CrossFit vs Ultrarunning

Random bump.. came across the much debated Tim Tollefson ultra running article..

What is your opinion on ultras now? lol

TimT wrote:

What I wrote in hopes to be dripping in sarcasm, irony and poke fun at the idiosyncrasies of a few groups, is apparently coming off as harsh and sounding like a jerk on a soapbox.

Every group is ripe for ridicule, even track athletes, and I was hoping to blog in a lighthearted and creative way.

Apologies for those that do not see through the over the top exaggerations as I definitely do not hate ultrarunners, in any way.

I did take offense, with good reason, to McDougall's poor use of "evidence" regarding some of the content in BTR. Perhaps I should have just written about BTR...

Enjoy!

http://www.flotrack.org/blog/41089-CrossFit-vs-Ultrarunning-Which-is-more-nauseating

It says the link can't be found. Did you get censored?

Yeah, the link is down. Anyone have a working link to the original article?

"iRunFar: You posted, on Flotrack in 2012, a blog called “CrossFit vs Ultrarunning. Which is more nauseating?” and received some negative feedback. What is the story behind that post, which you deleted not long after you posted it?

Tollefson: Yeah [laughs], that was back when I was a bit more of an ***hole and thought I was funny. At the time I was working at a running store and had just finished graduate school. I was working retail with some guys who were in the ultra community. We got talking about all sorts of stereotypical things you see in runners and at races. It went from this private conversation that we were all laughing about—we were making fun of marathoners, too. I had never written a blog before so I thought I would give it a shot. But what we thought was hilarious in this private conversation—well, before I knew it, it had 14,000 or 15,000 hits. Some people thought it was hilarious, even ultrarunners, but then it struck a nerve with a lot of people.

I thought our sport might need someone to poke fun at things—kind of like Jim Rome in Rome Is Burning. You get a lot of the press that is scared to write truly objective things about runners because it’s a small community, and if you write something negative about [a big name], you’ll get shut off and won’t get an interview next time. In a sense, it kind of sucks, you know, if we runners can’t take criticism. It goes into what the rest of society thinks of us, like we are these weak athletes. I don’t think a little objectivity or humor is a bad thing or the worst thing in the world. That blog, at the time, was just something we were laughing about and it wasn’t malicious in intent. I was thinking about running ultras even at that time."

The dude is a tool and has since realized that he will never be a top road runner and now races ultras. He was beat badly in a 50 mile race last weekend. He was around 40 minutes off of the winner.