Should we forbid people to run marathons

[BassDude726]

Ironically, the first person to ever run a marathon died. (after the Greeks defeated the persians at marathon, he ran the 26-point-whatever miles to Athens to tell the good news, we all know the story).

 

[IglooDame]

I think the point may be, there is no logic in the comparison? Or it is a very lame attempt to prove that drugs should be legalized? It would be par for the course, I've never seen a good argument made to legalize drugs. I think the people wanting to legalize drugs never bothered learning how to form logical opinions of the world.

Perhaps it would be worthy of a separate thread, then, as there are several people here who (I think) know how to form logical opinions of the world and advocate the legalization of drugs.

 

[Ben E Gas]

Should we forbid people to run marathons and make journeys to the north-pole. After all it is bad for your body and an outrage on your health (at least for most white people), an argument used to forbid hard-drugs.

The drugs harm others around you (ie illegal drug trafficing). Running a marathon harms the runner. And maybe the guy sitting in traffic due to closed roads.

 

[Mise]

The drugs harm others around you (ie illegal drug trafficing)

That's the most unusual justification of drug laws I've ever heard in my life

 

[RedWolf]

We should also outlaw blue collar labour. I worked in a factory for a summer and it's hard on your entire body and it physically drains you in the summer months (it was aluminum extrusion and HOT...)

Most of the guys that worked there eventually ended up with bad joints or bad back due to the heavy... Almost everyone would suffer some kind of serious injury EVENTUALLY in their career - just a matter of how bad... My dad (worked in the same place) once fell off a loading dock and required stiches... also had his fingers crushed beneath some aluminum billet another time... Other guys had their foot crushed by a fork lift truck... another one had his thumb ripped off from a piece of machinery... Just a matter of time...

Lets outlaw that type of work as well and watch our economy grind to a halt.

 

[WillJ]

Certainly, as soon as you elaborate on the methods of discouraging marathon running. Are you going to tax it somehow, perhaps a steep tax on running shoes? Television commercials that enunciate the medical dangers? Require a license to run more than ten miles without an hour of rest? Go to schools and educate kids (I'm thinking something like a visual presentation with "These are your knees. These are your knees after a marathon.") I have a difficult time with the more stringent "discouragement" as the laws required will be unwieldy , or unenforceable, or overly broad. I have a difficult time with the less stringent "discouragement" as given the prevalent health dangers in this country, telling people they shouldn't run long distances will be about as effective as telling people that more than eight glasses of water a day can be unhealthy while most people drink far too little water.

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I guess I'm just baffled at the attitude that the public needs to be educated about the benefits and risks of a relatively inocuous activity (relative, that is, to swimming, smoking, driving, drinking, etc etc etc). Indeed, where do you draw the line?

By "discouraged" I meant along the lines of TV commercials.

Then again, anything publicly funded about this would probably be a waste of money. I mean, almost of a third of Americans are obese, and public announcements annoucing the dangers of marathon running? Nonetheless, I'd agree with it in principle. To be honest, I really only mentioned "discouraged" on a whim, to show that I agree that it can be dangerous, but that it shouldn't be banned.

Ultraworld - get real. Marathon runners are in better shape than the rest of us, and likely to live longer.

No one is saying that marathon running doesn't have drawbacks. Bad for your joints, but excellent for your cardiovascular system and your lungs.

I don't think many unhealthy people die in marathons. The people who die are probably the true athletes who actually did push themselves too much.

These things quite simply aren't (probably) true, and in fact basically the reverse of what CG said is true. (According to the link I posted, at least.) Marathon running itself is a healthy activity, but it is so extreme that it requires lengthy, intense, and "correct" preparation. If you don't prepare well enough, you'll harm yourself (obviously not kill yourself, though). Just like lifting heavy weights. And many marathon runners don't pepare well enough.

 

[amadeus]

Marathon running should be permitted only as long as it is video recorded, put into slow motion, and a track of "Chariots of Fire" is played over the tape.

 

[cgannon64]

Well...you suck, WillJ.

Actually, I should rephrase. Those who don't train at all aren't going to die in a marathon, because they'll give up. Those who train somewhat, but not enough, may die, because they think they are good enough to finish, but they aren't.

 

[Zamphyr]

So there's plenty of anti-marathon people here. Where are the anti-North Pole people ??


Keep Santa's workshop hidden !







damn, I finally could have used that santa smilie and it's gone

 

[WillJ]

Well...you suck, WillJ.

Actually, I should rephrase. Those who don't train at all aren't going to die in a marathon, because they'll give up. Those who train somewhat, but not enough, may die, because they think they are good enough to finish, but they aren't.

Well, it's not that they'll drop dead in the middle of the thing by overexerting themselves. If I'm not mistaken, pretty much everyone either gives up or finishes (no one really dies), and many of the people who manage to finish probably shouldn't have bothered finishing, because going the distance was unhealthy for them (although this isn't always easily noticeable; they don't collapse afterwards or anything).

 

[Archer 007]

Yes we should. I'm horribly ill right now due to second hand running. And why else would someone run to the northpole but to beat their wives and kids?

ten character limit

 

[Halcyon]

You cannot ban something solely on the grounds that it's bad for people. So what if it's bad for people? They're responsible for themselves. I can't stand people who want to ban everything that they think might do someone 'harm'. Even aside from the obvious matter of forcing their hypersensitive nose into affairs it has no business in, just about anything is harmful. A few people each year get fatally electrocuted by their alarm clocks, or struck down by pure chance. Absolute safety is non-existent, it's pursuit a fallacy and forcing it on people a crime.

Things that are banned are banned either because they harm innocents or because they prevent a user from being responsible for his/herself (as in the case of hard drugs). Marathons fit neither category. Congratulations, though - I've not heard anyone suggest the banning of exercise as unhealthy before. Those rare people who die on marathons tend to die from heatstroke (ban the sun) or water intoxication (ban water) as well as exhaustion, anyway.

 

[MrPresident]

What's happens if the police try to arrest someone for illegally running a marathon but they escape and go on the run? Are the police aiding and abetting a criminal act?