I came out to watch a friend run in Chicago this year. At the two mile mark hundreds of folks were walking. That is not racing and it was hard, almost embarrassing to keep cheering as they walked past me. A marathon is a race.

I also marathon, but on inline skates, a wonderful sport which is losing popularity in the US as it gains in the rest of the world. Those races all have minimum finishing times. If you are too slow you get swept up. Mind you, this time is still quite generous, but races run on volunteers and if you aren't willing to work, why should someone come out and volunteer for you?

I compete most years in the Athens to Atlanta Road Skate, an 87 mile event in GA. As I age I know in my head that my P.B. is most likely behind me, but in my heart I still hope for that one great tail wind to carry me home to another record finish. THAT is what walkers are missing, the thrill of competing. The thrill of the crowd to cheer them on as they sprint for the finish.

The Chicago Marathon wasn't shut down because people hadn't trained for the heat. It was shut down because the course ran out of water.

I was there, watching a friend of mine run, and seeing all the spectators cheering for people they didn't even know was one of the most powerful experiences of my life.

I'm a novelist and so I have had far more than my share of encounters with people whose attitude toward the vocation I've devoted my adult life to is "I can do that too!" So while I sympathize with McClelland, I wonder whether it's Oprah and the rest of the five-hour runners who are ruining things or if it's the fault of a sport not organized enough or quick enough on its feet (so to speak) to adapt itself to accommodate this boom in popularity. The novelist-wannabes have creative writing workshops, and tiny little magazines in whose pages they can flatter themselves that they're being published, and, of course, the internet (sorry, bloggers!), and so the real writers can go about their business undisturbed. Why not a similar division for "serious" runners?

But, gee, I also have to say, McClelland's description of pushing himself past pain and into the puke zone, no doubt doing further damage to his already ground-down joints, sounds precisely like the sort of pathological behavior that passes for being "game" (sorry, jocks!). In light of McClelland's implicit desire for a distance-runner's paradise populated by masochists collapsing, vomiting, and going into convulsions, I think the Oprahs are kind of, well, healthier.

I am equally disturbed by all this feel good stuff. It seems that these days how an individual feels about him/herself is the only thing that matters. I have actually heard managers tell their employees that the most important thing is that they have fun - not a word about competence or quality of performance. You see it everywhere in pop culture today. On American Idol, it does not matter that the wanna-bees can't sing or dance, what matters is that THEY ENJOYED THEIR OWN PERFORMANCE no matter how painful it was for the rest of us. While it is true that not everyone can win, and most of us are left to judge our performance based on personal best achievements, achieving personal bests still requires intense dedication, training, and a high level of competiteness - something which is at odds with the "feel good" and "if it was fun for me, then I was successful" mentality. I think this explains a lot of the problems we have here in America. Mediocrity is not only acceptable, is it the expected outcome. That we seem to be increasingly okay with that as a culture is disturbing.

Every newspaper sees the Saturday editions as needing more readers. In this day and age, that means page hits.

Oh c'mon! Oprah has made American Marathoners slower?!? Just because the author doesn't share the disdain of the Penguin for "nylon shorts" guys, doesn't mean he should disdain himself for not being competitive in the marathon. Like a lot of guys, I no longer feel the pleasure of running through the pain in my knees, but surely it is not a bad thing that thousands of overweight smokers have been inspired to get off the couch and TRY to push themselves. We have too much of the "feel-good" syndrome in this country, awarding accolades for little or no achievement. But as one who knows he can't finish a marathon, I have nothing but respect for ANYONE who tries, and finishes. That actually IS an accomplishment, having nothing whatsoever to do with those who run for the sake of winning the race. Slower runners do nothing to dimish the success of the competitive runners and as for checking things off the to-do list--how about checking off the last bit of self-loathing? That would truly be an accomplishment!

McClelland's never finished a marathon due to injuries. I wonder how he intends to come back and go the distance, as he puts it. Is he proposing that his brink-of-unconsciousness approach to training will undo the laws of physics, repair that torn ACL? And since it WON'T, how does his proposal to run a marathon place him somewhere other than back in the pack with the duffers he disdains?

I gave up smoking and started running at age 49. I was never athletic and knew I wasn't going to win any races, ever! Still I loved it. In two years I ran my first marathon and finished in 4:30. It was among the proudest moments of my life. I have since run four more, three of them after the age of 60.

What I can't stand are snooty shits who think winning is the only thing. Believe me 45,000 people cannot finish first, but all are winners.

Dipsey Dumpster

You know what this sounds like? All the lame hipsters who start complaining loudly about how bands are sellouts when more than 15 people start listening to them. "Man, the [insert band name here] used to be cool, but now all the trendies listen to them."

Get over it, man. If anything we should be celebrating the fact that people are getting off their fat asses and running. A week from today I'm running my first 5K, and I've set a goal for myself to try to finish in 32 minutes or less. A lame goal? Perhaps; after all, THAT won't ever get me into the Olympics. But it's a challenge for ME. When I accomplish this goal, I'll set the bar higher.

America's competitive spirit wah wah wah. I'm competing with no one but myself, and shouldn't we be applauding people who try to accomplish something for which they might think themselves incapable. This is the most douche-baggy article I've ever read on Salon.