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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Is running for charity bad for the sport?
Is running for charity a bad thing?
John Conley, director of the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon, just returned from a road race directors meeting in Florida, where veteran running broadcaster Toni Reavis talked about what focusing on mass participation rather than elite competition has done to the sport of road racing.
In a word, Reavis says it’s made it “boring.” Conley emailed me a copy of the broadcaster’s comments, which definitely stirred up the crowd.
“In 2006 charities raised $714 million through running events in the USA, up $49 million from the previous year,” Reavis said. “But ask yourself, what do any of these charities have to do with running? Where is the connection other than they see our stages as perfect vehicles for their purposes?”
These days, a flood of regional road races that push participation over competition has made for dismal fan interest, Reavis told the gathering. The average age of runners is growing older. Kids aren’t inspired to follow in the foot path of running heroes because there are no big heros. Running gets minimal coverage in the media.
Reavis, creator of the radio show “Runner’s Digest,” called on the industry veterans to create more inspiring events that would engage the next generation and, in turn, fight childhood obesity.
To do that, he said, we need running heroes. That means bigger prize purses and more coordinated series of running events across the country, Reavis said. That will draw more media attention and reinvigorate the sport of running.
“You cannot sell kids running as a health issue,” Reavis said. “That has no soul. But ‘I want to be him!’ or ‘I want to be her!’ That does.”
Many runners today don’t realize there has been a dramatic shift from running for running’s sake to running for a disease or a charity. But in the 1970s and 1980s, during the running boom, charities weren’t integrally associated with running as they are now. “Toni argues that running has been co-opted by charity and now the charity is the focus instead of the sport,” Conley says.
“It was an interesting discussion about where our sport is headed and why sponsorship dollars are being shunted to other sports, including ‘games’ like poker and billiards, which routinely get great coverage on ESPN and ESPN-2,” Conley said.
Interesting stuff.
I like the fact that charity events get people who otherwise wouldn’t off the couch and exercising. What’s the harm in that?
What do you think? Is there a down side to charity running events?
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