Amusing & infuriating Runners World quote a friend just sent me

I always tell me wife that even athough I always come first, I don't think of her as a loser for always coming last.

If you don't finish a swimming race, you drown and die.

Fred Lebow wasn't promoting good running, he was promoting mass participation. There's money in numbers.

Mr. Lebow did a good job making the NYC Marathon a massive event.

not certain if it would have grown to such enormous status without him.

possibly it would have.

Hahahahahahaha!

To me the problem comes in not distinguishing running in general and running in a race.

Running in general is physically and psychologically beneficial and is worth doing. I get satisfaction out of being physically active and I expect most people do also. The quote is true if you are applying it to running in general.

Running in a race, however, should imply some sort of competition. No one would say about golf "it doesn't matter whether you shoot under par or shoot 300, you can still say I played a round of golf." A race is the same thing - a competitive event. It would be great if people running in a race actually made an effort to be competitive or at least appreciated what's involved in being competitive. Too people in big races look at it as a moving party and aren't even making an effort to be competitive for their age and gender.

There is also satisfaction after taking a shit, but I don't tell everyone about it.

POD

Blah Blah Blah Blah wrote:

There is also satisfaction after taking a shit, but I don't tell everyone about it.

Blah Blah Blah Blah wrote:

There is also satisfaction after taking a shit, but I don't tell everyone about it.

POD

Next time you see one. Thank a hobby jogger.

If it weren't for the masses. Road Racing and T&F would die.

I disagree. I can't recall the last hobbyjogger I've talked to who had heard of Galen Rupp, or Jordan Hasay, or the Diamond league ... let alone flotrack, Jack Daniels (not the whiskey) or El G. And they don't have any interest when I try and talk about them (though to be fair I am not very interesting).They *have* heard of Meb, Kara, DK, Newtons, and Lolo Jones who as far as they know is a marathoner. Otherwise they just get their medal and go home. It's not growing the sport at all. Unless you can show me an explosion of middle school xc & track participation (not to mention coaches' salaries) which correlates with the explosion of bad runners shuffling for a long time.

self-aware wrote:

Next time you see one. Thank a hobby jogger.

If it weren't for the masses. Road Racing and T&F would die.

It's a good quote. Watch the cross country nationals video from SF. At the finish, they say "You finished, you're a champion!". Runners in at 30 minutes too.

There should be only one race in the world each year with a maximum of four runners. Anything else is a waste of time. If you're not one of the top four in the world, you're a hobby jogger.

It's not a matter of hobby joggers having heard of athletes.

I think the point is that shoe sales to hobby joggers are the revenue source paying for sponsored athletes and entry fees for hobby joggers pay for the prize money and appearance fees at big races.

Yes, I assumed that was the point. Except the revenue source for sponsored athletes, is actually the sponsors paying their athletes what the sponors coldheartedly assess those athletes are worth to the bottom line. Which has a lot to do with how much the public cares about those athletes. Which is not much. I think you will find that most of the money spent on running shoes, tends to be kept by the people who make running shoes.That's why, in case you were unaware, distance running existed before the current hobby jogger boom, and it will exist after the current hobby jogger boom.And I'm speaking as a hobby jogger.Thanks for spelling it out though.

Let's spell it out. wrote:

It's not a matter of hobby joggers having heard of athletes.

I think the point is that shoe sales to hobby joggers are the revenue source paying for sponsored athletes and entry fees for hobby joggers pay for the prize money and appearance fees at big races.

The USATF gave out finishers medals at the masters MILE national championships. Pretty incredible those old guys could run for a whole mile. They were all champions in my eyes.

Funny ... I didn't see you seeing that.

saw it with my own eyes.... wrote:

The USATF gave out finishers medals at the masters MILE national championships. Pretty incredible those old guys could run for a whole mile. They were all champions in my eyes.

these guys ... wrote:

http://www.runnersworld.com/motivational-quotes/you-have-finished

The friend (a collegiate swimmer but a non-runner) sent this to me w a message of "Picture everything that is wrong with running".

Nothing groundbreaking but a nice neat example of why RW is terrible.

Yeah RW is terrible who cares what an immigrant 4 hour hobby jogger said anyway . . . and that statue of him timing a race with a wristwatch didn't help running any either.

finishing is awesome wrote:

It's a good quote. Watch the cross country nationals video from SF. At the finish, they say "You finished, you're a champion!". Runners in at 30 minutes too.

It doesn't matter if you clock in at 15:00 or 25:00.

Trying your best is winning.

26:34 PR btw.