One of the benefits of running ultras (for me, anyway) is that I get asked to do presentations on races and running in general. I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to present in front of audiences up to 1000 people (Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival in 2006 ) and have done about 30 presentations to date.

Last night JH and I were at the Y presenting on MDS, Gobi and the Coastal Challenge to a great group who are part of a running clinic. Some had seen us speak last year and were gracious enough not to yawn too much!

A few presentations ago I started asking, “Does anyone know who Ray Zahab is?” He is arguably the most well known ultrarunner in Canada and being totally absorbed in ultrarunning, I sometimes believe that everyone knows ultrarunning and the stars of the sport. In other words, I sometimes believe that it is a ‘high profile’ sport.

You can guess how many people knew his name…1…she saw our presentation last year.

The fact is that our little world of ultrarunning is tiny. For that matter, the running world is tiny in comparison to pop (entertainment) culture.

And Ray even guests on The Hour…