been around 'ya know wrote:
My gawd! The sewer rats are out in force. What a bunch of p#ssies so many of you are. I'm an "old white guy" and I am not the least bit offended by Sheila Reid's comments. I can handle the criticism just fine. I brush barbs at my "old white maleness" off like a spec of lint on my shoulder.
I have seen a couple of good posts on here by males that can appreciate that it is actually good to have a woman's point of view on issues and I applaud them for their rational comments. The rest of you suck and I am embarrassed to be associated with you by gender.
Sheila may have stepped out of bounds a bit in her comments but I think she made a good overall point. I'd have to agree that the fascination with the mile is probably old white male nostalgia primarily. Sheila is only one woman and can only speak for herself but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that most women don't give a hoot about the mile. I doubt they relate to Roger Banister and Jim Ryun quite the way us old guys do or the young guys that know the history.
I like the mile and enjoy seeing it competed at events from time to time. I like the bring back the mile movement but I don't think it translates to the NCAA. I like seeing it at NCAA indoors as I like seeing over/under distance races competed in indoors and wish all running events indoors could be different distances than outdoors. I like the 60, 300, 600, 1000, etc. I think we get to see more interesting match-ups and it allows the athlete to work more on their speed or on their strength before the real season which is outdoor track.
I think outdoors, at the collegiate level, the championship distance should match the Olympic standard of 1500 meters. I don't think the mile will generate any more fan interest than the 1500 meters does today.
Now go ahead you self appointed professional arguers and breakdown my comments and ask for proof or verification of every statement made in order to try and elicit a response from me. It won't work. Maybe it is just maturity but I think we all realize eventually that most arguments just aren't worth having and I won't be taking the bait.