Can We… Not? Runners Stop “Just-ing” Your Races (And Other’s Races)

Warning, rant ahead. It’s been on my mind but because (waves arms around wildly) I haven’t sat down to throw this all out there. That time is now, and here we go.

This is something that comes up every race weekend, and it’s something that bugs me. And I suspect I’m not alone.

Okay, I actually know I’m not alone since I got a few messages about this issue after Marathon Weekend this year. You know who you are and this is for you.

runDisney people: you gotta stop minimizing other people’s experiences. Can we simply say CONGRATS! and throw pretend confetti instead of the kneejerk response: next year you’ll do DOPEY!

As the kids say, Bruh. Not everyone needs or wants or should do Dopey.

But everyone who 1) made it through registration– a race on its own and 2) trained and toed the line to finish a runDisney event should be celebrated.

From kids races to 5Ks to Marathons, let’s stop making others feel less than when congratulating them, I beg of you.

I “just” ran the 10K and Marathon one year. Which frankly I’m not sure why I ran the 10K because I barely made it through the marathon. What was I thinking?

But I digress…

After the race, I did get a proper amount of wow, you rock, I’m amazed, etc. I even had 3 friends say they were inspired enough to sign up for their first marathon the following year (yall, I am soooo sooooo sorry I did that to you ha ha ha). ps- You can blame me for the first one but all three of them went on to complete multiple marathons and NOPE that’s not on me.

But that day, I also got a healthy dose of, “Next is Dopey, right? Or ‘just’ Goofy?” as if completing 26.2 miles was somehow not enough.

I’m gonna cuss on here, fyi. So if you need to scroll on by it will just be a brief moment…

FUCK THAT

I am a firm believer that ever race finish should be celebrated. So lets make a pact here and now not to “just” your own accomplishments.

Proudly tell people you ran the 5K. Because YOU DID THAT SHIT.

Proudly tell people you ran the 10K. Because YOU DID THAT SHIT.

Proudly tell people you ran the Half Marathon. Because YOU DID THAT SHIT.

Proudly tell people you ran the MARATHON. Because YOU DID THAT SHIT.

We already know Goofy and Dopey’s are proud as hell (and they should be, don’t get it twisted). So those peeps don’t need this very important encouragement. Y’all are gonna brag your faces off naturally and I love that for you.

But those of us who know inside what we did was bad ass, need to stop making it a smaller accomplishment than it was.

And those that want to support us need to realize that we don’t need to feel minimized by immediately asking if we plan to do the next bigger “better” thing.

Repeat after me: not everyone needs to be a challenge runner or multi-race runner.

runDisney is one of the few communities that does this to each other and after all these years its one of the things that bothers me the most.

This is my plea for the community try to remember that runners run- 3.2 or 26.2 or 48.6 are all pretty damn impressive.

Hey, runner, I’m proud of you. Atta girl/guy!