1. No balls or sticks. No one hits or throws anything. Here the action
centers on people, not objects. 

   2. No timeouts. Once a race starts, it doesn't stop for commercials
or any other excuse. 

   3. No overtime. A race ends at its finish line, with no one ever
asked to go the extra mile to settle a
   score. 

   4. No scoring. Racing results aren't figured by points but are a
simple matter of time. 

   5. No substitutions. A weary runner can't call for relief, and an
eager but less talented one doesn't have
   to warm the bench. 

   6. No cuts. Runners are never told to clean out their lockers and 
not
to come back because they aren't
   good enough. 

   7. No teams. There's no one to hold you back when you're running
well, and no one to carry you when
   you're doing poorly. 

   8. No sex-separation. In football and baseball the men play and the
women cheer. In running they all
   race at once. 

   9. No referees. At least none in striped shirts who can blow a
whistle during a race and assess a penalty
   on the spot. 

   10. No rules. At least none more complicated than filing an entry,
starting at a scheduled time and place,
   and staying on the course for the full distance. 

   11. No fighting. When was the last time you saw two runners stop in
midrace and settle an argument
   with their fists? 

   12. No stadiums. Spectators don't sit in box seats. They stand 
beside
the streets. 

   13. No ticket sales. Spectators don't pay to watch the runners.
Runners pay to entertain the fans. 

   14. No crowds. Boston and New York City Marathons aside, rare is the
road race where the fans
   outnumber the runners. 

   15. No booing. People who watch our sport from the sidelines don't
act on the urge to verbally abuse a
   runner they don't like. 

   16. No betting. Las Vegas publishes no "line" on our events, and no
office pools ride on the results. 

   17. No off-season. We never have to wait six months for the races to
start again; there's always one
   next week, somewhere. 

   18. No one winner. When winning means meeting personal standards, a
race has as many potential
   winners as it has entrants. 

   19. No clear losers. When losing means falling short of personal
standards, the first finisher can "lose"
   and the last one can "win." 

   20. No retirement. Runners never need to quit as they grow older and
slower, and rarely do. They can
   always feel young again within a few years by graduating into a new
age-group.