This is brilliant thinking on how lottery systems shift the psycological locus of control away from runners. The "Split Screen" approach feels right but it's tough in practice when a race legitimately becomes part of identity. I experienced something similar tryingfor a permit-limited wilderness route where the rejection almost made me forget about thelocal trails that gave me more joy anyway.
I have been running since June of 2020. In the first couple of years I felt the urge to travel to big races be it TransGrancanaria, UTMB, Tarawera, Sierre Zinal, Hardrock, Badwater and I won't be able to name it all as even AI won't be able to summarize the list.
But now I don't have the urge to enter any of the lottery system races or you can say that feeling of urgency/push in the bottom of the belly. It feels like it is coming from that if everyone is doing, my emotions are being pulled because of that or is it the race I really want to run?
There are a lot of factors going into these kind of races.
Say for example one applies for London Marathon and then gets a big NO smacked at their face, they will be jolted for the first couple of days but with time deteriorated feelings about the drudgery of being not able to run London Marathon dissipates. Then they will pivot and run something else. Will their goal time change for another marathon if they are not running London? It doesn't. It is just that the importance is being created by our own cognition about any particular event/situation or anything in life.
As Anaïs Nin said- We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. The community prevails in some other marathon as well. It is just that we need to keep re framing things about almost everything our lives.
As Viktor Frankl said- Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. No marathon major or the grandiosity of that event can increase how much of zest we bring to that event. Zest has to be every time 101%, no dropping down of guard on keeping the joy in the driver seat. We need not let prevent all of the media to let dictate what races to run or where we can have the most fun. It is totally upon the people what kind of attitude they bring to a a particular event.
Let's have some BIG FUN where we line up to race and uplift others along the path and not let them feel the FOMO of not running a big grandiose race. They should feel the electrifying environment in the event they are running and can feel that heck yeah it is not just the big races where one can have the most fun. Community prevails in other events as well.
This is brilliant thinking on how lottery systems shift the psycological locus of control away from runners. The "Split Screen" approach feels right but it's tough in practice when a race legitimately becomes part of identity. I experienced something similar tryingfor a permit-limited wilderness route where the rejection almost made me forget about thelocal trails that gave me more joy anyway.
Thanks! Good comparison…
There are sooooo many great races out there. Too many to spend a lot of time fussing over complex entry schemes.
Completely agree. Still can’t get a few of the big ones out of my head….
I have been running since June of 2020. In the first couple of years I felt the urge to travel to big races be it TransGrancanaria, UTMB, Tarawera, Sierre Zinal, Hardrock, Badwater and I won't be able to name it all as even AI won't be able to summarize the list.
But now I don't have the urge to enter any of the lottery system races or you can say that feeling of urgency/push in the bottom of the belly. It feels like it is coming from that if everyone is doing, my emotions are being pulled because of that or is it the race I really want to run?
There are a lot of factors going into these kind of races.
Say for example one applies for London Marathon and then gets a big NO smacked at their face, they will be jolted for the first couple of days but with time deteriorated feelings about the drudgery of being not able to run London Marathon dissipates. Then they will pivot and run something else. Will their goal time change for another marathon if they are not running London? It doesn't. It is just that the importance is being created by our own cognition about any particular event/situation or anything in life.
As Anaïs Nin said- We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. The community prevails in some other marathon as well. It is just that we need to keep re framing things about almost everything our lives.
As Viktor Frankl said- Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. No marathon major or the grandiosity of that event can increase how much of zest we bring to that event. Zest has to be every time 101%, no dropping down of guard on keeping the joy in the driver seat. We need not let prevent all of the media to let dictate what races to run or where we can have the most fun. It is totally upon the people what kind of attitude they bring to a a particular event.
Let's have some BIG FUN where we line up to race and uplift others along the path and not let them feel the FOMO of not running a big grandiose race. They should feel the electrifying environment in the event they are running and can feel that heck yeah it is not just the big races where one can have the most fun. Community prevails in other events as well.