Yelled at by a kid's parent at a local race

dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd wrote:

When I was 14 I was placing top ten overall at most local road races - losers would always try to get me off the front and I would just laugh at them around the first 800ms as I left them in the dust.

Almost every town with a decent sized running population has a young teenager who can hang with the leaders in a local race. Most faster runners in town know who they are and encourage them to line up front. As an RD, if I know a kid is likely to place in the top ten, I invite them to line up accordingly.

You and I both know, though, that for every one of them, there are dozens of kids who don't know any better and will just get in their 100 yard sprint before becoming obstacles for the rest of the runners. When kids don't know any better, it's time for parents to educate. If the parents don't know any better (and many times they don't), it's time for the RD to educate.

the pic at the start line of the turkey trot 5K i did this year (pretty good race, lots of low and mid 15s) put up on the front of the organizers FB page a few days after the race has all the serious runners standing, hands on their watches, ready to take off...with some ~8 year old kid in a 3XL hooded sweatshirt with his hands covering his ears (to muffle the start gun noise) in front of everyone.

i saw this pic a few days after the race & then remembered seeing lots of kids at the front of a pretty small start line & thinking "someone is going to get trampled!"

so yes, i do agree that it is a problem & that kids who have no chance of winning shouldn't be up front...however their were plenty of young adults and old farts that pushed their way to front who had no chance of winning either. i guess the latter is not a safety concern, just trampled egos.

Lone Gunmen wrote:

[quote]aasd234 wrote:

This is a typical start around my area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpZeThJT-NQ

I think I saw Kip at the tail end of that race start.

It's a problem with large, local races. I was in a Turkey Trot and some dumpy guy was in front. He was overwhelmed and pushed around at the start. He was barely moving.

I don't consider myself really slow, but I'm sure I am according to letsrun standards. They were ahead of me when they fell (I ran 1820) and when I finished they were in the medical tent still causing a huge scene. Young children should not be on the front line of races that aren't kids races.

The kids/dumpy guys are often doing it to get on the local news/paper. See it all the time. Go 2nd row and just go around them. Maybe put your elbows up if they slow to a walk in the middle of the road.

This is actually the video of the race I ran in. I ended up moving beck in line because the lady was yelling at me too much.

I am the guy wearing all red

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z667cGeBzPk&feature=relmfu

Ran a small local race a while back, was chatting with a woman on the start line about what kind of times we were each looking to run. She said mid 19s or so, easily enough to place well in this race. Two guys standing beside us asked me if she had said 19 minutes. I said yes; they looked at each other and said they should be able to run 15s or 16s no problem. I try not to bust out laughing. They're wearing baggy gym shorts, high school lacrosse sweatshirts and some stylish nike tennis shoes, laces not only untied but loosened all across the tongue. They made it about 70 meters at the front. Not sure what they ran, but it sure wasn't a 15

NED FLANDERS wrote:

so the "lead guy" was drafting behind a couple of 12 yr old girls? Um........ok, ssssure he was..

I ran behind some 12 year old girl for the first half mile of a 5k once - I had run 15:26 on the track the night before and was running quicker than 5:20 pace in this race, but this girl was literally 12 years old and shot out like a jackrabbit (she ended up fading pretty bad though).

Sweet Nell Fenwick wrote:

only run races with proper corals.

Like the Great Barrier Reef Invitational.

Awesome!!!!

The ridiculous comment on the video on Youtube:

"Oh my goodness! Look at that kid in front! I bet he ran a great time! Can't wait to see him in the olympics one day!"

not his fault wrote:

The ridiculous comment on the video on Youtube:

"Oh my goodness! Look at that kid in front! I bet he ran a great time! Can't wait to see him in the olympics one day!"

+1

saw that too, I kinda wonder if that was a letsrunner troll or if they were serious. If she/he was serious then he/she would be awfully confused in some of my high school races when the guy that sprinted out got close to DFL.

some fat lady with a baby stroller started on the line right in front of me at my turkey trot. I'm not sure why she was allowed to have a stroller at all, but it was pretty annoying and i missed my pr by 3 seconds, easily her fault

not his fault wrote:

The ridiculous comment on the video on Youtube:

"Oh my goodness! Look at that kid in front! I bet he ran a great time! Can't wait to see him in the olympics one day!"

It wasn't there before I posted the link so I am guessing it's a letsrun troll. If anyone is wondering the winning time was 15:50 and that kid that ran out to the lead ran a 23:40...

Yeah, in his profile you can see he liked a Webb interview, and a Lady Gaga video as well

in love wrote:

I ran the first mile of a 5K with a 12-year-old boy a few months ago. The kid went out in 5:15 with me. He crashed and burned, but I caught up with him at the finish line. We've been in a romantic relationship ever since.

Elmo? Is that you?

aasd234 wrote:

I was finishing up strides and came to the line to get ready to start the race and noticed that the starting line had a lot of little kids and other people that had no reason to be at the front of the starting line. I basically stood directly in front of a younger kid and the parent yelled at me to stop bullying their kid. I pretty much ignored it, but told them it wasn't safe for them to be up front unless they were good enough to finish in the top of the race. This seems like something a race director should address and not put the runners in an awkward situation like this. Was I out of line here? Does anyone have a similar experience?

Yell back. "You think I'm bullying your kid now, just watch how bad I kick his @ss over the next five kilometers." And of course if this was the turkey trot, include the usual "Gobble Gobble Go f*ck yourself"

Why wouldn't you treat these kids like any other fellow competitor?

If you would shove a fellow competitor out of the way, you shove these kids out of the way. No difference.

not his fault wrote:

The ridiculous comment on the video on Youtube:

"Oh my goodness! Look at that kid in front! I bet he ran a great time! Can't wait to see him in the olympics one day!"

Here is another race that company put on.

Listen around 15 seconds in!!