Marathons (and half marathons) seem to be in vogue these days. Friends, friends of friends and parents of friends have all been preparing for and running in these events with increasing frequency, and automobiles festooned with “26.2” and “13.1” stickers are becoming a reliable sight on the roadways. This is a slippery slope: At what point is a race short enough that it does not warrant a sticker on a car window? Right now, I can’t explain this explosive popularity in what has always been (to me) the least exciting and most time-consuming form of exercise.
However, it appears that I am not alone in noticing this runners’ Renaissance: On Nov. 12, Chad Stafko of The Wall Street Journal penned an op-ed criticizing the self-absorption of runners that I cannot help but find myself in agreement with. Mr. Stafko’s piece quickly rose to the top of the “most read” list on the front page and was met with much derision and small-minded criticism in both the comments section (predictably) and elsewhere online. This criticism ranged from zeroing in on Mr. Stafko’s perceived jealousy and bitterness toward those who exercise to a concise “You should go kill yourself.”
As someone who exercises (according to the Center for Disease Control) several times a week, I find myself in agreement with the column. Not usually one to trumpet how many times I work out, I am forced to in order to shield myself from the same kind of criticism that has plagued Mr. Stafko. The question remains: Why is running seen as a more noble pursuit than any other form of exercise?
Take weight lifting as an example, a popular activity at this school judging by the crowded Rec weight room, at which you can witness no less than six different types of bicep curl being performed at a given moment. If one were to adorn the back window of one’s car with stickers depicting Olympic bars and protein power, this person would risk being branded a “meathead” by other motorists. Yes, weight lifting is commonly associated with excessive vanity and the pursuit of “getting yolked,” but who is to say that runners do not run for the sake of staying lean and looking fit? The motivation behind many forms of exercise can be found in the desire to become svelte and healthy-looking. Why do we excuse runners for broadcasting their accomplishments and interest in achieving flat stomachs and toned calves?
Yoga participants and yogis engage in the same kinds of PDA for their form of exercise, but I am inclined to excuse them for this based on yoga’s spiritual and religious component. The same goes for hikers: They are often united and driven by a love for nature and furthering natural conservation, a noble goal in and of itself.
But in terms of exercise for exercise’s sake, no other form of physical activity matches the hubris of runners. They put on public demonstrations in the form of marathons and running groups, crowding up and closing down roadways, inconveniencing commuters and forcing pedestrians and motorists to bear witness to their strained faces and quivering thighs. At least those of us who lift weights, play team sports or do yoga/Zumba/Pilates/Jazzercise have the courtesy to do it privately, with a roof over our heads or in a designated space or venue.
We remain with the question: Why is running the exception? Why do stickers, T-shirts, publications and community events abound for this specific (and rather boring) way of keeping in shape? And why does no one make fun of runners for their conceit? Why are they not called “fitness freaks” or “Speedy Gonzalez”? Runners need to work on diminishing their air of exceptionalism, and Americans at large need to allow fans of other kinds of working out to express themselves in the same way without ridicule — hopefully before I begin to see “6.55” stickers on the back windows of cars on my way to work.
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9 comments:
you me posted at 2:36 pm on Wed, Dec 4, 2013.
Wow this is about the dumbest thing I've ever read, but about three steps behind Stafko's ignorant rant. Seriously you think team sports and exercise are more "private"? what are you on about? Football and basketball games eat up an entire week/ weekend/months of television and clog roadways in the areas they are held far more often than running, when is running even on TV but once every FOUR years for the olympics. On top of that every player is worshipped in high school halls and Pro players posterized on young childrens and grown adults walls. How is that less hubristic - oh yeah i went there, than the humble running squad who keeps to themselves along the outside of the track or the lone distance runner who will travel to areas you didn't know existed in the community? Of course high school runners would love to get into the weightroom, but the football team eats up all the prime time after school with first dibs - they are the priority. Are the track kids strength workouts less important or is someone just worried more about their pecks? or better yet, is the football team more "important" to the school? You are so far off base it's somewhat funny.
Those who are "participating" at these events, millions of fans every weekend are doing absolutely NOTHING with their entire weekend just sitting in a bleacher somewhere or maybe staring at a box, drinking beer and eating wings for 4-5 hours. How is that a worthy investment and more noble than going out to a race in the community which are usually for good causes? Then again you are clearly more enlightened on the subject of exercise as it should be implemented in public areas.
Weight lifters don't have stickers on their cars because they themselves are walking stickers, biceps and giant necks hanging out of their clearly undersized shirts. Come on man you aren't even trying! You complain about stickers? what about College and Pro Team logos? what are you talking about, I've seen entire houses decked out in "insert team name here's" junk from top to bottom and you are complaining about stickers on a car? Really....no Really?
If you want to live in a bubble where everyone thinks like you but gets nowhere, join congress - you would fit in there like a glove. Otherwise you are going to have to learn that there are other people in the world, who do DIFFERENT things than you! I know, hold yourself back, it's a scary world out there.
Seriously grow up and actually try to understand something you obviously know absolutely nothing about before you go referencing a pretty lame "trendy" article for views, it just makes you look even worse than the original ignorant person who created it.
Collin Anderson posted at 3:34 am on Wed, Dec 4, 2013.
"No other form of physical activity matches the hubris of runners". Hubris is a physical activity now? I would suggest learning to write before putting your articles online; right now you're just making your school look bad for admitting you.
Bob Corker posted at 10:40 pm on Tue, Dec 3, 2013.
In stark contrast with my fellow comments, I agree with the sentiment of your article. I understand your goal isn't to say "running is stupid. argh. Everyone quit!" but rather that there needs to be some reciprocity between running and other activities, whereby it is not held to a higher standard due to a fad or some other reason.
I think that running is the "in" sport, if you will, but for good reason. Unlike many other activities, it doesn't require any equipment or classes, which I feel rules out every other exercise regimen. I don't think this is any sort of excuse and at the very least there needs to be some kind of mitigation of the unnecessary and oftentimes obnoxious "pride" some runners have, or at least a societal push against it.
Andrew Huston posted at 10:34 pm on Tue, Dec 3, 2013.
Mr. Rouillard,
Are you aware that the closest event to "6.55" is the 10k, which is 6.2 miles? Quarter marathons don't really exist in the racing world, save a few random ones.
Thought you Vanderbilt kids were supposed to smart.
Virginia Runner posted at 2:52 pm on Tue, Dec 3, 2013.
This article is freaking ridiculous, in a time when the average American's health is in such a poor state, we should be doing anything we can to get people exercising. Running competitions causes minor disruption to people who don't plan ahead on the few weekends a week that there are big event which shut down some streets. First off running competitions take place on the track, trails, and xc courses as well as the road. But the author didn't notice this; he assumes what he doesn't see doesn't happen, despite the fact that NCAA competition in running causes exactly 0 disruption to his day. If marathons and races on the road are truly such a problem the logical response would be to suggest that they be moved to the track or xc courses. However, they aren't a problem despite the fact that they can clog up a city for 8 hours. They bring money to cities that host them, especially big events like marathons. For example, Nashville has the country music marathon which they allow the Competitor Group to hold, because it is an ECONOMIC BOON to the city. The tens of thousands of people who come in for this event spend money to stay in hotels, they buy food, they visit local restaurants, and they purchase souvenirs from local merchants. Most smaller events like Jimbo Bob's 5k for Pinky Cancer are designed in a way to minimize their disruptiveness (being held in parks, on bike paths, etc.). However even those provide more economic benefit to the city than the minimal disruption in traffic causes. But the big events like Country Music Marathon will never go away; local merchants and governments have run the numbers and weighed disruptions to commerce caused by these events vs the amount of money they bring in and found having them to be economically lucrative. As for the rest, this seems like a silly time to criticize physical activities, whether running or anything else when our nation is dealing with an obesity crisis. I welcome athletes and exercisers of all sorts, whether they put bumper stickers on their car and brag about how hard they trained to run some distance irl and on social media, or not because for every person who treats their body well, I will have to pay less in healthcare costs whether that is through health insurance, taxes, or anything else. I hope Mr. Rouillard doesn't represent the best of what Vanderbilt is teaching in terms of English or logic.
Thomas Moritz posted at 1:52 pm on Tue, Dec 3, 2013.
Hey Rouillard, you fancy yourself as a writer do you? Do you like irony? How about the irony of you using your little platform to criticize a group of people who have no effect on you, trying to whip up resentment towards them for, in your eyes, bragging about their unimpressive accomplishments, when you are turning around and doing the exact same thing? Writing an article for all to read is a way of saying "look at me! Look at what I've done!" You are clearly a bad writer, and yet there you sit, putting your product out there for all to see (much more conspicuously than a mere bumper sticker, it might be noted). Just like runners could keep their accomplishments to themselves, you could keep your badly-expressed opinions to yourself....BUT YOU DON"T!!
Seriously, some of your sentences are downright painful to read - "but in terms of exercise for exercise’s sake, no other form of physical activity matches the hubris of runners"? Are you joking? For starters, the "hubris of runners" is not a form of physical activity, so of course, NO form of physical activity matches the hubris of runners. The rest of your article, as a literary critic might say it, also sucks. It is boring, very poorly written, and completely unoriginal (you say exactly the same thing as that Stafko guy you refer to).
Please give up on "journalism".
Thank you.
LM Morgan posted at 11:05 am on Tue, Dec 3, 2013.
I'll be honest, I don't generally agree with you in this article, and you misrepresent alot of things:
1) Running is definitely not the most time consuming for of exercise. The elite marathon guys, who run more mileage than anyone else, might run 2 hours a day. Compare that to cyclists or swimmers who routinely train for 4,5,6+ hours a day...largely because the lessened physical trauma allows them to.
2) You excuse hikers and yogis from their PDA of exercise because yoga has a spiritual component, and hiking because of an involved "noble" love of nature.
I really hope you understand that is exclusively your opinion. I personally think training your butt off to test your own limits and see just how fast you can be just as "noble" as anything else. If you're considering that less noble...it's entirely your own personal feelings.
3) The hubris of runners - Why would you choose to complain about a race? That is the standard for of competition. Are runners expected to train hard to run fast and then not race? That rather takes away the point of training. More importantly, how else exactly are you supposed to stage a race but on roads?
You could do trails, and many smaller races do, but trails generally don't accommodate larger races as it's just too many people in too small a place. Which leaves...the roads. I submit to you, where else exactly are races supposed to be held? Fact is, for big city marathons there are upwards of 50,000 people that want to compete, it's just supply and demand there.
If you are implying there shouldn't be races...then I don't really know what to say. Running is a sport. This would be like asking basketball players or football players to please quit playing their games, but they can keep practicing if they want. If their aren't games though...why bother unless you really love the practice too.
4) Why does way more stuff abound for running - Probably because far more people run than any other form of exercise. It's pretty logical that there will subsequently be more advertising.
I won't argue about the whole stickers/T-shirts/etc. thing. It gets a little over the top, but blaming runners as a whole for a few flamboyant attentionwhore runners is silly. You see it for any other activity too, whether its cycling, lifting etc. It's just most common to see it from runners because the number of runners so outnumbers the people whos primarily exercise is running, cycling, lifting, etc.
I also won't argue that people should allow fans of other kinds of working out to express themselves freely, but again, that is not an issue with runners specifically.
5) Why don't runners get made fun of - They do? People give runners endless teasing of looking like a weakling, skinny fat, emaciated, unhealthy, etc. This one clearly stems from you not being a runner and having a clue. Runners are just as "picked on" as anyone else.
Bottom line is I disagree with 95% of what you wrote, and feel it primarily stems from your lack of knowledge about running. You're looking at it from one perspective, without taking the time to understand the entire situation from multiple viewpoints.
One point I will concede is that runners, worse than any other form of training by far, will not shut up about their running. It's marathon this, and marathon that, and 20M here, and 8x800M intervals there. I haven't really run into yoga people that tell me all about the new pose they just learned, or had to listen for an hour as some olympic lifter explained his training regimen to me.
Henry Michaels posted at 5:39 pm on Sun, Dec 1, 2013.
I made this account just to tell you how stupid this article is.
If you actually knew anything about running (or the running community), aside from the fact that you (obviously) run, you wouldn't have posted this. Running is one of the most popular sports in America, yet is publicized the least amount. When was the last time you saw a very high-stakes track meet or marathon (finish - I understand not many would watch an entire race) covered on ESPN or any other sports network, aside from the Boston Marathon bombing or the Olympics. Do you realize that the marathon world record was set at the end of September? The runner ran a 2:03:23, which is 4:42 min/mile for 26.2 miles. I doubt you heard about it, though. If you don't understand the magnitude of that accomplishment, I suggest you go out to the track and try to complete just two laps in 2:21 minutes, and then imagine doing it 52.5 more times.
Also, you're actually just wrong about running being the most time consuming sport, assuming you're talking about sports being purely for exercise and not for pleasure (otherwise, if it's time consuming, that just means the participant really enjoys it). According to http://www.nutristrategy.com/caloriesburned.htm , very few sports, specifically weight-lifting (as you mentioned), get anywhere close to the calories burned while running, which means that running is actually one of the least time consuming sports.
Lastly, for many, running is very spiritual and is also driven by love for nature. It's mentioned in the Bible several times (Isaiah 40:31, Hebrew 12:1-2). It's so simple; runners must become very in tune with themselves and how far they are willing to push their limits. I frequently go run just to relieve stress and enjoy nature. You think I'm just running in the woods on a trail for an hour or two and don't even consider nature?
This sounds very much like you're jealous and just complaining. I don't know how you're Editor-in-chief considering you're so ignorant.
vandy69 posted at 4:05 pm on Sun, Dec 1, 2013.
I think you're an idiot.