Matt Bowen: Running with the Flag

Summary

In this episode of the Ginger and Chocolate podcast, hosts Mike and Lindsay engage in a heartfelt conversation with veteran Matt Bowen about the Gold Star Initiative, the significance of carrying the flag in races, and the unique experience of participating in the Dopey Challenge at Disney. They explore themes of honor, community, and the shared human experience, emphasizing the importance of storytelling and support for veterans and their families. Matt describes running to support Operation 300, which sends Gold Star Children to camp and supports the family after the loss of their military loved one.

*** Support Matt Bowen and Operation 300! ***

Takeaways

• Lindsay loves bacon despite her feelings about meat consumption.
• Mike's favorite color is purple
• Matt Bowen shares his experience as an athlete with the Gold Star Initiative.
• Carrying the flag represents honoring the families of fallen soldiers.
• The Gold Star Initiative connects veterans with families of the fallen.
• Running with the flag creates opportunities for storytelling.
• The Dopey Challenge involves running 48.6 miles over four days.
• Community support is crucial for veterans and their families.
• The importance of celebrating life and shared experiences.
• Every person has their own struggles, and kindness is essential.

Sound Bites

• "I love bacon."
• "It's not about me, it's about the flag."
• "It's a celebration of life."

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Personal Insights

03:12
The Gold Star Initiative and Its Impact

06:09
Carrying the Flag: A Symbol of Remembrance

12:14
Celebrating Life Through Stories

18:05
Exploring the Run Disney Culture and the Dopey Challenge

23:46
The Journey of Running Challenges

31:03
The Community and Culture of Disney Races

38:33
Honoring Veterans Through Running

47:21
Inspiration and Future Goals

48:31
GNC Outro.wav

Keywords

Ginger and Chocolate podcast, Gold Star Initiative, veterans, running, Dopey Challenge, personal stories, community support, Disney, honor, family

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Transcript

Mike (00:00.888)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Ginger and Chocolate podcast. My name is Mike. I'm your co-host along with Lindsay. Lindsay, how are you today?

Lindsay (00:08.437)
I'm doing pretty well. As I've already told you, I'm sleepy. But other than that, I'm doing great.

Mike (00:14.164)
Lindsay, what's one thing about yourself that the listeners might not know?

Lindsay (00:22.426)
Okay, I've shared on here that I have issues with the meat, you know, our industry, but I eat meat because I don't know how to not eat meat. But I'm always sort of like feeling bad for animals and I just have that sort of disposition. However, this is sad to admit, I love bacon. I mean,

This is something that it's hard to admit because I feel bad for the pig, man, that bacon is yummy.

Matt Bowen (00:48.942)
Who doesn't?

Mike (00:56.206)
Yeah, that's it's, it's hard to deny. well, let me think. I also love bacon, but I think, I don't know how not well known that is, but I think something that listeners might not know is that my favorite color is purple and not traditionally a guy's color, but always been down with purple. So there you go. today, what's that? really?

Lindsay (01:19.457)
That's my son's favorite color. That's my son's favorite color. Yeah, his idiot father was like, it's not purple. Because he didn't, my son's like, no, but it is purple. Like, I don't know what to tell you. My son's autistic, he's on the spectrum. So he's like, no, it's purple. Like, why are we, I don't know why we're having this discussion, it's just purple. So anyway, I think it's a great color.

Matt Bowen (01:24.366)
Ahem.

Mike (01:40.61)
Yeah. Yeah, I chose it before I knew any better and I've stuck with it. Today with us, we got a friend of mine, fellow veteran fellow Iron Man and we're gonna talk a little bit run Disney. My friend Matt Bowen. How are you doing that?

Matt Bowen (01:58.2)
Hey good, Mike, how are you and how are you this morning, Lindsay?

Lindsay (02:02.071)
Doing pretty good. I'm glad you came on the show. I'm excited to hear your story.

Matt Bowen (02:06.926)
Yeah, thank you so much. appreciate the opportunity to get on the chat with you guys.

Mike (02:11.578)
Yeah, I was I was talking to you, Matt, just kind of texting earlier. We've known each other for a few years now. And I was listening to you on another podcast talking about run Disney, talking about Disneyland. And and we'll get into that in a little bit. But I was kind of joking with you. I got a Disney trip coming up with my family in November and really wasn't looking forward to it. But the way you talk about it and the way it's so special to you.

Matt Bowen (02:14.732)
Okay.

Mike (02:39.954)
It's kind of changed my mind about the whole thing. So I'm not really dreading the trip anymore. I'm not kind of looking forward to it. well, without going into that just yet, let's talk a little bit about, how we met Matt. And that was for the iron man, 70.3 Chattanooga, where you carry the flag, for a very family.

Matt Bowen (03:00.503)
Yes, sir.

Yeah. So it was, you guys were working with Ironman, Ironman Foundation, and I had applied and driving down the road one day, actually on my way to pick up my bike and Mike calls me and says, Hey, you've been chosen as our gold star athlete for Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga. Actually, I'd gotten an email and then you called me when I was driving. mean, immediately I was just kind of taken back and very, very honored being able to represent.

a veteran's family and carry the flag and put that symbol out there for people to see. you know, when we go to these races, there's thousands of people watching and everybody's watching you go by and everybody's cheering and everybody's very, very wonderful. But when, when the people wouldn't see the flag, you see the kind of people go out, kind of get a little bit taller and a little bit, they are wanting to look who's carrying the flag. they all cheer for you a little bit louder. It feels like, and I've said a lot lately, and I always continue to say this.

It's not about me, it's about the flag and about what that flag represents to people like Mike and myself as veterans and the families that we get to honor when we carry that flag in memory of somebody. And that was a very special event. And then I got to honor an army veteran, Afron Arshaga, who had been killed over in Afghanistan. was Afghanistan, right, Mike? Yeah. Over in Afghanistan. If you've ever seen the documentary, A Hornet's Nest, I believe it's on Amazon.

Mike (04:22.522)
Let's see how this one, yeah.

Matt Bowen (04:30.248)
Offren was one of the soldiers that was unfortunately killed during that filming of that documentary. it's a very powerful opportunity to go out there, hear their story and understand what their life, how it was changed by the knock on the door and knowing that me carrying that flag in honor of them and them seeing that, and I'd actually gave, of course they get to keep the flag. I gave them my pole that I carried the flag, which was my own custom pole at that point.

And they've actually taken that to Offerin's grave a few times over the last few years with them. they will have sent me pictures and, know, you know, I've been, I've stayed in contact with them at a distance and, know, to watch Alston kind of grow up and be his own man and, and to grow into his own life. It's been, it's, it was life-changing. That's, that's, that's just what it boils down to. Meeting both Mike and Lisa and developing a friendship with them that's continued on. I mean, I've

Mike (05:21.827)
Yeah.

Matt Bowen (05:28.16)
My son and I have flown to LA and gone to baseball games and Lisa and her daughter, Lena, have come and joined us. I actually texted with Lisa just last night. We were talking about the Dodgers, our love of Dodgers. We flew to San Francisco and got to crabfish under the Golden Gate Bridge with Mike and his son. And Cooper was just talking about that yesterday. He was talking about the clam chowder that he got in Montecito. And he's like, remember that right after we went crab fishing with Mike, your friend Mike and his son. So those are stories that...

Mike (05:55.363)
Yeah.

Matt Bowen (05:57.824)
that I treasure because, I would not have had, I wouldn't have those stories if I hadn't made that initial connection. So not only did I make that connection that had a powerful impact on my life, I've now grown to what I feel are two wonderful friends that I get to kind of grow up with in a different life and have my kids know them and have shared stories. just, it really, it was life changing. mean, to be able to do that was life changing.

Mike (06:23.49)
It's a celebration. It's a celebration of life. you know, we're talking about the gold star initiative, and co-founder, Lisa Anderson and I, coming together and, including really special athletes and special goals, our families to be part of this and like a little bit, in the weeks to come, our journey is going to continue. But one thing I want to go back to, Matt is talking about how when you carry the flag.

 So talking about the flag, you talked about how it's not about you. And when we carry the flag, it's more about the family and the loved one they've lost and that story of that individual's life and the Gold Star family's life.

And I think a lot of people might not realize what's happening when the flag runs by when one of us carrying it. And it's an interesting thing because we don't carry to point the light at ourselves, even though we're the symbol of it right then. But we're like you said before, Matt, we're a vessel carrying that flag to point and shine light at the family and the lost one. What's what was that like?

the first time you did it with us at Ironman, what kind of was going through your mind and through your heart as you were racing with that flag?

Matt Bowen (08:40.524)
So I'm glad you asked that. So one experience I've had with carrying the flag since that time, it's been it's been almost duplicated every single time. I will get approached by people, you know, why are you carrying the flag? Blah, blah. And I think at Ironman, Chattanooga, people because they talked about it prior to the race about how I was a gold star athlete. I was wearing the T-shirt, you know, the shirt that you guys got.

Mike (09:02.958)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Bowen (09:07.38)
gave me with the gold star initiative on it. so I had actually, my wife had actually duplicated the logo and put it on the lower back of the shirt because I was going to wear a vest because I'm carrying the flag. And so that way was very, it was displayed very nicely on my back because the front was going to be kind of covered with my vest. And I was approached by a lot of people asking me to tell the story. And so it got me, gave me, I'm sorry, the opportunity to continue to tell that story.

to talk about Offrin, to talk about not just him in that instance, but also just about what it means to carry the flag. And I really truly believe, you when we lose somebody, it's powerful and it's very painful. But when you continue to tell their stories, that helps keep a small piece of them alive for the families and for yourself if you knew them. In this situation, I didn't know him, but I got to know his son and his wife.

They're very nice people and to be able to tell his story, what I understood of his story, allowed me to kind of, again, using the word vessel, be a vessel to kind of keep his memory alive. I had his dog tags on me, so I was able to talk about his dog tags. I able to talk about carrying the flag and what it meant to me. And then what I found, and I find this every single time I carry the flag, people start telling me their stories. And I started hearing their stories about their father or their mother or their...

Mike (10:09.689)
Yes.

Mike (10:30.042)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Bowen (10:33.478)
uncle or their dad or their brother or something like that who has served. Maybe we've lost them or maybe we haven't, they're or themselves are telling their story about when they served over here, when they did this. And again, those stories are now my stories. And so I can continue to retell the stories. And I'm to tell a couple here in just a minute, whenever we get to that, from the races that I've done over the last few years, that it keeps the memory alive and it keeps it in the forefront. Because at the end of the day,

Mike did this. did this. When we put that uniform on, it's a, you know, we call, we say it's a blank check. I wrote a blank check all the way up to including my life. If I were to be killed in time of war, that's what I signed up for. And I knew it when I signed up at 18 years old, that's what I was going to go do. some people's journeys in the military are much more dangerous than others. Mike obviously has a very powerful story. And I'm sure you guys have covered that over and over again on the, on your podcast and I've heard it and probably not even heard all of it.

But to be able to, you mine was different. was on, I was in the Navy, was on an aircraft carrier, but when we, when we agree to do that, we're agreeing to give all the way up to our lives for our country and for our fellow citizens. and so being able to continue to tell those stories and honor that sacrifice for veterans, as well as for people we've lost, I think is extremely important. And sometimes it gets forgotten. You know, we, the message of needing to take care of those who take care of us sometimes gets forgotten in

the world in which we live in. sometimes people just need a gentle reminder. And I feel like carrying that flag helps give that gentle reminder.

Mike (12:11.0)
Yeah. What struck me too is that a lot of times people just don't know what to say around death or what to say around somebody who's lost a family member. And so there's this uncomfortable silence and we have the opportunity and we still do in these races to

Lindsay (12:12.876)
as.

Mike (12:31.82)
change that narrative and say, yes, there is pain, but there's also celebration of life here. And we're remembering somebody and that brings happiness to the family and kind of give people who weren't exposed to that very often, I don't know what to say the opportunity to, be around it and, and then kind of change that. That's one of the things I love about, this movement of the gold star initiative and all the people involved.

Lindsay (12:59.053)
Yeah, and as someone who is not involved in the military and isn't wasn't inclined to ask why Mike was carrying the flag when I saw him at Iron Man Santa Rosa, I was just like, OK, I mean, so you're carrying this big heavy flag like sweet because exactly. And, know, there are people out there who would do something like that, right? It's more of like you're saying it's about them, not about the.

Mike (13:12.004)
Hahaha

Matt Bowen (13:15.497)
Humble, humble brag, humble brag.

Mike (13:24.484)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (13:25.761)
other person. and so when Mike reached out to me, we started talking about it, I was like, Whoa, I was blown away by the actual what you know what you were actually doing, as opposed to the perception of what you were doing in, you know, in Iron Man. And, and so I think it's a really good, gentle reminder of what other people are doing to serve the country because I'm

Mike (13:41.974)
Yeah.

Lindsay (13:54.343)
not someone who's close to although my grandfather and my uncle were career military. I'm not particularly close to a military other military people. So I don't have that there's a disconnect between what's happening in the world with people who are in the military. And what I see because I just kind of see what's on what's in the news, which is rarely about the individuals and what they're going through. It's just sort of like we did this this

Mike (14:22.115)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (14:23.639)
happened and we're going to pull out here. It's just sort of superficial in terms of what we know.

Mike (14:28.558)
Yeah, vague, kind of, mm-hmm. Well, there's one thing I think of the, and segueing from what Matt said about the stories you share with people, when I had the honor and privilege to carry the flag at San Rosa that first time when we met Lindsay was, I remember reading a post.

And this is just about the, the, this movement, bringing people together who might not otherwise come together. I read a post you wrote about your sobriety and getting to come together and race in wine country and how that, that tied together and how before you had a very different relationship and now you're doing a freaking iron man in the heart of wine country and celebrating just that awesome move in a sobriety that you had, have.

And I remember that just struck a chord with me and we found common ground. We found a lot of common ground and that's how we got together.

Lindsay (15:28.429)
Yeah, we're very different people. First of all, I'm old. Mike's young. I'm black woman. Mike's white. Couldn't be whiter. Couldn't be paler. You know, military background. I have a background of being raised by sort of hippies, know, so definitely disconnect. And in my family, you my my own father and his father disagreed about Vietnam and whether or not he should have gone or not gone or whatever. And so there was there was

Mike (15:35.837)
Hahaha

Lindsay (15:58.623)
My background's so different from your background in that way. But yet, I love you, and I think you're great, and it's interesting. And I learned so much about other people by hanging out with you and about what other people are going through. And now I have a point of reference for people who are serving in the military that is so much better than I would have just out there on my own getting random information. So appreciate that.

Matt Bowen (16:23.783)
So you know what I love about this right now, just this interaction right now is just by your quick description right there is it shows that you guys couldn't be probably more different, right? And from top to bottom, and I'm probably very much more like Mike than you. But you know what's great is we can talk. We're adults. There's so much going on right now that's trying to keep

us from talking, try to keep sides, left, right, center, whatever it is from communicating. And at the end of the day, when we can talk and we can have conversations and we can disagree, it's absolutely okay to disagree with people. That doesn't mean you automatically need to not like them, you know, or whatever. I mean, some, I have, you know, that's, that's not that, that's something people need to remember nowadays, right? That we, the end of the day, we're all Americans. We all want the things to go well, at least in this

Lindsay (16:55.693)
All

Lindsay (17:09.292)
Right.

Matt Bowen (17:23.064)
in this context right here. We all want to do best for ourselves and for our families and for our loved ones and our extended families like we are like you guys have and that I'm hopefully, you I have with I think Mike and Lisa and then obviously now that I've met you, Lindsay, it's it's extended families, people we want to take care of and we want to protect and we want the best for everybody. I don't want anybody to fail. I don't want anybody to to be in a bad spot. And you can disagree and still love and be friendly and treat people with kindness.

And I think that's the message of America. That's the message of this country. And that's a message of the flag is it's not, I mean, it's mixed colors and it's red, white and blue, and it stands for certain things for certain people. But at the end of the day, it's not a political statement. It's a statement of I'm an American and I'm going to defend every American around me with my heart, with my soul, whatever it takes. But I want to honor this country and that the movement of the flag is not political. It's America.

Mike (18:22.712)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's a well put Matt. I want to eventually get into some of the stories you have with people, but there's a very big part of your life that we haven't even touched on yet. And that's a run Disney and doing something that I think a lot of our listeners don't know about called the Dopey. You want to tell us a little bit about how you got involved with run Disney and that whole culture that I'm just so ignorant but fascinated by.

Matt Bowen (18:46.746)
Okay.

Matt Bowen (18:50.566)
It's a pretty fun culture, man. So my very first Dopey was after my first Iron Man. So I had signed up for Iron Man Louisville in 2016. That same year I did three half Iron Mans and then I had heard about this thing called the Dopey Challenge and I thought, well, it's a long way to run. I hated running at the time. And so I said,

Well, I'm already going to be training for an Ironman. I might as well go ahead and sign up for that and do that thing. We love to go to Disney. We love to go down there and enjoy that. So why not go ahead and continue my training for three more months? Because Ironman Louisville was in October and the Dopey is the first week of January. So I signed up not really knowing what I was getting myself into. mean, absolutely. Yeah. So it's it's forty eight point six miles over four days. Starts with a five K on Thursday, a 10 K on Friday.

Mike (19:32.164)
Tell us what exactly the Dopey is.

Lindsay (19:38.807)
Holy moly.

Matt Bowen (19:42.52)
a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday. So not only.

Mike (19:46.362)
Lindsay's face says it all like, what?

Lindsay (19:47.371)
And here I was just thinking, that sounds cool. I would like to do that. now I'm like, hmm, I should have asked what it is before I was thinking that sounds cool. want to do that.

Matt Bowen (19:54.672)
So, not only is it that, but the other thing to consider is you have to be in the parking lot at Epcot by 3.30 in the morning. 3.30, 4 a.m. roughly, because the race starts, so this year the marathon starts at 4.30 a.m. is when the marathon starts. And because you, it's much like if you,

We all know like the New York City Marathon, runs through all of the boroughs, right? So the Disney Marathon runs through all of the parks. And so to get from one park to the other, it's not, there's no transportation besides your feet. And some of them are not close. mean, like Animal Kingdom is a ways out. So to give an example of how the course lays out is we start on the highway, or actually now we start in the parking lot at Epcot, kind of circle around on the highway and come back through Epcot at like mile two and three.

exit out of Epcot and then we go up Lake Winnivista Boulevard up to the Magic Kingdom. We circle through there and when we're exiting the Magic Kingdom parking lot we're roughly around think mile 12, 13 and then we head out to Animal Kingdom and it's four, five miles from Magic Kingdom to Animal Kingdom and then we're about a mile and a half through Animal Kingdom, exit out and then they make us run this gaunt, this just horrible portion of the courses.

We have to run through the parking lot in a loop of Blizzard Beach. And it's just mainly to grab an extra mile. It's to build an extra mile into the course. So you run through the parking lot of Blizzard Beach, come out the backside of that, go up the highway. The worst part about a Disney race is the on ramps and off ramps, because you have to run up the circular off ramps that are about three quarters of a mile long and they're sloped at about 45 degrees.

and you're running, so you gotta either run at the top of the, I mean, it's terrible in your legs. It's so bad in your legs, because it's asphalt and it's sloped. And so your left leg is always hitting shorter than your right. So you either gotta go to the, I always go either top or the bottom, which is at least a little bit more flat. And then you circle through Hollywood Studios, back through the back way by Boardwalk, and then through Epcot, and you finish right outside of Epcot. And so.

Mike (21:47.339)
yeah.

Lindsay (21:49.165)
with.

Matt Bowen (22:05.144)
The most challenging piece, and this is what I tell a lot of people the first time they sign up for the Dopey is, it's not, it's yes, it's the miles, but if you put the training in, you should be able to do the miles. But it's the getting up at 2 a.m. every day, four days straight, and then going running. The first time we did it, my entire family went, we stayed at Animal Kingdom. I flew down on Tuesday with my daughter, who's now going to be 11 in a few weeks.

and my father-in-law and then my wife and son and mother-in-law joined us later. We had two connecting rooms and I was, it was just small rooms and I was getting up at, you know, 2 a.m. getting myself together and leaving, obviously waking up half the room, trying to leave. I would lay my stuff out the night before. And then they wanted to do the parks. And so we were doing parks on, you know, I would get done with the 5K, come home, shower, lay down for maybe an hour or two. Everybody would get up and we'd go hit a meal. And so the first year,

Mike (22:56.613)
You're on your feet walking around the park the whole day.

Matt Bowen (23:01.03)
I did it, the half marathon was canceled because a massive storm front hit the Orlando area right around one o'clock in the morning, right when the one 32 o'clock in morning, right when the volunteers would be setting up the water stations and all of that stuff for the course. And they did not want to put them in harm's way. So they canceled the half marathon, which a lot of people were super upset about. They actually by midday, it was actually beautiful. And so a lot of people actually went out and ran their 13.1 miles around the.

Resorts or whatever and each like diff a couple different resorts put on like a fake half marathon I did not do that. I ran like five or six miles just to keep my legs moving at the hotel then we went to Epcot and I remember saying to my wife I want to be in bed by like 6 37 o'clock. That's what I said to her 9 o'clock. We're exiting Epcot I was so mad because I was like I'm gonna I got a marathon to run tomorrow I'm gonna get to the hotel by 10

Lindsay (23:34.215)
Nah, no thanks.

Mike (23:36.867)
Yeah.

Matt Bowen (23:56.77)
I'll be lucky if I'm in bed by 11 and I got to get up at two o'clock. The next day was freezing cold. mean like frigid cold. I was wearing long sleeve gloves, earmuffs. I mean it was frigidly cold down there in Orlando. Ran the marathon, but they had canceled the half. I said, I said to my wife, said, look, I feel like I need to do it one more time so I can actually say I've done the whole 48.6 miles, not just some on my own, blah, blah, blah. I mean, I made excuses. Like, I walked so much. I did the 48 miles, but.

I didn't really do it. So I signed up, did it again the next year. The whole family came with me again. It was a little bit more organized as far as when I got my sleep. had joined DVC, Disney Vacation Club, so we had a little bit of a bigger room. So I wasn't waking everybody up. We were able to do meals in the room, things like that. I did it. We're sitting at the airport. I look at her and the same thing I said to her after I finished Iron Man in 2016, I looked at her I said, that is the dumbest thing I've ever done. I'm never doing that again.

Mike (24:55.615)
Ever.

Matt Bowen (24:56.378)
on a first full Ironman. And I've never done another full Ironman and I will never do another full Ironman. But I looked at her and I said, okay, I've done it. I do not need to do that again, I'm done. And my phone literally within like two minutes rang and it was one of my buddies. He's like, hey man, I saw you posting about this thing called the Dopey Challenge. What is that? Tell me about it. And I told him, goes, I wanna do that with you. I'm like, dude, I'm done. You should've missed it. This was the year. he, so over the next two or three months, he slowly broke me down and got me to say, okay, I'll do it one time with you and our buddies.

Okay. That was, would have been 2019. It's now going to be 2025 when the next one, this will be my eighth Dopey. I'm to keep signing up for him. And, it's very infectious. It's just a fun group to be around. Nobody goes down there and takes themselves too seriously. I mean, you'll see a few people on marathon day who are like, gotcha. So they, so the big thing of in, in Disney, so they'll, cut the course off, right. And so, because they want to get the parks open. So you have to maintain a 16 minute mile.

Mike (25:39.587)
Yeah.

Lindsay (25:42.305)
Are there walkers? Are people walking at all?

Matt Bowen (25:54.026)
minimum from the time the last person starts and the last person starts they they call them the balloon ladies. It's this small group of ladies that do every single race and people will track them and all gotten to know I know a couple of their names and I track them just so can tell where they are and they walk with big balloon those big Mickey balloons they walk with those and that's the back of the course. If they are in front of you you better pick it up because they'll sweep you and they they have begun to sweep people

Mike (25:57.824)
Okay, that's pretty reasonable.

Lindsay (26:14.671)
Huh?

Matt Bowen (26:23.838)
all the way up to mile 25 and a half. Like people, when they were in Epcot, they were pulling them off a course a half a mile to a mile from the finish. Because they're like, you're done, you're too far behind. can you imagine? It's so brutal. No, I mean, but you know what Disney is, if you start the race, you get the medal, because it's all about the, they call it all about the bling. But if you're doing challenges and you don't complete every one of the races, you do not get the challenge medal. So the Dopey is considered a challenge. So when you sign up for the Dopey challenge, you're actually completing

Lindsay (26:31.126)
Mike (26:32.25)
That's brutal.

No, no.

Lindsay (26:42.015)
Eh.

Matt Bowen (26:53.536)
the Dopey Challenge and the Goofy Challenge. The Goofy Challenge is the half marathon and marathon is called the Goofy Challenge. And then people initially started kind of doing their own Dopey Challenge. You would just sign up for those races individually. And they started calling it that when the Disney kind of stole the idea and created the Dopey Challenge. I want to say this is the 15th, think, maybe year of the Dopey. Maybe it's the 10th. I know I missed the first few. So and that's that's the.

Lindsay (27:20.107)
I want to do what I'm going call a mini challenge which is the 5k and then the 10k and call it right after that.

Matt Bowen (27:25.922)
Do it. So the you know, like so like with the Dopey, it's a week long event. I'll fly down on Tuesday. The Expo is Wednesday and the Expo is a blast in and of itself because everybody's there. Everybody's excited. There's all this energy. The merch area is a big deal. It's it is it's like Hunger Games when you go into the perch area. I literally saw a woman and a man fight over a t-shirt, literally screaming at each other over a t-shirt. And she won the fact she won the bet because she sort of make

Mike (27:51.46)
Hahaha

ground as people.

Matt Bowen (27:56.162)
my gosh, she started making it. was a, had figment on it. It was the last one size large would have fit the guy perfect. And, she started screaming, like trying to draw attention cause he had it in his hand and she tried to snatch it from him. And, she, and she, and so he was like, I'm not fighting with a woman over a t-shirt. And as she was walking away, he goes, it's not like it's going to fit your fat bloop anyway. I mean, people just will find, I mean, it was ridiculous. I've seen people go into the expo.

and they'll grab four and five of every size of everything they want, go pile them on, throw them in a pile, try them on, and then once they get the size they want, they just leave them laying there and they walk away. It's just, it is, I walked through there one day with FaceTime on with my wife saying, look at the way these people are behaving. I mean, Disney adults can be a bit much sometimes. But yeah.

Lindsay (28:44.715)
My kid's a Disney adult, so she's not crazy like that, but they definitely love Disney. If you're a Disney adult, it does seem like you have a pretty intense emotional attachment to Disney.

Matt Bowen (28:49.992)
I'm a Disney adult.

Matt Bowen (28:56.969)
Yes.

And so they've created all these different ways to try and keep people from getting into the expo. Because what happens is there's this big thing of resellers. People will go in and they'll buy a bunch of stuff and then they immediately put it on eBay and they're selling it for twice what it costs. Because Disney, all Disney cares about is selling this stuff they have in their expo. They don't want stuff to sit there and not get bought. So they have limited quantities of everything. And I was literally walking through it and they do like little pins that are replicas of the metals.

Mike (29:21.614)
Yeah.

Matt Bowen (29:28.127)
I get in, so I'm part of a club run Disney group that gets in 45 minutes before the general public. And then there's one group above me that gets in 30 minutes before me. And by the time I got in, those metal pins were already sold out, completely gone. And I pulled up eBay and they were already on eBay. And so I showed a cast member, I said, look at this. And she goes, well, they're not supposed to be doing that. Where are they? I go, they're right over there. Cause I can see the people taking pictures and stuff, posting it on eBay.

Mike (29:54.81)
you

Matt Bowen (29:55.775)
And so a lot of times I've actually walked through and I'll see people posting and I'll look at what they got. If they got something I want, I just grab it. And they get mad. You're not playing by the rules. So anyway, I got off topic there. But the environment is a lot of fun. People are having a good time, they're excited, they're to pick up their bibs, and then you go to the parks. And Disney is an animal in and of itself in that regards.

You get to go to the parks and have a lot of fun and create memories. so when I go on a run event now, it's I go by myself. My family won't go with me because I want to go to bed early. I want to get up early. And so I go with friends. So I do these events with my buddies, especially the Dopey challenge. I've got this one buddy I've run now. This will be his sixth, I think, and my eighth. And the same guy who made me do my third, he still continues to do with me. And it's a lot. It's a lot of fun.

But getting out there on these events and running on these courses is super, super cool. as I've been running with the flag the last few years, they always, they have just started to pull me out of the crowd and interview me before the start of every race. So there's a guy that is on the microphone saying he's Riley Claremont. He'll pull me to the side and he'll start and he'll just do a little quick impromptu interview, which is on the huge big screen. And, and so, I find that I'm, I'm out on the course and I'll hear my name. People will Hey, Matt, and they'll start yelling at me. And then when I come up and.

tell me a story about their loved one who served or they want to give me a high five because I'm the guy carrying the flag. And again, I tried like last year, the big thing we were talking about was 22. We lose veterans to suicide far too often in this country and we've got to get those numbers down and we've got to help these people out as they come home from war. And we got to take care of the people who've taken care of us. And so that's one thing we talked about last year.

This year I'm going to be talking about Operation 300, which is a charity that I'm working with this year that puts on camps for Gold Star children and families. It's a very small group out of Southern Florida. Their camp is in honor of Aaron Vaughn, who was a Navy SEAL who was killed in Extortion 17, which was the largest single day loss of life for the Navy SEALs. And they had a Chinook helicopter that was shot down. So Red Wings, which is the story of Lone Survivor.

Matt Bowen (32:17.021)
which if you've read the book or seen the movie, that was the previously to this, the largest single day loss of life and now OPERA Extortion 17. Those guys were all in what they call DevGuru, is, Team 6 I think is what it's called. It's the top of the top. basically the Navy Seals are the best there are and they take the best of the best and they create and they move them over into DevGuru. And so they do the biggest missions like,

Mike (32:29.806)
See you soon, folks.

Matt Bowen (32:46.277)
Osama bin Laden was gotten by those guys. So they've started this camp and I found them through some research and reached out to them and talked to them. And to date we've raised, I think since mid July, we've raised about six or $7,000. Just through kind of grassroots, I just recently raffled off all the flags that I'll be running with for all of my races this year.

And every one of them has been sold and purchased $150 a flag. I'm doing like nine races, I think. And they've all been sponsored. Allegiance flag company, wonderful company, sent me 20 American flags to run with as a donation that I've been able to raffle off and earn a couple thousand dollars for operation 300. So it's, I've been able to just use my small knowledge of reaching out to people to try and raise money for this organization.

you know, avenues like yours is definitely helping with that. But it's again, it's not about me. It's about what we can do for these families. How can we help them? How can we, you know, it's an unimaginable tragedy that they go through when they lose a loved one and letting them know that we still that people care and that people are here for them. I may never meet any of these people, but in my heart,

I know I'm doing everything I can to try and help them out. And that's all I want to try and do. don't need it to say, there's Matt Bowen carrying the flag. I want people to say, there's the flag. look at that. Someone's carrying the American flag. That's so cool. I just happen to be a loud, boisterous personality that pulls bit more attention to it, I think. But it's not about me. It's about

Mike (34:28.943)
I love you, brother.

Lindsay (34:30.38)
What?

Mike (34:36.292)
There's a special part, a place in my heart for gold star kids who've lost a mother or father that, mean, pain is pain is loss is loss, but especially to lose a parent. I've worked with some of them in my professional life and met some in my personal life. And, in fact, the first person I carried a flag, for, Josh Kynock in Santa Rosa,

2018 his daughter was there and just to see how much that meant to her especially was just the biggest honor the biggest privilege ever just to know that there's some small part that people like us can play in their healing is a tremendous honor.

Matt Bowen (35:29.991)
But you know, these videos pop up on my Facebook all the time of soldiers coming home. the ones that get me the most are the ones with the kids, right? Because they didn't sign up for that. The mom might have, or the husband might have because they knew who their spouse or their significant other was, but the kids don't sign up for that. And so they don't understand why dad, especially when they're babies, they don't understand why dad's gone or mom's gone for six, nine months.

Mike (35:48.46)
Mm-hmm. No.

Matt Bowen (35:55.759)
and to see the looks on their faces when these kids start crying and daddy, mommy, it's, mean, I'm getting choked up right now thinking about some of these things. And, I am my father's son in that regards. know, little things like that get me going. And, you know, and when they lose their parent, it's, I can't even imagine the unimaginable, the loss. I mean, think about it. mean, you don't have your dad or mom to cheer you on when you're playing in the championship soccer game or.

You know, they're not there when you're sad at night because your girlfriend was mean to you or, you know, those are things that, that I, that I was able to experience because my dad was around. Yeah, my dad was there. And, and so the thing that Gold's that, operation 300 does is they pair these kids with a military mentor that is a father or mother figure to, to these kids, to give them somebody else. Because the other thing they do is they take the surviving spouse and they go and they pamper them and they put them in a hotel and they let them relax and they let them just.

Mike (36:36.346)
Mm-mm.

Matt Bowen (36:55.025)
be adults and parents for a while, because when they lose their husband and or wife, they become both for those kids. And so when there's, that's a lot to put on somebody, especially a lot of times these people, these folks are in their young 20s, they're young families and they've got these young children that require a lot of help and then now they've lost a parent and so there's that trauma.

Mike (37:14.809)
Yeah.

Matt Bowen (37:23.485)
The parent has lost their spouse, so there's that trauma, but kids still need to get up every day and go to school, and they still need to get up and eat, and they still need to get up and have a clean home. And those spouses are doing that now twice, right? They're doing it for both the mother and the father, whichever one's not there. And so to be able to have them have the opportunity to just take a breath, because a of times they can't. A lot of times they're underwater, and they just don't know when the next

Mike (37:46.778)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Bowen (37:53.329)
kick to the guts gonna come and to be able to tell them, we got you, we got your six, we got your back. We're gonna be here to help you and we're gonna, we want, we care. And sometimes that's just, that's all someone needs, right? If someone to say, hey, I care about you, I'm worried about you, what can I do to help you? And I think to a small extent, seeing that flag in a race that is full of joy, right? You're at Disney World for crying out loud.

Mike (37:53.711)
Yeah.

Mike (38:21.294)
Bye.

Matt Bowen (38:21.485)
A race that's full of joy, you know, to see that flag go down, there's people in that crowd that are sad because they've lost a loved one. just that kind of that pause, that moment of pause is, hey, people care. People do care. Much like the conversation we were having just a little bit ago, right? Just because we don't agree doesn't mean we can't treat each other with kindness and love. you know, be an adult and be kind to one another and realize that

Every single person you're standing next to is battling some struggle they'll never talk about.

Lindsay (38:59.601)
I think to your point that you just made about, even if we're different, we're all human beings. think what happens, at least what's happened with me and Mike, for example, is that we're more alike than we are different in that we're human beings and we're having a human experience. it may have different, look a little different, but at the end of the day, it's sort of the same thing. People have lost, people have...

Mike (39:15.268)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (39:26.529)
joy, people have families, people have, you know, bad day at work, people have, you know, no matter what your what your perspective is. And I think that that's

definitely forgotten in our current society and there's a bunch of different reasons and they don't really matter but the unfortunate impact of all of those reasons, know, social media, all kinds of things, which I love, don't get me wrong, I'm on there all the time, but you know, we're sort of like in an echo chamber individually, which makes you forget that there's other people who aren't in your same echo chamber, but they are human beings, you know, and all human beings are valuable. And so I appreciate you guys.

Mike (39:59.373)
Yeah.

Lindsay (40:08.437)
reminding us of that because it's something that is so easy to forget on a daily basis. I'll just say this really quickly when you were talking about the parent missing the other parent from loss, I always wondered about my aunt because she's married to my dad's brother and he was a commander of a nuclear submarine during the Cold War back in the day. So he'd be gone for long periods of time and

She wouldn't really have access to know where he was. they have my cousins are each a year apart because he would come home for like a month out of the year. And then there would be another cousin nine months later. And she was a very pragmatic person, just like, well, you know, I'm I'm he's doing what he needs to do. And I'm raising these kids essentially. And, you know, at some point, things change. But.

I always wondered about her ability to just be like, this is what I'm doing. And I feel like in a way, these other parents are serving in a different way because she was definitely had that perspective, you know, of like, he's in the military, he's in the Navy. I'm here. We have these kids, we're going to do all of the things she's going to do to support him. And I was always amazed by that. She's, know, her pragmatism and her ability to do that. And of course,

Mike (41:17.134)
Yeah.

Lindsay (41:32.705)
We didn't lose him and they went on to do some other kind of cool things related to his military service, like live up in Alaska and then moved to DC and he worked in the Pentagon and now they're retired in Florida and they're just chilling. Like all he does is golf now, but it was long route there. yeah, it was, it was a long road, I think for them, but it was pretty amazing.

Mike (41:51.258)
It's a long road.

Matt Bowen (41:55.481)
But I think the point that I really want to make, and I guess I didn't make it clear, is it's just not the service member that serves. The family serves. The family does the sacrifices and does the serving just as much as the veteran that goes overseas to fight the battles and fight the wars, or even just serve and go on a nuclear sub for nine months. The family is serving just as much as the service member is.

Mike (42:06.863)
Yeah.

Matt Bowen (42:24.985)
You know, I think, and I can't speak to because I don't, I have never experienced, but I think also when they lose their loved one, they lose that sense of community as well, because eventually they are no longer part of the unit or no longer part of the squadron or no longer part of the summer, you know, summer in group or what have you. And so that, that becomes a sense of loss as well. and so, you know, I mean, I know mine, mine was a little bit different. did my, I did my time in the military, got out and went to college, but I know Mike served.

Mike (42:44.783)
Yeah.

Matt Bowen (42:54.549)
in a forward operating situation who, we, I'm, again, I'm sure you guys have touched on this, but I, I want to, I, I can imagine there's that sense of loss when you come home and you're no longer in the military. And I know you continue to reach out and do things with veterans, which, you know, is amazing in and of itself, but you'll, when you serve in a group like that, those people be, those become the family you choose, right? There's a family you're given and then the family you choose. And, and you chose that family and you, probably bonded with those, some of those guys that

That's a bond that no one will ever, know, it's, it's, you know, like they say in the, in the, in the show band of brothers, it's a, it's a, it's the bonds of war that drive men, that bring the men together, that they experience things that they've never will talk about and they don't, they don't expand upon with their families, but it's something when they get together, they just know in their hearts. it's, I can, I'd like to actually, Mike, if you're willing to talk a little bit about that, I, I want to get back to some of my race stories, but I do want to hear that if that's, if you, if you don't mind.

Mike (43:53.87)
Well, that's actually a good teaser because we're going to talk about that upcoming, a little closer to November. I think there's a few things we could talk about going forward. But I think this is probably a good place where we can pause for this episode and then continue this conversation as we go along in another episode because there's so much to talk about here.

Matt Bowen (44:18.633)
May I tell a couple of my race stories about what, like the feeling of the flag? So there's two. So last year during the marathon, as we were exiting Animal Kingdom, this young man approaches me and he's, mean, I'm coming out and he's like running and he's like, I've been trying to catch you since the beginning. I saw you on the screen with the flag. And he goes, I just wanted to come and tell you my grandpa, think it was his grandpa, his grandpa died the night before the marathon.

Mike (44:21.05)
Please. Yes.

Matt Bowen (44:47.033)
and he had served in Vietnam, I believe it was Vietnam, and he was just in tears, and he wanted to just get to me and thank me for carrying the flag, and I said, well, I go, look, I go, do you wanna run with it for a little bit just to honor your grandpa? And he goes, I don't know if I can, I'm crying, and I go, man, I'm right here, let's go. And I hand him the flag and I let him run with it for, know, 100, 200 yards or whatever, and he just was, he was beside himself thanking me for carrying it because his grandpa had died the night before, and he still showed up and he ran it, and he.

And it was, you know, I don't know what, in his heart, what that made him feel, but, you know, he wanted to make a point to catch me and tell me. And then one of the coolest moments I've had was wine and dine a few years ago, we were running through Animal Kingdom. And if you guys are familiar with Animal Kingdom and Disney World, you go into the Dino Land and it kind of makes this big sweeping curve to the left of the rides around your left and the shops and stuff around your right. we were in the park early, early. I don't even think the park was open when we were running through it. And there were some,

Mike (45:23.258)
That's me.

Matt Bowen (45:45.337)
volunteers there, just monitoring the course, you making sure people knew which way to go because there's not cones and stuff everywhere. And there was a gentleman who was, I believe, a World War II veteran or may have been a Vietnam veteran. had a veteran's hat on and he was using a walker, one of those walkers that has a seat on it. So he was sitting down and he was in his vest and he saw me coming and he grabs both sides of his walker and he pushes himself up to full stand and salutes me as I go by. And it was one of the coolest moments because

Mike (45:59.994)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Bowen (46:14.489)
He was so moved that he felt he needed to stand up and just kind of recognize as it went by. the honor that the flag means to him meant that he, got to salute that when it goes by. it just was some of the, those are the just two stories of the dozens and dozens of stories I've been told along the course or experienced along the course that just make running with a flag. Every time I do it, it's tough. It ain't easy. I mean, running 13, 26 miles of the flag, it's not easy. I, it's, you know,

I run intervals, so I'm not running full out the whole time, but every time I experience one of those situations, I tell myself, okay, it's worth it. That meant something to somebody else. you know, the old saying says, you know, right now there's somebody talking about the impact you had on their life, and it made a difference in the trajectory of their life. And if you can do that, then why wouldn't you?

Mike (47:07.448)
Mm-hmm. That's a way to put it.

Lindsay (47:09.069)
That's awesome. Well, folks, I think that'll do it for today. That was great, Matt. I appreciate you coming and sharing your experience. So inspirational. I'm inspired by the flag stories, but I'm intrigued by the dopey. Not quite there yet. I just had ankle surgery not that long ago, but it is a goal to look forward.

Matt Bowen (47:33.847)
I've had nine knee scopes, so come on.

Lindsay (47:35.923)
Okay, well, geez. I think that's good, Mike.

Mike (47:42.038)
Yeah, so everyone check out the show notes. We see how we can support Matt and his journey and follow along what he's doing. He'll be right there in the show notes. And yeah, thank you, Matt, for coming on the show, brother. It's good to see your face and good to talk to you.

Matt Bowen (47:58.262)
Good to see you too, brother. And Lindsay, nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having me on. I love to tell the story and I love to support, you know, veterans in general, Operation 300. This time around, it's, you know, I really appreciate the avenue to tell the stories. So thank you guys.

Lindsay (48:13.842)
Absolutely. Okay, folks, we'll see you next week. Bye.

Matt Bowen (48:18.09)
Bye bye.