Interview Reflections

James (Dad) Bachant

My father’s story inspired my research. There are obvious advantages to interviewing a close family member, such as the elimination of the awkward getting-to-know-you stage. Discussions of interviewing techniques stressed the value of trust, which came naturally in this interview. My father was happy to help and flattered that I found his hobby interesting enough to write about. His story answered many of my initial questions, but also conjured up many more.

Establishing a comfort level is only half the battle. The other half is keeping the interviewee focused. My dad was excited to talk about cycling, especially his first marathon. The friends he had made, certain obstacles and other things brought on long tangents. It was difficult to control at times.

Janet Karanevich-Dono

A large part of my article will focus on the body’s reaction to intense exercise. Cycling has become popular largely for its health benefits, many of which are addressed in my interview with Janet. A friend of a friend, we hadn’t met prior to the interview and actually still haven’t! This interview was conducted entirely through e-mails. My blog helped explain my research initiatives, so that I didn’t have to.

Time is a potential problem with this interview technique. Luckily, Janet recognized that I was operating within time constraints. The next day, I had detailed answers to all of my open-ended questions, prompting several parts to each answer.  Would another interviewee have responded so quickly and appropriately to my questions? Not sure, but this particular interview couldn’t have gone smoother!

Nick Hortovanyi

Twitter helped me discover Nick Hortovanyi and a community of cyclists in Adelaide, Australia. A Google notification alerted Nick to the appearance of his name in my blog post about Twitter searches. He commented and welcomed a conversation about cycling. His daily post-ride tweets and a few mentions of marathons spurred the development of many questions for Nick. We exchanged a few introductory “tweets” before agreeing upon an e-mailed interview. Initially, I wanted to use Twitter for the interview. We quickly found that the 140-character limit made open-ended answers very difficult.

I am happy with the results of this interview. Nick was very comfortable and even suggested a few other people I might contact for more stories and information.

Mark McFadden

Mark McFadden is a cyclist, sponsor and organizer for NJ’s annual May bicycle race for Multiple Sclerosis. Knowing that it would be difficult to coordinate both of our schedules to meet in person, we decided on a phone interview. Unfortunately, Mark and I have been playing phone tag. We’re yet to have the open conversation I had hoped for. With the race rapidly approaching (about five weeks away now), I may settle for another e-mail interview.

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