Sean "Puff Daddy" "P. Diddy" Combs and the New York City Marathon

I couldn’t find the original thread, but as I was checking out the progress of some of my friends I entered Sean “Puff Daddy” “P. Diddy” Combs’ name in the tracker and he’s doing an 8:48 pace with an estimated finish of 3:50 (as per the website’s calculator). Not bad!

Like I said in my orignal posts: raising money for a good cause, providing a positive (athletic) influence… and as it turned out, doing it pretty well, too.

Lets see what happens to pace at the 20mile split… that’s the real race begins.

Funny I just read on Foxnews his professional trainer predicting a 3:15 finish… riiiiiiiighht and puffy didn’t shot no body either… :slight_smile:

He was asking fans to “pray for him”… come on it’s a marathon! It’s not like he’s heading of to combat.

The tone of this thread and the attendant observations have been interesting. I think we are showing our age guys, and that is important to remember. As Francois pointed out, MTV runs shows that feature guys riding down hills in shoppng carts wearing leopard G-strings. To us, it is a new low in TV. To the target audience, 20 years younger than us (me) it is the new slapstick. After seeing the Jackass movie I was like, “Ahh, OK, guys launching bottle rocket out of their ass on a hotel balcony. This movie is grossing millions?” Then I read a movie review that was well written, insightful and made sense. The reviewer pointed out parallels between the Three Stooges, W.C. Fields and even Charlie Chaplin. In their time they were regarded as profane and inappropriate.

What’s my point? Well, I think P.Diddy’s participation in the New York marathon is very encouraging for endurance sports. It means endurance sports has spanned the generational gulf from us crusty old-school 40 somethings who grew up on Madonna and Duran-Duran to the new generation for whom rap, hip-hop, techno and speed metal are the staples along with an evolutionary new breed of television and other media, like gaming.

We have a young man named Ian wokring for us here at Bikesport. He is a good worker, talented musician and does very well in school. His parents are great people and his family is the new manifestation of “The Cleavers” or “The Waltons”, and I mean that with all the sincerest compliments and envy. Ian is 15 I think. He is very quiet, a 15 year old musician and high school student and a 42 year old triathlete and bike shop owner don’t have much to talk about. Or do they? Yesterday Ian saw me riding the Computrainer and remarked at how “low tech” it was. That lead to a conversation about gaming and I asked him if he thought I should buy a Play Station 2 or an X Box. His review of the equipment, game titles and others features and benefits was in depth, well informed, articulate and balanced. I was enormously impressed by his insights. There is a lot going on in his young mind. He weilds an Xcell speard sheet like you and I did a pencil and eraser in High School.

It’s a different generation. Seeing them make some kind of foray into endurance sports, especially with high level media icons like Puff is very encouraging. I see it as predominantly positive. And me as progressivly older…

Right on. More power to him.

You can’t find it because DavidD deleted the original, so the title is now “Post deleted by Davidd”. It took me a while to find it too, but no one is looking at it anymore.

I agree with you, there was some interesting debate on his reputation and persona.

If anyone saw SNL last night, during Weekend Update, they pondered what Puffy running the NYC marathon today would look like. The scene went like this:

Puffy at the front in a baggy sweat suit. The starter says “Ready! Set!” and then fires the starting gun. Puffy pulls out his gatt, caps the starter, and then starts running.

So that’s the caricature of him that exists in the public eye. You really can’t hold the people on this forum to a less judgmental, totally accepting standard than everyone else, and you can’t expect that perception to change overnight simply because he is doing some charity work.

I originally posted this on the other thread, in case it doesn’t entirely make sense in the context of this one.

No that’s funny!

Looks like he finished in 4:14 or 3:58. I’m guessing 4:14 is his time from when the gun went off and 3:58 was his actual running time(after crossing the start line). I have to admit, I’m surprised he got his goal of under 4 hours. Nice job.

So Tom, What was his verdict? Xbox or PlayStation 2?

Sean Combs / 10k split 52:43 / 1/2 mary - 1:55:27 / 20 mile split -3:03:17 / pace - 9:43 / finish time - 4:14:54 / chip time - 3:58:22
.

I sure hope it was PS2, although most of the teenagers I know have every single console and handheld out there. From a technology and graphics point of view, the XBox may be superior, but this is the sort of argument you can’t make based simply on specs(sort of like loudspeakers). The variety and quality of games for PS2 eclipse XBox, as evidenced by the 55 million units shipped, compared to 10 million XBox’s, and the fact that Microsoft has lowered the price of XBox overseas 3 times this year and still can’t match even GameCube sales, and it has effectively been discontinued.

The CT software is a total dog compared to the most basic video games systems out there today, for example, the Game Boy Advance which is a handheld device 3 inches square and sells for $99. I’ve had my CT for about a month now, and have to say that while I like it a lot, it’s probably worth around $400. I’m being generous and guessing that the hardware is worth about $250 of that, so adjust accordingly. (In fact, Performance is now selling a similar unit for around $400)

Factor in the instability of the software, the graphical glitches, and the fact that it crashes whenever your screensaver comes on, and you have software that should never have survived QA. Again, I think it is a good piece of machinery, but at a software developer, and a guy who shelled out the cash for one, I can confirm that the CT is junk compared to the games the kids are playing today, where for 20 bucks you get a driving game so realistic that your steering wheel shakes when you corner hard.

So the kid is right on that account.

While I do support the cause that P-Diddy ran the marathon for (money for NYC schools), I had a hard time watching him lower his shoulder and shove one of his supporters (he must have been around 12 years old) who got a little too close to him during the marathon. I saw it on televison and it looked like an awfully stupid thing to do, especially when you consider the cause and the many cameras and eyes watching him. Ugh.

As for growing up on Madonna and Duran Duran, no way! I was living in Ottumwa, Iowa listening to Iggy and the Stooges, The Ramones, Captain Beefheart, Husker Du, Sonic Youth and The Minutemen. The conformist dorks were listening to Duran Duran and Madonna. Oh well. I still like those bands, but now I listen to Coltrane, Elliott Smith, Slipknot (when I do the dishes) and a lot of Bach when I need to calm down.

If its any consolation I got a black eye from Jello Biafra and thrown off a stage by Lee Ving.

Anyone that “intimately” familiar with the bands Fear and The Dead Kennedys isn’t a dork. For what it’s worth I once got pushed off the stage at a Circle Jerks concert when I got a little too “exuberant” with my punk rock antics.

Husker Du! Yeah! And the Dead Milkmen, and The Dickies, and DRI! Although I must confess, I do like the video from New Moon on Monday, and my wife is going through a Duran Duran addiction issue right now.(Apparently, the insiders just call them ‘D2’. How Clever!) But hey, while she was in Vegas(at their show) I got to do a really long ride and run weekend.

Oh well. I still like those bands, but now I listen to Coltrane, Elliott Smith, Slipknot (when I do the dishes) and a lot of Bach when I need to calm down. Elliott Smith! My favorite current artist. I guess I can’t say that anymore :frowning:

I was at Best Buy yesterday, and noticed that the Dead Milkmen had a 20th anniversary cd out. Thoughts:

  1. What, a greatest hits album, and they didn’t have “Beach Party Vietnam” or “Punk Rock Girl” on it?

  2. Dang, they’ve been together that long. I feel old.

Born in '72 here.

Boy are you guys old !
Ditrtball

Yeah, I think that I liked the Dead Milkmen more than possibly any other band I’ve ever heard, and at one point in time, they were my favorite. But I have all their music on CD, so I have no need for a Greatest Hits CD.

I try not to think about the fact that when I was into them I was living another life some 13 years ago. The music was great, everything else sucked. Lately though, I’ve been feeling discontent, and have been meaning to listen to Metaphysical Graffiti.

And yes, I can appreciate the ironies of:

A: A Dead Milkmen 20th Anniversary Greatest Hits album
B: That it is sold at Best Buy, and,
C: that it doesn’t include two of their most popular, if not best, songs.

Tri_yoda: I absolutely concede your point. I’m sure that RacerMate doesn’t sell nearly as many units, by orders of magnitude, as Sony, Nintendo, or The Evil One. But after 15 years, they should have made enough money to at least keep their software current.

And Dirtball!: Old is a state of mind: I’m 36 and get my ass kicked by men and women 10+ years older than me at every race I run. Seriously, though. I’m hip, I’m down, I’m with it. I got my bling bling, my Cristal, my Moto…

Tom and ironclm are among those I most respect on this board but I don’t understand your appreciation of P. Diddy.
P Diddy raised $1 millon for NYC public schools from other people. Meanwhile he got millions of dollars of free publicity including MTV specials and newspaper headlines. He was the frontpage story in toda’s NY Post.

For vacations this same Diddy spends $150,000 of his own money on yacht rentals so for him he gave a pittance to the city while talking about how its all about the kids.

Kudos to those who Diddy tried to buy for refusing to play along. Some refused $1000 an hour for coaching him while others prostituted themselves as did the NY Road Runners.

Other celebritys have run NY, but no one ever got the attention like Diddy, including his private motorcycle escort…

Rather than helping to promote distance running , Diddy is helping kill the marathon as a sporting competition but I have to give him credit for his ability to maximize free publicity.

Best Buy occasionally does have some interesting non-mainstream 80s music. I managed to replace all my The The cassettes last year with CDs at $11.99 per disc.

My Dead Milkmen albums are also all cassette, and it would have been nice to update my copies with something frisbee-looking. But not if they don’t have Punk Rock Girl.

(and saving money on music is good, even if involves the mediocre Best Buy because the less spent on tunes, the more left in the fun budget for entry fees)

Tom… it’s not a “generation thing”… it’s a “where you are in life thing”.

Like you, I’m 42, and of course grew up in an entirely different world than today. TV: first it was black and white… then crappy color… and you had to (gasp!) get up out of your chair (no remotes?!) to twist a dial (what’s a dial?) to change to another of the only THREE channels (no channel 145?). Music: well, that’s pretty much been covered in the foregoing threads.

My father was born in 1922, fought in WWII, and “his” music was swing, big-band, classical “old fogie” stuff. An entirely different generation… the GREATEST GENERATION. Still… when my sister and I were in elementary school in the 60’s and started to listen to the Beatles, etc. … he got into it. As we got older and our musical tastes “matured” our parents came along with us. My parents are dead now, but I remember my mother, almost 70, dancing with my sister and her two elementary-aged children in the family room to one of the pop bands and she actually knew the words and was obviously loving it.

As I take my kids and their friends to soccer or swim practice they ask to put in their “pop” music and, truthfully, I enjoy it. I’ve taken them to some of “their” concerts and they were pretty good too. And there were plenty of us oldies at those pop concerts, and a lot of them were not with kids.

A month ago I took my 7 and 9-year-old to an Earth Wind and Fire concert, and we sat in the center, four rows from the stage, watching Verdine White pluck that bass and never stop moving, and listening to Philip Bailey sing “Reasons” in a falsetto only he can pull off… and after the concert as we were walking out holding hands they said “Papa (that’s what they call me) that was cool… we need to go to more concerts like this!” It made me smile.

Music crosses generations.

But the rest… I agree with you. Think about it… training for a marathon was on MTV!

There was a good post on another website on this topic, and I really liked it:

“The one thing about our sport that I think is great is that we are all athletes first, irrespective of sex, age, race, political affiliation, music preference etc. P Diddy trained and finished a marathon in a respectable time and for that he is one of us.”

Life’s pretty complicated, and that kind of attitude makes life just that much simpler.