She was once a runner

" I fully anticipate the things I have said to be torn apart,"

They may well be torn apart, but they shouldn't be, that was one damn fine post.

Seth says this... wrote:

They may well be torn apart, but they shouldn't be, that was one damn fine post.

No it wasn't. It was a gay post.

4runner wrote:

midwest girl wrote:

As for parents- I had a teammate who was fairly successful in college. All conference, all region in xc, regional qualifier in track. She was built sturdier than your typical distance runner, but by no means overweight or even had a couple spare pounds to lose. She just was built differently, plain and simple. Her parents constantly told her she needed to lose weight, shouldn't wear buns, was a disappointment because of her weight (something they said she could control), and finally said they would stop coming to meets if she didn't lose weight. Obviously you can see where this went.

I'm very, very sorry to hear that.

Please understand that most fathers would cut out their own kidney with a butter knife if it were necessary to help their daughter.

I agree with midwest girl about this story being the truth. I've seen and experienced a lot of the same things in high school and especially college. I also had eating disorders throughout both. It's not like I woke up one day and said, gee I think I'll stop eating. It's a subconscious thing that happens gradually. The more "benefit" I got, the more in control I felt, the worse it got. But it had way more to do with how I felt on the inside than the outside. I felt this way because of a lifetime of low self-esteem. Can't say I chose to have a low self-esteem either. However, I won't blame my parents or anyone else completely either because I know this didn't start with them. It may have not even started with their own parents. It's a cycle that can show up in any negative environment. If you're surrounded by negative/toxic people, eventually you start to think like them. So it's ridiculous when someone says a coach doesn't need to worry about the lives of his/her athletes. They spend a large amount of time with them and guide them as an authority figure. This doesn't make them a parent, but they should at least take on some responsibility for the *entire* person. We aren't robots.

I agree.... If a coach isn't willing to deal with the psychological side of coaching women, then they don't need to take the job.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

[quote]4runner wrote:

So it's ridiculous when someone says a coach doesn't need to worry about the lives of his/her athletes. They spend a large amount of time with them and guide them as an authority figure. This doesn't make them a parent, but they should at least take on some responsibility for the *entire* person. We aren't robots.

A normal letsrunner. wrote:

He is getting paid to make sure they do all those things. He isn't a nanny. I thought this was a great comment by the coach. When I was in college that would have made me felt important and motived.

That's all they need to do, but that's not what the coach in this blog is doing. He doesn't need to be a nanny, but he should be aware of problems outside of race times. It doesn't take a lot. He could start with listening to his athletes instead of making snide comments about their concerns, if it's something he can't handle, that's not "part of his job," then I'm sure he could find someone to help (a doctor, counselor, parent, etc.).

There was a pause on my Dad’s end of the phone, and then a sigh. “You know, it’s really late, I guess you should leave the building. Bye.” He hung up.

Maybe I am being ignorant, but I don't understand it:

When you have an eating disorder, doesn't that leave you weak at the end of the day? How do you get all the training in? Train right, sleep enough, don't drink alcohol and eat lots of fruit and vegetables.

Of course, some women are built bigger than others. Accept it and find a different sport. The big men aren't running either, they're playing football or are rowing.

Fast_Runner wrote:

Maybe I am being ignorant, but I don't understand it:

When you have an eating disorder, doesn't that leave you weak at the end of the day? How do you get all the training in?

Your body is in starvation mode, so you run fast for a while, then it catches up to you.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

This was also disgusting:

"'There’s a lot of money in this room,' Coach continued. 'A million dollars worth, in fact, over the course of four years.' Coach’s focus turned to the right side of the room. 'You are all getting paid to be student-athletes. This is your job: to run fast, pass your classes, and represent your school on a national level. You are not getting paid to throw parties, slack off on your training, and worry about eating disorders.'”

What do you think you're being paid for, coach?

I get what you're saying, but honestly I think this hypothetical coach would be absolutely right about everything except the bolded part. And that part of the quote didn't really ring true at least in my experience. Probably this coach did implicitly encourage eating disorders or at least ignore the problem, but I have a hard time believing anyone would overtly criticize a runner for worrying about a health issue in front of the team.

as has been alluded to previously in this thread: MALES HAVE EATING DISORDERS TOO

it is just spoken about less

yo yo whatup wrote:

as has been alluded to previously in this thread: MALES HAVE EATING DISORDERS TOO

it is just spoken about less

Because it happens a lot less.

This has got to be the best post I've ever read on LetsRun.

I know that RT is Randy Thomas, but who was KF? I'm having trouble digging up any information online about BC's assistant coaching staff from before 2005.

Fast_Runner wrote:

Maybe I am being ignorant, but I don't understand it:

When you have an eating disorder, doesn't that leave you weak at the end of the day? How do you get all the training in?

I don't understand that either.

The only thing is, some women (usually) are basically down to skin and bones. But it doesn't make sense that they'd be able to train and run their best without eating properly and getting enough calories.

There is a cemetery right across the street from two upperclass dormatories at BC...don't know about a fire

I find it interesting that most men, of which I am one, blame women for title IX. How about 100 plus member football sqauds(85 scholarship plus invited walk ons)? How many of these guys never see the field? Trim that down to 60 or 65 and fund a wrestling or X/C team.

He might criticize them for worrying about a health issue if he is ignorant that EDs are actually serious issues - and just thinks that the girls are bringing it up for selfish purposes. And selfish or not EDs are serious issues and should not be ignored.

could be one of many schools. KF = Kathy Fleming, (maiden name: Kathy Franey).

creditdue wrote:

My opinion is that scholarship offers are for rewarding hard work in your development. When someone posts stuff about girls not deserving scholarships it really makes me realize how sad some of these people are. If you add up the hours my daughter will train before she goes to college she would totally deserve a scholarship.

To me when women train and rise to the top of their sport it deserves more respect then men. When boys reach puberty they put on muscle, girls put on fat. It is really hard work to continue to get better as an athlete fighting this natural occurrence.

You've said it yourself, scholarships should be earned. But just because your daughter has worked her ass off doesn't mean that other girls recieving stipends deserve them as well. Look at any high school cross country team; there are far fewer girls with the same kind of sport-specific work ethic as there are boys. This is because for females, their focus is not sport, and reasonably so. To young girls, there are more important things than sport, and this is why they should not be rewarded for their sporting efforts in an equivalent manner.

For many young men, sport is what they live and breathe. How many young girls can you say live that lifestyle? Yes, girls put on fat consistently after puberty, because they are NOT BIOCHEMICALLY DESIGNED FOR SPORT. Many are exceedingly successful at sport, which is great for them, but they are engineered to produce viable children and maintain family stasis, whereas males were engineered to hunt and gather. To counter your point, how do the gender related changes during adolescence make them deserve it more??? If anything, it weakens the playing field, making it SIGNIFICANTLY harder for even skilled males to succeed.

Boy not better than girl. Girl smart. Boy strong. Girl thoughtful. Boy impulsive. It's really that simple.

To midwestrunner stating that men face eating disorders as well: I will agree, the emphasis should be on conjoining these two groups, as they suffer the same fates. They are all weak-minded individuals who likely have/had inattentive or ignorant parents or at the very least a negatively influencing peer/colleague/mentor. Anyone who knows that they are hurting their body and does so regardless has been raised poorly in some fashion. It is sick and sad for any cohort, male/female, young/old, but more for the roots behind it than the actual acts.

It would seem (if this blog is at least somewhat non-fiction autobiography) the author would have to be a footlocker finalist, likely in the high school class of somewhere around 2004-2007 (would make them out of college recently or in the past couple years, which IMO is the viewpoint the author is writing from).

If BC is the college that is being discussed here, the author could be Nicole Lister, who went to footlockers maybe in 04 or 05, and hasn't done a whole lot since

just a guess