I offended a coworker by my response to her finishing a marathon.

Running a marathon isn't much of an achievement. Geez, my first marathon was like 4 hours, the next one was 3:15, the next 2:55. I'm not even a good athlete, I just run a lot. Nobody at work or in my own family considers me athletic.

A ton of healthy people celebrate running a half marathon like it's something special. I run 13 miles on the weekends with no real effort.

They need to hand out medals and prize money to people who actually win these races. Finishers like myself should just get a t-shirt and the experience.

Really, that was the whole convo? What else did you say

I only said 2 simple words, "HOW FAST?"

Astounding to think of it. All of this trouble, from 2 little innocent one syllable words.

This was not what I expected when I clicked on the thread.

Next time at least get in a jab like "No you finished a marathon you didn't run one."

When it comes to petty coworker battles you've got to make it count.

In all seriousness she definitely over reacted. Depending on how well you knew her maybe you should have known this would trigger her and left it alone, or maybe not.

“Running a marathon isn’t much of an achievement “

so why the username?

Holy smokes, some people on here (no surprise) need to learn some social skills.

A co-worker says they ran a marathon, and are pretty excited about it. As a runner, you probably would have already known if this person was a serious runner. It seems pretty clear that OP knew she wasn't, which means that simply running and finishing the marathon was likely to be a big deal (aka, a win) for her. Shifting the conversation abruptly from finishing to "how fast" implicitly diminishes her accomplishment of finishing.

An alternative response could have conveyed interest and enthusiasm while still getting the information you wanted: "Congratulations, that's really cool! Was it your first? Did you like the course? How was the weather? What was your time?"

Seriously. Is it so difficult to be empathetic and/or polite?

Cool story.

This is why I hate most people (OP).

Why didn't you just congratulate her instead of letting your ego get in the way?

+++

Losers.

A lot of low grades for this effort... Admittedly a 0/10 start but the follow ups have upgraded it to a solid 7/10 for me. Bravo.

You stole her moment and that is not cool:

I have learned over the years the best thing to do is too just keep your mouth shut and let people have their thunder. My daughter runs XC, and Track and a father was bragging about his 4:40 high school mile PR. I made no mention of the fact that I ran 4:01 for a mile before. Or the fact that I nearly broke 29:00 for the 10,000m. My daughter brought it up and showed them my world athletics profile and all it did was cause issues and make me feel incredibly awkward. People are never going to be happy knowing someone has way better credentials then they had especially for the other father knowing that for example I could run his mile PR more then 6 times in a row nonstop. Nobody is proud of the local resident that wins the lottery they are jealous of there newly found fortune and that is life! You should have told her great job on your accomplishment 26.2 miles is a big deal and not a lot of people get to check that accomplishment off there bucket list. That moment was about her not you! Even if you had a 2:04 PR keep it too yourself.

I feel for you, that sucks. A rare time where a braggart can back up their talent (by proxy here).

Tell her that's usually the first question people ask. Then tell her to put her big girl panties on and take a chill pill

I think he will get into more trouble for calling her fat and telling her to take drugs than what he said about the marathon...

Ouch

and yet this moment is more about you ;)

This is like asking a graduate for their GPA or a person getting a new job about their starting salary, a person buying a house how much it cost…. You just don’t do it - especially if you got straight As, make a million dollars per year, and live in an ocean-front mansion.