Collapsing at the 6km XC finish? A new thing? Theatrics or real exhaustion?

26mi235 wrote:

Gary Oldman wrote:

Don't be ridiculous. None of these girls have had kids so they have nothing to compare it to..

Nobody knows if guys would be tough enough to take the pain of childbirth just like nobody knows if a woman could take a kick to the balls.

Really, you are that dense? Does someone have to explain to you how evolution works? You know, men have more testosterone than women, right? The is an evolutionary development. Better pain tolerance to get through childbirth is also an adaptation. And, if you had to go through childbirth once or twice to get that pain tolerance it would be too late.

You are not helping yourself, you appear more and more to be a dense, male chauvinist who is intent on pushing in to things that seem to be outside what he can consider.

This ^^^^^^

26mi235 wrote:

Gary Oldman wrote:

Don't be ridiculous. None of these girls have had kids so they have nothing to compare it to..

Nobody knows if guys would be tough enough to take the pain of childbirth just like nobody knows if a woman could take a kick to the balls.

Really, you are that dense? Does someone have to explain to you how evolution works? You know, men have more testosterone than women, right? The is an evolutionary development. Better pain tolerance to get through childbirth is also an adaptation. And, if you had to go through childbirth once or twice to get that pain tolerance it would be too late.

You are not helping yourself, you appear more and more to be a dense, male chauvinist who is intent on pushing in to things that seem to be outside what he can consider.

No . it really isn't.

If it was an evolved adaptation that would indicate that women were once incapable of giving birth until they evolved better pain tolerance.

No woman ever died from the pain of childbirth.

Try to think.

cross country skiing??? wrote:

Lots of serious collapsing at the 6km in Terre Haute at the finish line for the runners finishing 1 minute back of the leader.

Is that normal?

I watched for fun and didn't expect it to be like cross country skiing. I guess it is "cross-country", so you have to borrow some theatrics?

Wow, I can't say how much I hate, hate, hate this question. The big problem is not people like you who call it "theatrics", but the people who think that collapsing at the finish is somehow "tough".

It's just a thing that happens. That's it.

Collapsing doesn't make you tough. It doesn't make you weak. It means that you're just as freaking tired as everybody else out there, and this is the way that your body deals with it.

I have this a lot, and it's not the running that makes me collapse, it's the stopping. That's why it always happens right after the finish -- the poster who said it's a different thing is right.

I had a teammate who would throw up every race -- in the middle! He would stop for 30 seconds, and then keep going. Was he running so much harder than everyone else, causing him to throw up? Of course not. That's just how his body would deal with the stress. What made him tough is that it never got to him -- he'd just do what he needed to do and keep going. The same is true about collapsing at the finish. It's a minor inconvenience that gets way more attention than it deserves.

Please stop trying to make this into a moral/toughness thing. It's not.

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hmm. sammy wanjiru, collapsed on the ground after a race.

fwiw, if there are 20 people on the ground it makes it easier and more fun to also collapse. If no one were on the ground, it would be harder psychologically to collapse.

it doesn't mean anything - it's fun to lie in the grass after a race - if others are on the ground you can join in.

better image of the great SW on the ground.

my text was weirdly out of format -

my point was that it's fun to collapse after a race, esp if there is grass and everyone else is doing it.

doesn't mean anything.

Maybe someone already mentioned this...but it's entirely possible she didn't eat enough the morning of the race— because of nerves, etc—and collapsed from having absolutely nothing left in the tank. I saw chicks (legit runners too) do this all the time in college. And so yes, it's only a 6K, but when you haven't been eating properly, your legs may give out.

Dale Cooper wrote:

Maybe someone already mentioned this...but it's entirely possible she didn't eat enough the morning of the race— because of nerves, etc—and collapsed from having absolutely nothing left in the tank. I saw chicks (legit runners too) do this all the time in college. And so yes, it's only a 6K, but when you haven't been eating properly, your legs may give out.

Maybe if you haven't eaten for a week.

Once again take a look at how these waves of collapse happen. it's herd behavior, nothing more.

If there is a one minute gap to the next pack and nobody in that pack has seen the previous wave hit the dirt everyone will remain standing until someone sets the example and triggers the whole thing again.

26mi235 wrote:

Gary Oldman wrote:

Don't be ridiculous. None of these girls have had kids so they have nothing to compare it to..

Nobody knows if guys would be tough enough to take the pain of childbirth just like nobody knows if a woman could take a kick to the balls.

Really, you are that dense? Does someone have to explain to you how evolution works? You know, men have more testosterone than women, right? The is an evolutionary development. Better pain tolerance to get through childbirth is also an adaptation. And, if you had to go through childbirth once or twice to get that pain tolerance it would be too late.

You are not helping yourself, you appear more and more to be a dense, male chauvinist who is intent on pushing in to things that seem to be outside what he can consider.

Get out of here with your "women have higher pain tolerance b/c of childbirth" BS. There are no data to back it up.

agip wrote:

my point was that it's fun to collapse after a race, esp if there is grass and everyone else is doing it.

doesn't mean anything.

Exactly. This is just kids being dramatic and thinking it's cool. Ritzenhein did the same thing in high school until he grew up and became a professional.

That being said, I think Wanjiru collapsing after one of the greatest finishing sprints in marathon history was a bit more legit than someone closing down 187th place at the NCAA 6K.

Women's athletics are hilarious, whether it be basketball or the theatrics involved in xc, hilarious.

26mi235 wrote:

Gary Oldman wrote:

Don't be ridiculous. None of these girls have had kids so they have nothing to compare it to..

Nobody knows if guys would be tough enough to take the pain of childbirth just like nobody knows if a woman could take a kick to the balls.

Really, you are that dense? Does someone have to explain to you how evolution works? You know, men have more testosterone than women, right? The is an evolutionary development. Better pain tolerance to get through childbirth is also an adaptation. And, if you had to go through childbirth once or twice to get that pain tolerance it would be too late.

You are not helping yourself, you appear more and more to be a dense, male chauvinist who is intent on pushing in to things that seem to be outside what he can consider.

You're an idiot. Where is there any source of proof rather than your own opinion and guess. You really think you can determine a woman can run harder than a man just because she MIGHT have to go through child birth? There is no mathematical formula to determine who ran harder than who. Once you get the mentality of running hard it becomes "easier" to do it (ironically). You have no justifiable proof. Everyone runs hard and some people are better at running harder than others.

'Concrete Runner wrote:

Simple solution: Keep it on the 'crete. No one will be collapsing then.

^^this^^

I always finish strong and hard in road races and although I am Mr Stumbly-Wumbly as soon as I cross the finish, I stay on my feet because concrete f*ck*ng hurts. I've almost fallen a couple of times, but mostly it's me assuming the position, gasping for breath.

LastChanceRunner wrote:

A half dozen volunteers can do this effectively if there are enough of them standing by.

How many half dozen volunteers standing by are enough? Is six enough?

It gets pretty tricky at the finish line. First, you have to be careful about grabbing a woman and taking them from the line, and it is not easy to do. There are finish-line cameras that have to be avoided (usually one on each side of the line and behind the line at maybe a 30 degree angle). When twenty-five runners come in within 10 seconds the finish area can be clogged quickly.

Indiana State has been running this race many times and they have a large crew of very experienced officials and assistants and I suspect that they do it as well as anyone in the country. You probably should watch video of them to see how they do it, but getting that video might be hard.

And what idiot thinks that women have not died of pain in childbirth? Billions of kids have been born in situations without modern medicine and without current medical knowledge. The fatality rate for women in childbirth used to be rather significant (we are not talking about one in a thousand, but probably several percent in the 1800s, higher than that earlier. And this can be in prominent families, not the much larger number of poor families. Read some biographies from the 1700-1900 and you will see many women that have died. Go back to the period where evolutionary pressures were affecting the development of homo sapiens and you have no modern medicine but the human brain has developed to be a large size and death during childbirth was even more common (and no other species has the issue of getting such a large skull through the birth canal). Yes, the ability to survive extreme pain by women in childbirth was important to the woman's survival.

\Oh, but maybe you think that the earth is only 6000+ years old and ....

26mi235 wrote:

Yes, it is common. There is always an issue with clearing the chute in a big race with many runners of approximately equal quality. Look, for instance, at the finish of the Wisconsin Invite, and in that race they are not giving their last full measure of devotion (in a racing sense, not a literal-Lincoln sense).

It's a good excuse for a crappy race

26mi235 wrote:

drivel

And what idiot thinks that women have not died of pain in childbirth?

more drivel

Women didn't die "of pain". They died of blood loss, diseases, and so on.

[quote]26mi235 wrote:

First, you have to be careful about grabbing a woman and taking them from the line, and it is not easy to do. [quote]

Are you actually one of those guys that signs up for this heroic deed?

This explains a lot.

I'll let your misunderstanding of the difference between dystocia and pain go.

USATF.TV - Thanks Runnerspace wrote:

It happens to men also. It happens to the greats in our sport. Look at Galen Rupp .

Bad example.

It is entirely possible that the collapsing runner(or any collapsing runner) had some underlying medical issues. Women are more prone to anemia than men are and iron levels are even lower during certain points in the menstrual cycle. I collapsed in one race in my entire high school and collegiate career and it was XC regionals. I was always anemic, with irregular periods and I somehow managed to get my period for the first time in months the week of regionals. I think it definitely played a part in my collapsing.

Though it did not happen till after the finish line. I'm pretty sure I collapsed over the timing mat but I've been unable to find any footage