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

Talk about your journey so far in the world of running. The website, your own running, the ups and downs. What things dragged you down, but what kept you going. Everyone likes a good story, one with humor and real life.

I'd start with your early running experiences, training and racing through college and the Trials, your problems with injuries, and how you've now kept running a big part of your life, but have moved on to other things.

Speak no more than 15 minutes... people stop paying attention after 5 minutes, get bored at 10, and want to kill you by 15.

I assume your being asked has something to do with you being the founder of Letsrun. Maybe you should talk about ways which the internet has transformed the sport, particularly the sudden access we have to all these training methods that would have been hard to obtain in print. High school and college athletes are also much more aware of what their competitors across the country are doing, and maybe this serves as sort of a motivation to get better. Some 4:40 high school miler out in the boondocks may think he's a stud by crushing all his races while running 15-20 miles a week. Then he finds this or some other website, sees guys running 4:10 training 70 miles a week and realizes the big picture. Then he drags his butt outside and starts really training.

Were you looking for serious responses? It's hard to tell these days.

Holland Nass wrote:

Were you looking for serious responses? It's hard to tell these days.

Yes.

"The drinks are on me"

Wejo,

As a runner, I would be most interested in things such as

1. how you dealt with your injuries, from both a mental and physical standpoint, in the past few years

2. how did that stellar 10K performance from a couple of years ago come to be? Did you know you were gonna pop a good one, or was it a complete surprise. How did running a time like that affect your running since then. Did the pressure to improve upon a race like that lead to your injuries, or burnout, or whatever.

I want to learn from good runners, especially the mental side of things. I can come to letsun if I want 8000 opinions on how to run a tempo run.....

Wejo, I agree with Kartelite - that would be a very interesting talk...

All the sex that running has gotten you into.

If you can start with some kind of theme and then link at back at the end of your spial that always give it a professinal touch in my opinion. Our club captain spoke at our clubs' 125th year dinner and tied it all into the team name with each letter representing something else. Not sure if that will work for you, but it's an idea.

kartelite wrote:

I assume your being asked has something to do with you being the founder of Letsrun. Maybe you should talk about ways which the internet has transformed the sport, particularly the sudden access we have to all these training methods that would have been hard to obtain in print. High school and college athletes are also much more aware of what their competitors across the country are doing, and maybe this serves as sort of a motivation to get better. Some 4:40 high school miler out in the boondocks may think he's a stud by crushing all his races while running 15-20 miles a week. Then he finds this or some other website, sees guys running 4:10 training 70 miles a week and realizes the big picture. Then he drags his butt outside and starts really training.

No offense to your running abilities, wejo, but I am most interested in your take on the internet's effects on distance running in the US. Or perhaps in the world. And it's a roadrunner's club, too, so you may not need to discuss the training of the Olympians and college champions, but talk about the ability to read this message board (and other message boards like mensracing/fast-women, runnersworld, dyestat, etc) where runners of varying levels can discuss common successes and failures, certain training philosophies, common runner-specific injuries, the non-runner equation (how do I make my daily routine fit with that of my non-running spouse?), and serve to broaden and connect the larger running community. On your website, Kevin Sullivan (and other elites who remain unnamed) discuss training and races with mid-level NCAA runners, high school guys like me who ran at our state meets but never ran at the university level, weekend road warriors who have been running their whole lives, and novices who are brand new to the sport but part of a letsrun community. That's pretty interesting.

the biggest influence that you have had is definitely the internet...

as an ex collegiate, I know more about collegiate/ international distance running than when I was in college in the mid 90's...bc of this site...and no other...

Large importance must be placed on the importance of this message board...though it is sophmoric at times, the exchange of ideas and healthy debates help keep those of us on the fringes interested and heading out the door...

Finally, talk about the concept of this website...did you think that it would ever get this big?? (ask for a show of hands for a) those who have ever visited the site b) those who check it sporadically c) those who check it often, etc to increase crowd participation...go over some of the hottest topics, longest threads...go over some of the interesting legal matters that you have dealt with...

tie it all in to the reason that it is helping to resurrect US distance running...ALL of the old fogies, when they mention that the internet has a large part to do with the resurgence- they are indirectly giving YOU props...

a few have run your times- including those that spoke before you, but none will have as lasting an impression...

I think you need to talk about both your running and this website. If you choose one I'm sure the older folks will feel gyped one way or the internet training freaks the other. Balance it out.

Why the f*** you would allow the reputations of runners to to get smeared with unsubstantiated bullshit on your Web site ostensibly so you can keep your site's traffic volume high and essentially make money off of pimping out your peers.

... and don't talk about drug cheats. BORING!

Is there a Power Point presentation in your plan?

Jeff Johnson got it right when he spoke at the Border Clash in 2001. I'll send his remarks to you if you don't have (or remember) them.

College Guy wrote:

Jeff Johnson got it right when he spoke at the Border Clash in 2001. I'll send his remarks to you if you don't have (or remember) them.

The 54-year-old schlubs in attendance at the DC Road Runners Club annual awards dinner aren't quite the same audience as the Border Clash crew.

See illustration below.

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.