Ignite Fitness: It’s Not Last Place, It’s Running With Police Escort

As some of you know, at this year’s FitBloggin I was given an opportunity to present to the entire conference about being a slow runner. Friday night is always FitBloggin’s Keynote Event and for the past few years, founder Roni has had actual FitBloggers be the Keynote speakers. Ignite talks are 5 minute presentations which are accompanied by slides that auto advance every 15 seconds.

Courtesy of Carrie D. Photography

Several months before the conference, those of us interested in participating submit a Spark which is voted on by the whole community. Of the dozen or so people who give an Ignite talk, half are the Sparks with the most votes and the other were picked by the people behind FitBloggin. This year, my Spark was one of the ones included!

Courtesy of Carrie D. Photography

Now, I’ve given plenty of presentations before. I do it, in fact, as part of my job. I’ve also given presentations where I talk about being a slow runner. But the balance of timing your talk with your slides was way trickier than I anticipated and I spent most of Friday morning completely psyching myself out. Hell, I hadn’t even practiced most of the week leading up to the conference because it made me so nervous. Luckily we had a podium, so I just went up there with my notes and did my thing.

Often, the anticipation of doing something is far more overwhelming than actually doing something and that was the case here. I knew what I was talking about and representing the back of the pack is clearly something I take pride in, so once I got in the groove, I was off and running (so to speak).

The response to my Ignite Fitness talk was overwhelming:

@Jill_Grun‘s presentation is getting interactive and rocking! #Fitbloggin

— Tracy Carroll (@Tradledee85) June 27, 2015

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So… @Jill_Grun may not be the fastest runner, but she is one of the most tenacious runners that you will ever meet. #FitBloggin

— Robby/FatGirlvsWorld (@FatGirlvsWorld) June 27, 2015

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@Jill_Grun you are an inspirational girl! Happy to follow you! #fitbloggin15

— Jill Griffiths (@StayfitJILL) June 27, 2015

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@Jill_Grun made me all happy-sniffly with her #ignitefitness at @fitbloggin

— LutherLiz (@Lutherliz) June 27, 2015

@Jill_Grun‘s Ignite talk at @fitbloggin was so inspiring and awesome! “It’s not last place…it’s running with police escort.”

— Sara Giboney (@saragiboney) June 27, 2015

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Future motivation: “It’s not last place, it’s running with a police escort.” – @Jill_Grun #FitBloggin

— Jillian McMenamin (@j_mcmenamin) June 27, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js This was the second time I’ve had an opportunity to get up in front of an audience and talk about being a slow runner and it’s something I wish I could do all the time. Quick, somebody hire me as a motivational speaker!

Obviously this was also a time to talk about my podcast and several of my backers and guests were in attendance. Speaking of, there are now two episodes available! Subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher, or your podcast app and be sure to Like the podcast on Facebook, too.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsLove from the ashes,
Lady Lazarus