Month: August 2006

So this whole Floyd Landis thing has me all wrapped around a philosophical axel, so to speak. I’ve been working on this post for about 2 weeks, and can’t get it right. It starts off OK, but then degenerates. I’m leaving it here with my notes instead of just tossing it. Enjoy.

(ED – Hey, Bill, what’s with all this stuff about professional cycling)

(Me – I promise I’ll bring this back around to running. But isn’t cycling fitness, too?

(ED – Maybe, but WATCHING cycling isn’t.)

(Me – What if you’re watching it in December on the stationary trainer or the dreadmill? Huh? What then?)

(ED – Just make your point and move on)

(Me – Oh, I need to have a point? Wait one…)

Anyway, it’s got me wrapped around a philosophical axle that basically says to me “Why do I care? Why should I care? And, more to the point, what benefit do I get actually caring?”

‘Cause here’s the deal, see? The level of athletic prowess on display at the professional level nowadays is phenomenal, insane, out of this freakin’ world! Sure, they may be all hopped up on goofballs, but to paraphrase a quote from someone else’s blog (who stole it from the Simpsons), “Whaddya wanna see? A moral debate about the implications of doping, or would you rather see me hit some dingers*?”

“Dingers, Dingers!” we all shout.

And therein lies the rub. We do want to see the dingers. We want to see the legendary ascent of the Joux Plane, the 5 hour breakaway on a broken shoulder, and all that stuff that we wouldn’t do in our wildest dreams.

We want to see it.

And then blog about it, and then head down to the local pub for a plate of wings and a half dozen pints and some other folks who saw the same unforgettable event so we can yammer on about it while we watch the replay on 24 hour sports TV, sponsored by the DVD.

There’s a whole industry set up so that we can watch the unbelievable, then discuss, then market, and then replay. We fight to be the first to blog the next big thing, try to score tickets to the big game without realizing that we’re being counterproductive to the higher idea of “sport” as something that’s good for us all.

The sports entertainment industry doesn’t want us to actually play sports. It’s tough for us to generate ratings when we’re out on the road/track/court/field.

(Here’s where it degenerates into notes and incoherence)

– kids used to play at the sandlot, replaying big plays physically (“I’m Evel Kinievel”). Replay provided on demand now
– Smaller pool of talent competing for bigger bucks. Bigger incentive to cheat. No incentive in either atheletes or owners to catch cheats.
– For media, catching a cheat is good business. SO is covering the rehabilitation of a cheat: Don’t have to learn any new background, recycle the same talking heads

upshot:
– Moderation
– Go race locally
– Get your kids involved
– Actually, spend some time with your kids dis-involved. Let them play without coaches, leagues, etc. Kick them out in the yard.
– Coach someone.
– Get coached.

Examples of “big stories” in the RBF – individuals every day, exactly as compelling as pros. Your encouragement here can make a real difference, as opposed to adding to the noise.

* For the baseball deprived, a “dinger” is slang for a Home Run, a ball hit so hard it leaves the field of play, allowing the batter to run completely around the bases and score a run.

From another site everyone should read, even if they don’t think they’re geeks: Round 2: Dial Tone:

You can regard the history of the computer industry as pushing “dial tone” further and further up the stack. As Crichton noted, the rotary dial telephone was the first computer that allowed direct interaction between humans and computers. The personal computer pushed customer self service up the stack to programming, data processing, and eventually applications such as word processing and spreadsheets.

New applications often start out requiring operators, but eventually move towards dial-tone. For example, you can look at blogging as the “dial tone” equivalent of creating a web site. For ordinary folks (not most of my readers, but non-technical folks), creating a web site was something that required an operator. You went to a web design shop or an ISP and had them do it for you. The blogging revolution, the wiki revolution, the MySpace revolution, the CyWorld revolution, are really about providing a kind of self-service dial-tone for creating a web presence and community.

You can apply this to running, too. Fitness used to be something the rich did, as they were the only ones with leisure time. Then, it was the folks with athletic talent and access to limited facilities and training.

With the internet, we’ve all got access to the motivation and techniques of the greats. Want to run a marathon? Google it, pick a training plan, and plug into a support group.

DIY fitness. Nothing better.

Pencil in the date now: 21 August, 2006 – the beginning of the running world as you want it to be.

A while back, a couple of guys had a thought: Hey, there’s a bunch of folks running and writing about it out on the web.

Anyhoo, they’ve got a concept – start a spot with running advice and lifestyle info targeted at real runners – folks with real jobs, real commitments, and mundane, every-day challenges (like “How do I get out of bed in the morning to go run” as opposed to epochal challenges such as “I’ve just been diagnosed with cancer. How do I train to win the Tour de France”). Continue to build on the “wisdom of the crowd” but to consolidate and distill a little bit of that information into an easy to find, easy to use spot.

They’ve invited me and a grunch of other “old salts” of the RBF to write for the Complete Running Network. Frankly, I’m excited about it. I love reading my monthly Runner’s World, Outside, and other professional magazines, but in a way, I kind of feel like they’re geared towards folks with a much more single-minded drive than I have. The writing I’m planning on doing for Mark et al is going to be focused more on the transition from slacker to runner.

The rest of the regular cast should include:

• Anne from Run DMZ
• The one and only Mia Goddess
• Dianna, the Running Chick with the Orange Hat (as a personal note, meeting her at the 2005 Bluff Point twilight trail run is what changed me from being a jogger to being a runner. First race I really enjoyed)
• Jeff, The Amazing Hip – Amazing being the understatement of the century
• Dawn Dawn on the Run aka The Pink Lady Best photoblogger this side of a pair of sneakers
• Dr. Lee Miller
• Beverly of One Step at a Time – an actual writer, and funny as all-get-out
• Aaron Air-Run’s Running Blog (SEE ABOVE)
• Mark A Passion for Running (See above with slightly less hair)
• Jeanne Born Not to Run

Speaking for myself, I’m the first to admit that all I bring to the table is commitment and a love of sweat and shortness of breath. But smaller ideas with less passion have turned into bigger things!