> What a crock. I can think of a couple of reasons why nobody wants to race
> any more.
>
> Among the poor, physical education is being defunded in the schools. Among
> the better to do, competitive sports are being taken over by crazed adults,
> which means a lot more injuries and a lot less fun.
>
> Among the pros, whether in sports or in the arts, the level of performance
> are being raised to the level where career-ending injuries are happening
> much earlier.
>
> But basically, human beings don't want to win. They want to play. And
> there's nothing wrong with that.
>
>
I think there are a couple of things going on here. One is that running
has gotten far more popular - not just major marathons get sold out
regularly to the point that they have qualifiers - and the sport is no
longer the realm of fanatics. I just find it funny how the author takes
both a national threat and a knock on one's own achievement that his PB or
whatever was against not just his performance cohort but less competitive
people. Like, so what? Your time is your time. Run your own race, as the
ultramarathoners say. And you have your own cohort to mentally goad you on.
That can be part of the fun of it.
I went on a Color Run last year, and as you put it, it was all about the play. Not everybody can run all of a 5K, so what. You do it, have fun, get plastered with brightly colored corn starch and there's a mini-rave at the end. It's a little commercial, but it's a touch of the dancing in the streets that Ehrenreich wrote about.
There is something similar and more widespread in cycling, the invitational ride that many clubs organize. Usually it's centered around a century, 100 miles, with options for shorter distances. Often there are rest stops with somebody's special dish for food and some live music, and a picnic at the end. It's something people train up for, but emphatically not any sort of competition, nor a "disease ride" as one sage described them. Alas, I'm missing out on one right now because I spent my summer getting my exercise with physical therapists.
There are also other opportunities to shoot for excellence without competition per se. There's this form of bike riding that emerged in France around the same time as The Tour where a group of cyclists will try to cover long distances over a set time period. It evolved so as to discourage professional participation - there are no prizes for first or whatever, just a certificate of completion (it feels very French that way). Unlike pro racing you can't get outside mechanical assistance outside of checkpoints except from other cyclists, and teamwork is encouraged. It's more of a challenge than the invitational rides -- the capstone is a 1200km ride to be completed within 90 hours. The original, the Paris-Brest-Paris, is a major event. I think the average age of the participants is close to 50.
-- Andy "It's a testament to ketchup that there can be no confusion."