Runnerville

Like thousands of people every year, we caught a bad case of Post Marathon Depression. The best weekend in Boston (Red Sox at home + Celtics in the playoffs at home + Boston Marathon + US Women’s Marathon Trials + LetsRun/Puma Party = Greatest Weekend Ever) led to a depression so deep we couldn’t even get out last week’s show. But we’re back!

And we’ve got a great episode:

Chris Lear wonders what John McDonnell’s legacy will be: greatest coach ever or foreign importer?

Toni Reavis says it with clarity: we suck! Too much of a good thing?

Scott Bush wants every college team to put a dual meet on their schedule. And maybe add a “fall game.”

Jeremy Mosher loves the format: Olympic Trials marathon piggy-backed onto a major marathon. After all, Pittsburgh couldn’t handle this.

Scott Bush comes again with his thoughts from the Penn Relays. Jamaicans rock the party.

Matt Taylor praises the Drake Relays and their decision to host an indoor pool vault . . . at the mall! Brilliant

[Music is “The Euphonius Whale” by Dan Hicks and his hot licks!.]

What a weekend!  A few reflections from the greatest marathon in the world from a hometown boy:

• First off, great job by Matt & the PUMA gang on the PUMA / LetsRun.com Boston Marathon pre-race party Saturday night. The store was jam-packed, the Harpoon suds were flowing, a dance move or two were busted, and many a conversation were had. I walked by the NikeTown store on Newbury St. after leaving the PUMA party and it was eerily dark and quiet — in other words, closed. If Nike’s smart, they’ll throw a pre-marathon blowout next year in their store. These things are good for the sport, if you know what I mean.
• Ryan Hall was signing posters at the race expo on Saturday.  Nice of him to come down from the mountains and enjoy the most beautiful Boston weekend thus far in 2008.  Adoring fans formed a line around the Expo to meet Ryan, say a word or two, take a picture with him, and get an autograph.  Nice to see a nice guy and great runner getting the attention he deserves from fans of the sport.
• I picked up the re-designed Running Times Magazine at their expo booth on Sunday.  It was my first time seeing it in a few months, and I have to say this: quite simply, RT is the best publication available for fans of the sport.  I subscribed several years ago, way back when RT was like a souped-down version of RW with less impressive design and basically one page dedicated to races and athletes.  I’ve always liked RT better than RW, but today, the magazine is the perfect blend of training tips, race reports, and athlete bios to feed my need for running sustenance.  And with the exception of microscopic typefaces on a few articles, the whole package flat out looks great.  Kudos to Editor Jonathan Beverly and his staff for the new — and much improved — Running Times. (and big ups to our own Matt Taylor for a quality cover feature on Tegenkamp in the most recent issue)
• As I stood among the “commoners” on the race course Monday (just before Kenmore Sq, if anyone’s curious), I was struck again with the question that many have posed on this blog and podcast: “How are is the sport of running neglecting all these people?” Sure, people come out to experience the pomp and pageantry of the world’s greatest marathon, and to watch their friends and family members sweat it out. But do they know about the elite runners? My conversations Monday say they don’t. It seems the task ahead for the powers that be remains making fans out of the nominally interested participants and observers found along race routes and in races all over this country.
• Was Monday’s women’s finish the best in history?  Conservatively, it was definitely high on the list.  It was the type of back-and-forth, digging deep kind of competition that really energizes crowds and creates fans of the sport.  Two virtual unknowns separate convincingly from a pretty good field of runners, and then break into a sprint with a mile to go … amazing.  The Tune-Biktimirova finish is one for the record books.
• Monday’s race was the first time I’ve watched Boston in person, and thus it was the first time to witness the throngs of wasted college students along Commonwealth and Beacon Streets enjoying their day off.  Marathons and drinking: a curious combination, methinks.  One is the payoff for months of tireless and thankless hard work, and the glory lasts a lifetime.  The other is an act of instant gratification that is quite short-lived and has one or two quite negative side-effects.
• Folks went nuts when Lance and his entourage ran by on Monday.  If Lance Armstrong trained — like really trained — he’d be a 2:35 marathoner, easy.  As it is, he’s beating 95% of the field and hovering around 2:50 on what I’d call minimal marathon training.  (he said he ran about 5-6 miles a day with a few long runs thrown in while training for Boston)  He likely won’t ever train hard for a marathon, partly because he’s so dang busy pounding cancer and mostly because he simply doesn’t love marathoning enough to do so.  That’s fine.  Lance is what he is — an amazing cyclist-turned-amateur marathoner who is a mighty fine ambassador for the sport.

Live from Boston, a roundtable with LetsRun.com’s Weldon Johnson. Toni, Matt, and Weldon preview the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials and the 112th Boston Marathon as a tune-up for the LetsRun Boston 2008 Party hosted by Puma. Enjoy the show.

Trying a new thing here: To help anyone like me who has running-centric tunnel-vision to the extent that you didn’t even recognize that it was Wolf Blizter having brunch at the table next to you last Saturday, we’re going to relate a figure from current events to a figure from the world of running. This way we can all learn one new thing about the outside world, while putting that thing in a context we actually understand. It’s called, If [ BLANK ] Were a Runner! Give it a whirl, after the jump…

You may have heard that the Pope is currently on his first papal visit to the United States. (It IS baseball season, after all…) For those unfamiliar with His Vaticanness, here’s a handy reference to help you along: Read more…

George Vecsey wrote a little something for “that liberal rag” I hear about from time to time up here in New York. In it, he basically nails my sentiments regarding all this Olympic torch hoopla.

These impending - and I choose the word carefully - Summer Games are currently the target of people who rightfully protest policies in Darfur, Tibet, Xinjiang and Chinese labor camps, or laogai.

It frightens me to be in agreement with President Bush on anything, but I have to agree with him that any boycott of the opening ceremony on Aug. 8 would be counterproductive, a slap in the face, for what? Better the president and other world leaders should belatedly learn how to conduct diplomacy and draw attention to Beijing’s poor record in human rights and not use an overblown sports jamboree to cover up for their failures.

These Olympic protesters are like that slightly smelly (but vaguely attractive) girl in HS who would always raise her hand in Science class and then, when called on to explain what a vector quantity is, would stand up and instead launch into a screed about how big business was killing the environment and that we should all come to the Walk-A-Thon the Arbor Club was sponsoring that weekend. One can’t help but think, Hey! If you want to promote your worthy cause, go hang some fliers! But right now, we’re trying to learn about vector quantities! And that’s important, too! Don’t get in the way of that!

Ugh. Don’t be the slightly smelly (but vaguely attractive) neo-hippy girl, protesters. Just don’t.

A special reserve Runnerville Weekly, oaky, with hints of heartbreak hill and olive wreath. Toni Reavis in 1978, ten years after Amby Burfoot is victorious. And a special guest from Iraq. It’s Boston Marathon week, perhaps the greatest week of the year for Bostonians.

In this episode:

Toni Reavis in 1978 with Vin Fleming and Bob Hodge. This recording was not digital.

Amby Burfoot recalls his magic day one April in 1968.

Jeremy Mosher puts Ryan Hall’s historic run in perspective, in only the way he can.

Toni Reavis, now back in 2008, talks about how the WMM actually hurts the sport, ensuring that we never get the best athletes to toe the line together on the same weekend.

Russ Stewart reports from Baghdad, Iraq before heading off to Tikrit. Can you believe they’re racing over there? And that Russ is able to share it with us? Unbelievable. Now we’re trying to figure out how to get over there ourselves.

[Music is “Big Ball in Boston” by Del McCoury.]

Standing in Fenway Park last night watching the Sox and Yanks duke it out reminded me that one of the reasons running pales as a sport in comparison to baseball is, quite simply, a lack of competition.  At least the kind of competition that creates headlines, brings out fans, and gets jerseys buried below the visiting team’s new stadium.  Not since the Johnson-Bailey “rivalry” — and let’s face it, few outside of track circles knew about that — has competition been able to spark a somewhat wider interest in the sport.  The problem with Johnson-Bailey, though, (IMHO) was that many — including myself — simply saw the circus as two huge egos seeing who can stick his chest out further.

Granted, the bulk of the Sox-Yanks rivalry is largely created by the New York and Boston media and the fans who eat it up, but who cares?  People pack out Fenway Park when the Evil Empire rolls into town, and pack out Yankee Stadium when the Sox visit New York.  I had to stand up the whole game because there wasn’t a seat to be had.  Just being inside the park, smelling the smells and hearing the cheers and jeers in person, watching big play after big play, was enough.  The allure of being near the action was romantic in itself.

Maybe it’s because runners are generally nice folks, respecting of each other and the work they put into their training.  The nature of track and field athletes certainly plays a part in the lack of competition that is marketed to the general public.  But the bulk of the blame, once again, falls on the governing bodies.

Let me get all MLK on you now — I have a dream that one day, thousands will pack stadiums to witness attempts at American and World records, historic match-ups, and back-and-forth rivalries.  If we believe that running is as interesting — if not more — than the mainstream sports, then athletes, governing bodies, and watchdog blogs must see that this happens.  I haven’t been to the mountaintop, but I can see it from here …

Below, some quick, shoddily-researched numbers on Ryan Hall’s strong 5th-place showing in London this weekend. Personally, I think the last little factoid is perhaps most exciting…

• 2:06:17 makes Hall the 16th fastest marathoner, all-time.
• 2:06:17 puts Hall just 12 seconds behind #10, all-time.
• 2:06:17 is almost 2-and-a-half minutes faster than any American not named Khalid Khannouchi.  Put another way, Hall would put half a mile on some of the greatest American marathon performances ever.  Put yet another way, Hall would be at least halfway through a ham-and-pineapple pizza (his favorite - he’s from California) when the shades of Kempainen, Salazar and Beardsley crossed the line.
• 2:06:17 is the 3rd fastest American performance ever.
• 2:06:17 is just 20 seconds slower than Geb ran in his 3rd marathon.
• 2:06:17 is a better PB than those owned by perennial Major contenders Cheruiyot, Ramaala, Ivuti, Gharib, and Baldini.
• 2:06:17 is 24 seconds FASTER than Martin Lel – arguably the top marathoner in the world, at the moment — had ever run before Sunday.

I’m sure there will be more to come in the Ryan Hall lovefest in tomorrow’s Runnerville Weekly, so check back then!

It’s a dog eat dog world out there. You’ve surely heard this famous expression coined by (I’m guessing) Rudyard Kipling, but have you ever stopped to consider exactly what it means? It means that everyone has enemies. That’s right Santa, even you. So as a runner, who are the dogs out there that are trying to eat you? Well, for starters… dogs.

11. Dogs

How many times have you been out for a run on your favorite bike path when you come across the lady with the two ankle-biters on what seems to be eight leashes? Sure she’s running off to the side of the path, but Cutsie and Wootsie are ranging all over the damn place and just when you think you’ve got a clear shot one of them darts under foot, making you lunge out of the way lest you get Pomeranian all over the bottom of your shoe. Even worse is when you’re on a trail and you come across some unleashed, overly friendly pony whose owner is trying to pass off as a “dog” and the beast chases you for three quarters of a mile before giving up to go knock down a small child.

10. New Running Shoes

They look so innocent, sitting there all white and clean, just begging to be run in. Don’t be fooled. There are few forces capable of making you run faster than you have any business running. They feel so soft and light, like the dreams of angels, and the next thing you know you’re slumped over your front steps dry heaving into the bushes. They’re sometimes accompanied by their henchmen Blisters and Sticker Shock. Read more…

One of the biggest weekends in running action just past - Stanford, Paris, Ireland, Ethiopia, Texas, etc. Great for the running dorks out there; terrible for everyone else. How is a fan supposed to know what to follow? On the tail end of that “super” weekend came the NCAA Basketball Championship game - Memphis vs Kansas. Why did millions of people watch the game? Not because there are millions of Memphis fans (I think there are about 49). No, millions will watch the game because they know it’s the culmination of a season. They understand how the bracket works. They wanted Davidson, but they’ll settle for anyone but Duke. It’s simple to be a college basketball fan. It’s impossible to be a running fan. What does that have to do with today’s podcast? Absolutely nothing. But it’s still a good show. Call the comment line at 206-888-0346 or email an mp3 file to comments (at) runnerville (dot) com to let us know what you think.

In this episode:

Toni Reavis digs into the world of Alan Webb and Carlsbad. Will Webb make a masterpiece in Beijing?

Scott Bush praises Pete Julian for taking on World Cross 2010. The timing is perfect and Pete proved himself with USXC. Can you feel the excitement?

Brett Larner explains the corporate and university systems in Japan, and the recent trend of young woman to buck the system, focusing instead on individual pursuits.

Jeremy Mosher wants the “powers to be” to pay attention. WE DEMAND CHANGE IN OUR SPORT. What’s needed? Well, you of course…

Matt Taylor wonders where we have failed. Why has our sport failed to create new fans despite millions of participants?

Jay Johnson digs flash video and its ability to capture moments we normally wouldn’t have seen. Specifically, Lisa Koll’s CR in the 10,000m and Darren Brown’s sub-4:00 to make him and his father the first Father/Son Sub-4:00 Combo.

Contribute to the show. Send your segment via email or call the comment line at 206-888-0346.

[Music is “Paid In Full” by Erick B. & Rakim.]