Thursday, September 22, 2011

Meta-Post: Run Junkie on Flotrack's "Run Junkie"

I've had a few false starts to this post - opening sentences rightfully abandoned for either lack of clarity or richness in sniveling.  For example:
#1  After posting a few tweets on this topic over the last few days, none of which found any purchase on the collective interest (sample), I should probably have heeded the people's choice and just let it go. 
#2  I can't say I don't feel a bit put out by Flotrack (www.flotrack.com).  
Finally, though, I think I came up with a good opening that definitely didn't bury the lede:

What the hell?  Flotrack snaked the name of my site for their new Run Junkie video web series.  

And that pretty much captures the facts and my feelings.  Initially, I had thoughts of waxing nostalgic for losing the originality of my site's name, for taking time to build the "brand" only to see Flotrack's Run Junkie bump up immediately against my Run Junkie in Google search rankings.  But that all seemed somewhat petty - and more than a little bit sad.

Though the name sharing could sew some confusion in the marketplace, in reality each Run Junkie comes from a different running world.  They're covering track and field.  I'm covering mostly trail and ultra.  They're a video series.  I'm mostly static content.  They're a touchstone of running news.  I'm a niche site (to spin it kindly). They're young and vibrant.  I'm.....Well, I think the point's been made.

Who knows, I could even garner a few extra visitors from those distracted trackies mistakenly clicking on the wrong Run Junkie link, and it's not like they're sullying the Run Junkie name.  The Flotrack content is good.  It's infectious.  And the hosts strangely look a bit like I did in my college days.

When it comes down to it, though, I guess what truly irks me is that in my few tweets on the topic (they follow @run_junkie), they haven't even acknowledged this Run Junkie's existence or better yet offered me one of their very cool RJ t-shirts (see it here) as a peace offerring.

To see what this site's up against, here's Flotrack's energetic Run Junkie episode 2:


Watch more video of Run Junkie on flotrack.org


3 comments:

Brad Mitchell said...

You will always be the first Junkie I go to for my fix!
(grab the url before they do)

Gretchen said...

What the hell is Flotrack?

Hank Dart said...

@Brad & @Gretchen, appreciate the continued support of Run Junkie originale.