Don't Complain

[Last Place Jason]

Over the last few years, there seems to be an increase in the amount of complaining occurring in ultras. I wrote about it here. The gist of the message- don't complain about conditions, the race director, volunteers, or other such things. You just come off as an entitled whiny little bitch.

Who's with me?

 

[Larry]

I don't run ultras, but I'm with you. I can't even stand to hear a person complain about bad food in a restaurant. As for whining to volunteer officials, that's just not on. I think the organisers should just give all volunteers the right to disqualify any competitor on the spot, no questions asked. That'd sort them out.

 

[skedaddle]

Haha. I'm going to complain about people complaining about complainers, and if someone complains about me complaining about people complaining about the complainers i'm gonna complain some more.
It's just human nature to complain, often a way of relieving stress that would other wise boil over into something more ugly. You see it a lot around people who have invested a lot of time and energy into achieving a goal, often being used as a deflective tool to sidetrack moments of self doubt.
Complaining shouldn't be confused with outright rudeness though, i think there is a distinction between letting off some steam or being personally insulting towards the organizers of an event.
I'm British and consider it my God given right to complain about the weather, but i wouldn't insult the weatherman for forecasting more rain.

 

[Barefooting Bob]

Completely agree, the majority of Race Directors do all the work setting up the events out of their own time and do so willingly for the enjoyment of others or to raise money for a worthy charity. Volunteers for any event are just awesome period and should be thanked repeatedly by all racers, because without them the run probably would not happen. There is a time and a place to whine, and this is not one of them.

 

[migangelo]

not at ultras yet but may pace for krista, yeah right, if she/you do pine to trees or whatever.

as far as food. hell yeah. if i'm paying for it and i don't like it damn straight i will complain. it's my money.

 

[rickwhitelaw]

Should be a good rule for all distances. The race organizers want feedback, but if it is negative and a real concern, do it privately.

 

[KiwiRunning]

Actually i kinda feel that if something is clearly bad/wrong/nasty then its my duty to bring it to the attention of the Race Director. However i think doing that is different to standing around mouthing off, or whining about things, to anyone that will listen. The later i cannot abide, Sure some of it you can put down to what skedaddle mentions, but some people are just whingers.

 

[Last Place Jason]

If it's a situation that obviously puts runners in danger and the runners were not warned (like a lack of water on a hot course when water was advertised as being provided) people should bring it to the attention of the race director. If it's a situation where something just goes wrong that's out of the race director's control or the runner is just being a diva, they need to toughen the f*$@ up reassess their participation in their chosen event.

 

[KiwiRunning]

Well i disagree.

The last race i was at, a 6hr event. I noticed a discrepancy between my official distance and that shown on my GPS. After examining my GPS track i discovered that i was shortchanged 2 laps in the official results.

Now the race director and organisation is not at fault here, he had arranged for an electronic recording system, and even tried out every single tag to ensure that they were working. However despite his best effort there was still problems with my tag. I feel it is my duty to let him know that my official results dont match up with my actual performance. That way he can re-asses his technology choice, consider backup solutions, or perhapes even ammend the races terms and conditions.

I contacted him in private, after the event, with all the data i could gather to help him try and locate the problem. I do think it was important to 'complain' about this problem. I have nothing but praise for every other aspect of the race, and organisation.

FWIW this error cost me the outright win at the event, what would have been my first ever outright win.

So i think its important to complain... but i see a big difference between complaining, and whining. And i feel there is a right and a wrong way to complain. It would have been wrong for me to go online on the events page, or online forums and start badmouthing the director, or the event.

 

[Last Place Jason]

Kiwi- I definitely wouldn't consider that situation to be an example of excessive complaining, and I think you handled it perfectly. You're right... I use the term 'complaining" when "whining" would be much more appropriate for the point I was making.

 

[Bare Lee]

My only complaint is that ultras are too long.

 

[ElyDave]

I can complain about the weather as much as I want, no point bitching to the race director though a) he probably knows it's crappy conditions as well and b) what the f@?k is he going to do about it anyway?

on the one ultra I've done so far complaining about the weather between runners was one of the things that helped to relieve the tension of running in those conditions. Doesn't mean you should get any special treatment though.

 

[Hobbit]

I reflected a bit on the topic before sharing my thoughts on the subject.
I would also differentiate between people who tell in a way or other (the degree of rudeness often depends on the degree of individual tiredness) that something is off - so a specific problem can be solved in the best interest of all other participants, and people who use complaining, whining, swearing, whatever ... as a strategy to get attention. Getting attention from others equals getting energy from others. If you have a difficult moment, it does actually help to get you through this moment, although the other persons involved might not like your stealing their energy like that. But: everybody does it one moment in life or another and everybody has developed an individual strategy for it: For some it's complaining ("poor ME"), for others it's constant talking ("listen to ME"), for still others it's boasting personal achievements or personal specialness ("look at ME").
If I pinpoint the complainers as a horrible plague it might be that I simply don't like the fact that it is somebody else than ME who gets all the attention/energy from others and that my own strategy of personal specialness doesn't work as well.
I think, Mr. Freud called this a projection.

 

[RunningPirate]

I'm British and consider it my God given right to complain about the weather, but i wouldn't insult the weatherman for forecasting more rain.

Well, considering the weather that the UK is known for, I'd recommend you check your head if you didn't complain.... Many years ago, a former GF flew out from London to San Francisco and was just loving the weather we were having in SF and Monterey...it was December (OK, it was December in California, but still...)

I would also differentiate between people who tell in a way or other (the degree of rudeness often depends on the degree of individual tiredness) that something is off - so a specific problem can be solved in the best interest of all other participants, and people who use complaining, whining, swearing, whatever ... as a strategy to get attention.

+1 to this - noting there's a difference between bringing up a legitimate complaint or issue ("Terribly sorry to bother you. Not sure if you're aware, but that trail is leading everyone off of a 150 foot cliff like so many Lemmings.") vs bitching ("The trail is so dirty! ...and it has rocks! How come you didn't sweep it? you knew we were going to be running on it!")