April 19th, 2008
The Toni & Matt Show #8
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.
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April 20th, 2008 at 8:31 pm |
By running the London Marathon, Hall did what was best for him to prepare for Beijing (and beyond). At this point, Boston would be a step back for him. An American medaling at the Olympics would do more for the sport than an American winning Boston.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:02 am |
That so? How’s the sport been doing since Deena and Meb won those Olympic medals in the marathon?
It’s unfortunate that things get distilled so roughly, but Boston is THE touchstone race in the US. It’s broadcast live in its entirety. It’s the first thing people ask you about if you start talking about marathoning. Ever since the mile went the way of the 1.5k on the track, the American perception of distance running begins and ends with the Boston marathon.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:45 pm |
Both of you have a point. Winning a medal at the Olympics is huge for both Hall’s marketability and the sport, but the positive attention seems to last for only a year or so (based off of Meb’s and Deena’s experience). I think winning Boston would create the same positive change for the sport as the Olympics would and for the same amount of time. The only way Hall becomes a true star in the American sporting world is if he can win Boston, London, the Olympics, etc. A sad but true fact of American culture is that sports fans only like winners. Hall has yet to win a global race, hence why no one cares much about Hall’s accomplishments or who he is as a person outside of our small running community.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:23 am |
Being in Boston last weekend I must agree with Jeremy. I think for American marathoning winning Boston is of more importance than any Olympic medal besides gold.
Maybe NYC is almost equal to Boston’s marathon (I’m not sure, but Boston=marathon in Patriots weekend, can’t imagine that happening in NY), but winning Boston is another point. With it’s history and big (American) stars winning the race, to equal them an American must win it. Winning London isn’t the same. Winning Boston will give an SI-frontpage for almost sure, can’t imagine any other marathon-event to do that.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:53 am |
Good call on the SI-cover: if Hall wins the marathon in Beijing, and Tyson Gay wins 3 golds and gets the WR in the 100… who is going to be on the cover?
Hall (or any other American) wins Boston over a top field, and it could be the biggest sports story in the country that week.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:35 am |
Because Boston is run on Monday, it will not be on the cover of SI which hits the streets on Tuesday each week. So they send the cover to press before Monday’s race is run. The timing of Boston doesn’t work for a Magazine coming out on Tuesday. And by the time next week comes along, another story has earned cover status. It’s another reason Boston should move to Sunday (along with network TV coverage that Monday can’t accomodate, because Patriot’s Day is not a national holiday, only a regional one).
April 27th, 2008 at 8:36 pm |
SI does not really cover running besides tiny blurbs. The same way they do not cover many endurance sports. If you are an endurance athlete you have to do something big. Winning Boston would be big kind of like winning the Tour de France, and it would land you the cover more then likly depending on what else is going on in the world.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm |
Point is SI USED to cover running. It just doesn’t anymore. The question is why? Perhaps because running doesn’t market and promote itself in the same way other sports do which SI does cover. When no sport marketed and promoted itself professionally, running was on an equal status, and received major media attention in publications like SI, and on network TV. But since the early 1960’s when the other sports began creating distinctive structures to present themselves to the public, running chose to remain affixed to the 19th century amateur model. Ergo, we have been left behind, falling farther and farther afield until we now just assume this is our plight. No, we let it happen.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm |
Very good point Tony.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:09 pm |
Isn’t it the job of an agent to market their athlete(s), get them on magazine covers, etc?