Club vice president speaks out

At the last Winter Series race I had a nice little talk with Grant Kennedy regarding his letter in the January LONG RUN. We talked mainly about his idea of gimmick runs. It’s possible for people to have different feelings about the same race — whether actually having run it or not. Everyone is entitled to have his or her own opinion and no one has the right to judge or try to change another person. Matt Carpenter has his own feelings about the Peak just as Grant is entitled to have his and I have mine. I know when I worked at the top of the Peak during the Marathon last year, in my heart I wished for a second that I had run the round trip. Then I flashed back to the time I did and said, “Thank God for the Ascent!”

If you go back in history you will find that race is no different from the NYC and Boston Marathons, Atlanta Peachtree, Bolder Boulder — to bring up the ones Grant referenced — and the list goes on... These races had and still have a “gimmick” to draw runners. The NYC Marathon is billed as running through 5 boroughs while the sponsors provide big money to bring in the “Big Boys.” Boston has it’s 100th anniversary “gimmick” this year. I remember a big race in Portland, Oregon that had a gimmick with lots of sponsors and plenty of money. One year they lost their sponsors and their money and the race all but died because no “Big Boys” showed up. However a few people came and ran the race anyway. Isn’t that all it takes? A couple of runners competing makes a race — not the gimmick that draws them in. Or does that mean if you only have 2 people running a race then it’s not a race but a gimmick (As in, “Come to the world’s only 2-person race!”)?

Grant implied that races that aren’t also on the agenda of Olympic sports are gimmicks. But the only road race in the Olympics is a marathon. Does that mean any other road distance — 5K, 10K, etc. — is a gimmick too? Talk about a gimmick — look at the Olympics themselves, for that matter. Countries waste more money building and sending people to the Olympics than they do feeding the hungry.

Grant says the “Big Boys” would not touch gimmick runs and Matt, the underachiever, would avoid racing against them anyway. He apparently didn’t realize that at the Mt. Everest Marathon last year, two top rated Kenyan marathoners were brought in to “beat the American.” Mr. Underachiever “toed the line” with them and won by 12 minutes. By the way, this was a full marathon, 26 miles, 385 yards, 2 inches. You also didn’t seem to know that Mr. Underachiever has competed in plenty of the respectable “real world” races you mentioned and others you would surely approve of — Boston being one of them. It might help to find out the facts before you state he is afraid to compete in races he can’t win. In Washington D. C. last April, he toed the line with some “Big Boys” in the Cherry Blossom 10 miler. Four Kenyans broke the course record and 3 broke the former world record that day. Matt placed 17th overall. So much for your assumption that he only races where he will win.

You probably wouldn’t have known about some of the other races Matt has competed in because he didn’t win them. Unfortunately, according to your “real world” standards elite athletes are considered failures unless they win Olympic gold medals. Even making the Olympic team is not enough (e.g. Dan Jansen, the Olympic speed skater).

You also don’t seem to appreciate the fact that, like it or not, Matt is one of the very best mountain runners in the world today. But then, mountain running isn’t an Olympic sport so does that mean he is like your hypothetical “Kansas City Checker Champion?” (By the way, it seems to me that comparing checkers and chess is like comparing running and swimming but I think I understood it in the context you meant it — checkers is a peon game and chess is a noble “real world” game.)

Since the Olympics seem to be your measurement of having achieved something in the unreal world of running — something “normal, hardworking people” apparently don’t do — consider those who run those “real” races, like NY and Boston. How many times did a NYC winner or a Boston winner go on to win the Olympics? Does that make them underachievers too?

I would also like to address Grant’s assertion that in order to run, one must first “dump their kids off on their spouse” (I won’t even begin to discuss the many single parent runners out in “the real world” who don’t have a spouse and yet still like to have an hour or so to themselves each day). I have talked to various friends and other runners in the “real world” and they tend to feel as I do — that if they thought they were “dumping” their kids to run they wouldn’t run. I’ve only been married 19 years but in that time there have been many runs I have postponed or canceled when I thought it wouldn’t be for the good of my relationship with my wife and kids. I happen to enjoy spending time with my kids and don’t consider it a burden when my wife wants to go work out at the YMCA every night. By the same token, she doesn’t resent my daily morning runs. Seems to me like we are setting good examples of a healthy life-style for our children. The kids certainly don’t seem to feel as though they’re being deprived of a parent during those times. I would hate to have to explain to them what was meant by “dumping” if I ever used such a phrase about my kids. Our kids are an important part of our lives but my wife and I also respect each others needs for personal, private time, too.

At the last board meeting, Grant made a not-so-subtle veiled threat that he would aggressively defend his wife against anyone who ever asks her about something he said or wrote. In this case, his wife happened to be standing with us as we were talking after the race and my questions about his letter were directed to them both. Physically threatening people because they don’t believe the same as you doesn’t work, to say the least. A person should be allowed to voice an opinion without fear of reprisal.

Grant claims to have a full life and to be non-judgmental of others. Does that mean anyone who isn’t just like him must be somehow lacking? That a person who chooses not to have “a family of 5 and work 40-60 hours a week” doesn’t live in the “real world” and have a full life? (Although, perhaps if you worked a little less you might have a little more time for your kids — but that is your choice and I am not critical of you if you don’t spend as much time with your family as I do with mine.)

As far as accusations that Matt is judgmental of others, the fact is, his only evaluation has been of himself while trying to live up to a standard of excellence that he has set for himself. I am tired of hearing people twist his words around and accuse him of arrogance. People should stop taking his reflections so personally. He has never acted as though his feelings about running were the gospel truth for everyone. He has never accused you of being “half a runner” or put down your priorities, Grant. For that matter, why should he care what you want to do with your life? He doesn’t criticize you for being a plumber. Why should you criticize him for being a runner — for making a living doing what he loves and for trying to be the best he can? It sounds like perhaps you have been the judgmental one in this case. Yes, that is your choice...

Benedict Spinoza also wrote: “Those are most desirous of honor and glory who cry out the loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world.”

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