Televised Races

After getting home from Vegas on 1.5 hours' sleep last night (capping a decent night of Texas Hold 'em) and fitting a nap in, I was happy to see my DVR had recorded new triathlon races and that they were, in fact, new.  The VS and USTN channels are great because they show pretty much all non-mainstream sports you won't find on the main network channels.  VS tends to have more cycling and swimming, where USTN has more track and field, marathons and triathlons.  I never thought I'd be excited about watching endurance sports on tv, even though I'm a baseball and golf viewer (though much less now). 

What's funny is I was just talking to one of my good friends and triathlon training partner, Eric, about how the Kona Ironman race is deceiving because they make it look like it's easy to complete in 9 hours.  It's not that I ignore the people who take 12 to 18 hours to complete it, but the editing cuts out most of the mileage, as it obviously has to.  But over an awesome dinner at Delmonicco's at the Venetian in Vegas, Eric, one of my partners and I had a discussion over the shorter races.  I basically said, "we should push for tv programming that showcases the shorter races...probably the Olympic distance because it's like a sub-2 hour sprint for the pros" (1500m swim, 24 mi. cycle and 6.2 mi. run).  "It would only include the top 12 or 20 racers in each gender because it would be guaranteed to have close finishes," I said. We then discussed the financial goals of tv networks, the old-boy history that supports 162 baseball game viewings and even hockey and basketball (the playoff seasons are almost as long as the regular seasons).  My friend concluded that we just weren't going to get to see most races except for special occasions, like the Olympics, or that time Michael Johnson and that Canadian "doping" sprinter raced a 200m and Johnson pulled up hammy-lame.  I saw his point but disagreed believing that there are enough viewers who would watch this sub-2 hour race.

To my pleasant surprise, I discovered the World Triathlon Championships tonight.  You can see the details of the season here triathlon.org.  It consists of 7 races between April and September in Sydney, Seoul, Madrid, Hamburg, London, Kitzbuhel, and a Grand Finale in Budapest.  Pretty cool and a U.S. location is noticeably absent (I'll be bringing a grass roots campaign on this).  The Sydney race was not live since it took place last week and, thanks to Twitter posts, I learned who the winners were as it happened (not really a problem since I tend not to remember by the time I view races).  However, the telecast pretty much showed the entire race from swim to bike to run.  And, as we had discussed last night, there was definitely exciting action.  Several U.S. athletes led much of the race only to be passed mid-run and place 9th and 10th.  I believe there were about 75 competitors in the men's race versus the 20 I suggested (I will watch the women's next).

But the drama was there!  So many lead changes, cyclists, getting ahead of others and working together, only to be caught by the pack of chasers; runners getting passed, trying to hang, and then having to concede the lead, followed by the passers eventually getting passed by guys further back. There was even a mild crash. This race had a clear winner by about 10 or 15 seconds, but I recall a head-to-head photo finish several years ago in what I believe was a special Olympic showcase. So it can actually come down to the wire.  You can fast-forward through some of the race, but you really want to watch most of it and listen to the commentators, who do a great job (the woman announcer is an ex-competitor and does the color commentary, occasionally correcting the male announcer). 

So, while I'm happy I won the pseudo-argument, I'm more happy that NBC agrees with me enough to put these races on one of its alternate sports channels.  And again, if you like to watch swimming or cycling (that novelty has worn off for me for the most part) or track, it's available to you.  As a non-pro competitor, there's a lot to get out of these races, including basic encouragement...similar to how guys start pumping iron after watching a Rocky montage.

When you get a chance, find these channels (Ch. 805 on Cox cable in Orange County) and watch a few of these races.  With the fast-forward remote in hand, I'm pretty sure you'll find yourself making this one of your regular tv weeklies.

Race season is well under way.  If you haven't signed up for any races, find one or two.  You'll love it and your new family of fellow-racers.  Alcatraz is in 2 weeks and I'm definitely behind schedule for the swim.  Working on that this week.  And, yes, I trained while in Vegas...each discipline.

Happy Training!

Bill