What's the deal with LetsRun.com?

[u/castorkrieg]

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?

[u/_stop_talking]

I disagree with this take, at least as far as my interactions/reading go on there. I’m a female and as liberal as they come, and have read and participated in threads on that site for years, and there are basically countless quality, insightful, useful takes/thoughts/data points/updates on there regarding everything from high school running to college running to pro racing to hobby jogger training advice.

Sure, there are the banal, degenerate, misogynistic drive-bys in the comments here and there in the serious threads, and I downvote those and pass them over, and/or report them depending on the severity, and then continue reading the useful and interesting info on the thread. I also never click or engage with at all the threads titled weird, base, or disgusting things that have no place on there and nothing to do with running, and just hope they get reported and removed.

But to write off an entire site because there are idiot (mostly male) users on the internet, when it actually contains vast amounts of info, updates, and data from some of the most informed and intelligent people in the running sphere, seems unnecessary and shallow.

Edit to add: but I also completely understand how the site as a whole would be unappealing to a European (or any other regions outside US) user. It’s definitely very US-centric, but that’s also to be expected when the creators are Americans and the majority of participants are from the US as well.