This is an excerpt from RunningisFunny.com :
"....the Huffington Post decided to get in on the action with “Are New York Marathoners Athletes?”
It’s a competitive world on the Internet, and I don’t begrudge Dave Hollander’s desire for more traffic. Sure, it’s transparent, but I’m happy to oblige. Hollander published his e-mail exchange with his friend, writer C.J. Sullivan, in which they answer the headline question in the negative. Some excerpts:
Sullivan: “Out of the 37,000 duffers that will pollute the streets of our fair city this Sunday – November 7th – maybe 500 are athletes. The elite runners are something to watch. They are so lean they look almost alien. Them I admire. They are in an actual race. It is the 36,500 other fools that annoy me every year. “Running is a great way to stay in shape. And running 26 miles is some kind of torturous accomplishment – but they are not athletes. They endure and then squawk about it endlessly as some kind of heroic feat. It smacks of narcissism not sport. Marathons are the last refuge for those that couldn’t cut it in other sports. Any knucklehead in decent shape can train and then run 26 miles in under 4 or 5 hours. It means you are in shape. It does not make you an athlete.”
Hollander: “Beneath the narcissism I detect deep-seated masochism. Kenyans run marathons because they have to. Back home there were no cars, no roads and the nearest school bus or fresh water source was 40 miles away. Their ‘training’ is borne from the necessity to survive. That 36,500 you mentioned, they run to kill personal demons. They beat their bodies swollen and sore to fill an emptiness or quiet a cry. “Sport, no. Self-flagellation, penitence, lunacy — yes.....”
"....the Huffington Post decided to get in on the action with “Are New York Marathoners Athletes?”
It’s a competitive world on the Internet, and I don’t begrudge Dave Hollander’s desire for more traffic. Sure, it’s transparent, but I’m happy to oblige. Hollander published his e-mail exchange with his friend, writer C.J. Sullivan, in which they answer the headline question in the negative. Some excerpts:
Sullivan: “Out of the 37,000 duffers that will pollute the streets of our fair city this Sunday – November 7th – maybe 500 are athletes. The elite runners are something to watch. They are so lean they look almost alien. Them I admire. They are in an actual race. It is the 36,500 other fools that annoy me every year. “Running is a great way to stay in shape. And running 26 miles is some kind of torturous accomplishment – but they are not athletes. They endure and then squawk about it endlessly as some kind of heroic feat. It smacks of narcissism not sport. Marathons are the last refuge for those that couldn’t cut it in other sports. Any knucklehead in decent shape can train and then run 26 miles in under 4 or 5 hours. It means you are in shape. It does not make you an athlete.”
Hollander: “Beneath the narcissism I detect deep-seated masochism. Kenyans run marathons because they have to. Back home there were no cars, no roads and the nearest school bus or fresh water source was 40 miles away. Their ‘training’ is borne from the necessity to survive. That 36,500 you mentioned, they run to kill personal demons. They beat their bodies swollen and sore to fill an emptiness or quiet a cry. “Sport, no. Self-flagellation, penitence, lunacy — yes.....”
Sadly, the truth hurts. Sports, for me is about play, and having fun. Many serious hardcore runners are overly-obsessive addicted egomaniacs. They overtrain and never get enough to feed their egos. I am an athlete who plays multiple sports including running (just the last 18 months) and I tend to agree with these two writers from Huffington Post. I don't have any desire to train or enter into a Marathon just to prove that I can do it. I know that I can run 26.2 miles in about 4 hours. I just do not want to. But when and if I decide to do that, I'd seriously question my sanity. "Self-flagellation, penitence, lunacy-" Exactly!
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