The Oatmeal on Running

[FishHog]

I found this rather funny.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running

[turd ferguson]

"that looks like a nice tall glass of nope"

[bruyere]

"that looks like a nice tall glass of nope"

He posted on FB yesterday that that Godzilla panel was his favourite of the whole series.

[Jwolf]

This has been going around on Facebook; very funny. I also really like his blog post from a couple weeks ago:

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/ultramarathon

[daddy_runner]

I run to eat too! Mind you, that strategy isn't working out too well for me performance-wise. Happiness-wise on the other hand, it's rockin'!

[killerbeetle]

"that looks like a nice tall glass of nope"

That was my favourite part!

I love The Oatmeal! I didn't realize he was a runner. Thanks for sharing. It was great!

[daddy_runner]

I find it eerie how his exaggerated body in part 4 looks a lot like my non-exaggerated body.

[temporun]

[Joe Dwarf]

I find it eerie how his exaggerated body in part 4 looks a lot like my non-exaggerated body.

And that was quite exaggerated - dude runs a 1:30 half, didn't think he'd be too hefty. A little googling reveals I am right.

[killerbeetle]

I find it eerie how his exaggerated body in part 4 looks a lot like my non-exaggerated body.

And that was quite exaggerated - dude runs a 1:30 half, didn't think he'd be too hefty. A little googling reveals I am right.

Witty, intelligent AND hot!

[CAW]

I find it eerie how his exaggerated body in part 4 looks a lot like my non-exaggerated body.

And that was quite exaggerated - dude runs a 1:30 half, didn't think he'd be too hefty. A little googling reveals I am right.

Witty, intelligent AND hot!

Yes, yes, and YES!!!

[La]

And a lot younger than I expected! I really did expect him to look more like this:

[abhainn]

I find it eerie how his exaggerated body in part 4 looks a lot like my non-exaggerated body.

And that was quite exaggerated - dude runs a 1:30 half, didn't think he'd be too hefty. A little googling reveals I am right.

Witty, intelligent AND hot!

Yes, yes, and YES!!!

Holy cheese on a cracker! Yes!!

[toobusy]

And a lot younger than I expected! I really did expect him to look more like this:

That may be what his inner voice says he looks like

[MikeM]

The blerch is now available in t-shirt and bumper sticker form:



http://theoatmeal.com/blog/blerch_shirts

Tempting.

[Dstew]

"Running is not about Vanity" he writes on a blog and is selling tee shirts. Why is it that virtually every ultra marathoners feels compelled to keep a blog and to share their every misery and then to write race reports and generally attempt to share their "story" with as many people as they can but it is not about vanity. As a full member of a the narcissist club I see the names of almost every ultra marathoner on the membership list.

It also says something that one quote he used was in reference to a huge ego that thought they could go to Alaska and conquer nature with their superior will and character and who starved to death as a result of their hubris. The author speaks of how great he is to overcome heat and hills and killer hornets but if it were only about the running then no one would have every known about these great heroic quests he was successfully overcome as if he were a Greek God.

It is about vanity and ego with a good sense of humor and for a good cause, get off the couch, but to suggest that fame and fortune have nothing to do with his running is false in my opinion.

[ultraslacker]

I haven't read this specific blog, but I disagree with your generalizations of ultra runners (as an ultra runner and former blogger myself...).

Very few people experience what ultra runners do, and the experience is deep and personal and lonely. Blogging is a way of sharing that experience with others, and sharing in theirs. I personally love reading other ultra runners' blogs, because they have so much to say that resonates with me and which I can't find anywhere else.

[ian]

I found the blog and the cartoons to be well done. If these activities happened to inspire an idea that he can publish or put on a t-shirt, good for him. Inevitably, people are conditioned to see what they want to see in the world around them; for some, it's inspiration, for others, it's a validation of the necessity of egotism.

[gnu]

I had read enough of the Oatmeal that I considered myself "familiar" with his stuff, but until this stuff started going viral I had no idea he was a runner. For someone so ego-driven, he doesn't talk about his running all that much IMO.

[Jwolf]

I had read enough of the Oatmeal that I considered myself "familiar" with his stuff, but until this stuff started going viral I had no idea he was a runner. For someone so ego-driven, he doesn't talk about his running all that much IMO.

Yeah, I agree. He never used to say anything about his running until that ultramarathon report a couple months ago. I think he got a lot more runner followers after that, and then realized that there were a lot of people out there that could relate to his experiences. It inspired him to use that material more.

[La]

I like his running stuff, but I prefer The Bobcats series.

[Samantha]

Me too!!

[Dstew]

I haven't read this specific blog, but I disagree with your generalizations of ultra runners (as an ultra runner and former blogger myself...).

Very few people experience what ultra runners do, and the experience is deep and personal and lonely. Blogging is a way of sharing that experience with others, and sharing in theirs. I personally love reading other ultra runners' blogs, because they have so much to say that resonates with me and which I can't find anywhere else.

What I should have said is that ultra runners are no more or less vain and ego driven than the rest of us. I qualified for Boston is something I marathoner will proclaim to the world whereas with ultra runners, how much bodily fluid of different sorts from different orifices and passing out seems to be the benchmark of "worthiness". Dr Sheehan compared training for a marathon to a mythical Greek heroic quest. Ultra runners tend to share that quest more because it goes beyond that of a mere marathon and thus ego and vanity has to play a role. If those traits did not, there is no need to keep or share a blog. To share experiences, there are internet forums so a blog is more recognition and hence ego driven to some extent. Where I take offense is when someone goes on about how tough their run was and how they overcame that adversity and publish that for everyone to read but at the same time say they are not doing it for vanity but for the pure and noble pursuit of running unlike ... marathoners, gym rats, etc. Again, if it was so pure and noble, then why the dramatic descriptions or publish it at all. I see no real harm in that given the underlying reasons but the intellectual dishonesty does bother me.

[ian]

Again, if it was so pure and noble, then why the dramatic descriptions or publish it at all. I see no real harm in that given the underlying reasons but the intellectual dishonesty does bother me.

I think you're fighting an imaginary battle here. First of all, there's some serious selection bias involved with generalizing about the self-promoting nature of ultramarathon runners based on the various blogs you've read. Secondly, you surely realize that the friends, family, and followers of this cartoonist have expressed some interest in his activities, but once he complies, his motives are somehow tarnished? I read his story and see a guy who is proud of the personal transformation and adventures that running has given him; a journey which is not quantified by age group percentiles or trinkets. Of course there is adversity -- if he were to give the attitude of "it was no big deal, anyone could have done it", you'd attack him for false modesty and for being a humblebrag. I have no doubt that there are some ultra runners with huge egos out there but you might be straining to put this guy in that box and it comes across (to me, at least) as projection on your part. Just enjoy the cartoons.

[La]

Just enjoy the cartoons.

Word!