" What do you make of the arguement that there are too many road races and that we should have less races in order to improve standards? "
To put that into context, we probably have 2-3 road races every week in the Cork region during the summer months. Ballycotton Running Promotions have their series, Cork BHAA have their own calendar of events, the various athletic clubs have their own races, there are races associated with festivals and there are loads of different fundraising events. Compared to elsewhere in the country, we seem to have a very high number of races in Cork.
I guess the person that asked the question may feel that if some of the faster runners are doing too many races then their overall times may be slower as a result.
Are there too many races? Do overall times and standards really matter? Would you prefer to see fewer races?
14 comments:
I'm not a very competitive runner myself, been doing a lot of the races this summer, tend to finish about half way down the field. I don't feel there are too many races. I don't do them all of course - there's no ongoing league table that I'm aware of, apart from the Ballycotton series, so there's no pressure to do them all. If you feel it's a race too many, just give one or 2 a skip! Some locations will suit some people, others not, so it's great to have such a spread of races around the county.
I don't think there are too many races as there is plenty of choice for athlete's of all level's. However the calendar in the summer month's is very congested. Would it be worth spreading the races out beyond the summer month's? For instance there are very few shorter races scheduled for September. As a club runner myself I will not do more than 2 races a month as alot of weekday races will also clash with training and I think I would burn out if I was racing week in week out.
Standards improve with more practice not with less. This holds true for all things in life... :)
If we look at the Cork race calendar for the next week (off Johns main page) there is a race in Bantry (90 miles west of the city), Mitchelstown (40 miles north of the city), Crookhaven (90 miles west of the City) and Novartis. So for a city slicker like me I have one BHAA 5K race I can feasibly get to. Thats not great.
Take a look at the back of a UK based Runners mag next time your in a booksore. Its rammed full of race meets up and down their country.
In my humble opinion there are not enough races in Cork!!! :-)
Just a correction...Mitchelstown is 50km or 30 miles from Cork City. With the new motorway, it takes about 38 mins to drive to from Cork City, much the same as any of the Ballycotton races.
This is the old chestnut, that gets trotted out every year...., a variation on the theme of... are the non-elite joggers bringing the elite runners down...who could seriously suggest that running standards fall because there might be too many races ?
I think the person that left the original comment may have felt that doing too many races would result in a drop in performance which is certainly true.
However, there is no reason why someone cannot run fewer faster races.
"who could seriously suggest that running standards fall because there might be too many races ". Lots of people would suggest that standards fall because there might be too many races. The argument is that due to a large number of races those at the front, who need competition to improve are now not getting that competition. I have often heard interviews with top class elites where they talk about needing races to sharpen up. Even they need that extra element of competition to bring out the best in them. With weakened fields due to too any races the gaps between the top 3 or 5 runners means that often they run the majority of the race on their owne.
It's not the argument at all, the point that is being made that in the opening statement is "some of the faster runners are doing too many races then their overall times may be slower as a result." This suggests that the quality competitors head to every available race, surely heightening the competition.
I think you will find there are 2 points in the article, the main one in bold is "should we have less races in order to improve standards" and the second leads from Johns interpretation of that statement. Johns interpretation suggests that the standard is dropping as the faster runners are doing too many races. I feel that if there is a problem it may be that with so many races, it is the case that its rare to get a very strong field in any race, there by reducing the level of competition needed to improve standards in general.
I recently heard an interview with Ron Hill where he gave out about this advent of interval,tempo,speed sessions etc. His arguement was back when he was running at a high level the theory was to go out and train a few times a week at a steady pace then go off and do a race to "sharpen up". He then used the point that the amount of men breaking say 2:30 at the london marathon 30 - 40 years ago was far greater than the amount of men currently breaking that time.
So from his point of view it would seem that the amount of races on in Cork would be a good thing.
i doubt ron hill went for a few runs and then r aced for a bit.if you read about his training he consistantly ran well over 100miles a week and is go the guiness book of records for having run every day without taking a break.However a take your point about using races to sharpen up.there is no substitute for good competitive racing
Granted the question posed as a Debate and while debate is worthwhile I think we have not gone into the realm of speculation and conjecture.
We need to simplify the response to the original question and look the direction of the debate. How can there be too many races when we still have big numbers attending most of them ? Running is for all levels and if someone can run a race in West Cork due to the proximity of the event to their home/work then great. 10 years ago that race may not have existed and that same person may not have had the opportunity to take part. I'm not sure any of us are qualified to say for sure that standards have dropped due to the fact that there are too many races....I for one am delighted that I can travel within 20 miles of where I run and take part in an event every week. A clubmate of mine recently ran 3 races in 7 days and set PB's in 2 of them so he was delighted there was such a choice. .don't take this so seriously !!
I agree, numbers are up, PBs are probably fuelling enthusism & for participants are literally voting with their feet !
Sorry that was a bit unclear about Ron Hill. I was not saying he wasn't constantly running as its well documented about the amount of time he was on his feet. All he was really saying is don't think about intervals etc too much just go out and run, then do a race to sharpen up and you will improve as a runner. i.e. Racing can pretty much replace "sessions" once you have time on your feet already done
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