I was born in the wrong era. Actually not.
These days of Warrior Dashes, Mud Runs, Obstacle Challenges, and any other mass participation event that promises to make you a super hero or super human, I just don’t get it. Can you walk 100 miles? That will get you elevated to the highest podiums of accolade. Can you simply finish a multi-sport event? God like status bestowed.
Now you too can be the Supreme Athlete by joining 20,000 other Titans of Accomplishment at next month’s Hard Charge Televised Obstacle Mission in Greenwood.
My admitted modest running personal bests of 16:19/33:55/2:46:56 wouldn’t even get me to the first level of esteem these days. I suppose most “athletes” these days are scratching their heads at what those numbers even mean . Excepting of course the educated readers of this column. What is the point of getting out and training 80+ miles a week, giving everything inside you, simply to RACE? Have you felt a complete and utter failure for not finishing first? Have you bled and sweated and cried for your sport? Do you even remember the Men’s and Women’s Olympic Marathon team from 2012 London?
Running has been over socialized. It began with every charity under the sun using our sport as fundraisers while giving exactly nothing back, especially to the front of the pack. To that .05% that are most deserving of your respect.
Much better now to show up with 30 days of rhetoric and walk out with your horned helmet and artificially inflated ego. I feel like a dinosaur sometimes. Praise be to Buddha that there are still a few of us left.
The 16th annual Kool-Aid Days 5K will be this Saturday in Hastings. Yes, Kool-Aid is still cool.
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