Support...

Something that I have found continually interesting whilst training for various events in the past ten years (running and rowing) is that along with being experts before the race, so many people seem to consider themselves marathon/running experts after someone has finished a race.... 

I’m not sure whether this is due to their own jealousy, the fact that they wish they had entered a race, or whether they just think that they’re better than the person who has just raced and they need to remind them of this fact, but slating another person’s performance, especially after a huge achievement like a marathon is NOT COOL.  It is not cool to belittle someone's achievements AT ANY TIME, but it is especially not cool to do so after they have trained for months to put their bodies through something that not many people do. 

I am surrounded by friends who seem able to pop out 3.30 marathons after just a couple of weeks of thinking about running (a curse from spending so much time with immense rowers and athletes at university and beyond….) but this doesn’t mean that they look down on others’ achievements – quite the opposite – we ALL work towards goals and when we reach them, it is because we dedicated our time and effort, we sacrificed things, and we took difficult decisions to make sure we reached our goals.  V dedicated time and trained hard to get round the course on Sunday so commenting that “oh, you were on course for a much better time to begin with, you’ll just have to try harder next time!” when the most you did on Sunday was prop yourself up to watch the race on TV is not acceptable.  And means that I’d like to punch you in the throat. 

Training towards a marathon is not easy – it’s not impossible, but it’s not easy – and this should be respected, both by those running and by those watching from the sidelines.  I am continually fascinated by the two typical responses to news that someone is running a marathon:
1) from someone who has run/is running: “that’s AMAZING – you will have the best time”
2) from someone who has not run/trained towards an event: “why would you do that?  What time are you aiming for?”

I’m not saying that the running community is the best – there is still a lot of change that could be made (asking me what my marathon time is when I turn up at your shop to buy a pair of shorts is also not cool) – but perhaps we can make a change by being more supportive to one another and then others might follow?