How would you react if you were this kids coach? Sprints to front of XC race to take selfie?

While we are focusing on placings here, what we, as runners are failing to see here is that this particular runner had fun with a race, took a selfie, took a chance at something unusual and still achieved a 20:53 -after- a full sprint to the front of the pack. What is even more impressive is that he finished just around 4 minutes behind the winner of that race (i.e. 59 placings between 1st and 61st were within about a 4 minute span.

While we are ostracizing this student-athlete for what he did, let us ask ourselves if we would be, or would have been capable of enjoying a race, enjoying a flighty but fun moment and STILL coming in with a respectable time.

No, it was not the quickest time, but he did not care. Imagine a world full of useless seriousness so fraught with schadenfreude and negativity that we are so depraved as to not enjoy a moment of mirthful simplicity.

I am so glad this student did what he did. Viva sport. Viva life.

Loosen the buttons, folks.

What was your point then if not to talk down to me?

Yes I do. I don't need the entire life story to make a simple judgment.

Extremely unlikely. Maybe some teams don't care about racing at all. But the title of this topic is how would YOU react if you were the kids coach. Like his coach, and the vast majority of coaches and teammates out there, I would not have encouraged this behavior. There should not be anything wrong with that, but you, on the other hand, seem to have a problem which this 'tightwad' attitude.

Yes it does - what exactly is wrong with making a judgement, one which I believe is very valid? Have you never judged anyone's actions as right or wrong?

Also, you seem to have no problem making judgments based on no information like "he got more out of that move than he did running XC," so it is odd that you would try to preach to me about doing the same.

OK .. you're right, my sarcasm was a bit outta line, and I take it back. Sorry.

I don't think, given the info we have, the kid's behavior was a big deal. That's all.

Cheers

How would I react as a coach? I don't know. Coaching is an art. Different team, different runner, different meet = different response from the coach. For me the key is that his teammates were in on it. So it's hard to get all "you let your team down" here. Again, I don't know.

Clearly the kid THOUGHT he was being funny. But guess what -- he wasn't. Comedy is also an art. A joke that kills at midnight, you couldn't even tell at the dinner show. So people are pointing at him as the comic who bombed. He's probably too young though to appreciate the difference between fame and notoriety. Oh well, maybe that's his punishment right there.