Random Thoughts Thursday 77
By kilax, October 1, 2015 6:18 am
- Has anyone tried RaceDots? They’re a magnetic alternative to using safety pins to keep your race bib secured on your shirt. I saw them mentioned in the October Competitor magazine and thought they looked cool. It says to keep them away from electronic devices though, so that wouldn’t work if you carry your phone at your waist.
- Also seen in the October issue of Competitor – an interview with Steve Jones (former world marathon record holder) saying: “Mass participation has hurt the sport and racing, in my mind. I don’t believe starting and finishing a marathon makes you a marathoner,” and the running industry is huge and magazines cater to “people who are running 4 hours for a marathon or 25 minutes for a 5K. And that’s not running in my mind.” Ouch, Steve! Tell us how you really feel! I wonder how many modern day elites feel that the masses are ruining the sport, with our slow marathon finish times. We’ve all seen stats that overall marathon finish times have gotten slower, as more people do the sport. But I always say (and it seems like I am saying this a lot, lately) – isn’t it better people are moving, at all? As long as it’s safe for them? If a marathon caters to that finish time and people want to train to do it at that pace, why not let them? What does it matter to you?
- Since I am already ranting… I don’t understand why people pronounce Data’s name wrong, after they’ve heard me say it. He is named after Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is pronounced Day-tuh, not Dat-uh. I know people say it both ways, when they are talking about information, but this is a proper name! Don’t you want people to say your name right? Ha ha ha, I know, he’s a cat. I’ll stop before I get too crazy cat lady on ya.
He obviously cares, a lot.
- It’s October 1st! I have 31 days to figure out Halloween costumes! I am sure I’ll be scrambling the last week of October, per usual.
- Also, it’s October 1st and a government shutdown was averted! Hurrah! I’m still shocked I couldn’t work for 16 days in October 2013 when we had a shutdown. I really didn’t think it would happen. And that’s all I will say, here! Ha ha.
Themocracy
I use racedots – the main drawback is remembering to bring them. I do wear my phone at my waist and hadn’t heard there was any issues, nothing wrong yet! They are a little hard to get the bib positioned right since you need your hands both inside and outside your shirt to do it which gets a little frustrating but it is nice not throwing away pins or putting holes in a nice shirt!
Also, what a self centered jerk. How are we ruining it for him? Can he not run as fast? Was he denied entry to a race he wanted to run? Did someone trip him or pee in his gu?
Ahh, thanks for sharing the pros/cons! I don’t mind pins now – I have a certain way I put them in so the bib won’t be all lopsided and loose. LOL. I like the idea of something re-usable though, and that won’t potentially snag my clothes!
We are ruining it by ruining the integrity of the sport. According to him 🙂
What an idiot! It’s like saying you are not a pro footballer so don’t ever play a game of football. I’ll call anyone who has covered 26.2 (on foot :)) a marathoner especially if they pushed themselves. Besides it not always the race that makes the marathoner but the months of training. I’d say most slower folks have had a harder time earning that title than some genetically gifted athelethe who’s training is their only job.
He said in the article he can only admire the people who push hard and run fast the whole time! That is a very different mindset from what I have. I expect some pain, but I want running to be most enjoyable – but I do it for recreation, not for work!
Your comparison to football is interesting. Should people not be allowed to play sports they aren’t pro out? However… are there any other fields beyond running where the commoners are participating in the same races as the elites?
I get what you are saying about participating in the same race…but really we aren’t, once prize money is involved elites often get a separate start and we just trail behind..it’s not like they start in the middle of the pack with everyone else. Besides as a result they benefit from more frequent races, probably bigger prizes and more attention (aka more sponsorship) for the sport.
As far as pushing oneself I don’t mean that everyone should be trying for a PR, you know I’m all about running races for fun, but more to give credit to people who might walk most of the race and finish in the 6-8 hours range but might be disabled or very obese etc. Often people would look at a time like that and say the strolled through it but it was a fight for them to just finish
They totally benefit from the races being more commercial and bigger (which Bethany mentioned in her comment, too). And we rarely see them when we run races “with” them (except that guy who decided he wanted to lead the Boston marathon this year then had a horrible time finishing… lol).
Oh yeah, I know you didn’t mean that. I was just sharing more about what he said. 😉 I also think people deserve credit if they plan to do a race and take that amount of time. (the key word being “plan” – you really have to prepare to be on your feet that long!!!)
What a sweet picture of Data. (Pronounced Day-tuh). It makes me want to stay curled up in bed all day.
Thanks! Me too! We have nice cool days this week and that sounds so fab 🙂
I remember asking you a while ago how you pronounced Data! I don’t watch Star Trek so I didn’t even know how he pronounced it. 🙂
I was glad they averted a shutdown also but I hear it is even more likely that it will occur in December. Ugh.
I hope they pass something for the rest of the FY before Dec! It so infuriating that they use not passing the budget as a political point when it affects SO MANY OF US!!!
From what I’ve read and heard back in the 70s everyone who raced ran fast and competitively as is evident from the upward tick of race finishing times over the years as more people race for fun, medals, health goals etc. Mr. Jones is a product of the older era, so maybe he is nostalgic for the “good old days” when people only raced races. The one time there is a conflict between the fast and slow runners is if there is a combo race, say a 5k/10k and the 10k fast runners have to weave around the 5k slow runners near the finish. But that is more of a race organizational issue rather than it being bad for the sport. I agree with your sentiment: What difference does it make to him?
Yeah! You totally see this with people from that era. And I sort of get it. Change is hard. LOL! But like you said, there aren’t too many situations where we get in their way (and it’s totally an RD issue, as you mentioned). As a faster runner yourself, do you make sure to line up near the start at races, etc., so you don’t have to weave around people?
Lining up for a race is a trial-and-error type of thing. Usually if I’m new to a race I line up a little further back from the start line to make sure I am not in the way of the speedy youngsters right out of the gate. I also don’t want to get swept up in a too-fast pace. However, I am usually too generous and other (slower-than-me) runners too greedy – as I usually end up having to do some of weaving in the first half mile which can cost valuable seconds. If this happens the first year I run that race, I make sure that the next year I line up closer to the start line. By the way, when I was running the Chicago Half Marathon about 5 years ago some guy who had to weave at the start was yelling “Get out of my way! You guys lined up wrong!! You are not 6:45/mile pace!!” he yelled this over and over and over. I yelled a single word at him, which should not be repeated, because not only was he being a jerk, I was also lined up correctly. I was hoping that I passed him later in the race! 🙂
That’s a good method. I’ve learned at races, too. And last weekend, I did a non chip-timed race with maybe 100 people? So you know I lined up in the front, lol!!!! 🙂
Too funny about that guy. I hope you DID pass him!!!!
Ah, so Steve Jones is one of *those* runners! The curmudgeons! Oh, the curmudgeons. Bunch of old skinny white guys yelling at the rest of us to get off their lawn. I have very little use for the curmudgeons (or curmudgeons in general, running or otherwise). Like, I’m sorry that the world has changed in the past 40 years? Do teenagers and their cell phones bother you, too? Whether they like it or not, the fact that running has become so mainstream is due almost entirely to the fact that it’s become a people’s sport that welcomes everyone. There’s a reason the Chicago Marathon could barely secure enough sponsor funding to even exist in the late 70s/early 80s (they once had to make the race a half marathon because they didn’t have enough money to fund a full!) and now they have to use a lottery registration system because there’s more demand than there are available entries, and that reason certainly isn’t because so many people want to show up to drop sub-6:00 miles for 26.2 miles. Bigger events = bigger sponsorships = bigger amenities, including bigger prize purses for those in the upper echelons of the sport, and if the sport were one that only welcomed those who could perform at an elite level, it would look very, very different from how it looks right now. These people want to have their cake and eat it too: to have the sport be highly respected, but not allow the mass participation necessary to raise it from an obscure, niche hobby to a mainstream thing. Okay, old man. You go pick up your copy of Running Times and hang out with your fellow removed-from-reality fasties at LetsRun.com, while the rest of us will read Runner’s World and keep slogging through our four- or five-hour marathons (speaking of which: I would love–LOVE–to see you run for five hours. Please, feel free to hang out in the back of the pack, and tell me how you feel about exercising for five straight hours. Incidentally, the Chicago Marathon is bringing Steve Jones in to provide “inspiration” to the runners in the Balbo Hospitality Tent before the race. Hope he undergoes some PR training before then!)
Ha! That is funny they are bringing him in! In that same interview, he slams Competitor for having all the “how to” and “steps to xyz” articles, yet when I searched for his name on their website, that was what came up… an article he wrote (or advised on, whatever, that was like that). LOL. It does seem like people like him would rather have fast times and no sponsors and small races and purses that having “slow” people ruin it. It really seems like that.
LOL about Running Times! Do you not read it? I prefer it over RW, but read both. RT seems to go more in depth on topics and I learn a lot more about people in the racing scene. It’s definitely the “racer’s” magazine though, where RW seems to be the “people’s/ run for run” one. (Which is where I belong, ha ha)
Like!
Wow, but why should he care. If he’s an elite, he’ll have finished the race, peed in a cup, and left before most people cross the finish line. Jerk.
I understand the crazy cat lady thing. My grandmother always called our cat a she, and it was a he. We had HIM for 16 years and she never got it, nor his name. It was always kitty. He has a name, dammit!
Ha ha ha. Yep!
People do that to Data, too (call him she). How hard is it to remember an animal’s sex? LOL!!!
I’ve been considering trying those Race Dots for awhile – but they seem to get very mixed reviews. Some folks claim they don’t stay put and they’ve lost bibs on the course because of it. I do love the idea of not poking holes into my shirts and worrying about my bib being pinned crookedly, though. It’s always such a conundrum to get the darned thing on straight!
Ugh, I would hate to lose my bib – I was kind of wondering about that!
If you put the pin through the bib instead of through the holes (that’s what I do) it’s really easy to get it on straight. You do the top two then the bottom two 🙂
Ouch Steve Jones is right! Wow, I feel like a four hour marathon is incredible…I mean really!?! that requires steady movement a pretty quick clip, how can that water down racing. Hmmphm…
LOL, that is what I was thinking – I would be stoked if I ever ran a 4 hour marathon!
Eh the race dots sound interesting, but do they hold securely? I’d hate for them to come undone during a race. Although not having to poke holes in my shirt would be cool.
My dad was running back when Steve jones was- I’ve got a ton of news paper clippings with race write ups and results and the finish times were quick. The participation was also a lot less than now. On one hand it seemed like people really took marathons a lot more seriously back then- training hard and putting in their due diligence to finish in a fast time as opposed to now where some folks half ass their training just to “finish.” But it definitely wasn’t as inclusive as it is now and I don’t understand why people make comments like that- is it to stay relevant in an already niche area??
They claim they do! Maybe some bloggers will honestly review them for us. HA HA HA.
I think they make the comments to age themselves? Who knows. Or maybe they are mad that “slow” people are ruining the purity of their sport? I don’t get it. As crazy as it makes me when people don’t train then wonder why their race went to shit… it’s still their right to do that! (I just don’t want to hear the bitching, after, lol)
Maybe Steve Jones is just still bitter that his record got broken. LOL. You have to wonder about people who are already gifted and celebrated, yet still feel the need to shit all over others who don’t have what the have. I hear this sentiment often from the “traditionalists”, and of course it says more about them than it does about us, but it bugs me when people in leadership or high-visibility positions say things like this. Elites and former elites are the role models, leaders, and public faces of our sport, it would be nice if they could show some class and represent us well. There’s a reason you don’t hear Meb, Kara, and Shalane saying things like this (well, other than it might put them in hot water with sponsors). They have nothing to gain by bashing people who don’t have any impact whatsoever on their lives.
Anyway, people like this exist in every sport, activity, etc. Change is hard and some people cope with it better than others. It reminds me of the hipsters who get mad when something they like goes mainstream and feel the need to tell everyone they liked it “before it was cool.”
LOL! I love how this came around to the stereotypical hipster. Good point that there will always be people who want to poo poo on other people doing their hobby, and not in the way they like it. It all goes back to… why do people care so much wtf others are doing! WHO CARES!!!!
It really bugs me when people say us slower runners aren’t “real runners/marathoners.” We trained, we pushed ourselves, and we finished. Isn’t that what counts?!
I remember pronouncing Data’s name the wrong way the first time…I’m sorry! Eeek! <3
Ha! It’s okay, the first time (and if I have to remind you after that). I am thinking of people who continually say it wrong. No comprendo.
It honestly never occurred to me that it could be pronounced the other way, unless Data was a character in Downton Abbey, of course. And actually, with his debonair bow ties, he probably could be a character in Downton Abbey.
Ha!!!! LOVE!
We were watching Woman in Gold last night, which has a Downtown actor in it! That was a fun surprise 🙂
Bethany’s comment about curmudgeons is spot on. I know a guy like that and he even takes it one step further and says no one should run marathons at all.
I have a race belt that I got for my triathlons which I is an alternative to pinning the bib to your shirt. However, I hate the stupid thing because it always rides up and flaps around. I honestly don’t mind pinning stuff to my shirt. Although, I’m going to have to employ your trick of not using the holes since I can never get mind on straight!
That is why I’ve never tried one of those belts! I starting wearing my Hips-Sister pack this week… I couldn’t remember why I stopped and was putting my phone in my bra… until I wore it again! The damn thing might as well be called a Waist-Sister! Ugh! I need pins to keep it down, if I use it. Anyway! Try not using the holes! It works! 🙂