LESS THAN OUR BEST ANNOUNCES NAME CHANGE

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A Ph.D in Being a Prick

Interesting tidbit I stumbled upon over at RunnersWorld.com - their "Running Doc" talks about the perception among doctors that runners tend to be stubborn and have egos. And, frankly, I get where they're coming from: sometimes my pet chimp complains to me and accuses me of getting my body hair all over the couch, eating all the bananas and throwing my feces at him.

I dated a girl in college who was Pre-Med and she asked me why I thought doctors were worthless. I explained how the summer prior, I had heel pain and went to a doctor. I think it's plantar fasciitis, I said. I have really flat feet. My brother has had it. The pain diminishes a little when I stretch my calves, but never totally goes away.

He examines my foot. Says, No, you just have a worked your heel to the point of acute soreness, that's all. Let's take an MRI, though, just to be safe.

I get a phone call a week later.

Obviously, you see where this is going. But what galled me was HOW he diagnosed my plantar fascitis: I'm taking a look at your MRI. I think you have something called [speaking slowly] plan-tar fa-sci-i-tis. It often occurs in people with feet as flat as yours.

Hold on, Doc, can you give me that again? Let me get a pen so I can write it down. After reading this Runners World column, I realize that as soon as I left the room after my initial visit, this guy probably called up his buddy from med school and was like, "You'll never believe the asshole I just saw..."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some potassium-rich feces to go throw.

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Watch You Some Running

Courtesy the (confirmed) Track Superfan, an indispensable tool for anyone looking for a little broadcast running coverage. Waaaay cheaper than buying TiVo.

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Sunday = Funday

It was cool and sunny. Cheerful people wall to wall in Manhattan. Really, I don't know if you could ask for a better NYC Marathon. Sunday really was a great day to be a New Yorker.

I have to admit that I had toyed recently with the idea of moving back home to the Midwest where there is space between the buildings and, ya know, grass. But being in and around the city Sunday, with the gorgeous weather and the streets rife enthusiasm... it kind of makes you fall in love with New York all over again. The day benefited from that weather and a couple of great races -- despite the Trials eunuching the bi-annual AN AMERICAN HASN'T WON A MAJOR MARATHON IN 25-PLUS YEARS IS THIS THE YEAR? screeching -- most notably Paula's dual with that Ethiopian woman. They even had a one of those boats spraying water in the air at the start! How can you not feel got about that?

How the coverage was I couldn't say, but being there was one of the better running-related experiences of my life, even in my fourth year as a spectator -- you would think I'd be over the initial infatuation. It was enough to have me whistling jauntily with ye old iPod and feeling pretty sure that I could wait awhile longer to pull up the tent stakes. Of course, fast-forward three hours and the downtown 1 train was not running (with no reason given), forcing me to walk to Penn through Times Square and swearing the what this city needs isn't bus lanes, but "New Yorker" lanes on Midtown sidewalks. And sure, earlier that day, some guy in the crowd at the Queensboro Bridge turned to my group and asked "What marathon is this?" But nevertheless, Sunday was a great cap on a great weekend for New York, and, I believe for our sport.

bjw and I will be breaking down the Trials and the rest of the weekend shortly.

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Video: Fam on the Marathon Trials

Part Two of our Monday night interview with the man they call Fam. In it, he breaks down the buzz in New York over the Trials, why he chose not to enter and what event he WILL be running at the Trials in Eugene, and what he expects to see from Saturday's race itself.

Click To Play

(Click above to play. Hi-res version over on our blip.tv page - Part 1 here.)

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Watch You Some Running Tonight

TV alert, from Alison Wade over at EliteRunning.com:

A feature on Macharia Yuot (who also got some love from the NY Times) airs tonight on ESPN. And NOVA is airing programming looking at a few members of the, shall we say, "less elite" contingent at Boston.

And speaking of visual coverage, check back right here, to this very site, this very evening for our exclusive interview with the man they call Fam.

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The Voice of a 7:30 Apologist

True story: I went to see The Darjeeling Limited last night (very average, and I'm generally a big Wes Anderson fan), at the AMC theater just west of Times Square. Walking through Times Square (also known as Satan's Asshole), the streets were packed (nothing new) and everyone was standing stock-still and staring up at the buildings (unfortunately, also nothing new). What struck me, though, was that everyone was standing there staring in the same direction: they were watching a giant monitor broadcasting some sort of live classical music performance. OMG! Times Square! They have TELEVISION there! That's right: everyone was standing around watching TV.

Meanwhile, the buzz/outrage has been quite fervent over at Letsrun. While I suppose some of the complaints about the planning/marketing of the Trials are semi-well-founded, I think it's a little early to get our knickers all in a twist. Yes, 7:30 is an EARLY start. Yes, it makes it impossible for West Coasters to tune in at a natural waking hour. And folks in NJ and Connecticut have a heck of a commute on their hands. But I think it is a little lazy of critics to simply assume the NYRR, as experienced a race-management organization as you can find, picked that start time via a late-night game of Yahtzee while in a collective haze of Jack Daniels and mai thais.

You have to stop and think: why 7:30? Find out just that, after the jump.


7:30am. There has to be SOME reason, and it ain't avoiding the heat. Well, there are two obvious ones: to get on The Today Show, and to be able to run through Midtown, including Times Square. Is it worth it to have the entire event so early just for that? Well, at face value, those five minutes, that one pre-Central Park mile probably make it seem like it a middling plan, at best. But I think it's worth a closer look.

Why did I mention my experience in Times Square last night? The point is this: the tourists in Times Square will stop and watching ANYTHING. They stopped and watched television, hardly a brand-spankin'-new technology at the ripe age of 100+ years old. There will be plenty of people in Times Square at 7:30 next Saturday. Speaking from personal experience, I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of people outside The Today Show studios near the starting line, at 7:30. Plenty of people in the neighborhood around Rockefeller Center. I don't think this is a terrible scenario - there will be barricades on the streets. A police caravan. Maybe even a truck of some sort playing music and trying to fire up the crowd. OF COURSE the tourists out and about in Midtown are going to stop and watch all along the first few miles of the course.

So here's what you'll have:

-- The 5 Million people who normally tune into Today but would not otherwise watch the Trials on TV will be watching the start and early portion of the race. Yes, 5 million.
-- The first mile of the route will be passing some of the most recognizable landmarks in the United States, with tourists lining the barricades throughout.

What sort of message does this send to those 5 million viewers, even if only for five minutes? That this is a huge event. That distance running in America is (can be?) a marquee sporting event. A spectacle. Slap the word "Olympic" on the event, to boot, and I think you will make quite an impression on those viewers. Then you cross your fingers and pray that some of those folks will bounce over to NBCsports.com to watch the stream because they were intrigued. And if the availability of the stream isn't mentioned on The Today Show that morning, and during the early coverage, I would be absolutely shocked. (FWIW, I do think, this is where things break down, because you're asking the viewer to make a special effort AND to do something they might not be used to doing - watching a TV show streamed online)

So no, 7:30 is not conducive to the quote-unquote "casual fan of elite running" to attend the marathon. But: have we ever established that such a person even exists? Would New Yorkers be coming out of the woodwork to watch a small number of elite marathons compete, if it were 10am? 1pm? Would casual fans be tuning in? There is really no precedent to show that such would be is the case. You have diehard fans, you have runners, and you have everybody else, and the early start time, believe it or not, is squarely aimed at notching the biggest possible viewership from the "everybody else."

After being carried by tourists over the first mile, once in the park, you will have the die-hards out in force. However, the numbers here remain to be seen. After one crit-loop is done we're looking at about about 8:15am. Maybe a volume of Sunday marathoners begin to trickle out for their shake-out run. Another loop, 8:40. Friendship Run participants start showing up. Another loop, 9:05. Tourists have begun to show up in Central Park at this hour, not to mention plenty of walkers/joggers who, again, should, in theory, be disposed to stop and watch. Thus begins the final loop.

In that little breakdown - diehards, runners, hoi polloi - there lies the real question mark in all of this: are all those folks who are in town to run NYC on Sunday going to attend the Trials on Saturday? This is, I believe, what the NYRR is banking on. They have scheduled the International Friendship run for 9am that morning -- I imagine, in an effort to get a few thousand people into Central Park: people of a demographic we all imagine should be predisposed to watch a marathon, if anyone is. Whether this tack succeeds or fails depends on how many people will be willing to curtail their sleep two nights before their own marathon to get up at 7am and watch the Trials. A dicey proposition at best, if you ask me. Personally, I expect we won't see significant numbers straggling over to the course until 8:30 or 9. But this is where the whole project, as a spectator event, will succeed or fail.

If things break right, if the weather is as beautiful as it can be in New York at this time of year and people want to be outdoors, this could be a spectacular event. Still, I'm not so naive to expect that it will be -- there are a couple of MAJOR "ifs" in there, between the number of diehards in NYC (I think this number has probably been vastly overestimated by the NYRR) or who are willing to travel to NYC , and the number of Sunday marathoners who will turn up. But if the planners' plans come to fruition, the start will come off like a NYC-sized spectacle... and the finish of the race will be viewed by a crowd that has steadily grown into an impressive mob.

Treu: it might not play out that way. But I just don't see a way that a better scenario could be guaranteed.

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Welcome to Trials Week

Here we are: a week out from what has been billed as the greatest localized weekend of distance running in the history of the galaxy. The Olympics pale in comparison. The World Championships grow sick with envy. A week from today, the IOC will collectively commit hari kari after they realize their blunder in awarding the 2012 Games to London with their bad food, crappy weather, and kindergarten-quality puce-and-yellow logo.

And we are going to be there for all of it. Especially the collective hari kari. (Our tickets to France are already booked, and hopefully we'll even get to assist!) Sure New York is crowded and messy and dangerous and 6.5 days out of the week we wonder why we're living here... but now it all becomes worth it as we can access all of the events of the coming weekend, and get a gyro from that guy in the truck over there, to boot. And since we're in the area we'll be doing a lot of quote-unquote "coverage": the Trials, Bad Boy, INGNYC, the St. Jude's Hospital 5k Run/Walk... the works. We'll be weighing in with a look at the Trials field, your cut-the-crap guide to visiting to NYC on this glorious weekend of running, hopefully a little video, and definitely plenty of photos of each event. So check back often.

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What is Wrong, Wrong With American Distance Running

Public: Can some random person please make an obvious, worn out point about what should change in American distance running to make it more popular?

ME: Ok, I will.

I love these people who think they need to tell the world via internet how things would be better for all distance runners if they were running the show. They are simple-minded egomaniacs who need to realize that "American distance running" is not some lumbering beast blindly wandering around, just waiting for someone to point him in the right direction.

What is wrong, after the jump.

Seriously, here is what is wrong with American distance running:
This ad is hanging up around NYC. Subways, buses, the usual. It is lame as hell. I can see my Grandma designing this ad. Nana loves Lady Liberty. Unfortunately, Nana is not who we want to get excited about the trials.

Leading up to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which was in NY, there were posters in the same spots with pictures of Roddick, Federer, Serena, Sharapova, and the other big stars looking all young and hip. Commuters had some young, good looking individuals to look at while waiting for their train and, in the process, learned that the U.S. Open was going on and if they wanted to be hip, they should check it out.

No one in New York is going to be attracted to a picture of the statue of liberty, unless they just got here from 19th century Poland.

I am convinced that the trials deserves a similar marketing technique. Instead of using some no name Runner's World model, put up a picture of Ryan Hall crossing the line in Houston, Meb with his silver medal, or Abdi licking a sneaker. Maybe even put their names and some information about them underneath their pictures. Then, some people might actually know some names of the guys running in the race on Saturday, which is usually a prerequisite to cheering for them.

Of course, simply creating a different print ad is not going to make drastic changes, but this principle can very easily be extended to other ways usatf and big events like the NYC marathon can promote the sport. The USTA, the association that puts on the the aforementioned U.S. Open, is a remarkably conservative and unhip organization, but they successfully market their events and players as the opposite, which is to say young, exciting, and fashionable.

One of the first things that can be done to generate excitement is to promote the individuals and give them a personality or, rather, to give them a chance to let their personalities shine through. Well, there are some cases where we should probably just give them one (Anday Rownbay).

Either way, give people a chance to learn the differences between runners and then let them choose sides. Whether they love or hate how cocky one runner is or how humble another runner is, they at least have some sort of preference to the outcome of the race. Every type of contest is more exciting if you care who wins or loses.

For instance, I only like watching soccer during the World Cup because I want the U.S. to do well. Other times, the sport is rather dull. I also only like watching fights when I want someone to get beat on real bad. This is the principle that needs to be used to market the sport. We have to get some runners to be hated and others loved. (by the way, I was just making that one part up to make a point...I really like to watch all fights, especially in public places.)

I realize that I have slowly rolled away from my original point about the ad. Basically, distance running is an individual sport. The individuals need to be at least recognized before anyone cares if they do well or not. A print ad hanging up all around the city would be a significant step in that direction.

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Sensationalism Beats Out Sensational Finishes

I admit: I typically get excited to check major marathon results to see only a) if an American had a huge race, or b) if there was a world-record or near-world-record performance turned in. So with a WR newly-minted and the Marathon Trials nigh one month from now, leaving few elite Americans at Chicago, I didn't even make a point to look up the results while out of town over the holiday weekend.

I first heard anything about the marathon on the evening news that I just happened to be watching - not my typical source of running information. And what did they cover? The medical issues caused by the heat. I was aghast that they didn't even MENTION the winner. Now that I'm come back to civilization, and have the seen the videos of the finishes, I'd even aghaster. How can you not spare 15 seconds to cover these races? On the off chance you haven't seen them, here is the terrific men's finish, and the equally dramatic women's finish. Reflecting back on last year and all the attention Cheryiout's fall got (it even made PTI), the coverage of THIS year's Chicago Marathon only drives home the point that the anchors and producers of American's sports news prefer sensationalism over real human and competitive drama.

I only wonder if the average American sports fan sees this coverage and wonders to himself if there was any story beyond that nasty fall or this even nastier heat.

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First things first...

Let’s get this out of the way right up front: yes, you are faster than us, so no, our opinions are not as valid as yours. Now that that’s cleared up, we’d like to take a moment to thank those folks slower than us, for providing us with opinions against which ours still have credence. So, Thanks a million. To both of you.

Seeing as this is our first post, I feel like I should say something to kind of, you know, lay out the premise of this little webpage here. But, you know what... you're going to figure it out pretty quickly anyway, so I won't bother.

OK, I caved and I’m ashamed of how quickly; but frankly, I felt I'd be remiss if I didn't frame this guy at least a little, as a sort of public service. So, here goes: in short, this is your one-stop shop for under-informed commentary on all things distance-running-related, brought to you with little effort and even less impartiality. And, most likely, an overabundance of semi-colons and ellipses. So if you don’t like Wordsworth or Dickinson, you should go find yourself another one-stop shop for under-informed, lackadaisical and completely biased commentary, tough guy.

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