Runnerville Weekly #12
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.]
Last 5 posts by Matt Taylor- The Toni & Matt Show #17 - Vin Lananna - July 9th, 2008
- LetsRun.com Eugene '08 - June 30th, 2008
- The Toni & Matt Show #16 - June 17th, 2008
- USOC to USATF: Change Now! - June 14th, 2008
- The Toni & Matt Show #15 - June 11th, 2008
April 9th, 2008 at 11:45 pm |
I’d like to take a stab at Matt’s question. I think it’s the way that running is marketed, which is by de-emphasizing competition. Numbers grew by turning running into something you could do for fun, not as a competitive sport. For most people who run, running is an activity that belongs in the lifestyle section of the newspaper, not the sports section. It’s more like hiking or photography than basketball or football.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am |
Perhaps we should take a cue from Toni and Matt, with their naming of professional athlete not elite athlete, and distinguish the professional side of the sport even more so by calling it distance racing rather than distance running. Running seems to be what millions of joggers do these days, while the top athletes in the sport are actually racing.
Just another way to distinguish and promote the sport’s best.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:51 am |
interesting point put forward by Matt. I agree on Adeel comment, most of the runners in major-marathons see it as a life-time experience, not as sport (although some of them think they’re athletes).
Other point is that the podcast does underline the intro: fun-runners aren’t fans because it’s impossible to follow all the action. As most of the visitors of this website I am a distance running (or even T&F) freak/fan (call it whatever you like). I spend a lot of time on the net to follow all coverage and during summer I am eager to watch all TV coverage (besides my own training and racing). And that’s the only way to catch up with all the action. Even the better athletes in the sport go down to smaller meets to compete. Best examples are the Stanford invite where Webb and Ritz ran outstanding or the Brasschaat meet in Belgium where Webb set the AR. He was the world leading 1500 meter runner at that time, luckily the Brasschaat track is just 20 miles from my frontdoor, and Flotrack was there, but how on earth could Joe 6pack keep up with all those meets. Try to imagine Barry Bonds playing double AA meets during the baseball season? Superstars of the sport should be in the MAJOR league games!
Other point of interest is that we don’t see our stars competing very often. When I’m in Boston next week (JIPPIE) I’m able to go to a Red Sox game every single night (or morning). How many real races does Ryan Hall compete in yearly, or Keflezighi, or Ritzenhein? That are just the Americans but the same applies to Europe. My country’s best distancerunner Maase just runs a few race a year. Often his name is mentioned in broadcast as absentee. Of course it’s the marathon, but it has big effect on the popularity (fan-wise) en impact of ‘regular’ races.
And unfortunately there aren’t many Africans who are able to fill the gap. It’s no offence to them, they train hard, run hard and often win, but they have hardly any personality and are virtually exchangeable. In this Sundays Rotterdam Marathon there are seventeen Kenyans haunting for a 2.06. Even me as a pretty big fan do know just a few names of them, including Ben Maiyo thanks to Matt’s Chasing Kimbia adventure.
Of course the major marathon is London this weekend with all the big names, but if the sports just is cut down to a few meets where we see our stars there will never be fans. The Big Five try to fill in the gap with the WMM but the sole athlete that ran (and scored) more was Gete Wami. They need to adjust their plans (by adding some less scoring half-marathons perhaps) to get some more attention and make the stars more visible for Joe 6pack.
So now putting in some additional training and looking forward for some easy runs down Memorial Drive in the marathon weekend.