Go back to RW wrote:
So says Letsrun's ultimate outsider to the world of elite running.
Sorry dude, but 2:15 to 2:20 isn't elite nowadays. It's damn good no doubt, and it takes a heck of a commitment to get there.
Getting more people to make that commitment means more support systems. Telling someone OK, you're out of school now so run by yourself, self-coach, or find your own coach, and do your own sponsor research, plan you own schedule, etc. Not everyone is cut out for that, and I wouldn't call them a wuss because they're not. If you have a competitive club nearby, great, but there's some significant swaths of the country without them and not all that are there are really ready to develop people on the cusp. We need more ways to lower the barriers to post collegiate runners, and more ways to encourage youngsters to become runners and not turn into soccer players when they hit high school.
In some cases lowering the standard may actually hurt some of those efforts because a club/group that's got some sponsorship needs to show something to the sponsor to make it worthwhile. That "show" often means shots in the press of their athletes with the sponsors logo, good showings at races, etc. If the sponsors expect guys in the trials race with their logo if the club more likely to take a 2:22 guy if the standard is 2:20, or 2:16? We both know 2:20 or 2:16 guy isn't likely to be on the podium anyway.
So what's going to get more people running sub 2:20? Is constantly ragging on the guys at the top (Hall's done, tell Ritz he's not a marathoner, etc) going to help that? If telling people to hang it up because they're not beating the African's anyway helping that? Scan the first page, and there's ONE positive thread about someone's performance. If I'm the outsider it's certainly not the "insiders" that are doing a damn thing to solve the problem.
This isn't about this BS about "everyone's a winner", this is about not spending 100% of your time tearing every distance runner down. Do some work to support a competitive club. Work a race to make it better for the competitors. How about cough up some money to help a guy pay his way to the trails? I do that, what the hell are the "insiders" doing except piss and moan? HMMM?