Rise and Run
Rise and Run
195: Brittany Charboneau: One Bad A** Mother Runner
Professional trail runner Brittany Charbonneau joins us for a heartfelt, inspiring, and fun conversation about her journey through pregnancy, motherhood, and returning to competitive racing. Four months after giving birth to her son Hugo following a 27-hour labor and C-section, Brittany shares the emotional and physical realities of balancing elite athleticism with new motherhood.
What makes this episode particularly special is Brittany's candid discussion about how her sponsor, North Face, defied outdated industry standards by renewing her contract during pregnancy and providing exceptional support for her comeback. "They signed me for multiple years," Brittany reveals, noting that they've even helped ensure her family could travel with her to competitions. This represents a powerful shift in how female athletes are supported through motherhood.
Brittany offers practical wisdom for expecting or new mom runners, emphasizing the importance of listening to your body rather than adhering rigidly to training plans. Her decision to stop running at five months pregnant initially felt like failure, but she now recognizes it as one of her wisest choices. "Having that time off gave me perspective," she explains, describing how pregnancy hiking actually built strength that's benefiting her current mountain racing.
Perhaps most compelling is Brittany's discussion of how motherhood has transformed her mindset as a competitive athlete. After years of "imposter syndrome," she's approaching races with newfound confidence and joy, even planning banana tattoos for an upcoming race as a nod to her "little monkey" at home. Her story reminds us that sometimes our greatest performances come when we release our grip on perfectionism and embrace the journey.
Could you use some inspiration for balancing running with life's challenges? This conversation with Brittany will leave you motivated to lace up your shoes, whatever season of life you're navigating.
Brittany’s Links
Funnyrunner26.2 Instagram
The Funny Runner Website
Brittany’s Coaching
QPC Queens Centers for ProgressCharity Bibs
Mix Tape 2025
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3 am 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, our listeners. Well, the alarm's gone off, so let's go.
Speaker 4:Hi, this is Laura Ann at the Rise and Run podcast meetup for Springtime Surprise Weekend.
Speaker 1:Happy running and stay hydrated laura ann with a good intro and some timely advice. Stay hydrated, people. Now that's back from springtime, surprise, but boy does it play well today. Good job, laura. And, by the way, friends, that is our last recorded intro, so in a little bit Greg's going to give you the phone number, give us a call, give us a new intro. Hello, my friends, it's so wonderful to have you with us on episode number 195 of the Rise and Run podcast. I'm Bob, and this week I'm here with Alicia, hello, with Greg, hey, hey, hey. And with John.
Speaker 5:Hey how you doing.
Speaker 1:John, we're all doing great, John Good good. Now that you're here, we're excited. Man Already can start. That's right. Welcome back on the mic, Bob. Oh thanks, I missed y'all I. That's right. Welcome back on the mic, Bob. Oh thanks, I missed y'all. I really did, I really did. But I knew that I bet no one even noticed I was gone. You guys hung in there so well. I called Greg Bob last week, it's okay, john.
Speaker 4:Not babe, but Bob Not babe but Bob.
Speaker 3:So if anyone's curious of the the inside story here, a couple of weeks ago jack had an epic brain fart and instead of saying hey, bob just said hey, babe, and it it stopped us dead in our tracks for five minutes long. I'll have to resurface the audio, maybe put that up on patreon or something like that for people to listen to not that I didn't appreciate it, I mean I like jack.
Speaker 1:I thought that was very, very nice I appreciated it, but yeah, it's jackson.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not well speaking of last week, bob, and that real quick, though we need two answers from you. Number one have you ever uh peed during a training run or a race in a weird place?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, good question weird place? I don't, I don't think this qualifies as a weird place, but I had a strange thing happen to me. Disney marathon, I forget. It's like my second or third one. Uh, boy, I need to go and I'm looking ahead for porta potties. Yeah, I, I, I don't, I'm looking, I'm looking at all right, there's a tree line over there. I can make it to the men's men's restroom, which we call the Disney tree line.
Speaker 1:Friends, you may notice off the sides of the roads that the terrain slopes downward like a gully. That's for drainage. That area is always wet, so that I got to the bottom and I ran across that. I thought I was going to lose my shoe. I stuck in the muck and I thought I was going to lose my shoe. Shoe, I stuck in the muck and I thought I was going to lose my shoe. Now the rest of the story is not that exciting. Uh, I did what I had to do in the tree line there. No big deal, uh, but holy cow, yeah, so that's my. That would have been my strange, my strange corral pea story.
Speaker 3:All right, and your favorite ice cream flavor, and do you put sprinkles or jimmies?
Speaker 1:on them. I mean, the honest answer is usually neither, but I get what you're after. And golly, I. Almost it's going to sound silly to say I don't know. I guess jimmies I guess, but I think I kind of associate that with my grandparents calling them jimmies. I haven't used that kind of topping for so long, I'm not sure. And a favorite kind oh golly, I'm going to go. I like rum raisin we used to have I talk about.
Speaker 1:I live near vacation land right across the inland waterway. Less than a half mile as the crow flies, is a strip of beach on the Gulf with the kind of restaurants and stores and miniature golf courses you'd expect from a beach-type town. And this ice cream parlor moved. They're no longer directly across anymore, they're four or five miles south. But they had a couple of ice creams that they literally made you show your ID before they would serve it to you. Now they didn't ask me, but yeah, because the alcoholic content in them was enough. I think it was mostly a gimmick, but they wouldn't serve it to you unless you were 21. But the rum raisin there was good. All the ice cream there was good great.
Speaker 3:I know we haven't officially gone to apologies and alibis yet, but there's one thing I forgot to mention. As I was listening back because I always listen back to every episode to make sure I didn't make any mistakes or glaring errors I realized, alicia, when we were having the uh topic of conversation about the hot fudge shake and I was talking about what I was used to with the black and tan, I realized I never mentioned no, no, black and white.
Speaker 4:Sorry, yeah, black and white. Black and tan is a drink at Rosencrantz. That's beer, yeah.
Speaker 3:I forgot to mention the name of the establishment is the charcoal pit is where you can get a really good black and white milkshakes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm listening. Listening to that too, greg. That's what my dad used to order all the time A chocolate syrup with vanilla ice cream, and it made for kind of like a mildly chocolate milkshake. It's good. Yeah, oh golly, any other questions that you left out?
Speaker 3:No, I think those were the most important ones that we wanted to get your perspective on from last week.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that was last week. This week, friends. This week Brittany's back for the sixth time Our great friend Brittany Charbonneau visits. You will not want to miss that. Always a delightful conversation. Uh, we got a chance to see hugo. He didn't have much to say, four and a half five months old. He's not saying much yet. In the race report, spotlight, jennifer and george are out in yellowstone for a vacation race and they drop by from their tent in Yellowstone to tell us all about it.
Speaker 3:If you enjoy the Rise and Run podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family. We want to share in your run Disney journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast, on Instagram at Rise and Run Pod, and be sure to check out our YouTube channel as well as our webpage, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, a comment, a race report or would like to introduce an upcoming episode, as Bob mentioned before, a race report or would like to introduce an upcoming episode, as Bob mentioned before, be sure to give us a call at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.
Speaker 2:We also want to thank our Patreons, whose support helps us keep the Rise and Run podcast rising and running. If you'd like to join the Patreon team, please check out patreoncom slash rise and run podcast.
Speaker 4:And greg mentioned. We really do want to hear from you for our 200th episode, so please do call us at 727-266-2344 and leave a message. Tell us a memory that you have from a past episode, um, maybe a fun moment that you've had with one of us.
Speaker 3:We want to hear bobby's perfect and he doesn't make any mistakes well, bob, you're professional, you never mess up that too, all the things.
Speaker 4:So again, seven, two, seven, two, six, six, two, three, four, four thanks, alicia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, let's see friends. The rise and run podcast is sponsored by the good folks at Magic Bound Travel. I was at Disney World last week and I know we've been talking about getting ready for the races with Magic Bound, getting ready for the cruise with Magic Bound. Not a bad time to visit Disney World right now. Now it's hot, it's hot, but if you can find something to do in the middle of the day and we ended up back at the hotel most of the time, either at the pool or just in the room cooling off it's a good time to go. The crowds are down, things are open, it's fun, so not a bad time. Check them out. Magicboundtravelcom is the website.
Speaker 1:All right, friends, before we get too far into the episode, you know that from time to time we see things on our Facebook page. In our Facebook group, our friends post things about their daily life and because we feel like this is so much of a family, I do want to mention this. Our friend Ellie, who has been with us in the Rise and Run podcast group for the last two years In fact, ellie was one of the folks who did the vacation race at the Grand Tetons last week. She lost her father on Father's Day. That's tough, ellie, we're so sorry. We're praying for you and your family and we hope that you can keep the good memories of Dad alive.
Speaker 1:Let's move to the training schedule. The one race and this is the last week I get to say this, the only race we have on the training schedule right now is Disneyland Halloween. You are in week seven of the training. There are 11 weeks to go until this race is run and if you're doing the challenge or the half, you have three miles, including a magic mile this weekend. If you're not familiar, we've talked about the magic mile before. With the weather turning hot in most of the country, you can opt to do a magic half mile and it works surprisingly well.
Speaker 5:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't. I was talking with Coach Tweaks about this this morning when I first heard about this. Here's how it works. First, you run it just as though you were doing a magic mile, except you're only going to do half a mile. Take your time, double it at 18 seconds. When I first heard about this I thought, thought, oh geez, that's not going to work out, because for half a mile I can push that one really fast and I'll get uh, I'll get a wrong magic mile time. Nope, it works out just about perfectly. So that's, that's a real option in the hot weather. In fact, I've got one, not this Saturday, I've got one next Saturday. I told Chris this morning that probably between now and October all my magic miles will be magic half miles, but it does work.
Speaker 1:Let's see what else is coming up. Wine and Dine Training is going to start next week, next Tuesday, that kicks off. That same day we register for the Princess Race Weekend at Disney World. Highly encourage you if you're registering for Princess, pop onto the Facebook group, join the community chat for Princess Weekend and we'll do what we can to help one another get registered. We've had a lot of success and, believe it or not, we kind of have some fun. I usually open up a Zoom discussion. It gives us a chance to chat with one another and it ends up making the time go by and I kind of look forward to registration what's?
Speaker 3:more fun than having sweaty palms and being anxious for an hour and a half, while you're waiting for that, that little ticker bar to say it's your turn.
Speaker 2:She's not here but if you're lucky, jack might give her credit card number out again.
Speaker 1:That's why we've never gone live on instagram since that moment yeah, but but give it a try, friends, if you haven't done it before. It does work. We are able to help one another out. We have had a very high rate of success with getting everyone who wants to get into the race into the race. No guarantees, of course, but and I I honestly do. Anytime I get a chance to talk with my Rise and Run friends, it's a good day. So I look forward to that.
Speaker 1:Hey, our buddy Grant of the Pelkey Running Club, he was with us here just a couple of weeks ago, as was John. He did something really cool. You know, john's trying to raise money for the St Jude. He's running a half, I think, up in Memphis. Yeah, he's not running a full, he's running a half up in Memphis. Well, gang, you remember it wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1:It wasn't quite a meme, but people were posting AI pictures of themselves as action figure runners. You saw all those. They were kind of cool. And somebody did one of John. I don't know who it was, but Grant had a friend and golly, I should have looked this up. I think in Scotland I could be wrong. I know it's overseas who took the image of the John Pelkey running figure and did a 3D printed John Pelkey running figure. It's on Instagram If you want to look Pelkey Running Club you can take a look at it.
Speaker 1:It's really cool and what they're doing is they're going to raffle that off for the charity. So if you're interested, take a look. Go to pelkyrunningclubcom and Grant better have a link up there. There isn't one at the time of this recording, but there better be one because it's a neat thing and I thought number one it's a good cause, st Jude's. Number two those are friends of ours. And number three it's a cool thing, I think you might enjoy it. Training Number two those are friends of ours. And number three it's a cool thing, I think you might enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Training updates Any training updates guys, weather is very moist this weekend up here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say, John, I don't think we've seen the sun in over like 96 hours. It's getting a little depressing here in the Northeast.
Speaker 2:I think it's and I think it's rained like every weekend for like 13 out of the last 14 weekends You're fixing to bust out of that and uh, yeah, 100 degree temps yeah busting out hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you gotta watch out for those. Um, the only thing I have is my uh, summer series virtual medals arrived, boy. I here's, here's the, here's the headline. I'm not big on medals. These, these are really cool. These are really really neat and really well presented, and so that's kind of exciting. I've done two 5Ks. I did a 5K today on the treadmill. It went okay, so I've got two of the three done. It's no challenge doing them, especially if you're training for another race. But yeah, I'm going to go ahead and earn those and then put them on my wall and then forget about it. One of them lights up. I don't know if I'll light it up on the wall or not, but if I do, it'll be one time and that'll be the end of that. Still, still, they are neat and you know, when future virtuals come around, I probably won't do them. But that's okay, it was worthwhile, it was neat.
Speaker 2:So the medals upgraded from they're okay to they're nice, they were.
Speaker 1:They really are. Becky's got a set two. Not sure what she plans to do with hers. We'll have to. I'll keep you up to date.
Speaker 3:Well, if you ever run a race for charity, maybe you could raffle those off or something like that. You know, she actually suggested that. Oh good Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so maybe we will.
Speaker 3:And did it come with? Did I see correctly? It came with, uh, its own set of mickey ears too. Yeah, that's really cool yeah, they look nice.
Speaker 1:Uh, I don't have them in front of me, I think the uh, if I'm not mistaken, the cap is white and the ears are blue, I think.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I don't think they've done that for any other virtual series. I mean obviously I know we get the ears after we run the actual marathon itself but I think they give you like an extra item.
Speaker 2:I know I did the uh superhero ones one uh the marvel characters a couple years back and it came like with a coin, so there's something extra. I don't know if they do it every race weekend for the virtuals, but yeah.
Speaker 4:Speaking of the virtuals, I saw an ad today and I just looked it up. They do actually still have the Valentine's challenge, if anybody felt like they missed out and they wanted to get that one. It's still available, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow Cause, the summer series is sold out.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But yeah, I saw an ad earlier and I was like, is that supposed to be there? But yes, it's still on the Run Disney website.
Speaker 2:All right, the Christmas one should be coming up soon then too, then for registration.
Speaker 1:Okay, the 12Ks of Christmas, yeah if they keep doing it, yeah. John, how's the mixtape?
Speaker 2:coming. So the mixtape is coming along very well. Right now. We're up to about 64 songs, which will give you about four hours of running. I mean it's a very eclectic mix of tunes. I mean I do this because we're in our training session.
Speaker 2:I like to listen to music on my training runs. I don't know if you guys do I. It puts me back into a place Like sometimes I hear a song, and it puts you back into a place, a place in time, like absolutely anything. Eighties. I'm like, I'm back to, like high school, you know. So it's like great times. And so let's do this. Maybe somebody else can find something new, maybe a new genre, new song that might mean something to them. So I hope that you guys are enjoying it. It's the link up at the link in the show notes and it's on the Facebook page. So let's add two songs. If you're having a problem because I think some people with Apple are having a little bit of an issue uh, just post the two songs you want in the uh in the chat and I will just add them for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool, john. You know you talked about how music puts you in a place in time and it does. How much was a couple of years ago, maybe 10 years ago now, eric Church did that song, springsteen Ringing any bells, kids? We get to Brittany. I wanted to comment.
Speaker 1:We have an AI character, if you will, on the Facebook page, in the Facebook group. It's called the Running Buddy and it's AI generated and I didn't know what to expect of it, but I think it's kind of neat what it's been doing. To expect of it, but I think it's kind of neat what it's been doing. It's been generating some questions and most of the questions it generates are pretty good, and those questions in turn generate responses from our friends in the Facebook page. And the other thing it does is, once in a while, it'll summarize some of the group activities. So if you're wondering what the heck that is, that's it the AI Running Buddy on the Facebook page.
Speaker 1:Okay, let us and I really had fun with this one let's visit with our guests for the week. Friends, we're so excited to have our next guest back for the sixth time on the Rise and Run podcast. Now, most of you know who Brittany is the funny runner, the improv comic, the professional trail and mountain racer and the only person man or woman to win all four races on a dopey weekend. But she holds a special place in my heart. She's the first guest that we had back in episode 15. That made me nervous to talk to Brittany. We're glad you're back. It's so great to see you.
Speaker 8:Oh, it's so good to be back. As always, I'm like when are they going to be like we've had enough, because? I'm like never I'm always down to be back. So I'm so glad to be back and I hope that you're not nervous anymore, Because I like, seriously, every time I'm on I'm like, oh, we're in DisneyFam, we're back together.
Speaker 1:Brittany. It took about five minutes. I remember that. I remember that. I mean we're what? We're 15 episodes into it. The only interviews we had were people that I knew they were friends. Jonathan was with us, Joe was with us, Mandy was with us.
Speaker 3:We didn't know you. I remember my palms sweating as I was crafting the Instagram message on the on the magic kingdom fairy.
Speaker 8:Oh, that's funny, I love it. I mean, it's like oh, you guys are my people, so it's, it's great.
Speaker 1:That's the thing that I remember. Second most is I'm serious. It took about five or 10 minutes and I went wait a minute, she's one of us, this is going to be fun and it is going to be fun and we're excited to have you tonight and this is going to be fun. Look, the biggest thing it's been about a year since you've been with us. In fact, greg looked it up just a minute ago. I think it's been a year and four days or something. Something really important happened between now and then and we want to hear all about Hugo and what it's like being a mom.
Speaker 8:You guys, I'm a mom now.
Speaker 1:Heaven, help us all right.
Speaker 8:Honestly, the best thing in the entire world. I didn't think it was going to be this amazing and I'm just, I'm loving it, like. I just like, I feel like I'm the happiest I've ever been. I feel like, um, I'm back in training, I'm back running, of course, but, um, dude, having this little tiny human, that's just the cutest thing in the whole entire world. Um, um is so awesome. It's so much better than I expected. I don't know, I knew I would. I was nervous, like I was, like I think I'll enjoy it. You know, like, you hear about the horror phases of having a newborn and all of that, but, um, he's just a good little dude and we're just so, um, it's, it's like everything's just like sparkly now even more sparkly, if that's possible.
Speaker 1:Let me share. I'm just going to share one thing with you. From having gone through this and seeing other friends, I hear new parents saying I'm just so nervous, I don't know what's going to happen with my child as they grow up and I do. Your child has good parents. Your child's going to be just fine, I promise. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, I get it. I'm excited for you and you got all these little different things that happen About a year they start to walk and about two they start to talk. And there's another interesting period about two to two and a half, where you go, we'll talk and you'll understand them, but your friends and neighbors go. What'd he say?
Speaker 8:Yeah, you need to interpret. I hope that he just my. My hope is that he skips talking and he just goes straight to singing. That's my hope, yeah.
Speaker 1:And the other one all of a sudden about two and a half boom. Everybody understands yeah.
Speaker 8:And he'll be running trails by then, for sure.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. I'm looking forward to his first 5K. I'll have to stay running for another five years, so I can see him at his first 5K, all right. Well, look, running mom pro athlete. We got a lot of young women who listened to this podcast, many of whom have run while pregnant. Many more will. What kind of advice can we give these expected moms and the moms returning to running?
Speaker 8:Oh man, I learned so much from this past year. I, of course, okay, so my job is obviously I'm a professional runner, my job is to run. North Face was unbelievably supportive and they were like you don't have to run at all. So I ran through five months of my pregnancy but at the beginning I was like I'm definitely going to run the entire pregnancy. It doesn't matter if it's slow, I don't care if, like, I'm just, I'm definitely going to run and I'm so glad that I stopped running.
Speaker 8:So I hope anyone that's listening to this that is like hemming and hawing, like should I keep running? And you don't want to, you don't have to, um, and it was the best decision I made, um, because it just didn't feel fun, like when my job is to get faster. Every day, I was getting slower and slower every day, but it didn't feel good, like, and I actually like started loving walking, um, so I walked a ton, I hiked Um, and let me tell you I feel bad when I'm climbing trails, of course, but when you are climbing trails, pregnant, you've got like this superhero quality that you're like. It doesn't matter if it took me all day. I did this and my body's amazing and I just did this like wow, like I just have such a, such a new appreciation for women and moms and what our bodies do. It's unbelievable, um. So I I think I'm so happy now, looking back, that I didn't keep running throughout my pregnancy. I stayed very active, um, but I didn't overdo it.
Speaker 8:I think I was a little nervous that I was going to overdo it, um, especially, it's hard. You know, I'm gaining weight every day and that was really hard. Um. But I was like I got to take care of my body. I don't want to. I don't want to be wrecked, coming out of labor and delivery and getting back into running because I overdid it in pregnancy, like now is my time to just kind of let my body do what it's going to do. So, um, I gained 45 pounds. I um stopped running at five months. Um, I had a C-section, long labor, all of that. And now you know it's four months later and I'm running and training and feeling great and I feel like, but I'm again like just easing back into it, um, so I think my, my biggest lesson for myself was just like it's okay to not, like it's a good season to not have to follow training, be an athlete in that sense, because your body's on overdrive, and I'm so glad that I gave myself that break. Just like what I needed. It was perfect.
Speaker 1:I think that's wonderful advice, just like what I needed. It was perfect. So I think that's. I think it was wonderful advice, I mean for the moms out there, I think I think it's reassuring to hear something like that from you.
Speaker 3:I really do. Brittany, going through your pregnancy journey, obviously you made a lot of right calls that you and you learn to not only respect yourself and the process and then you know getting back into it. But one of the one of the highest levels of respect that I think I saw, at least from a social media standpoint in your pregnancy journey, was your sponsor in North Face and I remember being thrilled and over the moon when I saw you announce that you got renewed with them while pregnant. Talk about obviously there's a lot of emotions in pregnancy, but talk about the emotion of your career as a runner, especially at that given time.
Speaker 8:Oh, yeah, I'm so glad that you brought that up. Um, so if we even just rewind to right before the Olympic trials in 2020, and even the couple of years leading into it, I remember thinking, okay, if I make the team in 2020, awesome. If not, I'm going to go back, I'm going to train and try to make the Olympic team in 2024. And then I retire because I want to have a family, like that was. Even just a few years ago.
Speaker 8:That was the kind of norm. Like you, either you didn't get to keep training and competing at a high level, you got dropped from your sponsor, um, or it was just like you're a mom. You can't be an athlete and a mom, um, and all of these women over the years have just been paving the way for me and just showing like, oh no, we can be athletes and moms and we can be really good athletes. Um, and I think the Paris Olympics, this past round for the summer Olympics, was a like think about how many moms we saw out there in all different sports doing it, and that was so inspiring. So, um, yeah, we I just I mean I have. I was very transparent with North face and told them that I have every intention of coming back and I still. I'm 37 now, um, and I I still have really good years ahead of me, I feel like listen, I've got every intention to come back.
Speaker 8:If you guys will stay patient with me, I don't know what the journey back is going to look like. Um, and they were full throttle, no questions asked. They signed me for multiple years, Um, and then they also said said I don't have any obligation to have to race this year coming back. So I do have races coming up, but that's on my own accord and they're just wildly supportive. They're supportive with helping Justin and Hugo come to races and travel with me, so we can make sure that that is because that's a priority for me this year. So so grateful for them and I think that that's how brands should be doing for me this year. So so grateful for them and I think that that's how brands should be doing oh, yeah, agreed well, not only not only did they do that, but they put you on the back of a hoodie, didn't they?
Speaker 8:yeah, I got my own shirt and hoodie.
Speaker 1:Come on tell the folks about that they um it's it does.
Speaker 8:It's not available anymore. It's sold out, I guess. But oh is it yeah, and unfortunately it was only in the kids kids sizes yeah, but it uh was a uh, my own custom. There was three, two athletes, two of us on the entire north face team, myself and my teammate vasu, who's a um, able bodied skier, um, we both got shirts made that were sold on the website Like, come on, career moment. It was amazing.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, oh career moment, that's Mount Rushmore moment.
Speaker 8:I know my ego exploded Legendary moment. I walk around and I wear my own shirt. I'm like dude. How much more egotistical can I get?
Speaker 1:Brittany. If they had one in my size, I would have bought it.
Speaker 8:That's what everybody says, I know. I'm hoping that we could do a relaunch in like adult sizes?
Speaker 4:That would be so cool. So you talked about how North Face has been really accepting and being patient with you as you're coming back into your running journey. Why don't you tell us a little bit about how that is going and what it looks like now being a mom and trying to do both things?
Speaker 8:Yeah, I honestly can say it's going better than I could have hoped. It's going better than I would have thought. So, like I mentioned, I could have hoped it's going better than I would have thought Um. So, like I mentioned, I had a long labor Um, it was like 27 hours um ended in a C-section like at the like end of it. It wasn't an emergency, but it was just. It was a long, long deal.
Speaker 8:So I had six weeks mandatory recovery Um, I started like jogging at like five, five and a half weeks Um, and I had a couple of races on the calendar for June. Cause I was like, well, it's four months out, I I picked a couple of races um within the like 18 to 30 K range Um, and then the there's a world championship this year. So of course I was like, well, I want to, I want to stick my nose in that, I want to, I want to go for that. So I decided to switch gears. I kind of coming off pregnancy and birth and everything I thought I don't know what I've been afraid of all these years. Like I've. I look back at my career. Having that time off between five months pregnant and having Hugo gave me a lot of time to just reflect and have perspective. So I highly encourage anybody to take even a couple weeks off. So that was the longest chunk I'd ever had. I had just thought like I have accomplished a lot, but I still feel like I run scared and I feel like I still have imposter syndrome. So much with my racing, um, that I, you know, had this time to look back and I was like, what am I afraid of? Like I want to go stick my nose in things that, like I've never done. I want to go do things that I've never done.
Speaker 8:So, um, I signed up for the broken arrow ascent race, which is this weekend. Um, I've never done an ascent race, so it's 5k straight up a mountain with 3000 feet of vert, um, and it's a world championship qualifier. So, let's sure, let's like, let's, but it's been awesome. I picked it because I hiked a lot during pregnancy and, um, the uphill was awesome. I love the challenge of it. It's super hard, but I didn't have to do long distances Cause I just don't feel like again.
Speaker 8:I didn't want to rush back into anything. Um, I wanted to still take my time, so I've been just like gradually building back. Um, my mileage is like low for what I run. Um, I'm cross training, I'm back with my strength trainer, so I'm just kind of doing that just to ease back in and it's been awesome so far. So I'm balancing mom life and that, and luckily Justin's job is really flexible. We've got to go and snack camp, which is what I call daycare, two days a week, so that helps. I kind of just structure my training right now around our family, what I have time for and what I can do, and it's been really great so far.
Speaker 3:Listen, brittany, I think you're going to be in great shape, because my wife has turned me on to the, the cultural phenomenon right now, that is the weighted vest. Dude, me too. We've been doing a lot of walks with those on. But think about it you did the ultimate weighted vest with carrying a child while hiking up hills. This mountain got nothing on you this week.
Speaker 8:I know I feel so light now that I ordered a weighted vest. It's hot pink, obviously.
Speaker 1:Of course it's funny, so is Greg's.
Speaker 8:I knew it. Twinsies, hi Barbie, hi, weighted Barbie. Yeah, I'm excited to use that because it is. I didn't think about how much strength I built up during pregnancy, but, holy smokes, you think you're gaining so much weight. But it's also like, hang on, my body's still carrying all of this, like I'm getting strong.
Speaker 1:You mentioned your coach, but you are also a coach, and how's that going? I think you've got a program coming up pretty soon here that I expect some of our friends would be interested in.
Speaker 8:I hope so. Yeah, I have a new, so coaching's going really well. I feel like I have really let myself my full throttle Brittany-ness in like unleash into my coaching. I've built out a whole new set of programs for my training. I have now what's called a coaching menu, so I offer three to four different options, including the whole enchilada which is my full throttle coaching. Um, and then I love it.
Speaker 8:I love it so much Like a little bit smaller version. You can have the light meal and then, if you want just a training plan but that's custom and it has themes that's called the happy meal. So I built that out and then I'm really pumped. So coach middle school and I coach the cross country and track teams in the spring and fall. I love it, but I love seasonal training and I never thought about one of my runners, which is a shout out. She's a listener of the podcast. Her name is Shannon, she's a Disney runner.
Speaker 8:She's in Orlando, she. I loved training with you for Dopey last year, but I wish that. I just kind of felt solo sometimes. So I was like, well, what if we had like a team that you could be from all over the country, wherever you're at, but we are all training together, essentially as a group? Um, but you still have your own custom training. So that's what I'm launching um this season, actually next month.
Speaker 8:I've got five spots left out of 10 for this season and it's for Dopey or any other run Disney distance. So it could be. I've got somebody doing the marathon and the 10K, I've got somebody doing goofy, somebody doing the half, and the idea is you get your own custom coaching from me like normal, and then you have this extra piece of. You've got this community of the Disney runners that we're running together. We've got a WhatsApp group together. We have monthly Zoom calls that we can kind of bounce ideas off. The idea is like, let's keep it fun, let's keep it fun like supportive and um, let's just like see what we can do with all of that. So I'm really, really pumped to launch that this year and hopefully I'd love it to become a yearly thing, but I'm um launching it this year.
Speaker 1:And how do friends find out about it?
Speaker 8:Jump on my website, the funny runnercom slash coaching, and if you scroll down towards the bottom, you'll see the dopey coaching on there. Um, and that's like has all the details. It's a 25 week program, um, so it'll start end of July and I have one person who wants to start in September cause she's doing the half marathon and I'm like that's great. So, um, accommodating to any distances that people want to do, but I just want it to be fun and super super duper Disney.
Speaker 3:Well, speaking of coaching, I want to talk to coach charbonneau here, because we're at a very important time in the run disney calendar and that is and it's a very appropriate time that we have you on right now, because next week starts wine and dine training and then the week after that, marathon weekend training starts, which is unfathomable to think about you know first place.
Speaker 3:But from a general standpoint to our listeners out there, regardless if they are running a 5k or they're tackling dopey or the perfect season, what is the single best piece of advice you could give a Rise and Run listener right now as they get ready to embark on this journey?
Speaker 8:Ooh, that's a great question. The first thing that popped into my head, I think, especially coming off of my whole last year and journey 100%. Listen to your body. You'll get a training plan, no matter what you're training for, wherever you get it, and you'll have it all mapped out and I always tell my runners here's your training plan.
Speaker 8:It will not look like this by the end of your training and never force it to fit that Like it's supposed to. It's supposed to not go according to plan. Race day doesn't go according to plan, so have that in mind. And I always say it's supposed to not go according to plan. Race day doesn't go according to plan, so have that in mind. And I always say it's about the cumulative effort and the cumulative consistency versus every single day's run. If, by the time you get to marathon weekend and you've done the bulk of the training, you've um, you know, been consistent enough, you don't have to be so rigid and specific on every single day.
Speaker 8:And that's mistakes I've made in the past for myself in training is being so rigid and so structured and so serious, and it's number one. It's not fun, but you're asking for burnout, You're asking for injury. So I think having that ahead of time in mind and knowing and I had to do that with this training cycle too knowing that I have to be flexible. I got a newborn, I got life, I got all the things the weather downpour today, it's supposed to be a hundred tomorrow. So I think just staying flexible and patient with yourself is the best advice I can give going into a training block.
Speaker 2:So, brittany, about a year ago, when we last talked to you, you were about to do your first race announcing gig at the Colfax Marathon, and I think you did it a couple of weeks ago Also. How did that go?
Speaker 8:I did. It went great. You give me a microphone and a stage. It's so much fun. I won the Colfax Marathon in 2017. That's Denver's local marathon year. It's actually big. It's over 25,000 runners and it's over the course of. We've got a 5K on the first day and then we've got a half 10 miler and then the marathon and a relay on the Sunday. And they asked me last year to be a co-race announcer with Cree Kelly, with Cree right.
Speaker 8:Race announcer and of course I've jumped at that and it is so fun, it flies by. We're there at four I mean it's not as bad as Disney races, but we're there at four in the morning until about two in the afternoon when the last runners come through and it is the most fun, it's the most inspiring thing, it's the best way to kick off summer and summer running and all of that. It's just the best thing ever.
Speaker 2:So I now have added that to my resume of all the things, so did we wear costumes or anything, though, cause I know you'd like to, you know.
Speaker 8:I asked and they said no, but I think how could they?
Speaker 8:think I need to just like make. I just need a couple years under my belt of doing a really good job and then I start like costumes. Um, because I was like I could show up as the big blue bear from denver. I could be the weird that's at the airport. That's really creepy, that would be hilarious. And they were like no, not right now. So that's my goal is to eventually get to be on, be in costume as they announce it's coming, it's coming.
Speaker 1:But staying in that general vein, what's new with your art and and what's happened to, uh, own your own weird?
Speaker 8:I know it's okay, not that you haven't had anything else to do you know, is it on hiatus?
Speaker 8:I mean, I haven't seen it for a while I'm like a hummingbird and a squirrel mixed together, so I just flutter around and then it's like and then I'm just like chewing on these like acorns over here, and then I'll go flip to flutter to this. So, um, I've actually so I haven't been making as much traditional weird art as normal, but I have done a ton of art for my coaching. So when you sign up for the the whole enchilada or dopey you get a welcome kit and it is packed full of my art slash training, like tools and tips. So it's a 20 page booklet essentially, and there's everything from um hill running from Hillary tough. So that's the shout out. Um, I wrote a poem. Um called welcome to taper town.
Speaker 8:Um so and it's like it's weird, you guys, but it's that's kind of where my I wrote a poem called Welcome to Taper Town, love it so, and it's like it's weird, you guys, but it's that's kind of where my creative art side has been channeling and I've kind of been just putting all my energy towards coaching and Kobe and all of that. So it's kind it kind of exists in a, in a new form, I would say, in a way that it feels like people are getting use out of my weird crap that I'm putting out there.
Speaker 1:It's fun Brittany. It's fun Friends. If you want to see some, it's on the Funny Runner website.
Speaker 3:All right, brittany. So the last time we talked to you I know we had asked you about when you were coming back to Disney and you were very blase about it. Obviously now we know why. But now that you know Hugo is in that range where he's free. You know he goes to the parks for free and he eats for free. Oh yeah, what is. When do you think you'll go on your first family vacation down to Orlando or to Disneyland, and is Run Disney going to be part of it?
Speaker 8:That's a great question. He is free. I didn't realize he could get into the parks for free. That's a huge perk he we're really planning. So last year I was very blasé. I was pregnant. In my pregnant crazy brain I was also like how about? I did have a dream that I would get to. So I won dopey. I was at the front of all the races. I would love one day to do dopey with the balloon ladies.
Speaker 8:And so I thought, oh, perfect, I could do it while pregnant. I'll be a balloon no-transcript. I love the vibe. I love the people. It's again. It's so inspiring. Watching everything, of course, my Disney brain goes crazy. Um, I don't know if I could like somehow sneak Hugo. Maybe I could be Kanga and he could be, he could do the 5k. But I'm planning to be down there for marathon weekend to cheer. I probably won't be racing, I can't imagine. I don't know, maybe, but yeah, so I'm planning to be down there. So we should do like a live episode or something.
Speaker 1:We'll do something. You know I credit you with me starting to wear costumes and that goes back to the first time we talked because you were so upbeat about it. You had worn the four costumes during Dopey and you were so upbeat, and there are things people say that stick with you, and one of the things you said was you can see the joy it gives to others. And so the first costume our friend, Jack, who's unfortunately not with us tonight, said Bob, you need to be Sam Eagle. I said I can be Sam Eagle, That'll be fun and I did and it was fun. It went out great.
Speaker 1:And then I decided to be Tinkerbell.
Speaker 8:Dude. So good, Bob. You don't understand how much that warms my heart.
Speaker 1:I was a little unsure leaving the hotel room and I saw those first couple of people look and I went yeah, that's what Brittany's talking about. I've been costume guy ever since. I'll say you've created a monster. Yeah, that's what Brittany's talking about.
Speaker 3:I've been costume guy ever since. I'll say you've created a monster, brittany, because now he's dressing, as you know, 10 foot trees and making you know the run Disney social media pages.
Speaker 8:It's so good. It's so good. I'm glad that you brought that up and thank you, cause I'm racing on Friday and, of course, I have to be in North face my North face kid, obviously I'm proud to be, but I get to zhuzh it myself however I want, and I have been thinking about what am I going to do, and that I was like, oh, now that you're saying that, I want to go full throttle with all the pieces because it is about having fun with it and, you know, enjoying it and putting it out there for others to see that we're enjoying it, especially as elites. So, um, thank you for saying that, because that's now I'm like, oh yeah, like I want to do that too for this weekend.
Speaker 3:So, um, that's my mission all, right now let's go back to you know, hopefully this january, you know, for marathon weekend. Being there cheering, have you and the juzband figured out yet what will be hugo's first ride?
Speaker 8:oh a first ride okay well, I guess my brain goes to teacups because it's a small world. I would love recommendations. He'll be about. He'll be 10 months, okay I can't help.
Speaker 3:I say my daughter's first ride was small world. So I mean you know from the musical side of you that that could be helpful and maybe it instills new languages. You know in a matter at an early age. But I mean teacups isn't bad, it just I don't know what is his motion sickness level will be at.
Speaker 8:You know, almost a year that's a good point, or, I think, space mountain I was going there what's isn't tiana's ride like super mellow?
Speaker 3:it is, but there's a height it is, except for that five-story drop at the end.
Speaker 8:But yeah, maybe, maybe, not mellow. My my favorite ride is Tower of Terror, but I don't think that that was one, no, no.
Speaker 2:Are we training to be a runner or a stuntman? What's going on here there?
Speaker 1:So we're undecided. Huh, that's a good question.
Speaker 4:That is a good question.
Speaker 1:I was wondering about Hugo's first race, but he's got to be five to do that.
Speaker 3:Well, no, she already mentioned she's going to sneak him on the five oh yeah, yeah, kanga and Roo, Kanga and Roo.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I might chat to Run Disney and just see if I can. I don't know, we'll see. That would be so awesome if I could just like carry him and sneak him through.
Speaker 1:It would be. Hey, John had a good first ride there. I thought the carousel, the carousel.
Speaker 8:That's a great first ride, heck yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay perfect.
Speaker 8:I've actually never been on it there, so that's perfect, that would be excellent.
Speaker 1:There we go, in the shadow of the castle would be perfect.
Speaker 3:So, brittany, as we're celebrating your sixth time here on the podcast and you have shared so many inspirational stories and wonderful advice to not only us, the host, but the listening community as well, too is going to be the four-year anniversary of you conquering this incredible feat, almost four years into it now. Is there a specific memory or a thought process from that particular weekend that has remained and is instilled in you as you continue to race? And now getting back into racing post pregnancy?
Speaker 8:I love that question and goodness, holy smokes four years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 8:It is not four years, it happened yesterday. I think about Dopey all the time because I obviously had the tattoo on my arm. Of all my costumes, and that race weekend was, I think, the most most. I let myself just hit it in so many different ways of course, speed, but my costumes, but that was also. I got the tattoo and I think about dopey because it also reminds me to stay present because I had to. I couldn't.
Speaker 8:My goal was to make sure I wasn't stressing about the marathon on the 5k day and I find myself especially I mean, during pregnancy, it was like, well, I'm in month five, I can't be stressing about labor right now Like I got to just focus on month five. Um, and I feel like that is something I thought about during training. Right now too, as I've been doing a lot of climbing and you know, going uphill, going up mountains, is I can't. When I'm, you know, a mile in on the climb and I've got three or four more to go, I can't worry about the top. I got to just focus on like next step, next step, next step, and that's something that I'm really proud of myself. That I did during Dopey weekend was I really feel like I enjoyed each race for what it was in that moment and I remember I waved at every single character during every single race to help me stay present. And obviously there aren't characters out on my mountain runs, but there are people I can wave to them or I can step to that rock. On Sunday I had a big last training run and I remember seeing all the different wildflowers that were out as I was climbing the mountain. So I think that's something that has really resonated with me because I practiced it during Dopey.
Speaker 8:So, just, and maybe, as I'm saying this and going into this weekend, I'm thinking, okay, like I'm still gonna. I don't know what kind of shape I'm in compared to everybody else right now, but man, I'm going to go do me. I'm going to probably channel monkeys, because I call Hugo a little monkey. So I'm like, oh, it'd be fun to put banana tattoos all over me, cause I can. That's the only thing I can decorate, and I'm just going to focus on the next rock, next step, next step, next step, as I keep climbing to the finish line. So, um, and that's honestly like a big, big tribute to dopey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, run the mile you're in.
Speaker 8:Totally Something else. I heard um I don't know if y'all are golf fans, but Rory McIlroy um, when he just won a couple months ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he won the masters.
Speaker 8:Yeah, he said something about he's something about next shot mindset, and so he was talking about in golf how mean? Obviously, in golf, for me, every single shot is a terrible shot, but he talked about how, after he has a bad shot, it's next shot it's gone.
Speaker 8:Yeah right, it's gone leave it, and so I loved that because I was like man, there's so many times that I'm in a race or a training and I'm on mile two of a marathon and I am feeling terrible that it was a slow mile and I'm like there goes the whole thing when it's like no, no, just next mile.
Speaker 7:Mile three could be great.
Speaker 8:So I think I loved that and I'm kind of trying to capture that. Why did I start talking about that, Do you guys? Mom brain is real.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure why, but around here we blame Greg.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I mean you asked a very loaded question. You're good, all right.
Speaker 1:Speaking of loaded questions. What are your thoughts on the penny going away?
Speaker 8:You don't understand that's like.
Speaker 1:Maybe I do.
Speaker 8:So part of me is like great, I'm going to just go nuts street sweeping and just try and find as many as I can. And then I'm also really sad and then I'm worried because what I do every year is I cash in on my change and then I invest it in Robinhood in the accounts that I like. So I've got like 0.004 shares of Disney the same amount in.
Speaker 8:Yeah, same amount in Starbucks and target Um, and so I'm like, well, if I cash them in, then I don't have them. But I also have a very robust coin collection, that I collect all of the valuable coins. So maybe I'll start collecting each year that I can, instead of just the wheat pennies or the unique ones. I might just try and collect one from each year and save those or something like that.
Speaker 1:But I'm bummed because I was going to say right, abe's off. Yeah, abe's the guy. Just totally out of curiosity. You see many steel pennies.
Speaker 8:No, I do have steel pennies in my collection. You know what I find more often than not steel pennies in my collection, you know what I find more often than not Wheat pennies. Okay, I find wheat pennies every single year.
Speaker 1:It's kind of wild that they're still out there and they're just like on the streets and it's crazy and I could be wrong, but they're actually older than the steel pennies, aren't they the wheat pennies? The wheat pennies are like late, late 1940s and most Okay no Steel pennies were World War II. Yeah, brittany.
Speaker 4:I have to tell you that every time I find any coin on my runs, I think of you every single time You're on the right path. You're on the right path. Right, that's what I say to myself every single time. Brittany says I'm on the right path, oh I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I found a wedding ring on the course one time.
Speaker 8:Me too. Do you know what I find? A wedding ring, at least once a year also. I also have a coin collection. It's called Weird Crap that I found on Runs. There's a couple wedding rings and they're men's wedding rings and weird things. I find plastic coins every year. So you just never know what you'll find.
Speaker 3:Well, if you ever find a diamond wedding ring, you can cash that in and maybe you could have like three shares of Disney.
Speaker 8:Yeah, that'd have to be a big ring to get a full share of Disney.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, I don't want this to end. I'm having too much fun, but I think it's probably about time to wrap it up.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I got to go feed my child.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty important. We don't want, we don't want you go getting mad at us already.
Speaker 8:I don't think that's possible.
Speaker 1:Always, always, always a delight, my friend. Thank you so much for spending the time with us. Good luck this weekend.
Speaker 8:Thank you.
Speaker 1:And till we meet again.
Speaker 8:Y''all keep, keep doing what you're doing. You're amazing. I love being on and I'm sorry that I'm not 200th, but I'm wishing you all the best for 200.
Speaker 3:What an accomplishment well, even though it was our sixth time chatting with britney, I always leave those interviews with extremely sore cheeks because that woman just makes me smile, ear to ear. And I'm just always just so impressed with her not only outlook on life, but her outlook on her running journey as well, and how she translates has to others, regardless of whatever your paces, and I think she's just.
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously she's a great ambassador for North Face, but I think she's just a great ambassador for run Disney fanatics like us and just runners in general, and it's just always such a pleasure chatting with her and I really hope we see her this January, really really looking forward to that. But speaking of this january, obviously we have mentioned it several times and that is, we once again want to do a large group costume for the 5k during marathon weekend and, and you know, and after much deliberation, it came down that we all are going to be the aliens looking at the claw. So, bob, I believe you have been working with our friend Alec over at Kauai and Pizza Apparel and she is busy working on a shirt for us and I think we're going to have a link very soon. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, we've got one. We've got a link. I'll get it on our Facebook page. Yeah, alec did a nice job for us. As always, kept the price where it was last year, put the Rise and Run logo on the Alien shirt as always, quality stuff and it looks really nice. So we'll get that up for you right away.
Speaker 1:Oh, friends, we're going to do something new here for the next couple of months. A lot of you run for charity and a lot of you have questions about running for charity, so what we want to do is each month feature a different charity. Talk to them, have the group tell us about themselves how you can get a bib and maybe give us some advice. We're going to start with one and you'll see these folks QCP Development, queens Center for Progress. They actually Sean is the name of the fellow we're going to talk to here in a minute and they actually have. They're actually friends on Facebook. So you'll see QCP development and, in fact, well, I'll wait till we're done talking with Sean to tell you this next part. We're pleased to be joined now with Sean Caruana from QCP, queens Centers for Progress Development.
Speaker 1:Hey, sean, welcome to the Rise and Run podcast. Hey, bob, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, glad to have you with us. Hey, for our friends who are listening, this is kind of a new one in the run. Disney lexicon QCP is here. Can you tell us a bit about it please? Sure.
Speaker 7:Well, queen's Census for Progress QCP is a nonprofit located here in Jamaica, queens, new York, that provides support and services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Now our programs create opportunities that help our individuals create meaningful choices to maximize their skill development, independence and integration into community life.
Speaker 1:Very good, very good, and now you're involved with Run Disney. How long have you been involved with Run Disney?
Speaker 7:Actually, this is pretty funny. This is our first year running with Run Disney. It's our inaugural run with Run Disney, so we're super excited for that.
Speaker 1:So you're kicking off with Wine and Dine this season?
Speaker 7:No, we're actually kicking off with the full marathon weekend in January. You're kicking off in January. Yes, we decided to go feet first. You know, just go right into it.
Speaker 2:Go big or go home.
Speaker 7:Exactly that's the New York way. That's how we do it.
Speaker 1:Like a lot of our friends, a lot of our runners I don't know how many. I've talked with several people here in the last month and I've heard this phrase. I've never run a marathon before, but I'm doing dopey and and people will ask can they do that? And I'll go, I wouldn't. But heck yeah, you can do it, because every year a lot of people do it. It sounds pretty exciting. So plans to continue with Run Disney through this season and then into the next ones, or Yes're hoping so.
Speaker 7:I was just saying that for the past 15 years our charity team, team QCP, has been running the New York City Marathon. So this year Queen's Centers for Progress is celebrating our 75th anniversary. So for so you know, for our diamond anniversary, we decided to extend our running opportunities past New York City and past the Marine Corps Marathon. That we did a couple of times.
Speaker 1:Oh very good.
Speaker 7:So we wanted to extend it to the South and do run Disney. I'm a big Disney fan and this is something that I wanted to do for the past couple of years with QCP. So we decided might as well go for our 75th anniversary and continue that celebration into 2026.
Speaker 1:Good, for you. That is kind of exciting. All right, let's go down this route please. How can our friends who are interested here and want to run for QCP, how can they secure a charity bib?
Speaker 7:Absolutely so, anybody that's interested in running. We're accepting runners of all levels, beginner intermediate.
Speaker 1:Run.
Speaker 7:Disney way. My friend, anybody that wants to run Disney with Team QCP, you're more than welcome to join us with Team QCP. You're more than welcome to join us. What you can do you could take a click on our website, which is wwwtinyurlcom. Forward slash. Qcp runs Disney World. That will take you to our landing page where you could register. Or, if you like, you could call me directly or email me directly at SCARUANA, that's S-C-A-R-U-A-N-A, at Queens, q-u-e-e-n-s, cporg. So that would be a great way and we're here to help. But if you go to the website, you could get to see who our team members are that signed up already. Um see what QCP actually does and, you know, just get a feel of what's happening with our team QCP running in Walt Disney World.
Speaker 1:Disney World. You've done something that brought you to our attention. You are actually Facebook friends in the Rise and Run podcast Facebook group page and I see occasional activity there. Plus, you've got your own Facebook page so you could scroll through the Rise and Run page. If you see the QCP post, click there. That'll take you to their Facebook page. More info there. What kind of requirements, what kind of fundraising requirements, will our friends have? Let's use this marathon weekend for an example.
Speaker 7:Sure, absolutely so, with our charity, with the different races that we have. We have bibs in all of the, in all the races for Marathon Weekend and, depending on which one you go for whether it's the 5K, 10K, half full, or we still have Goofy available our dopies are sold out. We do have two Goofy, so we're hoping that we could finalize that. We do have two Goofy's, so we're hoping that we could finalize that. But depending on which race you go for, we have different giving levels that are required for us. So, for instance, a 5K, the fundraising total is $750, which is pretty on par with what other charities are doing.
Speaker 7:So you know, even though we're in New York, we want to keep it leveled. Being that it's our first time out, we wanted to keep it on par with what other charities are doing. So $750. And then the good thing is, your registration fee will go towards your fundraising goal. So with that, you're already a quarter of the way there. Yeah, With some of them. So that's what we're excited about and we're hoping that that helps. You know, help somebody. Come on board and see what Queen Centers for Progress does for members in our community.
Speaker 1:You're right, that is very fair and you did your market research there. That's right, in line with what others are asking. But just for frame of reference, and I know you said you have no Dopey bibs what was the fundraising goal for dopey?
Speaker 7:The dopey challenge. We had it set at $2,500. Okay.
Speaker 1:All right, it's a big event and again, the money that you pay the like 900 or something that you pay that counts towards that $2,500.
Speaker 7:Towards the fundraising goal.
Speaker 1:yes, yeah, so there you go. You're almost halfway there. Of course, sean already told us he doesn't have any dopey bibs right now, but anyway, that's the way that works. Besides the bib, are there any other perks that people who sign up get?
Speaker 7:Yes, of course, when, just like we do with our New York City Marathon runners, we do offer a one-to-one offer, a one-to-one fundraising initiative with our runners. So if anybody needs help with their fundraising, they could either call us, text us, email us, and we're always going to be there to help you. Whether it's asking how you could go about fundraising, we do offer a fundraising kit to our runners, to our participants. We also this year have started to incorporate a running coach that we have, we do have a coach for our team members. We do offer a WhatsApp group where we set up a chat where everybody could talk and exchange ideas and exchange ideas, their running ideas, their fundraising ideas, or just to give them little quotes of inspiration, just to help us get through our training Very good, so we do offer that, yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, speaking of fundraising ideas, do you have any suggestions for fundraising ideas?
Speaker 7:Oh yeah, absolutely. Being that I work in the fundraising department here at Queen's Centers for Progress, you know fundraising is my life, it's our lifeline here. So you know what you want to do when you're trying to fundraise for a non-charity of your. Uh. Charity of your choice is you want to make a make your story your own. You want to have a story of why you're running for the charity. Make it personal as much as you can and relatable, because authentic connections are what drives your donations to you. So what you want to do first is start a donor list.
Speaker 7:You know that includes everyone. You know it could either be your friends, your family, a dog walker or maybe the barista that you see on a daily basis at your favorite coffee shop. You just have to ask everybody. You know Don't be afraid to ask, not ask anyone, because you don't want to assume that someone won't contribute, and that's what a lot of people feel that might happen. You won't know the answer until you actually ask somebody and you'll be actually surprised who says yes when you ask them if they can donate to a charity that you support.
Speaker 7:You also want to get the word out. Everybody has social media nowadays. You have TikTok X, facebook, instagram. Those are the most common fundraising tools. Fundraising tools, but you have to also think outside of the box. One of our team members hosted a fundraiser at a neighborhood bar and she was able to raise $1,200. Oh, outstanding For our annual walkathon. I personally reached out to my contacts and said for every $50 you donate, I will walk a 5K in your honor. And what that did, which was surprising to me I raised close to $1,500.
Speaker 5:And it was a lot of walking.
Speaker 7:It came out to about three full marathons, oh wow. So you know, and that was $1,500 that I didn't, that QCP didn't have before. So you have to just think of fun ideas that stand out from the crowd. And one last thing that I would say is you might want to maximize your impact, maximize that donation by looking to see if your employer or your friend's employees have a matching gifts program at their place of business. It's one of the most overlooked opportunities in fundraising. So that's a great way for you to either double your impact or sometimes during the holidays, you might be able to triple it sometimes because of that employee match. So those are some opportunities that you could look into for fundraising for sure.
Speaker 1:Those are good ones, sean, thank you. Thank you, those are good ones. All right, friends. There you have it. Queens Center for Progress, qcp. They're on our Facebook page and we will put their information in the show notes. We will put their information in the show notes. Be part of the first, the inaugural effort for QCP here, marathon Weekend. Sean, thanks for joining us and lots of luck. Thank you, bob. Thank you, john. I appreciate it All right. Here's what I teased at the beginning. Thank you, john. I appreciate it All right. Here's what I tease at the beginning. Sean is running his virtual series and he posted to our Facebook group that he just PR'd his first 5K by 11 minutes. Now I know it's virtual and we don't do PR bills for virtuals. I'm sorry, sean. We're still proud of you though. That's a good thing. So thanks for visiting with us and congrats on that PR.
Speaker 2:With these charities. There's a lot of new charities out there that are giving bibs out for Run Disney and if they don't get rid of all their bibs, they probably won't be a charity next year. So if you're going to those charities, if you really want to do a race, look at some of these charities, give them a look, because if they don't do this, the charity is going to go away for those people that get shut out of Run Disney. Registration weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Sean gave us some good ideas on how to raise the funds. So so there you go. Good point, john. Upcoming episodes next week, coach Chris twigs joins us. We're going to put a Facebook post. Let you provide us with some questions to ask coach twigs.
Speaker 1:All right, my friends, it's time for the race report the race report is brought to you by our friend, thomas stokes of stoked metabolic training. Stokesfit slash rise and run coaching is the link. Tom's got his eight week challenge starting July 7th. The first 20 people to enroll and I don't think he's hit this number yet the first 21,. The first 20 people in enrolling will get a free one-on-one call with Tom. That's right. First 20 people get one free one-on-one call. The second 20 get two free. No, it's only no. I'm joking. I'm joking. That's an old joke, you know. First prize a weekend in Philadelphia. Second prize two weekends in Philadelphia. You don't know, this one Greg's not laughing. No one, greg's not laughing. No, I'm sorry, I know that one yeah.
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Speaker 1:Stokesfit slash transformationchallenge Okay, it's a good one Starts July 7th. Let us begin on Friday the 13th in Lyle Illinois. The 13th in Lyle Illinois for the Morton Arboretum Firefly 3K. Vicki was there. Vicki's first 3K and first night race, first 3K that's got to be a PR. She ran with her coworkers, had a little bit of a running rivalry with one of the guys, Wound up beating them by two and a half minutes and in so doing finished as first female. With the time of now, get this 13 minutes and one second first female, but 13th overall. And she ran on friday the 13th I was gonna say the time.
Speaker 3:I think would have been creepier if it was 1313.
Speaker 1:1313, it would have, then we would have had an issue. It would have. Hey, let's go out to a vacation race out in Yellowstone, or I think actually West Yellowstone in Montana. They had a weekend event there Friday and Saturday at 5K and a half, and we've got a couple friends who are still out there, still camping.
Speaker 3:Shocked that they have internet service in the National Park.
Speaker 1:Well, I think they carry their own satellite with them. I think, jen George, you guys have your own satellite with you.
Speaker 9:No, we're just lucky to catch a cell here. So there's a little bit of a cell signal where we are.
Speaker 1:Yes, Well, we've got our friends Jen and George, who did the bison double out there in Yellowstone the 5K and a half, and they're here to tell us all about it. Guys, thanks for giving up some of your vacation to come and chat with us. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 9:Yeah, thank you, Bob.
Speaker 1:Well, this is fun. It is fun. I see you're in a tent under the canvas there. This is perfect. Tell us, I'm going to start the way. I start all the spotlights. How did you guys get started running?
Speaker 9:So I'll go first. In high school I was a hockey player field hockey player and we had to run a mile in under seven minutes. So I think my fastest mile ever was 647, and I'm nowhere near that now, but kind of gave it up after high school and then when George and I got married, we lived in a really nice neighborhood where we could run really nice sidewalks, and picked it up probably after my oldest daughter was born and in 2017, ran my first 10K and in 2019, ran first half okay, cool how about you, george?
Speaker 6:I've been running um a bit longer than my wife. Uh, just as a means to stay in shape. I did not run in high school, uh, it was was not, you know, a high school athlete or a college little athlete, um, but uh, just picked it up because I wanted to stay in shape. I knew unfortunately, I think, all of us have lost friends far too soon, so I wanted to make sure that I was not amongst those and just wanted to be in shape and not get any younger. So I started running. It was a pretty, or so I thought, an inexpensive sport to start doing. You know, all you need is a pair of sneakers and going outside. So I picked it up, like Ben said, running around our neighborhood for a bit, and then, you know, things just kind of snowballed from there.
Speaker 9:I guess you'd say he's being a bit modest, All right Well tell us why. He's run 13 marathons. Oh, outstanding Out right.
Speaker 1:Well, tell us why he's run 13 marathons. Oh, outstanding, outstanding.
Speaker 6:You know, enjoyed it, enjoyed waking up first thing in the morning, you know, running as the sun is rising, great way to start the day, you know, kicking off the endorphins and all that kind of stuff. And by the time I was finished my you know, 5k each morning, jen was just waking up and the kids were just waking up and I could help get them off to school and get the kids dressed and fed, and so on and so forth. And then I think one of the organizations that I was working with was having a 5K and people knew that I ran, so asked me to do that, so I did and did. Well, I thought, if I can do a 5K, I can probably do a 10 K. And did that, and, and, um, run a bunch of those and realized, hey, a half marathon is just two 10 Ks, essentially.
Speaker 6:So, um, so trained for a half marathon, and right, and then, uh, you know, uh, you know, a friend of mine who's a bit, uh, bigger than me, said hey, I've run Boston, you know, and probably one day you could do that. You're in much better shape than I can, than I am. So that kind of planted the seed and, and I've been running really, ever since and Jen's right I've done 13 marathons. My 14th will be the Marine Corps this October, and so so we enjoy it. Jen and I do it together two or three mornings a week, Um, you know, and and it keeps us both in great shape and gives us some nice time outside together.
Speaker 1:Get up early, get out on the road. Sounds like you like to rise and run, george. We do like to rise and run early runners yeah.
Speaker 6:I had to go. I had to go.
Speaker 9:Yeah, you did.
Speaker 6:If I don't run at six in the morning, it's not going to happen the rest of the day, so it's got to happen first thing.
Speaker 3:So this is really cool. So this is the second week in a row that here on the race report we have a vacation races race. Last week we were out in Wyoming in the Grand Tintans. So tell us what drew you to this specific vacation race.
Speaker 9:I became interested in vacation races a while ago. I have a friend who's run several of them. But also I became very interested when I heard about it on your podcast. But we also had planned to come to Yellowstone this summer and we actually were planning on coming in July but when we realized the half was in June, we actually moved our vacation to June so that George and I could run the bison double. We could do the 5K and the half. So we really got. I got personally very interested in the vacation races from hearing the owner on Rise and Run and so that's what really prompted us to move our vacation so that we could run it.
Speaker 3:Very cool. Now, george, tell us about the terrain of these races, because I remember back to last week's report, our friend Mary said that she thought the 5K was going to kill her because it was half or the first half of it was completely uphill on the mountain. Tell us about your experience in terms of the course, terrain and the sights that you saw during your two races this past weekend.
Speaker 6:Having never done a vacation race, I really, jen and I did not know what kind of terrain we were in for. She did tell me Jen did tell me maybe a week or two ago, as she was kind of doing some research, that someone had said it was kind of a trail race. So I was fortunate to have a pair of trail running shoes, so I did bring them. In terms of the terrain for the 5k, the first mile or so was on asphalt in the town of West Yellowstone, but then it quickly went onto a trail. Um, I, I guess what are fire trails? Um, in near the park. So so you're running in in this wilderness on these trails, um, that that have you know two ruts, I guess, where tires go and then and then just dirt and loose rock. Um, so I was thrilled that I had my uh with me with a thicker tread on them, thicker sole. What I did not anticipate was the fact that the terrain is 6,700 feet above sea level and we live in Baltimore year round, which is, which is almost sea level. So, uh, I think both both Jen and I realized within 200 feet of the 5k, holy crap, the air is really thin up here. Um, and and not that we were struggling to breathe, but it was. It was definitely different and I realized, wow, we're running a half marathon tomorrow in this. So so the terrain, um, the the train for the 5k, like I said.
Speaker 6:So the terrain for the 5K, like I said, the first mile was asphalt. The last two miles were on this trail with kind of some of it was loose gravel but some of it was just rocks. On the flip side, the half marathon was almost all trail and a lot of it was uphill but a good bit of it was downhill. But the downhills were just as challenging because they're pretty steep downhills with, again, loose rock, uneven terrain and just really, really tricky. I was not going for PR. I didn't want to get a PR. I wanted to enjoy the amazing scenery of Yellowstone National Park and we were rewarded with that, for sure, stunningly beautiful part of this country. Um, we did not see any wildlife.
Speaker 6:Uh, fortunately, while we were out running, if you know what I'm saying uh didn't have to run from any bears or running into any bears right, but uh, but running along these rivers and these trails was amazing, um, but I would definitely say I would recommend it for anybody that that wants to do a vacation race. Very well organized, very, very well done. Um, but bring some trail shoes, especially for for Yellowstone.
Speaker 9:The half had, um, a lot of Hills and long Hills. So from mile four and a half to about six and a half was pretty much all uphill, Um, and that was on kind of like a crushed trail, um road, I would say Um, and then they said, oh, that's it, that's everything's downhill from now. Except they forgot to tell us between mile like nine and 10, there was another massive hill to get up.
Speaker 1:So between the Snuck that one in huh.
Speaker 9:Yeah, they did, they did. But yeah, it was definitely not a PR, but it was beautiful and just the pine trees and it wasn't. They're not technically in Yellowstone National Park. It's park adjacent and they're very clear about that in their advertising, but it's all. It's very similar and there's a river that we ran by that was just so tranquil, it was absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1:Nice. Yeah, I remember they told us that when we talked to them, because the permitting problems in the park were too great, so they they run close by, you get there and you get the same experience.
Speaker 9:I think that's wonderful you definitely get the feel you don't know that you're not in the park yeah okay.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you're out in yellowstone. Uh, when you guys coming back, I guess back, and when are we going to see you at Disney next?
Speaker 9:So we drive back to Bozeman, montana tomorrow and then we have a flight on Thursday morning from Bozeman back to BWI through Chicago and I'm not sure when we'll be back for a Disney race. My husband hasn't done a Disney race since 2019. That was my first half and the the. I think it was the last Star Wars, right, john, it happened to be our first.
Speaker 1:That sounds right.
Speaker 9:It was the last I was hoping to do Wine and Dine this year, but because they changed the, the timing of it, it conflicts with his Marine Corps marathon. So I'm thinking about Princess, because that Merida medal is pulling me in the Merida theme for the 5K. So we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Registration is coming up Tuesday.
Speaker 9:I know I just did the springtime surprise.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, look, have a safe trip back. You're coming back Thursday. You can listen to the podcast. It'll be up Thursday morning.
Speaker 9:I will. That'll be my between ride.
Speaker 1:Give you something to do and, yeah, safe travels. Glad you had a wonderful time and thank you for joining us.
Speaker 9:Thank you for having us, thank you.
Speaker 1:Jen and George weren't our only friends out at that race. Jessica was there too. Jessica did the 5K. She did the 5K on Friday and I'm not sure how this happened, but she said she made it just in time for the race. Now she also pointed out that the elevation was rough. Pointed out that the elevation was rough, and I think now, listening to Jen and George, she wasn't so much talking about the change in change in elevation during the run. I think she's talking about the altitude and the difference in the air quality, but not quality. Air pressure is what it really is. Anyway, jessica says it was worth it. All right, let's move to Saturday and we'll be in Flushing, new York, for the New York Roadrunners. Queens 10K. Danielle was there. Grace, another of Grace's favorite races, running through the sights of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs by the site of the US Open. That's always a blast. Personal aside, I was at the 64 World's Fair. My father was at the 1939 World's Fair.
Speaker 3:For what it's worth, which Disney attraction was at the 64 bob was there was, there were a couple what was that small world? Or was the carousel of progress?
Speaker 1:it was both, it was both uh and the animatronic abe lincoln displayed there oh okay and golly. I think there was one more thing and I can't remember it. The fourth thing never became a park attraction, but I just could be, I'm not sure. I think Disney did four different things for that World's Fair, but yeah, definitely Small World and Carousel of Progress, and they're pretty much unchanged in their current forms. Anyway, let's see what Grace has here. Grace finished at exactly one hour 11 minutes and 11 seconds. Pretty cool, huh.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Again. Good thing it's not that 1313.
Speaker 2:Okay, also, it was Ford's Magic Skyway.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, and that didn't. Thank you, john, john, and that didn't translate to the parks and you could guess it was sponsored by ford oh yeah, everything was sponsored back then. I can't remember what it was.
Speaker 1:Let's see. Jen was there. Jen called this her potholes and puddles report. They got rain up there, and I think it rained mostly before the event. It was a little less humid than normal. That's not bad. She managed to stay pretty dry. She hid before the race, good for her. The rain pretty much started and stopped by race time, but then the potholes on the course were now tiny lakes. No problem, though. Jen shaved four minutes off of last week's time, managed negative splits. That's good Now. Our buddy, rob, was there, and Rob left us this report.
Speaker 5:Good morning everybody. This is Rob from Sunrock, new Jersey, with a race report from the New York Roadrunners 10K in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, new York. And it was a rainy day, a little windy, which was a fit from the heat we've had the last couple of days. So that was good, was looking forward to trying to get a good time and you know what, today just wasn't my day. The A goal went away pretty quickly. The B goal, being my age, wouldn't have worked if this race were two years from now.
Speaker 5:But you know I finished and it's fine. I got my four out of six so I'll be in the New York City half next year. Laguardia Airport is right next door if you can hear the airplane, but I did get to and this is a good part. I did get to run by the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park, which I have to admit is maybe next to the Disney Castle my favorite thing to run by in any of these races I've done. So, listen, you find it good where you can. Sometimes it's just not your day. I hope everybody else had better running and have a great one, take care.
Speaker 2:And you know something, bob I never knew it was called the Unisphere until now you didn't? No, yeah, I call it the globe.
Speaker 1:Okay yeah, the men in black thing I was going to say I think that's what more young people associated with in the 64 World's Fair. It was the symbol for that World's Fair, the symbol for the 1939 World's Fair, and you have to look this up the Trilon and Perisphere. And I don't think they still exist. So you'll have to look that one up. Let's go north to Nova Scotia, bridgewater, nova Scotia, to be exact. Laurie was there running the Michelin Bridgewater Tire Trot. It was her first race of the weekend. She had another one on Sunday. For this race, lori paced a friend who wanted to do a 35-minute 5K Mission. Accomplished. Great job, lori.
Speaker 3:Does Lori take any weekends off?
Speaker 1:No, I don't think so, not on purpose In the winter when it's two degrees, touche, touche Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, but she's going. Yeah, we'll hear from her again in just a little bit. Ella J, georgia hosted the Wine Run 5K. Actually, I think it is a Wine Run run 5k. I think there were several throughout the country. Amber amber had been taking a break from racing but she couldn't pass up a wine run. Two loops through this beautiful vineyard and at the winery. Good place, amanda. Good call girl. If you're ever visiting near LAJ, this is a good one. Stop into that. It's the Engelheim Vineyard for a visit. And if you're there on this weekend for a visit, and if you're there on this weekend, knock out a 5k.
Speaker 1:Newport Ritchie, florida, did the Rap River Run 5k and 10k. Let's see. Laura Ann was there. Stuck to her new intervals. Now, gang, it's hot. Newport Ritchie is a little bit north of here, but not much it's hot. She got a better 5k time than she has had in almost the last two years. Good job there. Cynthia, who goes by Sin, had a PR goal. Didn't quite get there. Again, it's not PR time right now.
Speaker 1:Mentioned that the course did provide some shade. Good water stops on this 5k. Some shade Good water stops on this 5k. Race etiquette wasn't the best. Folks are running five across. She said she was getting upset, ran the last two tenths of a mile madder than a hornet and finished with a pretty fast two tenths of a mile. So Laura, ann and Sin did the 5k. Andrea did the 10K. It's been a while since she's run this event. She's happy to do it again. This run benefits the youth and family advocates and Andrea is a strong advocate for that organization so she's glad to run it. And Stephanie did the 10K. Shady course a lot of water stops that helped After the race. A lot of water stops that helped After the race. Plenty of beverages, hot dogs and catering by Carrabba's Italian restaurant. You guys got Carrabba's up there right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a national chain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a national chain I thought it was Stephanie recommends this one to anybody in the Tampa area. I don't know, stephanie. It's kind of hot to be running If I don't know.
Speaker 3:Stephanie, it's kind of hot to be running. If I had my druthers, though, and I had to pick national chain Italian food, I think I'd have to go the OG, because I don't think Carabas does unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks.
Speaker 1:Well, you're probably right about that.
Speaker 3:And that's a game changer. Now the last time I was at an establishment like that, God, it's probably been over a decade.
Speaker 2:My mom would disown me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I figured as much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the deal here too. We have other, more authentic places, so we haven't been to either for a while. But listen, another race in Florida, and I'm surprised at this the Burn your Half Off Florida.
Speaker 3:I don't think you enunciated correctly there, Bob.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think I did. Hannah ran a 10K, hot and humid. Yes, it was Felt great when she finished. Course support was amazing. Race director pushed safety, which is what he should have done. Kept the runners as cool as possible and hydrated. Again, no PR, but really happy with their finish time. You know what I say summer training, fall PRs. You don't knock out a lot of summer PRs. It's tough. Let's get back to Canada. From Florida to Canada, we're I guess we're snowboarding. Anyway, midland, ontario, the Butter Tart Trot Half Marathon. Nicole ran that half. And here you go, a little cooler in Canada. New Half Marathon PR, just a little over two hours. That's a new POT for her. Now her husband, zach, ran a 10K, won his age group. Way to go, guys. Nicely done.
Speaker 3:You know, I just looked this up because I never heard of a butter tart before. Okay, and have you guys ever?
Speaker 1:heard of it or?
Speaker 3:had one before.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't even think about it. No.
Speaker 3:And looking at a photo here, it almost kind of looks like a little mini pecan pie.
Speaker 1:Okay, Sounds good, man. One more on Saturday Conway, south Carolina, ed's Hurricane Hustle 5K on the campus of Coastal Carolina University. Allie, without an E, was there. Anne talked her whole family into joining her for a 5K race while they're on vacation in Myrtle Beach. All right, allie, way to go. Allie's younger daughter, emily Emily and she ran together. Her older daughter, hannah, and her husband Joe, walked the event. They're pretty hot and humid in South Carolina but Allie managed to finish eighth out of 31 in her age group. That's a good job, nicely done.
Speaker 1:Let's go to Sunday, back to Florida, for the ironically named Cool Summer Mornings 5K Summer Series. Now summer is spelled S-O-M-M-E-R, s-o-m-m-e-r. Somebody's name, somebody's name with a crazy sense of humor, I think. But this is race number one. There's four in the series. Kayla was there. The temperature was 80 as she left the house at 5 am. Yep, sounds about right. Summer is definitely here. Definitely not a time to PR in Florida. Tracy ran it, pushed through the heavy heat and humidity and finished age group third. Good job, tracy. Let's go over to the UK. I hope Morpeth is the proper pronunciation for this place because I don't want my buddy Andy to be upset because he did the Morpeth 10K. Morpeth Morpeth I don't know In the future. Morpeth Morpeth I don't know In the future. Apparently he got a note from Jack Because in the future he really needs to check the course changes of elevation, as this one was really hilly out in the back.
Speaker 3:This is happening way too often. We have warned you for years to never pull a Jack and you people are pulling Jacks.
Speaker 1:Come on, that's cool when you become a verb.
Speaker 2:I know, but the flyer looked green.
Speaker 1:That's not a verb. That's not a verb, that's a noun. Okay, pulling a jack. Pull is the verb, jack's the noun, okay. Anyway, a lot of spectators at the start and finish line. Andy squeaked in before the hour mark at 58.18. That's not squeaking in, that's solidly getting in on the hour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good job, enjoyable event. Keeps his training going. He thinks he needs a little hill work and maybe some speed work if he wants to get quicker. Yeah, but nevertheless, andy, that's pretty good. Let's go to Fairport Harbor, ohio. The Lighthouse Half Marathon. Lori did her second post-knee replacement half marathon 17 minutes faster than the first one, better than a mile. She's picking it up. I think that's great, lori. I think you're doing terrifically well, wonderfully well. Early on she said she got going. She felt like Forrest Gump where he ran out of his leg braces. Then she had to tell herself slow down, you got a lot of miles left. She did well, though. Her husband Peter was there. A lot of help at mile eight and she knocked that one out. Good job, lori. Caitlin was there also. Pretty flat course, basic route around town into the countryside. Nice crowd support at the finish line. Watermelon as a post-race treat. I think there should be a law mandating watermelon either after or during. It's great, it's great when you're out there running Watermelon's just terrific.
Speaker 3:Do you know how to pick a good watermelon though, Bob?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:Okay, now are you more of a? Do you want a watery watermelon, or do you want a sweet one, sweet, okay. So if you want sweet, you want one that's more round. You don't want those really big, long ones? Okay, then you've got to make sure on the underbelly of it that you've got a nice yellow circle.
Speaker 1:Oh, where it's sitting on the ground.
Speaker 3:Yep. And then if you see some webbing in there, like Grant, it may look deformed, but if you've got some webbing in there, that's also really good as well too, and then that guarantees you a nice sweet watermelon. All right, good, there you go. What about cantaloupe?
Speaker 2:cantaloupe um.
Speaker 3:Okay, so what you do with cantaloupe is you press on the on the top, and if it has some give, then it's a good one. Trust me, I agree. I know this goes back to last week's episode, but when I was in high school and in college I used to work in the produce department uh okay for for the grocery store. So that, hence why I know some of these things. So, and if you're interested, the plu code for bananas is 40 produce pete over here.
Speaker 1:When I when I was stationed in hawaii I played a lot of golf with the army golf courses and met a lot of friends. I played with a fellow who worked for dole and he says people are always asking me how can I tell if a pineapple is going to be sweet? He says it's very simple you cut it open and you take a piece. This bit about pulling the leaves, he goes, that doesn't work. So anyway, let's see. Caitlin was happy State number 11 off of her list for half marathons and half marathon number 20. Here we go, Lori's back Second race of the weekend, the Johnny Miles Race Weekend Half Marathon in Nova Scotia.
Speaker 1:Ran it with a great friend, had an age group second place finish. Nice job, Lori. Lori had a 2.10 goal, ran 2.11 on a hot day and remember my definition, and I mean this sincerely if you live in Canada, I don't care what the temperature is. If you think it's hot, by golly it's hot. I probably wouldn't if it came down here. But it was 2.11 on a hot day. That's a good run, Lori. Way to go.
Speaker 1:Let's wrap up the race report here in Boston, Massachusetts, with the Waterfront 5K. Lauren ran it. The course went through the seaport area of Boston. Gorgeous harbor views and the smell of dead fish. That's rugged, especially if you're running, you know, breathing through your oh, it's tough, that's a tough one. Good job, Good job. Uh, finishing that one, Lauren, Lauren, there we go, there we go, friends. That's the race report for episode 195. That does it, my friends. Episode 195 is in the books. We sure had fun with this one. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, Friends, and if you run, you know you are our friend. This is a Zoom Thursday. We hope to see you there. Information on how to log in is pinned to the featured section of our Facebook page. Well, it happens every year. We finish springtime and we go. Oh, my goodness, it's going to be a long time until we start training again and the next thing, we know it, we start training again. So happy training and happy running.
Speaker 3:The Rise and Run podcast discusses general information about Run Disney and is in no way affiliated with Run Disney or the Walt Disney Company. Any information or advice discussed on this podcast should not be considered medical advice and should always consult with your health care provider or event organizer. You.
