This morning I was reading an article where a running coach is telling his opinion about the runners of the marathon. This was shocking for me to read and made me angry. That is why I wrote down what I was thinking about it.
“When I stand on the sidelines and see people running, I sometimes get scared.” For example, some runners are overweight. “And with every step you take, your joints absorb two to three times your body weight,” says Esajas at WNL In de Kantine on NPO Radio 1. Moreover, according to him, many people who participate are not really trained. “In principle, anyone can run the marathon, but the top runners who run it within three hours are really fit,” he says. “The people who are not fit are behind." (Errol Esajas at wnl)
I'm shocked by what this running coach says.... in his eyes you have to have a pace beneath 4:20 min /km to be fit. While being fit is a term that mainly means: feeling energetic and healthy.
As it comes across to me, as a person with overweight I would not be fit / allowed to run..... I am not saying that I have the ambition to run the marathon. But with these 2 statements he completely misses the mark.
If you use top athletes as a standard, it becomes difficult to guide others properly. Because they are TOP athletes for a reason. They belong to the top of the world, while a large part is below that.
Why would someone not be fit if he/she runs for more than 3 hours. This average time on a marathon is 4 hours and 21 minutes, which means that you label a very large field of participants as not fit....
People who are overweight are also allowed to run. Yes, it's true that your joints have to absorb more of the impact. And yes, they will suffer faster / more from injuries. But that doesn't mean it's not okay. Who knows, maybe a runner has built up to a marathon distance through a long training. And he knows exactly how to run that race.
I would like to believe that I am fit, but even more I want to believe that I too can and am allowed to exercise.
And yes,... it's true that my bmi is too high. It's true that I have too much fat. And it's true that 1km costs me almost double the time of what this "running coach" says.
But I can do it, and I am doing it... I train 5 to 7 days a week. I participate in fitness races and I enjoy working out. I can easily push 155kg in front of me on a sled. Do an extensive workout and push myself to set a good time for me.
And what is a good time....? A good time is a time where I can say: I gave everything and did my best.
It mostly pisses me off. That a coach is able to put such a large group of the population aside and draw his own conclusions. I can imagine his clientele because they must all be top athletes if this is his opinion. The statements of this coach show once again how narrow-minded this societystill thinks. And how much it is necessary that there are people who share that exercising, if you are firmer or slower, is okay. And that you don't necessarily have to belong to the top to participate.
After some clicking on google, I find out that this coach was working on a project in 2017 where people with disabilities could exercise with top athletes. Because he thinks it's extremely important that these people can also exercise. This is a positive thing to read. Although I wonder what happened between 2017 and now that causes him to make the aforementioned statements now.
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