I was overwhelmed and I’m sure of that one

This year I had my best North American ranking ever, with a 3rd in the marathon (Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi are ahead of me).  I thought maybe it was a weaker year because most marathoners didn’t race this fall in anticipation of the US Olympic Trials Jan 14th.  However my 2:10:55 would rank anywhere from 2nd-4th in N.A. in any of the past four years.  Needless to say I’m very happy about how my races (and training) went this year.  In a similar theme to Vankayak’s recent blog, I’m overwhelmed with the all of the media attention that I and the marathon in general are getting in Canada.  It’s great to have Canadian marathoners getting ready for the Olympics once again and that people are excited about us.

On the other hand I have been underwhelmed (if that’s a word, I know it’s not ’cause I looked it up) by the coverage from the Hamilton Spectator.  I even Tweeted about it last week “2011 articles mentioning me: Globe and Mail 12. Guelph Mercury 18. Hamtilton Spectator 2 (one written by Guelph Mercury).

In the past I would never have wanted to ruffle any feathers over at the Spec because I wouldn’t want them writing even less (if that’s possible).  But it’s been so many years of omissions and so many other outlets are genuinely interested about marathoning in Canada I can’t be bothered to waste any energy caring about what the Spec wants to write about in their sports section (I really like the rest of the paper and former track and field athlete Cecelia Carter-Smith although she is pretty much retired from the Spec).  I get it when there is absolutely no coverage of a race, that typically means a result is not newsworthy, and that is fair enough.  But when national papers and other city papers are covering my races and my local paper is not, well then, I’ll poke fun at the Spec via Twitter, haha.

Gillis and I had an interview and photo shoot with Sportsnet Magazine yesterday in Guelph, look for the article on shelves in the coming months.  Sounds like they’ll be covering a lot of Olympic athletes/sports in the build-up to London, should be interesting.  The reporter stuck around to watch our workout on the XC course in Guelph and interview Dave.  It was fun to get back with the main group and roll some faster intervals and get my ass kicked a bit.  Which I guess isn’t anything to be ashamed of when it’s by a 3:36 1500m runner and an 8:19 steeplechaser!