I got a comment on my blog today and I wanted to clear some things up. If one person says it, I’m sure 20 people think it.
On Oct 19, 2010, at 4:45 PM, C Stroud wrote:
Sorry guys, I agree that charity runners are not THE problem at Boston, respectfully submit they don’t belong or at a minimum have outlived their purpose.. Charity running has become an industry unto itself.
And Sam, I don’t know you so this is by no means directed at you, but many people use charity running as merely a means to fund, indulge, or otherwise justify their pursuits. I know a gal who just did an endurance event in all 50 states under the guise of charity. Certainly she raised funds but had her goal been to benefit the charity of her choice, the amount of time spent in the pursuit could have been put to far better or more beneficial use than the funds raised.
And please, do not tell me it is about “awareness”. People are aware of these diseases or causes. Not a single person is now aware of breast cancer because the NFL is using pink shoes and gloves this month. But Campbells has sure sold a lot of pink cans of soup.
———————– My reply: ———————–
FYI, since you seem to be jumping to a few conclusions about me, I want to clear a couple of things up …
1. I agree with you that charity runners are not THE problem at Boston, but as long as they continue to raise money for great causes, they have not outlived their purpose. Charity running has absolutely become an industry. Team In Training (which I have never been a part of) has raised more than $1 billion over the past 20+ years and knowing the percentages of their expenses, they’ve probably spent $220M of that funding races. So, a good $800M or so has gone to fighting leukemia and lymphoma through TNT. That’s HARDLY outliving its purpose.
2. Read this: http://operationjack.org/blog/?m=b&i=48 I don’t know if you’re a spiritual person, but I truly believe God led me down the path I’m on. This year has been incredibly difficult on me and my family and we knew that going in. But I have an idealist’s dream of making the world a better place and with my ability to recover quickly from marathons, I thought this might be a way — especially in the autism world. My son is severely autistic, and as part of my inward way of dealing with knowing that his childhood is ruined, I want to make what he’s going through “worth it” … I want to make things better for other kids if I can. So this was my first attempt at that.
3. Re awareness, I don’t need to make anybody aware of autism, and that’s not what I’m doing. I’m making people aware of Train 4 Autism, a small charity based out here in Southern California that helps people raise money for local autism-related charities that they choose. I think it’s a great vehicle that needs a spark and that’s what I’m trying to do. I have new chapters in Maine, Utah, Kansas, etc., as a result of this and money will be raised for autism-related charities in those areas as a result of what I’ve done. So yes, it is about awareness.
And for what it’s worth, I’ll be 36 on race day next year, so my qualifying time is 3:15:59. I’m in with a 3:03, I have six sub-3:10s and I think 14 or so BQs that count towards that race (so far). So I’ve earned my way in. I understand both sides of the fence and really, it’s pretty disheartening to see such hateful comments come towards me from someone who really didn’t even take the time to find out what I’m all about. You say your comments are not directed at me, but we both know that’s a cop-out.
Take care,
Sam
awesome response!
and I had never heard of Train 4 Autism before reading your blog, so I thank you for making me more aware!
(ps: can i have one of your “extra” boston entries?) 🙂
(and i think i still owe you $)
And my reply…
Wrong, wrong, & wrong.
Nothing I said was about you & specifically disclaimed it as such and it contains no hate. Please prove me wrong. Show me the portion you consider hateful. If I even partially agree, I will sincerely apologize because that was not my intent. What conclusion about you did I jump to?
Nowhere did I say anything about your running ability or insinuate that you were only at Boston on a charity waiver. If I were to have hazarded a guess, I’d have assumed you had qualified. As you pointed out, nearly all runners there do. So I don’t get at all the dropping of the running resume. If you’re doing that for anyone, it’s not for me. I won’t project and say it’s for you, only you know that. So please, don’t tell me what I know and don’t know to be a cop out. Because really, you simply don’t know what I know or believe. All I would hope is lacking anything else, you go by what I wrote.
And I am not saying groups like TNT are not raising money. In fact, again, I said the opposite in the example I mentioned. I’m saying these organizations have become about something else. Movements evolving or being co-opted as they age and grow is not uncommon. Charity running is not unique in that at all.
So Sam, I wish you the best. We obviously don’t see eye to eye on this. But I would hope two people who disagree could at least express their different opinions without one accusing the other of things actually opposite of what they said. As a self proclaimed spiritual person, are you telling me you know what is in my heart? In contradiction to what I have said?
If your comments section was only for people who agree with you, you might want to let that be known upfront.
Lastly, I get your point about raising the awareness of the charity and/or new chapters and not awareness of the disease itself. I may still not agree, but I had not considered that.
Yours Open Mindedly,
C Stroud
Actually, some of us just like to run, and we feel good about ourselves if we can raise money for a good cause while doing what we love. I helped Sam organize a race for that reason.
And I was also unaware of Train4Autism before meeting Sam. Thanks, Sam.
I guess sometimes people worry a lot about stuff that just isn’t important and sadly feel the need to criticize. Free speech is fine, but it helps to know actual facts. Train4Autism helps families and individuals living with autism. That’s valuable. As for corporations such as Campbell’s, yes they made money, but they also donated $300,000 to help people with breast cancer. I guess I am just a naive dupe and I don’t see the down side, but maybe I am just not “aware” enough. 🙂
C Stroud, you probably didn’t know a lot about Sam, and Operation Jack before Sam’s response above. I agree that breast cancer (Komen) may have a great deal of exposure, but I really don’t think that is the case with Train4Autism. In fact, Sam and Operation Jack have raised a great deal of needed awareness on behalf of the cause of defeating Autism and Train4Autism. Sam and his family have sacrificed greatly and speaking for myself have definitely raised my awareness. Also, you might not have known prior to your post that while Sam is raising money for charity, he is not a charity runner.
C Stroud: My wife is a special ed teacher so she regularly works with children with autism. But you know what, at 2:30 in the afternoon, she gets to go home and doesn’t have to deal with it anymore. My heart breaks for Sam and Tiffany because 2:30 never comes for them. And I know Sam well enough to know that he’d run a marathon every day barefoot on shards of glass if he could rid the world of autism for just a few minutes. That’s how passionate he is about it because it’s his life. It’s his son. It’s his cause. And it’s amazing and inspiring to see him do what he’s doing in his own way to make a difference. I hope you never have to experience autism or breast cancer or leukemia first hand in your family, but if you do, I have a feeling you’ll suddenly realize there’s never enough that you can do to make a difference.
The point that the sub-elite runners are missing is that it’s not their race. They are not entitled to an entry in Boston just because they are fast. These fasties are instead the recipient of a benefit, bestowed upon them by the BAA, of gaining preferred entry into the world’s best marathon.
That they receive 80% of the entries, and now they want the 15% dedicated to local runners and the 5% dedicated to charity runners. What a bunch of whinging ninnies. Grow up. Stop with the self-pitying, blame everyone but yourself act.
What a downright silly, narcissistic, self serving complaint.
Why can’t we all just get along?! 😉 The facts are this:
1. BAA decides what percentage of runners will be charity, local, qualifiers or other. And guess what — it’s their race so they’re entitled.
2. Qualifying isn’t a guarantee — it simply means you met the minimum requirement. Job well done!
3. Depending on your qualifying race date — you may be able to run in 2012. Yeah, it’s a wait and that sucks but it’s still a viable option for many.
Honestly, I cannot find a downside to charity running — as long as the money raised is really going directly to the charity, and it’s to be used specifically to find a cure and not increase someone’s bank account. Well, the only downside is I’m associated with clearly too many charitable runners and just cannot give money to all.
At the end of the day — I love the debate. It simply means our sport is chalk-full of passionate runners. Now let’s hug it out…and go for a run!
I didn’t know about Train4Autism until I came across Sam and Operation Jack. I don’t have any autistic family members, but I know children and adults who have autism.
The thing is, a lot of people DON’T know about autism. They see kids losing control, and they blame the parents. Or they see an autistic person doing something out of the norm, like flapping hands, and they classify that person as “weird.” The only classification that does fit, though, is “wronged.” People with autism are wronged by those who judge and misunderstand them, and they’re also wronged because us humans have invented an app for everything but haven’t found a way to stop autism.
I know I’m late chiming in here but want to add my 0.02 for what it is worth (probably 0.01).
I think we’ll all agree that no one can look into someone’s heart or mind to see what motivates someone to do this or that. I don’t know what motivates Sam to run, just as I don’t know what motivated the gal to fundraise with an endurance event in each state, just as I don’t know what C. Stroud does or thinks. All I can comment on is what I see- & what I see is that someone is doing something good and noble. I see people’s actions who could have chosen to do anything in this world- & they chose to do something for others- for “charity”.
I cannot say I know what motivated the individuals to raised $ to find a vaccine for polio in 1947- was it self indulgence, was it $, was it pride? I don’t know- but I do appreciate the end result. I see thousadns of runners whether it be TNT, Aids Marathon, Team Duke, Parkinsons, Train to End Stroke, if I had to guess perhaps some raise funds motivated by different things- heck I met a guy who told me he was just involved in TNT because a hot chick was the “Mentor”- my response: “Great!”, I hope that TNT gets a hundred hot Mentors- not so that more doughy shallow Hals will join- but hey more anyone will join because the dollar that the doughly shallow Hal raised might be the dollar that is used to finally find a cure. 🙂 Plus as someone so clearly put it who am I to tell anyone that I know what is in their “heart”, nor would it be fair to assume that I knew a far better way for them to spend their time in pursuit of their goal.
I sincerely hope that charity running or charity swimming or charity cycling or charity hiking, or charity walking, or charity cookie baking for that matter has not outlived its’ purpose. That to me, would truly be sad. If charity running has become an industry unto itself- well I can’t necessarily say that I think that is a bad thing either. I guess it’s all about how we view things. Some may lace up their shoes on race day and look up and find a sea of charity runners and have a whole slew of thoughts, and negative opinions about how, and why, and what motivated these people to be here in mass getting in the way, taking up entries that they otherwise wouldn’t have been entitled or deserved. For me, when I lace up my shoes race day & look up & view a sea of charity runners in mass, getting in the way, taking up entries that they otherwise wouldn’t have been entitled to or deserved and love every minute of it.
Sam, you & Op Jack are a train in motion taking you and many others to a better place. On the way there will be some standing along the tracks cheering, some not, some that question what motivates you or those like you. My hope is that the few that are not cheering do not discourage you- that you know your heart and that you’ll be soooo busy having fun, touching others in a positive way to even notice. 🙂