A “Button” Who Can Run You Down
Track and Field Videos on Flotrack
Yesterday’s New York Times has a story by Gina Kolata about how far women’s running has come in just the last few decades, overcoming a patronizing attitude of male runners.
It’s a timely article, because the same day it appeared, Runner’s World Daily showed us that we still have some work to do when it comes to patronizing female runners.
RW Daily highlighted the story of Gabrielle Jennings, who at the age of 10, won the 3,200 meter race at the Louisiana State High School Indoor Championships with a time of 11:58.9.
The Runner’s World headline? “10-Year-Old Is Cutest Champ Ever“. We’re also told she “that not only has a fantastic attitude, but is also cute as a button.” Acompanying the blog post is a four-minute interview with Jennings conducted by a complete amateur.
I agree that Jennings is cute, and her attitude is commendable, but her accomplishment would be just as amazing if she were plain and grouchy. I’ve posted the Flotrack video of her race so you can see her in action. The first half is hardly riveting, but you should pay attention because Jennings is a distant fifth until she starts to make her move about 4:30 into the race. By the 6 minute mark, she’s in second, and still well behind the leader, but you can tell from her superior form it’s only a matter of time before she makes up the ground.
She takes the lead with three laps to go (about 9:45 on the video), and with a lap to go the PA announcer informs the crowd that she’s 10 years old. She wins going away and looks like she could have covered another two miles at the same pace.
Don’t worry, puberty will take all her fun away. When you’ve got a pair of sweater puppies to deal with, running super fast just doesn’t seem like a great idea anymore.
I hadn’t seen the video of the race itself, just the interview. I don’t see anything wrong with saying that she is cute as a button; she is a cute girl, after all. Had she been plain and grouchy she would have still deserved the honors she got; people just wouldn’t have bothered pointing out how cute she is.
How many times have you been out in public and some random stranger exclaims over how cute your baby is (or a friend’s baby or some random person near you’s baby or a dog or anything else.) People like to point out the obvious.
i’m with you mike. so patronizing. i thought blaine was going to say, “how many times have you been out in public and someone said how cute YOU were?” cuz I know I get that a lot…
That was awesome. I cried at the end!