Delegates to the USATF convention who attended the open session of the Long Distance Running Division chaired by Fred Finke were anxious to debate the ban on headphones in road races which was imposed by USATF at last year’s convention.
“We realize this issue has caused a great deal of angst,” said Finke, who has received hundreds of e-mails on the subject. “It seems to be a hot button issue.”
USATF enacted the ban in accordance with a rule put in place by the IAAF which banned the use of headphones in championship events. The IAAF ban was intended to prevent athletes from receiving information via radio about the whereabouts of their rivals, a practice which is permitted in the big bicycle tours, like the Tour de France.
But in practical application, it has meant that recreational runners are not allowed to wear MP3 players, like Apple’s iPod, and listen to music during road races. Only a handful of U.S. races have actively enforced the ban.
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Update time. In Part 1 I outlined my initial aversion to the fusion of mp3 players and running, and how I eventually decided to give it a fair shake. Here are the results of my experiment with adding “flavor” to my running via music & podcasts.
To be honest, I got off to a rocky start. I had issues with cords getting in my way, unsecured, jiggly earbuds, and equipment malfunctions. I expect this with anything new, and I soon summitted the learning curve by making some necessary modifications and adjustments. After a couple days of tinkering, cutting, taping, and adjusting, I had improved (but not perfected) the rig and was trotting merrily to my downloaded concerts and podcasts.
I noticed during my very first run that as the workout drew to a close … I wanted to keep running! It was an otherwise mundane Sunday run, but as my mind wrapped around the music, I felt like I should extend my run just to hear the next track… and the next…and the next. This is in contrast to the boredom that sets during the late stages of many of my typical runs; I just want to finish and take a shower. Well, jiggly earbuds aside, anything that encourages increases in training volume must have it merits!
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Well, I’ve broken down and done it. I have purchased an mp3 player … and I intend to run with it!
Most of you are probably thinking: “Well, so what? Welcome to the 21st century!” It’s true, I’ve been a bit behind. But there’s more to it than that. I have to confess that I have been one of those people who not only did not have an mp3 player, but actually frowned upon their use while running.
“It’s dangerous, not being able to hear and all,” I would rationalize. I would glower at unsuspecting music-listeners as they ran; assuming that they must be getting in everyone’s way during races as well. Not to mention all those mp3-lovin’ vagabonds blatantly violating the rules in races where audio devices are banned.
Then a few weeks ago my wife challenged me to fully explain my irritation with mp3 players. I opened my mouth, but then . . . I closed it. I had nothing constructive to say. No real reason, other than I didn’t understand listening to music while running. In my own ideals, the wind blowing by my ears should be enough.
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