Re: The iPod conflict brews in racing

guest — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:38:27 GMT

So I ran a half-marathon this morning, and somewhere between mile 12 and 13, a young woman was running in the road (which was not closed, unfortunately) and there was a car coming up behind her. Since I could hear it, I looked over at her, and realized she had her iPod turned up to the point where she couldn't hear anything (literally, I could hear the music, and I was three feet away). I tried several times to get her attention by yelling, "HEY!" but no dice. Finally, I tapped her on the arm -- which startled her -- and said, "Hey, there's a car behind you." After she pulled one headphone out, I repeated myself, and she thanked me and said, "I can't hear ANYTHING!" I resisted the urge to say, "Yes, and that's not a good thing!" but I'd seen her the day before while passing out packets at the expo, and remembered that she'd said it was her first half. Hopefully, she'll consider at least turning the volume down in the future, since the sketchy race conditions for this particular event seem unlikely to change.

At the risk of starting a whole new discussion, I have to report on the funniest moment of my race this morning. Around mile 3.5, a woman near me pulled out her cell phone and actually made a call!!! Now, I've seen people do this at the gym occasionally, but it's usually while they're on the elliptical or something. One of the nearby volunteers pointed her out to his buddy, who laughed and said, "Now I've seen everything!"

I have, too.

Re: The iPod conflict brews in racing

guest — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 04:06:09 GMT

I did a sprint triathlon a few weeks ago, and at the pre-race meeting, several people were horrified to hear that they couldn't wear their iPods -- on the BIKE COURSE!!!! Now, this race was really well-run, but it also involved a three-loop bike course on city streets, with only one traffic lane closed. In addition, it was very bumpy in parts, and on race day, the wind was quite strong. Even without headphones, I was startled by several fast but not particularly polite folks who didn't make a sound as they approached. Now, imagine this scenario if I'd had my Shuffle clipped to my shirt.

The danger factor might be slightly lower for running races, but I see it more as a principle thing: Why are you running a race, if not for the experience of running with, and competing against, a group of people? I wouldn't attempt a training run longer than about 3 miles without either a human training partner or my iPod, and I certainly gather lots of late-workout strength from the perfect song. But it's never even occurred to me to run a race with headphones on. I love the camaraderie of racing, not to mention to weird competitive spurts that it inspires. When everyone is listening to their own personal soundtrack, I think that something is lost from the racing experience, be it the spontaneous celebrations that erupt when passing a mile marker or just the casual comments runners make to one another. Races are an experience, and I'm sad for those who choose to listen to "Eye of the Tiger" for the umpteenth time over soaking in the atmosphere of the race.

P.S. I have to admit that I was amused that Katie Holmes proudly carried an MP3 player of some sort for the NYC Marathon, only days after the NY Times wrote the long story about the USATF ban...maybe I missed it, but none of the (extensive) coverage of her run seemed to mention it...

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Re: The iPod conflict brews in racing

Re: The iPod conflict brews in racing