Why Don't Distance Runners Talk Trash Like Sprinters Do?

I think distance runners implicitly compete with each other rather than against. Sure, there are some heated rivalries here and there - that's competition. But as others have said, it's easy to respect your competition when you know he's paid his dues just to line up next to you, and even if you are a festering boil of hate on the inside it's easy to hide this when you're a typical inscrutable introvert distance type.

Sprints and jumps and throws are all about adrenalin (not that they don't require concentration, obviously) so it's easy to forgive these 100-meter guys who get all fired up and strut around before their races. Put the same bunch in a room full of distance runners in a noncompetitive situation and they wouldn't seem any more personality-disordered than other athletes, unless 'roid rage were to kick in thanks to a crappy dosing schedule. The unfortunate upshot of all the strutting and preening is that this is entertainment, which means that TV producers spend 27 minutes airing a 10-second race and broadcast the last 10 seconds of a 27-minute event.

As trite as it sounds, and while a large number of runners enjoy racing, most runners are competing only with themselves. That kind of trash talk, i.e., "I just didn't have it today," is interpreted as humility.

its because their black and black people are more cocky in general its in their genetics

i guess its not all about brute force or strength. it's about many other things, like endurance, pace, INTELLIGENCE, tactics, etc. you can be the strongeest runner out there in a distance race and still lose. harder to do with a sprint.

Oh man, this site is one of the vilest Trash-talking sports sites on the internet. Distance runners who post on here are way more mean-spirited than sprinters. And they are far more gutless about it too. They are very two-faced. What rock have you been living under?

i think a little trash talking can be a positive thing for many athletes (unfortunately it can help your competitor as much as it helps you). i think that up through the 1500, some trash talking is pretty common. what we're seeing with powell and gatlin is a bit unique because we have two incredible athletes who are at the top of their game at the exact same time.

above the 1500 though, the style of race is a bit different. you don't want a ton of adrenaline at the beginning of the race, you need to be more measured.

and the aforementioned benefit to your competitor may be why you don't see much trash talking during races. though i could see how playing mind games with someone throughout a 10k could be beneficial if done well.

Trash talking in distance running looks silly.

"I've been training for this race ALL YEAR ROUND for FOUR YEARS!!! I woke up EVERY morning to do my morning runs!!! I ran intervals on the track until I PUKED!!! HA, HA-- my girlfriend broke up with me because I was the only sober person at her prom party, but I managed to wake up and get on a bus at 4 AM to come to this race in the middle of nowhere, without a fan in the seats, to race an event that's so boring that even my own parents don't want to watch... I'm here to push myself to the limits of my physical endurance, make myself so sore that I won't even be able to walk tomorrow, and KICK YOUR A$$!!!"

X Runner wrote:

Wow this is a funny thread.

Distance runners too nice?

Just let them line up under their screen names and see what trash comes out.

POST OF THE YEAR

black people wrote:

its because their black and black people are more cocky in general its in their genetics

Are you talking about African-Americans--in which case I'll provisionally agree that trash-talk, a.k.a. woofing, The Dozens, etc., is part of the game? Or are you talking about the sort of "black people" who win the distance events: Kenyans and Ethiopians, primarily? I hadn't noticed a lot of trash talking from that part of the world.

The origins of trash-talking in America, actually, are the Western frontier--the old West: Kentucky, the backwoods precincts. Dan'l Boone. A play entitled THE LION OF THE WEST or somesuch, in the 1820s, was a huge hit in NYC and first got people talking about the braggart (white guy) who claimed he was "half man, half gator." Mark Twain's LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI features a scene, often referred to as "The Raftsman's Episode" cut from THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, in which two backwoods white guys (the progenitors of Larry the Cable Guy, actually) whoop and holler and trade brags and insults. African American slaves didn't dare dream of talking like that, but after Emancipation, they headed West and picked up on it. The black cowboy Nat Love talks in his autobiography about how he actually lassoed a moving train--and got yanked violently off his horse. But he lassoed the damn thing.

Cowboy Troy: "I Play Chicken With the Train." It's all connected. Trash-talking is American as apple pie. And as African-American. But it's not a "black thing," as in a racial thing. It's WWF and Bo Diddley. All-American.

Now, I have no doubt that Kenyan immigrants to the US will eventually figure out how to trash talk. But right now I don't notice the Kipkoeches of the world throwing down.

IMHOP

distance runners dont seek an audience. they dont care to be heard...or even seen.

X Runner wrote:

Wow this is a funny thread.

Distance runners too nice?

Just let them line up under their screen names and see what trash comes out.

Anyone can talk trash behind a screen name from their computer. I'm talking about real ballsy public trash talking. Like if Bekele said something like this during a pre-race press conference: "Craig Mottram?? Craig who?? That oversized stork couldn't beat me at 5K if I stopped half way to chat with his girlfriend. The only way I'll ever see his back is if I lap him."

4runner wrote:

Trash talking in distance running looks silly.

"I've been training for this race ALL YEAR ROUND for FOUR YEARS!!! I woke up EVERY morning to do my morning runs!!! I ran intervals on the track until I PUKED!!! HA, HA-- my girlfriend broke up with me because I was the only sober person at her prom party, but I managed to wake up and get on a bus at 4 AM to come to this race in the middle of nowhere, without a fan in the seats, to race an event that's so boring that even my own parents don't want to watch... I'm here to push myself to the limits of my physical endurance, make myself so sore that I won't even be able to walk tomorrow, and KICK YOUR A$$!!!"

Now that's funny

I would say the bottom line is that if you look at the five worst and most humiliating performances by a distance runner, they are worlds worse than the five worst/most humiliating performance by a sprinter. You can REALLY get your ass visibly kicked in a road, track or xc race of distance over 3k. hell, you can even get it kicked in 800-3k if you are having that bad of a day.

Too tired to talk trash...

Whoever started this thread must have just stumbled across this message board and posted before reading anything or else he/she would have realized that distance runners talk all kinds of (anonymous) trash.

Because we are skinny and weak. And would either get our asses kicked.

we aren't skinny and weak, the exoskeloton of a middle distance athlete is actually far more versatile and in general much more efficient than that of a bulky sprinter.

the lean muscle mass of a md athlete is actually the pinnacle of the human form, as it is fast and durable. In the event of a global disaster and it came down to survival of the fittest, the md athlete's would be the ones to survive.

Just restoring some md pride.

Because all the whiny wanna-be's on Letsrun.com would no doubt skewer any distance runner who dares trash talk.

Distance runners don't generally talk trash because in the most passive aggressive way they come on Lets Run to do their trash talking. Is there any doubt after reading the postings here?