Hubris isn't a physical activity.
there is no hubris, it's just easy to get started, easy to improve, and easy to organize into a "competition" with thousands of participants. for the more vain types, goal-setting and goal-accomplishing is unambiguous in running - run a 40 mile week, run a 5K, run a half marathon in under 1:30, etc. I'd note that many people getting into running have no experience with any form of exercise short of perhaps walking, but they start and keep with it because there is little to learn to benefit from the activity, and little to be afraid of (unlike say, squatting or biking).
there are other forms of exercise I would like to get into in addition to running - specifically, cross country skiing and on the water rowing - but they're a real pain to work into one's schedule (unlike running).
the various forms of exercise aren't mutually exclusive, so someone could be racing marathons, playing basketball, swimming, and hitting the weight room all the same time.
that is all.
I don't know why people get worked up over 26.2 stickers. I don't even know how that thought passes through their heads.
The problem is that people tend to lump all runners together. No one at your local high school puts the football team's 6'6", 240lb DI prospect tight end in the same box as the chubby benchwarmer who's never played a down in an actual game. Even if the benchwarmer wears football team gear everywhere, no one really thinks of him when they hear the phrase "football player" and certainly no one forms opinions about how football players act based on the guy.
But with runners, no one really makes the distinction between serious athletes and joggers. The 4:10 miler and the 23 minute 5K guy at your school are both just "cross country runners." So people make generalizations about runners based on the actions of joggers. This doesn't make any more sense than generalizing about football players based on the actions of JV scrubs.
That was a pretty awful opinion piece. So, now weighlifters, who literally spend most of their time lifting weights in front of mirrors, are supposed to be less vain than runners?
Runner hubris shows up through the endless self-promotion on socia media and hanging your hat on a PR syndrome. It plagues mostly the insecure, sub-sub-sub-sub-elites or whatever.
failure to distinguish wrote:
But with runners, no one really makes the distinction between serious athletes and joggers. The 4:10 miler and the 23 minute 5K guy at your school are both just "cross country runners." So people make generalizations about runners based on the actions of joggers. This doesn't make any more sense than generalizing about football players based on the actions of JV scrubs.
When I was in school they did. People respected athleticism in whatever form it took. It's not that hard to understand that, say, a state champion cross country runner is something special.
Critical Thinking wrote:
failure to distinguish wrote:But with runners, no one really makes the distinction between serious athletes and joggers. The 4:10 miler and the 23 minute 5K guy at your school are both just "cross country runners." So people make generalizations about runners based on the actions of joggers. This doesn't make any more sense than generalizing about football players based on the actions of JV scrubs.
When I was in school they did. People respected athleticism in whatever form it took. It's not that hard to understand that, say, a state champion cross country runner is something special.
I suppose my post was a bit of an exaturation. Point is, people judge runners by the actions of joggers. The guy who wins a reasonably competitive half-marathon probably doesn't have a 13.1 sticker on his car and he probably doesn't have fitness software that automatically updates his Facebook profile to tell everyone how far he ran today. But when people hear the word "runner," they think of just this type. If I say "football player," the average guy thinks of Calvin Johnson. If I say "runner," the average guy thinks of Joe Hobbyjog slogging a 5K with clunky headphones and Gatorade bottle in hand.
Okay, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I think most people recognize there are degrees of commitment and excellence in both football and running, from Pop Warner and the charity 5k to the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games.
I wouldn't let a smart-@ss article ripping off another smart-@ss article that got a lot of clicks get me down.
jjjjjjjjjj wrote:
That was a pretty awful opinion piece. So, now weighlifters, who literally spend most of their time lifting weights in front of mirrors, are supposed to be less vain than runners?
Ironically, you're making the same mistake about weightlifters that the author in OP's post makes about runners. There are plenty of curlbros who hang around the gym checking themselves out, but serious bodybuilders don't spend nearly as much time working out as runners do, and if they're looking at themselves in the gym, they're checking their form. Most competitive weightlifters are also not lean and cut; strength is made in the gym, muscles are made in the kitchen. They may do a small cut after competitions just to play around.
I think you're mistaking weightlifting for bodybuilding, and really, aren't competitive distance running and hobbyjogging basically a parallel to those two?
Why is that a problem? I might know two people going to yoga class every night. They might be at extremely different levels of complishment, but I could lump them both together as doing yoga.Who cares?
failure to distinguish wrote:
The problem is that people tend to lump all runners together. No one at your local high school puts the football team's 6'6", 240lb DI prospect tight end in the same box as the chubby benchwarmer who's never played a down in an actual game. Even if the benchwarmer wears football team gear everywhere, no one really thinks of him when they hear the phrase "football player" and certainly no one forms opinions about how football players act based on the guy.
But with runners, no one really makes the distinction between serious athletes and joggers. The 4:10 miler and the 23 minute 5K guy at your school are both just "cross country runners." So people make generalizations about runners based on the actions of joggers. This doesn't make any more sense than generalizing about football players based on the actions of JV scrubs.
Poorly written, poorly contrived. I don't know why these two writers bother. They don't form any sort of argument, they just bitch about joggers with stickers on their cars. I'm more concerned with how either of these stories made into publication, considering their lack of content and sophomoric writing.
Don't meisn to pick on you but there is some irony in your post. The thread is about runners calling attention to themselves and your post seems to be about not wanting to share attention with the slower runners.
It kind of fits, the I'm special because I'm a runner theme of the thread.
Hubris... yeah I'm pretty awesome.
The writer tried to denigrate running as a sport but the main reason for the article is this.
"They put on public demonstrations in the form of marathons and running groups, crowding up and closing down roadways, inconveniencing commuters and forcing pedestrians and motorists to bear witness to their strained faces and quivering thighs."
This is the real reason those that don't run hate runners. They are inconvenienced when a race is put on in their city.
I posted this same thing when there was a backlash against the NYC marathon. It wasn't about the supplies the runners would have gotten, it was non runners one opportunity to voice their hatred of getting stuck somewhere as a marathon was being run because they didn't pay attention and plan ahead.
Haha took me a while to figure out the 6.55 stickers. Quarter-marathon? What an idiot.
But no seriously, that was a really dumb article. "They put on public demonstrations in the form of marathons and running groups." How the fck are these public demonstrations?? They're just runners racing or training together. It really does seem like the author is jealous in some way.
And honestly with the obesity epidemic the way it is, the runner (ok, hobby-jogger) lifestyle that people are seeing everywhere shouldn't be interpreted as hubris at all. The vast majority of people need to exercise more (and eat better, sleep better...).
There is some truth to it.
If you run a Marathon in 2:20 or 6:00h, you're still a mediocre Marathoner. The bandwidth is so big, it's like comparing bench pressing of 400 lbs with benching 5 lbs dumbbells. No one would consider the 5 lbs dumbbell bench pressing guy an "athlete". But in running, participating is everything.
Crossfit wins this award. Hands-down. They drink their own kool-aid as if they might die if they don't.
Dumb. No, dumber.
Doesn't the article writer have anything better to do?