Behind the Mic: A Deep Dive into the Life of Race Announcers Carissa Galloway and John Pelkey

Ever wondered what it's like being a race announcer? Pour yourself a cup of joe and join us as we pull back the curtain on our early mornings, the buckets of coffee we chug, our fears about triathlons, and even a quirky game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. We also answer ten questions about ourselves - giving you, our listeners, an inside look into who we are, our favorite Disney movies, and the most peculiar jobs we've had. Spoiler alert - one of us was Gumby at Gumby's Pizza!

Running - it's a journey of blood, sweat, and sometimes tears. It's also a journey that brings a deep sense of accomplishment. We share personal stories about my wife's initial meeting with Carissa and running my first 5K on a broken toe. But we don't stop there. We explore the evolution of runDisney at Disneyland, from its humble beginnings to the transformation brought about by social media. Our conversation further leads us to discuss the Boston Marathon and the unique challenges of announcing the race. We've both got big goals in the race announcing industry, and if you're curious about what they are, you'll have to tune in.

We round up our chat by discussing the power of perseverance and the inspirational stories we've encountered. We invite you, our listeners, to share your tales of triumph. Whether it's choosing the best apple from a variety or overcoming adversity, we're here to celebrate and share your stories. We believe in the power of narratives to connect, inspire, and uplift. So tune in every two weeks for more running chat, a few laughs, and lots of motivation. Join us as we navigate the thrilling world of race announcing and running together.

Transcript

John Pelkey: 0:04

Hello everyone and welcome to 3, 2, 1, Go the Podcast. I'm John Pelkey.

Carissa Galloway: 0:10

And I'm Carissa Galloway, and we're bringing you stories from start to finish to keep the everyday athlete motivated to keep moving towards their next finish.

John Pelkey: 0:18

We are both lucky enough to have a front row seat for some of the biggest races in the country and maybe even internationally at least for you and we'd like to share some of those stories with you and hear some of yours as well. That's why we're here and also Carissa. We get a lot of questions from people. We're going to try to answer some of those questions about what it's like to be a race announced.

Carissa Galloway: 0:40

Exactly so. What you guys can expect is a new podcast every two weeks. We're going to have some segments that you're going to see rotate. We're going to have really inspiring guests, really fun guests, and we're going to have each other, john Pelkey and I, race announcers, friends in real life.

John Pelkey: 1:02

We are friends in real life, so they're answering the first question that we get. We are friends in real life and we are actually recording this at your home, which I am actually blindfolded when I'm brought here, so I can't just show up on my own, but you do let me inside and it's lovely.

Carissa Galloway: 1:18

I've made you coffee and we're ready to go, which that's probably a question. We get a lot. What does it take to be a race announcer?

John Pelkey: 1:24

Coffee, a lot of coffee, a lot of coffee, especially those races where your call time is 1.30 in the morning. Luckily, run Disney races not withstanding, you don't get a lot of that.

Carissa Galloway: 1:34

And the podcast call time not being recorded at 1.30 in the morning. This is a nice morning.

John Pelkey: 1:40

We should think about in the future. We should do that around around the run Disney races. If we're lucky enough to come back as announcers for that, we should do the podcast at 1.30 in the morning and see how it feels.

Carissa Galloway: 1:50

Yes, see what's different about it. All right Again, there must be coffee.

John Pelkey: 1:53

I will. I will warn you, carissa can be a little problematic in the morning without a coffee. Quiet you are, you are.

Carissa Galloway: 2:00

And you are sometimes as well.

John Pelkey: 2:02

I am.

Carissa Galloway: 2:03

You know, but that's not now. Now we've had, we're on coffee, one and a half, we're ready to go, we've got hydration, so we're going to have a great podcast. Three, two, one go, because that's what we say a lot and we want to keep you guys going, whether it's your first race, your hundredth race or you're coming back from something. We want to inspire you and help share the why behind why so many people do this.

John Pelkey: 2:22

And as we move on with the podcast, we are going to have guests. There will not be a guest for this inaugural podcast, but we will have guests interviews from across the spectrum, professionals to people who just have inspiring stories, and we want to hear their stories as well.

Carissa Galloway: 2:40

I'm going to also try out on season. I'm going to be announcing a lot of Iron man that just kicked off as well. You want to talk about a grueling event?

John Pelkey: 2:46

I'd like to just say I don't understand triathlons at all. Any one of those activities seems too difficult. Cobbling them together, just I'm. You're going to have to convince me that that's nothing, something other than self torture.

Carissa Galloway: 3:03

Well, we're going to get there, we're going to All right, but honestly, we flipped the script a little bit. For almost 20 years I've been. You know when you've been joking about being the non runner.

John Pelkey: 3:12

Right. I always say I am the before picture for a gym ad. That's why I'm there. I'm there to make people feel better about themselves.

Carissa Galloway: 3:19

But when we go to triathlon season, that's kind of me.

John Pelkey: 3:23

I've done a, do a lot which just frightens me to death, because there are people who are more physically fit than you.

Carissa Galloway: 3:30

A lot of them, scores of them, hundreds, thousands of scores. Is that the public?

John Pelkey: 3:35

I think it is Look at us, we's all edumacated, that's right, but okay.

Carissa Galloway: 3:40

So that's what we're going to talk about. We want to get you invested in running, and then we're going to start off with our guest today, which is Us. Us Hello.

John Pelkey: 3:49

So we get to ask each we're going to ask each other questions, Get to know your race announcer. Some of these questions are just more, you know, basic questions that I think a lot of people ask and then, uh, well, frankly, I don't know what you're going to ask me and you don't know what I'm going to ask you. So this should this will either be incredibly entertaining or it will be, uh, something that we added out.

Carissa Galloway: 4:09

So 10 questions. We may or may not do 10. But the thing we say we can be held to.

John Pelkey: 4:14

That's true.

Carissa Galloway: 4:16

Who's first? We're going to paper rock scissors.

John Pelkey: 4:18

Uh, yeah, absolutely.

Carissa Galloway: 4:19

This is, this is, uh, not a visual medium, but we have fists that we're going to paper rock scissors. One, two, three shoot, or just, yeah, okay, one, two, three shoot. We are both scissors folks, we're going to do it again. Paper, I cut him. That means that I asked you first, or you asked me first.

John Pelkey: 4:35

Uh, it's up to you. You get to choose.

Carissa Galloway: 4:37

All right, I'm going to ask you first.

John Pelkey: 4:39

Okay.

Carissa Galloway: 4:40

I think you will help me uh know how to respond when you ask me.

John Pelkey: 4:44

I hope these are all questions about uh Civil War trivia and the Rolling Stones cause, otherwise I don't. I don't even. I know more about that than I do myself.

Carissa Galloway: 4:52

I think you do well, all right. All right, I have 11 questions I'm going to have to make Wait a minute. I know I have to admit.

John Pelkey: 4:58

Oh my goodness, our producer, Westin Galloway, is going to have Yeoman's work to do.

Carissa Galloway: 5:02

It says 10 questions, that I wrote 11. So all right.

John Pelkey: 5:05

I was assured there'd be no math.

Carissa Galloway: 5:06

Question one yes, I'm sitting next to you on a plane. What do you say? You do?

John Pelkey: 5:12

Sleep, oh, when people oh hey buddy, how's it going?

Carissa Galloway: 5:17

I'm 13 B. What do you do?

John Pelkey: 5:19

Uh, I generally tell people I'm a performer because I do. In addition to the race announcing, I do a little theater, um, in the comedy improv group. Uh, do some, I still work at the horror makeup show at Universal Studios, which I started at 33 years ago. My universal career is clearly stalled. So that's it. I tell people I'm a performer and then explain and I also, yeah, I've done some writing and directing, so how?

Carissa Galloway: 5:44

does that go?

John Pelkey: 5:44

over. I'm a performer. Uh depends, depends on the people. Most people think it's interesting and then if you drop the you know the Disney world reference or even the universal reference at this point, that usually excites people.

Carissa Galloway: 5:56

So I asked a follow up question. Does that count as a question or that was a sub?

John Pelkey: 5:59

I'm sorry that I didn't do. Whatever you want, all right.

Carissa Galloway: 6:01

That was one, I'm going to go to two. Did you always want to work?

John Pelkey: 6:06

in sports. Uh no, I mean, initially I came into the business as an actor and I, uh, I, I, I listen. I didn't want to be a movie star, I just wanted to be a theater actor, a musical theater actor.

Carissa Galloway: 6:17

So is everything you do an act.

John Pelkey: 6:20

Well, of course, macking, like I know how to do a podcast right now.

Carissa Galloway: 6:24

All right. So didn't want to work in sports, want to be an actor, but you got into sports. So we go back to 2005, the first year we believe that you and I we don't know for sure. We only believe that it was 2005. What do you remember about hosting your first uh Disney marathon in allegedly 2005?

John Pelkey: 6:43

Uh, I, you know it's funny because it I only see it in hindsight now, in the rear view mirror of what we do versus what we used to do, but I remember it being much less produced. I think it was you and I on a stage with music videos playing and us just chiming in every now and again, for you know how much time people have and any sort of information that they were supposed to be given, and I remember the marathon and the half marathon being run on the same day at the same time. That's the thing that I most remember. Okay, that kind of shoelace of a lot less of everything.

Carissa Galloway: 7:22

I have follow ups but again, we don't want this podcast to be too long, so I'm going to continue on. But I asked a question and you answered it and I think you did fairly well with that answer.

John Pelkey: 7:29

I didn't realize I was being graded in real time.

Carissa Galloway: 7:32

Listening is essentially that's. All they're doing is judging us as they're listening. Maybe running.

John Pelkey: 7:35

Oh, of course, All right, fair enough that was three.

Carissa Galloway: 7:38

Now I got to make a decision when do I go from here, what I want to do to OK? Where did you meet your far more talented than you wife?

John Pelkey: 7:46

on stage at the horror makeup show Universal the yep. She came in. I started there, as I said, in 1990, and she came in, I believe, in 1995.

Carissa Galloway: 7:55

And she is is that a correct statement?

John Pelkey: 7:57

Far more talented than oh now you know I've set the bar low, but yes, of course she is a very talented actress and director yeah, far more talented than me and and good looking as well. Yeah, oh goodness. Should be pointed out that the when Carissa met my soon to be wife at the time she could not hide her shock that a woman that attractive, smart and funny would marry me.

Carissa Galloway: 8:26

It did. I'm embarrassed about that, but it was a genuine reaction I wasn't expecting. She's a ray of sunshine.

John Pelkey: 8:32

Right and I am not.

Carissa Galloway: 8:34

No.

John Pelkey: 8:34

I'm going to say that I will not.

Carissa Galloway: 8:35

I am apologize for that. All right, we found that out. I'm interested to hear your response here. What's the best part about running? Yeah?

John Pelkey: 10:04

Wow, really good question. Should point out that, as we pick on me, I did run track in high school. I was a quarter mile or I also high jumped though the word high should be a medium jumped, but the best part about it, I will say that when I finished either a workout and I do put some time in on the treadmill, and I did recently run my first five K, I I feel accomplished. It feels like I've accomplished something Now, convincing me prior to that that I want to accomplish it. That's still something we're we're working on.

Carissa Galloway: 10:36

But that's good. I'm glad you've gotten whether it's in dolphins or just the feeling of checking something off a bucket list.

John Pelkey: 10:41

Yeah, I didn't feel I didn't feel after running my five K Recently. I didn't. I didn't feel as just worn out as I thought I was. I did feel a bit energized. I was tired and my quadriceps decided they would reject the rest of my body a day or so later. But, yeah, you feel accomplished, it's. I think anything that you do, where you work up a sweat and you're done and you finished it, you should feel accomplished. I know I worked at stunt show at the Indiana Jones show at Disney's the artist, formerly known as Disney's MGM Studios, and at the end of a day they're doing it because you're outside, it's sweaty and I wasn't doing the stunts. You feel accomplished.

Carissa Galloway: 11:18

So, yes, I feel a calm, and that's kind of the ethos of this podcast. Right Is something that seems scary. You don't want to do it and you try to put it off. Your brain tries to talk you out of it. But when you actually do it, it's a positive benefit, right, regardless of how it felt and you know it's.

John Pelkey: 11:33

for me that's an honest response, because a lot of people get involved in it because they think the medals are cool and you know, and they are, and I've seen those for a long time, or they're those big Disney fans and they want to come to Disney. Well, I work there, so I'm there a lot, so that's not driving me there. I basically did it because you guys shamed me into it after all of all of those years. So I went into it kind of with a neutral feeling that I just really wanted to finish. But at the end, yeah, it's a feeling of accomplishment. I'm I'm very, very glad I did it. And all those people are saying now you have to run a half marathon pump the brakes.

Carissa Galloway: 12:02

We got you to do one. I think there's going to be more in your future, whether we see them or not.

John Pelkey: 12:07

Yeah, and you know, you, you, full disclosure had broken your toe, or else you I probably could have bailed out and you would have run probably the 10 K.

Carissa Galloway: 12:16

That's an interesting, interesting way to think about it.

John Pelkey: 12:19

You broke your toe in air quotes folks. I'm air quoting that.

Carissa Galloway: 12:23

I'm going to hold you to that, though I think that you're going to keep moving forward and I would have held you to it and I I'm very proud of you. We can have a whole podcast about that for doing it, because I do know that it's scary. No matter how far it is, there's always a fear in the back of your head that things could go wrong. I, especially in your position, I couldn't embarrass myself and all these people can see, right, if I'm on the side of you, know right.

John Pelkey: 12:43

We had to make a big thing about it. I didn't just slip into the the corral and run without anybody knowing it yet had to be had to be a big thing.

Carissa Galloway: 12:51

That's how we do things, but I'm very proud of you All right. Next question we're going to step aside from running, but we are going to say, in the Disney realm, what is your favorite Disney movie? And you can't say aristacats.

John Pelkey: 13:06

Why do I have to lie to people? It is my favorite. It is my favorite.

Carissa Galloway: 13:11

OK, what's your second favorite?

John Pelkey: 13:13

Hundred and one Dalmatians.

Carissa Galloway: 13:14

OK.

John Pelkey: 13:15

Good, that's my animation era because of my age. So I love the classic Disney movies but, as I always tell everybody, you know, when I was a kid they'd re-release them in the theaters, one of them like every four years. So you just didn't have access to them like you do today. And I still have never seen Snow White in the Seven Dwarfs, and I have a DVD copy of it and I haven't seen it. But yeah, that's my era. Hundred one Dalmatians, but definitely the aristokats. And if I don't get dressed up as Thomas O'Malley the alley cat, at some point during the run Disney, my run Disney career, I'm going to be disappointed.

Carissa Galloway: 13:47

Well, you've put it on the universe enough time.

John Pelkey: 13:49

I have, I have, and considering that our director has been my best friend and he's not dressed me that way yet and there's some hope, I just want to let it rain.

Carissa Galloway: 14:00

I have forgotten how many questions I've asked. I skipped one, I think. One, two, three, anyway, it doesn't matter, well, just really really you tell me later what is the most unusual job that you've ever had.

John Pelkey: 14:13

Wow, my, you know my resume is an inch deep and a mile wide. I OK, I don't know. Let me just say I'm not sure this counts as a job, but when I was in college the University of Florida I managed a gift store that did singing telegrams coming by cards, gifts, that sort of thing and right next to us was a place called Gumby's Pizza and I was very poor when I was in college. I tried to pay my own back when you could pay your own way through, I was doing that. So I was living, you know, paycheck to paycheck, and we had one of the things that we had in the gift store was a Gumby suit, because you could do a Gumby gram, which is really weird, because you just show up and Gumby doesn't speak and you're just in the suit with somebody doing a singing telegram.

Carissa Galloway: 15:01

Turn that around. That's a loud, loud domestic. The audio. That's a very funny visual.

John Pelkey: 15:04

I once did a Gumby gram for a very, very accomplished surgeon at Shann's Hospital and we did a break into some sort of meeting that was going around and I just sort of danced to like Gumby. If you can just picture, you know, gumby not being able to say anything and you like hug this guy and pictures and the horrified look on these medical professionals faces as what in God's name is it? Now I did hear sometime later that they had great pictures of it that they put up and it was fun. But so I would do Gumby from time to time. I managed the store but you know, every now and then you had to fill in.

John Pelkey: 15:37

However, gumby's Pizza ironically right next door, and again I was poor. So I made a deal with Gumby's Pizza that I would stand out in front of Gumby's Pizza holding a Gumby balloon and waving to traffic in exchange for a large supreme pizza. Pretty smart, you know. Little bartery thing there. I will say this, though frat boys would drive by and yell at me and once actually threw an entire Coca Cola on me and the Gumby suit is essentially a sponge. So that was a bit unpleasant. So I'm going to go with my Gumby time.

Carissa Galloway: 16:12

Wow, I have questions about how often the suit was cleaned.

John Pelkey: 16:16

Never. Not that I worked there for two years. I don't think it was ever cleaned. You're quite sweaty.

Carissa Galloway: 16:20

Yeah, as a human, I do sweat, so yeah, well, that must have been a.

John Pelkey: 16:24

It was, but I got a. But every night that I did that, I got a free large pizza.

Carissa Galloway: 16:30

An entrepreneurial spirit.

John Pelkey: 16:31

I know I love that and Gumby's Pizza was.

Carissa Galloway: 16:34

I kind of remember Gumby. I don't know if it was one of Florida State because I went to Florida State there was a Moe's Pizza, but I do know the name Gumby's Pizza.

John Pelkey: 16:42

Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think there were multiple. You know it was your average open 24 hours in a college down pizza place. Yeah, yeah, it was good Shout out to those folks If any of them were listening.

Carissa Galloway: 16:54

That's right. Shout out to Gumby's Pizza. All right, Um three more, allegedly. What makes you a good Reese announcer?

John Pelkey: 17:02

I'm loud. Okay, I'll pat myself on the back. I'm loud and I have a background in improvisation, so I think I'm fairly fungible in the moment. And that's one of the things that we get, where they give us outlines of things we're going to talk about, but I think I can handle the curveballs if something changes. So I'm really loud.

Carissa Galloway: 17:21

Just ask anyone who's staying at the Polynesian or the contemporary when we're what up, yot and beach, and I will say to your credit, I think there are a lot of things that you a good race announcer, you work really hard, yes, and you've been injured, you've been sick we all have but you stay in it and I think that comes from your performer background in a way.

John Pelkey: 17:45

And I come from. My parents were like depression era people. So you weren't told you can achieve anything. You were told, when you get a job, you work hard. So yeah, I'm, as my our director, Mark Ferrera, calls it my misplaced work ethic.

Carissa Galloway: 18:00

But no, I think it makes you different and better than than other race announcers who maybe come for it for the. I want to be the race announcer. I want to be yeah, I don't know Like we. You realize that I'm not the star of the show. The star of the show is the runners and this is my job and I'm going to do my job the best I can.

John Pelkey: 18:16

And I've been on a lot of stages and after a point it's like the recognition of being on a stage. I mean, it's what I do for a living and I do appreciate when people say nice things and you're up there and I also appreciate that it's a fun job. But it is a job and you have to get the job done and you know, run Disney Race Weekends are long and you kind of have to put your head down and work and you do it as well. Not that we'll get to your questions, Anyway, but I appreciate that compliment All right, two more questions.

Carissa Galloway: 18:45

As you know, I was a tiny Miss America. You're stealing my question, so I have to ask you a Miss America type question. Like if you were you know, this is the final round. You've made it to the top five. You're on stage, you pull a question out of the bowl and not going to do a political question. Not the type of that's not this podcast. I want to know what makes you feel your best. John Pelkey, don't say I'm just kidding, I was your pageant coach.

John Pelkey: 19:17

No, what makes me?

Carissa Galloway: 19:17

feel my best Good Repeating the question is good, but I did not know that I was being real time.

John Pelkey: 19:25

Great, what makes me feel my best? Wow, that's. That is a big question. I will say, the best that I ever feel is if I'm doing some sort of a musical and I get through my song and it goes well, I never feel better than that. Yeah, that is, that's like the ultimate, because again started out a musical theater, thought that's what I want, have a musical theater tattoo, as you know, and so that is really what makes me feel my best. But I also feel, you know, anytime I finish a gig and it's gone. Well, I feel good about that.

Carissa Galloway: 19:57

Have you seen four Christmases with Vince Vaughn?

John Pelkey: 19:58

Yeah.

Carissa Galloway: 19:59

So some people listening to this probably have to recap, and I always think about this.

John Pelkey: 20:03

If you had 21 minutes and 10 seconds before, Carissa would mention a Christmas thing she's obsessed with it you win.

Carissa Galloway: 20:11

Okay, quickly Now. Vince Vaughn plays Jesus and then he comes off stage and his, his girlfriend, is just she didn't go well, it was. She was very nervous. She's having a moment and he's just like the energy that people give it to me and I give it back and he's just on this amazing high about it. And that's kind of whenever I hear a story like that, I just feel you may not visually have your arms out and be Vince Vaughn, but you do have this amazing feeling.

John Pelkey: 20:32

Yeah, no, absolutely. And people always, as you know, as a performer and quote unquote actor, you know oh, what movies have you done and what television? And I've done a couple of television commercials and in the odd independent film, generally odd is the key word there Some friends have done some independent films but there's no real response. When you're doing stuff on film and I was I never felt that I was very good at it and I think really what it is is like I just don't enjoy it because I don't get that. So, yeah, there, there is something about, there's nothing like it. I'm always shocked to realize that there are people who just don't like speaking in public or doing I. I'll never understand that. The old Jerry Seinfeld joke about the number one fear of people is speaking in public and the number two fear is death, which means if you go to a funeral, most people would prefer to be in the casket and giving the eulogy. It shocks me, shocks me Right. It's rewarding people.

Carissa Galloway: 21:26

It is All right. Last question You're sitting on the plane still. What are you drinking?

John Pelkey: 21:32

How long is the flight? That's two and a half hours to an hour flight, probably going to have scotch and water.

Carissa Galloway: 21:40

That's it, that's your time.

John Pelkey: 21:41

All right, and there it is. Get to know John on a plane, all right. So now we turn this around. First of all and I'm so surprised you didn't ask me this- Chris, where are you from?

Carissa Galloway: 21:53

Well, as most people who've ever finished a run Disney race know, john and I are both from Virginia. We are. I was born in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I went to high school in Chesapeake, virginia. So we are proud Virginia.

John Pelkey: 22:05

We are and I'm a northern Virginia and so we cover the whole like Eastern part of the state. We don't out there in Roanoke people. We need an announcer from Roanoke. We'll have to push someone else we have one at Ironman Jill, oh well, not to, not to pick on Tracy or Riley or Carolina or KCreigh or anything. We may need a Roanoke, roanoke in Roanoke. Get confirmation on that.

Carissa Galloway: 22:26

All right, carissa, yes.

John Pelkey: 22:28

As we know, you're very, very athletic, fine distance runner, among other things. What's your sports history?

Carissa Galloway: 22:35

My sports history. Okay, so I did gymnastics growing up. So now, seeing my daughter doing gymnastics, that's very similar to what I did. Shockingly, if you stood next to me, I'm five, nine, I was going to say you are really tall for a gym.

Carissa Galloway: 22:48

I should have gone to, but I loved it. I was pretty good in middle school I think I did gymnastics six days a week, going to school, driving somewhere I did can make it to national several times and at nationals you, when you go to gymnastics, meet back. Then you would meet the judges so you would stand up front of the judges. They would just this little small talk to, I guess, kind of make that relationship feel you wouldn't be so afraid of the judges and the judges would ask some questions. And they asked me if I played basketball. I'm here, I'm at gymnastics nationals. No, no, I don't play basketball. So it wasn't. Maybe longevity wise wasn't going to be my sport. I did it all the way through my sophomore year in high school but it was a hardcore gymnast and then I also ran track in high school and did cheerleading eventually. So I was always athletic.

John Pelkey: 23:31

So you do have a little bit of a track background, I do.

Carissa Galloway: 23:33

And I used to hide if they needed somebody for the 800.

John Pelkey: 23:37

Oh, it's terrible.

Carissa Galloway: 23:38

I mean, I just put any distance, the 400 it all seemed and I guess at that point you know it just the way you have to run a 400 new or 400 runner to. I didn't understand that you could start slower, right, I was like I can't do this anymore. So I think had someone educated me a little bit on pacing, which is what we try to do with some of our athletes now. But I was always very active. I love sport. I'm not a hugely competitive person, I'm competitive with myself, but I love sport. I love track and field, which is why I like to talk about track and field Very, very nice.

John Pelkey: 24:06

Yes, we have the 400 and I will agree the 800 is you almost have to try to run it as fast as you can, but it is a physical impossibility to sprint it.

Carissa Galloway: 24:17

So my husband, Westin Galloway, was an 800 runner in college. So anytime we're watching track I'm like well, how bad is it? What is it Like? You know he says that exact same thing. Well, I know I say how much slower are you running? You're just running as hard as you can, and then until it just feels awful.

John Pelkey: 24:30

I started out in the mile relay and I really kind of like that, because 220 is that you can sprint a 220, even if you don't sprint it. Well, all right, carissa, as people know, we are run Disney race announcers, but we both have, you know, fairly significant Disney history. What is your Disney history?

Carissa Galloway: 24:50

I mean, I grew up and Disney was just it. I think I was in, you know, that 90s generation where Disney was what we had as kids. We watched it on TV and I remember in middle school, you mean the movie.

John Pelkey: 25:00

It wasn't just every four years the movie came out.

Carissa Galloway: 25:02

Like some of us who are older, no, I mean, it was just we were in grade and I remember talking with Mary Poppins and the little mermaid and the lad and the Lion King. You know, back to back, to back these things that became such an amazing part of my childhood. I always loved that. I loved the fairy tale idea. I'm a romantic, you know. That was what I grew up on it.

John Pelkey: 25:19

I'm a Christmas romantic.

Carissa Galloway: 25:20

That Christmas romantic, that's me. Um. So when I was in high school, I came to Disney for a trip and my family. We were pretty poor, so I wanted to go to Disney. Tgif Do you remember TGIF on ABC?

Carissa Galloway: 25:33

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, they were going to Disney. I was like in sixth grade and I remember crying, watching because I wanted to go to Disney and we couldn't. We just couldn't afford it, right. So we were calling back to gymnastics If you may get to nationals, which was in Lakeland, you can go to Disney. So it worked really hard, made it to nationals, we got to go to Disney and we see Cinderella and I go to Cinderella and I go well, how did you get your job? Oh, my darling, I was born Cinderella and I was like, come on, all right, fine. So we go to the jungle cruise and they're doing a little spiel and it's pretty good, some chuckles. So I asked that guy like how did you get your job? He's like oh, I'm in the Disney college program. So right then, and there you know, sixth grade. I put that in the back of my mind.

Carissa Galloway: 26:14

Fast forward to my freshman year of college, the fall semester, and I'm walking through the quad and they've got auditions for Disney college program. So of course me, I went right away, signed up my second semester in college ever I was on Disney college program and entertainment. So I did that from there. For some way I got a phone call during my college program that was do you want to audition to be spike the bear for the baseball team? Here Now there's an amazing number of people in the height range that could have been that bear. Yeah, why I got the phone call to this day, I don't know. I may have talked about in my interview that I wanted to do sports broadcasting. That was what I wanted to do, but from there did that for about two days, was told I was not so great at it.

John Pelkey: 26:59

You should try gumby, they were cute.

Carissa Galloway: 27:01

We like you, we're going to, you're not going to be the bear anymore. And so then I started working the promos in the stadium, the water balloon toss, picking the guests, things like that. And that's how, eventually, when I did go back to Florida State, I transitioned to become a sports host, which is what, theoretically, you and I still are today. So that's how I got into Disney and I always wanted to be a Disney. That was my goal and I got to do it. And so being a Disney fan and getting to do what we do and then that kind of started my career as a race announcer as well, was pretty amazing.

John Pelkey: 27:32

All right, very nice.

Carissa Galloway: 27:33

Was that a long answer?

John Pelkey: 27:35

Yeah, but it's okay. We're already into the editing portion of the. It's okay.

Carissa Galloway: 27:40

This is the first, just keep running If you're listening, just just take a while Break.

John Pelkey: 27:45

Just keep running. Can you imagine putting this on? This is what you're training is listening, listening to you and I ramble on about our lives.

Carissa Galloway: 27:51

You got it, you got it.

John Pelkey: 27:53

Minor celebrity, and that's you. I'm a non celebrity talking about their lives. You mentioned that you were a little Miss American, baby, little little baby America.

Carissa Galloway: 28:02

It's kind of Miss America 1989.

John Pelkey: 28:04

1989. That's not the only beauty pageant you've taken part in, but I won't make you delve into that. My question is how good would I be as a beauty pageant host?

Carissa Galloway: 28:14

Oh, as a beauty pageant host. Yeah, you would just have to go all in. If you could go all in.

John Pelkey: 28:19

They get to sing. I look at this and I think you know what I mean. I'm a little old for it now.

Carissa Galloway: 28:24

No, I don't think so, can I? Let's think back to, like, atlantic City. Miss America days, the guy in the tuxedo. Can I get a little bit of a? Here she is.

John Pelkey: 28:33

Here she is, miss America.

Carissa Galloway: 28:37

I can do, I can do slightly smart me making like slyly sarcastic responses that maybe some people won't pick up on, but in others, and keeping a show moving in on time. I mean, hello pageants maybe a dying art form out there.

John Pelkey: 28:51

But well, that's, that's, that's what I, that's the history of my career. Like I get a radio job once radio is dying. So you know, that's, that's, that's kind of my career trajectory. I thought so. I thought that was something. Yeah, anything that was big in like 1948, I would have been great, I know I could live television. I'd have been good, that would have been fine for me. But all this stuff on tape, all right, I'm going to ask you the same question you asked me and I actually wrote it down Pre run, disney, our race history, when we were doing however long ago it was because we still don't know what is your most vivid memory of those days.

Carissa Galloway: 29:30

Because when you say pre run Disney, you mean that it wasn't called run. It was the Disney and Iron series we did it for I don't know.

John Pelkey: 29:37

I should know when run Disney actually became run Disney.

Carissa Galloway: 29:40

Well, yeah, when it became run Disney, that I don't know. We should probably find out marathon to princess Right, but it was already going on on the West Coast. Right we weren't really connected.

John Pelkey: 29:49

And there were other distancing. There was a try, a women's triathlon. That there was an inline marathon, yeah, there were some other things, but when we back then, before it was what it is now, and it was just you and I randomly being asked to do this, what is your most vivid memory?

Carissa Galloway: 30:05

So the first race that we did was marathon, and two memories I have of it is being called up, you know, asking do you want to do this, being told what time I had to be there, kind of barking a little bit, but then being told I got overtime, which to a college student, as you've alluded to, was very important.

John Pelkey: 30:19

I've told many people that it had what? Why did you want to do this job? And I was like they were paying me overtime for like 10 hour days. That's why.

Carissa Galloway: 30:25

I did that. Remember being like, wait, how far is a marathon? Had to look it up on dial up internet because I just I didn't know it wasn't. You know my circle of family. I'm not going to say how old I was, but I wasn't that old. It was to be offered that job at the age I was. I don't believe I was great when I first started, but what I do remember is we did the start line show. Um, show being not at all what it was today.

Carissa Galloway: 30:49

We sit, we started the runners. Basically we go back to the trailer because we for those of you who don't know, because the race starts in the middle of the highway, we have trailers there which is where we break, where people, we can go to the bathroom or all those kinds of things. So we go back and we sit down and they say, all right, chris, you got to go to the half finish line and I said, okay, yes, here we go. And I just jumped out the door, I jumped in this golf cart. They whisk me away to the magic kingdom parking lot. I've no concept of how long I'm going to be there. I don't bring any of my belongings, I don't bring a water, I don't bring anything. Luckily this wasn't a very cold year. But I can see in my head and I don't know if everybody whose brain works the same way as mine does, but I can see moments like I can visually still see it.

Carissa Galloway: 31:25

I'm sitting in the magic kingdom parking lot. I will fold up table. There's the computer, the announcer mat with the names and there's a cardboard box. At first I don't know why there's a cardboard box there. I would come to learn it's because when the sun glares at you you cannot see that. You have to kind of put your head in the cardboard box. So they said read the names. I'm reading the names. And then people stopped coming and it's done.

John Pelkey: 31:49

Yeah, and when you talk about setting off the, there weren't waves, it just was go. It was like go, set go and people ran and yeah, we had to wait around to get to the finish line and then they would drag us off other places to do things that I remember it was like I had to get in the golf cart and go down to like one of the corners or something and wave to people and cheer them on a little bit.

Carissa Galloway: 32:10

Who's the guy waving at me? I know, I know, because nobody could see us on stage.

John Pelkey: 32:14

You know, like 40 people in the crowd were like ah, they're announcers. So yeah, it was. It was much different.

Carissa Galloway: 32:19

That's all. I finished, though, and no one comes to get me, and thus I had left my cell phone you know my flip phone. So I've been there packing up and I'm like hello. So I find somebody that knows our director and they're calling him, but he doesn't answer because he didn't want to answer this person's phone call. So eventually, someone does come and get me, but that was my first memory and I can't. That's. That's really all that I remember.

Carissa Galloway: 32:44

I don't remember the point where it shifted. I remember, after that race, I was like okay, I could do this. I didn't know what to expect, and I remember being inspired by the people I saw and them looking like it was fun, and I didn't expect that, but I don't remember the point where I remember like starting to get to know people and getting to know stories, essentially, what is the entire backbone of this podcast. I don't remember the year that it became more than just hey, we're getting overtime and this is kind of fun to wow. This is really inspiring and amazing, and something that doesn't just stop on race day.

John Pelkey: 33:16

Yeah, and social media wasn't as big a thing back then. We didn't find out about those things, that people didn't reach out as they do now and say, hey, you know, I thought you did a great job, or hey, shut up at 1, 2, 30 in the morning, so, or whatever they they allow to us. So, yeah, it was. It was so very different and I and you didn't tell people. The one thing that we always tell folks is in the beginning, when we had to drive in from our respective homes, there was security all over the place and honestly, I, as God, as many people, what I was told was I said, well, how do I get past security? Because we didn't have credentials, there was nothing. And they said, well, just walk your way through. So basically just had to talk my way through with some state policeman or Disney.

Carissa Galloway: 33:57

No, I'm supposed to be there on the announce. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

John Pelkey: 34:00

That's how it started. All right, you mentioned West Coast. I am unfamiliar with the West Coast. I've spent very little time on the West Coast, couple of things out there but I'm very unfamiliar with Disneyland. For those people who haven't been there haven't done that it is a lot of the same things as around Disney Race here, but it is different to the extent that the experience itself, I think people would say is a quite different experience Explain to people.

Carissa Galloway: 34:29

I adore Disneyland.

Carissa Galloway: 34:31

A lot of that has to do with the team that we get to work with out there a creative team and everything. But when you go to Disneyland for those of you who haven't been everything is so much closer together. For example, if you're just a guest at the park, you can walk between the two parks just as easily as you could walk from Epcot to the parking lot, so everything is closer together. To get into the parks, you're walking through downtown Disney. So in terms of a run Disney weekend, I think two things are drastically different. One, you're not doing this long walk out on Woodpecker to get to the start line. Everything is much closer. The start line is closer. So if you're sitting on a Disney hotel, you can theoretically I always say this use your own bathroom, because that's a big deal, and then come down to the start. But the other thing about it being so close and having to walk through downtown Disney is you see people a lot more and I think it kind of enhances that community feeling. You see people, you get to know people a little more. I find the relationships that I built with people just seeing them more often at Disneyland were stronger and they became friends because I saw them more Instead of it. You know, at Disney World we can kind of be quite spread out From a race standpoint.

Carissa Galloway: 35:29

You also get the benefit of you get to run in Disney, but there's not as much real estate like we have at Orlando, for you can't run 13.1 miles just in Disney there. So you're going to go on the Anaheim. So, for better or worse, you're getting that community feel. You're going to maybe to run through Angel Stadium or you have, you know, the red hat lady, purple hat ladies. What colors are their hats? Red, they're red, ok, but if you put blue with that they'd be purple, they would, ok, put the hat, ladies, you know.

Carissa Galloway: 35:52

So you get the combination of community race as well as the magic of Disney. So I call it and I still call it the greatest gift of my life being able to go out to both and be able to do that, because that was a huge honor to me. That was the first time somebody said you know, we're going to pay to fly you somewhere to do a job, and it was huge for me at the time. It was really, you know, it was exciting and I love it and I'm excited that we're going back there because so many people that are new to run Disney had never experienced that you don't mean us.

John Pelkey: 36:21

You mean we have no decisions have been made yet, so we don't know who's going to be there. They don't even know I exist.

Carissa Galloway: 36:26

They do. They came and watched you. They thought they thought you were interesting.

John Pelkey: 36:29

Anyway, oh interesting, yeah, that's what they thought you were interesting. Oh my goodness, Like you'd see me in a play and it's like wow, you were up there doing that thing. It's a difficult play, isn't it? All right, fair enough, Fair enough. And that's all I have to say about that All right, it looks really, it looks cool, and for somebody who's done so many here, it looks very, very different.

Carissa Galloway: 36:53

It is different because we're in a totally different area. They different directors, as you know think totally differently. One's not right and one's not wrong. They're just different schools.

John Pelkey: 37:02

I love that. It's a different experience. I think that's what you know, what people you know often talk about. You know I wish bring back this race, bring back that race, and that's fine and I loved when you did throw back. That was very cool. But giving people a different experience, I think is is why the West Coast race of people lamented for so long that we didn't have and medals, and I for one.

Carissa Galloway: 37:23

we have nothing to do with it.

John Pelkey: 37:25

I'm glad they're back and I'm glad you get to go to. Maybe you know, and I've never been to Disneyland, Just just say it. All right, I recently you announced the bell cow of all marathons, the Boston marathon. Wow, Speaking of, I mean and honestly I can be as cynical as anybody, but I was so proud of you and happy for you. What was that experience like?

Carissa Galloway: 37:54

I mean, it was like one of those experiences where you don't even feel like it's real Right. It's just such an honor and for me I have run the Boston marathon and I have said since that moment this is the greatest marathon in the world. When I was younger, I would.

Carissa Galloway: 38:06

That was the one marathon I would want to watch, you know was essentially the one I mean it is the oldest marathon, it's the best marathon, so being asked to be a part of it was just beyond exciting. So I was the first woman to ever announce in the village which is amazing.

Carissa Galloway: 38:21

So just being out there, I was so excited. It's one of those jobs. It's not a job at all. Right, like to be able to tell people, excite them and get them out there to do.

Carissa Galloway: 38:27

The Boston marathon was amazing, typical Boston weather. It was extremely foggy and it started pouring rain. So we're up in a scissor lift and I have my own radio communication person with me up in the scissor lift because the seriousness of that race is that I'm the person on the microphone. So if something needs to be disseminated to me, because they don't want me the one on the radio, they want someone there that's trained at radio communication, should other communication types go down to be able to communicate this. So it's me and I think his name, john, may be up there with me Wonderful older gentlemen. But it starts pouring rain and he's helping me put the poncho on and I literally did not even realize how wet I was, how hard it was raining, because I was so in to what I was doing and so excited to be able to do it and to get the reaction back from the people.

Carissa Galloway: 39:18

You know, I think a lot of race announcers maybe are a little bit more serious than me and I understand that and that's good. That's that place. But my goal is to remind you why you're doing what you're doing. To bring that element of this is what's supposed to be fun, and so to get the very serious very fast first wave of men to yell back and cheer back was so much fun and I don't know if I'll get to go back we never know how these things because I was filling in for someone that couldn't be there and that's kind of how I got to be there. Great organization, amazing race. It'll definitely be a highlight of my life to be able to check off that I ran the Boston marathon and I announced the Boston marathon, something I never would have dreamed that I would do, because you and I aren't self promoters no, I'm not someone who's going to go hey, hire me.

Carissa Galloway: 39:58

That's just not in my nature. I love what I do and I just somehow, for right or wrong, believe that if you're good at what you do and you work hard, people will see that. Yeah, and I know other people are better at self promoting and I know that has to happen in some way, but it's just foreign to me.

John Pelkey: 40:16

And to your point. You know, for people there are different type of races and different type of race announcers. And you know, I again not as not a veteran to Disney or, excuse me, distance runner I try to be entertaining and funny because that's where I come from and you try to be entertaining and funny because we have the same sense of humor and you also celebrate the fact that, yes, sometimes we don't get response from the first corral at a run Disney race, because those are, you know, those people are looking for a personal best and these are people who have qualified and for for much more competitive marathons and stuff. So we get that. So you're right. Anytime they'll give us any love whatsoever. We feel like we must be doing okay, all right.

John Pelkey: 40:57

And my final question, because I have no idea how many of those are and we're already way over. I know we're sorry, it's okay. Blue Sky Moving forward, what's your goal as a race announcer? What would you like to do other than I'll do this to you for your Aristocats thing, other than continue announcing in Boston?

Carissa Galloway: 41:17

All right, if we're gonna go biggest goal.

John Pelkey: 41:19

Blue sky.

Carissa Galloway: 41:20

Goal that I've had ever since I was a little kid. I wanted to be Bob Costas. I wanna work on an Olympic coverage team, not necessarily the analyst. I would like to either be an in-studio person throwing cause I did host a TV show or just when you have a panel of people, you've got the color commentator and then you've got the kind of person who takes everything moving.

John Pelkey: 41:36

So if I've got a big goal, it's to work the Olympics Gymnastics, track, swimming I got you on all these, yeah, or even because I was gonna say when you said Boston Marathon is the one, that as a kid I only thought there were two marathons, which is the Boston Marathon and the one they ran in the Olympics.

Carissa Galloway: 41:51

Oh, correct, I think we all kinda yeah, exactly, I didn't know.

John Pelkey: 41:53

And Marine Corps Marathon, where I grew up, I had pay any attention to that New York City maybe knew a little bit about. You've never been involved with that one right New York.

Carissa Galloway: 42:00

City Marathon. What happens on wine and dime? Oh, that's okay, so it's every five years or so that it doesn't.

John Pelkey: 42:05

We need to get somebody to talk about that at some point on this, because I am just so intrigued about how that city puts on it Logistics of it. Yes, the start lines.

Carissa Galloway: 42:14

I just learned that there are three different starts and they're up on the. We'll save a whole episode.

John Pelkey: 42:18

Get into that later. All right, meb.

Carissa Galloway: 42:19

Kafleski, we'll get meb on to talk about it.

John Pelkey: 42:20

Let's do it. I would love to talk to meb again. All right, so that's it. Those who get to know us probably a lot more than you wanted to, and we may have to edit that down and do questions for a week.

Carissa Galloway: 42:30

But thank you for listening. All right. Next up as we wrap up as we will, we got a little nutrition nugget for you.

John Pelkey: 42:38

All right athletes.

Carissa Galloway: 42:39

Here's the drill Time to shape up your diet, Carissa. Give them the goods. All right, thank you, Drill Sergeant Yep. Carissa Galloway, I'm gonna put on my registered dietitian hat and here's a simple, easy food that I want you to eat every day. It is the apple and, as John knows, and I've said it before, it is a toothbrush for your insides, and I mean it in the best way possible. It's got a lot of fiber. Most Americans don't get enough fiber, so it's gonna help you feel better digestively. It supports weight management, it's affordable, it's portable and, gosh darn it, I think apples taste pretty good. So let this be your nudge to get in an apple a day because your dietitian said so. And if you want more great nutrition tips, I would love you to join my Healthier U12 week nutrition course to support your nutrition education and your goals, whether it's weight loss or just feeling more energized. We can do that. Go to gallowaycourse. com and use the code podcast for $175 off.

John Pelkey: 43:34

Another good thing about apples a lot of different varieties.

Carissa Galloway: 43:36

Yeah, you're not gonna get bored. I'm a Granny Smith guy and I'm not, so I don't and other people.

John Pelkey: 43:41

Lowest amount of sugar of any apple. Look at me having nutrition.

Carissa Galloway: 43:44

Eliud, my son Eliud, not the famous marathoner he loves the green apples and I forget to buy them because I don't like them.

John Pelkey: 43:50

So you guys are one and the same. They're very tart, or you can go to Red Delicious or Macintosh, which is what I grew up with.

Carissa Galloway: 43:56

We are not sponsored by apples.

John Pelkey: 43:58

All right. So one of the main things that we wanna do on this podcast and we will do moving forward is inspirational stories. We wanna get your inspirational stories and we actually, carissa, have a dedicated email to our podcast Athletes listen up it's mail call time, announce a free present.

Carissa Galloway: 44:17

That's right. If you wanna share your story or you have questions for us, you can email them to 321gopodcast at gmailcom. Share your inspirational story. Maybe we'll have you come on, maybe we'll have you tell it, but that's our goal to keep people moving, and I think we get inspiration from other humans. That's just human nature and I think that's what makes the endurance industry and endurance sports so compelling.

John Pelkey: 44:38

Yeah, and I think it's what makes our weekends as much fun and as inspiring as they are is our good friend Riley Claremont, our good friend Tracy Wu out in the crowd, our friend Carolina whomever it is getting these stories, and you and I are generally on stage and don't get to talk to people and sometimes we're dealing with logistical things and aren't catching all those stories, which is sometimes disappointing, because you hear these and you know me, for all of the bluster, I'm kind of an emotional guy and I at least once a weekend tear up in some way. Well, that would be my goal for you to cry on the podcast.

John Pelkey: 45:12

Really.

Carissa Galloway: 45:12

It's often is possible. No, I'm just kidding, but these stories are meaningful and they're real, so we are gonna have our inspirational story each episode. Today's is a brief one, but one that is so funny how the smallest thing can just kind of stick with you.

Carissa Galloway: 45:26

So it was marathon weekend the 5K. No, it's princess weekend the 5K. No one would have known. I know, I know, I know John and I are at the start doing our usual banter and the guy walks up with a sign, and so what's the first thing we say I can't read that. What does that say? Bigger font? Yeah, and for some reason I was like let me go see what it says.

Carissa Galloway: 45:45

So I go down there to look at it and it says last year I was supposed to run this race. Instead I had brain cancer. I worked so hard to get here. And so then, all our jokes aside, were blown away by what that said, and it was. His name was David. He was there with his wife, jennifer, and we see them finish again, and I took a picture of the sign and what struck me was, yes, he had brain cancer. Yes, he was supposed to do this last year, but the phrase I worked so hard to get here and you just think about it, you can see in it what it meant, and I think that translates to, let's say, almost 100% of the people in that corral, because we don't know what they overcame to get there, and whether it's the 5K, the challenge, a marathon, a one mile race, even just being able to show up in cheer. People worked so hard to get there, and that's why I think a finish line is one of the happiest places in the world, because everybody celebrates something. So it's not like.

John Pelkey: 46:42

you all decided to go to a concert and you're having a good time together. Now you had to work to get there, no matter what, and even as much as logistically to get there in the morning. You're going through a lot. So that, yeah, I hadn't heard that story before and I do remember it now that you brought it up. And for me, the interesting thing is now we're getting dozens of weekend with the same sort of story where somebody worked through something physical, somebody worked through something mental. Yeah, it really is incredibly inspiring.

Carissa Galloway: 47:13

It is, and that kind of keeps me going when I we all have bad days. Right, we stand on stage and we're at the best version of ourselves, we're giving everybody the positive energy, but we have days that are tough and so just thinking about those people, seeing them in my mind, that sign I worked so hard to get here. I'm going to keep working. It's a hard day. Let me find the next positive thing. Let me keep moving to find something to hang my hat on that went well today, kind of a thing.

Carissa Galloway: 47:35

So, thank you to the people who share their stories.

John Pelkey: 47:36

Yeah, and it's an individual sport in the end, but it does feel like such a community thing and yeah, anyway, I'm just going to ramble on about how impressed I am by everybody.

Carissa Galloway: 47:47

And you are one of those. You worked so hard to get to your 5K finish line.

John Pelkey: 47:50

I did, I did you worked hard.

Carissa Galloway: 47:52

You didn't just okay, I'm going to do it.

John Pelkey: 47:53

I did. I do some you know treadmill stuff and try to keep myself in some level of shape, but I actually did focus on I'm going to go this distance and it had been a long time and what struck me with something you told me would strike me was how many people out on the course were incredibly encouraging to me and knowing that some of them had gone through so much more than you know, out of shape boy decided he's going to run the 5K People, yeah, who've overcome so much. So hopefully you listening folk will will contact us with some of those stories. Leave an email.

Carissa Galloway: 48:30

Let us know what you think. We're so happy to be here that we can share this with you. We can continue to inspire you to keep moving. Whether it's your first 5K, your 500th marathon, we want to know your stories and we want to inspire you because moving forward is good for your body.

John Pelkey: 48:43

That's right, it's 321gopodcastatgmailcom. You can also. If you have any questions for us, we will open up the mail bag for those as well. The question that I generally got through the first few years of races was where's Carissa? That's probably how to answer that question as often, but we do get a lot of questions, as I said, the most frequent one now is are your friends in real life and? Yes, we are, and now we are podcast co-hosts.

Carissa Galloway: 49:09

Well, thank you guys so much for joining us on the inaugural 321go podcast. You can expect a new episode with inspiring stories and chat about all things running every two weeks. Have a great day, everybody. I'll see you guys next time. Bye, bye, bye. 321go.