Stewards of The Sport
Happy Global Running Day. The spirit of running is far from lost, but we have some work to do.
I forgot about Global Running Day, but had this planned as a segment for my normal roundup. Instead of a segment, it turned into a longer essay. There are no photos, no graphics, no charts, and a few links. The usual roundup will be in tomorrow.
I’ve been feeling a tension between two worlds I straddle in running right now: running as performance and running as lifestyle. It was a conversation that’s come up with my friends since the SATISFY Circle Pit discourse1 and some I had at the Bandit Grand Prix with some old school vets. It made me think of the discussion around the “spirit of gravel” in the cycling world—concern that we’re losing the spirit of the sport.
The first world is what I deem core, and what I’ve grown up on thinking as “real running.”2 The lifestyle side is sometimes shipped as performative, or made for Instagram. I spend a lot of time talking about the latter on here: what’s hot in running culture (read: marketing, events, gear). While I love all that stuff, I still think about splits I could have run, ghosts of races past, and romanticize about times with my teammates in college. I think there are some readers that feel the same way.
That is not what the latest running boom is though. The world associated with run clubs and lifestyle is the new wave of running people are writing about now online and probably covered extensively in market research presentations over the last 5 years. How do we get this customer, how do we appeal to new runners, what are Millennial and Gen Z runners into? Between Strava data and the London Marathon, and private industry market reports, the info is out there confirming the trade-winds.
I’ve been running for 20 years, so have only been a part of a couple waves that I recognize: run crews of the 2010s that kicked off the cool kid Instagram presence and the post-COVID run club craze fueling record marathon participation.
This current phase is hardly different from the 70s jogging era, beyond that it’s fueled by the desire for social interaction, and unfortunately sometimes social media engagement.
The problem now is that much of the education is fueled by what’s seen online from TikTok and Instagram influencers and YouTube channels, rather than from veterans in the sport with proven knowledge. The energy created by social media is excellent at recruiting people to the sport, but bad at educating people on the things that matter3.
That’s not to say that new, passionate runners don’t know things, but they’re going through many of the same learning experiences we had…without older teammates, running camp counselors, or coaches to help them along the way.
I know what mentorship is worth because I had plenty of it.
When I was in high school, I was a child of the internet as much as I was a student to my coach. I was scouring LetsRun4 forums for training and looking to see what “everyone” was talking about for their track spikes, what the gurus were saying was the “secret” workout. I obsessed over Tinman’s “Critical Velocity” workouts, VO2 max intervals, barefoot strengthening5, and making sure I was doing what I thought was the right thing. Instead of rolling his eyes, my coach listened to me and let me incorporate some of this training, but also guided me to what was practical and fit within our schedule: I couldn’t only do VO2 max training, I didn’t need this hyper specificity as a developing high schooler, and much of what I read was focused on professionals who were already mature runners.
In Once a Runner, John L. Parker Jr. described the undergrads who tried to train with the Olympic miler Bruce Denton, certain they'd pick up his “Secret,” only to learn there was no secret. Luckily my coaches taught me that.
The Spirit of Running Is Far From Lost
I watched the Bandit Grand Prix this past weekend and talked to a number of new-to-running competitors and old-school-to-me runners alike. The people newer to running had a great experience: the 3000 runner “meet” ran on time, people ran super hard, and the place had a lot of energy. That’s more than I can say for a lot of the meets I ran at. While this isn’t the running I grew up on, this captures a glimpse of what modern running looks like. It isn’t a bad thing. It’s getting more people into the sport in a less intimidating way—no tracks, off distance splits, a new environment—the same way the 70s jogging boom brought people in, and the same way run clubs are bringing people in.
I don’t know how the wave in the 70s was received by the “fast” crowd, people running in college or professionally. I didn’t live that era. But running didn’t die because of it. It’s what created run specialty stores, which I see as stewards of the sport and core to running6.
People are needlessly concerned with so-called “performative runners” or lifestyle runners. They’re not hurting the sport, and hopefully, some of them get to experience running beyond that—it’s hard not to. Gatekeeping “real” running doesn’t help us. The new crowd might not all stick with running, but events like the Grand Prix, or The Speed Project, or whatever hype race comes up offer a great place to transfer the same lessons we learned in the sport that come from competition. These are the new freshmen on the team: bringing new energy to the team, eager, talented—and they’ll shape the future.
I don’t have any answers here yet, but I want to see a way veterans can be stewards of the sport and provide support for new runners. How can we share lessons we learned without being prescriptive or pedantic? How can run specialty stores bring in this new audience and offer guidance?
Eyes are rolling back into my head as I say “discourse” here…
Quotes because all running is running! I love linking up at a chill run club, with my friends, or at a structured track workout I’m low key not ready for.
What I have here isn’t a coaching channel, and I don’t do shoe reviews or talk about training for a reason. Read Mario Fraioli for that. He is exactly the person people that new runners exploring the sport should be listening to.
It is not all bad. I was reading training from John Kellogg, Malmo, Tinman, Renato Canova. I still have threads printed out in my childhood bedroom somewhere if my mom hasn’t thrown them out.
Born To Run caused an epidemic of barefoot running and stress fractures. It’s a tool and is valuable and some of it should be brought back in this maximilist era, but we don’t need everyone running 100 miles in Vibram FiveFingers.
I got my first shoe fit there. Mizuno Wave Riders were what was on deck at the time.
One of my favorite parts of running is that no matter how many running influencers there are or however much "performative" running is happening I can always lace up my shoes and go for my own run. None of that directly impacts my day to day running in the slightest. I absolutely roll my eyes at some things but I realize that, at the end of the day, if I had never seen that my life wouldn't be any different.
Well for not coming to class prepared that it was global running day, I feel this was a very appropriate, well stated read. 🩷
Overall, we are all here to enjoy our time, learn along the way, hope to find/have our community, but we are all individuals. we do it differently. I have watched many years of running evolution, and I do feel like it just brings people together. Which is the best.
I like that you said, “The energy created by social media is excellent at recruiting people to the sport, but bad at educating people on the things that matter.” it truly is real life and experiences that build knowledge.
Cheers to running and life.