Forums >General Running>Article on Running Plays into Culture Wars
This thread has been had a thousand times, and really I'm less interested in the generational comparison and more in the crappy logic of the article -- that was my point. Crappy logic does not invalidate a claim -- his claim may be true. It's just that his argument is really unsound and sloppy.
There was a point in my life when I ran. Now, I just run.
We are always running for the thrill of it
Always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it
Why is it sideways?
Are you saying that a Youtube video making fun of hipsters doesn't validate his claims that our generation is non-competitive?
Yes. That and equating the elimination of timing chips with communism might have also gotten my dander up.
Let's look at these two things:
Running with a timing chip:
Defying communism:
So, you're the radical thinker, eh? Questioning the dominant paradigm. Subverting the blinding ideology. Thinking outside the box. That's how your mind works, huh. And the rest of us? How do our minds work? We fall in line. We roll with the herd. We do not question. We just pound the pavement with the masses, while your mind does its radical questioning thing. You wanna question basic assumptions, then. Fine. What drives the innocent curiosity behind your questions? What special pleasures do you get out of taking the critical view? Nothing more than the pleasure of knowledge? Nothing more than the thought that you, somehow, have noticed the absurdity of the runner's task to find meaning in footsteps? To run without destination? To pour effort and struggle into the childish endeavor of moving your body over terrain? You think that we haven't noticed the absurdity? You think we haven't turned these questions over in our minds as we run on endlessly down the road? We have. I can't speak for anyone else, but at a certain point the experience of running surpassed in value, and by a pretty wide margin, my desire to make sense out of it. I don't know why I run. I don't know why I race. I don't know why I pursue PR's. I don't know why I compete. I don't need to know. Because running means more to me than curiosity. It goes deeper than knowledge. I run. I compete. I move on down the line. I'm a runner. This is why I say that for those of us who have reached this sort of place, your questions are moot. Not because they may not be interesting, or important, from a certain point of view, but because we've left the question of the meaning of running behind. We've made a decision. After all the questions have been asked, and all the answers given, in spite of the disagreement on essences, physiology, rationales, training strategies, trail running, road racing, i-pod wearing, mid-foot striking, turnover cadences, arm carriages, Jack Daniels, Arthur Lydiard, 20 miles a week or 100, 5k or the marathon, whether it's really the miles of trials or the trials of miles, after all the words have been spoken and keyboards have been pounded and ideologies subverted... After all this, we bend down and tighten the laces, open the door, brace for the cold and are renewed: another godawful, glorious, and meaningless 8 miler. Runners run.
Runners run
Bruno
Awesome post mikeymike!
He's quoting Jeff.
The author's logic is flawed to me as well. One thing people don't consider is just how many races ("events" if you'd rather) there are these days. On any given weekend a person can compete or participate in a 5K,10K, half-marathon, trail race, you name it. The serious running athletes are where they always were -- in the high school and college track and cross country teams. The post collegiate serious runners probably don't waste time competing in "Color" or Neon themed runs. Instead they seek races with strong competition (or prize money). What a person sees in race results is skewed by who is competing. I find that semi-serious runners tend to pick certain types of races. Older runners will probably see the same age-group rivals toeing the line in the certified, less-frills races each year time and time again. Exceptions to this rule are the big marathons, where you get literally everyone and anyone. The fact that there are more participants in general doesn't mean that there are less fast and serious runners out there today than there were in the past.
"Shut up Legs!" Jens Voigt
Options,Account, Forums
... Exceptions to this rule are the big marathons, where you get literally everyone and anyone. ...
Fitting your statement above, several of the very serious athletes were at a HUGE half marathon in northeastern England last week.
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
Mikey wrote the last sentence. The rest is details.
Latent Runner
And the rest of us were at the Reach The Beach NH Relay.
Fat old man PRs:
Interval Junkie --Nobby
The odd thing about the communism argument is this: if you know _anything_ about talent-selection (sports, chess, academics, etc) in communism[1], it's pretty damn cut-throat and no one is coddled. You are told in first grade what you are good at and what you are not. Then you're heavily tracked.
My wife was told she was bad at hiking. Hiking?! How can you be bad at hiking?!
[1] communism as implemented historically, not communism in theory blah blah blah.
2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do
I guess I'm not sure why anybody is supposed to care that there are a bunch of people who run but don't care to run fast. I think I might be in the minority around here in feeling that there's nothing wrong with just running and not racing. I think I enjoyed my running the most when I was just bopping around town for 30-35 miles a week with no real training or races in sight. That said, I dropped out of running after doing that a while, so maybe I needed more focus and motivation.
Far be it for me to judge, I've been running off and on for over 40 years, and yet I just ran my fourth 5K of my life. Go figure.
Is that a good race? Does it have bands? Some of that fun color stuff being thrown at you?
Zombies?
Is that a good race? Does it have bands? Some of that fun color stuff being thrown at you? Zombies?
A good race? Well, I suppose it depends on what you call a good race. If you think splitting 36 relay legs of a 205 mile course (running from Cannon Mountain to Hampton Beach) between 6 or 12 runners (I was on a 6 person team) is a good race, then yes, it's a good race. That said, if you think live music, paint, mud, walls, barbed wire, and such make for a good "race", then nope, you'd hate it.
oh ffs. What a lazy hack piece of writing. Communism? The hipster olympics? America's decline? Citing some random blog as proof of anything? Why do people get paid to write crap like this?
From WSJ. Author takes quotes from blogs out of context, pretends that the resurgence in U.S. elite running hasn't happened, and cites Youtube videos in his attempt to play up generational conflict.
From WSJ.
Author takes quotes from blogs out of context, pretends that the resurgence in U.S. elite running hasn't happened, and cites Youtube videos in his attempt to play up generational conflict.