Well, generally I try to be culturally sensitive and accepting, but when my health and or safety are threatened, all that politally correct crap can take a back seat. I have little to no tolerance for rudeness of any sorts and those who know me know very well that I am a no BS person meaning I take no BS nor do I tolerete it in any way,shape,or form. What happened at the start of the 10k was definitely bullshit (pardon my French) in the highest degree.
One of the things, I have noticed over the years is that the vast majotiry here fail miserably at good old fashioned etiquette and common sense. This was discussed a while back on the expat site and what people there were describing was very similar to trail etiquette or serious lack thereof. Anyone who has ever run trails, sidewalks, or bike paths in just about any Western country knows trail etiquette. Most of it is common sense stuff like when a skiier, cyclist, runner,etc. approaches from behind they generally holler "on the right" or "on the left" so you know where they are and move off to the side to let them by;. it's common effing sense. I can't tell how many times I have been on narrow singletrack trails especially in the winter and it's rare as hell if anyone yields to anyone else. Sometimes, it's just absurd. Years ago, a group of us were doing intervals on an isolated 1k loop Coach had marked for us in the park where I have trained now for over 10 years. Now, most people will actually step aside on the singletrack when they see a half dozen runners barrelling down at 5 min or so mile pace. In our group at the time we had the female and male Russian national champions. JFC, in the States if you saw Ryan or Meb barrelling down the trail wouldn't you get the feck out of the way? So one day there was a stubborn old hag that just didn't want to move to the side for just a few seconds and finally it resulted in the top guy in the group first asking her nicely then, to no avail ,finally having to chew her ass out. Same thing goes for bigass WIDE sidewalks. People feel the need to hog the whole damn sidewalk. Moms with prams are the worst. How hard is it to move to the left or right and let someone by? Some time ago, my coach and I were doing intervals in April on a marked 1000m WIDE sidewalk in the park while we were waiting for the snow to melt off the track. Two rude moms with prams just had to hog the whole damn sidewalk and not let anyone by,runners, walkers, dog walkers..... Coach asked them nicely a couple times -no luck trying to reason with these snotty witches so finally, same thing, he had to chew them out. JFC will walking single file for a couple seconds kill you? No, you are NOT God's gift to the Earth, the sidewalk is plenty BIG and WIDE enough to share with everyone else or did they fail to teach you this in flipping KINDERGARTEN?
Apparently this is a Russian thing. I was running trails in Vilnius last winter and on several occasions I observed the same trail and or sidewalk etiquette practiced just about everywhere else. Walkers, moms with prams, etc. yielded to skiiers, runners,cyclists without question. Hmmm so just cross the border I guess to find good ol' trail etiquette and common sense. It's also basic common sense from a safety standpoint. Same thing in Latvia, people move aside if they know you are coming.
Lack of etiquette ruled at the 10k that is run in conjunction with the Moscow Marathon in September. Actually, I DID NOT want to run this race. In fact, anytime a foreigner asks me about the Moscow Marathon I always give them several reasons not to waste their legs on it and suggest other better races in the area in the fall that are better organized. I wanted to run the 6k the day before but it was unclear if or how they were going to set up a spot to leave your stuff while you ran. I had better things to do than risk some a-hole jacking my stuff (street bums do hang in parks ).
This year, the Russian marathon national championship was part of this marathon. Now the way the start was organized was just pathetic especially for a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! I typically start up front, but decided to use a little common sense and respect and position myself behind the runners in the national championship. Tanya and Julia were slightly in front of me and they were also doing the 10 so I figured I would just position myself and run with them once we got going since we have been running together or not far from one another most of the season. Again COMMON SENSE. A couple minutes before the stert, they packed us in like effing sardines. I have been in many many large mass races like Chicago, Boston, and Riga to name a few and Chicago gets 40 some thousand out and I have NEVER EVER had issues at the start. Part of this is because based on qualifying I've always had sub elite starts at these races and am in an area with people running my pace, the other part is that at these races people don't behave like goddamn animals (or at least not from where I have ever started). Most use common sense and respect each other. They have started doing a corral or estimated pace system at some of the races in Moscow and it tends to work well. This was a great move on the organizer's part.
So, after packing in your national class marathoners and everyone else in like sardines, they starte the race. Worst start I have witnessed at a national championship anywhere in the world and I thought, do they have no respect for these elite runners? I have never been knocked over , sure, I've fallen on my ass usually on icy trails in the winter, but never had some asshole knock me over. All hell pretty much broke loose at the start. Yes, a fatass asshole got me but I was very lucky someone quickly scooped me up from behind or it could have been much worse. Glad to know there are still SOME decent people out there. So now bruised and bloody, I was off and mad as hell. At that point, I just took the eff you all approach and plowed my way through much like my girlfirend on the US 100k team had to do last winter when she ran a half and had elite seeding but a bunch of assholes in the crowd wouldn't let her to her corral. It was a Rock n Roll half and I have heard lots of negative feedback on how those events are organized depending on the city-not the best place for serious runners apparently.
Do I really need this sh!t a week before my own national marathon championship in Latvia? I was just using this race as a final tune-up.I remember years ago when I fell running on icy trail in Krasnodar as a college student and had to have stitches in my chin(still have the scar 18 yrs later) and my friend's mother telling me it's ok to fall and have stitches, but NEVER break a bone here or they will never set it right and you will be screwed. Now, sadly, this is still somewhat true depending on what doctor you get. I know someone who had to have his finger REBROKEN THREE TIMES before they finally set it right but then another buddy broke his leg in 3 spots and got decent care as did my boss who busted 6 ribs a few yrs ago. It can be a scary crap shoot though. Luckily, no busted bones, but if I hadn't been scooped up by someone, I'd have been fecked plain and simple.
So, after all the bullshit, all I could come up with was a slow but even pace which put my 10k at 39.15. Dammit- bare bones minimum was to go under 39 but more realistic Coach and I were thinking 38.30-40s ish. The legspeed was definitely back after the 50k as I'd done 10x 800m on paved hills in the low 2.50s three days earlier without seriously busting my ass but giving a decent effort so as not to be too tired before the weekend. So, that was my lovely tuneup going into NCs this weekend. I know the language in this post is somewhat harsh, but it does truly reflect how I feel about people who have sh!t for brains!
Pic by Nadya Arinushkina
Tanya and I after the finish-pic Andrey Sedin
Pic- Masha Shalneva
(sleeve eff up in the fall too apparently)
One of the things, I have noticed over the years is that the vast majotiry here fail miserably at good old fashioned etiquette and common sense. This was discussed a while back on the expat site and what people there were describing was very similar to trail etiquette or serious lack thereof. Anyone who has ever run trails, sidewalks, or bike paths in just about any Western country knows trail etiquette. Most of it is common sense stuff like when a skiier, cyclist, runner,etc. approaches from behind they generally holler "on the right" or "on the left" so you know where they are and move off to the side to let them by;. it's common effing sense. I can't tell how many times I have been on narrow singletrack trails especially in the winter and it's rare as hell if anyone yields to anyone else. Sometimes, it's just absurd. Years ago, a group of us were doing intervals on an isolated 1k loop Coach had marked for us in the park where I have trained now for over 10 years. Now, most people will actually step aside on the singletrack when they see a half dozen runners barrelling down at 5 min or so mile pace. In our group at the time we had the female and male Russian national champions. JFC, in the States if you saw Ryan or Meb barrelling down the trail wouldn't you get the feck out of the way? So one day there was a stubborn old hag that just didn't want to move to the side for just a few seconds and finally it resulted in the top guy in the group first asking her nicely then, to no avail ,finally having to chew her ass out. Same thing goes for bigass WIDE sidewalks. People feel the need to hog the whole damn sidewalk. Moms with prams are the worst. How hard is it to move to the left or right and let someone by? Some time ago, my coach and I were doing intervals in April on a marked 1000m WIDE sidewalk in the park while we were waiting for the snow to melt off the track. Two rude moms with prams just had to hog the whole damn sidewalk and not let anyone by,runners, walkers, dog walkers..... Coach asked them nicely a couple times -no luck trying to reason with these snotty witches so finally, same thing, he had to chew them out. JFC will walking single file for a couple seconds kill you? No, you are NOT God's gift to the Earth, the sidewalk is plenty BIG and WIDE enough to share with everyone else or did they fail to teach you this in flipping KINDERGARTEN?
Apparently this is a Russian thing. I was running trails in Vilnius last winter and on several occasions I observed the same trail and or sidewalk etiquette practiced just about everywhere else. Walkers, moms with prams, etc. yielded to skiiers, runners,cyclists without question. Hmmm so just cross the border I guess to find good ol' trail etiquette and common sense. It's also basic common sense from a safety standpoint. Same thing in Latvia, people move aside if they know you are coming.
Lack of etiquette ruled at the 10k that is run in conjunction with the Moscow Marathon in September. Actually, I DID NOT want to run this race. In fact, anytime a foreigner asks me about the Moscow Marathon I always give them several reasons not to waste their legs on it and suggest other better races in the area in the fall that are better organized. I wanted to run the 6k the day before but it was unclear if or how they were going to set up a spot to leave your stuff while you ran. I had better things to do than risk some a-hole jacking my stuff (street bums do hang in parks ).
This year, the Russian marathon national championship was part of this marathon. Now the way the start was organized was just pathetic especially for a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! I typically start up front, but decided to use a little common sense and respect and position myself behind the runners in the national championship. Tanya and Julia were slightly in front of me and they were also doing the 10 so I figured I would just position myself and run with them once we got going since we have been running together or not far from one another most of the season. Again COMMON SENSE. A couple minutes before the stert, they packed us in like effing sardines. I have been in many many large mass races like Chicago, Boston, and Riga to name a few and Chicago gets 40 some thousand out and I have NEVER EVER had issues at the start. Part of this is because based on qualifying I've always had sub elite starts at these races and am in an area with people running my pace, the other part is that at these races people don't behave like goddamn animals (or at least not from where I have ever started). Most use common sense and respect each other. They have started doing a corral or estimated pace system at some of the races in Moscow and it tends to work well. This was a great move on the organizer's part.
So, after packing in your national class marathoners and everyone else in like sardines, they starte the race. Worst start I have witnessed at a national championship anywhere in the world and I thought, do they have no respect for these elite runners? I have never been knocked over , sure, I've fallen on my ass usually on icy trails in the winter, but never had some asshole knock me over. All hell pretty much broke loose at the start. Yes, a fatass asshole got me but I was very lucky someone quickly scooped me up from behind or it could have been much worse. Glad to know there are still SOME decent people out there. So now bruised and bloody, I was off and mad as hell. At that point, I just took the eff you all approach and plowed my way through much like my girlfirend on the US 100k team had to do last winter when she ran a half and had elite seeding but a bunch of assholes in the crowd wouldn't let her to her corral. It was a Rock n Roll half and I have heard lots of negative feedback on how those events are organized depending on the city-not the best place for serious runners apparently.
Do I really need this sh!t a week before my own national marathon championship in Latvia? I was just using this race as a final tune-up.I remember years ago when I fell running on icy trail in Krasnodar as a college student and had to have stitches in my chin(still have the scar 18 yrs later) and my friend's mother telling me it's ok to fall and have stitches, but NEVER break a bone here or they will never set it right and you will be screwed. Now, sadly, this is still somewhat true depending on what doctor you get. I know someone who had to have his finger REBROKEN THREE TIMES before they finally set it right but then another buddy broke his leg in 3 spots and got decent care as did my boss who busted 6 ribs a few yrs ago. It can be a scary crap shoot though. Luckily, no busted bones, but if I hadn't been scooped up by someone, I'd have been fecked plain and simple.
So, after all the bullshit, all I could come up with was a slow but even pace which put my 10k at 39.15. Dammit- bare bones minimum was to go under 39 but more realistic Coach and I were thinking 38.30-40s ish. The legspeed was definitely back after the 50k as I'd done 10x 800m on paved hills in the low 2.50s three days earlier without seriously busting my ass but giving a decent effort so as not to be too tired before the weekend. So, that was my lovely tuneup going into NCs this weekend. I know the language in this post is somewhat harsh, but it does truly reflect how I feel about people who have sh!t for brains!
(sleeve eff up in the fall too apparently)
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