bigndgindigbdniogbd wrote:
And please stop with the Indy 500, Football and other pro sport analogies. Just accept the fact that RUNNING isn't THAT compelling as a spectator sport unless you are of a rare breed.
People were saying the exact same thing about Soccer years ago
Rojo, I live 2 blocks from Franklin Park and had no idea the meet was happening until I ran through it. The funny thing is, the podunk HS football games in the stadium there have better announcing and more fans than a national-caliber meet.
Go to Health Club:
How many on the treadmill are walking slowly & calling it a workout?? A lot. That's like one doing arm curls with a styrofoam cup & calling it resistance exercise.
Biggest exercise problem in the U.S.---
A lazy culture that accepts slow walking as "getting your workout in." This doesn't pertain to senior citizens and/or faster walkers. It also doesn't pertain to those who eat healthy & knowingly use walking to get the blood flowing a bit. But many many many say "I'm trying to lose weight & have been walking." Maybe I'll get a phD by skimming cliff notes.
ttc wrote:
Go to Health Club:
How many on the treadmill are walking slowly & calling it a workout?? A lot. That's like one doing arm curls with a styrofoam cup & calling it resistance exercise.
Biggest exercise problem in the U.S.---
A lazy culture that accepts slow walking as "getting your workout in." This doesn't pertain to senior citizens and/or faster walkers. It also doesn't pertain to those who eat healthy & knowingly use walking to get the blood flowing a bit. But many many many say "I'm trying to lose weight & have been walking." Maybe I'll get a phD by skimming cliff notes.
Point being, the above prevents many from getting the "running bug" & becoming those good recreational performers.
Every gym needs a sign:
"WALKING ISN'T WORKING OUT, BUT A WIMP'S WAY OUT!!"
At the end of the day, nobody cares about road races and T&F. We can argue all we want but masses don't care or understand. Heck, I don't that nobody cares. I don't even bother bringing up the subject whatsoever with my friends because I don't want to seem like a moron boring there life. This is what masses think of running:
Dave: Taco Truck, do you still run a lot?
Taco Truck: yeah. Kind of.
Dave: Do you sprint all the way? How many hours do you sprint?
Taco Truck: How about the Yankees?
It baffles me that people on here are such fanboys of Flotrack. Show me one good quality broadcast that they have EVER put on and compare it to what USATF TV did at the Jr Olympics this summer. When you realize how bad Flotrack is then you can please shut up and stop posting about how great they are :) k thnx
There were some great shots of Jenny cheering everyone on. But tell me, where was the race coverage for the 5th Avenue Mile? The race videos have virtually disappeared except for a few seconds at the finish line. Was this on purpose, an organizational glitch, or did everyone just not care?
Curtis wrote:
We have this quote from Bingham: "I stood at the finish line of the RnR Philly race yesterday until everyone had finished. Everyone’s effort was celebrated. I invite ANY winner of ANY race to join me instead of rushing back to their hotel after the awards ceremony. I guarantee that the first “elite” to show even a LITTLE interest in the rest of the pack will become a hero overnight."
Just this past weekend some of the elites, including Jenny Simpson, did stay at the finish and cheer on non-elites coming in. I doubt this is the first time that has happened. So are they heroes overnight like Bingham promised? If Bingham wants to criticize elites for not doing enough to promote the sport or give back to the running community that's fine. But he should be honest about what the elites ARE doing. If he continues to be disingenuous about it I'll wonder whether he is not trying to position himself with the masses in opposition to the elites to benefit himself.
David goes above and beyond for the running community. Back when he was just getting started, traveling to Europe and racing, he would spend a week working at a CA high school running camp for a couple hundred bucks for the week. He wasn't the guy showing up and giving one talk and taking a check. He was living in a dorm room for a week and organizing activities as well as running with the kids. Now that he is with the Bay Area Track Club, he runs his BAXC cross race, which he mentioned, but he (and other members of the BATC)also puts on a high school clinic, which is one of the highlights of the year for the athletes who I coach. Between David and Magdalena Lewy Boulet, they look forward to it every year. They make our athletes excited to be out there. I'm not sure I'd go as far as to call them heroes because of these events, but I can say that running is better in our community because they are a part of our community.
This is a little long, but here is a clip from a Q and A that they did at that clinic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAtYRL-QH3I
. David gives a pretty good answer to the question, "What did you wish you knew in high school?" at about 3:45 and one about injuries at about 8:55.
I've always found most elite runners were happy to talk with plodders like me if you take the trouble to chat to them. I've even stopped good ex runners bumped into on the street who didn't know me from Adam and had great chats about what they are doing now.
That's one of the best things about running, would you get the same in football!
"Are there some who don’t give back and selfishly head back to the hotel room? Yes. "
This is the only problem I have with his letter. Doing nice things like he does is great and we all appreciate it, but is it really selfish if you prefer not to do these things?
He goes above and beyond, but athletes who don't aren't being selfish, they just prefer not to.
ukathleticscoach wrote:
I've always found most elite runners were happy to talk with plodders like me if you take the trouble to chat to them. I've even stopped good ex runners bumped into on the street who didn't know me from Adam and had great chats about what they are doing now.
That's one of the best things about running, would you get the same in football!
Yes, you would get the same in football.
I met David Torrence at a track meet this spring. I was officiating and he had just finished competing. We ended up at the same place at the same time and he started a nice conversation, thanking us volunteers for the work we did. Fact is, this is NOT unusual behavior among elite runners. I've found most of them to be genuinely interested in and supportive of us middle of the packers. Maybe if Mr Bingham paid a little attention to the elites he would notice that they ARE interested in the rest of us.
Couldn't agree more with Mr. Torrence:
FWIW - Ryan Vail cheered me on, by name this morning.
I've run with John Bingham and heard him make snide remarks about "nylon shorts guy" who zoom past him. He's bitter because he has no talent, and is trying to drag the entire sport down to his level.
I am sorry I can't open the Torrance e-mail but I do have a thought. I might well make a trip to boston, NYC or Chicago to have a look at some of the world's greatest athletes flying down the street, and I'd cheer my lungs out. I haven't raced in more than 15 years now, and I suppose if I were to run a marathon in my current level of fitness, I'd be on the wrong side of the four hour barrier.
Why anyone would expect, or ask, the likes of Meb K., Jenny Simpson, or Ryan Hall to stand roadside and watch me crawling down the road is beyond me. Maybe you can expect your family to watch you try to break five hours but I sure don't want to watch it. It's not nearly as dramatic as some might think. If major road races want to make the athletes earn their bones by requiring the athletes to appear at news conferences or charity events or clinics, or visit a VA hospital; that's all well and good.I hope that someday, our sport matures as a professional sport to the point where the best athletes are compensated for performance alone. They deserve it.
Torrence makes great points. I am not elite but I understand how elite athletes work.
One problem is that it's two different worlds- the one of the hobby jogger and the one of the elite.
Somehow there has to be a connection that goes beyond the pre-race expo.
To the Penguin- when is the last time you saw those NBA/NFL/MLB guys interacting with fans?
They are CREATED by the media.
ESPN makes heroes out of anyone who plays a "major" US sport and ignores the MANY stars of our sport.
Torrence is right, it is the media not the athletes.
runn wrote:
Torrence makes great points. I am not elite but I understand how elite athletes work.
One problem is that it's two different worlds- the one of the hobby jogger and the one of the elite.
Somehow there has to be a connection that goes beyond the pre-race expo.
To the Penguin- when is the last time you saw those NBA/NFL/MLB guys interacting with fans?
They are CREATED by the media.
ESPN makes heroes out of anyone who plays a "major" US sport and ignores the MANY stars of our sport.
Torrence is right, it is the media not the athletes.
You're just not paying attention. Those NBA/NFL/MLB guys are constantly out there interacting with fans. There's even a trending YouTube video of an NBA player visiting kids on YouTube right now as evidence. They put on clinics, fund raisers, camps, etc.
kdks wrote:
runn wrote:Torrence makes great points. I am not elite but I understand how elite athletes work.
One problem is that it's two different worlds- the one of the hobby jogger and the one of the elite.
Somehow there has to be a connection that goes beyond the pre-race expo.
To the Penguin- when is the last time you saw those NBA/NFL/MLB guys interacting with fans?
They are CREATED by the media.
ESPN makes heroes out of anyone who plays a "major" US sport and ignores the MANY stars of our sport.
Torrence is right, it is the media not the athletes.
You're just not paying attention. Those NBA/NFL/MLB guys are constantly out there interacting with fans. There's even a trending YouTube video of an NBA player visiting kids on YouTube right now as evidence. They put on clinics, fund raisers, camps, etc.
The advantage that NFL, NBA, etc. teams have though is that most of those are based on sponsorships/partnerships with either the individual teams or the league. Track/road running can't do that as much because they only race 3/4 years with USATF and then most of the time it's outside the US. Also, most training groups aren't large enough to do as many events as these other leagues can, and they would probably pick an event where they get paid because of how much less money they make. Then when they do something like this they don't get near the exposure as a NFL, NBA, etc. team would.
I find bizarre that so many people think they have the right to say how important any individual's, or group of of individuals interest in running competency should be, be it middle of the pack or whatever. Agendas aside it doesn't matter....get over it.
What I see is that more and more runners are in it not for sport, but for eating damage control...they qucikly learn that it's nore comfortable and safe to work this out slowly. That certainly steers the fault of elites....and what does RW care, it still provides a venue for advertisers and their money.