Are elite ruuners as guest speakers a draw? Two 80s standouts were at a local store for 2 hours the other day and hardly anyone showed up. Is my town lame or am I out of touch with reality?
Are elite ruuners as guest speakers a draw? Two 80s standouts were at a local store for 2 hours the other day and hardly anyone showed up. Is my town lame or am I out of touch with reality?
Well, you have to think about the target audience, and the characterisitics of the audience. Everyone talks about Prefontain like he is some kind of God. But a lot of people not famialiar with big names in track and field (which seems to be a very large portion of the general populations) are like PrefonWho? A lot of people, such as my college classmates never even heard of Alan Webb, let alone other names like Shayne Culpepper and El G and the BroJo's, cause let's face it, competitive runners and fans of competitive runners are a small minority. Last summer I had to explain to my neighbors what the black thing on my chest was at least a million times. Most people I know think running 5 miles a day is nuts, let alone my normal 60-70 a week.
Forget the public at large. Even runners don't care about the elites. Before I caught on the the almost Trumpian level of self-absorbtion among some runners, I was surprised that at big races no one seemed to know or care who won, or if it were fast or not. Most runners can't name the better runners in the world. I say that not perjoratively or with my nose in the air (I suck, too), but simply as a fact.
depends. they need to have an attitude, like kobe or shaq. if they dont have some kind of criminal record or are the types of people parents would forbid their kids to see, then they probably wont garner much interest.
i cant imagine going out of my way to go to the local running store just to see joan benoit--she's too reserved and normal--i can get that any old time. ive seen these folks at race expos and all they do is exchange pleasantries. a magic act or a special reading from the Koran or something would be fun.
on the other hand, if you had say a maurice green or ben johnson on hand, then i might stop by, in the hopes that he would do some trash talking and make it worth my while.
If you market Athletes it works
Joe McVeigh and Carol Howe drew a nice crowd for a Q&A session about marathon training...
What is a "ruuner"?
Just out of curiosity, who were the two 80's standouts and where in the country are you located?
huh? --a ruuner is commonly know as a typo for runner. can't believe you couldn't figure that one out on your own.
as for the speakers, i'll make it a little work in an attempt to limit bashers from posting worthless comments.
one was in town celebrating his 20th anniversay for a world record and the other still holds the American record for the 10 mile. which is pretty damn impressive if you ask me.
what is the american record for the 10 mile? men!
Mark Nenow and someone, maybe Joan Benoit Samuelson.