Anyone ever thought you sucked and then you killed them on a run?

you're my hero flagpole

Yeah, this old lady said that I sucked, at least that's what I heard. So I killed her with a rock.

i had a similiar run- same distance, same pace ect... but i really did kill them. i put about a 5 minute gap on the guys, then i crouched behind a tree and lay waiting with giant pricker bush branch. the police coroner said only a wild animal such as a timberwolf could have inflicted such a thrashing. im still on the run.

-tortuga bay

You guys are funny. Ok, so I guess that perhaps no one will have a similar experience. I was just a bit amped up after those guys were assuming I would finish much slower than they would.

I've said here before that I don't look like the average runner - a little more muscle, a little more solidly built - no bragging, just facts - I wish I had more of a runners body so that I would be faster. Perhaps they were picking up on that and just figured I couldn't handle a 7 minute pace for 10 miles. Anyway, the way they were talking I thought they'd bust out at 5:30 pace or something like that - now yesterday that would have dropped me. As it was, once I opened up a gap on them in mile 2, the competitive juices got going, I kept thinking about how they had dissed me ("dissed" isn't part of my normal vocabulary, but it fits here), and I ran to the best of my fitness level on that day.

Anyway, feel free to continue to make fun. I guess when I used the word "killed" I deserved that.

Willy, I know exactly what you are talking about. I thought that my career was over. Teams quit calling so I went into acting, it faltered, so I became a track analyist. Don't you remember how eloquently I called the '88 olympics? I was fired again, and then even the commercial advertisers quit calling so my spokesman days were also gone. I couldn't get any attention. I guess people thought I was simply average. I had a little more muscle than that Webster guy, not bragging-just fact. The way Ron & Nicole were talking, it was like they were going to 'hook up' right in front of the Juice's eyes. It got my competitive juices going when they dissed me(not part of my normal vocabulary, but it fits here). Well, I diced to the best of my fitness that day and I am still floating. I get constant attention wherever I go. You ignore these do-gooders Willy! We must stick together in these trying times of someone not thinking we are as good as them. How dare they?

O.J. - pretty funny!

Just to be clear though, I'm a facts-oriented guy, and I just couldn't understand how those guys had all decided that they'd be waiting for me instead of the other way around - we had never talked PRs or anything. Basically, they made an assumption based on NO DATA at all that they would pound me in the ground and that they'd have to wait for me. If that kind of thing wouldn't get you going just a little bit, then you lack a competitive spirit. I've always had a competitive nature, so this rubbed me the wrong way.

No more defending myself - have at it with the killing jokes and making fun of me - I'm a big boy - I can take it.

Just yesterday some little runt yelled at me when I swerved at him with my Lexus. He must have thought I sucked. I'm sure his mind is now changed since I body slammed him on the hood of my car, punched him in the head and then slammed him on the ground. For a reminder, I left a size 12 NB imprint on his face. Come to think of it, I may have killed him. He wasn't moving when I left him bleeding by the side of the road. Ha ha hahaha.

I would get amused more than angry. In a competitive sort of way, of course.

I have had similar experiences. I used to run with a club with a lot of undergraduates in it (I was in my late 30's), and the assumptions made by the newbies before our first run were a source of much merriment for me.

In the competitive vein, I also used to run in DIII level all-comers' meets. At one, I was in the 3rd heat of 5 or so, 20 guys. There were 6 guys from one team in the heat, and they started talking about "sweeping" the heat in front of everyone else. When the starting gun went off they started throwing elbows, boxing people in, running wide, all those things they read about in "Once a Runner." I didn't beat all of them, but I did take great pleasure in busting up their "sweep."

I also ran in a recreational relay with some folks where I worked. The team captain never asked me what I could run, gave me a short leg (1 mile), and gave the tough leg to "the new guy," because HE ran marathons. I did my mile in about 4:55. "The new guy" ran a mile and a half at 6:00 pace.

And no one was killed in the running of either race.

I was a sophomore in high school running a five mile road race over the summer. Hadn't run alot and I didn't know what kind of shape I was in. After about the first mile I realized I was running with Patty Catalano (this was 1980). I decided to see if I could stick with her for as long as possible. After the three mile mark she turns to me and says "Either pass me or slow down" I beat her by thirty seconds.

Well, perhaps I described it incorrectly. I wasn't really MAD at them - more just dumfounded, and then when I saw they weren't compared to me what they thought they were, it was a little funny, but at the same time, the last 3 miles or so I was going as hard as I could to kind of drive that dagger in. It was all just competitive stuff going on. Actually had they not made the comments they did at the beginning, I would have been glad to run at 7:05 pace with them and count it as a good training run.

long time ago,

Man, I could understand her saying that if it were a marathon, but in a 5 mile race?! I would have said, "get bent" or some other innocous thing as that.

Willy, I have more experience with it the other way around. I meet a group on Sunday's who like to get competitive and 'race' the 9-12 miles we usually do. Having put in 3-4 hard days already during the week, I use this typically as an easy run and have the discipline to let them go. I experience all the feelings you described, but let them think I can't keep up so that I do not compromise my training plan. They then seem dumbfounded when I race well or accomplish other workouts during the week easily(in which they may struggle). I have done what you did, but get more satisfaction in letting it boil inside and save it for when it counts (races or tough workouts). Thanks for sharing.

My two rules in regards to talking trash:

1) You had better be ready to have it talked back to you.

And -- this one applies here:

2) You have to be ready to back it up.

I think your story is pretty cool, actually. Even if you aren't truly competing, I think it's fine to let the juices flow every once in a while to stay sharp, and hey, I'd have been pretty annoyed, too. Guys that talk stuff before seeing what everyone has makes me laugh. It was like that for me in basketball. I'm a 5-9 white dude that doesn't look like much, but when I was younger I was a pretty good player. One day in a pickup game this punk I was guarding hit the first basket of the game and started talking to me. I proceeded to make nine baskets (we played to 11) to his one the rest of the way and made sure I told him all about it. The funny thing was no one on his team liked him, so no one offered to switch off to me or help him (there were a couple of other guys that I knew could have checked me -- I was glad I drew the guy I did), so he was totally mine. Afterwards he was sitting on the sideline pouting, and that's where I came up with the above rules. They seem to apply regardless of the situation.

Concerning the Catalano story: Don't you think women get tired of guys clinging to the top women? Don't you ever notice the packs of men around them every race. She was probably just tired of the same old thing of guys dogging her for 4 3/4 miles then trying to outsprint her the final 100 while the men's leader is 3 minutes ahead. It is two saparate races you know (men/women). I am not insinuating the poster was doing this, but I'm sure she thought he was and she was tired of 26-27 minute joggers (in her mind)fighting her every step of the way and ruining her race.

Just the facts,

You are a better man than I am (no kidding or sarcasm there). When it was all over, I wished I had just stayed with them and not compromised my training. I am competitive to a fault though, and since I had never run with these fellas before and didn't know if I ever would again, I let the competitiveness get the best of me. The other thing about it was that they were all saying how this was going to be basically a 10 mile race for them, so I knew ahead of time that they would be going all out or at least close to all out. I was very surprised when we only did the first mile in 7:15.

Anyway, I've had situations like the one in which you describe where I've let the others go, but in this case I didn't. Had I been close to a goal race I wouldn't have done it, and quite honestly if the same exact situation occurred again (no goal race in sight, enough fitness to make a good run at it, running with people I didn't really know and those people so blatantly stated that they would finish enough ahead of me that they would have to wait for me in the parking lot) I would probably do the same thing again.

But, as I said at the beginning of this post, you are a better man than I am.

Willy, Thanks for the smoke, but it is not needed. Like most runners, I am very prideful, and it has only been the last few years I am able to hold back when appropriate. I have raced many runs when I KNEW it was detrimental, but pride prevailed. So, truly, I am not the better man, I am actually bragging that I had/have the patience to hold back. It eats at me the whole time I am doing it. So much, in fact, that I rarely run with this group anymore, even though I like all their company.

Just the facts,

I don't mean to be insensitive here, but if she can't handle men hanging on her, then she ought to run in a women's only race. Again, I think it is a different thing in a marathon to have to deal with that, and I have no problem with Wejo escorting Paula for example (especially since she was going for a record), but in a 5-mile race, I say get used to it.

Men hang on to each other too, and many a times I've heard the guy who finished second after leading all but the final straightaway as he was kicked down to the finish say "I did all the work and I get second!" Well, that's part of racing. If you don't want to deal with someone kicking you down at the end, then you'd better go strong from about midway. If a woman feels she can't get away from men in a race, then she ought to run in a women's only race, and if there aren't enough of them out there, then she ought to either not race or deal with men hanging on. I sure hope we're not supposed to have different rules for men and women.

Willy, I am not condoning Catalono's verbage, but trying to put some understanding with the action. Maybe races should offer separate men's/women's races. I don't see this as the same as men hanging on each other. Many men, who really aren't very good in the big scheme, will hold on for dear life to stay with the top woman. I suspect that this gets quite old for the top women. Men are running with equals from a physiological standpoint when competing with each other. Technically, the women they encounter are from a different race, simply sharing the same course. I know this is a horrible example, but I can't think of another: If you were in a race that had a bicycle race going at the same time, would it bother you if a group always packed around you because you were the first runner, and they HAD to beat you to fuel some macho need? They speed up, slow down, and get in your way. I tend to think this would get old. Again, I am not condoning her actions, and understand everything you saying. I am simply trying to understand the frustration that must have come with her actions.

Just the Facts,

I understand the frustration she must have, but still, she needs to get a hold of it. Who is she to tell anyone that they can't run behind her or next to her? Now if they are crowding her, that's one thing. I would even tell someone (and have done so) to step off a step or two if they were clipping my heals or something like that, but if it's all normal racing separation, then she needs to remain quiet.

You and I both do not condone her actions, so we are in agreement.