Note: What follows is the introduction to the 278th
episode of my podcast, Phedippidations, published on October 23rd,
2011. It is essentially a “Runners Manifesto”,
or public declaration of principles regarding my <>
for producing a podcast “for and about runners”.
Today I’m going to dedicate
this podcast to answering the question: “How do you convince someone to lace up
their shoes and join us for a run?” or put differently: “How do you convince someone to become a
runner?”
For six years now (and
several years before that) I have been blogging and podcasting a litany of
topics selected to inspire and motivate fellow runners to continue in this
lifestyle, and encourage non-runners to join us on the roads.
A demographic breakdown of my
audience would likely show that listeners are, for the most part, dedicated
runners. Chances are great that you
first subscribed to Phedippidations because you either already were a runner,
or had already convinced yourself that you should lace up your shoes…and sought
some company with these “dulcet tones”.
This community is a choir in
tune, not only with our bodies as amateur athletes, but with the message that
we all understand: That running will improve the quality of your life, and
is a significant step towards happiness.
Translate that message in any manner you chose: but there’s no doubt in
my mind that if you’re listening to me right now, you probably agree with me.
Phedippidations is a
conversation about running; and one of the most important reasons we have this
conversation; in fact one of the main reasons why I spend roughly fourteen
hours producing every episode is because I, like you, believe so strongly in
this message that I want to get the word out.
I want to grab people in the
street and drag them over to a running shoe store and buy them a pair of
lightweight trainers and bring them out for short run.
“THERE” I would say, “KEEP
DOING THAT EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE”, I’d tell them…”MAKE RUNNING A PRIORITY IN
YOUR LIFE, FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE”.
There are a couple of
problems I’d face if I went about doing that of course: first off, it’s illegal
to kidnap perfect strangers and force them to do something against their
will. Crazy as that sounds, I actually
checked: it’s in part 18 of the US Federal Code Section 1201where it is illegal
to unlawfully seize, confine, inveigle, decoy, kidnap, abduct, or carry away
and hold for ransom or reward or otherwise any person… ”blah… blah… blah”…so
obviously that’s not going to work.
But even if it were legally
permissible for us to kidnap someone and force them to lace up their shoes and
go for a run with us; chances are great that they’d not only be disinclined to
do so, but that our actions might discourage them to ever attempt to take to
the roads.
Which leads us to the only legal,
valid, logical, moral and effective means of encouraging someone to become a
runner: ARGUMENT.
In order to start the
conversation that plants to seed of an idea into someone’s head that they might
want to begin the process of adopting the running life style, you need the
right ammunition: you need to commit to memory at least a handful of logical
arguments that will make your proposal effective and produce results.
You essentially need to
sharpen your sales skills, you need to be able to understand who you’re talking
to, comprehend their reluctance and be able to successfully defeat all their
arguments against running without sounding too over-bearing or
insensitive.
Today’s episode is only an
introduction to this battle plan. We’ve
all assembled here, earbuds jammed firmly within our auditory canals, ready to
arms ourselves with the weapons of mass reduction, the artillery of arterial
cleansing, the ordnance of living a life less ordinary and the hardware of promoting
happiness through spreading the good news about running.
