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What you say is true for those who take mostly undadulturated joy in doing what they do as well as they can do it.
A lot of people do things for the cache, though. Its not the noblest motive out there, but it drives a lot of otherwise unacountable behavior.
Running a marathon in three hours is pretty unaccountable behavior. Its not fast enough to go pro, but its plenty fast enough to hurt. I'm sure alot of people resent trying to describe their achievemnt of a 3.5 hour marathon only to be one upped by some grandma who clocked in at twice the time. It must be a drag since you know pretty much noone understands the difference and even fewer people care about the difference between a well run race and waddling through.
Its not so much the way that the slouches are different from the quasi-elite, its the way they are the same. Neither one is doing anything so spectacular or noteworthy or worthwhile.
There will always be a group of quasi-elite anything who resent total hacks, precisely because hacks show the inanity of the whole enterprise.
I'm sure many former high school golfers are mildly embarassed to be associated with the vast herd who can't break 100, and I say that as someone who can't break 100. The fact is that there are two kinds of golfers out there in most people's view, the ones on TV and everyone else.
People who are very good, don't want the "everyone else" catagory to become a complete joke.
Its annoying.
If people are just craving the runner's high and no recognition, then they can run any 26 miles they choose and no need to suffer the crowds of an official race.
