Typical article on marathoning in today's Washington Post

Yeah!!!! Hooray for everybody!!!!

I picked up the recent copy of Newsweek and near the back of it was a brief write-up titled "Extreme Jogging". It was about the trend of high-paying adventure types to do mrathons or run in exotic locales (Antarctica, among the ruins of Machu Pichu Peru, etc.)

Extreme Jogging? No, I don't think so. People don't pay big money and travel all over to be considered "joggers".

Give them a little respect. Abolish the words jogging and joggers, please.

When is jogging "jogging" and running "running"

Fairness wrote:

When is jogging "jogging" and running "running"

Joggers, jog for fitness, Runners train to race.

What if somebody trains every day, does track work, tempo runs, long runs, lots of miles - the works - and is slow? Are they running or jogging?

I agree with INTHEKNOW. If your training for a race, varying your work-outs and speed you are running. Does not matter if your slow. Joggers only care about length or duration of a jog, never pace.

CREIGH keeley is hawking some heartrate monitor that will tell you that you don't need to run if you finished marathon. creigh hypes himself as the past usatf ldr guy. he states that this product will allow you to stop running and start walking.

such is the existing of the legacy of the chicago marathon.

A runner is me and everyone ahead of me. A jogger is everyone behind me.

Let me tell you a story.

After my 2:18 at Berlin, I had to go back to Japan for 2 days. I was hobbling/jogging around one of my routes in Osaka, about 8 minutes per mile, 2 days after the Berlin race.

I saw an older Japanese gent, about 75 years old, AT LEAST 75, if not even older. He had the usual white-and-blue running togs on, and was going about 12 minutes per mile, really trying his best. He was going the other way around the 5km loop in the park. I waved to him and gave him a hearty "KONNICHIWA!" as he went past.

I just had to stop and watch this gent. I thought to myself, "now here is a guy who has absolutely no chance in hell of qualifying for the Olympic Trials or even any of the major marathons in Japan. He's at least 75, doing his daily workout, barely moving, and in apparent pain."

WHO IS THE REAL RUNNER HERE....ME OR HIM?

Jason

robokop wrote:

A runner is me and everyone ahead of me. A jogger is everyone behind me.

Wow, you must be really slow.

A good friend of mine used to hold in the indoor AR for the 880 (yes, 880). As fine a man as you would ever find. A few years back it looked like he ended up with exercise induced asthma. We had a summer with a long series of bad ozone days and suddenly this guy that had to stop and walk on runs. It turned out he had a heart rhythm problem and they operated on him to correct it. It's been a slow turnaround but he's come back again.

He ran through it all. Even when he was slow and had to walk at times. People that don't know him may be surprised and say "man, that guy used to be great?". Those of us that do go "No, that guy still IS great".

It wasn't his speed that was the inspiration. It was the fact that it was important to him. It doesn't take away from the elite when slower people are inspired by those whose current accomplishments aren't so impressive. People should be inspired by those that feel that what they did was important.

Say your 30 year old neighbor who ran in school and dicked around for 8 years trains for 3 months and runs a 3:10 marathon then joins a bar soccer league because there's more chicks. His ex-wife runs a 4:30 off no previous experience after working on it for a year after the divorce.

If you don't think the latter example is a better inspiration you're the reason why running sucks in the main stream media. Some people do things as a challenge but it doesn't mean anything to them. Some people do things because it means something and it's challenge. Those that don't understand the difference shouldn't represent our sport.

Brian Y., you totally mis-interpret what was said in the Washington Post.

It is NOT at the expense of those runners at the top. Paula Radcliffe and Khaldi Khannouchi are never going to be short of attention.

I have nothing but respect for those people who try their best but cant run faster than about 4;50 or so for the marathon.

One of the very best things about our sport is that the average Joe or Jane can sign up and compete on a level playing field with Paula Radcliffe, Paul Tergat, Naoko Takahashi and Khalid Khannouchi, in events like the Chicago Marathon, Berlin Marathon, London Marathon, etc. I know of no other sport where you can freely compete against the world's best like this.

Today, for the first time in a long time, I joined a 10km raodrace here in Bangkok and just jogged it at 8;00 pace. I have had an extremely tiring week, travelling to Cambodia and Vietnam, so I decided to just be a mid-pack runner. Go ahead and call me a pussy, but I jogged with a "well-known sub-28min. 10km runner."

Those people surrounding us were putting out their very best effort, I can assure you. I have love and respect for them all, (especially the Thai women runners.)

jason