That is the moot point my friend.
For me running is not a lifestyle choice. I run because I love the feeling of being able to move over the ground under my own power. I'm not elitist as you may all think!
I have run for over 20 years and have seen what was once a sport be eroded into a lifestyle choice. Running in my mind is and always will be a sport. Long may that contiue!

Ditto



I think i'll leave this thread...

Messrs Coe, Ovett and Cram perhaps?
British middle-distance running was on top of the world.
Athletics had the media coverage to go with that.
Now everything plays second-fiddle to inescapable, overexposed, 24 hours-a-day-7-days-a-week.... football!

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My dad has some really 80's looking running kit, that he threw out not so long ago.

Running is a personal thing, so you shouldn't really watch what other people are doing too much.

If your not at top level, then no one really cares too much about your running.
People at work will never understand what you PB means to you.
They might say well done, but they don't really care unless they are a fellow sports person.

I see this happening in track meets in Lisbon.
Juniors and Seniors racing together just to try to get all 8 lanes filled in an 800m race.
I have ran a Steeplechase ALONE!
I have never ran a steeplechase race with more than 5 people in it!

But then you watch the Veterans' 800m and you have 20 or 30 men running as hard as they can.

As for racing/running...
I think everyone can take something good out of running.
Halie Gebreselassie was happy when he ran 2h04'26'' for the Marathon, I was very happy with my 2h54'45''. And I was so happy when I finished my first one in 3h36'33'' that in the end I crossed the line and cried like a baby for 2 or 3 minutes.

Of course Haile would look at me like he would at a slug.
But still, it was MY achievement.

That's why I admire every runner who goes out to give his best.
Even if his best means that I will be having my lunch when he is just approaching the finish line.
After all, there are many Gebreselassies who are heading home when I am still covering the last miles.

And I still respect those who, like my mother, go on a fun run (someone had the brilliant idea of calling them mini-marathons over here hehe) and walk half the way but then 9 months later start thinking - "what if I trained a bit and managed to run the whole way?"

See you in the Lisbon Half Marathon in March mum!

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“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

In recent races up here around Tyneside, I've noticed that well over half of the finishers are over 40 years of age. There are a few youngsters (under 20's/early 20's); but it is difficult to see where the future of running is coming from.

Even in the 80's (I was in my 20's) when I did most of my racing in Lancashire, I was amongst the youngest at most of the races. And now, when I occasionally go back and do the same races, I'm still one of the youngest, and I'm running against the same people that were turning out 20-odd years ago... only now they're in their 50's and 60's. It's like the "next generation" who should have been following on from me have all but gone missing.

Yes Fulmar, steeplechasers are something of a rarity these days; although when I was racing over the barriers, there didn't seem to be a particular shortage. In fact there were quite a few sub 9-30 runners... even a couple of sub 9 min. lads. (I didn't belong to either of those categories!).

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It does sound like track is losing popularity and more people are just running. Whether that's bad or not, I don't know. I think we'll be alright for international-quality long-distance runners, though, simply because so many people are getting into the sport, and some of them will turn out to be good at it. Every marathon I go to I hear that it has masses more people than last year, thousands and thousands of Brits. It's true that many of them are middle-aged fun runners, unlikely to reach olympic standard, and maybe the Kenyans are so good because they all start much younger, but with the massive support that running has at the moment, and how easy it is to join a club, get expert advice etc I'm pretty certain that we'll get a good crop of top-level runners soon enough

Anyway, Fulmar, you shaved 1/5th off your marathon time & are still improving; I think the Geb would have a hearty respect for that!

I don't regard myself as being more sensible... I simply can't run like I did 20 years ago.

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Up here in the North-East, almost all races recently have been over subscribed. In some cases entries have had to be closed well before the official closing date. One race even ran out of numbers about 45 minutes before the start!

I believe that we are in the midst of another boom at the moment. But I think that these days, newcomers to the sport have access to too much information and advice. There are far too many people running "by the book" or running to instructions handed out by running magazines, and (dare I say it) by forums such as this one. Looking around, I just get the impression that people are almost afraid to do anything before first getting some "advice" first.

Running is about the most pure and unsophisticated of sporting activities we can involve ourselves in. Nowadays, it's far too often over-complicated and intellectualized.
Just go out and run. Prepare to make some mistakes, and then learn from them. Don't be worried about how everyone else is doing it.

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If only "they" would listen to you...

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“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

Public exposure of running in this country is more or less dominated by the televised pantomimes (sorry, "races") otherwise known as the London Marathon and the Great North Run. What are we shown of these races? We see the "sharp end" where the World's elite, largely dominated by the Africans, are battling it out for large sums of money... And we see people in fancy dress. What comes in between? At the finish, we're lucky if we're shown the first ten past the post. Then we're whisked back down the field to interview Bob the builder(!)
This is how running is perceived. There are the untouchable elite; and there are "fun-runners." The thousands of "ordinary" runners go unseen, and therefore do not exist in the public eye. I believe that a greater exposure of the "unseen" athletes would serve as a more realistic example for potential runners to follow... Something more ambitious than just being able to get round; but at the same time, something that is not too far out of reach for those willing to put in a reasonable amount of dedication, sacrifice and effort.

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My reason for starting running in the eighties was "babies".

I had to stop smoking when I knew that a new baby was coming into the home and I thought that running might be a good substitute for the nicotine.

It worked for me anyway. The endorphines were much better quality drugs than nicotine.

I worked in industry and the other thing that I found when I took up runing was freedom!

I ran for the joy of running. I ran 10 miles up the canal towpath from milnsbridge to marsden, through slaithwaite every night after work. On a weekend I would run across the moors and do about 20 miles.

I dont do that kind of mileage now every night and I cycle for part of my training to give the joints a break. I can reccommend that to anyone who is suffering with the joints. It put me to rights even cycling to the extreme.

True, but showing endless people running past the finishing line wouldn't really achieve anything; running's not much of a spectator sport for people who don't do it, and the media will fill their slot with the most interesting bits. Same as how 3rd division football's not on the TV much, & people struggle to watch all 17 frames of a snooker tournament, the less glamorous bits of a crowd of people running for ages won't get any coverage. Fun runners get, if anything, more coverage than pub football teams or most gymnastic events, and it all helps the sport to get more popular. Anyway, if we turn all the decent races into super-televised pantomime events, where will the rest of us run?

Yes Katten, I get where you're coming from ; but I was merely asking for a bit more balance in the coverage. We are shown the best in the world: maybe it would be good to see some of the best runners that this country has to offer?
I wasn't suggesting that the cameras should stay fixed on the finishing straight indefinitely.

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I coach triathletes up to Ironman level as well as runners, and can say that standards are slipping in most tri distances too (I agree wholeheartedly with steepler, btw). There is no one single cause for this, nor is there a single reason why marathon runners are getting slower. One of the main factors, however, is a widespread culture of participation for the reason of ticking something off a list. I've done an Ironman, now let's look at the other 49 things I have to do before I die, hmm next one is 'see the northern lights' etc etc. Another reason is that more people are getting involved, and if you factor in the fact that GB is getting obeser by the second, then more overweight/unfit people are getting involved, and so mean times will have to come down.

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