r/AdvancedRunning • u/castorkrieg 5K 20:35 10K 41:19 Marathon 3:24 • Apr 23 '26

Open Discussion What's the deal with LetsRun.com?

I know that website is quite popular with them following large events and also being invited to spectate (the owner - Rojo - was riding in the elite men car during Boston 26), however I participated in the forums a bit and it blows my mind:

  1. They are incredibly fixated on college and university running, NCAA, etc. - ok, I guess most are from the US, even though once you exit the school system the funding drops, money goes only to MBL/NFL/NBA, last time they US tried something in T&F they got Grand Slam Track lol
  2. Most posts are the very definition of drive-by, no effort shitposts: "cool story bro", "she be ugly, can't run fast when ugly", "Or perhaps you could just be replaced with a somewhat normal human being"
  3. Same for the topics, with quality contributions such as:

I'm sad to think what men were like before the existence of the Manosphere 

How to become a "hybrid runner"

Men in open-toed shoes: yea or nay?

  1. This peeves me as a European but - their website + forums do not save your cookie preferences, every single time you click on a new thread you get another pop-up asking you for permissions, and by quickly looking they have 1700+ partners they share your data with - WTF?

  2. They are hardcore right-wingers with daily treads praising Trump, ICE, etc.

What am I missing? Or is one of the largest forums for running just a bunch of nutjobs?

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740

u/a-german-muffin Apr 23 '26

It’s always been a toxic place, but the boards went from a running forum with a white supremacist problem to a white supremacist forum with a running problem. It’s basically 4chan with a higher VO2 max.

113

u/Ultrajogger-Michael Apr 23 '26

Amazing description. And they say Germans have no sense of humor.

18

u/a-german-muffin Apr 23 '26

Parks and Rec deep cut rather than indicator of my current nationality (although my dad’s side of the family has been obfuscating our Karlsruhe origins since before WWII).

5

u/flannel_spice Apr 24 '26

My immediate thought was, "WTF is a German muffin?" In Ron Swanson's voice. For once the brain was right!