Why Do People Hate Runners?

The theme for this week’s post has been brewing for a while, percolating away in the far reaches of my brain, keeping me company on long runs. I wasn’t sure how to approach it and, if I’m being truthful, I was also worried it would be perceived negatively. I mean, I love running so why would I write about why people hate runners?  Wouldn’t it be disloyal? Surely, as someone who’s livelihood literally depends on running and runners, I wouldn’t even entertain the idea that people could possibly have fair reason to hate runners and worse still, that runners could have valid reasons to hate runners. But as I’ve written about recently, the landscape of runners and the running community is evolving, and I do want to write about how I am seeing these dynamics play out, and also how I’m observing them influencing (or trying to influence) me.

Even as a seasoned runner and a running coach, I’m absolutely not immune to this shift in the landscape. There have been times, recent times, when I’ve compared myself to the hordes of “running influencers/coaches” with thousands of followers on social media. I’ve eye-rolled at yet another live stream of a runner “skipping” along in a race, spewing the usual script of how they’re taking this race easy, while I’m there dying and digging as deep as I can possibly go.

Jogging!!!!

There is no denying that as the the popularity of running grows, so do the running haters. The ferocity of their dislike is evident in the passive aggressive posting of memes and cartoons, displaying car bumper stickers proudly proclaiming 0.0 miles!

We are social creatures and whilst running is a very individual sport, the emergence of accessible communities via online platforms and forums enables us to connect with other runners, share our runs, compete virtually and of course support each other on a now global level. This engagement and immersement of ourselves into the running community without having to be physically present helps us to build our “runner identity” without the physical, in person pressure of being a good enough or fast enough runner.

And I’m all for breaking down barriers and creating safe spaces that encourage us to feel as though we belong, that we can access communities that were historically, potentially, unavailable to us. I mean, it’s the entire reason I set up my running club in the first place, with exactly this aim (albeit on a local community scale).

In the past to be a member of a running group/club/community, you had to physically turn up, often full of fears, anxiety and doubts about identifying as a “runner”. There wasn’t the safety net of the social network wall to hide behind, you had to somehow prove that you were a runner by, erm, actually turning up and running. Identifying as a runner relied on these traditional settings of face-to-face interactions with the physical attributes, with a burden of proof.

In my personal experience, back then this face-to-face interaction was a terrifying and not-for-the-faint-hearted ordeal, like a horrible initiation test that had to be passed to be part of the “in” running group. The run usually consisted of everyone pelting out of the car park, newbies hanging on to their coattails unable to catch a breath, feeling inadequate, slow and unfit. Which of course all just reinforces the identity of not being a runner, resulting in feeling humiliated and vowing never to try again as you scuttle back to the car; failing the initiation test with a big fat F.

Thank goodness these days are now behind us as the impact of social media influences how we can construct our own self-image, self-identity and feelings of belonging, and we’re no longer dependant on these “in” groups to decide whether or not we’re worthy of association, and can gain access to the invisible and rarefied title of “runner”.

Social Identity theory (SIT)

Social identity theory is not a new construct to explain people’s identification and affiliations within their groups, I used to enjoy teaching this to my A level students highlighting how easy in-group and out-group attitudes can be aligned and how simple it can be to create rivalries between 2 groups.  Tajfel & Turner (1979) suggest that three mental processes occur when people classify others belonging to their in-group or to an out-group. Firstly, we socially categorise ourselves and assign a category we believe we belong to ie gender, runner, age etc.  After being socially categorised, we adopt the identity of the group and conform to the norms of the group, known as social identity.  The third mental process is social comparison which refers to how we compare our own group with other groups to maintain a feeling of superiority over an out-group.  Just think of sporting rivalries and how deep these feeling go, England vs Scotland, Southampton vs Portsmouth…..

However, with the need to feel as though we belong, the ramifications of not belonging can be damaging, perceptions of being rejected, or when our need to belong is unfulfilled, can lead to feelings of unhappiness, helplessness and experience being ostracised. This deliberate exclusion from groups can be highly stressful and can lead to depression, disordered thinking and even aggression.  

Have you heard of a “detractor”? It means “a person who tries to take away from the quality, value, or reputation of someone or something”, and whilst this is a new word to me, when I thought about this in terms of the SIT it resonated and lent itself to more of an understanding of how if someone feels slighted by not being in the “in-group” then they are more prone to criticise, mock, put down and fault the group that appears superior to everyone else; bumper stickers displaying 0.0 miles?

Back to running

What is luck?

It makes sense then that if our self-identity and self-worth is derived through membership and belonging of the many running communities/group online, that by default of human interaction there would be the natural creation of the in-group and out-group phonomime, however, the more I thought about this, the more I thought, does the in-group out-group just apply to runner’s vs non-runners?

Or have social media and communication platforms created an in-group/out-group divide amongst the running community as the cultural attitude shifts from what was once a niche activity to the now thriving and mainstream fitness pursuit?  

As running communities, clubs and groups grow, there is literally a running group for everyone, Slow As F**K Run Club has a staggering 225.6k members in their FB group, it claims to be inclusive yet is it excluding runners who run a pace faster than? well yes, faster than what? who decides what pace Slow AF is? Are there runners in this group who are feeling marginalized because they run faster or slower than the “average” person who posts in the group.

And in the past, rather naively, before I truly understood the etiquette, impact and importance of WhatsApp groups, I’ve seen the devastating effect of what not being part of a WhatsApp group can do to a person within my own club.  As a handful of my members created a WhatsApp group for an overseas race, calling it “Palma Elite”, excluding other members also on the trip, unintentionally creating a perceived “in-group”, sharing banter, social updates and generally being in the so called loop. I had to mop up a few tears and smooth over feelings of being excluded as they felt they were the unimportant “out-group”, the fallout wasn’t pretty.

So I suppose where I am at with this now is that I have an increased awareness that we have to be mindful of the potential, inadvertent division creators that communities can make. We need to ensure that within our sector and our communities we not only welcome diversity but celebrate it, with the aim to try to ignore the ever amplified social media effect that can lead to a false sense of hierarchy. And if I’ve learnt one thing over the last 20 odd years it’s that you just don’t know what’s going on in a person’s life, or what they have to deal with on a daily basis, whatever their “online identity”. Don’t run because of what you think it says about you to other people, just run because it makes you feel good.