Quoted message said:Did they pull that trick
or is the economy such that new and old lines were available?
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Manufactuers (Nike,Asics, etc.) had their new stuff, retailers mostly last
season & old. But the economy still sucks (fewer vendors, fewer promotion
booths of other marathons, fewer and lower scaled give-aways/freebies). Even
that marathon bag of stuff itself is downscaled. Since it's NYC it was
"large", but shy of comparison to previous years.
The place is such a rip-off imo. But perhaps I'm just a cheap [censored]. This
past weekend rrs has $15 off any and every pair of shoes. i have a narrow
foot & can fit most brands of women's shoes (in my proper size). On clearance
they had (and probably still do) Mizuno Wave Precision 4 $29, Mercury '03 $29,
Maverick $29. 5% rac discount + $15 off meant each pair of these shoes cost
$13.49. All 3 pairs cost me $40.47 + shipping. This expo had no chance in
prying a dollar from my pocket. The expo retail model is built on the impulse
buy, faux discount illusion, & visitors unaware of local retail spots. But
perhaps I'm wrong about that because clearly the biggest activity at the Expo
was from a local retailer (paragon sports) trying to get people in the expo and
leaving the expo to take their free shuttle bus to their retail store. If I
was going that way I would have posed as a shopper and taken a free ride.
I noticed this year there was not a single "discount" booth. Ya know how
there's a booth with a gigantic pile of cool max running socks on the cheap?
You know that booth. Well there was not a single apparel booth of similar
discount model (previous seasosn stuff simply all in a huge pile and sharply
discounted).
Side Notes* I think in time the Salt Lack City Marathon is going to be one of
the more premier events. Last year's was there first, it's strongly
sponsored, big prize money, well organized......and the RD was there again
hyping all aspect of his event, and for good reason.
www.locorunning.com I don't know them, just giving them a little pop here on
the ng....new shoe start up in New Hampshire....shoes did nothing for me...but
I root for the underdog.
Creatine Serum Gel Packs? Male Formula and Female Formulas? For Distance
Runners? No, I never did get a straight answer from the people at the booth
justifying the need/value of this.
Marathon News? Martin Lel Winner '03, Rodgers Rop '02 Winner, and a couple of
others have withdrawn from the men's field.
Most Amusing thing? Chi Running & meeting and speaking with Danny Dreyer. DF,
you must know this guy right? OK, now I'm down w/where Dreyer is coming
from...I can dig the whole thing. But I also happend to be up on the
"conspiracy - scandel" (if you want to call it that) of his book reviews on
Amazon.com. If you have 15 minutes to blow and want a good laugh...go to
amazon, plug in Danny Dreyer or ChiRunning (his book). Read the reviews,
especially page 2. Here's the scoop....the "story" is Dreyer and or his wife
in an effort to pump up sales wrote their own reviews (a couple of them) of
their book on Amazon.com. Now they thought they were posturing anonomously
but apparently forgot they were logged in w/Amazon's server and I.D.'ed by
Amazon by name in the source/credit of the review. An "in the know person" who
knew Dreyer's wife's name then posted how this reviewer with glowing and
incredible reviews is in fact Dreyer's wife (identifying her name and town
where they live). Another person then commented on how some of the other
reviews employ the same exact pattern of syntax, diction, style and clearly
appear to be from the same author but under different names/sources. Then
exposed is how on the very day his DVD is released, incredibly someone bought
the DVD, did the whole program, and felt compelled to go on line at amazon and
write a glowing review (in the same language/syntax/diction, etc.)...all on the
very same day..and that person happend to be from the same town where Danny
lives, Stamford, CT. What a coincidence! So the "Dreyer's" got exposed for
this behavior that struck as so dissimilar and inconsistent with being
"rightfully placed" and not very "Chi-like". So in effort to "clean this
up"...a supposive "friend" of Danny's wife goes on line at Amazon, post another
review wherein she says she was "visiting" the home of Danny Dreyer as she is a
friend of Danny's wife. She says she actually has never met Danny....(he was
out of town on business or something)....and while at the home of her friend
(Danny's wife)...she got on their computer...was feeling so enthusiastic about
Danny's book,....felt compelled to write a glowing review of Danny's book on
Amazon.com...and apparently Danny's wife's computer automatically log's in
w/amazon...thus explaining why the initial review ID'ed Danny's wife by name as
the source of the review. This is all chronicled & amusingly exposed on
Amazon in the reviews. Of course I could not resist busting his chops on all
this.
