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Ft. Chris Leonard - RunDisney Champ and Boston Marathon Finisher!
85 Plays23 days ago
Chris has been a longtime supporter of the podcast, and fresh off his PR Boston Marathon finish, we wanted to have him on to talk all things running! We go in-depth on the Disney Marathon, the Boston Marathon, running content creation, and more!
Go follow Chris!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisgoesthedistance/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisGoesTheDistance
Thank you to our Patreon supporters! Much love to Chris, Chad, Adam! Join at https://www.patreon.com/c/InvertedCreative if you're interested!
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to the Inverted Creative Podcast. I'm Allison. I'm Brian. And I'm Jen.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello, hello. We have some champions in the house with us today. I mean, um i won my race. i don't I don't know if Chris won his. least, not what I saw anyway.
00:00:30
Speaker
I don't know if is good. Well, I won. You won a lot of hearts. That's for sure. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, are ah excited to welcome good friend of ours and friend of the podcast, Chris Leonard, a.k.a. Chris Goes the Distance.
00:00:50
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Glad to be on here.
Brian and Chris's Friendship
00:00:52
Speaker
Super happy. Fresh off of his ah first Boston Marathon completion. Literally days ago. Let's freaking go.
00:01:01
Speaker
Three days, fresh, legs are feeling heavy, but but week i'm locked in I'm locked in for the podcast. Hell yeah.
00:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, so obviously I joke. I mean, we can discuss a little bit about me before we get into the the main guest here. yeah all right i' whats What's that, Allison? It's all about you, isn't it? Never. no, no, no, no. no by like I'm happy to be back, by the way. i'm a Yeah.
00:01:28
Speaker
This is not Jen's voice. This is ah the old host of the podcast, Brian. Coast365. but Yeah, when, ah you know, Allison, you know, I'm i'm a part-time, you know, host of this podcast. and You know, Allison sends me a kind of her itinerary for, you know, next two to three months sometimes. Or at least the guest that she wants once on. And Chris and I, I mean, we've we've known each other now, what, well over...
00:01:53
Speaker
Two years at this point, probably. Around two years, yeah. Coaster Studios Patreon. Amazing, amazing guy. We've met in person multiple times now. Did a cruise together. Been to Disney. ah So when Allison's like, hey, we should have Chris and talk about running, I'm like, sign me up for that episode.
00:02:11
Speaker
Gotta be there.
00:02:14
Speaker
Heck yeah.
00:02:17
Speaker
And I met Chris one time at Brewhouse at Kings Island very briefly. Oh my gosh, wait. Yeah.
00:02:28
Speaker
That was my first ever King's Island trip. but We can talk about that later. yeah Yeah, definitely ah have some King's Island things to talk
Podcast Updates and King's Island Trip
00:02:37
Speaker
about. um Before we get into that, want to mention that ah we have our Patreon live, and I would like to give a shout out to our ah one unhinged tier patron that we have so far.
00:02:48
Speaker
Say hi, Chris.
00:02:51
Speaker
Hey, glad ah i'm I'm glad it started off. yeah we are we are very, very grateful for it. For the support of us. Yeah. Absolutely. yeah What you guys have been doing over the past year has been awesome. so Thank you. Thank you.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, definitely have some plans for the Patreon once we yeah get it going a little more. Once I'm on my trip, there will be a lot more updates on there. Which is shockingly soon.
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, what, two weeks-ish? yeah Three weeks for the trip. Three weeks? Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, looking at the date, yep, yep.
00:03:37
Speaker
Very excited for that. um I get to say hi to your plaque again, Bryant. Yes, let's go. We'll send you more pictures of that. um I know we have a few recaps to get into before we start talking to Chris more.
00:03:52
Speaker
um i actually have a trip finally. If you call King's Island opening weekend a trip. I've been on a coaster again. It took like four months. Was it really that long between? I think so.
00:04:05
Speaker
Wow. That's like things that I would do. That's crazy for you. Yeah. I mean, I, I know Mike went on a couple, he went to like over Georgia and Carol wins a few weeks ago, but I'm like, I really don't feel like going.
00:04:18
Speaker
So I stayed home. Don't blame you. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I did Kings Island opening weekend. We went all three days. We had passed all the preview on Friday. ah did most of the day in the park on Saturday and then a couple hours Sunday.
00:04:30
Speaker
Um, Got to check out the new Phantom Theater. lot of fun. I did a lot better the second round. think I got like 940,000 or something like that points out of the 999999. I am so out of the loop with like theme park news. I didn't even know it shooter. i thought it was just a dark red.
00:04:53
Speaker
So I'm already learning something new It's a cute little shooter. um You like shine. Nah, I don't know if i want to give any spoilers about it. Not that there's really much to spoil, but... um Took the place of Boo Blasters, I'm assuming?
00:05:07
Speaker
Yes. Okay. Yep. Got it. i know it was an homage to like an old ride that was there, right? Yes. Which I had to do the research to find out, because I knew nothing about it.
00:05:18
Speaker
that I know some things. ah Mystic was running great, as always. Went on that a few times. Beast Retrack on... part of it I think it was the drop off the second lift hill and then part of the helix was retracted.
00:05:36
Speaker
I've done my couple beast rides and probably won't do it much more the rest of the season. Why? It's so so good. i just i Everybody always wants to do beast at night and I don't want to wait 90 minutes for it every time I'm there. And I don't want to use my fast lane on it. Yeah, that's totally fair.
00:05:53
Speaker
yeah that's totally fair
00:05:58
Speaker
Beast at Night, though. I only have two Beast Night Rides in my life. I need more of that. Pretty sure. her Night Rides are fun, but I don't do them often.
00:06:12
Speaker
How was Orion and Diamondback? They were fine. Is Diamondback running good this year? It's running this year. I'm old. It's running. I'm a
Chris's Marathon Journey
00:06:23
Speaker
notorious... Alright, 625.
00:06:25
Speaker
Chris just hit his first mile. Just if we're gonna you know ah gonna... We're gonna try to beat his his marathon. We're gonna record this entire podcast in the time... it's Chris would be still running.
00:06:39
Speaker
and he was That's how fast... like That's how long he ran. But that's also how fast he ran. The fact that, well, we'll get to his time later. so yeah I have to mention his first mile.
00:06:51
Speaker
Every time I see your time come up on Strava, I'm like, wow, I feel so inferior. yeah mean, his time was 1954. I've ran faster than that, Chris. I'm just saying.
00:07:05
Speaker
i've read i've ran a five k faster than that chris i'm just saying I stopped after that. I didn't run another 23 miles. That's fair. ah And I was very tired after it.
00:07:21
Speaker
like man i'm I'm lucky if I do a mile in like 12 minutes. so ye Yeah. These days, oh my god.
00:07:29
Speaker
I'll talk about that some too. Because I have a race coming up in two days. Well, by the time this episode is out, I'll have maybe finish the race. maybe You will finish. That's the mentality.
00:07:40
Speaker
I mean, I know I can do it. I'm more concerned about getting swept. but Because training has not been a thing lately.
00:07:50
Speaker
Whoops. It's okay. the one The one in October will be better. There you go. I won't be planning wedding while trying to do i won't be um planning a wedding while trying to do training Exactly.
00:08:05
Speaker
The fact that you're doing this race while doing that is kind of insane. That is impressive. yeah I'm not doing the the half marathon anymore, though. I'm only doing the 10K. 10K is still 10K. That's a long distance, though.
00:08:20
Speaker
i'm I'm not really like... 10K doesn't feel daunting to me.
00:08:27
Speaker
Like the mentality. Yeah. Probably daunting to me right now, considering I technically still haven't ran a full mile nonstop since my injury. so Although my first at least mile workout was with Chris on the cruise this past January.
00:08:45
Speaker
That was my first attempt. we we are The lap around the ship was seven laps to a mile. We ran one, walked one, ran one, walked one. Nice. yeah So your first mile was onto a roller coaster.
00:08:58
Speaker
That's a good point. That's a very good point. I think for me, it's still I need to learn how to land with the bad foot again. It's more of a mental thing. Because like my physical therapy only went up, at least the insurance only covered it to the point where i could walk normally. i couldn't get it extended to running training again. so
00:09:24
Speaker
we'll ah We'll try to... try to step it up this summer, hopefully, because I do miss it and I i need to start working out again. ah We can all push each other to run.
00:09:37
Speaker
Chris doesn't need the push. He does it anyway. so that definitely does not push I can be the pusher. All right. That was the extent of my Kings Island
Coaster Madness and Coaster Experiences
00:09:49
Speaker
weekend, by the way. There was really nothing crazy.
00:09:52
Speaker
yeah i hit plan i'm talking about I did have a good time. Got to see lots of friends. Good, good, good. Yeah, when was the last time I was on? I was asked this and then it's probably been what, like two months?
00:10:05
Speaker
oh
00:10:07
Speaker
Yelling at Jen about something probably.
00:10:12
Speaker
Epic Universe? Deep Dive? Coaster Madness. Coaster Madness, that's right. Oh yeah, that happened too. we can i don't know if you recapped that yet. No, we haven't yet, actually. I've been a bad listener.
00:10:25
Speaker
ah Yeah, we'll re keep recap that real quick. ah First time Instagram only. i don't know. i hope everybody enjoyed that. At least people on Instagram, I'm sure, enjoyed it.
00:10:36
Speaker
um Definitely a lot less stressful than doing it on Twitter. and Not having to worry about bots and vote buying. Knowing that every single vote was legit.
00:10:48
Speaker
um Yeah, if you don't know, Velocicoaster won its third title in four years. Yeah, it did. I don't think it was even challenged, really. If you consider, like, maybe, like, a 59, 41, that's not really a challenge, in my opinion. um
00:11:07
Speaker
I do think that's just now. it is consensus, probably, among American enthusiasts, but I assume probably still a good 70 ish percent of my of the voters are American.
00:11:20
Speaker
was say, it did feel like there was a lot of American bias this year. Yeah, there was definitely some like questionable like Time Traveler beating Dinaconda. Yeah. Is Time Traveler really better than Dinaconda? Probably not.
00:11:35
Speaker
I know ah Sarah and Taylor just recently wrote it a couple weeks ago. Am I going to argue that Time Traveler is better than Dynacon just for them? Yes, so like I can piss them off.
00:11:47
Speaker
ah like Don't question my tournament's results. Time Traveler is better. ah But yeah, it is what it is.
00:11:57
Speaker
Velocicoaster is still clearly one of the best roller coasters in the world. It did defeat, I believe, was it Gwazi in the finals?
00:12:07
Speaker
I think already forgot. Yeah, i already forgot. I'm pretty sure was Gwazi. um They had a good run. I think um Falcon's Flight lost early, right? to Was it Ride to Happiness, I think? Or Voltron? One of those beat Ride to Happiness, which was... don't know. I want to say interesting to see.
00:12:29
Speaker
It was Falcon's Flight versus Voltron, and Voltron went on. Voltron went okay.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, Voltron made a run to the Final Four, I believe, and lost to Gwazi.
00:12:41
Speaker
I was so sad that it lost. Yeah. I wanted that Voltron-Velocicoaster matchup. Yeah. Me too. Yeah, it was Velocicoaster-Gwazi. Yeah, Battle of Florida. That's right.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think... That was pretty much set in stone, I think, whereas I think Voltron Velascoaster might have been a little more interesting getting that US-Europe matchup, but it is what it is. Congrats to Velascoaster again.
00:13:10
Speaker
Shout out G Prodigy. You acknowledged it yet again. You're the man. Come on this podcast. ah Please, please. As far as my... Oh, go ahead. Sorry. I wanted to mention the ah April Fool's.
00:13:24
Speaker
Oh my god. The coaster coaster madness, yes. coaster coastster madness All from the brain of Allison. yeah I don't even remember like what inspired it, but yeah we always gotta to do something fun.
00:13:37
Speaker
Gotta do something unique, yep. yeah, it was Coaster, Coaster Madness, and my favorite one was still All of the Coasters at Busch Gardens versus Whatever This Is from Amazon.
00:13:47
Speaker
The labels just kept getting more absurd as it went on. It was great. It's literally just something that like somebody got us from Amazon at some point, and I'm like, I don't know what this is, but here it is. Whatever This Is from Amazon. Real quick, Chris, as I know you have also written both Voltron and Ride to Happiness, correct?
00:14:07
Speaker
Yes. Which do you think is better? So, this kind of goes a bit into the rankings, but Ride to Happiness is my number one right now. really? Okay. Voltron, I think Voltron, I'm trying to remember. god I like just did them couple months ago, and I haven't looked at them since.
00:14:24
Speaker
I think Voltron was like seven. Too low. It was like the second best European coaster I had. At least that's correct. but Yeah. Okay. It's top 10. You can stay on the I never got a front row ride with Ultron when I went. It was a single rider line the one time, I got like wing seat, which is cool. i like the wing seat.
00:14:50
Speaker
Second, I got like dead center of the trains, like middle row, middle. And it was it was good. um and I did not think it was rough at all. No, it's not.
00:15:01
Speaker
I mean, like, I sat and I also only got three rides of Ride to Happiness, but all three of them, it just kept getting better each time. i mean oh yeah there's There's no bad seat. And the music, oh my gosh, yeah, it's so good.
00:15:17
Speaker
I really need to go back and get it on a not cold, windy day. Yeah, I mean, I can see it making a difference. Yeah. But anyway, a quick trip recap for me. I finally ah went to Northern California, the the white the white whale of fan area of the U.S. s that I have yet to visit, at least for amusement parks. I had been to San Francisco before with Megan. Discovery Kingdom, CGA, ah and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
00:15:48
Speaker
Had a fun time at all three. Real quick, Discovery Kingdom... I said it i'm on you know my YouTube channel, So Bizarre. Unbelievably weird park layout with yeah let's cram six roller coasters into one space and then have this wide open back section with animals, yes, but like there's also not animals in a lot of places either.
00:16:14
Speaker
It's like SeaWorld meets Busch Gardens meets Six Flags. Yeah, that's one way to say it. Very odd. um The lineup is lineup.
00:16:27
Speaker
um yeah child I mentioned it in the video. Joker surprised me. It is not the worst iBox in the slightest for me. I actually thought it was really, really good as an airtime lover.
00:16:42
Speaker
Ton of airtime packed in that thing. I felt pretty unique layout, honestly. I'm not one of those people that's like, oh, every RMC is the same, like Allison. um yeah Hold on
00:16:56
Speaker
on. Medusa, great floorless. Long, flowy. I really enjoyed Medusa. Yeah, Medusa's great. One of my favorite floorlesses. Seven inversions, but very well-paced.
00:17:10
Speaker
Skyrocket's fun. One of the better Skyrockets. And the rest the lineup's just there. It's there. The worst boomerang I've ever been on. um Screw that thing.
00:17:23
Speaker
Definitely. You that the first aid was right under the boomerang or something like that? actually didn't know. I got a great picture of that somewhere. I'm like, yep, you're going to need it after this. I got a Zen ride front row, and i don't know if like just how empty the train was that made it like more shaky.
00:17:38
Speaker
um Yikes. I wanted to... Leave the park after that, right? But yeah, good time. It's not a but I'm curious. um After CGA closes, if they'll invest in that park.
00:17:56
Speaker
Because they'll have a monopoly really on that area. Yeah. If they don't, I'm not in any rush to get back there. At all. They probably won't get any new creds over there anyway.
00:18:06
Speaker
Probably not, though. CGA, though, um clearly the better of the two parks. Extremely beautiful. Love the front entrance. Very King's Island, very King's Dominion.
00:18:19
Speaker
Gold Stryker is one of the best wooden coasters in the country. Incredible. Amazing GCI. Relentless, just nonstop. and Everything you want on a wooden coaster, it has. and And I think they did some track work, so it I guess it used to run rough. It's...
00:18:33
Speaker
a tit standard gci layout but not smooth as butter but tolerable um what else they got flight deck god that thing is powerful for that was good this it's a short one but it hits good lord it hits that was one of the re-rides that we did was flight deck yeah well huh And then Railblazer, really good. I like Wonder Woman a little better.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, the the ops were absolutely horrendous. I made a i did i know i rarely do an op rant in my videos, but that day i had to say something. And it will like it was opening weekend, and there's an allowance of patience of, like, okay, yeah, new hires. like ah If it takes five to ten extra minutes, that's fine. like I'm not going to comment on that.
00:19:24
Speaker
It went a level way beyond that of just... Like 20 minute waits. It should what should have been 20 minute waits for like 45 plus.
00:19:35
Speaker
Jeez. And like legitimately like when it like legit affects the guest experience, that's like, oh, We gotta make a little comment here. Yeah, that's a problem. And I've sadly, anytime, so this is like my paranoia, anytime I like have any kind of negative thoughts on something, I fear comments of like, oh, you're just, you know, you're entitled.
00:19:59
Speaker
like Like, leave them alone. I get none of that. almost Like half the comments were also like, yep, CJ Opsuck. Like, oh, okay. Yeah. You're there with me on this one.
New Coasters and Theme Park Visits
00:20:10
Speaker
Okay. And that's unfortunate, but, but overall the park was great. Um, there's also a part of me that's like, yeah, if they're closing in two years, what's the motivation to improve?
00:20:24
Speaker
Don't blame them there really. So, but the delightful park, um,
00:20:32
Speaker
I'd go back if, like, i don't know if there's, like, some big closing party next fall. Maybe. um And then Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Fantastic. That one actually exceeded expectation. Giant Dipper is, I think, the best, like, old wooden coaster I've ever been on.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah, I really love it. Yeah, slightly. They're close, but slightly over the Coney Island Cyclone. And my favorite overall board park. Here we go. Boardwalk Park.
00:21:02
Speaker
I can't say that phrase. It's my favorite of those. i when planning, I'm like, okay, we're just going to go in and out, cred run, then leave.
00:21:13
Speaker
I wish I gave myself more time. Like, there was some dark rides there. They had a flume, bunch of food. Definitely would want to go back there.
00:21:26
Speaker
Whatever the kids coaster is there too. I forget what it's called, but it exceeds my expectations. Yeah, like three or four people are like, oh you didn't get the kiddie coaster. I'm like, a kiddie coaster. Is it it isn't a miler?
00:21:38
Speaker
I'm pulling it up because I don't remember. you would think I knew these things. Yeah, it's a miler. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, milers are the best kiddie coasters. But yeah, no, great great little time. Very, very quick trip. Like literally 72 hours in and out.
00:21:54
Speaker
Got some creds. Trying to stay within 100 of Allison, which is going to go bye-bye, I think. 662. Yeah. In a few weeks, it's gone. I should be pushing 800. Oof.
00:22:07
Speaker
yeah, that's not going to happen. Yeah. i should be pushing eight hundred oof one
00:22:18
Speaker
so ah yeah that's not going to happen Then one more credit I got. I did get to hop on, finally, a new credit at Sixth Facts New England.
00:22:29
Speaker
Quantum Accelerator went for, passed all the previews two weeks ago? Almost two weeks ago. Two weeks ago when you're hearing this. um I have been notably critical of the decision of when you've we've waited a decade that brand new, finally getting a new credit is just a family coaster.
00:22:51
Speaker
I think we deserve more. That being said, it was a lot of fun. um Better than I thought. the the Especially the second launch of that thing is actually really punchy, especially in the front row. I'm so happy there's a launch at SF&A, finally.
00:23:09
Speaker
um I hope as the weather warms up, the second half gets a little twistier and some more laterals and forces. It's running a little slow on that end, but overall a great time. They did a great job with theming for Six Flags.
00:23:24
Speaker
At least they made a legit effort. um Homage to like the old attractions that were in that plot of land. Great time. like It's a legit number three now. um I know some people some people would still prefer Dark Knight, the floorless coaster.
00:23:37
Speaker
um I've been on so many B&M's inversion machines. Give me the unique launch coaster, even if it's family. But yeah, no. Good time. Good time. um How do we get a finally another good third, ah legit third coaster at 6.5 New England?
00:23:55
Speaker
I'm happy for you. Congratulations your home park. Yes, thank you. Feels good. i know. I'd say as if you had anything to do with the decision. Listen, i i my still my most well my second watch video now is ah the thumbnail says, new coaster in 2025? Question mark, question mark. so Maybe they watched it.
00:24:15
Speaker
You never know.
00:24:18
Speaker
um and I don't know. Chris is coming up at some point this year, i think, to
00:24:24
Speaker
Get on that one. Yeah, that. I need Compounds credits and also Quasi. So I think I'll probably try to do some kind of like weekend thing. There you Hell yeah. Yeah.
00:24:36
Speaker
And then we should talk about, ah we've had him on the podcast before, our good friend Riley, that's so mid, from Australia, ah hosted his fourth annual GeoGuessor tournament, theme park GeoGuessor tournament, which I did happen to win last year.
00:24:54
Speaker
um Way, way, way more competitive this year. We had 16. um I forgot if we talked about this already in the last episode. but Probably. Yeah, it was already going at that point.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think we might have talked about it. yeah There have been updates. Yeah, face literally like four of the biggest creators on YouTube.
00:25:16
Speaker
Colin from Collywood Studios. That guy Taylor from Coaster Studios sucks. ah no Love you, Taylor. um Chris from Airtime Thrills. Mark from Coaster Dash. Huge, huge enthusiast for this little guy.
00:25:31
Speaker
And I beat them all again. Back-to-back champion. Felt amazing. I think for those that watched, it was clear I put some effort into it this year for sure. Definitely was study doing some studying for some parks.
00:25:50
Speaker
But here's the here's my mentality is if I just went in RAW and we were just going on real-life experience, All those guys would have beat me because they've been to, especially like Taylor and Mark, they've been to literally double the parks I have.
00:26:06
Speaker
So how do i close that advantage? I find out what parks they've been to that I haven't, and I at least make sure I know where those parks are. And I think that mostly you saw that happen against Mark especially where we had like...
00:26:24
Speaker
20 of our 28 rounds were parks we both knew exactly. But yeah, so I was just kind of making those rounds null and void and then hoping for the parks that are super obscure. That's where I think my strength is, is using actual geoguester clues, real world clues that have nothing to do with the parks, but I could still maybe get the country.
00:26:46
Speaker
That definitely helped me against Taylor famously now. Enchanted Kingdom in the Philippines. Whenever he goes there, he needs to take me because I want to take that picture in front of that sign with him with that bleeping grin on my face.
00:27:03
Speaker
but Does he know how to say that ah that one city in California? Definitely not.
00:27:11
Speaker
The edit was perfect, by the way. San Bernardino, Taylor. It's not that hard.
00:27:18
Speaker
It's funny how good he is, how knowledgeable he is. The parks he's been to, he would get in five seconds like I did. But like take him out of that element, man. It's funny to watch him go. Yeah. It's like, is this Florida? It's the Philippines.
00:27:36
Speaker
so I'll see him in a few weeks. but But yeah, no. its fun What's that? You went up against an actual GeoGuessr. Oh, my God. Yeah, didn't even... Yeah, so ah Riley kind of surprised me after, you know, the tournament went final. is like, hey, we got one more matchup with you.
00:27:55
Speaker
Yeah, your face is like, what? I was like, what are you talking about? But here's the thing. So if you guys haven't watched it, last year, Riley, Taylor, and I... faced this legit Geoguester pro. He's like, borderline celebrity in the Geoguester community has like, i don't know if it's the biggest channel, one of the biggest YouTube channels on Geoguester. His name is Oscar, goes by name Zigzag. We get to play him in just theme park Geoguester against him to see if is he's so good that even if it's our specialty, can he still beat us?
00:28:30
Speaker
um And Taylor and I beat him one-on-one, but him and Riley and a tag team beat Taylor and I. So the answer is yes, he can still be that good.
00:28:41
Speaker
So when we stopped recording with Mark, I swear out to God, the first thing I said is, like, jokingly, what do you have zigzag, like, waiting? And he's like, yep, yeah, he's going to face you next week. I'm like, oh, that's awesome.
00:28:55
Speaker
And Riley did such a good job. He made custom maps just for the two of us. It was just the perfect mix of parks that I would get pretty quickly that he wouldn't know, but he might get the country right.
00:29:10
Speaker
But then also the super obscure parks where the park knowledge doesn't help at all, really. But he knew he could identify like the country in two seconds. and And as the games worked out perfectly. They all went down to the end, like back and forth. I would get points. He would get points.
00:29:29
Speaker
Ultimately, he did get two out of three. But, and I, like, legitimately respect this guy. as's I'm actually trying to get, like, better at the game of Geoguessor, not including theme parks.
00:29:41
Speaker
And at the end, he was like, hey, you can hold your hair you can hold your head high. You get some serious skills. And i was like, oh, thank you. It was, that was, yeah. I mean, the winning the tournament was great, but, like, that was legit the highlight. Just going against, like, a legend in that game.
00:29:58
Speaker
Like. And still holding your own. Yeah, exactly. Like, who am I? So huge thanks to Riley again for setting up that tournament. Like, with that Geogester is slowly turning into another hobby for me.
00:30:14
Speaker
Like, i've I've legit fallen in love with the game. I've mentioned, i think, to Megan, like, if, you know, I became an enthusiast in 2017, and
00:30:27
Speaker
This, like, 2026 is my 2027, was my 2017 for Geogester. Like, I really think
Chris's Running and Marathon Experiences
00:30:34
Speaker
it's going to be a thing. And I might start creating some Geogester content on my channel.
00:30:38
Speaker
and Testing that out. Yeah. Seeing how that goes.
00:30:43
Speaker
But yeah, no, again, thank you to Riley, all my, all the amazing opponents I played this year. So I, especially Taylor, you know, I joke with him. One of my good friends. I will always make fun of him.
00:30:54
Speaker
But like Chris, Mark, Colin, like legit honor to play against everybody. So I was also really excited that you got Eurofactor. Yes. Oh, my God. So up we've mentioned that this on this podcast, I believe, right? About the typo coaster. i'm Yeah. You had to have, right?
00:31:14
Speaker
Oh, it's a bucket list for me. Yeah. So I wonder how many, maybe even Riley felt like, is this guy cheating? How does he know this random park in five seconds? Hi. This one right here.
00:31:27
Speaker
I'm probably no help. I mean, I have profiled the coaster multiple times on my Twitter, too. Yeah. um But Riley's like, how did he know this park?
00:31:39
Speaker
Oscar was like, that's a random part. Like, how did you know that part? And I'm like, well, you know, little friend Allison here. She loves typos.
00:31:50
Speaker
Yeah, no, that was and that was like almost won me the game, too. That would have been hilarious if that's how I won. Is that part part of why we're going to Italy? Maybe, maybe. thousand.
00:32:06
Speaker
All right. Enough of us, though. It's time to talk about the real champion here.
00:32:15
Speaker
was like, you're the one that went back to back. I haven't gone back to back yet. yeah Yeah, but I did that just sitting on my... we say S on this podcast? ah Well, no. In my living room.
00:32:29
Speaker
yeah
00:32:32
Speaker
You know, you actually ah are actually doing, you know, where real world ah epic feats. That only if a few of us mortals could ever achieve.
00:32:43
Speaker
Right.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah, i've I've had ambitions to run a marathon. And like, especially more so now than I ever have. But I don't know if I'll actually be able to. But seeing you has helped. and And like, especially talking to you too, when I got back into actually training, has kind of helped inspire me to run to go the distance ah oh thank you that's awesome to hear I honestly didn't really know what was going to happen when I started the page but even if tell my za aviv if I just like help out one person that's that's a success out we gotta use this hand raising feature here
00:33:28
Speaker
you go else and you got to use this this and the hand raisingising feature here Oh, it's like it's it's it's like zoome class. Yeah, it says Brian has something to say. Yeah. I'm just going to ignore b Brian's hand and just keep talking.
00:33:45
Speaker
ah I was going to say, you kind of have started to get into some content creation, too, and talking about your running, right? Yeah. Yeah. So um I guess a quick background on me is I...
00:33:58
Speaker
I was 100% a roller coaster enthusiast before I was a runner. going to point that out. like Roller coasters have been a part of my life pretty much since...
00:34:08
Speaker
2011 when Skyrush got announced. um So I always grew up going to Hershey. um And I don't know, I just, I think one day i decided to get over the fear of loops. So I rode Super Duper Looper as like my first, like, you know, inverting roller coaster and was super scared about it. It was like, oh my gosh, there's no shoulder restraint. How am like I going to be secure in this? I want to fall out, like that kind of stuff. And then obviously I did that and was like, okay, that was kind of fun.
00:34:37
Speaker
The next week, Skyrush gets announced at Hershey Park, and I'm like, I want to ride that when it opens in 2012. So um i ended up going to my first great adventure trip um that that week, and I rode Kingda Ka, and that was like my fifth ever credit, fifth or sixth.
00:34:57
Speaker
It was in my top 10 credits for sure, like i have top 10 first credits, which is kind of crazy to say. Wow. Brave kid. Good lord. Yeah. Oh, I was so scared. i was like, oh, you own that lawn. I was like, oh my god. Like, if we fall backwards, we have to this twice. Like, that's gonna be... it Um... I mean, obviously, I'll you kill for that now. But... um that After that, though, was just kind of like the fear just went away. And then it kind of became more of like, a oh, like it's so cool to these roller coasters. I can get over my fear. To now, like a whoa, like airtime is like kind of cool. And going fast is cool. So that's how I got into roller coasters then, just as a little quick tangent before following into running. um
00:35:42
Speaker
But yeah, but yeah so Fast forward to about 12 years later, it's, I'm graduating college.
00:35:53
Speaker
um Background is I was, you know, was usually the kid either like picked last in gym class or like didn't really know like what I was good at athletically, if I was even good at anything athletically.
00:36:04
Speaker
And then at work, there is a there's there's a 5K that happens like twice a year. I'm like, oh, like this could be fun to do. like I'm not really going to train for it, but let me just see like how I could go.
00:36:16
Speaker
um And i I did have some running experience in high school, but it was all sprinting, which is like the complete opposite of what I do now. I just said, like, I was really... like So, actually, I might have asked you earlier. Like, I'm stunned that you didn't have any cross-country or track at all. And you just went to this legit superstar runner.
00:36:40
Speaker
it it It was... It took me by surprise. Because, like, I hated track in in high school. I very much did it for my college application. Like, you know, it to i have a varsity sport for four years.
00:36:51
Speaker
um I didn't really, like... i know. I didn't feel passionately about it. My real passion was honestly with music. I was in like the band in high school and really good at trumpet. And then in college, I was like the president of my university band, went to go to all the different like pep band events, including a men's Final Four, which was really cool. And I'm like, I want to do music as like my main side thing when I start like working full-time.
00:37:18
Speaker
um so Then once I started working, um i did the 5K and was like pretty good, honestly, out of around like 150 people, I got 14th, which I was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Like so like I haven't trained at all for this. And I got like...
00:37:37
Speaker
21 something in the 5K. And my my next goal was like, okay, this time next like this time in six months when there's the spring 5K, I'm going to try to get sub 20, which to me seemed like, okay, I probably just have to run maybe like one or two miles a week between now and then and I should be good. And that really humbled me those six months just like starting out running and like trying to figure out like you know like the best way to not get injured while doing all of this and stuff. And then um i got to that 5K and it was like a complete failure. And honestly, i owe the second 5K to really what motivated me to get better because then i actually started doing research of like, okay, like how do I get faster? like It's not just by running. You got to go to the gym a lot. You got to make sure your dieting is like correct for the your amount of carbs and protein you're getting. Yeah.
00:38:26
Speaker
And now I'll kind of tie it back to the theme park side where after that failed 5K, I saw that Disney ah does a run Disney race series where um for, think, four times throughout the year and two times in Disneyland in California,
00:38:44
Speaker
they do ah race weekends where you can, they advertise like racing through the parks. um They advertise as much more than like a running event. They advertise as like, ah you can you know go stop and get photos with different exclusive characters on the way. Like you can like run around the world at like 5 a.m. in the morning because why doesn't that sound appetizing to anybody? um And then ah one of the four,
00:39:09
Speaker
Weekends is their signature marathon weekend, which happens every second weekend in January, I believe it is. um But it's the only time in the year where you can run a full marathon in Disney World.
00:39:21
Speaker
And it is because if you've ever been to Disney World, it's... all self-contained on their own property. So unlike Disneyland, it's kind of around like Anaheim and like the surrounding area. They're able to close off all these different roads and make like a full like 26.2 course going through all the parks.
00:39:38
Speaker
And I thought, you know what? That could be really cool. And like that's not really too much speed focus, but I can kind of... My goal can be, let me try to run it without stopping at all or like without walking or anything. So...
00:39:51
Speaker
After the failed 5K, I think like literally the day after, i try to register. Sells out within 30 minutes because these races are notorious for having really long online queues. It's basically buying a concert ticket. it real it it like i had I was able to buy two tickets to the Ares Tour easier than I was able to buy run Disney tickets. Wow, that's crazy.
00:40:15
Speaker
Yeah. That's actually crazy. yeah So luckily though, there's a couple like Twitter and Instagram accounts that follow the registration. And about three months later in July, i actually got on a vacation through an email saying like, hey, the marathon just opened up again.
00:40:31
Speaker
and it was only open for me like five or 10 minutes. And i was like typing so fast. I like misspelled like my last name. I misspelled my... and phone number, I think. But luckily, I got the email correct so I could contact support later to fix it all.
00:40:44
Speaker
But I got in for the 2025 Disney World Marathon. So pretty much from then, from July until January, was just um training on my own at this point was kind of just like looking up different like PDF programs that were online that I could find for, like, first-time marathon build.
00:41:06
Speaker
um Again, like I said, I didn't really have a time goal. I just wanted to finish, like, just, like, because I've never ran even a 10K at this point. um so then... Kind of parts of these, or parts of this build was kind of signing up though for like, I did a 10 mile race in Philly called the Broad Street Run. um And I ran like an hour 12 that was like my first time ever trying double digit miles, which was guy kind of cool to see.
00:41:32
Speaker
Like, um And then later in November, I did the Philadelphia Half Marathon. um and that, I was hoping just to run anything under 145, which would have been around like 730 pace. And I ended up getting about...
00:41:48
Speaker
6.42, I think was my actual pace, which was like a 1.27. I was just like, I don't know how I did that. like So for the last month before Disney, I was like, let me set a time goal. I'm going to try to get sub three hours at Disney World for my first marathon, which is insane to say even now, because now that I know what it takes to get under that threshold, it's like, I don't know what I was thinking then. back. What was the date of this failed what was like the the date of this failed five k May of 24.
00:42:20
Speaker
Holy crap. So about... That was only years ago. Yeah, about two years ago from now. yeah That's insane. About eight months before the first marathon. Just like insane.
00:42:35
Speaker
God, talk about a turnaround. oh ah Like legit wow. Like I mean, continue. You have obviously more. No, you're good. No, you're good. Yeah, please yeah please feel free to stop you at any point. don't know. Yeah, i don't know why. Like, I always thought, like, okay, maybe if you didn't run cross country in so in high school, maybe you picked up running college.
00:42:58
Speaker
Nope. and picked it up for funsies Or right after college, like I'm going to start training, and this is you're 25, right, Chris? 25 now. yep Okay, so running for three, four years, now I'm getting up to you a marathon.
00:43:13
Speaker
but No, I've pretty much been running for about three. Pretty much, yeah. I will say, though, that um for our last week of undergrad, we do, we don't know if it kind of does like this whole like senior week thing where the seniors stay on campus like a full week to celebrate like undergrad and stuff. ah my The house I was living in we decided to host our own where...
00:43:35
Speaker
where we made our route from campus to all the way to our house where we stopped at three different like bars, like on the way for each mile. So, um, and at the end of the race, your time stopped when you were done, um, like finishing your last drink.
00:43:52
Speaker
Um, so I got second in that. i don't ever count that as like a true like timed race, but I will say like that, that fun that I had was just like my friends running like,
00:44:06
Speaker
I can't say it wasn't a part of like the catalyst that started this, but I didn't do anything between that and the five and the first 5K. Shout out Villanova, by the way. Second greatest Big East school.
00:44:21
Speaker
I mean, UConn was the second best team this year. Overall. but Sorry, after our two titles in this relatively short span, we at least got back to the finals a third time.
00:44:37
Speaker
For those that don't know, Villanova alum, UConn alum, literally the two best Big E schools ever, right? yes i mean Pretty much since we won our first championship, 100%. Because you guys got the 90s championship. Yeah, no other Big E school has more than three. Us too, right?
00:45:00
Speaker
I think you're right on that. Tangent. That's all tangent. Yeah. But yeah, um so again, trained for about eight months between that failed 5K and when I got to Disney World.
00:45:15
Speaker
um So getting to Disney World, they they do this whole like expo thing where you go to get your bib and everything. And I thought I'm in like the very first corral, which is like pretty cool. um A side tangent, but to related to run Disney is there is about 12 24,000 people per race.
00:45:35
Speaker
it these are not these yeah These are not small races. And I've heard that they're even increasing the 5K field from 12K up to the twenty s I'm not sure what number, but they are adding way more 5K entries for next year and also starting the race at 4.30 instead of 5 a.m. Oh.
00:45:56
Speaker
It's already so early. But because there's so many people, there's different corrals that you get placed in. And you can get placed in the higher corrals if you tell Disney, hey, I did a race on this time um with this distance on this day. They will go and verify it.
00:46:13
Speaker
And then you can get placed in either the A or the B corrals, which are the first ones to get let out. So... Because I ran a, I think it was like the road shoot run time is what I gave, like a 10 mile race at like the seven, whatever pace.
00:46:26
Speaker
um That got me high enough that i was able to start um first thing at 4.30 in the morning on lot. january twelfth twenty twenty five in epcot in the parking lot um The whole the whole like event weekend is more than just the race, to be honest. like you're I can kind of take through like what it takes to get to one of these races, but essentially, you're if you're staying on property like me, um we stayed at the All-Star Sports.
00:46:58
Speaker
I think I woke up at 1 a.m. m for this, got on a shuttle bus at 2.30, got to Epcot by 3 a.m., m And then there's like they sell like breakfast in there and they have area for you to like warm up and like hydrate and like them like a million porta potties to use before you start.
00:47:19
Speaker
um And then you get put into your corrals like an hour before. So I was i was at Disney from around 2.33 a.m. mark that day until...
00:47:33
Speaker
ah our last ride of the night on Guardians at 9 a.m. So I spent about 18 hours at Disney consecutively you for this day, so including running the marathon.
00:47:50
Speaker
um Marathon and Guardians in one day, is that's a day. Yeah. That is a day. we had i think yeah We had a Hollywood Studios tangent in the middle of that day. And then came back to Epcot, too. so Were you able to get on an Expedition Everest during the run? Did it time out? No.
00:48:10
Speaker
But yeah, no, that's ah that's a good point. there's So with a lot of the shorter distance races, they don't open any rides because it's like way too early. i think the 5K is all done before any of the parks open. yeah But once you start getting to the half marathon distance, they keep the course open for about three and a half, four hours total. So...
00:48:29
Speaker
If the parks are open or if at least early entry for hotel guests has started, they will let you basically be a free lightning lane onto any ride on the course.
00:48:41
Speaker
So if you're doing any of the half marathons that goes around, i mean, popular tracks like Tron, it goes around Space Mountain, anything like Adventureland, like the um And then if you're doing the full marathon, you go through all four Disney ah parks, starting with Epcot.
00:49:01
Speaker
um Epcot, though, you go through so early in the morning around the World Showcase, um where there used to be a tradition where people would um end the marathon at World Showcase. You would end the finish line, Horton Margarita from Epcot, was like the old thing.
00:49:17
Speaker
ah That has since now changed where you're entering World Showcase at about like 440, 450 a.m. in the morning. So the torches are up. Like the the lake around World Showcase looks like amazing. Just seeing like the vibes and like,
00:49:32
Speaker
like it's it it is kind of weird to see, like, especially if you're in the A Corral and you're not crowded within, like, one of the the later corrals, um, which can get really congested at the start in the area.
00:49:44
Speaker
Um, it's cool to see the park, like, that empty. Very rare occasion you're going to see World Showcase with, like, that few people. Um, but there's a character stops, I think, around there. i think, like, Aladdin and Jasmine or around, like, the Morocco section, like, Belle and the Beast route around, like, France, like, that kind of stuff.
00:50:01
Speaker
Um, majority of this race after the epcot part is all roads so a lot of those roads you're taking from your hotels to the different parks um you're you're pretty much running on so if you if you've been to disney and you can picture the monorail route that's kind of the first half of this whole course is going from epcot to magic kingdom the same direction like the monorails use um Getting the Magic Kingdom though, then that's kind of like this pinnacle of the race where you're going down Main Street and they will allow spectators to come in at 4am in the morning to fill the entire Main Street and it gets, it gets packed. It is insane.
00:50:43
Speaker
Um, and you're running down Main Street and like everybody's like cheering you on, it's like super hype. i I really like think that's probably a top three like running memory for me. It's just like my first time do running down Main Street.
00:50:59
Speaker
um i've done I've done it twice now. later Yeah. yeah But that is ah no that that's just such a cool experience. Yeah. And then you go around Magic Kingdom.
00:51:13
Speaker
For the marathon, it's about like miles 9, 10, 11. So again, if you're in one of the later corrals and you're getting to Magic Kingdom when the park is open, you can go on any of those rides as a Lightning Lane person just by showing your bib, getting in line, and hopping right back on the course.
00:51:32
Speaker
I did not have the privilege of doing any of that. However, Tron was cycling. So there's a photo of me like running under Tron, the canopy, and then like the the light cycle is like going over. and Yeah.
00:51:44
Speaker
See, me maybe because I'm older, or i always had bad legs. like If I'm running a marathon and I stop for 30 seconds, I'm just going lock up. ah How do you find something? I've never done it yet. i will say, one of these days, I want to. I really want to like try to make it a mission to... hop on as many rides and still finish with like an X amount of like finish time. yeah i feel like that would require you to slow down until finish before the park's even open. Either that or start in the last corral. yeah
00:52:21
Speaker
all My hamstrings were just shot and I would not move after if I stopped for 10 seconds. At least if I could keep walking, but if I had to sit down... Yeah. After that, you kind of exit Magic Kingdom, and this is what I call the parking lots or sorry parking lots of torture. You're pretty much going through the Magic Kingdom parking lots like in like five zigzags, just back and forth, um until you go through this like service road that takes you into...
00:52:52
Speaker
this part of the safari that the guests are not allowed to enter but the runners are to go into this like back way to animal kingdom um i don't know if they rerouted the course since dino land is closed but um everest is like most popular ride people will ride during the marathon so yeah like yeah getting on everest at around that's around 18 miles so you guys still got about eight to go but i mean that's
00:53:19
Speaker
That's got to be a cool thing to do, I'll say, for but anybody that has done it.
00:53:24
Speaker
It's probably for like privacy and like people sleeping. I've always wondered why they didn't go through resorts. I feel like that would be a more scenic route. They do, in a little bit. I get to a little bit later, but for the marathon course at least, after you're done Animal Kingdom, you go Hollywood Studios next. Between Hollywood Studios and Epcot, on the journey back to the finish line, you're going through the boardwalk and the beach club area. Oh, you do? Okay.
00:53:56
Speaker
Yeah, and like a lot of people stand on their balconies if they have like the the balcony view rooms like cheering, and like people come outside just to like you know kind of like line the boardwalk area to cheer. um And then you enter through like this backstage area by the Figment and like the Land Pavilion to get back into Epcot. That is how nowadays, on ever since Guardians opened, you can now ride Guardians on the marathon course as well. Yeah.
00:54:23
Speaker
That's honestly a pretty good lightning lane you can get for free if you really want to ride a roller coaster in your last mile of the race. But um but again, it was not good.
00:54:34
Speaker
I ran all day that day. yeah
00:54:39
Speaker
Yeah, um and then you do a backstage tour of the Guardians and Test Track where you're going behind the park and some like service areas, cast member-only areas.
00:54:50
Speaker
And then you take a U-turn to the Epcot parking lot and it you see the Run Disney finish line at the end. And that is your entire course. I did forget to mention as well the other parking lot that's terrible is Blizzard Beach. I've never been to Blizzard Beach before or anything, but...
00:55:07
Speaker
there was about a mile and a half loop around the entire parking lot at about like a mile, like 21, 22. So it's not shaded. It's late in the race. Your legs are tired.
00:55:19
Speaker
um Mentally, you're kind of like fighting still like, a like ah your mind telling you to stop, but your body's saying like, we got to keep going. So brutal.
00:55:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But sorry that was long for like, just describing that course, but yeah, I mean, I was entertained. I've done two half marathons at Disney. I did the yeah one of the princess runs and then the inaugural Star Wars half.
00:55:47
Speaker
So it's two different courses. okay. Was the Star Wars one like around Epcot and Hollywood Studios then? um It was like Animal Kingdom in Hollywood Studios.
00:56:00
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I don't think they do those anymore. i got a picture in front of the tree life during that. Oh, cool. That's awesome. That's awesome. I kind of wish they did more runs in Animal Kingdom because the marathon is the only course that
Chris's Instagram and Fundraising for Marathons
00:56:15
Speaker
touches Animal Kingdom. And there's, I mean, it's ah it's definitely a bit hillier than the other parks, but that would be a really cool like thing to like yeah run around the tree, run around Avatar Land. Yeah, that would be cool.
00:56:27
Speaker
I think it might have been pre-Avatar. could Oh, okay. Gotcha. I guess I could like look at when it was. i don't remember. I have it but the medal literally right here. Where is that?
00:56:42
Speaker
I will say yeah Disney does some really good medals with all the races. It's April 2016.
00:56:49
Speaker
That's pre-Avatar. yeah I think that's pre-Avatar, yeah. That's true cool.
00:56:59
Speaker
happen to have that handy very nice very nice yeah i'm i'm big on the medals and disney does the medals better than it oh yeah i'll say out of out of all the medals i've gotten like the the disney ones always have some kind of like interactive element at least the ones that i have like where yeah like mickey or minnie's like spinning or the princess one it's like the the frying pan that um rapunzel's holding for like the tangled one
00:57:27
Speaker
So since Disney, obviously you've continued to up your game. What other... but Obviously, that I think, was it after Disney you started your Instagram or was that slightly before?
00:57:39
Speaker
So yeah, i I started my Instagram the day after Disney was done. So yeah, first marathon happened, super hype. And but by the way, I know i mentioned earlier in podcast that my goal was for three, sub three hours. I got three hours and 56 seconds in the first marathon. Oh gosh.
00:57:57
Speaker
There are a couple points during the race where I was like, I probably could either stand up or maybe I could have conserved energy a little better on this one earlier part. But I was still like just super ecstatic to but be that close. But it also gave me a little bit of like a goal to work towards still, which is cool.
00:58:12
Speaker
um But yeah, I started on my Instagram, um which is Chris Goes the Distance, um the day I got back from Disney. And it primarily started as my Chicago Marathon fundraising account. So um after Disney, I ah decided to ah look into like kind of of what other races there are. And there's a series of them, um if anybody here is familiar with running, called the Abbott World Majors.
00:58:39
Speaker
It's a collection of So previously six, but now it's going to be going up to nine within the next couple of years of um yeah of ah six worldwide marathons. And if you complete all of them, you get this medal called the Six Star Medal.
00:58:54
Speaker
um One of them being Chicago, which is um the one that I'm fundraising for. fundraised with a charity called Band with Chicago, who helps um students in Chicago get ah music education for free because a lot of schools around that greater Chicago area have cut it since COVID and the pandemic and everything for funding.
00:59:15
Speaker
So because I loved running and because I also loved music still, because I, again, played the trumpet and stuff in school, um i thought it was a really good way to kind of like give back to um my passion that I had as a student so i other students could have like the same opportunities that I had growing up. Yeah.
00:59:34
Speaker
So I started the Instagram to kind of promote that fundraiser um and set after the goal of fundraising while also chasing after this whole six-star journey.
00:59:44
Speaker
um so The Instagram slowly went from me doing just fundraising updates to then being like, okay, like I'm running like this many miles today or whatever. And like I didn't really do anything outside of Strava at this point.
01:00:01
Speaker
um But then kind of as i ah was working through um the fundraising stuff, I was like, okay, like I might do some like fun challenges with like,
01:00:15
Speaker
ah trying to get funds for a band with Chicago. So I started then thinking about ideas, like, okay, like for every like like that my next post gets, that's going to be my long run distance for the week or whatever.
01:00:28
Speaker
And like, I wouldn't verbalize it on the Instagram if that would happen, but then it'd be like, on my Strava, it'd be like, I got this many likes on this post. So here's my like 15 miles or whatever. Yeah.
01:00:39
Speaker
um But then when I did start verbalizing, it was more of like, ah how can I incorporate like other aspects of my life into running? um I'll fast forward a little bit now to ah May when i decided that I wanted to um what was it, that I wanted to not only run Chicago, but try to qualify for this little marathon in the small town um called Hopkinson, Massachusetts. Might have heard of it. It's called Boston Marathon, I think.
01:01:10
Speaker
A little bit. Yeah. But um i went up when I decided I wanted to qualify for that, i then decided to also kind of turn the page into like, okay, my journey from like being somebody who skipped track practice in high school for band practice to now the one that's not only helping students run, ah sorry, now not only helping students like play music, but also is trying to get myself to do the thing that I like neglected back in high school and like told myself I didn't even like. So
01:01:42
Speaker
um That turned... That that goal then surely kept going towards ah my races later in the year. um But some examples of some of the fun I had on the page was like ah Hollywood Nights.
01:01:56
Speaker
um I was there last year with some of my coaster friends and we were staying at the cabins, like really like right across from Raven, um that whole campsite area.
01:02:06
Speaker
ah I would wake up... At like 5 a.m. in the morning. This was like, i think this was the after the first night. So day two of Hollywood Nights where we're already up late from the previous night. um You know, marathon and voyage and everything. And I was like, I'm going to run the amount of coaster track that I just rode the day before.
01:02:27
Speaker
Which was... I think, like, seven rides on Voyage, at least four or five on Legend, three times on Raven, like, you know, like getting all of them together. i think it added up to, like, 14 or 15 miles. okay so I had to run 15 miles before... i told myself, I'm going to do this before all my cabinmates wake up so that I don't delay the plans of, like, the rest of Hollywood nights.
01:02:52
Speaker
So... That's... that's Actually... I feel like as I grow older, my memory is fading. ah but That's actually an incredible challenge. I love stuff like that.
01:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, so I would do stuff like that. Or um if we're at Disney World, um I'll try to like see how many resorts I can hit on like one run, just because of close they are together. are surprisingly a lot of paths, like walking paths between the resorts I never knew about. so Oh, yeah.
01:03:22
Speaker
And then um some other things too would just be like for every like $10 we raised or whatever, um i would go to Hershey and I think it was about seven times I rode, oh my God, what was it?
01:03:40
Speaker
I forget now if it was Cocoa Cruiser or Trailblazer. It was one of the two. I think I might have just alternated between those two, though. for like like I had to do seven of one and seven of the other for like the amount of time somebody donated $10 in a day.
01:03:54
Speaker
so like I would incorporate the page to be kindy of like half theme park, half running, It's definitely slowly turning more into running, but I have a lot of ideas for the future of how to get it back to like like a nice like hybrid social media is what I'll call it um I'm excited to see how you do that.
01:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, there's some's that's some cool ideas i can I can talk about a little bit later
Boston Marathon Highlights
01:04:18
Speaker
for sure. Yeah, you're a creative guy, so like yeah you're going to do some good things with that. So let's ah let's talk Boston. so yeah For those that that may not know, if you guys know I'm from New England. um Worked in Boston for four years. Yeah, I know, right?
01:04:35
Speaker
Yeah. and you know, grew up in mass, live born and raised Massachusetts. Um, the Boston marathon is a massive deal. Um, it is the world's oldest marathon, uh, 1897. They've been doing this thing.
01:04:50
Speaker
Um, literally a national holiday in the state of Massachusetts. Nobody works. It's called Patriots day. Like the biggest tradition in the history of Boston, I would say. Um,
01:05:03
Speaker
Like, I think it's literally, it's not just the Boston Marathon. People call it the marathon. um And it's insanely hard to qualify for, correct? Like, it's not, like, you can't just hop in this race and sign up.
01:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, there's there's some strict times that you have to meet to previously, ah yeah that you previously have to run to even even get in Or raise tens of thousands of dollars or something crazy, right? Yeah. now the the The people that do fundraising for for Boston are amazing. like I think this year it was over $3.7 million dollars raised. I know it broke the record from the past year. and like yeah a lot of A lot of really good calls get the proceeds from...
01:05:48
Speaker
all the hard work that the fundraisers do. And if you're fundraising too, like it is super hard to be training for a marathon while also trying to think of ways to fundraise. And like, you know, it's like some of, some of my friends um that I knew that fundraised, like they put on like Superbowl square events, you know, for like the, the score squares or they would have like,
01:06:12
Speaker
a band that they knew, like a small little band, do like a small neighborhood concert where it was $5 enter. The band would do the performance completely voluntarily. And then any of the proceed proceeds from the entry for that concert um or any of like 10% of the drinks sold to the bar or anything were all donated to like those people's fundraisers. So people go all out for how they fundraise for these kinds of things.
01:06:34
Speaker
That's so cool. It's amazing. It is. But I only mention that I worked and lived in Boston because ah I had never been.
01:06:46
Speaker
Even the two years I lived there, I had never attended the Boston Marathon. Now, granted, one of the two years that I lived there, I was in Europe. That also happened to be 2013. If you don't know what happened there in 2013, read a history book.
01:07:00
Speaker
ah um But when I heard Chris, oh, he qualified for the Boston Marathon. Good buddy of mine. i'm Even in Connecticut, I'm not that far away from Boston.
01:07:11
Speaker
This has to be the year I finally go. ah I was still like, I'm like, oh, I don't even know where to go. Do I to the starting line? Do go to the finish line? I was like, I don't really want to deal with the crowds at the end. Fair.
01:07:27
Speaker
Found a spot around mile three, mile four. Got there super early. And yeah, I was just waiting for this guy to come through. So what were your, take take us through like your nerves of of like the days before, the the the hours before.
01:07:40
Speaker
Yeah. um So I have flew into Boston ah two days before the race. um And then just like Disney, there's an expo you have to go to where you pick up your bib. ah The Boston Marathon Expo is really cool because you um you get a certain color bib based off of like your qualifying time. And they say that like to get the red bibs, apparently... like I didn't know this until I got there, but like the red bib is...
01:08:04
Speaker
Like what a lot of people try to chase after because it's like the fastest, I think it's like the fastest 7,000 people that are not the elite runners. So you have the elite runners that have like their name on the bib. Like that is their number is like Mance for like Connor Mance or like Elliot Kipchoge whenever he ran it. um But um I got to get one of the red bibs for my first Boston Marathon, which was really cool. Yeah.
01:08:28
Speaker
And I think the the cutoff this year was like you had to run around 252 or faster full marathon to get a red bib. So to put that in perspective, every male that's under the age of 34 has to run 255 to qualify.
01:08:47
Speaker
but to actually get accepted, you needed to meet a four-minute cutoff. So you really had to run like 251 if you're in my age group to qualify.
01:08:58
Speaker
I qualified at at a 247 in Erie, PA. Fun fact, I've never been to Waldemere, but I have been in that parking lot for hours waiting for the Erie Marathon to start.
01:09:09
Speaker
and So I got to stare at Ravine Flyer 2 and did not get to ride it. but Yeah, that was like me. i was outside of Waldemere, except I hit a deer and couldn't ride because of the park. So we share that.
01:09:22
Speaker
The same but different. Very similar. um but um But yeah, getting to the expo, it's it's kind of nerve-wracking because everybody there is kind of like, everybody there is excited but also nervous because um it is, by average i think by average finish time, it is the fastest marathon in the world.
01:09:42
Speaker
um So then getting to the start line is a whole other stressor in itself. um There's these buses in this area called the Boston Commons. It's by the public garden, it's by the public library. um And you're waiting there to get placed onto buses that will take you an hour away to the start line. and It's really cool to talk to and get to know some of the other runners while on this hour-long bus ride. You get to know your teammate pretty well. The guy I was sitting next to, who's also named Chris, we ended up exchanging numbers and whatnot just because you get to know them for that whole hour bus ride. He was giving me tips from the years he's done the past. But it puts into perspective how long a marathon is when a ride to the start line that Yeah.
01:10:32
Speaker
And now, like, most marathons are some... Usually a form of some loop. Correct. Where Boston is the rare one where it's just just pretty much a straight line...
01:10:44
Speaker
A to B because it's a very old course. And that's what like my dad... Yeah. yeah it's but if you look If you Google map of Boston Marathon, it's like, yep, no, there's no lapping around. tv Yeah, that's literally what I'm looking up right now.
01:10:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah yeah. So my dad actually ran marathons back in the day. And the reason he never wanted to run Boston is like if I get hurt... like that No, that's, yeah. it's they I'll be miles away from where i need to be.
01:11:15
Speaker
Right. well Luckily, they have they have medics and an aid station every mile. So if you luckily, if you need anything, they are like right there. But yeah, a lot of the loop courses, it's maybe a medic station every like five miles. So I completely understand that. Somewhat near the starting the finish line. yeah but The race starts in Hopkington. Very downhill course.
01:11:37
Speaker
Well, it is a downhill net like overall. yeah It is notorious, however, from... um I'll get into a little bit the course, but um starting Hopkinton, going all the way down, i forget the first town you hit, but I know Natick is around mile seven.
01:11:55
Speaker
oh Ashland, right. Ashland, and there's... Yeah, true, true. so yeah, um you get into the course. you to Hopkinton isn't really known for too much, I've heard. i don't really know much about the city. I've never heard of it, but it is known to be the start of the Boston Marathon. That's what it's known, 100%. Yeah. Yeah.
01:12:12
Speaker
Yeah. um And it's decently downhill for like them ah from then on until later in the course. But yeah, we got into Ashland and at around mile 3.5, maybe have little memory of this part?
01:12:28
Speaker
you have a little memory of this part Yeah, so it it was just cool, like, going or, like, seeing that race for the first time, seeing, like, the wheelchair divisions go through, and, like, obviously every, like, leg, they have their own, like, follow car with, like, the time on it.
01:12:42
Speaker
Just seeing how many people come out for it is insane. And where I was was supposed to be one of the quieter parts. That's kind of why I picked it. ah Easier easier or park. But still, there was probably a good, and least at least in my line of sight,
01:12:59
Speaker
300 400 people like lining the streets um so then just seeing all the elite men go by the elite women go by i took a little instagram story on my personal account i'm like oh that that was the winner and though that was the winner for the men's that's cool um and then finally the first wave comes in i don't know what i was thinking i knew how many people ran this thing but i thought like i don't know There'd be 50 to 100 people around you as you're coming by. Like, oh I'll be easily able to spot you. No problem.
01:13:30
Speaker
And then it's just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people coming by. I'm like, I'm not going to see him. I'm like, I came all this way. I'm literally going to miss him somehow, especially with how fast they're running.
01:13:43
Speaker
And I did want to take like a little film of him going by. so I'm like, but there was so many people. i'm like, I'm just going to focus on looking at Chris and whatever the phone captures, it captures.
01:13:55
Speaker
So, thankfully, we had texted that morning. I told you, okay, I'm going to be on the right side. Once you pass the CVS, you know, i I took a little video of where I was. So, I think you saw me before I saw you. i think I did. did you purposely go to, like, the right? Yeah. No, I started my first...
01:14:14
Speaker
I started my first three miles just on that side because I'm like, okay. like i know he told me i know he told me three points something, but i'm like, just in case, you know, it's like around two or yeah.
01:14:28
Speaker
Oh, that's funny. I'm actually honored you did that because I'm like, what if he's in the middle and I, you know, you're a skinny guy. Like, you could absolutely have just blended in with somebody. And I hear the same top I was. And I'm tracking, there's an app, so I'm like tracking his bib and then I'm like, oh, but what if it's like a little delayed and I already missed him?
01:14:46
Speaker
And then I hear your voice. He's like, Brian, I'm like, let's go, Chris. Let's go. You gave me the hardest high five I think I've ever had in my life. my And you said it too. like My hand stung for like 20 minutes. because it was actually it was a It was good for the runners, but it for the spectators, actually very chilly for April 20th. It was like 42 degrees, 41 degrees, something like that. it was yeah I know the yeah ESPN commentator said it was like the best Boston Marathon conditions they had since they started broadcasting on ESPN.
01:15:21
Speaker
I think it's like scientifically, my dad said like 43 degrees is like the ideal temperature for a runner and like a t-shirt and shorts. Yeah. Which it was literally, I think 43 when you went by.
01:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, um and it was it was cold and and at the start line. they They keep all of us in this like village. They're called Athletes Village where um you start the race. and ah You pretty much are told to go up with clothes you don't plan to ever see again. so They donate all the clothes to um a a boys and girls club in Boston, which is really cool.
01:15:54
Speaker
so All the clothes are not going to waste. but i went up with like hats glass hats, gloves, sweatpants, sweatpants, sweatshirt and an old pair of sneakers that went through already like 600 miles that I all like right before the race started threw it all off to my actual racing shoes on and then yeah but yeah actually um that's but cool my My hand was like raining after I high-fived you. It was so hard. but like and then like going yeah
01:16:27
Speaker
I was following your pace, and you were like super consistent those first three miles. And then as I'm leaving, which I made the genius decision of, wait, I parked on the opposite side of where I'm standing.
01:16:38
Speaker
How am I going to get across? oh Hopefully, there was no gate, so you just got to... look Wait for a gap and run across. Technically, technically, I ran the Boston Marathon course on Patriots Day.
01:16:56
Speaker
Just side to side, not points of point. Ten steps versus the many thousands that you ran. but Anyway. Yeah, as I'm leaving, I checked your pace again, and it it was like two seconds slower.
01:17:09
Speaker
So I'm like, I hope that high five didn't somehow like slow him down. I was going to ask that, actually. Like three seconds. because Yeah.
01:17:20
Speaker
Yeah, but, oh man, no. I mean, I was, after I saw you that was honestly like a good adrenaline to just lock in. Because first, first like two, three miles in a marathon kind of dictate, at least for me personally, they dictate how the rest of the race is going to go. Where if I'm feeling like great, like, okay, like this is going
Boston Marathon Challenges and Post-Race Reflections
01:17:38
Speaker
to be a PR day. This will be a good fast day.
01:17:40
Speaker
I think for me, just because of like the prestige that Boston has gotten over the years, And just from it being so different from all the other races I've ever done, was definitely just kind of anxious those first two miles. I'm like, okay, I'm still running pretty fast. I'm like, will I be able to keep this? Will I not? And after seeing Brian, it was like, all right, we're locking We got this. Oh, that's amazing, dude. I'm glad I chose a good mile for that then.
01:18:05
Speaker
You did, you did. um So I'll kind of just fast forward a bit to even just the halfway point because the rest of the race from when I saw Bryant to the halfway was all downhill.
01:18:16
Speaker
It's a lot of easy running. There's some rolling hills for sure. But locking into a pace, I'm around like a 615 average, which is like what I wanted to be at. um And there's this women's school called the, I think it's like the Wellesley University or Wellesley College. And it is it is the loudest tunnel I've ever heard. And it's not even an actual tunnel. yeah they They all get off school um and they are all college students you know on a Monday. Yeah.
01:18:45
Speaker
No classes, just outside cheering runners for all in the morning and the afternoon. And it is like the loudest I've ever... Like like my ears are ringing for like the next mile after that area, which is insane. If you if you look up photos of like the Wellesley Scream Tunnel, it it it is like one of the most unhinged, but also one of the most like chaotic parts of the race. And it's a really good like halfway, like, okay, I made it here. I like, this is going to propel me for the next half.
01:19:13
Speaker
um Then there's this town called Newton, Massachusetts, um who also, I don't know. Yeah, Newton. I don't know if it's known for much.
01:19:24
Speaker
Big Newton's is not named after Isaac Newton. It's named after Newton, Massachusetts. The cookie. Oh. There you go. fun i actually didn't know that. Brian's trivia fact of the day. That's a good one.
01:19:37
Speaker
um But we get to this place called Newton, unlike the rest of the race, this is actually all uphill. So if you look at the course elevation map, from like 16 to 21, there's four notable hills called the Newton Hills, where the last one is called Heartbreak Hill, because it is where ah it's mile 20 in a marathon, which is already tough.
01:19:59
Speaker
But also is about... almost a half mile of just straight incline. So if you tried on your treadmill to run whatever race pace you want to run, like let's say like a 5 or 10K at, and then bump it up to 5% for half a mile, you're going to feel like like it it works different muscles than you're used to, I'll say.
01:20:20
Speaker
um But it is the point of the race that they say either makes or breaks you. Luckily, i got through all four hills without having to have him to stop or anything. and From that point on, it is all basically downhill, but but they don't tell you it's because of your quads after all the rolling hills and and the noon hills. Your quads are just destroyed for like the last like five miles.
01:20:44
Speaker
So um after the noon hills, I'm starting to get under my race pace. like I'm hitting 6.20, then 6.15. And and i think so I don't know really what happened, but after...
01:20:57
Speaker
mile twenty three I knew my my friends that I traveled with, Tim and Kyle, they were at mile 23 waiting for me. Yeah, from the cruise.
01:21:09
Speaker
they told me, right, we'll be left-hand side. And just like you, Brian, I saw them before they saw me. I'm like, I was like screaming, I'm like, hey. And like and i they're with like their camera phones and they're like, uh, like where is he? And then they see me like right as I'm passing by locally for like half a second. um And then the next mile, I see my girlfriend Nicolette at mile 24 and a half. And that's like once after I saw her, which was amazing to to see her um on the course.
01:21:37
Speaker
I was kind of blacked out for the rest of the race where was just like, okay, I'm in the zone. I'm going to give it everything I have left. And I still not pulled off. i think it was like a five, like a five 55 mile and then like a five 45 to end the course. So i had the adrenaline just going in at that point, carrying me through.
01:21:55
Speaker
um Your last mile was five. Yeah. yeah Yeah. he So i I left it all out on the table. I'll say,
01:22:05
Speaker
You said you blacked out, so like two moments that like if I ever got to run this thing, then i would be like, oh, this is amazing. The Citgo sign in Fenway, who was that cool? Oh my god, yeah. With the game going on. Yes and no, because you can see the Citgo sign when you're still four miles away from it, but the Citgo sign when you pass by it is one mile to go marker.
01:22:24
Speaker
right So when you see it earlier in the course, it's like, oh my gosh, I still so long to go, but that And then the the iconic like phrase that goes along with the finish line area is like, right on Hereford, left on Boylston, and then you're at the finish line. yep that ah that is like That is my new favorite like race memory, I think, ever. was going to say, that turn up to Boylston. Yeah. It is, yeah.
01:22:48
Speaker
but yeah yeah yeah And like when we were when we were checking of the hotel um yesterday morning ah and going to a bus that took us to the airport, ah the bus picked us up at the intersection of Hereford and Boylston. I'm like, damn, this is like like the best way to end end my and my weekend that at Boston. so um I crossed the finish line at 2 hours, 45 minutes, and 38 seconds.
01:23:16
Speaker
New PR of almost two minutes around 6.19 pace. um And yeah, super happy. Celebrated with friends afterwards. It was just like...
01:23:28
Speaker
We went out to Fenway after, like, to the bar area around there, which is really cool. um And then did a little bit of this stuff in Cambridge, too. then went to the Red Sox game the day after. so that's kind of how my whole experience wrapped up. Fantastic game. Oh, my gosh. The Red Sox played so well.
01:23:45
Speaker
ah Yeah. Joking.
01:23:49
Speaker
But yeah, like, running a marathon, regardless of time, is something probably less than 1% of people do. To run it in 2.45 is legit insanity.
01:24:04
Speaker
Especially, essentially just starting running 2 years. Around 2, yeah. like Our recording is currently at an hour and 25 minutes. You're halfway done already.
01:24:16
Speaker
Oh, wow. You've run a half marathon already. well yeah yeah we just Yeah, we just passed Wellesley. or Either that or I just finished the Disney World half. Yeah. Princess half.
01:24:29
Speaker
But like we we mentioned how hard it is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. 29,373 people ran this year. chris finished in two thousand and eighty fourth place jeez You beat over 27,000 qualified runners of the Boston Marathon. Yeah. That's ah no it's put that perspectives insane.
01:24:53
Speaker
Yes. that's Unbelievable. um Like, legitimately proud of you and happy for you for such an achievement. like that's I don't know if any other guest has done something like that. but we've but Yeah, don't know.
01:25:12
Speaker
Oh, I mean, it's it's crazy to think about. It's it's weird, though, because i think it actually is like my worst placement finish, like percentage-wise, of like almost all the races I've done. Because at I'll say at most marathons, like 245 is a really good time, probably getting the like top 2-3% of like the the results.
01:25:35
Speaker
Boston, just because, like like, to put it in perspective, like, yeah, I came in, which is really cool to say I came in, like, 2000, that was 29. There were that many fast people on that on one day running that one race. Essentially, if you're a marathon runner, you're you're running Boston.
Encounter with Des Linden and Disney Races
01:25:51
Speaker
that's That's, like, not one anyone misses at all.
01:25:54
Speaker
No. I mean, it's's it's crazy. Like, and I'm not even just talking about the elite runners. Like, just – The everyday runners like me that you know like don't do this for a living, do it completely for just the love of the sport and like for fitness and health and everything. um Just be like, wow, like there's that many people that are like faster to me still, which is like insane. like It's so cool to think about. 2000 is lot.
01:26:21
Speaker
Well, 27,000 is a lot more that you beat. By the way, you beat Bruins legend Zidane Ochar, who was like legitimately one of the most a like hockey players ever.
01:26:33
Speaker
Beat him. You also beat Chelsea Clinton. She ran the race. i did I did not know she was running. have the same invitation ah Bill and Hillary were there the finish line. Yeah, apparently. i had no idea, but they were in town.
01:26:47
Speaker
um i know I beat a Love Island star, I think. I did see that. yeah yeah And I think even a Celtics player possibly was doing it.
01:26:58
Speaker
ah that and like oh Like an 80s Celtics player. Somebody that before I was watching basketball. But yeah.
01:27:06
Speaker
But yeah. Insane, dude. Yeah. i will I did not beat Des Linden, though. So I'm now 0 for 2 racing against, um if anyone doesn't know Des Linden is, she's the 2018 Women's Boston Marathon champ.
01:27:23
Speaker
First American female to win it in over 30 years. right She raced it this year um in the... in like the amateur field, basically where I was. like She started the same wave as I did.
01:27:36
Speaker
And um I think she ran, as her casual pace, around like a 2.35, I think, or 2.34. She paced her husband, and there's a video of her at like mile 12, cracking open a beer and chugging it for like a good like you know couple steps, and then giving the rest of it to her husband, who finished who he finished the same time as she did. I'm like,
01:28:01
Speaker
damn, she's she's incredible. like That's insane. Another level. My goodness. Yeah. oh But yeah, Boston happened. um But the other race I raced against her was was a Disney race, which she did win. on that of course Yeah. yeah And then you placed third overall in a Disney race recently. I did. It was that one. So Princess Half Marathon weekend. um i That was a training tune-up race for Boston. So it was about six weeks before Boston.
01:28:35
Speaker
ah Flew down to Disney. ah Nicolette and I did the 5K because they do kind of like a series. So it's a five k Friday, Saturday ten k Sunday is the half marathon.
01:28:48
Speaker
um This year, the princess themes were, let's see, it was Merida for the 5K, so Brave themed, Moana, 10K, and then Tangled for the half marathon for Bean Rapunzel.
01:29:01
Speaker
um If you do the 10K and the half, it's called the Bell Challenge, or sorry, it's called the Fairytale Challenge, this year themed to Bell. um And then you get like an extra medal saying, like I ran like both races in both days.
01:29:13
Speaker
So if you run every race, you can get four medals that weekend, which is kind of cool. Um, but yeah, I placed third overall in my fastest half marathon. That one was, my goal was just anything sub hour and 20. So sub 80 minutes, I got an hour 1859. like just a minute and one second under the goal. Um,
01:29:36
Speaker
That was probably the the loudest I've ever heard Main Street. um And I've even heard Des Linden call Main Street in Disney. She called it Florida's version of Boylston Street for Boston because she's like highly known around the Boston Marathon community. um So just to see her call it like now seeing both sides like I can definitely see it because um in the marathon that I did at at ah at Disney like a year and a half ago, um I was not like the only runner in my area like there's maybe about like 15-16 other runners around Main Street, it was really loud. This was the first time I was on Main Street. I was the only runner in sight, like behind me and in front of me.
01:30:20
Speaker
And the entire crowd was like going insane. And like, I'm like, that was like the coolest thing ever to be like the only one running down Main Street, and like typing up the crowd. Like, um But yeah, I pretty much started the race in um third place. i ended in third place.
01:30:39
Speaker
Only person to pass me was Des Linden herself. She passed me going next to the Polynesian Resort around like mile four and a half. I hear a bike coming and it's the it's the lead car bike. He was like, I'm with first place female still, mile four and a half. And then I'm like, oh, like I wonder who the like who this is. I didn't even i didn't know who was like running it in the elite fields. And then I see, see this woman come past me and um I'm thinking like, this kind of looks like Des Linden.
01:31:10
Speaker
then she keeps going faster and faster. And like, I'm still at like a 550 pace. think she was at like 530 something. and,
01:31:17
Speaker
And then i hear the guy on the bike next time say when he gets to the mile five part, he's like, yep, Dez is still with me. And I'm like, oh my God, that is her. But like I'm also dying because I'm running like super fast in like a humid environment.
01:31:31
Speaker
um And then, yeah, so she took off around one time we got to um this little like monorail walking path area from Grand Floridian to the Magic Kingdom.
01:31:42
Speaker
um So then she ran into Main Street USA by herself. And then about 10 seconds later was me. um I didn't see her the rest of the race because she was just so fast. but um But yeah, that yeah that was um really cool. And I even got like a little trophy mailed to me for getting third overall mail. Oh, no kidding. um it was a It's a like glass slipper. It says Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend and then third overall mail.
01:32:08
Speaker
so I do know the guy that got first got something different than I did. He got a wooden engraved like poster of the entire course with his time on it saying like first place overall mail.
Organizing Races in Theme Parks
01:32:22
Speaker
Oh, man. Oh.
01:32:23
Speaker
So now I'm like, okay, that's my motivation. oh i got I got to get that for one of these races. So um unlike Chris, I don't think I'm going to last 245 today. ah i do I do have to get up early for work tomorrow. To be fair, I blame Chris, literally, um because normally i work Mondays.
01:32:47
Speaker
I switch my schedule to be off this Monday to watch Chris. and Normally I don't want work Fridays, and now I have to work tomorrow. recording this Thursday. So I did want to go over this one last question that, Allison, you have here.
01:33:03
Speaker
I was literally saying we could skip mine and just speedrun through all the... No, because I got some ideas for that one. Oh, okay. ah So for my last question, you said? Last one, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you could start an organized race at any park, which would it be?
01:33:18
Speaker
Oh, this is easy. i would go... but Okay, if it's if it can be like a resort, we're doing the Epic Universe half marathon. Okay, you stole my... We've talked about it. on um and we We have talked about it. I want to do i want to do what to try to think of another one, but I just saw this idea of like yeah if you start at Epic...
01:33:39
Speaker
or Yeah, you start at Epic, maybe you do like one port or whatever, you go out you go out of Epic through like a backstage area, you can run up to islands, to Volcano Bay, and to studios within maybe like three or four miles, I think it is.
01:33:54
Speaker
You could easily go around those parks, come back around, and then do the rest of the universe, like do the other portals. no And the finish line could be the Kronos. like um man Yeah, amazing. like that They have the park to do it now. yeah I don't know. The logistics of closing roads and highways, i don't know if that would be an issue. Yeah, they would have to work with the city, obviously, for that. But, like I mean, you have the ah yeah you have all these run Disney races. like I have the idea Disney's kind more contained, though. It it is. 100% is. I will acknowledge that. There's there's not like businesses that have to like worry about their their roads being closed. That is a huge thing.
01:34:33
Speaker
I had the idea of you go into the ministry and you go you go through the flu powder and you you wrap around the the statue and then head out. That would be sick. yeah But even if they can't close the roads, even just doing a 5K around Epic would be really cool. Oh, yeah. I think.
01:34:50
Speaker
Yeah. Internationally, though, i think Disneyland Paris should really bring back their... They used to do like, I think a five and a 10K back in like the early 2000s. And I haven't been to many, many international parks, but staying at ah the, what was it? I think it was the Santa Fe Hotel.
01:35:11
Speaker
And then I got to run around like this little huge lake around Disneyland Paris when was there. where there's like the downtown Disney area, and then like you can go into like the the new like Walt Disney Studios renamed park, i forget what it's called now, but then also go into Disneyland Paris. like that could like There's just so much cool scenery you could run past in that one.
01:35:32
Speaker
I'm thinking internationally, I feel like Europa could could have a good run. Oh, yeah. f You could have like an indoor-outdoor. Yeah, you could have an indoor-outdoor, too, if you go to Rulantica and then back to... True, true, true. Yeah, I was just thinking you could run over to Chronosaur and Rulantica.
01:35:50
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. and i know That could be a really good one, too. um Yeah, I feel like my other international parks been don't really have... Fantasio Land just has like no space already. Yeah, it's not happening. No. there's There's too many stairs, I feel like, in that park, too. like around yeah um Europa and Efteling would be good runs. Especially the Efteling through the Fairytale Forest area.
01:36:19
Speaker
Alton Towers would be another good one, too. Because there's a lot of space in the middle. That's true, yeah. That is true. Yeah. Honestly... you go, Chris. No, I was going to say, I feel like any park...
01:36:34
Speaker
like these days with how popular the sport running has become, like they really could all pull off a 5k. Like any single park could. mean, Cedar Point, did they, did they have something? Am I making that up?
01:36:48
Speaker
I don't know if they ever did, but like I've, run I've done morning runs. Like when I visited Cedar Point last year, like doing morning runs next to Magnum. So cool. You do a half marathon easily.
01:37:01
Speaker
Oh, yeah. yeah go yeah run and Run around the outskirts and then run in the park. like I know the entire park is a 5K. The entire Cedar Point Park, if you do the like the loops. Believe that.
01:37:17
Speaker
And Dollywood's getting into the running game because that's what I'm doing this weekend. That's right. 5K, 10K, and half marathon. is So sorry are they all the same day? are they...
01:37:27
Speaker
I think five k and 10K are on Saturday, half marathon Sunday. Okay. Okay. I think that will be my eventual reason to get out to Dollywood because I still have yet to go. ive I've been wanting to go to that park for so long. Well, you know how it goes this weekend.
01:37:43
Speaker
Yeah. I know they're doing a fall. I think they're doing a fall race series too now. I think so. Yeah. So. Yeah, I'm i'm excited this to follow along on this weekend. That'll be cool to see. I'll definitely be taking video.
01:37:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'll still be resting in my bed, letting my rice my my legs recover.
01:38:06
Speaker
right, guys, I sadly do think i need to step away. My alarm goes off in six hours. Jeez. So, Allison, thank you for finishing the podcast for me.
01:38:18
Speaker
Chris, once again, congratulations. Seriously. So happy to be able to be a part of it for as brief as it was. but That's also your fault because you made it brief with how fast you were running. i I did make it brief, but it's like okay. i'm I'm sure in this this this final section of the podcast, I'll i'll share i'll share about our crews running.
01:38:38
Speaker
Yes, please do please do. I will. Bye, guys. all right Bye, Bryant.
01:38:46
Speaker
No more Bryant. We miss you already, Bryant. He was gone so fast, just like I left him in Boston. The whole recording felt like the 30 seconds that you saw him.
01:38:59
Speaker
kind of Not even 30 seconds, three seconds or whatever that you saw him yeah in Boston. I'll i'll just send you the video after this. It's it's really funny, honestly, like how fast of a blur it is. geez like Of him filming you?
01:39:12
Speaker
yeah Yeah, he he did get me. Barely, but he did get me. So did he get the high five? He did. yeah yeah You can hear the high five a little bit through all the noise.
01:39:25
Speaker
The high five heard around the world. felt Felt around the next three miles for me. Yeah. um So i know't we do have some listener questions that we can get into. All right. Sounds good. Let's see. Nessa, who we had on for the last episode, asks, what is the furthest distance you've traveled while running?
Running Experiences and Training Insights
01:39:44
Speaker
Is it 26.2 miles? Yeah. Um, it was in Disney world because there's, um, it's like when you run a marathon, you don't always run the exact distance because of, you know, tangents and turns and like you're never following like the shortest path. So I think Disney had logged me at like 26.5, but yeah, basically a marathon.
01:40:05
Speaker
Um, And that's that's in part because of how many people run this race where the first mile is just bobbing and weaving through people. You're not really settling to a pace. like I know very what when when you did it that when he did the half, it was probably like the same kind of thing where like first couple miles are very congested. But then the course does open up a bit. so yeah I did a lot more walking than you.
01:40:29
Speaker
not i I support all runners and walkers because no matter how you get there, 13 or 26 or even a 5K, it's a feat that not many people do.
01:40:41
Speaker
And it is hard no matter how you get there. Yeah. Yeah. I will say to to add to that though, after the 26.5 at Disney, um my step count by the end of the day when we got back to the hotel after the parks and everything was think it's like 73,000 steps. Oh my God. That's the most steps I've done in a day. Yeah.
01:41:04
Speaker
i yeah i know yeah After Boston, we did a lot of walking after Boston, but that was maybe like 40K, 50K steps. Nowhere close to...
01:41:14
Speaker
you know going through epcot walking over to the skyliner to go to high studios and then go back over to the skyliner go back to epcot like it's it was a lot of back and forth and yeah when i did the ah princess half i know we did magic kingdom the rest of the day um yes so when i did the star wars half uh we made sure to stay at yacht club and just sit in the pool the rest of the day Oh, that sounds... Yeah, i I'm telling myself, so a surprise, I'm doing another Disney race next year. I'm doing the Disney World half marathon in January. now um And luckily, so that is the day after my birthday, ah which will be kind of fun.
01:41:54
Speaker
um But it also means on my birthday, going to have to go to bed at like 7 p.m. because of how early these races are. ah But then i i was i was saying to the people i'm going with, I'm like, yeah, like it'll be nice because now after the race,
01:42:05
Speaker
I won't feel like, okay, we have to go on a plane after or fly back to Philly. no, no. I'm going to be much more chill after this race. I think we'll probably try to do... might try to see if people are down for maybe trying the monorail bar crawl because I've seen that on Instagram a couple times. like, that could be a cool thing to do. That'd be fun.
01:42:25
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Definitely want to keep it light on the feet next time Disney after a race. This might be more of a physics or math related question, but when you did your running on the cruise ship, was it a day at sea and was the ship moving?
01:42:41
Speaker
And did it go further than 26.5 miles? Yeah. um So I found out before I went on the cruise. Yeah. So the best way to log it is to say you're running indoors so that your GPS does not like turn on i've i've I've had friends that go on like cruise ships. I look at their Stravas and it's like they're running like three, two minute miles sometimes. It's like, okay, this is like Unreal or whatever. like i'm some I'm very like type A with like numbers and data where it's like, okay, I don't want my Strava to get messed up. So I'm just going to log everything as an indoor run when I'm on the ship.
01:43:18
Speaker
um So yeah, I did all my my miles either on the treadmill on the ship or on the ship deck track, which is underneath the Bolt coaster. um I also did get to run at a bunch of stops, which is really cool. Like a side thing, like i I set after a goal on the cruise to run 50 miles since it was in the middle of Boston Marathon training.
01:43:39
Speaker
i was like, okay, going on the coaster cruise, be about a week. I really can't afford to not run for like a week in this like prime training block. um So ah that was really fun. Bryant, um I forget if you mentioned earlier, but he ran his first mile since his Achilles injury, which he got on Coaster Cruise 25, like 2025.
01:44:01
Speaker
like twenty twenty five And then the Coaster Cruise 2026, he ran his first flat mile with me um on the top of the ship, which is really cool. Around the dodgeball court, which had happened on two. It was a different ship, but it was like the same kind of like carnival ship layout.
01:44:17
Speaker
um And a lot of other coaster enthusiasts that were on the ship, i just told them about the plan of like running 50 miles throughout the entire week total. A lot of them joined me like many mornings, which I was shocked because i was not I was not getting up late. like These were like 6 or 7
01:44:35
Speaker
you know like like workouts after a whole night of activities, um after a whole night of like go going to the island excursions and then partying on the ship and and and having all like really good food that probably is or is not good for you. um ah But yeah, like the one day I told people, hey i'm going to be on the ship deck at like 7 a.m. I'm going to be running like this many miles. like Even if you just want to join for one lap, which one lap was about so a seventh of a mile, um I was like like, anybody show up and I'm working on this little bit creative side now, working on YouTube video. I still have yet finish it, but where I run 50 miles on the coaster cruise and a lot of the video is that day of just like,
01:45:21
Speaker
like running with people, chatting while running. ah Brian has a whole segment because of his mile that he ran with me. of it yeah Yeah, I've been meaning to get to it for a long time. After my grad class that I'm doing on the side is done, I will be completing that video first thing.
01:45:38
Speaker
Yeah, look forward to watching that one. I know I'll be trying to vlog a little bit during the Dollywood run, but I'm really bad at vlogging while running. It's so hard. it' It's so hard. I tried vlogging during one of the Disney 5Ks that we did for Princess Weekend, and it was it was tough because you just you don't want to run into people.
01:45:57
Speaker
Yeah. you know And you also want to try to like have a good like angle and like be like coherent while not sounding like you're out of breath, even though you are. Yeah, I think mine's mostly going to be just like shots of the coasters when we're in the park portion.
01:46:11
Speaker
That'll be cool, though, just because this is the first time they're doing it. So it'll a cool nice little like, like I'll be I'll be watching that to see kind of just, you know, how the course looks and stuff like that. Like what landmarks are going by, what what rides are going.
01:46:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'll definitely be posting some stuff about it because I will be running fast. So I'll be able to get content. That's awesome, though. Nice. um Solar Coaster, I already answered one. What's your record marathon time?
01:46:38
Speaker
Go ahead and say that time again. 245, 38 as of three days ago. Incredible. and We'll see though. hopeful Hopefully it gets broken this year. man good as name I'm sure your next goal is already have your sights on it. I have my sights on my next marathon. I have a call with my coach this week. We'll probably start talking about the build for that race, but I'll be running my second Chicago marathon this year.
01:47:06
Speaker
um so Like said, last year I did as a charity runner. This year I'm doing it as a time-qualified runner, so I submitted a time. They're like, cool, you're in. No lottery to go through anything, which is really cool.
01:47:16
Speaker
um But we will be doing something, a time goal more ambitious than the Boston time I have now. So it scares me to say, but I'm excited to announce that when the time comes. And probably probably honestly, like the next month, I'll have like it posted.
01:47:33
Speaker
i like to verbalize my goals because then at that point, it's like ah people know I'm trying to hit this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, i've I've considered trying to do Chicago next year.
01:47:45
Speaker
i want to see how my want my half in Detroit goes this year. And that'll kind of... If I ah enter the lottery. Quick side note, do not go to Great America that weekend. It is ty far it is it is haunt season and it is marathon weekend. Do not go to... i made them i onlyly I've only been there once and it was the day before the marathon. and it was yeah i I got him on one ride in like three hours. Yeah.
01:48:09
Speaker
Good news is I pretty much have that whole park. so Perfect. I only have Max Force. Well, it's a good one to have. i say It's a problematic one, so I'm okay with it. like you know Next time I go, i'll <unk> I'll do the crowd run next time. Not on a marathon weekend.
01:48:25
Speaker
Exactly. um And then he also asked, have you ever run from one amusement park to the other that are at least kilometers apart? I guess not including Disney. Not including Disney. No, I've
01:48:39
Speaker
I've yeah I can't say I have but um I'll say just a fun fact is Holiday in a World has a really nice seven mile loop around the entire park. was kind of wondering like what route you took.
01:48:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's um i I'll send a screenshot to you ah from my Strava of like what it was. But it yeah it goes around the entire campsite and the entire Splash of Safari Park. And then you turn into that like street where you're... You know how like it's a bunch of cornfield, cornfield, cornfield? And then you see in the horizon Thunderbird and Voyage. Yeah, it's like basically like that's kind of like what it felt like running is you saw the water park and then a bunch of trees, trees, trees. Oh my gosh, it's Thunderbird and Voyage right there.
01:49:21
Speaker
um But it's it's very easy to get to if you're staying close in and in those cabins there. it's It's a little hilly, so I'm kind of surprised. But um yeah, kind kind of kind of like the cruise. I was trying to BQ. I was trying to get a Boston qualifying time at Erie three months after hollywood Hollywood Nights. So we did Hollywood Nights and then we...
01:49:51
Speaker
Went to and and like an enthusiast house for like a party or whatever like afterwards. like And then got back very very late. Woke up at 6 a.m. the next day. did my run. 7.30 was showered.
01:50:05
Speaker
By 8 the rest of the cabin woke up. And then we got our ah breakfast pizza at Casey's. so as you said As you did. And we ate it in front of Raven at those picnic benches in the parking lot. but Perfect.
01:50:19
Speaker
Yes. I will not be running this year at Hollywood Nights for anybody in the cabin listening to this podcast. Don't worry. i will not be sending my alarm again that early. Yeah. Unfortunately, I will not be at Hollywood Nights this year, but ah it happens.
01:50:36
Speaker
It happens. Zay, you will be at a much cooler spot in my opinion. I will be home from it just barely. Oh, just there. Okay. Gosh. I didn't, ah didn't know if those overlapped or not with that. yeah I would have like, we talked about doing it, but we would have had like a day and a half at work yeah and then go into Hollywood. I'm like, ah yeah, that's fair. That's a little, that's a little much right there.
01:50:58
Speaker
Yeah. Let's see. Um, Alex said, given your training likely requires careful attention to footwear. Do you have any recommendations for choosing shoes and socks for a day at the park? actually a really good question because I never used to think about it. like I used to just wear basketball sneakers everywhere before I started running and Going to parks, it definitely hurt like my feet. Not having the proper footwear really can take a toll on your day and make you you know want to stop for rest and not.
01:51:26
Speaker
I mean, the my biggest thing with taking out a right pair shoes is just going, you should go to a running shoe store, even if you don't plan to run, because 90% of them have either a machine or just an expert that can like look at like the way your arches are or like the way you walk even and like see, like do a whole analysis of like these three shoes
Footwear Tips and Theme Park Triathlon
01:51:49
Speaker
will be really good. Or like, oh, maybe you should try these insoles and like they'll really help.
01:51:53
Speaker
Because I really just wear whatever shoes I'm doing my easy runs in at the parks. And that has me going at Disney from like rope drop all the way to extra magic hours at night sometimes. So um getting like just getting things that I'd say are best for your comfort.
01:52:15
Speaker
um Even if you don't plan on running, running stores are a really good place to start just to even like start that. and like Those analysis that they do are all completely free because they're trying to sell you the shoes at the end of the day.
01:52:26
Speaker
so they're trying to make it for easy as you to be happy with the pair shoes you bought. Socks, I always pack an extra pair, especially if it's going to look like a like a rainy day. like If I'm bringing a bag to the park, like I'll pack an extra pair of socks, especially in Florida when there's just those sporadic like downpours and whatnot. Yeah.
01:52:46
Speaker
Yeah. I'd say those are my shoes and socks recommendations, yeah but no that that is a good question though. um i For all my runs, i always wear like toe socks. um Oh, I've never tried those before. i I need them for my toes because otherwise I will get bad blisters and I still get blisters. um But if I know I'm going to be like at a park all day, i will wear those and they're lifesavers for me.
01:53:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Nice. I'm currently in a pair of Mizunos for my run. Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah. that's So is that what you're going to run the 10K and the half in the shoe? Yeah.
01:53:24
Speaker
Nice. Nice. Nice. Another thing I'll say i do with running is I track the amount of miles I run in each pair shoes. So on Strava, if you use an app like that, or I know some other compatible apps that let you like track shoe miles, um after like I'd say around 400 or 500 miles, um the shoes definitely start getting some wear. you know The grip's not as grippy. um Definitely go and replace them.
01:53:48
Speaker
You can still do a lot of your walking in them, but don't try to run in them or they will increase your likelihood of getting injured. Yeah. um these Mine definitely aren't there yet.
01:53:59
Speaker
I think I'm at like 80 miles and for the year or something like that. but Those will last a while too. Mizuno is a good brand. Yeah, I really like them. Nice. and Let's see. Brambo said, do you have any bucket list places you want to run?
01:54:15
Speaker
i guess whether that's location or specific runs. Yeah. um i mean... For the actual races themselves, new York City is like my last American major I need.
01:54:28
Speaker
That is one of the toughest major courses. So we really would like to run that like hopefully in the next like one to two years. But um the other majors that there are, like London, Sydney, Tokyo, Berlin, like those are all cities that I've never been to. I've been to London.
01:54:43
Speaker
sorry, I've not been to London yet. But... Will be hopefully this time next year, question mark. But all of those cities are like my dream races pretty much. They're adding Cape Town, South Africa. I think that would be so cool to go to.
01:54:58
Speaker
um And they're even in talks to possibly do Shanghai as another major. So going to China would be really cool. um A lot of this does tie to theme parks. for like but When I do go to one of these races in the future, like I am going to 100% try to combo it, not just for runs, but to go to you know ride roller coasters and whatnot. Because if I'm going all the way out there for a race, like seventy' is not easy yeah city's not easy to go to. Might as well go you know try to get to movie world and dream world and sea world out there. Yeah.
01:55:30
Speaker
Yeah. yeah pork mullen Exactly. um But a bucket list, I'll say a bucket list theme park, i I hope I can run in one day is Efteling.
01:55:42
Speaker
I know Brian said it earlier, but yeah, that would be like that. That part just looks insane from what seen. I have never seen a POV of any of the rides because I want to like be spoiler free with everything. But like just, yeah, i' would say that would be my dream, like bucket list theme park to run in.
01:55:58
Speaker
I just want to go to after. Yeah. Run or no run. Yeah. I mean, if I could just get there, that'd be cool. Like there's running for rope drop train or like, does that count as running? cost I think it does. I think it does. Yeah.
01:56:15
Speaker
Running the bowls. Rope dropping is a sport. Yeah. Ooh, I like that. I might have to make something with that. ah Make note of that rope dropping. is Yeah. Yeah.
01:56:29
Speaker
like We have a ah kind of like run club thing in... um I didn't mean to just open Discord on my computer. um We have a run club in Buzz Bars. And I think it's... What do we call it?
01:56:47
Speaker
ah It's called the Rope Drop Challenge. And so like we're doing medals for cumulative miles that you get for the year. that's cool. That's cool. So I have a 50 mile and a 75 mile medal on my wall. Nice. Nice.
01:57:03
Speaker
No, that's ah that's a cool idea. I'll say the coaster club on part does not have a run club, but that'd be a cool to store one. Yeah, may as well. You have people interested in based on the coaster cruise. Yeah, for sure. For sure.
01:57:18
Speaker
All right. ah Last one's um Adam, who submitted some questions via Patreon. We have the first Patreon questions. um He gave sent us a DM. He's like, I don't know if you've recorded yet. I'm like, we're recording in like 20 minutes. What do you got? yeah um he He gave ah two questions. First one, if you could set up your perfect theme park related triathlon, what and where would the course be?
01:57:43
Speaker
o triathlon. So like somewhere to swim, somewhere to bike, and somewhere to run. I mean, Disney did a triathlon back in the day. did they?
01:57:53
Speaker
I was just about to say, I feel like they would have... think one or two years they either tried a biathlon or a triathlon. I think. I could be completely wrong about this, but swear I saw a photo of the other day of like, like run Disney history. I think they might have done it once.
01:58:11
Speaker
But again...
01:58:15
Speaker
ah The resort hosted various triathlons in the early two thousand s
01:58:21
Speaker
Interesting. They did more than one. That's crazy. um Historically, athletes would swim in Bay Lake or Seven Seas Lagoon. ah feels like I've been in one of those. I've been like wake wakeboarding in one of them. i'm like It feels kind of sketchy to swim I was going to there's that...
01:58:38
Speaker
i was going to say there's to you know like the like The whole gator part of it is kind of... <unk> but if If I had a line up three parks to do a triathlon, definitely, i feel like from what I've seen, Tokyo DisneySea would be like the proper swim.
01:58:56
Speaker
That'd probably be the proper swim area. yeah Honestly, probably probably Silver, Dollar City, or Dollywood for the biking because it's like more of the hilly mountainous. That'd be interesting. Yeah.
01:59:06
Speaker
And then like the run, honestly, give me give me Hershey Park for the run. like That'd be challenging because of how hilly that that course is. Yeah. but And also going from that yeah going from like Lightning Racer to the front of the park is like half a mile in itself. Oh my gosh. Yeah. like i yeah yeah it's it i I probably commented it on when you guys did the like the deep dive on like um ah park layouts, but Hershey Park is like one of the worst park layouts of all time.
01:59:36
Speaker
Because think like we were back at Lightning Racer and then we we started doing like a quick walk to the front of the park and then my watch was like, would you like to record a workout? And I'm like sure, let's just see. think it was like 0.62 or something ridiculous. Yeah, it's about a kilometer. Yeah, it's it's far. um If you walk off Hershey, including the zoo too and the water park, it's yeah, you you you can rack up some steps there. You get a whole 5k in there.
02:00:01
Speaker
i i I know they used to have one. I don't know if it went in the park or not or if it was just like the town of Hershey had one. But yeah. They stopped it for some reason.
02:00:12
Speaker
I would love for them to bring it back. but A lot of parks are doing that doing these races now. Kings Dominion has one this year too. Yes. Yeah. So somebody on the cruise, ah she was training for the half marathon at King's Dominion. And yeah, that one just looks so cool too. It's like, it's the same weekend as Hollywood nights, but if it wasn't, I a hundred percent would drive down to do that.
02:00:35
Speaker
Yeah. And I know SeaWorld does their, their festival, the seven seas and they do a 5k to open that event. Yeah. Yeah. I've done a 5k like partially at over Georgia.
02:00:49
Speaker
think I don't remember going through the park, but it was one of the ah color runs. Oh, okay. Yeah. yeah i got I got some fun pictures covered in a color in front of Batman, I think.
02:01:00
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. That's cool. that Yeah. That would be a good one. I know. But then there's there's some lame ones too, like Sesame Place, which is... And technically, it is the closest theme park to like that I grew up in because it's at a mall parking lot in middle of nowhere, PA. Well, I should say middle of nowhere. It's outside of Philly. But um their five k is the Sesame 5K, and it just goes and out and back in the parking lot. doesn't even go in the park at all.
02:01:28
Speaker
It's kind of like your Lake Erie one. Yeah, it is, except it's not by Lake Erie. Yeah. Yeah. Sadly, not the part of Lake Erie to see a to see top throw or anything like that. yeah
02:01:43
Speaker
um One last question from Adam said, how also, how did you credit run at Carowinds without a fast lane on a day? Okay, yeah. So for all, yeah, shout out to Adam for letting me stay with him that weekend. was cool. But um I went to Carowinds for the first time like last month um and I was able to get everything except Hurler just because Hurler just wasn't open for the whole day. But Yeah, it was crowded.
02:02:09
Speaker
was a good park. I liked it. It wasn't that big. It was weird. I felt it would be bigger. They pack a lot for the amount of space they use for the paths.
02:02:22
Speaker
Copperhead is the second best ride there. Love that. Fury is incredible. Got the last and the second to last ride of the night on that. Train ran around like twice for us. It was so so cool with the ops doing.
02:02:36
Speaker
um It was a good park. My first Blue Blasters. Nice. That was cool. Yeah. um Yeah, don't know. i I think overall, like it was as I expected. It wasn't better than I expected, but also wasn't worse than I expected. I don't know. It met expectations, I'll say.
02:02:54
Speaker
it was it felt It felt like a Cedar Fair. It felt like a Legacy Cedar Fair park to me. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
02:03:05
Speaker
Well, that is our list of questions that we have. Anything else you want to add on? No, I mean, for yes just thanks for having me on tonight. um for Appreciate you and appreciate Bryant from earlier coming on as well.
02:03:21
Speaker
yeah um Definitely look out from my socials. on I'm going to really try to be consistent now with YouTube. I told myself like once Boston is done, I'm going to start locking in. like okay I'm going to have a content schedule finally because that's something I lacked for like the entire last year was a content schedule. um and I've started to try to like learn more editing software and stuff. so I have some fun ideas for run running and theme park related content. um for the rest of this year. um I'll say at least the one I'm trying to work on now is going to involve... I'll just say it involves every Disney resort in one video.
02:04:04
Speaker
i haven't decided the exact challenge for it yet, but that's that's my latest one of the works right now. That'll be fun. Yeah, that one. And then I also want eventually just to like...
02:04:16
Speaker
depending on where my social media stuff goes, like I just want to try to see like how hard is it to host a 5K? Because I know it is hard to host a race.
02:04:28
Speaker
But I think it'd be really cool to like try to do it and like document how to actually run it, you know, like different, you need volunteers, you need to signups going, and you need to have like the space figured out, like you'd have water. i Like I kind of want to try to do something like that and like partner with either like an organization or like something around my area. um to get that going just to kind of go from like idea of a 5k to actually go on a race day and execute and like having to be successful so yeah so yeah um um experience with that yeah um um i worked at a school and we ah put on a 5k race a couple times kind of like in the neighborhood rate that it was in um getting like city permits was probably the uh most difficult part i was gonna say like i that there's all those logistical things that like
02:05:20
Speaker
you know You go to sign up for a race these days. there's a mill if you live in a metropolitan city, I'm sure you can find a race every single weekend where you live, like depending on how big or large the city is. But um there's all those different things that you don't think about. you know like Getting sponsorships like to to fund parts of the race, getting a company to time the race, yeah and like getting USA Track and Field to certify the race if you if you really want to go like that far. like Yeah.
02:05:49
Speaker
Yeah, finding ah finding a course that actually works and makes sense. Yeah. i i think my I think my dream one day would be to help a theme park get a 5K going. in I don't know. i don't know what would be needed for the parks around me. like i mean, I live 10 minutes down the street from Dorney.
02:06:08
Speaker
So if they ever wanted to do something, 100%. yeah. I think you can make it happen. But doing one in the park, that would be brutal with that hill. it It would be, but I kind of like that though, because it's like it's a challenge. you know like it's like a we And you can make a whole like little thing like I conquered like this hill or whatever. like that's thought A lot of the Boston Marathon stuff is about Heartbreak Hill, which is only quarter mile of the whole race.
02:06:36
Speaker
but
02:06:39
Speaker
But yeah, no, again, dan thank you for having me on. Yeah, of course. Hoping to, again, be more active on the YouTube front. I felt like I've been getting the Instagram stuff dialed in recently, and I'm starting to get happy with that stuff spend. But definitely wanting to get the more long-form video. It's whole different beast. Yeah. I have a bunch of raw footage that I have been wanting to edit for so long, so...
02:07:04
Speaker
Once school is done, i will be i will be um I'll be free to edit it again for the summer. Now that you've gotten through Boston training. And Boston training is done. Saddled Chicago. Will not start for another like month and a half. So yeah, we'll be good. We'll be good. Get those videos done.
02:07:20
Speaker
Exactly. Well, I will link your channels in the episode description. Sounds good. I have a note to find my... um Batman photo color on things in Patreon. So if you're interested in that, I'm linking that in the description too.
02:07:39
Speaker
Nice. Nice. um I got to get some more ah unhinged content for you. because Right now it's just for you.
02:07:47
Speaker
ah First, first of many is also first that's, that's the goal. um But yeah, hopefully maybe this inspired some people to go out for a run.
02:07:59
Speaker
maybe you If you listen to this during your run, let us know. Yeah. And if you're ever if you're ever at a theme park where I am, let me know. yeah i usually always post my park stuff, even on my running social. But you ever want to go for a run when you're at a theme park, let me know. I'm always down to.
02:08:18
Speaker
Well, appreciate you, Chris. This was fun. Appreciate it Until the next time, hashtag keep thinking inverted. And I really got to think of a better motto. Keep going the distance.
02:08:30
Speaker
We will. ah We'll see all next time. Go the distance. Thank you. Bye. Bye.