Time to Boycott Marathons

Bobby Bitman wrote:

It's all DenverRunners fault. He won't admit he's wrong.

Please enlighten me as to how I'm wrong.

Bobby Bitman wrote:

It's all DenverRunners fault. He won't admit he's wrong.

Please enlighten me as to how I'm wrong.

When I was younger and a lot faster, I had the same attitude as you do about racing. But now, after coming back from a serious leg injury, I have a much more relaxed attitude about the whole thing. It took me two years of rehab to be able to run one lousy quarter mile without stopping. Now I'm up to twenty miles a week on a good week, and I'm thankful to have been able to make it back to this level, as modest as it is.

I'm going to run my first race in a long time on Thanksgiving. A whole two miles with my 8 and 10 year old kids. I'm going to try to put in a good effort, but no, I won't be going all out. I just don't want to anymore. Am I not worthy?

DenverRunner wrote:

Bobby Bitman wrote:

It's all DenverRunners fault. He won't admit he's wrong.

Please enlighten me as to how I'm wrong.

Just a little joke, DenverRunner. I appreciate your posts, I just don't agree with some of them. I understand where you're coming from, but time has given me a different perspective.

Bobby Bitman wrote:

When I was younger and a lot faster, I had the same attitude as you do about racing. But now, after coming back from a serious leg injury, I have a much more relaxed attitude about the whole thing. It took me two years of rehab to be able to run one lousy quarter mile without stopping. Now I'm up to twenty miles a week on a good week, and I'm thankful to have been able to make it back to this level, as modest as it is.

I'm going to run my first race in a long time on Thanksgiving. A whole two miles with my 8 and 10 year old kids. I'm going to try to put in a good effort, but no, I won't be going all out. I just don't want to anymore. Am I not worthy?

I'm glad that you're able to come back and run, I've only been seriously injured once and I hated the fact that I couldn't run. I can empathize with anyone going through that.

Of course you're worthy. I'm not talking about people rehabbing, running with their kids at the local turkey trot, pacing a friend etc. There are many reasons not to run all out in a race. Your case is completely different and not one that I'm complaining about.

I'm talking about apparerntly healthy people who don't train to the best of their capability and have a cavalier attitude toward racing and or running a marathon. People like a frined of mine who just ran NYC and came in with a 5 hour plus effort because she will not do what it takes to run faster even after soliciting myself and others for training advice.

I'm sure when I get older and don't want to put in the effort it takes to run fast I may look at it the same way. I probably won't race anymore, or very infrequently becuase I don't like going out there when I'm not at my best, and at some point, I'm going to grow tired of the interval work and long runs and all the other stuff that goes into it. When I'm running strictly for a health benefit perspective, I probably won't run the marathon anymore and if I do, it will be because I want to get after it again and see what I can do, even at an advanced age.

rofl

Time for a bump

I was just reading through this and I think that a lot of people have the wrong mentality. There are now more races than ever and it's not because of the elite runners or even runners like me (3:11). It's because the participation runners/walkers are growing the sport. Even from the time this this thread started (2007) until now there has been a boom.

The ironic thing is it appears to me that half marathons are growing faster than fulls and everyone in the half can finish in under 5 hours.

True a lot of people go there just to participate and get their finisher medal and their 13.1 or 26.2 decal but wouldn't you rather have them filtering money into our sport than elsewhere. Not only does it give us more race otpions but it also gives us mroe apparel options.

Look at all of the running gear that has come out in the last 5-10 years, do you think so many companies would have invested in product lines has these "participant joggers/walkers" not grown in numbers.

My onyl complain with the participants are the ones who start in the front corral and get in everyone's way if we could elimiate that problem who really cares how many people finish behind you and brag about their accomplishment.

Reg Fields wrote:

The ironic thing is it appears to me that half marathons are growing faster than fulls and everyone in the half can finish in under 5 hours.

How exactly is that ironic?

It's ironic because everyone who wanted to eliminate the slow people from marathons was saying that the slow people should focus on shorter races. These are probably the same people who now show up at a marathon and complain when only 5,000 people run the full and over 10,000 run the half because now it's all about the half at these events. That's the ironic part of this equation.

Reg Fields wrote:

It's ironic because everyone who wanted to eliminate the slow people from marathons was saying that the slow people should focus on shorter races. These are probably the same people who now show up at a marathon and complain when only 5,000 people run the full and over 10,000 run the half because now it's all about the half at these events. That's the ironic part of this equation.

I think you should look up the word ironic. It does not mean what you think it means.

Use a dictionary wrote:

Reg Fields wrote:

It's ironic because everyone who wanted to eliminate the slow people from marathons was saying that the slow people should focus on shorter races. These are probably the same people who now show up at a marathon and complain when only 5,000 people run the full and over 10,000 run the half because now it's all about the half at these events. That's the ironic part of this equation.

I think you should look up the word ironic. It does not mean what you think it means.

Yes, it would have been ironic if the slow people started running ultras. The fact that they've drifted to the half could be called coincidental, but not ironic.

I just found some irony in the fact that serious runners wanted slower joggers/walkers to do shorter races which they did,now leading to their new complaint that the half is now the bigger event than the full in many of these races.

Maybe a better phrase would have been, be careful what you wish for, I'm done debating semantics on here. If you want to address the actual content of my post go right ahead.

Perhaps next time you will not make yourself look foolish by misusing the word ironic. You can thank me later.

To guote one of the course officials at Grandma's who yelled at my inlaws about 10 years ago when they complained about not having any water near the 22 mile marker: "Lady if you are running or walking a 6 hour marathon you don't need to be out her".

I don't agree or disagree but.....

I had an old timer at a race (over 70) tell me that he ran the Boston Marathon way back decades ago, and they announced at the start line, "If you can't break 4 hours, get off the start!"

Oh, the good old days...we walked up hill both ways in the snow...

First off everyone has to start off somewhere. Second you say "we as elite athletes" including yourself in it as if you are some "elite" runner. Unless you are running a sub 4:00 mile or a sub 14:00 5k then screw off. You are probaly no more "elite" than the people who walk these marathons, hell you have probaly never even been in one. Lastly you say respect for the sport, if you had any resport for the sport you would respect those who do it on any level whether on an elite basis or as a hobby.

Boycott bump

Some people walked from Afghanistan to Hungary?