Runnerville

In last week’s Runnerville Weekly podcast, Matt Taylor discussed his conversation with Chris Lukezic about the lack of interest sponsors seem to have about getting their athletes out in the public eye.  Chris told Matt that if asked to do a public promotion he would gladly do it.  The conversation carried on to conclude that if Chris went out and met 100-200 new people, that the interaction with those people would create 100-200 new fans of Chris, as they would have a personal connection with him since they interacted with him.

While this sounds great, there is one piece missing from this puzzle.  Once Chris has 100-200 new fans, where does he send them to follow his racing?  Luckily for Chris he has a blog that he can send people to, where he provides commentary on his training and racing.  However, for the majority of professional athletes, blogging is not an interest they have or their sponsors have.  So where do fans get their news?

For the majority of die-hard fans out there, including me, we know where to look to find our running news.  We check LetsRun, FloTrack, EliteRunning, etc. on an obsessive basis to see if there just might be a piece of news we missed after rolling out of bed and turning on the computer in the morning.  However, do new fans know where to go to find professional running news? Read more…

The 2008 Carlsbad 5000 story was always going to be Alan Webb’s to make, no matter who won or what time they ran. That’s what comes with superstar status. After snatching Steve Scott’s quarter-century old American mile record last summer in Europe, then backing it with the fastest 1500 meters and second best 800 in the world for 2007, the expectations for 2008 ramped up even higher. Now, he would begin his Olympic push at the Southern California road race Steve Scott helped design 23 years ago and then won in its first three years.

But when 24 year-old Ethiopian Terefe Maregu outkicked England’s Mo Farah for the 2008 Carlsbad 5000 title on a glorious SoCal spring day by just a single tick of the clock, and then Kenya’s Haron Lagat, Australia’s Collis Birmingham, and 2006 Arkansas NCAA 10,000m champion Josephat Lagat of Kenya crossed in a blanket finish one second behind Mo, no one turned to his neighbor and exclaimed, “what a finish that was!” No, all anyone wanted to know was what happened to Alan Webb?

Necks craned up Carlsbad Village Drive looking for the American superstar as one by one the professional field paraded across the line. But Webb would never emerge around the corner for the final 300-meter sprint to the tape in front of the big crowd, many of whom had run the same course through the series of morning races. He had pulled off the course around 2.6 miles left to wonder, along with his many fans, what was happening in these important early season outings in this Olympic year.

“The plan wasn’t to come here and do this,” said a disconsolate Webb to the press following his second straight flameout of 2008. “I’m definitely disappointed. I came here to win the race, but I felt like I was pushing the whole way, and was just trying to hang in there and find a rhythm. But I just couldn’t get into it. I was surging just to stay up where I was, and we weren’t even going out that super fast.”

Alan Webb came into the Carlsbad 5000 after finishing 16th two weeks ago at the USATF 8K road championship in New York’s Central Park. But a case of food poisoning was behind that performance. In Carlsbad the inability to fire on all cylinders was more problematic, because it had its antecedents in his training, and training isn’t science, it’s art.

“We have changed things a little bit,” Webb admitted in his characteristically forthright manner. “I’m not satisfied just doing what I’ve done before, so we’ve upped both the quality and quantity of my training. And sometimes you do too much. I hope that’s the answer, because that would be a positive outcome. I’ll have to sit down with my coach and discuss what changes we will have to make, either training or racing, but it’s a fine line, and you want to be dancing right there. And it’s easy to go over the edge.”

There was big buzz when Elite Racing announced the signing of Webb for Carlsbad. No American has won this race since Utah’s Doug Padilla in 1990, and certainly no American with Olympic medal chances in the 1500 meters has ever run on this seaside course. Steve Scott, the co-designer of the route with New Zealand’s 1976 Olympic 1500-meter champion John Walker, had already passed his Olympic peak when he won the first of three straight titles in 1986 in a then world best 13:32.

After the New York City disappointment, Carlsbad was to be Webb’s mulligan, another chance to confirm the efficacy of his base training as he made the transfer over to mile preparation in the outdoor season.

“You want to be in the best shape of your life but without the speed sharpening that comes with mile and 1500 meter preparation,” explained Steve Scott, who helped broadcast the race for Fox Sports Net (the show will air on FSN on Monday April 21st at 3:30 p.m. pacific time). “I expected Alan to dominate this field, and run sub 13:10, because he’s capable of doing that.”

A time of that quality would require a committed start. But from the sound of the horn, the character of the race took on a hesitant quality, as none of the 13 professionals from eight countries wanted to be the pack leader. If one man goes in a closely matched field like this, they all go. But if that one man doesn’t emerge and push, the pack forms up and the looking and waiting begins.

The entire 13-man field held tight through a glacial 4:25 opening mile. In Carlsbad, that’s the equivalent of narcolepsy. In his two 13:00 flat world record years of 2000-2001, Kenya’s Sammy Kipketer flew through the mile in 3:59 and 3:58. Even last year’s relatively modest split was 4:15. The pack remained steady through two miles in 8:47 (4:22) with Mo Farah the nominal leader. Even so Webb was adrift at the back looking like he was struggling for every inch. At 10:25 it was over; he was a broken man as the jockeying began for the endgame by the remaining contenders.

“I was going to just jog it in,” said Webb, “but I couldn’t even jog. Once they broke away it was end of story.”

“There is nothing specifically wrong,” shrugged Webb’s coach Scott Razko attempting to put the best spin he could on the day. “This is the only sport where you are pushing yourself to the ultimate limit every time. So there’s more weight placed on each performance. Alan has been a little tired lately, but he’s been able to train, and get in solid workouts. Maybe over the course of the last month we’ve pushed a little too much past the point where he’s been before. You never know when it will equal a bonk.”

America is hungry for a running hero on the world stage. That’s why people get so excited when Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein, Ryan Hall, or Matt Tegenkamp delivers a world beating performance. And why the fans are correspondingly so disappointed when their expectations aren’t met. If Alan Webb goes on to Beijing and returns home with anything less than a gold medal – see Jim Ryun 1968 – the hard-core fans will be merciless. But never doubt that Alan isn’t right there with them.

The French have a wonderful old proverb, Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien, the best is the enemy of the good. And perhaps that is the conceit of men like Webb. He told Steve Scott the day before the race that as a young man he went looking to see what the high school national record was in the mile, and the American and world records as well, the inference being these have always been his goals. No one is harder on Alan Webb than Alan Webb. And you can tell by the way he’s willing to lose in such grand, public fashion as he continues to dance so tantalizingly – at times frustratingly - along that fine line that defines an expectation for the ages, his and ours alike.

CARLSBAD 2008 RESULTS
Men:
1. Terefe Maregu, 24 ETH - 13:34
2. Mo Farah, 25 GBR - 13:35
3. Haron Lagat, 24 KEN - 13:36
4. Collis Birmingham, 22 AUS - 13:36
5. Josephat Boit, 25 KEN - 13:36
6. Shadrack Kosgei, 24 KEN - 13:50
7. Boniface Songok, 27 KEN - 14:01
8. Michael Aish, 30 NZL - 14:06
9. Julio Cesar Perez Mora MEX - 14:13
10. Dmitry Safronov, 26 RUS - 14:27
11. Steve Slattery, 27 USA - 14:30
12. Nick Bromley, 25 AUS - 14:47
Alan Webb, 25 USA - DNF

Women:
1. Vivian Cheruiyot, 25 KEN - 15:14
2. Rose Kosgei, 26 KEN - 15:21
3. Genoveva Kigen, 20 KEN - 15:41
4. Sara Slattery, 26 USA - 15:59
5. Korene Hinds, 31 JAM - 16:04
6. Everlyne Lagat, 27 KEN - 16:08
7. Kathy Butler, 33 GBR - 16:13
8. Lisa Blomme, 29 SWE - 16:23
9. Ida Nilsson, 26 SWE - 16:36
10. Jane Kibii, 22 KEN - 16:41
11. Mandi Zemba, 25 USA - 16:49
12. Mardrea Hyman, 34 JAM - 17:07

Chris Lukezic is a good friend. He’s someone I admire and respect, not for his 3:33 PR and 2006 US Championship, but for his ability to 1) see running through a broader lens and 2) define himself as more than a runner. When I was an assistant coach at Georgetown (while Chris was a student) Chris and I spent many hours discussing the sport, most often at his favorite coffee joint - Murky Coffee, situated across the river in Arlington, VA. The most frequently discussed, and lamented, topic of conversation was the failure of our sport to market itself and its athletes in a already-crowded marketplace. Well, in June 2007 Chris started a blog. And last week he wrote one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking posts I’ve ever read from an athlete. I strongly urge you to read his words below. Chris, welcome to the conversation… Read more…

2008 is Yankee Stadium’s curtain call.

After 84 years of tireless service to the New York faithful, the “House that Ruth Built” will give way to a brand-spankin’-new stadium, set to begin its tenure in 2009. Most people don’t know that the old Yankee Stadium, as it will soon be called, was intended to be a multi-sport stadium. The field was initially surrounded by a quarter-mile running track, which effectively also served as a warning track for outfielders, a feature now standard on all major league fields. The left and right field bleacher sections were laid out at right angles to each other and to the third base stands, to be properly positioned for both track and field events and football.

That’s right, the men who built Yankee Stadium anticipated the venue playing host to rousing athletics exhibitions.

Why couldn’t it be this way again? I mean, who better than the City of New York to promote and carry out a huge outdoor invitational track and field meet in Yankee Stadium? You could get the who’s-who of the City that Never Sleeps to attend, big-name musical acts to perform during down times, “main event” head-to-head competitions between the world’s best in each event, and even the “Pros vs. Joes” exhibitions discussed so much on this site. Shoot, lots of folks would come just to sit inside the Stadium. They’ll definitely leave having had a good time, and who knows — maybe they leave a track fan forever.

This would never happen, of course. Steinbrenner and the Yankees organization are too single-focused to think outside of baseball. They’d have the logistical issues of playing host to a world-class track meet during baseball season (easily solved — do it during a road series). Plus, as we’ve all observed and fumed about, running just isn’t the automatic moneymaker or crowd-attracter it could be. And “potential” doesn’t sell real well at Yankee Stadium.

So I guess that’s why we’re all here … to begin the conversation about how running can re-emerge as a good fit for the big stadiums — like Yankee Stadium — again.

Happy April Fool’s Day. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we didn’t put together a joke podcast. Is it an indicator of the serious times of our sport? Or just a complete lack of creativity? Tough call. Regardless, we made it to Episode #11. No podfading at Runnerville Weekly!

Are you creative? Have something to say? Call the comment line at 206-888-0346 and record your beef. Or you can email an mp3 file to comments (at) runnerville (dot) com.

In this episode:

Toni Reavis, in response to an African-dominated World XC event, proposes a city-based team system with a full-fledged draft.

Amby Burfoot, also in response to the “crisis” of World XC (or as he calls it, a dual meet between Kenya and Ethiopia), points out the artificial level playing field at the Olympics and World Championships, where only 3 athletes from each country can compete. World XC allows 9. Oops!

Wejo finally hearts Bekele, but isn’t willing to call him the GOAT. He is, however, willing to call him the GOATAXC (Greatest Of All Time At Cross Country).

Chris Lear wonders if world class runners are capable of endorsing anything or representing anybody besides the shoe companies. What do you think? What athletes would be good pitchmen? And what products would you want them to promote? Chris wants to know.

Matt Taylor tries to answer Chris’s question with beer and coffee. Imagine it: Carney and Yuengling. Lukezic and Gaggia Classic. Marketing has changed and running is being left behind…

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

[Music is “Mr. Lovely” by Beth Thornley.]