Hobbyjoggers are very friendly, better runners are snobbish

See user name.

Most elite or sub elite athletes are type A, so many feel somewhat superior, right or wrong, to hobby joggers. It is an attitude manifestation.

The sad thing is that elite runners do not bother to learn about other skills tbose hobby joggers might have.

Hobby joggers feel the need to micromanage the attitudes of everyone around them

I feel it is the opposite.

Hobby jogger Downfall wrote:

Hobby joggers feel the need to micromanage the attitudes of everyone around them

Yeah...right...and hot shot elites/sub-elites don't feel the need either? ?

When did Galen rupp last ask you to stop calling him out

Gggggg wrote:

I find hobby joggers to be very friendly guys. They like to talk to you a lot, they are pretty humble. Yet on the other hand, I find better runners, those who belong to all kind of track and field local clubs, to be very snobbish. When you ask them something about running they make faces like “who is this nobody bothering me” giving you the shortest answer just to get rid you. But you see them talk and laugh all the time with their running club partners.

Discuss

It's easy to be humble if you are slow.

A high proportion of sub-elites are insecure, awkward, and suffer from some form of social anxiety.

Gggggg wrote:

I find hobby joggers to be very friendly guys. They like to talk to you a lot, they are pretty humble. Yet on the other hand, I find better runners, those who belong to all kind of track and field local clubs, to be very snobbish. When you ask them something about running they make faces like “who is this nobody bothering me” giving you the shortest answer just to get rid you. But you see them talk and laugh all the time with their running club partners.

Discuss

Hold up, you're telling me they're friendlier and more talkative with their friends, than with some random person?

epicTCK wrote:

Gggggg wrote:

I find hobby joggers to be very friendly guys. They like to talk to you a lot, they are pretty humble. Yet on the other hand, I find better runners, those who belong to all kind of track and field local clubs, to be very snobbish. When you ask them something about running they make faces like “who is this nobody bothering me” giving you the shortest answer just to get rid you. But you see them talk and laugh all the time with their running club partners.

Discuss

It's easy to be humble if you are slow.

It's easy to be a doooshe, when it comes naturally?

The elites are too young and immature to understand the athlete-spectator relationship.

From a 10000ft overview of all pro sports in the sportsworld you have:

- an arena

- executives and administrators

- coaches

- pro athletes

- contests/games/events

- spectators

The glue to this stack of roles is sports writing. The writers capture the story and communicate it to the regulars, who get excited and try it themselves. The yield comes from the successful marketing to the spectators.

Hobbyjoggers enter big marathons which feed prize money purses. Hobbyjoggers buy shoes and gear that return on investment to the corporations that contract the pro runners and elite clubs. Hobbyjoggers buy subscriptions. Hobby joggers visit websites daily and buy accessories at events. Hobby joggers are not the core but the bulk of the interest group in distance running. Hobby joggers are entering the sport of running through leisure and once they process what the elites and NCAA elites are doing at the competitive level their visual window into sport opens up and they look to the performances to find deeper human meaning not just in the elite but themselves.

The hobby joggers may ask annoying questions and plaster Instagram but they are only looking to innocently find their way in life and running has done something for them. Running is therapeutic for a lot of people and something that was a huge barrier in the past.

So if you are an elite, or a semi-elite, or a quasi-elite, or the hometown hero, try to see the hobby joggers as active spectators and fans of the sport not bugs infiltrating it. They help make it what it is, they fill the stands and stimulate the eco system we all need to live inside too. Be patient, try to be compassionate and try to understand where they are coming from. If they are posting about their journey it's probably because its them feeling accomplished for personal reasons and had to overcome some mental barrier to get there. Perhaps they have a loved one that was sick, or are a recovering from substance abuse, or crawling out of a hole. Running to them is a release and an empowering element to their life. That's why we see this all over social media and article in runners world.

So while you may chuckle at the 25 minute 5kers at the local road race in the 4% shoes and the most expensive outfit I see a working business model that feeds our ecosystem not a wannabe hobby jogger. If you snark at them you are being anti sport and anti productive. The way I view it, people not competing for an Olympic medal are, in essence, all hobby joggers. That's you all, me, the brojos, every runner in the NCAA, every NXN qualifier, every running shop employee and every road race winner. Just like we need them the Hicham El Guerrouj's, Keninisa Bekele's and Alan Webb's need them too as we are the ones that bring them home on the day of the spectacle. That's how the life cycle of our sport continues.

Be thankful people take interest in what you're doing and take the ego down a notch. You are human, the hobby joggers are human and together we all have one sport.

I have noticed that sub-elites/elites (generally speaking) do tend to take things for granted and expect things without realizing that those making the event possible (race day volunteers, elite co-ordinators) are VOLUNTEERS.

"Hobby Joggers" I really dislike this term, it suggests that one that runs a slower pace is not valued. I enjoy road racing vs. track/XC because it attracts individuals from ALL walks of like. The masses within the road races are inspiring and every runner has a story, not just the elites. The only thing that separates us is time, what makes you think the guy running 3:00 hours has not trained as hard as you?

I love the so called "hobby joggers" they bring life and enthusiasm to the sport and keep things balanced and down to earth. Based on my anecdotal experience I would rather hang out with the masses than the elites. The elites I have spent time with before races are annoying, constantly talking about themselves and tend to forget the bigger picture of sport and expect things without being thankful.

Gggggg wrote:

I find hobby joggers to be very friendly guys. They like to talk to you a lot, they are pretty humble. Yet on the other hand, I find better runners, those who belong to all kind of track and field local clubs, to be very snobbish. When you ask them something about running they make faces like “who is this nobody bothering me” giving you the shortest answer just to get rid you. But you see them talk and laugh all the time with their running club partners.

Discuss

Better runners typically spend more time running and less time building social skills. It's not true of all better runners, but mostly those that are just better because they lack social opportunities in their life and fill that additional free time with running more.

I've found most truly elite athletes in the sport to be friendly and open. It's the aging (25+) post collegiate sub-elite men that tend to be the jerks. The ones that sacrificed career, relationships, and meaning to chase an Oly Trials qualifier or be recognized as the distance king of (insert small to medium sized city here). They are stunted adolescents trying to cling to youth while getting angrier about the lack of validation they receive. Some grow up while others become hardcore masters dudes (Sorry! Still not getting that big shoe contract Mr. 45-49 All Star.)

The average hobby jogger actually likes running and is happy to finish/get PR/make friends through running. They don't hang out at the local running stores swaggering about for free gear or discounts. They have no need to sneer at walkers or overweight people. They tend to be normal folks with good jobs, relationships, and manners.

Hobby joggers are the fat chicks of partying. They have no other option but to be nice and rely on their “sense of humor” ie if they can’t suck a golf ball thru a garden hose then they have nothing else they can provide.

My best friends on the high school cross country team were the slower JV runners. Still are to this day.

The varsity team and top few JV guys were a bunch of arrogant snobs and borderline bullies. I enjoyed running with them, but didn't interact with them much outside of practice due to their deficient personalities.

typically difficulty of training and speed is a direct relationship. Perhaps if you understood the relationship between work and result in running, you would have a better result. Generally, those that are faster train harder. The elites expect things without being "thankful" because those things have are pretty standard. If every world major marathon has bottle services for the elites, that's standard - it's like being thankful for the sun coming up: it's supposed to do that.

I would fit in the hobby jogging camp. I have found it generally true that as I learn more and get faster it becomes harder to answer questions from new or cross-training runners.

Sample Q&A

Q: How far do you run? A: Depends.

Q: How fast do you run? A: Depends.

Q: What can I do to get faster? A: I really don't know. What are you doing now? 5 miles a week? Oh, just run more then.

Some of these responses sound dismissive, but it's hard to answer those types of questions in a way that is concise. I suspect the elite field has an even tougher time answering some questions we amateurs ask - are you wanting them to give you a 2 week workout plan? motivation? knock back a beer with you?

To your point though, some people are jerks, and it would be nice to see a more approachable personality (like Bolt always seemed to be).

I agree that (in general) difficulty of training and speed is a direct relationship. But compare 2 people: the hobbyjogger who picks up running at age 25, and the post-collegiate 25 year old. The post-collegiate runner has YEARS of aerobic development from running in middle school, high school, college, and post-college. Hobbyjogger will need years to get even close, which will take hard work and a long-term view. Their race times will not come close to post-collegiate's, but it's not fair to say "if you understood the relationship between work and result in running, you would have a better result".

A hobbyjogger slowly building years of base fitness may achieve 10-20 minute PR's EVERY marathon they run if they train smart and avoid injury. Would that indicate a "similar" effort in training than a sub-elite shaving a minute off their marathon PR in college?