June 18th, 2009

Pinkowski’s 20 Yrs Heading Chicago

by Toni Reavis in Marketing, Views, fans

Carey Pinkowski’s run in Chicago is enough to make even the Daley family jealous.  He began the celebration of his 20th year directing the Bank of America Chicago Marathon by announcing American star Deena Kastor as his first signing for the 2009 race. 

“We are lucky to have her, ” he told me,”just hope her foot holds up in training.”

It has been a remarkable 20 years for the event and the sport, not the least because of Pinkowski’s efforts.  When he took over Chicago in 1990 it was a sunken ship, having lost its sponsors, its pro runners, and much of the goodwill of the Chicago running community.  But by adhering to the path all runners must take to reach their full potential, starting slowly then proceeding to build up year by year, Carey has raised the great ship, and steered it back to the front ranks of the grand flotilla of world marathons.

Starting with visits to local road races Cary refitted the local connection, then over time brought on new sponsors as the size of his fields increased.  Then when budgets allowed he eventually lured back the professionals to race over the lightning quick layout.  Today, Pinkowski has his marathon back up running at flank speed as one of the five World Marathon Majors, and a major sales tool for the 2016 Chicago Olympic bid.    

Carey and I were talking of all this the other day, and he wondered whether anything he’d done amounted to anything over the last twenty years.  He was probably overworked.  But once you see it all laid out, there is no doubt that the Pinkowski years in Chicago teach a master class in integrity, event management, and sustained growth.  Congrats on your first twenty, Carey.

                                                               *****

During our conversation Pinkowski mentioned that people still ask him about Khalid Khannouchi the four-time Chicago champion and former world record holder.  What became apparent, said Carey, is that much of that recognition factor was due not only to Khalid winning Chicago four times in grand style, but doing so while wearing the same black over black New Balance kit in each of his runs.  Over the last decade Khalid had become Chicago’s Man in Black, and it branded him till this day.

Then we both recalled that at the recent Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon we watched 13 of the 15 men racing in the mile run around the Hayward Field track wearing matching Nike yellow over black uniforms.  And since the vast majority of the runners hailed from East Africa, good luck in trying to differentiate who was who.  It was like a hall of mirrors.  It took me a good half a lap to figure out if Alan Webb was even in the field (unfortunately, his racing didn’t make his appearance readily apparent).

Not that we at Runnerville should keep constantly telling people what is wrong with the sport, but come on.  Not only is it impossible to root for shoe company logos, if everyone is wearing the same outfit you can’t you tell the already anonymous runners apart.  And even if fans wanted to they couldn’t purchase a Bernard Lagat jersey or an Alan Webb jersey no matter what the cost.  Fan jerseys don’t exist in running.  The shoe companies make up each season’s professional kits new and exclusive to the pros.  Running fans not only can’t tell who to root for, they can’t go out and advertise their fandom.  Imagine the Big Three pro sports not allowing fans to purchase their favorite player’s jerseys?  Crazy. 

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