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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I was shocked when I read your article "How Oprah Ruined the Marathon."
Every single thing we read today about exercise refers to two key issues: 1) the overwhelming lethargy of most Americans; and 2) the overwhelming benefits of regular exercise at very modest levels.
How dare you criticize a woman for running 26.2 miles in ONLY 4 hours and 29 minutes! Oh, and I really loved your reference to "THIS...MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN HAULING HER FLAB AROUND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA." I feel sorry for your wife, your mom, your daughter and any other woman who has to come into contact with you--although I realize you are not just picking on women, but men who don't live up to your running standards.
Hey, I'm gonna be nasty back to you....do us all a favor and go run as fast as you can...right off a cliff.
From a novice runner who gets great benefits from 3-4 days a week at a lousy 5 miles/hour.
I hope Mr. McClelland was writing tongue-in-cheek. I guess I don't really see a problem with having a variety of participants with differing levels of ability and motivations for marathoning. Participants are divided out by pace anyway with slow joggers and walkers to the back at the start. The "pros" should be able to set their own pace and compete among themselves. I don't see how having amateurs chugging along behind should affect them.
You know, when I see the numbers of not just overweight Americans, but huge, I mean huge Americans in public I am happy to see folks getting off their couches for any reason. If it takes an event like running a marathon, half-marathon,5k, 10 k to get them motivated, heh, lets all applaud that.
I recently walked the half marathon in Des Moines. It was my 60th birthday thing! I was so happy to be surrounded by people who looked fit if not Olympic material. And the overweight folks there were at least trying to do something good for themselves. Kudos to them as well as to the Kenyans turning in qualifying times!
Constructively I think organizers are going to have to consider limiting participants in the big marathons like Chicago as they are becoming nearly unmanageable.
That's my two cents worth!
Sugarman likes to brag that he's been banned from Glenn Greenwald's blog. However, that has not stopped him from posting there... (since it's not a Salon-wide ban, he can only be deleted after the fact). He continues to trash the place, which has resulted in open comment threads being closed pre-emptively, leaving only one or two of them open, and that never used to happen.
Tonight, though, we have a first. The most recent comment thread, after having some more of sugarman's comments deleted, has also been closed, leaving GG's readers with no where to gather at all.
Just a suggestion: you might all do well not to engage sugarman here, or elsewhere, since it's all part of a pattern with him. The occasional reasonable-sounding post, then an increasing frequency as he tries to take over the thread, and eventually some kind of meltdown, complete with scatalogical language.
Oprah Winfrey grew up in an era when sports were not especially encouraged for girls. Oprah's devotees are mostly middle-aged, middle-class American women. Many of them find it hard to overcome the sedentary lifestyle because to attempt athleticism for the first time at 50 is extraordinarily difficult.
The new wave of non-competitive racers may be changing the sport for people like Edward McClelland. But these open races are changing the lives of many women. There are few other amateur sports accessible to everyday adults. Would Mr. McClelland prefer that they lower their cholesterol by restricting themselves to the elliptical trainer?
after i noticed Glenn must have returned (all my posts were
deleted), i wrote one last comment, which oddly enough, Glenn
left.
i see GG's back and makes me God - often referred to but
never seen.
-- david sugarman
Like it? I thought it funny - and true. I talk to people and they
talk to me.
You complain of trolls, and that's the beginning and the end of
your political philosophy.
I suppose Salon can only delete an individual account and has no way to block an individual IP, and even that can be easily worked around. It looks like we will be stuck with David for awhile. It's a shame, really. We have had Bush apologists at Glenn's blog before, but compared to Sugarman, who is really nothing more than a troll, they are preferable and even provide some comedic relief. David, you need to work your neuroses out in a proper clinical setting, not here on the pages of Salon's threads. You are really just making a spectacle of yourself. It's very sad for you and annoying for the rest of the readers.
You can't have a simple run or race anymore. Everything's got to be the Race for the Cure or the Run for the something or other. Usually it's breast cancer, because lord knows no one knows about that one. Then there's Austism, everyone's favorite new discovery. You can't sign up without getting hit in the head with a ribbon magnet.
Anyway Raleigh held their first Marathon in about 7 years. 3800 runners, I guess. Winning time was 2:35. I think 300-400 DNF. But because it's Raleigh, every street in the downtown capital area was shut down for most of the whole damn day. Luckily though the few resturants that normally bother to stay open at all on the weekend closed in 'celebration' so there was no reason to sit in traffic and go there anyway. Hosannah's for the Raleigh PD though which managed to screw up traffic and a be a bunch of brainless threatening morons even more than usual.
Karen M (Anonymous) and L.W.M. just swooped in to continue their global war on david sugarman onto another venue. maybe it's a mistake, but i bite back. as you see from this thread, most stuff is crap - but there are some gems. that how you read a thread. YOU ignore, you don't tell OTHERS to ignore. i've been here a long time and i've noticed, Joan, that since mandatory registration the quality of discussion declined quite a lot. for instance, we'd have really interesting no-holds-barred back and forths with Golden Boy and Le Castor, but no more. perhaps it was a coincidence - they just moved on. but i think it encouraged loud mouthed ill-witted officious cowards like Karen M and L.W.M (no, Karen that's not "scatalogical" - that's ad hominem, like you did to me). there's another point that i'd like to address. i post a LOT. this is true. you can't have a *dialog* if you send an opinion down like a prophesy, you need to TALK. but perhaps they don't like conversation - simply aren't used to it. i think if i stop posting you can just get back to stating opinion. it's not as good as a dialog, but it's a lot better than this.
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