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Flying Cascadilla Brothers
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Your Guide to Good Running. This month Ed Charles substitutes for Bob Rarrick
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Things I Learned the Hard Way
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The fellow who normally writes this column is unavailable for some reason, so the editors of the newsletter asked me to write about running this month. What I thought I would do was devote this space to debunking some of the dumb statements I have read in Runner's World magazine over the past 30 years.
For those of you who subscribe to this magazine or are thinking about subscribing, I want to issue this warning: Please don't believe everything you read in that rag. They have some good information but a lot of it is totally incorrect or just written to fill up space. See, there is not that much you can really say about running--it's a fairly simple sport, so unless you have really unique writers, like this newsletter has, it's pretty hard to come up with anything interesting and you end up making stuff up or re-working stories from past issues. Here are some things to look out for:
1.) No running shoe from a major shoe company will ever get a bad review in the semi-annual shoe rankings.
Although running shoes have
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come a long way over the past 30 years, there undoubtedly are some stinkers still out on the market. But don't expect Runner's World to point them out for you. This is because they are terrified of insulting one of their advertisers. This is a result of an incident that happened back in 1975, when they rated shoes and ranked the Brooks Villanova far ahead of any Nike shoe. Nike, who at the time did in fact make terrible running shoes, felt that the shoe review was bias against them (supposedly the editors of RW were friends with some of the people at Brooks) and they pulled all their advertising from the magazine, nearly causing RW to shut down the presses for good. The lesson learned here? Don't ever say that a running shoe is bad. If you have to say anything negative about it be sure to recommend the reader by the companies more expensive shoe instead.
2.) They can't make up their mind.
In order to fill space, the editors will print contradictory articles every six months. First there will be an article that sports drinks are the best thing to drink. Six months later an article will claim that plain old water is better than a sports drink. Six months after that
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an article will run that no, sports drinks are better. The latter has been the opinion of the magazine ever since sports drinks became major advertisers. But this is just one of many examples. A few months ago, in a medical column, they suggested that a person might be able to run with a stress fracture. Two months later they had an article stating that one should never try to run with a stress fracture.
3.) Hyperbole
"Jack Daniels, the Best Coach Ever" a RW headline recently screamed. No, he's just the best coach who will write for their magazine. We all know the who the best coach is.
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The big book of things learned the hard way.
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Jack Daniels as the best coach ever? I don't think so. And if he was really serious he would change that name.
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Amnesty International Takes up the Case
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Albert Wang, the only Cascadilla Brother residing in Asia, has not been heard from since the Communist take- over of Hong Kong on June 30. He has not answered any letters, e-mail or faxes. It is presumed he has been silenced by the new regime.
The censure most likely is the result of Albert being a lawyer. These are usually the first people
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rounded up during political upheaval. To compound matters, Albert happens to look like a lot of the people who protested in Tiananmen Square in 1989. It could be that he was mistaken for one of these counter revolutionaries and jailed the moment the Communists came into power.
Whatever the case, this is a serious international incident which is be
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ing turned over to Amnesty International. Hopefully Albert will soon be freed and will contact the newsletter editorial staff the moment he is out of harm's way.
Please, call your congressman about this matter.
Return to Page 1
Go to Page 8
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Few ever escape from this jail.
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7 Return TO FCB HOMEPAGE
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