Many events throughout the country have grown quite large by appealing to folks who do not think of themselves as athletes to go out and give it a whirl, often to benefit a charitable cause. This is all to the good. Not only have many national charities benefited enormously from this trend, but ordinary folks who previously never would have considered walking or running to be entertaining have learned to think just that way. As their training has progressed, their health on average has improved. One-half of the exercise and diet prescription for good health is achieved, and this lends motivation to tackle the diet part.
People lead healthier and thus happier lives.
But the masses of folks continue to resist the sport of running. For many of the sports minded, running is a snore. Well, one reason may be that media interest in the sport has been minimal, except for a few very large events in select, usually large cities. And even then, media coverage is generally local and not national. One of the reasons media interest has waned in a lot of places is that competition has been de-emphasized.