Move over, Spotify! Give it a rest, Strava! You don’t need some app to compile all your personal data and algorithmic preferences just to tell you that in the last 365 days you listened to way too much Sabrina Carpenter and missed your annual mileage goal by hundreds of miles.

2024 was a big year for track and field on social media, and countless professional, sub-elite, and (sigh) running influencers went viral for everything from pole vault mishaps to allegations of international espionage.

Some of these moments felt more akin to one-hit wonder singles, while others filled the role of no-skips albums you kept on repeat all year. But whether it was your local one-hit wonder making a fool of himself at the Turkey Trot or Noah Lyles solidifying his top spot as the Mariah Carey of online track beef, group chats and comment sections around the globe were kept well-supplied with material.

And since there isn’t one single platform to compile them all, here are a few year-end lists we put together to sum up 2024 in Track and Field (Chronically Online Version).

Top 5 excuses why the race went poorly:

Arguably the most important part of being a professional athlete is having a robust online presence (unless you’re Galen Rupp). And a huge part of being a pro online is always having an excuse at the ready for your post-race photo carousel when things didn’t go well.

1. Haven’t started speedwork yet. A classic up there with “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid” and “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” No matter how late in the season or why the race was disappointing, the crucial speed workout that would’ve delivered the win is always one week out on the schedule.
2. Rabbit messed up the pace. Nothing says grace and humility like blaming the unsponsored runner burning off a valuable race effort to drag you halfway through the race at personal-best pace for 100 bucks and parking pass.
3. Race was too hot/cold/windy. If the race wasn’t on the BU indoor track, it could’ve been better weather. (Even if it was at BU, there may have been a saboteur fiddling with the thermostat!) Surely if it was 53º instead of 57º you would’ve run twenty or thirty seconds faster.
4. Not enough time to warm up. After Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Olympics, no one else gets to use this one anymore.
5. Running gear was not up to par. Bad shoelaces, faulty shorts liner, not enough carbon, not enough foam, too much foam… whatever you come up with, just make sure you’ve cashed your latest last check from your gear sponsor before you throw them under the bus.

Top 5 controversies the most annoying guy at run club told you about:

In between huffing and puffing his way through the warmup and mansplaining double thresholds to anyone within earshot, that one guy at run club whose screen time consists of 10 daily hours of message board scrolling will not be shy about filling you in on the latest nonsense.

1. New Boston Marathon qualifying standards released. Can you BELIEVE one of the most popular and competitive races in the world has the AUDACITY to be selective about its entrants?!
2. Camille Herron edited a bunch of Wikipedia articles. Okay, this one was mostly just funny. As punishment, Des Linden should get exclusive editing authority over Camille’s page for a year.
3. The Olympic 10,000m qualifying standards get crazy. The complex mishmash of world rankings, time standards, and moving targets had Chris Chavez out here looking like Steve Kornacki for weeks during the U.S. Olympic Trials.
4. Sage Canaday hawks overrated energy gels. Canaday, one of the most… persistent content creators in the game… got a bunch of ultra runners and/or nutrition science nerds mad at him for promoting Spring Energy. Yes, it’s exactly as boring as it sounds.
5. Matt Choi gets banned from the New York Marathon. A huge victory for anyone who’s ever seen a guy running with a selfie stick and thought, ‘I hope the entire running community comes together to condemn this behavior.’

Top 5 track and field feuds:

Why can’t we all just get along? Well, for starters, it would make the sport way more boring. The only thing better than a friendly rivalry is an unfriendly one, and while track and field is generally full of nice, polite, respectful folks, every once in a while we get Hatfield-McCoy-lite feud brewing that generates friction and intrigue both on and off the track.

1. Jakob Ingebrigtsen vs. Josh Kerr. Instead of making our 75th Challengers reference of the year, we’ll just leave this one at – it’s great for the sport that two of the best 1500m runners in the world race each other a lot and seem to genuinely really dislike one another.
2. Faith Kipyegon vs. Gudaf Tsegay. More people would watch the entirety of distance races if there was a mid-race shoving match between the biggest names in every Olympic final.
3. Rai Benjamin vs. Alison dos Santos vs. Karsten Warholm. Okay, this one might not really be a “feud” as all parties have been polite and positive about one another in public, but the three-way battle between the last three global champions in the 400m hurdles came to a head several exciting times this year, most dramatically when dos Santos went to Warholm’s home turf and outleaned him for the win at the Oslo Diamond League meet.
4. Noah Lyles vs. Jamaica. The king of manufacturing controversy spent plenty of time this year playing heel to Jamaican track and field athletes and their boosters – even if it was Letsile Tebogo who got the last laugh.
5. Fred Kerley vs. the Haters. Whether it was the starting blocks, his shoe sponsor, doubters online, or his competition on the track, Fred Kerley spent the first half of the year fighting battle after battle against his detractors both inanimate and living… until making his second Olympic team and picking up his second medal in Paris.

Honorable mentions: Noah Lyles vs. ishowspeed, Noah Lyles vs. Tyreek Hill, Noah Lyles vs. the 200m, Noah Lyles vs. adidas, Noah Lyles vs. USATF, Noah Lyles vs. his immune system, Noah Lyles vs. Grand Slam Track, Noah Lyles vs. the 4x400m.