David Roche GOES HOME DEVASTATED from Western States

My man... I was just thinking the same thing last week. Given his football/strength background, it's always seemed odd to me that he would pivot into ultrarunning and gun for elite caliber performances at races like WSER. He'd probably do quite well at triathlons, and his personality would mesh a lot better with their culture.

It's all dick and fart jokes and both of them doing their best to tell the world that they are f*cking at every turn. Like high school incels.

Haha! TBH, I thought mostly about his persona and the cultural aspect of triathlon.

No.

Have you listened to their podcast before? You don't get grating and strange from him - or both - at times?

Strava comment from anon:

David Roche, long time follower/fan, Patreon subscriber, etc. Yes I'm commenting from an anonymous account because I don't want to dox myself. But this, along with, um basically everything else you've posted in the last year, is absolutely unhinged. What message are you sending to your fans and athletes? That you hate yourself for not finishing a race? What happened to results don't matter? Running seems to be the only thing holding your life together and the examples you're setting now as an influencer, since you're more that than a coach, is really irresponsible. I thought the heat suit $h_t was bad enough, but the deep self hatred associated with RUNNING is really sad and scary. I hope you get the help you need, but something tells me your fragile ego is unwilling to address it. And I realize this comment will be deleted and blocked and you'll keep living in your echo chamber, but I hope others, especially amateur athletes, can see this comment and take a moment to reflect on the message you're sending.

David did Duathlons first I think? He used to post on slow twitch.com a lot.. under his own name…

Yeah he talks about sex in a way that shows he’s not really into doing it with girls, that’s for sure. Straight guys don’t talk like that

Ooh, some spice on Strava today:

Follower (NB) — David Roche, long time follower/fan, Patreon subscriber, etc. Yes I'm commenting from an anonymous account because I don't want to dox myself. But this, along with, um basically everything else you've posted in the last year, is absolutely unhinged. What message are you sending to your fans and athletes? That you hate yourself for not finishing a race? What happened to results don't matter? Running seems to be the only thing holding your life together and the examples you're setting now as an influencer, since you're more that than a coach, is really irresponsible. I thought the heat suit su*t was bad enough, but the deep self hatred associated with RUNNING is really sad and scary. I hope you get the help you need, but something tells me your fragile ego is unwilling to address it. And I realize this comment will be deleted and blocked and you'll keep living in your echo chamber, but I hope others, especially amateur athletes, can see this comment and take a moment to reflect on the message you're sending.

David’s reply —

@N B I have carried so much weight in the last year, and I'm dropping it now, forever. I try to be authentic in the world--telling a full human story, which today includes a humorous Strava post that's a joke grounded in a sh*tty experience. I always expected people to have opinions, I just did not anticipate this weird underbelly of the running community to bristle against my existence so strongly. In retrospect, it was naive. I try to avoid the worst of it, but there's all of the anonymous accounts with fake emails saying the strangest and most unhinged things, including threats. If I were a real pro athlete, I'd have someone who handles my emails and social media, rather than responding to everyone's questions individually. The realness of today's Strava post is my decision to stop giving love all the time if I am treated me like sh*t. From the outside, I imagine it seems like the race put me into a dark forest. But the reality of the crap I get on a daily basis is that way too many of my interactions with the running world had already become a dark forest. I'm opting out of the opinions, starting with your opinion.

What is David saying here? That he's deleting his social media accounts? Or is David contemplating suicide? Can we get a wellness check on him? What's his address

please someone anyone

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N B you literally took the time to make an anonymous account just to be a big eggplant and gaslight someone? If you were a fan and supporter you would know that his number one motivator in this whole process has been curiosity, love and family. All of those motivators are recognized and acknowledged post-race outcome. To be vulnerable and authentic takes a lot more courage than leaving an anonymous and hateful comment.

Okay, so I called the Boulder police and gave them his name, but I don't know if David lives in Boulder proper or not. I'm just worried

Football background? as far as I can tell he tried out for a crap football team and DNF’d. no stats, no position, no pic.

The police have actual problems to deal with. David doesn't need more attention.

Man, people are just straight up weird. Like, for real, what possesses someone to go out of their way to make comments like this? There's millions of narcissists in the world, many of whom are affecting our lives through corporate and government decisions, yet people somehow feel more threatened by David Roche than they do by those who actually affect their lives.

The only unhinged people are those who are so bothered that they go out of their way to post anything negative about a Z-list (at best) public figure. Like, how weak and insecure do you have to be that some ultrarunner who you have never met lives rent-free in your head so much that you are compelled to go knock him down a peg in every form of social media you can find?

Yeah, like you coming on here and writing this comment

Uhh, can we just be real? David gets paid as much or more than a pro-ultrarunner. He also has a guy who follows him around with a camera. David could literally pay someone to do his social media for him. But he wants the attention, so he chooses to do it himself.

"There’s a particular kind of cruelty that masquerades as concern. You see it in N B’s Strava comment—couched in the language of mental health but laced with condescension, projection, and a strange desire to be right about someone else's breaking point.

'This is scary.'
'You’re unwell.'
'I used to be a fan.'
'It’s really about you needing help.'

What’s chilling isn’t the criticism—it’s the entitlement. The presumption that following someone’s coaching work or podcast or Patreon grants you the right to pathologise them, demand their silence, and then moralise their response. All while hiding behind anonymity. That isn’t care. That’s voyeurism with a superiority complex.

Hanif Abdurraqib once wrote, 'I do not believe in an art that allows the artist only one way to be seen.' We could say the same for coaches. For public people. For any of us, really.
What David shared wasn’t unhinged. It was disappointed, human, maybe a little raw. But it was also funny, open, and unmistakably him. The impulse to call that 'dangerous' says more about the viewer than the viewed.

It’s OK to feel uncomfortable with someone’s honesty. It’s not OK to dress that discomfort up as a diagnosis."

David, best to stop digging