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Annihilate that course and obliterate your competition

Meg Mackenzie explores trail running's macho language problem.

Meg Mackenzie

May 6th, 2022

4 min read

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Have you ever noticed the amount of war language we use in everyday life? We ‘roll with the punches’ at home, ‘pull the trigger’ on an exciting project, fire off ‘bullet points’ in a work email, and get ‘caught in the crossfire’ of a dispute. We call problems ‘ticking time bombs’ and sometimes we horrifyingly call women ‘blonde bombshells’. To be clear; bombshells are “large-caliber projectiles fired by artillery-armored fighting vehicles during war.” If you find this sexually attractive you might want to see a therapist.

But let’s get to trail running; a beautiful fringe sport with a natural connection to nature, peace, and joy in the mountains. Despite this obvious connection as a spirited, soul-filling activity – nearly all the common phrases and terms we use to talk about running and racing are heavily focused on patriarchal-enforcing qualities or war language. Often we compare running a trail race with going to battle. We ‘obliterate’ course records, ‘crush’ our competitors, ‘defend’ our titles and ‘dominate’ the field. All these words imply that, in order to succeed, we need to beat another into submission.

But one person shining shouldn’t come at the cost of ‘crushing’ another person (or a mountain!). And this surely shouldn’t be what we celebrate on the trails or in society.

There is nothing inherently domineering about the pure desire to shine. My light shining brightly doesn’t suggest that your flame needs to be extinguished.. Rather, this is a false narrative we have been taught through generations of books, myths, and in history classes. Stories of winning and losing, beating, retreating, and defending have flooded our minds and language from the very beginning which is why it is so deeply internalized that we even apply it to something as peaceful as trail running.

You may have overheard people talking about trail racing in this way:

“Wasn’t it so cool seeing Jo obliterate the course record at the Worlds Gnarliest Hardcore Death Defying 100-mile yesterday?”

“Yeah he totally dominated that field, nobody else stood a chance. He crushed the uphills and killed the competition…”

“Whoa and did you see him annihilate John on that downhill? That was so badass. He totally owned it; what a hero. It was killer. Go Jo!”

Now let’s have some fun and flip this. Have you ever heard someone describing a race with non-violent language?

“Did you see Jo run the Spirit Soaring 50k out of sheer joy over the weekend?”

“Yeah it was so awesome to see him embrace those uphills. He really encouraged everyone as he went too. Did you see his happy tears on that flowing downhill?”

“Yes, he expresses himself in such an admirable way – so intune with nature and connected with the trail.

He is such a caring athlete too, so sensitive to his fellow runners. Go Jo!”

Language matters. The words we use frame our experiences and define our culture. They shape our stories and dictate the narrative. Adjusting and playing with different language can begin a process that describes the full experience of complex human reality instead of just one side of it. What if we could blend it all together, tempering male encoded language of warriorship, stoicism and power with empathy, giving weight to love and nurture?

“Your energy flows where attention goes.” We’ve all heard the saying in some way or form and it informs why language is so important. If we continue to pay attention to violent language and hierarchical ways of describing situations that is what will prevail.

Trail running does not exist in a vacuum. It’s part of the larger narrative that currently exists in the world. Perhaps, next time you tell a story of your favorite athlete or race play with language that reflects that world you hope to live in.

Photo credit: Marzelle van der Merwe

53 thoughts on "Annihilate that course and obliterate your competition"

  1. Anna says:

    Thank you Meg! Well put!

  2. Kate says:

    Love this!

  3. Candace P says:

    This article, and some of these comments, can be dumbed down to “How dare people in this otherwise inclusive sport celebrate others’ accomplishments and motivations in a way that threatens my sensitivity to words! My self righteous feminist arrogance and infinitely grifting victimhood dictates how others need to speak, think, and act. It is my duty, as a culturally oppressed female, to speak out on these micro aggressive, historically masculine, internalized violent hate words and phrases. Any speech I hate is LiTeRaLy hate speech. Any actions I determine wrong are deep rooted in hate. Anything I perceive as masculine is an attack on our collective feminine rights. The collective goal is to divide and concur in order to be as inclusive as possible. Feminists and sympathetic soy boy cucks unite as one! Divide those who we believe hate us so we can once again live in a world of togetherness and love!”

    Seriously, grow up and get on with running.

  4. Virginia says:

    Yes! Words matter ;-0

  5. Kelly Christine Weber says:

    Humans will never be able to crush or dominate nature. Thank you Meg, realistically this has nothing to do with gender performance. Nature will always win. I am a person who runs for peace, joy, fun, community, and respect for nature. If you are out running trails and ultras for domination, good luck! Nature will always have the last laugh if runners continue to speak in terms of war and conquest.

  6. Candace P. Thank you!

  7. Steve Freese says:

    If my day went well, I didn’t even notice anyone else on the trail. Except for the excellent volunteers a few other runners who said, “hello” or “you got this” or “you doing ok?”
    Save the macho shit for gym class…oh yeah that was high school.

  8. Mary T. says:

    After cringing through this article from the aspiring professional victim, I noticed an unrelated article at the bottom. It is titled, “Trail running: it ain’t about bein’ fancy Emily Halnon reminds us that, at its core, trail running is simply about playing in the dirt.” Sound advice for this OP: get out more and be around more people. You apparently spend too much time living under a rock and expecting everyone to cave to your self inflicted insecurities.

  9. Sarah says:

    Well this is hilarious. At the risk of starting an internet debate (can you tell I’m procrastinating?), I think you’ve missed the point. The trail community loves competition, but is also so beautifully encouraging and supportive of each other’s successes, even at a podium level (I think – I’ve never stood on a podium. But just from an external perspective.)

    So why not change the language we use to report the sport to reflect more of the culture of the sport? Yeah, competition is an element of the sport, but it’s not so all-consuming as media sometimes reports purely through their choice of language. Let’s make sure we report and communicate the joy, beauty, peace, inclusiveness, encouragement, fun AND competitiveness of the sport, rather than only reporting the competitiveness.

  10. Sarah says:

    Imagine a world where there was no war, fighting, violence… maybe it goes right back down to a granular level where within our daily actions, the language we use can change our approach of needing to over power another person or thing, but rather uplifting each other and ourselves, not to the detriment of another.

    To change out default narrative of how we describe what we do, what motivates us. Let it be ok for that language to be more about peaceful actions, celebration, and not focusing in on fight or flight responses. But living in harmony with each other and our surrounds and celebrating those triumphs. Toning down our egos.
    Imagine if someone tried to write an article that’s purpose was to encourage a shift in our default mindsets.

    Oh hell no. Let’s miss the point completely and slay the person trying to make a very valid point in a world that really needs us to change the narrative.

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