Got involved with my local running club earlier this year to meet some other runners and hopefully meet some faster runners to train with. The club epitomizes everything that bothers me about modern running culture. Some highlights:
-It's a rarity that I find anyone that actually follows the competitive running scene. Maybe once every few months.
-The primary things that people care about with road races are the finishers' medals and the swag. And people barely enter races, by the way.
-Pretty much nobody is concerned with running faster. Or talking about training or running in general.
-The main topic of conversation always seems to veer towards peoples' houses or the housing market in general.
-The demographics are overwhelmingly wealthy, probably top 5%-10% of income, and everyone seems casually unaware of this. Also white, very white.
-My training pace is about 7 min/mile and I am by far the fastest runner at the weekly runs. I'm not even that fast, I get roasted at any road race or open meet with college kids.