Next week the award will go to 67 year old Melba Farnsworth of Sioux City, IA.
USATF Press Release
Melba Farnsworth raised over $3,000 for childhood cancer research and sewed a very nice quilt that was used as a door prize at the Iowa Cornfields Half Marathon. A tired Melba said of her 3:16 walking effort, "I am so happy to help the children and strut my stuff on such a beautiful Sunday morning!"
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P diddy deserved it. He beat Opra thats pretty good.
I agree. IS P diddy a member of USATF? Does he hold a USATF membership card? This honor should be for USATF ahtletes. Sylvia Mosqueda should have been named.
It's "athlete of the week", not "athletic performance of the week". I think you've got to be athletic to run a marathon. Even if he walked part of the thing, it's not like the guy is 300 pounds over weight. Therefore he is in some respect an athlete.
He took time out of his life to do something that didn't NEED to be done, especially not with the apparent earnestness and well-meaning he attempted it with. I'm not saying the guy isn't phenomenally rich or that i in any way respect his musical "talent" or what have you, but he did something that i think is out of character for most famous musical "artists". Of the various athletes of THIS week, I think he should be the one we look towards with the most praise for his accomplishments.
If Diddy isn't a USATF member he shouldn't even be considered. If you want to talk about a great achievement from someone who isn't an elite, why not give it to the woman who finished last. She did the thing with cerebral palsy! Still, it should have gone to the best performance of the week, not the most talked about.
If USATF names him athlete of the week for raising 2 million for "charity", what will they do for me if I raise money for USATF? Hell, after all those hard years of slogging out the miles I now know I didn't train in vain, I can still be athlete of the week!
If I bad mouth my peers, promote violence, promote abuse of women, and become a racist with attitude, all that will be ignored as long as I throw a little money around. Let's keep in mind that this is an organization for the masses. We have children and women, as well as 16-25 year old males as members. Do you really think this is a positive promotion for our sport? I don't want to hear that crap about all the publicity this has gotten. Kelli and Regina got a load of publicity as well. How good was that?
Wake up people , pull your heads out of your butts !
If Puff can get more people out the door running , increase interest in running ,this is good for the sport.
The more people involved the stronger we are.
Its that simple !
Wrong!
There are more people running marathons now than at any other time in history. Yet, as participation numbers have gone up we have seen a decline in financial support and post collegiate opportunities. We are not stronger. Why? Because the "converts" are not staying in the sport nor do they have any interest in competition.
If Puffy makes this an annual endeavor, actively promotes running as "cool", and gives props to the elites as being some of the "toughest mother f**kers I've ever seen!" then your premise might work. It has to start with youngsters seeing running as a noble lifestyle and not with middle aged newbies seeking "a challenge".
I was as skeptical of P-Diddy running the marathon as anyone. Personally, I think his accomplishment is commendable and I feel that if it takes the USATF giving him athlete of the week to touch a base of people more than the 3000 members who all run and all post stupid shit here, then so be it. Most of us don't make 2 million in a lifetime, and, knowing runners, wouldn't give a dime to anyone else if they did. So, the "bad boy for life" did something good for people in our vocation, so, let us embrace him. Kudos to USATF commending P-Diddy for helping someone other than himself. You can say a lot about the man, but what he made was an all around great effort (95% for the business end, 5% for the running.) There are many weeks in the year, a man giving away 2 million after putting 26 miles where his mouth is, deserves one. Besides, even if he ran 3:14, people would bitch about his time, so why not run 4:14, and still party every day like we might be fortunate to once in our lifetime.
malmo wrote:
Who's next week's USATF Athlete of the Week, SALLY STRUTHERS?
still laughing...damn that guy is funny!
Sorry but with the negativity recently surrounding the track scene (drugs), this doesn't seem that bad of a thing. I think it is the icing on the cake---it may not be the majority opinion, but P Diddy was a very positive influence on African-American youth. I don't know what world you all are living in, but last I knew track wasn't the cool sport throughout America. Most people who play other sports view running as 'punishment' and do not understand that there is more to it. Not only did he choose running as his way to give back, he showed that if you believe it- you can achieve it. And one more thing....I am a runner (and a good one)...and I think it takes some guts to put yourself on the line like that. The buzz surrounding his quest was intense and I'm sure he was relieved that he didn't have a 'bad day' or blow up which could easily happen in the marathon. Not so sure I would want that much attention on my attempt in a marathon. Congrats...and by the way, who is the next celeb to step up? Will they have there own starting lines?? Maybe running will be the next 'rock and jock"
Suppose you work, at a minimum, 20 years. That's only 100G/year. I would guess that "us" old farts that occasionally haunt this board are indeed well on our way to your magical 2 million mark. Not that big of a deal, really.
His actual place was 11,371. Based on the comparison of his chip time and gun time, he got passed by well over 11,000 of those runners. OUCH!!!!!!
Puffy got tendinitis in his knee doing one of those stupid 20 mile runs that everybody thinks you have to do to run a marathon. He would have been better off saving the long run for race day.
It's just fluff to get some other press coverage of track and field. Lighten up. The day you give a honor like USATF athlete of the week so much credence, is the day you surrender the heart of the sport to image and PR. That's silly.
Case in point:
2003 USATF Athlete of the Week Winners: January 7, J-Mee Samuels; January 14, Kevin Toth; January 21, Michelle Collins; January 28, Natasha Hastings; February 4, Regina Jacobs
Brian McEwen wrote:
Maybe if I invent a charity and then raise a lot of money for it ... or, wait I mean Nike and McDonalds and my other mega-corporate-sponsors back me and I get enough exposure on MTV that a lot of other folks give a little money each to my website "www.briansingslikediddy.com" ... then I make up a rap song that is exactly HALF as good as the best rappers .... maybe I would get a hip-hop music award?
Isn't that how it should work?
4:14 is HALF as FAST as 2:07. Celebrity mouthpiece for a charity OR NOT he still doesn't deserve that award.
And to those who say nobody else was good enough, that has no bearing. Skip presenting it if you have to. And to those who say, it is meaningless anyway, so why not? The reason it is meaningless it because they are awarding it to rap artists who jog.
Yes, but you have to run the marathon
;)
And yes, there was a mistake in my last post. So before you use that as your comeback. I meant:
I love how you chose not to reply to my illiterate rant by replying to my illiteratre rant.
I think it's time for the "I like toast" guy to enter....
thank you wrote:
Great post, finally something positive on here. You are the worst bunch of kids (CHILDREN) I've ever seen. I hope all of you wimpering boys are in middle school because it will make more since. You guys are a bunch of crying, opininated idiots. Sorry, that was uncalled for you are entitled to your opinion no matter how stupid it may be! It was a great gesture by USATF for someone doing a great community service using our sport as a vehicle.....live with it!!!!! Stop crying, train harder, and win some races!
Thank you
It looks like you skipped middle school all together. The first sentence is a fragment. You have never actually seen us, which you stipulate in sentence two. Wimpering is spelled whimpering and opininated is spelled opinionated. I think it is time for you to go back to middle school and stay there for a while. As for your argument, USATF could have made P. Diddy an honorary athlete of the week. Otherwise handing out the real thing is a slap in the face to all those real athletes that spend a great deal of effort and sacrifice to be the best.
To the poster "Thank you:"
You are right on in your post but once again the idiot posters have to resort to proofreading. It seems like whenever some asshole has met his match as far as the argument goes, he/she has to proofread the post. Can't you come back with a better point than grammatical errors? I mean everyone is going to mispel (mispelled on purpose) a word. It is a message board, not an essay contest.
I have not met my match. I don't even care about what awards P. Diddy gets and who gives it to him. I just thought the middle school statement was funny given all the errors. I must say though, that the word "Athlete" in the award athlete of the week would suggest some sort of athletic achievement beyond all others for that period of time. If the award givers want to bend their idea of what athletic achievement means, then that is fine with me.