Photo no 232:
Question:- Is this the little blighter from the Brazilian rain forest that causes all the trouble?
Dear Blog,
Yesterday was the annual Kenilworth Half Marathon, an event organised by the local Kenilworth Runners. Well organised – excellent information – plenty of marshals at junction, being club members they were amply able to deal with any situation which might have arisen during the race – all officials being unpaid volunteers – pleasant quiet roads -plenty of refreshments, drink, sandwiches and home-made cakes … all priced very cheaply – prize giving for the race and the Warwickshire County Championship awards were reasonably quickly produced with an efficient presentation. Now for a bit of fun contrast the above comments with all those posted about commercially organised events. Where to start?? It matters not a jot which race you choose. Take the Coventry Half Marathon for example; if you have kept my letters from previous races in Coventry, you will appreciate the points I am trying to make. Very often these commercial ventures are an embarrassment, sloppy and expensive with hardly a volunteer in sight!! What a lot any club organised event can teach there money grabbing counterparts.
Talking about money grabbing, did you read about the shenanigans in Newcastle on Sunday, where it has been suggested that Farah’s win was a few pennies short of a quid. Some athletic pundits are showing signs of discontent. To win or not to win, that is the question, especially if some runners have the same commercial manager who might possibly be more interested in the quids, present and future, rather than actual true competitive race – funny how the organiser is always banging on about ‘a truly run race’ when he is giving forth his words of wisdom when commenting on the television set! But then, what do I know? I do know that drugs cheats are heralded and praised for their endeavours in televised races. Some of those cheats have even been banned more than once!! You scratch my back and I will fill your pockets with filthy lucre; after all what do the general public know??? As long as we get their bums on our seats and get a few quids off them, we can pay the drugs cheats for competing. Goody, goody. So we can keep the media and the sponsors happy, which is what is really important. In other sports like motor racing for example, it would never be fixed for a team mate to throttle back to allow his college to cross the finishing line first and collect all the plaudits.
Mind you Blog, if you look at grass roots road racing for club athletes, they happily pay their quids to enter, some of the entry fee is paid to a course measurer to certify that the road race is an accurate distance …. so that the runner can be satisfied that his / her time is a personal best time if that is achieved. All well and good. Racing and p.b.s is what road racing is all about for many joggers. …… … then why do so many runners try to cut corners, why do so many runners run on the pavements to clip a few yards (metres to you Blog) off the distance??? I wonder if they record their personal best for 9.92 Km or record a personal best for 4.95 km??? But then I suppose they are only cheating themselves, so that is O.K..
Colin
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