Dude, Where's My Runner's World?

There’s something a bit disconcerting about the recent article in Runner’s World titled “Stars Run Wild.”

Since the magazine’s “facelift” some 3 years ago, many of us have heard the steady drumbeat of corporatization of the magazine that for years has kept its pulse on the serious running community. Hey, I get it. Rodale is a big publishing house and they’ve got a bottom line to protect.

I must confess that while I was incredibly impressed with the “award-winning” Runner’s World design team’s efforts to make the venerable mag more visually appealing, but I sometimes find myself missing the (somewhat goofy) editorial slant of the old Runner’s World.

In Stars Run Wild, writer Robert Sullivan actually decries the (over) abundance of running celebrities hogging the pages of People and Us—ostensibly “threatening to take over the mundane, real-life world that we, the non-celebrities live in on a daily basis.” “Let’s face it,” writes Sullivan, “We, the non-celebrity runners of America are in the midst of a running celebrity epidemic.”

Ah yes, methinks RW doth protest too much. The transformation of Runner’s World into People Magazine began 3 years ago. And lo and behold! What do we have here inside our beloved RW pages, but a photomontage of celebrities running all over town— from Madge to Nicole, Grant to Combs.

Despite the protestations of Robert Sullivan, it is clear that RW saw the writing on the wall some time ago and is perfectly poised to advantage the second running boom. Nice Marketing guys!

I don’t think all of this will get me to cancel my 20-year old subscription to Runner’s World. But I think I’ll stick to the exceptional training advice and nutritional information the magazine still offers…at least for now.

But if you do happen to pick up a copy of the February issue of RW, turn to page 59  where you’ll find an amazing picture of Matthew McConaughey’s six-pack…nice.;-)

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