Running Shorts

For those of you deep in the running industry, you may have heard the story that's rocking the US domestic track and field scene. For those of you who haven't read about it, Nike is suing 800m runner Boris Berian for breach of contract. Letsrun has great coverage of the story; here's a link to it. (Sidebar: When is there not  some off-track story rocking the track world? Jeez.) I'm not going to go into my opinions on the story or rehash any of the details here, but I think it brings up an important issue in the sport that everyone wants but no one actually talks about: sponsorship . Every athlete enters to the post-collegiate world wanting some sort of sponsorship, even though just the word "sponsorship" has a nebulous definition. Does it mean a full, professional-scale salary? Gear and a small stipend? Performance bonuses? A pair of free shoes here and there? A logo on a jersey? The real definition is all of the above, which is incredibly confusing. E...

Alright. It sucks to write about this stuff. If you're a runner, you've probably heard about this by now. If not, here's the brief (real brief) synopsis of the report that's rocked the sport in the last couple weeks: basically, Alberto Salazar, Galen Rupp, and the Nike Oregon Project have been accused of various levels of doping over the past decade-plus. David Epstein wrote an article in ProPublica here , and the BBC produced an hour-long documentary which is on YouTube . If you haven't read or watched those yet, do it. Salazar and the NOP have long been known for using every resource at their disposal to get the best results out of their athletes: underwater treadmills, anti-gravity treadmills, team houses fit to simulate altitude, the best coaching staff that Nike can pay for (and Nike has a lot of money). However, in elite running circles, there have long been rumors swirling about NOP using drugs and supplements in ways that push the boundaries of the rules...

(...besides growing a "boring" sport into a popular mass media spectacle.) In a word: Sponsorship. Just watching the Masters, I couldn't help but notice how many golfers had multiple sponsors on their kits. Obviously, most have a club sponsor (this would be the equivalent of a runner having a shoe sponsor) that also provides a uniform. But then many more had other corporate sponsors as well...some related to the golfing industry, others not so much. Check it out with Adam Scott, pictured below: Adam Scott, photo from google images. Just in this picture, you can see four sponsors: Titleist (that'd be the club sponsor) and Footjoy (a golfing shoe), shown on his hat. And then Mercedes-Benz and Uniqlo (clothing) on his shirt. Nascar is the same, except even more ridiculous. Compare that to Nick Symmonds: Nick Symmonds, outspoken critic of sponsor regulations. In terms of visible sponsors, he has a grand total of...one. Brooks running shoes . That...

Step 1: Start racing. Step 2: Finish the race. Step 3: Just kidding. Keep running, slacker. All joking aside, I had my first race of the spring season this past weekend. I went down to Louisville and ran the Anthem 5k, finishing 4th in 15:24. Not the greatest time ever, but off of a winter of base training that's about where I expected to be. Plus, I came home with $125, so that made the trip worth it. After the race, as you may guess, I did a workout: I changed out of my uniform and ran a 20-minute tempo, averaging about 5:15 pace for the post-race session. I got some weird looks from people who were still in or just finishing the race, especially since I stayed near the course so I could get mile splits. Of course, I'm not the only person doing this. The elites have been doing post-race workouts for a while now; Galen Rupp and the Nike Oregon Project recently received a lot of attention for the workout completed after he set the American 2-mile indoor record this y...