Forums >General Running>Racing over the years (research for a presentation)
RA's cranky old teenager
Hey guys, it's been a while since I've posted in here, but I realize that I could use the breadth of knowledge and experience that is the RA forums.
I'm giving a presentation in one of my college classes about the impact that the increasing amount "noncompetitive" runners are having on the sport. I just wanted to know if some of you old(er)-timers notice (especially with marathons) more cancellations/postponements due to weather (heat) to cater to the less-experienced or have noticed that more people are actually dying from marathoning due to getting themselves in deeper than they thought. Basically, how are noncompetitive runners hurting the sport and hurting themselves and how has this manifested itself as the sport has exploded over the years?
Thanks in advance!
That's probably maybe mostly true.
You'll ruin your knees!
I started running later in life and I haven't died yet. Stepping over the bodies of non-competitive runners has not really been a problem for me thus far.
""...the truth that someday, you will go for your last run. But not today—today you got to run." - Matt Crownover (after Western States)
Define "non-competitive runner".
Hey guys, it's been a while since I've posted in here, but I realize that I could use the breadth of knowledge and experience that is the RA forums. I'm giving a presentation in one of my college classes about the impact that the increasing amount "noncompetitive" runners are having on the sport. I just wanted to know if some of you old(er)-timers notice (especially with marathons) more cancellations/postponements due to weather (heat) to cater to the less-experienced or have noticed that more people are actually dying from marathoning due to getting themselves in deeper than they thought. Basically, how are noncompetitive runners hurting the sport and hurting themselves and how has this manifested itself as the sport has exploded over the years? Thanks in advance!
If you're doing research, you shouldn't be so obviously attacking and looking for such a negative result. From your research question you're looking for reasons to blame rec runners for problems and tell them to not run because you were running "before it was cool" or because you consider yourself an elite. This is rather than actually trying to understand their impact on the sport which is much less than you probably think it is, at least as far as it impacts "competitive" runners.
Know thyself.
You are starting your argument from a false premise. Non-competitive runners are not hurting the sport any more than pickup basketball leagues hurt the NBA. They help the sport. Because the sport is more popular, large races can offer bigger purses to professional runners. Inexperienced and aging runners may be more prone to injuries, but they also gain the health benefits of running like less obesity, diabetes, lower blood pressure, etc. Then again, experienced runners also get injuries as do non-runners.
To answer the question I have not noticed an increase in cancellations or postponements due to weather (or for any other reason.) I actually can't recall a single race that I've registered for or was planning to run ever being cancelled. So the rate of cancellations/postponements in my experience has held steady at zero over decades I've been running road races.
I also don't have any data on people dying in races. I've heard of a few deaths in races that I ran--one in a half marathon and two in marathons--but the numbers seem so tiny in comparison to the total number of people who actually ran all of those races as to be statistically insignificant. It seems the odds of dying in a road race--now or 15 years ago--are no greater than while walking to the refrigerator.
Runners run
Last year the entire BU Valentine Invite was cancelled because of snow, and they don't let you on the track unless you can run <8:40 for 3k, or <15:30 for 5k, so maybe it's the competitive runners that are soft.
The only weather related race cancellation I can remember was this past February "Half Marathon at Hampton Beach'. They cancelled because of some stupid blizzard, two+ feet of snow and all of New England was on travel restrictions as a result of the storm...... All the emergency management offices were open and monitoring all activity -- BASTARDS, wouldn't let us race that day..
On that same course in October the year before, for a different Half Marathon, there was a hurricane just off the NH coast and we still ran.....I was totally drenched before the race even started and so was everyone else and for a part of the race we were running directly into 30/40+ MPH winds.......
I don't think many races get cancelled for weather related purposes...
Champions are made when no one is watching
#artbydmcbride
This past summer, the Summer Solstice Watermelon 5 mile race was canceled due to the race director forgetting to get a permit in time. I am still dealing with PTSD symptoms months later from the trauma.
Labrat
I have had one race cancelled.
Of course the active super cell thunderstorms making it very dangerous to be outside may have had something to do with that. Tornado watch (and briefly warning) were in effect.
After postponement for a while, it was outright cancelled due to part of the course being washed out.
5K 20:23 (Vdot 48.7) 9/9/17
10K 44:06 (Vdot 46.3) 3/11/17
HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17
FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18
Running a marathon, on average there are 1 in 50000 fatal heart attacks over a runners entire career (so each individual marathon is less).
Mostly those are actually due to some previously undiagnosed defect, so for someone healthy its significantly less.
Using the micromort concept (something that increases my risk of death by one in a million)
Drive to work (roughly 250 miles per week) 1 micromort
Ride my bike (30-50 miles per week) 3-5 micromorts
Drink a couple of glases of wine per week 1 micromort
Thankfully I don;'t live in New York or Boston - where at 1979 pollution living there for 2 days gave 1 micromort of risk.
Yet another way of looking at it, by the time I'm 50, I have a greater chance of dropping dead from a heart attack in a year, than in any marathons I may run that year.
I'd trade the risk of running (even if I don't do marathons then), for a much reduced chance of dropping dead in my day to day life.
If you are serious about looking at the risks of marathoning, you should look up the ideas of the micro (or milli) mort and look at some of the risks that are much more severe, that people do every day.
I have never had a race cancelled because of weather or concerns over heat.
I sometimes work the Red Cross tent for large events (races). We always get some sort of chest pain complaint. Some of these turn out bad (needing CPR/defibrillation). Some of them are benign. In my unscientific opinion, there haven't been any huge increases in these. As an anecdote, the last 2 cases gone "bad" I know about were young "healthy" people rather than unfit, untrained people. You might be able to get good data about this if you did some digging, although I am not sure race directors would release those statistics to just anyone.
Your informal survey will not really answer what you want to know because you are relying on other runners' perceptions of things rather than actual data. But perhaps this is what you are really interested in anyway...
"Shut up Legs!" Jens Voigt
I know of several recent races cancelled due to government shut downs. This must be related to increase in runners.
Half Fanatic 12680
+1 If you are looking for opinions to support your own, posting on a forum might be the way to go, but you probably won't get much support for your opinions here.
If you are looking for actual data, then you will need to do some work to obtain actual numbers in a systematic way, you know, like a doing real research.