Should I Race my GF's Dad?

I'd recommend talking to your GF's dad and see what his goal for this race is. You could work with him to pull him along for a PB. I think most older runners would gain more respect for you if you worked with him instead of trying to show him who's the boss. Especially when you're dating his daughter.

It shouldn't have to be said, but I think it's worth mentioning that older guys deep down in their heart know that they can't really compete with the younger guys. But they continue to try, and God Bless them for that.

If you decide to race him instead of working with him, make sure you don't let him see you celebrating the fact after you beat him by 1, 2, 3 minutes. It won't be a good look.

My 2 cents.

Free_the_thigh wrote:

Why don’t you just google and see what the dads pbs are?

He probably ran the race last year.

Lots of slow older im’ers out there. He may be trying to break 45

^THIS. I can't believe it took until the second page for this answer.

So you thought it would be an easy win, but now that you realize you might lose to her dad you want to drop? Just chill. It's a Turkey Trot. Who cares? Impress her some other way.

Is your GFs dad LAGAT? Because if he is, you will probably get smoked.

1) Win the race.

2) Smash his daughter.

3) Eat his turkey.

I would pretend I needed to crap right before start so I didn't have to run with him and then I would beat him on chip time without giving him the indignity of losing to the guy that's stuffing his little princess.

So what if he beats you. You know you haven't trained. But if you lose i would be quite about it and not show I'm a sore loser. Accept it. Unless you use it as a wake up call and start running again. Why would you be upset if you lose? If you're not going to train and run again. Why be upset.

You have to remember that Triathletes are generally just decent runners never great. Kipchoge really doesn't need to worry about Gustav Iden.

I think it's highly unlikely that he is going to run 37 minutes. I've got a state 10k age group records for ages 53 and 54 and they've stood for 11 and 10 years respectively, one at 37:0x and one at 37:1x. Admittedly, I'm no superstar, but was third in the US Masters at 5000m and 3000m indoors around that time, so was in pretty good shape.

I'm going to guess that while your prospective father-in-law may be very fit, he's unlikely to be at that level without very specific running training.

If you think you can run 36-37:00, I wouldn't worry too much.

Eder The Great wrote:

Is your GFs dad LAGAT? Because if he is, you will probably get smoked.

+1 this is true and why do I find this so funny XD

You could easily jog beside him and then just outkick him. I seriously doubt you have lost that much fitness.

After the race, fist bump the man and say how cool it is that you both race, and you have both seen his daughter naked.

Age grade your times and see who the man is

It takes a LOT of courage to back out of a race you only have a 90% chance of winning.

It takes even more courage to not be a wittle bish

Cavorty wrote:

If you think you can run 36-37:00, I wouldn't worry too much.

He should worry that he's overestimating his fitness. You can go from 31min to 45min pretty quickly when 20lb overweight and not training.

It's the risks we didn't take that we regret. I say run it hard, puke your guts up and whatever happens, happens. If the dad beats you, that'll massage his ego and maybe he'll like you more as a result. If you beat him, you'll earn his respect. So either way, it's a win-win.

For a fair comparision you need a age graded ranking :)

Say good night for this run :)

G Cup wrote:

If you were in, say, sub33min shape 18 months ago (I recognise your PB may not have been in your final year, but presumably you didn't slow down that much before the end of college...?) - even if you've done nothing for the past 18 months but smoke and drink and eat McDonalds I bet you'll still be able to turn out a sub 36min.

That was a good joke haha

Well if you are 20lbs heavier than when you ran 31:40 that adds 40 seconds a mile assuming you are in 31:40 shape. So that puts you at 35 minutes. You'll struggle to break 40 minutes I'd guess. But it's a race. just go race. Unlikely the father beats you. But if he does so what? You sound very immature. Our family is pretty competitive. My sister in law was a decent runner and has won more than one World Masters duathlon titles. Her sister won the OT 10,000m. I'm 60 and would never think of ducking them.