Marathon for the Masses?

I recently came across this article on Slate.com in which the author, Gabriel Sherman, decries the exploding popularity of the marathon as sport for the masses. In particular, the article focuses on “how sluggish newbies ruined the marathon."

I hope to run a 3 hour and 30 minute marathon this November at the ING New York City Marathon. Having fewer runners ahead of me, clogging the streets, would likely help me attain that goal and thus, I initially agreed with Mr. Sherman.

After my biased and self-serving initial reaction I applied some thought to the matter and frankly I couldn’t disagree more. The growth in popularity of the marathon is good for almost everybody – from the first time marathoner whose aim is to finish, to the middle of the pack runner right on up the starting chute to the sub-elite and world class athletes like Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi.

In general terms, the popularity surge of the marathon has inspired more people to get fit, something that America desperately needs. Six of out ten American adults are overweight. Nearly 20% of children in America are obese and many have, or are at risk of developing, Type 2 Diabetes. Methinks repetitive use injuries like stress fractures, tendonitis and shin splints are laughable as compared to diabetes, elevated blood pressure and heart attack.

Increased marathon popularity also means more races and more well managed races – obviously a good thing as this translates into greater opportunity for success for competitive runners. If it’s a small marathon you want you’re not forced to run with 40,000 others plodding down the streets of Chicago. Thanks to the growing popularity of the sport there are plenty of well managed, USATF certified marathons with a smaller numbers of participants to choose from.

This trend also translates into a growth in the Prize Purses for the elite athletes of our sport (the NYC marathon purse is $500,000 this year). And while we’re talking about money I just fail to see how the $660 Million that many “newbies” have raised for Team In Training to fight Leukemia and Lymphoma is a bad thing.

Even if the growing popularity of marathons means I will have to work harder on Marathon Sunday to reach my personal goals, I am glad to run with 37,000 “newbies,” veterans, world class and Olympic athletes. Afterall, it was the the sight of so many running the New York Marathon after 9/11 that inspired me to train for and run my first marathon.

"All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why."
-James Thurber