Health & Fitness Magazine Marathon Coverage Disappointing
I walked in to the gym today at Bally's in The Woodlands and found the January 2006 edition of Health & Fitness Sports Magazine with its huge colorful cover stating "Marathon '06."
And, yes, I know it's free so why should I complain? Because I guess I expected something different and better than the product that is there. I was jaded on the "Table of Contents" page (4) where the runners pictured were from a past Houston Marathon ... but the bibs read, "Methodist Healthcare Houston Marathon." (I kid you not!)
Page 8 featured a short write-up (almost standard ad fare) of the Expo: "Expo Targets Runners".
"Race Day '06" is splattered across the top of page 29 over another old picture (same bibs) showing runners crossing the Elysian Street Bridge. Jim Carley's article is headlined with "A preview of the Chevron Houston Marathon." I'm thinking, "Wow, we get to read about the competitive field, the out-of-town runners or maybe even about some of our local elite runners."
Nope. We had - and not that they are bad - "some veteran Houston Marathon runners share their favorite offbeat tales from years of toeing the line." Hardly a preview!
The offbeat tales came from Houston running veterans Alex Galbraith, Jack Lippincott and Bill Osgood - of which only one is a HARRA member (Lippincott) - and only one paragraph references the Houston Marathon itself: Lippincott's quote about the 1997 marathon dubbed the "Ice Bowl."
The gist of the Galbraith part of the article is that he hasn't missed a day of running since December of 1971 - even during a war in Guatemala. The United States Running Streak Association, Inc. reports that has the 6th longest streak in the country currently at 33 years, 255 days (including September 1, 2005). Seven Hills Running Club president Ken Johnson from Huntsville, who has had two streaks of 1,811 and 600 days snapped before, had his current streak pass three (3) years on December 28, 2005.
Page 29 also features a "New Era Begins" article on Chevron's new involvement with the event. The story rolls to page 32 where there's a worthy, yet standard promotional article on "Run For A Reason".
The best articles in this month's edition of the publication are actually on pages 38-39 "Super Cyclists: TBC Program promotes readin' and Ridin'" and pages 40-41 "Barefootin' It: The good and bad of running without shoes". The latter article comes from Dr. Christopher Rampacek.
And, yes, I know it's free so why should I complain? Because I guess I expected something different and better than the product that is there. I was jaded on the "Table of Contents" page (4) where the runners pictured were from a past Houston Marathon ... but the bibs read, "Methodist Healthcare Houston Marathon." (I kid you not!)
Page 8 featured a short write-up (almost standard ad fare) of the Expo: "Expo Targets Runners".
"Race Day '06" is splattered across the top of page 29 over another old picture (same bibs) showing runners crossing the Elysian Street Bridge. Jim Carley's article is headlined with "A preview of the Chevron Houston Marathon." I'm thinking, "Wow, we get to read about the competitive field, the out-of-town runners or maybe even about some of our local elite runners."
Nope. We had - and not that they are bad - "some veteran Houston Marathon runners share their favorite offbeat tales from years of toeing the line." Hardly a preview!
The offbeat tales came from Houston running veterans Alex Galbraith, Jack Lippincott and Bill Osgood - of which only one is a HARRA member (Lippincott) - and only one paragraph references the Houston Marathon itself: Lippincott's quote about the 1997 marathon dubbed the "Ice Bowl."
The gist of the Galbraith part of the article is that he hasn't missed a day of running since December of 1971 - even during a war in Guatemala. The United States Running Streak Association, Inc. reports that has the 6th longest streak in the country currently at 33 years, 255 days (including September 1, 2005). Seven Hills Running Club president Ken Johnson from Huntsville, who has had two streaks of 1,811 and 600 days snapped before, had his current streak pass three (3) years on December 28, 2005.
Page 29 also features a "New Era Begins" article on Chevron's new involvement with the event. The story rolls to page 32 where there's a worthy, yet standard promotional article on "Run For A Reason".
The best articles in this month's edition of the publication are actually on pages 38-39 "Super Cyclists: TBC Program promotes readin' and Ridin'" and pages 40-41 "Barefootin' It: The good and bad of running without shoes". The latter article comes from Dr. Christopher Rampacek.
posted by WalkSports.com | 4:42 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for the review. I'm intersted in the article: 'Barefootin' It: The good and bad of running without shoes.
I'll be at Bally's on Monday!
RunSteve.Com
Interesting observations that I expect will be lost on most casual readers of the magazine. The "why" of barefoot running has always intrigued me, being one with hypersensitive feet, as I have trouble walking barefoot across the driveway to get the newspaper. The kenyan Lorna Kiplagat ran barefoot as a child, apparently not too uncommon in those parts.
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