Definition of a hobby jogger

Want to be clear wrote:

Everyone else who runs is a hobby jogger. Do I have that right?

Since you asked, the answer is no.

Genie appears and offers to grant the wish: 1 year of perfect training followed by 6 months of PRs at every event. Only caveat is that you die at the end of the 6th month

Runners: accept the gift without question

Joggers: pass and say no

hobby jogger - noun, thought to have originated on the popular website letsrun.com in the early years of the 21st century - a term used to insult a distance running enthusiast who is not as accomplished in the sport as the speaker. Ex: "You're 5000 PR is 30 seconds slower than mine? You're such a hobby jogger!"

What do you call the class of runner below hobby jogger?

People who:

- only run outside the 3 months of the year that the weather is perfect

- show up for the workouts but never the long runs, because they're "no fun"

- x-train on an elliptical because "it puts less pressure on the knees"

To quote from Vivobarefoot:"Humans naturally display three forms of locomotion: walking, running and sprinting." "Jogging is a modern invention. In fact, it only began to gain popularity in the 1960’s, around the same time as padded running shoes were becoming more common."

So the question of who is a jogger is a question of form. That running should be a hobby (enjoyable) isn't a negative. Just because the word can be attached to stamp collectors and train spotters doesn't make it derogatory.

On this basis I am a hobby runner.

Turbo breaks it down wrote:

Letsrun:

10% has beens

40% never weres

50% hobby joggers

Dude, I consider myself a "never was has been hobbyjogger" so your %'s have to add up to MORE than 100%.

Randy,

I don't consider myself less than a hobbyjogger (see above) even though I only run when the weather is nice, I only run twice a week (15-20 miles each run) and I ELIPTICAL the other days. You are describing a fitness enthusiast, not a less than hobbyjogger.

99 percent of the LR crowd.

Its vitally important to find a way to put a bunch of people down. How dare they do something that makes them happy and helps their heath? They are only a hair better than rapists, mass murderers and such! Come on, lets come up with a harder hitting label!

Absolute value wrote:

It cannot be defined in absolute terms

This.

Every sport and activity and religion has those who think they are the "true believers" and want to mark others as mere pretenders, dabblers, etc. And every sport and activity and religion also has people who view themselves as speaking for the common person and labels the True Believers as snobs, elitists, etc. Whatever anyone calls my particular take on "running" or "jogging" or "hobby jogging," I won't stop doing it. But it's always interesting to see the different ways people define "it." Whatever "it" is.

Anyone slower than you is a hobby jogger. On the other hand, an "elite" is anyone faster than you. Its all about you.

hobby jogger a person who:

1. runs less than 5 times a week.

2. enters races for the social aspect of it.

3. follows any kind of "couch to 5k/10k/marathon program

4. wears an Ipod during a race.

5. admires Dean K.

6. has vibrams

7. thinks you can get in "race shape" by going spin class

8. puts 13.1 or 26.2 stickers on their cars that literally walked either

The Urban Dictionary version:

Term of mild abuse describing recreational runners. Normally invoked by more experienced and accomplished athletes.

I watched the New York Marathon on TV last week and after the first couple of hundred went by it was wall to wall hobbyjoggers.

If you are not:

(a) A professional athlete making his living of sponsorship, appearance, and/or prize money;

(b) A D1 athlete receiving full/partial sponsorship money for competing;

(c) A coach of (a) or (b) for pay...

you ARE a "hobby jogger" and you are not any better than any others out there. The only people I see using such a term are wannabe non-elites with ego/attitude issues. I have never heard of ANY true professional/elite athlete using such as term.

I am 13

I train 1-2 hours a day, running 4 days a week, cross training twice a week

I love to run

I am very competetive

I am not a hobby jogger.

I think a hobby jogger runs to stay in shape, but a competetive runner runs to win or for time.

I am not wrote:

I am 13

Typical letsrunner.

I am not wrote:

I think a hobby jogger runs to stay in shape, but a competetive runner runs to win or for time.

Smartest answer all day. From the 13 year-old.

Here's a definition: Anyone who uses the term "hobby jogger" as a derogatory term is an insecure momma's boy who still wears diapers to bed for fear of crapping himself during a nightmare about getting beaten up by a girl in middle school.

Anyone who posts on letsrun.com!

why do you care?

We need a good term to describe threads like these... If letsrun went on Rickey Lake it would have probably sounded like this. I never knew jogging was such a dirty word!