I went to the 25th Chicago Marathon this weekend and held up a sign. The sign had two sides to it, so I could turn it around to change my message (quite brilliant if you ask me). One side said “YOU CAN DO IT”. Y’know nice message for the runners. The other side said “RUN AND HAVE FUN”.
I wore a bright orange vest and a huge yellow foam cowboy hat . That way I could stand out for my friend, Erin, who was running (and the fun outfit goes with the “have fun” message).
One thing I realized was that the runners were reading both messages together. Which, I didn’t think of. I thought of them totally separate. So it was like I was trying to convince them they could have fun: “Run and have fun. You can do it.” It sounded kinda condescending, so I didn’t rotate my sign as often.