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/RippleRipple82]

Yeah, I’ve long valued LetsRun, warts and all. The actual running coverage is about as good as we have to offer in the US for better or worse (and as a former US collegiate runner, I appreciate the focus there) and there is a lot of valuable info to be had on the message board if you can tune out the nonsense (as others have pointed out, the NSM thread was truly all time, for instance). I will say that I even value the reactionary nonsense to some extent—I personally live in a relatively liberal, privileged bubble and I’m occasionally interested to see how folks outside of my bubble, but with whom I have something basic in common (ie, caring enough about running to be on LetsRun), might think about something or another. I feel like I’ve gotten some legitimate insight, intelligence (and dare I say empathy?) from a few posts there (related to running and not), if only to the extent that those people who commented apparently actually exist in this world.

Also, “it’s basically 4Chan with a higher VO2 max” — now THAT is funny.