s/o Crowd Support

[sadlebred]

A real question for runners. Why do you have to have crowd support? I realize it can be motivational and such, especially if it's family and friends. But you can't you train yourself to race without it?

I'm a cyclist-I think everyone here knows that. I raced mountain bikes for 20 years and got into cyclocross (25+ years. now, too), Olympic style bicycle track/velodrome/fixed gear racing, e-gravel bike racing, and various other stuff. In all those years most of the crowd support is either someone's relative or fellow racers. 90-95% of the courses are empty of anyone watching you let alone cheering you on. At the local gravel races, you can go 30-50++ miles and only see fellow racers, the volunteers at the sag/aid station, and the finish timers. Maybe the professional photographer.

Even at MAJOR races if you are doing 100-200 miles you don't see anyone else (except fellow racers) until you get to the aid area. There *might* be someone randomly cheering people on or a small group of a racer's family/friends out there or if it's Unbound residents come out and set up neutral water and cheering stations (Ya'll it's super rural Kansas--there can be a few miles between houses.).

So, it's a bit foreign to me that you HAVE to have someone cheering you on every mile. We race without music/headphones, too. It's you and your thoughts. Help me understand this as I really want to. I LOVE having someone yell Go Sadlebred or Go Sadlebred's Team! but you get so used to racing within yourself.

[Susie]

So far, I've swum in open water races up to 10k, I've cycled up to the 56 miles in a 70.3, and I've run up to 13.1.  Based on that experience, IDK what to tell you except that the different sports are like apples and oranges and bananas.  

Runners move slower than cyclists and cover fewer miles. You enjoy a single spectator for longer. People can move about the race course on foot/bikes/cars to catch their runners multiple times. Runners can interact with their spectators, high five, hug, etc.  It's a whole thing, yay!  It's fun!  Even non-runners have probably seen and laughed at a poster before, or a pic of one.  There's a vibe and a culture to it.  There is nothing wrong with that, or with enjoying it.  

Cycling, in my experience limited to triathlons, is pretty low bang for the buck on spectator support because you fly by a spectator in just a couple seconds, the courses tend to cover more total mileage which is harder to populate with spectators, and spectators have trouble getting around courses fast enough to see athletes at multiple points, so mostly they don't.  You can't get off your bike to hug a spectator, and you have very little time for engagement with them. 

Open water swimming is like the opposite end of the spectrum from running.  Crowd support is not possible.  You see people before the start and at the finish, and that's pretty much it.  Once you start you don't come near the shore again until the finish, there are no spectator boats allowed, you can't even wear a Garmin.  You likely won't interact with anyone (apart from congestion at the start/buoys/choke points) for however long your race is, which may be hours.  It's like sensory deprivation.

Other sports are different in still other ways.

Nobody is tougher or better or superior on the basis of what crowd support they do without.  Different sports are just different, culturally, logistically, etc.  

[sadlebred]

Susie That makes total sense---and it's important for me to remember now to compare different sports. Also, everyone's experience is their own! and that's ok!! We are allowed to experience sport how we want to.

[rhian]

For me, it's just more fun to have crowd support. Of course I can run long distances without it - my training runs had no crowds and I did fine. Since I'm not competing or aiming to go particularly fast when I've done marathons, just doing it to finish and have that sense of accomplishment, it's important to me that the marathon itself is fun and something to look forward to, and for me, that means a crowd. Personally, I would not bother running a small marathon with few spectators, it just doesn't seem worth it.

At the Philly course I referenced in the last thread, the lack of a crowd is particularly noticeable during miles 21-25, since it's right at the end. For my first marathon especially, my longest training run had been 20 miles, so in the last stretch, I had literally never run that far before, and so I really felt the lack of a crowd.

FWIW I am also a city person and when marathon training, did most of my long runs on urban-ish paths, so I'd often pass people. I just generally don't like being all by myself in the middle of nowhere - running or not!

[wanderingback]

To be honest, this is kind of an odd question. Off course we don’t HAVE to have crowd support. I run outside without crowd support and don’t listen to music or anything.

But for me, doing races is for fun. I’m typically not there to beat a certain time at this point in my life. So for me having fun is being able to high five people, laugh at funny signs, dance to music along the way, etc. If I’m going to pay money to be there and travel there then I want to have fun.

Even when I did triathlons, obviously no one is there in the water with you but it was nice to get out the water and be able to have fun and during transitions and at certain points along the bike and run path.

But of course it’s not absolutely necessary but when I pay for something I’m going to pay for an experience that I enjoy more. People have different definitions of an enjoyable time.

[brooke77]

I love crowds! I find them so energizing and entertaining. That said, I do 99% of my training solo. I love running alone and spend most of my time alone with my thoughts and my podcasts. But for a race, it’s a great experience to share it with others.