Running Mania

Love running, never had much use for runners, especially the elite ones I have had the misfortune of dealing with. So I had bid this site a fond farewell but something happened today that deserves an addendum.

I took some time off work and I went for a ride to Bragg Creek. I am trying to be somewhat conservative in my pace as this will be the longest ride of the season for me, 75 K. There is one nasty hill about 18.5 K into the ride and the legs are feeling good so push to the crest very hard. I have a nice long downhill and I am hammering the pedals until there is a short little uphill. At this point, ten riders pass me. One guy stays back and asks if I would like to tag along. I fall a little off the back but he stays with me and we chat. As it turns out, I am now following the members of the Canadian Speed Skating team including Denny Morrison. I am killing myself, gripping my handles so hard I cannot feel my hands but I am keeping up. Turns out they are stopping at the same coffee shop as me in Bragg Creek and I am given kudos for being able to keep up. One of the younger guys tells me that no offense, but he hopes to be as active as me when he gets to be my age.

I cannot imagine a single scenario where Olympic athletes on a run would invite someone they passed to tag along with them. Or to say how impressed they were by how you attacked the hill on your own. I am not sure there is another sport where someone going out for an afternoon activity could mingle with Olympic athletes for around 19 K. I contrast to how friendly these guys were as for 19 K, we were just cyclists and I impressed the hell out of them that an old guy could keep up for as long as I could to one of my first encounters with a very good local runner in over hearing a conversation between myself and another weekend warrior who suggested one day we might be able to break the 90 minute barrier in a half marathon, looked at us with contempt and disdain to suggest we were too old and too fat to ever do that and so better to put such a thought out of our minds. Very impressed with the speed skaters in making an old man feel good compared where with a few better runners, I felt like breaking them in two like the little twigs that they were but why bother as they likely could not do anything else so let them live with the empty smug satisfaction. Thus with even greater confidence I can proudly announce that cycling rules and running drools.

And as an aside, they told me that as Speed Skaters, running is not bad but way to hard and punishing on the body and so they bike instead - road, mountain and on rollers in the winter. Too many injuries from running to justify that as cross training.

Ok. Running bad, other stuff good. Runners bad. Thing is had you framed your thoughts differently, you would have found this group far more supportive.

Enjoy the free time you will have as a result of not writing 2 or 3 essays every day.

Hotel California.....

Gotta bookmark this one for the RM Hall of Fame... shortest time between definitive storming out forever and coming back for another rant. Less than 24 hours. There have been some contenders over the years, but this laps the field.

Using extreme bragging in an anecdote to denounce others for their lack of humility (I guess, is that the issue?) is a nice touch as well. This was a fun one.

I guess you never met Jessica Zelinka. Or Damian Warner.

Oh well. Your loss.

I only poked in here because I saw dgrant commented....

Were there any UFO sightings during this ride?

Cycling rocks because cycling rocks, not because running doesn't. Takes a pretty small person to leave, then come back to take just one more dig at runners.

I think we'll all be just fine without any further "addendums".

jono

you guys crack me up.

Seriously though, runners do suck.

A number of years ago, when I was super broke and my dog had an unexpected vet bill, a bunch of RM people surprised me by covering the bill, overnight, before I even had to pay it.

Then there was the time we had events across the country to help with Mouse's cancer treatments.

Or you know, all the other times when people have opened their homes or their wallets or their hearts to help out other members here, or other runners not connected here at all, just in your communities.

But yeah, we all suck. I definitely feel that every time I put on my RM shirt to go for a run.

We have some really sucky elite runners in Vancouver too. Dylan Wykes, Rob Watson, Ellie Greeenwood- how dare they involve themselves in the local running community with coaching and support.

Don't forget Gary Robbins! He personally hugs every runner who comes across the finish line of his races. Pretty lame thing for an elite.


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ultraslacker wrote:Don't forget Gary Robbins! He personally hugs every runner who comes across the finish line of his races. Pretty lame thing for an elite.

Oh right- how could I forget!

Do you remember our erinmcd took a Kenyan home with him?

One time I went to Calgary. I met several maniacs. The ONLY one who didn't join the group was the one who started this thread.

Spirit Unleashed wrote:Do you remember our erinmcd took a Kenyan home with him?

I don't remember this story!


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Incredible, I think I missed that the first time.


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I was staying on the sidelines and watching this thing run its course. It has been a while coming. I was initially laughing at some of the stuff that was spewing out. Then I started to feel sad that someone could twist their mind to such a degree and think that they were being so factual, so logical and so right. Whereas, they were really being narcissistic, self righteous and full of BS. Unfortunate but we move on.

I do find it a little sad that a user who criticised the elite ruling class of runningmania (not actual elite runners) and cliques that make some users feel excluded is immediately ridiculed and belittled by the clique.

I rarely make it past the first paragraph of his posts, I don't have the patience to read that much. But it seems there's the community is showing very little compassion.

I've been away for a long time, so perhaps my perspective has changed, or i don't remember our missed some of the history that might justify the tone of this thread.

Either way. Could we perhaps just let sleeping dogs lie?

Ironboy wrote:I've been away for a long time, so perhaps my perspective has changed, or i don't remember our missed some of the history that might justify the tone of this thread.

Yes, you've missed a lot.

ultraslacker wrote:Incredible, I think I missed that the first time.

I actually did, too, so thanks to Spirit for the reminder!

deerdree wrote:

ultraslacker wrote:Incredible, I think I missed that the first time.

I actually did, too, so thanks to Spirit for the reminder!

Great read even 2nd time around.

deerdree wrote:

ultraslacker wrote:Incredible, I think I missed that the first time.

I actually did, too, so thanks to Spirit for the reminder!

Same! What a cool story!!

Ironboy wrote:I do find it a little sad that a user who criticised the elite ruling class of runningmania (not actual elite runners) and cliques that make some users feel excluded is immediately ridiculed and belittled by the clique.

I rarely make it past the first paragraph of his posts, I don't have the patience to read that much. But it seems there's the community is showing very little compassion.

Is there an elite ruling class of runningmania? Seems like, for the better part of a decade, the closest thing to a clique has been the ten or twelve people who talk amongst themselves in the NET thread... but even they are known as friendly posters who welcome others. Apart from them, I don't think there's any sort of core group of users.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the forum sort of showed a lot of compassion for dstew. He clearly has a conflicted personal relationship with running. It happens. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of 500 word posts with the theme of "running sucks and is worse than other things / runners suck" on a running website... kind of a sad fixation. After years of it going unchecked, maybe people were relieved that it might stop.

Excellent points old friend.

Like i said, i don't really read his posts and I've been absent for more than a couple of years, so I'm really in no position to judge.

It just seemed harsh to me.

Thanks for sharing your perspective.

Ironboy wrote:Excellent points old friend.

Like i said, i don't really read his posts and I've been absent for more than a couple of years, so I'm really in no position to judge.

It just seemed harsh to me.

Thanks for sharing your perspective.

Out of context, I can see why it seems harsh, but it's in response to something that has been gradually simmering over time and suddenly boiling over in the past several weeks.... capped off with a good old fashioned "I'm leaving!" storming out post (gotta love those).


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