Baby Nationals

If all the D2 and D3 and NAIA fans stop coming to letsrun.com...less money for the brojos. A few cents, or big money. I don't know. As my only running knowledge comes from this website, I could give a crap about sub-D1 running.

who really cares dude... they are babies. tell em to man up and make d-1

Wejo, no prooblem, just as long as you start calling the Heptagonals the "Rug Rat League."

Baby division bretheren,

Do not be bothered by wejo. Just look at his bio on this site:

Weldon walked on to the cross-country and track and field teams at Yale University where he continued his steady improvement, but was far from a star. He never reached his goal of becoming an All-American or even making it to the NCAA meet, but he did achieve All-East status in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

Now, he is obviously a very accomplished post-collegiate runner and has a cool site here, but yeah, I would put this in the insensitive category for sure.

If DIII, II, NAIA, etc are not of interest, don't bother putting up a link, but no need to diminish these meets.

No harm done though but as a former NCAA DIII athlete (and NCAA champ but that's beside the point), I always find it strange when people have to catagorize themselves as a Division 1 athlete (and I'm not saying that wejo has done that here) when they never made an NCAA meet. Just running for a DI school doesn't make you somehow more talented than a athlete at a smaller institution.

Okay, Now I'm ranting but the only college meet, aside from conference meets, that D3 guys don't get to toe the line with d1 guys is the Regionals and Nationals, so let's enjoy the lesser divisions for what they are (or just ignore them if that is preferable).

You have just lost your link from my website.

F*** Cornell, and F*** You.

This website matters to the people who visit it. It matters to me. Wejo's opinion the letsrun communities opinion matters to me. I think that's true of most of us. Some may post to say that they're comfortable with themselves and they're big enough people to not care what others think (I think they're lying). Some may tell me that I need to get my priorities straight and get a life. But I have a job, and a degree, and friends, and other hobbies. I've reflected on all of this a lot and I am fine with my priorities. Running is really important to me. For 10 years of my 22 year life running has come first, and I have worked my ass off, I read all the articles, I follow all the training advice, I put in 120 mile weeks, what I've gotten out of it is a few points at my d3 conference meet and the team "coaches award," in cross country. To be honest, it breaks my heart that I haven't run faster. The hardest thing I've done in my life is come to the realization that the sky is not the limit, and hard work won't get me where I want to be. That's a devastating truth that running lays out in very simple terms. Call me a baby, but I want Wejo and everyone else at letsrun to be proud of my career and what I've accomplished, not to highlight the fact that I was not only mediocre relative to my competition but that my competition is insignificant. Calling it baby nationals isn't such a big deal. It's not scandalous and it won't drive me away from letsrun. But in my, perhaps overly sensitive mind, it reflects that on some level guys like me don't matter to those who are blessed with the ability to run 28 minute 10ks. To be honest that feeling really sucks.

You guys are acting like a bunch of...babies. Wejo is referring to the smaller divisions/programs, not the athletes themselves.

I'm not personally offended, but I still think it's in poor taste.

I ran d3 am I offended not really due to the explanation that was given. When I read baby nationals my first thought though is not the smaller division nationals but instead the weaker nationals. We use the term baby many times like quit being a baby to say you are a wuss. So in my opinion if you do not have the explanation as to what baby nationals means it is a little offensive to see on the front page based on first thought. So I guess you could put something like This weekend Baby Nationals (Not as in they are babies but more like they are in a smaller division) That is kinda a long heading though. I think I would probably just go with something like D2, D3 and NAIA Nationals. Especially due to the fact that this weekend there is no D1 nationals. I guess really this weekend D2 is the big boy nationals and the other two would be the baby ones.

blown away wrote:

When I read baby nationals my first thought though is not the smaller division nationals but instead the weaker nationals.

Well, its true isn't it?? Both thoughts are correct.

blown away wrote:

When I read baby nationals my first thought though is not the smaller division nationals but instead the weaker nationals.

Well, its true isn't it?? Both thoughts are correct.

Wejo states he didnt mean to offend. Give him a break. Hes not a real journalist. He uploads a technically primative website and has poor writing skills. So what. At least he gives you the chance to respond. We are all just writing graffiti on the toilet stall door of a middle school bathrom. Thats why it always smells and looks like crap on here.

Wejo states he didnt mean to offend. Give him a break. Hes not a real journalist. He uploads a technically primative website and has poor writing skills. So what. At least he gives you the chance to respond. We are all just writing graffiti on the toilet stall door of a middle school bathrom. Thats why it always smells and looks like crap on here.

d3 wrote:

ut in my, perhaps overly sensitive mind, it reflects that on some level guys like me don't matter to those who are blessed with the ability to run 28 minute 10ks. To be honest that feeling really sucks.

Don't worry 28 minute 10ks don't matter to anyone else either. We're all just running around in circles. Some slightly faster than others.

Wejo, I think it says something that you initially started a thread because you couldn't find any results for NAIA, DII, or DIII Nationals. You either didn't try very hard or you're not just an incompetent speller.

Some people are obviously not offeneded by the "Baby Nationals" headline. But some are. If you look at the numbers represented in the NAIA, DII, and especially DIII, and we assume that each division has about the same proportion of runners following this website, the majority of your readership comes from these three divisions. If you didn't mean to show disrespect when you first put up the headline, you're showing it now by not taking it down after being told repeatedly by a lot of different people that it's offensive.

wejo,

its cool . i take no offense as a d3 runner. When I stepped out of the college scene of d3 it was a big jump.

It can be hard going from being "someone" to an average post collegian, who won't get any sponsor money without a big time improvement (still going at it), and no chance at another national title (for at least a while).

Once the d3 runners step out and try to make it big at the US level, they will realize that d3 was just "baby" nationals. (as a smaller, less competitive one). Not saying the people who run d3 are "babies" and cannot continue to run faster once they run against the world.

and your site is great.. (besides the bashers), but whoever says it needs to be more "professional" and less high school, then they can take off.. but i guarantee they'll still be peeking at the message boards.

see you in Eugene,

Julia Rudd

Well technically not all of the events at d2, d3 and NAIA are weaker. If you just look back a month Scott Bauhs beat the D1 xc champ. I think that says a lot. The fact of the matter is the term baby makes people think of a wuss when it is used in any context other than actually referring to a baby. So the fact of the matter is that when you write baby nationals it is implied that you are saying the wussy nationals.

It was an attempt to distinguish the nationals from the DI nationals.

-Weldon

This is were you are full of it. You only need to call it DIII or whatever nationals to distinguish it. People know the difference. Which leads me to believe you intended it to be belittling, which is how a lot of people took it.

It's pretty offensive, even though it's not DI it's not like we train any less than those runners. You're a jerk.

Just call is what it is, Division II and III Nationals.