Always Fun: Chronicle Marathon Coverage
Let the spin season begin! Seriously though, it isn't as bad as it has been in the past.
Interestingly enough, today's column by Jerome Solomon about "Steve H." is typical of what we'll see all week. Good story, but check it - and the comments - out here. Fun stuff!
My only beef about today's story is regarding this line - "Having had hernia surgery in October, Steve H., who prefers not to use his last name, won’t break a personal record, but he should finish feeling better than ever. The black shirt he’ll wear will have a homemade sign on the front. “Sober.”"
You make yourself available to be covered, but you don't want anybody to know who you are. Kind of odd if you ask me. Especially when his picture is included in the online edition (I haven't seen the print edition).
But the writer, who I know from my days covering high school athletics, gives enough clues to figure out exactly who he is.
1. Steve came close to his longtime dream of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which then required a time under 3:11:00, with a heartbreaking 3:11:01 finish in San Diego in 2000.
Check marathonguide.com as results are available from 2000 forward.
Rock 'N' Roll Marathon? Nope.
Carlsbad Marathon in early January? Possibly.
Look at this link ... there it is -- Steve Halterman (M), M30-34, 3:11:01, New York, NY
2. Steve finished the 2006 Chevron Houston Marathon 25 minutes off his personal best.
That just locked it in. And the writer had indeed researched the time as it was 3:36 and change.
My point? I'm just curious to know why not put "Halterman" there.
The only thing that I can think of is so as to not have somebody give his 7-year-old daughter grief that her Dad was a drunk and did "cocaine". That I get and understand (and is something that I saw AFTER I started this post.)
If it is something else non-criminal, let's say, print it. In my mind, it really has to be something to get the OK not to print it. Perhaps Edwin can chime in since he works for the Lufkin Daily News again.
When Lisa Foronda had her blog, you really couldn't tell for sure that it was her. However, there was a time mentioned at a specific race ... and one was able to figure it out. Why did I? I'm a numbers' guy - plain and simple. But we respected the fact that she was a major public figure and we always used her lisaleese monikor.
Here's a question for you? Do you really think that Merga came to Houston without the event paying an appearance fee? I don't think so, but I think that things are probably structured a little differently for him. When I talked with Steven Karpas at the 25K, he didn't tip his hand other than that the sentiment expressed in Sunday's story about the record not being broken was real.
I think it all part of their marketing plan, which is smart. The increase in runners and the increase in price? It's going to appearance fees (or the like). I did check the Marathon's income tax return through guidestar.org for the most recent period a number of weeks ago; however, the "net assets" line was basically the same as it had been before.
Interestingly enough, today's column by Jerome Solomon about "Steve H." is typical of what we'll see all week. Good story, but check it - and the comments - out here. Fun stuff!
My only beef about today's story is regarding this line - "Having had hernia surgery in October, Steve H., who prefers not to use his last name, won’t break a personal record, but he should finish feeling better than ever. The black shirt he’ll wear will have a homemade sign on the front. “Sober.”"
You make yourself available to be covered, but you don't want anybody to know who you are. Kind of odd if you ask me. Especially when his picture is included in the online edition (I haven't seen the print edition).
But the writer, who I know from my days covering high school athletics, gives enough clues to figure out exactly who he is.
1. Steve came close to his longtime dream of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which then required a time under 3:11:00, with a heartbreaking 3:11:01 finish in San Diego in 2000.
Check marathonguide.com as results are available from 2000 forward.
Rock 'N' Roll Marathon? Nope.
Carlsbad Marathon in early January? Possibly.
Look at this link ... there it is -- Steve Halterman (M), M30-34, 3:11:01, New York, NY
2. Steve finished the 2006 Chevron Houston Marathon 25 minutes off his personal best.
That just locked it in. And the writer had indeed researched the time as it was 3:36 and change.
My point? I'm just curious to know why not put "Halterman" there.
The only thing that I can think of is so as to not have somebody give his 7-year-old daughter grief that her Dad was a drunk and did "cocaine". That I get and understand (and is something that I saw AFTER I started this post.)
If it is something else non-criminal, let's say, print it. In my mind, it really has to be something to get the OK not to print it. Perhaps Edwin can chime in since he works for the Lufkin Daily News again.
When Lisa Foronda had her blog, you really couldn't tell for sure that it was her. However, there was a time mentioned at a specific race ... and one was able to figure it out. Why did I? I'm a numbers' guy - plain and simple. But we respected the fact that she was a major public figure and we always used her lisaleese monikor.
Here's a question for you? Do you really think that Merga came to Houston without the event paying an appearance fee? I don't think so, but I think that things are probably structured a little differently for him. When I talked with Steven Karpas at the 25K, he didn't tip his hand other than that the sentiment expressed in Sunday's story about the record not being broken was real.
I think it all part of their marketing plan, which is smart. The increase in runners and the increase in price? It's going to appearance fees (or the like). I did check the Marathon's income tax return through guidestar.org for the most recent period a number of weeks ago; however, the "net assets" line was basically the same as it had been before.
posted by WalkSports.com | 5:36 PM
4 Comments:
Jon,
Thanks for the reminder of the Marathon coverage in the Chronicle. Now that your Chron blog is less active, and being in Denver, I had not been following Houston sports (online) that much. I read the article and the comments, and tended to agree with several of the minority posts, and almost thought to stick in a thought. It is interesting that according to Athlinks Steve H. had moved to doing TRIs.
Here are my gripes about Marathons in general and Houston in particular, by order of gripe.
1. As you say, paying appearance fees for international Elites to fly in, win the race and fly out the next day, and worse, paying for 'rabbits' to serve as pace setters. And, I expect that Merga has received an appearance fee (or maybe a guarantee should he not win). To me it is a lot more rewarding to see someone from a local running club win the Texas or Seabrook Marathon, than to see an international runner get a top time at Houston. This being said, I do support paying for US Olympians to come to Houston (Hall, Rtizenhein or Sell), who can serve as examples to our high school runners, and probably need the money as they may not be winning many races with big purses.
2. Similar to above, big prize money for the winners. Rather, I would favor a wide distribution of prize money with an emphasis on in-state or even in-country runners. Certainly no prize money in the Marine Corp Marathon has not detracted from the interest in that race.
3. Houston TV coverage. Though I missed it last year, I always get agrevated at the TV coverage of the Houston Marathon, which tends to focus on the Elites in the whole and half, (though it was great when Kelly Keene or Ryan Hall won), and particularly the coverage of the 5k finishers in the background. Seldom do they go out on the course and interview or even film the regular marathon runners. This is supposidly the Houston Marathon, not the Houston Half Marathon or Houston 5K.
Anyway, these are my thougths, for what they are worth.
Ron
I can definitely see not wanting your name out there- but if that is the case, don't do the interview!
As a follow-up to our comment above, we thought this year's coverage of the marathon on ABC was more balanced, with three or four of the news folks located along the Marathon course.
Ron
I do understand the desire for privacy, (not that I've succumbed to it-HA) but yes, if that's what he wanted, he didn't do a very good job of concealing his identity.
I do admire the courage of anyone, however, who chooses to wear his sobriety (I can only assume recent) on his chest.
It;s just to much fun to follow the clues, isn't it?
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