If I Came to Speak at Your Road Runner's Club Annual Dinner What Would You Want to Hear?

Wejo - I hope you have pretty think skin to listen to some of the crap that's been posted on this thread. But the previous poster who mentioned your website's influence on the running community was right; that, along with your traing to get down to 28low post-college. Best of luck -

AC

The 10 best threads ever at letsrun can point to some things: Training in USA, the system, faults, the future etc etc etc. By virtue of being the head letsrun guy, you are qualified to pass on "10 things that we in the USA should look at for future development" etc.

ie What is your opinion, based on all that has been written here, on the future of USA distance running, and what needs to be done RFN?

Something like that. You are as qualified as anyone to address this.

I will write some jokes for you.DO not delete them please.

What kartelite said earlier. That is the obvious choice, and you are in a perfect position to talk about it.

Or you could spend a minute each on:

Hotness

Rexing

PowerPoint

PCG girl

Stolen Jones counters

Jackie Zeigle

Kenny B annihilating records

Flagpole

treadmill marathon world records

beer miles

McDonalds Challenge

and so on

start off with a joke say for example when you met Jason Mayerhoff (sp?) at the Olympic Trials marathon (it always helps to start with something funny) and then choose a serious topic about running that you would want to hear someone talk about. If you're interested and enthusiastic about your topic your audience will pick up on that.

holy smoker wrote:

I suggest sharing any embarrassing Joe Racine stories that you have...

Seriously, tell the story of your journey from decent runner to national class. Definitely leave plenty of time for questions.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to show the video of Joe trying his hardest to outkick the women's champ at Marine Corps a few years ago. Then, if there is any time left talk about poker and that will be it.

What's the border clash thing? I remember something about it but not a lot.

I believe the official results have me beating her by just a second (unfortunately, the video would show otherwise). And there isn't enough time for sharing all the embarassing Joe Racine stories. Weldon, I know a lot of people in the club are excited about your talk. There have been lots of great suggestions so far, but I think you should talk about your development of the website, and about your views on the sport we all know and love (both from a training perspective, as well as the what's happening at the elite level). Many people in running clubs around America are excited about their own training, but it's important for them to be excited about the sport as a whole.

wejo wrote:

holy smoker wrote:

I suggest sharing any embarrassing Joe Racine stories that you have...

Seriously, tell the story of your journey from decent runner to national class. Definitely leave plenty of time for questions.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to show the video of Joe trying his hardest to outkick the women's champ at Marine Corps a few years ago. Then, if there is any time left talk about poker and that will be it.

What's the border clash thing? I remember something about it but not a lot.

1) They should define the the time allowed.

2) Find out if the meeting is a regular meeting or has some sort of theme that you can tailor your speech to.

3) They should give you some parameters for speaking: training, history, track, controversial issues in running, roads, gender issues,...

4) Audience analysis--are you talking to casual runners, serious roadies, a little of everything,...

Biggest issue is time. You can't plan a speech without knowing how long you get (or need) to talk.

Actually, telling a club how you get kids to be dedicated to a track program could be pretty interesting. A lot of parents and teachers face the challenge of finding a way to motivate the kids to stay active.

POWERPOINT YOUR PRESENTATION ON

" THE WORLD OF LETSRUN "

K THX

Wejo,

Congrats. You're a well-deserved speaker.

If I were in your audience, I'd want to hear the following:

1) First of all, you need to give the person who is going to introduce you a short bio (because everyone needs reminding). This should include the number of times you ran in the Olympic Marathon Trials race, and your progress from college 10,000 PR to lifetime PR.

2) Your talk should focus on your complete dedication to running for how many ever years you did it, and then (and this is the important part), WAS IT WORTH IT TO YOU. Maybe the answer is no. Whatever the reason, you then need to say WHY.

3) Possible reasons why it WAS worth it to you - a) got to do the thing you love, putting off more stressful responsibilities; b) got to meet and know some great people you wouldn't have otherwise; c) got to get the most out of your ability and see where that limit was (if you feel that way); d) got to see some parts of the world you wouldn't have otherwise.

4) You need to remain humble in this speech and mention that you know 28:06 is not a world beater time, but then mention what that time means to you -- are you amazed you were able to run that fast? Are you disappointed that you didn't go faster? (honesty isn't necessarily the best policy here -- people would rather hear that you feel you got as close to your ceiling as possible, but you're not necessarily there to please them -- do what you want here). "I put as much time and effort in it as my body could handle. Somewhere down the line I realized I wasn't Geb..." (something like that).

5) "I wouldn't change what I did for the world. I feel that if I hadn't given it a try that I'd have regrets now that would be tough to live with."

6) Whatever you do, DON'T say something like "go after your goals no matter what they are whether they be career, love, etc." You are an expert on running and training, so talk about that. Many times people are turned off when an expert in one area tries to channel that into being an expert in all walks of life.

Have fun and good luck.

I'd open with a humorous anecdote or a joke. something along the lines of how well usatf LDR division is doing now-a-days and how proud you are of the leadership there.

I'd then talk about my education AND running background to bring teh masses back to reality. From that point I'd give a mention to LetsRun.

Wrap it up with a "state of the union comment.

I don't agree with FW that you should downplay your 28:06. This group doesn't understand how impressive that is. I think that I would stay away from that.

I would talk about how this group and groups like them have the ability to change the sport. By creating a vocal fan base. Make them the story. Talk about how weak USATF is and that any positive changes need to come from within the rank and file.

Interesting ??? wrote:

I don't agree with FW that you should downplay your 28:06. This group doesn't understand how impressive that is. I think that I would stay away from that.

I don't mean he should downplay it. I mean, the fact that he ran 28:06 is part of the reason he's been asked to speak. It is very very fast, and that's not lost on me at all. At the same time though, it is still more than 1 minute 40 seconds slower than the world record, and while I'm pretty sure Wejo doesn't think of himself in this way, he doesn't want anyone in the audience to think that he thinks he's the second coming of Geb or even Arturo Barrios. The people will know he's up there talking because he's fast (and has this website). They will leave thinking he's also a great guy if he's humble or pokes fun at himself a little bit. No disrespect to Wejo intended (because I've often stated he's one of my running heroes), but he didn't win an Olympic medal or even make an Olympic team, so that humility absolutely HAS to come through or someone in the audience will think he's full of himself (and for no reason too). Gotta give that audience absolutely NO reason at all to think he's full of himself. He can say he's proud of what he accomplished, but to put it in context of what the rest of the world is currently doing shows humility and is GOLD in a situation like that.

If I was in the audience I would want to hear starting hand requirements, how to deal with the fast blind structures on the internet and positional moves at the various stages of the tournament.

Weldon spoke at the running camp that I help to put on in CT, he was great. I would highly recommend speaking about your (JK's) philosophy on training as part of your talk. Every runner can benefit from hearing about how you don't have to run fast all the time to race fast and how important volume is and how the mental aspect of running and racing is the most important part of it all.

One great anecdote to tell to illustrate the importance of believing in yourself is the truck bet story, you could not even run 2 miles at race pace in a workout and then you go to USATF's and outkick Abdi and run 28:06. It was so much fun to see the excitement in your face and voice talking to you right after that race

BF

Wejo, I'd really like to hear about what your status is now. Are you getting back to some serious training or have you hung it up? Seems like many have asked, but we have yet to receive anything other than an opaque answer. Are you looking at 2008 and the possibility of a sub-28:00, or are you done? Please respond.

A pin drop.

howdy doody

Go figure, Flagpole's an expert on public speaking too. Shame on me, I should have known.

You've definitely got to have some humor in there Wejo. I don't know if you get nervous about these things, but if you do, a good laugh will help to ease the nerves. Plus, no one likes a hackneyed speech.

George Bush is the greatest leader in the history of mankind.