The world of endurance sports has been full of activity the past few weeks with the Boston & London Marathons and a host of multisport events kicking off the 2010 triathlon season. I am still two weeks away from my first event of the season, Jekyll Island's Turtle Crawl, and am chomping at the bit to get into my race gear and out on the course. In the meantime, I've been cycling through my trifecta of endurance media: DVR recordings of the '09 Ironman Championships in Kona, Lance Armstrong's time trial win from the 2006 Tour de France and my DVD of Triathlon: Through the Eyes of the Elite. I have watched each of these episodes well over a dozen times so occasionally I'll shake things up with Spirit of the Marathon or classics like Breaking Away or Without Limits. As I await Turtle Crawl I find myself needing more -- I need real time action, suspense and live updates from around the world.
Enter the world of social and interactive media. Without it, live coverage of endurance sports would be virtually non-existent. Two weeks ago I followed live Twitter coverage of Ironman 70.3 in New Orleans on Saturday (not via ironman.com interestingly enough), followed by live Twitter and streaming video coverage of the Boston Marathon the following Monday. Thankfully, there are various sources to turn to for coverage since universalsports.com is now charging for live coverage and they don't provide up-to-date Twitter coverage on individual events. Universal Sports does have a fairly extensive collection of videos, articles, interviews, etc. from the 2010 season so it's worth a look after the fact. I do want to mention the comprehensive cycling coverage Versus TV and versus.com provides -- they are THE source for most things cycling including today's coverage of the Tour de Romandie.
Live TweetCasting of the pro's race at St. Anthony's was provided by @sportsgrants last weekend, and there were various sources of coverage for this weekend's Wildflower Triathlon, Ironman 70.3 in St. Croix and Ironman 70.3 in St. George. These examples don't even include updates from the athletes themselves -- some of the best live coverage during races comes from the spouse/friend/sibling/parent of the athlete. Case in point, fellow Plexus mate and Dream. Believe. Tri. team manager, Nick, sent email updates of fellow Athens, GA team members Kim, Michael, Bryan and Tami for the duration of the St. Anthony's race. Got to get you on Twitter, Nick! Many times the event will provide live Twitter updates during the event but an alternative is to do a #search on Twitter or a Google search for "eventname streaming video" or "eventname live coverage" and see what you can find.
Until the alternative sports networks like Versus or Universal Sports are willing and able to provide live television coverage of triathlon and marathon, we can turn to the Twitterverse to fill in the gaps. Here are a few of my favorite Twitter follows for endurance-related Tweets:
Athletes: @amandalovato, @juliedibens, @Mirindacarfrae, @heathergollnick, @terenzo1, @SaraHall3, @michaellovato, @DeanKarnazes, @boomboomreed, @Lagat1500, @followlolo, @LeviLeipheimer, @CadelOfficial, @linseycorbin, @samwarriner @taylorphinney, @lancearmstrong, @dirkbockel, @LewisERacing, @JoshCoxRun, @ryanhall3, @chrislieto, @chrisjmacca, @triron, @Michaelhutto, @GoMichellie
Teams: @TeamType1, @TrakkersElite, @TotalCyclist, @TeamRadioShack, @HawkRacing, @MammothTC
Resources: @TriathleteMag, @endurancewire, @versustv, @jfriel, @usatriathlon, @IronmanTri, @triswimcoach @IronmanAthletes, @ActiveTriathlon, @runnersworld, @trijuice, @TriTweetGroup, @bengreenfield










