Get to Know 'Em!

As I'm sure most of you remember, not so long ago Flotrack stamped the slogan "a new video everyday" all over the front of their site. Now that it's grown from cult/grassroots status to arguably THE premiere running site on the internet, (well, Let's Run might have something to say about that) the motto goes without saying. So many registered members now download their own personal videos, Mark Floreani and the gang have morphed into the McDonald's of distance running sites: billions and billions served (videos that is, not ground beef).

Allow me to digress...

Growing up I went through a bit of a rap phase. Nas was one of my favorite MC's at the time and taught this young distance runner several life lessons. An example of Nassir Jones' teachings? Certainly:

no idea's original
there's nothin' new under the sun,
it's not what you do, but how it's done.

Now I never agreed with the profanity, violence or profligate use of Cristal ("one for me, one for my homies"), but these words of wisdom make plenty of sense to yours truly. It's for this reason I have no problem stealing Flotrack's innovative idea to share at least one video per day for the first week.

What better way to keep people coming back right?

Now, we don't have the resources, manpower or budget at this time to go traveling around the grand state of Ohio interviewing OAC athletes daily, but we do have cell phones. Therefore friends, family and OAC running fans, we will be posting low-quality phone interviews! Don't fret, the plan is to put all of these interviews in a format that is also viewable, kind of like the teaser videos we created to open the site. We'll provide still photos as eye-candy, and maybe even a little transition music between questions. If it shall so please some of you I don't see why it wouldn't also be an option to transfer these interviews to text in case some of you aren't auditory learners.

We hope you enjoy these interviews. Please send feedback via blog comments if there's anything you'd like to let us know. Any ideas, questions, criticism, proposals, etc. All comments are welcome.

The plan is to eventually post a lineup of the interviews that are to take place in the future. When we do this we'll simply title a post with the interviewee's name a couple of days in advance with hopes that readers can post the questions they'd like us to ask that person on the comment section of the blog. We'll try our best to ask each and every question you, the reader propose--barring only the unreasonable.

Recap:

1) Beginning the launch date of the site--July 1st--until the first gun goes off to start the 2008 NCAA Division III Cross Country season, we promise to post at the very least a phone interview (don't worry, there will be live interviews as well) every week to this, the interview page of OAC Distance dot com. Again, the first week (Tuesday July 1st - Monday July 7th) we'll post at least one video a day. If there is a positive response we'll most likely just continue the at least one video per week trend right on throughout the season, meaning you'll come close to meeting about half the conference before things are all said and done.

2) When the site gets rolling we plan to post a schedule of the upcoming interviewee's on this blog in advance so that you might leave any specific questions you'd like us to ask them. Unless there is just an absurd amount of questions (we doubt this) we guarantee to ask your question when we interview that person.

3) Feel free to keep this blog interactive. Tell us how good or bad you think the interviews are. Let us know what you'd like to see more of, less of, etc.

Thanks for your support! Let's have an awesome cross country season!