runDisney Springtime Surprise!

Jill Bartholomew (00:00)
Welcome to the Be Fierce ⁓ Multisport podcast. My name is Jill Bartholomew and I'm your host, ⁓ and head coach at Be Fierce And I'm with my cohost today, ⁓ Troy Theodosiou, ⁓ who is, ⁓ going to be with me talking about the recent, ⁓ run Disney event this past weekend at.

Disney World in Florida. Their run Disney's springtime surprise challenge weekend, which I and my son both participated in.

Troy Theodosiou (00:32)
Well, thank you for the warm introduction, Jill, and thank you for having me again. How I would like to start off is your motivation behind Run Disney, because as you can see, there are a few medals in the background. Why don't you tell us about that?

Jill Bartholomew (00:48)
Yeah, so ⁓ I am not a lifelong runner. am a, we talk about adult onset swimming. I'm an adult onset runner. ⁓ I took up running after I got divorced. You know, I had lost a bunch of weight. I was, you know,

looking for my new crew, right? Like, you know, where can I meet new people that have a healthier lifestyle than, than my previous life? And, you know, I was doing some local 5Ks and was in some like run groups. then, you know, I wanted to do some longer distances, but they were also like intimidating. I'm like, wait, you mean that that they do runs at Disney? And I went to sign up and this was like way back in early

⁓ mid 2020 or 2019, I went to sign up and the only event that was open was the marathon and the half marathon. And I was like, ⁓ let's do the half marathon. I never done a half marathon. That, that, was, that was, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was my first half marathon and I trained for it as best as I knew how I didn't have a coach. was kind of younger and dumber and you know,

Troy Theodosiou (01:46)
was gonna say that's a little different to a 5K.

Jill Bartholomew (02:00)
That was in, you know, so that, so my first half marathon was at Disney World at Marathon Weekend 2020. ⁓ you know, right before COVID, I was not signed up for Princess that year, but I actually was signed up to do the challenge at, Star Wars Weekend, which got canceled that year. And I have since then done every distance at every run Disney weekend and every challenge.

⁓ in the Florida Walt Disney World, since then. And I've also done a couple of the ones in California since they reopened, ⁓ California, ⁓ including last year I did Dopey in, ⁓ Florida. was my technically fifth Dopey, ⁓ as

And then did Dumbo the following weekend in California. So that was like 77 miles, ⁓ seven finish line, 77 miles in like 10 days kind of thing. It was pretty, it's pretty awesome. ⁓ super slept very well after that was done. And this year, you know, another perfect season for me, ⁓ which conclude concluded this weekend, the run Disney season runs from the fall to the spring. And, ⁓ you know, so that that's, that's why I did it. Cause to me, I'm like, this is, this is my thing, you know,

I do Iron Man and like the triathlon stuff, but you know, I also do the run Disney stuff and I love it. It's such a different vibe. It's like run happy, know, it's Brooks logo, but you know, and Disney's is every mile is magic. Every mile is not magic, but you can still run in a magical place.

Troy Theodosiou (03:37)
sure. Well let's dive in. So let's talk about your preparation. How did you prepare? Did you have a specific training plan in mind? Obviously this is not new to you. You've done a few. You're very familiar with the courses, with the setup. So talk us through preparation.

Jill Bartholomew (03:58)
Yeah, so for this particular weekend, it's a little different from like Dopey in January has more of a specific, you know, training plan. For this weekend, I didn't really follow a training plan because I have Ironman Texas in a couple of weeks. So for me, I treated it as like long runs on that other training plan.

Instead of having some something separate for it as a result though both like trying to protect my body as best I can you know, cuz doing 20 miles in Three days is you know still stressful on your body ⁓ I was not moving at like a normal for me race pace. Yeah, I think I ran the the 10-miler

about the same as I ran a half marathon a couple weekends ago, right? You know, it's like, took it a little bit easy. I treated it more as like heat and temperature, uh, and humidity acclimation, uh, for the race in two weeks. Uh, that was to me, like the main benefit out of it. I mean, there's a lot of bling too, like that. That's a good benefit too. Uh, but like I wasn't at race base, so I didn't treat it that way. Um, you know, now.

Troy Theodosiou (05:02)
Nice. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (05:17)
When I wasn't doing these ultra endurance events and treating these as like a part of that training, then I was following like a more specific run plan. I had a run coach and we'd build these into the plan. We'd start with wine and dine. Over the summer we train for basically marathon weekend in January for Dopey. And along the way you've got wine and dine, then marathon weekend.

And then you've got all the fitness from Marathon Weekend to maintain going into Princess and Springtime Surprise. the temperatures at Springtime Surprise are always very high. So performance is lower.

Troy Theodosiou (05:57)
Yeah, I think it's important for our listeners to understand that obviously it's quite a shock to the system, right? But it's also important to highlight the fact that there's certain goals within the goal, right? So obviously the focus for you is Ironman Texas coming up in a couple of weeks, but you had certain goals and objectives from this past race weekend, being in Orlando, looking to get acclimated. And so...

Jill Bartholomew (06:09)
See?

Troy Theodosiou (06:25)
I think it's important to remind our listeners that you can embrace a race weekend and have goals within goals that can actually help you in terms of preparing for the season ahead.

Jill Bartholomew (06:39)
Yeah, totally. as a coach, we talk to folks about what's your A-race? A lot of people like the race environment.

whether it's Disney or it's, you know, New York, you know, New York Roadrunners or something else. You know, races are fun. You know, there's their high adrenaline event. You're around 20,000 of your, you know, best buddies for the day. And, you know, they're addictive. So, you know, not but so we do them because we like them.

⁓ but not every race is going to be your a race for me this year. ⁓ my a race was supposed to be, you know, two, ⁓ one was Texas. One was Kona. ⁓ this year I've changed that, ⁓ Lake Placid and Kona. And the reason why I changed that is like, I'm physically not where I wanted to be heading into Texas. So now my, so now Texas is. ⁓

You know, Ironman Texas becomes more of like a sea race. So it's going to be fun. I'm going to do it. Um, but you know, I don't want to hurt myself doing it. Um, so it won't be at like full intensity because I'm not trained. Uh, my fitness isn't, you know, where it should be to do that. Uh, and it was the same thing for, for these other weekends. It's like, what's your a race and talk to your coach and everything else like put into the training plan.

long races, ⁓ these are endurance events, you know, whether it's, you know, springtime is endurance because you've got both the distance and the heat. and for slower runners, it's worse because. know, I'm in a corral start at the front of a corral and, know, we get the privilege of starting earlier in the day. And, you know, especially for springtime surprise.

those, takes them at minimum an hour to launch everyone. So where I was finishing just after they started, ⁓ it was really hot and really humid for all the races. They're starting in what I felt was hot and humid. They're finishing in like really oppressive conditions. So like, you know, that for.

You know, we always, if you're only doing like springtime or you're only doing like princess, you got to train for the temperatures too.

Troy Theodosiou (09:05)
Yeah, Jill, how much attention do you pay to specific simulations with regards to your hydration, your nutrition, especially when you sort of approach the weekend with more of a training mindset? Do you feel that you're able to execute these simulations better than you would if you were at home, just going for a long run?

Jill Bartholomew (09:30)
I think so, for a couple of reasons. So for me, my general plan is, you know, on the bike for a triathlon, know, X number of carbs, you know, per hour. And I divide that into 20 minute segments. And on the run, it's about 30 % fewer carbs, but also divided into, you know, 20 to 30.

minute segments, and then hydration follows the same, right? And, you know, on the run, when you're out there by yourself, you're self-supported, right? Unless you've, like, I'm fortunate enough, my husband occasionally follows me around on the bike with water bottles. But, right, right. But most of the time, you know, you're kind of out there with a hydration pack with...

Troy Theodosiou (10:16)
Spoiled.

Jill Bartholomew (10:23)
I'm not a big fan of running with sloshing water on my back. And it's easy to kind of slack off and go into a walk or have a slower pace. there's 20,000 people around you, you kind of have the motivation to keep going. It's like you pick the people that you're like, I'm going to finish in front of you. that's not just me. I hope that does that.

Troy Theodosiou (10:43)
Not competitive at all, Jill.

Jill Bartholomew (10:48)
No, I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to finish in front of you. And I get really upset when the Pacers pass me. I'm like, no, no. But yeah, like out on the race, you got, you know, water tables every so often. And I typically like the Disney races. One of their sponsors is sport beans. I don't use sport beans. So I bring my own, you know,

Troy Theodosiou (10:58)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (11:16)
Iron Man has Maurten on course, so that's what I use because it's more convenient than carrying 20 pounds or something else.

Troy Theodosiou (11:18)
Yeah. Yeah.

But Jill, I think that's super important because what folks need to be mindful of is sticking to your plan. So in spite of the fact that you're at a different race, if you know that the nutrition is gonna be different, you can have severe and somewhat very ⁓ adverse responses to taking in new nutrition. And so I think that's something that's, yeah, I think that's something that you need to... ⁓

Jill Bartholomew (11:30)
Mm-hmm.

You know, they say nothing new on race day, right?

Troy Theodosiou (11:53)
you know, really be careful of is plan ahead, which obviously you've done. And so you carry the nutrition that your body is used to.

Jill Bartholomew (12:02)
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of online forums specific to run Disney. And I think it's great that such a community has evolved around it. Unfortunately, like the downside of that is there's a lot of people asking like really legitimate questions and ignoring like the Trol-ey answers of like, go look it up. ⁓ Right, I love that one is like, go look it up. Use the search feature.

Troy Theodosiou (12:27)
Super helpful, yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (12:29)
It's like, have you ever tried to execute a search on Facebook? ⁓ It's sketchy on a good day. And anyways, you know, but as a result, right, there's a lot of good advice. There's also a lot of not good advice out there. And I've seen a few times where like there's people offering advice that could potentially land you in a hospital. So I sometimes, you know, poke my head in and offer up, you know, my two cents.

Sometimes I get challenged on that, which is really, really fun because like sometimes the challenge is like good. It challenges your thinking. Other times it's like.

Um, really guys? No, no, don't do that. It's like, I saw one. Yeah. It's like when I see people who are like, you should be taking 50 % more water in for the two weeks leading up to a race. I'm like, you probably shouldn't do that. There's not going to be any benefit on race day to you doing that other than having to pee a lot. And, um, you know, if you're not taking electrolytes with it, uh, it could kill you. So don't do that.

Troy Theodosiou (13:10)
Yeah, stick to your day job.

Yeah, jealous is always something that I pay close attention to because so often it differs so drastically. Now for somebody that's done many Disney runs, let's talk about expectations going into the weekend versus reality. Anything pop up out of the ordinary? Were there any surprises?

Jill Bartholomew (13:56)
Uhhh...

The biggest surprise on this race, well, one was me. So yeah, I've done a lot of these races. This season hasn't been great to me from an injury perspective. And I telling you beforehand, Like, we get there early and with limited sleep and on the relatively easy jog between the pre-corral and the corral.

And for those who do run Disney and don't know what the pre-corral is, if you're there before the corral opens, they hold you with where the green balloons are ⁓ before they let you into the big corral area. And I felt like this pain in my right, like it's like a weird spot. It's like at the very, very tippy top of your hamstring where the hamstring and glute kind of come together as like, crap.

And that stayed with me the whole weekend. I'm like, I need to get it checked out. going tonight to get it checked out, but I'm like 98 % certain it's like a, ⁓ piriformis kind of pull, which like out of the blue, it's like, wasn't doing anything super stressful. just boom, there it is. It's like, this sucks to get old. ⁓ so running through that, it's like, you know, becoming an expert at running through pain is not what I set out to do when I wanted to do these endurance events. ⁓

But it's a thing. ⁓ other thing is like, this was a really hot weekend. And it was a really humid weekend. Springtime Surprise ⁓ is relatively new weekend. I think this was year four or five. And I've done all of them. ⁓ If they ever do perfect, that'll be my only one that I'm perfect for.

it's usually it's, it's been this weekend twice and it's been late, but it's usually kind of later. And this weekend is weird because it's unseasonably warm this weekend, like the weekend last week and this week are normal, but like, but like the week in between is like unseasonably warm, ⁓ in general and

Troy Theodosiou (15:56)
normal Murphy's law

Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (16:05)
That combined with the timing of the start of the race, the ⁓ gun tends to go off right around the same time that the dew point is hitting. So the earlier runners are like, if you looked at my Instagram post, my last picture was captioned with suffocating. ⁓ It's because you're running through soup. The same thing happened this year at Wine & Dine except it got really foggy.

it doesn't in the spring, it doesn't get like really foggy. ⁓ but it's like fascinating. We're all at the start line and we're glistening. We're not sweating. We're condensing. But yeah, that was like, the thing is like, was just, it was hotter than normal. And, and, you know, your body, like I treat the five K as like my body is adjusting to the humidity so that by the time I make it to the 10 miler, they can actually like put it, put a solid effort in.

Troy Theodosiou (16:44)
Yeah. man.

Jill Bartholomew (17:02)
But hey, on the flip side, my VO2 max went up 2.2.

Troy Theodosiou (17:06)
There you go, there you go. Way to handle some of the unforeseen, whether your poddy responding slightly adversely. But that's kind of the nature of the beast, right?

Jill Bartholomew (17:19)
I mean,

yeah, I mean, that's endurance for it. running especially is hard on the body. it's like, as you age, strange things happen unexpectedly.

Troy Theodosiou (17:30)
Well, Jill, let's talk about some of those favorite moments. I know you continue to go back to Disney and have done so for consecutive years. So talk us through some of these favorite moments for those that have never done a Run Disney event.

Jill Bartholomew (17:40)
Mm-hmm.

So if we go back and ask the question, why do you keep coming back? ⁓ Yeah, you're running through Disney, and that's cool. ⁓ That's fun. That's magical. ⁓ But the springtime surprise, 10-Miler, is fundamentally the same course that we ran. ⁓

you know, before, you know, last year, it's similar to the half marathon course we ran at Wine and Dine. They change up the courses every once in a while, but the last few years, they've been pretty similar. The half marathon and marathon in January and February, ⁓ they were different. They ran them in reverse, which was different.

But you keep going back for the atmosphere, which comes down to the people. It's like you got Carissa and John up on stage doing their thing. And before they got on stage, it the DJs. it's like you were on the bus at 2.30 in the morning, and you've been up since 1.30. Everyone's tired. And yet the energy in the air is unlike anything I've ever experienced anywhere else.

even at a world championship, it does not match the energy. And you've got all walks, all income levels, all walks of life, people coming together to do this thing that they love at this place that they love. And they're all competing at different levels, right? In the eight corral is usually like the top 500 plus or minus. And you've got still there, elite runners, pro runners, pro triathletes.

Troy Theodosiou (19:13)
Wow.

Jill Bartholomew (19:39)
Olympians who are, who are competing. And then at the other end, you've got, you know, folks who are like, this is my first race. I'm doing it because it's at Disney and because it feels like a safe environment and it feels like a supportive environment and it's fun. And they're not even sure that they're going to be able to finish, you know, across the finish line. And a lot of us are dressed up in costumes of different varieties, which are kind of cool.

Troy Theodosiou (19:55)
soon.

Jill Bartholomew (20:07)
I saw a few, ⁓ like I think it was on the 10 K. This girl was lined up in the pre-careal in front of me, dressed like Gamora. There were a lot of people out on course dressed like Gamora, but this girl, she went all in head to toe. She had the green body paint, everything like she had it down. And I was, I looked at her and I'm like, I am sweating. Just thinking about the makeup that you have over your whole body.

Troy Theodosiou (20:34)
Are there

awards for best dressed?

Jill Bartholomew (20:36)
You know, there shouldn't be but or there should be ⁓ I don't think there are there's not but if you look at like run Disney's like Instagram's and X posts and threads and you know Facebook and Tik Tok and wherever else they post ⁓ They they put in like like the the people that they think you know have cool outfits They somehow managed to make it into these reels

Troy Theodosiou (20:40)
But they're not? No ways! Wow!

Come on Disney, I challenge

Disney, I challenge Run Disney to award these folks who go the extra mile, might not be the greatest runners, but they go all out in terms of costume and dress. I feel like they should get special awards.

Jill Bartholomew (21:14)
Hello.

People go all out. Like it's a thing. If you check out like the Facebook groups, like there is like advice groups on making run Disney costumes. like this people put a lot of effort and time into planning their costumes. And like, you know, this year at ⁓ princess, especially, but also marathon weekend.

like this was unseasonably hot. Those weekends were really cold. They were like, some of the races were at the start, were just above freezing. you know, people, know, princess usually is pretty temperate. Like it's usually pretty nice, like in the sixties, fifties, not the thirties. And you know, these people, know, the questions were like, spent all this time on these costumes and now it's totally inappropriate to wear because the, you know, the forecast is.

you know, 32 degrees and rain. And it's like, so, okay, well, how can you modify it to work with that? Um, I've never put that much effort. think the most effort I've put in is buying a, uh, like, you know, crowned athletics outfit or a skater dress off of, um, you know, uh, Etsy or something, but yeah, it got, so it got pretty crazy though. A couple of years ago, Disney had to put in, um, restrictions on costumes. Cause like, you know, some of the

Troy Theodosiou (22:12)
Yeah.

Well, yeah.

dear, people took it little

too far.

Jill Bartholomew (22:39)
⁓

yeah, yeah, there was like, know, slinky dog, you know, where you got both ends with the spring in between. It's like that probably shouldn't be allowed on course.

Troy Theodosiou (22:43)
my gosh. Okay. Yeah.

So it can get a little dangerous.

Jill Bartholomew (22:49)
It can. ⁓ So like, yeah, they've kind of clamped down a bit on what you can and can't do.

Troy Theodosiou (22:57)
Well Jill, think it goes without saying that the community is what makes this so special and I think that's what draws you in and has kept you coming back.

Jill Bartholomew (23:03)
Oh, for sure.

Yeah, I have a couple of groups. We one we call ourselves the front left a group. We have a have a text string that is like, you know, six or eight of us. And we mostly all do all the races. And when one person in the group doesn't, it's like, it's like, oh, man, Greg, where are you? We miss you. But yeah, it's a community and

You know, we've actually started to do some, like when we're all down there, some of us have like started to do things together because like, you know, the person that you know in the corral is not always the same person that they are in real life, you know? And, you know, when you find people that you're like, these are really like good, fun people to hang out with. It's like, you know, we start finding ways to hang out.

Troy Theodosiou (23:54)
Yeah, well, let's talk about that a little more because inevitably you meet somebody along the way, right? Tell us about those interactions because somebody who showed up a stranger.

more often than not leaves a new best friend.

Jill Bartholomew (24:10)
man. ⁓ yeah, you know, the first few years, ⁓ I was doing the races, you know, I was getting faster. So it was kind of like moving forward in the corrals and you you talk to people in the corrals cause you've got a long wait, right? The corrals, most races open like 3 45 AM, 3 30 AM.

and the gun goes off at five. I've met people that I went to the same high school with or that live in the same town or that I've met on other trips or I've met through work or other things. It's kind of cool. This one woman, we still kind of talk every once in a while. ⁓ We weren't in the same class in high school, but we went to the same high school.

Troy Theodosiou (24:47)
that's neat. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (25:00)
You know, I'm like, that was cool. And, we met during COVID at one of the, think it was actually like wine and dine that year. The 10 K I still have like PTSD from it was like 28 degrees and raining sideways at 40 miles an hour when we were standing in the corral with nothing to protect us. That was awesome. But yeah, no, I think there was this guy.

who I had talked to in the corral, this was last year, at like Wine and Dine. And then we were chatting again at Marathon Weekend and we were both running Dopey to Dumbo. And we were in the corral next to each other again in California and kind of became friends.

He, ⁓ he and I finished together in the half marathon, ⁓ through no fault of either of ours. Like it wasn't intentional. we like you see in the photos, me him, which I think was kind of cool. And you know, we've kind of stayed in touch in this other, you know, other group. ⁓ one of the guys, he had a pretty good, you know, ⁓ BQ this past year at the marathon at Dopey.

Um, it was, uh, an impressive time. He trained for it. That was his race and he didn't do Dopey. He only, he did, I think the 5k and the marathon, like he was very intentional. He's like, I'm BQing. That's what I'm training for. That's what I'm going to do. And, you know, he's been like, you know, shoe advice and you know, this and that, like, you know, I'm like, I'm looking for new shoes, you know, what do you like? And, you know, he had some great advice on that. So.

Troy Theodosiou (26:31)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (26:45)
Yeah, you meet people that you like and you keep in touch with them.

Troy Theodosiou (26:49)
Now Jill, I've heard a lot about these magical moments. Let's talk about character stops and entertainment on course, especially for people like myself who have not participated.

Jill Bartholomew (26:59)
⁓ so character stops are like, I've never seen anything like it at another race. ⁓ and it leads to an interesting phrase that you'll hear a lot. ⁓ people don't PR at Disney races. They PR in fun. Sorry. I have a lot of PRs from Disney races. ⁓ people do PR at Disney races. People do BQ at Disney races. ⁓ so

You'll have a long course, couple of different things. Some is like passive entertainment, like video screens. Lately it's a lot of Disney plus ads, but you know, there'll be like, like, you know, videos playing, which is kind of nice when you've got like long open stretches of highway. So two, three of the races, the half and full in January and then the half at Princess.

go from Epcot to Magic Kingdom and back. And that is a long, dark stretch of highway and often foggy to boot. you know, aside from the excitement of running through the Magic Kingdom toll booth, there's really nothing else in between to look at. So having these random video screens is kind of cool. There's music.

And then characters and they're not regular characters, right? So yeah, you got Mickey and Minnie and the ones you see in the park, but it's not like Fab five stuff. It's a lot of times characters you never see. ⁓ sometimes once that you're like, I didn't even know that they had, you know, that, that character I've never seen in anything. You know, it's the ones you see in parades and in shows. ⁓

So this past weekend, we had, you know, the Incredibles, we had, they were on course, and you see them in Hollywood studios. But it's also Hades, number of the princesses, Merida. Oh gosh, there were so many, I don't even remember the rest. But yeah, and.

Troy Theodosiou (29:03)
I don't know how you take them all in.

Jill Bartholomew (29:07)
⁓ some of them rotate. So like as one goes, another one comes in. so like Ashton ran quite a bit faster than me, ⁓ this weekend, ⁓ as he, as he should, as he should, you know, ninth grade teenage boy on the track team should be running, you know, faster than his 40 some odd year old mom. But, he also, like he had, he had goals and, he didn't meet them.

Troy Theodosiou (29:19)
As he should, as he should.

Jill Bartholomew (29:36)
because he was having a hard time on the 5K with the allergies with pollens and the temperatures. But he did really, really well in all three races. for him, a lot of the A-folks, it's like pop in, pop out. So you see the character, you stop, photo, done, move on. The deeper into the race you get, the longer the lines.

Troy Theodosiou (29:55)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (30:00)
For me, I usually skip like the first one or two so that I can have that, you know, pop in pop out experience. Um, cause like if you stop at the first one, that one always has a line. Always. Um, although for like him, when you're in like the front pack of three, uh, it's a little different. There is no line. Uh, it, you know, some of them do and then, and then catch up. Um, some of them don't and.

Troy Theodosiou (30:04)
Get that rhythm. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Do they stop? Do the guys in the front stop?

Jill Bartholomew (30:28)
you know, but for them, like, he's had experiences where like, the photographer is not ready or the character is not ready. But you'll see like he and I have a couple of moments where we went, we both went to the same stop, but there was a different character. Yeah. So like, ⁓ the characters from up, you'll have like, I'm, I have a picture, maybe have a picture with the grandpa and he has a picture with Doug at the same stop. ⁓

Troy Theodosiou (30:42)
⁓ okay. That makes sense.

Okay, very cool. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (30:55)
But yeah, you stop at them. They're not meet and greets. They're photo opportunities. And ⁓ one piece of advice to everyone running a Disney race is treat them as a photo op. Please don't try to have an interaction with the characters because it annoys the people behind you who are actually trying to run the race.

Troy Theodosiou (31:09)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, well, mean, that's great advice, Jill. My next question to you was advice for first timers. So that's obviously great advice. What else do you have outside of that?

Jill Bartholomew (31:28)
Yeah. ⁓ there's a lot of influencers out there who have a lot of different advice and most of it is targeted at both first timers, but also, ⁓ slower runners, right? People who are not as fast. ⁓ and Disney divides, those folks into corrals, based on their projected finish times. So.

A couple of things, like one, proof of time is super important. If you have a proof of time, submit it and be like really aware of the deadlines. Cause once the deadline happens, like most races you can email them and they might give you some leeway, especially if it's within like a couple of days. Disney, no, it closes at midnight at 1201. They will not take it. There are on an average weekend, upwards of 40,000.

runners total and they are not going to give you an inch. Now I run, I run a lot of races. I know a lot of the people that work there and I don't get an inch either. Right? So like they're really strict on it and they have to be, ⁓ at the same time, ⁓ don't try to submit a proof of time if you don't qualify. So proof of time changes. ⁓

Troy Theodosiou (32:27)
understandable.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fair.

Jill Bartholomew (32:48)
season to season this year, proof of time was 2.30 or faster. that generally, Marathon Weekend is its own animal, the proof of times, the way they treat them are different because it does get faster runners and it does have the marathon component. But generally this year for Wine & Dine Princess and Springtime, it appears that... ⁓

and I may be like wrong by a couple of minutes, but it appears that corral A was sub two, corral B was two to two 15 and corral C was two 15 to two 30 and then projected at two 30 who did not have proof of time. And then, you the other corrals are filled basically based on projected times, but corrals have capacities.

So you do have people in like corral F that had projected finish times of maybe 230 or 240. Um, so, you know, if you, if you have a time qualified race of 230 or less, submit it because otherwise like it's you're rolling the dice. You might be in Corral F you might be in Corral C who knows. Uh, there is the run Disney platinum folks who have, you know, corral placement and B without proof of time.

They get a lot of flack. There's really not that many of them. ⁓ in fact, I would say, cause I I'm in that, of the run Disney platinum folks, know half of them have proof of time and you know, to the platinum folks who are in a, like they have proof of time. So they got an a, ⁓ if you don't have proof of time, like it's not the end of the world. you might be in Corral F you might be in Corral E you can run a two 30 from Corral E. I know people who did it.

I know people who've done it. ⁓ I did it when I didn't have proof of time. I ran a 230 from Corral F. Corrals that year, think, went to like H or something. Aside from that, like, it is a long week. It's a really long week. The corrals open at 345, gun is at five. Corrals close 15 minutes before that corrals.

Uh, that cross starts moving to the, to the start line. So for most corrals, um, that's four 45, um, which means if you are late, even if you're in Corral a, if you get there at four 46, you are possibly running from Corral F. And which may be a really different race than you were expecting to have. And, uh, that may be very disappointing for you. And it happens more than you think.

And part of the reason why it happens is the buses that go from the resorts, which Disney provides transportation for run Disney ⁓ from the resort to the race. And they're pretty reliable, but not infallible. They're kind of like the big, they're not the normal Disney transportation. They're the big coaches that you see on the highway that hold like a hundred people or whatever.

And, you know, those drivers come from all over. They're not necessarily from here. They're not necessarily actually, they're not Disney drivers. some of them do the same, do this every year. Some of them don't, we've driven to, ⁓ Florida from your home and fill it outside Philly. And, know, we've seen them on the highway heading home, you know, the day after the races. So like the driver might be from Virginia and it's like, they don't know the area.

Troy Theodosiou (36:18)
Okay.

Jill Bartholomew (36:25)
So they do occasionally make the wrong turn. do occasionally get lost. And if you're on a bus at 4 AM expecting to be in your A Corral and that driver makes a wrong turn and ends up in Magic Kingdom parking lot to turn around instead of at Epcot where they should be, you're not running from A

Troy Theodosiou (36:52)
To your point, Jill, think with moving 40,000 people, it's an enormous endeavor. So you need to plan accordingly.

Jill Bartholomew (36:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so like,

yeah, and that's why we're always on the first bus out because you control the things you can control and you can't control the bus getting lost, but you can control giving yourself the ability for that to happen and it not ruin your day. And you'll hear people who are like, no, it's okay. Get on the 330 bus, get on the four bus.

⁓ sleep in, get the extra hour sleep. And I'm like, no, because my stress levels would be through the roof. And like, I want to start the race with as the, as little stress as I can in an otherwise stressful environment. And, know, getting on the early bus like helps me with that. ⁓ and the buses do tend to start running a little bit before the published time. And you know, the, they're sometimes full too, like.

You know, the buses this week started running at 2.30 ⁓ and the published time is 3. So there's that. ⁓ Costumes, like, plan a costume if you want to wear it. But be aware of, what the temperatures are going to be and the run Disney guidelines. A number of people this weekend ⁓ had to modify their costume on the spot because they didn't meet the guidelines. So, like, capes, can't...

You can have capes, but they have to be short. ⁓ Anything that's a trip hazard or could hurt someone else is not allowed on the course. ⁓ It feels like these are kind of common sense things, but when you're in the moment of building this really cool outfit, you kind of forget that you could trip on it. Aside from that, it's kind of have fun. ⁓ If you did submit proof of time, ⁓ I learned this the hard way. ⁓

proof of time and you submitted proof of time and you end up in the last corral. That is Disney saying to you, come talk to us. It means they, it means you submitted it and they know you submitted it, but they couldn't verify it. And so they want, so the F on your bib, when you think when it should be an A or B, because you did submit proof of time. ⁓ we were told by some of the track shack ladies that, ⁓ anytime you see that you should come talk.

Troy Theodosiou (39:05)
point.

Jill Bartholomew (39:19)
So, but that's only if you submitted proof of time. If you did not submit proof of time and you think you should be an A, you're not going to be. Yes.

Troy Theodosiou (39:27)
Yeah, that makes sense. So take note, folks.

Jill, let's talk about post-race reflections, the weekend as a whole. Obviously, you mentioned it was hot. You mentioned that you had some physical niggles. But holistically, were you happy with the weekend and how it went?

Jill Bartholomew (39:46)
Yeah. I mean, my races didn't go as fast as I'm used to them, but that was intentional. ⁓ which there's always the ego involved. It's like, you know, I ran this, you know, at princess last year, I ran a one 38 and, know, this year I ran like a one 52 or something. but that was on purpose. You know, it's like, you know, you try not to hurt yourself. So.

You know, that's disappointing, that's not, you know, that's just my ego, even though like it was intentional. Now I thought this weekend actually went really well. ⁓ Every one of these run Disney weekends, there's always things that need to be improved. ⁓ Marathon weekend had a lot of problems with bibs. ⁓ know, apparently the chips on a number of the bibs at marathon weekend were not.

Uh, correctly activated. so a lot of people did not have times on races because they're yeah. Um, since then they've implemented, um, I, I, I'm like, thought this was cool. It's like a great example of the run Disney organizers, like learning. Um, they, and you see this as some of the larger races, they have a spot where you pick up your bibs, where you can walk over a timing strip and it'll show on the screen, your name pop up. And I'm like, this is great. Like.

Troy Theodosiou (41:07)
Nice. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (41:10)
You don't have to wonder if your timing chip and I had races where my timing chip didn't register the marathon last year. It registered at the start, but my start is zero. So I don't know that it registered or just defaulted because my actual start is zero. Uh, clock time zero. Um, and it registered at the five K. Mark it registered at the eight mile mark. And that was it. Didn't register at the half didn't register at the 20 didn't register at the, at the finish.

And so my finish time last year was based on the timestamp on the photo. And the timestamp on the photo was wrong because the timestamp on the photo doesn't match the clock time that's in the picture. But Track Shack will only go by the timestamp on the photo. So my finish time last year is off by about 10 minutes.

Troy Theodosiou (41:51)
dare.

It sounds like a

conversation for another day.

Jill Bartholomew (42:00)
Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, again, if you're them, you're like, you know, this is the rule, you know, because the clock's not always going to be in the picture. ⁓ so, you know, it's like go by the clock time on the camera and. You know, that is what it is. But now I thought this week, I went pretty well. ⁓ I did hear some complaints. Most of them were about the heat. ⁓ I did hear about water running out at the water stops. ⁓ one thing that was surprising, you know, it's not unusual.

on the marathon for it to get like quite hot. Cause that one, like nobody is finishing before sunup, right? On a marathon. And even, even the guys who running two and a half hours, they're still not finishing before the sun rises. And you know, in usually when there's, when the temperatures are high, they add water tables. And that wasn't the case this weekend. So that, that surprised me a bit and probably explains.

part of why they ran out of water. But, you know, my advice for the back of the packers is, you know, you have to plan for that. And, you know, if the temperature is going to be high, expect there to be a higher chance that some of the water tables may run out and, you know, bring a handheld or pack or whatever. And a lot of people do.

A lot of people do. But it's the same for every race. Run Disney is really good compared to most other races at having very well stocked tables. But when the temperatures go up, that's when you start hearing about them running out. ⁓ I have heard over time some weird things like, well, the faster runners don't need it as much as the slower runners. It's like, sorry, we still need to drink too.

Troy Theodosiou (43:18)
great advice.

Jill Bartholomew (43:43)
⁓ no, I do love it. You know, you run, you get your free banana at the end and your box and your box. ⁓ they did not make the mistake of removing the plastic cheese. So like the plastic cheese crew was happy again. It's a thing. I don't understand it, but like people love the plastic cheese.

Troy Theodosiou (43:49)
Well worth it, yeah.

Okay, well, Jill, talk to us about what's next as far as Run Disney is concerned. What's next for you?

Jill Bartholomew (44:08)
For me. so I'm registered for the Halloween run in September. I did not submit proof of time. I am not going to run. ⁓ no, I registered for it and then, ⁓ plans changed. ⁓ I'm getting married in August, ⁓ at Disney in Florida and I'm going to be in Hawaii the weekend.

Troy Theodosiou (44:20)
Intentionally?

There you go.

Jill Bartholomew (44:37)
the week before that at a training camp with the Betty squad folks and Lake Placid is the week before that. So, and then Kona is in October. So I'm, I made the decision. I'm like, I paid for it. I registered for it. I'm not going to run it because like, it's just too much. Right. ⁓ so my next run Disney race will be wine and dine.

which is earlier this year than last year. was over Halloween. It's the weekend before that this year. I've really mixed feelings on that. It's usually the same weekend as New York Marathon. And last year and this year, you could potentially run both ⁓ without having to miss a race. I know some folks who in the past would run like the 5K and 10K at Wine and Dine, hop on a plane after the 10K and then go run the marathon in New York.

So this year, this year, wouldn't have to do that. You could run the full challenge and then run the New York Marathon.

Troy Theodosiou (45:29)
grief.

I wonder if they get any air miles. Excuse the pun. Do they do any running on the plane whilst they, whilst they hit it over? Good grief.

Jill Bartholomew (45:40)
I don't know.

I don't know, but I do always enjoy the occasional Strava upload when you see folks who forgot to or who had like a walk going on their watch and suddenly are setting PRs on the plane. Yeah. Yeah.

Troy Theodosiou (45:57)
Nice, yeah, well played.

Well, let's talk about the impact of the event. You mentioned Texas, Ironman Texas coming up. So let's talk through what the next couple weeks look like for you and what you'll do in terms of preparation, transitioning from Run Disney. What does that look like going into Ironman Texas?

Jill Bartholomew (46:18)
Yeah, I have a busy season coming up. I'm doing Ironman Texas and then I have ⁓ the half at Chattanooga, half at Happy Valley, and then I'm doing Lake Placid, which is full. ⁓ And Lake Placid is my A-Race for the year. So I had originally intended on Texas being an A-Race, but like physically I'm not where I want it to be. I'm not ready for that. ⁓

So this week is kind of getting back. There's no rest for the weary. was in the pool this morning and I have an hour and a half bike this afternoon. I think I have 14 or 15 hours on the training schedule this week. And that'll continue. I don't know what taper is going to look like, but it's not going to be a full taper since it's not an A-Race, right? So it'll be a partial taper. We'll see how.

Texas goes my goals right now, because I obviously between now and Texas in two weeks, you know, there's no material fitness to be gained, right? It's too short a period. ⁓ so my, my goals between here and there are maintain fitness, ⁓ by as much as reasonably possible, ⁓ and not get hurt. ⁓ that niggle that happened at Florida, I'm going to go to the PT tonight. ⁓ hopefully we get a little bit more, ⁓

If she agrees with me that it's probably a pull, then great. If not, then it's off to the Ortho to make sure that it's nothing more serious. Cause ⁓ I really don't want to go and run Texas if it's potentially a fracture. I've been there, done that. ⁓ I was telling you before we hit the record button, I ended up inadvertently running three marathons in 2022 on a broken leg. We thought it was...

Troy Theodosiou (48:05)
Yeah, we won't be doing that again.

Jill Bartholomew (48:07)
Well, you know, that's the thing is like, you know, doctors aren't infallible either. And you go to the doctor and they tell you it's it's IT band pain because your, your knee hurts. Um, do an MRI of the knee and it's clean. And it turns out that it's a fracture in the, in the femur shaft up towards the hip. Uh, it didn't show up on it the MRI. It's like, well, I told him it was knee pain and they treated it like it was knee pain. Um,

And then you later find out that no, no, it was actually a fracture and you three marathons on it. It's like, oof. That was like someone was watching out for me on that one.

Troy Theodosiou (48:40)
You know, Jill, on that note, I think it's super important for our listeners to understand ⁓ the severity and the impact of not listening to your body. And I'm not saying that you didn't do that, but I think what's so important for our listeners to understand is that if you feel something doesn't feel right, don't be brave, don't try and train through it, go and get it checked out because you can potentially pick up and...

potentially eradicate doing more damage to something that could seem inconsequential, but somewhat severe.

Jill Bartholomew (49:15)
Yeah. ⁓ that's right. So talking about that, you know, so I competed at Nice last year. ⁓ we talked about that on our last show and, you know, came back and the next weekend, you know, fitness is high, as little sore, obviously not recovered like at all, you know, three days after an Ironman, ⁓ especially one with 9,000 feet of, of elevation gain. and I ran a 16 mile race, you know, with my son.

I didn't run it like super fast. was like eight minute miles. Wasn't like pushing it super hard, but not super easy either, right? Like eight for me is like, you know, at the time was, you know, not pushing super hard today. That would, that would be, you know, on the faster side. and, ⁓ I, I pulled, I pulled a hamstring doing that and that affected my entire.

winter training, ⁓ pretty significantly. Like I couldn't, I didn't run like much at all over the winter, because it, couldn't, I went to the ortho thousands of dollars in MRIs to make sure that it wasn't another fracture. Because it was like six weeks all down because we thought it was presenting as having a high likelihood of a fracture. And luckily it wasn't, it wasn't, but still.

And, you know, then, you know, I've been going to the PT twice a week, uh, since November because of that, I didn't run the Philly marathon I was planning to this year. And my races have since then been quite a bit slower than, than they otherwise would be just because like there's pain. Uh, this actually was the first race since then that I've run without any hamstring pain. So six months.

Troy Theodosiou (51:06)
Well, je-

Jill Bartholomew (51:07)
And, but,

that's when you're, are, and that's, you know, listening to your body. Like, you know, I know, you know, five years ago, that person, that version of me would run until like I fell apart. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you know, you know, one of the, the kids, ⁓ that hangs out with us in the front left corral crew. ⁓ that's exactly what he was doing is.

Troy Theodosiou (51:19)
fall off. Yeah, and we want to avoid that at all costs.

Jill Bartholomew (51:33)
He had some shins splints and they started at marathon weekend. He ran the marathon at marathon weekend. And then the next weekend he ran another marathon, but he wasn't properly trained to do two back to back. Like running one, most people would consider like a huge feat Running two back to back. Like if you're not training to do that, that's a lot of load on your body, it's a lot of risk. And it got worse.

Troy Theodosiou (51:59)
Yeah, a lot of stress.

Jill Bartholomew (52:01)
And then he ran Princess and it got worse. And he ran this weekend and he could barely walk. The guy was in so much pain and I said to him, I'm like, you know, this is dumb. Like you should be going back. Yeah, you should be going back to your room right now. He's like, I know, but I can fast walk. I'm like, no. Like if it's like tibial fractures that's like, you gotta stop what you're doing.

Troy Theodosiou (52:07)
Yeah, this.

Yeah, it's negligent.

No.

Yeah, and so often what people forget is the fact that the more damage you do, the longer it takes you to get back and to recover. So it really doesn't pay to try and be brave. Not certainly something that we would advise.

Jill Bartholomew (52:41)
Yeah. And I will say, I've seen a few examples where like you have to respect the decision, right? Like at world championship last year, ⁓ Lucy Charles Barkley, you know, pulled out and you know, she said she pulled out because, know, she had an injury that, you know, from the previous race and she was feeling not ready for it. And I'm like, like that sucks.

But like, you gotta have respect for people who actually do make that decision, especially like in that case where it like affected her wallet.

Troy Theodosiou (53:15)
Yeah, no, for sure. Jill, for those listening with regards to Be Fierce Multi sport and coaching, what's the best way to reach out to make contact with you?

Jill Bartholomew (53:28)
That's a question. So, Be Fierce Multisport is going to have a new website up. I am a coach on the TriDot platform so you can find me in the coach search there. Or if you go to my Instagram, either on Be Fierce Multisport or The Tri Mom (@TheTriMom) there is a link on my profile to schedule a call.

So I'm happy to talk. It links directly to my Calendly, which speaks calendar and ⁓ knows all my availability, mostly accurate. So yeah, you can do that or message me on Instagram ⁓ at the Trimom or BeFearless Multisport. They both go to the same place.

Troy Theodosiou (54:12)
And Joe, we say our goodbyes, any final thoughts on Run Disney and your experience?

Jill Bartholomew (54:20)
⁓ so obviously I'm a huge fan of the races at Disney. ⁓ I always thought Disney races were expensive until I met Ironman. it's like, I love the Ironman races too, but, comparatively everything is a bargain. ⁓ but not so, ⁓ sign up early. I talked to number of folks this past weekend who.

now are chasing down charity path, not because they were unable to register, but because they forgot and missed the boat. The races a couple of weeks ago, there's registration was for marathon weekend and that race sold out in about an hour, which is not a record, but it's close. So these races do sell out fast, especially the five Ks. You know, cause

You have to remember the five K's ⁓ probably have the same capacity, but that one's open to kids. So a lot of families run it. So it does run out. It does sell out a lot faster. And of course it's a five K it's more approachable and they don't sweep on the five K or at least that's the popular rumor. I think if you're slow enough, they would, but like realistically, if the race starts at five, like what's how long could someone possibly take to walk three miles?

⁓ so sign up, sign up early, ⁓ beyond that, there are charity, bibs out there. ⁓ I would be remiss if I don't encourage people to support those charities. ⁓ every run Disney race has a charity that they donate, ⁓ pretty substantial sums of money to. And, ⁓ those bibs, if they don't sell them all, they don't get them back the next year. So, you know, yeah.

Troy Theodosiou (56:05)
Yeah, that's a great point.

And Jill, think it's important that ⁓ as an Ironman Foundation athlete and ambassador yourself, I think we both pride ourselves on racing for a purpose. And I think it's important for people, even if you have the funds and the means, to remember that there's charities and organizations out there that need our help and support.

Jill Bartholomew (56:30)
Yeah. And, you know, John, ⁓ my fiance, he, he's run a couple of the races for that exact reason. He missed the registration vote and he ended up with a charity bib. And, know, running on the Disney races on charity isn't like super expensive. I mean, obviously it's more than the face value of the bib, but.

Troy Theodosiou (56:39)
Awesome.

Yeah. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (56:53)
They're not super expensive. think Dopey last year for most charities was like a thousand or 1200, which was like twice the face value of the bib. But I do, you know, that's a good lead in. We will talk to Audra at Ironman Foundation on an upcoming episode. I am a Ironman Foundation ambassador and all of the races that I'm.

Doing this year with Iron Man. I am running on Iron Man Foundation bibs which I am very excited about and you know, so if any of our listeners have questions about a foundation or want to run a Closed race on a foundation bib. Give me a holler. I'm happy to talk about it

Troy Theodosiou (57:39)
Well thank you, Jill. I've thoroughly enjoyed this one. I've learnt a lot as I'm sure a lot of our listeners have and I'm super excited for our next installment.

Jill Bartholomew (57:50)
I know two episodes down, episode three to come. I'm having fun with it. I hope this is useful. I know people are listening and I know that because one of my corral folks ⁓ incessantly gave me a hard time about our hydration discussion on our last podcast, but I stand by it. Don't run long races without hydration and energy because you know,

Especially when the temps like this weekend are hot, like, you know, it's dangerous. And you'll perform better and you'll perform better if, your body is happy.

Troy Theodosiou (58:23)
But if you

Great. Well, if you like our content and you want to hear more and see more, please like, share and comment.

Jill Bartholomew (58:33)
And subscribe, we're now on every major streaming service. ⁓ So whatever you're on, Apple Podcast, Pandora, ⁓ SiriusXM, whatever, ⁓ Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio, subscribe to the podcast. ⁓ Love to see the views. All right, till next time.

Troy Theodosiou (58:58)
Until next time.