Mark Lemmon wrote:
iron_mike wrote:
dev, you're making the fundamental mistake of assuming this is a race. (or even a time trial, if you like.) it is not.
it is a commercial.
therefore, the only rule that matters is getting eyeballs and selling product, and that should be the metric by which it is assessed.
Good point. I'm not going to stay up to 2 a.m. to watch this live, but I will watch on demand for free if it's available this weekend. I wear Nike running shoes and have for a long time, but I'm not going to buy additional Nike product after watching this. If it was a more legit record attempt I would possibly consider giving Nike more love via my credit card, although there is still the whole Oregon Project thing...
I don't care, that this is a marketing event. At the end of the day, Nike is going to go out and claim a sub 2 marathon was done, if it happens. I actually hope it does not happen and actually I don't want the world best marathon time to be broken. I hope that guys cramp up and choke on this gimmick. This is kind of like claiming the tallest skyscraper and having an extra long telecom antenna to push you over the top....fundamentally, it's a different event that you are creating, BUT, you are using the same measure (time) as what is used for established competition and then afterwards you're going to act publicly like its all the same (
it's all running right, so I guess it is a sub 2 marathon).
If Nike wants to do a gimmick, then go ahead, but while they are at it, maybe add a conveyor belt moving at 1kph so that the runners only need to run at 20 kph and still go under 2 hours. Its essentially not doing the sport by standard/generally accepted mechanisms. Lots of artificial assist here, more so than in "real racing". If you want to simulate a real race like Bannister did to go sub 4, then OK and even then I feel that Bannister's true sub 4 was when him and Landy both went sub 4 at the Empire Games a few months later, but either way, at least he was the first.