Today's poll: Boston Marathon charity runners--yes/no?

Butt Munch wrote:

sfddsfadsfdsfa wrote:

Yes. There is nothing wrong about raising awareness and money for worth charities. The charities are much more important than Joe Blow's 2:3X pr.

There's nothing right about it either. It's a race dbag. Charity has no place in a race. It is possible to raise charitable donations without doing a freaking athletic event. Boston is a marathon. A marathon is a race. That's it. End of story.

It's a race? Well, if you are not an elite it is not really a race, because you have no shot at winning. Who are you racing against? The guy next to you that put himself in the 4 hour group too? If you have no shot at winning, why not just go out and run 26.2 miles without the crowd and without paying all the fees? Marathon by definition isn't necessarily a race like you imply. A marathon is a distance. That's it. End of story.

The organizers have every right to let in whomever they want? If you don't like it, move on. You think Boston would have the support it does from the fans along the road if all they let in was sub 3hr guys who only a select few have a chance of winning? Dount it. People go out to support the underdog, people who are trying to accomplish something they have worked and trained hard for. They aren't there to support the 2:30 guy who runs marathon distances regularly in long runs. The charity runners don't harm anyone. You just think you are better than they are so you don't think they are worthy to run along side you. What a tool.

Boston is a walkers race wrote:

Go raise charity money somewhere else. There were 483 marathons in the United States in 2011, up from 397 in 2010. .... I give it till 2024 before the charity runners find a way to "earn" a spot in the Olympic Trials marathon for raising xxx dollars.

word.

there should be at least one race in this country that the only way to get in is through earning it. i'm not asking for much, just one.

I despise charity runners. They have destroyed the sport. The next time some idiot asks me what charity I'm running for I'm going to punch them in the face.

Like HRE, if the field would fill without charity runners, then I'd rather all the entrants were qualified. Then let the qualified entrants set up their own charities or find ways to encourage it. If the streets can hold 25k and they can only get 15k, then yes, I'm all for charity runners.

The point is I want the town littered with running fans. The atmosphere there is better than any other race and I wouldn't want to see the fields reduced in size. I've been to many races where the average person on the roadside probably looks on out of curiosity, not because of some investment in the race. At Boston most people watching appreciate running and bring more enthusiasm to their support. Whatever keeps that alive is A-okay with me.

there should be at least one race in this country that the only way to get in is through earning it. i'm not asking for much, just one.

Supposedly, there is.

I dont know. On the one hand they do raise money and ultimately do a lot of good, but on the other, they undermine the hard work that goes in to running a good marathon. Especially if they are taking the places of the people who bust a gut to scrape a BQ.

And I cant help but feel that the charity runners are often egocentrics who just want to draw attention to themslves and "how much good they do" and "how hard" they're marathon experience was. Why not do some real good and get actively involved in the charity?

Maybe Im just bitter, I spent a month in madagascar building schools last year and still get the tacit dissapointment of family members and non-running friends who I tell that I am not running for charity. Yes, I race for me, but I actually put far more effort into my running that all the attention seeking charity joggers. And why not, in that case, raise money to play for the Chicago Bulls if raising money lets you get into an otherwise qualification only event?

Torn wrote:

And I cant help but feel that the charity runners are often egocentrics who just want to draw attention to themslves and "how much good they do" ...

... I spent a month in madagascar building schools last year

Go to the mirror, boy!

Considering that men have died at the finish line from pushing themselves to the utmost to meet the Boston qualifying time for their age bracket or beyond, I find the idea that a charity or for that matter complimentary bib runner really diminishes the privilege of running in that race.

Butt Munch wrote:

It's a race dbag. Charity has no place in a race. It is possible to raise charitable donations without doing a freaking athletic event. Boston is a marathon. A marathon is a race. That's it. End of story.

You are a joke. Are YOU racing for the win when you run Boston? Not a chance, unless you're comfortably under 2:10 ability, and even then you're a long shot. I'm going to guess you're not quite there. Am I right? Yes, I am.

Therefore, when YOU "race" Boston you are simply racing for your slow-ass PR, just like me and most of the charity runners. At best, you're chasing some meaningless age-group placing - compared to the real "race" taking place 30 minutes ahead of you (probably a kind guess), you are basically a Special Olympian.

I comfortably qualified for Boston in 2010 and ended up not in because it filled up in the first day, for the first time ever. I happen to have a job and wasn't online that morning - my bad. I paid up a fair bit a money to enter as a charity runner, and since I placed ahead of most of the first coral I was more than comfortable being out there. The hypothetical 5h+ charity runners you talk about line up at the back and stay there, so what do you care?

The funny thing is that real elites don't mind at all. Only not-quite-there losers like you get worked up, because the girl you like at work doesn't care that you ran a 2:30 and I ran a 2:40, she cares that I donated a pile of money to a great charity, ran Boston, and am a nice guy, while you're a spiteful little man who has exactly the same chance as me at truly "racing" Boston: 0.

Cheers!

runlots wrote:

Boston is a walkers race wrote:

Go raise charity money somewhere else. There were 483 marathons in the United States in 2011, up from 397 in 2010. .... I give it till 2024 before the charity runners find a way to "earn" a spot in the Olympic Trials marathon for raising xxx dollars.

word.

there should be at least one race in this country that the only way to get in is through earning it. i'm not asking for much, just one.

There is. It's called the Olympic Trials.

runlots wrote:

there should be at least one race in this country that the only way to get in is through earning it. i'm not asking for much, just one.

Scott Dye wrote:

There is. It's called the Olympic Trials.

ZING! OWNNED.

Of course, runlots and everyone else complaining about charity runners aren't trials qualifiers. They are slow guys by elite standards, who can't run a real elite race, so they want a race that is "just elite enough" for them to make it and feel special.

Well said! This whole thread is making me laugh, but I can't look away. The elitists are the ones ruining this 'sport'. Nothing but bullies that probably got bullied by the football team, now they need to be 'best' at something.

charity runner speaks wrote:

runlots wrote:

there should be at least one race in this country that the only way to get in is through earning it. i'm not asking for much, just one.

Scott Dye wrote:

There is. It's called the Olympic Trials.

ZING! OWNNED.

Of course, runlots and everyone else complaining about charity runners aren't trials qualifiers. They are slow guys by elite standards, who can't run a real elite race, so they want a race that is "just elite enough" for them to make it and feel special.

And the same goes for the charity runners at Boston. Why else would they run Boston other than the 'allure' that Boston has in the marathon community. I bet most of the self centered attention whores don't bother telling people they got into Boston based on charity. They tell everyone they are running Boston and fail to mention they can't get within one hour of the qualifying time.

If these douche bags were interested in charity they would spend that time and effort actually working at a charity, as someone mentioned above. I wonder how many of them has ever spent a single minute actually committing themselves to helping others and not seeking attention for their athletic prowess by jogging the BOSTON MARATHON?

only animals wrote:

And the same goes for the charity runners at Boston. Why else would they run Boston other than the 'allure' that Boston has in the marathon community. I bet most of the self centered attention whores don't bother telling people they got into Boston based on charity. They tell everyone they are running Boston and fail to mention they can't get within one hour of the qualifying time.

If these douche bags were interested in charity they would spend that time and effort actually working at a charity, as someone mentioned above. I wonder how many of them has ever spent a single minute actually committing themselves to helping others and not seeking attention for their athletic prowess by jogging the BOSTON MARATHON?

Damn right.

You know those facebook photos of you at the soup kitchen don't quite have the same appeal as the ones of you waddling over the finish mat at Boston with a glorious 5:50:15 over your head.

For some it's more about patting yourself on the back because you claim to be a volunteer...

only animals wrote:

And the same goes for the charity runners at Boston. Why else would they run Boston other than the 'allure' that Boston has in the marathon community. I bet most of the self centered attention whores don't bother telling people they got into Boston based on charity. They tell everyone they are running Boston and fail to mention they can't get within one hour of the qualifying time.

If these douche bags were interested in charity they would spend that time and effort actually working at a charity, as someone mentioned above. I wonder how many of them has ever spent a single minute actually committing themselves to helping others and not seeking attention for their athletic prowess by jogging the BOSTON MARATHON?

Wow. You really don't know what you're talking about. The charities that run in the Boston Marathon generally attract local New England runners. The charities go to lengths to ensure that the TEAM is committed to training together. Most of them are as much proud of the fact that they're part of a charity team as they are about running Boston.

You're so busy hating on charity runners because that's "all" they're doing for charity. Meanwhile, you're not even doing that. Your comment about working at a charity is extremely ignorant, as fundraising is probably the most significant action a person can take to help a non-profit aside from being on their administrative payroll.

I started this year at the very end of the first wave. I wasn't going to push it and didn't want to get in the way so I didn't line up in my corral. I let the wave go off and then started.

In the first 3 miles I probably passed 300-500 people who jumped in the race without numbers just after the start line. A suprisingly lot of them had shirts that they were running for some cause.

They weren't official charity runners but they were running for a cause and may have told people they were running and raised money for charity.

I was pretty surprised how many there were and how the had no consideration for the people in the 2nd wave. Some ran 4 or 5 across obvious to the face that thousands of people who qualified were going to pass them.

I don't really care if charity runners get a number and start where they are supposed to. I didn't care too much about the people who were running for some cause who jumped in because I didn't much care about my time this year and it didn't have any real impact on me. But I did feel badly for the people in the 2nd wave who were going to have to deal with them.

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are plenty of sub-elite standards to aspire to besides Boston.

Almostbq wrote:

Considering that men have died at the finish line from pushing themselves to the utmost to meet the Boston qualifying time for their age bracket or beyond, I find the idea that a charity or for that matter complimentary bib runner really diminishes the privilege of running in that race.

Name 3.