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On Sunday October 29th, I had the privilege and the honor of being co-host of the annual Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism 5K Road Race at the Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick, Massachusetts. Working alongside Holy Cross’s Mike Kelley, I spent 3 hours enlightening the crowds and getting people juiced up for the 5k Road Race, repeating the same words over and over again and helping get the crowd juiced up not just for the race, but also for the Spectrum of Sound performers who were performing at the event.
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Now, you might be wondering what it was like be an emcee for something like a road race. Well, for one thing, the road races that Flutie hosts are not confined to just Massachusetts and New England. Flutie has road races all over the country and the event in Natick was their flagship race. 900 participants took part by either running, walking, pushing those who were in wheelchairs or strollers or representing businesses and organizations and they all did it for one purpose: to benefit those affected by autism and neurodiversity.
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Not only did we have our sponsors and vendors at the event, but also we had the Heisman Trophy that Doug Flutie himself won back in 1984 during his days of playing college football at Boston College. The prospect of having the Heisman Trophy was a good magnet for sports enthusiasts to get a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend moments with a piece of valuable history.
In a way, having the Heisman Trophy at the Road Race was in the same vein of me having copies of “This is Autism” at the event. Of course, this was not a day for signing copies although I did get people interested by saying that it was available on Amazon.com and that I was open to signing a copy at a future in person event. You gotta have that one little something up your sleeve to get people interested in the bigger picture.
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Originally, this wasn’t going to be my only road race that I would cover for Flutie. I was supposed to cover a Flutie 5K at Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI on October 15th, but had to drop out for other reasons. Getting the opportunity to showcase my public speaking in a non-conference setting may seem like it was easy, but there were times where it was difficult and like walking in a new environment.
For one thing, I had to work alongside someone who was a seasoned professional announcer and I also had to deal with a stammer that I had during the event. If you attended the event on Sunday and noticed that I was sounding like Porky Pig at times, then you probably may have noticed it. One thing that I have yet to cover in my blogs is my stammering, which is something that is all parts and parcel of my neurodivergent nature. If you also were present, you might have also seen me constantly looking down at my script that I had to speak from. Remember that I wasn’t ignoring you, it’s just hard to memorize dialogue when so much is going on around and within you.
Next, I had to contend with the elements as not only it was cold, but the threat of rain was hanging over the event. Fortunately, the rain held off until after the race was over, much to our overall relief. Still, it did provide me a test of working in a flexible environment and atmosphere. For one thing, it did make me ask questions such what would happen if it rained? How was my co-host and I going to get the crowd to focus on the event and not the weather? When it comes to marathons, people don’t care if its raining and they will hold marathons come rain or shine.
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All in all, getting the opportunity to co-host a 5K was just another step in my personal growth as a public speaker. Flutie has been a huge part of not just my career, but also my life as a whole and I look forward to our next endeavor.
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Catch you all later!!
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