Jog the rest ⏱

Lap 9: Sponsored by InsideTracker

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Coming for the throne 👑

Timing is everything on the track and Trayvon Bromell has that down right now. His 9.88 (+1.5) in Florida was a WL and we are officially entering the third act of what will one day be a great Hallmark movie. Following his 2016 win at Indoor Worlds in the 60m, the only hardware he brought home from Rio was a bum achilles. After missing virtually everything from 2017-2019, his comeback is setting up to be the feel good story of 2021. The US has 6 of the 7 fastest guys in the world this year and if I am going to root for anyone it’ll be the guy who has no doping allegations against him. In 2018 he donated $50K to help kids with their college tuition and I absolutely loved this interview he gave holding Coleman accountable for missing tests. He’s just an easy person to root for! Apologies if I’m asking for too much, but I’d like to celebrate an Olympic gold in the 100m without having to ignore the WADA/USADA-busted elephant in the room.

These pants were made for running 👖

Trust me, I’m just as surprised as you are that it took 9 laps before I mentioned my long time training partner and best friend, Johnny Gregorek. In 2019, his brother, Patrick, passed away following a long battle with depression and anxiety. So to spread a positive message of self-love during Mental Health Awareness month and to honor Paddy’s status as a true aficionado of physical comedy — Johnny set out to break the world record for the blue jeans mile. In the process he raised $50K for NAMI and ran a 4:06 in a pair of Levi 501s. With the support of ASICS, the blue jeans mile is back and it’s a fun and wonderful opportunity to raise money for a great cause. Yes, there is a live leaderboard (Sign up here). What started as a goofy blog entry has transformed into something much more meaningful with real-world impact. Based on Johnny’s experience, it’s about a 17 second conversion from your actual mile best and the chaffing will ruin your weekend.

Mexico dominates the night 🇲🇽

The night was filled with high winds and dramatic races at the Trials of Miles Kansas City Qualifier, a meet that was organized with the intent of providing US athletes an opportunity to chase the Olympic Trials qualifying times. But it was Mexico’s Laura Galvan and her quest to achieve the Olympic Standard that had the crowd on their feet and the commentators yelling. Her 15:11.35 was painfully close to the guaranteed entry that comes with a sub 15:10, but it was a 16 second PB and helps her case to get in via the esoteric ranking system. The ambiguity surrounding the qualifying procedures, from NCAAs and up, continues to be the most confusing part of the sport and can zap the celebration from what should-be a special moment. We like to know who is going to the Super Bowl when they make it. Fortunately her compatriot, Tonatui Lopez, had already punched his ticket. That didn’t stop him from lowering his own national record to 1:44.40 and jumping for joy afterwards. Special shoutout to him doing an interview in English afterwards. Despite taking Spanish for 8 years, while in Guanajuato for a race, I asked for my food to be ‘no caliente’ and justly received a cold taco.

I can do one of these 🏋️‍♂️

Like all great retired distance runners, I had ambitious goals to compensate for years of taunting about my chicken legs by getting really swole. For 10 weeks I followed a lifting plan, drank protein shakes and added a couple extra eggs to my diet. They say the first 3.5 lbs. is the easiest! I then stagnated hard, took a week off over Christmas and was immediately downgraded back from “lightly muscled pipsqueak” to “regular pipsqueak,” again. Now a motivational mirror talk is required before doing 10 push-ups. The same part of Ryan Hall’s brain responsible for running a 2:04 marathon is now being redirected to deadlifting 520 pounds and breaking 5. I can definitely still beat him in a mile, but probably not after 7 months off. My only hope is that he never directs his attention to writing track and field-specific newsletters.

Lights out racing 🔦

If no one can tell that it’s you running a PB, does it make a noise? The stadium lights temporarily cut out at the West Coast Relays this weekend, but the show had to go on! If there has ever been a race where pacing lights were needed, this was it. Instead, fans lined the track and shined their Instagram feeds onto the rail to help guide athletes along. And they ran fast! Sam Prakel won the men’s heat in 3:36 and led 9 collegiates under 3:40. If you’ve ever sprinted on a dark street after closing time then you know it feels like you’re jumping into hyperspace. (Maybe that’s just the performance enhancing, peripheral vision-blurring cocktails?) Luckily power was back on in time for the women’s steeplechase, where fans were able to actually see Courtney Wayment of BYU post a 9:31 and usurp the US lead. Food for thought: A collegiate woman has made the Olympic team every Trials the race has been contested.

(Check out the full Olympic Trials descending order list - HERE)

Another 5k WR*! 👀

What’s in a record? That which we call 14:39 by any other name would smell as sweet. Having a bit of a déjà vu, but this time it was Norway’s Karoline Grøvdal who broke the road 5k record that most likely won’t be ratified due to complications surrounding course certification. She is however a certified stud with 7th and 9th place finishes in the 5k and 10k in Rio, so it feels legitimate. Unfortunately, we just have to enjoy this performance for what it is. I propose we toss it into the same category as sprinters using wind-aided PBs or milers who convert their 1500. She’s certainly capable of it, but will have to do it again for it to count. Good to see Beth Potter congratulating her in the comments section!

The Olympic 35km Team 🇪🇹

The Ethiopian Olympic marathon trials were scheduled to be held in Switzerland, but due to COVID concerns and it just making way more sense, they instead took place in Ethiopia. On the women’s side, it was Tigist Girma who won in 1:59:23, but her sub-2 had more advantages than Kipchoge’s: it was 7km short — a precaution to protect the athlete’s recovery heading into the summer. If you consider the history of marathoning, the last 4 miles is basically a gimme anyway and nobody has ever fallen to pieces that late in the game. Much to the chagrin of his competitors, Shura Kitata not only won the men’s edition but said it ‘honestly was not that hard.’ The big controversy surrounds the absence of Kenenisa Bekele who opted out of competing, but could still be a discretionary selection. My initial reaction is that Bekele should be allowed to be on any Olympic team in any event he wants for the rest of his life. If he decided to sign up for the long jump at the 2032 Olympics then I wouldn’t protest. But his reasoning of the bizarrely-distanced trials being cold and at altitude seems weak. Is competing at 7,700 feet really altitude when the training center you built is situated at 9,000 feet?

Some thoughts on free streaming

This past weekend I had the chance to once again be involved with another Trials of Miles event with CitiusMag. By no means am I intending on becoming a professional commentator, but it’s something I’ve enjoyed doing since my career has winded down. It’s a great way to stay in touch with the sport and hopefully my insight can add some color to the broadcast. The YouTube format allows for a more informal and laid back presentation; one that is intended to speak to diehard track fans as opposed to a TV audience. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, primarily because it’s rare for a free stream to be so well-produced beyond the capabilities of a blurry cellphone. I mean there was the Hustle Clean drone for God’s sake!

Of course all the credit goes to Dave Alfano and Cooper Knowlton who stepped up multiple times throughout the last year to creatively find ways to help athletes race. But I think they have tapped into a replicable business model that could work at certain levels of professional T&F. With the right platform, it is remarkably easy to find 8-10 minor sponsors to help finance the costs of a meet. First off, there is legitimate exposure value of being able to speak directly to a very targeted audience. For a fitness-related brand to have the undivided attention of thousands of potential customers is theoretically worth its weight in ROI. Currently, the Austin Stream has 71k views and Koko’s race itself has 109k. All this from a channel that only has 5k subs. Imagine if Nick Symmonds hosted a legitimate professional meet on his channel to his 361k subscribers. He’s currently getting millions of views for setting up one off all-comers races while running high school level times (no offense Nick).

Then there are the patrons of the sport who just want to see it succeed. During the Austin broadcast my friend, Tim Kaijala sent a text saying he wanted to sponsor a race the next time around. He did exactly that! Then there was Do Right Roofing, an Atlanta based company whose Instagram has since been inundated with a couple hundred thank you notes from fans. This is the entire premise of the USATF Foundation — whose mission is to ‘raise money and give it to athletes’ and they’ve done that extremely well thanks to benefactors who are investing in the future of track.

In my experience hosting the Long Island Mile, we were able to put on a free livestream on RunnerSpace thanks to our title sponsor, HOKA ONE ONE. Then with the help of minor partners, ticket sales, merchandise and open races the prize purse amounted to $22,000+ and we still ended up (slightly) profitable every year.

Now this is not to say that every meet should be streamed for free - I have read the comments on social media from disgruntled and idealistic fans. Overall, the resentment towards RunnerSpace and Flotrack for a premium subscription model seems unnecessarily hostile. It’s easy to forget that they’re a business and their first priority is to make money - that’s allowed. It’s quality content and they’re constantly improving the viewing experience.

Would it make life easier if one acquired the other? Does it bother me when they don’t acknowledge races that were hosted by competitors? Yes and yes. But they’re covering multiple full day invitationals throughout the week. No one is going to sponsor the 5th heat of an indoor HS 4 x 200. Your subscription is subsidizing coverage for otherwise invisible meets. That’s an investment in the sport! Consider that these services are acting as a middle man. There needs to be an incentive for them to provide coverage for someone else’s meet, and that is the money raised via paywall. If you cut out the middle man (like with Trials of Miles) then the organizer is free to go the route of sponsorship and hopefully provide track to the masses.

My overarching point is that track and field is niche enough that the premium model is here to stay, but we can concurrently establish opportunities to expand viewership without a barrier to entry. Here is a metaphor: Track is trying to become the hip club in town, but there’s a stiff cover at the door. The bouncer needs to let some Instagram models in for free and then hire some promoters to attract new paying customers. Let people hear the music so they know how much fun we are having dancing inside!