So I happened upon an article
about this guy (whoops, sorry, a “Dad” - this is very important to the story) who ran at the front of the Boston Marathon
with the elites. Haven’t heard about
it? Here you go…
This article and pretty much
every comment I have read in response to it seems to be celebrating his moxie
and his achievement. Wow, that’s amazing
– look how fast he ran to overtake them (because he started behind them – we’ll
get back to that). Aw, how cute, he did
it for his kids so they could see him on TV. Oh, isn’t that sweet – he wanted
to thank his family and coaches back in Texas by letting them see him on TV
(are you noticing a pattern yet?).
Pretty universal praise, including the disclaimers that he was a fit
dude who had to qualify to run in that first wave so he is definitely not a
slacker who didn’t deserve to be there.
Allow me to offer a slightly different perspective.
I don’t think he deserved to
be there and I think he's a bit of a jackass to thrust himself into the
spotlight (and he planned to do it right from the moment he signed up). Elite
runners are professional athletes; with rare exceptions this is their
livelihood and the front of the race is their playing field, just like a baseball diamond to a ball player (or a stage to a singer if sports isn't your thing). As professional athletes, they don’t just
train physically, they train mentally and they prepare (just like every other
professional athlete) by knowing the strengths and weaknesses of their
competitors’ games. They can do this
because they know everyone who will be playing against them in advance – again just
like other professional athletes. Then this tool throws himself into the mix
and runs the risk of messing with their plan and just their overall race day juju. You say moxie, I say selfish.
I understand they are being
trailed by thousands of people who earned the right to be there. But those people are purposely placed behind
them. With different colored bibs. That don’t have their name on them. Lots of
little details that say they’re a little different from that small group at the
front. Suddenly running into their pack –
their field- to me is no different from some fan that runs onto the field at a baseball
game. After that happens, no one says “yeah
but that’s Joe – he hits .500 in our weekend league. He’s real good so it's okay.” Really one could make the case for this being
no different than anyone running onto a stage that isn’t theirs to be on; in what circumstance, no matter how funny they are, does a heckler deserve a moment at a comedy show?
 |
| We all know there is a certain personality type that crashes someone else’s stage |
Sure, I understand he said it
was for his kids – so they could see him on television. And this is where everyone’s hearts melted, and
I suspect they threw common sense to the wind and convinced themselves this was
an okay thing to do because it was just such a nice story.
Did you hear about the Dad that risked everything (well, technically not everything, not really anything of his actually, just someone else's chance at winning a marathon) so his kids could see him on TV? Sigh....
Again, I’ve got to offer an alternate view
(and yes I have a heart, but it tends to beat in tandem with my brain). Is this where we
collectively want to be in terms of modelling an achievement for our kids?
Getting on television by inserting yourself onto a stage that a group of people spent
months (hell, basically their whole life) training and preparing for? Demanding a spotlight by doing something for five minutes that they will be doing for over two hours because they are - wait for it - better at it than you are?
Perhaps one of the greatest
things you can show your kids is the respect of leaving the stage or the field to
those who earned the right to perform on it.
