That other running message board that was online in the 90s? Any regulars that used to post there still around?
Malmo, Rojo, Wejo, me, anyone else? That was the place to discus distance running before LRC put them out of business.
LRC didn't put TrackandFieldMedia out of business. John Schiefer decided to get a real job and let the website die on the vine. Around 2005 I think Schief asked me if I would join him to revive TNFMedia but I told him its too late, the momentum is lost.
Run-insight and trackshark were fairly early on, I think particularly the former. But I'm sure they weren't the earliest, so I dunno if they make the cut for "the 90s".
Malmo, Rojo, Wejo, me, anyone else? That was the place to discus distance running before LRC put them out of business.
LRC didn't put TrackandFieldMedia out of business. John Schiefer decided to get a real job and let the website die on the vine. Around 2005 I think Schief asked me if I would join him to revive TNFMedia but I told him its too late, the momentum is lost.
As I remember it, that is not exactly what happened to TNFMedia. At that time, during the short lived dot.com boom, sports media houses were trying to have representation in every sport so they could cover all their bases, and were buying up niche websites in all the outlier sports. At that time TNFMedia had a pretty decent following and numbers that were marketable. For what they were, they were the only show in town. John sold it to a company that I believe either owned ESPN, or were owned by ESPN, but THEY let it die on the vine after everything crashed. He did reacquire the rights later and did attempt to bring it back, but the magic was never really there, and it faded away again.
LRC took hold in the lull between when the company that acquired TNFMedia was supposed to relaunch it and the dot.com bust. They didn't change the formula at all. front page with track and field stories and coverage, and a wild wild west message board to drive clicks.
I remember junky message boards in 1993-1995 where people would post college track results. Felt pretty cool at the time. Hard to believe that in high school we would not know the results from meets in the same town except through word of mouth or the local paper sometimes listing first place only.
I was a coolrunning devotee. It was a bit less sophisticated, but also much friendlier. I do remember butting heads with Kevin Beck a few times with LRC-level hostility.
I went to coolrunning for their handy running log, and that led me to the forums. When it shut down, it left a hole in my life and made me vulnerable to letsrun addiction.
I remember junky message boards in 1993-1995 where people would post college track results. Felt pretty cool at the time. Hard to believe that in high school we would not know the results from meets in the same town except through word of mouth or the local paper sometimes listing first place only.
Yep! I remember hoping the local newspaper would have the results so I could see how my competition was doing. Sometimes though word of mouth would travel quicker. Most of the coaches in the area were friendly. My coach lived down the road from another local coach with some fast runners who were trained the same way.
I remember junky message boards in 1993-1995 where people would post college track results. Felt pretty cool at the time. Hard to believe that in high school we would not know the results from meets in the same town except through word of mouth or the local paper sometimes listing first place only.
Yep! I remember hoping the local newspaper would have the results so I could see how my competition was doing. Sometimes though word of mouth would travel quicker. Most of the coaches in the area were friendly. My coach lived down the road from another local coach with some fast runners who were trained the same way.
Alan
Even from 1998-2002, HS track/XC results would be word of mouth via the coaching trees (in Ohio). Newspapers the next day. They had baumspage.net for NEO XC and track, and html-like pages with small writeups and interviews of runners: Justin Baum, Michelle Sikes, Nathan Blatt, a lot of good HS runners back in the day. And both Maggie and Emily Infeld!
I remember junky message boards in 1993-1995 where people would post college track results. Felt pretty cool at the time. Hard to believe that in high school we would not know the results from meets in the same town except through word of mouth or the local paper sometimes listing first place only.
The weirdest thing about "the old days" look backing is that when you went off to the regional meet or a big invite with schools outside your basic local coverage area, you often had no idea who the top runners were going to be, or if the far-away schools had a bunch of great runners, one great runner, none, and so on and so on. The very best athletes in the state were well-known but the next tier, the guys fighting for a spot at state or what have you, were often rather anonymous. You'd find out who your competition was on lap 6 of the 2-mile!
I was a coolrunning devotee. It was a bit less sophisticated, but also much friendlier. I do remember butting heads with Kevin Beck a few times with LRC-level hostility.
I went to coolrunning for their handy running log, and that led me to the forums. When it shut down, it left a hole in my life and made me vulnerable to letsrun addiction.
If you lived in New England, coolrunning was the site to visit, especially for results. Very easy to navigate. Now, all those results are long gone. What a shame.
I was a coolrunning devotee. It was a bit less sophisticated, but also much friendlier. I do remember butting heads with Kevin Beck a few times with LRC-level hostility.
I went to coolrunning for their handy running log, and that led me to the forums. When it shut down, it left a hole in my life and made me vulnerable to letsrun addiction.
If you lived in New England, coolrunning was the site to visit, especially for results. Very easy to navigate. Now, all those results are long gone. What a shame.
I remember being complimented after races that I hadn’t told anyone I was running. People just checked the weekend’s results all the time.
That other running message board that was online in the 90s? Any regulars that used to post there still around?
Malmo, Rojo, Wejo, me, anyone else? That was the place to discus distance running before LRC put them out of business.
I sure hope you didn't throw that discus at distance runners.
There was a good site started by some runner in Dallas that I actually heard of before letsrun. Someone from Houston would pop in and debate with anyone on both sides of an issue. Much to the tune of Sally Vix.
In the 80s at my 1st job we developed B&W film in the sink and toilet, used Nikon NT-3000 scanned at 2K pixels output at 120/240 line screen, transmitted over 1200 Baud Modem on Dial Up phone lines for print. Them were the good old days.
