Rabbits: Pro or Con?

[Andrew A.]

An articulate and eloquent blog post from Lauren Fleshman (and some unfortunately inane comments  ): http://asklaurenfleshman.com/journal/2010/08/02/rabbiting/

Would you rabbit for someone else or would you ask someone to rabbit for you?  I would not.  My response on Lauren's blog post:

I feel that records are far overrated and that rabbiting is unethical.

In any truly popular sport, competition is the prime focus and records are secondary, at best, and are merely the outcome of what happens during competition. To the vast majority of people, 4:10 pace or 4:50 pace means little at all — yet they can understand the basic, primal concept of the person to get to the finish first wins. Rare is the rabbited race that is actually truly competitive.

To be able to lay legitimate claim to a performance as being truly one’s own, whether that is defined by place or by time or both, run it without the help of any aid. Just you, your fitness, your preparation, and your wiles up against everyone else’s.

[Ryan]

You beat me to the punch again, just got done reading that and was going to post a link myself.

I thought this hit the nail on the head pretty well as far as my opinion on the topic (and I'm saying this as a rhythm runner with a poor kick who would benefit from rabbits if I were in a position to run a race that had them):

My current opinion on rabbiting as a whole?  Too many races have pace-setters, and its hurting the sport.  If week after week the focus is on breaking records, we highlight the huge disparities in the fields, string everyone out from lap 3 onward, and eliminate any chance of the unexpected happening.  That’s why Championships are so much more fun to watch…no rabbits.

Knowing that I’m a championship-type racer, you could have guessed my opinion on the subject.  Had there been a rabbit at the USA’s at 15:00 5k pace, I wouldn’t have won.  But isn’t that the point of a race?  To have everyone step on the line with their own bag of tricks and use them the best they can?

[ksrunner]

I'd read that post on rabbiting as well. I cannot blame Lauren for choosing to rabbit. I am sure that I would do the same if I had the ability and someone were willing to pay me to pace someone through several laps at WR pace.

As far as rabbiting in general, I would prefer that meet organizers did not invite runners just to act as rabbits. If an individual runner chooses to rabbit for a teammate or friend, then that is up to them, but I think even that diminishes the performance a bit. Great performances are most special when they come in the midst of competition or if an individual takes it upon themselves to push the envelope alone. I've never been that kind of runner myself, but it seems that every year in the mile run at the Kansas City Corporate Challenge meet, there are individuals in the age grouped races who race alone in pursuit of a record or perhaps only in pursuit of their best performance on that day. It may not provide the drama of a close finish, but it is nevertheless fun to see and they always generate admiring calls of support as they circle the track. My dad was present at the 1965 Kansas high school state track meet where Jim Ryun broke 4:00 for the mile running by himself against other high school athletes. I can only imagine how incredibly special it would have been to see that performance. My father remembers seeing another guy from Ryun's school half way between Ryun and the rest of the pack. His was also a great performance, but it was probably overlooked by all but his coach and his friends and family. Nearly any other year, he would probably have won a state title.

Rabbiting is probably not going to go away soon, so as a race fan, I would only ask that race/meet directors not obligate rabbits to drop from the race. The most compelling rabbit stories are those when the rabbit does not drop, but hangs in there and makes a race of it or even runs away with the race.

Steve

[Andrew A.]

I agree, I cannot necessarily blame Fleshman, yet at the same time her convictions would carry more weight if she stood behind her beliefs of what is best for the sport by refusing to take part as a rabbit.  Sort of like how Al Gore makes himself an easy target for climate change critics because he does not practice what he preaches -- what he preaches is sensible, yet he does not give proof to the sensibility by doing everything he can to 'be the change' he wants to see in the world.