Sunday morning brings us San Francisco's biggest contribution to the world of running, the ING Bay to Breakers. This year's race will be my fourth B2B and my goal is a top 5 finish. Fifth place has been around 4:45/mile pace for the past few years, which seems like an ambitious target given my current fitness.
Former Nike Farm Team steeplechaser, the great Josh Muxen, will once again be in charge of the elite race. As always he is doing a fantastic job, seemingly getting zero sleep the week of the race, but still attending to the needs of all the athletes. He send KRON 4 (big local TV station) my way earlier this week. They filmed a short piece of me running and answering a few questions. It aired on the Tuesday morning news and hopefully they'll use some footage during the race coverage on Sunday.
The local media in the SF Bay Area is completely focused on the big three professional sports. Cal, Stanford, and The Sharks get some play when they have a good team, but running gets no love. That's what makes the ING B2B weekend so special. We actually get some attention. The Bay Area has so many top runners, along with a competitive club and high school scene, and a huge population of Team in Training type recreational runners. The audience is there if the sport is presented properly. Hopefully the TV coverage will feature some running-knowledgeable commentators and isn't dumbed down as is so often the case. My dream team for a road race would be Toni Reavis and Ed Eyestone, with Ado Bolden thrown in if it were a track meet. Like Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin at the Tour de France, they don't talk down to the audience,they focus on the competition, and have the background knowledge to understand the strategy and tactics unfolding in the race. Those three traits are found in almost every single TV commentator covering baseball, basketball, or football so why is it so elusive in our sport?
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