Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Ban mp3's/ ipods at mass events
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Good point TT.
Maybe we should ask deaf runners how they cope being potential hazards or even ask them to stay at home in case they run in front of someone during a race?
Being deaf I assume coping mechanisms are in their life. Like hearing aids, lip reading and sign language.
Now do you have them skills wearing an MP3 player?
Yep actually i do but even if i didn't-it's fairly easy to lip-read if someone is only mouthing 2 words and the 2nd one is 'off'.
Maybe if mp3 owners had a license and training (hang on thats silly).
Ban mp3s!
ban people humming tunes aswell because surely that is excatly the same...there's this unscientific study (of poor methodological quality) which i can't accurately cite or interpret but anyway i heard from someone that it's really dangerous....
Racers on the right (no mp3s), i-plodders on the left hand side of the road
Job done.
Ah yes ban "hummers"
bain of my office!!!!
Yep actually i do but even if i didn't-it's fairly easy to lip-read if someone is only mouthing 2 words and the 2nd one is 'off'.
LOL
Agreed Wolfy-ignorance is the enemy (or is that enema?)
Unfortunately we cannot ban that but we must educate and coherce and if that fails...shouting is always good.
Incidentally my mp3 experience was ruined by the Nike wall of sound at the great north this year ( i was plodding so thought i'd listen to music).
Maybe mp3 jammers will be available in the future!
Agreed Wolfy-ignorance is the enemy (or is that enema?)
Unfortunately we cannot ban that but we must educate and coherce and if that fails...shouting is always good.
Incidentally my mp3 experience was ruined by the Nike wall of sound at the great north this year ( i was plodding so thought i'd listen to music).
Maybe mp3 jammers will be available in the future!
Firstly well done on completing NY Wolfie.
You are of course correct that it is not the mp3 it's the person. I think the mp3 can make a person less aware of thier suroundings and therefore appear ruder.
On a personel level I find the body language of someone wearing an mp3 is bluntly saying "Leave me alone, I don't want to know you, I am not to be approached". This is probably not true in most cases but that is the message that is being sent out by wearing them.
Muttley not at all I think it was more because we were running over bridges where spectators were not allowed.
imski New York didn't ban mp3 players to my knowledge
Thanks Rarebit. Yes you could be right about the body langauage. That said on the couple of times that I did forget to turn it off when back with the supporters I could hear them shouting my name and as always I recognised and acknowledged their words of encouragement. This being because I am not a rude person.
Rug maybe she thought you were hot
I did a 10 miler Sunday - first one and took my iPod along. I dropped out of the Solent Half because I checked first if they were allowed or not? and they weren't. I didn't find out til I got to my 10 miler and over loud speaker said not to wear them. I tucked it into my top and left it and set off, starting talking to a random..which kept me going for 4 miles, but I agree with Rug there was plenty of people there minus pods that made no effort to chat back to me..some do, some don't want to be bothered..*shrug* each to their own..
When I was on a stretch on my own & even though you weren't allowed!! I put one of my iPod earphones in, the landscape of the same trees and smell of horse dung, by then wasn't really entertaining me, still had 6 miles to go and I knew some killer hills would be coming up. I was still aware of everything going on and soon as I starting catching other people up, took it back out again. I actually noticed a lady stop and asked if she was ok - she had a stitch, so I decided to stay with her to the finish line..am I breaking the rule? an ipod wearer also interested in the well being of fellow runners? ooooo....
So overall it was an interesting experiment..being amongst other runners..it's not so bad, you kind of don't have a choice if your feeling tired or losing the will, but to keep going and go along with the crowd, then if you meet someone chatty - it's also a bonus, so your lucky if you have a running buddie to do races with you, but if your alone, especially like I was on that stretch..jesus. I would have been walking if I didn't have that choice of just having my pod for that short amount of time...forget it! I also think if I was on my own towards the end, my time would have been faster, if I was listening to music, it would have definately pumped me up a bit - when I was flagging.
Wolfy - ALL races in the US (by this I mean those are organised undere UST&F rules) don't allow mp3-players.
(And yes, I know, you're not the only one blatantly ignoring this)
"MP3s in races are like that. We are building scientific evidence that they are detrimental to people's visual concentration; ability to negotiate personal space appropriately; auditary capabilities... Unless people start building up the counter arguement, then the evidence all points pretty much one way. "
Yeah yeah, when you can refer me to a published study that shows wearing an MP3 in a race creates a significant risk then I'll believe you. And you can bet they've banned blind drivers from motorsport without legal action too!
If I managed to find out, so could you I'm sure...
I posted this on 1/11:
Wolfie - SURELY there are more important/interesting topics to discuss! I love my iPod and have ran 600+ hard miles with it in prep for Sundays New York marathon and if I choose to wear it on the day then I bloody well will regardless of what others think. I'm a considering and thoughtful runner and if I bang into somebody else it won't be because I'm wearing my iPod!
You may want to be aware of the fact that they are actually banned in NY (and any other race ran under the us governing body), but I'll grant you that they don't consider it practical to try and enforce the ban.
"USA Track & Field, the national governing body for running, this year banned the use of headphones and portable audio players like iPods at its official races."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/sports/othersports/01marathon.html?ex=1351656000&en=defd4ec149637c47&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Hiya Wolfums - hows the tum ? Good time there - gutted about the injury ! FLM next year ?
They did ban MP3s at the NY marathon - it made it onto the front page of the BBC News website. But I guess they didnt tell the racers ? D'oh !
From the Times of London
Love the comment from the girl who has never run without them, and says she couldnt. Er how would she know then ?
Had noticed this thread but ignored it as I thought the subject had been done to death previously, however......
Training down a cycle path in Basingstoke at 10 this morning, putting in a long rep and come up behind a much slower female runner wearing headphones.
Gave quite a loud "coming past" warning when I was about 20 meters from her, as I passed she screamed, lashed out knocking my glasses off. OK no serious damage but her excuse was she did not hear me and thought she was being attacked.
Imski if I was concerned in anyway I'm sure I would have but quite frankly I'm not.
Cougs the tum is feeling a lot better today, off for a 5 miler later and I'm thinking of doing the Luton marathon on 2nd December to try to get that time I wanted.
Now I wonder if Luton have banned mp3's and what ingenious ways (like Muffingirl) can I come up with to hide mine when I run round with it????
Sounds like me Imski... I thought I could never ever run without my ipod and music getting me through runs. That in itself was enough for me to try without it and no spontaneous combustion!
Same thing with my perpetual wearing of a heart rate monitor... I didn't 'know' how I felt without the numbers telling me I was running with too much/too little intensity.
Some days I train with my mp3, some days I don't. No big deal.