Where are the Superfans?

Medtronic Twin Cities 10 Mile

The Medtronic Twin Cities 10mile/ USA 10 mile championships were a pretty good race for me. I ran an 11 second PR covering the 10mile course in a time of 55:09.  I say it was only a pretty good race and not a great race because I know I could have run faster…probably able to break the 55min barrier. However, I had about a half mile, just after the 5mile mark, where I had a lapse in my focus. I had decided against wearing my arm sleeves and opted for just gloves. For that half mile, midway through the race, all I could think about was how cold and tight my arms felt. My pace slowed and the lead pack put some distance on me. Once I realized what I was doing – letting negative thoughts dictate my race – I snapped back to attention. I told myself, “relax your upper body, take a deep breath and run.” And that is exactly what I did.  Once I relaxed my arms and hands they didn’t hurt anymore and they actually seemed to warm up and I was able to get back to business. Unfortunately the damage was already done. I spent the next 4 ½ miles chasing the pack that was slowly disintegrating in front of me. I ran hard catching three runners and getting to within 8 seconds of the ladies in 4^th and 5^th place before I ran out of real-estate. Darn! 

Overall it was a pretty good race – 6^th place, a new 10mile PR and a pretty nice payday for a non-marathon road race. I can attribute the payday to the great organization Twin Cities in Motion which has a deep passion for runners.

Payday

Speaking of paydays, have you read the blog by Toni Reavis, who is touted by Runner’s World Magazine as the ‘most insightful and funny talking head in running’?  The blog is titled Dear Nick Symmonds in response to Nick’s new Facebook page that asks: “Could someone please explain to me why NASCAR drivers can have literally DOZENS of ads on their competition uniforms, cars, etc. and track and field athletes are FORBIDDEN to have ANY corporate logo on their warm-ups or competition uniforms?   Track and field athletes are not even allowed to put corporate logos on their arms as temporary tattoos. These asinine rules have been created by our governing bodies USATF and IAAF and are crippling our sport by preventing the flow of dollars into it”.

There is some very interesting chatter going on in the running world these days about sponsorship dollars in the world of professional running. You can read the article which hits too many points for me to summarize here and form your own opinion, but here are my thoughts:

I am not discounting Nick Symmonds’ or Toni Reavis’ arguments at all; I think their arguments are valid. However, I believe that the lack of sponsorship dollars flowing into track has more to do with our inability to convert Joe and Jane Jogger into superfans than it does with USATF or IAAF sanctions.  Nick and Toni compare our sport to NASCAR, but the only similarity between running and NASCAR that I can see is that they both race in circles. I think that track and field is more similar to the sports of golf and tennis with high fan participation at the amateur level and a deep sense of history and class. So how do the PGA and the USTA manage to pull in millions of dollars for their athletes at every tournament? Is a 4 day golf tournament or 2 hour tennis match really any more exhilarating than a 10,000m race? Not really, and yet these athletes make millions wearing a limited number of logos. The reasons that fans watch golf and tennis is that their competitions are televised on major networks and the commentators are entertaining and knowledgeable to listen to.  Commentators help make the events fun to watch even when there might be a lull in the competition. Plus, these sports have well-known and decorated champions that come out to compete head to head at almost all of the major competitions. So how do we add these elements to the sport of running to get Joe and Jane Jogger to care?

I think small steps have been made with the formation of the USA Running Circuit and the Visa Championship Series. Media coverage by organization such as RunnerSpace and Flo Track has helped connect small pockets of superfans around the US in cities such as Eugene and New York City to their elite athletes. But we need more!

How do we convert all of those thousands of runners who run in events like the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, the Gate River Run 15K, and the Peachtree 10K to actually care about the professional aspect of the sport?

With this food for thought I bid you adieu.

NEXT race four weeks…the Dash to the Finish Line 5K in NYC!!! (Saturday before the ING New York City Marathon). I can’t wait!

P.S. If you don’t have this month’s copy of Runner’s World, you should pick one up because yours truly is in it!