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Comment by dblock | Hacker News Reader

Running is amazing. I find it as addictive as programming, but much healthier. I encourage anyone sitting behind a computer a lot to pick it up.

Your inner geek can also publish your Strava runs to a Jekyll blog (shameless plug: http://code.dblock.org/2018/02/17/auto-publishing-strava-run...) :)

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It's not really that healthy though. The continuous impact can really mess your joints up long term.

This is often parroted. Comparing long time runners with those that have not run has shown that runner's joints / knees are actually better than those that do not run.

Run with proper form, don't ramp mileage and intensity too fast. Humans are built for long distance running.

Watching the world record marathon in Berlin in person I would agree about form being the decisive factor. There is a huge middle ground between long time runners and people who don't run at all. That said I know multiple successful long time long distance runners who severely damaged themselves.

I prefer cycling. Running has wrecked me multiple times (100m & 200m training). I'm not built for long distance which is a shame because I could hold pace with the best amateurs over middle distances when fit (sub 3 min kms).

Did the group of long time runners include people who ran for a long time then had to stop because of injuries?

Running May Be Good for Your Knees https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/well/move/running-may-be-...

Why?

Humans evolved on the plains of Africa, hunting animals by running them down to exhaustion[1].

I think some of the bare foot running purists become cult-like in their views, but I think Chris Mcdougall's "Born to Run"[2] book is worth reading and thinking about. It's an easy, well written and entertaining read too.

[1] Watch the amazing Attenborough clip of them running an healthy, fully grown male antelope down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o

[2] http://www.chrismcdougall.com/born-to-run/the-barefoot-runni...

As far as I can tell, the endurance running hypothesis is not considered a settled matter, but even if it is true, it doesn’t mean that subsequent adaptations in all or some groups of humans hasn’t compromised this ability. Moreover, perhaps the environment when humans evolved on the plains of Africa didn’t provide much selective pressure for joints to last as many years as modern humans expect their joints to last.

Yes I agree it's not settled.

But nor is it settled that running causes damage, and I think the endurance running hypothesis provides an interesting reason to consider the counter-case.

Even though I am not convinced running is necessarily bad for joints, and I am a runner myself, the argument that humans are evolved to run seems to fall flat for me.

For one, AFAIK humans rarely aged beyond 40 in those times, so it is entirely feasible that the accumulated wear and tear starts to hurt the joints after that age.

But why?

Why run? As someone with more than a couple dozen marathons under his belt, 12 hour and 24 hour races, hundred milers and a hundred k’s, I’ve had lots of time to contemplate this question, sometimes to myself and sometimes out loud with other runners. And the answer I’ve come to is: there is no why. Some of us do it to stay in shape, some for the challenge, some to silence inner demons, some as a form of meditation, or to give our minds time for quiet contemplation. Myself? I guess I do it for all of these reasons at different times, but at the end of the day, I do it because it gives me joy.

Using someone's death to make a cheap plug, how tacky.

Tacky? It's either information of value or it's not. Who cares what it's juxtaposed to. I don't. And what does the occasion matter? To me not in bad taste a all. The man lived to a ripe old age. Not like the OP is trying to profit selling tshirts on HN. For that matter I don't even find it necessary to say things like 'shameless plug' or 'I am not connected'. Just post the link what do I care if someone gains or not in some personal way.

>Tacky? It's either information of value or it's not.

The world isn't black and white. It can be information and be tacky.

This is a less offensive case, given that the person had a long life and died under fairly positive circumstances; but what if someone used a public shooting to spin sales into their gun safe company? What if a company that engraved tombstones hung around sites of mass tragedies offering free catalogs to the bereaved?

At what point does trying to spin someones personal tragedy into your own gain or profit turn tacky? To me : instantly. To others : it varies.

Personally I very much DO want to know if a person giving me advice stands to gain from it. You can use that information to filter out perceived biases and make better decisions oneself.

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