Bashing Will Not Get You a Number

I don’t think I have blogged since July.  I feel like I should reintroduce myself.  It took me about 5 minutes to log in because I forget my password.   I was not going to chime in about the fiasco that was the quick sell out for the 2011 Boston Marathon. But after reading all the bashing of charity runners on Twitter and Facebook, I had to voice my opinion.

So you trained your ass off for a fall marathon, in hopes of getting a BQ.  Waking up at the ass crack of dawn to put the miles in; and sacrificing you social life to get those early morning long runs in on the weekend.  And then finally, all the hard work pays off.  That day you dreamed of qualifying for Boston comes. So you mark it on your calendar: October 18, 2010 9:00am – REGISTER FOR BOSTON. You do not expect it so sell out in just 8 hours, so you wait until you get home from work to register.  Only to find out it has sold out in record time and you missed out on registering for the marathon you have been training so hard to get into.  Yeah, I would be pissed too.

Luckily for me, I was fortunate enough to successfully register.  Others, well not so much.  Now, those less fortunate are bashing charity runners for stealing their number.  Really?  So you had a number already reserved for you and a charity runner just went in and stole it from you?

Charity runners do not deserve to be there?  Really?  What do they do just wake up the morning of April 18^th and decide to just run the marathon.  Are they getting in your way? Is that it?  You earned every right to be in Hopkinton after qualifying and now these charity runners are getting in your way and tarnishing your experience.  I mean after all they shouldn’t be there to begin with, they didn’t earn it like you did.  Well, the last time I check, they deserve every right to be in Hopkinton the morning of the marathon.   They put in the hard training miles just like you.  They made the sacrifice to train for race day just like you.

Charity runners put more hard work into training for the marathon than BQ runners.  Instead of just logging in the miles they are also busting their ass off for their charity.  While at the same time they are training for race day and maintaining a social life, they are also creating awareness of their charity.  The have to find the time to send out letters to friends and families, and everyone else they know; they must find the time to host a fundraiser event in order to raise the minimum of $3,500 – $4,000 for most charities.   Sounds easy right?

Those who could not get into the 2011 Boston Marathon, there are other marathons in April.  Hell, maybe you can approve your time for a better start for 2012.  If you really want to run the Boston Marathon this April, join those charity runners in running for a cause to earn a number.  But one thing that will not get you into the 2011 Boston Marathon is bashing the charity runners.  They deserve every right to be there.  They have to register just like everyone else through their charity of choice, and sometimes may even be declined.  But you don’t see them bashing BQ for stealing their numbers.