Pete Magill buries old slur about masters athletes once and for all
Pete Magill
Dang if Pete Magill isnât the most thoughtful writer on masters running (while at the same time being a superstar in his age group). His latest contribution to the genre: a defense of masters running against those who insist that geezers should hang up their spikes and help nurse the next generation of athletes. This issue goes way back â and across the Atlantic. About 10 years ago, a debate raged in the pages of a leading UK track magazine. As I recalled in 2003, âMalcolm Arnold, a famed coach, told the magazine Athletics Weekly: âI donât like the idea of coaches of athletes going into veteran athletics. I have a personal hatred of vets athletics. I feel someone of my age should be doing something better with their lives. We are losing a lot of people that way.â â
In 2007, Geoff Newton added this background:
Before the 1970s, people mostly retired from active competition well before the age of 40 and often then became coaches, officials and club officers. Now the âmastersâ form a majority of adult competitors in many sectors of the sport. These same âmastersâ still play a major part in organising events and managing clubs which makes a nonsense of the number-crunching at head office which neatly pigeonholes a person in one role as a competitor, a coach, an official or a volunteer.
Now comes Pete Magill, reacting to message board dunces who diss masters. Nobody will ever top Peteâs essay:
Are older runners ruining our sport?
Some young runners think so.
Some young runners think that if masters athletes just stowed their race shoes in the closet and planted their butts firmly on the couch â where they belong â that ABCâs coffers would open up and The Who would sing at the Pre Meet and our sport would ride a wave of adrenaline-fueled interest that would crash the shores of NBA and NFL type popularity.
âReebok Games â Menâs Masters Mile â Does Anyone Care?â (link) was a recent thread on the popular running message board site, LetsRun.
âWhy do they run events like this at a world class meet? Does anyone really enjoy watching which geriatric can run 4:25?â asked the original poster of the thread.
To which another poster immediately responded, âNope, no one cares ⌠Our sportâs incredible need to put youth, masters and professional events all in one meet shows how incredibly amateurish our sport has become.â
Actually, this post shows how incredibly ignorant young posters can be, given that our sport was amateur until very recently in its history.
But petty squabbling and nitpicking aside, does the poster have a point?
Would our sport be better served if we focused our attention 100% on elite athletes and stopped making room for oldsters on the bill at major meets? Are age-group prizes at road races diminishing the recognition of open-level winners? When magazines like Running Times devote multiple pages per issue to masters runners, are they shortchanging our current and future stars?
Think about it âŚ
⌠think some more âŚ
⌠thinking âŚ
Okay, timeâs up.
Hereâs the answer: No, encouraging older runners to exit the sport would be the worst thing that could ever happen to running.
Because our sport isnât a sport like the NBA or the NFL or Professional Baseball.
We arenât an outlet for the fan-based frenzy that accompanies team sports, where our instinctual urge for tribalism allows vicarious bonding with âlocalâ teams and irrational dislike for teams based in other geographical locations.
Christopher Hitchens recently wrote about this tribalism phenomenon in Newsweek (link):
I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if one didnât know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles.
Well you know what: that isnât us.
That isnât running.
Because running, as it has evolved, isnât about elite competition.
Itâs about the entire running community, from the elites all the way on down to the person who just finished their first 5K in 30 minutes. Itâs about 40,000 runners in the New York City Marathon. And 40 million in America alone who lace up their running shoes at least once every year. Itâs about cures for plantar fasciitis, and tips on proper tempo pace, and even arguments about whether barefoot running is an improvement on Nike and Adidas.
Our sport isnât âfan friendly.â
Our sport is its fans.
Trickle-down may not work as an economic theory. But in running, itâs responsible for what little market exists for professional elites.
At the 2006 USATF Club Cross-Country Championships in San Francisco, more than 500 masters men toed the start line for the masters club championship. More than 400 crossed the finish line.
A little over 300 men participated in the Open race, run two hours after the masters race.
Just where do you think the fans came from who cheered the Open race?
⌠thinking âŚ
Right. From the masters race.
You see, the fans who follow our sport do so because we compete in our sport ⌠when weâre in our teens ⌠when weâre in our twenties ⌠when weâre in our thirties ⌠and forties ⌠and fifties ⌠and beyond.
We fans watch our elites because the elites do what we do, only they do it better.
If we werenât running ourselves, most of us wouldnât care about running at all.
More than half of the 10 million runners who complete American road races every year are masters runners.
And do you know what theyâre talking about when they finish their race?
Thatâs right. Theyâre talking about their race. About how they did. How they felt. How they think their recent training either helped or hurt them.
And then theyâre talking about one anotherâs races.
And then, and only then, they talk about the top racers â beginning with who won their age group and expanding to who won the entire race.
When young people suggest that older runners are bringing the sport down, theyâre harboring an illusion. They believe that that if millions of older runners gave up running themselves, theyâd suddenly care a lot more about top younger runners. Or that people who follow running would follow it more passionately if older runners werenât spoiling the experience.
Theyâre angry because older runners are acting just like younger runners â caring more about their peers than about those who arenât the same age.
I understand their disappointment.
They chose to participate in our sport because they love it. They think itâs exciting. They know how tough the training and racing is. They think runners are some of the top athletes in the world.
And it breaks their hearts that most people barely notice runningâs existence.
And that the few who do notice it donât always notice them.
Many of us masters athletes are the same.
We complain endlessly that big meets and big media donât give masters athletes their due, as if there exists some inalienable right to be applauded for our efforts.
Weâre wrong too.
Weâre not the NBA. Weâre not the NFL.
And for everyone whoâs disappointed that weâre not, I say, âOpen your eyes.â
Because weâre something much better.
Weâre a community. Weâre a way of life. Weâre multi-generational. And weâre there to applaud one another every step of the way.
We all run the same races. Have the same race experiences. And suffer the same disappointments.
Weâre family.
We donât have seasons and donât have to rely on television to bring our sport into our lives. We donât have to live and die with the efforts of strangers wearing uniforms that match our idea of a âhome team.â We donât win or lose depending on the availability of top performers in the free agent market.
When we want to revel in our sport, we lace up a pair of running shoes and head out the door.
Our sport isnât Michael Jordan or Barry Bonds.
Thank goodness.
Because itâs our own dream.
And itâs lifelong.
And everyoneâs invited to the party.
27 Responses
We masters athletes meet our obligations by paying our club dues, assisting our clubs as meeting functionaries, training and above all by competing. We can be proud of that. It is sufficient.
Anyway, the criticism does not mainly come from young athletes. It comes from ‘mature’ athletics coaches and officers; frustrated individuals who have voluntarily taken on more than they can chew. They are bad news. Just ignore them.
The answer to this “EITHER OR” presentation is, “YES.” I’ve been a masters T&F participant almost 20 years AND a HS middle-distance coach for seven years. Why pretend a choice is obliged?
Mocking words by some old fool at Hayward Field directed at Masters runenrs decades ago to the marvelling envious reply …. ” I wish I could be out there with them”.
_Bill Bowerman
Great article!
I looked thru the Reebok Games results and have a few facetious questions to add:
Are women runners ruining our sport?
Are boy and girl runners ruining our sport?
Encouraging older runners to exit the sport can be the worst thing to happen, not only to running, but to LIVING. A bunch of us know/believe that, by doing what we do, we’ll live longer or, at least, go out with all/most twitch fibers firing. Jerry
The young athletes I run and train with always compliment my efforts. When I run college meets I am respectful to the directors and coaches and don’t run events in which I will not perform well. I then cheer on the younger ahtletes. Open meets are good places to have positive interactions with athletes at all levels.
I think we have an opportunity to teach by example in addition to coaching. Younger athletes can see our dedication and we can give them pointers along the way. Some may respect that we know what they are going through if we are working out too. They sometimes forget that their coach (who may not be working out anymore) did it once too. They are motivated to not let me beat them in a friendly but competitive way.
Younger athletes may not dislike masters athletes if they have a positive experience with us. I think we have to go out of our way to have a good interaction with them and support them too. They are young and hopefully will learn.
“Even if one didnât know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles”…???
What planet is this guy on? I *think* he’s saying that the 1936 Olympic Games started the 1939-45 world war. Get a grip, man.
Whatever… to the main point. The letsrun thread started with a valid question. It was not about masters running in general, but about whether a masters mile “belonged” in what was allegedly a world-class track meet (Nick Willis won the Reebok Mile in 3:55 and Bernard Legat the 5k in 13:11). Unfortunately, the poster focused on us “geriatrics” and not on the youths, girls and boys, who also had events.
No one is suggesting that masters are “ruining” the sport – well no one except a handful of aggressive kids. There are also mature ex-athletes who are entitled to their opinions, but there is no serious campaign against masters competition and no need for a defence of it.
The underlying issue/context is serious and worth addressing, which is why – Usain Bolt excepted – track and field is completely on the skids as far as public interest and media coverage goes. Since moving to the US I’ve been astounded at the relentless wall-to-wall coverage of “football”, baseball, basketball, even golf, and the almost complete lack of T&F. Don’t even get me started on the parochial slant of whatever T&F does make it onto the tv.
One of the letsrun posters made a great point:
“Does anyone want to watch another Ethiopian run a solo race just so the meet manager Mark Wetmore can make more money? What does that have to do with racing? Wetmore continues to undermine US distance running putting on a women’s 5000m event with no Americans in it. I would rather watch US “masters” run a mile than watch another afican solo a 5000m. How about another afican letting the pace dawdle in the middle of the race so he could out kick everyone to win. Yawn. At least the Old guys and Galen went for it.”
No threat to masters running there, as we at least deliver “real” races with no pace-makers and no holds barred. But, whether we should be performing as warm-up acts for world-class elites at major events – it might be good for us, but the original poster is questioning whether that is good for T&F.
From what I’ve read on this site, it seems the public and the media gets more out of seeing a bunch of NFL players pretending to be sprinters.
THink that the top masters runners cant beat up on young runners,I mostly run D-3 college meets in the mid west,I dont beat all but i run past many,o yaa,i dont know to many HS AND COLLEGE runners out run me in hurdles or m50 sprenters like Barwell,or thigpin, my money is on the old guys,ask there fathers if they can run 54, in the 400m ,please dont give guys like this print time,
There is something to be said for both sides of this discusion. Should masters runners or masters athletes in general be told to lay down because of their age…No way! The health, mental, and social benefits creates a better quality of life for how ever long we’re on this earth. At the same time some Masters that work hard to achieve certain goals in Masters athletics can become ego-centric as do younger athletes, and is understandable. I don’t mean outright selfishness towards others, but when you focus on certain goals and some of you being of an older age than myself can attest to, the self awarness of body, consistancy in training and focus that you need can take alot of your time. I know many Masters out there that do volunteer coach youth athletes to elite athletes to give back while they are in training. But some don’t, or just can’t. They can only focus on one thing at a time and their training takes up a good part of that time. Any more stress on them, whether it be mental or physical, would be detrimental to their goal, training routine and even their health. I’ve juggled this line myself for the last 12 years. Coaching can be very stressful at times, especially with younger athletes, who in this day and age don’t know what a real P.E. class should be like because their school doesn’t offer it anymore. They play video games and talk about injuries such as video thumb. Could masters athletes be of more value coaching younger athletes instead of competing themselves, to one day give younger athletes a chance at winning a H.S. state meet, get a scholorship, become an elite athlete? One of the reasons I coach and consult with throwers no matter what school they may attend in the Denver area is because of the lack of knowledgable throws coachs in general. They all mean well and the last thing they want to do is mis-inform or hurt an athlete in any way, but when you hear another H.S. throws coach say , “Yeah, I’ve got some experience in throws events. I threw the shot 39 feet back in H.S. during the 70’s and my throws coach in H.S. was our defensive back coach on our football team, but his brother who took 4th place in his H.S. conference meet in the 50’s, came out one day and showed us how to throw the shot for an hour…” and that’s all these kids have as a reference to train and throw well, there’s a problem. Should masters give up their goals, fitness, and general well being for the sake of giving all the spotlight to younger or elite athletes? Absolutely not. Can masters do more for younger and elite athletes if they have the knowledge and capability to do so? Absolutley! The one huge plus that masters have is their fitness level and active training knowledge because of still competing. The fact that I can still throw as well as I can at my age, gives me instant credibilty when coaching younger athletes. This can be the same with all of you masters out there. When people ask me why I don’t go compete at this meet, or at that meet, especially when it’s out of state. It’s because I spend most of my free time training myself and coaching/strength training other youth athletes year round and mostly all of it free of charge. Some of you would say, “Good luck with that, but it’s just not for me”, and that is fine and understandable. But when another says that masters should take up their retirement from competing to help younger athletes or give them the spotlight. In some ways, that is understandable as well. The question is, who is willing to give up their personal time and energy, physically and mentally, to do so? I don’t think many more than the ones that are already doing so. That is why some think it’s foolish for masters to compete and not pass the baton to the younger athletes. When they see masters taking themselves too serious as if what they are doing is going to bring them into some sort of sports spotlight or place in history. It really isn’t. To some younger athletes, spectators or strangers passing by, we Masters can look like Carnival Geeks of a time in the past. “Pay a nickel and see the white haired giant throw the iron ball of death…Watch the wrinkled, rubber lady jump the pit of snakes…amaze yourself at the flying bald man that soars amazing heights using only his magical bamboo pole. It’s fun and in some ways amazing to them, but in the end we can be just plain freakish to them. That is why some have the idea that masters should just quit. They don’t know the personal reasons each masters athlete has, or fire that may burn inside to achieve a level of fitness or athletic goal at an elderly age. They will one day, just not today…and really, in a way it’s good for them not to. They should enjoy their youth while they have it. We had our time, and still have more, but I know that if I didn’t have certain elder athletic mentors as a youth that still stand out in my thoughts, I would have missed out on the joy and meaning of competing as a young man… which I now take those same lessons to teach my youth athletes…. and hopefully they’ll teach their athletes…and so on.
Peter, keep it up! Remember when we got together and smoked all the colleges in the distance medley in ’03 on our way to a masters WR? I wonder if those youngsters thought we should have hung up our spikes then. What I do remember however, was how well we were received by the crowd and the other teams when it was announced that we were all over the age of 40.
So let’s say we masters athletes just fade away from the sport once we reach a certain age,what message does that send to the younger athletes?that the same fate befalls them once they themselves reach that age…..poppycock!!
I’m fortune enough to work out at Franklin Field where I’m often told by college athletes I’m an inspiration to them and I hope that seeing me still out there at 46 lets them know there’s still life in running after college.
Though losing hair, and with it, memories accompanied by imagined prior wisdom, I nevertheless retain the energy and presence of independent self to hoist a heartfelt middle-finger in salute to those whose unsolicited opinion run counter to my happiness.
When a man or fair lady can no longer cavort at speed with simple happiness, no matter their place in the days of life, then simple grace has been surely dismissed from the countenance of our offending judge.
Pete,
I also agree with Ken. This is a fine piece of writing, the argument carefully threaded and indisputable. Nice work.
After looking at the photo above, Kevin Spacey could act as Pete Magill in the ” Masters are People Too” story. Hehehe
As an athlete and coach I can not immagine not training and competing. If nothing else, being able to bench over 300 and run a sub 4.4 40 yard dash not only allows me to train along side the younger athletes I coach but gives a coach credability which in turn builds trust among those you work with. Especially when working with both able bodied as well as paralympic athletes in an inclusive environment. Not to mention that masters athletes of age groups senior to mine have always been and continue to be an outstanding resource to athletes and coaches alike. How can that be negative for the sport???
Hey, I wouldn’t advertise a sub 4.40 40 yard dash. Darrell Green said he could run a the 40 yards in 4.43 and he got ripped on these boards. Take your chances!
At least Steve’s got results in the Masters Rankings system for the sprints. And from looking at him, I can believe he benches 300.
WOW!!!! Retire someone at 40…. can that be my job retirement age. I ran the Penn Relays two (2) years ago and had my high school coach in the stands !!!! You can not replace the moment after I ran the open 100 to have my HS coach yell out of the stands your name….. I just watched the 90 Yr Old World 100 Meter Race…. I HOPE TO GOD THAT IS MEET IN 38 YEARS…. Hang UP my SPIKES, Find something better to do, GET REAL…. JUST DO IT !!!!…. Go Tell the Olympic athletics not to run masters…. if you can still perform… WHY NOT !!!
Though you personally had a wonderful moment, it does not mean it’s significant to the rest of the world. No one would want pay or see 50-80 year olds play organized professional tackle football or basketball which are sports more popular than track and field in the United States. You gain the satisfaction from running for yourself, not making your accomplishment some sort of pinnacle or milestone. 13+ seconds in the 100 meters is outstanding for a fifty and over athlete, but the rest of the country and world could really care less other than the people that know you personally or in the masters community. Unfortunate, but true.
Anonymous. Why should we care what other people think?
Anthony, When you posted many blogs ad nauseam in the MTF forum after your incident with a team mgr. a couple of years back, did you want people to think and care then? If we didn’t care we would just run on our own for exercise. People thrive off of competition, achieving worth while goals and preferably in front of an admiring audience as did Mr.Davis.
An “admiring audience”??? Is that why we do this? Of course not! By “we” I can really mean all levels of T&F too. Do even Olympians, especially from the US where T&F is not a major sport, do this for admiration from others? I don’t think so. Motivation and satisfaction have to come from within. You just cannot spend all the hours, days, weeks and years it takes to even approach a level of “good” to please anyone else.
Anonymous. I do not care one iota what people think about me, either as a masters athlete or my otherwise delightful personality. On the other hand, I do want the true facts concerning my complaint against the British Masters Athletics Federation (BMAF) to be widely known. By posting “ad nauseum'” on this and other forums, I have certainly succeeded in that. And thank you now for your contribution. What is your name and claim to fame by the way?
Greg, I wrote thriving off of competition and achieving worth while goals as the reasons why masters compete and also, “PREFERABLY in front of an admiring audience”. PREFERABLY as in meaning: A matter of choice, or rather than. Into this context, Rather than no audience, or preferably with an admiring audience. It was written as an example of Mr. Davis’s experience with his H.S. coach sitting in the stands cheering him on. I can see how this may have confused you. You asked do Olympians compete for the admiration of the audience? From what I can tell a good majority do. Why do so many elite/olympic track and field athletes wave their hands in the air or clap towards the audience before attempting a long jump, triple jump or vault to get the crowd to make some noise for them. Why do some elite/olympic shot putters make such a show after a good toss, facing the crowd with pumping fists and shouts of superiority. Why do some Elite/Olympic 100 meter sprinters play it up to the crowd, making thunderbolt poses after winning a race. Why do Olympic athletes run around the track afer winning a race or event and drape flags, which they usually get from the admiring audience, over their shoulders and back, waving at the crowd in the stands. Even lesser talented athletes at the collegiate level have a rapport with the Audience such as the University of Oregon’s Haward Field when the stands are packed and are cheering for their favorite distance runner. The winning runners themselves have acknowledged the adulation of the spectators in post race interviews. I give you the benefit of the doubt seeing you may be new to track and field and may not have seen, or heard of these events happening but believe me, they do on a regular basis.
In masters T&F, there’s rarely an admiring audience. Masters nationals are an exception, but the audience is usually filled with spouses and significant others. They could be considered true fans, but sometimes not. I’m a thrower, and we’re usually away from the track for our events. At nationals last year, the throwing area spectators were the officials and other competitors. Maybe one wife during my age group’s hammer throw competition.
Yes, elite T&F athletes acknowledge, appreciate, and play to the crowd. But I can’t agree that the bulk of them compete *for* the admiration of the crowd. Not as a sole or even main reason, at least. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ve never been at that level, so I don’t know for sure. Just assuming.
You will be very disappointed to know that I’ve been around T&F since 1977. My wife might agree with you that I’m confused, but I’m not a newbie. Just not as savvy as you.
Shawn Regan. I am not “pretending that a choice is obliged.” I know I can combine competing and coaching. That is screamingly obvious. But I do not want to coach. Athletics is not my life. I just want to compete and that should be respected.
Anonymous. You are missing the main point of Pete Magill’s article, which was about people who criticise us masters athletes.
While Pete Magill says the critics are often young athletes, I am not so sure. Young athletes give me the utmost appreciation and respect. I say the problem is our peer mature coaches and club functionaries. I’ll exemplify what I wrote earlier. One month ago an athletics club chairman quite unprovokedly attacked me in the changing room when I complimented the hosting club for its organisation of a masters meeting and when I praised masters athletics as health-enhancing, particularly for women. This guy commented that clubs should not attach much importance to masters athletics. He added that with my experience, instead of competing as a masters athlete I should be coaching young athletes. When I said I did not intend to, he responded: “Then I would not have you in my club.”
Anonymous, as to we masters athletes appreciating praise. That is also screamingly obvious. Who doesn’t? But that was not what the Pete Magill article was about either, although it ended up in a celebration of the masters athletics lifestyle for all it gives us. I agree with that too. Delightful article.
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