Rules and runners clash over headphones
Posted on Monday, December 24, 2007
What ya got in the sack there, Santa ? Are all those iPods and other merry little music players headed to runners and walkers in Arkansas ?
Too bad so many experts say not to use them for outdoor workouts.
And Santa says, Whaaaa... ? Lots and lots of people run and walk with personal music players. You can buy jogging shoes, watches, sports bras and jackets to facilitate their use. They’re advertised in fitness magazines — in Runner’s World, for crying out loud.
What overanxious, interfering, selfappointed ear-nanny says not to use them ? USA Track & Field, the governing body of competitive running. Road Runners Club of America, with more than 700 affiliate running clubs. McGruff the Crime Dog — and many police and public safety authorities who think it’s smart to be alert to your surroundings when you walk or run outdoors. Most (but not all ) properly organized footraces, which carry liability insurance.
And yet millions of people enjoy using headphone-type devices while they exercise. You can see some yourself: Just go outside and look. So it’s not surprising that there’s controversy over the Dire Peril supposedly posed by headphones. Lately some runners have been sassing back at the experts.
For instance, Arkansans who subscribe to Active. com’s e-mail newsletter last week received an essay pooh-poohing iPod prohibitions. Christopher Russell, a freelancer and author of The Mid-Packer's Lament (BookSurge Publishing, 2005 ), wrote mockingly about a half-marathon that officials refused to start until racers handed over their music players. Some people hid their headphones and used them anyway.
“It was an interesting microcosm of human politics,” he wrote. “That 2 [percent ] to 3 percent went to the effort to smuggle their sets onto the course, and other participants were stopping at the water stops to turn them in ! ‘Number 449 has an iPod and is laughing about it ’” ….
Such absurd polarities, as Russell put it, have led the Portland Marathon (in Oregon ) to renounce the general iPod ban. In a letter on its Web site (port landmarathon. org ) the race committee says it has never had a problem with music players or cell phones. Portland has a closed course with no cars, bikes or dogs: “Our only rule is that for those using such devices... we expect they will do so in a reasonable way and use common sense.... So we are officially declaring the Portland Marathon as the MP 3 friendly marathon. Our motto for all this is: ‘ Plug-in !’”
Other races are not so blithe.
Vicki Ingram of Cabot has run 17 marathons, “almost every one” while wearing her iPod. But she won’t be taking it with her to Minnesota in June when she runs Grandma’s Marathon (grandmas marathon. com ).
“You go in there and read their Web site,” she says. “They have a clause that if you have them on they will ask you to remove them, and if you don’t, you’re disqualified from their race.” Grandma’s will mail the music players back to racers, but “they’re pretty strong about how they feel about it.”
Closer to home, the Little Rock Marathon winks at its own ban on personal music players. The Frequently Asked Questions at littlerockmarathon. com includes this:
“Can I wear an iPod, MP 3, Walkman or headphones during the race ? Our official answer is no. We have adopted the USATF rule on the use of electronic devices during competition (USATF rule 144. 3 b ). Wearing your iPod, MP 3, Walkman or headphones during the race is not only a safety issue but also an issue of politeness. When wearing an electronic device like these, it is hard, if not impossible, to hear other participants as they approach or volunteers / police as they try to give you vital information. Officially the rules say you could be disqualified. Is it likely you would get disqualified ? No, but it is a rule anyway, and the rules should be followed.”
A TIME AND A PLACE For about 25 years, Randy Taylor was either president or secretary-treasurer for the Arkansas association of USA Track & Field, and he’s a board member today. He reports that its rule 144. 3 b does prohibit “the visible possession or use by athletes of video or audio cassette recorders or players, TVs, CD or DVD players, radio transmitters or receivers, mobile phones, computers or any similar devices in the competition area...”
But he doesn’t think the rule is intended to stop recreational runners from using private entertainment devices in road races. Rather, it’s aimed at preventing rude behavior at track and field meets as well as cutthroat abuses by elite road racers.
“I think the spirit of the rule for track and field was written to prohibit the sound of personal entertainment machines in the warm-up area or in the grandstand during competition,” Taylor says. “The spirit of the rule concerning road races would be a potential competitive advantage to a runner who receives a transmitted message about their competitive position or a competitor’s situation during a road race or race walk.”
That said, Taylor doesn’t use one when he races or even when he trains.
“I’m usually focusing on what I’m trying to do and not listening to anything,” he says.
Anything that further distracts him could be a hazard. Even though he always runs facing traffic and without music or a basketball game blocking his ears, there have been times when he has been surprised by an oncoming bicycle or a car.
Linda Starr has also had to “jump in the ditch a time or two” when running outside in Conway. The statewide director of Women Run Arkansas’ annual Women Can Run training clinics, Starr does occasionally run with a music player. “On the treadmill, I love it,” she says.
And she’ll use hers outside, too, but she keeps the volume low and only wears one earpiece.
She would never wear headphones in a group.
“We have some in our group that do, but they might as well be running by themselves,” she says.
SAY WHAT ? Ingram has also seen runners and even cyclists wear personal music players while training in a group, and she considers it “just really rude.” And “I’m pretty strong about not using one when you’re being coached,” she adds. She doesn’t allow her trainees to use music players when she volunteers as a coach with Cabot’s Women Can Run clinic. “On that track I’ll be trying to tell girls what to do and they’ll have to reach up and pull their iPod out of their ear to hear what I’m saying,” she says. “Finally last year I sent out a note saying no iPods for the advanced group.” One woman quit. Hobbit Singleton, who has coached five years’ worth of walkers for the Little Rock Marathon, also understands the appeal of inspiring music. But “as a coach, where I feel responsible for the safety of these people, I don’t want anything impairing their being able to hear bikes, trucks, dogs coming at them, rabid squirrels — anything like that. I take a stance against using [headphones ],” she says.
“A lot of people wear them because they’re running by themselves. And when you’re running by yourself is when you really need to be alert to what’s going on around you.
“ And then the other thing is, if you’re wearing one when you’re running with a group, what’s the point of running with a group ?”
People who feel they simply must have their music to enjoy running should turn the volume down, she says. “If I can hear it coming up behind you, how can you hear anything ?”
Ingram does use an iPod when she’s running long distances alone. “Right now I have all Christmas music on mine, and I just get in that natural high and I just love it,” she says. “I just use common sense. Like I think those girls I train should have enough common sense not to put that iPod in when I’m standing there trying to give them directions.
“ There’s just a time and a place for everything.”
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