Why Are Serious/Semi-Serious Runners Such a Miserable Lot?

We runners, every single one of us, all unfortunately get some bitter gourd juice sprayed over us while running in the open, so we tend to be universally bitter, but you could try us with some sea salt caramel spread and we’d taste great.

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I get blanked a lot by other runners. If they're my age I can understand as millennials have poor social skills. If it's a woman, again I understand because she probably fears I will attack her, thanks to the society I live in. But middle aged men are the same. Some acknowledgement wouldn't hurt. Some of them are really competitive at parkrun.

I think a lot of “serious” runner get too caught up in the numbers of the sport and their egos to have any fun at it. Many forget the joy of simply running and running hard, and forget that it is more a sport of passion than cold logic. I think this is also what prevents them from getting better, as they end up dispassionate and too cautious in their training and races, too logical.

I am happy. It looks like you know the wrong people.

Yeah, well you're just an idiot anyway.

I wouldn't go that far. In Columbus, the Fleet Feet and other groups are full of happy, successful people (and fast ones too). I get the gist of your post but I think it could be local to the region. Some regions have happier runners than others.

I don't know. But it sounds like you need to hang out with some different people.

They’re all cranky from overtraining. Running too many miles.

because they don't have time for other stuff. so they rant on a 'running' message board

In my youth I trained with Olympic/Comm Games/World Cross reps and generally they were all pretty good guys and not really full of themselves at at. On 20 milers we'd rarely talk about running - it'd be the news, fishing, women, what we'd have for breakfast, just stuff. I also found that the mid range runners (sub elites these days?)had way more attitude, like they had a chip on their shoulder. They were certainly not shy to talk about themselves in glowing terms.

It’s a lonely sport. You are responsible for your success and failures. The highs are high but the lows are low. Due to the nature of the sport being much more physical rather than skill based, it takes a life style to be successful, not just a couple hours of practice a day.

I think you are referring to western runners exclusively right?
Go to Ethiopia and inveigle yourself into a serious running group there. You will find that almost without exception they are friendly, upbeat, humble, motivated and very appreciative of their situation.

Most are middle aged men. They take up running or cycling to fill a void in their lives, then become quite obsessed. That's why forums like this exist.

Tends to be a quixotic existence. Caring deeply about a chosen path and set of accomplishments that society essentially is indifferent to. There’s also deep denial over the selfishness and narcissism involved, pushing into self-loathing if not self harm.

I can answer this!! It's because running and sports in general are hierarchal and by their very nature status-based. Those who are obsessed with it and improving their times are thus obsessed with hierarchy and status. Very few of these people are at the top or near the top of the hierarchies which they monitor, and thus are bitter. Laid back people don't run, or if they do it's casually. Laid back people tend not to be bitter. None of us are laid back.

My first thought is that running is an activity that suits loners quite well. If you are a full-on introvert, you might prefer sports like running. (True for hobbyjoggers also.)

you don’t need other people to do it, like tennis or ball sports. You can do it on your own, and no one can make you sit the bench.

Running is the opposite of a board meeting — no one needs to invite you or choose you, and no consensus is needed.

i don’t know whether bitter is intended as a compliment ever — but I think there’s a lot not to like about this society. And personally, I like people who have the ability to see things as they are, and tell it like it is.

Often, that means seeing what is unfair or ridiculous, and not pretending that everything’s sunshine and butterflies.

In real life, I have an opposit experience. The people I met in track and field were in average nicer, smarter and more respectfull than what I found in other sports (especially the most popular team sports where there was always some assholes trying to bully someone). Overall a very pleasant community. Then, the higher you go in level the more rivalry and narcissism you find but still, i've met plenty of very fast runners that were accessible and talked to me as if I was a subelite teammate.

Obvioulsy, it's very different online and not representative of runners.

This thread is pretty amazing. Absolutely appalling behavior by many of the posters. Robert was trying to compliment a man who had overcome drug addiction and taken up running, and had become really good, 1:07 half. Many of the posters actually complained that LRC was celebrating a former drug addict, while “they” had done things “the right way” and no one ever wrote about them. Hard to find a better example of envy and self absorption.