Can’t post a link as I’m a new account, but has anyone seen the BBC article about giving the >7.5 hour walkers a free entry after they were called fat and slow at this year’s London Marathon?
Can’t post a link as I’m a new account, but has anyone seen the BBC article about giving the >7.5 hour walkers a free entry after they were called fat and slow at this year’s London Marathon?
Is this the article?
Im fine with it, as long as they're allowed to be called "fat" next year too
1776 wrote:
Is this the article?
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-48893181
That’s the one - thanks. No harm done really as it’s not like they’ll be blocking the course for the faster runners, but we do seem to be pandering a bit
Brings to mind what Percy Cerutty said about running the marathon in one of his books in the late'50s/early'60s.
He argued for a time limit on marathons of 3hrs30mins (or maybe 4 hrs, memory not totally accurate here) in order to exclude "the cranks and exhibitionists" and place the event on its proper footing.
His attitudes towards running and life in general probably don't go down too well these days!
Surely it's impossible to 'run' a marathon in 7 1/2 hours?
They walked most of it and waddled parts of it.
Two tonne lard arses who thought they could do couch to charity marathon in 12 weeks.
"This included comments such as "if you weren't so fat, you could run," and "this is a race, not a walk".
Kerrie Aldridge, from Cardiff, who finished last in this year's marathon, has been offered a place for next year.
She took nine hours and 11 minutes to complete the route and said she was "sniggered" at by stewards.
9 hours and 11 minutes.!
I don't even understand how that is possible. That's 2.9 miles per hour. You can leisurely stroll faster.
Runing dirty wrote:
"This included comments such as "if you weren't so fat, you could run," and "this is a race, not a walk".
Kerrie Aldridge, from Cardiff, who finished last in this year's marathon, has been offered a place for next year.
She took nine hours and 11 minutes to complete the route and said she was "sniggered" at by stewards.
9 hours and 11 minutes.!
I don't even understand how that is possible. That's 2.9 miles per hour. You can leisurely stroll faster.
That particular lady posted a video mid-race showing that the course was being packed up and a lot of people are outraged at that (plus London Marathon is "conducting an investigation"). But come on, this is a busy city that can't afford to be closed for 10+ hours, plus the marathon rules clearly state they will clear up after a certain time - think it's 8 hours but all trace seems to be gone from the marathon website. If people complain about things they should have been well aware of, I don't think we should reward that
Simon Pegg would be disappointed.
Runing dirty wrote:
"This included comments such as "if you weren't so fat, you could run," and "this is a race, not a walk".
Kerrie Aldridge, from Cardiff, who finished last in this year's marathon, has been offered a place for next year.
She took nine hours and 11 minutes to complete the route and said she was "sniggered" at by stewards.
9 hours and 11 minutes.!
I don't even understand how that is possible. That's 2.9 miles per hour. You can leisurely stroll faster.
Instagram. That's how. This whole thing must have been a photoshoot for them.
Because of this entry fees go up, knocking out ability of some sub elites to enter. Honestly course cut off should be double the winner's time.
Walkers be forewarned, do not do the Tokyo marathon:
The rule should be if Donald Trump can beat you in a marathon, you are banned from marathons for life.
Pretty simple.
Coevett wrote:
Surely it's impossible to 'run' a marathon in 7 1/2 hours?
They walked most of it and waddled parts of it.
Two tonne lard arses who thought they could do couch to charity marathon in 12 weeks.
So what’s your point? Isn’t completing a marathon at 300lbs more productive that sitting on their asses at 300lbs? Let’s see you put a 150lb weight vest on and spend 7.5 hours on your feet. People like you are nasty, judgemental, pretentious assholes.
Everyone under 2:06 also gets free entry next year.
Anorexic recovered wrote:
Coevett wrote:
Surely it's impossible to 'run' a marathon in 7 1/2 hours?
They walked most of it and waddled parts of it.
Two tonne lard arses who thought they could do couch to charity marathon in 12 weeks.
So what’s your point? Isn’t completing a marathon at 300lbs more productive that sitting on their asses at 300lbs? Let’s see you put a 150lb weight vest on and spend 7.5 hours on your feet. People like you are nasty, judgemental, pretentious assholes.
Agreed 100%. I cannot believe people will actually put others down here for running for damn charity, maybe he should take a leaf out of the “two tonne lard arses” book and actually run for charity too seeing as I’m highly doubting the guy runs for any sort of pro contract. Seriously, unbelievable. What a douchebag.
The main issue was that there were official pace groups all the way down to 7.5 hours. If you provide those pace groups, then people have a reasonable expectation that they can participate properly "running" that slowly; so the infrastructure should still be in place for those people.
Whether it's wise to have such slow pace groups is a different question.
Guy training for sub 2:40 and yet, still occasionally runs for c wrote:
Anorexic recovered wrote:
So what’s your point? Isn’t completing a marathon at 300lbs more productive that sitting on their asses at 300lbs? Let’s see you put a 150lb weight vest on and spend 7.5 hours on your feet. People like you are nasty, judgemental, pretentious assholes.
Agreed 100%. I cannot believe people will actually put others down here for running for damn charity, maybe he should take a leaf out of the “two tonne lard arses” book and actually run for charity too seeing as I’m highly doubting the guy runs for any sort of pro contract. Seriously, unbelievable. What a douchebag.
The point is obese people are disgusting and set a bad example to children at a time when childhood obesity is out of control.
Just by parading their fat bodies in a context like this does far more harm than the $100 they collect for charity.
If anything, they're trying to show that it's ok to be obese and you can still run marathons because health and fitness has nothing to do with being morbidly obese and lazy and you go girl.
Skinny underweight Instagram THOTs promote childhood anorexia. Obese two tonne land whales promote childhood obesity, which btw, is a far, far greater social problem than anorexia (tragedy that is for the relatively small number of individuals it affects).
As Cerutty says, people like this can do their running in private. Of course it's better that overweight people run rather than sit around all day but you don't have to enter a RACE in order to run. to do so in their physical condition smacks of exhibitionism, or at least a desire to be seen doing something that might be considered by others to be virtuous.
I'm 61, had a hip replacement 14 months ago and am getting back to running. I will never enter another race because I know that I will run far, far slower than I have run in the past and perform so badly that I don't warrant any publicity. I will run regularly in private, not for charity, not to impress others with my virtue but merely for enjoyment and health benefits. As should all those who "run" marathons in six hours plus.
pr100 wrote:
The main issue was that there were official pace groups all the way down to 7.5 hours. If you provide those pace groups, then people have a reasonable expectation that they can participate properly "running" that slowly; so the infrastructure should still be in place for those people.
Whether it's wise to have such slow pace groups is a different question.
I do agree with you here. It was silly of the marathon to set a clear up time that conflicting with its pace groups and no doubt has been a good lesson to them in co-ordinating with other departments.
That said, each year the London Marathon becomes less an elite running event and more a charity fun-run. Obviously I'm not saying raising money for charity is a bad thing AT ALL and it's not just a charity thing: with the London Marathon automatically signing up everyone who had the spectator app for next year's ballot, it means that the thousands of people dreaming of doing the race don't have a chance in hell. Seriously, go on twitter on ballot results day and you'll see hundreds of people saying "oh I forgot I even entered" or "ooh I haven't run in 20 years haha should be fun I guess".
It's pretty infuriating that dedicated runners are being ignored, whereas clearly non-dedicated runners like the ones in this story are being pandered to and given free spots.
And no, I'm not bitter, I get in on GFA.