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How dare Ed write about average people not having the right to get off the couch and achieve something special. As a very average athlete who competes in Ironmans and marathons, I am inflamed by the writer's words.
These mere mortals accomplishing milestones in their life, make babies. Where does the author think the next great generation of runners is going to come from. If we relegate our couch potatoes to the davenport, how are our youth to be inspired to hit the trails?
In the worlds of running and triathlon we hear arguments like this from time to time and they are always meaningless. How on earth would the slower finishers either diminish the winner's accomplishment or slow the field down? The true elite athletes know that what they do is completely the result of their own training plus good coaching and good genes, not what somebody finishing 1-5 hours later does. These truly elite athletes also know that the slower finishers are what keep their sport alive and produce more sponsorship dollars that allow the elite athletes to continue training and representing their country in their sport. If you want to find somebody to blame for the lack of winning marathoners, look to the development programs of US Track and Field and the Olympic Committee. The slow and first time athletes are not standing there barring the door to athlete development.
Whenever these articles are written, it is always by some mid-packer, never the winner. The winners have much more sense than to bite the hands that help support them by buying the sponsors' gear. If this author were truly an accomplished age group athlete, it wouldn't even occur to him to write this drivel. He would be too busy training, racing, and encouraging all his fellow athletes, because that is what they do.
We should instead be encouraging all the athletes, including the box-checkers, the joggers, and the flabby middle aged ladies and gentlemen who look within themselves to see what they are made of. We are a society of overweight pre-diabetics who need all the role models we can get, including gazzilionairs like Oprah.
