What is Old School Running?

If you've run for a while (like we have) then you've seen the running landscape change over the years. You're probably not old school if:

• you're worried about what brand of socks you're wearing
• you own a pair of glasses that cost more than $15
• you don't leave the house without strapping on your GPS, MP3 player or heart rate monitor
• you've never wandered off on a new route without mapping its distance

As the sport of running has become more commercialized, productized, and organized, the sense of pure enjoyment that it can deliver sometimes gets lost in the sound and the fury. We came up with "Old School Running" as a place to talk about what we've learned over the years, to do our little part to balance out all the hype, and to give you our unbiased opinions about races, techniques, equipment, and so forth, all from the experienced runner's perspective:

There are a few things that we believe in at OSR:

• you get out what you put in
• it's not about the equipment
• be grateful that you can run
• be nice to others and help newcomers along

As others have said, running is the most democratic of all sports. Equipment and a better training facility will never replace hard work as the main determinant of your success in the sport.

Good luck in your running career!