Feeding into the Problem

For his personal newsletter: ‘Late Entry‘ Zach Hauer, co-owner of Open Fuel wonders aloud about our over-consumption problem in the running world:

Pushing the narrative that the upper echelons of carb intake via sugary goo is how the passionate normie becomes elite, fuels waste.

Of course running is part of regular consumer culture and our everyday culture in a capitalistic society is incredibly wasteful – have you been in a Costco lately? But Zach’s article also reminds me of one of my favorite hobby horses: Running, and specifically trail running sits between the two chairs of “performance running” and “outdoor adventure”. These two cultures clash and we’re (especially us in the media, but also many brands) are WAY over-indexing on the performance running aspect of our hobby.

The running world will always push us to embrace any idea that suggests performance improvements are purchasable. Be that plates in shoes, holes in shirts, ice bandanas or whatever nutrition is the fad of the moment.

For decades the outdoor adventure world too has been driven by brands selling us stuff, gear, better and lighter layers. So that “other chair” isn’t much better, but that side of the media at least has better stories to tell. No one writes about what tent was used at Everest Basecamp, or what skis were used to get to the South Pole. When Kilian did his State of Elevation projects it became a story of the landscape he travelled through, the journey, the achievement of this continues movement. The gear he used wasn’t the focal point. I believe we (in the media) all could do a better job of inspiring people to adventure more, to “never stop exploring” rather than to endlessly optimize our next workout with new gear that’s just a quick online purchase away.