Daily News, Wed, Feb 18

How to use sponsorships effectively, and how to use them obnoxiously.

DNF report from the Pixie Ninja. Must be pretty helpful to run with another PT and be able to diagnose each other’s ailments mid-race!

And a report from winner Caroline Boller. She’s so new to the sport and is going to be awesome to watch.

And finally, Black Canyon’s 18yo champ Ford Smith writes about his young (but long) love of ultrarunning here. Ford also just signed up for The Canyons 100k. Should be an awesome race!

All I’m doing is posting this, but I’ll still get plenty of mail from cyclists accusing me of hating them. Please just read it.

Cool: Two Oceans will have an ultra trail race this year. Meh: The “ultra” is 45k.

MensHealth covers the crocheted shorts rage and somehow I get mentioned.

I like this guy: Andrew Skurka’s 2015 calendar and considerations.

Nick Symonds will compete on my favorite TV show, American Ninja Warrior. Paging Max King, paging Max King…

How clear do you think when you’re running? Great post.

…and the science behind it is interesting.

Alright, aside from awesome trails and dedicated volunteers, this race appears to have a giant freakin waterslide at the end.

Easy tip for drying out your wet trail shoes. Two problems: We’re not getting any rain in California, and second, what’s a newspaper?

David Rushida has never taken a supplement in his life.

How does your menstrual cycle effect your training?

What’s Ryan Sandes up to these days?

I worked in restaurants for years, and can’t imagine finding the time do that and train on the trails. More power to this chef.

Will the next MUT mecca be Mammoth Lakes? I’m heading there this Spring for an extended weekend to find out.

Is crawling to the finish line heroic or stupid?

Please consider that his audience is different than URPs, then click this to see the results of the most popular trail shoes of 2014.

Site news: Expect a site re-design soon. Some things aren’t working quite as I’d like, and URP hasn’t had a face life in 2+ years. Any input before or after the change takes place is encouraged and appreciated!

21 Responses to "Daily News, Wed, Feb 18"

Mike Hinterberg says:

February 18, 2015 at 6:30 am

That’s a great bike article, thanks, Miss Hottman is a great local resource and sensible advocate just down the road from me in Golden. My favourite part of the article is the anecdote and suggestion of waving/acknowledging and being friendly (a practice I think is underutilized by runners as well, frankly). “Humanizing” other road users (err, ‘people on the road’) is important in the real world AND the virtual world.

Separately: do you hate cyclists? 😉 Ha!
Cheers!

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Mike says:

February 18, 2015 at 6:42 am

The Ultra168 blog on sponsors and sponsored athletes sounds like a whole lot of whining and the kind of thing normally found on Letsrun.com. If you don’t know that the athletes you’re following are also the employees of their sponsors it isn’t anyone’s fault but your own. Wake up and stop being a naive tool.

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1. Mic Med says:
  
  February 18, 2015 at 7:23 am
  
  Agreed. There’s also a fine line in promotion and how people react to it. There’s Salomon, who basically just lets their athletes/videos etc speak for themselves, there’s no posts from their athletes saying “wow, new Sense SoftGround is the bomb diggity!” Though that’s what some sponsors ask of their athletes and actually require. And it’s irritating sometimes, to the point I will NEVER buy a pair of Hoka One One’s because there’s a certain trail/road guy who is too over the top with promoting. If you try to shove it down my face, I’m going the opposite way.
  
  Reply
  1. eric schranz says:
    
    February 18, 2015 at 7:57 am
    
    Key phrase: A fine line. Promotion is fine, but people need to realize when they’re going too far.
    
    Reply
  2. Dan says:
    
    February 18, 2015 at 3:42 pm
    
    Good comments Mike. Salomon actually provide a lot of social media training to their guys, use agencies and experts alike who understand how to promote properly and to speak on a level that we as consumers of products appreciate and understand. They are one of the few companies that ‘get it’. I could name 2 or 3 that don’t get it and they don’t care. I’ve had conversations with some of their brands managers and they couldn’t give a flying **** about the ‘story’ or how they speak to people, they just want to sell more gear and will push product until their blue in the face. The sheer arrogance is astounding.
    
    Reply
2. Dan says:
  
  February 18, 2015 at 3:39 pm
  
  Hi Mike, nice of you to call me a tool – thought that was the tone and language you see on Letsrun?
  
  Anyway, I actually give a lot of constructive advice to athletes for free – following that article and number of them got in touch with me and asked for some help and advice. I also do it as part of my real job in real life outside of running to help brands and their ambassadors use social media properly.
  
  There is also an obligation of athletes and brands to be transparent about this stuff too, but there’s also a lot of ignorance on the topic too. There’s also a lot of athletes and brands that think they can blatantly abuse people’s trust. The article highlights some of the good and the bad about it. I know full well who the athletes are and which sponsors they belong to, but a lot of people don’t and the ultra running industry is extremely immature in its use and proper practice of this kind of stuff.
  
  Anyway, I don’t know you and you don’t know me, so please don’t call me a tool. I know what I’m talking about and have made a great career out of it. Thanks, Dan
  
  Reply
  1. Dan says:
    
    February 18, 2015 at 3:46 pm
    
    Sorry I didn’t make it clear in my comments, but I’m the author of the article and editor of Ultra168 – just to be totally transparent 🙂
    
    Reply
John in Montana says:

February 18, 2015 at 7:31 am

I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle or not but being able to comment directly on each link would be very cool and maybe drive more traffic on your site. A good example of this would be fark.com. Anyway thanks for a great site!

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  February 18, 2015 at 7:58 am
  
  That’s one of the things I’m working on. Thanks!
  
  Reply
Travis says:

February 18, 2015 at 7:40 am

http://www.meritendurance.com/thought-collective/2015/2/16/thought-collective-006challenge-is-essential

Challenge is Essential by TK

Reply
G says:

February 18, 2015 at 8:27 am

Nascar called and wants their obnoxious, shove it down your throat, style of sponsorship tactics all to themselves again…. Ultrarunning,please answer!

On a personal note…way back I was a sponsored nike athlete playing soccer. I had the opportunity to get shoes whenever I wanted,but was old school and just settled into a few pairs, two for practices,one for games. My teammates had 10-20 pairs,no lie,and often they would get rid of shoes after a week or two. I found this a waste so started to collect them and researched some places that would find some more life for them….inner city youth and rec soccer leagues. It seems that some athletes love getting all this “free” gear and post pictures of ALL their STUFF, but it would be nice if every once and a while we see or hear of some random acts of humanness going on.

Just me venting

Reply
hugo says:

February 18, 2015 at 8:33 am

Eric,
I couldn’t agree more about the newspaper thing! but you can always count on that old neighbor who hoards newspaper and other things, right? That’s how I got mine! 🙂

Reply
Jorge says:

February 18, 2015 at 9:03 am

No rain? no problem. Texas summer will do the same to your shoes 😉

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Clare says:

February 18, 2015 at 9:46 am

What a compliment! Men’s Health called you an “actual man”!!

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misszippy says:

February 18, 2015 at 10:31 am

Thank you for sharing my post!

On another note: ironically, the only time I have put newspapers in my shoes was following the Calif. International Marathon, where the floodgates opened!

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Paul B says:

February 18, 2015 at 11:11 am

Rain shadow running puts on some amazing events and always have a great after race party. The Gorge is beautiful with tough ass climbs and stunning views. Beacon rock is awesome but I have not actually done that race. I do highly recommend any of their races though.

Cyclist vs car=cyclist always loose even if the driver is at fault. It’s a tough life out on the road. Majority of drivers/cyclist are good, and there are assholes and hateful people on both sides. More and more stories and friends being hit both accidentally and purposefully have kept me from the bike the last few years.

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Clare says:

February 18, 2015 at 11:20 am

I* have some of these Stuffits for drying shoes…yep, CA, can’t really remember the last time my shoes got wet! but they leave your shoes smelling of cedar wood instead of the nasto-stink from forgetting that i left my wet drymax socks rolled up inside them…TMI!!

http://store.stuffitts.com/For-Shoes-s/68.htm

* NOT sponsored 😉

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Peter Andersson says:

February 18, 2015 at 10:42 pm

If anyone should go on Ninja Warrior it’s Kilian Jornet!

Reply
Sarah Lavender Smith says:

February 19, 2015 at 4:33 pm

Nice video featuring Tim! If anyone wants more info on where to run in Mammoth & advice from Tim, check out this blog post I did featuring a Q&A with him about Mammoth.Reference

Reply
1. Sarah Lavender Smith says:
  
  February 19, 2015 at 4:35 pm
  
  Oops forgot to include link: http://www.therunnerstrip.com/2015/01/running-mammoth-lakes/
  
  Reply
Mike says:

February 28, 2015 at 2:05 pm

I love the URP Daily. But I typically consume it once or twice a week and wish it had links to skip between days (like a “previous” and a “next”). Do-able?

Keep up the great work!Reference

Reply

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