Official 2014 Chicago Marathon Live Race Discussion Thread

TV coverage missing every major break/significant move during the race must be a new record - each and every one of them- all of them- not once were they able to record them.

I wonder when the traffic will return to mile one anyone have a report?

I am the casual viewer this coverage is supposedly geared toward and it was dreadful. The point about making it about entertainment versus hardcover race Coverage doesn't apply. There was nothing festivery shown - there was a lot of reporters saying how festive it is, buthe ithe wasn't shown. No this sucked for everyone not just the 1%.

I wish I hadn't watched this. This was just horrible.

Author: rojo

Subject: RE: Official 2014 Chicago Marathon Live Race Discussion Thread

Message:

Dewey_Runner wrote:

Yikes, Matt Llano 2:17:43, so much for that American debut record.

A new world record for a gay athlete. ;)

-Rojo

PS. We have so many other categories it's only a matter of time before that's one as well.

Pathetic Rojo, just pathetic.

Rojo, I am not inferring that a WR would have been run today! What I am saying is that the pacers did a poor job. Had they run say 1:01:50 by half and try to maintain that pace, the course record would have possibly gone down. I understand the weather factor but Kipchoge especially would have gone deep into 2:03, let there be no doubt!

About 1 mile away from the weather reporter.

Kevin52 wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

I mean I love watching her hair blow in the wind as much as any red-blooded American, but there is a race going on.

Where?

NBC Los Angeles wrote:

100,000 Win

500,000 Time Bonus

600,000 Appearance fee (Unspoken)

400,000 Nike Bonus (secret)

Appearance fee - $125K

Nike Bonus - $25k win , $10k time ( PR , course record , world record would have upped time bonus significantly )

rojo wrote:

Dewey_Runner wrote:

Yikes, Matt Llano 2:17:43, so much for that American debut record.

A new world record for a gay athlete. ;)

-Rojo

PS. We have so many other categories it's only a matter of time before that's one as well.

No it's not the new world record for a gay athlete.

Kapcherop wrote:

Rojo, I am not inferring that a WR would have been run today! What I am saying is that the pacers did a poor job. Had they run say 1:01:50 by half and try to maintain that pace, the course record would have possibly gone down. I understand the weather factor but Kipchoge especially would have gone deep into 2:03, let there be no doubt!

Check out Ghebreslassie's official 5K splits... there were perfectly consistent.

All they have to do is show some sort of tape delay/replay of the breaks.... Is that so hard to do?

They can show there little puff peace, then have Reavis say there was some action up front and mention something about the size of someone's balls, and then cut to the replay.

Or picture-in-picture showing the action...or...

It's called the windy city because of Chicago's politicians blowing hot air, not because it's windy.

Of course, it can be windy in Chicago, but it's not any windier than any other city in general.

What happened to Bekele?

rekrunner wrote:

But they know who Alicia Roman is? And they want to watch her say

"nothing going on here anymore at mile 1 -- let's talk about the weather -- hey no changes there either -- see you in a few minutes".

I mean I love watching her hair blow in the wind as much as any red-blooded American, but there is a race going on.

[/quote]

You are missing the point. I agree the coverage sucked. Even for hobby joggers it sucked with all that weather coverage and senseless topics.

But, our problem was not the weather discussion, it was them not showing us the race. It didn't matter if they went to a discussion of motion control shoes and hydration packs for 5k races. We still would have been complaining.

I recorded the Berlin marathon from 2 weeks ago and have re-watched it about 4 times already. I could NEVER re-watch this. There is no race to watch. Thank God the world record was not broken, it would have been such a waste.

History teacher wrote:

It's called the windy city because of Chicago's politicians blowing hot air, not because it's windy.

Of course, it can be windy in Chicago, but it's not any windier than any other city in general.

Bear in mind that these guys are such simpletons that they probably think that residents of Philadelphia have sex with their brothers, that Boston is composed of beans, and that New York City really does physically resemble a Golden Delicious.

Kevin52 wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

I mean I love watching her hair blow in the wind as much as any red-blooded American, but there is a race going on.

Where?

Eindhoven Marathon Netherland

Tilahun Regassa wins the 2014 De Lage Landen Marathon Eindhoven in 2:06:21

A couple of days ago I tried to watch the WR race at Berlin. I only found two German-Language coverages. Their coverage was EXCELLENT. Although I understand not a word of German, they were on top of the lead pack of men (7 of them right up to the 30k mark on WR pace - what a thrill). Then we watched the two pacers stop and the remaining lead pack of 5 soon got disintegrated when the two top finishes put "the pedal to the medal".

Their coverage of the lead women was also quite good.

Compared to todays NBC coverage - what a complete world of difference. I don't think you can defend NBC's coverage on the basis of "casual fans". I doubt they're less-casual in Germany than here.

The coverage of this year's Boston Marathon was equally if not more atrocious (with the endless repeated cutaways to previously "ultra-patriotic" fans).

You're conflating two separate things - participation and viewing. Viewers, regardless of the sport, want to watch the best compete. That holds true for runners - hobby joggers to elites. As for their participation -yeah, they don't much care what the elites are doing. They're focused on their own efforts. Same with any other sport. Don't defend the stupid status quo re: running coverage.

cpaiglesias wrote:

The difference between running and other major sports is that this is more of a participating sport. The majority of the audience today was hobby joggers, not couch potatoes drinking beer like the NFL audience. They watch because of the elites, hell in those sports they only ones participating during the event are the ELITES! So you have to have coverage for those hobby joggers who care about all kinds of things during a race but not the elite front pack.

That is why they can sell out races with zero elites. All you need is a rock band and clowns along the way. Disney sells their races in a heart beat with no elites. 99% of marathoners and hobby joggers don't care about who or what the elites are doing.

Just put in my 2 cents about the pukey race coverage. Perfectly consistent in missing every break in the race. What a joke. I wonder if Reavis, Ritz or Eyestone read these remarks. The whole thing is embarrassing. Bekele, perhaps the greatest distance runner ever, and we totally miss the story of him dropping off the pace, his finish, his finish time. Egads. The coverage was an abomination. But every year Chicago has this super-lame coverage. Talking to some nobody in the crowd while missing the best runners in the world battle it out. And we're supposed to feel lucky about seeing anything at all.

The Berin Marathon was on national TV there, this is just a local Chicago station