get in your corral, when you get there at three in the morning, get as far in front of the corral as possible. Because, they're hanging. Yeah, the folks are hanging out in the back. I want to be in the dead last.

Speaker 8: 46:04

Get up to the front of the crowd to give yourself as much of a buffer time as possible, because then folks yell at us and they say, well, when are you going to the bathroom? You know, does that include bathroom breaks? And I was joking. We don't go to the bathroom.

Speaker 7: 46:18

All the time.

Speaker 2: 46:22

That's part of balloon lady training no bathrooms.

Speaker 7: 46:26

But you have to practice. Another thing to practice Go to the bathroom when you're sweaty and you have to figure out putting your pants back on.

Speaker 2: 46:36

That's a good point.

Speaker 7: 46:37

It's the new kind of training.

Speaker 2: 46:41

Right.

Speaker 9: 46:42

It's real. I told you guys before we started recording that I'm absolutely fascinated by you guys. When I first heard balloon ladies, like when I first started doing the races, I thought you guys were legitimately a myth. I thought I didn't know that that was an actual thing because I haven't seen it. When I first saw you guys before, I was on the monorail and I had a friend go over and show me the balloon ladies are here, I'm like, oh my God, they're real. And I went up to the window of the monorail. I started freaking out and you guys were a distance, obviously because I was on the monorail. But I was so shocked that it was real. I wanted to get a picture. I was so it was awesome. And then this past January I was actually injured, so I didn't run the marathon. But, molly, now I think about it I think I've actually seen you before. So I don't remember what mile marker this is, but I know it's a few miles before the finish line and it's over by Coronado.

Speaker 4: 47:40

Since I wasn't able to, it was like 22 or yeah, between 21 and 22 is where we were.

Speaker 9: 47:47

I was cheering the race with Lexi and it was so awesome to see all these runners and then I finally saw you guys up close and personal. My jaw just dropped. I was like whoa, they're real again. And but like what I found the most coolest thing is how encouraging you guys were for like all the runners, and you guys even gave a heads up because I knew I think we were close to a mile marker. Because you guys gave a heads up hey, you guys, just a heads up. We're all going to be the mile markers coming around, so please make sure you are in front of us. And you guys were so nice and you are encouraging all the runners around you and I thought that was so cool. So my question for you is is what is the most memorable story you've had with a runner on the course, whether it be half marathon, marathon or any other kind of distance?

Speaker 8: 48:42

Yeah, honestly, I can't say that. There's one in particular. A lot of times especially, you know, and you get the miles 18 to 25 and folks are just struggling. And and I do remember there was one lady at the marathon and I remember chatting it up with her and she was kind of chatting it up with us and kind of asking a bunch of questions and I remember saying to her you know how long is the furthest you've gone? Oh, I've run, or I walk six miles every day. I was like you never trained for this, oh no.

Speaker 8: 49:18

I mean, that's all the conversation we could have about training Sure is. We can touch on that, but honestly, god she finished. I remember there's certain people like you meet along the way and then you're like I wonder if they finished, and you see the process of finish like and yeah, and then you're like I wonder if they finished and you see the process of it's pretty cool, it's pretty cool she was probably grandmother. Yeah, there was issues with the grandmother. She had a grand kid. You know she's telling me all about all the methods of finish.

Speaker 8: 49:46

It was great. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 7: 49:48

Yeah, we meet so many people, we have so many stories and now, after you know 15 years, we have tons of stories from tons of people and a we were talking earlier about going through ESPN and doing like the track and stuff like that. I think it was. This is like my, my PTSD. I dread it every time because I believe it was the first dopey during the marathon. We had an older gentleman had braces on his knees Going around and I don't know what happened, but I ended up cutting in front of him and he tripped and he oh, it was just horrible for me, but we knew who the medics were. We were able to get them out. They got him taped up. I had him staged ahead of time. They got him taped up and he ended up finishing.

Speaker 2: 50:50

There you go.

Speaker 7: 50:52

But we had. You know that's one of the oh my God stories, but it's all these fun people that we meet, the cancer survivors and women and the you know, just coming out to do something for someone else, even not even for them. You know, they're supporting someone else or the team and training people. You know it's it's always so great to meet everybody that's back with us, because they've all got stories.

Speaker 2: 51:19

Yeah, it's a wonderful community.

Speaker 9: 51:21

If it's okay, I'm gonna ask just a really quick question. It's a myth, buster, and I don't know. I believe a lot of things in life, so I hope this is real because, this being such a huge smile to my face, so this is a myth. I don't. Someone told me Is it true that you will say a joke every mile, like a mom joke or a dad joke? That's what someone told me and I feel like right now they lied to me because you guys are I'm not sure. I can't tell the expression.

Speaker 7: 51:50

I think that's awesome regardless of the news, I can talk for seven hours. It's highly possible I'm telling jokes. There you go.

Speaker 8: 52:00

We tell a lot of funny stories and, like I said, we ban her back and forth. My kids tell me jokes all the time, so I'll try one out on the group, and sometimes it's hard because people get quiet the longer miles you go. And nobody's really laughing at you. But you look back and you see smirks on folks' faces and they're listening and they're just trying to get through and it's like you are, you know.

Speaker 7: 52:25

And we play games. I mean games make it fun too.

Speaker 9: 52:29

What kind of game?

Speaker 7: 52:32

Who has a bigger butt than you. Catch up to us. I'm trying to have fun. That's always a funny. What else do we play? Oh, the kids cancer group had the pink flowers for princess a few years ago, and everybody was wearing them and then they started falling off. So then we played. Run to the Next Flower. Who can fight?

Speaker 7: 52:56

the flower, and so we played the flower game for a while. We do play Marco Polo with the 330 paces and seven hour paces for Galloway. What else? We play songs. If you don't want to hear me sing, you better get running.

Speaker 2: 53:15

We've tried a variation of that on the podcast.

Speaker 9: 53:17

Yeah, we do a bunch of stuff. You guys are so much fun.

Speaker 2: 53:21

Jack, in true mythbusters fashion, we're going to call that joke a mile plausible. Remember, yeah, oh yeah, confirmed, busted and plausible. So we're going to call that one plausible.

Speaker 5: 53:33

It sounds like you guys have the party where you are, so I kind of want to run a race pacing with you guys.

Speaker 3: 53:41

Well. Ok, Well, I mean we always say that Run Disney is the mullet. It's business in the front and the party in the back.

Speaker 5: 53:47

That's right, that's right.

Speaker 8: 53:50

It's always fun to see like the fat people, because they're going by us when we're on mile one and they're all waving to us too, so it feels good when they're out there too.

Speaker 9: 54:00

OK, so this just was like an epiphany all of a sudden. So now I really have to ask this. I'm so, I'm so fascinated. Has anybody ever dressed up as you guys, with the balloons in the back and if they have? Yeah, I was wondering. They told to take it off. Yeah, oh my gosh, Some people have.

Speaker 2: 54:22

That's a great question.

Speaker 7: 54:23

And that started probably five or six years ago I think A few people because we were consistently having the same balloons. Somebody got one from the park the day before and they brought it and Disney and they even had it like a big 16 minute pacer bib on.

Speaker 6: 54:43

Yeah, oh my.

Speaker 7: 54:45

Because people in the corrals were just not happy. But they will, disney will. When they cross the start line, they will ask them for their balloons and that they will get them one after the race.

Speaker 9: 54:57

Wow, it's like you don't want to talk about Bruno again.

Speaker 6: 55:02

Yeah, we saw that on, I think, the half list, because a lot of people are dressed as up, so they had the balloons hanging from them.

Speaker 7: 55:10

Yeah, usually that's a cluster of balloons, so it's a little bit different.

Speaker 3: 55:15

Ladies, quick question for you. Speaking of the physical balloon itself, I know I have heard countless stories of people who buy the massive balloons in the park early on in their trip and then they pass along to another little kid on their last day the bright enough their day, because who really wants to check that through TSA coming home and everything like that? What do you do with your balloons after you cross the finish line?

Speaker 7: 55:42

I usually give them to my kids because my kids have to suffer with me, not being home so much so that's just a little treat that they get.

Speaker 8: 55:52

Yeah, my daughter gets mine every time.

Speaker 2: 55:55

No, they need to go on eBay. 500 bucks eBay Collectors items.

Speaker 7: 56:00

Yes, star balloons, absolutely we used to get big money offers on those.

Speaker 2: 56:05

Only used once. I told a story last week about something going on eBay from Disney. Yeah, they need to. No, I'm joking, of course.

Speaker 1: 56:12

So, molly and Kathleen, I'm wondering what your favorite Disney races are.

Speaker 8: 56:17

For me, I would say the Disney full marathon, because I think that is a real test of endurance and seeing people cross that finish line when for a lot of folks it's their first marathon ever, to see folks in the sense of accomplishment that they have when they're done.

Speaker 7: 56:38

I like each race for a specific reason, whether it's the theme. You know, when we used to have wine and dine at night, that was really cool because we never ran at night until we started having all the rain issues. I'm going to say the marathon is not always my favorite one, other than seeing people at the end, just because it's such a hard race. But, princess, is fun because everybody's girly and they're dressed up and I love seeing the men on those races come dressed as frogs. Kiss me, I'll kiss your hands.

Speaker 2: 57:12

Oh hey, that's good. I'm doing my first princesses here. Great idea, there you go.

Speaker 7: 57:21

But they're all fun for a different reason.

Speaker 2: 57:23

Yeah, they are, they are, we agree. Ok, maybe one last question how does someone become a balloon lady?

Speaker 8: 57:34

So pretty much one of us has to die or win the lottery I like it.

Speaker 5: 57:42

Or win the lottery.

Speaker 2: 57:44

I like it, so that's the only way there's going to be a vacancy, huh.

Speaker 7: 57:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 57:48

All right, all right. Well, I hope you are there for many, many, many more Run Disney events, and we have been looking forward to this for weeks. Hopefully we dispelled some myths, hopefully we got people to realize that the balloon ladies are your friend and I say this seriously now and they are a tremendous help to us To we Run Disney runners Really really helpful, especially if you're out there at the back of the pack. Somebody's there to help you along and to show you you've got to be up to here and it's just. It's quite a service and a lot of dedication on your part and really very admirable. So thank you for what you do, thank you for spending time with us and we're going to look for you at our next events, but we're going to look for you before the event starts and then maybe, hopefully, we won't see you again after that.

Speaker 7: 58:48

That's a good, good decision. Before and after the race is the best time to see us.

Speaker 2: 58:53

Beautiful, beautiful. Well, friends, we hope you enjoyed that. Sorry we missed you for most of the episode, but the balloon ladies were a great visit and we hope you enjoyed hearing from them again, or maybe for the first time. Looking ahead Episode 113. Our friends from the Run Dopey Group are going to join us. A good number of them participated in the New York City Marathon so we will be talking with them about that. Episode 114. We highlight running in groups. We got a couple of special guests that we're going to bring on to talk about group runs. Friends.

Speaker 2: 59:34

Now it's time for a unique version of the race report Now, not a real race report this week. First, we would like to mention the people who are on the race report as of the recording, so we can say we know these folks ran last week. However, I don't have a report of how you did. We will not let you down. We'll bring it back and we'll summarize all those in episode 113. So next week's race report is going to be pretty long. Meanwhile, here's who was scheduled to run last week. On Friday, scott was doing a 5k at the Sudbury Road Race, sudbury, massachusetts. Amy, amanda and Brittany Fort Oglethorpe, georgia, the Chickamauga Half Marathon. I assume that goes around the Chickamauga battlefield In Monterey, california. Kate ran the Pacific Grove Lighthouse 5K. Hannah ran the Richmond Half Marathon Richmond, virginia, margaret and John over in Winter Garden, florida. The run for the gift of swimming 5K. I think run for the gift of swimming I think that sounds like an oxymoron to me.

Speaker 2: 1:01:02

I think they did that last year. We'll have to check when we get their report. So we'll tune into 113 and we'll find out how you run for the gift of swimming. It's like a duathlon, right? Yeah, they do have those, John. I don't think that's what this is.

Speaker 3: 1:01:21

Or everyone gets a hydration belt and you have to do the equivalent of a 5K in a pool.

Speaker 2: 1:01:27

Oh, that would take a while. That would take a while.

Speaker 6: 1:01:29

yes, a floatation belt yeah, we all go down to the Lezy River and do the 5K.

Speaker 2: 1:01:35

Yes, oh golly Remember we had one of our friends.

Speaker 3: 1:01:39

Kristi was supposed to do it, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:01:41

Yeah, and the weather? It got canceled. Yeah, yeah, never did happen. Either it got canceled or she couldn't do it. One or the other.

Speaker 3: 1:01:49

Yeah, I want to say her kid of hers got sick, or something like that. I think that's right. I think that's right.

Speaker 2: 1:01:54

I think she couldn't do it. Yeah, boy, that sounds interesting, though. All right, hold on.

Speaker 3: 1:01:59

Now this leads me to a great idea. You know, bob, you know how you, john and I did the one and only Skyliner 15K. Excellent, I think. For one of these weekends, as long as they continue to offer that 50% off water ticket, whether it's Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach, we should do a rise and run Lezy River 5K.

Speaker 3: 1:02:23

We'll get you know one of us will wear a watch. We'll, you know we'll do. We'll do one lap in research to see how long you know the Lezy River is, and then we'll just figure out how many laps we just got to sit there and talk and we'll have our 5K.

Speaker 2: 1:02:38

Yeah, I could see that going from a 5K to a half-miler, but we'll see. We'll see. It could be fun though. It could be fun, greg, it could be fun to do something like that. I could see. I could see getting enough rise and run friends there to scare the bejesus out of the lifeguards.

Speaker 3: 1:02:57

It's just a massive daisy chain. Everybody else it's going to be great.

Speaker 6: 1:03:02

How much is it to close the park down for ourselves?

Speaker 2: 1:03:07

All right, let's take a look at Sunday. Sunday starts in Athens, greece. The Athens Marathon page. That sounds like a really great event to run. I know last year Coach Twig took a good size group over there, so I hope you had a great time at that one. In Castlebury, florida, the Trust Co-Veterans 5K Julie will be there. Julie will be there with her A-linker In Arizona I don't have the city written down the Arizona Veterans Day Run 5K.

Speaker 2: 1:03:44

Molly has done that one. Kate has done the Cyprus Half Marathon in Cyprus, texas. Another Kate. The Monterey Bay Half Marathon slash Ocean View Challenge in Monterey, california, a very pretty area. Up in Boston. This is a chilly time of year to be running in Boston. The BAA Half Marathon Riley's doing that in St Petersburg. Not necessarily a chilly time to be running in St Petersburg. The St Pete Runfest 5K, 10k and a half. Laura, Dawn and Jennifer all did the half. I don't know how I missed this one, but I did Great events though. The St Pete Runfest is usually a terrific event. South Kingston, rhode Island. The Angry Unicorn Half Marathon Heather will be rolling through that one.

Speaker 3: 1:04:47

So I just Googled this race and I think this is a race that everyone should have on their bucket list, because the logo for this race is incredible. If Bob, picture it. Take the Denver Broncos football team logo, make it all pink and throw a horn. That's what this logo looks like, and I bet the merch is epic. So I might need to head up to Rhode Island next November.

Speaker 2: 1:05:21

But I was going to say this involves running in Rhode Island in November and I don't see me doing that. So I'm a big baby. Finishing the race report the St Louis Track Club 5K. Katie ran that one. All right, friends, that does it for episode 112 of the Rise and Run podcast. We hope you enjoyed our revisit with the balloon. Ladies. We hope you're training for whatever you're training for Marathon weekend, disneyland Princess Won't be long before we start training for springtime. But let's not rush it. Let's not rush through the season. Heck, we just got it started. Hope your training's going great. Hope you're having fun, my friend, and if you run, you know you are our friend. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Rise and Run podcast. We always enjoy bringing it to you and until we meet again, happy running.

Speaker 3: 1:06:29

The Rise and Run podcast discusses general information about Run Disney and is in no way affiliated with Run Disney or the Walt Disney Company. Any information or advice discussed on this podcast should not be considered medical advice and should always consult with your health care provider or event organizer.