First Author Visit

posted in: Publicity | 0
I made my first author visit this week: a presentation to the Wilson Elementary School Running Club.  Imagine my surprise to find there were more than fifty young runners in attendance.  Forest Hills sponsors its own 5K race in May which draws a lot of student entrants.  Joining the club serves as the best way to prepare for a successful race.

Mercer principal, Jodi Davidson, referred me to running club coordinator, Megan Staey, who referred me to Melissa Gerth, director of the Wilson club.  I had two days to put together a program.  Good thing I already had the outlines of one worked out in my mind.

The presentation went relatively well.  I took too much time on the history of the marathon, so had to rush into the main activity.  Introducing the race competitors, I struggled to keep their attention.  Handing out the voting pages, I worked a bit too hard to keep the noise from getting out of hand.  (There were a lot of them!) Then we tallied up the votes for the runner they thought would be the winner.  Ed Gardner was the biggest vote-getter, followed by Arthur Newton, and Giusto.  The three or four who voted for Andy Payne cheered enthusiastically when the final result was revealed.  That was satisfying.

Then they all went out to run!

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