Elitism in Marathoning

Recently I have come across lots of conjecture about whether or not a runner is serious if their time is below a particular level. I’ve also come across debates about whether or not it is more impressive to run a fast time with a full-time job or as a professional athlete whose job is to run. Before I get into it fully, I’d like to express my disappointment in folks in and around the world of running for finding segregation in a world that in many instances is unifying and in many instances, freeing.

My opinion is simple. Outside of competition, running doesn’t need governance or a committee to determine what is right and wrong with this perfect sport. The purity Is simple, go out and run however far you want, however fast you want, and with whomever you want. As far as whether or not you are “running the right way” is left up to scientific fact and opinion has little to nothing to do with it. Unless that opinion is novel and will be proven with scientific rigor. I am on my soapbox simply to tell the others that no one asked them to be up there in the first place. When they sit, I will take my place among the masses like always.

So many runners on social media will proclaim that if a runner isn’t a certain speed, then they are not serious runners. Using that same logic, is a small business owner not really a business person if their business isn’t above a predetermined revenue marker? Is someone not a real police officer if they have less arrests than the other officers? Is the captain of a high school soccer team less serious about their sport if their team is in a less competitive division. For all runners making the choice to go outside and run while there are myriad other things to do I would rate that person as serious. 

If someone from North Dakota runs a 4:30 marathon, we all know that it gets incredibly cold there. We know that person has had to run for months in the below freezing conditions in order to cross that finish line. Are they just doing it on a whim? The opposite of serious is playful. It doesn’t appear as though runners training in Miami, Florida in July and Grand Forks, North Dakota in February are being very playful. The runners that run in the early mornings, after work, or with strollers appear to be dedicated people. If there is a person who doesn’t run all year except for their towns’ local 5k then perhaps that person is not a serious runner. Even if that person went out and placed in their age group I would qualify that person as gifted perhaps but not serious. 

Who can run a marathon without training for it? One of the reasons that I enjoy the marathon distance is because it is a virtual impossibility to not train for it, wake up marathon morning, and cross the finish line a few hours later. One has to be “serious” in order to cross the finish line. It is a perquisite.

The biggest issue is that as a society we find ways to separate ourselves in the most negative ways. In a room full of widget makers, there will undoubtedly be a person who will say, “… my widgets play a larger role in the machine”. In a room full of marathon finishers, why must someone diminish the accomplishments of others by tarnishing their hard-earned medal by saying, “… it isn’t serious unless you break four hours” Marathon champions like Paul Tergat, after his 2005 New York City Marathon win said publicly, “I run for two hours, but these people are running for four or five hours. They are the real heroes. The mental strength and determination it takes to keep going for that long—I have so much respect for them.” What is the point in staying out there for four hours or more if you aren’t a serious person? Or at the very least, serious about running.

Then there are the people on the opposite end, flooding our collective feeds with this notion that runners who are paid to run do not have to work the same way as “regular” people. For the overwhelming majority of us, when we run, there is little pressure. If we have a bad day at a race it is sort of a shoulder shrug and then we go back to work. Of course, I am downplaying how we feel when we miss a goal but we go back to our lives nonetheless. Once professional runner have made the decision to only run, this is their livelihood. How many “bad days” can happen before the companies supporting you will pull their funding. Self-preservation is shown every day when our behavior, in general, will not go over any line that will cause us to lose our jobs, our livelihood. One could argue that it may be harder to run when it is all you do.  

We don’t need to belittle others to feel good about yourself. If you go out there and crush your marathon and run a 2:40, it is very likely that the person cheering you on the most and most in awe of your accomplishment is the person who finishes two hours after you. The understand how impressive that is because they are out there working, seriously, when you are out there working, seriously. Just faster.