Rise and Run
Rise and Run
202: Loopy Looper: 12 Hours of Friendship and a Lifetime of Memories
Have you ever wondered how a simple cheek swab could save someone's life? In this deeply moving episode, we're joined by representatives from the National Marrow Donor Program who explain how their registry connects blood cancer patients with life-saving donors. Our guest Abby shares her powerful personal journey of receiving a stem cell transplant that cured her cancer, reminding us that sometimes the most profound acts of heroism come from anonymous strangers willing to donate.
The heart of this episode centers on the Loopy Looper relay ultramarathon in New Jersey, where three teams of Rise and Run and Will Run For community members gathered to honor their friend Erin. Their stories of perseverance, camaraderie, and celebration showcase what makes our running community so special. From sharing hoagies Lady-and-the-Tramp style to completing the final 3.75-mile loop together while some wore weighted vests, these runners demonstrate that the miles we share mean more than the ones we run alone.
We also dive into exciting runDisney news, including a thorough breakdown of the Disneyland Halloween race weekend event guide (just four weeks away!) and spirited discussion about the newly announced Muppets-themed 12Ks of Christmas virtual races. Greg's passionate reaction to the Muppets finally getting runDisney recognition – and his mild disappointment they didn't use the Muppet Christmas Carol – highlights the deep connection many of us feel to these beloved characters.
Whether you're training for an upcoming Disney race, considering ways to give back through running, or simply looking for inspiration from fellow runners, this episode reminds us that running creates connections that transcend the miles. Join our community where every step, every mile, and every finish line is celebrated together.
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Expo lights and cheering lines, costumes, bright and hopeful signs. We're not alone. This path is wide, with every listener by our side, From training tips to tales that shine inspiration in every line. We may fall, but we rise again, fueled by community and friends. The road is long, but we belong in this rhythm, in this song.
Speaker 2:Rise and run from start to the run. Together we shine like the morning sun. Rise and run, we rise and run, we rise and run.
Speaker 3:Good morning, Rise and Run. This is Mary from North Carolina calling with a joke to start your run today.
Speaker 4:What does Donald Duck eat after he finishes his long run?
Speaker 5:He eats cheese and crackers, of course. Have a great day everybody.
Speaker 6:Cheese and crackers. Oh Mary, oh gosh, that was fun, though, mary, thank you. Thanks for the intro, friends. I hope you enjoyed that. Welcome to episode 202 of the rise and run podcast. We're so happy that you're here. I'm Bob, and with me this week are Lexi, hello, jack Hiya, greg, hey, hey. Hey. John, hey, how you doing. And Alicia, hello, good to see you, my friends, full house this evening, that's always fun. Ba-ba-ba-da-ba-ba-da evening, that's always fun.
Speaker 7:Sorry, I had to. Riley's been watching it non-stop, so the theme song just plays in my head Automatically, right?
Speaker 6:It's like an old brain worm there. Let's see, this week we'll be talking with us kids. We've got things to talk about. This week we visit first episode of the month. We highlight a charity. This month we highlight the National Marrow Donor Program. A couple of their folks will be with us In the spotlight Loopy Looper a fun Saturday event up in New Jersey with lots of Rise and Run, and We'll Run For friends in attendance.
Speaker 7: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 their run Disney journey. Please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast, on Instagram at Rise and Run Pod. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage, riseandrunpodcastcom. If you have a question, a comment, a race report or would like to introduce an upcoming episode, give us a call 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.
Speaker 6:And Greg. If I may, that was our last intro, so we need some new ones, please.
Speaker 8:We want to thank our Patreons who support Keep the Rise and Run podcast. Rising and Running. If you would like to join our Patreon team, please check out patreoncom. Slash riseandrunpodcast.
Speaker 9:Alright, you guys, you know we're going to be talking about loopy looper tonight and you know what we're also going to be doing with loopy looper having an episode on our YouTube channel coming out on Saturday, very excited to show you the highlights of the day. It was a beautiful day and we can't wait to share it and show you it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you can hear all about it here. Then watch the highlights next week or whenever Jack gets that published, which I think will be real soon Saturday.
Speaker 6:Saturday. All right, so it'll be real soon. Friends, the Rise and Run podcast sponsored by Magic Bound Travel. Our friends at Magic Bound are there for all of your travel needs to Disney, universal cruises. Big news Next week, brad and Maggie will be with us to talk about all those things, so I'm just going to let this go by right now. I want to remind you, though magicboundtravelcom is their website. You got any questions. You want to get some reservations in? Check them out. Let's look at the training schedules. Halloween race at Disneyland is four weeks away. We're getting back to the season, friends. Four weeks from today is Expo Day.
Speaker 6:If you are running the challenge out there, your numbers are getting high. For training this week, you've got a double up. You've got a four-mile walk followed by a 12.5-mile run walk. You'll only have one more long one after this, before race day. Wine and Dine Wine and Dine. Wine and Dine. Now, 11 weeks away, the training calls for a three-mile run, including the Magic Mile this weekend, for Marathon Weekend. Marathon Weekend is 22 weeks away. You're in training week six. If you are doing the dopey or goofy challenge, your long run is seven miles, and if you are following the advanced or expert marathon training schedule. Your long one is 11 miles this weekend, so we're getting double digit numbers. Talk about that a little bit in just a moment. I want to toss out one more thing from the day of this recording Bird in Hand, and many of us will be there. Bird in Hand is now just 30 days away. Okay, guys, let's talk training a little bit. How's the training going? What kind of updates do we have?
Speaker 9:I know I didn't talk about this when we were talking about Loopy Looper.
Speaker 10:We didn't talk about it yet.
Speaker 6:Jack. Oh yeah, sorry, Jack, what are you? Are you in your Mandalorian?
Speaker 9:Yes.
Speaker 6:You're going back and forth in time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, as always.
Speaker 6:It does get confusing, doesn't it Jack? It does we record. It does get confusing, doesn't it jack? It says we record out of order and yeah, that's okay but yeah, so, um.
Speaker 9:so the goal was to do four loops for loopy looper and um. In the second loop, uh, right before I started I was like you know what, it'd be nice to see if I can get my half marathon pace and see if I can actually do what, uh, my Galloway pace predictor for my half marathon says, and it was hot. It was already in the low 80s, I think, when I started my second loop, around like noon or whatever, and I'm very proud to say, for a 3.7 mile loop or whatever, I averaged an 8.36.
Speaker 6:Oh, oh, wow, that's great.
Speaker 9:Yeah, and my, my second mile within that was an 815. And I told myself I had to slow down. So I was like I was really happy. So I don't know if I should expect that when I go and run my half marathon in a month or maybe just I think when you're running with friends or when you are with friends, you take away the stress of the race and you kind of are able to just kind of relax and have fun with it, and I wonder if that's probably what it was.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you're right about that, no doubt.
Speaker 7:Bob, I'm also going to hop in my Mandalorian, because I also didn't talk about this when we chatted about Loopy Looper. But it's not necessarily a training update per se to me, but it's just some running and training advice that I just want to impart on to the listening community. And that is, if you are following the galloway method, obviously, jeff and the galloway team has this wonderful breakdown of you know, once you run your magic mile, you know you, you know you get the paces and in the paces then dictate a ratio. I'm sure Jeff would tell you this, I'm sure Crouch Twigs would tell you this, and I'm going to tell you this now. Those ratios are guidelines because you, you have to do what is comfortable for you and sometimes you can get the exact same result, and that was to me.
Speaker 7:That was completely evident for the first time ever during loopy loopy, because when I went out for my first loop, um, our fred brianna went out for her first loop as well, so we decided to run together for a little bit and then, you know, my gym boss went off. So I, I went and started my first walk break and she kept going. She was doing 90 thirties, I was doing 30 thirties and there was that one point I actually passed Brianna and then she passed by me and then we leapfrogged with one another and then just got to the point where we were doing it so much that probably for like the last quarter of a mile of that loop we just ran together again and we crossed the start finish line together. So it goes to show that we were running the exact same pace but doing vastly different intervals running the exact same pace but doing vastly different intervals. So if you look at the Galloway chart and you either think that this is too easy or that's too difficult, it is quite all right to make adjustments. Just use that chart as a guideline, find out what's best for you and your running journey and hopefully that will open some new doors in terms of your training.
Speaker 7:Last thing I just want to say really quick, before the rest of my friends talk about their updates here is I just want to thank everyone who either reached out to me personally or made that Facebook post about my training update from last week in terms of that liberating feeling of pulling the Tony and talking about body positivity and, and you know, and not being apprehensive about running with your shirt off or running in just a sports bra or something like that. I really enjoyed reading all the comments that came through on that Facebook post of people really wanting to encourage one another as well too. So again, so from the bottom of my heart, I just wanted to thank our community for that as well.
Speaker 10:Well, cool, I went out Sunday, did a run Sunday. I mean I've been walking a lot at work so I've been kind of not really doing much on the weekdays because I mean, after putting in, you know, four to six miles a day on my feet, going home and putting the shoes back on and going out, it was not tough. So I went out and did a run, did pretty well. I just realized that I think I need a little more hill work now because that's starting to kick my butt. I know you get the, I guess, the endurance, as Jeff says, doing the walking which I, which is fine. But I think you know the hills are what I need to work on because I mean I did them, I did, I did them without stopping, which was what I was my big goal. So that was my big big plus for the run. But I did feel that at the top of that hill it's like I'm going to die. But you didn't.
Speaker 10:I didn't die die.
Speaker 7:I'm here to talk about it today that's good, we're very and we're not gonna let you die a burden hand either. No, no, no.
Speaker 10:So I mean I got four weeks to start working on the hills this week. So I'm gonna try working on that this week and I'm gonna try to get out thursday just after work, just force myself to at least get 30 minutes in just to kind of get on that hill.
Speaker 6:Well, I got a couple of things I wanted to chat about a little bit and kind of in Greg's vein. Some of these are more ideas than they are training updates on my part. First one and I meant to say this earlier as the miles start to go up now it's still quite warm. It's going to be throughout most of the US. August is a very hot month also. You get into longer runs.
Speaker 6:I have to remind myself to take off my rings because my fingers swell. Now, it's not dangerous. They swell for a couple reasons. They swell because of the increased blood flow to your hands. You get out on long events, especially when you're sweating a lot, you get an electrolyte imbalance. You lose a lot of sodium, so it's not unusual for your hands to swell. It's not a dangerous situation. You're not going to cut off the supply of blood to the end of your ring finger, but it can get mighty uncomfortable. So I try to remember to take my rings off.
Speaker 6:The second thing I had 12 miles this weekend. I did two on the road, then I came back and did 10 on the treadmill and I walked quite a bit of it and I walk at a pretty good pace and people ask me questions about walking and I'm not going to give a class on walking here, but I will tell you that many people look at me and say, well, you're so tall and that's why you walk fast. It helps, but it only helps a little bit. The thing that helps you to walk fast most is to increase your cadence, and you can use the cadence drill for walking, just like you do for running, and practice speeding up your cadence. I will tell you there have been some running events where I have tried to walk as quickly as I can, and I trained for that.
Speaker 6:But if I want to pick up my walking pace and I'm out on a race course, the first thing I do is shorten my stride, not lengthen my stride. Shorten my stride, keep that foot under your center of balance, make your stride shorter. If you put your foot out in front of you and try to lengthen that walking stride, you're doing two things. Number one, you're risking injury and number two, you're putting on the brakes. You're putting that foot in front of you and you're actually slowing yourself down until you can get to center of your gravity, the center of mass of your body, over that foot. So I'm not going to go into much more than that, but work on increasing your cadence and do that by shortening your stride and you'd be surprised. Shorter steps, faster, you'll be surprised how much that'll pay off.
Speaker 6:Last thing I'm aqua jogging again now for a while. That's not by choice, but that's what I'll be doing and that's another good. I'm not going to do a course on that right now either. Maybe someday I will. Jack Inside joke. It's not a joke. Jack keeps bugging me to do a YouTube on.
Speaker 9:I think it'd be a fantastic video. You know what you guys go ahead and bug Bob.
Speaker 6:Yeah but, I go into the pool without my shirt on. I don't want anybody to see that.
Speaker 7:Bob, didn't we just talk about body positivity? And everyone being comfortable in their own skin.
Speaker 6:I put it on the tee for you, greg, thank you. I put it on the tee for you, greg, thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 9:Okay, I was thinking it, greg said it.
Speaker 6:But yeah, that is a. You can look Jeff Galloway's site. He's got some information on aqua jogging. You do need to get a flotation belt. Well, you don't. You don't really. If you're just want to try it and see how it works, try it and see how it works. Grab a pool noodle. Is that what you used? No, I don't. I have a flotation belt, but it's just enough to keep your neck and head out of the water. You don't really float on it. So, yeah, so you can try that. It's a good substitute. It's a great substitute for your weekday runs in these very hot days. Caution runners. Change of topic ahead.
Speaker 6:Information from Disney. We got two news items here recently. Let's take them in the order that I saw them. They may have come out in a different order. The 12 Ks of Christmas were announced and I think I got a bunch of people looking at the artwork and going, oh geez, I might want to do this. I'm not going to say anything more. What did we think of the artwork?
Speaker 9:it's very interesting you don't like it. Anytime. Someone says it's interesting means they don't like it. It's like the 12. It's interesting means they don't like it.
Speaker 10:It's like the 12 they're going with the buddy theme again. I guess with this artwork you know Kermit and Robin, what's his Gonzo and what was her name? Camilla and Miss Piggy and Fufu. So it's like a buddies thing for the Christmas party Camilla and Miss Piggy, and Fufu, fufu, yeah, fufu. So it's like a buddy's thing for the Christmas party, which kind of seems interesting the way they went that way. Are we missing a medal there?
Speaker 11:Oh yeah, I think the challenge medal is a bunch of them, I think it's like Animal and Gonzo was on one of them, right Hold on Gonzo yeah, could be be he's on something.
Speaker 9:Yeah, no, he's on there he gets his own medal, his own 4k Gonzo and Camilla get the three 4ks, the 12ks of Christmas, huh.
Speaker 6:And then there's a challenge medal that goes with that.
Speaker 11:Oh, the big, the big deal is, it's Muppets themed when I sent it to you guys, I immediately thought of you, greg. I didn't put a caption or anything, I just sent the pictures.
Speaker 7:Yes, and I appreciate that and because I always harass all of you about. You know, if, like you know, say, say, it's a tuesday morning and like, say, wine and dime medals drop, like our, our group chat is a buzz with people typing and giving their thoughts and I'm the one that always goes in there, why are we talking about this right now? We need to save it for our podcast recording. So I have been internalizing this and collecting all of my thoughts and tampering my excitement, but yet showing my excitement Because, my God, am I conflicted? My God, am I conflicted? I am so beyond the moon that they are finally or I shouldn't say finally, but again embracing the Muppets in terms of run Disney.
Speaker 7:Now, there is a part of me that wishes that this was for an in-person race but, I, can understand, from an entertainment perspective, why maybe doing Muppets for an in-person race is a little bit more difficult, hence why it's uh, you're being used for virtual. So again there's. The positive for me is that I, I really, really love this. The muppets they're, they're continuing this celebration. It's the 70th anniversary of the muppets, hence why I I think you know this theme was chosen. When I saw the the first photos, it was either alicia, the photos that you sent, which I think were like in a carousel, so the first photo that I saw was kermit and robin, and I got very excited and I'm like, oh, my God, it's happening. Not only is it the Muppets, because, but since it's the 12 K's of Christmas, my God, they are going to do Muppets, christmas Carol.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that would have been nice.
Speaker 7:Then I clicked on the second image and I saw Gonzo and I'm like, yes, but then I'm like, wait a second. It's Gon, like yes, but then I'm like, wait a second, it's gonzo and camilla. This should be gonzo and rizzo. Hashtag light the lamp, not the rat. So to me, run disney, I'm very, very confused.
Speaker 7:You finally decided to embrace the muppets, which again, I'm very excited about, and you're putting them with a christmas theme. And you literally have a movie in your collection that you own the rights to, of the muppet christmas carol, and yet it's not themed to muppet christmas carol. I don't think camilla is in muppet Christmas Carol, miss Piggy only gets a little bit of screen time as Mrs Cratchit, and then Animal, I think, is on screen for two seconds in that movie. So to me, you were this close, you were this, this close to getting the absolute perfect theming and you just missed it. But at the same time, though I might have to do it because and, and that's and, and that was the other thing that I wanted to mention too is this is the second instance in the last couple of weeks that I truly think and this excites me that run dis Disney is listening to this community and I'll give you the examples why.
Speaker 7:A couple of weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity our friends Kristen and Devin. They invited me to be a guest on the Run Fit Fab podcast and we got talking about themes. And at one point I think we were chatting about race costumes and I think we were talking because I'm running just a half marathon for Marathon Weekend and they were like, oh, you should run as Donald with us. And I was like, yeah, that's fine, but maybe I should wear pants, because we all know that Donald doesn't like to wear pants. And then that conversation morphed into talking about Pooh Bear and about how he doesn't wear pants.
Speaker 7:And then, when the springtime surprise themes got released, they made that little quirk about please wear pants to this race. And then, when they also asked me a question about what race theme I would want, I talked about that we need to have the muppets. And then the collectively the three of us were talking about oh my god, what if they did muppet christmas carol for the christmas virtuals and what do we have here that great? Maybe this was in the works and we just got really lucky, but but at the same time there's a part of me that thinks they're listening. So bravo Run, disney. That being said, you were this close and now, for the next week and a half, I'm going to be contemplating whether I'm going to spend $267 to get a set of Muppets medals and some Twinnings tea and a beanie.
Speaker 6:It's the beanie. It's the beanie.
Speaker 7:It could be the beanie that sets me over.
Speaker 9:I love wearing a beanie. They're one of my favorites. Now, Greg, I will say you almost sounded offended. That wasn't the Christmas Carol, Like I thought you were going to go off into a whole nother direction but it's not a rant.
Speaker 7:Rant it's not right because, again, I'm very happy that it's the muppets. I was just like you have the muppets and you have a christmas thing and you put them together and you put the wrong aspects of them together.
Speaker 9:But I'm still happy though I I will say I do find it kind of funny that it being their 78th anniversary and then they just closed muppet vision and the whole muppet land area. That's what I was gonna say if, like, they just closed it, but they're like let's give people the love, because we didn't realize everybody loved the muppet area so much, so let's go ahead and put them on the yoga. Uh, what was it? The yoga for disneyland?
Speaker 7:yes, yeah, because that's miss piggy yep.
Speaker 9:And then the virtual races. I was like they're getting a lot of love and then we didn't. We have like a wine and dine.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it was the sweetest chef.
Speaker 9:Yep, yeah, I was gonna say they've been getting a lot of love. So I'm still shocked that they took away muppets and not the courtyard over at studios for the.
Speaker 7:Uh well, I I still have my theory, but we talked about this on the uh, the rise and run zoom call that we had the other week. I I have a theory that once lexi's precious villains land is open at the magic kingdom, I think they're gonna move some iteration of that show that's in hollywood studios right now. I think that's just a test. I think it's something to give studios something to draw people in, but I also think it's a test for Villain's Land. I think once the Muppet redo of Rockin' Rollercoaster is done, I would not be shocked if they convert that flex space into a new area for Muppet Vision 3D.
Speaker 8:Well, they also just announced a complete redo of Animation Courtyard.
Speaker 9:Yeah, but that building specifically where the villains theme show has been now redone four different times because when that opened I actually was one of the people that worked there when it first opened that area and it was just a character dance, meet and greet with some art stuff and then they changed it to cars, and then they changed it to a villain's dessert party, and then they changed it to villains show. So I wouldn't be surprised if it got to be something else. But anyway, sorry I'm going into a rant now.
Speaker 10:Now you got me worried, guys, because why, we had a post on our facebook group about uh, disney and synergy and how they like to do things together with you know oh, I know where you're going with this, okay star wars being, you know, 2027. They're going to re-release stars in the movie theater. 50 years of Star Wars.
Speaker 9:Maybe springtime the race will be Star Wars themed it's going to be John, because we're putting it out into the universe.
Speaker 10:I'm hoping that's happening, but I just hope that I'm getting this vibe that maybe they might, they might, they might give it to us for the summer. Virtuals of 2027 hmm, oh, I hope it's not a virtual, because that's really rude. They might give it to us for the summer virtuals of 2027.
Speaker 9:Oh, I hope it's not a virtual, because that's really rude. No, you know what, john?
Speaker 7:That's really sound thinking, because I remember and I think we briefly talked about this when the springtime surprise themes came out, because I was right there with you I thought we were going to get star wars for springtime. And then, when carissa galloway was on kristen, uh and devon's podcast run fit fab, uh, they interviewed her and they she was talking about star wars scene and apparently lucasfilm has such control over what they can they can show and say and and the characters that they have out, that I think it's a really big hassle for one Disney. So yeah, john, I do kind of subscribe to your idea that it could be summer virtual.
Speaker 10:Next, year, but I hope I'm totally wrong.
Speaker 7:Yeah, me too.
Speaker 9:Well, to be honest, if you look at the virtual series for the summer ones, those to me are some of the best medals that you're going to get usually, just because, like, look at the virtual series that came out this year, it was all attractions themed and it was the most beautiful medals.
Speaker 6:Did you?
Speaker 9:get your medals yet, Bob.
Speaker 6:Oh yeah, we got them early, there's still some people who haven't gotten them. Are you really? Well as of a week or two ago, I saw some people saying they didn't get them. Yeah.
Speaker 10:That's wild, it's like almost done with the summer, probably they could have wrong, maybe addresses or something like that.
Speaker 6:Well, speaking of the medals, as you know, I'm fond of saying that it's never been a medal that is maybe one to do a race and never made a medal that maybe go. No, I'm not doing. Doing this is just proof because this is as good as it gets and I'm not doing these now, in fairness, bob, they're not metals, they are ornaments.
Speaker 9:Yeah oh, that's right well, uh hopefully. I'm still not hopefully epsilon gives you another.
Speaker 10:It was epsilon echelon echelon gives you another free virtual deal for that. I wouldn't turn that down.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 7:Or you just give it to your friend Greg.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 7:Remember, remember all those hours of editing that I spend on the podcast Bob.
Speaker 10:Making you sound really good Bob which is not easy to do. I understand that yeah.
Speaker 6:So, friends. However, if you which is not easy to do I understand that. So, friends. However, if you are after the 12 case of Christmas medals, slash ornaments, slash artwork, registration is August 19th. Now, I don't plan to do a Zoom call for this registration. I do think we have a Christmas virtual chat set up already. If we don't, I'll make sure that we get one.
Speaker 7:Well, if I do decide to do it, maybe I'll pull a Jack and I'll go live on Instagram and give out my credit card information.
Speaker 9:I didn't give it all. You only got the first six digits or something. Caution runners. The topic is about to change right now.
Speaker 6:Hey, listen, we also heard from Disney about the event that's coming up in four weeks. We got the race weekend guide for the Halloween race weekend. Now none of us are going to be there, but we still wanted to take a look at the guide. The courses look terrific. That's one thing you can't take away from Disneyland is and it's just geography the fact that those two parks are so close to one another that the courses out there are outstanding. But let's talk through the guide here real quickly.
Speaker 9:So for the first event of the weekend, it's going to be yoga at Disneyland. When you guys head over to the parks over in Disneyland, a security opens at 3.30 in the morning, so just a heads up on that and check-in begins at 3.45. So just as a reminder, though, that the check-in closes at 4.45 am, so 15 minutes before the actual event starts at 5 am. So yeah, it should be a fun, relaxing morning before a very spooktacular weekend.
Speaker 7:And then, after you say namaste to the Evil Queen because I think that's the theme of the yoga for this particular weekend it's then time to head to the expo. The expo, once again, is taking place at the Disneyland hotel exhibit hall. Uh, on the first day, the hours on uh again, this is Thursday, september 4th are from 10 AM until 8 PM. A couple of caveats here Club Run Disney Platinum gets early shopping opportunities beginning at 7 am and Gold Club Run Disney members get early shopping access at 7.45 am. The expo is then also open on Friday, september 5th, from noon until 8pm and then the last day, saturday September 6th, from 10am to 4pm. A virtual queue will be used on the first day of the expo for both the Run Disney merch and the Brooks Footwear Village. You can access the virtual queue via the disneyland app. Starting at 7 am, pacific time, your bib pickup will occur on the upper level of the expo again, that's, within within the disneyland hotel exhibit hall, and then the run disney merch, the vendors and the shirt pickup will be on the lower level. The Brooks Footwear Village is actually going to be outside, just outside of the expo, and if you go in the event guide, there's a very nice picture of a map showing you how to get from the exhibit hall out to the parking lot. It's taking place in the South Lilo parking lot and it's going to be the exact same process as it was during Springtime Surprise.
Speaker 7:There will be a special area where maybe you've never run in a Brooks shoe before, or maybe the model's slightly different and you want to test out. You can test out generic models of the shoes. Uh, that's not a requirement though, by any means whatsoever, but then you'll get your order slip marking down you're indicating the, the size, the style, the width and the quantity, and then you'll hand that form in at the village and they will give you your shoes. There are no discounts for this. Uh, you know it's. You know you won't be able to use like a magic key discount or or DVC or anything like that, and I believe you can't use your Magic Band or a Disney gift card for that specific purchase when it comes to the shoes. But now, with the Run Disney merch inside there, you'll be able to use some of your discounts. But that's the skinny on the expo.
Speaker 6:We're expecting new designs for the shoes.
Speaker 7:Yes, they have not been. They have not been released yet, but Brooks did confirm that there will be brand new designs for not only Halloween, but also for Wine and Dine as well.
Speaker 6:And one more comment. Let me stick it in here because it seems like a good place. We were talking about times and events and all that. Let me remind our friends who are going to be there that there will be a Rise and Run meetup at 2 pm on Saturday in the picnic area directly outside of Disneyland.
Speaker 10:Park and something else. Remember that there is no bus transportation like there is from your resort, so you're all on your own to get to these places.
Speaker 6:That's because they're all so close together. Well, it depends on what hotel you're staying on your own to get to these places?
Speaker 10:No, yeah, that's because they're all so close together. Well, it depends what hotel you're staying at, though that's what I'm saying, yeah.
Speaker 6:If you're off, if you're off property, yeah, yeah. Just remember that Right. Well, let's talk about the courses themselves. Let's start with the 5k.
Speaker 8:So for the 5k it looks pretty identical to the course that we've run before starting in Disneyland, working your way around through the parks and ending through Disney California Adventure at Pixar Pier. Security will open at 3.30 am. The corrals will open at 4 am. Gear check will occur at the Esplanade in between Disneyland and DCA.
Speaker 10:For the 10K, same thing again. Security in the corrals open up at 3.30 am, but gear check is available in the family reunion area. This course. This is basically probably almost bang for your buck, park-wise. This hits every piece of the park.
Speaker 6:Oh, that's a great course, yeah.
Speaker 10:Yeah, just this way. You go in through California Adventure first, exit through the Esplanade, enter to Disneyland Park, back out to the parking lot where you started.
Speaker 7:And we should note, though, that this start area for the 10K and for the half marathon is on Disney Way, which is, I believe, across the street from DCA, in a large parking lot area right, bob, it is.
Speaker 6:It's really an excellent starting area. It really is. The 5K starts in Disneyland Park, as Lexi just said, but the next two are going to start in that parking lot, which is the reason these are the last two for a while, because they're going to be construction in that area coming up. But yeah, the 5K and 10K are just great courses.
Speaker 9:They really are.
Speaker 6:I mean, they are chock full of Disney. You can't do that at Walt Disney World, they're too far apart. But with these two just right across from one another, they're great and a lot of fun.
Speaker 10:Also I guess that's on the same day they're having the kids races. That takes place Saturday morning in the family reunion area. Registered runners should report their specific zones at the following times Registered runners should report their specific zones at the following times no-transcript Diaper dash.
Speaker 7:I'd love to see the paces of a nine month old doing a Diaper Dash. That'd be interesting to see.
Speaker 6:I hope they have good weather for this.
Speaker 10:I really do. Somebody should be dressed as Jack Jack for the 12 month old. There we go.
Speaker 6:It was mighty hot last year, but I hope they have nice weather for this. Alright, what about the half?
Speaker 11:For the half. Security opens at 3.30 am, as well as the corrals, and gear check is available in the family reunion area. This looks like a great course. You don't get to go through the stadium this time, but you get almost six miles in the parks, which is more than you've gotten previously for the half marathons, and you do still get some Anaheim running time, which is great as well. So I look forward to hearing about it. Looks like a great course.
Speaker 7:I will say talk about them designing a course based off of the events of last year, because the minute I saw this course map I was like this thing is specifically designed that if it gets super hot they have multiple places where they can cut it off and loop people back very, very easily. I mean, the area that stood out to me was that area, probably right at, I'd say, mile seven and a half.
Speaker 7:That way you probably could just keep going, and then that loops you right back to the finish line and to the family reunion area. So really good job on West Coast Run, disney's part for designing a course to have lots and lots of contingency plans.
Speaker 6:Well, if you're going out there, we wish you the best of luck. We hope you have great weather. It was super hot last year, although the races were not bad. I didn't even have trouble with the half. Again, I'm used to training in warm weather, but it was okay early in the morning. In fact, it was very pleasant early in the morning. However, I hope you have even better weather this year. I hope you enjoy it. We look forward to hearing all about it and especially especially if this is your first run Disney event. I just hope. Four weeks away, I'm sure you're excited. I know I would be too Caution Runners. Change of topic ahead.
Speaker 6:We continue our monthly charity bib visits. For August we're visiting with representatives from the National Marrow Donor Program. Chloe and Abby are here with us and I'm going to let them introduce themselves to you.
Speaker 14:Hello, my name is Chloe Walbrook and I am the Community Fundraising and Events Manager at NMDP. I lead our NMDP Endurance Program, which is our portfolio of races and rides that we offer to supporters to participate in and fundraise for us. So we give people an opportunity to combine their love of running with their love for our organization and supporting our life-saving mission.
Speaker 3:Very good. Hi, my name is Abby and I am a new employee at NMDP. I'm a donor engagement specialist, so I call donors who are a good match for patients in need of a stem cell transplant or a bone marrow transplant and help them to kind of alleviate any concerns and inspire them to be that match. So I have a special place in my heart for NMDP and running, as my history has been tied to both of them, but I'll talk about that here soon.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing about that, abby. But before we get into that specifics, I'm not sure all of our friends are familiar with the National Marrow Donor Program, what it entails and what it does. Can you help us with that please?
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course. So NMDP, formerly Be the Match or National Marrow Donor Program, is a non-profit dedicated to matching donors to patients with a blood cancer or blood disease. Our mission is to save lives through cell therapy and create a world where every person, regardless of social or ethnic background, has access to a cure.
Speaker 6:It's quite a process. It's quite a process, chloe. This is unique in that we're going to talk about bibs, and I want to talk about fundraising bibs, but NMDP. I want another important part of this to be discussed, and that is this is something that our friends who are listening can actually get involved in, can't they?
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:So it's a pretty simple process to join our registry.
Speaker 3:You can go to our website and you can order a cheek swab kit to your home, essentially, and within that kit there's a large Q-tip, two large Q-tips, and you'll just swab the inside of your cheek and within your cheek cells.
Speaker 3:There are things called HLA types within there, so we can identify 8 out of 12 of those HLA types that are found in our blood and that helps us to match you to a patient in need. So if we deem that there's further testing needed because you could be a potential best match to save the life of a blood cancer patient, then we would call you. I would call you as a donor engagement specialist and make sure it's healthy and safe for you and the patient and make sure that you're in a place in your life where this is still suitable, because we could call you one month after you sign up or we could call you 15 years after you sign up. So we would just call and go through questions with you, make sure that everything that you want to know about this process is fully understood before you're committing. But whenever we call you, we're really hoping for you to answer and say yes to moving forward, because you really could be the only match for that patient in need.
Speaker 6:And while it's not uncommon for organizations to talk about, for instance, donating blood, saving a life, all that's very valid, but this is literally true. This is literally if you are called as a match, you may be one of a very few people on this planet who can save that person's life. We have a friend who listens to the podcast, who I know has been through this and is with us now because of that, and, abby, you're here because of the program.
Speaker 3:I am, I am and I'm so grateful for it. Um, all the money in the world wouldn't have saved me, but one anonymous donor did. One anonymous donor cured my cancer.
Speaker 6:So yeah, Would you like to hear a bit about it. Tell us about it. Yes, please.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So in 2022, I had just turned 30 years old, had my 30th birthday, and I started experiencing a range of strange symptoms, but the one that finally brought me to the ER was brief episodes of vision blackouts. So at the hospital, they ran a brain MRI and they did blood work. The brain MRI came back normal, but the blood work did not. So I was immediately diagnosed with leukemia and I was told that I was in blast crisis, which is a stage where the blood is flooded with immature white blood cells that don't function properly, and this puts me at a high risk for infection, which is actually one of the biggest dangers of some types of blood cancers is infection. So my life was completely turned upside down. I was admitted to the hospital and I got my first of nine bone marrow biopsies bedside, and this helps them to determine what specific type of blood cancer I had, which ultimately turned out to be ALL acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and I unfortunately also had a Philadelphia mutation, which was a deadly mutation about 10 years ago. So, thanks to decades of research, this is no longer fatal upon diagnosis.
Speaker 3:Leading up to my cancer diagnosis, I was an athlete all of my life, running and weightlifting, two-time marathoner, four-time half marathoner. So you can imagine the stark contrast. Whenever I was put and when I was having my first overnight stay at a hospital while having that biopsy, getting a central line put in, and staying in the hospital for an entire month while I began chemo, my transplant room was in a section of the hospital with signs everywhere labeling it as bone marrow transplant unit. I assured every single person who came to visit me that those weren't for me. I wasn't having one of those. They just didn't have a room for me on the right floor because that's what I was originally told. But until my doctor told me that she did in fact recommend this as the best chance of preventing relapse. So I came to terms with this as the best treatment option of having a stem cell transplant and I began receiving mail from NMDP when we were known as Be the Match. I still remember the doctor's appointment when I was told that I had two matches available. One was a female in the US and one was a male overseas. But I did understand that they could drop out at any time and further testing was needed to make sure that my donor would be the best match for me. I just really hoped that one of these two would be the cure to my cancer.
Speaker 3:After each new medication, a new bone marrow biopsy was needed to reevaluate the effectiveness of the medications and course correct as needed. I received an oral chemo pill which treated the mutation. I did three rounds of inpatient IV chemo and a month of continuous immunotherapy, but within this time my doctor had chosen the young male donor from overseas and he was committed to donating. So I definitely felt a huge sigh of relief just having that cure Like cancer was literally cured in that time for me. So yeah, so finally, after nine long months of cancer treatment and hurdles, on April 4th of 2023, I received my stem cell transplant from this anonymous male donor.
Speaker 3:For a transplant to be effective, I received high dose, high potency chemotherapy prior to receiving the new healthy cells, and then I received additional chemo after the transplant to possibly prevent GVHD, which is graft versus host disease.
Speaker 3:This is a really common lifelong side effects for transplant patients, where the new cells and the old cells attack each other, but thankfully, with new treatment options, this is becoming more and more subtle. For most transplant patients, the transplant process requires a month or more in the hospital to monitor symptoms, with daily blood work and medication adjustments as needed. We as recipients are at a very high risk of infection because of our neutrophil count, which protects us from infection. It actually goes to zero after all of that chemo and we just have to kind of survive our way for about seven to 10 days before the engraftment of the new cells can begin. So with that comes fevers, body rashes, gi issues, vomiting, nausea. Those are just some common symptoms, and I actually lost all of my taste buds for six months, so it was really hard to crave a certain food and put it in my mouth and have just no flavor. In addition to this, I was nauseous for 24, seven, for about 18 months after transplant.
Speaker 6:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:That one was really hard. Um, it was really hard. Um, I lost a ton of muscle, but I still did like gentle yoga flows throughout treatment to try to keep blood circulating and keep my mind at peace, but I'm talking really big muscle loss, like my calves would burn if I walked around the grocery store too fast. So my transplant was in April of 2023. And then in January of 2024, I signed up for a local 5k by myself and I decided to try to run it. So that was maybe nine months after transplant and my body felt so heavy and my breathing was labored and my heart rate was through the roof. But I finished and I was so proud. I was so proud.
Speaker 6:Good for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so after this, I joined a local running club and I didn't always have good days on those runs, but I kept showing up, and that's all you can do whenever you have a desired outcome is just keep showing up and make the choice. That would be one step closer to who you want to be and make it happen, Because I don't know. So one day I was searching on NMDP's website on how to make an impact, because I was now running and kind of growing my fitness and trying to like feel better about myself, but the universe didn't feel balanced at all to me. I felt like everybody gave everything to me to survive and I needed to give back. So, um I I found first I found a swabbing table opportunity for volunteering at NMDP. I found, first I found a swabbing table opportunity for volunteering at NMDP. But I wanted more and I found that NMDP endurance community after that.
Speaker 3:So this was a way that I could run a race while fundraising for a cause that saved my life and I was like, okay, sign me up, that sounds great. So I chose the half marathon distance because I knew that I loved a challenge and I could definitely raise about $1,000 for a charity that I loved. I posted this on social media to raise money, and I found it just as inspiring to share about this mission to fundraise while training, to make sure that I wore this charity bib with pride. So I ran the Disneyland Halloween half marathon. Actually, yeah, and that was their first one, right?
Speaker 3:So I ran the Disneyland Halloween half marathon actually yeah, and that was their first one, right.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was. It was their first one back in quite a while.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that was. That was a really big moment for me.
Speaker 6:Oh, it was Abby. Look, thanks for sharing that story. This is a different charity. We are going to talk about charity bibs. We are going to talk about charity bibs. We are going to talk about run Disney. But, friends, this is something that you can do. Uh, there is a an upper age limit to this. I believe it's 60. It used to be 60, I believe.
Speaker 3:So you can join the registry between 18 and 40 years old. However, once you are in the registry between that age range, you can be called to donate all the way up till 62. But you just can't join if you're over 40 at this time, but if everybody knows somebody who's within that range. So if you have kids in college or neighborhood kids, encourage them, if they're between 18 and 40 and in good health in general, to join the registry just by ordering that cheek swab kit online.
Speaker 6:Yeah, at least look into it. I will candidly tell my friends here that I did this years back. I got on the registry, I stayed on the registry until I was 62, I guess, and then you automatically come off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you retire.
Speaker 6:I never was called and I think that's probably going to be the case for most people.
Speaker 3:You don't get called because the probability of a match is very low, but again, when you hit that match, you are literally somebody's savior and you could help somebody just like Abby savior and you could help somebody just like Abby, and something really beautiful about finding my stem cell donor is that he not only saved my life, but now that I work at NMDP, engaging with donors in hopes of inspiring them and helping them to alleviate any barriers through NMDP's extensive donor support resources, my donor also had a hand in every single life that I helped to save while working here, and that's just the most profound example of a butterfly effect is that the donors that help save the lives of blood cancer patients have the potential to save multiple lives based on the trajectory of the life of whom they save. So the life-saving cure is within them, and the power to do that is just a yes away when we call that's it.
Speaker 6:It's awesome. Thank you for sharing all that. All right, let's get back to the Disney stuff. How long has N and I always want to get it backwards. I always would say NDMP. How long has NMDP been involved with Run Disney, please?
Speaker 14:NMDP been involved with Run Disney, please. Nmdp has been a participating charity of Run Disney since 2023. So it's a relatively new partnership, but since 2023, our Run Disney runners have raised over $271,000 to support NMDP Awesome, so it's been a really, really awesome partnership.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it has. Now we've already told our friends how they can look into getting on the registry by going to the nmdporg website. Now, if they're looking to secure a charity bib for an upcoming event, how do they do that?
Speaker 14:Yeah, so you can go to nmdporg and search Endurance and we'll pop up. Otherwise, if you Google NMDP Endurance, we'll be the first link that pops up.
Speaker 6:Okay. Do you know if you have bibs available for upcoming events?
Speaker 14:Yes, we do have bibs available for all distances at Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend, Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend and, lastly, Springtime Surprise Weekend.
Speaker 6:Well, that covers the bases at Disney World.
Speaker 14:Yep, and we do have at least a couple of the challenge bibs available as well. I know those are popular too.
Speaker 6:Well, there you go, friends, they're out there so you can check into that. That'll be listed. Also, we maintain a spreadsheet with contacts for our friends to look into getting bibs In general. If you had some suggestions for our friends for fundraising, what?
Speaker 14:would they be? I love this question and I feel like Abby will probably have some good tips as well. But first, I think, really highlighting your personal connection to the mission. By sharing that personal story, your potential supporters are, I think, going to be more motivated to support. So that can look like updating your fundraising page with that story and personal photos. And then, when you reach out to people, really highlighting how you're connected to the mission, to the mission. So I think that's a big one. I think something else that we encourage our fundraisers to use is giving handles. So these are dollar amounts that show the connection between the donation and the outcomes and can show your supporters the direct impact that their gift can make. So, for example, we use the $25 amount. So this covers one clinic visit co-pay for a transplant patient. So if you use that in your ask, it just really shows that impact to your potential supporter and then they'll be more likely to give.
Speaker 6:Abby any suggestions.
Speaker 3:I thought those were pretty great. Yeah, I think tying the mission into every dollar is really important, so that they can imagine exactly how those funds are being used.
Speaker 6:Without question, what we hear most often from the charities and from our friends who raise money for charity is that the more that you can connect to that charity, the more it means to you. The more it means to you, the easier it becomes for you to ask for funds. Now one thing I left out, my bad. I always ask what are the fundraising requirements, please, to secure a bib?
Speaker 14:The fundraising requirements, just starting with the 5k as a baseline, is $500. And then it goes up from there and kind of the maximum is 2600. And that is for the dopey challenge.
Speaker 6:Dopey challenge. Yeah yeah, 500 is actually below the median, I think for most. Not that you should change it. I'm just telling you that's a good, that's a good deal.
Speaker 3:One thing I wanted to add about this experience, if that's okay, is just that by joining this mission of having a charity bib within NMDP, they provided a shirt for me as a runner and what was cool is I wore it to bib pickup and I was able to identify another charity runner and we were able to connect and kind of talk about our connection to this mission and what our fundraising was like and it felt pretty cool to see someone at a race with thousands of people and get to know someone who can really identify with this purpose of fundraising.
Speaker 3:So that was special too.
Speaker 6:It is Chloe. You were telling me one more thing about a benefit for coming through this charity in terms of the registration fee.
Speaker 14:Yes, so once you're registered to run for NMDP, your spot is guaranteed and paid for, so you do not have to worry about the registration costs and rather you can really focus on the fundraising commitment.
Speaker 6:So if you meet your fundraising goal, that also covers that goal, covers the cost of the bib, correct, pretty cool. That's a good selling point, my friends, that's a good one. Yes. Hey, quick off script question. Any chance we'll see either of you at Walt Disney World at a future run?
Speaker 14:I'm planning to be there, yeah, just representing, um. We're going to have it's a new offering for charities a table at the expo, great, yeah. So we will be there for our wine and dine, um, and then for the rest of the events.
Speaker 6:That's great, no, they had it. It is cool. Well, I look forward to seeing you there, yeah. I look for you. How far away are we? It's not too far. This was fun. Chloe and Abby, thank you for joining us. I hope we can help the NMDP out and I hope our friends look for you for Charity Bibs, and I also hope some of our friends look into registering to what we used to call be the match, but to uh, to be a genuine, bonafide lifesaver. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Bob. This was fun. Thank you, Bob. Caution runners. The topic is about to change right now.
Speaker 6:I know I emphasized it a couple of times during that interview, but seriously give serious consideration, not only, of course, to using NMDP for a bib that's a great idea but think about enrolling. Just give it some consideration. The enrollment is not difficult. It's much easier than it was years and years ago and by golly, if you're ever picked, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you saved another human being's life.
Speaker 10:Well, Bob, that's a great story, because 16 years ago my mother got a stem cell transplant and she's still here. So if without that she probably wouldn't be here, right?
Speaker 6:now. No, it's miraculous, john. It's great. It's a wonderful story. I'm super glad to hear that. That's exciting. It's miraculous. We know our buddy Boyd up in Canada. We heard what a compelling story Abby had to tell. So think about it. As I think I mentioned in the conversation I registered many years ago, never got called, but I'm kind of disappointed. All right, let's move on. Hey, I see a lot of our friends have purchased the Aliens shirt for the Walt Disney World 5K Marathon weekend the Walt Disney World 5K Marathon Weekend. That is on sale at you, posted to the top of the Facebook group page there in the featured section. That's still available. Great looking shirt.
Speaker 6:Hey, I heard from our friend Rob, who is a big help on the race report, the report that we the file that we keep in the Facebook group report, the report that we the file that we keep in the Facebook group. And you know, with Run Disney season coming up, the Run Disney weekend roll call is a big deal here at the Rise and Run podcast and our numbers are down. So if you're doing a run Disney race, go ahead. You can find that. That report is pinned to the featured section. Go up there to the top and you can find it on your phone too, although I think it's a little tougher to update on your phone. But go ahead, you can add your name to the report or, if you just put a note in there, just put a comment and tell me that you're doing it. Either I'll add you or Rob will add you and we'll get the race report filled out and the roll call will take us a good 30, 40 minutes, as it has in the past. One last thing. One last thing before we get to the race report itself Fantasy football. That's also in our featured section on the Facebook group page. As of this afternoon, we had 33 people who said they were interested.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so now it looks like I need an even number. We need an even number. It's rough to have an odd number in a league because you'd have to have a buy every week, but I think I guess we could work that out too. You'd have to have a buy every week, but I guess we could work that out too. But the way it breaks down looks like three leagues at this point, and we could still get more. At least one of them will be a bragging rights only league, and then we can look at how you asked for the entry fees for the other two, so expect to have one freebie and two pay as you go.
Speaker 6:Neither one of them are a lot of money, so I need to cut that off. Probably if I'm going to give the commissioners time to set up their drafts and all that, I probably need to cut that off and all that I probably need to cut that off, probably a week from now, being a week from when this podcast airs. So next Thursday, next Thursday night, I think we'll need to cut that off so that we can go ahead and schedule the drafts for those leagues. I hope we have a good time. It's just an idea. We'll see how it works this year. If it works out great well, I will do it again.
Speaker 7:Bob, I already thought of my team name. I'm very excited. Do you want to share it now? Oh, I do want to share it now so that way no one else steals it Okay. Inner.
Speaker 6:Excellence, inner Excellence.
Speaker 9:Stolen, stolen excellence Stolen.
Speaker 7:My profile picture is just going to be AJ Brown sitting on the bench reading that book.
Speaker 6:Oh, I got you. I got you. It took me a second there. I've had a team name that I've used for years in fantasy sports and I think it's appropriate. I think it'll work here. I've been the pigs in space. Okay to Pigs in Space, okay, pigs in Space. There's a story behind that and I'll wait a week or two before I share it. Taking a look ahead, friends Next week, as we mentioned at the top, brad and Maggie will be with us. Talk about the cruise, talk about what's going on at Disney and what's coming up for yeah, for lodging reservations, et cetera for the races in the race season. Our friend Mark Lane-Holbert is going to come back and join us. Mark did a stint as a runner's guide for a blind runner at the Boston Marathon. He's going to talk about that, and he's going to talk a little bit about a book that he's working on. And now, please stand clear of the door.
Speaker 8:It's time for a race report Por favor, manténganse alejados de las puertas.
Speaker 6:The race report is sponsored by our friend Thomas Stokes. Stokes Metabolic Training. Stokesfit slash rise and run coaching is the website. We're more than halfway through Tom's summer challenge. How's it going for you guys? I know a bunch of you here are doing it.
Speaker 10:I think it's going pretty well. I mean, I kind of like the program he's got me going on with this year, where it's almost like a three-day split. It's a push day, a leg day and a pull day. So where before he was doing almost a full body, this one I enjoy a little bit more.
Speaker 6:Well, it's a good program and if you can avail yourself of his Zoom calls, he has them a couple nights a week, I think. He always posts the Zoom call in the link that you have on your application, so they're good to join. Tom knows what he's doing, he's a good guy and he's fun to be around and I appreciate what he does for us and for the running community. All right, let's take a look at the races. We had one on Thursday again this week it was in Dublin the Dublin Irish Festival 5K. That's right. Dublin, ohio. Kayla and Austin were there, really, happy for the cooler weather, enjoyed the free beer afterwards.
Speaker 6:We had a race on Friday, the TCRC Leftovers Fun Run in Johnson City. No, not Tennessee, new York, steve did it. This was leftover swag from local races. You've seen leftover runs before, I suspect, but this one was interesting. I'd not seen this kind of format before. It's in a local park, it's a quarter mile walking track and after each lap you could go by the tables and take something from the table until everything there was gone. So what happens is you do one lap, you can take one thing. When you finish lap number two, you can take two things, and if you do three et cetera until they're all picked out.
Speaker 10:It's kind of like the 12 days of Christmas.
Speaker 6:Bob. Yeah, that's right. So that's how it worked. Steve had a good time with that one. Let's move to Saturday and the big event the Loopy Looper Relay Ultramarathon in Pensacola, new Jersey. Rise and Run and Will Run For, teamed up to field three relay teams. So in the race report spotlight this week we visit with now you've already said hi to Greg and Jack, hi.
Speaker 7:Bob first time long time.
Speaker 6:But also with us who participated in this relay. We have Allie without an E. Hello, hey, allie. Tom, hello, good to see you, tom, who's your buddy there. Tom on screen, who our friends can't see.
Speaker 13:This is our dog, Indiana Bones.
Speaker 6:The archaeologist.
Speaker 13:He is a doctor of archaeology.
Speaker 6:One and the same, one of the great dog names of all time. I got to agree, and Brandy's with us too. Hey, bob, hiya, brandy, it's great to see all of you. Man, I'm going to pretty much sit back and let you guys go on this one, but wow, it looked great. Looked like you had great weather, looked like you had a good time.
Speaker 7:We are anxious to hear about it. Well, I know Tom and I don't agree on a lot, because we're always butting heads and we're always in competition with one another, whether that's podcast numbers or just handsomely good looks. It's fair. But I I think that I think the one thing that we can all agree on is that our friend aaron, who we ran this race in honor of in in in memory of, called in some major, major favors for us and we had amazing, amazing weather, I mean compared to to last year when last year.
Speaker 7:Yeah, we had temperatures in the 90s, we had dew points in the mid 70s, we had a torrential thunderstorm and lightning hit at the 12-hour mark when we were all trying to do a 24-hour relay and we all just got mentally sucked dry that we just like packed it up around like 10 pm, I think. This year the weather barely hit 80 degrees. Wow, there was a breeze, we had shade, shade and and in probably the warmest part of the day we had a lot of cloud cover and not many favors for us. That I think it led, I mean great. I think we were going to have a great time regardless, but I think that just put it up to the next level. Tom, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 13:I fully agree. I think what a difference a year makes because, like, if the dew point was a little bit higher, you know it was a sunny day, but nobody got cranky, everybody stayed in like a very positive place mentally. Um, the camaraderie within our, our groups, was there, um, everybody was cheering each other on. You know, erin is always going to be there. In spirit, she personifies that kind of event. But it was exactly what you said. Somebody called in a favor because the weather made all the difference in the world and we also had a really good group. There was no drama, everybody vibed well together. There was no drama, everybody vibed well together. Um, I and I didn't want to bring this up, but I, I found out that between jack and ally stover, um, one of them doesn't like peanut butter and one of them doesn't like jelly, and, and so even something as egregious as that couldn't dim, couldn't cast a shadow on what was otherwise a very, very nice day, didn't?
Speaker 13:tear you apart? Huh, it didn't. It didn't. Something like that really causes a riff. But I don't know if you saw the pictures, but me and Greg really came together. I saw that we broke bread slash hoagie. Yes, and it was just. It was such a good event. I was, like you know, diana was made a comment, like last year. I was texting her all day. This is awful. I hate this. I want to quit. This is, you know, the worst thing. And then she was like the texts I got today were this is so cool, everybody's so happy, just a really good day overall. I'll take my royalty check from your Patreon for saying all this now it's in the mail, Tom.
Speaker 11:Awesome. You briefly talked about the food and how you were commemorating our friend Aaron, but to those of our listeners who might not know what this event is, why don't you tell them? Obviously, with Loopy Looper you're doing a loop, but how many loops were you guys going for and how long is the loop that you're doing?
Speaker 13:So the race is put on by Endless Endurance. That's the company that does it. It is a looped ultra event, so you could do a relay team for a 12 hour or a 24 hour event. You could do a solo 12 hour, 24 hour event and there's also a hundred miler option, which comes out to be about 101 miles, and you have 30 hours to do that. So our three relay teams all did the 12-hour relay um, and I think all the teams, each person completed four laps, which what is that? 60 miles.
Speaker 7:I think, uh, just shy of. I think one team had 13 loops, so I think that was 48, okay, and then I think the other two teams had 14 loops and that was 50, 52, something, 52 something okay, yeah, well, math is not my strong suit, so it's okay, it's okay, and then michael, who was with us, um uh, he did 12 hour, he did a 12 hour race and I think what did he get?
Speaker 7:48 miles yeah, he got 13 loops yeah yeah because his goal was he wanted to get at least 12 loops, because he wanted at least 43 miles. So one mile for every year that aaron was alive and I think. I don't know if he knew the number of loops that he needed to at the beginning, but I remember math was difficult for us even after loop one, and so I pulled out my calculator and we figured it out from there and he absolutely crushed it.
Speaker 7:I mean, he was already sitting down relaxing by the time we all finished on our final loop. But we'll get there in a little bit.
Speaker 13:Yeah, and each loop is 3.75 miles.
Speaker 6:Oh, okay, yep, Okay. So you had three teams. Now I got Greg Allie, jack, tom Brandy. Here Were you all on the same team? Nope, nope, nope, okay. How many teams are represented here?
Speaker 4:All three teams are represented here. Yep, yep. Okay, how many teams are represented here? All three. I think I were a team. I think all three teams Yep.
Speaker 7:All three teams are represented here Yep.
Speaker 6:Yep, okay, cool, any competition between the teams or just fun. Huh, just had to break it down that way.
Speaker 13:I was running away from Allie Stover the entire time. I can understand that you were were only running and I caught you. So, yeah, she caught me fairly easily too it took some work.
Speaker 4:It wasn't fairly easily, but you were a good bit ahead of me.
Speaker 10:You got a nice head start okay, so I know you guys are very creative. What are the team names?
Speaker 7:oh yes, so um the team that myself and ali were on, we were for the matriarch, uh-huh because, because we we know the difference between the two and uh if you don't understand that reference, uh, we uh recommend you to go back and listen to, uh, the first episode of Family Feud, where Tom just gets a wee little bit confused, but it's okay, we love him for it. Jack, what was your team name?
Speaker 9:Ohana.
Speaker 6:Were you alone on that team, amongst the folks here.
Speaker 9:No, I was with Brandy.
Speaker 6:Brandy okay.
Speaker 5:We were team Ohana means family. I decided to make it fun. I would bring some leis and stitch posters and decor and blow up air guitars Because you know I'm not our most skilled runner but I get a big personality. So we had a really good time, kind of taking silly pictures with leis and air guitars and little stitch posters and also just to heckle Tom and crew a bit, I flew Disney cheese over and I put out the cheese and the chips for Nacho Gates so I could reenact that little family feud. Because that family feud episode was just one of the best ever and meant so much to me and I just loved it. So I was kind of there, kind of for comic relief, but I had a fantastic time playing around with the Ohana theme.
Speaker 7:Brady, you forgot to mention one thing that you brought with you, and that is a certain poultry item.
Speaker 5:I got a squeezy rubber chicken that made the most horrible screaming noise and I was banging a cowbell and squeezing a rubber chicken the whole time. It was fantastic.
Speaker 6:Sounds delightful. We're missing one more team name, though.
Speaker 13:Yeah, my team was Team Crush your Goals, and that's a direct homage to Aaron.
Speaker 10:Yeah, no doubt. And who else was on your team? Because your team's a four and we're missing a bunch of people here. So can you name the other people on your team?
Speaker 13:So on my team it was Chrissy, it was Brianna and Chris Stevens of Chris and Violet fame, if you know Chris and Chris. Actually, he had a different outfit for each loop and the, the, the, the folks that were running the race kept commenting that, hey, you're the best dressed person out here. So that was kind of nice.
Speaker 6:Good, who else are we missing? We want to make sure we we name everybody who participated.
Speaker 7:Absolutely yeah. And then on, uh, my team with Allie, uh, we also had our friend Tara. And then she's not a devout listener, but one of my friends, kat. We used to work together when I used to work in college admissions and actually Bob knows Kat because the three of us we ran Broad Street together a couple years ago and she's just slowly starting to get back into running. So I made sure to reach out to her and I was like hey, I got this idea. You want to be part of a looped ultra? And she's like I'm terrified, but sure.
Speaker 6:That was her story at Broad Street too, and she did great.
Speaker 7:Exactly and actually, since we're in the race report here, I might as well get out of the way now. Kat got a distance PR. It was the furthest she ever ran before in her life.
Speaker 13:Awesome, that's so cool.
Speaker 7:And then on Jack and Brandy's team, we also had Yvette and Diana as well too, okay, and I should mention this as well too. So, um, and then I'll, and I should.
Speaker 7:I'll mention this as well too. Um, our friend Robert was also there. He wasn't able to be part of one of our uh relay teams, uh, but he I guess I had a work obligation earlier in the day and and this is what what's wild is I think he got there around like one o'clock. I think he was doing, I think he just signed up for like the 12 hour, um by himself, and by the time they they shut down the finish line for the 12 hour, he already ran a marathon. He's, he's a speedy guy. So he did. Uh, he's quick. Yeah, he, he did really really well.
Speaker 6:All right, some other highlights. What were some food highlights you had? You had plenty of time. I mean one person would be running while the rest were at camp, right, one on each team. Yes, so the rest were at. I'm calling it camp, wherever you set up. What were some of the food highlights? Jack, peanut butter and jelly.
Speaker 9:I did have it, unfortunately, but no. So someone said that there was like grilled cheese out right before my second loop and I was like, oh, that sounds great, probably shouldn't eat that before I go and run. Let me try and do that after my second loop, so I come back and then they're all gone. I was so upset the one thing I was actually looking forward to after I got done they're all gone. But then before I think it was before our fourth one I was so disappointed that they didn't have any more that I went back over later on thinking maybe, dude, they had some really delicious pizza. And I was just by myself and I had three slices in my hand and I walked back to campus and said they may not have grilled cheese, but they sure have some good pizza.
Speaker 9:And I brought everybody that was over there back over to the food area and I said I brought friends and we all grabbed more pizza and it was really good.
Speaker 6:You made friends. I guarantee that that's good Brandy. Any other highlights? Any other food highlights?
Speaker 5:Not so much food highlights, but I would just want to say this was the most kind, supportive collaborative group. I mean, I knew some people and had said hello to some people, but like I didn't know Tom, like I didn't know everybody, and everyone was just so supportive. And we had super serious guys like Michael just killing it, and then we had like people with me, with you know, squeezing a rubber chicken, but it's like everyone had a blast and was kind and supportive and we shared like oh, you have a fun shirt, can I put it on? And then Tom put on Ali's like glitter spray on his head and we called him Edward Cullen and we laughed at. Buck, we did.
Speaker 5:Everyone, just I mean truly everyone this was the most supportive, kind race vibe I've ever had and I just couldn't have asked for a better crew of friends to spend the day with.
Speaker 9:So it was just 100. A good time, yeah, terrific. No, I couldn't agree more honestly. This was probably the least stressful race I've ever run.
Speaker 7:Hold on, hold on. Let's talk about stress for a second. Can we talk about your travel woes?
Speaker 9:well, that was not during the race, let's be honest. Yeah, there was like literally the weather was not great Thursday night and then going into Friday I didn't even think to go and look at the flights and everything. There are so many delays and cancellations throughout the entire day for whatever in the Northeast. I know they said they had bad weather, that we had bad weather. And then I get to the airport and I I got to the airport at one o'clock. I didn't get on a flight till 9.15. Okay, and like the airport was just chaos. I'd never seen so much red on the board. I mean, I was constantly trying to figure out which flight to switch to and where to fly into, but then anytime I went to go look at to see if there was a different airport I could fly into, they had cancellations. And then I see this other pilot walking by. He's frustrated on his phone trying to figure out where the plane is. He doesn't even know where it's where the plane is.
Speaker 6:He doesn't even know where it's.
Speaker 9:That's, that's pilot rule number one know where the plane is like like it was just like pure chaos and it was just like by the time I got to the airport at allentown because I was originally supposed to fly into philadelphia I switched to allentown, then I had to get a rental car. I only had 15 minutes to get off the plane to get to the rental car in time before that closed, and then I drove an hour and 20 minutes to the hotel and I had like maybe four hours of sleep and then it was race day. So apparently there was 300 flights that were either to arrive or depart from Atlanta that were canceled and nearly 800 from Thursday into Friday have been delayed.
Speaker 10:Okay, that's from your FAA reporter, jack. That's right.
Speaker 9:No, it's from WSB TV Atlanta, which I've never watched before.
Speaker 7:I do have two food highlights that I do want to mention, because we were chatting about that before. The first is did anybody have the pickleballs? Ew. So I've had me, like my, my grandmother always has, you know, just those round cheese balls in her house at all times and and they're, they're quasi addictive.
Speaker 7:But I've tried to to phase those out in my life, but they had the exact same thing, but pickled flavor pickles never seen them great and I remember I I had everyone at the aid station cracking up because I think I grabbed like two just to sample and I was like, oh dang, these are good.
Speaker 7:And I just grabbed like a whole fistful and everyone had a good laugh about that. But then, also, speaking of pickles, my favorite food item that I had of the day was, um, there was a wawa run that was made and, uh, tom, and I made a decision that I was, I was waxing poetic about wawa's new dill pickle line of products, um, that they had at their deli and we got a dill pickle ranch hoagie and tom's like, oh, I'll split that with you because obviously you know no one wants to eat like a full, massive hoagie while you know, running for 12 hours. And we, we came up with this mutual understanding and loving gesture of lady in the tramping this delicious piece of food. And let me tell you, when you look into this man's eyes, it's like seeing God and just all these emotions just wash over you and Tom. It's a moment I'm never going to forget in my life.
Speaker 13:I uh Greg, tom, it's a moment I'm never going to forget in my life. I uh, greg. I'll be honest, I don't think I've recovered yet. And. I don't know how the laws work in New Jersey, but we might be in like a civil sort of relationship now, like a partnership or something.
Speaker 7:Well, this kind of makes sense, because this is the location where you married Michael and. Aaron.
Speaker 13:That's true. That's true and which was really nice because we kind of like, we kind of regaled folks of like what you know, the, the, the years previous, you know just all of the times we had there and then also, because we were doing the daytime 12-hour, we would tell people the kind of stuff that you can expect after hours at Cooper River Park, which is just the place is absolutely insane. But I think the legend is bigger than yeah, that's often the case, but that's fine. But yeah, Greg, you complete me. Aww.
Speaker 6:Allie, help us out. Help us get out of this. What were some of the other highlights, Like, for instance, the race organizers? Was there any activities planned? Were there anything else going on? Did you provide all your own support or was there support provided at the race?
Speaker 4:I didn't notice them doing anything out of the ordinary. We brought so much food between the three teams and drinks and toilet paper and baby wipes and paper towels, and I mean there wasn't anything that we could have possibly needed that somebody didn't have between the three teams.
Speaker 6:Okay, so yeah, that's a great answer, allie. I just wanted to change the topic.
Speaker 5:I think Greg and Allie should talk about how they did their last lap, because it was pretty impressive. Slash, terrifying.
Speaker 7:Go ahead, Allie. Tell the folks what you made me do so greg and I have weighted vests.
Speaker 4:Mine is a 20 pound weighted vest, I'm not sure what yours, greg 30 30.
Speaker 4:So, uh, we've both been. When we're at home doing our off days of running or whatever, we'll do some laps with our weighted vests on at home. And and I suggested bringing our weighted vests and I said let's just do like a lap or two around the track. Um, but I didn't really mean the track, I meant the 3.75 mile loop. So we did our last loop with all three teams with our weighted vests on. So we did the 3.75 miles with our weighted vests. We walked the last loop but we did it, yeah good.
Speaker 7:And let me tell you, wearing a weighted vest after running more than a half marathon, I had some loving, loving choice words for my friend Allie.
Speaker 7:Again, they're still loving, but I still mean them. But that is one of the nice rules that loopy looper does have is that if you are part of a relay team, throughout the course of the day you have to have or you know, you can only have one person on the course at a time, but as a team, when you're ready to do your final lap, they really do encourage you to go out as a team and to be able to cross the finish line together. So that is where the mathing then got a little bit more difficult. It was probably within that like three, 30 hour or so. We were trying to figure out okay, we don't have enough time for every single person to get one more lap in.
Speaker 7:So then I was trying to figure out okay, how many laps could we get in? Uh, and then, but I think all three teams did the phenomenal job of just figuring out the best game plans and then that way, because I think I was the last person back. So then, once I got back, I think I took like a just a quick five minute break, refilled my handheld water bottle, put on my weighted vest Thanks, allie and all 12 of us went out and we walked together as one collective group and we crossed the finish line as a collective group, and that was a really, really special moment.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I saw the photos, it was great.
Speaker 9:It was truly such a beautiful day. I mean, I will never purposefully normally run a looped course.
Speaker 4:Me neither Terrible.
Speaker 9:I just want to thank Greg for telling me about the event and honestly doing it for Erin. I will run for Erin.
Speaker 9:I'm glad that I did, because it was a beautiful day with beautiful weather. You could just feel that she was there. I loved that our bibs each had like some kind of saying on the back of it that someone had written beforehand. That's something I guess Erin would say, and I just thought that was really beautiful. I didn't know that there was a saying on the back of my bib until like maybe like right before the fourth lap and I was just like this is such a beautiful day and with beautiful people and couldn't have asked for a better race.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I have to echo what Jack and Brandy said earlier is I did frosty looper back in December, so I knew what I was getting into and I strongly disliked looped courses. But when Greg asked me to do this, I was like, yep, I'm in. I went into this knowing only a handful of people and I came out of it gaining several more friends. Some of the new people that were there talked to me like we've been friends for years. I was able to catch up with people that I hadn't seen in a long time. Jack.
Speaker 9:I talked to Allie for the whole last loop.
Speaker 4:It was the exception of Greg yelling at Allie saying that he was mad at her kind of chill hang out with friends day, with some running thrown in between and I got to spend my first entire loop with Tom, the other Stover, and then I caught him on the second loop, so I got a loop and a half in with Stover, I had to do one by myself. The whole day was absolutely amazing and I would definitely do it again. Even though I still hate loops, I would definitely do it again yeah same everybody doing it again.
Speaker 9:Yeah, in the future yes, yeah, yes, for sure long trip for you, brandy, coming back yep.
Speaker 6:I'm in awesome.
Speaker 10:it really sounds like you guys had a really good time, because at about 1030 Saturday night I got an earthquake by my house, so you guys really, really rocked Jersey.
Speaker 4:The day was awesome. I was actually pretty sad when that seven o'clock rolled around and we all had to pack up and go our own ways, because we all went different ways. Then, yeah, it went by so fast.
Speaker 7:It did, it really did. I was so surprised and I think, when I counted, I think between everyone there, we represented seven different states, which I thought was was really cool, but I I think the most appropriate way to uh to bring this spotlight to a close is uh tom, could you grace us with a inspirational quote, uh, from one of our great founding fathers, benjamin franklin?
Speaker 13:you're putting me on the spot um well, benjamin franklin was there.
Speaker 7:I mean, that's why I was, I was benjamin franklin, was there.
Speaker 13:Uh, michael, um, gave me a porcelain statue of founding father Benji is what I call him. You're pretty tight, huh. Yeah, we're on. Yeah, we have little nicknames for each other. What's your nickname from him. For some reason he calls me Greg, which I get that a lot. There are some similarities between the two of you yeah, people get them.
Speaker 4:Just get you guys confused who me and greg?
Speaker 9:well, tom, you're just gonna live forever because you're a vampire he's ever calling sparkly yeah, he sparkled throughout the whole day.
Speaker 13:Okay. So here's a quote from Benjamin Franklin Well done is better than well said. Okay, I'll buy it, we'll wrap on that, kids.
Speaker 6:We'll wrap on the discussion real quick. When do we see you guys again? Uh, disney, I'm assuming I'm going to see a bunch of you in the fall at wine and dine, ali you I will be at wine and dine, but I'm doing the 5k at wine and dine and then we're flying up.
Speaker 4:Tara rachel and I are flying up for marine corps, but I will see some of you at Bird and Hand.
Speaker 6:Oh yes, Bird and Hand, Wine and Dine. Good, Tom, what's up on your docket?
Speaker 13:There's a chance I'm going to do Bird and Hand. I got the Marine Corps Marathon later this year and there's like a small army of us doing that and then the next-.
Speaker 6:Small army doing the Marines. Yeah, that won't go over. Well, tom, no it won't.
Speaker 13:And then I think our next Disney race is springtime. We're in for the challenge.
Speaker 9:Okay, Okay cool. Oh, you're not at Marathon Weekend.
Speaker 6:No, that's all right, that's all right, that's good. I look forward to seeing you in April. That'd be great. How about you, brandy? Perfect season You're stuck with me, Bob.
Speaker 6:Wonderful, yeah, wonderful Sounds good, guys. It sounds like it was great. I'm glad you had a wonderful time. I know Aaron's happy that you did it. So thanks for joining us to tell us all about it. We'll see you later. Thanks for having us All right. Bidding farewell to New Jersey.
Speaker 6:We continue on Saturday in Atlanta, georgia, for the Cupcake Dash 5K that Lauren ran. Great weather for August. In Atlanta. She started off by taking a two-and-a-half-mile jog to Piedmont Park. That's where the 5K started. She finished the 5K, which is all she was going for. This is her first race coming back from injury. Not a PR, that's fine. That's probably smart, lauren. You don't want to push too hard first time. Back Proud nonetheless, as she should have been. Cupcakes were definitely worth it. Then she jogged the two and a half miles back to her car for a total of eight miles on Saturday, which was on her training schedule. Good job.
Speaker 6:In Chattanooga, tennessee, the Battle for Chattanooga Challenge, this one's 4.7 miles. It's a series that started last November with a half marathon. Then they had the Chickamauga Chase 15K in April. Then Amanda did this one. Beautiful locations, like a historic run through the battlefield, great challenges, great support for the runners. Now I'm going to guess Amanda's done this one before, because 4.7 is an unusual distance and if this was her first time at it I think she'd have mentioned it. So I put that great, put the PR bell away. Now we'll save it.
Speaker 6:Let's see what else we got here. Let's see. Let's go to the pinky part of Michigan. You know the pinky part of Michigan. If you ever asked somebody from Michigan where they live, they'll hold up a hand like a mitten, because the state is basically, except for the upper peninsula, the state's basically shaped like a mitten. So this is in the pinky part. It is in Port Oneida, the Port Oneida Half Marathon in the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. Brian did it Race ran through old farmsteads. Really nice pictures on this one. Rolling Hells was one 500-foot elevation gain in half a mile. That's significant. Even with that heart-stopping hill, brian still managed a 2.09.5. That's an excellent run and a proof of time. Great job, brian. Cary was in Chicago for the Dim Sum Vensum 10K. That's a great name it is. I like it. I had to go slowly. Cooler temps in Chicago, that always helps. Great views along the lakefront path. Carrie says she enjoyed the dragon dance performance before the race and I saw some photos of that, and there were plenty of refreshments to bring home.
Speaker 7:I will say I love running in Chicago because I think, at least in the cities that I've traveled to, it's one of the most, I think, accessible and lengthy paths that you can run on in a major metropolitan city. I mean, depending on where you are, it might take a little bit to get to the path, but once you're there it is gorgeous. You got the water, soldier Field is there, so you know if the bears are playing. You can always, you know, catch the excitement of that. It's such a great place.
Speaker 6:Been years and years since I've been there, greg, but it does sound nice, and Gary described a fun run, so that sounds good. Let's move on to Sunday and go to the UK, indian Queens, specifically the Indian Queens half marathon. Ana did this one. Now Ana filled out what I thought was a great race report and I'll quote her here. She says some days it just doesn't come together. That is so true. The wheels fell off at about mile six. She just couldn't get her head in the right frame. It was a case of just putting one foot in front of the other and proceeding to the finish. Weather was a little warm and muggy. That didn't help. Overall, crowd support was there. Crowd marshals were very helpful. Big shout out to them. Now, to top it off, in addition to having some struggles, no medals because they didn't arrive on time, so they have to get mailed to her. But by golly, I credit Anna for this report. I think it's a great report because friends are just going to be days like that and if you can continue and keep calm and carry on. Not that I'm stealing anything from a UK race, but that's what she did by golly and finished. So, ana, good job, good job.
Speaker 6:Let's go to Cascade Lakes, oregon, the Bridge of the Gods half marathon. Kayla and 13 of her friends from North Dakota to Oregon all got together to run this race. Again from the photos another beautiful event. The race starts on the Washington side of the Columbia River with a run over the Bridge of the Gods to the Oregon side and it finishes as an out-and-back on a paved trail. Now, kayla finished faster than she expected, not a PR, but she had a PR and fun. Would recommend this one to pretty much anyone. This really really looked nice and the bonus on this half marathon, very Walker friendly has a five hour. In Cincinnati, ohio, carol, emmy and Julie had a little rise and run meetup at the Runfordo 5K, actually in Oakland, oakley. Actually in Oakley, ohio, near Cincinnati, a race sponsored by a local pizza chain. The metal was a pizza slice. Of course there's pizza. Afterwards Emmy said that she had some because she knew that's what Allen would do. Well, heck, I mean they'd have given Allen the entire pizza.
Speaker 10:You know that the one thing about the race report file which is good about it is you look at that thing. So oh, I'm running the run for the dough 5K. Oh well, look you know, emmy's going to be there, julie's going to be there, carol's going to be there. This is where you can meet all your other Rise and Run friends or even have little mini meetups, which I think we've been seeing across the board at other races, like we had at Loopy Looper, the Run for the Dough. It's just a great way to get your name on that report and find other friends out there.
Speaker 6:John, you're right, and in fact and I'm not sure I've talked about this before, but I'm not sure how many of our friends know this that whole race report thing predates this podcast that goes back to the early days of the Facebook group that Alicia formed.
Speaker 11:I'm blanking out on names Alicia Run Disney Motivational Team.
Speaker 6:That's the one R-D-M-T Team, that's the one R-D-M-T Yep, that's the one. But that's where that started and the idea was exactly what you're talking about, john, so you could look there and say, oh look, john's going to be at this rate. I'll have to look for him when I get there. So I appreciate the comment, john. Thanks, let's continue. Let's go to Leroy, or Leroy, illinois, for the Dawson Lake Dash where Stephanie was running Stephanie's first three and a half mile race. So I may say you don't PR in the summer but you still can, right. Age group fourth for Stephanie and her friend Sierra finished age group first. Nice job, beautiful scenery, rolling hills, really pretty around Dawson Lake. The start of the race was cool and trees provided some nice shade, so that was a good event. Stephanie wanted to shout out her friend again for completing her first half marathon the day before at the oh golly Mahomet Illinois half marathon. I may have butchered that. Nevertheless, sierra, here's a PR bell for you In Gloucester, massachusetts. Actually it's Rockport and Gloucester. Point to point here. The Triple Threat Half Marathon. Lance and Amy did it. Beautiful run along the water by some seaside homes, three lighthouses along this route. That's very cool. Nearly all rolling hills on the course. The course director might have accidentally stuck in about 300 yards of level run along the beach there but got rid of that pretty quickly. No PRs Very happy with their times. See you at Bird and Hand. We look forward to that. That'll be great. And at Disneyland on Sunday.
Speaker 6:The Chalk Walk C-H-O-C, which is the Children's Hospital of Orange County in California. A friend, allison, did this one. Allison was telling us about this on the Zoom call. She did it with her family and friends. Alan and Grace were out there. She saw them on the course. Really pleasant walk through the parks. Supp and Grace were out there. She saw them on the course, really pleasant walk through the parks supports the Children's Hospital. You can still, if you'd like, you can still help Allison out with her fundraiser by going to chockwalk C-H-O-C-W-A-L-Korg slash Allison and she'll still take your donations for that very worthy cause.
Speaker 6:And that's it for the race report for episode 202. My friends and if you run you know you are our friend we get every week closer to seeing one another again. Several of you will get together in four weeks. The rest of us will be not too far behind in October. Almost forgot to mention that there is no Zoom call this week. We'll get together again next week. Keep the training going. We're getting into the tough days of the training for those long January runs. We'll talk about that more. Meanwhile, have fun, keep the faith, keep training, happy running.
Speaker 7: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 that runs for fun Rise and run from star to the run Together.
Speaker 2:We shine like the morning sun, rise and run, we rise and run, we rise and run.
