All my teammates lie about their times

Just wait and prove them wrong in races!

Once one of my coworkers was telling me how fast he used to run 400m intervals, and he said he was doing 41 or 42 seconds in his days...WTF! If someone runs 45 sec 400m lap he is considered an elite, and yet he isn't even an elite. I just nodded, and knew better not to take his advice.

Maybe the guy didn't have a clue that the WR is 43.18 seconds! Lol!

Just look at any runner's training log. Phrases like "felt like I could have gone faster," "wasn't breathing hard," "could have kicked it in more," etc. etc. are in many peoples' comments section.

I feel like when people run 5:29 pace they said "I ran 5:20s" and if you're 5:00-5:20 pace, I could see how a triathlete would think there isn't much of a difference between running around 5:00 pace and running 5:20 pace.

One day I was particularly unhappy about being not all that fast in college and one of my college coaches told me not to worry about it because when I get older I would be remember my times as being far faster than they actually were. So, yeah, I ran a 3:30 mile in college. IN fact, my real 1,500 best would make a very respectable mile best. I wonder how many people over the years have transposed there 1,500 meter bests into mile bests,

And Glenn Cunningham used to tell people he ran a sub 4:00 minute mile in practice. But if one of my co workers said he ran 41-42 second 400 meter intervals I would say, "you know that is faster than the current world record."

It's kind of like short men and height. If a guy tells you they are 5' 7" they are really 5' 5". Guaranteed.

game changer wrote:

I feel like when people run 5:29 pace they said "I ran 5:20s" and if you're 5:00-5:20 pace, I could see how a triathlete would think there isn't much of a difference between running around 5:00 pace and running 5:20 pace.

If you know you ran 5:29 pace, why don't you just say "I ran 5:29 pace"?

I thought "5:20s" and "5:30s" etc. was to describe a general ballpark range, because you weren't exactly sure. If you know exactly though, why not just report it exactly?

What College do you go to? 5:30 pace for a tempo run? O remember when I was in college, I would run 3:40s for tempo runs

Unless you have a gps all of you are really just guessing. This is really common among all runners, just wait till its been a few years since their competition days you will find that every work out and race got way faster than you remember. I would wear a garmin and then call them out. If they claim to run some crazy time when you were next to them just bust out your actual splits, it will be hilarious.

Some crazy runner guy wrote:

Unless you have a gps all of you are really just guessing.

or running somewhere with distance markers, which is pretty common in the types of places where college teams would do their tempos

Yeah, getting a garmin was interesting. Not that I believe everything that a garmin says, I think it is more accurate than guessing by effort. Funny thing I noticed was that faster runners thought they were going faster than they actually were and slower runners often think they are slower than they they reality. I was running with a guy that said "I never run slower than 7:00 pace as I looked down at my garmin that said 7:45. When I ran with my SIL she used to say that our one hour run together was about 6 miles because she ran 10 minute miles. I took out the garmin when we next ran together at our normal pace and found out that we ran 8:45 together. She thought we were slower but I thought we were faster. GPS is not the authority on distance but I do notice that people often think they are faster because their distance is not correct.

Some crazy runner guy wrote:

Unless you have a gps all of you are really just guessing. This is really common among all runners, just wait till its been a few years since their competition days you will find that every work out and race got way faster than you remember. I would wear a garmin and then call them out. If they claim to run some crazy time when you were next to them just bust out your actual splits, it will be hilarious.

What else is new

a realist wrote:

I don't get it. Either they're pathological liars or just retarded. We run a tempo and one guys says he was jogging 5:00 the whole way, even though he was about 10 seconds per mile ahead of me and I was doing 5:30s (and he's usually just behind me in races so I know he wasn't "jogging"), we do a long run and one guy breaks away and then says he was running 5:20s the last 6 miles even though he barely runs faster than that pace in an 8k race, etc. WTH? Do these people actually believe what they're saying? Why do some guys feel the need to talk themselves up so much? If I run 5:30 pace, I say I ran 5:30 pace (if someone asks). No need to brag or make things up. I don't get it.

Even better I knew a guy that use to tell my buddy what he ran for 800 after a race. We took his word for a bit but soon after looking up one result we found out he was off by like 2 or 3 seconds. He was always faster somehow than what the official time said. I really don't understand why people lie about running times. Simply put they are probably a little retarded. Lying about stupid things means you really are a bit special and when your not super fast it is even funnier. I had the opposite problem as I often told times slower just because I didn't want to sound like one of these special people. One summer I did my base mileage and added up every run at 8 min mile pace. Since it can be difficult to know how fast your running every run its best to shoot for a high number. In reality I know I run around 7 min pace give or take 10 seconds. Oh Funny story I met a guy who said he would have held the world record had things gone his way. He said he ran 10.1 in the 100 yards and told me that translated to 10.90 for 100 meters. Oh he did this in the 8th grade apparently. He was the friendly garden center guy at Home Depot. I had to try really hard to keep my opinions to myself. I asked what happened and he said the next year he had gained 40 pounds and he could not run fast anymore. It was difficult to contain my laugh by that point. Oh we got on this topic b/c he saw my shirt from the local 5k this morning. He asked my time and was very impressed by what was a high 16 min performance. He asked if I was going to be shooting for the Olympics. I actually wonder if these people are serious or if they are just poking fun when they make comments like that.

...it is a guy thing. Why do you think girls are so bad at math? For thousands of years, we have been telling them that 1 inch is really 12 inches.

OP - start broadening your horizons and hang out with some golfers. Or fishermen. You'll notice a trend. Don't call them out on it - this is part of your college education. You're learning about human nature. It's an important lesson. And developing your own approach to dealing with it is an important skill, especially if you ever go into business or sales. You don't want to be naive or gullible, but you don't want to make people feel bad by calling them liars either, especially if it's something trivial.

Back in the 80's my wife worked with recent Cuban boat lift immigrants. Most looked and acted like they were straight out of prison. Over the course of a month about 20 of them on separate occasions told her they were the owners of the Tropicana nightclub in Havana.

People lie about things.

game changer wrote:

I feel like when people run 5:29 pace they said "I ran 5:20s" and if you're 5:00-5:20 pace, I could see how a triathlete would think there isn't much of a difference between running around 5:00 pace and running 5:20 pace.

I know this is probably a joke based on the front page story a few days ago, but most triathletes are more obsessed with numbers and paces than we are.

No Way wrote:

game changer wrote:

I feel like when people run 5:29 pace they said "I ran 5:20s" and if you're 5:00-5:20 pace, I could see how a triathlete would think there isn't much of a difference between running around 5:00 pace and running 5:20 pace.

I know this is probably a joke based on the front page story a few days ago, but most triathletes are more obsessed with numbers and paces than we are.

What's the joke about triathletes?

It's an old story, but true. And apparently genetic--there's one dad (himself a near-national-class runner) of several of my athletes who always rounds down a second or two describing any race or workout. His sons have all inherited the trait.

It's a pet peeve when anybody finds out I coach and tells me an obviously bs time from their past. It's gotten to the point that when folks ask what my old PR's were, I'll respond, "Do you want to hear what I really ran or with the same level of old-guy lying as everybody else?"

Most people's (though certainly not all) courses are short, that's all. I remember the first run I did in college. We did "8" in 41:xx. It's no big deal. You do occasionally run into the person who has 10.5 mile ten-mile courses, instead of 9.5 like most of us.

Don't let it get to you. You're not the only one that gets annoyed when people blatantly lie about their times. I know somebody that says that they ran their 5K 3 minutes faster than their personal best. A guy I knew in HS said that he ran 10 miles in under 60 minutes (pretty good for most HS runners; good enough to make varsity for most teams) but would run 21:30 for 5K's. He said that the 5k was "too short." Obviously that doesn't make sense. If you can run at 6 minute mile pace for 10 miles, you can obviously run at that pace (or much faster) for 3.1 miles! I think that lying about your times is different from saying, "Oh, I think I could have run better" or "I was coming back from an injury so I'm happy about my time." Of course, there are the people that always say that they are using a race as a "training run" but can never run any faster! They must use ALL their races as "training runs."

a realist wrote:

I don't get it. Either they're pathological liars or just retarded. We run a tempo and one guys says he was jogging 5:00 the whole way, even though he was about 10 seconds per mile ahead of me and I was doing 5:30s (and he's usually just behind me in races so I know he wasn't "jogging"), we do a long run and one guy breaks away and then says he was running 5:20s the last 6 miles even though he barely runs faster than that pace in an 8k race, etc. WTH? Do these people actually believe what they're saying? Why do some guys feel the need to talk themselves up so much? If I run 5:30 pace, I say I ran 5:30 pace (if someone asks). No need to brag or make things up. I don't get it.

Or they were just given the LetsRun playbook. Pathalogical lying is ok, well it is just a small ethical breach and as long as it brings in business, shut your mouth and cash your check.

I don't get it.