Endurance Nation EXPOSED @ IM Louisville...
After another great Four Keys talk with something like 80+ folks in attendance, I am pulled aside by an IM rep who tells me, in no uncertain terms that I am in the expo space (Apparently they own the whole 2nd floor of Galt House) and that I can't hold seminars there b/c they have paid sponsors who do that sort of thing. I apologized and tried to play nice; she told me just to leave and that she "had better not see me in Wisconsin." More fuel for EN vs THE MAN, in my mind, but it gets better....
Five mins after she leaves, I am approached by a guy w/ a camera. As in video. He wants me to do my IM Do's and Don'ts for IM Louisville. I record, in full EN regalia, and he tells me he's going to put it into the Banquet video tonight. Wish I could be looking at the WTC reps face when EN pops up for 3 minutes in the middle of their dinner.
PS - If you never hear from me again...you know what happened.
Comments
that's awesome!
just be thankful you're not in a pink speedo at mile 18 for this one.
P called me after the talk. As you might imagine, this kinda thing gets us pretty fired up, in a good way for you. For IMWI we'll meet at the KSwiss booth and then take the talk to _just_ outside the Expo area. Really hope this chick is there at the race so I can get chewed out too. Not fair that P has all the fun
UH-Ohhhhhhhhhhhh
LMAO!!!!!! You mean they didn't make you scrub your mouth out with soap? After the chalk incident last year I'm surprised they didn't already have the soap and water waiting for you!
Flying to every single US WTC IM every year - $$$
Paying through the nose to participate - $$$
Seeing P in EN regalia doing the 4 keys thing at the dinner...
Priceless!
The DO have a right to protect their expo space, but they don't have a right to declare the whole world their expo.
Does this kind of thing ever torque you guys enough to think about more officially supporting a couple of non-WTC events? I know you don't have infinite resources, but are there any others that are sufficiently large to justify it? Vineman? Rev3 in the future? Silverman?
Ok, my mind goes right to the theme song from COPS, especially with last years chalk incident
Bad boys bad boys, watcha ya gonna do when WTC comes for you?......uh, show up in pre race video
OK two references to "the chalk inicident" from last year. Someone care to enlighten us newer people?
Last year PnI had some stencils made, with the intention of tagging....or chalking up....parts of the bike and run courses of IM's. I bought some spray chalk in Atlanta and drove up to IMLou with it. We tagged the sidewalk between the expo and the swim start area, thinking "It's chalk, it'll go away in a couple days."
A couple hours later, while working over coffee, we got a call from someone with the race saying that they had been contacted by the city who was pretty pissed and wanted it to go away, now. PnI bought a bucket, a couple scrub brushes, and were on our hands and knees scrubbing it off the sidewalk, like a couple kids
. It was on there GOOD. Probably would have lasted several months without us scrubbing it off. Lesson learned 
.
With regards to WTC and their coaching sponsors: I get their need to protect their sponsors and expo space. But anything outside of the expo is fair game and we'd be crazy to pass up the opportunity to gather you, and other ENFans together for this kind of thing. And not paying for the space, a time slot in a tent, a flash ad in a magazine, etc but instead relying on word of mouth, reputation and networking is far more powerful.
In the end, the only people/entities that EN has an obligation to is you, our members. Not an RD, a product, a race series, no body. I really enjoy the level of freedom and flexibility that gives us vs paying $8k for a booth in an expo and hoping to get 10 people to listen to me between their forays to the Powerbar and Powercranks booths for schwag
.
Oh- and just so you get the sense of scale here. Those EN tags were not small! They were loud and proud!
Funny... I don't recall even seeing any of the "Ironman" coaches even there..... not visible if they were...
Proud to be part of the EN team!!
Feeling like such a proud mamma! Love it!
Better not see you in, WI, huh? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Riiiiight...we'll be virtually invisible at the 4 Keys--just ~40 racers in EN gear with 20 women in pink visors. Nope, we won't attract any attention.
I think we need to be w/in 1" of the expo perimeter.
Hey if RnP get locked up by the WTC you know you got one guy who can bust you out. Calling friends now to see about a blackhawk
We just need to plan a bit as it might be a hot zone.
RSVP'd to the talk on FacebookGreat idea! We already have 33
and we haven't really pushed it out there yet. I bet we'll have 50+ RSVP'd by the weekend, which means 60+ planning to meet us at the KSwiss booth in the expo. You know Ms WTC will be there too, waiting for us. We'll just politely smile and lead everyone over to just outside the expo and have north of 120+ listening to the talk.
I think you should find her in Wisconsin and say "Hey! Great to see you! Where's the guy doing the videos for the dinner?"
Love Bret's ideas, too.
Maybe there could be a group order of pink EN underpants for the IMWI Underpants run?
Patrick called me Sunday to say that a race support truck told him to take down the EN flag at Mile 18. Pretty funny that WTC thinks they own the signage opportunities on 138mi of public roads.
Bet your ass at IMWI I'm gonna say "No. You want it down, bring a cop and we'll talk."
Ok- LMAO at the picture of Rich, Patrick and all the EN doodes in pink speedos sitting in together in a jail cell....
Amazing how much WTC thinks they can take over?
Anybody wanna take bets on how much WTC lady is going to blush when she sees Rich in pink speedo?
So...
To engage in a hypothetical with the lawyer types in here (Steve Perkins et al) what's the worst that could happen? As I sees it:
In the end, I work for you guys, no one else. I couldn't care less about a relationship we have/don't have with WTC. Don't have one now, never had, and we're doing just fine. I also like being the only coaching company that doesn't see a need to kiss their ass.
Just curious to see how it would play out:
We are at ~mile 18 of the IMWI course and a race support/volunteer flunky tells me I have to take down the sign. I politely say no. He says....uh....ok.
Then Roch, Paul, or whoever is in charge of the run course arrives and tells us the same. And I say no again. What happens next?
Fookin' 12 dudes in pink speedos, EN families in EN shirts...people are gonna know who we are without any signage. I just don't feel like rolling over that easily, because I don't really see why we need to or honestly what they can actually do about it.
Of course, none of the above could actually happen and everything could be just fine. But it's Monday and I don't feel like riding right now