I know you want responses that crush people for being slow, but the real answer it that it's not practical. How many people can you run on a track at one time/ have how many heats of X number of runners will people tolerate?
Even if you could have a 5k and have heats broken down by similar times, it's still just not practical.
Track feels more serious and draws more serious athletes. I always thought people still living their track dreams after college was odd. I signed up for 1 5k after college on the track and it didn't have that same feel. I wasn't qualifying for anything. I didn't have a team.
In my experience, road races are just a lot more fun. Even looped ones where people see you more than once.
rhinetalrunner wrote:
As popular as track & field is in the US, it’s surprising that there are so few open meets. There are plenty of open meets in Germany and Switzerland, while France has them too but requires a stupid focking medical certificate for any race or to be a registered member of a running club/french athletics federation.
F*** France!
Does the medical certificate requirement also apply to road races, or is it only for track races? If it also applies to road races, what are the participation levels like? If I were in France, I'd rather fly or drive across the border to race instead of getting a medical certificate.
YersiniaPestis wrote:
I know you want responses that crush people for being slow, but the real answer it that it's not practical. How many people can you run on a track at one time/ have how many heats of X number of runners will people tolerate?
Even if you could have a 5k and have heats broken down by similar times, it's still just not practical.
Yeah I have often though about how to have a meaningful track competition and it is just hard to figure out how you get like 500 distance people to compete on the track over like 2 hours. Even cranking out mile heats every 10 mins isn't too practical.
In theory you could give almost everyone a good racing experience(say 15 people within 20s of each other) and sort of have a party day for the local running clubs(you run a mile and then cheer on friends while you socialize). But I expect it would be a tough sell.
Mr. T 2024 wrote:
It’s not as fun an experience where road races have music, costumes, beer...
Some track meets I've been to play music during the distance races and in between events. And you can add in a beer mile.
They don’t want to run in a boring little oval. I ran the 10k in college on the track once. It’s like watching paint dry.
sc runner wrote:
running a 10,000m, even a 5,000m on the track is boring as heck.
I don't mind the boredom of a track 10k, it's the lap counting that bugs me. Am I on lap 17 or 18? The counter says 6 laps to go, but that's for the leaders. Was I lapped once or twice?
Why? Perhaps road races are designed for the masses?
You're welcome!
fisky wrote:
I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a former D1 runner while watching our adult track group do a workout. I was setting out the workout for some reason I can't remember. He was asking why these runners could beat me routinely in these 5k-oriented workouts, but then I would beat most of them in the next 5k.
I said, "The reason we're faster than them is that we can endure more pain than they can." He nodded in agreement.
When hobby joggers run the marathon, by the time the pain starts, endorphins have been manufactured to ease the pain a little.
In the mile and 800, the pain starts after the first minute and then builds. Endorphins can't help much because the pain builds up too fast.
I liken it to holding your hand over a candle flame. It's warm at first, but then it becomes uncomfortable and the pain builds to a level that cannot be understood by a nonrunner. It's a matter of pushing on when every fiber of your body is screaming to slow down.
Hobbyjoggers have never experienced this type of pain. They aren't willing to put in the work to manage it and they certainly aren't going to pay to experience it in a track meet while also suffering the embarrassment of being the only person left on the track after the "slow" runners finish the mile in 6:00 and they're still chugging along to run sub-9... the only person left on the track and everyone is impatiently waiting for them to finish so the next event can start. Everyone watching is embarrassed for them and you can feel it on the track.
So now you want a practice participation trophy? Mere mortals will never be able to handle the pain of being you. I hope you are only 12, otherwise this is just a sad commentary.
The only all comers meet I know in Michigan is the Grand Ledge Summer Track series. I took my older daughter to her first track race there many years ago. I noticed some runners in their 60's had competed in some events so I entered the 3200m. About half way through the race I heard a mother scream "beat that old man" as I went by. It took a second for me to realize she was yelling that to her middle school age son running behind me and I was the old man even though I was still in my 40's at the time. He never passed me and I think he and most of the field behind never finished the race either because they dropped out or they failed to count the laps properly. So I got lapped by many runners, had no runners in my age group, and the two in the next age group up that beat me. The only ones I beat were the 2 in the 7-8 year old group and 2 of the 4 in the 9 -10 year old group. That was the first and last track race I ran after high school track.
It also applies to road races, yet there are still mass races with thousands / tens of thousands people.
To give you more cultural context here's several plausible explanations :
(i) basically everybody is used to it because it's required from young age to participate in sport competitively
(ii) it is totally free and usually the opportunity to check other minor conditions with your pratician
(iii) the medical certificate has a one year validity thus allowing to participate in multiple races
mystery wrote:
rhinetalrunner wrote:
As popular as track & field is in the US, it’s surprising that there are so few open meets. There are plenty of open meets in Germany and Switzerland, while France has them too but requires a stupid focking medical certificate for any race or to be a registered member of a running club/french athletics federation.
F*** France!
Does the medical certificate requirement also apply to road races, or is it only for track races? If it also applies to road races, what are the participation levels like? If I were in France, I'd rather fly or drive across the border to race instead of getting a medical certificate.
Replying to this
So many reasons for why the masses favor road racing over track. Here's a few:
1) Track running is associated with the professional side of the sport. It can be intimidating.
2) A lot of people come to running late and don't know that track races exist. Road races happen more frequently. It's pretty easy to find a 5k that runs through your town/neighborhood.
3) Most would rather run something scenic. They're not caught up on slow courses and the need to hit X for every 400m.
4) Merch. It's true. People want a medal or a shirt or something.
fisky wrote:
I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a former D1 runner while watching our adult track group do a workout. I was setting out the workout for some reason I can't remember. He was asking why these runners could beat me routinely in these 5k-oriented workouts, but then I would beat most of them in the next 5k.
I said, "The reason we're faster than them is that we can endure more pain than they can." He nodded in agreement.
When hobby joggers run the marathon, by the time the pain starts, endorphins have been manufactured to ease the pain a little.
In the mile and 800, the pain starts after the first minute and then builds. Endorphins can't help much because the pain builds up too fast.
I liken it to holding your hand over a candle flame. It's warm at first, but then it becomes uncomfortable and the pain builds to a level that cannot be understood by a nonrunner. It's a matter of pushing on when every fiber of your body is screaming to slow down.
Hobbyjoggers have never experienced this type of pain. They aren't willing to put in the work to manage it and they certainly aren't going to pay to experience it in a track meet while also suffering the embarrassment of being the only person left on the track after the "slow" runners finish the mile in 6:00 and they're still chugging along to run sub-9... the only person left on the track and everyone is impatiently waiting for them to finish so the next event can start. Everyone watching is embarrassed for them and you can feel it on the track.
That one made me really laugh :-)! You call a guy beating you in a 5k workout "hobby jogger", and then talk about your pain threshold as a tough competitive runner. Truth is that you have enough talent to beat someone who trains harder than you, but not enough toughness to train harder yourself - because the real pain happens in training, when no one is watching or applauding.
Joking aside: running 25 laps is just horrible. 30 years ago I was a decent club runner with a sub 31 10k PR, but I hated 10Ks on the track, 1500s or 3Ks and 5ks were ok (also, because there were no road 5Ks at the time), but I only did 10Ks when I needed to, in case of a club meet etc.
I much more enjoyed road racing up to 25K, which was the standard sub-marathon distance in Europe at the time. So why would some recreational runner with a live besides running bother to do 25 laps on a track? No good reason to do that!!