Friday 9 January 2015

I'm on TV I'm on TV

15 seconds of anonymous fame was probably not quite what Andy Warhol had in mind. 
When the weather is extremely cold I have seen TV cameras generally filming runners defying the temperature. 
In Calgary last Tuesday, shortly after attempting my final 800m interval I saw a cameraman and reporter asking runners if they had time to chat. 
Thus did I make the main headline of CTV's 6 o'clock news. "Shall I take off my goggles?" "It's ok to leave them on," I was told. The Walmart Ninja look is in apparently. It also allowed them to edit my voice without touching the film.
Why was I running today, I was asked. I just love running, I said. The part that got me in the headlines was my answer to the follow-up question "even when it's freezing cold with blowing snow?" I've seen my response phrased in quite a few ways on motivational pictures on various running sites: "If you wait for perfect weather, it'll never happen, especially in Calgary." 
Even better was the next runner, without goggles, saying the weather was "just perfect". Trust a couple of runners to lighten the mood and make it all seem better.
The few in front of me didn't stop.  
The coverage also filmed the 2 Jeeps that do the heavy snow clearing on the pathways.
Free gait analysis too. Needs work. My goggles steamed up shortly after and I had to take them off. 
Later on twitter I deemed it good form to say hi to the reporter Rylee Carlson. She must've checked shortly after telling viewers to dress appropriately "...ski goggles or not." Me and "perfect" were the only ones to stop hence her gratitude. 
I can forgive use of the "j-word" seeing how much of a kick I got out of it. It was a fun interlude in early January training, a time when I usually feel slow and heavy. 

For the news story: 
http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?clipId=525518

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