Flashes of Panic

I just sent in a story to RRW on the World Marathon Majors press conference, but there are a few dozen quotes and points I didn’t get to use due to length issues.

Mary Wittenberg on why the series is scored over two years:

This is not a sprint. Our sport rewards durability, consistency, and pacing. The marathon is as compelling as it is because it is as grueling as it is. It’s very unlikely that a marathoner will perform well against competition more than three times a year.

Nick Bitel (of the London Marathon) on adding other races to the series:

Never is a long time.

Dave Bedford, RD of London, on the same topic:

What brings us together as a group is that fact that we are mass-participation races. We have significant mens and women’s fields. We have many spectators on the course and in the TV audience; between us we have 150,000 athletes and 300 million spectators. We’d be seeking people who see life like we do: major cities with major races which have major press interest.

(Japanese marathons like Osaka and Fukuoka were mentioned, hence the “mass participation” qualifier, but I would think Rotterdam would also be a candidate.)

Bedford on the appeal of the circuit:

At the moment, we are viewed as major city marathons, but there is no understanding of how these things fit together. They happen in our own marketplaces. For the first time, there is a view that the results, what happens in London, has a bearing on what happens in the fall in New York.

Wittenberg:

The more recognition our athletes get, the better. This gives them the opportunity to strive to be the world’s greatest marathoner, by winning this series. We hope that the fans and the media are watching our leader board, and that they get to know the names of our athletes.

Guy Morse of the BAA, on what other cooperation is expected:

We’re looking at logistics which are common to all of us, like timing and scoring, medical care and feeding of our athletes. We’re also working on helping not just athletes like Meb and Paul, but our next generation of athletes.

And, just to repeat the quote from Wittenberg that I led the RRW story with:

There’s a million dollars in our sport today which wasn’t there yesterday.