Does it annoy you when slow people have really nice spikes?

It's like going to the gym and seeing the girls with fat butts wearing that ridiculously expensive Lululemon gear.

Nothing but posers. But I don't get all worked up about it.

In all the major sports you can buy the same gear as the pros do. You can have Lebron's shoes, Buster Posey's catchers gear, Tom Brady's jersey, etc...

We don't have a sport where we can buy a jersey with our favorite runner's name on the back...so let the kids have their spikes.

at the HS and kids levels, yes - this is open running that is exclusive to HS Students, over half of which are definitely not taking the sport seriously. It is quite laughable seeing kids who are probably running 10-15mpw wearing zoom victory XCs running 23+ (Ontario equivalent is 33+) or matumbos/victories getting lapped in a ~4 lap race

in any collegiate level (with maybe the exception of D3 and some NAIA/CIS squads): no - these guys are taking the sport serious enough to actually want to improve in any form.

Open and Masters ages:

Track - Not if you at least are running decent. Running open track and actually trying to not get flat out embarrassed takes some balls. Now if don't care to improve on your DFL position then yes it is ridiculous

XC - Unless it is a massive event, No - once again it takes major balls to not get flat out embarrassed and blend in with others who are taking the sport very seriously

Roads - Same reasoning as HS regardless of the event.

TL;DR: If you either are not able to blend in or do not have the balls to do so, do not try and blend in the more competitive categories. By base levels, here are my rankings from worst to best:

Entry Level:

Roads

HS XC

HS Track

Competitive:

D3

Open XC

NAIA

CIS

Open Track

Elite:

D2

D1

Pro is not mentioned on here because it is not a base level of running.

Poor people suck.

WTF are you trying to say here?

No.

On the track, actions speak, nothing else.

Flagpole I disagree. If Brent was trolling, just because you took it serious doesn't mean it was a "good show". A troll that is truly a good troll is clever and interesting.If Brent did troll you, it should be classified as simply an annoying troll with no redeeming value to it.

Flagpole wrote:

David Brent wrote:

Are you trolling me, dude?

Nope...perhaps YOU are trolling me. If so, good show.

I'm no grammar nazi, but when someone tells me that what I wrote was wrong when it wasn't, I'll let them know.

Pablo199707 wrote:

Just curious. It kinda bugs me a little when I go to a track meet and see guys wearing nike matumbos in the 3200m, and I end up lapping them. I use $50 spikes, they have $120 spikes. I know they don't make a ton of difference, it just kinda bugs me. Or one time I saw a boys 4x800m team that all had nike zoom victory elites, and they all ran over 2:20. Does anyone else have the ideal that you shouldn't have super expensive spikes if your not fast, and that you should 'earn them' per se, by working hard and getting fast?

.

That does not annoy me. I'm annoyed when I see the average runners "racing" in "training shoes"! They're bought into the notion they will will be injured if they run for long distances in racing flats. This is misguided.

Grow up kid.

Engrish wrote:

Pablo199707 wrote:

Just curious. It kinda bugs me a little when I go to a track meet and see guys wearing nike matumbos in the 3200m, and I end up lapping them. I use $50 spikes, they have $120 spikes. I know they don't make a ton of difference, it just kinda bugs me. Or one time I saw a boys 4x800m team that all had nike zoom victory elites, and they all ran over 2:20. Does anyone else have the ideal that you shouldn't have super expensive spikes if your not fast, and that you should 'earn them' per se, by working hard and getting fast?

if YOU'RE not fast, not your not fast. When you've mastered some basic English skills come back here and try again.

Nice contribution. You've enlightened countless minds.

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

No no no. Please watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

Thanks for the laugh. It's amusing to watch people be pedantically ignorant. You may dislike the phrase (as I do), but in the English language, a usage is permissible unless there is virtually unanimous agreement among usage authorities to the contrary. There is nothing close to that kind of unanimity on this issue. What you'll generally hear is that "couldn't care less" is "preferred."

It's bizarre to me that this is something people get so worked up about. Saying the opposite of what you mean is a form of verbal irony that long predates the English language. Furthermore, this particular construction has been around for half a century, and is the most common form of the phrase. Language changes. Get over it.

To cite my earlier example, people today say that a custom is more honored in the breach than the observance when they mean that a custom is generally not followed. But the origin of the phrase is from Shakespeare, and what Hamlet meant when he said it was that the particular custom at issue was dishonorable, so that it would do more honor to the Danes if they breached it. If you were to use the latter, original meaning of the expression in everyday speech today, people would be confused. I avoid saying the phrase altogether, because it bothers me somewhat as a lover of Shakespeare, but if I were to correct someone who used the phrase in the contemporary manner, I would be the incorrect one, just as your pedantic British friend here is incorrect.

800 dude wrote:

It's bizarre to me that this is something people get so worked up about.

Of course. What gets others worked up is due to their hangups. What gets me worked up is due to my principles.

Stephen Potter wrote:

If the opponent wears, or attempts to wear, clothes correct and suitable for the game, by as much as his clothes succeed in this function, by so much should the gamesman's fail.

Corollary: Conversely, if the opponent wears the wrong clothes, the gamesman should wear the right.

-- Stephen Potter, The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship, p.24

The correct reaction is not annoyance. Instead wear the most broken-down spikes you own and lap them anyway.

Sweet. I have a big a$s and I'm totally getting this gear. Don't care who calls me a poser. I feel goood especially now that I'm going out tonight with a guy who thinks I'm such hot stuff that he'd spend his Saturday night at Ikea.

About 2006 and first year in uni we were preparing for a inter-college track race.

Me and a couple of the other freshers were warming up for the 1500 and an older guy (maybe early 30s) wandered over and started to warm-up. We all had swish new track spikes. This guy limbered up and then started to put on a battered pair of old spikes. I jokingly asked him "when was the last time you wore them to race?". "Sydney" he said. I noticed the olympic rings on his ankle at about that point.

Suffice to say he destroyed the lot of us!

OP

First, you are bitter. You are petty. and You are just a plain whiner.

Second, it is not uncommon for people who are not seasoned runners (people who have been competing for more than 10 years) to think a pair of shoes will make the difference.

I use to coach high school track, and it was the parents who would ask me what the best spikes are for their son, not the student. And it was not uncommon for an adult to come in to a running store I work at, and ask if "these shoes will make me faster?"

Think about that. "...make me faster.."

Not, putting in the miles, or workouts or years of training, but a pair of shoes.

I ran for a NYC team, and it was not uncommon to see a poor looking runner from Kenya showing up in beat up shoes, and then running under 24:00 on Van Cortland's 5 mile course. One guy was said to run in a pair of 9 1/2, when he wore 8 1/2's.

Enjoy your races while you can. Someday you will look back. You need to ask yourself, do you want to look back with bitterness or satisfaction?

The choice is yours.

I could care more about this.

Except, who actually says the phrase "I could could less" knowing logically what they are saying and/or making a conscious decision to be sarcastic? My guess is less than 1% of utterances can be categorized as such. The other 99% fall in the category of Thoughtless Misuse of Language.

It annoys me when kids like you who act like they are hot shit still run in what I'm assuming is a Nike Rival-esque spike. For someone who acts like they are better than others because of how fast your are I would think you would at least invest in some proper spikes. Like a poster before said, you can pick up tumbos for like 45 bucks.

TL;DR: Get over yourself. Rivals give your feet AIDS.