Don't be that guy

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In: Life, Running
Confession time.

I can get pretty “irritable” when I feel like someone is taking a swipe or judging me.

Case in point. A few weeks ago, I was out for a group run but the group run turned out to be only three people – my friend Laura & some random guy. 
Before setting out the dude mentions that he is “pretty fast” and that he would slow down to run with us or something along those lines. My first thought was geez do I look like a “slow runner.” (Not that there is anything wrong with being “slow” because it is just a subjective word.)
What makes you think you are faster than us? He said he had heard me say something about running a winter half-marathon with a friend that took three hours. I explained that it was her half-marathon and I was running with her for encouragement. 
He wasn’t convinced. I know I don’t look like a “typical” runner but geez I didn’t think I looked like I was fresh out of the running store.

What constitutes “fast” anyway? Sunday group runs are supposed to be fun and casual. I don’t take my pace seriously because I am there to build endurance and to enjoy the company of other runners. Why was I so irritated? Why did I feel the need to defend “my pace” to some stranger. 

I know Laura thought I was overacting. Maybe I was just being a tad bit sensitive. That’s the ugly of running that I hate – when other runners make others doubt themselves or feel the need to boast about his/her accomplishments.

I don’t have many running friends in Red Deer that share similar running goals. Most are training for half-marathons or marathons or just running to stay in shape. Our paces and our training schedules are very different. So when I join them I just go with the flow. I am not out there to race anyone. I like to save “my pace” for the actual race. 

(Random photo from crossfit.) 

Let’s encourage one another instead of tearing another down. While I have been running for a few years now, I am not immune to off-handed remarks. In retrospect I was proabably being too sensitive. But it got me to thinking about this whole labeling of “fast” vs. “slow” crap. It’s so silly.

Can’t we just run?

4 Comments

  1. oh how arrogant of him. I hate it when a new person joins the group and boasts about his/her running times etc and I know their whole life/running story in the moments I've met them. We all have our reasons for running and whether we are faster or slower runners it doesn't matter, we should not have to explain ourselves to other runners why we run the way we do.

  2. Geesh that was awfully presumptious of him! I've met one or two guys who talk like that as well around runners they've already made a judgement call on. So sad. You rock Crystal and hats off to you for not tripping him on the run, lol.

  3. That guy is a complete jerk. He's lucky you two allowed him to run with you! I have definitely felt the pain of being called a slow runner…it's no fun. We're all doing our best and sometimes we just want to not think about pace and all the nonsense. I would have been so mad if I was in your shoes!

  4. He was a jerk. I'm not afraid to say that my long run pace is x minutes per k, depending on where I am with training, only so that we can sort out what pace we're going to run at in a group. I'm almost always the slowest runner in a group, and I don't care. I won't push it to try to keep up. Which is why I have run alone most of the time.

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