Well re-tweeted a post by Ben True but obviously agreed with it. The ironic thing is they want the LRC to read a certain post but it keeps getting deleted anytime anyone tries to start a thread about it.
Well re-tweeted a post by Ben True but obviously agreed with it. The ironic thing is they want the LRC to read a certain post but it keeps getting deleted anytime anyone tries to start a thread about it.
Is it really ironic, Molly?
Look, the majority of elites see Letsrun as a blight on the sport. I'm shocked that anyone would be surprised at that. Spend 5 minutes on these boards, and you'll see why.
Well I agree this place can be overly toxic at times, I realised that this is a common phenomenon in many sports forum / discussion board. LRC gets called out because it is probably the only global news outlet that truly dedicates itself to the sport of global distance running, in particular the American rubbers.
Runners*
The best part of the whole "I am looking at you LRC" thing with the Hadley tweet by True (and retweeted by Huddle) is that no one on these boards criticized HER. They all criticized her dad and his coaching methods.
I'm not a Pyro!
Oh look, here's a can of gas...
RvaRunner wrote:
The best part of the whole "I am looking at you LRC" thing with the Hadley tweet by True (and retweeted by Huddle) is that no one on these boards criticized HER. They all criticized her dad and his coaching methods.
There was a ton of criticism over her choice to go pro instead of competing in college. Lots of threads crunching the numbers on the difference between pro running $ and the cost of school/value of college scholarship. That decision was ultimately Alana's.
It is totally fair for pros to call out the LRC message board for all the negativity. But there is no free lunch in this world. If pros want to use social media to promote themselves and get some extra $ from their sponsors for their social media presence, they have to be able to take it all with a grain of salt and not define themselves by their relationship with social media and message board criticism. The flak Alana got was not like what people throw at Kara Goucher. It was never Alana's personality that was a problem. It was the decisions she and her father made about her training and career that got a lot of people talking. She decided to try to take all that head on and it got to her in a big way. The moral to the story is that haters are going to hate, but pros need to be able to rise above it and be happy with the decisions they make.
Precious Roy, you are correct. I remember the threads about her skipping college and going pro and my own take away from them was that it felt more like her dads decision than hers. Either way, water under the bridge now. Your 2nd paragraph is absolutely spot-on. If you are going to use social media to hype yourself (or your runner) up, you better be back it up via results or be prepared to face questions/scrutiny via social media.
I hope Alana finds the peace she is looking for. At 20 years old, you still (hopefully) have a lot of life and life experiences ahead of you.
I agree - I guess I didn't find the post they are referring to all that powerful because like you said haters are going to hate and instead of saying you're going to stop all the haters it seems more important to learn ways to cope with it so it doesn't affect you. It definitely isn't easy but something a lot of kids and even adults are having to figure out now who aren't as well known.
The other thing I was glad she did post about was the stress from her success being tied into the success of her coach's business. Although the LRC may have become a scapegoat (the LRC caused the poor performance which caused the business decline) I would have to think the responsibility of having to perform well so more $ comes in for not only you but also to support people you care about would be a huge burden. But we all make mistakes along the way and will continue to do so - the key is learning from them.
Queens Queens wrote:
LRC gets called out because it is probably the only global news outlet that truly dedicates itself to the particular American rubbers.
Where are these rubbers manufactured? Are they made in America?
Answer the question.
Jumping the snark wrote:
Look, the majority of elites see Letsrun as a blight on the sport. I'm shocked that anyone would be surprised at that. Spend 5 minutes on these boards, and you'll see why.
Letsrun is not a blight. People need to be called on their crap. The sport is filthy with drugs, and the governing bodies are corrupt.
What do Molly and Ben have to say about drug users?
They've quite a bit to say. In fact, they've been criticized on this very board for attacking dopers!
Alana:
"Posts on message boards and comments on my own social media had people screaming their opinions at my dad and I. My parents tried to hide it from me but I would still go on late at night and find pages and pages of posts about how my father was a terrible person, that he was forcing me to do all this running, and even some threats of calling child services on him. All of this from anonymous users, people who talk such a big talk but too cowardly to actually claim their opinions as their own. All my father wanted to do was be a good dad and help me meet my goals and by doing so people began to hate him. All because I decided to go outside the box and follow my own path. No person no matter what age should have to read people hating on their parents all because their parent was trying to help them accomplish their dream. After those posts came the ones about me specifically, people who have enough free time to tear apart a teenager trying to go after their dream on the internet. I would read posts about how stupid I was for going professional at 16, people telling me I wouldn’t make it to 20 running marathons, people saying I’ve ruined my life forever. Who goes out of their way to tell someone they are waiting to see them fail, that they already know it's going to happen, that I should quit now while I still have use of my legs."
I have done more mileage than Alana, and run faster. So I don't really care if she runs 140 miles a week at 20 years old.
It's not wrong to criticize a coach, if it's not working.
Seven Point Five wrote:
They've quite a bit to say. In fact, they've been criticized on this very board for attacking dopers!
Post it.
Billy Fap wrote:
Jumping the snark wrote:Look, the majority of elites see Letsrun as a blight on the sport. I'm shocked that anyone would be surprised at that. Spend 5 minutes on these boards, and you'll see why.
Letsrun is not a blight. People need to be called on their crap. The sport is filthy with drugs, and the governing bodies are corrupt.
What do Molly and Ben have to say about drug users?
Calling attention to drugs in the sport is a good thing. LRC and its board is way beyond that. People here are always screaming and pointing the finger at people. This board is infested with a generation of contrarians that have to hate everything
What does Mr. Canova say once you got the house built? Can she handle long fast runs, with several days of recovery?
Letsrun could be a better forum, source of journalism, etc. -- though it's clearly good enough to keep me coming back -- but I'd be curious to hear any specific ideas elites have on how it can be improved. Like it's easy to say "threads are toxic!" or whatnot but a lot harder to come up with specific ideas. As is, I tend to think railing against LRC is just athletes enjoying hearing their own voices, just like everybody else.
The obvious one to me is required username registration, and I'd also like more clarity about the mods and deleted posts, it seems sometimes that the brojos themselves are not really aware of what's going on under their watch.
But I think the Huddle/True stuff is just cheap talk until they come up with a serious suggestion for how to improve their relationships with their most dedicated fans (us). Snarky tweets are probably not going to be the ticket.
Kahrnd wrote:
Billy Fap wrote:Letsrun is not a blight. People need to be called on their crap. The sport is filthy with drugs, and the governing bodies are corrupt.
What do Molly and Ben have to say about drug users?
Calling attention to drugs in the sport is a good thing. LRC and its board is way beyond that. People here are always screaming and pointing the finger at people. This board is infested with a generation of contrarians that have to hate everything
If you want to reach your potential in running you have to put your body through a ton of stuff. - Toughening the body and mind.
Why would there be a free pass in the world of words. Yes, everything you say will be challenged. After a year you will get a thicker skin, and not react
Runner's want to be "real" professional athletes but there are many who can't deal with a single ounce of criticism directed their way. Sad!