Catch Me If You Can

This is probably one of the more creative running ads I've seen. How come they can't run ads like this in the US? Anyway, check it out:

London Calling

In 1981, the gun to the first London Marathon was shot. More than 20,000 people applied to run: 7,747 were accepted and 6,255 crossed the finish line. Now at capacity, a total of 46,500 were accepted from a record 80,500 applicants, with 32,563 finishing on the day. Since this time the event has continued to grow in size, stature and popularity with a capacity 46,500 accepted entrants each year. In all, a total of 676,743 have completed the race since its inception with a record 35,674 crossing the line in 2007.

According to the marathon's website, it's four day exhibition is to reel in a record-breaking amount of visitors. This could be in large part to the fact that there is no entrance fee for the race. So runners are encouraged attend with family or friends, which increased the total visitor numbers to an excess of 71,000 in 2007. It is estimated that visitors spend well in excess of 2.5 million pounds (almost 5 million USD) over the four days of the show.

The 2007 Flora London Marathon Exhibition is the only major mass consumer sports expo of its kind in the UK. Exhibitor's range from major sports manufacturers and retailers to companies selling financial products, sports tours, health care products, general food products, other major national and international races, energy drinks, health food products and charities. With huge exposure in the media this year including Live TV on the BBC and regional independent stations, plus a whole days radio broadcast by award winning sport reporter John Cushing at LBC. The show is becoming a must see event for all runners.

The exhibition provides businesses the opportunity to launch new products and promote existing ones while also providing a direct source of consumer feedback. Businesses who partake in the exhibition also get some great perks, including a free listing in the pre-race program and a listing, a link, and editable marketing information and logo on the Marathon Exhibition web site. The logo will also appear on the on line floor plan plus any stand activities posted to the site will be mailed to a visitor email list.

I Run, Therefore I Am

Hi. I'm Alison. I've read a lot of blogs about running...some of them are good, and some are not so good. One thing I've noticed about all of them, however, is that they all seem to be personal accounts of one kind of another. Everything from training logs, marathon aspirations down to shoe size. That's great and all, but where are the blogs about the history? The current events? The business behind it all?...I don't know about you, but I can't find it. Anywhere.

This is where my blog comes in. I'm the kind of person who asks questions. Who, what, where, when why. I want to know where running started. How and why. It's evolution. So of course I googled "history of running", as I do with every question that plagues me. Google knows all. Thousands of results came up, but I found one that particularly interested me runtheplanet.com. This basically sums up the entire article:

"The researchers do not know why natural selection favored human ancestors who could run long distances . For one possibility, they cite previous research by University of Utah biologist David Carrier, who hypothesized that endurance running evolved in human ancestors so they could pursue predators long before the development of bows, arrows, nets and spear-throwers reduced the need to run long distances.

Another possibility is that early humans and their immediate ancestors ran to scavenge carcasses of dead animals—maybe so they could beat hyenas or other scavengers to dinner, or maybe to "get to the leftovers soon enough", Bramble says. Scavenging "is a more reliable source of food" than hunting, he adds. "If you are out in the African savanna and see a column of vultures on the horizon, the chance of there being a fresh carcass underneath the vultures is about 100 percent. If you are going to hunt down something in the heat, that is a lot more work and the payoffs are less reliable" because the animal you are hunting often is "faster than you are"."

- Taken from "The Evolution of Human Running"

I've always taken it for granted that if our ancestors didn't run they'd be eaten, or squashed, and we wouldn't be here. But this gives me a whole new perspective on something that most people take on as a hobby, or even a lifestyle, has evolved from something so instinctive and basic. Back then it was about survival, it wasn't about cutting your 5k time or wording on your stride.

So that's what this blog is about. In order to understand something now, you have to know where it came from.