Tuning out rule on headphones

LITTLE ROCK — Is it wrong to race a marathon while wearing headphones?

It has been seven years since USA Track & Field posed the question, and some race organizers are still trying to make up their minds. For instance, during Sunday’s Little Rock Marathon, should Nicki Minaj be allowed to “Turn Me On” via ear buds, inside a theoretically closed, 26.2-mile race course containing thousands of competitors and spectators?

Gina Pharis, executive director of the Little Rock Marathon, doesn’t think so.

“USA Track & Field did the banning, and we followed suit,” she said. “It’s a safety thing. You don’t want to wear headphones when you’re on the road running a race, because cars don’t pay attention.”

According to Hobbit Singleton, who for 11 years has been the Little Rock Marathon training team’s walking coach, some drivers simply ignore barricades. “I saw police chase a car for three blocks in a New Orleans race. The policeman was beating on the trunk, and the guy just kept going,” she said.

USA Track & Field, which governs championship and Olympic qualifying races, implemented the ban for all affiliated races in 2007. Runners protested so fiercely that the next year the organization retracted the ban for all but elite competitors.

According to Mike Trexler, president of USATF Arkansas, “headphones associated with communication devices, such as a cell phone, could allow a runner to get tips from a coach or a spotter.” The Little Rock Marathon isn’t an Olympics qualifier, but it does attract a small field of elite runners. It offers a prize purse, as well as qualifier status for events like the prestigious Boston Marathon.

Officially, the Little Rock Marathon still bans headphones for all participants, but the rule is loosely enforced.

And alternatives, such as speakers worn on armbands or the one-ear bud-in, one-dangling approach, appear to be entirely accepted. “We don’t disqualify them or pull them off the course, but if we see people crossing the finish lines with two headphones in, they may not get a finish time,” Pharis said. “Most people want a time, because they have some sort of finish goal.” And participants could be disqualified for behavior deemed unsafe, such as ignoring instructions.

“That’s one thing I tell people, to warn them. You run the risk, if you’re not where you can pay attention, of having your race stop right there,” Singleton said.

Pharis has seen distracted half-marathoners miss a turn and end up on the full marathon course. Occasionally, she will ask runners to remove one of their headphones. “I maybe tell 10 people that,” she said.

Neither Singleton nor Pharis can recall any specific accident resulting from headphone use. “If you can’t hear someone say, ‘on your left,’ your feet could get tangled in another runner’s, and you could trip,” Pharis said.

Headphones may be viewed by event insurers as liabilities, increasing race premiums. But Pharis said that the Little Rock Marathon doesn’t carry event insurance. “We’re a government entity rather than a private, for-profit venture. The government doesn’t insure itself like that. And every participant signs a waiver, anyway,” she explained.

Following the Track & Field ban, runner message boards broadcast advice about how to skirt the rules, hiding wires under shirts and headbands. An Oregon couple, Shelley and Rob Stout, even created a reflective vest with built in speakers - now branded Road Noise - when their favorite race, the Hood to Coast Relay, implemented the ban.

But in recent years, headphones have become so omnipresent off the course that racing newcomers may not notice them on the course.

“I didn’t know there was a debate,” Kristen Alexander, 28, of Little Rock said. “I don’t use headphones, just because I like to take in the sights and sounds of the trail. Plus, I usually run with a buddy, so if I get bored, there’s always someone to talk to.”

To Singleton, that sounds about right. “With headphones, you miss what’s going on.There’s a lot along the marathon route - entertainment, spectators, people looking for you. Your family and friends are out there, and if you’re so into your headset, you run past and never see them,” she said.

She also cautions against pumping tunes for every training run, even if race-day plans include music. “One of our people, she always ran with music. Then she stepped up to the starting line of the marathon, and her iPod died. She had no music for the entire course, and she’d never trained that way. That’s a hard adjustment mentally,” Singleton said. “It’s like losing a training partner.”