Anyone else hate the local road race scene?

quickndirty wrote:

There are just too many road races. That's why you can win a race with a 34 min 10k or 17+ 5k. Every little community has a 5k before every parade or community celebration, every school and civic club wants to use the 5k to raise money for X...

Used to there were about the same amount of good runners, but there was only 1 or 2 good races to run, so everyone ended up at those events.

How does this mean there are too many races?

I usually don't like to complain about my local scene, but I almost took multiple wrong turns at a local half marathon recently because the turns were not marked well enough and volunteers did not indicate where to go. I was in no-mans-land off the lead group and it's annoying when you have to slow or yell to the volunteer to figure out where to turn.This has happened more than once in the past few months. I have no desire to do the race again (and others) because something as simple as where to turn was not obvious.

Simple screw-ups like that just makes it less appealing to show up as a faster local runner.

To all you sub-sub-elites complaining about local 5ks being won in 19 minutes... here's an idea: show up and win it in 15 minutes. Then next year, other local fast guys will see that the race had a respectable winning time, and they'll show up too. Then the local races won't suck anymore.

The reason your local races are so lame is because YOU DON'T SHOW UP! IT'S YOUR FAULT! A 20 minute 5ker beats everyone who didn't bother to show up.

middle aged dork wrote:

Jimmy 8 wrote:

Doesn't really matter where you live. It's all the same. Lots of dorky middle aged people paying $25 for a T-shirt that says they were a participant in some meaningless road race where they jogged (they made no attempt at running hard) a 30 minute 5k mixed with hobby jogger weirdos who see running as a core part of their identity even though they only run 10mpw yet still boast about how they completed a marathon once 10 years ago. Zero normal people. Little humility. Rarely anyone with any real competitive background.

I don't understand the appeal.

You might be surprised how fast "jogging" feels when you're a middle aged dork - if you're even still running then.

I can say with about 99% certainty that the OP won't still be running in 10 years. Something typically happens when these type of kiddos either get out of school and have to start earning their own bread, or else they stop setting PRs...they disappear from the running scene.

They talk tough now, but they have no idea what life has in store for them and how it will knock them on their butts.

How does it feel being a hobby human?

Bob Sacamano the fake one wrote:

The reason your local races are so lame is because YOU DON'T SHOW UP! IT'S YOUR FAULT.

The reason people don't show up is that they don't want to pay $35+ for a race where everybody has to publicly urinate at the start due to the scarcity of port-a-loos.

At our local turkey trot over 1000 show up and there are a couple clusters of 5 port-a-loos.

Renting additional loos must cut down on the profits.

A significant number of posters spend way too much of their time and energy lamenting the dreaded "hobby joggers" but hopefully you can realize how ridiculous you can act also. Case in point, I was at a donut relay at a local brewery yesterday. There were two competitive teams in the last wave. Spectators and participants were hanging around the donut table, chatting and watching the participants. One of the dudes on the all male team actually walked up to a few of us and asked us to move to clear the way for when they left the donut table to jump onto the course. This was a donut relay, for goodness sake and he came across like a complete idiot and d-bag.

I guess karma does exist because the final runner on his team (male) and the final runner on the coed team (female) started neck in neck on the anchor leg and happily the girl smoked his ass in last 1/4 mile. I literally saw one of his teammates consoling him later. Again, this was a donut relay.

nothing will compete,thank God Heaven left us standing on our fe wrote:

Bob Sacamano the fake one wrote:

The reason your local races are so lame is because YOU DON'T SHOW UP! IT'S YOUR FAULT.

The reason people don't show up is that they don't want to pay $35+ for a race where everybody has to publicly urinate at the start due to the scarcity of port-a-loos.

At our local turkey trot over 1000 show up and there are a couple clusters of 5 port-a-loos.

Renting additional loos must cut down on the profits.

So start your own race for less, but have more portapotties.

I am making a suggestion to improve your race.

and giving the reason why I don't pay $35+ to enter.

Ignore the suggestion and

keep the number of port-a-loos at the mandated minimum.

This will increase profits.

It seems most of the people on this thread missed my point. It had little to nothing to do with "I'm faster than these people." It was about how the entire culture surrounding the local road race scene is bizarre to me. Most of the people who show up pay $25+ to jog or even walk a 5k with no intention of competing or working hard at all, something anyone could easily do on their own for free. It'd be like paying $25 to watch a sunset or something. Why would I do that when I can easily do it for free and without the added hassle of driving somewhere, filling out a form, and then standing around afterwards? Also, in the last several years, I've seen costumes of sorts become a relatively common thing, like people dress in some weird outfit for their walk/jog. What exactly is the point of that other than to get attention? It's just "Look at me! Look at me! I'm wearing a tu-tu while jogging. Hee hee hee!" Such behavior makes me think there's something psychologically unsound with these people.

And my point about the weirdos who see running as a core part of their identity despite barely running at all could be applied to anyone and anything. I wouldn't call myself a photographer just because a occasionally take photos of stuff on my phone. Nor would I describe myself as a mountaineer just because I go hiking a few times a year. My observation was that there seem to be a significant number of people who show up to these road races who barely run at all yet use it to define who they are and see it as something that makes them "special" and/or superior to others. I've personally known some of these people and listened to them go around bragging to others about how they ran the day before even though it was raining or how they did 6 whole miles this weekend. It's childish, comical, and off-putting, and that wouldn't change no matter what the activity was. It'd be like bragging about how smart you are because you got a B in Calc I or something. And for those who accuse me of being arrogant, my PRs are ~14:00 and ~29:20, I've run 100+ mile weeks and won various titles, and I NEVER talk about any of it, because running does not define me, nor do these things make me "special." Humility is a virtue.

Lol. You're either a troll or need to loosen up a bit. I have a co-worker that is everything that these boards poke fun at; she signed up for a bunch of gimmicky, themed 5ks to get in shape. Color run, warrior run, cupcake run, bubble run, holiday runf....whatever, she's signed up for those type of things. And that's great! She's excited and that's what she wants to do! Sure, these races make a serious runner cringe, but these are the types of runs that attract a lot of participants. People run for various reasons and maybe you should chat with the non-serious runners to understand why they run. Who cares how you perceive that they identify themselves.

The road scene started out for serious, competitive runners, and that's mostly who showed up. Those were the early days when running was novel and alternative and not as mainstream as it now, and before race organization turned into a business. Along the way, somebody figured out that non-serious, fitness joggers would be interested in themed runs that were not so focused on competition, but the experience and feeling of completion. They identified an opportunity and took advantage of it. It's called f-ing capitalism.

The biggest thing holding back the competitive runners from creating a better road racing scene are the runners themselves. You don't have to show up at the themed runs, but there still are plenty of road races out there that are friendly to competitive runners that you can find each month in most major metro areas. I know my area has more than a few faster guys, but they only seem to show up a few times a year to chase times and a bit of prize money. Where is the love of competing, pushing yourself, running fast, all just for the sake of it and your loveof the sport? Heck, if you aren't happy with the current road race scene, start your own series of races focused on competitive runners. Stick to the basics, minimize the frills, and avoid the main roads as much as possible to keep down the safety/traffic management costs.

OP, you are part of the problem and may not realize it. Listen to yourself. You're worrying too much about what other people like to do and what brings in the dough and going on some ridiculous, judgmental diatribe that essentially complains about the social, attention-seeking, self-centered nature of humans. If you don't like the local road racing scene, take your observations and turn it into something positive. Nothing is holding you back but yourself. That's it, that's all there is to it.

lol. For me it's the complete opposite. The hobbyjoggers are fine. It's the competitive ones that I can't stand.

There was a race near me, Sale Sizzler 5K, which was full of competitive asswipes. It's like all the parkrun tryhards crammed into one place. The 40+ men who take it incredibly seriously, posts strava pictures of their avocado on toast and sneer at anyone who can't run sub 17.

I thought there was no such thing as a free lunch.