THE NIKE HUMAN RACE (LONDON)

Ok, I hope you enjoyed the little video, I didnt film it but it was the recorded at Wembley stadium on Sunday 31/08/08 at the Nike Human Race 10K London. I thought this would be a good way to officially define the start my "New" blog. I didnt get to film the video (they stopped me taking my camera into the stadium) but I did get to take this photo (on my sneaky camera phone). I took this photo waiting for the start of the event and this is the image I had seen in my minds eye prior to the event. You should be able to see the similarity to the penguin photo from my previous post.

So what is the NIKE+ HUMAN RACE ....To quote the spiel:

"On 08.31.08, Nike is making a statement like no other before. Nike is putting on the World’s Largest Running Event. The 10k event will be the ultimate runner experience. By combining our digital running world with the physical, the Nike+ Human Race is open to anyone, anywhere. Nike is hosting race events in 25 cities around the world, but by logging into nikeplus.com, every city and every road can become a race-day course".

This is my race report from one of the city events that was hosted in London. I will do this by writing about the Good the Bad and the downright Ugly aspects to this event, followed by my conclusion....lets start with the Good!

THE GOOD

1. The music was mostly fantastic, and a great way to start the event. Moby was incredible considering I expected him to be slightly rubbish. The highlight was Carl Craig a DJ from Detroit who was amazing, it was such a perfect moment for me a music geek to be stood on the hallowed Wembley turf dancing to Techno as part of a warm up for a 10k.  It really got you pumped up and ready to go.
2. The course was good , a bit tight in parts and slightly undulating but all in all it was quite a comfortable run and the finishing  straight towards the Wembley Arch was a superb way to end.
3. The Free Tees, the Dry Fit running top was a high quality garment and very comfortable to Run in .  The long sleeved thermal at the end was an extra bonus that ensured I got back to the car nice and warm.
4. The Technology  behind the scenes it was  providing real time reporting of all the race data, not just in London but all over the world . Being a geek, getting this live feedback was a real boost. It was like Nike+ but for the whole of London, I could compare my own time to that of the national average and see how it compared to all the other runners worldwide. 
5. My Time...50:35. Quite chuffed about this. Considering its my first 10k in over 2 years and I got almost exactly the same time as the last one. Considering I am about 1 stone heavier and currently have a bit of an ankle injury I am really pleased.
6. Paula Radcliffe  this was the highlight of the day, Paula straight back from the olympics ran in the Forth and final wave.  This was my wave and as only about 1000 people where in this wave with a bit of speed and manouvering I managed to breifly run along side her for about 200 yards. It was a real privilage and something I will remember for a long time. She finished the race in just over 40 mins and thats 2 mins faster than my PB. If I had been at the top of my game I may have been able to keep up with her and therefore could have ran a lot of the race in her company that would have been really good but it didn't happen. Definately a motivator to get back to the top of my game.

Ok now for The Bad...

1. Pendulum, The worst Dance band ever, they were awful.I think they made my ears slighty  bleed, I never want to hear their music again (sorry to any fans but come on).
2. Stupid Rules: I am currently carrying a minor injury because I couldn't race to my full potential, I had therefore decided I would take my Video Camera to document the event. Unfortunately when I arrived at the stadium they searched my bag and told me I couldn't take the camera in. This may not have been official Nike policy and instead a stadium thing but it left a sour taste in my mouth
3. The Tee Shirts: I loved my Tee and was wearing it with pride... but when I arrived at the stadium and was told I could only enter the runners area if I was wearing my Tee this seemed wrong. I understand that it created a community of runners, and it promoted activity and raised money for charity. But at the end of the day how much of my money went to charity..10%. And why was it so important that I wore the tee? I had my ticket yet you could only enter the arena if you had the official top on. This was wrong, and it is the first time I had ever encounter this phenomena, who was I running for...myself or the Brand. It seemed that I had paid my money for the privilege of representing Nike in a mass publicity stunt.
4. The Tee Shirts continued... I also had to pick my Tee up from Nike Town in London. (30,000 people had to do the same), I received texts telling me I had untill 20:00 hrs the day before the race, to collect my kit ..or what? I made a 400 Mile return journey on the Saturday only to find out on the Sunday that non-London based runners could collect their kit on the day...yet this was never comunicated. They had my info and I checked my emails there was no mention of this. Nike once again promoting the brand and getting me into their store ( I did however buy  a cool Camcorder bag whilst I was there but...LOL only to be told I couldnt take it into the stadium..the irony!). 
   
5. Late start...the music was great but 3 and a half hours waiting for it to start at 20:30. Some people had a 4 hour drive after the event. Again there was no mention of this on the website or the emails and the first I knew of it was once I had picked up my ticket.
6. No crowd support until the last 1km.
7. The Finnish was the worst organized I have ever witnessed. Once you had finished your guess was as good as the other 30,000 as to what to do next. Some people walked away with nothing others walked a way with bags of free stuff.

The Ugly...

1. 30,000 people pushing for there goodies at the end...getting disgruntled about not getting a medal and then trying to exploit the bad organization by taking as many T-Shirts as they could... this frenzied expression of all that is bad about Human nature made me feel a little ill...(having said that it could have been the sprint finish).

CONCLUSION

All in all it was something that I enjoyed but I got more from following the virtual runners on Twitter than I did from the Live event. It was really impersonal and quite pretentious...lots of constraints and felt like I was taking part in a Nike marketting stunt that I payed to be a part of. 

There is of course the counter argument that was put by Coach Adam on Twitter that (I hope he doesnt mind me qouting him but it was a public response)...  "Nike cult, Nike marketing, what's the difference? I'm all for cults if they have a purpose that extends beyond self indulgence".

 And I think CoachAdam has got a point. Over a million people participated in this event and it got people out... and running. All with a joint goal, all being positive, this has got to be a good thing!

However I think next year I will give it a miss, maybe do the virtual race or better still do on of the races from the "World Wide Festival of Races" 

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com/cgi-bin/home