Frustration with Marathon Publicity

I received the following e-mail from an excellent runner and someone who follows the sport pretty passionately, but is also volunteering for the event this year (and I don't want there to be any backlash against them):

"Is it just me, or is there no information at all on the elites who are running next weekend? I’ve been looking, and I can’t find anything. You’d think they’d publicize it…"

I would agree that you would think that the Chevron Houston Marathon would be very interested in highlighting who is coming to run - as early and as loudly as possible. (Yes, I'm aware that the top runners often show up and drop out up until the day before the event.)

I'm not griping about getting beat out for a story, but this is about the inconsistency of the way that the Marathon goes about publicizing its event.

Is the first place that the people knew about Meb Keflezighi running the Aramco Houston Half Marathon the Houston Chronicle this morning?

Nope. The information was on RunTex's site on Friday.

Their "news" post also says "The Aramco Houston Half Marathon announced on Thursday that 2004 Olympic silver medallist Meb Keflezighi will be running the US Half Marathon Champs next weekend in Houston."

But can you find anything on the Chevron Houston Marathon's web site? Absolutely not.

I would agree with the individual that wrote me, "It's frustrating."

But it was kind of even more stunning to see the Marathon send out an e-mail blast that five (5) area newspapers had communicated with the event to find runners to talk to and profile for their publications?

What did I do? I contacted at least three of them directly myself and made recommendations -- the Potpurri in Tomball, the Beaumont Enterprise and the Reporter in Friendswood/Pearland.

Why? Because I believe in seeing good people - and good runners - get recognized for their accomplishments. It's just what I do and I've always done no matter what I've been involved in ... and it will probably never change.