NEVER MEET YOUR HEROES

My first and only thought was someone known for attitude in her 20s.

SH(nee B]

Yup Armstrong is an as*hole. My ex-girlfriend's brother was on the national cycling team with him back in the 90s. Lance drove drunk and totaled a Jeep. He yelled and punched anyone on the team who didn't take the drugs.

I get it. That cliche'/advice is so true.

I had the chance to meet Alan Alda (Hawkeye from MASH, for you kids out there). Easily my biggest hero growing up. Nobody even close. Fast forward to a few years ago, with my in my 40's. Had the opportunity to meet him. My childhood and lifetime hero. A bigger influence on me than my own father. I passed. On purpose. Part of me wonders if I did the right thing. On the other hand to have met him and had it not play out to my hopes and expectation would have been devastating. I would have loved to have just said "thank you." But again, don't meet your heroes. Cliches don't always make for sound advice, but this is one that probably does.

Did a charity ride "with" him in LA once, same thing.

Celebrity worship is not a good thing. And I believe it actually has some meaningful negative impact on one’s life, and one’s attitude about life, mindset. etc.

People are people. That’s it.

And just because a celebrity is “nice” to strangers who are adoring them does not mean they are good people. And the reverse is true too.

I was standing in line at a Wahoo’s Fish tacos in Manhattan beach in the 90s. noticed the dude standing directly in front of me was Tiger Woods. Shorts, T-shirt, backwards baseball hat. Same as me. I thought about saying something (he had just won the Masters) but then decided to leave the man alone. He is here to get some fish tacos like me. No reason to hassle him. When I got to order I just said to the Wahoos guy: “Tiger Woods, yeah?” The guy responded: yeah, he comes in all the time. I then realized I lived in a cool place at the beach where people were cool and laid back.

I went to Armagh in NI for the 'International Armagh 5K' back in 2020, on my journey back I stayed in Belfast for a night and in the morning did a run around one of the local parks. In the final K or so I went past this exceptionally skinny man walking with a female in the same direction I was going, as I passed I dropped off the path onto the side of the road and glanced at them - I have poor eyesight and ended up doing a triple-take as it looked like Stephen Scullion, who's podcast I was listening to religiously (obv he is from there but normally based in U.S. so wasn't expecting to see him).

I was still jogging as this was happening, but he clearly saw my confusion/surprise: grinned, and walked over to me before I'd even said a word or paused my watch.

Really nice guy. I felt bad because all the things you think you might say in that situation to someone you look up to completely escaped me as I was just so surprised, and in the end he was just asking me what I was up to in Belfast, how Armagh went, how long I was here for, what else I had planned etc. He stopped to talk for about 2mins then said he had to get on his way (meanwhile the woman - idk what relation she was to him - was standing there with a face like thunder), shook my hand and walked off into the park with the woman.

It might sound silly but I was amazed how I hadnt said a word or even stopped running, and he saw and made the effort to come over and say hi. Was really nice. Top bloke.

Why are so many people obsessed with getting an autograph or picture with somebody famous? Seems like a weird compulsion, especially if you aren't a child.

I lived in Madison and met Suzy Favor Hamilton when she and her husband were real estate agents. We got talking about running at an open house and she mentioned she was doing a run with someone for a charity auction or something and I was more than welcome to join them. Of course I was super stoked to go run with an Olympian.

So the next day me and this other woman show up to run with SFH and she was super down to earth and kind. She never talked about her accolades and ran at our slow pace without pushing it. Talked about life and such. We ran back to her house which was near by, had recovery drinks, met her dogs and she showed us her art. She was super nice.

It was about 6 months or so later that all of her “secret” life came out and I always felt bad about the flack she took because she was one of the sweetest, most genuine people I’d met in Madison or anywhere.

Be your own hero.

I had a weird childhood. I won't get into everything, but at one point some hazy summer evening I found that Frank Sinatra was over for dinner and we were having something I didn't much like. My car was buried in front of all the others, so I took his and brought back a carry-out pizza.

A few slices were snagged by the adults when I returned. He was a charming guy, over for dinner. I didn't "get" why he was famous, he just was.

It’s probably easier when it’s your first time being recognized.

If I am not mistaken, Conley never made the NCAA in track. She had food poisoning at the regional one year and lost her shoe during the race another year. So I don't know if her college career was "decent."

Spot on. I think the answer is that people don’t stop to think about it. If they did I think most people would come to the same conclusion.

Well I'm sure it used to be something to remember the moment by, show your family etc and be able to look back on

Nowadays it's just about proving it happened and showing off to your friends I guess

? She doesn’t even live in CA and is also super nice. Bizarre post.

Are you dumb? She's from Alameda and went to Bishop O'Dowd.

Yah name the pos who blew your daughter

Why wouldn't you give up the name? There are countless pro-athletes that are kind to fans and others that are well known to mistreat their fans and everyone else. If they're going to benefit from their fans, get paid money because they have fans, take endorsement money for hawking products to their fans buy based on their recommendation and image, then fair is fair when they act like jerks. If they're paid based on their public image, they can be held accountable for their actions and that image, good or bad.

Who was it?