The Fall—Aftermath
Meet Audrey Smoot.
While we’re still trying to build followers and our subscription base, we’re going to try something out: A post-mortem of our monthly feature story.
This piece will be available without a subscription to the site, and it will act as more of an ad to say, “Hey, please come subscribe to LØPE Magazine!!!” But it will also act as a recap of that issue of LØPE in hopes that it may attract more readers to the site.
We’re kind of going ass-backwards by publishing only one piece of content per month versus the Buzzfeed strategy of throwing as many pieces of everything against the wall as you can—so this will be our way of getting at least a few more eyes on the site.
And in our first edition of this practice, we’re taking a look at our story on Heather (Dorniden) Kampf eating it, getting up, and then winning the 600 meters at the 2008 Big Ten Indoor Championships: The Fall.
The reaction to this story has been what writers dream of. Alison Wade, the force behind Fast Women, a phenomenal newsletter you should subscribe to if you like women’s running, told us she couldn’t remember the last time she had that much fun reading a story.
One Twitter user said reading the story was like reading a thriller novel.
We were pumped about that one … In fact, we had modeled the structure of the story loosely off of Gone Girl, so we can’t express how excited we were.
But we were most delighted by an email we received from someone involved in the story. But before we tell you who that was…
SPOILER ALERT
If you want to read the piece with fresh eyes and haven’t looked on our Instagram account yet, subscribe to the site first.
Now that you’ve been warned: The “big suspenseful bit of info” we’ve been keeping from you is that Heather Kampf did not actually win that race in Minneapolis that day. Audrey Smoot, an Indiana University junior ran faster in the slow heat. Her 1 minute, 31.59 second time to win the “B” heat was faster than Kampf’s 1 minute, 31.72 seconds.
And we tracked down Smoot. She remembered that day better than she remembers yesterday, she told us. Her side of the story is one of the most under-told and one of the most charming stories in track and field.
Everyone remembers the viral video of Heather Kampf—does anyone know about Audrey Smoot?
Her parents, Mark and Diane, emailed to thank us for the story. And we’re going to leave you with the words they sent us and a plea to subscribe to LØPE Magazine. We don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
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“That was indeed an unbelievable day back in March 2008, and we were able to witness a little piece of history be made for the world by Heather, but also for our part of the world by our daughter. Thank you for telling her story. You are the first to do so after all these years.”
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That’s what we aim to do at LØPE: Find the stories that may have been forgotten. Please keep in touch. The more subscribers, the easier it is going to be for us to find stories like this even more.
Remember, Hurry, but slowly.
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