Well, the title of this post might at least get some hits here ----
Every time I go to a large road race I am reminded of the weird road-whore subculture that exists in the sport of long distance running. While some people do not seem to have a hard time forming an opinion (well thought-out or not) I would like to step back and look at it some.
If you've run a road race at an elite level, you'll likely meet a lot of similar people the day before, or at the starting line. If there's money on the line, you'll also probably meet a lot of people that are not "American". For the sake of brevity going on, I will refer to these groups as "Citizens" "Non-Citizens".
I've noticed a sometimes palpable disdain toward Non-Citizen runners at races, and to be honest, I've felt it myself. The most common countries of origin for these runners are Kenya and Ethiopia. Oftentimes runners from those two countries are the fastest runners around. Actually, all of the current world distance records are held by people from those countries (from 2k up, I think). Over the last number of years, many people from those two places have to come over to the U.S. and have started winning money at road races.
Xenophobia is far from an American construct. People always distrust people that are different from them. We are a small and self-righteous race. Shrunken down to the American road-race scene, the following feelings seem prevalent:
A. "These runners are coming over here and taking prize money away from me"
B. "Why don't they try to make their own country's national teams and get paid that way?"
those are the nicest/least racist things I've heard and thought.
But why do we fear these things?
I can only try to self-psychoanalyze why I have harbored feelings like this in the past. I'm not promising any breakthroughs here...
on point A. - I fear these runners because they run faster than me. Boiled down to its most hard-to-accept, I don't want to hurt bad enough or work hard enough to beat these runners. I don't have the self-confidence to mix it up with them and try to take the money for myself. I'd much rather I didn't have to race them and only had to race guys that look and talk like me. I don't think this condition is exclusive to me. I do not admit to being weak. In fact, I am willing to work very hard, and hurt very much, but deep, deep down, everyone must admit that at some point they wuss out.
point B. - This is another sort of manifestation of one's own lack of confidence, though not as obvious at once. Similarly, we don't want to race them. We want to pretend if only for one race that we are the best in the world. I loved this in high school - I was able to crush all of the meets in my little section of the state. Then when I went up against the best competition from the Midwest, it was a severe humbling experience. I didn't like it. Nobody does.
Perhaps I'm reaching for catharsis via blog, but I think as the road race landscape continues to evolve, American citizen racers need to confront their own potential racism and personal confidence reasons for the way they feel toward non-citizen racers. Luckily for all of us so far, the United States was founded on accepting principles. People came here from other places to find a home in which they could become part of a new society and not be persecuted for their previous customs and conditions. It obviously hasn't always worked out that way, but to hold fast to an us versus them mentality is straight-up un-American.
I'd appreciate any comments on this - I know it was a rambling and none of my claims were really backed up, so if you want to chime in, please do so, but please think it out first and be nice.
