AJ and Erika: There is a lot to know about Ren Disney, but don't worry, we've got you covered. Today we're talking about some of the foundational things you need to know before you step up to the start line. Hey there, friends. Welcome to One More Run the Podcast. My name is AJ. And I'm Erica. And we are your hosts for this like Everything You Need to Know episode. We're gonna get real practical. If you're new to Run Disney, this is your episode. If you've done like a Majillion races, you're gonna be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But we've got a couple little surprises in here. We do, yeah. We have a special guest coming up. We sure do. and we're gonna I I can't ruin all the surprises. So you're gonna enjoy this episode either way. Right. if you're in in the thick of marathon training or wine and dine training or whatever, then just hit play, enjoy. We hope you do. We hope it's encouraging. Yeah. We hope it's helpful. We hope it inspires you to get out there and get your run done, whatever it is we really want to be helpful. Erica, I'm excited about today. Yeah. We've actually covered this topic before. We have, yes. But kind of like in the beginning of our podcast journey. And this is now. Like a year later. But one, things have changed. Right. Run Disney's changed a few things. Yes. And then we've just kind of learned the nuances of stuff. That's correct. Right? Like as much as you do Run Disney, right? You learn stuff every time. And so you excited? I am very excited. You ready to rock this thing? Yes. Okay, perfect. So today we're gonna cover all the things you need to know, like the words, phrases, and just nuances of Run Disney. But before we do that though, we've actually invited our friend Lisa. You guys might know her as the Castle Runner on Instagram. You probably do because Everybody follows her Instagram. It's great. And so we actually asked her to be on the podcast quiz. she's now the author of a book. Yes, she loves we got an advanced copy. Don't know if I'm allowed to say that. She hooked us up and I love it. And I've I'm reading it so far and it's really good. And so we've actually invited her on the podcast, not only to talk about that briefly, but also to play a game with us, actually to develop a top 10 list. Perfect. Lisa, my gosh, welcome to the podcast. We are so excited for you to be here, but we're also so excited for your book. You were so generous to hook us up with an advanced copy. We totally appreciate that. And so we're super excited. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and have some fun tonight talking about, you know, about our topic and the book and all the things. I don't know if I was supposed to like sign a non-disclosure agreement or anything, but but it's awesome. Like I have to tell you that like I'm not done with it. But like it's so good. And I'm like legitimately, Erica, when someone says, Yeah, I'm thinking about doing my first Run Disney race, or you know, I did one, but it didn't go the way I wanted, or whatever, I'm gonna like, okay, two steps. One, subscribe to our podcast. Two, buy Lisa's book. Yes. Like, like a hundred percent. This I believe should be a resource for everybody on their shelf. Like we're super excited about it and can't wait for it to come out. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. I'm I'm so excited to have like finally like created this thing that like kind of can hold your hand from start to finish between two covers. Lisa, last week we loved getting to hear you share on Rise and Run. So friends, definitely go listen to that episode to learn all about her book. They nailed it perfectly. So we don't want to try to reinvent the wheel. Just go listen to that. It's episode 253. But Lisa, so our friends have some quick context today. How would you describe the Run Disney Companion and who is it for? It was a tough book to write because it serves two audiences, right? It's it, it absolutely is You know, very much first and foremost intended for the Run Disney newbie, like the person who is kind of looking in from the outside, seeing all the talk about it. Like obviously, like the attention around these races is growing so much, which is absolutely amazing. But when you layer in kind of like the intimidation of a race to begin with, for somebody who's never perhaps done one before. And then on top of that, like all of the complications that come with. The Intimidation of a Disney trip and like all of the things that kind of come together that make it feel somewhat inaccessible. First and foremost, that's who this book was written for. That being said, you can't write a Run Disney book without it being for the community. Because you know, its purpose is the logistical guide for the new person. Its heart is like just giving a voice to our community and what's so special about these races and why this community is so so amazing. And then the last chapter of the books is kind of a dozen lessons learned from distance running that I think again just kind of gives a voice to all of us who have gotten so much from distance running. It's kind of like the everything ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten, take on running. Yes. so, so yeah, so those are the two levels. And you know, it I can't believe the book didn't exist already. Right. You know, it's it's kind of blows my mind that This book didn't exist before now. you know, all that being said, I'm honored and I hope I did good by everybody. Yeah. What I've read so far, I love. You know what I mean? And we loved your conversation with Ryzen Run. Yeah, like we're not like sponsored in any way. We get nothing. Like, I just want people to get this book. Right. You know what I mean? Like go buy buy yourself a copy as soon as it comes out, which I believe is this week, right? Yeah, August 7th. it'll be available on Amazon and also on my website, which is the Castle Run. I love it. Friends, I'm serious. Like, we're we're about to have a ton of fun with Lisa and take her in a totally different direction. But before we talk about that, like or before we do that fun thing, like go buy the book. Like a hundred percent. I've read it. It's great. And I love the checklists in the back. Eric, I don't know if you've gotten to that yet. Like the packing checklist and the budgeting checklist. Like it's so good. Like it's just so good. I'll I'll stop saying it's so good. but it really is just that good. We love it. Feel free to go on. Please continue. Continue. Yeah. No, I no truly though. I I I appreciate it so much. It it means a lot coming from from you. To in particular to hear that. And and again, like I'm honored and I'm glad the community has it now. Excellent. Okay. so Lisa, we invited you on because Erica and I did a top 10 list. I don't know when that was. It was maybe last year. We did a top 10 list where we kind of, you know, came up with the list of 10 things you don't want to miss if you go to a Run Disney race, like the top 10 things to do. We thought you could help us come up with the opposite of that. Don't do these things, right? Don't ruin your race weekend by making these either. common mistakes or maybe not common, like you just don't know. And so obviously you you said yes. I'm you know bury the, you know, not bearing the lead there. You said yes. And the way we're gonna do this is we've all submitted our top 10 list. And we got this idea from the for your amusement podcast. Those guys do this weekly with rides, attractions, and things like that. So the bottom line is Erica submitted her top 10, don't do these things. You did and I did. Erica, was it hard to come up with this list for you? No. It was kind of hard to order them, but I could easily come up with 10 things. Right. And the order, and the reason the order matters is because number one has a higher value than number 10, right? So what we're trying to do is create like the the top 10, getting to number one. Right. So each each of our top 10 lists have, you know, number number one is worth 10 points. Number 10 is worth one point. Right. So I know that's kind of confusing. I did the math. I verified it 12 times to make sure. Lisa, was it hard for you to order your list? Cause I had a hard time with it, you know, just like making sure I had it in the right order. Was it hard for you? Yeah. I think when I sent my email over to you, I said the same exact thing. Like the list itself wasn't hard to write. Paring it down to to 10 was a little bit hard, but you know, there's some catch alls in there. Uh-huh. so yeah, the the list itself was easy, but putting them in order and also I was trying to be a little bit like strategic about it. Like I wanted this to make the list. I'm gonna like bury some of my work. Or you were trying to like shoe shoehorn some in, you know, do a little muscle job. No, I ended up being pretty honest about it, but I was tempted for like a few of the more unique ones to like bump them up, but I didn't. No, I I but no, putting them in order was was really tough for me. Well, I threw a little surprise in here for you, Lisa. you have your list, Erica has hers, I have mine. I aggreg aggregated, if that's a word, I aggregated those and made an aggregate list. That's a probably a better way to say that. but I also asked our Patreons to do the same thing, but they didn't know they were participating in this. So I just put on our our Patreon for those that support the show. I said, Hey, what are your what are your things that you don't want to do at a Run Disney race weekend? Don't ruin your race by doing these things. And they just they went to town, you know, they submitted all the stuff. And so what I did is I created their top 10 list based off how many people said the same thing, right? And so they have a top 10 list and I've added it in here, and I have to tell you. I had already had the three of ours and they impacted the list. It reordered some stuff. Okay. And so it's good because that's that's the Run Disney community right there, right? Like they, they're they're all runners. Yeah. So I'm so curious. I'm so curious. And like to see if people came up with unique things. I'm super interested. Yep. Well, we are about to find out. And I'm gonna go in reverse order. Feel free to comment if you have a comment. Okay. If you don't have a comment, totally fine. We're gonna work our way from ten to one. But I kept just so you understand how this works, I've kept a number 11 in here so you can see how how how this like the scoring works or whatever. So number eleven, the answer is don't skip the opportunity to use a real bathroom. Okay. And the way the points worked on that, at least that wasn't on your list, but it was on your list. It was on your list. Erica is number 10, it was on my list, is number eight, right? So those combine or whatever is four points, which is really low. You're about to find out in comparison to everything else. Yes. And so that's the example one. So here we go with number 10. this is on Lisa's list at number five. And the crew, that's what we call our Patreons. They're called the crew. they it was their number nine. Don't underestimate the logistics of a race weekend. So that's number nine, or that's number 10 on our list with seven points. And since it was on your list, what did you mean by that, Lisa? Like you can train so hard for months and months and months and absolutely ruin your race because you like mishandled the. 24 hours preceding it. Like don't cut your plane so close that you might not make it to Expo. Don't like if you're planning to drive, don't ignore road closures. Like make sure you know what time your corral closes. Like it's the little nitty-gritty stuff, but it's so important to the and it's so easy if you know it, but if you if you ignore it, it can completely derail what you worked for months and months towards. So don't ignore the logistics after working so, so hard to get to the start line. Totally. And a great example of that too is like the bus, the the morning of the race. Like there's a window of time that you can catch the bus, you know? And the earlier the better, you know, you don't want to push it. So that's really good. I love that you had that on your list. Number nine. This was on Erica's list. It was your number nine. Lisa was number number seven and the crew had it at their eight. So with a total of nine points, don't plan around perfect conditions. You need to pack for every kind of scenario. What'd y'all mean by that? Go ahead, Lisa. So I mean it's not just the weather. Like, you know, anything can trip you up on race day. And I think the like larger lesson is that you just don't know what you're gonna be walking into. So the best that you can do is just prepare and train and do all of the things again and like just walk across the start line and kind of give yourself over to the race that the day presents you. That being said, this is Florida and the weather is like bring a poncho. Right. Bring a mylar, you know, if you have the room in your bag or otherwise have the luxury, like hit up a goodwill or another thrift shop or a Walmart and get yourself some layers because you can shed them off like after you stop needing them and Disney will launder them and donate them. So they're going to a good cause. so yeah, I mean, just prepare for everything, you know, the you can go from rain to freezing cold to Burning up hot in the course of a couple of hours between waiting for the race to start and crossing the finish line. So do the best you can to prepare and then honor the day that gets presented with you and you know, bring all of the weather contingencies. Yep. Did you run the 2024 marathon where there wasn't a rain cloud on the forecast and then we all got soaked? Were you did you run that one? I did. Yeah. I've run all the marathons for for a while. And that was, yeah, I think I was running into Animal Kingdom. when that down when that absolute downpour started and I was just like soaked through to the bone and so miserable. And obviously like you don't have a poncho at that point. It felt kind of good until it until it until it didn't it felt good. But yeah, I think we've had we've had freezing cold marathon weekends. We've had hot, hot, hot marathon weekends. Obviously the same goes for every other race weekend. So like it's Florida. The weather can change in five minutes. That's right. Always have a poncho in your pocket. Always have a Mylar in your pocket. you know, and be prepared to drop layers if you need to. You know, the interesting thing I got out of that story, you probably know what it was. She was going into Animal Kingdom. yeah. When it was pouring out rain. We were going into the magic kingdom when it was rain. So you were well ahead of us. Yeah, that was that was a rough morning. man. all right. So let's number eight. This is on Lisa's list, and our crew had it. So it was your number six, our crew had it at number three. don't forget to coordinate with your travel party or your family or your running buddies. Don't forget to communicate with them. And so I totally agree with you. Do you have a an explanation about why you want to do that? Yeah. I mean, this isn't gonna be a normal Disney trip. And if you don't manage expectations going into the weekend, then you're gonna end up feeling guilty about running the race and doing all the things that you need to do to like honor the race that you trained for. Yeah, your your travel mates are gonna potentially be resentful or at least feel left out. so I think it's just really important, like not that weekend, but like before that weekend, to kind of just sit everybody down, say, listen, like bedtime for me is gonna look a lot different than bedtime for you. My alarm's gonna be going off at two o'clock in the morning. I might be up for a park day afterwards, I might not be up for a park day afterwards. So just make sure that like that. you kind of go in managing expectations and nobody feels guilty, nobody feels like left out and encourage them too to kind of make plans for themselves and do something special for themselves. Whether it's, you know, a pool day for everybody that everybody can enjoy or making sure that they're off having a nice dinner when you're tucked into bed at eight o'clock at night. so yeah, I think like everybody's gonna be happier if you have if you have people that aren't running with you, that are along with you. You know, everybody's gonna be happier if you're managing expectations. And also if they're spectating, make sure that they know how appreciated they are and like how much of a difference that they make to you on the course because spectating is not easy. Right. Yeah. No. I would also say if you're running with somebody, be like even if they like are your pace and all that stuff, like it just happens. Like, what do we do if we get split up? What if I want to stop for a character and you don't? And who is it we were talking about? Just as yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. You agree? E that's it maybe even more important what you just said because you know, maybe somebody's like maybe somebody's like very, very character oriented, you know, and maybe you're kind of not feeling it that day, or maybe they're planning to run intervals and that's not your thing. So you're I I'm disagreeing with you. I didn't mean to cut you off, but like what that's equally important. Look, you have author behind your name now. You're allowed to cut cut us off at any time. At any time. Disagreeing with you. Disagreeing with you. gosh. I think I don't know who we were talking to, but that whole idea of like, you know, or you know, what you know, we shouldn't be making decisions at to at mile 17. We should be making these decisions beforehand. Right. That if we get split up, yes, just go. If I say leave me, that means leave me. Right. Don't feel bad about that, whatever. So yeah, it's I I think that communication is good. The number seven is gonna be similar, but like that was about communicating. This is about how you feel. Right. So number seven is don't let others determine your race, like run your race. Don't let how others, anybody, don't let their actions or their opinion ruin your race. Right. This Erica was your number three. So very high. Lisa's number four in the crew had it at seven. So since you had it so high at number three, do you have any comments? Yeah, I would just say, like, I mean, what you just said, like run your own race. you train for it a specific way. And so to have success on that day, like you want to follow that plan, whatever that was. I tend to wanna like go with whatever you want to do if we're running together. And even if that's to my detriment. And so I need to remind myself, like, no, like have a plan and stick with it. You know? So I think and when something goes wrong, not if right, when when somebody cuts you off, right, when the weather hits, when the whatever, like you need to run your race, right? Don't let that ruin. Run your race. At least my opinion. Yeah, totally. Even if you're by yourself, you have to really like run your own race like out the gate and not be tempted by like the adrenaline of everybody else around you. And also just kind of listening to your body for the entire race, even on your own, even if you're out there alone on the course, like you you might have, you know, PR conditions and feel PR conditions, but you might have a stomach cramp. You might have like feel a little off that day. So, you know, train. Train for the PR, but like like be ready for it when the universe is ready to grant you with those conditions. But but otherwise just like, you know, you can you can only prepare so much and then you just kind of have to roll with the day. Yeah, yeah. The universe granted me PR conditions and then and I was getting it. And then right at the end, the like second to last character stop was my character that I needed to stop for with no line and I couldn't stop. And it's haunted me since the day but the PR was that day was the most important thing. And now I've never gotten the character stop that I wanted. You know what I mean? And I've not seen them since. So yeah. Who was it? Who was the character? So I it was Mr. Frederickson and Doug. So Carl and Doug from Up. I've not seen them together since Wine and Dine 2023. I've not seen them to I've seen them separate, but not together since then. And of course, our our listeners. Anyone that has that picture, they have let me know. Sent it to me, J. Sent that to me because I regret, I regret not stopping. Because the the hard part is like I would still would have gotten a PR if I had stopped because there was no one in line. You know, but there's no line. But but when you're cooking, you don't want to stop. You know, and I I was I was cooking. Yeah. You made the right decision in the moment. Yeah. Yep. It just haunts me. That's all. That's the problem. Okay. All right. number six, don't overdo it in the parks before the race, Erica. I had this at number two. So like I wasn't in any of the last answers, but this one is high on my list. You had it at number five. The crew had it at number five as well. So a total of 21 points for this one. Don't overdo it in the parks. I'll I'll talk first since I had it. So high. I I've legitimately just stayed out to the fireworks the night before a half marathon. It's a terrible decision. Yeah. You know, you need your sleep. You need I mean, it's you're already getting up too early. You know what I mean? And so I mean, genuinely just don't overdo your body. Don't wear your feet out. Yeah. You're gonna end up taking so many extra steps that you didn't realize that you did and then just setting yourself up for failure. Yeah. And even walking around your resort is hard. You know what I mean? You're staying at pop century or something, you don't realize how far those buildings are until it's eleven o'clock at night and you're like, my gosh, this was a terrible decision. So any other comments about that? No, no. Everything you said. Perfect. Lisa, it wasn't on your list, but do you I'm I'm I'm hoping you agree that. even though it wasn't on your list that you don't want to overdo it, right? I think it shows up on my list in another way that I'm thinking is probably coming up soon. So I'm not gonna spoil it. Okay. I'm I'm local, so I don't have a tendency to like want to be rope dropping to clothes around the races. I I I I'll throw it in later if it doesn't come up. But I I have a feeling that my version of that is coming. Perfect. All right number five, don't eat food you're not used to eating before the race. 22 points. It was my number four, your number six The crew had it at number one. Wow. They were overwhelmingly don't eat something that you're not used to, your stomach's not used to. Right. Got any comments? I would just say that like like Lisa said, you've been training for this race for months and months on end. Yeah. You do not want to mess things up the night before just because you run to eat something crazy from the park. The tachos look great and so. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. So for sure. Stay clear of foods that you know are gonna mess you up. Like you don't want to eat something super greasy or For me, like definitely not something dairy heavy or anything like that. but yeah, just yeah. Lisa, what's your go to? I guess you're local. So do you eat at home? Yeah, I typically will like stock up at Publix and just kind of have myself, my stash like ready for ready for the weekend. Use use your training to figure out what works for you and then like actually stick with it when you get here, even though like Mickey pretzels and pizza might be like, you know, more tempting than they would be at home. Right. It's funny how fast I can justify. but it's just a carb. I need to carb load. You know, it's funny how I can justify it real fast. Yep. Yep. All right. Let's see. What's number what number are we on? That was number five. So we're getting we're in the top five now. Number four. Getting there, yeah. Don't stress out or be nervous. Have fun. Twenty-three points. It was my number six. You're number two. So tell us, tell us. Have you have you ruined this before? With stress. absolutely. Okay. Yeah. I think especially like your first race weekend, if you don't know very much going in, you're just gonna have like a higher level of nerves. And then I would say, depending on what your goals are, if you're wanna try to PR a race, like I would be much more anxious about that than I would be if I'm like, we're just gonna have fun and take character photos and do whatever. So but I would say, you know. We sign up to do these Rhine Disney races because there's something magical that happens there that doesn't happen in any other race. and so you just don't want to rush through, you know, you wanna appreciate every moment and just you want you wanna have fun. You're there to have fun. So just remember that. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Any comments, Lisa? I I mean, I had planning to PR as my number ten, which I think is like a version of this. So, like, you know. PR your local race, like get your money's worth out of Disney paying too much and there's too much fun to be had on these courses. Rules are made to be broken, like they can be amazing PR conditions between how flat it is and like how much the weather can at times cooperate, especially when it's chillier out, like over marathon weekend. But like if you PR the marathon at Dopey, like the only thing that it tells you is that you need to go run a marathon on fresh legs. And fresh legs and fully rested to like figure out what your actual PR is. Right. Like if you're and particularly like lack of sleep and like and like and if you're doing it as a part of a challenge. Like if you're PR ing a Disney race, like with all of the different factors that kind of go against a PR at a Disney race, like you're gonna wanna go PR a local race and like for real. So enjoy, enjoy the course. Enjoy the course. Yep. Absolutely. My version of this is like, I'm gonna wanna be back here. Like the minute I leave, like I'm gonna wanna have been. Yeah. No, I should have taken my time. I should have. I should have. I should have. So just do that. Right. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, go go run the Atlanta half marathon as fast as you want. You know what I mean? Because there's nothing to see. Right. You know, just go. And so I agree. I believe we are in our top three. All of us contribute all of these. And man, the scores they start adding up really high here. So mine number three, Erica's number eight. Lisa, you're number three. The crew had it at number four. Don't stay out late or go to bed late the night before a race. Lisa, kick us off. This is the one I figured was coming when I didn't speak up on like not maxing out your park day. So the like I would venture to say, like far and away the most underestimated challenge of any like Run Disney weekend, particularly if you're running a challenge, is sleep. Like the sleep tech deprivation catch ups catches up with you so quickly. Like you cannot out gel four nights of not of no sleep. Right. Like you don't recover as well. You're more emotional. Your body doesn't regulate temperature as well. Like all of the th like sleep affects absolutely everything. And like those, you know, I'm I'm usually waking up like, I don't know, when you guys wake up for for the Run Disney races. I usually get up like Like 132, especially now with these new four thirty AM starts. Yeah. and I like to get there and like enjoy all the characters and stuff beforehand. So try to get there around three. you know, if you're not in bed by eight, I mean, and that's pushing it. Yeah. That's pushing it. Like seven, six thirty. Like, I mean, you need to be like like you need to be in bed, like getting your rest because like three hours sleep a night leading you know all through like a dopey challenge or something or even like a one-off race will catch up with you so so fast and it impacts absolutely everything out about your race experience from your emotions to your ability to heal to your ability to like deal with the aggravations of race day. so yeah I when when we were talking about parks before I was like I have a feeling my version of this is popping up soon. And yeah that's that's that. Eric Erica walks in the hotel room based off of bad experience. Walks over to the phone and unplugs it from the wall the minute we walk in because we got a prank call on Wine and Dine weekend. and at what, midnight? Yeah, eleven forty five. Yep. And could not go back to sleep to save our lives. It was a terrible. We got a prank call and that was not cool. And so Yeah, that's really not cool. No. And so we we w Disney must be like, great. AJ and Eric are here because like you could probably see some phone, you know, disconnected off the network, you know. all right, so we're moving to the top two. Did you have any other comments? No, you're good. Okay, perfect. 28 points. Don't abandon your training. Treat it like a real race. So this is interesting because we said you know, to have fun, right? So I'd love to know y'all's reasoning behind this one. This was my number one, Erica's number four, and Lisa's number one. So what do you mean? I mean, it's two f sides of the same coin, and that's kind of like what I'm the it's like the dichotomy I'm trying to. Hit in the book, like you train for it. It's real miles. Like there's castles and characters and bands and like MC, like all the entertainment doesn't take away from the fact that like these are real miles. They are and they're inclusive and wonderful. And Disney's community, Run Disney's community is accepting and welcoming to every level of runner and walker and anybody who wants to enter that course. But it doesn't take away from the fact that these are real. races and you need to tr and you owe it to yourself to train for them like they're real races. So do all the things to get yourself ready. And then once you cross the start line, just have a good time out there because you can do it. Like you're you're ready and you can you can you know you can build yourself a little cushion. There's actually a cushion calculator on my website on it's the r the the castle run dot com slash cushion is the the the URL. And you can literally put in your start time, the balloon ladies start time And your expected pace and it'll tell you how much time you have to play on the course. Nice. So so yeah, it's cool. It's it's it's it's very practical. But you know, all that all that being said, like, and also like so much of the benefit of of what like the good stuff that comes out of running is the training. It's not about the medals. It's not about and I'm sorry, like we love our medals, but it's not about the metals. It's not about the finish lines. It's about like just Becoming a better person through the process of like training and keeping promises to yourself and like learning that we're all carrying different things onto the course. And like there's so many life lessons that come out of like just the training process of distance running. And like if you skip that, you're kind of missing the forest for the trees. So do yourself the favor of training for it like it's a real race because it absolutely is. And then the minute you cross that start line, enjoy the course. Totally. You have a great time if you're fully capable and whatever. If you're fighting for your life because you decided not to train, you know, whatever, or you were just unable to finish for whatever reason. Like it's a totally different race when you're strong and and you slept well and you didn't eat, you know, tachos night before. I mean, you know, treat it like a real race. I love it. Yeah. Erica, any comments about that one? Well, I would just say, like, you know, if if you're any kind of athlete, like you you you'll probably be able to finish the race if you don't finish your training. But you're not gonna walk away from it the same as you would if you did finish. We've talked about that. Like you wanna enjoy the race. Yes. You wanna enjoy your time after the race. Yeah. Yeah, walk across. You know what I mean? And just walk to the bus. Yeah. Go to the parks afterwards. A hundred percent. And I love Lisa what you said. Like the during the training, that's when you realize like the type of person that you are and like that you're able to do hard things and you know push through. And we've talked about this a lot on our podcast, but it running Changes every other aspect of your life as well. So yeah, it's good. 110%. Yeah. Agreed 100%. I love that. Perfect. All right. I have a question for you, Lisa, before we do number one. You just said it's not about the metals, and that hurts my feelings a little bit because we ask a question on our podcast. where where the question, bottom line, is, and we'd love to ask you, are you team metal or are you team main street? Erica chooses Main Street over the metal. I choose the metal over main street if you could only have one in a Disney half. marathon. And I'd love to know your answer. Disney half you can only have one of those things, which one are you choosing? I mean I'm Team Main Street. Like that's what that's I mean, I mean maybe like any other race, like at the medal is great, but like Run Disney, it's it's it's about that it's at the it's I mean, and it's only three races of the season where you get that particular experience, but some version of it. Like there's nothing in the world like, you know And it's always after like so many road miles. So you're kind of like, yeah, I'm running a run Disney race at that point. Yes. Right. I mean, now we get to pass the like water pageant and stuff coming in. So that's cool. But yeah, like entering Magic Kingdom, turning that corner and like coming around the bend and there's like throngs of people who've like come out before dawn to cheer for you and like There's so much love in the air. Like people have come out to like cheer on their loved ones. Like maybe like they're gonna pass them for 15 seconds and maybe get a quick hug. Like and like the castle's right in front of you. And if it's marathon weekend, it's still done up for the holidays. And yeah. Sorry. Like I the medals are great, like and they're super creative and and I love them and I love my collection of medals. But yeah, I would not give up Main Street for the world. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm gonna need to edit this podcast for time. I don't so. You know, and so I think I think I know what I need to cut. I should leave that in there for sure. All right. the number one answer had 29 points. It was my number six, Erica's number one, Lisa's number two. Don't look at your list because I'm gonna have y'all guess. It was a cruise number six. So that's 29 points. It hits number one. Do you have any guesses what it might be? Well, I feel like you've kind of like reworded some of my answers. So I'm not totally sure. But if I had to guess. And I don't know if this is what you meant earlier, but like don't try anything new on race day. Lisa, would you agree that your number two is don't do anything new on race day? Absolutely. And that's a that's a good number one. It was my number two, but it was a tough it's a tough. Yeah. It's it deli it deserves a number one spot. Yep, absolutely. It's mine. It's and and it is kind of a catch-all because you could apply that to anything. You know what I mean? You could almost put all these answers in it, you know what I mean? But it was what everybody like almost word for word said. Yeah. Was don't do anything new. Don't don't wear new outfit. Don't put new shoes on. Don't try new fuel. Yes. Everybody said that. Do you have any bad experiences, either of y'all like actually trying something new on race day? I mean, nothing I'm happy to say, nothing specifically comes to mind. I mean, I've probably made a food mistake here and there, like leading up to that maybe caught up with me on the course a little bit, but You know, we've all kind of been there like that mo like an expo and you kind of see that choo choo that like, you know, you just you know, or somebody's like hawking a gel that sounds like really, really cool. Or and I'm not like I'm not a I don't the brooks are a amazing. I don't personally run in in brooks, but like I see the temptation and I always kind of I'm like, ooh, cause like so many people buy their brooks. At Expo and like absolutely they're awesome shoes. Like buy the Brooks, but like don't break them in at the half. Right. At least not if like it's not the exact model of shoe that you've always run in and just as a new pair of them. Like it's not, it's not the time. Like, don't, you know, Expo is super, super fun, but like take your stuff home and maybe break it in for the next race. But it's not, it's not the time to try those glycerins out for the first time, you know. That always makes me cringe when I'm on the race course and I'm like, you just bought. What are you thinking? Yeah. Yeah. Good. Well, I love that number one because I mean it is good, good catch-all, but I think that's that's perfect. Like, don't do anything new. Try all the stuff at home. I love it. I've got some honorable mentions that I thought were worth throwing in here really fast. Lisa, before we let you go, Lisa, you had one of yours that didn't make the list, but I found very interesting because it had a parentheses, you know, and a yes, really. You know what I mean? Was don't forget where you put. Parked. It was your number nine. It was my number nine. I like I I knew it wasn't gonna make our I figured it probably wasn't gonna make our top ten, but like for me, it's the stupidest thing and it can catch up with you like at Expo and at the race. Like, cause you're so caught up in like parking and running, and especially at the race, like you park and like everybody's kind of filtering out. If you don't know where your car is, like, good luck. I have been that girl. I was at Expo last year and I'm usually so meticulous about it. I will I always now they have the little app thing, but I always like take a picture of my row with the right with the phone just because I don't trust my memory anymore. but one day at Expo last year, I just I was on the phone with somebody and I like parked and I hopped out of my car and like I never do this, but I just started walking out and I came back and I had I didn't know what lot I was in. I walked that I walked those lots for like an hour and then finally a friend came out. She had to drive me around. It was humiliating. Yes. but yeah, no, that was that that was that was worth the honorable mention because like it's the silliest little detail, but Yeah, expo and the races. Like you do not want to be that person that I was like walking up and down the road looking for your car, like clicking your key, hoping to hear it beep somewhere. Right. Erica, your number two was don't skip photo ops at any point during the race weekend, whether that's during the expo or on the course. Yeah. So I honestly I was thinking more like expo related. Yeah. The number of times that you and I will be there and we'll be like, Do you want to take a photo over there? Like with the little, I don't know, the Mickey, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're like, no, no, Done it before, but like especially if it's your first time or you haven't been a lot. Yeah. if you want to do something, like do it. Just do it. Yeah, because you're you're gonna regret it once you get home. Yeah, yeah. That you haven't done it, or if you're with friends, you're like, I don't want to hold them up or whatever. But like this is, you know, this is what you trained for, this is what you came for, is to have fun and do the Run Disney thing. And in today's digital world, if the photo sucks, just delete it. That's right. Yeah, yeah. I agree with you. Take the photo. Totally. Mine was, are you ready? Yes. Don't walk on the left. That was my that was my number four. That's pretty good. Nobody else said anything about walking. so for our friends, kindly, please walk on the right. And I will I run walk, so I will be walking on the right. That's right. And then the crew, their one was don't think that you have to buy the merch. You don't have to buy the merch. Yeah. Yeah. Which is hard. You just get caught up in it. I do. I myself too. I'm like, ooh, that looks awesome. I'm never gonna wear that. You know, but I get caught up in it. Yeah. And it's all like selling out so quickly and you don't want to like not buy it when everybody's like fighting over it. Yes. yeah. Exactly. Yeah, you yeah, you get caught up in it. Yes. Thanks for doing that with us. This was fun. This was really fun. Yes. Thank you so much, Lisa. thank you for being a friend of the podcast and for joining us today. Can you remind our friends where they can find you online and how they can purchase your brand new book? Absolutely. so the main place that you can find me is on my own website at thecastlrun.com where I Cover everything that you'll find in the book, but sort of real time. I put up race weekend guides and recaps and you know, a lot of non-Run Disney stuff as well, life and and Disney, regular Disney, and all that good stuff. I'm of course on Instagram at the Castle Runner. that's also a great way to find me and a great way to reach me. You can DM me there as well. and the book comes out on August 7th. Super excited. it will be, it's it's called the Run Disney Companion. And you'll be able to find it on Amazon and also on my own website. And you can go to the Rundisney Companion dot com for updates and to find it directly. Awesome. We love it. Everybody go buy it right now. We're telling you right now you're gonna love it. We've already seen it and we love it. So awesome, Lisa. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you so much. This was great. Right, friends. today we are revisiting something we did back at the beginning of the podcast, but we're gonna clarify some things. and those things are like the Run Disney words and phrases and kind of foundational things you need to know about running at Disney, whether you've done this a bunch or not. Like we think that these are just some of the things you should know. just definitions, even, right? And if we have experience or whatever with something that's worth sharing, we'll share that. you know, over time things have changed. There's like races that no longer exist anymore. proof of time requirement has changed and things like that. So we're just gonna kind of like very practically go in order about all the things we think you need to know from our perspective. Absolutely. We hope this is helpful for y'all, whether you're preparing for your first race or your 100th. I think Erica, we should start by defining the race distances. Perfect. and so you take whatever one of these you're like, yeah, I'll grab that one or whatever. Well we'll just we'll just start talking. And and we'll kind of define the race distance options, not necessarily the race weekends. Okay. Right? Like let's just what are the race options? Perfect. You take the first two. the five K, very popular race. Yeah. It's the shortest distance that you can do. at least right now. They don't offer anything shorter than that. And if you're not familiar if you're new to running and you don't know what a five K is, the K stands for kilometers. And I'm not trying to be, you know, condescending or anything. Like legitimately, five kilometers is three point one miles. and if you want to run that, it is, you know, the shortest distance, which is great. They're a lot of fun. There's not a time requirement. Like there's no I mean, you eventually you have to get off the course, but they're not like, you know, chasing you down to get you off the course. Because it is a relatively short race, you have a lot of time to complete it. That's right. And then if you have a kiddo that wants to run with you or you want to resign your kids up, whatever, I think the the lowest age is age five. Wow. So if you've got a, you know, a whatever, elementary age kid and you want them to run with you. Can do that on the 5k. Perfect. 10K is double that, right? So 10 kilometers, it's 6.2 miles. And if you this is a really great distance, I believe, because it's a challenge without necessarily wiping out your whole life in training, you know. Right. And so it's a really great distance. It spends a lot of time in Epcot, you know, unless they change the course on it's in Epcot and the boardwalk and all that, you spend a not too much time on. Just like the highway. And if you again, kid wise, if you want your kids to run with you, I believe the age requirement is 10. And so you, you know, our kids have run the 10K with us. Yes, they have. And so yeah, 10K is a really great distance. We're doing the 10K at springtime surprise. We are. All right. Next up is the 10 miler. And that's exactly what it sounds like. 10 miles. This is good for anyone that's over 12. next up is the half marathon, which of course is 13.1. I would say that this is a good race distance to get into if you've done a couple of five Ks or a ten K and you want to step it up. Or, you know, if you just love challenges, just go right for the half marathon. we did that kind of accidentally, right? It was the first thing we signed up for. We sure did. And then we retroactively went back and said, No, we should work our way up to this. Yes. half marathon is for anyone that's fourteen or up. And then of course the big doozy, the marathon, is twenty six point two miles, and that is for somebody that is eighteen or over. That's right. a lot of these races, Erica, the reason you'd want to run at Disney is because they're in the parks. Yes. The longer the distance gets, the less time. So you get more parks, right? But you get like relatively less time in the parks. I don't think that's the right way to say that. But like the 5K happens really in the park. Yeah. The 10K is like half in the parks. Then the marathon, you still or the half marathon, you spend a lot of time in the park, but compared to the other races, you got all these highway mines. Right, right, right. Right. So Walt Disney World's big. You run from, you know, depending on the race, you might run from one park to another. And you have to spend a lot of time on the highway. Yeah. So like I like for those that are new to Run Disney, I don't want you to necessarily think that, wow, I'm gonna do a marathon in the park. No, you know, you will on the marathon specifically hit all four. All four. Yep. Right. But that also means a lot of time on the road. A lot of time on the road. so you know, pros pros and cons there. Yes, absolutely. Erica, you want to talk about the race weekends that Disney offers, at least currently. These have changed and come and gone or you know, then evolved. You wanna talk about the the ones that are at least available right now? This is 2026. Absolutely. So the first one up for the race season is going to be Wine and Dine. That's in the fall, usually like October, November-ish. That's right. I feel like it's on the cusp of both. next up would be the marathon weekend, and that's gonna be in January. This is the largest. That's the largest, yes. next would be Princess Half Marathon weekend. That's usually like in February. springtime surprise is in the spring. It's in April, right? Normally? Yeah. Just when you think springtime surprise, think Hot, hot. Hot, hot, hot, hot. And humid. It's usually very close to spring break. You know, it's usually like in April time now. Yes. And then of course there are virtual races. So if you can't get to the park, you can run at home. That's right. The virtual races, they will send you a medal. There's usually some sort of other gift thing in there, whatever. the registration now is still getting really hard for those as well. Yeah. all of these races are hard to get into, which, you know, if you're listening to this podcast, you already know that probably. they're all difficult to get into. You sign up Months and months and months in advance for each one. So each one of those. So like wine and dine, you'll register, I don't know, like nine months in advance. Same with marathon weekend. So like if it's in the end of October, you're gonna register for that in March. Right. And if it's marathon weekend, I think we registered in April. You know, so you kind of kind of back that, you know, seven to nine months, I think, in advance is when you register for all of those. can we talk about some of the challenges? So if you do. a challenge, that means you do more than one race in a weekend. Right. You get a special medal for that challenge, right? you get a special t shirt, all of that. you spend more money. Yep. And and all that. But can we kind of go through what each weekend has to offer? Yes, absolutely. So at Wine and Dine, there is a two course challenge. And of course, this race weekend is during the food and wine festival at Epcot. So everything's kind of like surrounding food. Yeah. And Beverages. Yes. so the two course challenge is going to be the 10K on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday. then for marathon weekend, there are a couple of different, yeah, different challenges. Yeah, yeah. Goofy is going to be the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. We've done it. Dopey is all of the races. So a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, and a full marathon, four days in a row. That's right. Good luck walking home. It's dopey. It's dopey. Yes. Go ahead. You want to tell us the rest? Princess is very much like the two course challenge in that Princess has the fairy tale challenge. Right. So it's the ten K and the half. We love doing the the two course challenge or the fairy tale challenge or whatever. We love two races. Like something about that feels good. You you were getting up for two days, you're not killing yourself with four or three. Like it just something about it's like, great, did this race. boy, the next day I'm kinda kind of tired, but at least you only have to do it one more time. Right, right. we love the fairy tale challenge. we did not do it this past year. No, and I regretted it. Sad. You know, like at least with Princess Weekend. I'm glad we spectated, but I wanted to run both races. Right, absolutely. So Fairy Tale Challenge is great. Springtime surprise is unique. because if you want to really be hot and sweaty, then you get three opportunities to do that. They have a 5k, 10K, and a 10 miler. Yep. It was supposed to be like surprise where they were gonna like change it. I guess they are not gonna change it. Perfect. You know? So they're I guess the surprise now is just that the theme changes. Yes. So like the other races, wine and dine is food, whatever. Marathon weekend's always the fab five. You know, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, all that. The princess weekend, the princesses change, but it's always princess stuff. Right, right. And then springtime surprise, hmm, what can we throw at the wall and see what sticks? Exactly. In terms of a theme and themes. So I mean it's been. Literally the Incredibles mixed with Big Hero Six. You know what I mean? Like it's just It's all the randoms. Yep. Yeah. But hey, I mean, if you just want a bunch of different IPs, yeah, then you get a bunch out of springtime. Yep. Surprise. another thing, I don't think this is a challenge, but I kind of wanted to like throw this in the notes here. There's a thing called perfect status. Yes. It in California, they called it legacy status. Whereas if you've run all every year. of a race since they started the race. That's called perfect status. So if you see the sign that says perfect runners over here or whatever, you're like, well, I'm pretty perfect. Well you might think you're perfect, but what they mean is you've never missed that race from the beginning. Right. Can you get perfect status for Marathon weekend right now? No. Because you can't earn it if you weren't there from the first one. So you just for clarity, if they start a new race weekend, then maybe you might be able to earn that. Right. That status. So I put it under the challenges. I don't know if that's actually a challenge, but I mean, I would love to have perfect status. Perfect skit guaranteed registration. Yeah, that's nice. So lucky. do you want to talk about actually I I'm asking you, but I'm gonna say we should. Yes. Let's just cover the couple things that like you're gonna hear, but they're not actually offered right now, but they could be offered again in the future. But right now, these races do not exist, but you're gonna probably hear people say it a lot. Absolutely. Yes. So one of the races that used to be an option that may hopefully come back someday, but we're not really sure is the Disneyland half marathon. That's half marathon at Disneyland out in California. they also have a Halloween Disney race weekend. That's right out of Disneyland. Yeah. And they also be if you ran both coasts in a year, they had the coast to coast challenge. And you're gonna hear lots of people, including us on our podcast, say, when we did coast to coast or whatever, and you're gonna be like, Well, I'd like to do coast to coast. Hopefully. Yes. Like that's what I'm like. We're hoping it comes back. Yes. You had to run on both coasts in the same year. right now it's just on pause because they're doing construction in California. Yeah. All right. Some of this stuff is not going to take much explanation. Perfect. But it's like generic, general Disney terms. If you're not a Disney person or you haven't been in a long time. Yeah. Right. So we're just gonna like, hey, if you hear this phrase or whatever, this is what it is. I'll give you a really great example that needs no explanation. But if you're brand new to Disney. You might need it. And that is if you hear someone say cast member, you might think, why don't they just call them an employee? There's a whole thing about, you know, how the cast you know I mean it's a show. Right. They're they are part of the show. Yeah. Right. Yeah. If it's an employee at Disney, if they're, you know, paid by the Walt Disney Company and they're serving you, that's a cast member. So if you hear cast member, that's what it is. The My Disney Experience app is another good thing to know. You might hear it called the MDE. And that is the app that you want to download before you go to Disney. You access All the things. Wait times for rides and the reason that it relates to Ren Disney is that's how you access your photos. That's right. you also can book a virtual queue. We'll talk about that in a little bit. And so you really want to download that app. It's like a memory hog on your phone, like it slows your phone way down and drains your battery. Drains that battery. my gosh. But you really do need it. Yeah, absolutely. Also, you may hear something like, You're staying on property. And that just means that you are literally staying on the Walt Disney World property. You are staying at one of their hotels. Yep. Which we would call a resort. they call That's right, yes. And you can take a bus from one resort to another and you know, all the good things, all the parks. Yep. If you hear are you are you on property, that what that means is your hotel is on property. That's right. That's right. Yeah. you're staying off property. You know, like you hear that condescending thing, you know. That means you're staying at the windem. You know what I mean? And so those are some phrases. The ESPN wide world of sports, you're gonna hear at a Run Disney race weekend. And no one goes to the ESPN wide world of sports when they go to Disney unless it's a Run Disney event or you've got like a cheerleader or a baseball player that's playing there. You know? It's their athletic complex. And that's where they host the expo. So you are if you do a Run Disney race weekend, you're going to the wide world of sports. There is no way around that. Right. I just know it's their baseball fields and softball fields and all that stuff and their their athletic stuff. I did want to say there's a difference between Disney transportation and special event transportation. That's right. So Disney transportation is what exists three hundred and seventy-five days a year. The buses, the sky. How many days? What did I say? Three hundred and seventy-five days a year. Look, my I plus days? I plus up the year. Okay. I mean, I'm so perfect. I'm so good that I get an extra. Did I really say 375? You did, yeah. Okay. 365 days a year. Yes. There's buses that run and they're Disney buses. They're designed to take you from resorts to theme parks or to Disney Springs. Right. They do not take you to races. No. For race weekends only, they have special event transportation. We would call it a Run Disney bus. It's not branded. It's white. It just says Academy or something on the side. It's a charter bus. They bring all these buses in and they take you to the race stuff. So you cannot take a Disney bus that you would take to the Magic Kingdom. You cannot take that bus. Right. to your race start or to the expo or anything like that. That's right. So that's the general kind of stuff. I mean, I don't think we need to define every single theme park and all that kind of stuff, right? Because it doesn't relate to Renn Disney. No. but we do need to talk some Ren Disney stuff. Uh-huh. You ready? Yep. Okay. You want to start or you want me to I was going to cue that up for you because it was in pink and just kept on talking. Sorry. Erica's notes are in pink, mine are in white and I just kill on and rolling. Look, three seventy five. I mean three seventy five. I got this thing. race registration. if you hear that term, that is what we talked about a second ago, seven to nine months in advance. Uh-huh. That's when you're signing up for the race. If someone says registration or race registration, what they mean is the day you sign up for the race or the day you try to sign up for the race and and you're not able to get in because it's pretty busy. we do have a video, by the way, on how to register for that. Yes. And these races. So if you're like listening to this well in advance of a race registration and you're like, well, how do I sign? Yeah. We've got a whole video on It's on our YouTube video. YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash AJ and Erica. it's like the most highly viewed video we have. Yes. and super embarrassing for me because I just don't like that video, but it's helpful. It is. It's helpful. And so I'm glad you guys like it. Yes. Next up is going to be your race bib. This is going to identify you for the race. So it's going to have your name, your corral placement, it's going to have your number. Yeah. On the back, there will be a timing chip. This is also where you figure out how to link your photos. To your bib. If since someone's never done a race before, they've never worn a race bib, what how would you describe what it looks like? it's like a little piece of I was gonna say paper. It's like I don't know what kind of paper it is. It's like fancy. It's it's special. It's special paper. Sweat resistant. That's well, I don't know about that nonsense. But yeah, it's a little piece of paper that you will attach to your clothes. That's right. Either with safety pins or bib boards, or if you're one of our Patreons, hopefully our One more red bit board. Yes. Little snaps they can snap on. It's got basically you're supposed to wear it on your chest, you know, on the front. It needs to be visible at all times. Right. when you're on the race course, they have to see it, be able to read your number. You're not supposed to put it under your jacket or hide it, you know, in the back of your skirt or whatever. It needs to be visible. That's how they know you're supposed to be there. Absolutely. And like Erica said, your timing chips on it. So you really want. You know, you really want that. There's something you're gonna hear called a charity bib. And it's not the bib itself isn't actually different. what what that means is you secured it through a charity. Right. And so if you just hear the phrase charity bib, what it means is it really should just be like called probably a charity registration. Right. Or like you are a runner on behalf of a charity. And so you fundraise for that charity and all that stuff, but the phrase exists, I secured a charity bib. Right. The piece of paper's not any different. Right. At least that I'm aware of. Yeah, no. Let's talk about Telegram while we're talking about race registration stuff. Yes. and it's been very quiet lately. It has. And Disney might have, you know, they might not be releasing as many things. But if race registration is closed, they we've seen it in the past and there's been very little activity lately. But our friend Matt over at Team Run Diz uses an app called Telegram to push notifications out. That says, hey, race registration is open. And it's usually open for a few minutes, you know. But if you sign up for the Team Run Diz, just look that up, teamrun dis.com. If you sign up for their Telegram Alerts, it's an app, messaging app, you can get alerts when registration's open. Yeah. Now I'm just gonna say right here and now in 2026 that unfortunately there's haven't been many openings. Yeah. But if you hear that phrase, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just you know, sign up for Telegram. You're like, what? Team Run Diz is the website that you're looking for. Absolutely. Next up is a very important. It is the digital event guide. And this is where you're gonna find all of the information for that race weekend specifically. That's right. If you have a question, the answer is probably in there somewhere. That's right. Yeah. You'll get it. What do you think? Six weeks in advance, four weeks in advance? I'm thinking more like four. Yeah. Yeah. it'll have the course map and it'll have their costume guidelines and all of that stuff. It'll have the transportation schedule. When do the buses start running? Right. That's that's really helpful. start groups or corrals. This is exactly what it sounds like, but on your bib, it's gonna have a letter. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Hopefully not beyond, but sometimes it does. Sometimes, yeah. And that's your start group. You have to go to that area to start the race. And A goes out first, B goes out second, and so on and so on and so on. you're gonna, you know, hear people like freaking out over wanting to have the best starting group possible. Right. And the reason for that, Erica, is because they really want to run fast, right? And they want to get a really great time, right? I mean, sometimes, but not usually. No. At Run Disney, people want a good corral placement or start group because they want a big buffer before the end of the race so that they can stop for all the character photos, as many bathroom breaks as they need to. All the things. Yeah. I don't want to like stay here too long, but you know, the start groups are designed. To put the faster people up front. Yes. The medium runners in the middle and the slower or newer runners in the back. Right. And mostly for safety. Right. You know, you really don't want someone who runs a six minute mile trying to pass someone who's running their first race. Right. And and it it's just dangerous. Right. So let you know, I mean, in I I believe, yes, that that makes a whole lot of sense to me. Right. But what do I want personally? Yeah, I want to start up in with in the front so that I have an extra hour and a half. Yeah. To do whatever I want on the course. Yeah. But that's not very safe per se. Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's like a it's a hard struggle. If you hear people freaking out about their corral placement and you're gonna see it online, you know, people are like, no, I'm in F, you know, and they're freaking out. Yeah. That's what they're freaking out about. Yeah. All right. Next up is the Health and Fitness Expo. And this is where I mean there's a lot of things going on there. But there are going to be a lot of different vendors that are selling things that you may have forgotten to bring, like fuel or socks. Also fun costumes and skirts and good recovery stuff after like our what is that stuff called? Our body butter. Yeah, bounce back butter. Bounce back butter. Sluffy fizzies. Sluffy fizzies. Yep. I I actually used some of that this morning after our After our seven miles or my seven miles, twenty miles. I feel like I need to put that on my feet right now. Right. Yes. I had a long run today. Yes. also at the Health and Fitness Expo, let's see. This is not where you want me to talk about like we should talk about all the things that you need to do when you're at the expo, I think. Like all three buildings. I think so. Might as well talk about it now. All right. So multiple buildings, folks. one of them is gonna have where you pick up your bib. and then you will go into another building that's got everything that we just mentioned. Yes. And then also you can pick up your shirts there that you get for running the races or race, whichever. and then the last building is gonna have the Run Disney specific merch. So stuff specifically for that weekend or just general Run Disney merchandise. Yep. It's a lot of walking on expo day. We say wear your sneakers, don't yes, do not wear flip flops. Yep, don't be like Doug from Rope Drop Radio and wear your flip flops. You know, it's a it's surprisingly a lot. You're gonna spend a lot of time at the expo. Right. You think you're gonna go, and we've said this a bunch, but if you're new here, you haven't heard us say, you think you're gonna go to the expo for 45 minutes to an hour and grab your stuff. No. And somehow you spend all hours, three hours later, you're like, why are we still here? I need lunch. And you get lunch there. You know what I mean? Because you just it just takes a minute. Yeah. So don't think that, like, hey, today's a park day. You can do a park day. Don't think, hey, I'm gonna run to the expo real fast. before I before I meet the family at the park. You're gonna meet your family at the park a few hours later. Yes. So it just just know it takes takes a little bit of time. Yeah. you're gonna need your expo check-in pass there. That's gonna come in your email, I think maybe a week in advance. Yeah. Do you think it's a week? I was gonna say like five days Yeah. Okay. Maybe. yeah it's the Monday before. That's what it is. It's the Monday of the race. You're right. And you're gonna get an email. It's gonna have your race number, you know, it's gonna be on your bib. you're gonna start trying to guess what corral you're in based off of that, you know, and then start freaking out about that. But you can download it to your Apple wallet, you can download the QR code, you can print it, what whatever format you want to do is fine. Yeah, but you have to bring it. Right. they have to scan that in some way, along with showing your ID. Right. when you pick up your bib. You cannot get your stuff without it. Right. And you cannot have someone else do it for you. They are they are checking that. For sure. Yeah. Erica, you want to talk about proof of time? Do I want to talk about it? I feel like you should ta tackle this. Okay. So proof of time is related to your start group thing. Right. And I'm going to try to keep this as simple as possible. The bottom line is proof of time is you is the way that Disney you know regulates or manages who should be in the first few corrals. Right. The first few start groups. If you can prove that you're fast enough to be up front, great. Yes. They will take your certified official time from another race that is on a certified course. They will take it. They will review it and they'll say, awesome. You can run a half marathon in less than two and a half hours. Awesome. We'd love to put you in corral B or wherever they, you know, whatever of the front corrals they think you belong in. I think that's good. You know what I mean? Like let's if you can prove it, great. Right. You know what I mean? I think it's a smidge of a flawed system in that if you run longer than that or you can't prove it. Because you've never done the race or you couldn't submit that by this the submission deadline. Right. Because it's way in advance. A few months in advance. Yeah. Those reasons. Then it's like the what's that meme where they just take all the papers and throw them in the air? Correct. Yes. You know what I mean? And that's how they sort you into the rest of the corrals. That's what it feels like. Yeah. Corrals C or D E F G whatever. It's like you can tell them you think you're going to run it really fast. Yes. But without a certified proof of time. Right. Without like an actual chip time from a, you know, a real race, they're like, great. Okay. Here, enjoy corral G. You know? Yeah. I mean, even even I, who have a decent time, if I didn't submit a certified proof of time, they're just gonna put me wherever. Yeah, that you can't show them your Garmin and say, look how fast I can run. It's gotta be. That's right. Yeah. And and you can't like run a race the week before. Correct. Your race at Disney and be like, but I just did this last week. They're like, sorry, the submission time where we needed the time to review it all was five months ago. Right. And so do we want to talk about the d minimum distances you need to submit for a specific race? because there seems to always be a lot of conditions. Do you know it? Because I don't think I do. Isn't it I think and you're gonna have to fact check me on this, but I think for the half marathon, it has to be at least the 10K. I think so. Right? Or a 10 miler. Yep. I think it's 10 miler for the shoot. You can submit a 10K time for the half, but there's like an equation is the problem. Right. It's like just because you have to run the so their their time right now is two and a half hours or less or faster for a half marathon. You have to prove that. But if you submit a 10K time, the math isn't exact to where you're like, well, then that just means that I need to do, you know, an hour and a half or like whatever, like you like try to just subtract the distance. Right. It's an equation that None of us really know. Yeah. So your best bet is to run that thing as freaking fast as you can. Yes. You know what I mean? To get the absolute best time possible. Right, right, right. and then for the marathon, I believe you have to have a have a half. A half, yeah. You know, so five hours or faster on the marathon, you have to submit. It might be a 10 miler. Y'all can fact check me on that if you want, but I believe it has to be a A half marathon. I think it is a half marathon for sure. Yep. And the 5K and 10K, there is no proof of time. Right. Like we're s we signed up for the springtime surprise. And I went to put in my proof of time because I have one. And it's like, I can't submit one. Right. And so you may end up in different corrals for different races. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. and then the only other thing I would say about that is that your proof of time only lasts a certain amount of time. I think it's two years. So like you and I have already like gone to do another race to like re-up. Right. You know, you can't just say, hey, you know, 15 years ago I could totally run this. Right. You know what I mean? Like, no, they need to know that you can do it. We can do it here pretty soon. So let's do a couple other kind of just like run Disney things and then we'll talk about like race day specific stuff. Okay. And so the event waiver, you're gonna need to sign digitally, either during registration or on your account, or to the piece of paper at the expo that just says, Hey, Disney, I know what I'm getting into. Right. I know that I could get hurt and it's not your fault. Right. You know, like like you're basically I mean, they're gonna take care of you medically if they you know, they're gonna take you to the hospital, right? But you can't like sue Disney. Right. Because you decided to participate in this. You mentioned the the shirts that you get. Yes, participant shirts. Yeah, what what's the deal with that? Yeah. So you will get a shirt for each race that you do, and if you do a challenge, you'll get an extra shirt for the challenge and that will have the theme of the race weekend and all that good stuff. Yep. So if you're doing a Mulan 5K at Princess Weekend, it's going to be the Mulan graphic and the color theme and whatever of that. And so every race you do, you'll get that themed shirt. If you want the like one that says like, I did it, whatever, like you have to buy that one. Buy that at the end. But you do get a free free. Included with your registration. Yes. You get one of those. Yes. AWD is a phrase you're going to hear. That's called that stands for athlete with a disability. You might see a WD guide. That's someone who is guiding an athlete with a disability, whether that's visually impaired, you know, athlete or whatever it is, or a chair athlete. Yeah, it's usually a yellow kind of identifying tag thing. And or you know, you'll see a tent or something, you know, it's just something says AWD. If you know that you're an AWD, you know, an athlete with a disability, you're gonna know exactly what that means, and you go there, yeah, right. You do those things. my only Thing to say about that is please give athletes with a disability and their guides extra space, grace, and patience. Yeah. Like you're doing something hard and they're doing something hard as well with whatever challenge that they're having to overcome. And so give them some space. They could be hard of hearing and they don't they didn't hear you coming up behind them. Right. You know what I mean? So please give them lots of space. You'll hear the phrase roll Disney and that is the chair athletes. That's right. And so they go first and they get they're gone. I like when we spectate, you know, and you're you're waiting for the runners to come through, but the role Disney comes, the push rim through and they come flying. Flying. You know, right by. It's super fun to see them, to see them go by. next up is PhotoPass. And I think that you and I, we we're passionate about talking about Photopass because we didn't know how this worked. Right. Going into our first race. And now we do. Yes. And everybody else seems to just not know how photos work. Right. And so we love talking photopaths. You want to do it? Yeah. Do what do you want me to define it, I guess. What does photo pass mean? What's a photo pass photographer? Where do they take pictures? Yes. Okay. So photo pass photographers are the people that are going to take your photos while you're running on the race course. with characters, but also mainly like just action shots while you're running through the park. Yeah, how yeah. How do you how do you know? Like you said there, you know, so they're all they're they take your photos of the characters and you see those coming. Yeah. It's like, look, there's a character stop. I pull off the course remember, but how do you know? where they are on the course. I get the action shock. Yeah, absolutely. So two things that are a good way to spot them are they have these little green like pop up tents. Yeah. I'm not sure how to describe them other than sometimes you might see like a parent at a soccer game in the winter sitting inside of one of these little tents. That's like a little mesh pop up thing. Yep. Yes. Keeps them kind of warm and protected from the wind, I guess. Yeah. Also they're gonna have like big light stands with them. So that if you're coming through in the dark, you may not see their green tent, but you'll see a light on a stand. That's right. With some light on the road and AJ will always tell you as a photographer, Yes, you want to be in the light to get a good photo. So if you're outside of the light, don't start posing yet. Like it's it's too early. You want to be in the light. That's right. and if you come through during the day, you might not see the light, but you will see the little green tents. And so those will be usually on either side of the road, on the right or the left. If you want to get a photo, you can get photos in the middle of the road, but you'll get a better photo if you're over to the right or the left. That's I would say. Yeah, they're never I probably shouldn't speak in absolutes. I've never seen them just out on the road. They're all like always in a park. They're never backstage. So think Main Street, Adventureland. I think, you know, coming out of the castle for sure. For sure. Right. Epcot, they're gonna be on the world showcase in a few spots. Right. When you go under what's the the spaceship Earth? When you go under it, they're they're there. So think iconic moments, you know, in if you're doing the marathon, you come down Sunset Boulevard, Tower of the Terror Tower, Tower of the Terror, that's great, Tower of Terrors in the background. Uh-huh. Right. Iconic things that make a good photo, right? That's where they're gonna be. Yeah. The dumpster in the back lot of Mexico pavilion, they're not gonna be back there. Right. So you can let your guard down, eat your gel, whatever, they're not gonna be there. Right. and so yes, look for the little green tint. How do I get the photo? Do I you know what I mean? Like That that's the I think the big question mark. Correct. Yeah. So I feel like you should describe this. The bottom line is they need to see your bib. Yes. And so whether you want them to take your photo or not, they're going to take it. And you don't have to buy the photo if you don't want it. If you don't, if you whether you you're like, I immediately know I don't want them. I don't want to spend the money. You don't even have to look at them. Right. But in that My Disney experience app we talked about earlier, you take your your photo I photo pass ID that you'll get from Run Disney. It's on your check-in pass. You enter it in the app under the photo section. Just link it. You know, it says link photos. Put your unique code in there. It will populate any photo that has you in it. Right. For like, but it's your bib. Yeah. You know? And if you are like, I saw them taking my picture in the on Main Street and it's not there. You can submit a like, hey, you know, I'm missing some photos. Right. And I've had them find it. Yes. They've found my finish line photo from last year. They You know, it took them a week, but they found it. Right, right. You know, so you'll you'll find it in the My Disney Experience app. Same thing on the Disney website. You you know, you can you can find them all there. But you can purchase them. Just know that they got a big watermark on it. You know what I mean? And you can either have like the photo pass for the day. So if you're only we've done this this last season where we only did one race. Every weekend had one race. So we just bought Photo Pass for that Sunday, whatever it was, a hundred dollars or whatever. And we've got Any photo that was taken of us on Disney property by a photographer, including race photos, boom, we got it for that day. You could buy it for your whole trip and any days that you're there, expo, other races in the parks, then you can download all your photos. If you're an annual pass holder, it works on this for the race and you have the photo option, you pay that $100 or whatever, then it works. So you need to buy them is the bottom line. Now you don't have to buy them, but if you want them and you can download it right there. Yeah. They're great photos. I I I'll say it right now. Like so good. Yeah. Like compared to any other race photo I've ever gotten, it's way better. Yes. You know what they are? They're in focus. They're in focus. They have good lighting. Yeah, yeah. They're great. Yeah. You know? And so if you've ever been to another race and you're like, well, I never liked a photo of myself ever. You'll get a good you'll get some good photos. Yeah. And then after the after the race, there's some stands. Yeah. You're gonna get the, you know, hold a little I did it, you know. And there's photographers and all this stuff. So that's Photo pass. Do we want to talk about character photos and photo pass etiquette? Sure. Let's do it. Let's just knock it out. Okay. So all I would say about well, not all. I mean, there's so much you could say about character photo stops, but the bottom line is the the takeaways, if you will. Sure. at the end of the line, someone's gonna be holding a sign and it will tell you who the character's going to be. That's right. If it says friends of whoever, so like friends of Winnie the Pooh, it's probably gonna be like Piglet or Tigger or something. so it's gonna be like The supporting characters, if you will, of that main character. Usually they'll have like the theme music playing. So if you're running up to a line and you can hear music playing, yes. It's likely related to that character. just know that you have one opportunity to get this photo. It's going to happen before you even have a chance to turn around. So just be ready. Like it's not like a stop and pose for a long time. Like they're gonna get in and get out. So I would just say, be ready. Absolutely. This is not a, you know, I'd like to, you know, you know, when you go in the park and you're getting your picture or whatever, you might have some time. Right. You don't have time. People are trying to complete a half marathon. That's correct. Get your photo and get out. Yes. You know what I mean? Yes. you just said you have one opportunity and I totally wanted you to say one shot. And I wanted you to just bust out in some MM. Yeah. I really was hoping you were gonna do that. Yes. then also I would just say race photo etiquette. Yes. on course. On course. Yes. Is do not stop. You will definitely cause some sort of pile up collision. That's right. You don't want to send some runner off the course with an injury because you wanted to stop for a photo. So just keep running. If at all possible, keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. No please. Like you know, people will talk about like being Wazowskied where someone's got their arm flung out. Yes. Over your face or airplane arms. Airplane arms. We have a lot of Patreon members who feel strongly about this. so you know, we do a lot of like close to the body, like thumbs up, a wave, yeah, a flex. I don't know, just good running form, you know, that's always a good one. That's my my thing is like I can't imagine that I would do or anyone's done airplane arms or whatever, and they get home and they're like, I'm framing this photo. You know? Like, and I don't see many of those photos online. Yeah. Like after the race, I don't see a lot of photos of people like where they post, like, here's me making a really silly face and waving my arms in the air. Right. They always post a photo of them running. Yeah. And so that's what you're doing is you're running. Right. Let the photographer take a picture of you doing the thing that you're doing. Right. Which is that's my opinion. I would say that if you want to have like a jump pose, if you are running the half marathon down Main Street, like there are stations in front of the castle where you will have your own opportunity to like run in, do the jump. And then run out without affecting anyone else's pose. I would also say that at the finish line, you and I do like hold hands and raise our arms up. We do. But there are like twenty photographers at the finish line or more. And everyone's th there's like 40 photos, right? So like you're you're not you're probably not like getting in in they've got up on the on the they got up high. Yes. On like a riser. Right. Looking down. They've got some that aren't even manned by people that are just like Using AI to somehow take a million photos a second. Yeah. Like there's lots of opportunities. So I do feel differently at the finish line about a celebration. And you just did something really hard. Yes, absolutely. for sure. the you said the castle photo, and it's is a good clarification, is that they will take your photo coming out of the castle. Right. Right? That's a running shot. Yes, correct. And then right at the bottom of the ramp, you have the choice. You can continue running or get off to the right. They'll be a cast member there. And there's like five maybe photo stations. You wait in a line, the line does not take long, no matter how long it looks. Right. Because there's five designated spots and they're good spots. Yes. Right. Like you you'll wait in line, they'll send you to one of those. All of them are good. We've had our photo at probably every one of those. And you'd think like, but I want the one in the middle. I want the one in the middle. Right. We've had a good experience at every single one. They all have a good angle. Yeah. And there's no runners right behind there. They're all up in the castle. And so it's a great photo spot. No matter how long the line looks, just do it. This last marathon, do you remember? We took the picture. I was like, I was not ready. You're like, me either. Yeah. We just went. Like we said, you have like one second. Yeah. We just went and got back in the back of the line. Yeah, we just instead of holding anybody up and being like, well, please, could you do it again? Blah, blah, blah. I wasn't ready, whatever. She was already moving on. Right. Right. And I'm glad she was. Yeah. We just got in the back of the line. And what did it take us? Three minutes? It less. Less than that. To get back through the line. And the line was really long. Yeah. And we and so anyway, but that's my my thought on that. It's it's a hundred percent worth it. I have a friend who I just want to smack upside the head because I said if you only get one photo, get it in front of the castle. Right. And he didn't. And you know who you are. And so just stop for that. Like if you're running down Main Street and all that stuff and you're gonna claim your team Main Street, stop at the castle and get your picture. Right. That's my opinion. The line looks long. It is not. No. Yeah. All right. Soapbox done. let's move way back to the beginning of the race, which is gear check. Yes. Gear check is where you can leave your stuff that you need but don't need during the run. Right. So you bring it in the, they give you a clear plastic bag at the expo, and they have some extras at the gear check area, but it's really nice to have it already packed up. Right. your t-shirts come in that bag. Yeah. Write your name on it, your bib number on it, and they have markers if you need them. And you bring that bag, you take it to these U-Haul trucks at Gear Check. There's a ton of them, a dozen maybe. And you just go to one with a short line and you literally hand them your bag. They put a sticker on it and they give you the a matching sticker. You put that on your bib, that tells them what bag is yours. Now car keys, AirPod cakes, recovery, slip, recovery shoot protein shake for after the race. Exactly. Change of socks, whatever it is that you don't want to run with, but you know you're gonna need after the race. Right. Put it in there. Yep. And it's great, it's secure, it's fine. And get my recommendation on that is get there early. Right. Don't save that for the last thing you do. I would say when you arrive, unless you're like going for like a character stop or something pre-race that you really want to make sure you get in the front of that line, go drop your stuff first because those lines get long. Yeah, they do. And so go drop those off. But you what lines don't get long at gear check? Mm-hmm I don't know. The port a potty lines. There's like a the gear check area is surrounded by porta potties and there's never like any line. I know. That's one of my Spots. I was gonna say one of my secret spots, but one of my spots I like to stop before we go to the corral because there's never any line there. It's technically the finish line area. Whatever. Right. But but but everyone is like going to their start line area. Right. But they're you're going to the where you're gonna finish. That's where the gear check is. So for whatever reason, no one's using those porta pies. Yeah, no. And they're at that point they're clean. Yep. You know, mostly mostly. Yeah. and so yeah, that's a really good tip. but don't use that tip because those are our port advice. That's where we're gonna use. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Gear check and then virtual cue is another phrase or term you're gonna need to know. if you've ever gone to Disney and gotten a virtual cue for Rise of the Resistance or any other ones that have had the like check in at 7 a.m. thing. Right, right, right. Same thing applies here. And it's only for Run Disney merchandise on the first day of the expo, if merchandise is really important to you. Right. And so Bottom line is thousands of us are trying to go buy that whatever thing, that whatever the thing is that year, you know. And we don't we want to get there before they all sell out or our size sells out. So you need a virtual cue the first day. Yeah. You go in at 8 a.m. or if they change the time, I'm sorry, or you know, but but follow the digital event guide, it will tell you. But the virtual queue, you need the Disney app, you go in expo day, 8 a.m. and say, right at the time, say, this is how many people I have. And you cannot get in until all the virtual cues have been cleared. And then they'll open it up to the general population after that. Yep. Okay. And then the last thing is Club Run Disney. And you're going to see this on the website and you're going to be super wanting to take advantage of this Club Run Disney thing because you're like, that seems worth the money to not deal with registration and all that because it's got, you know, red credit guaranteed registration at certain levels and all that. And you're going be super tempted by it. Uh-huh. Erica, you and I don't have Club Run Disney. We don't, no. And so we don't have much experience with it other than just reading things online. So I thought it'd be fun to Paul. Yes. Somebody that we know that actually does have Club Run Disney has good experience with it. He's gold status, you know, and so he there are multiple levels. So I just figured we'd call him. Yeah, let's do it. Ask him some questions. Let him answer it. Tell us, is it worth it? Who's it worth it for? All of that stuff. So you cool if I just call Brian? You know Brian. Yeah. Yeah. Let's just call Brian and see what he has to say. Hello. Hey Brian, it's AJ. Hey, AJ, what's up, man? Hey, buddy. Hey, we Erica and I are sitting here in the in the studio recording a podcast and we have Club Run Disney questions. Is it okay if we buggy for a second? Sorry, you're like on air. Yeah, happy to help. Let's do it. Okay, cool. So we Erica and I were just talking about we don't have Club Run Disney experience, but you do. and so we literally just have like kind of questions. Brian, how long have you had Club Run Disney and what's your overall experience been like? Yeah, so I've had Club Run Disney. For I've I'm on my third year. I just re-upped for for year four. It's been a good experience for me. there's a lot of, you know, positive benefits that that I've got to enjoy as as being part of Club Run Disney. It's it's definitely costly and and you know, we can get into that, but the benefits have for me outweighed the costs and and it's been a it's been a great thing for me. Good. I'm glad it I'm glad you had a good experience with it. Cause I know you read things online and you got some people that have a great experience, other people are mad that they can't get it. You know, so it's like it's kind of divisive in that way. Can you kind of clarify like What is it? Like strip it back down to like the basics. Like what how would you describe what it is? Just think of it as like a year-long membership, but you pay for it eight, nine months in advance. but it it has you know special perks and benefits that that kind of go along with it that we can get into. So there's there's three levels. each level kind of gets individual benefits, and then there are some over overarching benefits that kind of all of them get, right? So the first, the the what I'll call the lowest level, the first level is the silver. You get this jacket. and then there's there's a magnet and a virtual 10K with a medal, AJ. yeah. Great, sign me up. and then the second level is which which is what I have been the past three years is gold. so you get all of those those things, the the the jacket, the magnet, the 10k. You also get a pin for any kind of pin collectors. But the important part about gold is you get one race registration for each weekend. it has to be for you. You can't give it to anybody else, it has to be for the the member. But you get one. But that does include a challenge, right? So if if you're going to marathon weekend and you want to do Adobe, that is included. it gives you all four races, but it's one registration, right? So that's that's gold and that's kind of that that that happy medium, I think for for me at least. but this year I'm moving up to platinum and I'll I'll I'll get into why. So you get all of the above, everything we just talked about for gold, but you get two race registrations. So weekends like Wine and Dine or Princess, where the challenge isn't all of the races. you can do, you know. the the challenge plus the five K, which which is obviously great. You do get an upgraded corral placement, which I think there's maybe some concern about that. overall. there's definitely some some controversy there maybe. You also get preferred, I guess I'll call it packet pickup, which is something that that for me and my family is important and and that's why I upgraded. So I I don't know it was worth the extra money, but but that's where we're going. And finally, golden platum get early access to registration. So those those members get registration one week prior to general registration. and it's guaranteed you have a five day window to to go in and and do your registration. So it's it's not something that you have to to click on at ten AM like like general registration does. You just kinda go in and it it s shows up there in your portal and you just click the link and and register for whatever race you want to And that's the that's the thing about Club Run Disney that's probably the most attractive for most people, right? Is getting early access, right? Like non registration day, not freaking out, whatever. Is that one of your primary drivers for you? Yeah, that's the reason I got into it in the first place. I was lucky I didn't go through the silver process. So the other thing they all get is early access to Club Run Disney registration in the next year. So you can move from silver to gold prior to general registration for Club Run Disney. Yeah. I was lucky, I went right into gold. So I didn't have to go through that one year silver process, that waiting period. I don't think that's really much of a thing anymore. I think it's mostly you kind of have to go through that silver process. but yeah, that's why I did it. I I live in Pennsylvania. I plan my trips out well in advance. I usually rent D B C poise. I have to do that 11 months in advance before registration day. so I needed that that kind of certainty that I would have a spot in the races prior to to registration. Yeah. Yeah. So I do want to like make sure that 'cause that's a big area of like Confusion online. There's getting the membership, right? Like you said going through silver or whatever. They describe how they open their the registration, right? Because like I think people are super confused about well, why would I want to be silver for a year if I don't get the benefit or whatever? Can you clarify like how they open that registration up? Yeah, for sure. So Club Run Disney reg members get registration, like I said, a couple weeks before normal public registration. and if you are a silver member. If there are any gold spots available or even platinum spots available, you could move yourself up, right? Obviously there's an increased cost and and there are limited memberships in that space, but platinum has the first right to renew or not renew. And then gold gets the next week. And if they want to upgrade or or renew at gold, they can't, or they can move down with silver. And then then the last week, silver has their ability to kind of go in and decide if they want to upgrade and there's availability for them to upgrade to rather whether it's gold or platinum, they can do that. Right. And then if there's any left even after that. That's when it opens to the general public, right? Which is why it's hard to get a sil a gold or a platinum. That's right. Yeah. So like I said, I I think it's very I won't say I don't think it's rare that there's a gold one out there, but it's it's I think it's uncommon. you definitely in at least in the last couple of years, I what I've seen is is that you kind of come in through that silver level, you know, kind of wait that year, do the virtual 10K, get the jacket, and then kind of have that ability to upgrade. Okay. Perfect. Brian, who is Cleb Run Disney for or who would get the most benefit out of it? I think folks that get the most benefit out of our are folks, you know, I go to all four weekends a year, or at least I try to. the first year I went to all four. The second year I only went to one because we we had a child in the middle of priorities. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. a true springtime surprise child to be to be fair. and then and then this year we went to all four and and looking forward to hopefully getting to all four this year. I'm registered for all of them and hopefully we make through them. But I what I what who I maybe it it maybe doesn't make sense for is if you're only doing one weekend. It it is expensive, right? It it just clearly is. While the guaranteed registration is nice, I don't know if at least from my perspective, that it makes sense for someone to spend that kind of money for for one weekend for one registration. You know, maybe if you want to do dopey that that's the outlier. but outside of that, I think, you know, for me, from my perspective, if I'm not doing at least three weekends a year, I don't know that it's really worth the money for me. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Did we miss anything important? It sounds like we covered it all, but did we miss anything important before we let you go? I I don't think so. I mean, I think, you know, there's a little bit of controversy around Club Run Disney. whether it's upgrade corral placement or the perception that we're taking up all the registrations. Right. you know, I and and you know, that's fair. I I will say I think membership for Club Run Disney is less than what most people think. when we go to the early merch, I have a a sheet of paper with everyone's name. I don't know how many lines are on the sheet, but it's only, you five or six pieces of paper. So the overall membership I think is lower than what people think. And obviously not every one of those members is in every race too. So I just, you know, I I think that's the one thing that I'd like to at least cover a little bit and just mention that, you know, it's it's not probably not as big as people think, but there are, you know, those those folks that certainly doesn't don't like Club Run Disney because they're taking up their spots. And I get it. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a hard pill to swallow if you didn't get into a race. I understand this. You didn't get in and you see these people that got to register on their own that they paid extra money, you know, to have the right to get in early, whatever. Like I understand, like perception-wise, you know, that that that's hard. And so, but these, you know, these races, the demand is so high. Right, right. Like, I mean, I honestly, like, I'm not like trying to defend Disney or anything, but like, what are they supposed to do? Like, there's so many people that want into these races that they couldn't possibly Accommodate all of them. So I don't blame them for creating Club Run Disney. I just wish, you know, I could afford it. How about that? I wish I could afford it. Yeah. Yeah. It would be nice if it was more affordable, that's for sure. Yeah, for sure. Well, you know, the bummer, and I think Erica and I fell trapped to this was it we're reading the website the first time and we're like, well, let's just get a membership and I'll register both of us. Right. And then it's when you realize that, well, no, it's for one person. Yeah. And so I think if I was a single, single guy or Erica wasn't a runner or whatever, or she was a runner and I wasn't, we probably would swing for it. Yeah. You know what mean? But for us, it's like, no, that's another lot of monies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. I'm I'm my wife is starting to dabble and run Disney. She ran a five K this year princess and she's doing Ken ten K at at Marathon. But cool. But she is has no interest in doing anything more than that. So we'll go through general registration in that in that space. So it works for us, but I understand it doesn't work for everybody. Yeah, of course. before we let you go, and I'm totally springing this on you, you've been a Patreon supporter of our show since we started the Patreon. Can I ask you like live in front of everybody, how's your experience been being a support crew member so far? Yeah. I'm just putting you right out there. How's your how's your experience been? if it's been bad, I'm gonna cut this right out of the episode. But how's your experience been so far? No, actually it's been really good. I so I've never used Patreon before. So I'd like I I've listened to other podcasts or use other other things that that have had it, but I've never never made that leap before. So you're welcome. for being first in that space. I have. Yes, not. But no, it's actually been really good. the after show is unbelievable. I actually I actually look forward to the after show, maybe more so than the regular podcast. no. Just because it's little bit more like unfiltered and just relaxed, I think. Yeah. it it's fun, it's fun. And I like that it's all on video. So but also I there there's a chat, there's a crew chat that I I enjoy. I might monopolize it a little bit too much. I definitely send, I think, probably more photos than anybody else. but the But I really do enjoy the community. You know, it's it's it's been it's been nice to kind of get to know folks from across the country. AJ shared you shared a map a couple of weeks ago of where everyone's from and and you know there's there's already some conversations about meeting up in people's backyards for for the local races and and kind of getting together. So I think it's been it's been great. I really enjoy it and and you know, hopefully, like I said, I'm not monopolizing the chat too much. Nah, no, it's great. No, it's great. Thanks for the endorsement on the podcast. I'll slip you a twenty dollar bill the next time I see you and appreciate the positive feedback. No, we're so glad that the that the that you enjoy the after show and the and the the community element is there. So thanks. Thanks again for supporting the show. Gosh, we appreciate that. Yeah. No, totally. Love to do it. Happy to do it. Brian, thank you so much for all this helpful information on Clubbrand Disney and for picking up the phone. Yeah. Would you be okay if we call you back in a little bit when we're done recording so you can be with us on the after show? Absolutely. Let's do it. All right, cool. We'll finish this up. So we'll call you right back here in just a little bit. All right. Sounds good. Thanks, guys. All right, AJ. Next up, let's talk about on course and race day stuff. Mm-hmm. Tell us about the balloon ladies. Yep. This is a Disney thing. You're gonna hear the balloon ladies. You're gonna think they're the villains, you know, and they're really not. That's right. They're wonderful women. They are awesome. They're really kind. They're nice. They you're they got their name the balloon ladies because they wear a Disney balloon. It's you the clear one with the Mickey inside. They like tie it around their waist. There's three or four of them, and they're the last ones to cross the start line. And what they are is they mark the end of the race. Yep. This is if you're visual representation. That's right. They're a visual representation of the end of the race. If you fall behind us, you have a very small grace period before you have to be removed from the race. No mat I mean, I'm sorry if you're hurt, you're undertrained. You're you have the flu, whatever it is, I'm sure you have a reason for having fallen behind. Right. But the bottom line is they need to end the race. They need to clear the course. There's trucks and stuff coming soon to clear the course and open the roads and open theme parks. Yeah. And so the balloon ladies, when you hear that term, people are gonna be like, I need to get away from the balloon ladies. You don't, I mean, it's good to be away from them because that is the end of the race. You don't want to be near the end. Right. But the women themselves. Yes. Are very nice. Very nice. Very encouraging. If you ever experience your be near one of them at the end of the race, which you have been, they're like, you guys got this. Keep coming. Run with me. Right. You can stay with me. You know what I mean? They're not, they're they will never be the ones to say, Well, I'm sorry, but your time is up. They'll they're that's not even their job. They don't do that. There is a team behind them that is very kind as well, that are on bicycles and they bring a bus behind. And if you have to be removed from the course for whatever reason, medical issue. Can't keep the minimum pace requirement, you know, for a Run Disney race, which we didn't say earlier is 16 minutes per mile. if you are with the balloon ladies, you need to maintain 16 minutes or faster per mile in order because they're running that. Yeah. They are they're gonna be dead on. Yeah, you know. And so, yes, if you start in a front corral and you run a sixteen minute per I you can run an 18 minute whatever. You're gonna run slower than that. Right. You can run way slower because there's a a buffer. Right. you know, as a cushion between you and them. But if you're with them, they are the end of the race. That's right. Did I miss anything? No. There's a very small grace window that they'll give you where if you fall behind that pace or and them, they'll say, Can you catch up? If you can catch up, you can you can continue and and on your journey. That's right. but 16 minutes per mile is is the deal. And we we you know it's on the website. They recommend train to run a 15 minute per mile. You know what I mean? So that if you fall to 16 minutes. Okay, you're still managing, but if you train to 16 and you fall to 17, it's not gonna end well. Not if you start in the back. That's correct. Yes. Correct. And that's why everybody we said it earlier. That's why everybody wants to start up front. Right. Is they want to stop for Piglet and and Mr. Incredible and all the photos. And if you're running a 16 minute pace and you start with the balloon ladies, you don't have time. Right. You can't stop. Right. You know? So that's why everyone's always itching to be up front. Yeah. Excellent. do you want to talk about some of the stations on there's Hydration stations, aid stations, there's different spots on the course. So let's start with hydration stations. Usually so the hydration stations, there's usually about every mile and a half or so. And definitely guarantee to get water there for sure. Yep. and then as the race distances as the race distances increase, usually you also find power aid at those stations as well. And it's yellow. And it's yeah, usually it's yellow. Yeah. The aid station, there are going to be Medics there, if you will. sponsored by Advent Health. at least right now, yeah. Yes, yes. and there you will find like giant bottles of biofreeze pumped out. They'll give you a little plastic glove. You can just get some biofreeze and rub it on your leg. Yep. on the tongue depressor, popsicle stick looking things. That's Vaseline. Yes. That's for chafing. don't make the mistake of like thinking it's it. It's on a tongue depressor. It's like something to eat. It's not a gel. It's not a gel. Okay. It's Vaseline. they also hand out Tylenol there. There is a there is a bathroom there, but I don't think they'll let you use it unless it's like Part of your emergency with them or whatever. I I was having an emergency. No, no, that not that kind of emergency. I should not consider that an emergency enough to let me use No, no. It has to be like an emergency with them or whatever. I believe there's probably some ice or whatever they can help you there. I think they're every we're closer to like every three miles. So they're not as often. That's right. Yep. Great. porta potty. Very clear what it is. Yeah. But where do we find those typically? Gosh. Okay. Well, they're gonna be before you start the race. There's a big wall, like a long line, yeah, lots of them. Lots of them on the course they're gonna be they're gonna be spread out too. What what what can we expect when we find them? Where are we gonna find them? Well, you can definitely expect for the first few to be very crowded, to have very long lines. So if you can make it past those first few, I would highly recommend that they're gonna be in parts of the course that are outside of a park. That's right. Usually. I'll try to hold it till we get to a park because it's just better and easier to go to the bathroom in an actual restroom versus a tiny little port-a potty. That's right. Especially if it's in the dark. And all the restrooms on the course are open. Yes. Which is great. Yeah. So usually I'll like plan out like, I know we run through this part, you know, of whatever land. Like I'm gonna use that restroom or whatever. But if you're on the road, there are porta-potties. Yep. And sometimes there's like a group of four and the line takes a long time because there's only four of them. Sometimes you come up and there's group of 20 of them. Right. And so Yes, they're gonna be out in the middle of nowhere where they don't have plumbing. Right. And I would just say that if you are starting anywhere in like the earlier corrals and you start in the dark, just remember that the porta potties don't have lights. Nope. And so if you are especially if you're trying to finagle with a costume, like that's good luck. So I know a lot of people will buy little like clip on lights that they'll attach to like their vests or whatever to use in the restroom. So yeah, just something to consider. Perfect. another word to know, and this is very race specific, is mylar. That's right. What is mylar? Mylar is like the emergency blanket that like a fireman might have or whatever. It's basically just like a little tinfoil square that unwraps to be a little blanket that you can put around you and it will keep you warm. Mm-hmm. You can like cocoon yourself in there in the corral before you start and keep you nice and warm. of course you'll hear this a billion times before you cross the start line, but you want to make sure you get rid of the mylar right before you cross because it will mess up your timing chip if you cross the start line. It interferes with that. That's right. But it's great way to stay warm. This year I bought some mylar that are actually a poncho as well. So like you don't have to worry about you can like still use your hands. you don't have to like hold it on. Right. Yes, no, it's like it's like a double. Like it it doubles as a poncho. It has a hood. So if it rains, it like also keeps you dry. but yes, I am a big fan of the throwaway bathrobe. We bring we bring Mylar on hot races, yeah, cold races, doesn't matter. It is in the bag. And even on a race that I don't think I might need it, it still goes in the gear check bag. Yeah. Because you just don't know. You can buy like a 10 pack on Amazon for five bucks. Yes. The it weighs next to nothing. Yep. So like it's just worth having. And then you just if you don't use it, then you just throw it off before you. Yeah. In the parking lot waiting for everyone to finish the race. Right. So I didn't have to sit on the parking lot. Yes. You know what I mean? So like just yeah, you're right. They're like fifty cents. Right. Yeah. Just bring Yeah. What is and this is not Red Disney specific, but it's race specific. You're gonna hear someone maybe online or whatever say that they DNS, DNS or DNF. DNS or DNF. What do those stand for? DNS is did not start. Yeah. So maybe like the morning of the race, you wake up with a stomach flu or something. Like then, you know, you don't actually get to start the race. That's right. Which is very sad. Uh-huh. And then DNF is did not finish. So maybe you started the race and then something happened, you got injured, or maybe you got injured during training, like I did last year for the marathon and you knew you weren't gonna be able to finish, but you wanna start. Yes. And so you cross the start line and you do as much as you can and then you put yourself on the bus. So yeah. Yeah, that's what those stand for. Yep. Yeah, you'll hear them more more online than than in person, but that's what those stand for. I actually had to Google it because I didn't know that when I first saw it online, someone kept saying they DNF'd and I'm like, I don't know what that means. Right. Yeah. So that's it. what's fuel? Mm-hmm. Nutrition is also a word that I think gets intermixed with it. Right. But what well, how would you define fuel in in race terms? Yes. So I would say that fuel is the I was gonna say food. I did you consider it gel of food? I I mean it is. Yeah. But it's the calories, carbs, sugar that you're gonna take in on the race course to give your body what it needs to get through the race successfully. huh. Like lots of people say, like, I'm not gonna take I don't need a gel, blah, blah, blah. Like, yeah, you could probably do it without the gel potentially, but it's gonna be much better for your body and you're gonna do better and perform better and feel better if you take that nutrition. I feel like we can't talk about nutrition. Without sharing with some of our new friends our funny story about when you went to the running store for the very first time. yeah. And he asked you about nutrition. So this is why we this is exactly why we have this podcast. It's exactly why we say dumb things like Erica, what is nutrition? Right. You know what I mean? Because it might be very obvious to somebody. Just to yeah. Or to people that have been running for a while. Us now. So I go buy my first pair of running shoes when I had signed up for my first race. I'm doing all the firsts, right? Right. And I was humble enough to walk into the store and say, I'm running my first race. I've never run before. What do I need for shoes? Yes. And he talks me through all the stuff. These are great. You know, this is why these are good for you. Does all the things? And he says, Do you have running socks? I'm like, I got socks. He goes, You really want some running socks. So I take his advice on that and I spend $20 on some running socks. And now, of course, I love them. You know what I mean? They're different. Yes. You know what I mean? Than regular socks. And then his final question was how's your nutrition? And I'm like, it's great. And he's like, you sure? Like, what brand are you? Yeah. He's yeah, like, what do you, what's your, what's your game plan? And I'm like, no, no, I eat fruits and vegetables. And you know, I definitely I you know, I eat lots of grilled chicken. And he looked at me like I was He's like, bless you. It's your first time running. Uh-huh. And I thought nutrition just meant how's your nutritional substance in life. You know what I mean? What he meant was Do you have gels or what stinger you know like stoop waffles, right? You know, or you has your electrolytes and all that whatever salt tabs. Yes. Yeah, here I was, but I didn't know that yet. Of course, of course. I'm glad I I mean it was embarrassing, but I'm glad I got, you know, hey, humble yourself. You don't know what you don't know. That's right. Yeah. You know what I mean? And now I can laugh about it, but that's why we share this kind of stuff because nutrition's a normal word, right? But enrasing it means something different. Absolutely. Everybody's different, by the way. Everybody's stomach handles something different. Just because your friend likes goo does not mean you have to do goo and that's the world's best. I like Morton. Erica does something totally different. Yeah. You know, I like Morton. I also like you can. Yeah. Yeah. And but you know what? We found what works for us. The honey stinger stoop waffles are my jam. I had three of them today on my run. Right. Like they're just my favorite. Yeah. You know, and they work for my stomach. They don't mess me up. I take one every 30 minutes, you know. That may not be your plan. Yeah. Try it at home. Correct. Do not do that at race day for the first time. That's right. And also I feel like our recent episode with Kristen. Yes. she talked a lot about nutrition. So if you missed that one, what I don't know what number that's It was last week. Last week. Go and listen to Fifty something. Fifty something. Yeah. Perfect. Six. Fifty six. It was two weeks ago. I'm sorry. It's fifty six. Man, you put me right on the spot right there. So sorry. You can edit it out. Yeah, well. You probably won't. Probably not. But yeah. yes. we got a bunch of, you know, we're trying to provide helpful resources and Kristen was a great resource just a couple of weeks ago about nutrition. Yeah. So excellent. Along those same lines, this one's a little more obvious, but how would you define hydration? That might not be as obvious as it seems for a new runner. So, like, yes, water and Gatorade or Powerade, but for someone like me that can't drink very much water without having to stop at the restroom, I take advantage of salt stick tabs or chews. and those will just give you electrolytes along the way. That's right. so that's a great option for me. it's also important to have electrolytes the days leading up to the race, especially if it's a longer distance. So things like that. Perfect. This is what I I believe the same thing about fuel too, but hydration, especially. If you are dehydrated, it's too late. Correct. Like you don't don't in your training and in your race when it comes to hydration. like I stop at all the water stops, even if it's for a little bit, or you know, I might not do power aid on this one, but I'll do water. Right. Like you're preemptively keeping your body ready. Right. Not, man, I'm so thirsty. You know, like gym class when you were in elementary school or something. Right. You go dying to drink the metal water out of the thing or whatever. Cause you were dying, right? Right. When you're running endurance, you'd never want to be there. No, you'll get cramping, terrible cramping, and you want to avoid all of Sure. Yeah, I had a knee thing on one of my runs and I asked my run coach, like, what was going on with that? Because it wasn't sharp. It wasn't and he goes, probably an electrolyte imbalance. Yeah. And I'm like, well, how do I solve that? You know what I mean? It turns out I'm I need to get more electrolytes. Yeah. You know what I mean? So all right, that's hydration. pace groups and pacers. at Disney races, half marathons and marathons, there is a designated group of pacers, and their job is to help keep a certain pace than you can follow. Right. And there's multiple groups. If you want to run a half marathon in an hour and forty-five minutes and you can manage that, run with them. Right. They are they are guaranteed. The guy's holding the flag. He is gonna from the minute he crosses the start line to the second he crosses the finish line, it is going to be an hour and forty-five minutes. And then they have a two hour and nine minute group and a two thirty and I mean, there's probably some in between. And there's a three thirty group. That's the absolute, you know, slowest you can do the the whatever. Just start with them. And I would also say you don't have to sign up to run with them. That's right. They when if they're if you're dying and they you come up behind them or they come up behind you, you can just run. Just run with them. That's right. And at least at Disney, they're all run walkers. I'm gonna give you that heads up. Their intervals are all different, you know, based off of how fast they're trying to go. But they they will run walk. You can go with them. Yeah. You know, you don't even have to say hi. Yeah. You can say hi. I recommend you say hi. they'll probably distract you and whatever. But that's what the pacers and the paced group there are. So the pacer has the flag. Right. Follow him for her. And they're usually fun people. Yes. They like they and I love the fact that it's a big group of people. Like if you already know that you're gonna do Galloway like run walk intervals, yes. It's a lot easier to do those intervals in a large group than it is to maybe try to do them on your own. Yeah. So yeah. You can also come and go. So, like let's say you didn't run with them for three miles or whatever, and you find them on the course or someone comes up behind you and you just need some help for now. Right. That's fine. Yeah. But you don't plan to go that speed the whole time. Right. Because you want to stop for a character or whatever. That's okay. Right. They're totally cool. Yeah. They all they want to do is help someone get to where they're trying to get to. You know what I mean? So pace groups are awesome. We mentioned character stop earlier when we were talking about photopaths. Character stop very simply is a Disney themed or know, Disney property, you know, Disney IP character on the course. these actually will be outside of the parks. Yes. And so very rarely inside the parks. Yeah. They're they're kind of filling the the road miles. Right, yes. And I would say maybe again, maybe every mile, do you think? It's not exact. I know that. There's the most are on marathon. Yeah. So the longer it's the longer the race, the more there are. Yeah. and so I mean the first one I think I've ever seen like within them the first mile. Yeah. You know? It's I feel it's always like beauty and the beast. The first like one maybe just for Princess Weekend, but I feel like maybe usually like I feel like beauty and the beast are like within the first three. I don't know why I just feel like I'd love to like see a chart that shows what it is. Yeah. if my general rule here is you come up on it, if it's a character you want to see, I've said this a million times. If you're at the end of the line and you can see the character, you're probably good to wait if you're willing to give it a ten or fifteen minute wait. You know what I mean? If you cannot see the character from the end of the line. We've been there. Yeah. Make your own choice. Right. But you are going to be committing 30 minutes. Yeah. Maybe. Also, the characters take breaks and you sometimes have to wait for them to come back. It's not long. No. but you know, I'm gonna say like three minutes at least though. And three minutes when you're running a half marathon and you started in Corral F. three minutes feels like in a turn. As balloon ladies are getting closer. You know? Yeah. And so for sure, you have to make your own choices there. What you and I do is we set our if it's these characters, right, we will stop. Yes. Anybody else, probably not. And then we have our just like, if it's sadness from inside out, there's no way we're stopping. Right. You like really hate inside out characters. I've noticed that they're like usually your character example. If it's like Raya and the last dragon, I'm not stopping. I'm definitely not stopping for like. What are they? Playhouse Disney? Our kids are so old, I don't remember what it's called anymore. Doc McSephans. Yeah, like any of those guys. Although now we were talking about something the other day and he's like talking about some cat character thing. And I'm Don't even know. I don't Don't even know. Don't even know. And Bluey. Bluey's now Disney too, right? Yeah, licensed, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't okay. Anyway, people are probably mad at me now. Yep. Yep. You're you are divisive with that. so character stops. You know, you had just have to make your own choice. Yeah. they will take your phone if you want them to. There's a cast member next to the photo pass photographer. You can hand them your phone and they'll take a picture with your phone as well. And they usually like smash that button a million times and you get like 800 and you're like awesome. And your eyes are closed for like 799 of them. Yeah. That's right. The only recommendation I would have is don't like hand them your phone locked and all that. Like have the camera open to what you want. Haven't you done like video mode? that's what I do. Yeah. So the Disney cast members are so good. They've been trained in this, I can tell. and I didn't no one told me to do this, but I just I walk up and I say, you know, they're, you know, they're they just reach out for the phone. Right. They didn't even ask for it. They just reach out and I say, it's on video mode and it's already going. That's what I do, is I already have it rolling. Right. And they say, Great. And I go in and now I have a video of me like interacting with Mickey for the five seconds before the photo, which I like. Yeah. And then they're so good. You know, you can take a photo and while the video's going, I still get 800 photos. Right, right, right. Because they snap it with that. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then I walk away and my whole camera roll. I guess just like all these photos and a video. Yeah. So I I liked it. Like I put it on video mode for every character stop. And I just I walk up and I say it's already rolling. Yeah. And so I have a good Thirty seconds before the video of me actually meeting the character of the ground. I was gonna say thirty seconds. That's really long. No, you know where it's like me like holding the phone holding the phone like 'cause I've already hit record. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. Perfect. I should cut together a compilation of every time I've said it's on video and it's already recorded. Okay. Anything else on that? No, I don't think so. How would you define a spectator? goodness. Spectators are the people that are there to cheer for you. Yes. Whether they know you or not, which is what makes Brend Disney so special. Yes. yeah, these are like friends, family, people that have come to see you. There are a couple of specific places along the course. Of course, it's different for each race distance, but yeah, they have the opportunity to cheer for you. That's right. there are lots of people who spectate with not a they don't know anybody. Right. Or or they're not there like supporting their husband. Yeah. You know what I mean? And we've done that before. where we're cheering for the general community of friends, right, but not like like like you are gonna go to New York and spectate for me correct as my spouse. Yes. Right. And that's gonna mean a ton to me. But then it's also gonna mean a lot to me that there's gonna be a bunch of people spectating the marathon for us, right? And we don't know. Yeah. And so the other thing that's cool is that Disney cast members, including that third shift, which is like the night shift or whatever. Yeah, they'll s they will be cheering for you as well backstage, which is cool. if you're gonna spectate, bring a cowbell, a clicker clapper, whatever, make a sign, wear something bright and obnoxious. Like you don't know what somebody needs on the course. Right. And none of the other spectators are gonna look at you weird because you're cheering for people. That's right. Just do it. Yeah. spectator viewing erricas are view. Hello. Spectator viewing areas. Still can't say it. Spectator viewing areas, Erica. Yes. Are on the Disney course are designated, right? Right. So you cannot just like New York City, I think you can just show up to the side of the course anywhere you want. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Disney, those highway miles, you're never spectating on a highway mile. You know what I mean? You're not supposed to. Yeah. And so yeah, you do get the stragglers, right? Yeah. Yeah. so Magic Kingdom's a great spot. The a start line, the finish line. Obviously, we like the like bus loop at Epcot on some races. They're just designated spots where you're allowed to be the boardwalk. If you're staying at a boardwalk resort, you can be there. Yeah. it's quiet zone. Shh. That's right. quiet clapping. That's right. Golf clap. Yes. And so they're just designated spots. Yeah. You're never going to believe this, but that information's in the digital event guide. So just go look at the digital event guide and I'll tell you exactly where you can do. Where you can that. My recommendation is take the Run Disney transportation. If you're going to spectate for a runner that you know, take it to the start line, get a coffee, just be there early because when the buses stop running and the parking lots close and the roads close and you're trying to get somewhere, it gets really hard, really fast. So it's just worth get up early, go. Now you're in the ecosystem. Now you can jump on the monorail or whatever you you need to do. It's not worth trying to push it. No. And I would also say that we have a A dedicated episode on spectating. So if you haven't heard that one and you are going to spectate, I would highly recommend listening to that. Yep. I joked the other day. I I'm like, does somebody have an episode on a podcast somewhere about spectating New York City? Because we're about to go. yeah. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. That's right. So yeah, if you are going to spectate, listen to that episode. It's very helpful. it's in the 30s. I'm gonna say 33. Okay. That's totally a guess. But you're probably right because that's how you see. Snack box. Snack box is what they hand you at the end of the race when you couldn't possibly hold anything else. That's right. Because they've given you a metal, a cooling towel, a banana, a Gatorade, a water water. And they're like, by the way, here's a box. Right. Good luck. Yeah. what's in that box? Okay, we this was part of a game thing that we did. We did one time, yep. Well, and it kind of varies. So like chips usually. there's usually some form of candy. It started out as like MMs and then Skittles and now it's like gummies. Yeah. It keeps getting worse basically. I know. Sometimes there's a soup waffle in there. there's a here's how I lost the game when we played with Taylor like four years ago. There's a moist towelette for your hands, which I forgot about. The Baduco toast has found its way in there. Yeah, it has. And I'd like to, if Ren Disney ever listens to this, please keep Baduco as a sponsor and tell them to drop the toast entirely from the planet. Like no one likes it. No one likes it. Have you met anyone that likes it? No. No. We say we say, Would you rather do Baduco toast or sports beans? They're both not great. And everyone's like, Well, give me the sports beans. It's not great. Although we do like the chocolate That's what I'm saying. Keep them as a sponsor. The that you get at the expo, the well they have wafers. That's what I'm thinking. They wafers strawberry ones. Which reminds me of my childhood for some reason. I don't know why. Bring those put those in the box. Right, yeah. Why are we getting the toast? Probably because the toast is cheaper to manufacture. I don't know. They're like, Well, we made a bunch of toast that nobody wants. Let's give it to Run Disney. Right, yeah. It's awful. I've got 90 cases of this in the back room somewhere. The toast makes the plastic cheese look awesome. You know, which is crazy. Yeah. Okay. that's the snack box. you get that at the finish line. last two things. Yeah. Finisher metal. Mm-hmm. Very self explanatory. When do you get that? You get that after you cross the finish line. You go through the shoot. Do you get the medic? Medic cooling towel. Yeah. I was saying the cooling towel comes first. Yep. And then like way, way toward the end is the metal. Yep. And then you keep going through the shoot. And if you did a challenge, yeah, then they'll have a an area where you pull off and big banner, it says challenge runners, you know, so you can't miss it. No. And they're watching your bib and they can tell from your bib what color it is and all that stuff. Usually there's like an armband involved. Or is that coast to coast? Which unfortunately is not a thing right now. Remember earlier in the episode when we said you're gonna hear co reference to coast to coast all the time? That's it. so yes, your medal will come in a plastic little bag thing. They do not like ceremonially, is that a word? Yes. Yes. Wrap it around your neck. No. You know, they don't do that. They hand it to you. I I find it's a personal mission of mine. There's like 12 people handing out medals. Uh-huh. And everyone goes to the first one. Right. Then if they're busy, they go to the second one. I don't want to miss out on the medal. And so like I'm like nervous to go to the last, like last few people. Right. Because I'm like, I don't want them to think I like already grabbed a medal and now I'm trying to get a second medal. Right. But I go down there because they they probably have nothing to do. You do this at water stations, really anywhere. You want the last person to feel seen. I I really do because it's like this poor person's been here all day. Yeah, and no one's taken their water or no one's taken medals from them. So maybe they've like rotated. Maybe. I don't know. I can always tell when like the bubbly, really excited one somehow got the first spot. Yeah. And I'm like, nah, I'm not going to you. where's the introvert? You know what I mean? Like, because I want to thank that person. Yeah, totally. So just know that there's the reason I bring that up, there's like probably 10 people handing out metals on both sides, I think. Are they on both sides? Or are they only on the right? No, they're on both sides. I think so too. And so just just know that if it's really crowded, you can go around a little bit and there'll be more metal hander outers. Great. the last thing you'll do is come out in after your snack box. you've got your metal, you're feeling good. And you've walked now what feels like another 10K after the thing, you know. Yep. They want you to keep moving. you'll come out into the finish line area, also known as like the reunion area. Yes. You get your gear check, you use those blast portapods, you come out, and there's millions of people in the reunion area. And this is where your family can meet up with you or friends, or you find your other running buddy that you left behind, or whatever, you know, you can find them in the reunion area. And this there's food trucks, there's I mean, just a food tent, the merchandise, whatever's left over from the expo is there. you can get the cider, the famous pineapple cider, yeah, which is really good. there's a Wetzel pretzel typically there, photos, photo opportunities there, the DJ stage. I mean, if you want to go dance and party, yeah, you know, you have the energy to do that great. There's bleachers where you can sit and watch the LED screen. Like there's a lot going on here. Right. And then If you've gotten your photos and you've had your cider and you're done, this is where the buses are as well. Right. They like like half moon around one side of it. And there's big balloons and it has a sign that says what resort goes to what bus. Right. If you're staying on property, there's a word we learned earlier. If you're staying on property, you can just walk right to the bus. It's right there. Yep. Get on, go home. Yep. If you're if you drove there or you took an Uber, have fun with the next mile. Yeah. Walking all the way back out to the front of Epcot. Right. and that's the family reunion area. Is there anything else there? No, I think we covered it all. Yep. It's loud and the sun is out and it's bright, and you know what I mean? And it's a parking lot. and so but if you're an extrovert, I mean that's it's a party right there. Party zone. Yep. Yep. DJ CJ is making it happen. Okay. What else did we miss? Anything? Like in terms of like just defining the things? I don't think so. But I would say that if we briefly covered something that you want more information about, sure. Definitely send us a message. Yeah, just send us a Instagram message or whatever and if we don't know the answer, we'll point you to somebody who does. Right. And there's likely another episode that goes into each one of these in great detail. So for sure. We have more information. We just want to do it quick. Like we just did episode last week was all on strength training. The one before that was on nutrition. So we dive deep into a lot of things. We have a whole episode on photo pass and transportation. Right. So you can certainly find that information. This was like if you're new to Run Disney or you just need a refresher on what all the things are, that's what this episode was meant to be. That's right. all right. So that that covers it. That's everything on our list, Erica. do you have any Training updates. This is wow. I'm really surprised at how long this episode ended up being. Do you have any training updates or whatever? We traveled this week. Yes, we do. This is like our annual family trip. We go up to the North Georgia Mountains every summer. Yep. And so what's fun about it is that we get away, the internet sucks. Like, you know, like it's great. We eat out. We go to a drive-in movie theater. It's awesome. We love it. The kit, we kids go. Like it's just great. And there's nowhere to run because it's the mountain. Yeah, our the cabin that we stay at is literally on the side of a mountain. Yeah, like it's like there's barely even room to walk the dog. Like it's yeah. Yeah. Well there's barely room to drive the car up the mountain. That's true too. Yeah. And so what we do is we go down into town. Yep. into town. That sounds funny. where we just go down into the little downside. I think it's twenty, twenty five minutes to get there. Yeah. And we just like loop. Yep. This downtown kind of thing. We try to go early in the morning. And so we just did that. We didn't have long mileage this weekend, but we We just kind of did that. But it's fun because we run together. It is fun because we run together. Yep. So we've been every time we go up there, that's what we do. That's the only place you really run. Yeah. And so not a high mileage weekend for us this week. Thank goodness. Upcoming episode, we have Dr. Allie Marty. Yeah. She has the running to the castle podcast, which is great. We're talking all things keeping minimum pace. Yes. Talking about the balloon ladies, strategies to, you know, during our training, during the race, all of those things. We're just talking about how do we, you know, if we're worried. Or we're new to running or anything like that. How do we keep minimum pace? And she stuck around for our after show. So that next week's episode and everything is gonna be a whole ton of fun. Yep. Let's read a review and then we will call this episode done. Yes. So this one comes from our friend. It's Sean 98. Sean says, I am hoping to run my first Run Disney race next year and discovered this show from the DCL duo. I've had to slow down how much I listened because the show is just that good. I appreciate how AJ and Erica are encouraging but realistic, the honesty they provide and the humor tips and tricks they sprinkle in along the way. Not only that, but AJ and Erica have such a warm social media presence and have been an absolute joy to engage with, even if just through a screen. AJ and Erica, thank you for giving me the motivation when training feels impossible, hope when I'm my own biggest enemy, and the inspiration to keep moving towards race day one step at a time. That's awesome. Thanks so much, Sean. Really appreciate your encouragement. I know. Yeah, Sean gives me lots of good holler hypes. Yes. And it's been great to have him a part of our support crew on Patreon. He's really great. Yeah. I know. And it's gonna be awesome because he said, I think in there that he was hoping to do his first run Disney and we know when his first run Disney is gonna be. Yeah. So he got registered. So super excited for you, my friend. And we're glad you're on this journey with us. Thanks for thanking you. Thanks for being a part of Friends, there's three easy ways to support the podcast. For those of you that already do, we really appreciate it. if you don't mind, subscribe on all the things, at least places you want the content, your podcast player, Instagram, Facebook, threads, whatever threads is, you know, that they post there too. I just I'm not I don't I don't know how to use threads. I think I'm just too old. I'm like in Instagram and that's pretty much it. I'm like, I should probably check Facebook sometimes. Well, yeah. If you guys want the content there, it is there. It is there. It is there. You can join our support crew, which we mention every once in a while. That's our fancy name for our Patreon. You get bonus content. We have the after show, which is becoming more and more popular every time we do it. We go unfiltered during that show. Yeah. sometimes this last one that posted last week, I was like, maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't have said that. I pushed that one a little far. And so that's fun. And then we send you stuff in the mail. Yeah. So if you want to support the show, help us keep this thing going, but you also want more content, it's a great way to get it. Yeah. And then if you don't mind, leave a review. We love the reviews. It really helps people find the show, really helps the algorithm, lets us know what's going well. And it yeah, I mean, if you just want to make us feel good, make Erica cry. That's right. Leave us a five-star review over on Apple Podcasts. We really appreciate it. but even if you don't do any of those things, genuinely, friends, we really appreciate you listening to the podcast. We hope it's helpful. We hope it's encouraging. Do not want this to be about us. You do not have to support the show in any of those ways. And we're still gonna create it because we want you to walk up to your first or second or 500th start line with confidence and inspired, ready to do the thing. And we want to help you get to that finish line as well. So we love doing this, friends, and we're so excited to have you a part of this journey. We will catch you next week for another episode of One More. One more on the podcast. I'm gonna sneak it in one of the time. Sorry. 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 ajanerica.com.