BELL LAP #25

BABY JOGGERS--PANDERING TO PUSHY PARENTS? (April 5, 2000)

I was given the first Baby Jogger that rolled off the assembly line. Well, in truth there wasn't any assembly line back in 1983, just a guy, Phil Baechler, working in his shop in Yakima, Washington, honing a great idea--a stroller that would roll so nice and easy you could run with it. Baechler tested his invention himself, periodically asked friends to give input, and over time closed in on a production model. I lived just a couple of hours from where he did, and I had both a running store and a newborn daughter, and one day Baechler showed up with a present--a new product for runners, hot off the "assembly line." The Baby Jogger.

My running friends were dubious, but I loved it immediately. It was easy to push and simple to control. It gave me a chance to take over child care duties without missing a run. As my daughter got older, we would chat as any training partners would. When my second daughter was born, my wife and I acquired a new, improved version. I felt then, and I feel to this day, that the Baby Jogger helped me develop a special bond with my daughters. From an early age, they understood where I went and what I was up to when I left the house in running gear. Maybe it's a coincidence, but today both daughters are runners.

I tell this story because I hope it shows that I understand the allegiance parents have to running strollers. As strong as that feeling can be, though, I can't understand why some parents have trouble dealing with one simple fact: strollers have no place in races.

Why not? Because in races, you're surrounded by other people traveling as fast as possible. Wheels are spinning in the same area where fast-moving feet are landing. The mixup of wheels and feet is a disaster waiting to happen, with an innocent toddler thrown into the mix.

In fact, in my ignorance I tried using the Baby Jogger at the 1984 Lilac Bloomsday Run. We started as a family at the back of the pack, and I soon discovered that, no matter how wonderful for training, this was not a product meant for the frenetic pace and packed streets of a big race. From that day on I used it only in training. And for the past decade, the Bloomsday Run has restricted parents with strollers to walking pace.

RRCA guidelines include a resolution discouraging the use of running strollers in races, and events have generally followed the recommendation. Most people have accepted this without complaint, but periodically restrictions on strollers are met with heated resistance. Usually, the argument is that: 1) I've been doing this for years without an accident, and 2) other runners in the race don't mind.

To the first, I say this: I often see adults driving cars full of kids, with no one wearing a seat belt. They can do this for years without incident, but does that mean it's safe?

And to the second, I'll ask online readers this question: I'm sure we all love seeing kids at races, but do you really applaud parents who run pushing their kids in strollers?

Recently, a writer responded to Joe Henderson's column in Runner's World--in which Henderson had urged parents not to push strollers in races--by claiming, "I challenge you to present evidence where baby joggers did cause a safety hazard in a road race."

Okay, Runners World Online readers, I'm passing this challenge on to you. Got any evidence, or are you ready to applaud the strollers that show up in your next 10K?