This week we look at how Bandit wowed their way into the Olympics, consider living in the cross country boom, and then I recommend using influencers to solve injury, and I talk about racing.
Yes. In the English National Championships the men race over 12k and the women over 8k. This is also the case in many leagues and County Championships despite European Athletics standardising international competition. It’s also seen in the junior races where it sends dangerous messages to young athletes. Run Equal have been campaigning to standardise UK races for years. Progress is slow.
Is a doctor with an Instagram account an influencer? Where does the educating stop and the influencing begin? Is it a matter of how many followers they have? 😁
That's the question. What if they've got 150k followers and are very influential only because of that? The shoe fits, even if you, personally, don't like that it's called a shoe, or a foot.
Very interesting point! I was actually talking to someone about this recently. Mountains are certainly not that accessible to everyone, so is this exclusive language? Cross country for the many, trail running for the few.
I’m an ultra trail runner but live in a totally pancake flat part of the US so all of our local events are on the beach, swampy horse trail, swampy single track, gravel roads, and the very rare and occasional small ascent or descent lasting 1 minute max. I actually really enjoy my local terrain and wish the trail scene would embrace variety. There really is nothing more difficult about the mountains it’s just specialized just like running a 100 mile track race is or a 50 miler entirely on the beach
We are still waiting for equal distances in many English cross country races including the National Championship race.
Equal distances in what respect? Between the men's and women's races?
Yes. In the English National Championships the men race over 12k and the women over 8k. This is also the case in many leagues and County Championships despite European Athletics standardising international competition. It’s also seen in the junior races where it sends dangerous messages to young athletes. Run Equal have been campaigning to standardise UK races for years. Progress is slow.
Is a doctor with an Instagram account an influencer? Where does the educating stop and the influencing begin? Is it a matter of how many followers they have? 😁
Anyway, here’s one account that’s been quite useful to me. It’s all about feet: https://www.instagram.com/gaithappens/
That's the question. What if they've got 150k followers and are very influential only because of that? The shoe fits, even if you, personally, don't like that it's called a shoe, or a foot.
I think the real problem is that trail running has this focus on mountains and thereby is getting less inclusive.
Very interesting point! I was actually talking to someone about this recently. Mountains are certainly not that accessible to everyone, so is this exclusive language? Cross country for the many, trail running for the few.
But cross country is more like a team thing, isn’t it?
Relay trail races are team things. I only ever ran cross country solo. You can add or subtract whatever rules you want, whenever you want, I guess.
Trails used for trail running do seem to be narrower than cross country courses, though the latter often have narrow trail sections. My observation.
One has more mountains, the other more sludgy meadows. Neither has any consistency of terrain course to course, though.
I’m an ultra trail runner but live in a totally pancake flat part of the US so all of our local events are on the beach, swampy horse trail, swampy single track, gravel roads, and the very rare and occasional small ascent or descent lasting 1 minute max. I actually really enjoy my local terrain and wish the trail scene would embrace variety. There really is nothing more difficult about the mountains it’s just specialized just like running a 100 mile track race is or a 50 miler entirely on the beach