If A runner sets a WR in the woods, does anyone care?

So the best runners in the world started to warm up in the snowy conditions of Scotland with some intro cross country racing. Galen Rupp, a 2008 Olympian, and second fastest American ever at 10,000 meters was second in the non-African race. World XC is coming up, the single best race in the world for runners.

I know that you’re pumped up, right?

And if you’re reading this, perhaps you are, but the real likelihood is that you have no idea who the hell I’m talking about, nor do you care. Running has a marketing problem, and it is one that, as a sport, hasn’t been addressed for a long time. The people who control the sport have very different ideas of what they think works on TV, and since they’re the ones with the money, they get final say. And, it appears, that they’ll be content with watching the meager ratings that the sport gets as it slides deeper into obscurity.

I have a ton of ideas how the sport could be marketed better, but that’s a blog post for another time. Here is the other side of coin: unlike a lot of other sports, running for so many people has nothing to do with ”sport” and everything to do with losing weight, getting a little time alone, getting time to talk with you friends, getting out in the fresh air, getting away from it all. Its about personal time, personal fulfillment, following doctor’s orders, seeing the scenery. Its no wonder that these people have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Rupp’s placing in a snowy cross country race. Unlike your weekend football athlete who, I guarantee you, has an opinion about the Ravens-Steelers game this weekend, your weekend runner doesn’t even want to see competition anywhere near him or her. Their interest is in everything but.

And while its too bad, I understand that. I don’t mind shoot a basketball, but watching an NBA game is like a sleep drug. I don’t understand much about the game and, frankly, don’t bother to. So discussing mile splits and training stints at altitude for Ryan Hall is not likely to excite the ardent Duane Wade/LeBron fan either. But I wish that there was some middle ground, some running events that were so well broadcast that it could turn non-fans into fans simply because the drama, the very thing that we most want to see in sports, is so intense.

At the first of the year, people started to post their bests lists, and a frequent one was the best race of the last decade. Instead of posting a top ten list, I’ll name one: the 2002 London Marathon. How many races unfold exactly the way that you wish they would? That, in the end, you would have the world record holder in the 10K running stride for stride with the world record holder in the half marathon, right behind the often injured world record holder in the marathon. That these three men would hammer it out to a new world record in the end? I can honestly say that I don’t believe that we have ever seen the world record holders in those three distances ever go head to head when healthy in the history of the sport.

More on the 2002 London Marathon in the next post…