371 replies to this topic

[SeeDanRun]

Sorry, no YouTube link here, though I'm sure that video exists if I looked. My apologies if I'm duplicating another thread, but I needed an outlet for some of the gloriously naive statements non-runners put out there.

So anyway, I had some friends round for lunch after a race a few weeks ago, and the conversation went thusly:

Friend: So how far was your race?
Me: 22 km.
Friend: Wow! So do you have any more triathlons coming up?
Me: Well, I don't do triathlons, I just do distance running.
Friend: Really? Because 22km sure sounds like a triathlon to me!

I let that one go through to the 'keeper.  I've actually had this sort of thing get thrown at me a few times now. Perhaps in the non-running world, 'triathlon' means 'like, the toughest endurance-type thing you can do'. After I ran an ultra, a colleague asked me if I was going to have a go at triathlons. When I said that triathlons didn't really interest me and that I wanted to get some longer ultras done, I was told: "Hey, don't sell yourself short!"

[twosheds]

That is very funny. Ive heard a lot of people who do "10km marathons" but never heard the triathlon in such high esteem before.

[vat]

I call it "endurance athlete disconnect".  It's that moment when you realise the other person has absolutely no concept of what you're talking about when discussing training or racing.

[chrisso]

"all that jiggling about can't be good for your innards"

[Lukefrazz]

"I don't run because it's bad for your knees"

[Bellthorpe]

A few years ago I used to occasionally run down a gravel road near home, just three houses. Sometimes I used to pass the overweight resident of one of the houses, picking up his mail.

"It'll do yer knees in, yer know".

I went to his funeral two years ago. Massive heart attack. Died instantly, fortunately.

[russell2pi]

"Geez, I saw you running at <somewhere 3 km from home> the other day - how often do you run that far ???"

Casual joggers are almost as funny -- "How far did you run today?" "20 k's" "How long did that take you" "oh, about 2 hours, I was taking it easy, stopped to take a few phot--" "Wow! 20 k's in 2 hours! Geez, you're pretty fast!!"

It is hard to answer these questions without sounding big headed I find, even when you're well aware you're really just a slow plodder like me.

[MrUniqueName]

SeeDanRun, on 13 February 2012 - 11:42 AM, said:

Sorry, no YouTube link here, though I'm sure that video exists if I looked.

Here's one

[vat]

Bellthorpe, on 13 February 2012 - 03:57 PM, said:

I went to his funeral two years ago. Massive heart attack. Died instantly, fortunately.

I committed a faux pas some years ago at a work function when a larger colleague said I was going to damage my legs.  My response "well, I'd rather take my chances with a hip replacement than a heart attack" wasn't appreciated".

[Quinkin]

When a couple of work colleagues complemented me on my running

Another fellow in the office said "You don't look that fast to me."

[shortstuff]

I get comments with the 'female plumbing' slant- 'it'll knock your womb off it's perch' is a classic (well good, I'm done with it anyway!)

But the one that really ticks me off no end is 'Are you trying to lose weight?' I'm a perfectly decent 57kg

[Bellthorpe]

vat, on 13 February 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

I committed a faux pas some years ago at a work function when a larger colleague said I was going to damage my legs.  My response "well, I'd rather take my chances with a hip replacement than a heart attack" wasn't appreciated".

When did you make the faux pas? Later in the discussion?

[KevinCassidy]

You have touch nerve here with me: i.e., The Joe Public adulation of triathletes as if it is something three time as tough as any individual sport [personally, I have found it to be quite the opposite].   I have experience it many times. I once rattled off 120X100 metres at the Doncaster pool in preparation to swim the English Channel.  As I got out, one of the staff asked how far I had swum. All they could say to my mumbled answer was "Wow, you must do triathlons".  I mumbled a "No" but what I really wanted to say was "No, I do much more than that".  Apparently a piddly 60 minute triathlon sits higher on the pecking order than everything else.

Along the same lines, I come from an era when amatuer and professional athletics were poles apart and never could they meet.  Joe Public always seemed to think Australia's greatest runner was the one who took out the Stawell Gift.....when, in fact, the winner was someone who wasn't up to national selection as an amatuer, so turned pro to hopefully win a few bucks if his handicap allowed!

If I haven't already insulted my triathlon friends, below are 37 years worth of moronic comments I endured about my running

"Never run in the morning or you will have a heart attack"  From a 40 a day smoker
"You will end up with athritis"  From a ten ton tessie up the street
"I saw you running yesterday, why do you have to run again today?"
"Why do you do all those races if you don't win any money?" from a co worker
"What do you think about when you are running"...and we have all copped that ad nauseum  
"Don't ever do a marathon again, it's bad for your breathing!!!!"  From an elderly neighbour   
"All that huffing and puffing can't possibly be good for you "  My own grandfather who had angina and smoked 20 a day
"Running gives you gout so just be careful"
"Don't you ever get bored?"
"How far is you next marathon"
"But isn't the Olympic marathon further than other marathons?"  Same guy who told me morning runs would kill me
"Seems an odd way to spend your day"...from my great aunt
"You need to drink milk and eat peanuts to be a good runner"
"Marathons hey!, do you reckon you'd be as fit as my dad? He does ten pin bowling three times a week!!"
"All that running will make you bandy legged".....from an EX girlfriend

[vat]

Bellthorpe, on 13 February 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

vat, on 13 February 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

I committed a faux pas some years ago at a work function when a larger colleague said I was going to damage my legs.  My response "well, I'd rather take my chances with a hip replacement than a heart attack" wasn't appreciated".

When did you make the faux pas? Later in the discussion?

Heh - I know where you're going with that, but I learned later his family had a long history of heart attacks, generally not ending well.  What I felt was a gentle return of serve was interpreted as a full salvo across the bows.

[MichaelD]

why run if you cant win

[ChildeRolandToTheDarkTowerCame]

KevinCassidy, on 13 February 2012 - 07:41 PM, said:

"Why do you do all those races if you don't win any money?" from a co worker

I get "Did you win?" and "Why did you enter if you have no chance of winning"?

[Quinkin]

"You're only fast because you train a lot" My brother-in-law. No running ability whatsover? Thanks mate.

Edited by Quinkin, 14 February 2012 - 07:03 AM.

[Tony123]

Didnt you run yesterday?

[SeeDanRun]

KevinCassidy, on 13 February 2012 - 07:41 PM, said:

"Marathons hey!, do you reckon you'd be as fit as my dad? He does ten pin bowling three times a week!!"

I had something similar:
"You should try yoga - now THAT gets you fit"

(PS. I'm not anti-yoga. I'm a pilates man myself)

[SeeDanRun]

I had a very overweight bloke with a back brace pull up next to me at a trail entrance a few months ago who proceeded to give me 'tips' on how I should approach my session.
"Don't run up the hill, you should walk it"
"You should walk the first few kilometres or you'll stuff your legs"

I unsuccessfully argued that perhaps these 'tips' might be helpful for new runners but not actually a prerequisite for experienced runners. Especially since I'd done this same run a million times. The conversation ended with me running up the trail while he shook his head bleating 'No-no-no'. I ended up turning back at him, pointing to my state rep singlet and screaming "I've bloody done this sort of thing before, you know!"

I spent the rest of the run pissed off that he'd forced me to be the kind of tosser who points to their rep singlet to make a point.

[FakePlasticTrees]

vat, on 13 February 2012 - 08:05 PM, said:

Bellthorpe, on 13 February 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

vat, on 13 February 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

I committed a faux pas some years ago at a work function when a larger colleague said I was going to damage my legs.  My response "well, I'd rather take my chances with a hip replacement than a heart attack" wasn't appreciated".

When did you make the faux pas? Later in the discussion?

Heh - I know where you're going with that, but I learned later his family had a long history of heart attacks, generally not ending well.  What I felt was a gentle return of serve was interpreted as a full salvo across the bows.

Then he really should have known better. I'm acutely aware of my genetic history in relation to coronary artery diseases. His reaction was probably out of shame (or guilt) that he'd allowed himself to get to such a state.

[redbackrun]

A bank teller yesterday "do you win any money"
A non-runner mentioned to me descibing a triathlete compared to a runner - "three times as boring!"

[OurDogScruff]

Council worker we spoke to when checking out potential SMC course change:

"Well, this path goes all the way to XXX and that's over 3k.  So, you know, you have all the running space you need."

[Supersam1979]

I had a young female at my gym proudly tell me that she ran the marathon in 1 hour 30 minutes. Did not have the heart to tell her that that is physically impossible unless she has built a cyborg suit in her basement.

She then told me it was actually 'The City to Surf' Marathon... I just shook my head and walked off.

[Davo]

Supersam1979, on 14 February 2012 - 01:51 PM, said:

I had a young female at my gym proudly tell me that she ran the marathon in 1 hour 30 minutes. Did not have the heart to tell her that that is physically impossible unless she has built a cyborg suit in her basement.

She then told me it was actually 'The City to Surf' Marathon... I just shook my head and walked off.

Wouldn't you have been better off just to put a comforting arm around her shoulder and explain, gently and quietly of course, that the C2S is not a marathon.
You never know what distance you might have covered before you finished.....

[ninjette]

OurDogScruff, on 14 February 2012 - 11:23 AM, said:

Council worker we spoke to when checking out potential SMC course change:

"Well, this path goes all the way to XXX and that's over 3k.  So, you know, you have all the running space you need."

I had something similar. Telling my students about a race I had coming up, one of them said: 'Right, because didn't you go and run 3km in the Blue Mountains on Australia Day?'. I said, 'Well kind of, it was more like 3 1/2 hours than 3km though' to which she nodded and replied 'Yeah' as though they were much the same thing.

[MG4R]

Gym Junkie: Running is not a real sport, you shoud lift instead.

[crowpower]

They are surprisingly positive, mostly. Early on some simply said "why?" One bloke believed we are all born with a set number of heartbeats, so why use them up unnecessarily?

[Bellthorpe]

One could point out to him (if one could be arsed) that the fitter one gets, the slower one's heart beats at rest, hence (by that theory) extending one's life.

[frankenstein]

When I was training for my marathon last year:

My mum: " You should be careful at your age" (I'm 53 and have been running for 27 years). Thanks mum.

Work colleague, when I told her I was training for a marathon. "Gee, you should be in the Olympics". And she was entirely serious.

[elli]

My own father, when I told him I'd just run a 100km race a few weeks ago:  'Aren't you getting a bit OLD for that now?' ....at the age of 36...??**!!##

[Kibbs]

"You ran 21km's on purpose?!"

[Lukefrazz]

"Did you run the whole way?"

[Davo]

And even from fellow runners, when I tell them that I'm going in a (for example) 6 hour track race : "Don't you get bored running round and round a track for that long?"
And my answer is "I'm not there to be interested. I'm there to run as far as I can within the alloted time span. Boredom doesn't come into it."

[Rico]

Lukefrazz, on 14 February 2012 - 08:57 PM, said:

"Did you run the whole way?"

This question is always a bit awkward when you're a non-elite talking about a trail ultra.

[crowpower]

Bellthorpe, on 14 February 2012 - 07:44 PM, said:

One could point out to him (if one could be arsed) that the fitter one gets, the slower one's heart beats at rest, hence (by that theory) extending one's life.

Yeah, I did, but he was a physics teacher, so what would he know? Had the same conversation with him only a few months ago and he still holds that view, but he likes to go to the gym, so again, what would he know?

[sfGnome]

I seem to have trained all my co-workers well - their normal questions on a Monday are more along the line of "Well, did you race on the weekend?". The embarassing thing is more when they overestimate my capabilities, like one colleague today marvelling at the weekend's 30k training run - "I could never run that kind of distance in a million years" - so I had to point out that he's just done 6 x 200km rides in the last 6 weekends... Now *that* I could never do!

[B+]

As a triathlete I normally get it the other way around when discussing my races, it usually goes "so when are your doing that marathon thing again?"

None sporting people also have no concept of distance hence things such as I ran 35km on Sunday is met with oh cool. But when I say a ran a lap of the bridges (6.5km) it is met with gee you ran that far none stop?
Don't even get me started when trying to explain the concept of riding 180km then running 42km........way too far out of most peoples frame of reference.

Interestingly a few weeks back a bunch of runner and triathlon friends I was speaking to after a hit out commented on how well I was running and what had I been doing to be in that sort of shape. My joking reply was "oh I'm running about 290km per week for the last 12 weeks" this was met with
"awesome" so I upped the ante as all knew I was training for Ironman, so I then said "and I'm swimming about 50k/w and riding about 900"
No one blinked an eyelid at these numbers and just replied in was that made this appear normal.
It either proves that most people don't actually listen, don't really care, have no real concept of how far and long things take to do, or my mates all think I'm a training machine and have 48hrs in a day.

Train safe

[slowmo]

B+, on 15 February 2012 - 10:26 AM, said:

It either proves that most people don't actually listen, don't really care, have no real concept of how far and long things take to do

Probably all of the above, but none of them are unreasonable.

Some of my work colleagues participate in sports and activities, at a high level, which I know next to nothing about: canyoning and aikido for example. My responses to their stories, not to mention my unspoken thoughts, are probably just as naive and mistaken as many of the comments posted in this thread. That has sometimes resulted in a fair bit of amusement, but I've never had the impression that they think I'm stupid.

There's a fine line between chuckling at the responses of those outside one's own clique on the one hand, and being self-satisfied and pompous on the other. I've certainly been guilty of the latter on occasion.

slowmo

[Supersam1979]

Two absolutely brilliant ones:

All that running will cause you to become infertile. - said to me by an overweight man sat outside a pub with a beer on the table and a pack of fags next to it. Felt like saying 'Yeah and shovelling cheesebugers, beer and smokes in is a sure fire way to becoming a stud...'

Man on seeing me in my Comrades shirt. 'My dad won that race in 1982.' This time I was not shutting up.

me- I did not know you were a Fordyce?
him - who?
me - Bruce Fordyce he was the winner in 1982.
Him - no my dads name is XXX
Me - you are talking the biggest load of rubbish now
Him - whatever I know my dad won.

What an absolute moron - why lie about stuff like that? I have no idea..

[KevinCassidy]

slowmo, on 15 February 2012 - 11:22 AM, said:

Some of my work colleagues participate in sports and activities, at a high level, which I know next to nothing about: canyoning and aikido for example. My responses to their stories, not to mention my unspoken thoughts, are probably just as naive and mistaken as many of the comments posted in this thread. That has sometimes resulted in a fair bit of amusement, but I've never had the impression that they think I'm stupid.

There's a fine line between chuckling at the responses of those outside one's own clique on the one hand, and being self-satisfied and pompous on the other. I've certainly been guilty of the latter on occasion.

slowmo

Spot on, Slowmo.

I once had a woman raving on at length to me about her daughter's gymanstic accomplishments.  I have no doubt that whatever those accomplishments were, the gymanstic world would have been applauding no end....but I had absolutetly no idea what she was talking about so wished her luck for the future.  She may have been Nadia Comoneci!!!

[cjr]

standard comments from my 5 year old every time I get home from a race. Needless to say he has quite a competive streak.
"Did you win?"
"Why didn't you win"
"Who won?"
"Don't worry Dad, maybe you will win next time"

[Tony123]

cjr, on 15 February 2012 - 01:38 PM, said:

standard comments from my 5 year old every time I get home from a race. Needless to say he has quite a competive streak.
"Did you win?"
"Why didn't you win"
"Who won?"
"Don't worry Dad, maybe you will win next time"

Haha, yes I get this with my son too.  He hasnt quite got the idea that I am running for fun and have no chance of winning

[Davo]

Always a better question - that you should ask yourself - is "Did you do justice to your training?"

[theturtle]

I had a good friend remark to me "You dont look like a marathon runner, they are all skinny".

I am very comfortable with my current weight......

[chonky]

1) back in the late 1990's  A lady friend told me i should put my name down for the olympics. I told her you just dont enter and run at the olympics,
she said i should still put my name down as you never know who they might pick to run.
2) the day after the city to surf also back in the late 90's a work mate ask how i  went, i told him my results and then he ask how did Matt shirvington go?
regards chonky

[TheRuns]

On more than one occasion, I've had the following comment thrown in my direction by work colleagues:
"Why do you get a medal if you don't win?"

[Supersam1979]

TheRuns, on 16 February 2012 - 05:57 AM, said:

On more than one occasion, I've had the following comment thrown in my direction by work colleagues:
"Why do you get a medal if you don't win?"

Mate to a degree I agree with this statement. I have aired this on other forums and been told off for my views, but I personally think the top 10 should get a medal and the rest a certificate. Or there should be different colour medals according to how you finish to distinguish those that finish up the field.

But this is for another forum and I won't bring it up again as it definitely touches a few nerves.

[Paul Every]

chonky, on 15 February 2012 - 09:10 PM, said:

2) the day after the city to surf also back in the late 90's a work mate ask how i  went, i told him my results and then he ask how did Matt shirvington go?

"Side to side a lot and up and down a fair bit as well."

[danish]

I don't mind the naive stuff where people can't grasp the distance or just don't know much about the sport, its the condescending ones that get me.

Stuff like:

"You'll have a heart attack one day"
"I can't run like that because I am too tall"

"You look unfit. You should cut back on the running and start hitting the weights man"

"Have another drink you wuss. Its not like you are playing sport tomorrow"

"stop running and take up a real sport"