The Jingle Bell Run today was quite frightening and depressing

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Originally Posted by Maybe So

Perhaps instead of being snarky, you should applaud them for participating. That event could be a health turning point in their lives. They made the commitment and effort to participate - they could have stayed home but they didn't. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't......

I applaud anyone brave enough to try, that doesn't mean I can't be depressed seeing how many young people can't walk or run 3 miles without risking their lives. I'm not saying anyone except the mobility scooter lady should have stayed home, she more of a risk to the participants than anything else and the only thing that she worked out was her finger on the joy stick.

[testmo]

Op thinks any type of fun run is a legitamate run? There are plent of non obese people doing it and the rest do it to socialize and support charity. Its not taken seriously. Id laugh at the family bringing little kids

[pooker]

Some people do it to spend time with their family. You don't have to be so judgmental of people.

[Neo45]

It is Hilarous how sensitive people are now a days. No wonder kids are in such horrible shape, u cant push them hard to do outdoor activities or tell them to lose weight without hurting skeojes feelings

[CSD610]

Originally Posted by TheMoreYouKnow

I applaud anyone brave enough to try, that doesn't mean I can't be depressed seeing how many young people can't walk or run 3 miles without risking their lives. I'm not saying anyone except the mobility scooter lady should have stayed home, she more of a risk to the participants than anything else and the only thing that she worked out was her finger on the joy stick.

and who are you to determine that the only reason she is using the scooter is her size?
Perhaps she has a terminal illness.
Maybe she did not get obese until AFTER she started having to use the scooter.
She could have COPD or asthma or any other type of lung disease.
She could have a liver disease that prevents her from doing much physical activity without becoming completely fatigued.

It is YOUR opinion she is a risk and if her using a power scooter is that risky to you and your family, stay home where it is safe and you don't have to deal with all the frightning people using power scooters.

[analogkid84]

"Races", in general, have gone the way of the dodo. Everyone wants a tech shirt, a spread of food and drinks at the finish, and a medal just for finishing, which raises the prices. Municipalities, seeing the rise in the number of these jogfests, have begun gouging race directors for road closings and other support, which should cost something understandably, but the higher rates obviously translate downward into the race fees. It's getting harder and harder to find local 5k and 10k races where the entrants actually want to put a modicum of training in and actually run to the best of their ability on race day. Maybe it's just sour grapes after running for almost 20 years and not realizing way-back-when that I should have had more business sense and jumped in on the for-profit trend in organizing "races" where people want to get spray painted or wallow in the mud in an untimed event.

And yes, maybe some of those folks are turning a corner health-wise - fine. But why the need for all of the validation and perks. If you're going to enter a race, then race. Up to that point do what makes sense nutrition-wise, follow a consistent training plan, race, get your result and enjoy the progress, continue.

[bluelion_ms3]

Originally Posted by TheMoreYouKnow

My family and I have done the 3 mile fun run/walk of the Jingle Bell Run in downtown Houston for a few years now. We normally bring a wagon and pull the smaller kids while letting the older kids walk as much as they want to. Over the years it's become quite evident that this 3 mile course is the only physical exercise most of these people ever see during the year but today's walk was downright depressing.

There must have been at least 1500 people doing the 3 mile run/walk and there were people who couldn't make it to the first turn to get out of downtown Houston, that can't be more than a couple blocks past the starting line. These weren't elderly people, these were young people who were in such bad shape they had to stop and sit on the sidewalk downtown after walking only a few thousand feet at the most. We waited until most of the people started because we had a wagon and didn't want to block people up front but even pulling a wagon with 2 kids in it we passed at least half of the people on the course.

The most excitement of the day was watching an morbidly obese woman in her power scooter run over the foot of her son a few times on the course then blame him for being in the way. When you have to hang the race t-shirt over the back of your power scooter seat because the XXXL size won't fit you why don't you just not "drive" the course and stay out of the way?

Overall the day was beautiful, we did the 3 miles in 1 hour and 2 minutes pulling about 50lbs of wagon, kids, coats and other junk which isn't too bad considering the traffic.

so with your logic, your "older kids" will turn into the "young people" that could only walk a few thousand feet at most....

i applaud anyone that does the fun runs/marathons. i've seen the internet meme that says

"the slowest runner/walker is still faster than the person sitting on the couch"

that says a lot about the people that actually got out there and attempted to complete the fun run. they got off the couch. and they probably still finished the run, just not in a record fast time.

as for the lady in the scooter, i agree that she probably should've stayed home if she wasn't going to walk, but at least she paid an entrance fee and it went to a good cause....

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Originally Posted by testmo

Op thinks any type of fun run is a legitamate run? There are plent of non obese people doing it and the rest do it to socialize and support charity. Its not taken seriously. Id laugh at the family bringing little kids

I didn't say it was a true competition, it's just a fun run which I believe everyone is aware of already. Why exactly would you laugh at families bringing little kids to a family oriented fun run that encourages families to bring kids? There weren't any families in the 5 mile run, this was the second event.

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Originally Posted by CSD610

and who are you to determine that the only reason she is using the scooter is her size?
Perhaps she has a terminal illness.
Maybe she did not get obese until AFTER she started having to use the scooter.
She could have COPD or asthma or any other type of lung disease.
She could have a liver disease that prevents her from doing much physical activity without becoming completely fatigued.

It is YOUR opinion she is a risk and if her using a power scooter is that risky to you and your family, stay home where it is safe and you don't have to deal with all the frightning people using power scooters.

I determined that she was very careless and potentially going to seriously hurt someone worse than she already had done. I don't really care why she was in the 500lb range and driving her power scooter in a fun run/walk as long as she doesn't run over any innocent people actually participating in the event. That's not an opinion, that's a fact based on the fact that she ran over her own child a couple times in the short amount of time it took us to get around her.