The irony of this whole situation is that this anonymous board is annoyed by the fact that elites might see them as idiots meanwhile they continuosly call elites all kinds of names.
The truth is that many elites find this board humorous and void of knowledge. Brian Sell said it best years ago "If I am interested in what 18 minute 5k runners have to say, I'll ask my wife."
I don't care at all, I don't even follow US running closely anymore. Just, meh.
The only track athlete 99% of the public knows of is Usain Bolt. Maybe Marion Jones and Michael Johnson back in the day.
NO ONE CARES about their goals.
so what
Say what you want about Lets Run, but in my experience if you post a running related question here someone will reply with the correct answer.
we are the masses
we are the elite
we are the idiots
Elite runners may call it the idiot board. Who cares?
It's a fun mix of opinions and ideas. Sadly, there are haters, racists and xenophobes, (and worst of all, right wingers! Talk about idiots. Just my opinion.)
However, on the plus side, there is a lot of thoughtful discussion among folks who are passionate about the sport, as well as very knowledgeable.
Elite runners are good at running. Beyond that, they're no better or worse than any other person, so let 'em call it the idiot board.
I'll enjoy the exploits of the elites in competition, and leave it at that.
I occupy this message board for the 1% of good information it has. And the other 99 threads I have to read through to find it are sometimes amusing.
10 years ago this board had a large number of elites as the primary posters. Constant abuse by some resulted in their current assessment. Regardless, as an earlier poster said, if you have a running related question, someone here will have the answer. You might have to weed through 20 0r 30 troll/obnoxious responses to get what your looking for, but it'll be there.
assless chaps wrote:
Brian Sell said it best years ago "If I am interested in what 18 minute 5k runners have to say, I'll ask my wife."
Yeah I am sure Brian was singing a different tune when he wants to sell us something or push something by on of his sponsors.
Last time I checked there are significantly fewer intelligent elites than there are hobby joggers.
Not Elite wrote:
Say what you want about Lets Run, but in my experience if you post a running related question here someone will reply with the correct answer.
This is true, but the correct answer will be hidden amongst a flood of incorrect answer, so the person asking the question has to know enough to properly evaluate the good material from the chaff of trolls, intentionally wrong answers, stupid answers, and griefers.
It is all a function of the anonymous nature of the board. There are good things that come with this, but when people with an audience are able to be anonymous, they often revert to their inner twelve year old.
Well, no sh*t Sherlock. The amount of abuse elites take for, well, anything they do on here would probably be a turn off. Not to mention the amount of moronic bickering and polemic ( suppose this is a generous term) spewed on some threads often turns me away from even looking at the board for weeks at a time. It's not hard to believe that the objects of these posts would have some sort of problem with the boards on which they are posted.
As far as sprinting goes the few of us into it "here" could school any other board of sprint freaks. I guarantee it!
Idiots are fine its just jogging
They could have it anonymous and still let you come back and delete or edit but they don't even do that.
So they don't just want us to be jackasses and comment on Webb after 7 beers, they want to keep that comment for ever.
It probley is better
Start your own site if you know better
im not surprised, this is where the wannabe elites go to talk crap about the actual elites. we all know it. we are mostly a bunch of 14-18 min 5k guys criticizing those who became what we wish we became. ive met and know several elites, and most of them are great people, including bill rodgers, andrew wheating, russell brown, joan benoit, jenny simpson, baddeley, dick beardsley, etc. Honestly of all the "pro" runners ive ever met, the guy i liked the least was Dean Karnazes, but most would say he doesnt count as pro. he was an arrogant deebag. the rest were really humble, and really were not totally obsessed with running, and seemed to grasp that in the big picture of life is not everything about running. many of the guys i know that are 14-15 min 5k guys tend to be the most arrogant and ignorant people in the running world (i wont even get into the crossfit people though, they are arrogant on a whole new level)
I guess the "Running Elite" is more diplomatic than I thought.
The elites obviously know wejo and rojo.
We've got to them!
monkeyblossom wrote:
The elites obviously know wejo and rojo.
but don't respect.
Sure, someone may reply something insightful. There are a few posters on here that genuinely care about the running community and look forward offering useful advice. My experience has been that the thread usually devolves after about 3, maybe 5, posts and then the insults start getting tossed about.
It's the pubescent masses that hide behind clever screen names that hurl most of the insults. Maybe that's why it's the idiot board?