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Ep 43 - Our runDisney origin story (with guest host, Greg from Rise and Run)
601 Plays14 days ago
What started as a love for Disney turned into a runDisney journey—and now a podcast. In Episode 43, we're sharing our runDisney origin story, first races, marathon experiences, and the regular life challenges. Greg from the Rise and Run Podcast is our guest host to help us uncover how we got from 0 miles to where we are today. We hope this episode is encouraging and gives those of you that are new to the podcast some insights on who we are and why we do all this craziness.
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Transcript
Guest Host Greg Takes Over
00:00:00
Speaker
This my friends is a podcast takeover. I'm Greg from the Rise and Run podcast and today I'm in control of AJ and Erica's show or you could call me your host, your ghost host. And welcome to this episode of One More Run.
00:00:17
Speaker
Music
00:00:25
Speaker
Hey there, friends. Clearly, things have gone off the off the rails because our podcast is now in the hands of Greg from Rise and Run. Greg, welcome to One More Run the Podcast. This is your show today. You are in charge. Oh, gosh. No pressure whatsoever. I mean, so thankfully, you liked me enough the first time to bring me back. so Absolutely. We're excited to have you.
Origins of Run Disney Journey
00:00:46
Speaker
Today we wanted to dive into our Run Disney origin story, and we thought it'd be fun to have Greg join us to guide the conversation. We trust him wholeheartedly to help us tell a little bit of our backstory, who we are, why we run, and our Run Disney history. So before we start, we always remind everybody, all of you, what the goal of our podcast is. But Erica, I thought it'd be fun to like quiz Greg and see if he knows what the goal of our podcast is. Because he says he listens and we're going to find out if that's true. Greg, do you know what the goal of our podcast is?
00:01:16
Speaker
ah The goal of your podcast is that Rise and Run has been going on for so many years that sometimes we, don't want to say we forget about the newbie runner, but you know, you guys are the like ah Encyclopedia Britannica of Run Disney. yeah So if you ever need those logistics and, you know, the true blue introduction, but yet creating community at the same time, that's exactly why you listen to One More Run. Oh, man. Thank you. I appreciate that. Can you explain for the next generation that has no idea what Encyclopedia Britannica is? It's this big book that it's kind of like a dictionary, but lot longer. it was the internet in print form. Printed on paper. Yes. Yeah. So yes. Thank you, Greg. Absolutely. That is the goal. like We want newbies or even people that've been listening to our podcast for a while. We want them to to just know all the things so they can go in confidence. to a race, right? um
00:02:08
Speaker
I want to give Greg control here, but we got to read a review. yes So can you read an Apple podcast review for us and and then we'll get going? This one comes from Elizabeth from South Carolina. It's titled, I love this podcast. She says, I'm so happy i found this podcast. I'm not new to run Disney, but I still love to hear all the tips and tricks and just to hear others talking about run Disney.
00:02:28
Speaker
It keeps me mentally in the Disney bubble, even when I can't be there physically. AJ and Erica with a K are so lively and relatable and just seem like people you want to be friends with. I hope you keep this podcast going and I hope I run into y'all at Princess Weekend.
00:02:42
Speaker
Awesome. That was very sweet. Thanks so much, Elizabeth. I know. um I don't believe we met her at Princess, unfortunately. That's now in the in the past. But hopefully, if it's the same Elizabeth I'm thinking of, yes we will marath see her at Marathon Weekend because I believe she got a bid for that. So Awesome. We're definitely excited to meet you in person. And thank you for leaving a review and for supporting the show and listening every week. We really appreciate you.
00:03:04
Speaker
All right, Greg, the the show is yours. we We needed to get our housekeeping stuff out of the way, and it is officially out of the way. So the
Disneyland's Role in Relationship
00:03:10
Speaker
show is yours. We've invited you to be our host because we trust you to help guide this conversation. So it's all yours, my friend. Thanks for doing it.
00:03:16
Speaker
Oh, God, the honor is truly all mine. And, you know, it's an amazing medium that you can listen to someone each week and learn so much about them.
00:03:28
Speaker
But at the same time, there's still so much that's underneath the surface. And I think that's the purpose of this week's episode is to tell these stories in order to know get the full picture of of your podcast and of your community. But like any good story, we have to start at the beginning. Yeah.
00:03:46
Speaker
And obviously, you know you you know, you did share how the two of you met in college. But to be able to tie in the run Disney element to all of this, Disneyland plays a huge part in your origin story as friends and a couple and then, you know, partners in life. So let's start there.
00:04:05
Speaker
What aspect of Disneyland brought the two of you together? Yeah. Yeah. So we grew up going to Disneyland, and you know, before we met, right? we We grew up going to Disneyland as kids, right? i think we might've said it on the podcast. Your dad was born the day Disneyland opened. And so like her family went to Disneyland.
00:04:23
Speaker
All the time. Like every family vacation. Every summer. Yeah. You know what mean? My family didn't go quite that as often, but we went a lot as kids. So when we went to him when we went to college, 10 minutes down the street from Disneyland, like the first thing we did was buy annual passes. And this was back in the day when they were 99 bucks. Yeah. And you could just, we just, that's how we spent time at the park. A month or for our annual? Annual pass was 99 bucks for Southern California. Dear Lord. I know.
00:04:50
Speaker
ah It was back in the days of the Encyclopedia Britannica. That's correct. Ah, those days. Yes. yeah Yes. So anyway, we spent a lot of time in the park before we knew each other, right? Like we just always at the park. And then we started dating, know, that, know, gave a really great persuasive speech on, on volunteering and Erica fell in love with me then. And, um, so, you know, we, we started dating, but, but we both just knew we loved Disney and we went to a job fair.
Challenges and Highlights of Marriage
00:05:15
Speaker
You remember going to a job fair? Yeah. Yeah. At Angel Stadium. Angel Stadium. Yeah. And we went to a job fair and it was like thousands and thousands of people and they were just casting, you know, like just casting for Disneyland. And we both got jobs as ride operators. Is that the right term? Sure. I don't know. And and so we both, we were already dating. We both got jobs at Disneyland ye and then we would go to like our shift and then we would like clock out and then go to the park. Yep. And that is, that is how we spent years. All of dates. yeah Years in in college. Yep. Anything else about that that you want to add about Disneyland?
00:05:46
Speaker
No, I don't think I kind of kind of proposed to you there a little bit. Yeah, kind of. a little bit. Yeah. You want to tell that that piece of the story or not really? Sure, if you want me to. but i mean, it's a part of the proposal. So it was on the Matterhorn. You threw your back at it. Hey, look, we went on the Matterhorn recently and I don't know if you know this, they've changed it.
00:06:06
Speaker
Like it's no longer like the, ah you know, the couple's, you know, enjoyable, you know, situation. It's now like everyone has their own seat and it's super smooth. It's not the same. It's not, no. For you, yeah, for you young folks that don't know, like it used to be, I mean, you wanted to ride that ride with someone that you liked yeah that you thought was cute. So yeah um anyway, we're off track. Do you want to explain the proposal piece or is that not really worth it? I just don't know like how detailed do you want me to get.
00:06:33
Speaker
Basically, the bottom line is that AJ and I used to watch Fantasmic for a lot of our date nights to wrap up. And so um that sort of area, is that called like the Rivers of America? It is Yeah. Yes. Okay. So...
00:06:46
Speaker
Anyway, there was this thing that he did where he told me he loved me for the first time and and we like went to all of our favorite spots and I collected like a little magnetic letter that your kids play with, you know, and and then yeah it said, I love you. And anyway, so one of them was there at um at the Fantasmic spot there. So anyway, it's a special, special moment. I think one of our first pictures that exist of us is at Fantasmic. It is, yeah. Watching Fantasmic, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Disneyland means a lot to us. And then we um we we had our bachelor party, bachelorette parties. All that was at Disneyland. All of it. Yep. yeah We went to Disney World for our honeymoon. Yes. We're crazy Disney people. We've been Disney people for as long as we've been together. Yep.
00:07:26
Speaker
all right So I got to know, before you pop the question, though, yeah did you do it right? Did you at least take Erica the Blue Bayou beforehand? we were broke. I mean, we were broke college So you split Bengal BBQ instead. No, we we went to, um it was in California Adventure. Do you remember the Chinese place where we used to get the teriyaki bowls?
00:07:51
Speaker
Vaguely. And it doesn't exist anymore. I believe we either did that or the clam chowder that night in the bread bowls. you remember those? Yeah, that. think Excellent choice. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, we used to go to the place that was next to Soarin' over California that looked like a hanger, you know? And we used to split chicken nuggets because we had no money. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We were broke college students.
00:08:13
Speaker
So obviously, you know, the the main crux of this episode is, know, we're going to talk about the run Disney story, but let let's go from getting married to starting the family to run Disney. So in terms of, you know, you've been married 23 years, obviously the the seed has been planted ah based on the um an episode that i just listened to about wanting to go on a cruise for the big 25th anniversary. um But in terms of like the eyes of the two of you, what are some highlights of your marriage in these past 23 years?
00:08:50
Speaker
I don't have any. Yeah. Do you? Like highlights? If you have to sleep on the couch tonight, understand. Not that just happened. Oh my gosh. Highlights, you know, Greg, but the interesting thing about highlights, right? Like, you we could talk vacations or things like that, but the interesting thing is like we've been through enough hardships, you know, and I think a lot of people have. where you don't enjoy going through them at the time. But when we really think back to key defining moments in our 23 years together, they're usually tied to something super difficult, you know? And I think it almost ties, it's like this weird parallel to running a marathon where we're like, we know that this hard thing that we have to do now is what we have to go at mile 18 is what you have to go through in order to make it to mile 26, right? So like there've been times in our marriage where we've just hit this hard, hard thing. And instead of complaining about it or quitting about it or whatever, you know, kiddos, we talked about it a little bit recently, you know, autism diagnosis on two kids, right? Like it's just a blow, know what mean? Like your dreams and future for them, like you're just like, oh my gosh, like now what? Right. But I think those are those moments where we've leaned into each other. Totally. We've leaned into our faith and we've said that it super sucks, right? But now what are we going to do?
00:10:09
Speaker
And whatever we decide together and we have peace about it together, we do it together, right? Like that's been kind of like the key thing over and over. Every five or six years we get hit with something, you know? Yeah. It doesn't, know, it could be a kid thing. It could be a financial thing. It could be a health thing. And I think every time like we'd be sitting the hospital, I'm like, I don't enjoy this, you know, but I also know that this is the thing that can't rattle me anymore because we are stronger together. Right. Would you agree with that? Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I think like you said, like the things that we've gone through, they could have either separated us completely, which is, I feel like what happens to a lot of couples or does draw us really close together. Right.
00:10:46
Speaker
And so we've just tried to be very intentional about like, like you said, doing things together, making decisions together. Having fun together. Like that's a big thing for us, like getting away and just kind of like reconnecting and having fun. Um, we try to do like weekly or you know, at least twice a month, go out on a date. And so those are, those are things that have kind of helped
Children's Influence on Running
00:11:08
Speaker
keep us together. And the run Disney has played a big key for the last few years because it's our sure health and fitness. It's our love for Disney. We get our travel in there. We can involve our kids in some way, you know, sometimes. And so it's kind of been this really great, unfortunately, very expensive thing that we can do together. yeah And we both enjoy it, right? um It's not like I'm going to go play golf and Erica's now with the kids all day. You know, like it's something we can do together. And so as long as we can keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how fast or slow that is, we intend to do that. Well, you brought them up a couple of times. And obviously you guys did such a beautiful job of telling the story of your amazing children.
00:11:47
Speaker
But for those people that might not have listened to that episode, just briefly share what makes your three kids so awesome. Yeah. Thanks for saying it like that. That was really nice, Greg. um So we have three kids. Our oldest is Nicholas. He's 21. And Nicholas has like five different diagnoses.
00:12:09
Speaker
The main ones that you would probably recognize are autism, um OCD, oppositional defiance disorder, sensory processing. I mean, there's lots of things. um Boils down to he's a 21-year-old who basically in a lot of areas is like a preschooler.
00:12:25
Speaker
we thought up until a few years ago would be living with us for the rest of our lives. Um, but we've since found a really awesome residential facility that he is moving into this fall. He is so excited and we are thrilled for him. It's going to let him have a little bit of independence, um, that he wants. And so we're excited for him. And then we've got Taylor, our 19 year old, and she is typically developing. Um, she's been on our show a few times and talked about running and she's awesome. uh, wild free and just like you, she yeah and call her we call her copy and paste. I don't think she appreciates that, but she's a literal mini yes mini Erica. Yes, very much so. I'll be talking to her and she'll start crying and I'm like, oh no. Oh gosh, here we go. Oh, Erica No. But Taylor does it. You know
00:13:09
Speaker
I'm like, oh, here we go. Yeah, yeah. I want to like i want to like ah tell her future husband like just... It'll get better. It'll get better. Oh, man. And then, of course, our youngest is Addie. She's 17. She also is on the autism spectrum, but she is much higher functioning. um So she will be independent. And and yeah.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah. She also has um just quirky things, you know, all that. You know, she's very artsy and and just, you know, kind of socially awkward. But one area where she i am excels or whatever is her opinions. They're very strong. Yeah.
00:13:45
Speaker
And I have to just call you out now, Greg, that we just finished your episode of March Madness. I was going to bring this up to see if she was on speaking terms with me, even though I've never met her. She's incredibly unhappy right now.
Personal Fitness Journeys
00:14:00
Speaker
Not with you, with Jack. No. because jack all right jack voted out emperor's new group it came down to jack i mean she doesn't appreciate you voting against it but she really had a hard time with jack vote like like nail in the coffin on emperor's new group i told her you know it's not going all the way you know you know it's not going to the the title game but she really didn't didn't appreciate and she didn't appreciate a goofy movie going out so early so she is our child who has very strong opinions she does she will let you know her her principal we had and you know whatever you call it like a pta meeting or something a couple of years ago and we were like hey is addy doing okay how's she in class remember he says she's great she's great she's great we're like no tell us the truth like we just want to make sure you know everything's good he says here's the thing she's not wrong
00:14:45
Speaker
It's her delivery. She just has to be like, she has to tell you if you're wrong. And I'm like, yep, that defines her perfectly. yeah So anyway, she feels like she knows you, Greg, because she's got strong opinions about your, your movie choices. Wonderful. And again, when I have the opportunity to meet her one day, I will i will give her all the apologies that I can in the world and buy her a chiro to help smooth things over. And don't be offended when she gets that look where she looks straight through your soul. Yeah. And you're like, oh, my gosh, i I must be doing my life wrong. She has that look. So oh I'm very used to that. So so my my wife actually works at a a school system um with students that have all ranges on the autism spectrum. yeah So when and we go to school community events there, that youre the ranges of comments that, you know, just a random kid who will come up and say to me crazy.
00:15:41
Speaker
no No pun intended. All over the spectrum. So I i know to it to embrace those. yes yeah yeah I will be well prepared for that. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. yeah So that's the that's the three kiddos. They have their yeah their challenges, but they also have their strengths, right? They're all incredibly talented.
00:15:57
Speaker
Well, thank you for sharing that. And like i said, it's such a huge part of your lives and be able to share that with your community and the Run Disney community, I think is really special and very admirable of you guys. So, you know, thank you for for sharing that.
00:16:10
Speaker
But let's let's move on. Let's get a little bit closer, you know, to the Run Disney side of this. yeah And that is obviously, you know, the two of you have found common interest in lots of things in life, you know, one each other to Disney But also, you know, fitness, how did fitness and physical activity play a pivotal role in your relationships?
00:16:34
Speaker
Early on, I don't think it did, right? Like it was more like survival. Survival. That's what was going to say. We had three kids and i think, I'll speak for myself, I woke up just one day and you you literally look at a picture of yourself and you're like, what happened? You know, I just looked at ah at a picture and it was, unfortunately, it was supposed to be a great picture. I was wearing a tuxedo and Erica was wearing this great dress and all that. and i looked at myself and I'm like, I don't know what happened.
00:16:58
Speaker
You know, like I just, it was ah the slow decline of, of just not caring, I think. And so, um yeah, I made a decision. i mean, it was, there were it was two, two pieces to, to, so not, not real healthy for a long time, right? Like just eating junk food and not exercising. And then 2019
00:17:17
Speaker
I think it was 2019. I saw that picture. And in the same month I was in California on a work trip and someone are on the trip said, Hey, we're going to go run across the golden gate bridge. Want to come? And the, the achiever in me said, uh, yeah, of course I want to come like, that sounds awesome. Um, one, not a runner.
00:17:33
Speaker
I had like basketball shorts with me, you know, and like basketball shoes and that that was it. Anyway, I didn't realize that it was a, it was a three mile run to the bridge.
00:17:44
Speaker
And then a mile and a half over and then a mile and a half back and then three miles back. I didn't know that. So a mile into this, I'm already toast. And it was so embarrassing. I hurt so bad. You know, I didn't make it across the bridge. Still haven't to this day. haven't, you know I need to go back and do it. I didn't make it or garden yeah across the Golden Gate Bridge. And now what's funny is I could run the Golden Gate Bridge.
00:18:04
Speaker
How many, i what is it? That's three miles. I could do that. 10 times, yeah you but not then. yeah And it was so embarrassing. So embarrassing. I came home and I told Erica, I said, i have to change something. I have to do something. And Erica had a moment in, I think 2019 as well, as that she can share, but she's the one that introduced the idea of doing a half marathon. And I thought she was crazy. And we, but we signed up anyway, but you had same year. I think you had like a, that enough is enough, right?
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We, it was Thanksgiving. I remember we were, we had a bonfire and I don't know, I just reached this point where like you just said, like, this is it, like I'm not doing this anymore. And, um, really just kind of changed everything. Like the way that I ate, I started exercising more. um I lost 60 pounds and I think a big part of it for me was like we were saying with our son Nicholas,
00:18:50
Speaker
you know, a lot of parents that have special needs kids, especially single parents, they get to the point where they're just sort of like, just like you said, survival. that's right And so they are spending every waking moment either working or taking care of their kids and they don't put any time into themselves. They don't invest in themselves. Or they can't. Or they can't, right. But then what happens is like, then they're they're the ones responsible for continuing to raise them. And so then they get to the point where they're you know, old, they're good, they're old, they can't get around physically. And there's also still trying to take care of their adult child. And so I was like, we have to do better. Like we have, cause we don't know what our future looks like. And so, um, so yeah, we started running, eating healthy and it was just helped that we both were trying to do it. So we both could keep each other accountable. So, yeah. Yeah. So fitness is at least, uh, you know, consistent, and good, you know, fitness is, is new to us, you know, in the last five, five, six years. Awesome.
00:19:45
Speaker
All right. We're finally at the run Disney piece. So let's flash back to 2016, which 2016 is a really good year for a lot of people in the podcasting run Disney universe, because that's when a lot of us started running. disney And Erica, the story starts with you yeah at princess. What propelled you to want to register for this race?
00:20:09
Speaker
I think it was just like a bucket list, you know, like I want to be able to say I've run a half marathon and, um, I wasn't, this was before all this healthy discussion, you know, cause that happened in 2019. This is three years in in in in advance of that. Yeah. So a friend of ours was like, Hey, I'm going to go run at Disney. I didn't even know that was a thing. And she asked if I want to do it with her. And so, um, so yeah, I, I trained, i think up until like,
00:20:34
Speaker
seven miles maybe. And then just like stopped running. Didn't know anything about, you know, running fuel and nutrition. I ran the whole half marathon with, with no nutrition, which now I can't even imagine doing that. Um, but yeah, ran the race hurt so bad for days, weeks after, because I didn't finish training, came home and promptly stopped running and was like, I'm never doing that again. And then once we made our health change, then then we started doing it again. And I asked AJ, j I was like, hey, you want to go run at Disney? And so that's kind of what started it.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yep, for sure. We signed up for Star Wars. Sorry, you were probably going ask, but we signed up for Star Wars. That was how she talked me into it, right? Like she said, you want to run a half marathon? And I'm like, I don't know. I need to make some changes, but I about all that. And she said, they have a Star Wars race at Disney.
00:21:23
Speaker
And I said, oh, now that. That I'd be behind. And we signed up for that. And then I think we've said it before. Even I think we might have said it when we were on Rise and Run with y'all. ah Then COVID hit and that got wiped out and yeah and didn't happen, unfortunately. So I still have yet to do it. The whole reason i signed up the first time, I still haven't actually done
Running Together and Learning
00:21:40
Speaker
it.
00:21:40
Speaker
right. So you just have to join the 501st and you'll get you know one sign that says free hugs and another sign that says bring back Star Wars races. yeah then we'll just put that out into the universe and hopefully run Disney is listening. yes All right. So yeah we talked about the individual stories of both of you in terms of the start of run Disney. But let's talk about...
00:22:03
Speaker
Princess and 23. Was this technically the first time you both experienced run Disney together within the same weekend? Yeah. Yeah. So it was my first run Disney at all. Erica's second, but she had done Princess whatever that is seven years before then. And Taylor was with us on this one. So Taylor was old enough to run the the half marathon, right? So that was what we were signed up for was the half marathon. I tied it to a work trip. That shows you how unprepared was. Smart man. Yeah. But, but a totally unprepared. I worked for a week, you know, on my feet. Didn't exhausted. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't sleep great, you know, and just, just kind of showed up and, uh, didn't really know the things, but it was the first time we experienced a run Disney event together, but we had, we still at this point and we will be a few more races, I think where we still haven't actually run together. Right. We ended up doing this race separately because we trained separately and and all that. And I just didn't know the things like I just thought when you go to run Disney, you just run. And so I didn't realize like, oh, no, you got to slow down and enjoy some characters. And you do this together. Like we i didnt we I didn't know that. And we were a little bit. I was in survival mode. Like I just hope to cross the finish line. I think you were, too. Right. Because it was the first time back. So um and and Taylor ran that race as well. So now did you start in the corrals together, but you just went your separate ways then? Yeah. Yeah. So we started running. You want to tell that? No, go ahead. We we started running and Erica was doing run walk. I was not because I i wasn't smart. And so we were going and Erica was like just running with me and just stayed right there.
00:23:36
Speaker
And I was, I look over, I'm like, what you doing? You know, like I didn't say that. just like looking at her like, are you running with me? Anyway, she took her first walk break, you know, at a minute and a half or two minutes in. And we just kind of just naturally, and we'd we'd already talked about it, yeah you know, that we weren't running it together um just because of our speed differences at the time. So, yeah, she ended up taking her first walk break and i yelled, I think I yelled, all right, bye. Yeah, that sounds about right. And then met her at the finish line. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, AJ, when did you finally get smart and listen to your wife? Right.
00:24:08
Speaker
and then actually run together with her for the entire race. Well, that actually... so So we finished that race. I'm like on a high, you know, like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. And then I remember like coming through the finish shoot thing and I didn't know what... this is how much I wasn't paying attention to Greg. I didn't know that there were multiple races that weekend. Like I just...
00:24:27
Speaker
Erica had signed me up for the half marathon. I thought that's what we were doing. And I come ah through the finish shoot and it says challenge medals this way. And I'm like, I walk up to the, I'm like, what's a challenge medal? they're like, well, did you run the other races? I'm like, there's more races. And so immediately like, like, I just like, oh my gosh, there's more races, Erica. And so we signed up for the wine and dine challenge that same year. And so the later in the fall, we did the challenge, which is where we ran together for the first time. We were in the 10 K together.
00:24:55
Speaker
How was that Erica? That was really fun. did not know that we were going to do that. And so the night before he was like, Hey, I was thinking maybe we could run the 10 K together. And that was, that was really exciting for me. So yeah. Yeah. No, no, no, it was just to say we ran the 10 K together. And then the next day we, we ran separately for the half marathon. So that's kind of like our, that's our MO now. Yeah, I don't know if it's a good thing. I think the challenge is that like our speeds are just different and I don't know how to answer that for people who their spouse is, you know, or your best friend whatever. You just run different speeds, right? Your bodies are just trained at different speeds, right? So for me to put the brakes on all the time or for her to push really hard all the time, we find that to be a challenge. And so what we've found is we'll do 5Ks and 10Ks together and we'll do the marathon together and the half marathon. We've just kind of committed to the idea right or wrong, that like we can go at our own pace on half marathons, right?
First Marathon Weekend Memories
00:25:46
Speaker
We have done, we just did the princess half together, but we've just kind of decided, I don't know if that's right or not, but we just kind of, we do the shorter and the longer distances together. And then the half we go whatever we want to do. We usually try to, well,
00:26:00
Speaker
Up until like recently, we always try to PR the half marathon. Not anymore. Not on a Disney course. No way. Now we're like, whatever. I'm like, how many characters can I see? Yeah. Yeah. But in the beginning. PR and your fun. Yeah. Yeah. the beginning, we did try to speed through those. So, yeah. We finally learned to have some fun. Yeah.
00:26:16
Speaker
We've talked a lot about Princess and obviously we just sprinkled in some wine and dine here. But we haven't talked at all so far in this journey about the granddaddy of them all, the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. When was the first time the two of you got to experience that particular weekend? Yeah. So that was marathon 2024. Um, and this is like a core memory for sure. Like I didn't think we would be able to do it. I didn't know if we were going to be able to finish, um, all the anxiety that we try to reduce for people on our podcast. We had it all. It was, you know, is this is where it comes from, right? This is why we're passionate about it. It's why we speak openly and freely about it. It's why we address stupid stuff is because this was that race for us where we just didn't know what we didn't know. And we were scared to death and we were freaking out and we, you know, yeah it's the, it's the little pieces of ah pieces of advice that, that we could have used back then. Yeah. Um, that we needed. Um, is this your favorite? We've done three marathons now. Is this your favorite of the three? Oh, for sure. but i I feel like most people would say this, like that very first time that you finish your first marathon and you cross the finish line, it's just like, it's
00:27:28
Speaker
a sea, a flood of emotions that like you don't, you can't explain until you've done it. It's like, Holy cow, we just did this. We did it together. So that made it even like more special to me. And I think like every, every marathon that we do is hard. Um, they're all a huge accomplishment, but that first one, that was definitely like a special core memory. It was also the first time we'd ever spent six and a half hours.
00:27:51
Speaker
running together running together you know we learned a lot about each other because we had done the training yeah separately and and all that we'd done some long runs together but never the full 26 miles six and a half hours know got character stops and bathroom stops and all that you got the heat and it rained on us on that one. it poured. Yeah. And so um it was just, we had all the things. And so I think that one's going to a core memory for us.
00:28:15
Speaker
Greg, i don't know if you were there that weekend. That was when they canceled the the half, like half of the half weekend. Yes, the half of the half and then the 0% chance of rain during the marathon. And then and then yeah the floodgates opened. Yeah. Yep. Yep. So that was our first marathon and it really does, it's I think it's, if we've said it on the podcast, if the house burnt down and you could grab one medal and take it with you, I think it's that marathon medal. I think that's the one we would take.
00:28:41
Speaker
Well, I'm shocked you're only grabbing one medal since you're Mr. I need have the medal, screw Main Street USA. Right, yeah. Erica can collect the important documents and the kids. I'm gonna start collecting medals. She's gonna running out with like an arm full of medals just clinging down the stairs. Yep. That's a lot of clanking. We think it's bad on the Metal Monday after marathon weekend, but yeah in that situation, that'd be real bad. Yeah. yeah All right. So we we've spent a lot of our focus this on, you know, East Coast, but let's shift it to the West Coast because, you know, at this point in in time, in terms of the history of Run Disney,
00:29:19
Speaker
Josh DeMauro stands up on stage at and says, Run Disney is coming back to the West Coast. Clearly Disneyland Resort plays a huge role your lives, you know, in terms of meeting and working together and proposals and the whole nine yards.
00:29:38
Speaker
Talk about any experiences that you had once the races came back to the West Coast. Yeah, it was awful. Tell us how you really feel, AJ. The race itself? Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:49
Speaker
No, I agree with you. I mean, going out there was amazing going home, right? Like we hadn't been there a long time. And, uh, I mean, being there, being in the park was amazing. Getting a churro was amazing. mean, all of that was great. The race they, and everybody knows this, like they had not figured their stuff back out yet. You know, they didn't, That's putting it mildly, yeah. Yeah. You know, they just didn't know, you know, and you come from Disney World, and we were in the midst, you know, this race, their first one back was in the midst of our nearly perfect season.
Race Preferences: Disneyland vs. East Coast
00:30:21
Speaker
So we were doing every single race weekend, at least, you know, one race in every race weekend. So we just came off of the marathon a week before. Yeah, a week before. mean, we're flying. Oh, yeah, that's right. That was the year that was like four-day difference between the end the marathon weekend and the start of Disneyland. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but it's fresh for us. We're like, we literally just came off this high. We just said it was our best race experience ever, even though it almost killed us, you know? then we go out to Disneyland. We're like, what are they doing? You know, they clearly don't know what's going on. The water stop where we all like crashed into each other and just we're at the complete standstill. And yeah, just, yeah. yep so so the race experience itself you know like we're so glad we did it i really love that medal you know we have the coast to coast to go with it going home was awesome um all of that was great we've hit we beat it to death that like now disneyland because it what that wasn't that great of an experience we prefer the east coast races right um but it was really nice we ran that one together our legs were dead tired We survived. Yeah, we literally survived. Yeah. Did what we had to do to survive it. But it was, bottom line, great to go home. Yeah. That's where we grew up.
00:31:30
Speaker
And you got that really terribly designed coast-to-coast medal. So I'm so glad it was worth it for you guys. You know, they did two coast-to-coast medals that year. Like a suitcase one. The suitcase and the circle one. Yeah. Neither were great, but we got the really bad one. You know, we got the suitcase-looking one. And so it's on the wall behind us somewhere, Somewhere, yeah. yeah would you grab that one when the house uh starts to burn to down or leave that one behind coast to coast from this year was really good yeah and so it's got walt mickey on it like we we love that one um yeah you know the doing coast to coast didn't mean as much to me as just being able to go back to disneyland i think that first time would you agree with that just the idea of going home yeah that's special
00:32:12
Speaker
So we've touched on a lot of the race weekends, yeah but the one that we haven't really discussed all that much, and I'd be interested to see how it plays into your run Disney story is the race that we just had this past weekend.
00:32:25
Speaker
And that is springtime surprise. Have you guys ever participated in that? And do you have any particular memories from it? We did it as part of our and our nearly perfect season, right? So that 2023-24 season, we did Springtime Surprise. We did the challenge. So we did all three and had a great experience, right? Like it was awesome. We took Taylor. We took a friend of of hers, you know, so she had a buddy to to go experience all that with. Had a great time.
00:32:48
Speaker
We love the vibes of springtime and we haven't done springtime since. I think for a couple of reasons, ah you want to list why we haven't done it since? I mean, we didn't have a bad experience. No, no, we didn't. But we haven't gone back to springtime.
00:33:00
Speaker
Right. for two years now. Yeah. The main one for me is getting up three mornings in a row, which is why we say we won't do, uh, why did I just blank on the dwarf's name? dopepe Dopey. Dopey. You're going have to cut that. You may not leave that in there or make a blooper of Well, Greg's in charge. So he's the host. If he says I leave it, I leave it. No, Greg, he doesn't leave it. Okay. Yeah. So getting up three mornings in a row, that was the hard part for me. And that's why we won't do dopey or at least I say we won't.
00:33:27
Speaker
Yeah. But, but yeah, that, that was, that was a hard one for me. Yeah. But you know, we could do springtime surprise and not do all three races. That's always an option. I mean, it is, but you're you're a a three. You're an achiever. So we have to do it all. Yeah, all or nothing. That's right, yeah. The 10 milers a good distance. I think where we got burned, and no pun intended, was that it was so hot. you know like yeah And so our memory of that was a few early days sweating to death.
00:33:52
Speaker
You know, and so, um, when we rank the weekends and we think about how we feel about each one springtime, just, it's not a bad race weekend. It just ends up falling lower on the list for our personality types and the type
Relaxing on a Disney Cruise
00:34:05
Speaker
of race we like. Um, but you know, if marathon was sold out and we couldn't get into wine and dine and all that, and then there was springtime registration came up and we didn't have anything, do it we'd register for it, you know, but in terms of our priority list, springtime ends up falling at the bottom.
00:34:19
Speaker
All right. So I want to shift the focus to wine and dine of 24. You did the two course challenge, but what I want to hear about is what you did after the race. Mm-hmm. This is a really good experience. Yeah. And now we'd recommend it to anybody. Go for it. Oh. No, you should.
00:34:40
Speaker
Okay, perfect. So the day after the challenge, we got on a Disney cruise with some friends of ours and sailed for five days? i think it was a four night because it was the wish. So it was four nights. Oh, okay. Yeah. yeah And that was awesome. That was like a fun way to sort of like relax after a long weekend. We had just run all those miles so we could eat some extra carbs. It good. Yeah.
00:35:03
Speaker
Yeah, we would recommend that. And I know you guys, um let me think about timeline. You're probably on the cruise right now ah when you're Rise and Run Cruise, when this that comes out. No, I'm here right now, AJ. I know, I know. Oh, that's right. We do this live. It is not prerecorded. It is not prerecorded. I'm not sipping the margarita at Perfect Day of Coke, I'm not doing that right now. And we're not jealous, you know? That's right, we're not. So you guys are obviously, you know, you're doing that right now with springtime surprise. You're going, you know, jumping on the rise and run cruise. It's just a, it's a ton of fun. You know, we'd recommend that if if it fits in your budget and it fits in time and whatever, it's a really great way to unwind. We've obviously talked on our podcast before about how much we love cruising, how how it works for us. So we go, we achieve AJ gets his like medals and all that. And I'm just like feeling accomplished. And then I feel like I really do have permission and just to like lay on the pool deck. And eat as many chicken tenders as you want. Absolutely.
00:36:02
Speaker
Absolutely. Look, the pool deck chicken tenders. So good. They're good. So is the cheese pizza. You've been on a Disney cruise, right? Yes, I have been on the Magic. Actually, within like the first year that it sailed, my parents took us on a family vacation. I also did the four-night itinerary on The Wish a couple of years ago. And then the most recent one is for Jack's wedding. We were on the Disney Dream. Now, that was interesting because that was cruising going into a
Starting the Podcast 'One More Run'
00:36:34
Speaker
race weekend. Yeah. So how did that work out? Yeah, how was that?
00:36:39
Speaker
Uh, sea legs were a little funny at one point. I grant i did almost trip, but i I blame it on the sea legs. So if I would have taken anyone out on the course, I was going to blame it on the cruise ship. yes yeah But no, but it was, uh, it was a truly, uh, magical. Do you feel like you ate too much going into the, race like, that's, that's one of our things is like, we like to go do the race weekend and and then the cruise we can eat as much as we want. do you feel like you were like, had to like hold back on the eating? Like, like, like, ah tell me how that worked out.
00:37:05
Speaker
Ooh, so you know, I feel bad because the rules the rules have reversed here. I'm supposed to be hosting here, but to answer your question, no. No, I was a good boy. i i definitely controlled myself. I think I limited myself to like one ice cream cone on on the deck ahead time. Wow. You had one at the same time? brus well Okay, one per day. Okay, and what's what's your favorite flavor? That's the most important question I have.
00:37:32
Speaker
Ooh, twist. I'm going to chocolate, chocolate and vanilla twist. Okay. You don't go you don't like the banana? Artificial banana to me is not good. Okay. What about the mango? and Mango on the island. How about that?
00:37:43
Speaker
i don't think they had that on the island when when we were there. So, but, but hopefully for my next cruise, they'll have that. So, all right. I could talk cruising all day. So could we. I feel like I want to go on more, especially watching YouTube videos now about the adventure out in Singapore and stuff like that. yeah But but but let's let's get our focus back here on on the Run Disney story.
00:38:04
Speaker
Obviously, Erica can't remember the name of a famous Run Disney dwarf. No. Yeah, her memory. We were going to leave that out. No, it's in now. It's in now.
00:38:15
Speaker
But what I appreciate about the two of you is that I think you and the three of us share a very similar sentiment that when it comes to the big behemoth challenges during marathon weekend, I think we all agree that Goofy...
00:38:33
Speaker
is the better event than Dopey. And that's something that, AJ, you did in 2025. Talk about your experience. No, we both did. Erica and I both did Oh, you did? Oh, you did both. yeah Yeah. Yeah. So what we did is we raced separate on the half. um And ah er Erica ran with a friend, Jesse. I ran by myself and went for a PR on that race. nice Totally bad idea, by the way. to then do the marathon the next day. And so we did the we ran the marathon together. i don't we're We're not signed up for Goofy again. We're signed up for the marathon. And so I don't know when and if we're going to do the Goofy challenge again, but we really like we really liked it. I would say Erica really loved marathon of our first marathon. right so that would have been 24.
00:39:20
Speaker
2025 was this goofy. This is my favorite marathon. And I think the reason is that idea that like, now I've done the course, you know, for the most part, I know what
Building a Supportive Community
00:39:28
Speaker
to expect. I know I can do it. I know when, okay, this is that long stretch that, that we don't like. This is the sanitation plant or whatever that thing is. Like, like I know, okay, coming out of here, it's going to get really hot. And so having already had that knowledge and being, you know, whatever obsessive over knowing how it's going to go, you that's my personality. Like that worked for me. So like, I loved that experience of like been here before. It's like going through a haunted house the second time, right? It doesn't scare you as much the second time because you know where all the things are, you know? And so that's how I felt about that race. And and I really, really enjoyed it.
00:40:04
Speaker
What about you? How was your experience with the goofy? It was fun. Yeah, but you still liked your first experience doing the marathon better, right? Yeah. First marathon's the memorable one. Yeah. But yeah, Goofy was fine. I would do it again.
00:40:15
Speaker
i would not do Goofy. Yeah. Yeah. We attempted, Greg, to sign up for Goofy on this this ah this weekend, this ah upcoming year. And I was in in the computer on a new computer where my credit card information had not saved in the autofill. You know, the thing he tells everyone to do. I have everything else filled in whatever. I'm literally...
00:40:36
Speaker
pulling my wallet out and trying to find my wallet and literally typing in the number, which normally is an automatic, like put my finger on the thing. If I'd had it auto-filled, we'd be in on Goofy, right? Because I would have made it. I'm literally typing the expiration date and then the thing pops up and says it's sold out.
00:40:53
Speaker
Right. And I'm like, oh man, but we firmly believe everything happens for a reason. And that's why you haven't heard us complain about it or anything is we know that we didn't get into wine and dine because now we now know that holy cow, AJ got into New York. So now I've got to go to New York the next weekend. Right. So we didn't know that at the time. We didn't complain about wine and dine. We're bummed, but we didn't complain. We know everything happens for a reason. So we know that we were only meant to do the marathon this upcoming year.
00:41:19
Speaker
And that's enough. 26.2 miles is fine. It's fine. That's okay. It's fine. We always say just the marathon. Right. That's right. Yeah. We're going to be jealous of your um your goofy medal though.
00:41:31
Speaker
Well, I'll share it, you know, in in case, you know, you you ever want to add it to the collection. oh you you'll like you'll so you'll let me touch it. You can save it one day again when the house burns down. Right, right. Yeah, that's true. There's no safer medals than my medals. That's right. All right. Let's deviate a little bit from the Run Disney talk. And we're goingnna we're going to shift ahead in time about six months to the summer of 2025 where you two kids,
00:41:59
Speaker
like hey lives are busy enough. We got three kids, two careers. Let's start a podcast. Whose crazy idea was that? It's a really good idea. That was AJ's crazy idea. It was. I presented it to Erica and I think we mentioned this when we were on Rise and Run. i just i ah We explain all this stuff so often. and I had created a long time ago, Greg, a video um like how to register for a run Disney race.
00:42:22
Speaker
You know, and it wasn't related to, you know, our YouTube channel anything like that. it was just on my YouTube channel. And I did that and it's like the most popular video. And I get millions of questions from people about it, you know, and I was like, man, people really have a lot of questions, you know, like they really don't understand how this whole thing works, which
Race Goals and Podcast Growth
00:42:39
Speaker
doesn't mean they're dumb. They just obviously this is a it's a need. Yeah. You know, and um we felt strongly, you know, that we just like to be helpful, right? Just in any area of life, we just want to be helpful. So I just pulled together a document and literally listed out all the things that I felt anxious about and worried about and all that and kind of like put them in order of like,
00:42:59
Speaker
you know, how I thought it would present well, brought it to Erica, you know, literally in like a PowerPoint form. And I'm like, Erica, I'm, I'm, this sounds really dumb, but would you want to host a podcast with me about this? You know, run Disney, yada, yada. And I'm really thinking she's going to say, AJ, we don't have time for that. Or are we qualified? I don't think so. Or no, that's a terrible idea. And she literally looked at me as like, that sounds fun. When are we going to do that? You know, like when do we start? And I'm like, well, we kind of need to start soon. Yeah. You know, and ah because we wanted to tie it to the marathon training, our first season of the podcast, Greg, you already know this, but if if those that are new here, we are first season tied exactly with the first day of marathon training all the way to marathon day.
00:43:39
Speaker
And so we tried to talk about all the topics that made sense as training progressed. And so that was our first season. And now we're in season two where we're, you know, it's a little less structured. yeah um But that was our first season was a, you If you're supposed to be you know looking at your digital event guide, we were talking about it that week. yeah If you're supposed to be booking hotel by now, we were talking about it. So that's how we started it. We really wanted to be helpful. And um it's really transformed, Greg. like it's really we're trying to Not that it's hard. We're trying to stay helpful. But it's really interesting what people, i think, want. from the podcast, and I'm sure you guys have experience with this too, is that the relational side of the podcast is like, it's taken a life of like, people want to connect like with each other, with us. Like we didn't expect that. We thought they were just here for the tips. You know what i mean? Like, Hey, don't forget to register on this day. And that's what we thought they wanted. And maybe that is a lot. what We hope that information is still helpful, but we're navigating now. Like, okay, people just want to
00:44:42
Speaker
be heard and seen and they want to hear stories and want to be inspired and you know, all that kind of stuff. So we're navigating that right now. Yeah. Well, and the two of you are doing a incredible job of that.
00:44:53
Speaker
And, you know, speaking of what you are experiencing with the podcast, let's talk about the first race weekend where you're able to meet some of these people in real life, including me. yeah And that is this past year's marathon weekend. Talk about the experiences of running your own races, but then also being able to interact with the people that, you know, you're in their ears every single week imparting really important information.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah, I'll talk about this for sure. Yeah, for it. Okay, well, first of all, two things. Coming to y'all's Rise and Run meetup, that was awesome. It was. We'll tell people all the time, like the number of times that ah someone's been like, well, who how can I like connect with other runners? I'm like, you need to go to the Rise Run podcast meetup, whatever. you know like Or obviously none of us someone would be like, I was kind of nervous about running this weekend. and I'm like, you need to go to the meetup. Yeah. Y'all's listeners are genuinely like the nicest people. oh yeah Y'all are the most amazing people. Like it's just feels like such an awesome community. Real quick. I need to go get our checkbook so I can write you guys another i got check for all the kind words.
Balancing Race Goals and Community Support
00:46:03
Speaker
But seriously, I mean, we mean it like, like, I don't know, just that was, that was such a special part to be able to meet y'all and and hang out with all the Rise and Run listeners. And then, And then to be able to meet some of our listeners, I mean, that that was crazy to me. When we started this podcast, I thought, you know, we're going to have like 10 friends that listen that, you know, we've convinced to sign up for Run Disney. i know. And it turned into this community where people were writing us, um you know, they were writing us emails and sending us instant messages and stuff and um just talking about how they didn't think they were be to it. But for some crazy reason, something that we said to them through the podcast, like encouraged them to believe that they could do it. Um, and so that was special in and of itself, but then to meet them at the race weekend, i mean, that was amazing. We would be running and they're like, I think that's, that's AJ and Erica, you know, and then, and then they would say, i you know, I heard your podcast and I didn't think I was gonna be able to make it, but I'm here and and I'm running and to be able to encourage them in person, that meant so much to me. And that, that's the best part of every way so race race weekend for me now is to be able to meet people and encourage them in, you know, face to face. Um, it's so neat. I'm sure you're totally used to it Greg, but something about seeing somebody at mile 10 or 18 or whatever. and they, they say, I'm literally doing this. Cause I, you know, cause, cause you told me that I could, you know, and I'm like, what, who am I? Like, I'm just a guy with a microphone, you know, but they're like, you know, I literally believe I can do this now. You know, I, I, you really helped me get through my training. Yeah. You know, it's so, gosh, I know you're probably like, it's probably just totally normal for you at this point, but man, that, that means a lot. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Five, five years into this journey when, when someone still approaches me, it is, it's like the first time all over again. And, and what I appreciate about what you guys have been saying is that, you know, there isn't
00:47:53
Speaker
but There aren't tribes of people, you know, it's not, oh, it's just one more run listeners and it's just rising run listers. We are a a one big community in terms of rising up one another, no no pun intended there. of, you know, just being able to encourage one another. And I think that stems from other aspects of the Run Disney community. You know, for example, you know taking, you know, Jeff Galloway, for example, and the fact that, you know, he would tell people all the time that you can do it because you're putting in the hard work. And I think that's
00:48:27
Speaker
It's a trickle-down effect. You know, Jeff inspired us. And then in terms, you know then when we're sitting in front of these microphones and chatting, you we get to inspire others. And that's the reason why we're doing this. This, you know, this isn't about clicks. This isn't about notoriety. This isn't about Instagram fame. you know This is about just genuine people wanting to help one another. And the fact that more and more voices are getting within that community To be able to maybe touch that listener that might not have listened to other, you know, podcasts and and such you go around this community or, or other Facebook groups or such, you know, it's important to have these voices. And I'm so glad that the two of you are part of this family now and be able to spread positivity and joy. And you're just, you're such welcome members in here. And I'm so glad to be able to, to call you professional friends, but just friends and good salt of the earth people. so
00:49:23
Speaker
Well, we appreciate we appreciate you a lot, Greg. And that's why we asked you to be a part of this conversation. Like we trust you wholeheartedly. And then like you guys are welcome to sin. You know, like we we didn't intend to take, you know, do anything. Like we just intended to like share, help, like make it possible for someone.
00:49:39
Speaker
one person, two people to get into a race or feel confident doing their race. We did not expect emails and letters and whatever of people saying, I'm encouraged by what you're doing. like yeah And we ah we try to hold ourselves accountable that we don't want this to become about us. you know like Our names are on it and all that. And we just don't want it to become that. And when it does, we hope people gut check us on it and make sure that, hey, we're doing it for the right reason. And you guys have done it for the right reason for five years. So you're like, we're so in awe of the way you guys have just maintained and built a community of just love and generosity and help and all that. So we're inspired by what you guys do. And um we're just we're just trying to be, we we want to be you when we grow up. That's what it is.
00:50:24
Speaker
Well, thank you. All right, let's shift this kumbaya moment over to that that actual weekend now itself in terms of the running. And I mean, AJ, you always kill it. So we're going to put you off to the side for for right now. And Erica, I'm going to put the focus solely on you for this this race weekend, because obviously a couple of weeks leading up to marathon weekend, you know that was the first time you know Rise and Run had the opportunity to you know join you guys on the podcast. And um You know, I think that was when I was slowly starting to learn that, you know, Vegas odds are pretty high each and every single week on this podcast. There's an opportunity for you to cry. And yes ah at that particular time, that was when you you made a very difficult decision that you had to, you know, adjust your goals for marathon weekend. Talk about your injury experience and how that translated into the weekend itself. Yeah, totally. So um Thanksgiving, we had um hosted our whole family and I had moved a bunch of furniture around. And as they left, I closed the door, turned around real fast and tripped over a piece of furniture that wasn't normally there and um fell and broke three toes, my big toe, and then the one next to it on my right foot and then one on the left foot. Um, and that big toe breaking, that was like a deal breaker. I mean, I've broken other little toes before. It's not a big deal, but this one really messed me up. And so, um, I couldn't keep training. i knew I wasn't going to be able to, to run the marathon. i was going to try to I think ah initially my goal was to like start cross the start line, get a picture and then, and then put myself on the bus. Right. Um, but as I got closer, I realized I could walk. Um, I thought I might still be able to be able to walk a little bit. Honestly, Greg, you're, you're a big part of that um race weekend for me. Um, look, you're to make me cry. Goodness. I've, how long have we been recording? I haven't cried yet. It's about time. and good Yeah, no, but um I ran into you at the TTC. You probably don't even remember this, but you were like, you yelled. I remember clear as death. Yeah, you were like, keep going. And then like two second pause, but make smart choices. And um and so so I did. I speed walked all the way to the half marathon little flag thing. And then when I saw it, I literally, you were in my head, like make smart choices. And I thought,
00:52:43
Speaker
You want to keep running for years. So don't do something stupid. Don't try to walk this whole marathon, you know, injured. And so I decided that was a good time to put myself on the bus. But yeah, i am along with my ah incessant need to cry all the time, i also have a ah pretty good, you know, um track record of injuring myself every year in some way. So yeah.
00:53:05
Speaker
and I don't know, Erica. Sorry, Greg, going hijack this for a second. I don't know that we ever talked about it. Was there something that you learned through that um but that that getting on the bus experience? Like when we did our marathon recap, I don't know that I asked you that question. Did you learn anything about that experience or yourself in that?
00:53:20
Speaker
Oh, geez. That's a loaded question. Yeah. um Because we had said when you injured yourself, maybe you'll learn something that you wouldn't have learned before, you know, through the experience. Was there anything that you take away? Yeah, for sure. Like I was really, really proud of what I had done. um I wasn't sure going into it, like how I was going to feel about...
00:53:39
Speaker
the medal because I didn't earn the whole thing that day, but I had put in a lot of training before. And so, um, you know, I joke with friends, like I'll hold the medal, I'll hold like half of it. And I'll say like, well, I earned this half of the medal. And I was really proud of that half. But I think getting on the bus that day, um, it, I mean, I have a lot of empathy for people anyways, which is why I cry all the time, but I think I have an i had a newfound empathy for people that have trained hard that for whatever reason, you know we don't know everyone's story, but they may have injured themselves. they may you know Something may have come up at the last minute, but they're not able to finish. And so I think that's um given me a lot of empathy and and respect for people that go out and start and try, even if they know they won't be able to finish. Um, you know, the few times that we've spectated since, like you and I talk about this a lot, but we'd like to stay till the bitter end for the people that, you know, are giving it their all, you know? And so, um, I think that, that was a, that was a lot of a big, the big takeaway that I, that I had that week. Yeah, you can probably look at any runner now and not and not that you were judgmental before. Like, that's not what I'm saying. But like, you brought your empathy level might even tick up a few more notches because you've felt the feeling, right? Yeah. And you don't know somebody's story. No. It's not just a matter of, oh, they didn't do their training. Right. Like, that's not the answer. Right. You know, like, there's a magillion things that could be going on. Yeah.
00:54:58
Speaker
I did talk about the Rise and Run podcast on that bus ride. There was a girl sitting next to me and she was talking about, you know, it was her first race and she had tried really hard, but she wasn't able to finish. And she said, she was looking for encouragement. And I said, you need to listen to the Rise and Run podcast. You didn't tell her about the One More Run podcast? I did not. I told her about the Rise and Run podcast.
00:55:16
Speaker
Yeah. You can go get the checkbook now, Greg. That's totally fine. True story. This is the opportunity now where you get business cards made up. And then when that situation happens, you know, instead talking about us, you just, here, here. Nope. No. You know why we're not going to do that and never have, never will is that whole idea we don't want it to be about us. It's about us. Right, yeah. So we'll gladly point them. And you guys probably do the same thing. Oh, you know who would be really encouraging? You should listen to our friends, AJ and Erica. Yeah. We're going to do the thing to you guys. Absolutely. We love the community of that. Yeah, totally. Exactly. rising tide lifts all boats. That's right. Yep. All right. Well, yeah, obviously, so, you Marathon Weekend 26 took on whole new meeting, especially for you, Erica. But, you let's just, know, just real briefly here, chat about the last two race weekends that we've got to experience in terms of Disneyland, the final Disneyland for
00:56:08
Speaker
Who knows how long there's some people that think it will come back. And then there's people like me that are not as optimistic that it will. yeah But, uh, you know, you talk about briefly about that experience and then also princess as well, too, because obviously, you know, again, another race weekend where, you know, again, even though it's not about you and and I'm so glad that you guys continue to reiterate that.
00:56:29
Speaker
But on the flip side of it, the real positive thing is it offers opportunities for you to be able to meet those people that you have inspired to establish those deeper, stronger bonds. So just, you know, try about those two weekends. Yeah, I think we want to genuinely encourage somebody. So Disneyland gave us that. We got to you know just meet meet folks that we only saw them for 20 seconds, but we got to encourage them and and all that. So that was super fun. I liked um in this race, so Disneyland and the the princess this year, we ran together and we ran ah comfortably. yeah Right. Like we didn't run hard when we were running. We took all the walk breaks we needed. And what that allowed us to do was um different than like when I'm running full out with my headphones on or whatever is it allowed me to to be around when people passed us and that allowed them to talk to us.
00:57:24
Speaker
Right. And they could say anything or they recognized us or they heard our voices or whatever. And because they were going faster than we were, they could comfortably say something. You're like, oh my gosh, hey, we love your podcast. Oh, this means a lot or whatever. When we like never, not anybody we passed at any point ever said, oh, hey, wait up. I want to tell you something. You know what I mean? And so now I'm in this like weird spot of like, how slow do I go so that we can encourage people?
00:57:49
Speaker
Uh, do I just need to walk for now?
Future Race Plans and Atlanta's Peachtree
00:57:51
Speaker
you know what I mean? Because I do, I want to be an encouragement, yeah but I also do have my own personal goals and things like that. So like, it's kind of a weird thing. I'd actually love some advice, Greg. I'm like, how do you balance that when you've got your own personal objective, but you're even like stronger than that. You want to be an encouragement to others. How do you handle that on the course? So that was, that was what we were battling, not battling, but like figuring out. at Disneyland and Disneyland, we got to spectate, um, the 10 K and that was a ton of fun. And so we got to do that. And then, um, and we spectated at princess weekend too. And so like, we've just taken on this, um, uh, run Disney is not just anymore about the medals and the pictures and the outfits for us. You know, that's what it was for the, for the first two years or whatever. Now it's about,
00:58:37
Speaker
How can we encourage somebody else? How can we get them across? I love being on the sidelines and someone looks like they're going to die. Yeah. And they're like, oh, and I'm like, hey, you, you can do it. yeah They like their eyes kind of get really big. Yeah. And they just like pick up the pace. And I don't know if they're going to make it all the way to the end. But like, hey, here's some here's some fuel for your fire. Yeah. Man, it's more it's might be more fun than running the race. Yeah, I think so. It's it's a ton of fun. Yeah.
00:59:07
Speaker
And you were that for me, by the way, Greg, in the marathon. I saw you at the TTC and you gave me some some gas right before the boring parking lot, sanitation plant, and rode out to Animal Kingdom. But I feel bad because I i didn't tell you to make smart choices. I only told that to Erica. That's okay.
00:59:24
Speaker
Well, I think this probably brings us to the conclusion of the Run Disney because ah side of this because there's still more story to be told. But let's talk about the future and and let's tackle this from from two different sides. The first is the running side. I mean, obviously, AJ, know a j you you know broke the news you know a couple of weeks ago that you were... one of the lucky one percenters that got into the, uh, the New York city marathon. So obviously you have that on deck for, uh, you know, for this November. And then obviously, you know, we talked about, you know, through, you know serendipity, you know that was maybe the reason why you guys didn't, didn't get into wine and dine, but what else is on the docket for the rest of 26 and, and into early 27?
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah. So marathon weekend for sure. Uh, New York is November and then, you know, January would be marathon weekend. We love doing, um, we've talked about it on the podcast. We love doing the peach tree road race, right? It's in Atlanta. It's a 10 K. Um, I think Jeff Gallagher. Yeah.
01:00:25
Speaker
Yeah. yeah the Largest 10 K in the country. And I think Jeff, Jeff won it. yes i think I believe the first one ever. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we, we'd never done it. And we lived we've lived in Atlanta for 20 something years yeah and everyone's like, oh, you've never done the peach tree. Like, that's what they call it. The peach tree, you know? And we're like, no, like we know we have no desire to go hang out with 60,000 people, you know, downtown Atlanta. No way. So we did it last year, you know, to kind of check it off the list. Kind of like when you sign up for a marathon and you say, oh we'll do it one time. And then that'd be it. Yeah.
01:00:56
Speaker
We signed up for one time and now I tell anyone that live in any of the surrounding States, I'm like, you need to drive in for this race. This race is a ton of fun. And so it very much has that like a solid spectators on all sides for six miles. You know what I mean? and And they're handing out all kinds of things that maybe you shouldn't take it from that, you know, take that while you're, you know, While you're running, you know, it's questionable, you know, fireball, yeah, you know, things like that, but it's a ton of fun. on the 4th of July and we love that race. So we're going to, going to do that one. And I think that's it. We'll do some local stuff. We love, you know, doing local races in our town, um but no other destination races, at the moment. And we have not decided if we're doing, um, princess or springtime or any of those next year, we've not decided yet.
01:01:41
Speaker
Well, Erica, I think because AJ got into New York, I feel like you now have the ownership to pick whatever destination race want. And I will fully support you in all those
Podcast Growth and Future Direction
01:01:52
Speaker
adventures. You heard Greg say that, right? Whoa, Greg, Greg, Greg. We don't cut anything out of the podcast. It's recorded. I'm sorry. That's right. That's right. Well, he is getting his checkbook, so we should be okay.
01:02:01
Speaker
all And then I think the last thing that, that we need to chat about before I i throw hosting duties back over to the two of you is, i mean, I, I have loved watching your podcast journey and, you know, from, you know, the Instagram reels to the topics, to how everything is just so timely in terms of how things line up, you know, you're in the middle of season two now, but you know, what did the two of you see as the future of one more run?
01:02:32
Speaker
I still don't know exactly. Do you? Yeah, no. Do you, Erica? No. We just continue, I think, right now just trying to be an encouragement, provide helpful resources, right? And I think one of the things we did in the beginning was we leaned in heavily into what we knew, you know, and that was...
01:02:47
Speaker
That was all that we, that we were just like, all right, so here's how we do transportation, you know, and here's some of the things you need to know. And now I think that we've kind of said that, and there's a catalog where people can go find that information. It's not that we'll never say it again, but now I think we're trying to you know, tap into some people, um, that have more information than we have. you know, um, with experiences that we don't have. So we had a charity runner on recently, um, and you know, having, you know, like you guys on the podcast and just bringing in people who have been doing it longer than us. They've done different things than us that can just provide
Enjoyment and Audience Feedback
01:03:20
Speaker
some insights. I think we're going to start telling some, um, pretty inspiring stories on the podcast of folks that have overcome some things and you guys do that really well on your show. And so I think that we're going to try and just bump up the encouragement, right? Still provide helpful information. And then we we just want to balance and ah for folks like some people just listen to the podcast and this is going to sound weird. They listen the podcast because for some reason they want to listen to us talk. And I'm not sure what that, that, why that is. They just want to hear us talk. We could talk about anything.
01:03:48
Speaker
Yeah. We could talk about underwater basket weaving. And I think they would listen. And minored in that in college. So I know a lot about it. whenever you're ready to talk about that, have you back on. Perfect. Perfect. And so we're just trying to find that balance of like, you know, yes, we run, run. Disney is the topic. you know, or running is the topic, but some people just tune in. And so one of the things, Greg, and I'd love your insight. We can talk about it afterwards is like some people just want to like hear us ramble on about some stuff, but we want to be helpful. Right. So I'm looking at that like idea, like, do we do an after show where we just talk about stupid stuff? You know what mean? And it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a separate thing and you don't have, we don't to publish it on, on the podcast and all that stuff. And people can have that and it has its own little community thing, you know? Um, but we're still like have our main show. That's a helpful thing, but we're, we're, we're exploring all that kind stuff. We don't know if we're going to land fully on that. So the future, I don't know. We're just trying to balance it. But we've asked for feedback. We know how people feel about the podcast.
01:04:44
Speaker
So we're just we're just trying to figure it out. Erica, did you have any other comments on the future of the show? No, i agree with everything you said. We want to be helpful. We still want to be you know encouraging. We want to have fun guests. But like you said, occasionally try to sprinkle in some just us talking. i don't know. People love that for some reason. We'll record an episode like the one we did where we answered listener questions. And we're like...
01:05:04
Speaker
Was that any good? Like, do you think people will like that? And then everybody like sends us messages. Oh, we loved it. It was so fun. like yeah i'm like I'm like, there was nothing helpful. Why did you enjoy it? But they love it it's some for some reason. so no it's so So we'll just keep doing it. oh yeah Let's see. I also got truth. Well, this has been an incredible conversation.
Learning and Inspiring Through Podcasting
01:05:22
Speaker
i again, am honored that I got to be able to guide it You know, even though, again, i enjoy listening to the two of you just talk each and every single week, I continue to learn more about you.
01:05:33
Speaker
I continue to learn what makes the two of you tick and why you want to inspire so many others just in life and then within this community. And, um you know, thank you again for this opportunity. This was ah this was awesome.
01:05:45
Speaker
Thanks for hosting. Can we throw some questions back at you and for five minutes and then and then let you go? Absolutely. I mean, as as long as it's not you trying to but take five minutes to convince me to join the dark side in terms of taking the medal over Main Street, then sure. i i I can recognize a lost cause when I see one. so there's, there's i just you know, it's fine, Greg. you just we're the We're the winning team. you are You are currently winning by the numbers, but in spirit, I feel like people really, they're on my side.
01:06:13
Speaker
That's what I'm, no? I'm going to start bringing on guests. I'm going to have like a pre-qualifying question before I invite them on the podcast. be like, hey, how do you feel about a metal enemy and Main Street? And then if they answer correctly, I'll have them on the podcast. Okay. Do a little filter? No.
01:06:28
Speaker
No. Okay. Greg, i want to ask you podcast questions, five minutes worth of just like insider. I think a lot of people listen to your show, you know, you guys, you know, the whole gang, they listen to your show and they listen to our show and they've kind of getting to know both of us. Right. And they've known you for a lot longer. So I kind of wanted to have that. Like if they just wanted to listen in on like some of the behind the scenes, you know, of of this podcast.
Technical Issues and Notable Guests
01:06:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:50
Speaker
thing, right? So I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions if you're willing. If you're not, if you're like, hey, I gotta go to bed, then that's fine. oh Not at all. Okay, well, let me tell you a funny story first. You are not gonna know this at all, but you years ago, inspire a year and a half ago,
01:07:08
Speaker
inspired me to literally hit record on this podcast because you posted a story and it was a picture of your um your timeline you were editing and you posted something about working on editing the podcast. Anybody have any questions? And I'm a random internet person, you know, who listens to Rise and Run and have been for years. And then my question was, what's your number one piece of advice? You know, and you said, just hit record, just start.
01:07:36
Speaker
That's it. And I was like, Okay. So we did. we literally did. i mean, probably six months later, you know, I literally had my PowerPoint plan and all that stuff and we hit record and we were so bad at it, Greg. I mean, it was real bad. i think we deleted the first recording. It was just really bad. And so anyway, all that to say some random guy on the internet asked a story, a question on an Instagram story and you gave an answer and it helped, helped give me the confidence to start. So I wanted to start with that. But here's the question is the technology side of podcasting as hard for you.
01:08:11
Speaker
Like, is it as much of a pain in the rear end for you as it is for us? Because it's a pain. Like the tech is the hardest thing we deal with. I mean, yeah yes and no. i mean, usually it's one of those things where if something goes wrong, it's only happens when we have someone on that we're super nervous about. Of course. yes for For example, the first time we ever had Jeff Galloway on the ah the podcast, we encountered an error.
01:08:39
Speaker
that we had never experienced in all the episodes that we record. And God bless that man. We were troubleshooting for 45 minutes. Oh my gosh. And he just sat there with the biggest grin on his face. I'm so sorry. and we And we kept apologizing to him over and over. And he's like, folks, it's fine. I'm just i'm here for the ride and i'm I'm here to help. And That will go down as our greatest technical snafu um you know that we ever experienced. But I mean, really the only other thing that you know that we have to deal with is um I feel like Bob needs a Wi-Fi extender for his house or either that or I need to buy him 200-foot Ethernet cable to go from his router out to his patio because sometimes he'll drop out ah because of you know poor Internet. But I mean...
01:09:32
Speaker
Sure, there are frustrating times, but then you know most weeks everything's smooth sailing. so Ours is always with a guest. yep I mean, Amanda is our story. Amanda and once won a marathon. yep The computer like starts making like a jet engine noise and just ruins the recording. And I'm like i'm like telling her, like hey, is there something wrong on your end? And she's like, no, it must be you. And I'm like, no, I think it's you. And so I'm like, shut the computer down and turn it back on. It's still making the noise. We switch platforms, all this. And I'm so embarrassed. You know what i mean? Just so embarrassed. She's like celebrity to me. You know what I mean? i'm just like, I can't even. And she was like the, night like like your experience with Jeff, the nicest person about it ever. She's like, totally fine. And I'm like, okay, okay, okay. We're done with all the questions. We can let you go. And like, she wasn't in a hurry. She's like, well, what else do you want to talk about? And I'm like, okay. I'm so glad she's she's cool. yeah It was so embarrassing. I mean, just be careful. She might do a deep dive on you one day ah in terms of why you had such poor technical issues. She probably knows and you know and did search my IP address or something you know and and knows the thing. Yeah, it's always with a guest. That's where oh either that or I forget to hit record. Remember that time? Oh, yeah. seven b Yeah. Episode seven. I totally forgot to record and like 45 minutes in, I look over and i'm like, oh no, it's not red.
01:10:49
Speaker
Oh my gosh. but Did you want me to ask the next question? Yeah. Okay. Sorry. See, see technical failures when you have a guest. Yes. Um, so Greg, what has surprised you the most or caught you off guard?
Impactful Community and Listener Stories
01:11:02
Speaker
Wow. Um, this question. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, pretty much. No, I think it's the, um, You know, it's something similar to what the two of you talked about is, you know, getting approached at an expo or in a corral or or, you know, one of our organized meetups or something like that. And just, you know, hearing, you know, the incredible story of that person and the fact that we get to play a role yeah in that journey for someone.
01:11:33
Speaker
Um, it just, it warms my heart to hear it every time because again, just to be able to see the jubilation and joy and accomplishment in the stories that the people tell us is continuous warrants my heart and it but it still surprises me like you know you guys it's at five years into this and it's i have the same reaction now than i did you know in october of 2021 yeah that's so cool that is cool anything surprise you erica besides what we've already covered before No, just everything that we've said. I guess the thing that surprised me is the number of people that listen. Like that still blows my mind. Right. Yeah. But no, just, yeah.
01:12:13
Speaker
ah The best part, like we said, is just getting to hear other people's stories and and see them in person, and encourage them. Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised that when we get the giggles, we cannot recover. Nope. To save our life. Nope. Sometimes it happens and we just sit here and we cannot pull it together.
01:12:30
Speaker
Greg, what's the easiest part of creating the show? I think the camaraderie with my co-hosts. Yeah, totally. You know, we have an outline, not nearly as structured as yours, but sometimes what what I love and what just is so seamless is that...
01:12:50
Speaker
We'll have something to chat about, but then we can go on a tangent and then that tangent gets a tangent and we just continue to go with the flow. and then, you know, Jack out of left field says something really funny and then things are completely off the rails, but then we're able that somehow tie it all back together. And that, and that is so easy just because We just know each other so well now. And I think we, you know, we have such love and and respect and adoration that that we know how to to maneuver, you know, those times when we do get off the rails had still come up with a cohesive message for the listening audience every week. that that That is a lot easier than ah than some may think. Yeah. What's the hardest part?
01:13:36
Speaker
I would say the hardest part is sometimes, you know, making, you know, finite decisions is I think what is a blessing of rise and run is that we offer so many voices on, on our podcast, but at the same time though, and again, what makes us strong is, is our, is our number. But sometimes, you know, that can be intern terms of like, okay, we're,
01:13:57
Speaker
you know, when do we want to have this guest? When or if we need to record something ahead of time, trying to get six people's schedules to line up so we can have as many voices in that particular episode, um you know, sometimes can be tough. So um yeah I would say, yeah, just aligning schedules and trying to get...
01:14:19
Speaker
as, you know, we'll never try to convince one another to be like, you got to think like me, you know, or yeah you have to go with my, we are never like that whatsoever. And and I think that's what makes us tick so well. But sometimes just, you know, getting to, you know, just find that sweet spot sometimes, you know can be a little difficult, but at the same time, again, like I said before, we all love and respect one another as, you know, friends and co-hosts and just people in general that, you know we figure out the way to make it work. And um that's what i really appreciate about my co-hosts. Yeah.
01:14:48
Speaker
Awesome. I think for us, easiest would be exactly this. I think what you're saying, when the two of us can sit side by side and just talk, you know, we flow, we're good. We've known each other for 25 years. You know what i mean? Like that's the easy part. i think the hard part for me is that like, what are people going to like,
01:15:04
Speaker
like, or get out of this, or is this valuable? Like I like maybe overanalyze it. I don't know. You know, man maybe i just need to let some of that go sometimes where sometimes I'm just like, is this helpful right now? You know, is it, you know all that. So like, maybe, maybe I'm overthinking that to me is the hardest part is I'm just like, what's going to land right with people. Yeah.
01:15:22
Speaker
Yeah. And sometimes that means cutting stuff out of the podcast. I'll say it on the podcast. Sometimes that means I don't i don't think this is going to land right. You know, I'm going to take this out. Even though we say we don't edit the podcast, what we really mean is we don't edit out like the bloopers and the mistakes. But sometimes we do edit for content to make sure that we stay on topic and all that stuff. So absolutely. yeah that's the hardest part. I guess that discernment sometimes.
01:15:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Last question. And you, I think I know the answer, but if you had to turn off your show tomorrow, Right. It was done just for whatever reason. What's the thing you would miss the most?
01:15:54
Speaker
You know, there's a part of me that would say the community, but at the same time, i don't think that's the right answer, because even if we shut it off, the established community that we have built is so strong that even if we did shut it off, that would never crumble. Mm hmm.
01:16:10
Speaker
Mm hmm. I'd take a lot of pride and and solace in that. yeah um But I think the hardest part would be not being able to learn more people's stories. yeah yeah Because that's what you know keeps me going each and every single week. you know There are some times where I'm sitting up in my office until post-midnight editing the episode and then you know my wife will crack open the door and she'll look in and she'll be like just remember you chose this life right that's and you know so and then you know there's times we're like i you know okay i'm waiting for the episode the process so we can push it out onto the rss feed and it's like i just want to go to bed but at the same time though i'm like i need to be here because
01:16:57
Speaker
You know, even though we have an amazing community, there's still that person out there who hasn't heard Rise and Run, who hasn't heard One More Run. And they, you know, they need to hear it. It could positively change their life for the better, whether it's in terms of their mental health, their physical health. And that's and that's the person that I'm always working hard towards because I want to be able to, you know, continue to change as many people's lives as possible. Yeah. I love that. That's good. You know, you talk about late night editing. It happened to me maybe two weeks ago. i moved to, i was in a hotel room, ah moved to the bed and i was, I was just going to edit email my laptop, headphones on and I fell asleep. yeah Right. Like fell asleep. And I woke up maybe 20 minutes later and Erica was laughing hysterically on the podcast, but it woke me up because I was, you know, I had my headphones on and she did that laugh right there and literally woke me up and scared me to death. And I was like, what do you like? And she's not even in the room. I'm in a hotel room by myself. I'm like, So disoriented. I have no idea where I am And she was just laughing.
01:17:59
Speaker
So I know about late nights. yeah Greg, thanks so much for being on the podcast. We really appreciate you doing this, to hosting for us, giving us some insights onto the way that Rise and Run works, your heart behind it. you know We really appreciate it. yeah Oh, again, the pleasure is all mine. And thank you again for the opportunity. Yeah. Like AJ said, like we literally would not be here if it wasn't for you and what you told AJ on Instagram. um Your name specifically is like a household name for us. Like we talk about your name comes up at least once a week for us. We're like, Greg, this, Greg, that. In the beginning, would like, you know, Greg from Rise and Run. I'm like, I know who you're talking about, AJ. No, it's just Greg. Even our kids are like, did you hear what Greg said about you know the the movie the other day on Instagram or whatever? like You don't want to hear what Addy When Addy says Greg's name, it's not a good thing. was going to say, it's not a positive right thing. But um like beyond you, i mean Rise and Run, like we just we appreciate y'all so much. I will never forget when when your invite came through to Instagram. AJ and I legit were like, oh my gosh, did you see who invited us on their podcast? like you mean We were so excited. You guys mean so much to us. that What you do for the community, like we're just so appreciative. And we just we love you guys. Thank you so much for what you do for us and for Run Disney. well thank you. very much. Awesome. Thanks for being here, Greg. We appreciate you, my friend. we'll ah We'll catch you next time. All right. See you real soon.
01:19:25
Speaker
Thanks for joining us for this episode of One More Run, the podcast. If you like what we're up to, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Instagram. You can find links to all of that at ajanderica.com.