Racing Through a Heart Attack: Tim O'Donnell and The Power of Positive Thinking

Ever found yourself contemplating the power of positive thinking? Get ready to be inspired as we sit down with the incredible Tim O'Donnell, a professional triathlete who makes a comeback after a heart attack during a race in 2021. Hear his powerful story and discover how he unravelled the powerful influence of a positive attitude on his road to recovery. 

Adventure awaits as Carissa has an exciting announcement of a possible Amsterdam trip for a special event. Savor the culinary voyage as we discuss the best Indonesian food we discovered in the city, alongside an honest appraisal of various food shows and the burgeoning fad diets. We tackle why these diets aren't sustainable in the long run and stress the importance of balanced eating, all while keeping you entertained.

Finally, we dive into the heart-thumping world of endurance sports training. We share invaluable insights about heart rate and zone training, goal setting, and the unique rush of crossing a race finish line. Plus, we bring you Tim's awe-inspiring journey from the Naval Academy to the world of triathlon, his emotional comeback saga, and intriguing thoughts on balancing an intense athletic career with parenthood. Tune in for this blend of stirring personal narratives, travel tales, foodie talks, and fitness tips.

Transcript

John Pelkey: 0:03

Hello everyone and welcome to 321 GO the podcast.

Carissa Galloway: 0:07

I'm John Pelkey 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 the next finish. And my gosh, we have an awesome show today. We have a legendary pro triathlete, tim O'Donnell, on to chat not only about his amazing career, but the heart attack he suffered during a race in 2021, and he's back now competing. We're gonna talk about bad dies and open the mail bag. Let's do this.

John Pelkey: 0:48

John, hello, hello Carissa, how are you?

Carissa Galloway: 0:52

I have exciting news for my self.

John Pelkey: 0:55

Okay, I just want to say this because in the pre-show notes it was big news okay now it's exciting news, which makes me happy, because big news can be hey, we're moving to somewhere and I'm thinking, that's not it not moving, not having a baby, I'm going to Amsterdam.

Carissa Galloway: 1:21

Why am I going to Amsterdam in 2024? Tulips I don't know when the tools boom. I'm gonna go July 6th 2024 to Amsterdam to see Taylor Swift. John is that big, exciting news wow, wow.

Carissa Galloway: 1:38

So you're going international Swifty well, I couldn't get tickets here in the US. You know, and I've been honest, I've been complaining about it for a long time because she was in Tampa the weekend of springtime. Surprise, and yes, logistically I physically, and I wouldn't have done it anyway because, as we've mentioned before, like part of our job, that's hard is balancing, like will you have to rest or else you can't do, is your brain doesn't work as well in the morning and our job does require especially the start line for our brains to work. So physically I couldn't have gone to the concert in Tampa and gotten back to Orlando. That's why I said.

John Pelkey: 2:10

I would like to say for the record, a number of people who actually ran the races did that and they did, and they didn't get picked up at 1 am so they had a little more time.

Carissa Galloway: 2:19

two of our DJs did that, but they had that, that extra time buffer and the benefit of youth and I don't think too many of those folks were doing every race.

John Pelkey: 2:28

I think they might have been one race folks. Yeah, I'm sure there were some hardy folk out there, but certainly it would be difficult, particularly a man of my age, and all the napping that I need it would never would have worked yeah, so all the US shows the ticket prices that you know.

Carissa Galloway: 2:43

They were just so high. And then hotel prices were crazy, like there were two dates I could go to. The hotels in Pittsburgh were like $700 a night and I just had given up on it. So she announced her European leg and then you had the chance to enter to get a pre-sale code. So I entered like eight different cities of pre-sale codes. I got one in Amsterdam. So today I got online to get it. Nothing's in English. I couldn't find my Google translate button, so I like I wait about 20 minutes, which is relatively good compared to like how some of these things and other people are going. It says it opens at 2. We get in 30 minutes early at like 120. I get in and there's like 28,000 people in front of me, which made me a little bummed out. But you didn't have to have. I had a code to buy the tickets. People could get in the queue, then get to the end and then not be able to buy it because I didn't have the code.

Carissa Galloway: 3:33

I understood so I got in it's there's. You can only buy packages. You couldn't like pick your seats. Like in the US when you go to ticketmaster you can click and see, and I'm also like I gotta go, gotta go quick. So I see this one thing it's color coded, the seats are like kind of on the side front and I'm not a big like standing room person. I know that's a good experience but for me I like like my space. I don't know I don't like to get there early in fight and the pushing that takes away from my enjoyment.

John Pelkey: 3:58

So if the floor wasn't for me, yeah, no festival seating for me anymore either.

Carissa Galloway: 4:02

Yeah, put in the code, no idea what it said, no idea what it cost, tried to like go back and see, couldn't do that. Go to the next screen login to ticketmaster login doesn't work, doesn't work, doesn't work. And it's telling me, I think in like Dutch, that I have like one more chance to like log in because, like okay, I'll try to like make a new account. Apparently I had to make a Dutch ticketmaster account all the while, like you had eight and a half minutes and it's like counting down, counting down, counting down. Finally get there. I got the package, got four tickets.

John Pelkey: 4:30

Not sure who's going yet, but hopefully next year be seeing Taylor Swift her era's tour in Amsterdam well, I do have to tell you, my wife and I, our favorite restaurant on earth is in Amsterdam. It's an Indonesian restaurant. It's, and it's in kind of a far away. So we're not far away, but it's not one of your you know, downtown beautiful facade restaurants. We were actually sent there by.

John Pelkey: 5:00

We were staying in a bed and breakfast and the people who ran the bed and breakfast and lived lived in this townhouse that the bed and breakfast was part of. They said if you really want good Indonesian food and we did go to this place and we went and some sort of strip mall that was all concrete and we're like what happened here. Oh my god, must be, must be friends of theirs. They're driving business too. But it ended up being the greatest, the greatest meal in the history of meals for us anyway, we're foodies. So I'll get you the name and I don't want to, I don't want to promote them here on the show unless, unless again, they'd like to step up and sponsor it'd be great audience and we can build up.

Carissa Galloway: 5:37

We have a huge Dutch audience we could build up do you have a Dutch athlete, a Dutch chair athlete, that comes her name, such as an S, and now I can't think of it right now, and I'm so sorry because she's probably gonna listen. Well, I want to go back, though, because you know I love food shows. I love to watch food shows. Top chef, all there's Food Network star, all those are my favorite. Claire loves Gordon Ramsay. Now that's a different day's topic. I don't know. I've never had Indonesian food. Is it similar to Indian food?

John Pelkey: 6:05

yeah, I mean is that?

Carissa Galloway: 6:06

ignorant. Did I just say something completely ignorant ?

John Pelkey: 6:07

no, no, no, I mean it's. You know it's an Asian cuisine, obviously. So there are. You know some of the they use. A lot of the same sort of produce is in things, but just you know it's a. It's a little different than Chinese food, it's a little different than Vietnamese food, but there are certainly aspects it's not either of those things it's right, right, fair enough.

Carissa Galloway: 6:31

I'm telling you not actually what it is, and just gonna tell you what it's not and just hope that we move on so that's it.

John Pelkey: 6:37

This is me as a restaurant reviewer. It wasn't an Italian restaurant or a Japanese restaurant, but it was. You know it was Greek. No, it has aspects of that, but maybe some different spices and just it was just amazing too because of, like I said, it was in this kind of strip mall. It didn't look like much, there weren't any windows to the outside, there was just the door. But as soon as you opened the door, the smells that wafted out and it was beautifully decorated and it was just small local restaurant and that's, you know, for people. Here's John's travel tips for people. If you're going to a big city they haven't been to before, and that's anywhere in the United States or across the world, ask local people where to eat. And if you're traveling with people who check into the hotel and go hey, where's the cheesecake factory? Don't travel with them anymore. Leave those people shun, push away from those people, because you want to try.

Carissa Galloway: 7:33

I do have one more follow-up question about this as you're describing it you know, doors, concrete building, no windows. It was very delicious right it's possible you were in prison it is possible. It may have been an old curl Cold War bomb shelters, so that's obviously a possibility okay, like did you get like in prison and then you hadn't been fed for days, and that's why it was so good and it you know well, it is Amsterdam and as well you know.

Carissa Galloway: 7:59

All right yeah, I'm excited. I'll put it on the list. I don't know how long we're gonna go, but I've been to Amsterdam, ones in high school and then once, with Weston, we ran a race that's called dam to dam, which is an awesome, super fun race. You went from Amsterdam out to Zandam. It's 10 miles. You're going through the little villages, the people are out, they're singing karaoke.

John Pelkey: 8:18

It's probably one of the top three best races I've ever run, so looking, looking forward to it well, I went, we went after we got engaged in and Leeds Castle in England and then the next day we flew to Amsterdam. I think we were there four days, three nights, or five days, four nights. It's a great place I highly recommend to anybody. The museums are amazing, the sights, the food, everything it's it's great. Love Amsterdam, so good for you, good for you. I understand that.

Carissa Galloway: 8:45

Taylor Swift she's quite, she's quite popular it just looks so epic and then everybody keeps going and showing everything, and so I'm just you know something that's a year away, though I think, though, because of COVID, I'm like well might happen. Do you know what I mean? Like we don't know the things like an episode. I'm invested but not optimistic.

John Pelkey: 9:03

I've learned that from you and it's gonna feel like it did when you got tickets, when you were a teenager, to a show and the show is in like three months and at that point three months might as well have been a year, because you're younger and time has different. You know, I remember getting tickets to see the Rolling Stones in like September of 1981 and the show was in December and honestly, it might as well have been 40 years later for how it seemed. So a lot of excitement to build up it and I'm gonna I'm gonna figure out what, what Taylor Swift sings at some point and you know, hum along with you know, you know some of the stuff.

John Pelkey: 9:36

She's incredible artist, and you're right, the show looks absolutely flip and amazing three and a half hours, I mean yeah yeah, we only do like a two-hour show, so and we don't have wardrobe changes.

Carissa Galloway: 9:50

That would be fun. What if we had wardrobe changes? I could be in the show.

John Pelkey: 9:55

I could be in favor of that. Recently, paul McCartney called out Bruce Springsteen and said the reason these people are doing all these long shows is because of Bruce, and it's gonna jokingly blaming it on Bruce Springsteen. He's like a solid hour. 45 is 20 for anybody that's long on Broadway.

Carissa Galloway: 10:12

Right, that's Hamilton style so it's just super impressive on what she does, and if you're not a Swiftie and you have sat through 15 minutes of ish Taylor Swift talk, we're talking about Indonesian food too. I thank you for your international Swiftie now yeah, that's right, I got my Swiftie passport. Alright, john. I'm gonna skip question two because we talked about Taylor and an Indonesian food for a while, but I want to put a poll out there to you and the listeners what about a three, two, one go book club?

John Pelkey: 10:40

wow I don't know now this is the again got the pre-show notes so knew you're gonna ask me this question, but I have not vetted you in any way. Is it? Would this be a book club for? Would the books have to in some way have something to do with inspiration or running, or is it from me and you know my reading? Is it just be an endless parade of Civil War books?

Carissa Galloway: 11:02

is well, I think that we're gonna have to like alternate. Who picks? Okay and maybe other people pick, and that's part of growing is that maybe I'm being forced to read something about the Civil War and maybe you're being forced to read the gunkle, which I actually think you would like.

John Pelkey: 11:17

I'm very open to reading other things. It's just, you know, the pathway for me is relatively narrow at my advanced age right now, so I would always be in favor of that. I'm in favor of reading across the board.

Carissa Galloway: 11:29

Let's do it alright, well, think about that, but if you guys think that's a good idea, remember email us, let us know. We can get like some suggestions together, maybe start with something small and and go from there, but I think that could be fun.

John Pelkey: 11:42

I'm all for it.

Tim O'Donnell: 11:45

Okay, civilians, it's time for the goods. Let's get on to the interview.

Carissa Galloway: 11:50

Alright, before we intro today's guest, I'm just going to say that I know we're not supposed to have favorites, but it is hard to not cheer for today's guest. He's a world champion triathlete, winning the 2019 ITU Long Distance World Championship. As an Iron man World Championship, he's been on the podium twice and he recently won, getting into his master's years, iron man 70.3 Peru this spring. He's part of one of triathlons most beloved couple maybe, I don't know the couple of triathlon, tim and Rainey, and they just announced they're expecting their third child and he survived a heart attack during a race in 2021. So lots to talk about. Welcome to 321. Go, tim O'Nannell, to how you doing.

Tim O'Donnell: 12:34

Good Thanks. Thank you both for having me.

Carissa Galloway: 12:36

Yeah, we're so excited to have you out. First of all, where are you? Are you home right now?

Tim O'Donnell: 12:41

Yep, I'm hunkered down in the basement. You know kids take over the rest of the house, so you got a podcast. You got to go in the basement.

John Pelkey: 12:50

Not a bad place to do it. I don't want to lose any Los Angeles Lakers fans out there, but since you're not seeing this in? Video. There's a signed Larry Bird jersey behind Tim. We may get into that later, but first we want to introduce you to everybody who may not be familiar with you, first of all because I'm a Northern Virginian who grew up in the DC area. You are a Naval Academy graduate. Tell us how. Give us your elevator pitch of the Tim O'Nannell story.

Tim O'Donnell: 13:19

Oh, I hope we got a long elevator ride. No, I grew up on the youngest to four. I we all grew up swimming competitive, started competitively swimming at age five, ended up going to the Naval Academy where my older brother, thomas, was already attending. So he was a senior, my freshman or plea year, and if anybody's familiar with the service academies and upper class tells you to do something, you got to do it. So he gave me an order to try out for the triathlon team. I was on the varsity swim team at the time and so I did it. I somehow made the team. I was not a great runner by any means and I kind of shelved it for a few years, kept swimming. But at the end of my sophomore year I, yeah, I just started thinking maybe there's something here in triathlon. So I quit swimming and my triathlon adventure, you know, kind of went from there.

Carissa Galloway: 14:09

I mean, you've had an amazingly successful career, one of the best US triathletes, especially at Ironman distance that that I can think of. I saw you last year and Kona finishing Ironman World Championships. I can see it in my head. I can see you running by. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, knowing that Rini was there, izzy was there, but that race meant so much to so many people because it was just over a year after you'd had a heart attack and our podcast is all about inspiring the everyday athlete and that is something that you don't expect to happen to a professional triathlete. So take us back to Miami. Can you walk us through that race and that day and kind of relive that, if you will?

Tim O'Donnell: 14:55

Yeah, so Miami, then challenge Miami. March of 2021 was kind of you know. Obviously, with COVID and everything, the racing scene had been put on the hiatus a little bit. When I got second in Kona in 2019, jan Frodeno some consider the goat I wouldn't want to make an argument against it. He beat me there. He was coming to Miami. I'm like, all right, let's go. You know, I get another chance to race you on.

Tim O'Donnell: 15:17

I may be super excited, but leading into it I've been actually starting to have like some chest palpitations and shortness of breath and things like that. So I'd gotten checked out at the end of 2020 and nothing super alarming to anyone. So I just kept plugging forward and I actually remember chatting with Ben Hoffman, another American Long-Course Triathlete and a good friend of mine, before, like right before the race, like before the gun went off. Like you know, I don't feel that good right now and I thought it was maybe just asthma or something like that. But gun went off, great swim right in the front of the race, like four or five men break away. We hit the bike feeling strong, and then about maybe like halfway through the bike or so, I started getting this spreading chest pain, like spreading across my chest and shooting pain down my left arm, my left jaw locked, left side of my jaw locked up, and I actually thought to myself this isn't normal race pains. And I, the thought of you know, is this a heart attack? Even popped into my head. But you know, I was in the middle of a race, I was in that competition mode and I said no, there's no way. If I was having a heart attack I would be, I'd fall off of my bike right now. There's no way. So I backed it off a little bit and then kept going.

Tim O'Donnell: 16:34

But things started to go downhill. I got off the bike early because I didn't really know where I was. I plugged through the. I plugged through the run the whole time, thinking like why can't I run faster? Like trying to push, trying to push and just, you know, obviously not the blood flow to get much more out of my body, finished 11th just out of the money, which made me mad because my son was eight weeks old and you know the old saying, you got to earn the diaper money out there. So I tried to rally after that, you know.

Tim O'Donnell: 17:03

But a little bit of time went by and I started realizing this isn't your normal post race. You know issues. You know usually you're pretty smashed after a race. But when after time goes by, I'm like you know what. I've done a lot longer, harder races, you know, particularly like in Kona, and I've popped back faster and this something's not right.

Tim O'Donnell: 17:22

And then, you know, went to hang out with some friends. I couldn't even stand up, had a lie down and immediately called my wife, marinda Carfrae Rini, and she's like you got to call our doctor. So I called Dr Dave and he told me he's like Tim, take Aspen right now and get yourself to the hospital. So that's what I did and it took a little while from the figure out what was going on. But when they realized that, hey, this is, this is a hard attack happening right now, things started to really elevate. All of a sudden there's a lot more people in the room. They bring in the big, big paddles in case I flat line. And yeah, they had to ship me to another hospital to get a cardio calf done to clear the block.

Tim O'Donnell: 18:06

And even when I got there the cardiologist was like, like you seem like pretty good, like I've never, like I was kind of in good spirits because I don't know I had gone through that internal battle like, hey, you know, I question if this is it, if I'm going to die in this hospital. And then, you know, for my racing experience, you know you do not. You cannot let bad thoughts in your head. You know, just like in an Ironman, once bad thoughts creep in, you're done. So I just pushed him out, I'm like no, I'm going to focus on positives, I'm going to focus on my family and thinking about them, being here for them and, you know, keeping just like that positive attitude.

Tim O'Donnell: 18:42

So cardiologists like I've never seen this, some like someone, this like happy going into the cath lab. And well, here we are. So you, yeah, he's like this will be quick, quick procedure, we're just going to check. But I don't think this, I don't think that's a problem. And then, all of a sudden, they're in there for a long time and I knew then like OK, this is, this is definitely more serious than everybody had anticipated.

John Pelkey: 19:09

Well, I have to ask you the question that begs for me is when you told the medical professionals when you first get to the hospital oh, by the way, I just finished 11th in the race what was their response to that, given what you were going for? Because I would have to assume too, for medical professionals they're like well gosh is. Could someone have even done this if they were actually actively having a heart attack?

Tim O'Donnell: 19:32

So I have a good friend who's a retired heart surgeon and I called him like almost immediately, like the next morning, when you know, I was in my recovery room and he's like man, he's like Tim, they should have been peeling you off of the off of the race course, like there's. He's, like that's, it's insane that you're still here. So I mean he's, I mean that's a guy that's done over 5000 heart surgeries, right, so someone has a lot of knowledge of this space. But yeah, you know, when I was in the hospital, I think they all just kind of assumed it was dehydration from the, from the race, a lot of similar symptoms, with nausea, vomiting, and, yeah, it took 90 minutes to get an IV. So it wasn't the ideal situation. I guess when you're not, when you don't look like the, you know who they'd expect to see coming in having having a heart attack.

Carissa Galloway: 20:21

So after you know you're going to cat lab, what was the full sort of diagnosis of you had XYZ is what happened.

Tim O'Donnell: 20:28

Yep, so it's commonly called the widow maker. I had a full block of the very top of my LED right where, like right off the left main artery, and when they cleared it which was mean, probably eight to 10 hours later it was still 85% blocked or between 80 and 85% block. And so they cleared that blockage was a soft black rupture and or unstable plaque and they cleared that and they put a big old stent in there to hold the artery open.

John Pelkey: 21:00

Absolutely remarkable and, Chris, I mentioned it. You know, a year later you're back competing what? How did that rehab work? Where did you, when and where did you start your rehab and how did you work your way up to a year later being competitive again?

Tim O'Donnell: 21:16

Yeah, I mean, you know, everything really started with a conversation with my wife, like all right, like let's set some boundaries here, because my health and wellness and me being around for her and the kids as long as I can be, it was a number one priority. You know. You know he hate to joke about it, but if something happens to you it's not your problem anymore, right, it's your loved ones, right.

Tim O'Donnell: 21:41

Sorry you got to, you got to deal with it. So we kept that in mind, obviously and basically. You know Rene, and she's for those in your audience who don't know she's a three time Ironman World Championship or Ironman World Champion, one of the greatest the sport has ever seen. So she knows competition, she knows the headspace that I'm in and you know we just agree that hey, if we, you know we're going to line up the best team, and if the sports cardiologists you know regular cardiologists and if they're okay with you getting back on the race course, then let's, let's do it. And it was quite on the contrary from what the cardiologists in Florida said immediately after he finished that surgery, where he said you know, he said to me point blank I guess I have to find a new career. So not the, not the bedside manner I was hoping for. But you know, gave me a little little fire to say, hey, I'm going to prove you wrong back.

Carissa Galloway: 22:45

Let's talk about the process of cardiac rehab because you know, and our audience knows my father, jeff Galloway. He had a heart attack. He was 70 something, so it's a little bit different, but some of the process of what you said was the same thing. He was on the rower, he started not to feel good, he thought it was pollen and so in those bad events you can have crystal clear memories of like phone conversations, like we called and have he answers and he just says I'm just you know you don't want to talk to me, to them not feeling good, which is so unlike him, but he thought it was the pollen. He ended up going to the hospital because of his wife. He did cardiac rehab but for him, going to the hospital in the cardiac rehab, you know, as a 75 year old, is a little bit different to you. I heard that the hospital, you know the cardiac rehab, needed to be, you know, upgraded for to fit what Tio needed.

Tim O'Donnell: 23:33

Yeah, they definitely needed some upgrading. I mean, I think for me, I think that the post the rehabilitation plan really started with my primary care physician, dr Dave Tussik, who was who I called when I was having my bent, I think. You know he's a kind of runs a concierge practice, so his access is unbelievable and I mean there's no better. Your health is should be your number one priority, right? So there's no nothing better to spend your money on than your, than your health and well being. So I think having that first line line to help you kind of coordinate and build your team is was huge to me. So you know we said, all right, let's get specialist everywhere we can.

Tim O'Donnell: 24:10

Aaron Baggis, sports cardiologist at the time, was in Mass General, now is in a, was on Switzerland and he's kind of running the cardiac or the sports cardiology for the IOC. So I mean, guys, a legend and you know, get a, get a functional cardiologist that sees things differently, get a natural, natural path that sees things differently and let's kind of get kind of all this together. But when it came down actually heading into the, to the rehab which you know, the interventional cardiologists kind of, or your, your, your standard cardiologist that you would see, said you need to go do this just for peace of mind, and really what it was. I mean, there's the physical recovery, which we all think is going to be the hardest part of the journey, but it's really the mental recovery, psychological recovery, that's the hardest.

Tim O'Donnell: 25:04

And so, yeah, when I went into rehab, my coach, shula Divins, came with me and the treadmill only went up to eight miles an hour and the whole point here is to monitor you under stress, under load, to see how your heart responds. And we're like this ain't going to do it. So we ended up bringing my tax trainer in and my bike and they're like, yeah, you know what, we have a protocol, but that's not going to fit you. You guys do whatever you need to do, get your heart rate into this zone for this long and we'll be monitoring. And it did. It brought a lot of peace of mind for me. So I felt a little silly there when doing it, when I was probably 30 or 40 years younger than the rest of my classmates, but it was totally worth it.

John Pelkey: 25:45

I want to jump into Chattanooga and what that felt like getting back. But one more follow up on that, because you brought it up and I think it's an important point in our position as Run Disney Racehouse, we encounter people who have had heart attacks and gone out and run a 10K, 5k, half marathon, marathon, and they do talk about what you did. It is not uncommon for somebody with cardiac issues to go into a depression because you are presented with your mortality. Do you think the fact that you knew that you were working towards a goal, doing something that you loved so much, that helped you work through it? Because a lot of people don't have that and then they choose something my gosh, I'm going to get through this and I'm going to go run a half marathon. How did that work for you mentally to avoid that depression or at least allowing that depression to eat you up?

Tim O'Donnell: 26:32

Yeah, I mean, I think choosing to focus on it or choosing to focus on something else is very important and for me I came to the realization very quickly that, hey, you've had an amazing career. If you can't race again, that's okay, we'll work through it, but I don't have anything left to prove in the sport. A journey back was more for myself and I don't know, just closing the chapter and on everything that happened. But yeah, I mean, I think, as you said, a goal is really important because it takes time. You have to work through it. You're not going to mentally, emotionally, you're not just going to be okay with getting back to training, particularly like for me, when it happened during a sporting event.

Tim O'Donnell: 27:19

One of the cardiologists said that could have happened while you're gardening, but now you have an association of it with working out or training. So he kind of tried to dispel that for me that, hey, this really isn't associated with just because you were running and at the end of the day, staying physically active and physically fit is the best way, or definitely one of the top ways, to avoid having cardiac issues. So, at the end of the day, being physically fit is so important to your heart health that you have to work through it and if that means setting a small goal, like a local event or whatever it is, or even just saying, hey, I'm going to, this is my workout plan. I'm going to walk with my husband or wife, you know, three or four times a week in the morning for 30 minutes. I think setting that structure up and holding yourself accountable and having your loved ones hold you accountable to is really important.

John Pelkey: 28:15

All right. So here we are. It's a year later. You're about to slip into the water in Chattanooga. You've gone through all of this, my goodness an entire lifetime of emotions in a year. What did that feel like at that moment? Where were you? Headspace wise?

Tim O'Donnell: 28:30

It was. It was pretty stressful it was. It was very. It was an unknown because no matter how hard you train, you never push yourself like in training the way you push yourself in racing. So yeah, I it was.

Tim O'Donnell: 28:44

I think it was probably more nerve wracking for for Rene and my family than maybe even was for me. But the swim particularly was the hardest part, just because, unfortunately, when you hear about incidents in particular in triathlon, cardiac events and usually men like between 40 and 50 years old, it happens in the swim. You're deprived of oxygen and it just seems to and there's high stress with the mass start. So it seems to be a situation that induces cardiac events. If you know you're about to have one. So once I got out of the water and started riding, I felt way better. I'm like, okay, I'm on my feet, are on on on land. You know, let's go. It took probably took about 20 minutes in the bike where I started. Finally, you know, started to relax and be like, okay, we can do this. But at the beginning I'm like, should I be doing this? Like, is that a chest pain? What is that? You know, it was just kind of always have it in the back of your mind.

Carissa Galloway: 29:42

And that's just thinking you looking to say that about the swim. You know, as you guys, I work for Ironman and when the swim is happening the radio is on and like that's just. We're just waiting for that all clear for the swim. It's like such a stressful time just because of everything you know that can go on and I, you know, just as a wife to have an Ironman, I know that's so stressful. That is an easy swim, chattanooga yes.

Tim O'Donnell: 30:04

You know, I never thought about that. I didn't make that.

Carissa Galloway: 30:06

I don't know if you threw a stick in it. There's a current that goes down because that's called a downhill swim that they threw a stick in and it made the time cut off just by the current. So that's a relatively easy swim. But obviously that didn't. You weren't even thinking about that.

Tim O'Donnell: 30:21

Yeah, I didn't think about it, but you're right. Yeah, that was a down current swim. It was the right way to start my comeback.

Carissa Galloway: 30:29

And how do good season? You know you made the Ironman qualification Des Moines when you raced in Kona. Was the TO that was racing there the TO that had raced there and podium twice before, or were you feeling a little bit different?

Tim O'Donnell: 32:02

Yeah, I mean, and that's that's something I had a kind of like come to grips with internally. Even, you know, kona aside, I had the, you know, the realization that, hey, you're, you're not the same person you were before Doesn't mean you're worse, doesn't mean you're, you know, you're just different. So I very much came into that race with a different headspace. The lead in wasn't great, it was kind of cut short. You know Des Moines, which I qualified for Kona in June of that year.

Tim O'Donnell: 32:38

So after Des Moines my recovery was not great. I actually had some palpitations that kind of scared me. Turns out they're just dehydration related. But I didn't really have the confidence to get into full training until, you know, probably July, August, and then everything went really well. But when I was in Kona I really learned how to race that race. So I was able to put myself in a good position, you know, on the bike, you know, I think, even think I was maybe fifth coming off the bike, but I didn't have the fitness to back it up on the run, so to speak, and around eight or nine miles I just I was really.

Tim O'Donnell: 33:14

I was kind of starting to struggle and the weight of the comeback really just kind of came down on me and you don't realize the emotional toll that that journey back, you know, really takes out of you until you are most exposed.

Tim O'Donnell: 33:32

And you're never as exposed as a human as much as you are when you're halfway through the marathon at the Ironman World Championship and the sun's beaten down on you and the Queen K. So I took a second and I just said, hey, you know what, like I've been on, I've been in, I've had so many different conas right, I've had, I've walked, you know, I've been on the podium, had this, I've been between here and there, everywhere on that race, and I came to this kind of just, you know, I had this cathartic moment where, like, hey, you know, this isn't about old Tim and trying to get on the podium or trying to win, this is about completing your journey, choking up a little bit, but yeah, so I just focused on hey, let's, let's keep it together, let's stay. Like, let's stay strong and like, let's just honor the kind, like everything you've done to get back here and all the support you've had. Thank you, that's what it turned into.

Carissa Galloway: 34:31

Yeah, you had a ton of support out there on the hot corner.

Carissa Galloway: 34:34

Yeah, we were just so. We were rooting for you, we were watching. It's funny. All we see are the little numbers. And we're watching. You know, we've got the broadcast on and we're listening to it and then we've got all of our screens with everybody. But it is like I said, you're choking up. It still gives me goosebumps to think about you finishing that race because I put myself in in Renny shoes. You know, that's what I see as as as a husband, as a father, as somebody out there that maybe wasn't going to be here, and what you've gone through, and hopefully it gives other people out there the courage to, whatever their comeback means, to, to not give up on themselves, I guess.

Tim O'Donnell: 35:07

Thanks, yeah, yeah and and uh really even said after the fact, like my mom was calling her or like texting with her during the race, like oh my God, like how do you do this? Like I can't even watch, like she was like just like so concerned, you know, so scared that something was going to happen. But, um yeah, like I mean, honestly, that was probably that was one of my best finishes, for sure. Just going down a leaky drive and you know, obviously it wasn't my best place overall, but just being able to share that moment with everybody was so humbling, really powerful and humbling.

John Pelkey: 35:41

Well, it may not have been your best place, but maybe your most memorable finish, I think. Probably, you know, in a lot of different ways. All right, Well, now for somebody of average fitness. Chris is laughing now, like myself.

Carissa Galloway: 35:54

John has done a 5k.

John Pelkey: 35:57

I'm a sprinter, not a distance runner.

Tim O'Donnell: 35:59

Hey, you're out there.

John Pelkey: 36:00

You're out there. That's what I'd like to hear, obviously, when you get to go through a cardiac event of any sort, there are lifestyle changes. There are diet changes. You are an elite athlete. What did you have to make some of those changes as well? Do you have to approach your diet, your lifestyle, differently than pre-event?

Tim O'Donnell: 36:20

Uh, you know, as I said, I saw different specialists from all different arenas and I expected everybody to say that, hey, here you need a big diet change. I expected them all to tell me to go vegan and no one, none of them, said that. Yeah, some advice I got from the sports cardiologist was avoid a mammal. So, you know, stick with fish and vals. So if it swims or flies, it just reduces inflammation in the body and that's what a lot of it comes down to. You know, there's two issues I had.

Tim O'Donnell: 36:53

I had the plaque buildup, which for me it's hereditary. I don't have crazy high cholesterol, which majority is actually produced in your liver, by the way. So your diet, you know, if you have crazy high cholesterol numbers, your diet won't impact it really dramatically. Just, you know, like me, it's genetic. And then there's the inflammation issue which can cause the rupture from the artery wall being compromised. So there's those two things. So I really focused on is inflammation Some supplements, turmeric, you know, fish oil stuff that's anti inflammatory, like I said, you know, kind of avoiding mammals more and yeah, that kind of was more extent of it. And then, honestly, blood glucose spikes are really important as well. As athletes, we need a lot of a lot of energy and we can tend to lean heavily on the carbs, which isn't necessarily bad if your timing is right, but spiking your blood glucose is the easiest way to inflame your body, so that's something that I've been paying attention more. You know, wearing a glucose monitor to see where I'm at, things like that.

Carissa Galloway: 38:07

I know a couple of weeks ago actually, that I wanted to chat for different reasons but it was. It's very eye opening and I've been telling people it's a really cool way to like really see what your body, your body's doing.

John Pelkey: 38:20

All right, I want to circle back, because I did mention your Naval Academy. I believe you have a degree in Naval architecture.

Tim O'Donnell: 38:27

So I do so you later discuss that.

Carissa Galloway: 38:31

John Neville architecture.

John Pelkey: 38:33

I just want to discuss with him whether John Erickson still the best shipbuilder in the history of the world, but that that's for another time also went to UC Berkeley, so overachieve, or educationally as well. Even when you were at the Naval Academy, obviously heading towards your degree, starting to do triathlons as a swimmer, did you ever imagine that this would be your career? What were, what were you really angling to do? Were you looking to be that naval officer for the rest of your life, or did you have other ideas?

Tim O'Donnell: 39:07

Yeah, well, first thing to note is if you ever see step on a ship or boat and someone tells you was designed by Tio, you might want to stay on shore. You know, when I went to the Naval Academy I had done a triathlon not very well, but I had no interest in triathlon. I honestly like zero interest. I hated to run, so it wasn't even in my brain. You know I went to the Academy. You know I fully expected to see myself, you know, staying in the Navy at. My older brother, thomas, is still in. He's over 20 years, he's a captain and a Commodore of one of the subgroups out in Groton, connecticut. So he's, he's rocking and rolling, he's Mr Navy. It's awesome.

Tim O'Donnell: 39:51

But you know, for me I service selected special operations, which is explosive ordnance disposal, extremely dangerous, highly skilled. You know specialty. My family is very glad that I ended up, you know, getting kind of pushed down the world class out the route because they think I'm a little clumsy. They didn't want me around any explosives. But yeah, I honestly expected. I expected like a high flying, fun career and in EOD and I just kind of got sucked into triathlon when I was at the Academy. And then one of my good buddies Nathan Stuhlmacher, who was at the Academy with me, his he was kind of in a triathlon and he introduced me to a guy named Alan Lay as a coach and Alan was connected with USA Triathlon and he worked for an athlete development things like that and Alan's like oh man, like Tim's got some talent, like you know. And that's when I quit swimming going into my junior year and just really started training properly with Alan. And then all of a sudden I'm like wow, like I'm pretty good at this.

Tim O'Donnell: 40:56

And yeah, I had one of the most amazing careers in the Navy. I ended up for those who don't know that the armed services actually have sports, different sports teams and they kind of have inner service games and stuff. So I ended up winning the, the armed services triathlon national like championship six years in a row when I was in the service and caught the attention of the higher ups and they supported my bid for the Olympics. And even then when I was in the Navy and racing the ITU and Olympic stuff, I had no clue that this could be a career. I remember sitting, I was having dinner with any pots and he had just bought a house and I'm like you can buy a house by being a triathlete. I'm like no way Like this doesn't. How do you do that? So it was just honestly a passion that I love so much in a challenge that I found very compelling and just, yeah, I wanted to just see what I was made of through this sport.

Carissa Galloway: 41:54

Well, you've done that and you're still going, still 70.3 wins. But let's not play a game. But, like your, triathlon is your job. It's a very hard, very demanding job. Your wife or any just retired but is still continuing to work in the industry at a very hard, demanding job, and she did come back after your kids and continue to race. So, as a mom, someone who's job is busy and traveling, how do you guys balance that? Work life balance, you know, with the kids? How do you do that? Because I think a lot of people don't know how to do that or how to take time for themselves, because it feels selfish.

Tim O'Donnell: 42:30

Yeah, and I think yeah, when you're in it as a parent, it's hard to get past that feeling of being selfish. And I don't want to stereotype, but my experience it seems harder for Rini as the mom than it is for me as a dad. I'm like all right, let's go, and she's like no. But yeah, I think balance is very important and I think triathlon is it is. You know, we as professionals. It's very selfish, it's a very selfish endeavor and you need a lot of support.

Tim O'Donnell: 43:05

And I think it's just parceling that out through the year appropriately and making sure it doesn't become all and all consuming throughout the year. Taking breaks, stepping away from the sport, having very finite like Windows training blocks for specific races is a great way to do that. And then also understanding, hey, it's not all about quantity. I think most triathletes or runners are kind of that type A like if it's written down in your training from your coach you're going to go for, can do it. And recovery is so important, especially as you're older and especially if you have the stress of job and kids. You know getting some sleep, eating right, recovering properly is going to serve you so much more than trying to just grind more and more yardage. So work with a coach that understands your limitations, particularly time, and get the most out of the out of your key sessions and don't get bogged down with junk mileage or yardage, whatever sport you're doing.

Carissa Galloway: 44:06

Yeah, you mentioned coaching. So that kind of segues me into what you and Rene are doing now with Tridot. So tell us a little bit more about the coaching you were doing.

Tim O'Donnell: 44:14

Yeah. So Rene and I very much value the life we built through triathlon and we've, as professionals I think we did among the best in terms of balancing career and performance and having a real life, enjoying a bottle of wine, going on vacation, enjoying your kids. So our goal post-racing was like, okay, how can we help others in the community find that balance of training and lifestyle? And we started chatting with Tridot and we realized the Tridot platform is the perfect way for us to bring that to our athletes. So it's AI-based. It focuses on your specific workouts and your biometric feedback your power on the bike, your heart rate on the run, your pace, things like that where it really optimizes your training program. And we've talked with athletes that are on the platform that have performed better at full Ironman's with 30%, 40% less hours a week, which you know, if you can do it off of 12 to 15 hours instead of 25, you're going to have a much happier life.

Carissa Galloway: 45:24

Before we dive into our closing questions, john, what you said there was interesting to me talking about the biofeedback and those metrics. We have seen that change a lot of the way pro triathletes train. But if someone's listening and they're a beginner and they're thinking about getting into triathlon, do those metrics can they help the everyday athlete too?

Tim O'Donnell: 45:45

Absolutely. There's so much data out there and everything's relatively affordable with the technology that's out there. So, yeah, getting a Garmin, having you know GPS. We get your pace and link up to your heart rate strap so important. And then power on the bike. It's you know, whether it's Garmin power pedals or you know a built-in power meter. It's it doesn't matter how fast you are. The numbers will help us all progress in the same manner. If you take a threshold or a power test, you're gonna know where you're at and then we can help you get to where you wanna go from there, regardless of whether you're brand new, you've never ridden before, or you're a seasoned professional or an age group athlete.

Carissa Galloway: 46:32

Are you a believer in your longer efforts, having that heart rate be like low, like is there a range that you guys recommend? I'm only asking personally because my heart rate is terrible. I'm like, why is it so high? It's in like zone four and I try to get it lower and it doesn't get lower. So I'm asking you to convince me Do I need to try harder at that?

Tim O'Donnell: 46:52

Yeah, I do. I mean I trained with Mark Allen for several years and kind of that. Like zone one, two, like building your base at that level is, I think, very important. It just makes you metabolically efficient. But also our heart rates are all different so it really depends on your zones. As a guy like Lionel Sanders, I believe it was a really low heart rate In my like aerobic threshold zone is like higher than he gets in a race. So it could also be very dependent on your heart rate.

Carissa Galloway: 47:24

All right, I'll dive into it, but I just feel like I just have this like I need to run this speed and not, how hard is I? I don't wanna go lower, but anyway, that's my own issues. John, I'll work through those on my own.

John Pelkey: 47:37

I'm gonna tell you, a lot of the folks who listen to our podcast and maybe they've run a 5K, they're hoping to move up to a 10K. 10k to a half marathon, half to a full, whatever. Maybe they wanna try to run some sort of participate in a triathlon. Obviously, when you commit to trying to do something like that, you're gonna run into walls where you don't feel like continuing, where something holds you up. You just don't see yourself progressing. How do you work through those moments and how do you suggest that folks who may be very new to any of this are just trying to up their performance to work through those tough moments?

Tim O'Donnell: 48:10

I think first, don't take small bites. If you're used to running mile or maybe you've done a 5K, like let's step up to a 10K, no need to sign up for marathon right now. I think it just it lessens the burden of what you're trying to do and then understand that, hey, no one session or one day is gonna make it's not gonna be it, it's not the end, all be all, it's not gonna make you finish that race or not. It's a consistency of your training plan and when things get tough, break it down into small bits. If even on a hard training session, if you're trying to grab your head around the whole thing, it can be overwhelming. But if you focus on hey, are my shoulders relaxed, How's my cadence or how's my arm carry, If you can get a couple of cues that you wanna work on, they can help you kind of stay in that moment and just focus on the process.

Tim O'Donnell: 49:15

I guess All the races I've had where I've been really fit, I forget to focus on the process and the rate because I'm overconfident and then I end up having bad races. So you have to stay in the moment and that's for training and racing. And yeah, if you focus on the process, you'll achieve your goals. Focusing on your goals will do nothing for you. It's like okay, this is my goal. I know it's my goal. All right, now, what's the plan on how I get there? What's the process to get there? Okay, here's the process, let's follow it and let's not worry about anything else.

Carissa Galloway: 49:48

I see John. I think he's taking mental notes for what he did.

John Pelkey: 49:51

I'm actually writing, I basically wrote something down, actually, as I have to have now committed to running a 10K, which it just seems to be a long way to go.

Carissa Galloway: 49:59

You can do it, break it down. It's about the process, john. Yeah.

John Pelkey: 50:02

I know, I know, all right, last question, I think last question.

Carissa Galloway: 50:06

Almost last question, so John and I could spend a lot of time at a finish line. We think that that's one of the most inspiring places in the world for reasons like yours. For you, what's the most inspiring thing that you've ever seen at a race?

Tim O'Donnell: 50:20

Oh wow, I've been at the Kona finish line at midnight and that's pretty amazing. Yeah, there's so many. I mean some of the Paranlipic athletes that you see come across the line, or some of the older racers coming across at 78 years of age. That's pretty powerful.

Carissa Galloway: 50:47

It is a powerful place and we get a great front row seat of seeing a lot of these amazing emotions. We mentioned your win earlier Ironman's 70.3 Peru. You didn't chose not to do Boulder. Then you went to Montremblant and the Earth Air Quality chose that you were not gonna do that race as well. It was canceled right before the start. So what's the rest of your season look like.

Tim O'Donnell: 51:10

Yeah, it's been a little roller coaster ride for me this season after Gold Coast and trying to recover Tremblant. Can he cancel? So I don't know when the podcast is coming out, but I will hopefully be heading to the PTO US Open at the beginning of August. Should be a huge race. I'm really excited about that. Get a wild card for that, which, yeah, for me. I've been a part of the PTO as an organization since its inception and to. Obviously, all these health issues in life have gotten in the way of me actually getting to be on the star line of one of our races. So that'll be my kind of focus for the summer and feeling 70.3 the world championships is still on my radar. We'll see how I feel. And then I'd actually I'm gonna do New York City triathlon in October. It's on my birthday. I'm like you know what it's races on my birthday. Let's do it.

John Pelkey: 52:06

I might come up and watch that and check out a few shows and stuff. All right, very very nice All right, tim, listen, you are a world champion, naval Academy grad coach dad. If people wanna follow you in your career, where's the best place to do that?

Tim O'Donnell: 52:20

Just head to timandrinicom, and, yeah, that's the best place to start.

Carissa Galloway: 52:27

Awesome. Well, we will follow you. I think you're gonna get a whole lot of new Disney followers there when the kids get a little older and they're ready to experience Disney magic. You know you let us know.

Tim O'Donnell: 52:35

Oh no, we've already had Izzy there twice. She's five and she is a Disney princess for sure.

Carissa Galloway: 52:44

We have a whole weekend, Princess half marathon weekend. Just for that there's a 5K. Oh, okay, and I saw her run in the underwear run and that sounds inappropriate, but it's not. I saw her run in the underwear. She's ready to go. She was in the Yeti, I think. Costume.

Tim O'Donnell: 52:59

Yes, she was yep.

Carissa Galloway: 53:00

She's already got all the Disney requirements there ready to run in costume, and you've never met her, but she's always just impeccably dressed.

Tim O'Donnell: 53:08

Yeah, yeah, wardrobe changes five times a day, I swear.

John Pelkey: 53:13

Well, that's awesome. Tim, thanks so much for joining us on 321GO the podcast. The final thing I'd like to say is GO, navy, beat army. Thanks for joining us. Woo, thank you.

Tim O'Donnell: 53:24

All right athletes.

Carissa Galloway: 53:25

Here's the drill Time to shape up your diet, carissa. Give them the goods. All right, thank you, sarge. Today we're just gonna scratch the surface in a fun way and then in a serious way, about fad diets. Because, john, it doesn't matter what happens, people want to lose weight and they wanna do it in the fastest, easiest way possible. Right, that's always what they want.

Carissa Galloway: 53:46

A lot of times I'll get questions about these different fad diets. Generally, my concept is, and my belief is, that a restrictive diet does not work long-term and if you can use it to get success in a short period of time, I'm not against it. But my fear is that people go on these diets. They're very restrictive, they maybe lose weight, but then you gain it back and you upset your body's set point, meaning that weight where you tend to stay at. We all kinda have that Like, do you have a weight? Like you might try to lose weight? It's a little bit, but it just comes right back. When you end up right where you are right, when you fad diet in yo-yo, you upset your set point and you raise it higher. So there's a risk in that.

Carissa Galloway: 54:24

The other risk is that when you're done with this restrictive fad diet. You haven't taught yourself how to eat in a more balanced way. So my goal as a diet teacher is to educate you so that when you want to be on a diet, you can do that by watching portions, by adding in less carbohydrates, more vegetables, by tracking your calories and knowing a way where you should be and how to balance a plate with a protein, a carbohydrate and good for you fat and fiber. That's my goal with you. A paleo diet, keto diet I'm not a huge fan of any of these because any diet that cuts out a whole food group I don't think is sustainable long-term. So that's sort of my take on fad diets and whether you get a nutritional education be able to make better food choices, to also have a positive relationship with food and not just see food as good or bad. But there are some diets out there. If you Google them, these are real diets that people have recommended the cotton ball diet you would eat nothing but cotton balls.

Carissa Galloway: 55:22

Yes, let's not do that. There are no legitimate health benefits or pros associated with the cotton ball diet Another diet which is less controversial. I think some people might actually want to do this. I've seen it done when I was modeling years ago, the baby food diet. Have you eat the baby food? It's in tiny jars. It's very portion-controlled. I actually think I was at Jeff Galloway's like Tahoe Running Camp doing a talk and one of the runners said that before runs, when she travels, she will buy baby food like the pouches with banana and oatmeal to have pre-run because it doesn't spoil and it has everything she needs. I actually thought that was a good idea. But baby food diet I think to get enough calories in a day you'd be going through a lot of jars.

John Pelkey: 56:05

Yeah, I would think the other thing. Yeah, as a snack. It seems like it again not a registered dietitian guy who eats poorly, but I would think they're probably easier on your stomach too. So if you're in the middle of some race weekend or something, maybe as a quick snack I tell you the cranberry applesauce baby food. I'd wrestle a kid to the ground for that stuff, that stuff is amazing.

Carissa Galloway: 56:26

I can go to a squeeze. I mean I'm okay with those, but would you really eat like I mean you don't have children, but you've seen them the little meat? Would you eat the meat ones?

John Pelkey: 56:36

I have a baby, sat my cousin's kids and spent a long, long time, but I was one of those guys who will try any food. I always want to know they're not pleasing. They are not pleasing. The pears the applesauces, like you said, but then when you put, the meat in front of the kids.

Carissa Galloway: 56:50

They want no part of that. All right, last diet that I don't recommend. It's out there, the Bresseterian diet. It's a diet. The belief is that humans can live without food or water, solely surviving on sunlight and air. That's not true, john. You can't do that. People also believe that the earth is flat.

John Pelkey: 57:10

Some people, but this seems like a earth is flat diet. I don't recommend Cotton balls, a diet solely of baby food or diet solely of air although I do recommend getting air in sunlight. Yeah, and intermittent fast is one thing, but just simply not eating at all. Probably We've talked about intermittent fasting. We can talk about it again when you guys are submitting your mailboxes to us.

Carissa Galloway: 57:31

You know your questions. Nutrition ones are okay as well. And just to remind you, we are doing an awesome push, starting off your fall with healthier you. Ironically, the code to save is summer, because it's a good time to do that. So I'm not saying that I'm going to save as summer, because I'm still thinking about summer. But if you join healthier you it's 12 weeks nutrition-based education. It will help you lose weight, it will help you have a better relationship with food, if those are your goals. And we've also started an exclusive healthier you part of the Jeff Galway Training Hub. So when you sign up for healthier you, you'll basically be joined into the community where you guys can have chats about it, talk about meals that work for you, your successes and things like that. So just building it not only to a nutrition-based program, but then you also get that community support which we see people need so much. So go to gallawaycoursecom and use the code summer.

John Pelkey: 58:19

All good information.

Carissa Galloway: 58:22

Athletes, listen up.

Tim O'Donnell: 58:24

It's mail call time Announce a free present.

John Pelkey: 58:28

Okay, thank you, sarge. Today's mail comes from Patty in Richmond, virginia, and since both Carissa and I are Virginians, always good to have a fellow Virginian joining us. And Patty wants to know what Encanto-themed entertainment will be at Wine and Dine Drumroll, please.

Carissa Galloway: 58:49

I probably shouldn't actually make noise. I'm gonna let you answer this, John. Well, I mean, I could answer it the same way you would answer it.

John Pelkey: 58:56

Yeah, because the drumroll was probably a little overselling the fact that Carissa, what kind of Encanto stuff will be there, I don't know, neither do I. We don't know. We don't find out that stuff until now. We may find out a day or so before, a couple of days before when we meet. We've mentioned this before I think people have heard us talk about we do meet and sit down and look at the scripts for the weekend. We have outline scripts and what's going on and our director, who's generally our good friend, mark Ferrara, will probably he'll let us know sort of what characters are out on the course. Normally he'll be happy about somebody new that he's put out there. Hasn't been there before, but really we don't have. If he didn't tell us we would have no idea.

Carissa Galloway: 59:40

Yeah, and sometimes that is not done to hide things from us. We have big mouths but there's so many moving pieces that go into what comes out on the course for the athletes and they put so much time into it. But thinking about just the logistics of putting Mirabelle or someone in the middle of a street somewhere, there's a lot of logistics and getting people there and how does this fit into their story. And then making sure that everything that they put on a course like Encanto, how does that tie into our story of the whole weekend talking about music, talking about food? So we don't always know, but what we do get to know, that we try to tell you on the start line when you're listening or not, is here's what to keep your eyes out for and here's what to think about what the creative minds tried to bring to you.

Carissa Galloway: 1:00:25

There was our previous race director sorry, not race director entertainer who retired, john Feelen. There was a wine and dine race where he only put edible things on the course, meaning that like Sebastian was there or Flamely, and it was kind of a tongue-in-cheek joke. It was all characters you theoretically could eat. It was a little bit funny. You know, clara Bell, things like that, not Pluto so, but some tongue-in-cheek things sometimes go on, but we don't know but and we can't tell them what to do, so we don't know we would be the last people they would listen to.

John Pelkey: 1:00:58

And also, you know I don't think I've said this. You know, in a while I used to the races understand that when a race weekend ends, the next day they are working on the next race. And in fact there's a team that was not involved with the race that you've just done who is continually working through that weekend on the race. And to Chris's point, there are so many moving pieces and so many things can change for any number of reasons that you know the final decisions on all of that aren't done as far ahead of time as you think. It's not like at the beginning of a season. They sit down and think out here's what all the entertainment's going to be for the rest of the year. It's ever changing and it's a surprise to you and it's a surprise to us when we find out about it as well, though I would love to see some incanto stuff.

Carissa Galloway: 1:01:45

And there will be a sum russel war to see who gets to be Bruno, whether it's John or Riley, because I'm sure one of you will be Bruno.

John Pelkey: 1:01:54

Yeah, I have a feeling and I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that, particularly if it's a onesie.

Carissa Galloway: 1:01:58

I'm still arguing that all my it's kind of like a cape, kind of like a cape type thing.

John Pelkey: 1:02:02

I just want to slip on a onesie, because it's just one thing to put on and it's so much easier and we all know what a onesie is.

Carissa Galloway: 1:02:10

No one was questioning that.

John Pelkey: 1:02:12

It's not a two-z, three-z. We've had five-z, six-z.

Carissa Galloway: 1:02:15

What's the one-z you'll speak of?

John Pelkey: 1:02:17

No, I don't want to Again. I don't want one of these Game of Thrones Winterfell costumes that has 55 pieces. I need something easy to put on. That's all I'm asking for.

Carissa Galloway: 1:02:26

All right well, if you were asking. If you have questions, let us know. We want to answer them if we can, and we'll tell you we can if we can. So email 321gopodcasts at gmailcom and maybe next time we open up the mailbox it'll be you we're talking to.

John Pelkey: 1:02:42

All right, well, another great show.

Carissa Galloway: 1:02:46

That was fun. Tim was great.

John Pelkey: 1:02:48

So inspirational, so inspirational and more to come.

Carissa Galloway: 1:02:52

Yeah, so thank you guys for listening and I hope you're all safe.

Tim O'Donnell: 1:02:55

Bye, bye, 321go.