Why are hobby joggers obsessed wih marathons?

Non-runners have about as much knowledge of running as runners do about swimming (with a few exceptions).

Quick, without googling, how far is the Olympic swimming marathon?

Quick, without googling, what's a typical winning time for the Olympic swimming marathon? Or a good collegiate time for the event?

Now, if someone was a good swimmer and can swim that event under 2:30 or even 2:00, I have a feeling more people in the office would be more impressed with someone who swam the English Channel with a kickboard.

If people don't understand a sporting event, they can't grasp good speed or overall time. But they can easily comprehend distance and how far that is.

A pro Kenyan athlete I know just tried to register for a half marathon in SE Asia that was first-come first-serve . All the hobby joggers grabbed all the online registration spots within less than an hour. The system crashed for the first 30 minutes, and in the next 30 minutes, while trying to register, places all suddenly filled up. Happened to him two years in a row. He is independent and doesn't have an agent, so that's why it happened.

Hobby jogging is great as a social activity, but in some cases it gets in the way of pro runners trying to make a living.

Hobby Joggers hogging marathons wrote:

A pro Kenyan athlete I know just tried to register for a half marathon in SE Asia that was first-come first-serve . All the hobby joggers grabbed all the online registration spots within less than an hour. The system crashed for the first 30 minutes, and in the next 30 minutes, while trying to register, places all suddenly filled up. Happened to him two years in a row. He is independent and doesn't have an agent, so that's why it happened.

Hobby jogging is great as a social activity, but in some cases it gets in the way of pro runners trying to make a living.

If he's a pro then he would be emailing the organisers to get an entry not registering with the masses.

If the race doesnt have elite/sub-elite spots then why the hell would he want to run there?

The marathon obsessed mostly hate running. For them it is suffering to overcome. I actually enjoy running, but would never race without a shot to win, because I'm competitive. They think I'm insane running 80kmw for no reason at al ....

I dont believe you wrote:

If he's a pro then he would be emailing the organisers to get an entry not registering with the masses.

If the race doesnt have elite/sub-elite spots then why the hell would he want to run there?

Some of these marathons in poor developing countries are poorly organized, but they still do have prize money good enough for East African runners. These are not North American or European races!

Just talk to some of these African runners based in Asia.

lucas tanner wrote:

Why are so many mediocre runners on lets run so obsessed with the idea that they are not hobby joggers even though they have no significant running accomplisshments whatsoever. It makes no sense.

Hahaha!!!

I think it's because they really struggle with speed, but many of them also break down when training for marathons. Either way I had to tune out from it all on strava as it gets tiresome.

It's simply this:
If you run a marathon, if you TRAIN for a marathon and post it on Facebook all your friends will call you a rock star.

I kid you not.

Most people don't train for marathons though. They just do some couch25k variant and then walk half the race.

Hobby joggers do it just to piss off the washed up collegiate runners on LRC who couldn't get more sponsorship money than a shoe tuber. They continue to troll them by purchasing all the super shoes and wearing them as daily trainers so they can get even more Strava kudos. In the end HJ gets a bunch of cheap medal bling while OP goes home DEVASTATED.

Most hobbyjoggers seem to be terrible at the 10k. I have seen plenty of people train their guts out to run a 3:15-3:20 marathon but struggle to run under 7:00 for 10k.

What's the likelihood that three different "hobby jogger" threads that were started years apart all get bumped to the first page by different posters? Deeply sad behavior.

The old posts are more interesting. I will be bumping more when I feel bored.

Nope, they were stupid premises to begin with. You're using different usernames for a reason.

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