Houston Half

I had one of those great Sunday mornings last week. Woke up a little early, grabbed a cup of coffee, flipped the computer on and watched the US Half-Marathon Championships from Houston on a live stream. I wanted to check in on some of the locals running, Kathy Newberry (William & Mary’s distance coach and Lake Braddock alum) and Samia Akbar (American U. and Oakton alum), and see how Olympic medalist Shalane Flanagan would fare at her debut in the 13.1 mile race. This was also a nice excuse to delay my long run for a bit, as it was raining and quite cold.

The women were flat out hammering the course. Flanagan and a group of 3 or 4 others started rocking and rolling from the gun. The problem? The camera broadcasting the stream was not able to get a view of the women’s leaders until 3 miles in. Yes, we got to see some really good racing over the last 10miles, but we missed a solid chunk. This is akin to missing the first quarter of an NFL playoff game. Imagine the uproar that would have occurred if a football game was late getting on the air. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to see any live running, and the guys doing the filming did a great job of mixing in some interviews when the runners were out of sight. But to have to watch a championship race on the computer saddens me.

There are a ton of sports programming stations on television. There are shows about hunting, fishing and card playing. One of these stations couldn’t have dropped their professional bowling coverage to pick up a US championship race that features some of the best young athletes in the country? Many of the folks running that race will be the folks we are rooting for in London in 2012. We runners have to log on to a random website and watch on our computer screens instead of our high-def televisions. Disappointing.

The race itself was fantastic. A bunch of younger guys asserted themselves in the men’s race and began making names for themselves on the pro scene. Antonio Vega (61:54) and Patrick Smyth (62:01), both from Team USA Minnesota, went 1-2. Shalane Flanagan took down the course record on the women’s side by over a minute with a 69:41. Great running, even if we had to watch on a computer screen.