Runner's Hall of Fame

So the numbers from the NASCAR Hall of Fame are in and they aren't good. This did surprise me as I really thought the scores of people who move to Charlotte to either get a job at NASCAR or to live in a city where they might see Jeff Gordon at a PF Chang's would attend the HOF regularly. Maybe if they added a bar?

I have no interest in visiting the NASCAR HOF, but it got me thinking about other hall of fames that I might be interested in. Football, Baseball, Country Music? Nah, nah, nope. But what if the sport that I not only love, but actually participate in had a hall of fame? A runner's hall of fame. Where would that even be? Boston? New York City? Oregon? Maybe it should exist online. Where everyone involved in the sport could visit!

Then I did a quick Google and found out that there is a National Distance Running Hall of Fame! In Utica, NY. Yeah. Utica. The only explanation given on the website as to why a city in the middle of New York was chosen was this:
"Utica, N.Y. is the home of The Boilermaker 15K Road Race, the largest 15K in the nation with nearly 10,000 runners. Though located in a small city, The Boilermaker consistently ranks as one of Runner's World's Top 100 Races."

Interesting. A 15K that draws 10,000 runners is such a big deal that the National "Distance" Running Hall of Fame should be located in the same location. Though most big city MARATHONS draw way more than 10,000 runners (ex. Chicago registers 45,000 every year), this race was such the big deal that the HOF is now located in Utica. Well, yeah, because the hall was created in 1998. In the mid-90s running started to take off as a sport. Between 1999 and 2009, the number of people running road races increased by 3 million. Had the hall been built today a different location may have been chosen.

So now I know that there is a Hall of Fame for running and it's in Utica, NY, which is small but in the same time zone and easily accessible from I-90. I have no desire to visit. I love this sport. I love going to races and cheering on my friends or people who look like they're struggling and can use some words of encouragement. But do I want to go and read about people I don't know? No, not really. I think running is a very personal sport. I care about how I perform and how that stacks up against how I performed in the last race. Isn't that the idea behind a PR (Personal Record)? I'm happy when my friends set a new PR or finish a milestone race or even place. But care about Ryan Hall breaking a world record or Kara Goucher qualifying for this or that. Not so much. Adam cares. He reads magazines, watches replays of races and can tell me who ran what at which race this past weekend. So maybe it's a guy thing.