OMG: I Met Dean Karnazes

And he is the nicest guy ever!

If you aren't a regular reader of my blog, let me fill you in. Yesterday my husband was shopping at Central Market and Greek Gods yogurt was handing out samples of their newest flavors. He happened to notice a flyer with Dean Karnazes' picture on it. The yogurt was sponsoring a 5k this weekend, Dean is a spokesman, and he was hosting a meet and greet this afternoon. We immediately signed up for the race and tried to figure out our logistics so that we could make the meet and greet.

Dean has been a hero of mine since I started running. I had no idea who he was before, but he's huge in the running community. He's an ultra runner, has been called the world's fittest man, he's won Badwater, he's run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, and he's a graduate of Cal Poly, my alma mater. Read one of his books or follow his blog and you'll see what all the hype is about. He absolutely loves running and wants to share it with everyone. While he has been criticized for his publicity, he's brought visibility and accessibility to the sport, so I can't fault him for that.

The possibility of meeting him today was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. And I was going to do everything in my power to meet him. I struck out of work at 3 and flew home to pick up my husband. We arrived with about an hour left of the meet and greet. I envisioned long lines and precious few moments with Dean to grab a quick photo or two. I was willing to wait, however long it happened to be. Reality was much better than my expectations.

There was a small table set up in the middle of the prepared food section. A photo of Dean was on the table when we walked up, but no one was there. A moment of panic had me thinking that we missed him. But we were told that he had just gone outside to see how the packet pickup was going. As we were walking out of the doors to get our 5k packets, Dean was walking in. He's an unassuming guy, no entourage, just a PR person from the yogurt company. We stopped him, shook hands and gushed about how excited we were to meet him. Immediately, I noticed several things about him. He's small in stature (not much taller than my 5 foot 3 frame), has absolutely no body fat, and has beautiful teeth and really great skin (which for a runner of many years, is difficult with sun damage). He's in his early 50s, but looks much younger. He's also kind, friendly, and welcoming to strangers coming up to him and awkwardly fawning over him.

Somehow, I managed to pull away from Dean and we went outside to get our race bibs and shirts for him to sign. We came back inside to the promo table and walked right up to Dean. No lines, no one waiting. It was a very strange set up. I was grateful for poor marketing of his appearance because it meant that I could spend more time talking him. He signed our race bibs, took several photos, and talked with us for a while. A few other people had shown up to see him, so we said goodbye until tomorrow and left.

Dean and I, right next to the rotisserie chicken!

Algis, Me, Dean

We really just walked around the store (I wanted to buy some bread to have at dinner) and then went back to Dean! He was so gracious and tolerant of the stalker that I was becoming. We chatted some more, took a couple of other pictures with a group of people, had him sign a headshot of sorts to hang in my office, and FINALLY left. It was a great day!

Dean and his new friends!

Miles logged: 0.0