David Roche GOES HOME DEVASTATED from Western States

Please don’t delete this! I truly don’t believe there was anything profane or vulgar in the original post. I genuinely enjoyDavid and Megan’s hilarious sex jokes—they make me laugh because they’re obviously jokes! It’s okay to have humor around these topics; sex is a natural part of life, and joking about it can actually help us be more comfortable and learn to laugh at ourselves. I hope we can allow space for that kind of lightheartedness.
im mentioning this because David and Megan have been BULLIED for their sex jokes but there’s nothing for them to be bullied about!

It's been stupid since the first page.

no why would you say that?

"Every few hours, someone else chimes in to say David Roche can’t be bullied—because he’s white, or a man, or well-off, or too visible. As if visibility itself is a form of armour. As if material stability inoculates someone against humiliation, grief, or social exclusion.

But the most honest storytelling—literary or otherwise—knows better. Stephen Poliakoff’s dramas are set among the well-appointed and well-connected, but they specialise in the quiet violence of social life: the feeling of being emotionally dispossessed in the very places that claim to welcome you. What makes his work so haunting is not overt suffering but the atmosphere of constant surveillance, where missteps in expression—too much feeling, the wrong kind of honesty—threaten one’s place in the room.

Online discourse magnifies that surveillance tenfold. The digital public square turns emotional openness into a high-stakes gamble: visible enough to be scrutinised, vulnerable enough to be mocked, successful enough to be resented. The more someone shares of themselves, the easier it becomes to recode their transparency as vanity, their softness as attention-seeking, their setbacks as evidence of character flaws. And all of this happens under the illusion that tone-policing and pile-ons are somehow righteous responses to 'oversharing.'

What’s being policed here isn’t performance but affect. Not running results, but tone. The demand is not that Roche run differently, but that he feel differently—or at least stop feeling so publicly. That he tuck it all back in.

This isn’t critique. It’s a cultural reflex—a form of emotional border control, dressed up as accountability. And if we’re honest, it’s the most boring kind of conformity enforcement: a bunch of strangers insisting that one man feel less, post less, say less—until his interior life becomes legible to them, or better yet, invisible."

My god—people really do implicitly consider David a child. Both of the Roches are like children. David is not bullied. He is criticized, as an adult, for behavior that deserves scrutiny and questioning. He refuses to engage honestly, and then he uses victimhood to insulate himself from having to do so. Calling out his bad practices as a coach, athlete, and annoying podcaster is not bullying. That term is overused and rarely correct.

Adults can be bullied, but they also have more tools, development and experience at their disposal and the harm is not comparable to a kid. But David is not an adult that is bullied!! He has people who criticize him and tease him for being a tool. He has a choice in what he shares. Publicly sobbing (crying into a selfie video that is posted to social media) is really trending amongst the young people these days. But it doesn’t mean we ought to care more. It’s narcissistic and performative—the kind of behavior we ignore in toddlers so that they learn how to better communicate and have self-control. It’s manipulative.

By the way, being mean is not the same as bullying.

Both of them could be a little more self-aware and maybe listen to their own podcast to hear how they come across. For such progressive people, they could really check their own privilege—and learn to be adults.

He absolutely cannot take criticism either. One negative comment on his Strava activity and he privates the run and has not posted since. What happened to "no secrets"?

Maybe he’s starting to realize what a complete tool he is?

That would require self-awareness. What about any of his media would make you think he's self aware in any way, shape or form?

he'll be back. not a good look for The Feed and other sponsors to be locked down.

No way that will happen with such a narcissist.

Looking forward to $ROCHECOIN

$ROCHECOIN

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$HUZZAHCOIN

$ILOVEYOUALLCOIN

$BREATHERIGHTSTRIPCOIN

$HEATSUITCOIN

$ANKLEWEIGHTSCOIN

I'm genuinely wondering what his next event will be. I'm thinking he goes for something low key with an uncompetitive (compared to his base) line up so he can come out looking like a star. He won't announce anything leading up to the date but will post the results after he wins and the Strava title will be something like "Don't Call it a Comeback".

He'll be out of luck though. Keira D'Amato already has the rights to that one with her soon-to-be released book that nobody asked for.

Okay, so I read some of this thread, and was wondering if some of the criticism of David (and Megan) were warranted. I’ve only seen short snippets of his YouTube videos leading up to Western States, and did get some narcissism vibes with over-confidence, but gave him the benefit of the doubt because he was going up against some of the best athletes in the world and you do have to psych yourself up. And after he DNF’d I let all this simmer before diving into it…

Just listened to his Podcast recapping the race… and wow. This dude and his wife are absolutely delusional. Take a shot everytime he says “white knuckle” or “shame” or “intellectually.” Not taking away from the fact that they are both incredible athletes, and I’ll never run as fast as either of them - but the way they seem to absolutely disrespect the sport and other runners is incredible. An almost two hour podcast and they spoke about the actual race for about 6.5 minutes. He even mispronounced Killian’s last name.
If you put out a YouTube series that quietly hinted that you were going to win this thing and possibly set a record; essentially ignoring and disrespecting your competition, then you DNF, you cannot cry on your podcast and ask for sympathy and say you have shame.

There is no owning up to the fact that he made HUGE mistakes, or maybe he isn’t anywhere near as good as the best of the best, instead he just said the mistakes he made were “amateur” and “easy” fixes. And when he talked/cried about not being around for his kids because of running… Dude what… you aren’t a firefighter or a police officer.
You run in the mountains and make YouTube videos and coach athletes from behind your screen.

Zero accountability from him, and Zero from his team = Zero sympathy deserved.

That's absolutely what he's going to do. He will show up at some no name ultra where he's reasonably confident he can see the course record and use that to rally his braindead followers around the idea that he's this great god of running again. I give it six weeks

"Guys - I engage in this relatively low-key, non-contact hobby-come-sport known for it's chill vibes and supportive community and let me tell you... I really feared for my life out there. I had to quit because I couldn't bear the thought of my kids growing up without a Dad"

This is my favorite. Where were all these thoughts when he was doing hill repeats in a sling immediately after he got a concussion and was thrown “100 ft in the air?”