Picture a new runner who has just discovered the joy of running. They’ve gone from being a couch potato to struggling through a 5km parkrun to running a comfortable parkrun every Saturday morning. They are proud of their progress and look forward to a new challenge by entering the Firgrove 15km in Constantia, Cape Town. This is the furthest that they have ever run and, at the start line, they are not even sure that they’ll make it. As they near the finish, dreams of entering a half marathon and maybe even Cape Town Marathon later that year fill their head. They cross the finish line with a broad smile, the pain of sore legs disappears with the exultation of the runner’s high and the endorphins of achievement course through their blood.
Then, all of a sudden, it all comes crashing down when some prick with a badge and an orange vest starts obnoxiously shouting that you are disqualified for violating a rule you knew nothing about. How many social runners that bear the brunt of antisocial refereeing are lost to the sport of road running?
Continue reading “The Lunatics are Ruining the Asylum (the fight against idiotic athletics officialdom)”