Hard from the gun ⏱

Lap 10: Sponsored by The Sit & Kick Podcast

The Sit & Kick Podcast is hosted by two professional T&F athletes and has one purpose: Do Track Differently. David Ribich and Josh Kerr interview differently, podcast differently and make a difference. Their perspective provides a different side of the sport that often isn’t seen in post-race interviews and provides a platform for athletes’ personalities to shine through. The conversations are casual, entertaining and full of banter. But these two jokesters are serious about changing the game and looking at the big picture. They’re going to be selling merchandise soon with the proceeds going towards sponsoring athletes, like their guests or even YOU!

Follow along on Instagram: @sitandkick or Twitter: @sitandkickpod

(Editor’s Note: This is genuinely a great podcast and worth putting in your rotation)

Let her represent!

If this past weekend is any indication there aren’t many people who can stop Sha’Carri Richardson from making this Olympics — and there similarly won’t be anyone who can tell her if she can or cannot protest once there. The IOC came out with a tone deaf declaration, specifically calling out Black Lives Matter and political demonstrations. (At least they’re not being shy in their directed racism— have we not learned anything since 1968?) But permission has rarely been present at the most memorable protests throughout history, and that’s what made them so impactful. (The Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro didn’t say ‘protests welcome!’) While it’s disappointing, hypocritical and against basically every aspect of the Olympic mission, this is the first half of an alley-oop. With so many Black American athletes once again poised to win medals, this is a unique opportunity to make a meaningful demonstration on the world stage. It’s impossible to depoliticize an event of this global scope and from a public relations standpoint, this will become a textbook example of the Streisand effect. People don’t forget!

This week in shoe news 👟

I know we are sick of spike talk, but are you not entertained?!? This is like if Ferrari said, ‘we are going to let our driver drive in the Mercedes car.’ We saw On make a similar announcement a couple months ago and it was worth commending them then and similarly, this is the right decision by Brooks now. The ‘Run Happy’ mantra is not dependent on spike sales and this is very much on-brand for them as being one of the good guys in the sport. Brooks has historically made top of the line competitive products, but the supply chain issues of the past year are very real and something every company has been dealing with. I’m sure their athletes are appreciative of this decision — it’s a lot easier toeing the line with confidence if you aren’t figuratively starting 5 meters back. With that said this is where you earn that contract extension — prove your loyalty to Warren Buffet and wear the Adrenalines for your next 800!

For the athletes by the athletes 🤝

We have seen the power athletes wield in other professional sports. Baseball players were merely pawns to be taken advantage of until the late 1960s when they unionized to create a players association that would renegotiate a more fair collective bargaining agreement. That has since worked out for them. In 2019 the Diamond League announced they were going to eliminate the triple jump, steeplechase, 200 and discus from the program. As you may imagine, this bothered Christian Taylor, the defending 2x Olympic TJ champion. He enlisted the help of Emma Coburn, who was obviously negatively impacted by this decision, and together they created an independent group called the Athletics Association. This week the membership program was launched, but it’ll only be as strong as the numbers behind it. The outrage from athletes led to a successful reversal of the Diamond League’s attempted revision — maybe we do health insurance next? At the very least it’d be nice to have some sort of sponsorship from an MRI company.

If you’re an elite athlete, sign-up HERE. If having a voice at the table and improving the sport isn’t important to you, then at least consider it because of the access it gives you to AthleteBiz’s YourNextSuccess program. Believe it or not, I have a real job outside of writing this dumb newsletter and it’s literally because of that.

Never change, track 🤝

How can we be certain that Craig Nowak will do his civic duties and report these earnings to the IRS? Every now and then you have to take a step back and just laugh at how goofy this whole thing is. Handshake deals and Venmo payments make the world turn, and professional track is no exception — Did you see how fast Ollie Hoare and Justyn Knight ran this weekend, again? You have a rabbit going through in 1:51 to thank for that. While the Australian and Canadian ran 3:33 up front, the Americans battled a few seconds back. Wynne, Gregorek, Prakel, Avila and Engels all packed up to run 3:36-3:37 with Pat Casey — who is one meaningful compliment away from having enough self-esteem to contend — winning the 2nd heat in 3:38.

Meanwhile, Friday night saw Yared Nuguse dive at the finish to run 3:35.96 and somehow thankfully, not fracture his collar bone in the process. Not to make this about my greatest accomplishment that happened 9 years ago, but I went to bed expecting that the (ahem, MY) American Collegiate Record would fall in this race. It’s inevitable that this crop of kids, cut from a different, much more expensive cloth will get it. Obviously I hope they never do as I am holding tightly onto the last bits my relevance.

Enough of the shoe talk! 🐊

‘Alright, I’m gonna show you how great I am, I’m gonna win it the hard way!’

Ok, so I saw this, assumed it was some sub-14 guy who lost his fantasy football league, and had a good laugh. I was teeing myself up to make another joke about super shoes until I went down the rabbit hole of researching Benjamin Pachev. The patriarch of his family, Sasha Pachev, is something of a Croc-running guru doing this is a joke. He legitimately prefers racing in Crocs and so does his whole family…of 13! That 14:47 5k performance was no fluke — Benjamin has also run a 71-minute half marathon in the crude oil compound. Sasha has posted on LetsRun regularly about his family’s croc-field feats and it’s genuinely fascinating stuff. A huge part of his reasoning is the economics behind it and the money saved, which makes sense given the length of his dinner table. In conclusion, no more complaining from bitter old guys about the super spikes.

Consistency is key 🔑

There are some records that will never be broken: Steve Scott’s 137 sub-4 miles, Wayne Gretzky’s 2857 points, Joey Chestnut’s 75 hotdogs and Ryan Crouser is now establishing something similarly untouchable in the shot put ring. The thing you have to understand about what makes Ryan so dependably exceptional is that despite being 6’7 and 320 lbs, he’s not throwing far just because he’s strong. (Although yes, he is comically strong.) It’s because he has remarkably sound technique, one that comes from growing up around generations of great throwers. Compare his tosses to Joe Kovacs whose departure angle is 7 inches south, but whose raw lifting numbers are a bit further north and you start to see why this event is shaping up to be a must-watch. I’d wager plenty of money that Crouser medals at the Olympics, but depending on the type of day he has, Kovacs may determine what color it is.

Because what’s one more DK Metcalf take? 🏈

Is there a greater representation of how hard the sport milked this spectacle than the race video NBC posted being 8 minutes and 45 seconds long wile containing just 10.37 seconds of action? First off, I had no idea who DK Metcalf was before he entered a track meet so this is a two-way street as he gained a fan in the process. The prevailing sentiment is that he out-kicked his coverage, but was unfortunately a first-half team. (How are my football analogies going so far?) Still, he’s very deserving of respect for showing up, and just as much so for the humility he displayed. While it was cool that lots of real-world famous people tuned in to root him on, I’d like to see a persistence report about who returns next week. My guess is we see a lot of attrition. While the idea of adding an average Joe (or a well-above average DK) to races is for some reason a popular suggestion to provide perspective as to how fast the fast people are, I don’t think it does anything to advance the sport. We need fans who are tuning in because Cravon Gillespie is on the line. So while this was fun, I don’t see the need to make this a regular thing.

Personality Pic 😎

It takes a certain amount of confidence to rock shades in a race, but even more to try running 3:58 from the front. Both are risky bets, but look extremely cool when executed properly! If there is one thing Elle’s career trajectory has demonstrated, it’s that winning an indoor NCAA title whilst training in the Vermont/New Hampshire winter is worth infinitely more than you think. College coaches recruit based on geographical bias all the time and for good reason: i.e., sub-9 in Michigan is worth more than a sub-9 in California. (No intentional shade to the 14 HS kids who broke 9 this weekend at Acadia!) As we patiently await Shelby Houlihan to make her 2021 debut, the theoretical battle between frontrunner and kicker makes Mary Slaney’s OT record of 3:58.92 seem within reach. Since the month of May fills us hopeless track romantics with speculative thoughts about who will ultimately persevere, let’s not ignore Kate Grace and Brenda Martinez reintroducing themselves with a pair of 1:59’s from the 2nd heat at the Golden Games. The best runners have a tendency to be at their best when it matters.

Live on Pay-Per-View - THE TRACK MEET

The experimentation in streaming track meets continues this weekend courtesy of Sound Running! First off, kudos to meet director, Jesse Williams, for getting TV time on ESPN Saturday afternoon from 11am to 12:30pm PST, and showing the fast sections of the 1500 to a national cable-watching audience (Full schedule!). But most of the distance fun is on Friday and Saturday night, which features a new option that will be foreign to fans: On demand race coverage for $5.99! This has long been speculated as an alternative to the monthly subscription and now we will get to test its viability. Can we collectively overcome the notoriously frugal spending habits of runners? Or is track just a terrible sport that no one wants to watch? Read Jeff Merrill’s argument why it’s a better investment than Dogecoin and tune in HERE. Maybe Jake Paul will be there!