Who says running is boring?
Jim Gerwick quotes a sports journalist, in his "the Finishing Kick" column in the January/February issue of Running Times magazine (p. 80), who claims, "TV doesn't know how to showcase it...Network officials believe running is inherently boring. They feel you have to bring other entertainment elements into the broadcast to capture an audience."
Gerwick asserts that is even more accurate now, 13 years after the statement was made. He believes that if competitive racing adequately rewarded runners, events would attract more media coverage, media would focus more on the athletic competition and less on "human interest" stories, and running would enjoy higher status in the world of sports.
Such status might not trickle down to small, community races, though. They would still need food, entertainment, cool t-shirts, raffles, and kids runs to attract recreational runners. So don't suddently start searching your budget to fund prize money and appearance fees. Let the large, commercially successful races host the serious competition while the community races just keep making everyone healthy and happy.