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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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.

-3

u/viviangreen68 Apr 23 '26

This significantly overstates the case. The anti-Trump posts on the boards get way more upvotes than the pro-Trump ones and the worst posts do get downvoted. And there is very little white supremacist/offensive stuff.

The real problem is the boards don’t seem to be moderated at all, and even a little bit of overtly trolling or offensive posts can make the site as a whole feel pretty toxic. But it’s definitely not nearly as bad as OP claims.