Jumping in feet first

It may surprise many to learn it takes six months to organize Police Chase, a 5K with 1,000 participants, and twelve months to plan Maritime Race Weekend, a two day event including two 5Ks, a 10K, a half- and full-marathon with 5,000 participants.

There is much more to organizing road races than the logistics of race-day. Filling the race is actually a big job and it takes months. How do you sell out a race? You create interest. A lot of time and energy is spent generating excitement online and interacting with runners through social media. I’m on Facebook and Twitter a few hours each day. The geek in me loves social media. I find television and radio a bit more of a challenge.

Similar to many race directors, I started organizing events because of my passion for running. With no formal education in event management, marketing, journalism, communications or public relations, I wing it on television and radio interviews. The secret to my success is not on strategy or premeditated objectives like professional media gurus have. It’s based on enthusiasm and expressing my genuine desire to organize an event that people will enjoy.

This week, I was asked to give a 10-minute live interview on the radio about Police Chase. My immediate reaction to live show requests is always the same: yikes! I didn’t know the interviewer and had no idea what he might ask. I decided to approach the interview this way: just be myself and hope that I don’t say something inappropriate (which I sometimes do when nervous).

I don’t know much about radio other than that dead air is a bad thing. So, the conversation needs to flow, meaning I don’t get to pause and think answers through. There is no “takesies backsies” on live radio. The pressure is on. Here’s the interview. You can judge for yourself how it went. My interview starts two minutes into the recording.

Was I nervous? Of course, but that has never stopped me from jumping in feet first. It’s part of the job.