Running races, Social Awareness & the Environment

Smita Kolhatkar
Jul 25, 2017 · 5 min read

Yesterday, I finished running one of the most beautiful races in the world in my opinion — The San Francisco Marathon — I did the Half this time. It served as a wonderful training run for my next marathon in a little over two months. I enjoyed getting two medals, as I mentioned on a couple of Social Media groups, for the 40th Anniversary of the race, having completed the full marathons in 2005 and 2010 and the halves in 2016 and 2017. Running is something I took to when I was ten years old growing up in India and has stuck with me through my life through school, University, work life, changes in relationships, moving countries, having children and seeing them grow up, etc.

I did not run in those Oofos sandals

It was a beautiful morning. A runner’s high before running a step…

The sun rising which made for beautiful skies and then the fog rolled in for perfect running conditions

It has been wonderful to see the running community grow over the years, both here in the United States and in India where I grew up. I really like that more people are committed to fitness, to working out, want to lead healthy lifestyles. Just like with everything else, when you get more people in the picture, you starting running into more issues. So the popular races are super crowded which is to be expected. Crowded is relative and it doesn’t mean much. Growing up in Bombay (now Mumbai) which had a population of about 20 million people even twenty-plus years ago, one learns to navigate the crowd. So that really isn’t an issue.

What I do see as a problem is the civic sense and common sportsmanship sense combined with social awareness that doesn’t seem to be translated to each runner. There are many runners who are very conscious, but I feel like that is a dying breed. With so many training groups and so many races, everyone emphasizes the training aspect which is so important. Nowhere do I see groups or race organizers talking about courteous behaviour. Being an educator, it is really important to me to model what we would like our children to be doing, to enable them to grow into responsible, model citizens of tomorrow’s world. If we cannot do that, it will be a disaster with the next generation. And I don’t see that in the races. It is very sad. So I thought it is time I wrote about it and spoke up, hoping the message reaches the masses. I want to be proud to call myself a runner, and one who participates in races, not to hide my face when I hear someone talking down “those runners”.

What is it exactly that I mean by this non-social-sense phenomenon?

  1. Water Stations: Yes, it is wonderful to have all those water stops after paying so much in a race. Each water stop has a few large garbage cans to throw your cup when done. How many actually take the effort to throw their cups in the bins? Yes, of course there are volunteers (and note they are volunteers) to clean up but again I will go to my educational analogy. We expect children to clean up behind them, not leave their litter or messes. Why is it that we can’t take a few seconds to dispose those cups well? Not only is it filthy, it becomes an accident-prone zone due to the fact that it is so slippery. Please, please please if you run races and you aren’t aware, throw the cup in a bin. Just suppose there aren’t enough bins, it doesn’t weigh anything at all and one can carry the cup to the next garbage bin on the route. This litter is the main reason why the National Park races are no cup races.
  2. Fuel Stations: Runners need some kind of fuel. So each race provides some form of gu, gel, chewies, etc. Please do not take one if you are going to trash it right away. Please do not eat one chewy and throw the rest on the road. Please do not eat the gu or gel and trash the packet along the way. There are hundreds and thousands of chewies and packets littering the road. Why can’t each person racing take that little extra effort to dump all this in the trash cans? Again, it is an accident prone zone because the chewies are slippery. Again, the packets weigh next to nothing and can be carried to the next bin.
  3. Selfie-taking: Can all selfie-takers please move to the side away from the crowd so as not to cause people to stumble? If the road is clean and good, that’s great. But remember we might have cups, we might have gel packets, and in the case of San Francisco — fog which starts condensing and makes the roads super slippery.
  4. Courteousness to fellow-runners. I am not in any kind of elite category of running and nor are all the people who are normally before and after me. So, if an accident happens or someone doesn’t feel good or anything of the sort, it isn’t a big deal on one’s time to stop and check what’s going on.
  5. Group runners: Its great that people who need motivation or train with groups are able to run together and give each other company. But just like on a hiking trail, please don’t block a whole row. There are thousands of others running with you so please make way.

That’s the end of my soap-box. It would be great if training groups, friends, race organizers emphasized this civic sense in each individual athlete. Lets be aware of our environment, lets respect the volunteers for their time and effort and lets have fun together, so the next time we are all able to hold our heads high and have pride in all the runners. Stay calm and keep running!

Smita Kolhatkar

Written by

#CSForAll, #Makerspaces, #EdTech #EdCampSVMake. #PAUSDCodeFest, #SVCUE Raspberry Pi Certified, CHM: TAB; #photography, #running, #hiking #reading #writing

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade