- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
My first marathon was the New York in 1983 and I think I finished in 4:28 minutes....I think it was the year Rod Dixon won. After that I started training with a guy named Bob Glover who did speed workouts in Central Park and the marathon expo was composed of running stores and mom and pop operations. But my fear then was to finish in more than 4 1/2 hours and my goal was to break 4 hours.
Okay, I jogged the Chicago marathon this year, I have completed 6 Chicago marathons since I moved to Chicago. Throw a few New York and a Paris in there as well. The Chicago marathon is a corporations dream and a charities dream. It is not just the Oprah effect on marathons, it is that corporate greed has taken over. The marathons are now huge money machines because the corporations have realized they have one of the most profitable demographics at their finger tips at these expos. Car companies, Tiffanies, and the marathon themselves now produce merchandize to exploit their captive audiences.
The charities have profliferated so much that they have their own mini tent city at Chicago. Don't get me wrong, I took advantage one year and ran for one ( so I could get entry into the marathon I forgot to sign up and it was filled). The charities encourage anyone to try to run, remember it is for a CHARITY, the idea with the charity runners is just to finish.
You are right in your article, the value of a running a marathon has become completely devalued. Now it is encourages the American corporate way, "to push through the pain", no matter how under trained you are and finish. The attitude is that by doing this you are tough and you are brave rather than "you are stupid to enter a race that u r completely undertrained for".
I of course wrote feedback about the Chicago marathon debacle this year, the main issue is that the race is too big. There should be limits to the number of entries and a time limit in finishing.
Take the French, their maximum amount of time the French give a runner to finish the Paris marathon is 5 1/2 hours. There is a sweep van, and policeman taking runners, or I should say joggers, off the road if they are slower than a 5 1/2 hour pace. They are the French and they are precise.
So, why has this not been instituted in New York or Chicago? GREED.... You may call it the Oprah effect, but when the races are as lucrative and as attractive to corporations and charities as they are, why put time limits on the field? So I agree the spirit of the marathon has been ruined, but don't necessarily blame Oprah, she did finish in less than 5 hours which I consider respectable. Blame the organizers and blame GREED and blame the corporations....
