Marathons had been growing in popularity. Runners spend months training on their endurance, speed, strength, and discipline, and are in constant competition with not only the other people in the race but also themselves.
Well, the popularity of running is coming to an end, because younger millennials want nothing to do with that much competitiveness.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the running boom has come to a halt. The number of finishers dropped 9% in 2015 and also had a smaller decline in 2014, a total drop of 2 million people finishing in marathons since 2013.
Younger millennials are the reason. The number of Gen-Y runners has shrunk significantly and despite being the biggest generation in American history, their presence in running has decreased from 35 percent in 2014 to 33 percent in 2015.
Even noncompetitive running has declined. There’s been a 22 percent decline in runners between 18 to 24 year-olds and a 19 percent decline in runners between ages 25 to 34.
According to Sarah Robb O’Hagan, former president of the parent company of Equinox gyms and SoulCycle, it’s because millennials are moving to more non-competitive sports that has no fear of failure.
An article from 2013 in the Journal detailed how runners are even slowing down, not necessarily worrying about their timing and doing it for the experience.
While I don’t understand why anyone would have the ambition to run in a marathon (the first marathon runner died after warning the Greeks about the advancing Persian army), I love competition, and winning is my favorite drug.
It’s disappointing that many of my fellow millennials are this risk adverse. Running is already less dangerous than other physical activities and sports. Man up and join in a competition other than the beer pong tournament in college. Who cares if you lose? You make gains from the process.
As Gavin McInnes said to Red Alert Politics, “failure is crucial”.
Millennials shouldn’t let Gen-X be the last generation that was born to run.
