I am a little more than halfway through Once a Runner by John L. Parker. You may now, of course, commence your judgments as they may be. I have been told/heard that the two running books TO READ are this and Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I am no authority on Born to Run as I have not yet read it and I will post a review on it once I've finished (probably by Friday, considering I started reading on yesterday). So far it's an easy read with a some flowery passages complete with big words thrown in here and there. Follows this great college runner and the whole destructive path of achievement that runners (aka cross-country, track, track-ers) put themselves on. I am not unfamiliar with it. Though I happily call myself a "recreational runner" I would say I have had enough friendships/relationships with these cross-country, track, track-ers to be familiar with the lifestyle. Similarly, I'd say with triathlon I have grown to be a little more serious about the sport than your average "recreational runner."
Conveniently, Amazon.com has compiled lists of both the "most popular running literature" and the "best running literature" just in case you're hungry for more, but this is what I am going to give you.
But for my next bite out of running "literature," I would like to bring up the topic of Runner's World magazine. Forgive me for saying this, but Runner's World seems to be a bit of a running joke among runners. A loving running joke, but a running one, nonetheless (pun conveniently intended). I had my first year-long subscription to Runner's World this year. Up until this past fall, RW was something I picked up in airports for plane rides - which were, indeed, rather common. As I got more knowledgeable and serious about running, I became acutely aware of how little I was actually getting from my hour+ long reading sessions of the magazine. Slowly I began to read less and less until now I'm not even sure I've looked at my past few issues.
"There are three things that make you a worse runner: a car, a girlfriend, and a subscription to Runner's World." By a show of hands, who has heard that one before?
Depending on who you are, you may or may not know I have a little bit of background in journalism and when I'm not being an over-enthusiastic triathlete, I work on marketing and public relations for theater. Journalism is one of my secret loves that I use to salt-and-pepper all the other things I do with my life (thus the blog...sort of). My take on RW (and that of many runner's) is that they're so focused on catering to the "recreational runner" who is trying to motivate themselves into their first race that they sort of lose sight of what more competitive runner's are looking for in literature about, well, them.
What are they doing right?
Well, personally, I think they're doing a lot right. The recipes for efficient, healthy and delicious nutrition for athletes are a big win. Their feature stories on elite and pro athletes in addition to inspiring stories about runners? Into it. Plus, there are great articles on fun/scenic runs and interesting races.
But then comes the training plans... pages and pages on how to run 5Ks, recommendations on how to do a core workout, and total catering to new runners. Sure, the newbies are important too and probably the key demographic they're aiming to hit (and the larger demographic...) but what happens when the newbies become more serious? They lose them. They've already lost the more elite runners who think their magazine is a joke.
My question is what does an addition spread or two of hard-hitting running news add to their print cost and how much would that add to their demographic?
I mean, I'm sure these big shmancy professional editors have worked this out, but I wonder if there is a viable market for a more hard-hitting running publication. What about adding current stories about elite runners? What about the further development in research and debates about foot strike? What is gained from not catering to more elite runners?
I'm not saying I'm any elite runner or that I really know entirely what I'm talking about, but what I do know is that a lot of material is left out of RW (or as I have a bad habit of calling it: Runner's) and among very serious runners... it isn't taken seriously. I lament this fact and thus decided to muse on the topic for entire too long. :]
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