Mr. Breen,
Your article, "Are runners athletes? The question has been asked?" was compositionally rediculous and incredibly poorly written.
In your article you acknowledge that the front runners are athletes, but for some inexplicable reason the stragglers, by your standards fall from the athlete esteem. I question whether you even know what you are talking about(you must not be a runner). An athlete by definition is one who performs a calisthetic movement. Are you arrogant or just mentally retarded (used in the strictest denotation). Can you not distinguish between an athletic action and athletic ability. Whether or not the slowest runners are talented is open for discussion. But the question of whether they are athletes is clearly a rediculous proposition. Is it your goal to determine all athletes eligible by performance alone. In this situation the men clearly outperform the women, does that make women not an athlete by your standards. Do you realize, in this instance, you are being a sexist pig. And as a fellow male, I do not appreciate you giving women any more reason to describe us as chauvanistic.
Also in your article you suggest that runners cannot compete at a high level in such sports as basketball, baseball, or sprinting in track. First of all, by my own bias, I do not consider baseball a sport. Second, the best runners are dedicated full time to track and compete year-round, including indoor track in the winter. Third, the top "runners" are also the top sprinters for many schools. Alan Webb, who runs upwards of 80 miles per week was the top 400m runner in his state as a senior and could have won the 200m too, if he wasn't so dominant in the middle distance events. The fact is: the best runners run, because they are the best runners. Are you so "slow" as to not realize that athletes have to take advantage of the skills and talents they are given? Lance Armstrongs kid is never going to make a Pro-bowl team, but he might turn out to be the next "Pre". Also, Shaq was never going to be a good soccer player, he was simply born to large. Just how you were never meant to be a writer, you were born inherently dumber than the average human being.
I like how you bring up that the slow kids are the ones who couldn't cut it in other sports. Out here in Oregon many of the best athletes are runners. In fact, it's the football players who are afraid to do our sport. Afterall, our sport is their sports punishment. - It's frightening to think how hard a runner would drop the most obese of linemen after a 12 mile tempo. Think emergency room. - Running is easily one of the toughest sports there are. Right up there with wrestling and swimming. Now I hope you don't start questioning their merit at sport.
The moral of the story. Just because you suck at writing doesn't make you any less of a writer.