Column: Being a Running Fan(atic)

"One of my favorite things about being a professional runner is that while there exists a small group who, though ignorantly, criticize loudly and anonymously online, the majority of the running community is amazingly gracious and supportive." - Ryan Hall after deciding to pull out of the Chicago Marathon

From the wikipedia entry for fan: "Merriam-Webster, the Oxford dictionary and other recognized sources define it as a shortened version of the word fanatic"
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Being a running fan is different than being a baseball fan or football fan. The coverage from mainstream newspapers and magazines is sparse. If it exists, it's probably more fluff and human-interest than substance. On television, there aren't talking-heads shows on every waking hour discussing running and overanalyzing every minutiae. The only "Trackside Live" show on your television set is about auto racing (I found this out the hard way). On the vast landscape of the internet, there are really only a handful of sites (your letsruns and flotracks) that attempt to comprehensively cover the sport. Given their lack of resources, they inevitably come up short in many ways.

Put bluntly, a running diehard is by necessity more of a fanatic than fan. It's not a simple task keeping up on all of news of the running world. The oversupply of coverage in other sports acts as a tough measuring stick for how much a fan wants to know and demands. There is a serious amount of initiative that must be taken by followers of the sport. Dozens of message board threads are perused not just for analysis, but for information and the "scoop" on dozens of meets and athletes worldwide. Diehards dutifully consult and research obscure internet links to results from around the world are because there is no one to do this work for them. Live webcasts and mostly fruitless searches on youtube are often the only way to capture events not shown on television or easily available on ESPN.com.

In the absence of critical analysis and observation by the mainstream press, some of the very people that constitute the "small group" that Ryan Hall excorciates are loud minorities of a larger group of running fanatics. Running fanatics frequent the message boards looking for opinions, discussion, insights and analysis that can simply not be found anywhere else. In an open and anonymous forum, everyone is forced to take the good with the bad. To hear the training gems of one of the best distance coaches in the world, Renato Canova, you must hear the inane views of trolls (internet-speak for rabble-rousers who simply try to incite others) and ignorant blowhards like "Czech Guy". The type of conclusion that "Czech Guy" might make is that a Kenyan woman who used a pregnancy drug to deliver a baby and forgot to clear it with the IAAF is evidence that all Kenyans use performance-enhancing-drugs. That's the bad of letsrun.com, and Ryan Hall undoubtedly has just been subjected to worse. There are those who unabashedly called Ryan Hall a deragotory type of cat or questioned his character after his decision to not race Chicago.

This type of hyper-critical and cynical bashing is not limited to running fanatics or to the forums of message boards. A couple months ago sports media personalities Rob Dibble and Andy Gresh openly questioned the manliness and toughness of baseball players Stephen Strasburg and Jacoby Ellsbury, respectively, with vicious attacks on the athletes' character on mainstream radio and television. Well, tough guys, Stephen Strasburg required Tommy John Surgery and Ellsbury kept on being misdiagnosed. Killjoy Jay Marrioti has hammered athletes for years for every single one of what he perceives to be their glaring character flaws(Marrioti ironically had a run-in with the cops for sexual assault, recently). If anything, the type of uninformed and unproductive bashing is significantly more mainstream and visible in the major sports then in a niche sport like running.

The difference is with major sports you can avoid the mindless bashing by completely tuning out the suppliers of it (sports radio, Around the Horn etc.) while still receiving full coverage and analysis. In terms of discourse, you probably have lots of friends to talk about why the Patriots traded Randy Moss. In following running to the fullest, as I said before you must take the good with the bad. If you would like to engage with a group of like-minded and possibly better-informed people in online conversations about Ryan Hall, Alysson Felix or whoever interests you, you must tolerate the trolls and blowhards. There will be people who will make ignorant and classless statesments and spread misinformation. There are always brutal cynics who want others to fail, and they can and will overshadow reasoned and fun discussion. Such is life.

That being said, always being as Ryan Hall says "amazingly gracious and supportive" is not necessarily the way to be a good fan, either. I root for Hall and I want him to succeed along with all American runners. Do I believe unconditionally in everything he does and never question his training or tactics after a poor result? No. It's not fun or right to be a mindless yes-man or cheerleader who simplifies and dumbs down the analysis to "well he tried really hard", "it must have been another off day", and "well, he raced and trained the way he thought was best". That it's not good being an unfair and relentless critic does not mean becoming a sycophant and not thinking for oneself is much better. The running universe is a tight-knit and small community compared to other sports, but that doesn't mean there should be a "we're all in this together" mentality that supersedes apt criticism and honesty amongst supporters of the sport.

As long-time poster 'Zatopek' said on tracktalk there is a difference between being a critic and an analyst. I agree wholeheartedly, and would point out that fans masquerading as analysts drives some of the most fun things about sports- the arguments about who's better, the water-cooler discussions, the hype before any anticipated matchup, the hope for the future. The raging battles on the message boards might not be the best arrangement for Hall or even for fans, but for the analyst in all of us there is no other way.