50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

At one time this thread was a refreshing bastion of sanity and good will. It's unfortunate that just one or two bad actors can spoil the value of an otherwise good and worthwhile endeavor.

Yet that bad actor continues to be protected by letsrun insiders. This is not ok.

This is such bs. Like every thread our mods review posts that are reported to us. Trust me I don’t spend any time worrying about “who should we be protecting in that thread that I don’t even read” .

Instead when looking at the posts reported to us I see mature adults taking potshots at one another . That type of posts will get removed.

This thread is for you all to discuss your training not discuss which of you don’t like one another .

Weldon, allow me to offer some background on this issue. A prolific poster on this thread admitted in a post that while driving a van filled with female athletes, he would sing “I’m not a virgin, touch me many times”. Some here have rightfully called him out for this obvious sexual harassment. If you think that equates to “taking potshots”, then I would suggest you are part of the problem. But I prefer to assume that you were unaware of the genesis of this ongoing discussion. Meanwhile these posts critical of this unwelcome behavior continue to disappear, thus the illusion of protection for this perv.

Now you know and hopefully you agree that this is not ok.

this is and has been an issue, said frequent poster has kind of taken over the narrative and has had a history of putting up some gross stuff, thinking it's funny

The context is relevant, but let me make an observation on the context. The "prolific poster" in question is over 70 years old and he lived much of his life in an era where people were far less easily offended. I am a female just slightly younger than he, and in my youth making up off-color, silly alternative lyrics to popular songs was a common thing for both males and females. Maybe I'm just dense, but I can't imagine any reasonable person of my era being offended by the song lyrics in question provided the singer's actions were never threatening. Of course we should not excuse or normalize sexual harassment, but the pendulum has swung so far the other way that many people, myself included, are so intimidated that we have to spend a long time doing self-censorship before we dare make a joke. I do not know for certain that the poster in question is not a "perv", but almost everyone I know behaved that way 30+ years ago.

I see this reasoning all the time but it’s actually not that hard to evolve a little.

I mean I live most of my life w/o a smartphone and have fully adapted to its use

Anybody with any common sense knows saying these words in a van filled with young women is not alright. I’m an old retired male coach of females and would never have thought of uttering such an offensive statement in their presence. Age is not an excuse. It is not funny, period.

I am not going to even ask for these spurious allegations to once again be removed. It is silly nonsense, and just part of an ongoing campaign of harassment. As if the serial and childish down voting of innocuous posts is not enough.

From the very onset of my coaching career as a head coach for women’s and men’s teams I endeavored to equalize funding for scholarships and travel. In 1980 I coached the NJCAA Women’s Indoor and Outdoor National Champions while at Barton County Community College, in Kansas. This was a full two years before the NCAA even hosted a women’s championship event.

Last year I was inducted for the second time into the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley Athletics Hall of Fame. This time for the four consecutive conference championships in women’s cross country. Their success in large part was equalization of scholarships and opportunity in the combined programs.

One can start this YouTube video at 35:00 to hear how fondly my former athletes talk about their coach, growth, and opportunity provided by the program. Keep in mind UTRGV has one of highest percentage Latino enrollments in the Country.

goutrgv.com

UTRGV Inducts 2022 Athletics Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor Class - UTRGV Athletics

@GoUTRGV

RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Athletics Hall of Fame class, which includes the 1987-90 women's cross country teams, former

Link:goutrgv.com/news/2022/2/19/general-utr...

My apologies to regular posters for this distraction. I will not cower to this harassment.

Igy