Conclusion

"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."

- Steve Prefontaine

Throughout my exploration of all things running, I've come to realize its athletes are unique to any other sport. There are no teams, professional leagues, and most of the pressure is self-imposed. There are no substitutes or time outs, and the only thing driving you is...you.

When marketing to the runner demographic, it will always be function over fashion. What shoe an athlete chooses may determine if he can shave off the extra 10th of a second he needed to qualify or how successfully a marathon runner handles 26 miles of agony. The secret is personalization, that singular connection and attachment that runner has to the product...whether it be the newest pair of Nike Bowermans or Under Armour gear - that item is theirs. And if it works well, they'll stick to it. No star-studded campaign can save a shoddy product, and no state-of-the-art product can save an athlete who won't put himself out there to be nothing less than the best -- regardless of the sport.

With the collaboration of advertising, PR, distribution, the innovations that keep runners coming back for more are raising the sport to a whole new level. It is no longer just a hobby for weekend joggers and athletes between seasons...it is mainstream. People are starting to pay attention to marathon runners and Olympic sprinters because their names are getting out there. Corporations are sponsoring them, kids admire them. They are athletes, and to me there is no greater sport.

My Trainers Just Broke Up With Me...No I Don't Want To Talk About It

New Balance is attempting to hook a younger audience with their new "LOVE/hate" campaign. The campaign is part of a larger plan to nearly double its athletic shoe and apparel sales, in part by tripling the company's spending on marketing.

The sub-text of the ads is that running makes someone a better athlete, yet many young athletes have a love-hate relationship with running. It's a clever take of the rocky and sometimes flighty relationships we've all experienced in high school - intense, and sometimes short-lived...but nonetheless are learning experiences that make us better people, right? I think that's what they're going for.

The ad campaign was created by the company's new ad agency BBDO New York to show that New Balance is dedicated to reducing the hate and growing the love of running. Although they refused to disclose the size of its budget for the love/hate campaign, the company has a long-term goal of $3 billion in global sales by 2012

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Watch Your Back, Swoosh

Under Armour is now heading into uncharted territories with its announcement of a sneaker line. The line of shoes ranging from cross-trainers to long-distance running, have been claimed to be a possible threat to Nike. Does anyone have any doubts? Obviously.

First of all, lets just compare UA's $607 million to Nike's cool $18 billion. So how does a company like Under Armour separate itself from the competition? Brand appeal. "Under Armour is identified with performance the way Starbucks is identified with better coffee, and that is a huge advantage in entering new categories," says independent marketing consultant Dennis Keene. While Nike caters to individual sports and sports fashion, UA wants to be known for performance and function rather than style.

Unlike brands such as Starter and Oakley who got caught up in poor advertising choices, UA sticks to mostly in-house marketing - saving them money while also allowing them to stay more grassroots in their campaigns. grassroots efforts to stay connected to teen athletes and its Super Bowl spot that introduced the cross-training shoes with the not-too-subtle hit at Nike: “The Future Is Ours.”

Is UA's in over it's head? Maybe. Do the benefits outweigh the risks? They sure seem to think so.



The first part of the ad features people working out in UA apparel and wearing one of the three versions of the new Prototype cross-trainer shoes. The settings, though, are cinematically shot warehouses and alleys, giving the ad a distinct video-game look even before the CGI effects come into play. Other athletes in the ad include the New York Giants' Brandon Jacobs, the San Francisco 49ers' Vernon Davis, and the Chicago Cubs' Alfonso Soriano.

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Attack of the Sneaker-Clad Women

If you've ever seen or participated in a marathon, or any running event for that matter - you'd typically expect that most of people surrounding you are males. If we were talking about 15 or 20 years ago...this may be true, but according to the National Sporting Goods Association, it is estimated that the number of female casual runners rose by 13.6 percent between 1999 and 2004, outpacing men by 6 percent. Today, women comprise 40% of marathon finishers.

The catalyst for all of this is Title IX, which was passed in 1972 and in a nutshell prevented discrimination based on gender in an academic setting. The women of generation X and Y were the first to experience playing sports in high school and college, and proceeding generations have had the opportunities to see professional womens' leagues form and become popularized.

With the ever-increasing amount of women participating in sports - athletic brands such as Asics have noticed sales in female running shoes climbed 20 percent in 2004 and 40 percent in 2005. The company is estimating a 30 percent growth by the end of this year. Many brands have even launched mini-sites devoted solely to women's merchandise such as sneakers. Nike even created an entire department aimed at designing and engineering women's running shoes.

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Nike Goes Grassroots

Nike is one of the many large marketers who are starting to stray away from glossy print ads and celebrity-driven campaigns to focus directly on consumers. More and more runners are taking up Nike's newest venture, nike+. People are keeping details of their running on the web as well as making friends from across the world with similar interest and discussing training tips and products on its forum branch of the site.

Last year, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That’s down from 55 percent 10 years ago, according to the trade publication Advertising Age. Even though campaigns' budgets are growing from year to year, more and more companies such as Nike will be setting the trend in utilizing non-media ads such as services for consumers, like workout advice, online communities/forums, and local sports competitions.

With the internet becoming a consistently more prominent outlet for advertising, I wouldn't be surprised if some companies stopped advertising on TV all together, because television advertising that can only be seen at certain time periods...consumers have access to the internet 24/7, making an online ad that much more effective at a much lower cost to the company.


TV spot for nike+:


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Bladerunner

What exactly is "physically disabled" mean in regard to sports? Does an athlete simply not participate with those who are able-bodied? Or do they have special events devoted to them? Should they be allowed to participate if they desire to compete with "normal" athletes? Oscar Pistorius sure thinks so.

At 21, he is the world’s fastest sprinter with no legs. Pistorius, known as "Bladerunner", was born without fibulas in his lower legs and as a child had both legs amputated below the knees. He refuses to see himself as different, but the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) thinks otherwise. Pistorius races on carbon-fiber prosthetic legs called Cheetahs; they've helped him blow away the competition in the Paralympics, and also caused him to finish second among "normal" runners in a 400 meter race in Rome last year.

Through research, IAAF found that with his cheetahs, Pistorius was able to run at the same speed as able-bodied runners using about 25 percent less energy. Therefore, he was in violation of IAAF Rule 144.2 prohibiting use of technical aids to provide “an advantage over another athlete not using such device” and is banned from competing in the Beijing olympics. Pistorius is filing an appeal to fight the decision, saying in an interview that he "didn't choose to be the way he is"...so why should he be punished for making the best of his situation?

So...the obvious question is whether or not he should be allowed to compete with able-bodied athletes? My gut reaction says yes - give the guy a chance. He's trained for it and it's obvious he's talented. But another part of me is asking: how much of that talent was created by the engineers of his Cheetahs? If he had another brand of prosthetics, would he be as fast? I do think he has an unfair advantage of having the man-made equipment. And it was proved that he exerts less energy than a runner who has full use of his legs. My answer would have to be no, I do not think he should be allowed to compete in Beijing...solely based on the fact that he would be coming into the situation with an advantage.

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Best Places To Run In NY

I've never been a city runner, as I believe it isn't natural to have to dodge delivery men and strollers while trying to maintain pace...but there are a few secret places I think I'll check out that provide the scenery a suburb girl such as myself needs.

1. Central Park (big loop)
Distance: 6.1 miles
Terrain: Hilly in spots. Beware the northern Great Hill
Location: 59th Street to 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West

2. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir
Distance: 1.58-mile loop
Terrain: Flat and soft track
Location: Central Park between 85th Street and 96th Street

3. Riverside Park
Distance: Approximately 2.2 miles each way
Terrain: Flat with a few small hills
Location: On the Hudson River on Manhattan?s Upper West Side, between 72nd Street and 116th Street

4. East River Walk, Carl Shurz Park, Bobby Wagner Walk
Distance: Approximately 3.3 miles each way
Terrain: Flat except for a 20-foot staircase at 81st Street
Location: On the East River on Manhattan?s Upper East Side, between 60th Street and 123rd Street

5. Roosevelt Island
Distance: Approximately 3.5-mile loop
Terrain: Flat
Location: An island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens; tram to get over.

6. Brooklyn Bridge
Distance: Approximately one mile
Terrain: Slow gradual incline and decline
Location: From City Hall Park in Manhattan to Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn Heights

7. Prospect Park (loop)
Distance: 3.35 miles
Terrain: Flat with a few gently rolling hills
Location: Brooklyn between Park Slope and Flatbush

8. Madison Square Park
Distance: Approximately half-mile loop
Terrain: Flat
Location: Broadway to Madison Ave, East 23rd Street to East 26th Street

9. Battery Park, Hudson River Park
Distance: Approximately six miles each way
Terrain: Flat
Location: Lower west side of Manhattan from Battery Park to approximately 56th Street

10. Brooklyn Heights Promenade
Distance: Approximately a half-mile each way
Terrain: Flat
Location: Brooklyn Heights between Remsen Street and Middaugh Street

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My USB Is Faster Than Yours

MacLife.de says Nike's SportBand, an armband that connects to the Nike+ running device, might be finally coming to retail some time in April 2008. The armband will still be wireless and still require you to shove a Nike+ kit into your shoe in order to track how fast/far you run, but you won't have to carry an iPod Nano on you, which lowers the chance of muggings (but raises the chance of being bored while running). Once you're done with your workout, take out the attached USB stick and plug it into your computer to sync data with nikeplus.com

What is nike+, you ask?

"The all-new Nike+ SportBand is the newest way to link to the world’s largest running club. The Nike+ Sportband lets you track your distance, time, pace, and calories right from your wrist. Wear it while you run and reap all the benefits of Nike+. Be sure to download the SportBand utility from nikeplus.com before you plug the Link into your computer’s USB connection. This utility is necessary to sync your data and save it to nikeplus.com. Once configured, you’ll instantly be able to upload your runs to nikeplus.com, where you can track your runs, set goals, get training programs, and join challenges with runners from all over the world."


As a runner, this is really exciting for me. I don't know how many times I've tried to plot out my mileage by reading my odometer in my car, only to forget if I was at 4.5 or 4.6 miles. This little gadget takes all the guess work out of tracking mileage and pace and makes it easier to focus on the important stuff. In my opinion, the global "challenge" feature is where Nike hit it on the head, as taps into people's natural sense of competition and now a runner in Queens can see how they stack up to someone in India.

According to Nike’s Vice President of Global Brand and Category Management, Trevor Edwards, Nike + iPod revolutionized running. Now the Nike+ SportBand gives more choice and allows Nike+ to cover any running situation. It tracks your distance, calories burned and other performance information while providing a simple link to the world’s largest running club, when you choose not to or can’t run with music.” Acting as your personal coach, it gives real-time accounts of a runner's progress and allows people to track progress individually or alongside others.

With so much customization and freedom of the Nike+ program, users will have a sense of control that is sure to be a driver in its popularity, and I can't wait to see the progression of this amazing technology.

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Age is just a number...

Buster Martin is an unlikely candidate to set a marathon record. He drinks beer, smokes cigarettes and stays out late. And he's 101. He came out of retirement and returned to work at the age of 99 saying he was "bored after two years of retirement". Martin hold down a job at a plumming firm as a van cleaner three days a week and says he trains for the marathon only in his spare time.

If Martin completes this marathon, will break the previous record of 98 years, held by greek marathon runner Dimitrion Yordanidis. He already holds three world title records for the oldest person to run the 5K, 10K and the half marathon.

According to an article at NBC.com: Martin says that in the last weekend, he's completed a 13-mile half marathon that took him a little more than five hours. It would have been faster, he says, but he says he stopped for a beer and a cigarette. He states "I like running, but not as much as I like beer."

If Martin is not working, training, or sipping on a pint, he may be found singing in his band called The Zimmers. Consisting of over 40 seniors, the band has a combined age of over 3000 years and scored a hit single last year with a cover of The Who's ''My Generation.'' When asked by locals, it was discovered that Martin could actually sing quite well.

After hearing about Martin's story, one would think that taking up smoking or heavy drinking is the key to the fountain of youth; and when asked what his secret was, he stated: "I haven’t got [a secret]. They say fags and booze are bad for you—but I’m still here, aren’t I?”

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