111: 2023 runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend Recap

On this week's episode, step into the exhilarating world of the runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend! From the thrilling merchandise battles and expo highlights to the dizzying maze of corral confusion, we've got a bundle of stories to share. Brace yourselves for an intimate inside look into the weekend's race, the unforgettable Disney Springs meet-up, and of course, the spectacular after-party at Epcot!

We pull back the curtain on the 2023 Wine and Dine Half Marathon weekend, revealing a spectacle of Figment merchandise, costume dramas, and the electrifying experience of a half marathon. Hear the heart-pounding tales of costume confrontations, our triumphant sprint against obstacles, and our encounters at the finish line. From the laughter that echoed under beautiful weather to the friendships forged on the race track, we wrap it all up as we toast to John hopefully bringing his 90s mullet back and fun stories of Allie's posse .

As we revel in our listeners' awe-inspiring feats, from 5K runs to half marathons, and dare we say, ultra marathons, we serve up a banquet of race reports from our friends. We celebrate the victories, PRs, and unforgettable moments from various races, including the New York City Marathon, concluding the episode by anticipating upcoming events and giving a warm shout-out to all our friends who ran and shared their stories on Facebook. So tie up your laces, plug in your earphones, and join us on this thrilling running adventure. Thanks for tuning in and remember, stay fabulous, and Happy Running!

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Transcript

Greg: 0:04

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

Lexie: 0:35

Hey everyone, it's Hollywood coming to you from the Rise and Run meetup at Wine and Dine weekend and you're listening to the Rise and Run.

Bob: 0:40

Podcast Our buddy Tony, that guy is everywhere.

John: 0:48

Announced himself Hollywood Bob.

Bob: 0:49

Yes, he announces his Hollywood. I wanted to throw his proper name out there, so friends know who he is.

Greg: 0:56

Yeah, the issue is, though, the nickname sticks because, if I believe, he made two out of the three official Run Disney Facebook posts of this weekend so yes the Hollywood lore continues.

Bob: 1:09

Hollywood does. Our friend Kay made one also oh nice. Yeah, she did. Well, we're kind of stumbling into this, my friends. Hey, welcome to episode 111, the Picket Fence episode, oh yeah, of the Rise and Run Podcast. I'm Bob. I'm here with Jack. Hi With Lexi Hello.

Allie: 1:36

With Ally Hi friends.

Bob: 1:37

With Greg hey, hey, hey. And with John hey, how you doing, John? I'm doing great. I'm doing as well as I was when I saw you 24 hours ago. Yes, oh, what a marvelous kickoff to the Run Disney race season. Man, that's what we're going to talk about tonight, my friends. We're going to recap Wine and Dine weekend, so we'll be sharing the episode with you this evening For a bunch of reasons, one of them being the fact that my internet was out for about 18 hours. We don't have a specific race report spotlight guest, but we do have a couple of friends who left us some recorded race report spotlight messages, so we'll be highlighting them when they come along.

Bob: 2:37

My friends, if you enjoy this podcast and we hope that you do please share us with your friends. I think we got shared a bunch this weekend. I hope maybe we have some new friends listening. If you are a new friend listening after the Wine and Dine weekend, welcome. We hope you enjoy us. Please introduce your friends to the podcast. We absolutely love sharing in this Run Disney training and racing journey. Remember to follow us, please on Facebook at Rise and Run podcast, on Instagram at Rise and Run pod, and check out our YouTube channel the Rise and Run podcast YouTube channel. You can also visit our webpage riseandrunpodcastcom. We've got a hotline. You can call and leave us a recorded message If you got a question. Maybe you want to make a comment on the crickets that are making so much noise behind me. Maybe you'd like to leave a race report, so as some of our friends have done here, or maybe you want to introduce an upcoming episode. Call us 727-266-2344. Leave us a recorded message.

John: 3:56

So also I just want to bring something up by finding us on our different channels. Over the weekend we had somebody try to sell fake merch on our Facebook page. We would only be selling anything from us on our website, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you see anything else out there, please do not click it. We don't know what's going to happen to you. It's just a precaution.

Bob: 4:24

Thanks, John. It's happened three or four times and we've either seen it or one of our friends has alerted us to it really very quickly. So I'd be surprised if anybody's done that, but I do thank you for making that. I wanted to bring that up also. If it's not from us, if it's not going through our website, it's not riseandrunmersiondice.

Lexie: 4:51

And I'll also say one of us will post about it. It won't be some person that you've never heard of.

Bob: 4:59

I think most of our friends know that. In fact, I think our friends are more likely to notify us than they are to order something. But you never know. You get a new person and they don't know the deal, so I'm glad you brought it up. John, Friends of the RiseandRun podcast is sponsored by our good friends at Magic Bound Travel. Got a chance to visit with Brad and Maggie this weekend. Saw Missy and her family. The Magic Bound Travel folks were there. As we mentioned many times, if you're doing a run Disney event and you're dealing with Magic Bound Travel, the agent who is assisting you is going to be a veteran of run Disney events so they'll understand what your needs are. Check them out. Magicboundtravelcom is their website. Let them know. You heard about them on the RiseandRun podcast. Talk to about our YouTube channel, Jack. What's new with the YouTube channel?

Jack: 5:59

Yes, so we're going to be posting about once a week, usually beyond Fridays at 5 am this coming week. I'm so beyond excited to share this one. So we will be starting a kind of a series that we'll do once a month. That is kind of like a did you hear about this race series? And they're basically we're going to feature races that are unique, that I feel like you can't see anywhere else, and Allie ran one of those races and it's just like not just that, but it was her first Ultra and she had. Yes, allie ran an Ultra.

Allie: 6:42

She sure did Awesome. I like my last Ultra actually. Oh no, no, it's the Gateway Ultra Allie I know yeah.

Jack: 6:52

But what makes this like so cool is like when she was talking about, she got me so hyped and it's like I did not know about this race until she did it and the way it was being described and the pictures I saw. I'm like I cannot wait to share this and I can't wait for Allie to tell her story and share how amazing this race is. So look out for that on Friday. Like a 5 am.

Bob: 7:15

Nice, Nice, Allie's Ultra. Then we got some. We'll have some. We'll have something on Wine and Dine not long after right.

Jack: 7:22

Yes, absolutely.

Bob: 7:24

Awesome. So please check out our YouTube channel. Look for the Rise and Run Podcast YouTube channel, subscribe and see what's going on over there. Friends, we also have a Patreon link for supporting the podcast and we got a contest going on there. Greg, what's up with the contest?

Greg: 7:45

Yeah, so our contest for our last Tokyo prize is officially going on. We have that Tokyo Disneyland 40th anniversary popcorn bucket. Just a couple of days ago I posted a video on our Facebook page and Instagram stories about it, showing off how cool the design is and how it glows and changes colors and everything like that. So if you're interested in getting your name into a raffle for that popcorn bucket, all you have to do is join us over on patreoncom Rise and Run Podcast. You can join at any level you want. As long as you do that before November 20th, your name will be entered into a drawing for the popcorn bucket and we're looking forward to shipping that off to one lucky winner.

Bob: 8:36

And again, folks who are current Patreons will be entered into that drawing also. That is absolutely correct. Sounds like fun. I saw that. Becky saw it too. She wanted to know how to win it.

Greg: 8:49

Again, it's a fine print.

Bob: 8:51

Yeah, I told her no. No, Rebecca, no.

Jack: 8:55

All right, I feel like this just needs to be in the podcast. At the moment, I'm looking at Lexi's picture and I feel like you all should know this. Lexi, is that a Christmas tree up? It is the 7th of November, my friend.

Bob: 9:08

That's not wrong.

Lexie: 9:09

It's after Halloween, so I have a Christmas tree.

John: 9:15

Lexi, joe's going to be so proud of you. Yeah, I know.

Lexie: 9:22

Well, originally the plan was to put it up on November 1st, but because of wine and dine and everything like that, Kevin and I decided that we were going to put it up whenever I got back. So that's what we did last night.

Bob: 9:35

We put it up whenever you want to young lady.

Lexie: 9:37

Exactly, and then, according to the internet, people who put up early Christmas decorations are happier.

Bob: 9:47

I don't know if Becky will listen to this podcast or not, but if she does, it comes out Thursday. I know what I'll be doing Friday.

Lexie: 9:56

I will say the Christmas tree is up with lights on, we don't have any decorations. It's mainly to see how Scooby, my new puppy, reacts to it, and we're trying to like wean him into Christmas decorations so he's not like oh my gosh, I have to break everything.

Bob: 10:12

All right.

Lexie: 10:13

Yeah. It's a training exercise, all right?

Bob: 10:16

Hey, good, good, all right, let's come back to us a little bit. We do it every week. Let's take a look at the training schedules for upcoming events. Now that wine and dine is behind us and the run, disney race season is underway, my friends, marathon weekend is eight weeks away. It's eight weeks away, you think. Uh, yeah, we've got Christmas trees up. The Christmas trees will still be up in most households when marathon weekend's going on. Eight weeks away. The long run this week and if you're doing that, one of the long races are the challenges. The long run this week is six miles. This is week 20 on the training schedule. Disneyland's the week after it's nine weeks away. Three miles on the Disneyland training calendar and princess now 15 weeks away. I know it sounds like a long way off, but I'm sure we have friends who are registered just for princess. 15 weeks uh, less than four months won't be that long. We'll be over there running through the castle. Long run this weekend is three miles. We'll talk more about all of those in upcoming episodes. Hey, a little alibis and apologies sections. We do this every now and then. I'm going to stick a comment in here which is neither an alibi nor an apology, but it's a good time to stick it in.

Bob: 11:47

I was talking with our friend, john, talking with John and Margaret at the meetup. John says Bob, I got a bone to pick with you. Margaret's playing the podcast over speakers in the house. I come walking in and I go there's a cricket in here, turn that down so I can find the cricket. Margaret turns it down and the cricket goes away. The crickets are behind me. My friends, I record this outside on a Florida evening. Most of the time, because I'm getting old and I spend a heck of a lot of time in helicopters, I can't hear them. I can hear them tonight, so I'm sure you can hear them too. So if you think you got crickets in your house, turn the podcast off. Then check again. It's probably just Bob. Friends I said this at the top. What an awesome weekend. We got lucky in a lot of ways, but hey, let's recap. Let's talk about Wine and Dine weekend.

Greg: 12:51

So, as the only member of the Rise and Road podcast who was not at Wine and Dine, I am very, very excited to hear about all the ins and outs of this weekend. Obviously, it was following along on social media, but I got to admit I was shocked that in our podcast host Facebook private chat that we have, I was expecting like hundreds of messages that have to filter through and I was like you know what? You guys are pretty calm. So I mean that means and I'm glad that means you guys had a lot of fun and you weren't spending the time buried in your phones, which is awesome.

Greg: 13:26

We were busy. Yeah, exactly, you were busy doing great and fun things.

Allie: 13:30

Actually, greg, we had no fun without you, and that was the truth.

Bob: 13:34

Isn't that?

Allie: 13:35

right guys.

Bob: 13:35

Yeah, yes, when I said we were busy, I mean we were working and busy and we were busy missing Greg.

Allie: 13:42

Yeah, we pretty much saved, I mean. But we tried our best to kind of muddle through and have a little bit of fun without you.

Jack: 13:51

I was thinking of you in spirit. Oh thanks guys.

Greg: 13:56

But let's start where any good run Disney race weekend starts. The finish line. Let's talk about the expo and I got to know, you know, what are the rules of figment, figment Merch Fight Club. That's because I heard I heard rumblings on several different Facebook groups that there were altercations over the figment merge. So gang, tell me about the expo.

John: 14:30

You know, the first rule is we don't talk about figment fight club.

Lexie: 14:36

I will say I guess the first rule is that club run Disney and the people who get in first get the worm. No that's not true.

Bob: 14:46

Figment.

John: 14:47

That's not true. I was in group one, I was the sixth person in group one and a lot of that figment merchandise was not even there.

Jack: 14:54

Are you serious?

John: 14:56

Yes.

Greg: 14:59

Fast figures Johnny group one, and you know, can't even get merch, holy cow.

Jack: 15:04

You know what you know. What's sad is like you would think that Disney knows that, like this merge is going to fly off the roof or something like that. They would actually. Why is it fly off? The roof you know, I didn't know the correct saying, so that's the one I made up, and it just doesn't make sense if you expect anything else from me.

John: 15:24

I think Marty jumped off the roof onto the Mandalorian.

Jack: 15:30

You guys, I like literally I drove eight and a half hours. I got stuck in traffic and then like right before the podcast, so I'm a little tired.

Lexie: 15:40

I think that's just Jack. I don't have anything to do with me.

Bob: 15:44

I don't need it.

Allie: 15:46

I think it's all fine. It's going to fly off the shelves. Go ahead. That's what it was.

Jack: 15:51

That's what I meant, all right.

Allie: 15:54

You start again. Sorry, no, you can't Okay.

Jack: 15:58

Wait here, let me rewind like a VHS. There we go, okay. So there's that. Oh God, I'm tired, okay.

John: 16:09

So the rumor is again that they had a mix up with the supply company and they did not get all the pigment stuff that they wanted.

Lexie: 16:19

No, that's a lie.

John: 16:20

They're trying to create demand.

Jack: 16:22

I took merchandising and product development classes. They're trying to create demand.

Greg: 16:27

Here's an idea Get a different supplier. Then what if you? Yeah.

Jack: 16:32

Quality one. Is that fair to say, if you?

Bob: 16:35

create demand and you can't fill the demand, you're not making any money.

Lexie: 16:41

Exactly yeah.

Bob: 16:43

They're not making any money in the secondary market. They're not making any money from stuff sold on eBay.

Lexie: 16:49

And especially with something like these shirts. If they had enough of them, do you know how much more money they would make? Oh, a lot.

Jack: 16:58

The hoodies looked really cool, though I love the figment hoodies.

Greg: 17:01

All right, let me ask you guys, because, as an outsider perspective watching all of this on social media, one thing that Run Disney did knew this year is they invited? Certain members of the media, or the, I guess you can call them.

Lexie: 17:21

Run.

David: 17:21

Disney the influencer community.

Greg: 17:24

like our friend Kristen over running and makeup and Lisa Denota Glassner over at the Castle Runner, they were invited the night before essentially to show off the merch. I mean, obviously I know figment's a popular guy, but do you think that social media blitz led to any of this?

Jack: 17:42

potentially, oh, I think that you know what. I think it was cool that they had people come in and showcase it. It was nice to see what other merchandise that Disney hasn't shown already. I think that was really, really cool.

Lexie: 17:58

But I also feel like I mean, like you said, it kind of upped the anticipation of people being like oh well, I have to get a boarding group now because I want to go and get this specific thing that I didn't know existed because it hadn't been advertised or whatever.

Allie: 18:17

Yeah, Anytime they show some merch that people like it makes it look good and they like get excited about it, and then everybody wants to get it at the expo. That definitely makes sense.

Jack: 18:27

Let me put this to sense as well For someone who, like whenever I've, this is my third Y&Y and I don't usually tend to buy stuff during Y&Y weekend. I'm not really sure why, but this weekend I was actually extremely tempted to buy a lot of things, but I held back because I was trying to save money, especially with Disneyland. I don't know what to expect for that, so I'm just trying to save money at the moment. But, man, they actually had a lot of really good merchandise. I will also put out there that I wish it was still a champion that was doing the merchandise, because I loved all the stuff that they used to have, but they did a really good job this year.

Allie: 19:06

People really love Figment too. I just noticed how crazy people were about the just the Figment character and the races in general. But on a note of what you said earlier, greg, about supply and demand and maybe creating a little bit of demand, they had plenty of spirit jerseys this time when I went on Saturday and so I know that they know those are really popular now so they don't run out of those anymore. So I think that maybe they just didn't anticipate Figment being this popular.

Lexie: 19:36

One of the things that surprised me was they had the sweatshirt from Marathon Weekend, the dopey sweatshirt that absolutely flew off the shelves. That ended up being two sizes too small on everyone. They had it again Figment style and I know it got a lot of flak because the sizing was so off. Yeah, and it was the same thing, which I mean. I guess now people know they have to get two sizes bigger than what they normally get.

Jack: 20:05

Also try on the stuff. If you're getting like some of the closest, go ahead and like just put it on over your shirt or something. Just a double check sizing with that kind of stuff, because you don't want to buy it and then not fit, especially if there's rumors that you might want to do with different ties because sizing is off.

John: 20:23

I got two other things to say about the expo, one positive and one kind of positive. There was a lot of general run Disney merchandise out there. I mean tons of it.

Jack: 20:36

I loved that.

Bob: 20:37

Yeah, I liked it too, yeah.

Greg: 20:39

Well, it makes sense, especially since they launched kind of like their new branding with this weekend, you know with like the green and blue grading and everything. So that makes a lot of sense. But what's your not so positive comment, john?

John: 20:52

Okay, Remember when you used to go leave the expo with your merchandise and take the pictures with the characters. That was inside with the merchandise area now, so I didn't realize it I walk out with my bag to go get the pictures with the you know 3.1 signs and I realized how to go back inside and I'm like, do I got to go back through this whole queue line again to do this?

David: 21:20

But, no, they said no you could come inside over here.

Allie: 21:22

I went in the side and then John pulled up Don't you know who I am?

Jack: 21:29

I said hey come on man, how you doing.

John: 21:34

I'm from Jersey, come on and I walked in and so people have their bags. But then there's people with piles of clothes dropping it in front of the on the ground, just so they can go, take their pictures and walk away. I'm like, oh my God, that seemed a little, I don't know, oh my gosh.

Lexie: 21:52

I would say my final two cents about the expo. I did not get my flight, didn't get in early enough to get a boarding group on Thursday, but Rachel and Jack went in and bought a couple of things for me and I went again on Friday with my sister and some of the things they said had sold out were back in stock on Friday. Good, so that's positive. I mean I wish they would have been there, you know, when they were supposed to, but they did restock just a little bit. Yeah, that's good.

Bob: 22:25

A couple of observations I made on the expo and I have a different. To me, the expo is the vendor expo. I know we've spent, I think, all the time talking about the run Disney merch expo. I'm on race number 40 now. I have enough run Disney merch. I did get. I did get a polo shirt, the new style of run Disney. I did get that. But in terms of t-shirts and all that, I can't close the drawers in my bedroom now with t-shirts.

Bob: 22:54

So Bob has his own walking closet run Disney paraphernalia. I could but the first observation I made, and I've talked about this before I drive to Disney world go to lunch and then go to the expo. And since the pandemic that's what I've done every race and it I just walk right in. That's no problem. Not so fast, my friend. It was crowded. Now I had no problem picking up my bib. That was a relatively short line that worked. So we went right in and did that. But when I came out of the field house to pick up my bib, the line to get into the general merchandise expo started right there. It looped around. It was that long.

Bob: 23:49

At two in the afternoon on Thursday we, Becky and I, went through, we went back, we checked into our resort. We had nothing else planned. I said I'm going to go back. I didn't get a chance to talk to Jeff or Chris, I'm going to go back to the expo. It was still crowded at 5.30 in the evening. It closed at seven but it was still crowded going in at 5.30. When I left at about 6.30, there's still people driving in. So that was my first hint and we'll bear this out in just a little bit. That we were back to, and maybe even beyond, pre-pandemic numbers, and in fact that was correct.

John: 24:39

We were. There's something else I noticed when I left the expo, besides them running out of pretzels, which is another thing I don't understand but the line going into the expo of traffic was absurd. I mean, it was lined up into the expo all the way back out to the highway. I'm like, wow, this is really crowded.

Greg: 25:04

Well, john, I actually remember that from last wine and dine. You know traffic being really bad, because I think what happens is it gets so backed up and then the buses for the resort transportation are trying to through and you have to cut over those lanes of traffic. Yes, and essentially buses, almost kind of like, use themselves as a barricade to help let those buses get out. So you know, I don't know how you solve that traffic flow problem, but that's interesting that that's happened two years in a row now.

Lexie: 25:36

I will also say in the non-rend Disney merchandise expo going off what Bob said it was very crowded but, dude, their merchandising was on point. Oh yeah, I spent so much money, but on the plus side, my Christmas shopping is almost completely done.

Bob: 25:57

Christmas trees up. Christmas shopping's done.

Lexie: 25:59

I'm ahead of the game, so everyone's getting run stuff from Lexi for Christmas.

John: 26:03

That sounds like shh don't tell everybody.

Allie: 26:06

Somebody's getting a banana pen or a carrot pen as well, I had a bunch of fun at the expo and I loved walking around that this year and, like you said, all the lanes were filled, all the spaces were filled and I did the thing that Chris Twig said to do, which was I bothered him to show me how to do the acceleration gliders and I was doing them wrong.

David: 26:35

So there you go.

Bob: 26:36

Yeah, I probably am too.

Allie: 26:38

Yeah, I was putting on the brakes at the end of them to kind of slow myself down, and the way he explained it to me, we ran through it probably three or four times before I actually got it and once it clicked it was effortless.

Bob: 26:50

I mean, I wouldn't say effortless, but it was almost effortless to do them Like you're coming off a hill is the way I always think of it.

Lexie: 26:57

Yeah, maybe like gliding.

Allie: 27:00

Yes, exactly, that's exactly right. So I was doing the acceleration, I was not doing the gliding, but I didn't really realize I was doing that. So it was really awesome to do that and it was also awesome to just hang out and talk to everybody. I got to see a couple of the people that were Pacers and I got to kind of see some of my friends. Even coming in late, it felt like it was still alive and going strong at the expo the whole time.

Bob: 27:24

Well, that's why I go back there a couple of times and I went back on Saturday I like to visit. I talked with Chris and he said, allie, it was you and one other person. And as much as I tried to get our friends to bug Chris incessantly, they I guess they had more respect than that and they, they gave him his space for your information. Friends, chris is looking, the Galloway group there is looking to making that a scheduled activity at future events that they may post times where Chris and or possibly and I'm just guessing here possibly Jeff may go out and do some demos for folks. But they need to get that approved by Run Disney first.

Greg: 28:12

Well, that'd be fun, because I mean back before COVID, you know, at the expo there used to be seminars you know up on that.

Natalie: 28:19

You know, as you were exiting you know they'd go up the stairs.

Greg: 28:21

You know there used to be like a little stage and stuff like that. So if they could bring that part back, that would be awesome. Yeah, jeff would do.

Bob: 28:27

Jeff would do two or three a day. And he wasn't the only one Right, there were others.

Jack: 28:32

So I just want to put out there that and I know I probably speak for everybody here but one of my favorite highlights of the entire weekend and especially because expo I got to see so many was meeting all of our rising run family and listeners. Oh yeah.

Jack: 28:49

You guys are our family and it's so wonderful to get to meet with you and chat with you, and I like hugs, so I'm so happy I got to hug so many people, but I can't wait to see you guys all at Marathon Week, and you guys make my heart so happy.

Lexie: 29:05

I will also say that in a little note to all of the listeners as we come up into the different race weekends. Please don't hesitate to come up to us and introduce yourself, and I mean, I know Jack and I will take hugs. I won't speak for everybody, but we will vote. We will gladly give you hugs. It doesn't matter if you're sweaty from being at the expo or in the corrals or post race like come on, I'm ready.

Allie: 29:34

I'll take a hug. I usually offer a hug before they even like want one. Exactly. I'm just so excited when someone like recognizes us.

Lexie: 29:45

It was so funny. I was standing at the expo talking to Coach Twigs and I turned around and there was two women behind me that were wearing Ryzen Run shirts and I was wearing my Ryzen Run shirt and I was like oh, ryzen Runner is like hi, what's your name? Everything. And it was so funny because then I introduced myself and I'm like I'm Lexi. And they were like wait, you're the Lexi. Like yeah, that's me. So shout out to Debbie and Meredith it was so nice to meet you and it was nice chatting with you for a little time.

Allie: 30:23

Yeah, I also met someone at the expo too, when I was walking up and they said my name and I was not expecting that at all because I didn't know that anyone would know what I look like. But then I realized also Jack's been working hard on the YouTube and we had that YouTube where we kind of introduced ourselves and said some kind of fun facts about ourselves and stuff like that. So I'm wondering if maybe that was how they recognized me. But it was really cool to be able to see someone and have them. I don't know, maybe they recognized my voice when me and Kasey were coming in and I don't know, we're kind of loud and you know, a little bit.

Greg: 31:02

All right, so expo's done. Everyone hopefully got the bed early.

Lexie: 31:07

No.

Greg: 31:08

And then it was. It was time for a very merry on birthday 5K. So let's get into that. But I guess the first question I have in terms of the 5K is usually that's the race where you see the most extravagant costumes and obviously a big point in contention coming into this race weekend was, quote unquote costume gate or hoop skirt gate or whatever you want to call it, based on all those emails. So before we start talking about the race itself because Jack and Lexie, I know the two of you had costumes that were kind of like on the fence and such so tell us about your experience and then you know experiences that you might have heard from other people or just observations that were made in the corrals.

Lexie: 31:56

Well, first of all, shout out to Rachel yes, we're working so hard to hand make our costumes from scratch and painting them and doing all of the trial and error that she had to do. She worked on them for like almost three months and they looked amazing, like absolutely shout out.

Jack: 32:19

Oh, they're teacups, by the way.

Lexie: 32:23

In case you didn't see the pictures we were the teacups from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party while Disney World version and per the guidelines. We were a little bit worried that we would be told we couldn't wear them, so we did have a backup plan. We had rice and red shirts on under the costumes.

Jack: 32:49

And I had my car to put the costumes back if need be. So I don't care.

Lexie: 32:55

But per the guidelines it was a tutu. You could see our feet and our legs and everything, and it was malleable. They didn't have any sharp edges and we kept them. They folded flat whenever you took them off. So we were walking in holding them and we did get stopped and a lady was like hey, you can't wear hoop skirts. And we showed her the costume and we unfolded one of them and we were like it's not a hoop skirt, it hits at our hips. So and she led us through and that was the only person that stopped us.

Jack: 33:29

I'm just going to speak for the weekend in general. I feel like a lot of people were nervous to wear costumes because there were definitely not as many costumes as there have been in the past, and I think it became because of the fear of getting turned around by Disney, and especially if you didn't bring a car, where would you put the costume? So, but I'm happy to see that there were costumes that you would have thought that would got turned around, didn't, and so that made me really happy. So when you guys come for marathon weekend, princess, disneyland, springtime I mean obviously double check with the guidelines and make sure you are good.

Jack: 34:13

But I mean, I even saw a full length dress, but what she did was there was no hoop skirt in it and she lifted there is like this lift to the dress so that you can see her shoes the entire time. So there was that there. I mean there is some really awesome costumes. It just wasn't like the norm yeah, the norm of the crazy, like giant cardboard type makeshift things. I would have loved to drive a DeLorean and I said it right. And I want to stuff like hat and everything Like.

Jack: 34:48

I just think that would be great, but unfortunately it's not in my cards anymore.

Bob: 34:54

I think those days are over, but I think the fear of all these costumes getting shot down was overblown, and I think most people who wore their costumes. I didn't hear of anyone getting turned away, so I think it went pretty well.

Lexie: 35:09

In prep for the next weekends. When in doubt, you can always email Renn Disney and ask if the costumes adhere to the guidelines.

Jack: 35:17

Yeah, send them a picture and they'll say, right then. And there I mean, yeah, I mean we weren't going to. I mean we were totally okay with they turned us around. We were, we were. It's just the costumes itself. They were $130 a piece and it's just like these guidelines came out after the fact that the costumes were already made and it's just like they were so beautiful. I mean, if they turn us around, that's fine, but if we got to run with it, oh my God, and we did, and it was the most epic time, I think that's fun.

Jack: 35:47

I, oh my God, every time we saw a teacup I was like I ran up to it. I was like, oh, let's spin. I got dizzy really one time it was insane.

Lexie: 35:58

I got dizzy when we made our little video for the YouTube channel and whenever we were in the corral. At the beginning, jack was like let me get it on the GoPro and I got Disney. I almost fell down.

Greg: 36:11

All right, let's move over to the mad hatter himself. Bob, I know you have talked in the past about you know you're getting a little tired of you know all the races starting, ending at Epcot and you know we're very, very used to this 5k course but as the master of ceremonies in terms of the tea party and your lovely wife Alice, aka Becky, any course highlights any cool characters that were out.

Bob: 36:42

No, it was fun, greg. The 5k hasn't been said yet, and anyone who's there knows this. The weather this weekend was spectacular.

Lexie: 36:50

Yeah, absolutely.

Bob: 36:52

It was.

Lexie: 36:53

It didn't rain.

Bob: 36:54

It didn't rain. The humidity for Florida was down.

Allie: 36:58

Boy, was that not a humid rain?

Bob: 37:03

Temps were just a touch cool early in the morning, but nothing to worry about you did. We did hear the don't cross your start line with your Mylar blanket numerous times, but no, the 5k was was very nice. I'm trying to think as pie. I had fun. I had fun. I wore that mad hat or costume. I got the red wig which fit and I crammed that hat down over. But it was, it was great. Now I really enjoyed it.

Lexie: 37:34

I heard an interesting tidbit on the 321 Go podcast with our friends Carissa and John Pelkey. They had someone over the entertainment at their run Disney's and apparently every mile of the run Disney races has three entertainment points on it.

Greg: 37:58

Okay, oh, interesting.

Lexie: 38:00

Yeah, and now I like I paid attention to it during the half. I was like one, two, three. And also on that interview they asked him if he could change one thing about how entertainment was done at the run Disney races. What would he change? He said I'd make it four.

John: 38:18

The one thing also that was different. They changed the finish line shoot.

Greg: 38:23

Yes, I was going to ask about that.

John: 38:25

We're coming out to. We're coming out behind where the gospel choir is. We're going through there. We're figuring we're going to see that photo pass group and where that, by the divide where you go in and make a turn, it's like, oh, we're not going straight through.

Lexie: 38:39

It seemed a little weird at first, and which also cut down on the cheer section for the race, which was why I hate it, because it's like none of the spectators can stand there and see you anymore.

John: 38:53

But I do know why they did it, because when I was walking in the next morning there's a pole for Gomorrah where the we would have been running down for the Gomorrah parking lot. So I guess I guess they didn't want to put a padded pole there.

Jack: 39:11

I would have preferred the padded pole.

Greg: 39:13

Yeah, I was saying we get padded poles at the TTC for marathon weekend and in princess, you know just do caution, runners pad and pull ahead Interesting.

Jack: 39:25

I mean, you know, as funny as the T cups, we could have just spun around it, yeah yeah, perfect.

Lexie: 39:30

I don't like it at all.

Greg: 39:32

I agree. I think we'll get into a bigger conversation about the spacing of everything as we get to the half marathon, but we'll table that for now. But really, really good observation there, john. Any other thoughts on the 5k before we be our guest and move to the 10k?

Jack: 39:49

It was so, good, great oh thanks.

Greg: 39:51

Oh, my gosh, all right. So 10k, let's hear about it.

Jack: 39:56

That was one of the most fun 10ks I think I've ever had.

Greg: 40:01

Why is that Jack?

Jack: 40:02

Well, first off, I don't run 10ks very often, so there haven't been many kind of related to the small field.

Lexie: 40:09

But second off, Jack is so fast that she never runs with anybody.

Jack: 40:14

Yes, this was my first ever race that I started and finished with friends.

Lexie: 40:18

Me, I'm friends.

Jack: 40:23

I mean I like kind of speeding off, but honestly, like I kind of enjoyed being in the e-crow with everybody. It was a party and I loved like hanging out with was Lexi, me, rachel and Mark. We had a blast and we were singing the songs Beauty and the Beast. And then I saw Oxen Spoon. That was a huge highlight for me as well, because they were dressed up as the Willy Wonka gang.

Greg: 40:55

Oh, that's right. They were the Oompa Oompas, that's right they were.

Jack: 40:58

I was like talking to them. They were like you want to, you want to Wonka bar? I was like shut the front door, you have a Wonka bar. He had to be one of his pocket. I was like is there a golden ticket in it? I was just joking. He's like look and see. I was like no, so I opened this Wonka, this bar. First off it was a Hershey bar, so I feel like they stole it from the Hershey factory. But you know, I'm just staying in the facts. And then I see the golden ticket. I mean I tell you what I was so excited and I talked about it till she got to the finish line and it was already pretty close.

Jack: 41:35

It was like maybe a half mile to the finish line. But like then I looked over and someone that was with us because they're called the slackers that's what they like calling themselves. I looked over and one of the people that are dressed up as part of the group she had a bigger golden ticket. I looked at him as, like you gave me a fake. I don't want to. It was honestly so much fun. Oh my God. I mean, they're costumes were probably the best costumes I saw during the 10K.

Bob: 42:06

Those guys are great. They'll be with us towards the end of the year again too.

Jack: 42:10

Yeah, they're amazing. I just, I just want to hug each and every one of you guys. You're amazing.

Lexie: 42:16

But yeah, I had a blast on the 10K. So the 10K was my sister's very first run Disney race and very first race ever.

Allie: 42:26

Oh, how'd she do? Did she love it?

Lexie: 42:30

I'll get there. Okay.

Lexie: 42:34

So we, we get into, you know, these last couple of months she was moving her house and moving her work at the same time and she's office manager, so she was in charge of it. And she told me at the beginning of October. She was like Lexi, I haven't been training like I was supposed to and I know you sent me a calendar but I haven't been doing it. I said that's okay, just make sure you're getting out there and walking. You know, you don't have to be super fast. And the weekend before wine and dine she walked 6.2 miles, longest time she's ever gone. She called me afterwards and she said Lexi, I don't know if I want to do another race, I'm like, but you haven't even done one yet. Like, don't make any rash decisions. She said, well, I just got out there and I was so bored and I'm like well, yeah, you're not in the hustle and bustle so fast forward.

Lexie: 43:35

She was worried about time. She got D corral so we had her start in D even though we were in E, just to give her that little extra buffer, because I think her walking came in at 1830. So she was a little worried about it and I said we'll catch up to you and then you can just run with us the end of the way. Make it easy at the beginning and then we can go faster if we need to. And that girl she maintained a 1604, the whole 6.2 miles and we never caught up to her and she said she cried when she hit the six mile mark and she got her. She got her medal and she saw John and Bob on the course. Yes, she did.

John: 44:20

Hi obluxy sister. Hi, hi, hi, hi.

Lexie: 44:25

Oh, but she had fun. I don't know if she'll do another 10K, she said, mostly because the training took so long. And I'm like you have no idea, but she said that the biggest thing that she got out of this race running training thing was. She said, lexi, I know now that I can go out and do a two mile run and I know what it takes. I know how much energy it takes. I don't know how much time it takes. Nice, and I think that's my most valuable lesson Cool, coming from a complete non-runner.

Allie: 45:06

That's kind of empowering right. It's like you go from not ever being a runner and then you go. You know when I can go out and I can run a couple miles and that like feels good.

Lexie: 45:15

Yeah, so shout out to my sister, anna Claire. I'm proud of you.

Greg: 45:20

John, what are your thoughts about the 10K?

John: 45:24

It was a good race, not that we raced.

Bob: 45:27

No, we didn't race, did we John?

John: 45:29

Me, bob, like what's the plan for today? I think we're walking this, bob Yep, and you know, walking with Bob's no easy task.

Bob: 45:36

Correct.

Allie: 45:37

Yeah, that's pretty much that's pretty hard.

Bob: 45:39

We were taking it easy.

John: 45:40

It would be Bob and Carolyn. We had a really good time, right, bob? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, it was definitely fun. Yeah, we just it was part of our plan. You know we're not going to go crazy, we'll save it for tomorrow.

Bob: 45:54

Which we didn't go crazy tomorrow either.

John: 45:56

but Well we went crazy, but not that kind of way.

Allie: 46:00

Well, I think you know like Jack was learning, and what I learned from the photograph that Diane showed me from your wedding is that the it's like a mullet it's business in the front but it's party in the back. Right, there you go.

John: 46:13

That's. She saw my, my 90s mullet, you know.

Jack: 46:16

Yeah, it's a great mullet. I really want you to regrow that. Yeah, john, bring back the mullet.

John: 46:21

Hey, kate, you got to talk to my wife because I every time I bring that up it's like no God, no.

Greg: 46:28

Diane, let him. Let him do it for charity, please.

Allie: 46:31

Yes, Diane, we're going to do it. We're going to raise money for charity and it's no shave November, right?

Jack: 46:38

I mean, you know it needs to be shaved and he's pretty at the head.

John: 46:44

I'm from going, I'm going full mullet, I'm going like Joe Dirt.

Allie: 46:50

All right so dopey next year, if we can raise enough money for you to get your dopey bit next year by having you grow a mullet we're going to figure that out.

Jack: 47:00

Yes, We'll make it a video on YouTube. How is that We'll do? Like a full growth expectation, john is shaking his head.

Greg: 47:10

Well it'll be. We'll have to take a photo every single day. That will just be a time lapse of the hair growing.

Lexie: 47:17

You know they do like the one second a day. Little, I think it would be fantastic.

Greg: 47:24

All right, grandpa of Gaston. Yeah, I know, I know you didn't have any eggs before this race, because you know as we talked about the other week. Nothing new on race day, but we'll write your comments on the 10 K.

Bob: 47:35

I had a chance that. I had a chance to talk with our friend Riley before we went out. That was fun. Yeah, that was the costume idea. I had the Gaston shirt. I had it looking pretty good. I had worn it the week before, but when I put the black wig on it just didn't look right and so I decided I literally spray painted the wig gray and went out as Gaston's grandfather. That was fun. I did it as a joke. Once I explained to people what I was doing, I got the comic reaction I was looking for. I wanted to comment. Our buddy, ryan Teets, who keeps these numbers, posted them on the Facebook earlier. The 10 K there were almost 12,000 runners in the 10 K.

Jack: 48:32

Are you?

Bob: 48:33

serious yeah.

Jack: 48:34

Yeah, just under 12,000.

Bob: 48:36

It was the biggest 10 K since 2019. So yeah, it sounds like it, as I commented on Expo Day, where it was pretty clear we were back to pre-pandemic levels. We're back to pre-pandemic levels Now. That added to that problem, then, is the very first character stop was Gaston, which would have been perfect, but the line had to be 40 minutes long at least.

Lexie: 49:01

There were some crazy long lines.

Bob: 49:04

Again, 12,000 runners, yeah, so. So I passed. I passed all of them in the 10 K. I don't think we stopped for any, did we, john Well?

John: 49:16

there was. We did on the half, Wait, wait there was a character stop by the Starbucks and Epcot, but we'll talk about that later. We did a bathroom break and Bob sits down and the crowds just dropped, they flock.

Bob: 49:33

Yeah, that's fun, friends, that is. That is that's fun? Yeah, I enjoyed that.

Greg: 49:40

Now any comments are just about the course in general itself.

John: 49:44

It just basically like popped in and out of Hollywood studios like it was. Well, that's true, yeah.

Jack: 49:51

And same for Epcot really, because I mean, if you actually totaled it, you were only in the parks for out of the 6.2 miles for a mile.

John: 49:58

But what they did do, which I thought was really smart the pathway between Hollywood studios and Epcot. They put you to the top in the wider car lane up top of the pathway so you weren't in that small tight walkway down below, which I think did help up a little bit on the traffic going in and out.

Jack: 50:25

I will say I mean, I had an absolute blast. Like I said, this is probably one of my favorite races. I won't say yeah, it's probably one of my top favorite races I've ran, but the course itself, the course map of it all. I would have expected to be in the parks a little bit more and if, like, if I was like reading the run Disney comments as they were revealing the courses, like a few weeks ago, and I only saw like one positive comment as they were revealing the courses throughout all the ones that they had. I mean, again, it's a fun race. I just you would think that there would be more in the park or at least go around World Showcase or something you know.

Greg: 51:08

All right, really interesting thoughts, guys. So, yeah, maybe, Jack, maybe run Disney, read those comments and they go back to what is in my mind, the perfect 10K course, which is where you do all of World Showcase and all the Epcot resorts and everything like that. That's the chef's kiss right there of 10K courses. But we shall see. But now we move on to probably the part that I was most jealous of missing this entire weekend, and that was the meetup at Disney Springs. You guys sent me a photo and my jaw hit the floor. Tell us about that experience.

Bob: 51:50

It was awesome, greg. And as I sit here and think about the courses and the fact is I don't want to sound silly, I don't care. I don't care if we run around the parking lot for 10 kilometers. I'm there for our friends and Becky and I went over there. What we thought was early. We got there about 2.15. We had to sat down. In fact, I literally sat down and folks came up right away, got back up, so folks started showing up early.

Bob: 52:28

I never did get a full head count and I tried to count people in the photo. The photo was taken about 3.40, 3.45, or something like that because people were starting to leave. So we wanted to do that. I don't know I think we had 100 people there, not for the photo, but I think between the time I got there at 2.15 and the time we left at about 5 o'clock, I think 100 people were through there and friends.

Bob: 53:04

It was amazing. I think I tried to speak to everyone. I hope that I did. I love the fact that I tried around and people were just speaking to one another, that the family was just meeting one another, and I really really feel good about that. Becky wanted to. She wanted me to express her gratitude. I know the cookies were a big hit. She loves to do them, but she loves even more the fact that you visit with her and make her feel special too. So to me it's what it's all about. It's the family. If it gets bigger, by golly we'll find a bigger place to go, but I love y'all and it was fantastic.

Jack: 53:52

I just want to say really quick I apologize actually for being to the meetup really late. So I left the park an hour before the meetup, thinking I would be able to take a bus from the park to Disney Springs, because I was like I swear there is one, and then I found out it doesn't start to 4 o'clock and so then I had to go from Animal Kingdom to my resort. Miss that bus by 30 seconds.

Jack: 54:20

And it was just yeah, it was so long, so I apologize that I was extremely late and I know I was like. I think I got there like 350, like five minutes after the photo was taken.

Bob: 54:31

It wasn't long after, which is unfortunate, Jack yeah.

Jack: 54:34

I know I learned my lesson just really really, really, really early. But yeah, I can't wait to meet all you guys for Marathon Week. And I know I did get to see some people at the meetup because I was there till, I think, 5.30. But it was so wonderful for everybody that I did meet. But again, I'm sorry that I was really late. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I clearly am still learning.

Allie: 55:03

I love talking to everybody and it was so fun that, like as soon as we walked in, we saw friends and it just felt like family and it felt like home. And it wasn't like I was there necessarily to talk to all my Rise and Run family that I'm on the podcast with, but it was really nice to hug you guys too. But it was really awesome to see all of the friends that I don't get to see on a weekly basis too or that I see at the Zoom meetings, when I'm able to go and stuff like that and chat and see your smiling faces. And I also want to shout out to Tara, because she made me the most beautiful painting as well and I can't wait to hang that up in my house, and so I want to say thank you for that. Anytime anybody gives us gifts, it's just so. We're so grateful that you think so, you know so sweetly of us and we really appreciate it.

John: 56:02

I agree. Same thing, tara. Thank you for the nice painting. It says perfectly what we are family, and it was really great. One thing that happened, which is really good about the meet and greet, was other listeners got to know each other. Yeah, yes.

John: 56:24

And I think that was a really good thing. And then you know so, hey, what are you doing? I think I'm starting in corral D or C, I'm going to go this and we're going to run. And then people set up groups together, they're meetups and made friends. And I think that was one of the big things that we really thought was great about that whole meetup was getting the whole family together, so we know each other.

Bob: 56:50

Personally, I love every bit of that. In fact, by the end of the meet and greet I was tired.

Allie: 56:59

Yeah, it was almost like there wasn't enough time to say hi to everyone and to talk as much as you could, because we would have been there all night.

Bob: 57:07

I was trying to bounce all over the place. I would like to add this my friends, if you can think of a way that we can make that better, to include Becky making more cookies, I don't care. Yeah.

Allie: 57:22

More flavors of cookies, Becky. More flavors of cookies.

Bob: 57:26

I had to go, carry those all in and take them past security. I thought that would be a problem. It was easy.

John: 57:33

I walked up to the Just looked at my cookie.

Bob: 57:35

I had a you know, I offered, I genuinely offered. I said this is not a bribe, but would you like?

John: 57:41

one Remember during the pandemic Bob, Somebody put a barbecue in my barbecue.

Bob: 57:45

Yes, I remember that. I didn't remember, but I believe.

Greg: 57:49

Someone was parked out in front of Cooks of Dublin and they were grilling hot dogs, so you can get a grill through security. You can easily get cookies through.

Bob: 57:58

Well, yeah, I walked the first guard. I had to box. I had everything in one large box and I said what should I do here? And the guy says what's in them? I said cookies. He goes oh, you'll have no problem, just go right through. So I went through the you know the gates and that was it All in we go. So yeah, next time I'll need help bringing them down, I guess.

Jack: 58:20

You know what this? You know what the meetup? You can kind of summarize it as a oh Hannah. Oh Hannah means family and family together.

Bob: 58:28

Yeah, yeah. So it's Friends. It means it means enough to us that I'm sitting here struggling for the words to explain how much it means to us. But but just know that that's I. I get approached every race weekend and I frequently hear Thank you for getting me through this you did, and my reaction is always we know, first of all, thank you for saying that. We appreciate it, we take it to heart and we genuinely love that, but we don't get you through anything. You get you through it. We're just along for the ride and I I love the fact I'm running out of words. I love the fact that we get this expressed every week, but I want you to understand that without you, we're just a bunch of knuckleheads talking to one another on what is basically an advanced zoom call.

Bob: 59:31

We do it because of you, and you are what makes this thing work and grow, and I don't know how else to express that.

Lexie: 59:43

You know, I heard a lot of times over the weekend from listeners saying thank you so much for all that you do, and thank you first, you know, for all of the knowledge. I want to say to the listeners Thank you for creating this community. Oh, yes, because the meet up and the having people to run with and seeing people at the expo like that wouldn't happen without you and like that obviously we we've talked multiple times throughout this whole conversation about oh, I saw this person and we run this together Like we could not do that without every single listener and like it has made my run to Disney experience more than I could ever possibly hope. It could be Well said.

Greg: 1:00:37

I know I'm going to paraphrase him, but the one line that I love that Lomond Jello says on the WDW radio podcast is you know he talks about his community, you know, and the same thing. You know people thanking him and everything like that, and he has a very similar to response to what you just said. You know, and I love the way that he puts it, he goes, he just builds the clubhouse and then everyone comes and fills it and plays, and that's what and that's what makes the community and I feel like the same thing is very, very implacable here.

Greg: 1:01:10

I mean, so you know again that was a great turnout for Wynondyne, and if that's what the turnout is for Wynondyne, I can't wait to see what the turnout is for Marathon. Weekend Boy. We might actually have to send people up in the characters in Flight Balloon. Not only for the group picture, but you know, just to have people there as overflow, you know so.

Allie: 1:01:33

We just build the pickle jar and you guys are the pickle juice that fills it. You mean the pickle milkshake Ellie.

Jack: 1:01:41

You're somebody dressed up as that.

Greg: 1:01:44

Oh, that's a great costume, good idea.

Jack: 1:01:47

It was so cool. She did a really good job.

Greg: 1:01:49

All right, now it's time for the last race of the weekend, our big incanto half marathon. Now the big storyline going into this race weekend when the event guy dropped, was this whole notion of, ok, there's going to be corrals A through E, but there's going to be different times that the corrals open. But there was a lot of talk about how were they going to handle this corral E situation, because you weren't allowed to get into the corral until five o'clock in the morning, which is technically race start. So, as the eyes on the ground, what was that whole situation like? Did it work? Didn't it work? Get, give me all everyone's thoughts here.

Jack: 1:02:38

Chaos you know what you know what I mean I really didn't like, though is like Like, if you want to walk to the corrals, you couldn't walk all together, regardless of what corral you're in. I see yeah.

Allie: 1:02:51

Yeah, because we were in C and then a bunch of our friends were in E. We're just like bye, see ya. Yeah, and it's like I felt so bad I was talking to somebody I was like you want to walk to that.

Jack: 1:03:00

It was one of our listeners and I was so excited I hugged her and I was like you want to walk to the corrals together. And she's like. She showed me her bib. I'm pretty sure it was like an E.

Lexie: 1:03:08

I was like no, that's it, that's sad you know, because I know people will even like, if they don't care too much about getting in the very, very front of the corral, they will stand outside of the corral with their friends and family until you know for 45, and then they'll go into their corral. And that just wasn't possible. Um, so I was in E and I was there with Rachel and Mark and Kay and we were over to, like we went in the entrance where you normally go into the corrals, and everybody else went on the opposite side of the starting area thing, and it was like this windy, um, like it kept on having little curves of this very small space, and we got into it when, because a bunch of people were moving towards the corral, we were like, okay, we got to move to the corral now, and then we stopped and we couldn't go into the second area where the corrals are. It was all blocked off, and so we were like, what do we do?

Lexie: 1:04:24

And at this time everybody had come in behind us, so we were stuck in the middle. There were no bathrooms and, to top it all off, we couldn't hear anything or see anything. There was not a screen next to us, there was not any sound, there was not a speaker next to us, so like we could hear the echo and if you listened to really, really hard and you had excellent hearing, like a dog you could probably make out what they were saying. But I even remember like they started singing the national anthem and half the half of the E people. We were like, oh, we got to stand up now because they're singing the national anthem. We had no idea.

Allie: 1:05:02

Did you feel like there was a little bit of um disconnection as far as like excitement for the race, because you were in the separate corral from everybody and you were kind of separated Absolutely 100%, that's a bummer yeah.

Lexie: 1:05:16

And it was replaced with anxiety.

Allie: 1:05:18

Right yeah.

Lexie: 1:05:19

Because we didn't know what was happening and we, like we didn't think we were nobody that I talked to around, like we didn't think we were going to miss the race or anything. You're like hello, did you forget about us? Hello, you don't want to build a snowman? Um, but they didn't even have volunteers.

Lexie: 1:05:38

I saw one guy who, right after the national anthem one, was still kind of quiet. He tried to talk to us and we heard the beginning half of what he said, only because I was right next to the side. And then everybody started talking and we couldn't hear anything again. So we were sitting there on the ground just hanging out until they decided to move us and then all of a sudden everybody started moving and we were like, oh crap, we're sitting down. I saw somebody next to me get stepped on. There were things on the ground that we were like tripping over and everybody's just started pushing forward like they do in the crowds, but nobody told us like hey, we're about to move or stand up. And then I stepped my toe on one of those little like stanchion thingies, poles, sticking out of the ground, because I didn't even know it was there.

Allie: 1:06:34

I also heard everybody started running so that they could get like front of the crowd, because when you're in E, if you're nervous about your time, you wanna get to the front of the crowd, so, people were kind of hunger games in it, up to the front of the crowd.

Lexie: 1:06:48

Oh yeah, and you could feel the push of people behind you too, and I wasn't in the very front that can be scary, but like it was disconcerting you know, Only to go into the front. I don't even think we ended up in B. I don't think we were that close, and then we just stood there for another 15 minutes.

Bob: 1:07:08

I think the biggest problem. I wasn't back there like see, but between what I've read and what I've heard you say, communication was probably the biggest problem there. They didn't communicate where you needed to be, when properly. I would add the fact that you could not hear the folks on the stage as a communication problem. Here's the irony, and we talked about this before. Relatively early, camera panned to the E crowd. Carissa noticed it. Carissa says there's our friends in E, can you hear us, if you can hear us wave? And when she said that bunch of folks waved. So the folks on the stage thought that they could be heard, but they couldn't.

Bob: 1:07:56

I want to address one more thing that I've read a little bit and I didn't hear you say that like see, and you didn't even mention it when we talked earlier. I did read a couple of comments in Facebook about the race announcers making disparaging marks or mocking the groups in E. One of the fun things about this podcast is I've gotten to know that group reasonably well. I've spoken to Carissa and John not only on the podcast but off the podcast and in different locations. I've gotten to know Riley a little bit. Not only is that not true, those folks would not do that. They are the spirit of Run Disney. They love it. They love the community as much as we do. They would not mock or make disparaging comments about any Run Disney runner. So let's put that one to bed.

Lexie: 1:08:51

Yeah, and I think there may have just been a miscommunication about what was. That could be, if something was said that because we couldn't hear anything. But I totally agree. I would not think that Carissa or Pelki or Riley would, or Tracy whatever, say anything negative towards Back of the Packers or anything like that. And I think if the announcers had realized that we could not hear them and we didn't know what was going on, they would have said something.

Bob: 1:09:27

Yeah, I only just met Tracy, but I agree with you, there too, she's very much one of them.

Lexie: 1:09:33

I think they should have blocked off the entrance to E Until because it was the only people over there. They shouldn't have let us getting in.

John: 1:09:42

I think that makes sense On the stage by the stage area. So everyone's looking at the stage. Maybe pop up behind the DJ once in a while. Hey, here's the crowd. Start open and close times. Make sure you get in them. Maybe a little map that A through D, go here E, wait here till five o'clock and then we'll let you in, or whatever they were supposed to happen. I think that was probably one of the biggest disconnects you guys experienced.

Lexie: 1:10:11

And the hardest thing was not having porta-potties.

Allie: 1:10:15

That's really like. That's not OK. I feel like that's. If I was in that situation someone who goes to the porta-potties a few times before the receiving starts, and I was there for so long without any sort of screen and no communication I probably would have been a little bit of a panic attack.

Bob: 1:10:33

Yeah.

Lexie: 1:10:34

Well, and there was also I mean, I suppose I could have pushed through and excused me through the big group of people and gotten out so they could go to the bathroom, if it was like a dire emergency. But we were packed so tightly in there that you know, unless you're peeing in your pants, you're going to stay put.

Greg: 1:10:57

The one thing I noticed again as an outsider's perspective, in reading commentary about this on Facebook and Instagram stories and everything like that is I think they probably had to make a change to this setup because of the adjustments that they made to the course, because, again, we know it was a similar course to last year's Wine and Dine, but last year's Wine and Dine you guys started out on the highway like we typically do for Marathon Weekend and for Princess, and it looks like they were trying to not do that this time around. So obviously I think that had to adjust. You know again where the finisher line shoot is, like John, you mentioned that earlier. And then again this whole corral situation and I think it's a situation where obviously run Disney and not just run Disney but any organization you want to trial things to see if they work, and I think, based on what you have all just said and the experiences of people in the run Disney family, that this setup did not work.

Allie: 1:12:07

Right.

John: 1:12:08

And it needs work for sure.

Greg: 1:12:10

Now the one thing I would be very interested to see, though, is, according to Disney, the construction walls of what I like to call the future world crater are supposed to be coming down next month, which means that there is the possibility that we could have a more traditional front of park Epcot finish for these races as early as Marathon Weekend, because I was actually having the conversation with Amanda over at Once Upon a Marathon and I said, you know, I'd be interested to see if they'd be able to get an official course measured for Marathon Weekend that incorporated going through that whole new reimagined area. But I said, you know, that's a really, really tight turnaround, and the comment that she made to me and I didn't even realize this when we had that whole conversation, when the half map got leaked is that course officially got measured and certified three days before it came out.

David: 1:13:24

OK, so I think there is.

Greg: 1:13:26

Again, I'm not saying it is a guarantee by any means whatsoever, but that gives me hope that maybe we could get an adjustment for Marathon Weekend and moving forward, that we don't have to do that whole traditional. You know, it's practically the same for every race you come along connections, you go underneath that underpass and then you go out between mission space and test track and finish. So I have my fingers crossed from that. But again, obviously this really didn't work. It will need work, it will need adjusting and we'll just have to wait and see.

Greg: 1:13:59

The one other thing that I do want to mention as well before we move on to the actual race itself is obviously I don't think anyone here might have had any experiences or first hand experiences with the AWD situation that was also going into this race weekend. So obviously we don't really want to speak to that Because, again, none of us were in that boat and so obviously we don't want to misspeak on behalf of having the utmost respect for the AWD community. But if you are part of the community, we would love to hear the feedback that you have as to how the changes for wine and dine affected you and your race weekend, whether good or bad. So if you're interested in sharing those stories, please post them on our Facebook page or send us an email to the gang at riseronpodcastcom, because, again, we're really, really interested in that, so that way we again can be advocates for you all as well. Great.

Bob: 1:14:56

Couple closing comments on Corral E From going back to our friend Ryan 13,600 finishers that's the largest wine and dine half marathon that he's recorded, so it was huge. We probably won't have this problem in Princess, our marathon weekend.

David: 1:15:22

Agreed.

Bob: 1:15:22

Because we don't start there and springtime is generally smaller. So this may be a one off until next year, and then we'll see what happens.

Greg: 1:15:31

Absolutely All right Now. Let's get into the actual race itself now. And, ali, this was your first event of the weekend, so tell us about the course and how excited you were to just run by Blizzard Beach and not in Blizzard Beach.

Allie: 1:15:51

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, because when we ran by Blizzard Beach, I actually have mentioned to John do you want to run through Blizzard Beach? Maybe it was Bob and John and we kind of thought about maybe going a little nostalgic and putting some extra miles. But then we changed our mind and we said no, no.

David: 1:16:10

We don't want to do that.

Allie: 1:16:12

I was blazing hot during that time. The sun was beating down and we thought, oh, jess, if we could only run through Blizzard Beach parking lot. But you have to save that for marathon weekend, I guess.

John: 1:16:23

We didn't have the sponge and ice packs. That's why we didn't.

Allie: 1:16:25

We didn't have the support sponge to get us through. I absolutely love Incanto and so hearing all of the Incanto music was wonderful. I started singing instead of the family Madrigal. I was singing the family Rise and Run and I feel like we maybe need to try to get all of our friends to do a roll call for that.

Jack: 1:16:47

That would be such a good rendition Oxen Spoon. Maybe we can get Oxen Spoon.

Lexie: 1:16:52

Let's do it.

Allie: 1:16:54

Yeah, but it was one of the. It was, I mean, unfortunately, besides you not being there, greg, it was one of the most fun races that I've had in a long time. It just felt really good to see people. We kind of started the race together with some people and then we split off and we met new people and they started kind of being absorbed in our group and a couple of people went behind, a couple of people went ahead and, like, we just kind of kept this like flow going, this little lava lamp of like friendship kind of coming in and out into blogs and it was. It was really wonderful.

Greg: 1:17:31

That is a beautiful metaphor, Allie.

Allie: 1:17:32

Thank you. I will say some of the character stops on this one where I mean I felt like they were just built for me, especially.

Bob: 1:17:40

Oh yeah.

David: 1:17:41

And for our group.

Allie: 1:17:42

They had one that was Goofy and Donald Duck, which is like Bob's favorite and my favorite. They had the two bunnies that look exactly like my bunnies. So they had Thumper and Miss Bunny that just looked like my bunnies, otis and Sweet Pea, and so I had to go take a picture with them. They had the they had. What was it, bob, that we stopped at at the end?

John: 1:18:06

I can't remember Allie. There's the Haunted Mansion thing. Haunted Mansion? Oh yes, yes, yes, Absolutely yes.

Allie: 1:18:11

They had the Haunted Mansion dancers and the ballroom dancers, so we stopped for that one and we did a little haunted photo shoot, so it was just really, really fun. I will say, though, there was a frightening lack of Louisa on the course.

Greg: 1:18:26

And I was very.

Allie: 1:18:27

Really. Yeah, I was like really excited to maybe there would be a Louisa photo stop or like any. There was no incontos.

Jack: 1:18:36

I don't think there was. Yeah, there was.

Greg: 1:18:38

There was no incontos characters at all during the incontos and that's interesting because I read something online that Disney is doing open casting calls right now for a Louisa for the parks and everyone was like, oh, they're totally doing this for Weinendine.

Allie: 1:18:55

Wouldn't that have been awesome. Oh, that would be great, they did have a Cocoa photo stop, which was great, but we've had that before, so I was really hoping for an incontos photo stop, but there was none.

Lexie: 1:19:07

But, opportunity.

Allie: 1:19:09

They don't always put the photo stops that match the courses. Sometimes they do, but then sometimes in the future you'll be like, oh there's one from the last race that we would have been really good for the last race that we did, so hopefully some incontos ones will be coming in our future. Overall it was beautiful weather, beautiful friendship. I just had a blast. Me and Bob and John did the race together and I kind of fell behind a little bit. But Bob was very sweet to stay with me the whole time and I just felt like. It just felt like coming back. It just felt wonderful.

Greg: 1:19:45

If Allie is Louisa, let's talk to our two donkeys then. John and Bob, what were your thoughts?

John: 1:19:51

on the races. Are you saying we're? I can't say it.

Greg: 1:19:56

I mean that in the most loving way possible.

Bob: 1:19:59

We just followed Allie. That's what we did. Well, yeah, we hung with Allie and the posse, Allie's posse.

Allie: 1:20:07

Yep, me and Casey were there and Heidi.

Bob: 1:20:09

Well, heidi, yeah, heidi, where's Heidi? Oh, there she is, yeah.

Lexie: 1:20:17

Was she hiding?

Allie: 1:20:21

Well, Heidi's always a flight risk, so Heidi kind of does what Heidi does, but then she always finds us again. So she's always she kind of flitters around like a little butterfly. It's wonderful.

Bob: 1:20:29

The classic Heidi is. She disappears. We don't know where she is. Is she in front of us, is she behind? We don't know. And as we start to talk about it, oh, she's right here, oh, hi.

Allie: 1:20:38

Bob.

Bob: 1:20:38

Yeah.

Allie: 1:20:41

How was your race, Bob?

Bob: 1:20:43

You were with me 99% of the time.

Allie: 1:20:46

Yeah, and guess what you did when the race fireworks went off, bob, you ran across that start line. Oh I did.

Bob: 1:20:52

Yeah, it's the first time I've run at the start of a Disney race in a couple of years and it felt good. It felt good, I was happy to do it and proud to do it. I think that's about where we stopped. We had a great plan. It lasted it's like most good battle plans. It lasted until the first shots were fired and what we did, what we wanted to do. Basically, we knew that we were going to complete the event and we knew that time wasn't going to bother us, so we just had fun and took our time and enjoyed the race.

John: 1:21:28

Yeah, basically we took, we decided what are we going to do here? Are we going to run the whole thing? Let's say, hey, what we'll do is we'll do intervals for a mile and we'll walk for a mile, inherals for a mile, walk for a mile. And it pretty much happened most of the race that way. Yeah, a couple of pinch points here and there we said, ok, we're not even going to bother. But it was great. We had a great time. I mean character stops. Meeting all our Ryzenrunner friends on the course was great.

Bob: 1:21:56

Oh yeah, that was fun.

Allie: 1:21:58

Yeah, the family Ryzenrun.

Bob: 1:21:59

That's always fun and that was Ali was talking about the lava lamp. People would join us and fall, or join us and go ahead, and yeah, that's a blast, all right.

Greg: 1:22:10

Lexi, how about you? How was your race?

Lexie: 1:22:12

Well, so at the beginning of this race weekend I was having an inflammation flare up. I have its lymphoedema, which is a localized swelling caused by the lymphatic system, and it has to do with the bad stuff out of your body, and I've been dealing with it since this past March and I thought that it had gotten all figured out and all of my swelling in my ankles had gone down in August. And then I hopped on an airplane. And you know what happens whenever you get on an airplane the barometric pressure changes, which caused a swelling. So I got off of the airplane on Thursday and kind of noticed a little bit of my ankles and I was like, oh, it's nothing, I'll be fine. So we went to Hollywood Studios and then we went to Phantasmic and after I got done with the 5K my feet felt like I had run a marathon.

Greg: 1:23:26

Oh, I'm sorry.

Lexie: 1:23:28

And I was like this is not good, had a blast, but my feet hurt and so, thanks to Mark and Jack and Rachel, I made it through the 10K. They helped me keep all my intervals and my feet didn't hurt as bad after the 10K, but they were still hurting pretty bad. And if anyone has dealt with inflammation, it's not that you're hurting, your body just feels inflamed, like you can just like it's not tingly, but there's just something not right. So in light of that, and in light of the fact that I have Marathon Weekend and Disneyland coming up, I decided that I decided on the morning of the half that I was just going to walk and when I got swept, I got swept. So as the weekend progressed, I was kind of like am I going to run? Am I going to do intervals? Am I going to do grinning? I don't know, we'll just kind of see how I feel.

Lexie: 1:24:39

The morning of the half I was like you know what, if I want to keep running and go back right to my Marathon Weekend training, I'm just going to walk it. So that's what I did. And then, I guess, right when we turned the corner to go up to the start line, mark got a wonderful text message on our I think it was on the Reddit board or something that had the list of all of the characters that were going to be out, and I was like you know what? I'm just going to go to every single character. Stop from here until they sweep me. And I'm going to get pictures, because normally I don't stop for the characters anymore because I've seen most of them and I just I had the best time.

Lexie: 1:25:25

I was walking, my feet hurt, but I got to get a picture with Captain Hook and Mitch or Smee and Aladdin and Abu, and when I got into Epcot the bikers were starting to pass me and then I'd pass them and then that kind of stuff. And the lady came up and she was like you know, the plume ladders are right behind you, so if you keep going, you can do it. I'm like I'm good, I knew I'd be swept, so I'm just going to keep at my pace. Can I go meet those characters which were like I don't know, maybe 50 yards ahead of me, not even 50 yards, maybe 20 yards ahead of me? And she was like, oh, yeah, and then we'll just get you on the van afterwards. So I got my characters and I call it a successful race. I had a blast and I have some awesome pictures with no one behind me Good for you.

Lexie: 1:26:19

So it wasn't the race that I had planned, but in order to keep racing, I did 2.61 mile. Have a marathon, how?

Allie: 1:26:28

smart.

Greg: 1:26:32

Jack, how about you? Hi or should I say Ray, was the force strong with you.

Jack: 1:26:41

You know I think it may have been I met a cast member with a lightsaber and I was like, dude, let's be one with the force. So it was fun. Yeah, it was just like one cast member out in Hollywood Studios.

Jack: 1:26:59

It wasn't even Star Wars Land, I think. It was like after we just entered he had a lightsaber. I was like I need to get video with you because you seem like a really cool dude. But anyways, the race itself. I thought it was really good. I wasn't planning on seeing characters. I was actually going to try and get a PR with. Okay, it was going to be a one to see and I go to see characters. With a two hour timeframe In my head, I was like, okay, that may be like one or two stops.

Jack: 1:27:33

Well, I heard that the Star Wars characters were out and one of them might be Ray. So instead of stopping for any characters within the first two or three miles, I was like let me just go and try and get there as soon as I can, because I bet you that line is really long. So I surpassed I mean, it's not surpassed. I like try and go as fast as I could to go to get to Hollywood Studios. So it's kind of like I almost felt bad because I didn't get to truly take in all of everything that was going on, because there is a lot of great character stops that I considered. But I was like I really wanted to go Star Wars because I was just a spray, I mean. You know it was pretty cool. I've been looking forward to running in this costume and it was every bit of magical moments, as I could have hoped for. But yeah, and then I got to Star Wars land and the characters were on the ground to take pictures with. So instead of getting pictures, I had a wonderful conversation with the characters. They said that Ray said that I was one of the decoys that apparently she talked about that was coming by. So I felt pretty good about that, but it was good.

Jack: 1:28:46

I think my favorite character stopped them. So I was only playing on scene like one or two. I saw eight character stopped eight times and my favorite one was Jack Skellington and he had a relatively short line. I walked up to him and I said my name is Jack too, and he looked at me You're Jack, squared, and he's like you look dreadful. I was like I know, and so that was probably my highlight.

Jack: 1:29:16

The only thing that I think about that race that was a wish I had was that I was like. I wish I could have changed this. My gimbal slowed me down so much because it kept malfunctioning so I kept having to walk to try and fix it, because I'm recording the videos for you know, passport to run, which will be out later this week. You guys, I'm very excited. But I had a lot of gimbal issues, I think. If you don't know what a gimbal is, it's just it's that mechanism we use to kind of stabilize the GoPro that is attached to it, and it was just. I think I need a new one. I think it's getting old, so it slowed me down, but I still got a poof of time so I feel pretty good about it. At least I have something for next year maybe. But it was a lot of fun. I mean, you can never not have fun at a run Disney race. You guys.

Allie: 1:30:03

Do you know who my favorite character stop was, though, on the entire race.

Bob: 1:30:07

Yeah, it was the bunnies.

Allie: 1:30:08

It was Jack at the. F-cot, because I did not expect to come around the corner and see you there and it was so awesome to just get a hug from you right as we, like, came into Epcot.

Jack: 1:30:23

Allie, you know, I know you have a fan club, but can I be at least your number one or number two in that fan club? Because, yeah, I love you, I love each and every one of you guys and, like, honestly, like after the races, I really do love cheering for everybody. I will usually stay until I see the last, so I usually the blue ladies, but I was so happy to see you guys.

Allie: 1:30:48

Yeah, that's what's nice about having like a fast runner in your friendship group is, like I always, we always get to have like a cheering section built in.

Greg: 1:30:57

Well, gang, awesome stories. I loved hearing those recaps. It helped, you know. It helps the FOMO, I'll say that for sure. So, but obviously that's not technically the end of Wynondine. Wynondine doesn't end until the after party. So, bob, what were your thoughts about the festivities at Epcot?

Bob: 1:31:19

Greg, it was more of the spirit of the whole weekend that we've been talking about, that's run through this episode. We I put an announcement, an announcement out in the chat group that we would be at the Regal Eagle Smokehouse in the American section at 10 o'clock. I was with John, becky was with us, diane was with us. We got there I don't know Little before 10 940 945. Within a few minutes a couple of folks came up. Now in the last couple of years when I've done this, we've seen maybe four or five people and 15 minutes later everybody was gone. John and how many folks? Allie was with us also. How many folks would you say came by? 25 or 30?

John: 1:32:17

I say 25 to 30 in total throughout the time.

Bob: 1:32:22

And.

Allie: 1:32:22

Alicia and Jack showed up too.

Bob: 1:32:24

They did, yeah, they did, and yeah. So we were there. I left at 1115.

Allie: 1:32:33

So I was there an hour and a half.

Bob: 1:32:34

Yeah, normally we just kind of meet a couple of people and then we just walk around and then we yeah, some people will stay with us, some people will leave. But I got. Folks didn't want the weekend to end and once again it was just. It was just testament to how, what a wonderful group of friends we have here. Yeah, listen to this podcast and.

Allie: 1:32:56

I loved seeing Taryn there. I haven't seen Taryn on the episode, so that was super cool.

Greg: 1:33:00

By the way, going back about costumes, I think she needs to get become into the fray or the honorable mention of our council. Oh, she's right there.

Allie: 1:33:10

Yeah, I, you know I thought the exact same thing, greg. When I looked at her costume pictures, I was like she and also her costumes are very runnable.

David: 1:33:20

Yeah.

Allie: 1:33:21

Like she does a really good job of having costumes that are functional, which I really like.

Bob: 1:33:25

And then Taryn in the corrals at the 10 K.

David: 1:33:30

Five saw me Five K was a giant.

Bob: 1:33:31

Okay, she saw me. Yeah, mad Hatter, that's right, that's right. And Bob, it's Taryn. Right, taryn, right, taryn. Oh, it's Taryn, the number one. I didn't recognize her, although, well, she had the red hair and the big eyelashes. But, yeah, then it finally clicked and I knew who it was. That was cool. Yeah, and she was. She was one of. Well, she came, she was with you, jack right.

Jack: 1:34:04

Yeah, me and Taryn had like a freaking blast. Yeah, I mean we were tired, but At the after party.

Bob: 1:34:11

Did y'all ride guardians and then come over, or?

Jack: 1:34:15

No, we didn't ride guardians. We experienced Moana and it was funny because you know how you have. There's this like picture app with Tafiti and everything. So the photo pass lady is like, all right, put your hand up to the sky. And after we took the picture she's like so what was the thing with our hand up to the sky? I didn't know who I was waiting to and I was like no, it's the Moana. It's the Moana searching the stars, kind of thing.

Greg: 1:34:43

Oh, okay.

Jack: 1:34:45

So I really enjoyed that picture. And then we did. We did test track, which was a lot of fun. Our car looked pretty epic. We don't know if we want anything. We don't know if our vehicle won anything, but it was really really cool looking.

Bob: 1:35:03

But y'all were amongst the last to leave that little after party. Get together.

Jack: 1:35:08

Yeah, we, I think we stayed. I think I got home by about midnight, I mean I was. I didn't take a nap that day, so I was up for 22 hours. I literally.

Bob: 1:35:17

I was like I'm not a dragon.

Jack: 1:35:19

I'm sure I had my my.

Allie: 1:35:20

I gotta take a nap.

Jack: 1:35:22

I stuck all of my fueling from the race in that fanny pack and I was using it during the party.

Bob: 1:35:27

I believe you. I believe you yeah.

Allie: 1:35:32

I mean, that's a rookie move. Jackie, you got a nap before the after party.

Jack: 1:35:37

I know and I I wanted to, but my parents were also in town and they're like oh, you come into the park and it's like, yeah, yeah, no worries, I got it. I mean I'm trying to not be tired cause I want to. I want to spend time with everybody that I love, you know. So I mean I I don't mind losing out on a few hours of sleep, cause I'll gain it later on.

Allie: 1:35:59

I felt very lucky cause I got to see everybody. I got to see Lexi at the after party, I got to see all of you guys and I got to see Alicia. So it was, I got to meet up with everyone. But then also I got to meet up with a lot of our friends too. I got to ride guardians with Kay and I got to ride guardians with Diane, so that was really awesome. And Heidi was there, so I got to see her, so I had a bunch of other people as well.

Bob: 1:36:23

Oh, was Heidi there? Oh, there she is Okay.

Allie: 1:36:26

There she is. Yep, Hi Bob.

John: 1:36:29

What was the song that you were singing.

Bob: 1:36:32

Oh, veggie Fruit, Fruit.

Allie: 1:36:34

Yeah, there was like some weird veggie fruit song that she kept singing. That she said was part of the fireworks. So if you heard that song and it was weird, that was in our heads now for like the last couple of days. I don't know what that was, but that happened.

Greg: 1:36:49

Veggie, veggie Fruit. Fruit was from.

John: 1:36:54

Greg knows this wait Uh-oh.

Allie: 1:36:56

It's real.

Greg: 1:36:57

We didn't even know if it was real, it's from an old Epcot attraction that used to be I can't remember if it was the wonders of life pavilion or the land Holy cow, yeah. But that's why it's in Epcot forever is because it was a former show that used to be in the park.

Lexie: 1:37:13

Really was the kitchen cabaret. Yes, yes, kitchen cabaret. Oh, we were in the Epcot center in the land she was having like a delusion.

Greg: 1:37:20

No, no, heidi's legit on this one, folks.

Bob: 1:37:23

We thought she was hallucinating, because none of us, the rest of us, we must have been absorbed in something else. We didn't hear it. And she starts singing. Did you hear that? Veggie, veggie, fruit, fruit, sure, heidi, sure.

Lexie: 1:37:36

It's a Latin style song that was performed by the Colander Combo at the Kitchen Cabaret show in Epcot there you go. There you go.

Allie: 1:37:48

All right.

Bob: 1:37:48

Heidi, we apologize.

Greg: 1:37:50

Yes, we really did hear it, and now all the Epcot historians are going to come after the Rise of Earth podcast for not knowing that.

Allie: 1:37:59

And I love that you get the after party. But it is hard. It's a hard thing to go to because I feel like if you don't take a nap, you're going to be there until like way late at night, and then the next morning I was like I want to ride Tron, but then I couldn't because I just wanted to sleep in too. So it's kind of tricky. It's like wonderful and also a little weird, but I wish every race had something like that.

Jack: 1:38:22

Yeah, well, something that comes with the price, like without, like that's the one thing about springtime surprise, about I was so excited that they're like oh, there's an after party, but you got to pay for it, and I'm like, well, yeah, yeah.

Bob: 1:38:37

There is one coming up. I've already bought my tickets.

Jack: 1:38:40

How much is it?

Bob: 1:38:42

$80. Oh $80 mission to. It's going to be Blizzard Beach, I think. I'm not sure it's one of the parks Typhoon Lagoon or.

Greg: 1:38:54

Beach.

Jack: 1:38:56

Did any of you guys buy like the specialty drink that was in that light up thing, Because me and Karen talked about getting that. But then we're like, well, we don't want to carry around the cup.

John: 1:39:06

We're sitting there in Morocco waiting and like, oh wow, they're really checking the bands for everything. Like at nine o'clock they're checking the bands like right on the dot. Little did we know we could have gotten in line like forever and got.

Bob: 1:39:19

Oh, we'd have been first. Yes, yes.

Allie: 1:39:22

I thought everybody was in line Like the line started and it just started like went pew and it was going around the block all of a sudden and I was like man, everybody really wants that bread and hummus.

Bob: 1:39:32

Everybody really likes this Moroccan food. Right, that's what I thought too. Yeah, they couldn't figure it out.

John: 1:39:37

Yeah, that was.

Allie: 1:39:38

Yeah, the disco. They had like disco lights in them. They were like bright orange and it was just like flashing disco lights. It was super cool.

Bob: 1:39:44

It was.

Allie: 1:39:45

Didn't you had?

Lexie: 1:39:46

one. I had a sip of someones, but I didn't get one myself. I was the grandma of the group, so I actually took tune apps on. Sunday that's a pro move. My sister and I and we went to Typhoon Lagoon and I fell asleep in a lounge chair Good job. And then I stayed there and did two rides and then I went and I slept for another hour and a half in the hotel room there you go.

Lexie: 1:40:19

But we got to Epcot at five and then my sister wanted to leave at 1030 because she was tired.

Allie: 1:40:27

Yeah, it's really hard to stay all the time.

Lexie: 1:40:30

I'm tired too, so I'm going to come with you. And also I did have an early morning flight because I had to get back home, because I had an appointment. But yeah, it was fun. I rode Guardians for the first time. How was?

Allie: 1:40:48

it oh yay.

Lexie: 1:40:49

Did you love it? Yeah, it was great. It was so much fun. Rachel said they didn't do one of the pre-show shows or something like that.

Allie: 1:40:59

They shortened it a little bit or something was broken. Something happened.

Greg: 1:41:03

Yeah, usually it's the second pre-show that can go down.

Lexie: 1:41:07

Yeah, but it was fun, I enjoyed it and I tried the. Was it the fry flight at the fry basket?

Bob: 1:41:15

Yeah, that's pretty good. That's awesome. I didn't like it. Oh, hot, take, hot take from Lexi Hot take.

Lexie: 1:41:22

I didn't like any of the three. But my sister got the yuca fries and those are good.

Greg: 1:41:30

Bob, did you get a second pickle milkshake?

Bob: 1:41:32

Negative? I did not, sir. One was enough. I mean, I drank it, it was okay, but nope, that was. Yeah, I'm trying to think.

Lexie: 1:41:43

I did All of my heart, wanted to stay up late, but nope.

Allie: 1:41:49

It was awesome, though. The DJ was really good. There was like it seemed like everybody was in good spirits. There was a lot of characters meet and greets. They even had dopey out, which was awesome.

John: 1:42:02

But no figment out.

Allie: 1:42:04

I know that was a little strange.

Greg: 1:42:07

That was a question I wanted to ask you guys about the half marathon discussion.

John: 1:42:11

Thank you for bringing that up.

Greg: 1:42:12

John, what was the situation as to why you could only do like a distanced meet and greet with figment during the race? Does anybody know the reason behind that?

John: 1:42:25

It was a selfie too. There was no photo stop.

Greg: 1:42:27

There was no photo pass, oh wow.

John: 1:42:28

No, so it was like the old, what's it? The 2020?

Bob: 1:42:35

The pandemic date 2021.

John: 1:42:37

The 2022 marathon. The two yeah, when it just came by and popped in and so like 50 people could stand in front of a selfie, that was it it went. There was no real line for it when we went by it either.

Greg: 1:42:48

Maybe that's why, maybe they were afraid of a massive, massive line or something like that Probably right where they had them at, too Correct yeah.

Lexie: 1:42:57

Do you think maybe it's because they had such problems with the figment costume?

Greg: 1:43:01

Well, I think the issue with the figment costume was coming out of the tunnel.

Lexie: 1:43:05

Okay.

Greg: 1:43:06

Figma kept tripping, but yeah, but again, who knows? But I was glad to see him out there though.

Jack: 1:43:12

But there was no one in line even just to get a selfie. When I went by, there was like there was nobody.

John: 1:43:18

No, there wasn't.

Jack: 1:43:19

You just waved in and then he left and I was like, okay, bye, figment.

John: 1:43:25

One of the moves I did for the after party was I paid for preferred parking this year. That was the move Parking was insane.

Jack: 1:43:33

Yeah, like there's people parking on the grass.

John: 1:43:36

Yeah, this last year for the after party they parked us. Of course there was no trams. We parked all the way in the back, almost at the entrance to Epcot.

Allie: 1:43:45

Oh, gosh, you don't want to do that after doing 20 something miles.

John: 1:43:49

Yeah, we parked it whole week, and especially coming out there at 12, 12, 30, make that long walk.

Lexie: 1:43:56

Yeah, no, no, thank you, Nope, I got on the skyliner at 1029. Oh, nice Good job Closed at 1030. Yeah.

John: 1:44:06

Oh, okay.

Lexie: 1:44:07

We can get on it.

Greg: 1:44:09

So that means Lexi didn't go to the after after party then. No Well, excellent Gang, awesome work. I'm so proud of each and every one of you and all of your accomplishments. Sorry I was not there to cheer you on.

Allie: 1:44:24

Well, again, as you can tell from our stories, we had no fun. Correct, you had no fun, so again. But yeah, we're not fun people.

Greg: 1:44:31

I can't wait for marathon weekend.

Bob: 1:44:33

Right, that's it. It's the lead up, and we'll start talking about that big time here in a couple of weeks.

Lexie: 1:44:40

Then the real fun begins.

John: 1:44:42

When Greg's down there, we could have fun again.

Lexie: 1:44:44

Yeah, thank goodness.

Bob: 1:44:45

Right, so let's bid farewell fondly to Wine and Dine 23. Looking forward hey, I noticed that our friend Pam Fluffy Fizzies made an announcement on Facebook that she's got a more or less of a clearance sale on her merchandise from this expo. We posted it in the rise and run site first, for rise and run listeners had first dibs. By the time we release this podcast she will probably have posted it elsewhere, but that's okay, I'm looking into that. Take a look at our friend Alec at KPA Quine Pizza Apparel. Get your costumes ready for marathon weekend.

Bob: 1:45:41

Coming up next week, we're going to revisit an episode we did a while back. We'll revisit the one with the balloon ladies A very popular episode. You won't want to miss that. Coming up in a couple of weeks, our friends from the Run Dopey Gang. They haven't been with us for a while. I missed a bunch of them this week because they were in New York City and in the New York Marathon. They'll tell us all about that.

Bob: 1:46:13

All right, my friends, it is time for the race report. I said I wouldn't do this. I said it wouldn't be possible that I couldn't go through everybody who ran wine and dine weekend. And I can't. However, if you took the time to make a Facebook post. I'm going to acknowledge that and I'm going to do it quickly. Alyssa a couple of character stops along the way still managed a 26 minute PR. Becky with her six year old son, colton. Colton finished the 5K. Becky finished the challenge. Great picture of Colton with his medal on Facebook.

Bob: 1:46:55

Brandy a couple of Brandys here. The first, brandy made a list of 10 things that made the wine and dine weekend great. It's a good read. She left out number 11. There was no mud on the course. Brandy ran the mud run a couple of weeks ago. Another Brandy first time she's done this race since she did it in its inaugural year. Brittany Brittany ran it in 2022, didn't finish this year. Around the 5K finished her first half. That's a PR.

Bob: 1:47:27

Christian described the emotions of finishing his first half and first challenge Obviously a PR. When we understand those emotions, christian, they can become very overwhelming. We get it. We get it here. Trust me, you're in good company. Our friends Dawn and Jen did not run, but thanks Dawn and Jen for showing up to cheer. Appreciate that.

Bob: 1:47:50

Gina did her second half marathon, got an 11 minute PR. Even after five character stops. Hailey completed her first run Disney event. Hailey was there, but we mentioned oh there she is, hailey finished hers. Adanya was there. Adanya enjoyed the course and ran a PR.

Bob: 1:48:16

Jeff. Jeff ran half number 98. Three halves in 16 days for Jeff, nice job. Jenny finished the 10K but not the half. Gave kudos to the crew that pick you up I call them the DNF crew, that get you on the bus and they treat you right. I've done that myself on more than one occasion.

Bob: 1:48:38

K K, as we mentioned earlier, made the run Disney Facebook post. It was good to see K at all the races. Kevin finished, despite being scheduled for knee replacement surgery in February. Kevin, I get it. If I can help you out, get in touch with me. Laurie. Laurie completed the challenge.

Bob: 1:49:00

Leslie set a half marathon PR. Lisa wore her shirt Monday. Somebody thought she was on the podcast. She could have said yes. She was tempted to say she was Allie, but she decided to be honest and go ahead and say no, she just loved listening. Thanks, lisa. Lola. Lola got two PRs in two of the races.

Bob: 1:49:26

Our friends Maggie and Brad from Magic Bound Travel were there. I saw them a couple of times. They finished all three events. Margaret finished a week that started with the Marine Corps Marathon in DC. Megan, finished, got her figment medal. Another Megan finished, got her figment medal. Melissa great to see Melissa on the course. Wish I could tell you how to fix those blisters, melissa, but they'll go away. Meredith and Debbie that's another crew that were mentioned earlier. They didn't run, they were there to cheer. That's delightful. Glad you came out. We appreciate you. Good to see you at the meetup also. Thank you. Molly finished her first half PR Round, the 10K and PR Monica. I got a chance to see Monica and two-fifths of the Chaos Crew at the Expo. Monica was signed up for the challenge but she didn't run it because the 10K wasn't enough. She replaced the 10K on Saturday with a 50-mile race, which I'll talk about later on in the race report. Natalie was there, left us this message.

Natalie: 1:50:42

Hey there, Ryzen Runtien. This is Natalie from Nebraska and Colin with a little quick flip from Wine and Dine 2023. This is my first time doing Wine and Dine and had a great time. First time doing a catered training run for the half because I am in training for Goosey 2024. And also completed a perfect 2023 run every race this season. It was a great time and I'm looking forward to continuing the fun after a great kickoff to the season. Take care.

Bob: 1:51:16

You may recall when we did the roll call that we had a newlywed couple running the Carpenters Season and Mark finished their 5 and 10K. Congratulations, guys. Rebecca gave us a long post on Facebook with good reason. She had open heart surgery three years ago. She tried and didn't finish last year but she nailed it this year. Wow.

Bob: 1:51:42

Yeah, impressive, seiras was there. Saw Seiras a couple of times. Saw her on the course. I asked her this year. She said no, but she promised next year She'd work out a little bit and give me a piggyback ride.

Allie: 1:51:54

Yeah, that's right.

Bob: 1:51:56

She could do it. Bob, I think she. If she says so, I believe her by golly. Vanessa and Seiras saw them several times on the course, at the meetup and at the after party. Always fun to see them. Simon had a PR in the 10K. Stephanie with her eight year old son finished the 5K. I don't usually use last names, but TA, ta Schneider in the 10K was set up right behind us. I wish she'd said something to us. We would have loved to have said hello. Tammy was their best race ever in the half negative splits and a PR. Both Taras were there. Tara finished the challenge. Tony, well, we know about Tony. Tony on the run Disney Facebook Page. Hoham, again, tony said hands down is favorite race weekend yet, Bob, can I say something about Tony Also?

John: 1:53:01

we didn't mention, we don't talk about Tony. Enough are you? When I'm going up to get my bib, I hear his voice coming over the PA as a promo.

Bob: 1:53:13

That's right. All right, hollywood, it's always good to see that Best agent in the business he's got.

Bob: 1:53:20

Troy sent us Facebook post first sub two hour half marathon. Of course that's a PR. And Wendy Wendy finished with us, I believe, at the half, despite starting in E and having problems there. I think Wendy was with us. I know she was with us as we made that last turn towards the corral. I think she went on and finished. I had to. I always stop and chat with the race announcers and have fun. So if you left the post in Facebook, it was really quick. But there you go. Thanks for doing it. All right, let's get ahead.

John: 1:54:02

I also think our friend Rachel PR this race.

Jack: 1:54:05

Shout out to Rachel I believe two minutes, right Three, I believe it was three.

Bob: 1:54:11

All right, rachel, pr bell for you. Yeah, caroline, who was with us in the 10 K. John, she PR the half. Yeah, didn't put it in on our group but I know that she did Good job there. All right, let's go through the traditional race report. It's not terribly long but let's see what we got started out. Thursday night in Joshua Tree, california, the Joshua Tree half Jennifer ran that one. Ran it at night, tough course, but a lot of fun. In Salina, kansas, the Crossroads half marathon Robert ran that one on Friday. On Saturday in Flagler Beach, florida, the oceans 50 relay Megan. Good to see Megan back in the race report. Megan was having some planter fasciitis troubles but visited her PT, got some new shoes, feeling much better. Ran this relay on an all women team that came in second place.

Bob: 1:55:16

In New York, new York, the Abbott dash to the finish line 5 K. Grace ran this one, a pre New York City marathon shakeout run in terms of New York City landmarks, and highlights the cost. This course puts a lot into just a 5 K run. Grace listed them. I don't have them all here, but it's it's an extensive list, pretty impressive, her goal, of course. Take it easy, not get hurt, have fun before the marathon and in that she was successful. In Fort Smith, arkansas, the FCA River Valley run half marathon. Joe was there with the three amigos Amigo, johnny placed first in the 5 K, gary second in the 10 K, but sadly Joe did not place in the half. And this isn't fair. Joe's almost 78 years old. How's he supposed to compete with these 70 and 71 year old youngsters? It's just it's. It's just not fair.

Greg: 1:56:21

You'll get on next time, Joe.

Bob: 1:56:23

Yeah.

John: 1:56:25

Two years will be the 80 year old youngster in that group.

Bob: 1:56:28

First of all, I believe Joe will still be out there, oh yeah, but in a lot of running events they are not big enough to have an 80 year old plus group. So All right, Joe's still going to do it. Hey look, I mentioned earlier that Monica didn't want to just do a 10 K, she did a 50 miler. In Palatka, Florida, the Azalea 50 miler finished upright Smiling with some awesome new bling. She finished second overall female.

Greg: 1:57:04

That's incredible.

Bob: 1:57:07

Way to go, monica, that's great. The Colorado Springs Turkey trails 10 K Summer did that one started off cold. How ironic that summer started off cold, but luckily the sun came out, warmed everybody up by the end. Best thing is summer got a new PR. That finishes Saturday will start Sunday. In Huntington, west Virginia. Iliana the Marshall half marathon, marshall University so cool, running through the stadium carrying a football, having her kids join her Really neat, big shout out. She used a pacer, josh paced the 215 group. She stuck with him, moved ahead late, which a lot of pasters will encourage you to do if you still have some gas in the tank. And Iliana finishes with a new PR under two hours and 14 minutes.

Jack: 1:58:11

That's a proof of time to Bob.

Bob: 1:58:13

Yes, it is, yes, it is. That's. That's impressive, nice job. The big one. The big one that was not at Walt Disney World. So is it fair to call it the second biggest running event of the weekend? That's probably a little pretentious, because I'm talking about the New York City Marathon. Let's start with our buddy, david, who submitted this report for us.

David: 1:58:43

Hey gang, this is David Bennett from outsevere Atlanta, Georgia, and I am calling with a race report. First off, I want to say thank you for the shout out on last week's podcast. This was my first marathon and it happened to be on my birthday, so I got to celebrate with 50,000 other runners running New York and I really, really appreciate the support from the podcast and the group in general. Prior to race day I thoroughly enjoyed the expo is very well done, so well done that. I spent way too much money, but it was great. I have gear to last me forever. I also ran for the American Cancer Society and raised over $3,500. So I got to participate in their mini expo and a shake out run and all sorts of stuff like that. So I really recommend charity runs that. I know we've talked about a lot.

David: 1:59:33

Race day itself early morning caught a 6am Galloway bus, but that was a lot of fun Made friends on the bus, chatted the whole way there, met some run dopey friends in the start area, actually on the way to the start line, so I know I'll be chatting with them soon. Once the race started, the Verrazano Bridge was crowded. I ended up just straight running the first two miles. So I apologize to Coach Chris, but once we got to spread out a little bit in Brooklyn, I stuck to my ratios. Brooklyn was great energy and which is good because it was half the race. We were there for 13 miles but jumped into Queens for a little bit. My favorite sign in Queens was welcome to Queens, now get out. Then we crossed over into Manhattan and first half is just as wild as everyone says it is, with tons and tons of people cheering. Bronx was fun. Fifth Avenue, coming back down towards Central Park, got really tough. But it was also around mile 22 that I realized I was close to, if I kept it up and if my math was right at mile 22, which nothing, no guarantees there but I could hit a sub five. So I kept pushing, pushed hard through Central Park, weaved a little bit and ended up finishing at four hours 58 minutes and 32 seconds and technically ran the second half one minute faster than the first. So I am thrilled with that result.

David: 2:01:02

I got to see my family three times on the course my wife, my sister-in-law, my brother made a little scavenger hunt out of finding me in Brooklyn and twice in Manhattan. I saw Erin from Will Run For and her group in big pinata costumes. I saw Doug from the Rise and Run group. I saw the Galloway NYC group a couple of times on the course and then the American Cancer Society had their own cheer section. That was great.

David: 2:01:28

So those are just some highlights, but there were some. I mean there was incredible crowds the entire way. It really was one of the hardest but the most incredible things I've done. I had my name on my shirt and that was amazing and I recommend that for any other race, because hundreds of people were shouting out go David, you got this, david, and that really really helped, especially later in the race. There really were crowds the whole way. Sometimes there were just a couple of people on the block and other times there were people five deep on the barricade and even coming into the street, which made some parts of Brooklyn a little tricky. But you know, we made it work. Overall, an incredible day, incredible race, so much respect for the organizers, great experience, and I plan on being back one day. So anyway, thanks for taking the time to listen, thanks again for the shout out and the support, and I will see everyone for my first Doby in January. Thanks, gang.

Greg: 2:02:32

I got to say, david, I am so incredibly proud of you. I remember, bobby, you had shared this story the one year, I think, following Mandy in the Boston Marathon. That, like you know, it's so odd to like be yelling at your phone watching it dot.

Greg: 2:02:49

And it was the same way with me for David the fact that it was his first marathon, it was his birthday, a world major, the whole nine yards and I was like, oh my God he's. He's on pace for a sub five and I'm like he's got like 90 seconds to pull it off and boy right.

Jack: 2:03:06

So way to go, david. That's a pretty epic birthday.

Bob: 2:03:11

It is, it's impressive, it's epic and he went to the expo in his rise and run shirt. Yes, he did, congratulations.

Allie: 2:03:18

Marathoner.

Bob: 2:03:21

And this. Let's see the others now. Again, we're going to hear from some of these folks in a couple weeks, but that's okay. Chris was there. Chris saw a group photo of Chris in front of the Staten Island Ferry. Chris says there were about 2 million people in New York City that came out to cheer for this one. He thinks he high fived about half of them. People were dancing, party and having a good time, like many folks have told us and David did this too.

Bob: 2:03:51

It helps her on a big race like this with your name on your shirt, because you just get the shout outs the whole race. That whole crew trained hard for this thing and it showed. Danny was there. Danny, who is an excellent runner. Danny finish this one in under four hours.

Bob: 2:04:11

Our friend from Canada, gary, was there. His first New York Marathon and he'll never forget it absolutely the most fun race he has ever done. We hear this part over and over unbelievable crowd support. From beginning, dan Gary set a better than 18 minute. Pr is only regret, and remember now he still did PR. He started out too fast. He broke the rule Don't start out too fast on that bridge at the New York City Marathon. But you know what it's the start. You got the adrenaline going. People are around you. I get it, gary. Great job. Grace was there.

Bob: 2:04:55

Grace says this one didn't go quite as well as planned and little after the halfway point she adjusted her expectations for the day. Just make the best of it and have as much fun as she could. Again, nothing like running this course. She had friends and family all over. She managed to beat her time from Berlin, which I think is impressive. Still have lots of great memories. This was her ninth race in the New York Roadrunners, nine plus one program, so that gives her guaranteed entry in 2024.

Bob: 2:05:33

One thing Grace did that was pretty cool in my book. She came back. They have a big celebration for the final finisher, so she came back for that. It was a wonderful day to end, the wonderful way to end the day. As most people who did this, one highly recommends the New York City Marathon, gretchen. Gretchen would like to thank John for telling her how to get an entry. John, you must to cued Gretchen in some time earlier in the year. Yeah, I told her how to get in. She did all the work. All right, right, that's right, but she remembered that, so she wanted to thank you for it. Amazing race, she was taking candy and a beer from strangers. High fived. All the little kids, all the adults dance, cheered, sang, had a great time and finished very close to her personal gold time.

Greg: 2:06:27

Gretchen, I hope you celebrated by a great time. I'm really happy to celebrate it by when you get back to work at Costco getting a $1.50 hotdog and soda.

Bob: 2:06:35

There you go. There you go, good job there. Our friend Heather in the push room division 40 minutes faster than last year and her first half beat her standalone half PR. Good job there. Really awesome. Saw a bunch of the run dopey gang. She had a bunch of her friends from Achilles International. She had another flat tire on this one somewhere between mile 20 and 22. Still managed to finish.

Allie: 2:07:04

I think she finished with a flat tire, right, she didn't get us there.

Bob: 2:07:07

Yeah, she's done that, that's happened before. She's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree so with the way they started and the pace she was able to maintain. She really didn't get into the crowd of runners until there were about 10 miles to go. So the first 16 and a half that was pretty amazing. Pretty much had the course to herself for a while. So there we have it. Those are our New York City Marathon runners. We're proud of all of you. Great job, and again we'll hear more in a couple episodes.

Bob: 2:07:40

All right, so we'll wrap up here in the city of Raleigh, north Carolina, the city of Oaks Half Marathon. Jeremy was there. Chicago had their hot chocolate run. Lori ran it largest race she's ever done 34,000. At the hot chocolate run in Chicago. Lori managed to pull off a PR of 32 minutes, even though it was kind of difficult with all those folks there. She had a long wait in the crowd and she had to weave through a bunch of people. Well, yeah, there were you and 33,999 others. Folks were walking all over the course. That can get frustrating. This for Laura was the fourth race in the Run this Town series, so she got an extra medal when she finished.

Bob: 2:08:34

In Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, the EQT 10-miler. We had three folks there. Alyssa was there. Andrew did his first in-person 10-miler. That's a PR, did it in under two hours. Since Andrew's uncle passed away a couple years ago his mom told him that she gets a penny from heaven from him as a sign that he's with you. So, entering the race knowing he wasn't fully prepared, it meant a lot to him to find a penny on the road, to find a penny on the course.

Bob: 2:09:10

Before he got started, rachel was there. She's been trying to get her 10K back under 60 minutes. She got really close today just a little over an hour an hour and 30 seconds. Fun Race. Best part was she got to see a bunch of friends she hadn't seen in a really long time. She grew up in Pittsburgh but now lives in Maine. Traveling back to Maine, flight connected in New York City and catch this. Joan Benoit Samuelson was on it. She said she even got to chat with Joan a little bit on the way out to their cars in the parking garage after they landed. Pretty cool. I'm not sure what city the Western Mass 10K is in, but Jen would tell us because Jen was there. Alley was in Florida, but Jen was there, but Jen was there.

Bob: 2:10:07

That's right, nice fall day, nice fall day in Mass 10K.

John: 2:10:10

I think there's a 10-mile or two.

Bob: 2:10:12

I think it's a 10-mile or two. Looking at her finishing time, I think it is too. Thanks, john. The foliage was pretty. I kind of late in the year for foliage in Western Mass, I would think.

Allie: 2:10:22

If I could guess, I think it's an Amherst Mass.

Bob: 2:10:24

Okay, that's my guess All right, but foliage is still pretty there. I wasn't sure how she was going to do. She's missed some training, but she pulled out a sub two-hour run and a PR.

Allie: 2:10:39

I know we're so proud of her.

Bob: 2:10:44

In Alpharetta, georgia. Sherry ran the women's half marathon there. In Geneva, illinois, the Oolala Chocolate 5K, 10k and a half Mark was there. Vicki and her friend Melissa and Melissa's husband were there. Vicki won the freaking 10K Holy cow.

Bob: 2:11:06

Yeah, her words, not mine. I won the freaking 10K Not first female, first one across the finish line, pretty cool. She's had a couple of female wins, but never first overall. I don't know why after you've won the 10K you decide to go run a few more miles Must have been on Vicki's training schedule. So she does that and she gets back 10 minutes later and finds out that she missed the award ceremony announcing that she had won. But they were nice enough to announce her again and she got her winners medal. Been 10 years or so since she last ran a 10K, so, as you might expect from the overall winner, this was about a 15 minute.

Bob: 2:11:59

Pr Camille is coaching the girls on the run. It's her second season coaching girls on the run and her daughter's first season participating. They had their end of season 5K on Sunday. Her daughter rocked it. She loves this program that gives these young ladies an early positive experience with physical activity. And I've got one virtual to talk about. Allison completed her virtual New York City marathon, which gives her guaranteed entry for 2024. She did it wearing her pink rise and run shirt.

Bob: 2:12:42

Congratulations to all our runners this week those at Disney World, those at New York, those who did anything way to go. We're so proud of you. It is a Zoom Thursday. I suspect we'll have plenty to talk about and I hope the last time we had a big crowd there. I hope we get another big crowd because that's a lot of fun. I look forward to talking with you, what we'll be, if you're listening on release day later tonight. Meanwhile, my friends and if you run, you know you are our friend. We loved seeing so many of you. I think we've said that before, but we mean it. We love seeing so many of you this week. We can't wait to see you again in eight more weeks and until then, happy running.

Greg: 2:13:45

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 healthcare provider or event organizer.