If you've read much of my blog before, you'll probably know of my general distaste for "participation" in sports. The whole EFFING reason for sports is to COMPETE. If you want to just go for a run, JUST GO FOR A RUN. Races are for a REASON.
As I said earlier, I think it's much cooler to acknowledge that you don't want to put yourself out there by actually racing all out, and just go for a run with friends. The whole idea of feeling accomplished because you FINISHED a race is, pardon my french, horseshit.
You may have guessed, due to the abundance of uppercase above, that I am annoyed. That's because I just got an email from the organizers of the Breckenridge Trail Series. Now, before we get started, I LOVE this race series (and, full disclosure, I won all six short course races last year, so I have a vested interest in the prizes, but this isn't necessarily about that). It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen, with tons of local participation, and some great afterparties. This year, the organizers have decided that, in order to make the swag they get from The North Face Breckenridge Store (an awesome sponsor who gives a lot of swag!) go further, they've decided to take away PRIZES from all but ONE age group per week, and save them for a raffle, to "spread the North Face love."
This means that, no matter how hard a racer goes in each of these 6 races, in only ONE of those races could they get a prize for winning/podium, because they've been thrown into the raffle pot. That's like saying "We want to make sure everyone who races gets a medal, so you don't get one for winning."
What is this teaching the kids in this series? The ones that I coach week in and week out ALL year, that if you work hard, and train well, you will be rewarded.
Little Johnny: "Yay I worked hard in practice, and I won! Do I get a prize?"
Coach Joe: "Nope."
Little Johnny: "But that guy over there got a prize for winning? Don't I?"
Coach Joe: "Nope."
Little Johnny: "But last week Little Jimmy beat me and got a prize!"
Coach Joe: "Tough titties."
Little Johnny: "And Little Susie got a prize, and she didn't even try hard! She walked half of it!"
Coach Joe: "?????"
What the hell? I would be much more in line with NOT HAVING PRIZES AT ALL, and just having a raffle. That would at least be CONSISTENT.
From an adult/personal standpoint, it just pisses me off. I hate coddling people who don't work hard enough to win by giving them my prizes. This may sound harsh, but we ALREADY have short and long courses, as well as AGE and GENDER groups, to make sure that the competitions are fair, and that I don't take prizes from a 50 year old women who trains just as hard as I do.
I don't care about the swag. I don't do this series to make money/get prizes/get medals. I have 4 North Face shirts from last year. I wear them ALL the time, but I don't really need more. It's the PRINCIPLE of this that steams me. Taking away the prizes from the winners to give to anyone else is just reinforcing the notion that training hard and racing hard don't matter, which is, again, horseshit.
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