From <http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum30/HTML/002938.shtml>
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Dear Dean:
When I heard from so many of my ultrarunning friends who were rejected
from this year's WS100 lottery, I couldn't help but think about you
and your (tragic) popularization of a sport that basically runs
counter to the mainstream. What you have done to the great sport of
ultrarunning is, well, quite extraordinary and reckless. Your life and
(incredibly stupid) book have turned this sport on its head, creating
demand for races from the masses that has outstripped the capacity of
events like WS100 and made these great outings all but unattainable to
many a good ultrarunner who finishes 100s and still gets locked out of
ultrarunning's most prestigious two days because a bunch of Dean-
loving gloryhounds have overloaded the lottery.
I don't like you because you're a fraud who's introduced a nasty
element into the sport of ultrarunning. The element is greed, and this
greed is seen in corporate involvement that has driven people to
ultrarunning who couldn't begin to understand the sport and don't
engender the qualities of real ultrarunners--namely selflessness,
humility, and sense of community. Just look at the WS100, which
Montrail is now driving into the ground in the name of the almighty
dollar. I cannot understand why Gordy A. has allowed this to happen.
Do you have a hold on him of some kind? And I can't understand why the
ultrarunning community hasn't rebelled against what's happened with
the WS100 over the past few years.
Oh wait, I forgot--you bagged/DNS'ed last year's Western States
because you were too busy trying to set the 24 hour treadmill record--
a record you failed to "achieve" because you're really not that great
of a runner to begin with and you pale in comparison to the greats
like Scott J., Valmir N., Kouros, Clifton, Meltzer, et al. Anyway,
when you DNS'ed last year's WS100, did it ever occur to you that you
were taking up a spot that another runner would have loved to have? It
doesn't surprise me that you'd show so little respect for ultrarunners
because you have zero respect for the sport!
Aside from being a fraud, you're also a liar. Face it--you lied when
you told everyone that your intention in running "home" from New York
after the 50/50/50 was to stop in St. Louis, not your home of San
Franciso. Dean, this was a lie and anyone with half a brain knows it.
You ran out of gas in St. Louis and had a PR problem on your hands, so
you invented some story about how you intended to stop in St. Louis
anyway. Your recent story--more a tale--in Marathon and Beyond made me
puke. What a crock! You are a crock!
Dean, I have decided that you've become a stunt runner because you
know most ultrarunners hate you and you don't want to go to races and
get your just deserts. So you do stunt running instead and win ESPY
awards you couldn't even begin to deserve because, in the grand scheme
of things, you're just an above-average runner. Few in the sport like
you (e.g., Jurek's comments about you) and those who do aren't real
ultrarunners...sorry to say.
in short, Dean, I wish you'd just go away already. Leave this sport
alone, would you?
Yours Truly,
An Old-School Ultrarunner