Rock the Globe with me!

"What would you say you do here?" 

~ Office Space

Well, if you ask my dad he'd probably just roll his eyes, my mom would smile and start telling you about all the tomatoes she's going to plant this summer and if you ask the spectators standing around the finish line at Rock n Roll Marathons... they'd probably tell you, I dance... a lot :)

According to the Meyers Briggs test I'm an ENFP - which in terms of a career path says I need to be with a lot of people doing different things all the time. 

Hmmm... I do have a pretty poor memory but I don't recall seeing my job on the list when I was in high school... So I did what I thought my father wanted me to... I majored in Political Science and as a junior in college I took the LSAT and prepared for my life as an attorney. Seeking Justice...Right? :)

The score came back as expected and the search for a law school began...but things changed, drastically, in my life that year and I shifted gears to avoid total catastrophe. My college counselor and I spent a few hours trying to figure out how to make my credits count towards a degree... even though I wanted to change my major... a little late in the game.  The next thing I knew I was writing stories and ready to tell the world of important current events on air... and really make a difference!

Unfortunately the allure of local news wasn't so alluring once I was in it...

Now what? I headed to California to visit my best friend and decided it was now or never to try my hand in television, of a different kind. I showed up at every office I'd sent a resume to, and after two days of defeat, desperation sunk in. The next receptionist wasn't going to watch this little midwestern girl go quietly when the usual "we'll call you" slipped from her mouth. This poor receptionist was in for it. ha! 

Luckily... it worked. Two weeks later I was sitting down to my Apple computer (never used one of those before) and told to "produce" a show... on boating etiquette... ?????

Sink or Swim Ann.
 I'd joined the high school swim team as a freshman who didn't know how to do most of the strokes or how far one length of the pool was... and I managed to figure that out. So, I shut my mouth, watched the other producers carefully and produced my first show. 3 years later I got an email asking me to audition for a new show about triathlons... A few weeks later we were in the warehouse creating something that had never been done before - TriCenter was born. 

My day job as a producer took me to Fashion Week in New York, then to Charlotte North Carolina for NASCAR, even Honduras for an in depth look into cigar production... and now - I was interviewing some of the most amazing athletes in the world on the weekends and 7am... before my other job. 

Talk about being around a lot of people with a continually changing routine...

Then... 3 years ago this weekend, I was asked to pick up the microphone and join the announcers at 

Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans. 

I got up early, curled my hair and sat in awe as the announcers managed to greet, congratulate and celebrate the thousands of runners completing the 26.2 or 13.1 miles that day. I was nervous and excited and after a few hours I couldn't help myself. I wandered down off the "stage" with my microphone and started high-fiving the endless stream of runners who had so valiantly set out to complete this race. The looks on their faces and sometimes the tears and fist pumps that I saw... made me so proud... of them.
My hair was flat... but my spirits were soaring as two men in full firefighter gear and Oxygen tanks... came around the corner carrying their American Flag high...26.2 miles later.
I could barely congratulate them through the tears. 

Thankfully, they asked me to come to another race... if I had some free time :) 

The next race I got as much sleep as possible - decided to forgo curling my hair - just put it in braids... ha and spent most of my time down on the finish line partying with the runners - energized by their determination to make it to this point. 

Pretty soon I was carving out as many weekends as I could to be at as many races as possible. I'm not quite sure where or when the striped socks came about... :) But my view on life had changed. Expensive cars, and designer dresses, were interesting for sure, but the people I saw,  that I touched on those finish lines, they gave me an entirely different high.

This year the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon series will come to 27 different cities around the world... and our Triathlon series TriRock will roll out in 6 different cities. I wish I could be at them all...  It won't be physically possible... but I'm getting in as many as I possibly can. 

I've found a dream job of sorts for an ENFP, ADD, Virgo like myself :)

You're probably wondering what this has to do with nothingnewforayear... well not much, except that I did get a sweet new pair of kicks... courtesy of Brooks (photo above)... thanks to my job... and if you want to see how traveling around the globe works while not buying anything new... you can... And I'll be in costume... if that's any incentive! ha.

I'm new to all this but if you'd "like" it... then maybe they'll let me do it again next year :)

Rock the Globe with Ann Wessling

P.S. if you're in New Orleans this weekend... We're giving away a free trip to Lisbon Portugal in September to come do Rock n Roll Lisbon... now who doesn't like free trips! Of course you'll have to listen to me first on the Expo stage - but you can suffer through that for a chance to win a free trip. I know you can :)