Yep, another of these stupid schmaltzy stories:
http://www.businessinsider.com/heartwarming-moment-a-london-marathon-runner-stops-to-help-exhausted-competitor-2017-4?r=UK&IR=T
- If the runner could possibly finish on their own, you just ruined their race by getting them DQed.
- If the runner truly needed medical help, there are professionals around to help them and whatever might do would likely make it worse.
- I suppose if they are falling and you catch their head before it smacks the ground, you helped them. But other than that, YOU'RE NOT HELPING.
- Just run your race.
The heartwarming moment a runner gets a competitor DQed
Report Thread
-
-
At least he didn't haul the other guy's ass over his shoulders.
-
He just did what pegleg did.... only the person this guy assisted actually needed help. It wasn't a "look at me" moment, but a kind act. Bravo, sir.
-
At least the article didn't state it as "heart rendering".
-
Ha!
Dictionary wrote:
At least the article didn't state it as "heart rendering". -
At the Houston marathon a few years ago, a guy dropped at the finish line. Medical staff jumped into action and found that the guy was having a heart attack. They had an AED and saved his life.
You never know what is happening with someone who is struggling this badly in a marathon or tri. Race officials really need to start taking charge of these situations and stop letting other competitors try to turn them into feel good moments. It is too dangerous. Medical staff needs to jump in and get the runner off the course and into the medical tent. -
I hate inspiration porn. An athlete in distress needs medical attention, not some stupid person whose race isn't going well and who has a hero complex.
-
Again, this is letsrun at its best with sub-elites taking pot shots at people who do something good or helpful or just in the spirit of racing.
This was a good display of sportsmanship.
I am usually not one to take an open shot at the lack of sportsmanship in running in terms of a direct scathing inquiry, however, after this thread, and other previous 'mean' threads, I have two questions for you and other people in this thread with the same mentality:
1. Were your coaches patriarchal, win at all cost types?
2. Did your coaches bring you up to think this way because they had to live vicariously through their team members?
Again, and I have said so in other threads and I will in this one...Stop it.
Mike
San Marcos, CA
Heartless wrote:
Yep, another of these stupid schmaltzy stories:
http://www.businessinsider.com/heartwarming-moment-a-london-marathon-runner-stops-to-help-exhausted-competitor-2017-4?r=UK&IR=T
- If the runner could possibly finish on their own, you just ruined their race by getting them DQed.
- If the runner truly needed medical help, there are professionals around to help them and whatever might do would likely make it worse.
- I suppose if they are falling and you catch their head before it smacks the ground, you helped them. But other than that, YOU'RE NOT HELPING.
- Just run your race. -
Go back to Runners World!
-
You know. Many of you say that, as if Runners World is like the worst of the worst and the slowest of the slow.
I read Runners World and I read this site.
FYI, if some of the people here had the heart, spirit or positive outlook of people like Willey, Burfoot, Parent, Shea and McDowell, to name a few, then we would see the true spirit of running back.
Is this a running forum or a playground?
SJWs out! wrote:
Go back to Runners World! -
The guy wasn't DQ'd.
-
What bothers me about these stories is that they act like helping somebody across the finish line that is in need of medical attention is some form of sportsmanship. I see that there is a really small component in that a runner is sacrificing a minute on to their marathon time. I've read many stories of ultra runners going back to a previous aid station to inform the volunteers that there is a runner in distress on the trail. Acts like this are a hundred times more "heroic" than dragging a distressed runner across a finish line and ignored because they aren't as sexy.
-
Stoppit Smith wrote:
Again, this is letsrun at its best with sub-elites taking pot shots at people who do something good or helpful or just in the spirit of racing.
This was a good display of sportsmanship.
I am usually not one to take an open shot at the lack of sportsmanship in running in terms of a direct scathing inquiry, however, after this thread, and other previous 'mean' threads, I have two questions for you and other people in this thread with the same mentality:
1. Were your coaches patriarchal, win at all cost types?
2. Did your coaches bring you up to think this way because they had to live vicariously through their team members?
Again, and I have said so in other threads and I will in this one...Stop it.
Mike
San Marcos, CA
I'm a fat, slow hobby jogger. I've never had a coach and am not particularly competitive. I run marathons just to finish. If someone carries me across, I didn't finish on my own. Sure, they get a cool photo-op, but it doesn't really help me.
If I collapse 50m from the finish, that's the breaks. Maybe I can rouse myself and stumble and crawl across the line to get an official finish. Maybe the medical staff has to carry my inert carcass away and I don't get a finisher's medal. What does having another runner prop me up do for me except make me look pathetic and make them look like a hero? -
The important question is did they get their finisher medals?
-
1. They likely did not ask for their picture to be taken
2. The spirit of assistance for humans trumps the nature of competition.
3. A 3:35 is just as good as a 3:36 or a 3:37.
4. It allows them to finish anyway.
Time is not everything
And realistically, how you look is not everything.
After 26 miles, nothing really matters. -
Heartless wrote:
Stoppit Smith wrote:
Again, this is letsrun at its best with sub-elites taking pot shots at people who do something good or helpful or just in the spirit of racing.
This was a good display of sportsmanship.
I am usually not one to take an open shot at the lack of sportsmanship in running in terms of a direct scathing inquiry, however, after this thread, and other previous 'mean' threads, I have two questions for you and other people in this thread with the same mentality:
1. Were your coaches patriarchal, win at all cost types?
2. Did your coaches bring you up to think this way because they had to live vicariously through their team members?
Again, and I have said so in other threads and I will in this one...Stop it.
Mike
San Marcos, CA
I'm a fat, slow hobby jogger. I've never had a coach and am not particularly competitive. I run marathons just to finish. If someone carries me across, I didn't finish on my own. Sure, they get a cool photo-op, but it doesn't really help me.
If I collapse 50m from the finish, that's the breaks. Maybe I can rouse myself and stumble and crawl across the line to get an official finish. Maybe the medical staff has to carry my inert carcass away and I don't get a finisher's medal. What does having another runner prop me up do for me except make me look pathetic and make them look like a hero?
This is basically becoming 'failure shaming'. There should be no shame in a DNF if you cannot finish a race. It happens to elites quite a bit in the marathon so I'm not sure why hobbyjoggers are so scared of not finishing. I have never had a DNF but if I hit the wall in a marathon I would much rather step off the course then be carried across the line by someone else. -
If Mary K had over-cooked it yesterday, I wonder if Dibaba would have helped her across the finish line or stepped over her and the way to victory?
-
another hobbyjogger wrote:
Heartless wrote:
Stoppit Smith wrote:
Again, this is letsrun at its best with sub-elites taking pot shots at people who do something good or helpful or just in the spirit of racing.
This was a good display of sportsmanship.
I am usually not one to take an open shot at the lack of sportsmanship in running in terms of a direct scathing inquiry, however, after this thread, and other previous 'mean' threads, I have two questions for you and other people in this thread with the same mentality:
1. Were your coaches patriarchal, win at all cost types?
2. Did your coaches bring you up to think this way because they had to live vicariously through their team members?
Again, and I have said so in other threads and I will in this one...Stop it.
Mike
San Marcos, CA
I'm a fat, slow hobby jogger. I've never had a coach and am not particularly competitive. I run marathons just to finish. If someone carries me across, I didn't finish on my own. Sure, they get a cool photo-op, but it doesn't really help me.
If I collapse 50m from the finish, that's the breaks. Maybe I can rouse myself and stumble and crawl across the line to get an official finish. Maybe the medical staff has to carry my inert carcass away and I don't get a finisher's medal. What does having another runner prop me up do for me except make me look pathetic and make them look like a hero?
This is basically becoming 'failure shaming'. There should be no shame in a DNF if you cannot finish a race. It happens to elites quite a bit in the marathon so I'm not sure why hobbyjoggers are so scared of not finishing. I have never had a DNF but if I hit the wall in a marathon I would much rather step off the course then be carried across the line by someone else.
I couldn't imagine posting on my blog or on facebook and instagram that I didn't finish. -
Stoppit Smith wrote:
Again, this is letsrun at its best with sub-elites taking pot shots at people who do something good or helpful or just in the spirit of racing.
This was a good display of sportsmanship...
It was not a good a good display of sportsmanship. It was someone trying to be a hero. In the last few months there were two women who received national attention for collapsing at the finish line of half marathons in Pennsylvania. One was carried across the line, by other runners trying to be heroes, after collapsing close to the finish.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Love-run-racers-help-woman-cross-line.html
The other collapsed after the finish and was attended to by medial professionals.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/04/03/scranton-half-marathon-death/
Those helpers got very lucky. If those situations had been reversed, there would be some serious lawsuits. One of the Love Run 'heroes' said, "If someone is down, you try to get them motivated and get them going."
No. Sometimes people are in a crisis. If someone collapses at or near the finish, be a real hero and alert the medical staff. Getting someone help is a lot better than getting someone to the finish line. -
Heartless wrote:
I'm a fat, slow hobby jogger. I've never had a coach and am not particularly competitive. I run marathons just to finish. If someone carries me across, I didn't finish on my own. Sure, they get a cool photo-op, but it doesn't really help me.
If I collapse 50m from the finish, that's the breaks. Maybe I can rouse myself and stumble and crawl across the line to get an official finish. Maybe the medical staff has to carry my inert carcass away and I don't get a finisher's medal. What does having another runner prop me up do for me except make me look pathetic and make them look like a hero?
Yep.
As I've said on other threads on this topic, this whole trend is driven by the bizarre idea that DNFing is some kind of fate worse than death. If I can't finish a marathon, I will be disappointed. Not devastated. Not driven to the depths of despair. Just disappointed.
I don't need a hero to save me from disappointment. I will just go home, keep training, and try to have a better race next time.