NO ONE CARES ABOUT OUR SPORT, NOT EVEN YOU!

Don't talk J about The-Rex and think he won't react. He is kinetic, fool.

Rexing is fast as hell, and trains like a beast.

I had to race Rexing one time and... Well... put it this way -- I am now in a wheelchair. Seriously...

vulture wrote:

I'm 60 years old and I was a fan of the sport since I was a little kid....What event is clean? Our top sprinters are dirty....The top distance runners of the world are dirty and beat the poop out of our athletes because most of them are clean. Everyone rags on our distance runners and gives them no respect or even encouragement for staying clean.

Now, I am a fan of individuals and not the sport. I will cheer for Sully, Dragila, Nelson, and others that I choose. I will not follow or cheer for our top sprinters, any of the world leaders in the distances, or any Russian woman.

I have to agree with you on many points...not all, but many. The sprinters are dirty...no lie. I wouldn't cross the street to urinate in the mouth of a sprinter if their teeth were on fire.

I think North American distance athletes, however, are getting better and will eventually return to the top tier...not because the rest are dirty, but because North Americans are learning that training hard and smart will get them there.

As for being a fan of the sport, I don't think I can ever be one, as long as the major broadcast networks and cable channels of the world fail to show more than dirty sprinters and two minutes of a distance event. Just put the frickin' races on without trying to make a human interest story out of everything, idiots...there are people who would love to see a good track meet on the tube.

One thing that bothers me: most people run in some form or fashion. my parents jog or run on a treadmill at the ymca. friends run to stay in shape or maybe to train for their other sports. so there should be a fairly ubiquitous, basal level of appreciation for the effort required to be good at this sport. with that appreciation it seems likely that a certain awe/respect for those who are truly amazing at this sport should follow. so why isn't the sport more well received? not everyone can appreciate how hard it is to hit a 90+ mile and hour fastball (which is damn hard), or how hard tennis is, but running seems so much easier to appreciate. yet those sports get their due respect, and yet ours doesn't? grant it, the general public isn't out there pouding out the miles, so they don't truly have any clue, but i think enough is there for an appreciation that should precipitate a greater "popularity" for running. who knows?

Jogging on the treadmill down at the Y is to elite running as a lazy house cat is to a pissed off tiger. There's no connection becuase they're two totally different things.

You should not have even mentioned Rexing in this thread if you didn't want the focus to be on him.

He's just that sweet.

I'm not sure I agree about everyone but our distance runners being dirty, but I'm also not sure I don't agree. That said, I also am nowhere near as interested in the sport as I was 20-30 years ago and I attribute that loss to two things: the disappearance of the collegiate dual/tri meet and the disappearance of actual racing, especially at the "highest" levels of the sport. I can not get excited about the possibility of watching Geb or Kenney or El Guerrouj outside of the Olympics or WCs because I know good and well that I'll be watching a time trial where an army of rabbits will try to drag these guys along to a record time rather than a race where they might have to think about tactics or do some early leading.

Also, to be honest, I don't find today's professional athletes as interesting as I did the "amateurs" of the past. There was something inspiring about seeing a George Young or Ron Hill fit their training and racing into the available time and I think it gave them dimensions to their personality that rarely exists among today's pros who do nothing but train and nap.

? wrote:

....there should be a fairly ubiquitous, basal level of appreciation for the effort required to be good at this sport. with that appreciation it seems likely that a certain awe/respect for those who are truly amazing at this sport should follow. so why isn't the sport more well received? not everyone can appreciate how hard it is to hit a 90+ mile and hour fastball (which is damn hard), or how hard tennis is, but running seems so much easier to appreciate. yet those sports get their due respect, and yet ours doesn't? grant it, the general public isn't out there pouding out the miles, so they don't truly have any clue, but i think enough is there for an appreciation that should precipitate a greater "popularity" for running. who knows?

Much has to be said about the televising of Olympic track and field events, marathons, and so forth. Many of the camera angles, until recently, failed to show the actual speed elite athletes are traveling in the course of a competition. The use of golf carts and 'sprint cams' along the front and back straights of tracks gives a great appreciation, I think, to the beauty of form and the sheer quickness of the near-four-minute-mile pace.

Has the 'democratization' of the marathon diminished the appreciation of the general public at just how HARD it is to run 42.15 kilometers? I think so. Permitting the general public to walk the entire marathon distance makes those who do not walk or run for exercise to think that ANYBODY can do a marathon.

Running is harder for the general public to appreciate because:

1. There is something so elementally simple about the act of placing one foot in front of another, repeatedly, as quickly as possible...anyone can do it.

2. With the exception of school cross country and track meets, running is perceived as an individual sport. It's hard for someone in America to be a fan of an individual sportsman...even NASCAR realized that the pit crew and crew chief was elemental to the success of the individual driver. Some of the biggest NASCAR races in the past couple of years have introduced the pit crews as part of the line-up before the race.

Perhaps if there were groups of athletes (like track clubs) competing in both individual and team meets sanctioned by IAAF/USATF/RRCA/ARRS, etc., that were televised in the manner they are in Europe...?

HRE wrote:

I'm not sure I agree about everyone but our distance runners being dirty, but I'm also not sure I don't agree. That said, I also am nowhere near as interested in the sport as I was 20-30 years ago and I attribute that loss to two things: the disappearance of the collegiate dual/tri meet and the disappearance of actual racing, especially at the "highest" levels of the sport. I can not get excited about the possibility of watching Geb or Kenney or El Guerrouj outside of the Olympics or WCs because I know good and well that I'll be watching a time trial where an army of rabbits will try to drag these guys along to a record time rather than a race where they might have to think about tactics or do some early leading...

Ah. So let's kill the rabbits. No more pacesetters. Let there be 'real' racing.

HRE, you said everything I was going to say (thanks).

People want to watch competitions between athletes or teams they know and recognize. Think back to the Hayward Field glory days at Oregon when the stands were full and the crowd was rockin' - they came to see "their Ducks" beat the hated WSU Cougars. Now there arent' even dual meets. Only the most dedicated fan can follow what the heck is going on in multi-team invitationals, and that's not much fun.

hey, do me a favor, leave the Once A Runner references out of it. come up with something original.

No lie. Perhaps that's another reason no one cares...we're all borrowing from Parker.

The truth is, no one cares about you Runner XYZ!! Oh yeah..and smoking kills.

American doesnt embrace running because it is boring to watch

Why should we give a rip if running is popular or not? I mean, yea getting attention is great but last time I checked there was more to running and endurance sports than chicks and money. Wait. Chick and money? If running becomes popular I might actaully get some! Ka'Ching! That means I wont have to pull a Mayeroff and move to Asia then! YES! RUNNING HAS TO BECOME MORE POPULAR!

Sad and very true. Seriously, the announcers generally suck compared to those on other sports broadcasts and have very little to say besides "Kosgeikiprock looks very strong" and "Put a slice of bread on your foot and go to the local track..." filler. Watching 15 skeletal guys running down a street dumping water on themselves and blowing snot rockets is not good television. Plus runners are pretty boring. No one tunes in to hear Joe Distance talk (between gasping breaths) about how he felt good, the training went good, his coach had a plan...blah, blah, blah.

No excitement, no trash talk, no epic journey personal stories = no wide audience.

The Law, Twisted wrote:

Sad and very true. Seriously, the announcers generally suck compared to those on other sports broadcasts and have very little to say.

Speak for yourself. Carol Lewis is probably the most profound sports announcer in sporting history. She really knows how to call the Boston Marathon!

A lot of people care about running but rarely will you find them on this board. On rare occasions you may see good threads here, but most of the time…well just see the index.

Most on these boards dont want to say it, but an easy way to reach out is to all those first time participants, and dare I say, walkers as well. Instead of bitching and complaining about walkers and having an inferiority complex as to who is considered a 'marathoner'(like people really give a crap anyway), be glad they are they in the same race. If they werent, most local races would have about 20 people.

Pat yourself on the back since you trained so hard, so many miles and are a true marathoner in your book(cause no one else will)- and dont be condensending to those not as serious. The reason many runners dont care so much about the sport is the elitist attitude of so many.

most anybody can run a marathon if they want to.