Breaking the Wall

Sasha- with the finishers metal, I certainly understand not wanting it. It doesn't take many races before you get a large pile of them built up, so in some ways it either ends up in your trash or in theirs.

2 thoughts, though- using your singer analogy, the marathon is not quite like a singer who sings on key. It is a singer who pays $60 (most of us pay) to compete in a huge competition that he has spent hundreds of hours training for. So the medal is not for singing on key but rather for paying for and participating well in the competition, whether or not he wins. Not all singers want the medals, I'm sure, but they are offered to everyone.

Also, if some people volunteered to hand out participant medals at the end of the competition, I imagine they have a lot of respect for the competitors and what they have done. I know I can't sing, like you, so I would think the singers were rather amazing and deserved the medals. Likewise, the volunteers at the end of a race probably are amazed at the marathon runners, especially the fastest ones. If the second place finisher refused the medal, it may seem a bit rude and prideful to them, whatever the reason. They probably think the top finishers are more deserving of the medals than anyone else, since they put in the most training and performed the best (in absolute terms, not relatively, which is your point that other runners work harder to finish than you). In that case, I would be inclined to simply take the medal and quietly dispose of it later rather than possibly offend the volunteers or race organizers. But again, I do understand your views that finishing does not seem a huge accomplishment for you (though I think it is since it reflects your dedication and training) so a medal is not required. I will admit, my medal is already sitting in some box in my storage room and may never again see the light of day.

Boy, I didn't realize my comment was that long... Probably the first time a comment on your blog is longer than the entry itself... :)

I can respect your opinion for your not wanting to take the finisher's medal. However, be careful that you do not alienate or downgrade others accomplishment's in running and finishing a marathon. Marathoners are a small percentage of the population and deserve any measure of success and pride that is afforded to them by others or just internal satisfaction. While you preface you comment about the prepartion and focus it takes to run a marathon, your statement can be taken as rather demeaning to those that don't run as fast as you. God gives everyone gifts, your gift to run at your pace in no greater than that of others who are running their 1st marathon or those who are running their 100th and whatever pace they can. You have stated your required recognition and we understand why you run, just don't downplay the recognition others receive for their efforts as the reason they run can be significantly different than yours.

I for one appreciate the time and energy the volunteers and organizer's put into these races and still appreciate the "token" awards I receive. It is a reminder of the effort I put into my preparation and my ability to keep improving my results.

Obviously receiving the finishers medal will mean more to some people than to others.

But to the volunteers who are giving freely of their time to hand out the medals, I'm sure it means a lot to place it around someones neck and say congratulations. It probably means even more when they get a simple 'thank you' from the runner.

I say take the medal. If you don't want to keep it, take a sharpie with you to each race, sign your finisher medal and give it to one of the youngsters in the crowd. You might make someone's day and inspire them to go out and run.

A finishers medal might mean more to you after you can't run anymore. Don't take finishing a marathon for granted.

In any case, it would be polite to accept the medal (and certainly not morally compromising), so if anything it helps the cause of FRB world domination when we accept tokens graciously.

I love Cal's idea! Think of what it would mean to some youngster, (or maybe a not so youngster), out there who just ran the race of his or her life! Just like the Coke commercial where the kid gives the guy a Coke, (sorry I don't know who the football player is, he is probably the most well known guy out there), and the guy tosses him his jersey. That is a great way to be gracious of the gift and then pass it forward!

Good idea, Cal- sign the medal and give it to a kid. Inspire a new generation! And as an added challenge, see if you can run the whole race with the Sharpie in your sock...

Kim, that was Mean Joe Greene... I think.

I knew he was a really famous guy! At least I recognize the name.

An argument is often made that anybody who can finish a marathon is elite of the elite, 0.1% of the US population, etc. But I wonder to what extent it is true. Suppose we create the following series of marathons throughout the country with the following terms (yea, right, where will the money come from?):

* free entry

* every performance is age graded and gender adjusted to match a man in his prime

* free coaching is available

* using the adjusted time we pay $1000 for under 6:00, $2000 for sub 5:00, $5000 for sub 4:00, $50,000 for sub 3:00, $100,000 for sub 2:50, $200,000 for sub-2:40, $500,000 for sub-2:30, $2,000,000 for sub-2:20, and $100,000,000 for sub-2:10 with the linear increase in compensation for the times in between so that each second gives you a little more, and the faster you get the more that second counts.

If we could do that, we would see some interesting results.

Maybe the Gates Foundation should divert their funding from humanitarian issues to running. Or maybe the U.S. should cut all military funding and divert that money to running. Then we could try your idea! ;-)

The point you are making is probably true. If everyone in the U.S. trained hard and ran a marathon, a BQ wouldn't be a big deal anymore, because so many people could do it. An interesting thought is that even with gross financial incentives, I bet that tons of people STILL wouldn't try very hard, or try at all. Think about this: smoking a pack of cigarettes/day @ $4/pack will cost a person about $1500/year, and $75000 over a span of 50 years. Yet people still choose to smoke. Even worse, if they had taken their cigarette money and invested it in any decent mutual fund compounding at 10% for 50 years, their cigarette money would be worth 1.9 million dollars. Yet people still choose to smoke. I guess you could do the same calculation with a daily Starbucks latte or a monthly car lease. We do things anyway, even if it's a bad value or leads to financial loss.

So the point is that even you gave free entries, free coaching, age grading, and financial incentives, I think about 50% of the people would choose to sit on their rumps anyway.

Perhaps the internal drive to get off one's rump and train is what makes a person "elite" in our culture?

I think you have a good point there, Paul- many, many people do not have the drive to regularly discomfort their body through intense exercise. Are there lots of people who have the physical skills to be fast but do not ever exercise? Certainly. But like we discussed in Sasha's "Quality X" post a while ago, elite runners need physical ability AND internal drive/dedication. And personally, I prefer to be involved in activities that people do simply because they enjoy it (running, hiking, frisbee) rather than because they want finacial gain. Once big money is involved, it either becomes more of a job or would evolve into a pro sport-type event (baseball, football) with rich team owners, etc. I want to keep running pure. Not to say I wouldn't like to see more "minor" finacial incentives, but 7 figures seems excessive.

By the way, Paul, I think you could fund Sasha's race by only cancelling a few small military projects (5 airplanes or so) rather than the whole military budget. Just goes to show where the country's priorities are.

Yes, what is our Iraq spending/day? Somewhere in the xx BILLIONS? Not that I'm anti-military (I'm not, we need defense of various sorts), but WOW!!

Or if we canceled the space program, that would free up a few billion. It would put Jon out of a job, but think of the running opportunities!

There's an interesting study that Dave Ramsey quotes for his class. I will paraphrase the best I can. In the study, the test subjects were told they would be paid $10/hr for work. They show up, and are told to start digging a trench. They dig all day. Near the end of the day, they are told to fill in the trench. "Why?" they ask. "Doesn't matter. We're paying you, so just do your job." At the end of the day, they are paid and are told that if they come back tomorrow to do the same thing, their pay will double ($20/hr). The next day, only half of the subjects show up. They do the same thing: dig a hole and then fill it back in. At the end of the day, they are paid and told that they can come back the next day and make $30/hr. The next day, nobody shows up.

The point: financial reasons alone are not enough to do something; a task must be fulfilling and purposeful. For us, running is fulfilling and we find many intrinsic and extrinsic benefits. But for many, running is pointless and is like digging a hole and filling it in every day. After all, you usually start and end in the same place...you don't even get anywhere! It also causes physical discomfort (at least at first) and sucks time. Pretty pointless. There are better forms of exercise that work more muscles, such as swimming or XC skiing. Most of us run because we LIKE to run. Period. Yeah, we talk about the health benefits, social benefits, and all that, but really it comes down to the fact that we like the act of running. And we who LIKE running are a small percentage.

Paul - what kind of subjects did they have in that experiment? If you did it in a poor country where $10/h is a lot, families are big, and opportunities for income are scarce, they would all show up the next day and bring their friends too.

I think there are a fair number of runners today who tolerate running and a fair number who like it. Some who initially tolerate it grow to like it. But certainly, the body of the general population does not like it. Which, actually, is fine with me. I have often said that if everyone enjoyed the exact same activities (running or anything else), they would be too crowded for me. I like a diversity of hobbies/activities. I also am happy to see the number of runners increasing, but that is based on the understanding that the growth is somewhat limited.

Interesting, all I have to say is Sasha if your goal is building the blog and running community you had better be careful what you say. Most of them are really proud of there small little tokens they recieve from finishing a marathon or even a 5k at that matter.

I love all my finisher medals! In fact I kinda get bugged when they dont hand them out. Its something to hold onto and remember all the races that I have ran and the hard work I have put in. To me the sentamental value of them in invaluable!

I don't think I've caught all the of the conversation- but just a thought... My friend Heather gives her finisher medals to her kids. I think this is a very sweet thing to do. She runs her races in her kids honor and give them the finisher medals.

Tom and I were just talking yesterday about how fun it would be for future grandkids to come and be able to play around with all the medals. We even thought it would be fun to award them to the grandkids for running with us while they are here. But that is a few more years down the road.