Surviving the coronavirus - and US TV coverage of marathons

Is marathon running a spectator sport?

Despite the world-ending coronavirus disrupting the global sporting calendar (including just yesterday cancelling the Rome marathon and postponing the Paris marathon until October), there was some great road running action last weekend. In Tokyo, the mass race may have been cancelled due to the coronavirus, but that didn’t mean the event was off. They still closed the roads and I saw images of large crowds braving the cold (and the risk of death) to cheer on a handful of fast elite runners. That’s how they roll in Japan, where the elite race and not the fancy dress outfits has always been the main attraction. I know, it’s a weird concept. They actually consider marathon running a sport.

I spent six months in Japan writing The Way of the Runner and witnessed this passion for road running as a spectator sport first hand. It was wonderful to behold as I’ve always felt a bit of an oddball for finding distance running so fascinating to watch.

To me, it’s a developing drama, a slow-paced, art-house movie of a spectacle, compared to the sing-along action of many other sports. But it only really works if you can follow it in real time, witnessing the moves, the counter-moves, the breakaway groups, the strain, the struggle, the slow grind of the distance taking its toll. If you only get to see the start and the finish, it is pointless as a spectacle. Imagine watching a football match where you only watch the kickoff, a few random moments during the game - not necessarily the best bits - and then the final whistle. Who would enjoy that?

Yet this is something TV producers assigned to marathon coverage in the US seem to continuously fail to understand. The latest case in point was the US Olympic Trials marathon which was streamed live to the world online last Saturday. Falling at 5pm UK time, I decided to tune in, but within 10 minutes I was pulling my hair out and taking to Twitter to vent my frustrations, along with every other running fan with a Twitter account it seemed.

The race was barely a few minutes old when we were switching over to an interview with the woman who set up the drinks stations along the course. Then we had a long, stylised infomercial about how sport always had to evolve, to accept technology, from modern tennis rackets to all-weather running tracks. Cue Nike’s new super shoes, upholding the noble tradition of progress. Subtle.

This neatly segued into a visual of the race commentators sitting behind a desk and discussing the said Nike shoes. One of the commentators was even a Nike marketing executive. Giving his honest opinion, of course. The other commentator, gruff Brit Tim Hutchings shook his head wearily and said he thought the shoes were ruining the sport.

And all the while, the race, the actual reason we had tuned in, was going on somewhere off camera.

Luckily, about halfway through, the US broadcaster, NBC, switched to an urgent world-ending-coronavirus live statement from HRH Donald Trump, presumably taking the senior NBC producers with it, and leaving the international online feed to someone who had more of an idea about running, and we finally got to tune into the action.

And well, it was pretty damn exciting. What was so brilliant was the fact that this was a race for a top three position, rather than just the win. It meant there were three winners in each race, which changed the whole dynamic, with people hedging their bets if one person set off alone, or runners working together to make a break. It also gave three people that shot at, and feeling of, victory. Jake Riley and Molly Seidel were both a huge surprise - to me at least - and the joy on their faces at finishing second and making the Olympic team was heartwarming and wonderful. (Let’s just hope the Olympics go ahead now - some bookies have it odds on that they will be cancelled because of the world-ending coronavirus.)

I didn’t watch the Tokyo marathon, but no doubt the Japanese TV coverage was exemplary as always. The most notable result was another Japanese record - the third in three years, and the second by Suguru Osako, who has been training in Kenya recently. Running with the Kenyans, if you will. He ran 2:05:29 and pocketed his second $1m bonus for breaking the national record. Osako was a college runner when I was in Japan and although I didn’t interview him, I did manage to get this intimate shot of him just before the start of the 2014 Hakone Ekiden …

Books on running

I’m still reading lots of books ahead of the Love Trails festival in July [lovetrailsfestival.co.uk] where I’m curating The Bookshop. My current read is The Runner by Markus Torgeby, which I’m enjoying. The writing is sparse, direct and honest. The author, fed up with his life in Sweden, where he had been a champion junior track runner, decides almost on a whim to go and live in the forest in a tent, only occasionally venturing into town for supplies.

I haven’t got to the end to find out what he learns from his experience, but he’s honest about the difficulties and his fear of the dark and his boredom.

For the festival I’m selecting books and putting together a lineup of speakers. So far the lineup includes some brilliant authors: Vybarr Cregan-Reid (author of Footnotes), Hannah Phillips (No Run Intended), Lara Prior-Palmer (Rough Magic) and Paul Tonkinson (26.2 Miles to Happiness).

I’ll be speaking too, and I’m also down to speak at the following events, coronavirus permitting. So if you happen to be there, or live near by, come along …

3 May 2020, The Guernsey Literary Festival [guernseyliteraryfestival.com]
9 June 2020, The Belfast Book Festival [belfastbookfestival.com]
14 June 2020, Top of the Gorge Festival, Somerset [nationaltrust.org.uk/topofthegorge]
24 - 27 September 2020, The Marlborough Literature Festival [marlboroughlitfest.org]

Retreats etc

Of course, you can come and spend the day or even the weekend running and hanging out with me and my friends (such as Barefoot Joe Kelly, Richard Askwith, Tom and Rachel) in Devon, London or Chamonix … visit the website for the latest dates and to book a place: thewayoftherunner.com.

I’m delighted to announce that Richard Askwith has agreed to do a third Running & Writing retreat, which will be in Devon in November and is always very popular, so watch out for an announcement of the exact dates in the next week or so. And don’t forget to check out the podcast … third installment coming soon: thewayoftherunner.com/podcast