LetsRun.com is a

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

-based news website and internet forum for information and discussion related to

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, especially

long-distance running Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running come two di ...

. The website provides pre-race previews, covers races, and interviews athletes. Despite concerns over limited moderation on the message boards, LetsRun.com has been praised for its positive impact on American running and source of importance for the field. It has also become known for the quality of training information on its boards, and a number of internationally recognized coaches and athletes have posted information on their workout plans on the site, including Renato Canova and

Henry Rono Henry Rono (12 February 1952 – 15 February 2024) was a Kenyan track and field athlete who specialised in various long-distance running events. Although he never competed at the Olympics, Rono is remembered as one of the most prolific collegia ...

History

Brothers Robert and Weldon Johnson founded LetsRun.com in the spring of 2000 while Weldon was training for the U.S. Olympic Trials in

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ), known locally as Flag, is the county seat of Coconino County, Arizona, in the southwestern United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 76,831. Flagstaff is the principal city of the Coconino Cou ...

, with the goal of creating an online community to facilitate discussion of race results and training as well as to help promote track and field in the United States. According to the Johnsons, in 2009 the website was receiving over 200,000 unique visitors per month, and as of 2020 there have been nearly ten million posts on its message board.

Coverage

Doping

The site extensively covered allegations of ethically gray activities surrounding the Nike Oregon Project and coach

Alberto Salazar Alberto Salazar (born August 7, 1958) is an American former track coach and long-distance runner. Born in Cuba, Salazar immigrated to the United States as a child with his family, living in Connecticut and then in Wayland, Massachusetts, where ...

, who was banned in 2019 for offenses related to doping. LetsRun co-founder Robert Johnson shared his perspective with the ''New York Times'' on one of the most prominent individuals associated with the group, athlete Galen Rupp. Johnson said about Rupp, “I think we should evaluate his career like everyone else but with more skepticism since one athlete is tied more closely to Alberto than anyone else.” LetsRun provided coverage and analysis of the doping allegations against Shelby Houlihan, a prominent American middle-distance runner. Houlihan tested positive for an anabolic steroid, which she attributed to consuming a contaminated burrito. The plausibility of this explanation was discussed on the site.

Intersex and gender identity

The website frequently addresses complex issues, including articles on intersex athletes like

Caster Semenya Caster Semenya Order of Ikhamanga, OIB (born 7 January 1991) is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic medal, Olympic gold medals and three World Athletics Championships, World Championships in the women's 800 metres ...

and transgender athletes like CeCe Telfer. A notable piece on Caster Semenya highlighted her XY chromosome configuration, a detail that the site contended was not widely covered in mainstream media. A November 2022 article from LetsRun opposed the inclusion of

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

in sports, arguing instead for competitions based on biological sex. The article criticized the NYC Marathon's non-binary category, claiming it conflates gender identity with biological sex and discriminates against female athletes.

Running controversies

LetsRun has also appeared at the center of several controversies in running. In 2015, following a viral post made by Mike Rossi justifying his children's absences from school while watching him run at the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by eight cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ins ...

, Robert Johnson wrote a 5,000 word article on LetsRun describing "overwhelming" evidence that Rossi had cheated in an earlier qualifying race, based in part on information discovered by various users and posted to the LetsRun message boards. The organizers of that qualifying race wrote that they could not disqualify Rossi's time "simply because they received no reports of wrongdoing as the race took place," but also stated that "there is data from Rossi’s participation in other racing events indicating that Rossi’s time may not be accurate." LetsRun was also involved in scrutiny of Robert Young's attempt to break the record for the fastest run across the United States in 2016. As skepticism of some of Young's splits grew, one anonymous poster attempted to meet Young in the middle of his run, but instead found Young's support R.V. driving slowly down the road at running speed with no one outside, leading the poster to accuse Young of riding in the R.V. while claiming to be running. Young's performance deteriorated as additional observers began following his progress, and he eventually abandoned the attempt.

Other issues

LetsRun played a role in covering the

Boston Marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing, sometimes referred to as simply the Boston bombing, was an Islamist domestic terrorist attack that took place during the 117th annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarna ...

in 2013. The website's forum became a hub for speculations regarding the identities of the perpetrators before they were officially identified. A user uploaded a photo to a forum thread of one of the eventual suspects, near the finish line before the bombings occurred. This posting to the website's forum contributed to the photograph gaining widespread online attention during the criminal investigation. At the

2016 Rio Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, a journalist for the website, Jon Gault, asked Ethiopian medalist

Feyisa Lilesa Feyisa Lilesa ( Afaan Oromo: Fayyisaa Leellisaa; born 1 February 1990) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He became the youngest man to run under 2:06 when he ran 2:05:23 in the men's marathon at the 2010 Rotterdam Marathon. He set his perso ...

why he raised his hands above his head in an X at the finish line. Lilesa responded to Gault that he did the gesture to protest the Ethiopian government's treatment of the Oromo ethnic group. Lilesa's political statement garnered extensive coverage, with numerous stories citing LetsRun. The website covered Guatemalan runner

Luis Grijalva Luis Miguel Grijalva (born 10 April 1999) is a Guatemalan Long-distance running, long-distance Running, runner. Born in Guatemala, he attended Armijo High School in Fairfield, California, where he was a state champion in cross country and track. ...

's quest for American citizenship, and the challenges he faced regarding his participation in the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

due to his

DACA Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals who, on June 15, 2012, were physically present in the United States with no lawful immigration status after having entered the cou ...

(Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status.

Reception

Coverage of LetsRun has been generally positive. A ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' article called the website “something of a superego for American running”, while an article in the ''New Yorker'' described it as one of the “most knowledgeable and active site for running fans”. The website has come under criticism, however, for the content on its message board, where anonymity allows for a broad range of discussions, some of which are fueled by misogyny, racism, and homophobia. The site acknowledged these issues, and in 2020, it attempted to reduce trolling and

astroturfing Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of hiding the Sponsor (commercial), sponsors of an orchestrated message or organization (e.g., political, economic, advertising, religious, or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from ...

by putting in place new rules for moderation.

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.LetsRun.com Internet forums Running mass media American sport websites 2000 establishments in Arizona