Change my workout to avoid looking creepy or no?

This is the way to do it.

Maybe she was into you? She could have easily dropped you, but pulled up to wait around for you to catch up. Sounds like you dropped the ball here....just kidding, she wasn't.

Jokes aside, runners should use cycling etiquette in this scenario. If you don't know the person, you either pass definitively or drop back to give them space.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa... are you saying that other thread was real? She got the trail right?

If so, that's absolutely hilarious.

I'm a 26 year-old retired female model with a 2:34 marathon PB (September 2022) and breast implants funded by my divorce. When I run on the city path, I frequently pass older overweight men who appear to be struggling on their tempo runs and then maintain pace comfortably a few car lengths ahead of them to see if they:

a) continue to run their own pace and remain a few yards behind me

b) turn around or stop at a bubbler create distance

c) try to catch up and run with me

d) over exert themselves to pass me back

I then reward them based on how respectable I think their response is.

If they choose option a and endure some mild social discomfort, they won the challenge; they not only get a great view for the rest of their run, but also a pacemaker to keep them at tempo pace. Executing a workout wile staring at my backside is worth more than I charge my clients.

If they choose option b, they pass the challenge, but just barely. There's no good place to run once you get off the city path, so they'll cut their tempo short. Or if they stop for water, they're taking gratuitous rest and sabotaging their workout. Essentially, they trade training gains for avoiding a slightly awkward situation.

If they choose option c, they fail. They have decided they can't accept the fact that a young hottie is running very comfortably at their tempo pace. I allow them to run beside me and hold pace for a while. I make friendly conversation and pretend to be very interested in their training. I ask for advice, and if they belong to any running groups. I pretend to be new to the area, and tell them I haven't found anyone to do long runs with yet. I don't reveal my race times so as to avoid intimidating them. I pretend to be very naive about training and do most of the talking, since the man is working too hard to speak much. As I say,

"if I want to run a 3:15 marathon, I should be able to hold 7:20/mile on my 18 milers, but that feels so hard"

I start to cut the pace we're running down by 10-20 seconds a miles. I do it subtly but continually, so that they barely notice.

By the time I say

"I wish I could do track workouts before/after work but I just don't feel safe going to the track alone in the dark"

I've sped up by about 75 seconds/mile. For some of the faster fat old men, this means we're getting closer to 5 minute miles. It usually doesn't take long at this point for the guy to keel over, at which point I ignore him completely and continue running.

If they choose d, they have failed especially badly by assuming that they must be able to run faster than me. I allow them to run ahead of me for 2 or 3 minutes, then settle right behind them the way Peres Jepchirchir ran behind Ababel Yeshaneh in the 2022 Boston Marathon. I stay right behind them at least for the remainder of the run. If they turn around, I turn around with them. If they start walking, I walk right behind them. If they stop, I stand stationary, right behind them. If they get in a car after stopping, I get in the back seat right behind them. If they go home and get in bed, I lie down under the bed, directly below their body.

This was a pretty weak and predictable troll job until the last paragraph, which had me laughing out loud. Bravo.

This was real. "Whisky Tango Hottie Foxytrot" was actually the woman in the story.

But, in full disclosure, some liberties were taken in the story. Most notably, the pretty young thing is also my wife. We didn't go to the trail or start together, so I was a little taken aback for just a second when she passed. Obviously, I was never concerned about her thinking I was a creeper or what she could potentially tell others, but I did think I (we) could appear awkwardly to some other passerby. While she is younger, she's not 20 years younger, so we both embellished a little there.

I posted this thread for fun, and I originally didn't think the other thread was her! She never posts here and how would she know this was me/us. She had to guess to some degree that this was me (or maybe she's keeping closer tabs on me than I am aware of), and it wasn't until she said what she was wearing (and other identifier) that I realized that she busted me here, too.

this post makes you sound like a weirdo