Don't Forget the Middle


  Don't Forget the Middle


    We've all heard it before about the "Red-Headed Step Child", or the "Middle Child Syndrome". There are probably a bunch of cool redheads out there. Undoubtedly step children are aces. I don't think I know any cool middle children. They're all weirdos. Kidding. In any event, the middle isn't where I usually want to be. I mean come on, pick a side, right? 

    In some cases, the choice as to whether or not you land in the middle is not up to you. Again, if you were born second and your parents have three kids, you had no options there. You're a middle child through and through. Never as trusted as the first born and certainly not as cute and innocent as the youngest. In fact, I saw a meme not too long ago that stated "nothing brings out the crazy like your second born..." and then the parents go ahead and have a third— leaving the problem child as the middle child.

    The average marathon finish time in 2025 was about 4 hours and 30 minutes. The median time was about 4 hours and 22 minutes. The sweet spot, runners aged 35-55 land between 4:29 and 4:38. 50% of all runners are between these ages. This group and their times represent the very meat of the bell curve. Of the 12 million or so race participants in 2025 probably 6 million of them landed somewhere... In the Middle.

    So is all of the marketing and energy spent on those folks that are 25 year old, 135 pound speedsters or the complete other side of the coin with folks battling obesity. I can literally open up an email with a running ad and very rarely does someone look like me. I don't mean a Black man but I mean a near 50 year old north of 200 pound runner whose PR is smack-dab in the middle of all finishing times. So what? Why do I care? Trust.

    Runners are a trusting group of people. If you disagree go ahead and drop me a note. We are trusting and loyal and will stay with a brand until they display behavior that is unworthy of our trust. While running is a relatively inexpensive sport/hobby to take up— the more serious one becomes, the more of our hard earned cash we spend. As a coach I am pretty knowledgable about nutrition, equipment, shoes, etc. but that doesn't mean I don't have questions when I try to figure out the value of Maurten Gel, Liquid IV, or the newest running shoe. I need to be able to trust when I ask am I supposed to contract or stretch an achilles that is giving issues. But I don't think I can trust the folks that are only looking at runners that can be my children or someone twice my size or a person who only runs with 100 people at a time. By the way, 50% of runners report to never run with anyone.

    This focus may work for these groups of people but the core runners are the folks that are finishing at 4:30 and likely running alone. They are the red-headed stepchildren in the middle and they matter. We matter. I matter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chasing— Always Chasing.

Image
Chasing— Always Chasing The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.- Laozi     What am I after now? I've done a few things in life  haven't I? Thirty-six marathon finishes tops the list of accomplishments for me. To be clear, this isn't me trying to create a classic one-upper with announcing my marathon finishes. There are tens of thousands of people with multiple marathon finishes and likely way faster than mine. Of course, the actual amount of people to have finished more than thirty marathons is virtually impossible to find but I alone know five people to have completed more than fifty. Then there is my ten year journey of writing a book . It took a long time to start and just as long to finish but it's done nonetheless. I earned my college degree in my thirties and as a father, that's not nothing, right? That was purposeful bad grammar, relax. I've stacked up about ten different certifications and/or designations. Now what?     That has been t...
Read more

The Comeback Trail

Image
  The Comeback Trail I’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been. -Billie Holliday      I’ve lost count over the years of how many times I’ve had to comeback from something. There was a former boss that said to me “you remind me of that song about getting knocked down”. It was a reference to the song “Tubthumping” by Chumbawumba released back in 1997. I struggled in that business but somehow I had these triumphant moments that would erase the memory of all of the things that made me look cursed with lack of success.       After having two surgeries in 2024 I am back on the roads running one mile at a time. I can only run one mile because of doctor’s orders as well as current fitness. When I came back from my run a few days ago I was dripping sweat and I sat in front of the fire place as though I had just run a half-marathon. My last run before my first surgery last year was in January. My first run after my firs...
Read more

Why Do I Run??

Image
  "... often what is beautiful to be done in running is ugly to be done in wrestling..." -Socrates     "What are you running from?" I've been asked that before. I used to be asked a lot. Of course, I was asked a lot when I ran a lot. I don't run as much anymore so I haven't heard the question in a while. It was an interesting question, to say the least. Instead of asking why did I run, in general, the question was of the aforementioned  variety. That is a question that I will attempt to answer another time.      Today's question is, "Why Do I Run??" Perhaps it could be phrased "why does one run?" I guess the reason I chose the singular, first-person, pronoun is because that question feels existential. It is also, for many runners I imagine, almost a religious type of question. That said, religious questions can oftentimes be answered in this sort of communal way by some sort of clergy or other manor of expert. There exists zero ex...
Read more