Run-Down Forums

[Angelo Z]

We're in denial, we have nothing on us, we're just skin and bones. This is an odd topic but hey! It matters...I personally love distance running but most girls would say that they look nasty. I once said, "We have muscles on our legs!" And the girls said, "Psssh, leg muscles aren't what we look at hun." Girls running long distance is obviously absolutely attractive but the guys lack that masculinity of a football player. I've even heard the wrestlers and football players say that we're only good at running away. I mean, seriously? Why does running have to be so unpopular, especially among teenagers? Chances are that the top teenage runners from now will end up running marathons and various road races in the future, while the people that were football players and wrestlers in high school for whom the girls were throwing themselves at their feet will most likely run to lose weight .

Steve...you're in high school! I am sure that you've heard something similar right? For once in a while, let's also look at the social life of a distance runner .

Let's also look at the running itself. I was running with a couple of my friends and as we passed through this middle school, we were getting laughed at and pointed at because of our short shorts and skinny "frail" bodies. However, if they saw a football team of muscle heads running through, there would be no comment. Why does running call for such ignorant behaviour from other people?
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My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥

[ssteve235]

Lol well looks like it took you a little while to figure all of this out. Ive gotten my fair share of comments about the gayness of running. Lol i get more comments questioning my sanity then i do about how running is a "fag" sport if its a sport at all. Most kids just make fun of running while im around mainly to annoy and the majority of my time its my friends so it doesnt bother me at all. But everyone once in a while there will some kid who just goes off on a tangent about how gay running is and i always respond with, "at least im good at my sport" (my schools football team hasnt had a winning season since 2002 and hasnt won a sectional game in god knows how long." Besides most of distance runners are just too obsessed to really give a crap what other kids think of running.

Hey man not every distance runner gets overlooked by girls, my teams top 5, 3/5 have girlfriends.

Lol my favorite response to kids who yell stuff while im running is the finger and a few choice curses. Read the chapter Night Run in Once A Runner, I would totally love to do that to the next kid(s) who yells something to me while im running. Lol running does mess with your social life a bit, going out for runs when you want to be hanging out or staying home nights instead of partying cause you have an early meet the next day. But its all worth it in the end.

[Angelo Z]

I mean, I already figured that out a long time ago but it just wasn't until now that I actually spat it out . It's also not always about that I run, but people in general make racial remarks about running (If you know what I mean). We can also look at football as a "gay" sport where a bunch of overgrown men roll around in mud on top of each other, but I don't think that's the case. I think that it's because of the popularity and the sport itself. Everyone played sports when they were little and they were running without realizing it. There is this fixed mentality about running. Since it's one of the simplest/most normal things to do, it just seems ridiculous as to why anyone would want to become better at that. It's like being a writer but you never think about focusing on writing speed itself. What I really hate is how people look at pro runners as those who lived in 3rd world countries and had to run from tribe to tribe because they had no telephones. I've also had some friends ask me, "Are you like one of those old people that run on the sidewalk on mornings?"

Let's forget that for a while. Take a look at the sprinters now. They're still runners and they're respected. It makes no sense, people need to run more before they make a decision. They say that running is boring, well it's boring because they haven't ran enough. You don't get the runner's high from running for 5 minutes. This is a scientific thing, if they ran for 30 minutes, then they're brain would be loaded with endorphins making them feel high which will ensure that they will continue to run again. People are generally built the same, we're supposed to be flooded with endorphins after exercise and feel great.
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My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥

[ssteve235]

I just want to mention something about how disrespected running is in my school. Next week is spirit week, which is the week before our homecoming game and dance. Every day after school different sports teams are competing against each in different events. Like football is playing soccer in volleyballand tennis is playing volleyball in Wii games. Guess what the cross country team is doing? Nothing. We got completly disrespected by our entire school. Were not even part of spirit week. But yet outside of soccer, were the only team with any shot of winning sections and doing well at states. XC is the only sport in our schools history with a state championship. It just pisses me off beyond disbelief that nobody thinks were a sport yet we are the only sport thats winning and doing good...

[Angelo Z]

What if you tell tell this to the secretary or whoever is in charge of spirit week? Or maybe the people at your school can come up with something else to involve the XC team more (not necessarily Spirit Week). Sometimes it only really does take 1 person to open his/her mouth to cause some change. You can even tell this to the rest of your XC team and then you can have some back-up too. You should tell those administrators that the school only has one dang banner hanging because of a state championship won by XC.

I hate to sound ignorant but there really are sports out there that aren't even close to the level of stress that running offers. Football players brag about breaking bones, well so what. An XC runner can easily trip over a pebble and break a leg too. I'm referring to the actual meaning of the sport itself. Running is mostly an internal struggle, not a strategy that soccer and football and lacrosse and most of the other sports offer. There's a line from the movie, Marathon which goes like this "The feeling is worse than dying, if you saw a truck driving by, you feel like you just want to jump right in front of it."

Anyways, have you asked out any sweethearts to homecoming ? Meh, running doesn't really impact me socially as it does to you because I never go to parties or anything. My life is just about going to school, running after school, doing homework, and then going to bed. So I mean I don't know...I'm just not that crazy about parties/girls and such just because they don't excite me. The only reason I mentioned girls in this thread was just about looking attractive. I guess you're more like Prefontaine was during his youth (socializing, etc.).
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My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥

[ssteve235]

Lol my entire team has noticed we werent involved in anything and we all had a good long bitch session about it during our cooldown after our race on friday. Im not sure who made up the spirit week games but i dont think it was the administration. A little late now to do anything about it but i dont really care its just mad annoying.

[Angelo Z]

Ahahaha . I think that the XC team should play basketball, now that would be hilarious! I saw the XC team last year play basketball in PE and they all looked like a bunch of scrawny runners with white jumps. Actually, you know what's weird? There aren't that many black kids running XC in general but yet everyone says that black people dominate distance running. Is it the same for you where most of the XC team is made up of rich white kids?
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My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥

[Dan]

[Angelo Z]

Lol so that's why most of them are sprinters. I did see, however, that there were East African runners on my college friend's XC team. They run about...32 minute 10Ks?
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My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥

[Dan]

That's pretty solid. Not spectacular, but good for most levels.

Dan
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