Was Today's NY Half the Worst Televised Event in the History of Running?

I'm agree, this one has been the worst in many years...I remember also a Chicago Marathon (91 or 92?)being broadcasted in that way (fixed cameras)...it was really a bad coverage...

It seemed to me that they covered the race as if it was part of a morning news show. I ran the race, but was interested in actually seeing the race. Not a million shots of the people running from the same locations.

They should take a cue from NBC4 who covers the marathon locally from 9am-2pm and do a great job. It also seemed like Larry was fed up with the local schlub Channel 7 sports guy who kept interrupting him. If you look at the broadcast, he rolled his eyes and made the sign of the cross when he was interrupted.

It was bad. Probably not a good way to advertise this race when trying to make it the "best" half-marathon in the world.

Distance running on TV is boring anyway, even worse than golf! Doesn't matter what they do, can't put pretty enough lipstick on that oinker to give it any appeal for anyone except the fringe cult extremists.

You should watch golf, then. I've seen many distance races on TV that were very exciting. ESPN used to show a road race of the month and Toni Reavis did a great job. Anytime they show a race from Europe with English commentators it is excellent. The old NYC Marathon coverage by ABC with Marty Liquori was great.

Is anyone old enough to remember when ABC showed the 83 Rotterdam Marathon on a Saturday evening (Wide World of Sports)? Great coverage- DeCastella, Salazar, Lopes.

A lesson to you: Any sport you do not understand is boring to watch. Only when you know what is going on is the sport exciting.

No, I should watch neither, goofy. I understand running well, I understand golf, too. They're boring to sit and watch.

so you come here to bitch and complain? This board is predictably self serving in that way. It is rare to see a good thread run unpolluted for more than a few posts.

Punch

You may understand the two sports but you're probably not good at either to appreciate the many that are better than you. Both, when there is no runaway leader, can be good drama on the tube.....you boob!

Some of you are no better than babies, I swear. It was a local TV station that decided that giving at least 90 minutes over to the race on a Sunday morning was a good idea. They wanted to showcase LOCAL runners and the city itself. They had plenty of shots of Nyariki and Meb and Abdi going at it. They had decent postraces interviews with Nyariki, Meb, Catherine Ndereba, and Benita Johnson... the latter two were very charming together. A new promising major event gets big play in the top media market in the country...and you guys are complaining. Grow up.

goofy? You understand neither or you would like to watch them. Go watch the grass grow, maybe you'll understand that.

Some people just don't like to watch sports. For someone who doesn't understand football, 5 seconds of guys falling all over each other followed by 3 seconds of the same guys standing in a circle trying to figure out what to do isn'r very exciting either.

Aim High wrote:

Distance running on TV is boring anyway, even worse than golf! Doesn't matter what they do, can't put pretty enough lipstick on that oinker to give it any appeal for anyone except the fringe cult extremists.

This is brutal, but pretty much spot on. If few in the US care about real running (on the track), why should anyone care about road racing? By comparison, golf is as lively as a Bullit-style chase scene.

Horrible for running fans but tremendous for ABC's potential viewing audience. Five people contacted me today because they saw me in one of the cutaway shots. Those four or five people aren't tuning into a competitive road race. These people don't know Meb from Deena. But they knew some of the 10,000 runners and now have something to talk about at work tomorrow.

I don't think WABC or the NYRR could ask for better.

This is the same game plan that NY is planning to do for the trials. Keep in mind that this was one of their big selling points to USATF. Just wait. There are going to be some terribly disappointed fans.

I can assure you that I won't be in that race!

I honestly do not understand some of you people. The TRIALS, which are exclusively for highly superior athletes, few in number, cannot be compared with something like this half-marathon, so how can you claim this is the "same game plan" NY has for the Trials. What do you even MEAN by that?

The WABC broadcast was an excellent showcase for running, and the interviews with Nyariki, Meb K, Catherine Nbereba, and Benita Johnson, all of whom were gracious and articulate, probably did quite a lot to make runners, and running fans, feel that they're in the same boat with and with some kinship with these elites. Which is just what the sport of running needs.

You know, the people complaining in here are the ones that will kill the sport dead.

That broadcast sounds horrible. But, it has got to be better than listening to Carol Lewis commentate during a track meet. Nothing is worse than that.

Dusty Bones wrote:

Some of you are no better than babies, I swear. It was a local TV station that decided that giving at least 90 minutes over to the race on a Sunday morning was a good idea. They wanted to showcase LOCAL runners and the city itself. They had plenty of shots of Nyariki and Meb and Abdi going at it. They had decent postraces interviews with Nyariki, Meb, Catherine Ndereba, and Benita Johnson... the latter two were very charming together. A new promising major event gets big play in the top media market in the country...and you guys are complaining. Grow up.

Dusty, are you sure you actually watched the show? There were 0 shots of Meb, Abdi, and Nyariki going at it that weren't from a helicopter or a brief shot from a still camera. I have no problem if they are going to do a broadcast about a local running event and showcase the average jogger. But if they are doing a broadcast and covering the event as a race which they did, then they need to actually show video fo the race. The announcers basically had no idea what was going on in the "race". There was basicallly 0 coverage of the women's race.

The interviews were great, but overall the broadcasat was the worst I have seen. Can you imagine if they covered the NYC Marathon the same way? The NYRR wouldn't be happy. There has to be a camera following the runners if you're going to talk about them. Imagine a nascar race with the only pictures of the car being a blimp shot every 10 minutes. That's basically what we got today.

You can't

I was shocked. I was like WTF? No camera? It was worse than watching the local cable-access coverage of my hometown's 5k race where they place a camera at the finish line and show the runners crossing the finish line. That's fine for them, considering their lack of resources, but the Chanel 7 guy acted suprised to find out there were actually trees in Central Park..." gee, we're sorry for the foliage blocking the view, but we can't account for everything. Isn't that right Larry?" No wonder he was rolling his eyes and crossing himself.

henri fils wrote:

I was shocked. I was like WTF? No camera? It was worse than watching the local cable-access coverage of my hometown's 5k race where they place a camera at the finish line and show the runners crossing the finish line. That's fine for them, considering their lack of resources, but the Chanel 7 guy acted suprised to find out there were actually trees in Central Park..." gee, we're sorry for the foliage blocking the view, but we can't account for everything. Isn't that right Larry?" No wonder he was rolling his eyes and crossing himself.

If the accounts I'm reading from everyone's accurate, I feel bad that Larry got thrown under the bus on this show.

I have to believe (not seeing the show from here on the west coast) that they talked about some basic stuff, like leaders, split times, etc, during the race?

I watched the start of the race in Central Park and then ran home to watch the last 30mins.

I did see brief shots of the 4 leading guys from a helicopter and of a few joggers but nothing of the women and nothing of the guys that were 5th to 8th.

As for the two idiots commentating. One compared Catherine Neriba (spelling?) winning 3 out of 4 half marathons to Tiger woods only winning 1 out of 4 Golf matches. Talk about comparing apples and oranges!!

Those two guys were idiots.