Running exercises featured in speech (9)
I believe the answer is:
operation
'running' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'exercises featured in speech' is the wordplay.
'exercises' becomes 'pe' (Physical Education class).
'featured in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'speech' becomes 'oration' (oration is a kind of speech).
'pe' put within 'oration' is 'OPERATION'.
(Other definitions for operation that I've seen before include "Action; process" , "Surgical or military piece of work" , "activity" , "Act of surgery" , "Business" .)