The Sound of Silence

Most of us like running road races, but few of us are aware of all the rules and regulations that guide those events. Most of us don’t even notice when slight rule changes come into effect. There has been one notable exception to that recently, though. When the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and its national bodies, including the USATF, decided last year to ban the use of headphones from all road racing competitions, most people did not hear about this initially. However, when more and more races printed that rule prominently on their Web sites, people could not help but notice.

The reaction on most race discussion boards was predictable. I found it astounding how many people did not bother inquiring where that rule came from and just vented their spleen over “those unreasonable race directors,” despite all the explanations that they did not have a choice but to enforce the international athletic rules.

If someone gave me a Euro for each time I’ve read the sentence “I can not possibly run without music,” I could fund my running habit for some time to come. My (imaginary) retort to those people is always “have you actually ever tried?,” and I guess the answer would generally be “no.’ Now, don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against running with an MP3 player, I have done so myself plenty of times. I ran my first marathon, Dublin 2004, while listening to music, but decided afterwards that it had been a mistake. There had been many enthusiastic spectators supporting the runners, and I felt I had missed out on all the atmosphere. I did wear headphones once again in a race, when I ran my first ultra a year ago, which was held in a remote rural area with nobody there but sheep, and they were not particularly supportive. I thought that running for almost six hours would require some background noise. However, I have again changed my mind, and this year I’ll run with unblocked ears. I truly feel I get more enjoyment out of my running that way.

I don’t want to teach you about the way you should run. If you want to listen to music, by all means, do so, but please make sure you do not endanger yourself by losing track of your surroundings. However, I also advise that you give silence a running chance. You might well be surprised. But, whatever you do, cut some slack for those poor race officials who are organising those races for all of us. Don’t give them a hard time when they tell you to get rid of your iPod. They might not have a choice.

(CRN has tackled this topic before: here and here.)