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

Well the truth is WEJO is spot on. Why is everyone bringing up the fact that running is boring to watch and blah blah blah. That is not the point, the point is if you are going to actually broadcast a race actually show people running! Still cameras and a few occasional shots from a helicopter is not covering a race.

I liked the analogy of watchign the NASCAR race. It would also be like showing a football game from the blimp and one camera in the endzone. Seriously HORRIBLE coverage. You can easily show the local runner mixed in with the elites by having cameras moving along with the runners and also a camera on the lead women and lead men. Woever was in charge of this project has NO CLUE how to cover a running event. I truly hope NYRRC has soemthing to say about it and tries to rectify the situation next year. WEJO you should consider writing NYRRC. At least the ymay listen to constructive criticism from you.

Did they interrupt the coverage to show an intentional walk of Barry Bonds? Multiple times?

Did they ever cut away to the long jump pit and then stay on that camera for 30-45 seconds after the jump to watch the guy walk away and pull his tights out of his ass?

This coverage sucked, but it's tough to say it's the worst ever. Running coverage sucks.

I would agree it was horrendous when they cut the race to watch Bonds walk but they didnt even show the race during this coverage. So I would have to vote this to beo ne of the worst coverages I have witnessed in a long time. They were literally talking about the leaders and the race without actually showing the race. It was a really weird coverage.

Well truth is wrote:

Well the truth is WEJO is spot on. Why is everyone bringing up the fact that running is boring to watch and blah blah blah. That is not the point, the point is if you are going to actually broadcast a race actually show people running! Still cameras and a few occasional shots from a helicopter is not covering a race.

This is how they plan to do the mens trials. I am telling you that they think the criterium course will be better suited by having mounted cameras at several points and not one on the truck. These are the experts in New York that are going to take our sport to another level.

How do you know they will nto have a camera following the leaders? I am just curious how this information came about. Insider information?

Have you ever watched a golf tourament with Tiger playing. I totally enjoy wathcing Tiger destroy the field. If he isn't playing then it is pretty boring. Same goes for basketball in my eyes. If Jordan wasn't playing then it was a good time for a nap.

Grow up? Wejo's point was, if they promoted it as a showcase of local participants, he'd have had no problem with the coverage .For example, if they tell you they're going to be showing 'Gone With The Wind' at some particular time, and you sit down in front of your TV with your popcorn, and all you get is the 3 minute trailer and some critics talking about the movie the rest of the time, you might find yourself feeling somewhat shortchanged at the least, if not downright swindled.

It all makes sense now! I volunteered for the NYC Half, and was kind of confused with my assignment. My job was to phone in the splits for the leaders at a particular point in the race. I wondered why the heck was I doing this, shouldn't this be the job of someone in the lead vehicle truck? It didn't add up.

Well, it should have been an easy job, just call out the first 3 runners who pass by, and announce their split time over the cell phone. The sidewalk was deserted where I was, so it wasn't like there were any obstacles in the way (the lack of fans on most of the course was probably another reason why there was little race coverage on tv. It was a pretty ugly scene to the observer: a traffic jam on one side of the street, and ZERO spectators on the other side of an empty road.) The problem was that I was nowhere near where the runners ran. The runners all hugged the middle of the street, and I was fifty feet away from the action. There was no way to position yourself any closer. Plus, the numbers were on the backs of the runners, which made them difficult, if not impossible to see them as they zoomed by (and it didn't help that some runners didn't even have the numbers on their backs). So in short, I had no chance to figure out which runners passed by. When I phoned in the times of the leading women, I didn't give any names, as I had no idea who was who. The person at the other end of the phone got VERY agitated with me that I couldn't recognize anyone. I thought the agitiation was just from working way too early on a Sunday mornng. Little did I know that the television people were counting on me to give play by play info of the race!! I guess I was at fault for the bad tv coverage of the race. Hence, I apologize to all the race fans who watched the half marathon, as I failed to do my job at a crucial part of the women's race.

Fair to say, I will NEVER volunteer for the NYRRs again.

Why do people enjoy watching Nascar so much? This is one of life's great mysteries for me. Running is so full of emotion and effort. Some races have real drama. If you have good camera work, you can see the runners' faces and feel some of their pain. A car is just, well, a car. Why is that so facinating to watch when running is not? I don't get it.

If you're going to cover a race, though, you should do it right. It's a step in the right direction to want to cover it at all. That is great. So few races actually get media coverage at all. But why half ass the thing if you decide to do it? How expensive is it to mount a camera on the pace car and ditch the helicopter?

There was a race truck following the lead runners. There are photographers, reporters, others on the truck who I'm sure could identify the leading runners and call in split times. It's not that hard to do. They should have just relied on one of these people as its a lot easier to figure out who his who when you see the runners for an extended period of time instead of for 10 seconds when they approach you in a pack and zoom by.

Umm...Volunteer...why did you take the gig, if you weren't going to be able to identifying who anybody was? And why did you STAY 50 feet away?

I\\\'m new to running, but agree it can be very exciting if you know to some degree first hand what the runners you are watching are going through. I\\\'m guessing most of the posters are high school and college kids based on the discussions and immaturity. NASCAR is so popular because it\\\'s a lazy beer drinking, chain smoker\\\'s \\\"sport\\\", and that\\\'s what the majority of Americans like to do. How often do you see a fat chick try to get into shape so she can pick up a fit guy? Very rarely, she\\\'d much rather date an equivalent slob so she doesn\\\'t feel bad about herself and so she can justify continuing to be lazy. Fat women even yell at their boyfriends/husbands when they work out, soley so they never feel obligated to work out themselves. If someone gets addicted to NASCAR, they never have to worry about \\\"playing the sport\\\" themselves, so they can remain lazy forever.

A little perspective is needed here:

WABC covered the race at their own expense, unlike the NYC Marathon where the NYRR co-owns the broadcast. The people at ABC couldn't spring for the mobile network which would make it possible to have cameras on motorcycles and a lead truck which could transmit images up to a helicoptor (or fixed receiving sites on buildings), then bounced to the studio to make for continuous live shots of the lead runners. This kind of coverage is incredibly expensive (that's why the big marathons pool those assets and spread them over a bunch of broadcasters).

It's a MIRACLE that a local television station agreed to do a 90 minute show at their own expense. It's a brand new race with very little public awareness. That program did a lot to raise its profile for next year, and if the ratings were decent they may be able to sell enough advertising to justify the expense of the moving cameras with the uplinks next year. This was just a first step.

Regarding the Olympic Trials in 07, there will absolutely be moving cameras with the uplinks to show continuous images of the race in addition to the fixed cameras. The camera truck (and motorcycles) are already on-site and paid for to cover the NYC Marathon.

Vanny

You have to realize, it was impossble to get closer than 50 feet away. One side of the street had a huge traffic jam, the other side, the side I was on, was 50 feet away from where the runners were, as they decided to run right at the center of the road. Further, the numbers were tough to see. Even in pictures of the race, it's very dfficult to tell what number someone has on. When I took the gig, I did it more for my running club than for the NYYRs, and I had no idea I was being set up to do an impossible task. And if I recall correctly, I don't remember much of an entourage when the lead women passed through. Only a couple of motorcycles. Except for the mats at 5K, 10K and 15K, they relied on spotters to get split times of the lead women. Who knew it would be so difficult.....

Didn't the elite runners (men and women) have their names (e.g., "Meb") on the front and their numbers on the back? That would make it much harder than saying "No. 12 and No. 3."

Dude they had a helicopter in the sky broadcasting in high def (the only part of the broadcast that was high def). Clearly they had some expensive equipment and could have put a camera on a truck.

The helicopter is part of their normal traffic reporting. Only traffic jams on Sunday were caused by this race.

It'd be interesting to find out how ABC's morning ratings were compared to (a) normal Sunday morning; (b) other networks at the same time.

You, Vinny need a little perspective here.

You say, 'WABC covered the race at their own expense?' Hold the testimonials, please.. Excuse me, but the broadcast wasn't done without commercials(i.e.,they got their revenue.) All their expenses(including high-def Chopper 7) were part and parcel of their normal Sunday a.m. programming, which they would have had anyway.

So, WABC incurred no additional expenses(excluding announcer Larry R.) They just switched their normal Sunday a.m. programming from the usual mindless studio drivel to something else. So please don't make it seem like this was some sort of goodwill humanitarian gesture on their part.

I didn't see the coverage; lucky me, but I did some calculations on Nyariki splits.

His 5km were: 15:10, 14:43, 14:55 then he averaged 13:22 5km pace for the last 6.1km!! (16:19 for 6.1km from 15km to finish) That means Meb must have been close to a US 5km record at the end of a half. The first 10km was hilly but the last 6km was pancake flat with a slight head wind.

Those guys finished 10 minutes before the rain.

Just thought I would point out some amazing running.

The doping guys were all over the top runners at the finish in the restaurant in case anyone was wondering.