What's the jerkiest thing you ever did in a race?

In a high school 3200, I went through the 1600 in a pedestrian 5:06 or something like that while a kid from another school was still keeping up with me. I passed him on the way to a negative split with the second mile and said, "See ya" as I made the definitive move. I felt like a big jerk immediately for saying that out loud, and I apologized to him after the race, but I'm not sure he believed I was sincere. I was.

In my younger days, I ran people into trees, baseball dugouts, and fences. Don't run beside me.

Yelled at a spectator to mind her own f'in business when she accused me of cutting the course, which I hadn't done. No call for that, heat of the moment.

I was taking a right turn around a corner after a downhill section of a 15K, and angled off to the left to get to a water table. I unknowingly ran in the path of a female wheel competitor who was just rolling off the hill at a good clip, and taking the turn wide to maintain some speed. She ran right into the back of my leg. I nearly went down, and she went over. As I got my bearings and she was righting herself, I attempted to help her.

"Are you OK?" I asked, very concerned that she might have gotten hurt. "Shitshitshit!" she said. "Goddamn it! Shit!" she kept saying, all the while ignoring me, as she struggled with her bent front wheel. She wasn't hurt, but she was pissed. The fact that she ran into me and didn't even acknowledge my existence rubbed me the wrong way. Several volunteers and an official who were at the water stop ahead came over, and since there was nothing I could do, I carried on. "Bitch" I said in her direction before continuing my run.

Even though the whole thing wasn't my fault, I felt like an asswipe afterward.

So you made a disabled woman fall, broke her chair, then called her a bitch and ran off?

I deliberately boxed in a key rival as we lapped someone in the last 200 meters of a track 2 mile. I'm not sure if that counts as wrong, but I do regret it. That was the only time I beat that guy in 3 years of HS running, but it feels like it doesn't count.

Dude, she ran into me from behind. I didn't cause her fall. She showed no concern for me and the bleeding she caused on my ankle. Yes, I was heated and it was wrong to call her a bitch. Isn't the intent of this thread to confess the jerky things we've done?

Yes it is, '73.

And in all that the only "jerky" thing was the bitch comment. The rest was accidental as I see it.

Class of 73 wrote:

Dude, she ran into me from behind. I didn't cause her fall. She showed no concern for me and the bleeding she caused on my ankle. Yes, I was heated and it was wrong to call her a bitch. Isn't the intent of this thread to confess the jerky things we've done?

I think she comes off as the bigger jerk for not asking if you were OK.

5er wrote:

I deliberately boxed in a key rival as we lapped someone in the last 200 meters of a track 2 mile.

i did the exact same thing, but in a 1600. i knew i had the speed to beat him easily, but when i saw the kid we were lapping dropping back to us i couldn't resist screwing the guy i was trying to beat.

i'm sure we're not the only ones to have ever pulled that move.

Haven't tried this one yet, but am waiting for the chance.

If you cross the finish line in 1st well ahead of second place, you stop, scream "replay", run backwards over the line, and then run forwards and cross it again.

Finishing move called "instant replay".

and depositing my bilge all along the course

http://wtfoodge.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/runner-poop-pants.jpg

A few years after college I was in pitiful shape and went to a pretty big local road race. About a mile into the 5k I started to surge on everyone that tried to pass me...I was in 10th or something around there. Doesn't seem so bad, but I know that I had no intention of trying to catch the guys in front of me, I was just surging down and fighting off people coming for my spot. Seems silly.

You've told that one on here before, or you ripped it off. I'm assuming the former.

Tempo'd side by side with a guy through the first 4,000m of a hs 5,000m cross country invitational. Senior year, first race of the season and we were both taking it easy, running only for the win. With 1k to go we both picked it up to race pace and started bumping into each other. It got pretty nasty and ended up with both of us sprinting all while punching the other person. bruises on our arms and everything. With 400 to go I gapped him and we finished 1 2. After the race he was pissed as all hell. Told the reporters there that I was a "dirty" runner which got published in the local paper and asked the officials to dq me for rough housing him. I didn't really care at the time as he was hitting me as much as I to him. But a year later, I show up to my first college cc practice and there he was. He was still pissed.

As a guy who used to coach wheelchair racers, I can tell you these guys/girls are athletes just like runners and they can be every bit as much of an a$$hole as runners. They expect to be treated as such. Stop feeling sorry for them. They train hard and are out there to win or PR just like you. They are athletes, period.

Sounds to me like she was being a b!tch.

Why were you two running so close to eachother?

"Why were you two running so close to eachother?"

It was an open field. We didn't have too run so close to each other but for what ever reason we just kept pushing into the other holding our "line". That's why it's a jerk move.

At the start of a small four miler in Arkansas the front group was running a winding downhill. Now, the RD announced at the start everyone should stay to the left of yellow. Some younger runners were still running on the right of center to get the max tangent possible. I wasn't actually too concerned about them, except they would come back into the group and get right in front of the guys staying the course. After a couple times of this I smacked one of the young 'uns on the back of the head and told him to hold his line. If you're out there homey, sorry about that, but hold your line next time.