I've spent quite a few hours of my life checking this message board for the entertaining and helpful tidbits that sometimes come up, and I haven't even been a runner for years. In the last couple of years, though, it's gotten really ugly. I'm trying to quit the bad stuff in my life, and this board is the source of some of the nastiest, most racist, and just plain negative comments I've seen anywhere, ever, and yes, I play x-box. The difference is that those kids are usually thirteen years old, they don't have jobs and families and they haven't figured out that they are all partly responsible for the creating the world we live in. I get the feeling that the people who post the ugly stuff are older and more educated, and they're trying to spread the word using the adult language of logic and reason, which makes what they say more manipulative, more impactful, and a lot worse. I wouldn't listen to some anonymous, racist asshole spitting hatred on a street corner, I don't know why I've chosen to look at a board where that stuff comes up for this long. I don't have anything to say to the wing-nuts, there's just nothing we'll ever agree on. But here's a few things I've learned that I'd like to pass on to ... whomever:
1) Grammar doesn't matter unless you're being unclear. Spelling doesn't matter ever. You wouldn't correct your kid if he said, "Someone at school hitted me." Poor grammar is the least of this country's worries despite what the one classics major on this board thinks.
2) The only training plan is to listen to your coach. Do what he or she says during practice. Track is not a 24-7 activity, Life is. If you don't have a coach, get the Lydiard and Daniel's books. If you get injured get the Noakes book. If your coach is an asshole, quit.
3) Track and field is a great sport because there's a place in it for everyone, even our big-boned bretheren. They're called throwers and they can rip your face off. If you're obsessed with calling people fatties you're probably a skinny turd who needs to get beaten up. Also, track and field is not the best sport. Basketball is.
4) Your high school rivals might be your college teammates. Race hard and have fun.
5) By the time you start thinking about your "career", it's almost over. If you have a career, you don't need Letsrun.
6) Weight training and cross-training are good for you mind, if nothing else.
7) There's no shame in quitting. There's also no shame in running slow. Who's doing all this shaming, anyway? Assholes.
8) Guys on high school or college teams: Girls can get eating disorders. No jokes. No dieting for a day and calling yourself anorexic. Oh, and you might just get a girlfriend if you're nice to them.
9) Oooh, this is a good one ... The fastest guy on the team is not always the coolest. Even though I was the fastest and coolest in high school. Wait ...
10) Ten is an arbitrary number. Just like 2, 4, 8, 14, 25, 30, 100 ...
I'll miss you, anonymous message board people. But not too much. Okay, bye!