GQ Article on Ethiopian Marathoners Living and Training in the Bronx

This subject really has gotten massive magazine coverage before

Second-tier Ethiopian runners have been gravitating to the Bronx for years now, and the subject has been explored several times previously in the mainstream media. (In fact, reading that GQ article was like deja vu, with just the names changed).

In 2005 The NY Times wrote about Ethiopians in the Bronx who ran under the auspices of Mike Barnow and the Westchester TC:

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/sports/sportsspecial/marathoners-go-the-distance-from-ethiopia-to-new-york.html

Four years later Runners World basically recycled the same story:

https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20796306/half-a-world-away/

Slick Nymonds wrote:

Has anyone spotted any EPO syringes in the photos?

EPO isn't cheap. I might bet that these guys are clean given their marginal incomes.

What an interesting comment ... as the writer and photographer of the Running Times piece that has been described as "basically recycled," I feel a bit defensive. That comment is correct in that we shared a common story line, but the story behind our stories is so vastly different. But I understand your point. If it weren't personal to me I wouldn't respond.

In case you're interested, here's my version of this:

Unlike Juliet Macur (a staff writer a the NYT sports desk), when I published my piece I was a recent graduate from a photojournalism school who loves to run, and met these Ethiopian and Moroccan runners while I was training with Barnow and the Westchester Track Club. I hadn't even known of Juliet Macur's NYT article until now!

Barnow and his runners from Africa became friends, and when I decided to do a story FOR not ON them I did it to acknowledge how hard they work for such a small reward. Towards that end, I traveled to Morocco and then Ethiopia, and stayed with their families for months. In Ethiopia that meant a hut with a dirt floor, a bathroom that was a hole in the ground in the cow's stable, recovering from a poisonous sting that left me temporarily blind, and then becoming very sick with an intestinal parasite. But I also had the privilege to meet Olympians like Haile, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and El Guerrouj, as well as other amazing competitors like Abderrahim Goumri. These interviews were rewards because of the personal relationships I developed.

The genesis and development of my story is thus vastly (and humbly) different different from Macur's, who spent a few hours with these runners in NYC, on the Times' dime. and got paid well for her article.

Since Running Times was what I'd call a "real runner's" magazine because it told in-depth stories (rather than, for instance, what the latest running shorts fashion was), I was so pleased to have this article, and other articles*, published by them. I went on to write for the NYT, including a story about a Kenyan runner, but I'm much more proud of my reporting for Running Times.

At any rate, yes, Macur's and my stories are parallel, but so different in how, why and where they were told. I get that it's probably irrelevant to the comment being made, but it matters to me.

*You can read my articles here:

https://www.runnersworld.com/author/211411/courtenay-morgan-redis/