This weekend I attended a local fun run and was surprised to see two seniors wearing hand-made signs, if you can even call them that, protesting age groupings.
Seems they were a little miffed because the club putting on the race had 10-year age spans up to 69, then it was 70-plus.
The protesters said the club as well as the race sponsors were discriminating aginst seniors.
They said it wasn't fair to have an 83 year old running aginst a 70-year old.
When you get right down to it, most age groups aren't fair. If a race has a 0-13 age division for youths, can a 4 year old really be expected to compete against a 12 year old?
You could even go further and say there should be separate divisions for collegiate runners and recreational runners. After all, it isn't fair when a cross-country star from Stan State runs against a weekend warrior who only puts in 15 miles a week.
But race directors have to draw the line somewhere.
No one was holding a gun to the two protesters' heads forcing the to run the race. They chose to be there.
It's up to race directors to set age groups. Some choose 5-year spans, others 10-year spans.
I've even seen larger. For several years, the Trix Run 5K in Lodi had small age groups for kids and then went 19-39, 40-55, and 56 and over. They have since changed that to 10-year spans, but it's still 60 and over for the most senior runner. The run was supposed to really cater to kids.
For years, the Modesto Turkey Trot had 20-39, 40-55 and 56 and above. As the race grew, so did the grumblings. Eventually race management listened to the comments and made 10-year group.
There was even one area race last year that had kids age groups, then 20 and above. Needless to say, they only got 25 participants.
And that's the point. If you don't like the age groups, just don't sign up to run the race.
If race directors are smart, they'll get the hint.
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