A Place For Celebrity (and charity) Runners

And now for some final thoughts on this week's topic...

There's a time and a place for everything. I have no problems with celebrities (and others) running a race for charity. In fact, I support the premise of doing so because it raises awareness and funds for a lot of different causes (honestly, I had never heard of Prader-Willi Syndrome until I ran a race last year). However, in races that cap registration and have strict qualification standards, I think that everyone running should have to meet them (which clearly some celebrities can). This doesn't mean that people can't run for charity... they just have to qualify too (aka they should be treated like everyone else trying to run the race of their dreams). And it doesn't mean that every race has to work this way... there are plenty of marathons and other races for celebrity and charity runners to choose from.

I know this sounds harsh, but I feel that there should be some races that should be reserved for faster runners (and by faster, I'm not talking about anything crazy, just quicker than 4hrs, which I think is around the average finishing time for marathons). I mean, the Wesley Korir (winner of the 2012 Boston Marathon) said, "To me, running the Boston Marathon is an Olympic Event". Yup, he compared the Boston Marathon to the Olympics. They don't let just anyone run in the Olympics... not even Oprah could buy her way into that one! So, why not set aside a few races every year that you have to qualify to run in? I'm thinking Boston, New York, and Chicago right off the bat (these are World Marathon Majors events). With that, you might be able to make the qualification standards for these races a bit more reasonable, or at least ensure that everyone who does qualify and wants to run gets to (and then you can open it up to celebrity and other charity runners)!