Two weeks ago hundreds of the world's most esteemed runners flocked to Boston to take place in one of the most iconic marathons around. Those who are lucky enough to participate in the historic range from Olympians, world champs, and passionate ordinary athletes; and although the majority of commercialism revolves around the latest gadgets and gear that are seemingly "guaranteed" to produce a faster more efficient athlete, a good amount of the media coverage focuses on the prospective winners. This year Shalane Flanagan was predicted to dominate the women's field after her incredible performance at the New York Marathon in 2017, which she ran under the Bowerman Track Club in an incredible time of 2 hours 26 minutes and 53 seconds an entire minute faster than the next runner. Shalane's wild success came after the publishing of her cookbook Run Fast, East Slow which quickly became a best seller and coveted resource for athletes everywhere. The point being Shalane Flanagan's platform is immense, one of the largest of any athlete male or female partaking in Boston, and her brand is quickly becoming a house hold name. In the weeks leading up to Boston much of the coverage of the marathon was centered around the times Flanagan and other popular athletes were predicted to run. While the revenue Shalane brought in for Bowerman Track Club is undeniable what was shocking was the exorbitant fan base which supported her, BTC even launched a tee shirt boasting "GO SHALANE" which supportive fans plastered images of across social media.
Unfortunately at Boston weather and a quick bathroom break cost Shalane the highly coveted title, but the conversations preceding the race continued to involve her. Runners world featured an article humorously labeled Who the Heck Were Those Women in 2nd Through 6th at the Boston Marathon? which briefly talked about the 5/7 runners who placed before Flanagan which were American. Interestingly enough it described them as "five unknowns who beat Shalane Flanagan." Even after Shalane's crushing loss her fan base seems prevalent as ever, with her cookbook maintaing its cult like status. You would think that after her loss people might come to question Shalane's methods- mind you I'm not disagreeing with them in the least since I'm as much a fan of Run Fast, Eat Slow as any other amateur runner, common sense would tell us that we should mimic winners not losers. And yet Run Fast, East Slow is selling better if anything, and Desiree Linden's first place finish is overshadowed by the smiling image on Shalene embracing her on Instagram preceded by a snap of Flanagan's BTC singlet.
Linden crossed the finish line in 2 hours 39 minutes and 53 seconds wearing a jacket bearing the logo of a small scale "distance project", Sarah Sellers ran a 2:44:02 snatching second and is a full time nurse, and mother of two Krista DuChene took third. All three of these women don't run under a large club and lack the thousands of dollars worth of sponsorship's Flanagan and similar big name runners have and interestingly enough the only coverage they've received has already become old news. If nothing else media has served as instigation in this struggle for an online presence, and its highly insightful that media sources have traded in success for reliability and popularity. Where is the coverage for the coverage of runners like Sarah and Krista who run independently and lack the expensive sponsors? There is a line which we should be wary of where media influences what we see, and determines it, and this story is an example of its influence having gone too far.
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