No shaming or mocking. It's all about having the perseverance to finish the race.
Posted on 05/08/2019 8:45:24 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
By the “Politically Correct” standards of 2019, YEP I’m a “meanie” for sure, as I believe that “the official standards” are called that for an excellent reason.
Yours, TMN78247
It was tongue in cheek
I don’t like participation trophies either
Fwiw, one of our female staff-members (a RN) was threatened with “getting beat up” 4 years ago because she wouldn’t sign a statement saying that the man should be given a certificate of completion, because he claimed that he had had a stomachache that day.
(Believe it or not a GROWN man used a “stomachache” as an excuse to get a piece of paper & threatened violence against a 28YO nurse when she wouldn’t LIE for him to receive it.)
Yours, TMN78247
I laughed. They are not using pace and time correct, the pace they are mentioning is time to finish (7 hours and 30 minutes) and not pace (7 minutes 30 seconds per mile).
7 hours and 30 minutes to finish is greater than 17 minutes per mile, or walking speed.
The thing is they were explicitly told they could take seven and a half hours to finish.
Elizabeth Ayres mentioned in the article was one of the three official 7 hour 30 minute pacers for the run.
Whatever the correct terminology (and I am not a marathon runner - I have completed a half marathon once) somebody does seem to have messed up here. People were told they had seven and a half hours - they should have had a clear run for that period.
Ooops. Thanks for the clarification. I could not imagine that they started picking up the course after 3 1/2 hours.
7 1/2 hours is a big difference. Maybe I’ll try next year.
Nah, I’m a swimmer. Maybe the English Channel.
I can still hear “Go You Chicken Fats Go” blaring through the speakers of the 78 RPM record player in PE when I was in Elementary.
I thought it was funny. Little did I know it was supposed to trigger me. Live and learn I guess.
I first thought it meant 7:30/km, which would be about 5 hours 15 fifteen minutes to the finish line.
Oh, man, I thought that my school was the only one to play that song ... that song has remained seared into my memory since 4th or 5th grade ...
So? Were they fat? Were they slow? They’ll get a “participation trophy” for their efforts.
Harsh? HELL NO!
Like so many others these days, everyone wants to “start” at the top.
Maybe get in shape “first”, then try a marathon.
That was my thought... you can walk the damn thing in 7:30 ... but everyone has to get their certificate so they can humbly post it on LinkedIn talking about how they did it to benefit the charity.
What a crock. And getting mad that there aren’t still people around to go crazy when you come across the line at midnight the next day...lol. I have no words.
They don’t want to do a marathon...they want the marathon “experience”.
I’m sure that was an actual attempt at character building. These people mocking the slow marathoners are probably just total losers with nothing better to do. Some are undoubtedly “on the dole”, as they say across the pond.
Runners have actually booted during races before. Others have evacuated their bowels behind a bush due to no nearby facilities. Maybe he should have tried one of those; then he might have completed the race.
I also find it interesting that people want a completion certificate for NOT completing the race. When I injured a glute and dropped out of the Baltimore 1/2 last year (two days before the race began), I couldn’t even get my money back. I had a neat T-shirt, and I wore it only once. I haven’t worn it again since, after I saw it had 13.1 printed on it. I simply did not deserve it.
It was quite saddening and maddening, since I had trained for it, but I certainly didn’t expect some special exemption for it.
TRUE. = Btw, in 2010’s “race through the dark woods”, ONE runner got a GREAT 6-mile “split” as he was being chased by an ANGRY mama bear, that chased him almost INTO the first aid station/rest stop, where I was working. = Scared the H out of everyone, as she was “dead serious”.
(As all turned out OK, we got a good belly-laugh out of his comment that, “She sure made this split-time better than I thought it could be.” & “I wonder if I could get her to chase me again on the last split, as then I just might place”.)
Yours, TMN78247
SORRY that I wasn’t clear. = That @ss-clown didn’t even START the race, to my knowledge.
His comment, to the vice-director of the race (The RN reported his threat to “beat her up”.) was that, “I drove a long way from northern NY to run & I really should get a certificate, since I was sick.”
Yours, TMN78247
If they had "run" at all, it would not have taken 7.5 hrs to finish. +17 min miles is a joke, except after mile 20 when a lot of runners hit the "wall." But that is the last 7 or 8 miles, not the entire course avg. M2C
Nope, gotta complete it. Perhaps if he had booted in a porta-john beforehand, he might have been able to partially complete. #NoGuarantees
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