Letters to the Editor
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whaaaaaat?!?
"I just didn't get it. After my knee injury, I'd returned to the 5K. I pushed myself into the pain zone, puked after races, and fought my way back down to 20 minutes -- a far more satisfying feat than a four-hour marathon. I was doing all I could do, with what I still had. Yet here was a man whose legs would carry him 26 miles, and he was content to stop for walking breaks."
Are you serious? O yeah, I am sure you are. Well goody goody for you. First let me say how wonderful and superior you must think you are. Secondly, let me say, how stupid you are to the rest of us.
Leave the rest of us alone who don't want to limp or need help to the john from the stiffness and injuries. I've injured both my feet, groin muscle and hamstrings through over-training (you know, doing all I could and then some yada yada BS BS). It ain't worth it. I like walking on my own too much.
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In what sense is the pack dragging the best runners back?
[Y]ou'd think America would be turning out faster and faster marathoners. Instead, the opposite is happening. The more we run marathons, the slower we get....
It makes me ask: Has this country's marathoning spirit been trampled by hordes of joggers whose only goal is to stagger across the finish line?
Why does it make you wonder that? Are you trying to reduce your undergraduate logic professor to tears? There have to be better goals for your life.
It's unclear to me why the author suggests slow winning times are due to an increased popularity of the sport, or even the mindset that finishing the marathon itself is a landmark achievement everyone wants in their lives. I get that he's angry that people without his excuse not to run a marathon at all -- and the average runner now beat him when he did run one -- aren't killing themselves trying to minimize their time, but I don't see the connection to the fastest runners.
I don't know why the-ryan-that-lived is running a slower time than other people. It's a suspect statistic, but I'm not researching it. I would suggest that there are a lot of non-Americans in the world, and running has a low barrier to entry. This might have something to do with why we don't always win international competitions.
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How about a little credit?
Ed, the Chicago Marathon was officially called at 3 hours 25 minutes into the run, which would have impacted YOUR projected goal, not only those of 5 or 6 hour finishers. I know because I was there. I had run my 22 miler two weeks out at a 8:50/mi pace and was tracking to finish in 4:15. Living and training in Seattle, I could prepare for the distance, the pace, the flat course, but I couldn't train for 88 degrees and humidity. No-one wanted to be on that course for 5 or 6 hours, but that's what happens if you listen to your body and your spirit both. You miss goals and hopefully you finish with a smile instead of berating yourself for not qualifying for Boston.
Also, what's with the Meb-bashing? Obviously you read the Runner's World story on his life as you took the detail of his not seeing a car until he was 10 years old from there. I read it, too and I'm sure your childhood was nothing like his.
For those readers who want to know more, Meb came to the US as a 12 year old with his parents who were escaping death by either murder or starvation, and started to build his successes here in the states. He wasn't handpicked by some rich prep school to come run for them; he studied hard and trained to achieve things he thought were impossible, and in my mind deserves to be recognized as a great American runner and a great American citizen; not as an import. His contributions to the sport shouldn't count less than Frank Shorter's, Bill Rodgers or Ryan Hall's.
Ed, Meb achieved more than you did and you should be a good sportsman and recognize that. Everyone who finished the Chicago marathon this year, or even had the nerve to start it given the raceday conditions deserves recognition, too.
If you only want to applaud the accomplishments of caucasian males who are born on US soil as 'marathoners,' then there would be no recognition for the Terry Foxes of the world, no recognition for the people who run to raise money for leukemia, breast cancer, etc., and who push themselves for a cause that's greater than personal glory.
Good luck on your self-serving mission to break 3:30. May your cotton shirt make your nipples bleed.
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neilpaul, about your music example...
I play the piano. When I tell people that I play the piano, the reaction is "Oh, I can play too! Here, let me show you how I do "Chopsticks"!" Mind you, I perform in festivals and give concerts and sell recordings - I'm far beyond the "Chopsticks" level. But for most people, "playing the piano" means plinking out "Chopsticks" or the like.
Do I care? Not particularly. The difference between me and the person who plays "Chopsticks" comes out when I sit down to play. So what if I can't claim the "cool" factor? I don't care about the "cool" factor - I care about making music.
If you like running, run. If you like running fast, run fast. And if you're not doing the marathon for the joy of running, for the pleasure of moving fast, for the pleasure of muscular exertion, for the "runner's high", then you're doing it for the wrong reasons and should leave it to those to whom running really is a joy.
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Geez...
Lighten up Ed...
If ever there were a trend that DOESN'T deserve this kind of bemoaning and badmouthing, it's the increased popularity of marathon running. I personally coudn't complete a marathon in 5 days, much less 5 hours...but I am deeply admiring of those who run and finish, even in non-competitive time frames. To say nothing of the handicapped folks who "run" in walkers and weelchairs. Or have they ruined the sport for you too?
And, while we're at it, until you've risen above humble beginnings as a black female, earned a couple of billion dollars, and run a marathon for good measure, shut the $%&* up about Oprah too.