Sheila Reid hangs up her spikes

Big Sheila Fan!!!! wrote:

Sad to hear about Sheila retiring but when I hadn't heard anything about her the entire season I thought this was probably the case. If you see this Sheila best of luck in your next endeavor!

Also, I think it's sick that a bunch of morons have to come in to this thread to talk trash about a comment that they don't even understand.

We all understand it. It was just a dumb comment

Sometimes I Eat Pickles wrote:

Will go down as the chick that thought running the mile was sexist. What a wonderful legacy.

Or a multiple time NCAA champ, but whatever works for you, bud.

jgm,hv, wrote:

So many things are wrote:

Isn't just about everything in the civilized world steeped in white male nostalgia. It wasn't just the mile - pretty much all distance running until the East Africans came along.

Is it also true that the 100m is steeped in black male and black female nostalgia? I don't hear or see her remarking on that.

I worked at a charter school in a major US city for much of this past year. The school had a "Feminist Club" and the club's promotional flyers mentioned "equity" and "intersectionality." The school celebrated women's history month ("herstory") but never men's history month.

Because she didn’t run the 100m?

She didn’t say “white male” and she didn’t say the mile was “sexist”. But haters can’t stick to the truth.

Mehville wrote:

jgm,hv, wrote:

Is it also true that the 100m is steeped in black male and black female nostalgia? I don't hear or see her remarking on that.

I worked at a charter school in a major US city for much of this past year. The school had a "Feminist Club" and the club's promotional flyers mentioned "equity" and "intersectionality." The school celebrated women's history month ("herstory") but never men's history month.

Because she didn’t run the 100m?

she didn’t say the mile was “sexist”. But haters can’t stick to the truth.

But she said "it's male nostalgia." , which implied the celebration of sub-4 mile was sexist/chauvinist or whatever you call it.

George213 wrote:

Mehville wrote:

Because she didn’t run the 100m?

she didn’t say the mile was “sexist”. But haters can’t stick to the truth.

But she said "it's male nostalgia." , which implied the celebration of sub-4 mile was sexist/chauvinist or whatever you call it.

No it doesn’t imply that.

I was wondering why this thread had so many replies. And of course it was because the delicate sensibilities on the letsrun crowd about a woman expressing her opinion. Never really thought about the mile being a nostalgia fest, but it kinda is.

Also, the 1500 is superior to the mile because it starts on a straightaway rather than a curve so you don't have these nutty tapered double waterfall starts and such.

vivalarepublica wrote:

I was wondering why this thread had so many replies. And of course it was because the delicate sensibilities on the letsrun crowd about a woman expressing her opinion. Never really thought about the mile being a nostalgia fest, but it kinda is.

Also, the 1500 is superior to the mile because it starts on a straightaway rather than a curve so you don't have these nutty tapered double waterfall starts and such.

I agree the mile is a nostalgic distance, but saying it's "male nostalgia" takes it too far.

Nothing better than watching hillary lovers continue to have meltdowns!!!!!

Mehville wrote:

jgm,hv, wrote:

Is it also true that the 100m is steeped in black male and black female nostalgia? I don't hear or see her remarking on that.

I worked at a charter school in a major US city for much of this past year. The school had a "Feminist Club" and the club's promotional flyers mentioned "equity" and "intersectionality." The school celebrated women's history month ("herstory") but never men's history month.

Because she didn’t run the 100m?

She didn’t say “white male” and she didn’t say the mile was “sexist”. But haters can’t stick to the truth.

In your world, is disagreement with someone necessarily hatred of that someone? I disagree with many people while hating none of them.

Not really. It wasn't just trolls. It struck a nerve with all runners. There's a long running movement to bring back the mile. She entered the debate and got push back. It didn't help that she's from a metric country and doesn't fully understand the history.

As someone said, starting on the back of the track for the 1500 is dumb.

;kugljyf wrote:

Mehville wrote:

Because she didn’t run the 100m?

She didn’t say “white male” and she didn’t say the mile was “sexist”. But haters can’t stick to the truth.

In your world, is disagreement with someone necessarily hatred of that someone? I disagree with many people while hating none of them.

No, disagreement doesn’t equal hatred.

An important point of note is that she was not campaigning against the mile measurement or anything. She only made a comment, an accurate comment. And people like some of the goobers on this thread flipped out because they feel like any mention of "feminism," "chauvinism," or "sexism" is an attack on their sex. Well, it's not. Restaurant A in my area is overrepresented and gets to install itself in all the privileged locations around town because of a long history bias against other types of food in town. Guess what, I love Resturant A! And I want Resturant A to keep doing well. I'm only pointing out Resturant A's priveledged position because I think it would be cool for Resturants B and C to get a chance too, and I think my community would benefit from exposure to what B and C have to offer. Comments like Shelia's are not anti-male or anti-mile. She was only reminding people of the dominant male presence in our sport by pointing out that our sport's strongest nostalgia waves (the mile race) is fueled by it (the male-oriented idea of sub-4).

George213 wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

I was wondering why this thread had so many replies. And of course it was because the delicate sensibilities on the letsrun crowd about a woman expressing her opinion. Never really thought about the mile being a nostalgia fest, but it kinda is.

Also, the 1500 is superior to the mile because it starts on a straightaway rather than a curve so you don't have these nutty tapered double waterfall starts and such.

I agree the mile is a nostalgic distance, but saying it's "male nostalgia" takes it too far.

Yea, but if you are a female runner, what nostaligia do you have for the mile run? It was not run at the Olympics until 1972 and the first couple decades were dominated by doped up Soviet Bloc runners. There is no 4:00 barrier. And the African female runners probably don't a hoot about competing at the mile distance. It is probably mainly male nostalgia.

Just to make one thing clear....the "Bring Back the Mile" campaign is largely in response to the fact that in almost all American states, high schools run not the mile nor even the 1500 but do the 1600-meter run, which really does mean nothing.

white dude runner wrote:

yes wrote:

yes

She said the mile race is steeped in white male nostalgia because of the never ending glorification of Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute barrier. Personally I don't see the big deal because she's pretty much right. Nobody really cares about the mile outside the USA and maybe the UK, and really only men care about the mile because they want to break the magical glorified 4 minute barrier.

Now obviously the mile race is not some evil chauvinist conspiracy, but you might as well be honest about who the race appeals to and why.

Now back to the point of the thread. Good for Sheila Reid, she was a pretty good runner and I wish her the best in her graduate studies.

That’s a bit ironic given that she was an NCAA mile champion. Pretty sure she was nostalgic/cared about that too, like any other female NCAA miler indoors. She’s worried too much about numbers and social constructs. It’s nobody’s fault that men happen to be closer to an exact minute barrier in the mile than women at the elite level. The mile, as said before, is pretty insignicant outside of the US and the UK, and isn’t even run at any major international championships. What about breaking 4 minutes in the women’s 1500, which is a distance that actually matters on the global stage?

Unless you're thinking of rebranding "French fries" as "freedom fries" or "Frankfurters" as "hot dogs," I don't think there is much history of racial, sexual or ethnic bias against foods.

I think most restaurants that are "privileged" in your estimation got their position via superior food, price, location or service.

Hey How About wrote:

Just to make one thing clear....the "Bring Back the Mile" campaign is largely in response to the fact that in almost all American states, high schools run not the mile nor even the 1500 but do the 1600-meter run, which really does mean nothing.

+1

It was understandable for a few years why US high school T&F programs raced 1600m & 3200m. The 440 yard tracks had to be torn up or abandoned. The 400 metres tracks had to be built. For temporary continuity 1600 & 3200 made sense. Nearly 40 years later. Why? Bring Back the Mile crowd.

jgm,hv, wrote:

The school celebrated women's history month ("herstory") but never men's history month.

You dumbshit. Men's history is always celebrated.

Hey How About wrote:

Just to make one thing clear....the "Bring Back the Mile" campaign is largely in response to the fact that in almost all American states, high schools run not the mile nor even the 1500 but do the 1600-meter run, which really does mean nothing.

Yea, that's a good reason. The 1600 just doesn't have the same ring to it.