AAA 10000m

I like Cragg am interested in what hair products, tanning lotions and kits the Nicholls and Mellors of this world use aswell as their race results and training logs. Is there any harm in that?

can it be accessed or do you have to be a member? can someone paste some of it on here, I'd love to see it

xc2000 wrote:

This is riduculous why are these guys not getting sponsered? Lemoncello and ford should def warrant something surely?

How many pairs of shoes do you think a brand would sell as a result of sponsoring any of these guys athlete?

If its comedy value you're after Cragg's posts on AW Weekly facebook site will provide the laughs not his training log which is a serious account of his day by day training. Great stuff!

If you do manage to venture on to the Uniathletics site check Andy Ellis (aka killermiles) training log. A hilarious training diary with tales of running through airports, libaries and tescos, university lecture hi-jinx, outlandish 40 x 1min hill efforts and 4 hour long runs!

Phil Wicks was under no pressure from Asics to run the British 10k - all Asics sponsored athletes (including Nichols) are offered a place in the race and a hotel room but nothing more - it was totally Phil's decision and he had a good run on a twisty course in windy conditions.

I think in their local areas, where they are more than likely well known (in the running community) they would shift quite a few initially from runners who look up to them...but this is not the big picture...sponsors should be looking at it as a long term development for both parties, they are not just giving them money for being a 28.45 10k or 8.28 steepler...its to help them progress to quicker times, aswell as promote their brand...

Just remember this good story from a while ago about ben foster (manchester utd goalkeeper) possibly going to be first choice next year. Sponsored by 'Sells'(small english sportswear firm) before he had even played a first team game at a lower division side (how would he give them exposure you might ask? or shift gloves off the shelves?) Yet he has progressed to be the goalkeeper at the best team in england, possibly europe next year. He has stayed loyal to 'Sells' rejecting bigger sponsorship from a few big brands(nike and adidas) for more money.

http://www.footy-boots.com/?p=695&akst_action=share-this

Couldn't agree more!

Dont worry stalker spotter you haven't upset me, banter is my middle name afterall. I dont see anything sad about making sure your kit matches and looks the buisness as long as your banging the training in to make sure the heart and lungs do their bit too.

Yes my coach is a GP but so far he hasnt prescribed me anything other than hard training so im afraid your way off the mark on that one. Although being accused of takinhg ped's on Letsrun must surely mean that my running is going in the right direction!

To Luke fan - You do have to be a member but its a very simple procedure i believe. Im not gonna post my training on here due to the amount of anal people who will just bash you for the sake of it and i dont have the energy to argue that eating a medium sized banana after my run opposed to a large one was not the reason for me not breaking 14.30 yet. If you want to see some of my training email me and il send u it although im sure there are lots better runners than me who would be willing to send you their training diarys.

I'm a little worried that athletes who 15-20 years ago would have been considered 'good club men' are being held up for 'worship' by upcoming youngsters, surely they should be setting their standards higher, if we have people aspiring to be a 29.30 10k runner our standards will continue to deteriorate.

As for sponsorship it is all about who you know not what you do, some of the guys running around with kit deals at Watford are clearly not worth it.

I was once told that to get kit deals with companys like adidas you either have to be...

1: the best

2: alternatively if your not the best, just be blond and very sexy

To get a deal with Puma it helps if you go to the Bahrain relays, to get a deal with Brooks it makes sense to move to Cornwall.

Just because they are our favourite athletes for whatever reason does not mean that we aspire to be just like them or that we only hope to run as fast as they do no faster.

It is very hard to relate to the hoards of faceless Africans and also theres nothing wrong with supporting your own even though they might not be the best. Maybe all those Manchester Utd fans could take note of that.

Of coure we make an exception for Boniface Kiprop, hes right up there with Wicks, Riley et al infact hes basically British.

You know what to do then!

29.30 for 10k looks like a bloody good time to aspire to for someone who is not yet at that level, then if and when they get close to it they set a next realistic target time, surely? For the vast majority of active runners I'd suggest that 29.30 would be an unrealistic career-long goal.

One possible tie in between Saturday nights race and these ever growing messageboards is that there is now plenty of evidence that the leading GB 10k guys by and large run a lot of miles year round; they have a structure to their training that follows loads of good practice in thier chosen event; they are advised/coached by people with good credentials, often developed during the golden years of GB male endurance and/or these coaches/advisers have access to these folk to help their own coaching development; they make big concessions in the rest of their lives to develop their runnning with almost zero likelihood of much financial gain or fame beyond the tiny running community; they aren't fat. That addresses most of the criticisms that as a group they are regularly accused of, usually by people who don't know on any individual basis what these guys do and don't do.

On sponsorship, AW basics had a recent piece which offered what looked like sound advice. Clearly, once one is outside the realms of UKA progs, athlete support (both wityhin athletics and across sports) isn't based on totally objective criteria, and often the people making the funding desisions aren't steeped in the details of the sports that the nominated athletes come from. There are currently dozens of 2012 talent schemes poppng up all over the place where,for eg, young sailors seek funding against young runners, against wheelchair basketballers etc.

sub-32mins should be enough to get you in the field given the paucity of standards at the moment

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looks like the slagging of British runners doens't quite deserve this kind of crap posted a few weeks ago, just goes to show how out of touch some people are.

Shame Lemoncello and Tickner ran the steeple, allthough its perfectly understandable.

Would have made for a great race if they were in the 10k

Man U no thanks, rather stick with non-league, maybe Worksop Town, so as to be closely related to my running idol, who is I suppose the running equivalent. Perhaps me idolising Luke is like Luke idolising Wicks. Do you have any signed photos Luke? Are you going to be at Solihull, i might go and cheer you on

you dont have to be near cornwall. i live in the middle of a lake in yorkshire at the moment.

hola wrote:

sub-32mins should be enough to get you in the field given the paucity of standards at the moment

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looks like the slagging of British runners doens't quite deserve this kind of crap posted a few weeks ago, just goes to show how out of touch some people are.

sorry. have i missed a huge upsurge in the standard of long distance running the uk?

p.s. i note that the winning time at watford was pretty decent but that doesn't change the fact that the standard in depth remains poor.

Maybe not, but you are obviously tiotally out of touch with standards, the qualifying was 30.00 and there was 23 starters and about 40 people had met the standard, so take your head ut of your arse.