Tell me a great story of how you interacted with an Elite athlete, whether running, shopping, etc.

I met my teenage hero Billy Rodgers 2 or 3 years ago at a race. Shook his hand but just wasn't able to speak at all. My wife said she'd never seen me that way before.

Ran with Ryan Hall for a minute or so...He's a super nice guy and really seemed genuine. Sara was there also along with Bart Yasso.

elite athletes are really boring people. self consumed. dont have too many extra interests except their past accomplishments.

meeting an elite athlete is like tuning into espn for 15 seconds just to check the ticker score for your team... you see it, it registers, and you move on for the day.

now if they bring more to the table than self absorbtion, well, i could see them as being more than just a kotex.

Hung out in Logan with Deena Kastor a couple of years ago. We had met a couple of times prior. She is very nice. Sweated out wondering if we were going to get out because of the weather.

regularly ate lunch with Meb when he was a resident athlete at the OTC in Chula Vista. Again, another nice person. (I was there working with another sport for a month--helluva long month as the OTC was much more isolated than today).

lada wrote:

I met my teenage hero Billy Rodgers 2 or 3 years ago at a race. Shook his hand but just wasn't able to speak at all. My wife said she'd never seen me that way before.

Bill Rodgers started a conversation with me after a race in NYC during the 70's. That's the way he is.

Elena Mayer did the same after Gasparilla one year right after we crossed the finish near each other.

Just nice people.

I was in the same race as Ed Moran at some indoor meet at VA Tech. Only 1 heat that day. I said good race after, getting trounced and shook his hand. He probably doesn't remember as I was about 12 places or so back. Thats it.

For those that watched wrestling in the 1990s, you may remember X-Pac. He and his family came into a store I was working at...they all bought ski clothes because they were going downhill skiing. He was much bigger than I expected. Probably roided up, I suppose? More recently, he made a porn tape with Chyna. I guess that's my brush with greatness.

I met jenny barringer after the 5th avenue mile - she was just walking around being in pictures with people - she was totally open and unworried.

Met someone on a dating site who turned out to be a former Winter Olympian. Thing is, she didn't tell me this. She (knowingly I'm sure) gave away enough information for me to find out. Plus I follow certain sports closely and have a near-perfect memory. But she was a pretty big deal in those Games.

In Gainesville we were coming out of the Purple Porpoise and the Rick Flare tour bus had just pulled up. He got out of the bus in full costume (complete with feather boa and "hot" blonde wife) and we cheered for him and yelled "WHOOOOO!" He yelled "WHOOOOO!" right back at us and we laughed and laughed. Oh how we laughed. Then we stumbled to another bar and talked about how we just say the Nature Boy.

"WHOOOOO!"

Met Wayne Gretzky at the Mid Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah during the Olympics. Grabbed some water, turned around and kind of freaked out. Shook his hand, said I was a big fan but didn't have a pen or camera. He said if I found one to find him. Nice guy and no bigger than me at 5'9" 155 soaking wet.

Ran with Craig Virgin a couple times when he showed up for the weekly run with the Chatahoochie Road Runners.

Talked with Boston Billy while in the port-a-potty line at Cherry Blossom.

Nice! I saw Flair in a gville bar back in grad school, too. I didn't talk to him, though. he was with a big crew from the old WCW. I also saw him at a gator game once - I think it was LSU.

Anyway, back in those days, Dennis Mitchell used to train at UF's track. I saw him 2-3 nights a week. Talked to him all the time. Got to know him well enough that I once gave him a hard time about a false start in an indoor meet. Jokingly of course. He laughed and blamed it on Mo Greene. He was a really nice guy. Through him I met Amy Rudolph, Danny Everett and his brother (whose name I'm forgetting), as well as a few other pros who made short winter stops in Gainesville.

Back in my newspaper reporting days, I got to interview the following famous people that you people would know:

Willie Shoemaker (man he was short)

Butch Reynolds

Mark Plaatjes

Pete Rose

Paul O'Neil

Chris Sabo

While in college I briefly met (because they spoke at my school):

Dave Wottle (funny)

Dick Endberg (funny)

George Sheehan

Bernard King

After college I had one day of a track workout with:

Patti Sue Plummer (man she was fast and nice)

Awesome! When were you there? Me, 2000-2004.

Talked with Anthony Famiglietti after a road race 5k he showed up to. Fam is an awesome guy... we talked about training, the race, the weather, etc... very genuine dude. Just as you'd expect him to be, lol.

I've also talked with Ryan Hall and again, he was just like you'd expect. Very nice, didn't seemed bothered. We talked about religion, running, future races, marathon advice for myself, etc.

Lastly, I've met Jeff Galloway. Yea, yea... I know the way everyone views his "Gallowalking" ideas, and I'm not a fan of them either. But meeting him was cool simply because of what he's done in the past and who he has run with. I mean, he ran with Prefontaine back in the 70's and was on the Olympic team with him in Munich... one of the few who was actually there!

All three of those guys were pretty awesome... very humble, not stuck up in any way! I have pictures with all of them and each of their autographs.

Once-removed story and football. My sister-in-law was in the airport (either LA going to SF or the reverse). She was sitting talking with this guy for a while with people constantly coming up and taking a look etc.

Finally, she said something like 'you are obviously someone that a lot of people know but I have no clue who you are.' He replied that he was Jerry Rice (at the height of his stardom); he seemed to appreciate talking with someone that was talking to him, not to some famous football player.

Most famous runner would probably be Suzy Favor-Hamilton, numerous times. Also Kylie Hudson, 4.70 vaulter.

in berlin during the 2009 world champs, puma sponsored this run with wilson kipketer and some german miler guy. it was a 5 mile run through the city. ran and chatted with wilson a bit - asked him for his prediction in the 800.

letsrun's WEJO was also on that run. so killed 2 birds with one stone.

A while back I finished in the top 100 at NYC. A few months later they sent me an "ING NYCM Top 100" long-sleeve t-shirt. A couple of years ago I changed into it after a workout. A fairly well-known world-class marathoner who trains in my area had just rolled up with his coach and said, "Hey, nice shirt. I'm running NYC this year." I said, "Well, if you try hard enough maybe you can get one of these too." He laughed and said, "Maybe if it says 'Top 1.' His coach didn't really find it funny, though. Kind of gave me a dick look.