What is the worst insult anyone gave you about your running ability and how did you respond?

No one ever said anything to me. In fact I don't think I've ever been insulted in my life now that I think of it. People have always been weird with me - pleasant but distant.

I can think of a few, but a couple that really weren't meant that way-

Area x-country championship (which would also select area team for national championship). I was delighted to be third, given that it was 7 1/2 miles which is a stretch for me. Sole comment from my watching Dad "you never looked like catching the first two..."

USATF Masters Outdoor Track Championships a few years back - I was storming (or as near as I could get in my mid-50s) - down the finishing straight, and hear the commentator say "And here comes - then instead of my name - XXXX XXXX's brother" XXX XXXX being my US and World Indoor Masters winning sister. That's it, I'm just somebody's brother....

First time Salazar ran on the track in the UK, Athletics Weekly described him as having "the action of a man running on hot coals, but it transpires that this is his normal mode of locomotion..."

"Have you considered race walking?"

In middle school, classmates said I ran like a girl (not sure what the metrics/criteria were). Now we're all in our mid-40's, and most of those folks look like hell and I don't.

Exactly. The fastest don't need to 'act' fast, they just are, and aren't dependent on how others view them.

I knew two guys who ran 48-49 for 400, but would insist at every invite that they ran a 58 because they didn't want to be viewed like that, and even after they got found out they'd play it down.

"you're all hard work and no talent"

I went for a run.

My step dad told me in High School I was wasting my time running because no one would ever pay me a dime for it. I got a partial athletic scholarship and won prize money after college. Also got a partial academic scholarship. Even if I had not gotten a scholarship or won prize money, it was a jerk thing to say to a kid who was just trying to be good at something.

I asked my first college coach if I could run the steeple and he entered me. Just before the race he said "Make it a good one, it'll be your last." I finished 2nd and he entered me in the conference meet where I made All Conference. He often intentionally mispronounced my name. When I transferred, the next coach told me "I make All Americans out of guys like you." I knew I had made a good choice.

My feeling is even if someone is not great, they should be encouraged to do their best or helped to find something they can excel at. Belittling someone is almost never productive.

My teammate laughed at me when I said my goal was to break 4:40 in our time trial

I responded by running 4:38

doing a threshold run on a bike path. there was a big group of cyclists coming towards me and the guy at the front yells “jogger up” to alert the group of my presence.

"You don't look like you're running very fast, even when you are." is a compliment. A lot of paranoid Karens on here taking compliments as insults.

Posters here seem so sensitive. I can't remember a criticism of my running that I ever thought twice about.

That's a good way to handle it! I do think teachers nowadays saying something like that to kids would get a call from the parents.

As much as snowflake society has its downsides, I think kids nowadays would hold teachers/coaches, etc. more accountable for things they say. I know some things you have to (and should) let go, but others are worth fighting for. BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE

My friends ran track freshman year in high school and there was a summer meet in my town. I played baseball but started running that summer. slowest seed time in the mile was 530 so I put down a 530 seed time. my friends made fun of me saying I couldn’t run that fast. Ended up beating both my friends in the last lap running a 518 in my first track race on little training. I went on to run at a D1 school and neither of them ever beat me in a track race ever.

I expected a lot of this.

Being complimented for being gritty, hardworking, getting the most out of limited potential, competing with "better" guys because you "put in the work," which all can be a compliment but also feels like you're being called a donkey with limited-upside (forget about being a thoroughbred).

I did a 12x1k threshold session in the afternoon after I did 6x2k in the morning and I uploaded it to strava. A guy I had raced against over the past 2 years and had beaten me every single time (He was the best in the state) commented on my 12x1k session, "Your not him champ". I didnt respond. About a month later he was competing at nationals in the steeple chase and was boasting about how dead the field was. He ended up coming like 5th. He upload a run the next day and I commented on it saying "Pretty dead field hey"

My high school coach told me daily from early I had no talent no matter how fast I ran. My first mile race was a 4:55 on a cinder track when I was 13.

I won a local trail marathon one year (nothing fast, very small race, I think I did 2h56m).

The next year I was doing the same race, way off the pace in about 20th place, and a marshal who recognised me from the year before was like "what are you doing back here? You need to quit?".

It was not what I wanted to hear...