The London Marathon is the premier event of its kind in the world, and has been for the last 10 years. Flora has somehow decided to put up the money to allow almost every one of the worlds best marathoners to toe the line and bash each other in the face for 26.2 miles. And it has been, if you know what you're looking for, incredibly entertaining to watch.
Here, in a real running area, the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland decides to put on a marathon that ends up being covered outside of the sports section? How is putting on a marathon not a sport?
Once again we see the difference between how people perceive a participation sport. I've long tried to figure out why there is such a disconnect between runners who run and those who might want to follow the sport. Does the weekend golfer thank that, but for a small change in form, he might be vieing for the Masters? And does the same runner look at the diminutive runners clocking repeat 5 minute miles and feel a complete disconnect?
Maybe its because we know that Football and Baseball and Basketball are all, when we purchase a ticket, sports that we're just going to spectate at. There is never any hope of us leaving the stands and joining the game. With runners, there are no track meets to go essentially, and road racing makes for poor spectating anyway, so its join in and run your own race or stay home and have another doughnut.
What are your thoughts? Would you ever go to a professional track meet? Or watch a marathon on television? And if not, why not?
I love watching premier marathons. On several occasions I have even gone so far as to set my alarm clock to wake up at obscure hours to follow along live. The only place I know of that you can watch full/live coverage is universalsports.com which you pay for to stream off the internet. In these cases my buddies and I typically pick somebody's house to order it to, and we make an event out of it; much like a superbowl party. I imagine there are other followers out there that love to watch such displays of athleticism, but maybe find it inaccessible due to the huddles of extra money and the time of day.
ReplyDeleteI would love for these events to be covered on TV more regularly, at reasonable times, and at no cost much like football, baseball, and basketball. This might not be likely, but a boy can dream can't he?