not from spokane wrote:
From the article on the front page. Bloomsday used to have more than 60,000 people signing up but was just below 40,000 this year.
"And it makes one wonder if Bloomsday is becoming another tradition, like dating and baseball, killed by millennials. … Just kidding. Don't take out the Twitter pitchforks and torches. It’s not an age thing."
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/may/07/grip-sports-bloomsdays-numbers-continue-fall-trend/
I know the comment by the author was tongue-in-cheek, but there actually is a pretty strong undercurrent in the endurance event space (and in running retail) that there is somewhat of a valley being hit right now in running that can be attributed to the Millennial generation.
The argument is that a majority of them, unless they were HS runners, have not reached the point in their life where they have taken up hobby jogging. They are still hustling and grinding at their young careers, have not gotten married, and have little motivation to root themselves in a community by owning a home. This transience, combined with their life stage, means they aren't running. They are in soccer leagues or still drinking at bars with their friends.
Once they realize they aren't going to live forever and that the double cheeseburger they ate last night doesn't automatically melt off of their body, they will take up running/cycling/triathlon/etc. That is when we'll see another running boom in the USA, although it may only be an echo of the running booms in the past.