Letters to the Editor
-
Awww, c'mon
Nova last week had a program about a group of 12 people who were basically sedentary but, with training and careful assessment by exercise physiologists, ran and finished the marathon. They weren't elite runners at all but each of them had motive and support.
The marathon is like a horizon. You don't expect to make it to the horizon when you start but you start with a goal to be the best physical specimen you can be. Even if you take six hours to run it, the benefits stay with you all your life.
Karen
-
Finishing a marathon:
It's "street cred" for the rest of us!
-
Finishing a marathon:
It's "street cred" for the rest of us!
-
Finishing a marathon:
It's "street cred" for the rest of us!
-
Runner dies during marathon trials
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Distance runner Ryan Shay died on Saturday after collapsing during the U.S. Olympic marathon trials. The 28-year-old, a four-times national champion on the roads, collapsed after passing the five-mile mark of the race in New York.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071103/ts_nm/athletics_marathon_us_death_dc_3
-
You kids, offa my lawn!
Damn all of those weekend warriors and their four-hour finish times who had the temerity to ruin Edward McClelland's party! What next, handicapped people at the Olympics? Married women in Miss America? It's the decline of civilization, I tell you! Pretty soon a geeky guy from Tennessee will think he has the right to win the Nobel Peace Prize! Why can't you be happy with aerobics class at the Y like all of the other gym class failures?
{ shakes fist }
-
Yo Salon!
Lately I have been thinking that maybe you folks need some writers. If you pay me enough, I will proofread my efforts and use a spellchecker.
I bet I am cheaper than the ones you have.
I not only can write, but I can produce High Quality Fertilzer as well.
I can also give advice to those who need it. I can even raise one eyebrow while doing it.
-
Embrace Marathon mania
As our nation is increasingly obese, how can we criticize or complain about people doing any type of exercise? I am one of those people written about. I enter all level of races and plan to do my first full marathon in January. It may take me 6 or 7 hours. I have medical issues and have my own business which keeps me at work six days a week. That fact that I sign up and participate is good enough for me. I do train but my time is limited.
Oprah brought it to the masses. More power to her. It is a personal experience for anyone and no one should judge. Marathons can be very uplifting experiences. There are participates who have no limbs yet have contraptions to help them participate, blind runners who hold on to their guide with a string. To be able to do it, that is where it is. Lets embrace marathon mania as perhaps the savior of Americans in a time when we are fatter and unhealthier than ever.
-
Mr. McClelland
Seems like you're around stage two in grieving for your total loss of self-respect: anger. Anger directed at Oprah of all people, because what's an easier target than someone who dares to be publicly and unapologetically successful? Anger at the sick and elderly who deign to finish marathons in over four hours just to prove to themselves that having cancer or being over 65 doesn't mean their lives have ended or goals remain unreachable. Anger even at the hipsters in Brooklyn who've appropriated the shoes you totally liked before they were cool. (Unresolved issues much?)
So a marathon is about 26 miles, right? Is that not the definition? A marathon is a length, not a fight to the death? So dude, if you want to run it, shut the hell up, leave the rest of us out of your midlife crisis, and go run it. Writing a whiny article isn't going to help you finish before all those kids you always thought weren't as cool as you. There are tracks and roads and grass all over the place. In the meantime, if you want to participate in something that'll stay exclusive, why don't you take a flying leap off a cliff and see if you can fly farthest?
Is it the aging woman--celebrity or not--pushing herself to run/walk the first marathon of her life that is sullying the idea of athleticism in this country, or is it the man who witnesses such a feat and can't overcome his own bitterness and envy long enough to understand how much that means to her and others and to offer a simple "congratulations"?
-
The truly great know they're great; they don't need to belittle others.
Do pro football players whine about how America needs to start discouraging kids from playing touch football after school? Do chess champions get angry when old folks like to sit out in the park for a casual game? Do Nobel laureates feel like middle-school science fairs devalue their work?
Look, here's the deal. Let's tighten up the standards on Boston, let's start a few new elite marathons. And then the people who want to protect the marathon's purity can have their intense, exclusive races, and the rest of us can have a challenge that calls to any ordinary person who wants to put in two years of dedicated effort.
Alternately, I could write my own column about how road marathoners are watering down the sport, and we should have contempt for any runner who hasn't joined me on a 30-mile off-road ultra.
-
if it gets folks off there asses......
I've been running for 28 years now, and my joints are starting to tell me that another marathon may not be in the works. I still do the small community runs, and it saddens me to see that the bulk of the competitors are in the 35-55 year range. So I applaud everyone who comes out and competes, no matter what their age or capacity. As annoying as P. Diddy and Oprah are, there was nothing to ruin by their participation. I only wish we can get more younger people away from their X-boxes and cell phones.
The decline in American competitiveness in distance running is a complex issue, and has little to do with the great unwashed crowding the streets of New York and Chicago once a year. Today's loss of Shay is devastating, given that he is our best hope in decades.