The Ironman coverage for as long as I can remember is a love hate relationship. Either you love it or you hate it. There are not many people in between. Yesterday I walked into a new Multisport shop in Boulder and this skinny young triathlete girl was blasting the coverage. I felt like saying something but why waste my energy. It takes a little more maturity to understand why the coverage should be just like it is. It will be like trying to explain to my 3 year old son Camilo that using his magic marker on the carpet is not that funny.
Yes I wish the coverage was longer and more in depth and showed more racing including some fast age group racing. But I still like it and I understand why the coverage is what it is. Do you want to know why every single M-Dot Ironman for 2007 is absolutely sold out? You guess it. It is because of this coverage. Ten years from now someone will say “Oh yes back in 2006 when I was 20 I saw the Ironman on TV and I thought I could do that….” That is exactly what happened to Mark Allen, that is what happened to me and most likely happened to many of you.. The coverage has to appeal to those that are not participating in the sport at the moment. That means you need stories as to why you may want to do the race. You also want to show that it is possible to do this even if you are not a skinny talented endurance athlete.
Unless you are a triathlete and know the names of the top athletes and the history of the Ironman you will not watch a triathlon on TV by choice. It is boring to watch really. There are not many crashes, there is no blood, there is not much close racing and it takes too long. To you and me there is a lot of drama because we know so much about it. But that is not the case for 99 percent of the country. The show has to appeal to the masses or it will not survive on TV. If it does not survive then our sport will be worst of. So my recommendation to those who complain about it is to really think beyond and look at the big picture. If you are really hard core then go to Ironman.com and sit in front of the computer for 10 hours and watch all the coverage. You can even do that now. It is so great that Al Gore invented the internet.
I have done the race now 6 times and I remember watching the coverage every year to see if I was in there. I never had any luck for years. In one of my better races I was in the mix with the top woman. I remember that only Paula Newby-Fraser was ahead of me on the bike and I was riding close to Erin Baker. Those two women ruled the Ironman in those years. Riding near the second place woman also ment that I had cameras and helicopters all around me for many miles. Surely I will get in the coverage this year. With a few miles to go on the bike I was riding 20 yards or so behind Erin so picked it up right before T2 and we handed our bikes to the volunteers at about the same time. That was going to be my TV moment. But no dice either. I watched the coverage a couple of times and I was no where in sight. My luck changed in my fifth try as I am in the swim start, but only I know that because my swim stroke is peculiar so I know that’s me. Not many others would be able to pick me out. Fast forward to this year; guess what, I am in it again and there is more of me this time. But it is my back side. So unless you know what I look like from the back and know my running style you may not be able to tell. But I am in there and so is Mindy. If you read my blogs I talked about our team member Mindy that ran me down. I think she is in the scene right after mine. That was cool. I guess I like the coverage even more now eh?