The Olympic marathon trials are being held this Saturday in Houston Texas. This is the race that will decide the 3 Women and 3 Men who will go on to represent the U.S.A. in the Olympic games. Most people I’ve spoken with either don’t know or don’t care about the upcoming race. This is especially interesting because I work for a running shoe company. So how does the biggest race in 4 years go completely unnoticed?

The lack of interest in competitive running is a direct result of the complete failure of the USATF to market the sport in an effective way. Track is hardly televised and when it is, the broadcast is absolutely horrendous. Uninformed announcers, cutting to commercial break at critical moments of a race…it’s pretty much a how to guide on how NOT to run a successful broadcast. Compare a track broadcast to an NFL, NBA or MLB game and you will see what I’m talking about.

Another problem with distance running is that having swagger or any personality is discouraged and in many cases will land you a DQ. Do they think this will make the sport more popular?

Compare this to something people are actually excited about like the NFL playoffs. I live in New England so the big talk this week is about New England quarterback Tom Brady taking on the Denver Broncos rookie QB Tim Tebow. Tebow is constantly mocked in the media for being outspoken about his religious beliefs. This type of discussion keeps people interested in the game, even if they have never played football in their lives. It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree with Tebow and his religious beliefs, the point is – it’s this type of controversy that keeps people coming back for me. This is also interesting because the favorite to win the Olympic trials, Ryan Hall, is also mocked for his religious beliefs, only you wouldn’t know it unless you visit a running specific website, and even there you will have to check the message board as the main articles will rarely touch the subject.

Why? Simple. The marketing machine behind running in the U.S. is 100% focused on getting you to participate in a race and 0% focused on getting you to watch a race. I’m not saying this is a bad thing as It encourages people to get active and be participants so that’s good. It would be extremely difficult to charge a spectator fee for a marathon, but it’s easy to charge a participant fee. That’s why all of the marketing efforts go towards getting people to run the race, not watch the race.

It seems to make sense until you realize that marketing the top runners would, in itself encourage more people to run. How many kids pick up a basketball because they want to be like Lebron James? How many kids pick up a football because they want to be like Tom Brady? The marketing folks at the NBA and NFL fully understand that by hyping up the best athletes they will create a tremendous amount of interest in the sport itself. That’s why Tom Brady and Lebron James are swimming in cash, yet Nick Symmonds has to sell ad space on twitter.

Another challenge is the way the seasons are set up, in the sense that in running there really is no professional “season” to speak of. People get attached to the NFL, NBA and MLB because they can follow “their” team and “their” players over the course of a season. The excitement builds, growing stronger in the playoffs and reaches a pinnacle in the championship game or series. In track and road races there are a bunch of random races, some of them have “championship” attached to the name, some have “classic” but nothing really gels together to form a cohesive season. There aren’t even really teams. Sure there are grassroots running clubs that do a great job on the local scene fostering competition. I’m not saying nobody is trying here, just that the main organizations have been a complete failure in generating interest in the sport of running at the elite level. No teams, no interesting characters, no storylines and no trash talk.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. I don’t care that nobody cares about running. This post is not meant to be a rant on why anybody “should” care about running. I just find it fascinating that running is so popular in other parts of the world but not here in the U.S.

I’ve brought this up with people before and most people are under the impression that running is not popular because it’s boring. I don’t think that’s the reason. If broadcast correctly a track meet is incredibly exciting. 5,000 meter on the track going around, cut to pole vaulter trying to clear some gargantuan height, cut to long jumper flying through the air, back to the 5,000m with a lap to go. Definitely more exciting than golf and people watch that. Golf has characters that people either love, or love to hate. That’s what keeps them watching.

 In fact, people watch tons of boring crap on t.v. so I really don’t think that is the reason. I can guarantee that if someone put on a track meet with famous athletes from other sports people would watch and enjoy it. Imagine a few top NFL running backs up against a few NBA guards in a 100 or 200. Sprinkle some track athletes in there and you have tons of trash talking and excitement.

Basically, people will watch whatever has the best marketing, the best storylines, the best charecters, and the most personal meaning for them. This is another reason the NFL, NBA, and MLB have completely obliterated the USATF in the marketing department. I live near Boston so I’m a Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots and Bruins fan. How could I not be a fan of the BOSTON Celtics when I live in Boston? Yet in running we have a bunch of random runners running for random teams that nobody has any personal connection to whatsoever.

This post might seem harsh but consider this: The upcoming Olympic trials race is not being televised. There isn’t even a live internet stream. So even the 1,000 or so people who might actually be interested in watching the race can’t do so unless they travel to the event. It’s hard to build interest in the sport when the biggest race in 4 years isn’t even covered. Oh well, at least the Patriots are playing that day and that broadcast shouldn’t be hard to find. I’m sure any business with a T.V. will have the game playing. And to be clear, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m saying kudos to the NFL for doing a great job marketing and providing exceptional entertainment value to the fans.

What are your thoughts? Am I missing something? Why has interest in the sport of running declined so rapidly while participation in the activity has increased?

Some thoughts about Gurus, Kripalu Yoga, Chi Running and my recent race recap at the end:

Last week I had a wonderful experience teaching a Chi Running and Kripalu Yoga retreat at the Kripalu center in western MA. The reason I love Kripalu yoga is the same reason I love Chi Running...

Both approaches are a non-dogmatic inquiry based approach led by a community of people seeking to grow their understanding through experiments and experience.

This is very different than traditional yoga and running methods which rely very heavily on gurus telling people what they should and shouldn’t do. People generally recognize yoga as being guru based, but are a bit confused when I tell them running is not much different. Allow me to explain.

Once a distance runner enters high school they can expect most of their runs to be completely planned by a coach. This coach is most likely following the plan of either Arthur Lydiard or Jack Daniels, both of whom are regarded as top running coaches, and rightfully so. You can go on message boards and read the debates on which guru system is better, Daniels or Lydiard. There is very little emphasis on running by feel. Everything is structured. Everything is planned often months or even years in advance. Yet, somehow the runners miss the fact that they are blindly following the guru without much room for personal experimentation.

The huge irony here is that the same community that worships Lydiard and/or Daniels as their guru will criticize Chi Running for being a guru based system when actually the opposite is true. There is a reason the author titled the book “Chi Running” and not “Danny Dreyer’s running method.” It’s because he is trying to remove the guru system and offer the option of a run by feel method.  I’ve met at least 60 Chi Running instructors and all of them encourage personal experimentation, finding what works for the individual, and avoidance of cookie cutter training systems. This is in sharp contrast to the number of track coaches who have told me I *need* to do high mileage, or I *need* to do 400 meter repeats, or I *need* to do this, that and the other thing. Luckily, none of my own track coaches have had this approach, I’ve just had to hear it from other coaches in the community. I even hear it from other runners who have no credentials as a coach and have few, if any results to back up what they are saying.

Chi Running was not the first approach to talk about running by feel, but it has certainly had the largest impact. For many, running by feel is a scary concept.

Wait…you mean I should actually pay attention to the crazy stuff that’s happening in my body when I run? Forget that, just tell me how far and fast to go and I will throw on the headphones and grind my way through it.

The concept of a guru was once a huge subject at the Kripalu center. Kripalu started out as a guru based community, with Swami Kripalu as the guru, Amrit Desai as his main pupil, and a few dozen other students rounding out the close knit community. After Swami Kripalu passed on, Amrit Desai became the main guru. He was loved by the students and revered to the highest degree.

Then a scandal broke where the students found out that Amrit Desai had been having sexual relations with some of the students. It really rattled the Kripalu community pretty hard. So what did the community do? Sweep it under the rug? Find a new guru? Force Amrit to repent for his wicked ways? No. They asked Amrit Desai to leave and then took a long hard look at the community and how best to move forward. What they decided was to eliminate the guru system completely and have a community of yogis that are all viewed equally. The learning seemed to grow exponentially as the community shifted from 1 teacher/30 students to 30 student-teachers. This is why I love Kripalu yoga. Kripalu is one of the first yoga systems to completely do away with having a guru, and shift the focus towards personal experimentation and experience.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t experts and teachers. I’ve had the good fortune of learning from many of the long time Kripalu residents and it is very clear to me that I have a lot I could learn from them. I love learning from experts. I get turned off when a guru starts telling me I *need* X in order for Y to happen.

One of the phrases we use in both the Chi and Kripalu communities is “nobody knows your body better than yourself.” In my teaching I have found that this comes as a bit of a shocker to many. People have seen so many experts (gurus) and have been bombarded with so much technical jargon they think said guru must know their body better than them. It is my belief that you know your body better than anyone else. Chi Running and Kripalu yoga are both approaches that aim to help you gain greater understanding of your body in a format that makes it easy to share your experiences with the group so everyone can learn and grow together.

Recent Race Recap:

Christmas Weekend I was back at BU for another indoor track meet. I started off with the 3K and felt very good. I was in a faster heat this week and had some guys to work with. I ended up running 9:15 which is a 10 second improvement over the previous week. I then attempted to race the mile and this did not go so well.  I was feeling good through 800 meters when someone decided to run right into my legs, trip me up and send me flying into the track. Not cool. I walked off the track shocked at what had just happened. I then walked over to one of the officials and asked if I could run the 800 just to get a second race in for the day. He graciously let me get into a heat of the 800 in which I ran a 2:10. I felt relaxed but definitely had to work a bit to run that speed. Overall it was a good day despite the fall in the mile.

New years eve I was again at BU for the last meet of the series. The 3K felt pretty similar to the previous week and I managed to cover the distance about 4 seconds faster than the week before. I was happy that I at least got faster but was a little surprised I was only 4 seconds faster. I then gave the mile another try and for whatever reason I just didn’t have it. I ran a 4:43 which felt easy, but I thought I could have run faster than that. I’m not sure exactly what went wrong but I think limited sleep due to a busy holiday schedule was the main culprit.

For my next event I’m stepping a bit outside the comfort zone and running a half marathon on an indoor track. I really do not know what to expect from this event and that’s a good thing! I’m entering the race totally open to whatever happens. At the very least it will be a nice opportunity to get in a solid run in a warm, dry climate in the middle of winter. At best it will be a great chance to run a fast time on the controlled setting of an indoor track. The track is about 300 meters, so bigger than a normal indoor track, smaller than an outdoor track. The race is limited to 60 participants, so it shouldn’t be *too* crowded, but I imagine it will be somewhat crowded. Honestly, I don’t know what to expect. Things could get very messy if people start lapping other runners. Luckily the race is chip timed and your name is displayed on a t.v. screen each time you complete a lap. This way, my lap and times are taken care so I don’t even have to calculate how many laps I have left. If the race gets really messy I am not planning on forcing anything and weaving around a bunch of runners to get a fast time. If it stays relatively clean I will attempt to open it up a bit and see how fast my fitness will allow me to cover the 13.1 mile distance.