LOLZLetter 179 | Social Media versus Real Life

Wait not everyone is training for OTQ?

Jul 11, 2022

Welcome,

Last week, I spent time in several east coast states including Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

For my newest subscribers, I spent years living in New Jersey. I also worked in the running industry at RunningCo. of Haddonfield for several years.

A weird thing happened recently when I was wearing a RunningCo. sweatshirt. A couple of people were shocked at how I could have this random New Jersey sweatshirt in the California desert. They had no idea I worked and lived in New Jersey for so long. That is just a product of moving, and most people don't know I grew up in Virginia, lived in Upstate New York for five years, and lived in Texas and Alabama. Sometimes I even forget I spent a year living in Northern California. I digress.

Being back in New Jersey and reminiscing about working the floor of run specialty made me think about the differences between social media and the real world. Last week, I chatted with the RunningCo store owner about what was selling on the floor versus what was selling online or posted on social media.

This led me to once again think about the differences between "social media" and the "real world."

I've blogged for years. It's been almost 12 years of writing on my website fueledbylolz.com. In early 2010, social media was much different. These days, social media and “real life” blend together.

One of the things I've found interesting in the running world is the difference between social media and running specialty… If social media was all you knew, you might assume that everyone is training to break 3 hours in a marathon or an OTQ. No.

You might even think a 12 min mile is "slow." It's not.

You would also probably think everyone wakes up at 5 am to run, and it's the best time to run. It's also not. The best time to run is when you can run.

You also might even think everyone is super ripped and eats, trains, and breathes running. No, most people have lives outside of running (and I firmly believe you need to have hobbies outside of sport).

With social media, it's easy to get a false impression everyone is fast, and you are slow. As someone who hasn't PRed since 2018, I've sometimes had that impression of myself. I know it isn't true, but it can be easy to think that way!

Social Media Running Versus Run Specialty and the Real World Running:

When I first started running in 2010/2011, there weren't many runners on social media. In 2011, there was dailymile, but most people didn’t take selfies, and GPS watches were the up-and-coming thing. In fact, I didn't have a GPS watch for the first few years of my running. Things like Instagram running shots and Strava didn’t exist.

To be honest, I think not having that stuff allowed me to just enjoy the sport. I didn't worry about who knew my easy run pace (I still don't) or what kind of photo I wanted to post. Without social media, I knew about local runners that I saw at races. I didn’t know about people in California “crushing it.” I knew about the same 20 people who lived in Upstate, NY, crushing it. In the last decade, running and social media have exploded.

Now, if you didn’t post about your run, did you even do it?

During the pandemic, I joined Strava. Previously, I only used my GPS watch for races and workouts. Now I use my watch most days to upload to Strava but I still don't care about pace. Recently someone said, "Wow, I didn't know you ran so slow." They didn't mean it as a rude remark, but they were surprised that I ran 9:45 miles. 9:45 isn't slow.

I log 2-3 runs a week, especially in the summer, around that pace. If you only follow fast or professional runners, it might seem slow. If you follow people training to break 30 minutes in a 5k, that's about PR pace.

A topic for another day, but everyone can benefit from running easier.

On to the point of the newsletter this week.

I Found Some Interesting Research About Marathons from Run Repeat.

This information is based on 2019 surveys. I am super interested (as many I'm sure) to see data from the pandemic years.

Globally, participation in running races peaked in 2016 with 9.1 million results. It has since declined by 13% to 7.9 million in 2018. However, from 2008-2018, there was still a 57.8% increase from 5 to 7.9 million participants.

What races have the highest participation?

5ks: 2.9 million
Half Marathons: 2.1 million

Marathon Finishing Trends:

This is perhaps my favorite part of the study. As mentioned, it's easy to believe everyone is training for a sub-3-hour marathon or an OTQ. It's not true. At all.

The world is slowing down. Is this because more new people are participating in their first marathons? Who knows, but if more people are running that's awesome!

From 1986-2001, the average marathon finish time increased by 36 minutes from 3:52:35 to 4:28:56. Then from 2001-2018, the average marathon increased again by 4 minutes to 4:32:49 in 2001.

Finish lines by Gender: (taken from Runner Click):

The world average of female participants in a race is 34.82%
The US has the highest proportion of female runners at 45.7%

Median Marathon Times in the United States:

Men: 4:19:27.
Women: 4:44:19

I encourage you to check out Run Repeat or Runners Click for hundreds of interesting facts about road racing. You'll be surprised to learn things like the fastest nations, nations with the highest participants of female or male runners, and so much more.

But What About Run Specialty?

When I worked the floor or ran specialty, very few people (maybe…1 per week) came in and said they were training to break 3 hours in a marathon, and zero people came in saying they were going to OTQ. Most people who came in ran 20-30 miles a week, walked, and enjoyed running. About a third of people were training for a marathon and averaged anywhere from 3:45-5 hours to complete. Of course, this is just personal experience, but it is similar to most running stores.

Don't Forget: When you scroll through social media, you look at a section of runners. You are looking at who you follow. I've always thought it's important to follow people of all races, times, and abilities. People that aren't like you, including people that are better than you, faster, slower, or training for different things. I try and follow people training for all sorts of things at all different paces.

So yes, it can be easy to think “everyone” is training for a sub-three marathon, OTQ, BQ, or is crushing it, but that is far from the case.

Finally, I wanted to add this tidbit of information about running shoes in run specialty versus social media.

You would never guess the most sold shoe in the industry on social media: The Brooks Ghost. In the current industry, Brooks accounts for nearly 40% of sales. In a loose order, it goes:

Brooks/Hoka
New Balance
Saucony /Nike
Asics, Mizuno, On
Altra, Underarmour
Other brands are dependent on the location (trail shoes sell out west, and Diadora sold more in the Philadelphia area).

From social media, you would think brands like Altra, Puma Sketchers, adidas, and Newton were the most popular brands in the industry. Puma and adidas don't sell in many run specialty stores.

When we brought the Nike 4% at the height of the launch, we had many of them sit for weeks. People didn’t “rush to the store” as they did online. The Alphafly 2 will sell out on Nike dot com, but they will sit at run specialty for weeks (so if you are desperate when they come out this week, call your local running store).

Just remember this, social media is only one subsection of running.

Not everyone who runs has an Instagram.

Not everyone, even half of the population, is training for a marathon, BQ, or OTQ.

Those goals are incredible, but they aren't the goals of most of the population.