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• Saturday, November 3, 2007 07:14 AM

  Give me a break

  Which is it? It's good for non-elite runners to run a marathon in an exercise of self-improvement, or it's bringing the *whole* American competitiveness in the sport of marathon down? Really, give me a break. The slower people are not holding the elites back. I live in New York and run in lot's of races. The elites are always able to start up in front. If you really think some slower runner is keeping those people from pushing themselves? Are slower runners keeping elite runners from training longer and harder? I really don't think so.

  I really like this:

  "When the attitude simply becomes to finish, that attitude becomes pervasive," says an old marathoner.

  Who said that, really? Interesting it's not attributed.

  Maybe the personalities that are getting attention in this sport are not the ones you would like (Oprah, John Bingham), but that does not really have anything to do with whether our country can produce olympic medal-worthy marathoners. What about Lance Armstrong having a camera follow him through his NYC Marathon last year? Is he holding back elite, long-distance runners, too?

  Here's my argument:

  - more people are pushing themselves (remember, running is solitary sport!), trying to get healthier; I think we agree that is positive

  - many of these people are out moving their bodies for twice as long as an elite athlete. In fact, I'd be curious to see some of the faster runners push themselves for 4.5, 5, or even 6 hours straight (just because they take walk breaks doesn't mean while they are running, they are not pushing themselves hard)

  - these are the people that are not winning money (not that cash prizes for winners are at all bad), but many times raising *thousands of dollars* for charity in order to run the marathon. As you mentioned, Team in Training, as well as dozens of others, could not exist and support the organizations they do without the thousands of runners that need help to get to the start and finish line.

  Good job provoking a reaction, but I'm not sure I call this journalism.

  —atmnyc Read atmnyc's other letters
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