Slow runners: get the hell out of the way!

Sometimes you don't know when you are about to be lapped. By the time someone is on your heels, it's too late to move out. Surely you don't expect runners not in contention to run in lane 2 for their entire race.

1337hax0r wrote:

Sometimes you don't know when you are about to be lapped.

true, but i think in the majority of cases they DO know. the track has curves and you can look to your side and know that there is another runner who is only a short distance behind you. any runner who is paying attn should be able to have a good estimate that he will be lapped and it should be his job to know it and his job to get out of the way. any runner that does not move out should be dq'd, even in a race where lapping does not automatically dq the runner.

Then have officials make lapped runners get into lane 2 for the rest of the race. Problem solved.

Track Etiquette 101. In a race, you pass on the outside. If you have to go around someone you go around them. Track runners have been doing this forever. Yet people seem to equate lapped runners in a race with the recreational walkers who obnoxiously take up lane one when you're trying to do a track workout. It's not even remotely the same thing.

This is a race. The lapped runners are not there for your convenience and they don't owe you a thing. They are trying to run the best race they can. It's true, they're no more important than the runners lapping them. Big deal. The reverse is also true.

In some 10k races, they actually pull people off the track if they're going too slow. That's cool. Especially if the race is being set up as some sort of qualifier. And if the people being lapped WANT to move into the outside lane, good for them.

But they're under no obligation (moral or otherwise) to get out of lane one so no matter how much the leaders may wish otherwise.

I say if your getting lapped they should be pulled off the track. When I was in HS and in College 20 something years ago that's the way it was. You get lapped your done for the race. I don't know how anyone can get lapped from 5k down and hardly ever in a 10k. If your getting lapped then the officials screwed up and should not have them in the race. That is why we need standards at all levels for races. Don't make the standard - don't run in the race. If you lie on your seed and get destroyed. Then the meet director should never let them in the meet again. Problem solved. In this case though such a shame. I feel bad for the athlete in this case. Hopefully they can find another race to qualify.

You must be a slow runner with that opinion and should be running only open all comer meets. As nobody should be getting lapped in a race if they set standards on seed times. Slow runners should go do Open meets or run against the slow masses on the road. No lapping in road races. Track is for top runners and not slow penguins like you.

That's ridiculous. You realize that Cragg lapped the field (minus Sandfort) at the SEC championships in the 10k. I guess that only two guys deserved to be in that race.

You really don't know what you're talking about.

Well if they set standards instead of running all the slow ass times today then this would not be an issue. Go look at times back in the 1980s vs today. We have a problem here. Regardless that is not the issue here. If a runner gets lapped then they should pull them from the track. Should not be an issue in any event from 5k down. Maybe 10k if one person laps the field there are exceptions , but seriously nothing is worse then pengquins running in elite races, because the coach or they lied about there seed time.

I don't agree with you at all. Seems to me Times should be is right and your wrong. Set time standards and if your lapped officials should pull you from the track.

"Well if they set standards instead of running all the slow ass times today then this would not be an issue."

Kewl. No one who runs slower than 13:00 and 27:00 is allowed to run. Problem solved.

So if a guy runs 28.00 minutes for the 10k, he would lap anyone who runs slower than about 29.10, does that mean that these 'slow' guys are penguins and should get the hell out of fast races.

Sometimes when I'm lapping athletes in 10k races I find it helps me keep going by having runners in front to work on, this probably counteracts the fractions of seconds taken to go round.

Look and see. This is what we call respect.

Its in a NATIONAL championship.

I suppose there were only two worthy people in the Ostrava 10k as well? I guess they shoulda pulled everyone else off the track, even though there was prize money involved. I mean, what the hell were they thinking letting 27:30 guys in the race?

Don't be a smart ass. You know exactly what I mean. They set standards at all levels ( HS-College-Open-Elites) What is a matter you can't run the standard. I hate races where people fields are not on a fair level. Mostly due to the athletes misrepresting their seed time. Besides Standards propell runners to aspire to run at a higher level. What do you think part of the problem is in american running today. God sakes we run slower today across the board with all these great tracks, technology, training programs ect then when we ran on cinder tracks back in the 1970's. We have a problem. Setting standards at all levels is a start. If you don't like my opinion fine, but its right.

Sounds all good to me.

KennedyIsTheShit wrote:

Look and see. This is what we call respect.

Its in a NATIONAL championship.

Yeah, that's Tim Keller from Wisconsin that he's passing there. Keller placed 13th in the race, so it's not like he's a scrub. He moved out so that Cragg wouldn't have to pass him. If he can do it, so can others. I don't necessarily think that lapped runner should automatically get DQ'd the instant they're lapped, but the faster runner should never have to alter their race for the lapped runner, period.

All this talk about lapped runners being DQ'ed is pointless. Anyone remember Raleigh and Penn Relays this year?? The leader lapped the ENTIRE FIELD in both races. I don't know about you but I don't want to go to Penn Relays to watch someone alone on the track for 10 laps. And anyone who has ever lapped people in a race knows that it helps to have some lapped runners there to pull on, DQ the lapped runners? I'd rather places like penn just verified entry times first.

Can I ask you a question. Do you read as if you did you would note above it said. If one runner is lapping the entire field then of course there are exceptions. We are talking about races where 2-3 runners are getting lapped by the entire field and should not be in the race. This happens in a lot of races at all levels. Lets face it they are a nusiance on the track and slow the top runners down. So before you make your stupid as comment how about thinking about what your saying first. Instead your like a lot of smart ass people on the board.

There were only 9 finishers in the race and one of them had already finished when this happened so there could only have been 7 others on the track. Hayley had to move to the second lane but I doubt that it made .14 difference.

However straight after the race she decided that she was so upset she would retire from running and at the same time complained that she had to move out for slow runners in the finishing straight. Only natural cos she was so upset but I dont believe that it made the diference between qualifying and not qualifying.

I agree that slower runers should move out, but in this instance she was coming up behind them so fast they didnt know she was there.