Why do people LIE to serious runners?

agip wrote:

I think most of the time people just get confused on time - if they haven't run for 10 years they can easiy get confused on what was a good time for a race. We live this stuff so it is second nature to us, but if you step off for 10-20 years...

As for taking 3rd in the state meet - I have no generous way to explain that.

HS classifications?

What the f^&k is a serious runner? One who belts out recovery sessions with a Stephen-Colbert-raised-eyebrow look permanently affixed to his face?

Gits.

thinking it over wrote:

I think lying about high school track times falls under the same general category as lying about your high school GPA or ACT/SAT scores. For some reason, guys love to do it. I don't think it's nearly as common among females. There are probably also other high school experiences that are similarly falsified, but these two happen with incredible frequency--and it's amazing how often impossible times/scores are reported.

Yep. I constantly lie about my SAT score. I don't know anyone that lies about their HS GPA though. I'm not even sure I've ever heard a discussion about HS GPAs.

I read this on a coffee mug, "the older we get, the faster we were".

One of my son's coaches reportedly ran mid 14's for 5k at an area high school. Funny thing is, no one ever heard of him, and he doesn't have any school records at that school. It bothers me that so many coaches are untrustworthy liars.

Fools Abound wrote:

Good topic, but way too much investment in the obvious false scene portrayed by the OP. Seriously, there was a gentleman who made a fortune off of selling people domesticated rocks. You fools.

This troll delivers a serious of hooks within the post to pull readers in, but they're bad. The first lie=blatantly outrageous...the second lie=attempted cover-up...the third lie=clearly a full fabrication from the poster and most likely about the poster.

The kicker comes as the OP uses this premise to deliver his own self-satisfying lie in the sun...that he is the rightful owner of the 3rd spot at the 1995 state meet. Yet, fools ye are and abound ye do.

I don't really buy the third lie all too much. Seems too coincidental. But the idea of the topic intrigues me as I know it happens to all of us. It is annoying and based on my mood I either play along or go with a no BS approach.

As said before most people out of the sport forget their times. When I compiled my school's all time top perfomance list, alumni would come up to me and say I ran such and such a time and I should be on the list. When in reality, it was their competitor who ran the time or it was their goal time and they just forgot they didn't run it. Mememory becomes a tricky thing after a while.

The worse example is a coach who claims he ran 28 minutes for 10k and a 4 min mile. Now he was ok in hs, about 2 flat and 4:30 but I know for a fact he could have never run those times in college. He showed me a newspaper clipping once and it said they ran 10k but it was obvious from the results they ran 5 miles. Also, I'm sure he ran 4:00 for 1500, but he keeps sticking to these stories. He should know better. I don't mind the ex runner not knowing the difference, but you sound ignorant when it is your job to know times.

.......................... wrote:

And if you called me a liar to my face I'd slap you right in the family jewels.

I'm still trying to decide whether or not this is a bad thing.

NoFatty wrote:

thinking it over wrote:

I think lying about high school track times falls under the same general category as lying about your high school GPA or ACT/SAT scores. For some reason, guys love to do it. I don't think it's nearly as common among females. There are probably also other high school experiences that are similarly falsified, but these two happen with incredible frequency--and it's amazing how often impossible times/scores are reported.

Yep. I constantly lie about my SAT score. . . .

Fortunately, some of us don't *have to* lie about our SAT scores.

Like me with my 1578.

What I hate is when the liar IS a "serious runner". Dean Karnazes makes a whole business out of hugely exaggerating his performances. Many of the things that he says he was the "champion" of were set up by and for him and run only by him. People like Kouros, Carpenter, Krupicka, Trason, and Jurek would all destroy him, but he won't race them and his BS machine is working so well that he's well known and they're close to invisible. (Not that they care.) I guess we know his motives, but he seems like the worst of all result inflating liars.

A serious runner in this context is someone who knows the facts about the sport and has an appreciation for the skill levels/efforts involved.

The point of the title is, if you meet a jogger who never races 5ks,just trains 4 miles 5 days a week, and doesn't follow running news, you can tell them you ran a 4:00 mile back in 1986 and they'll say "ooooh" and be impressed. But why would you try that on a 4:03 miler who ran in college in the 80s? Let alone make up times like a 1:26 800.

I agree that it's insulting when a non-running/ex-runner makes up some ridiculous lie about their times/marks. Especially if they really believe the lie due to complete ignorance about the sport.

Back in college I did the jumps and hurdles. So one day at work me and my co-workers were in the back stock room and the stock supervisor asked me, "Aren't you on the track team at the university? What events do you do?" I told her and she asked how far I triple jumped. Then she says, "Oh, my brother used to do the triple jump in high school. He jumped over 60 feet." I told her that would be a world record, but she stuck to the story and said he had done it in practice, so it wasn't official. He was going to do it in college but didn't feel like it, or something.

I've heard that a few times. My cousin said he ran a 35-second 400 and then a 3-minute mile. I figured he did laps of his gym, but he insisted it was outdoors on the track. My best guess is that they simply just estimated the times. I don't think he'd lie like that.

I've heard this in other disciplines too. I just came back from a trek in the Himalayas. I met a guide who used to be a former sherpa (or so he claims). He's been near the peak of many major Himalayan peaks, Everest included. I asked him if he used oxygen, he said of course he did. When I mentioned that many people have done it without oxygen, he started insulting me and said it was impossible.

I majored in philosophy in university. Right after I got out of school, I had a dull-ish coworker that said, "oh, you studied philosophy? I'm reading the Tao of Pooh, it's so great." I wanted to explain that four years of banging my head against Plato and Aristotle was a lot tougher than some easy-to-read feel-good gibberish, but I left it alone.

I left the sherpa alone and I left my cousins alone. I don't think there's much to be gained unless you enjoy insulting people. You can mention the facts once or twice, but unless you're in a good-natured debate with access to a computer, there's no upside to doing so.

[quote]stuck with match.com wrote:

Who cares, why do his lies effect you? When he said he ran 1:26 for the 800, all you had to do was say are you sure you don't mean the 600, because 1:26 for the 800 would be a world record. But no instead you laugh in his face and make him feel like an idiot.]

you guys need to quit making excuses for chronic liars. they denigrate our sport and take credit for feats they never accomplished and never put in the hard work to achieve.

It may be annoying, but you did get a laugh out of it, didn't you.

When he said 1:26...

I first thought maybe he was thinking 126 seconds...

or 2:06 which would have been plausible,

but when he continued the lie and clarified with a 1:46

then it was obviously a tall tale.

Well, now you have another good story to tell...

I've got more than a few I could tell...

As a high school and college (DI) coach you wouldn't

believe how many self-proclaimed sub 4 minute milers

I have met.

Why the either or? Do you really have to be a jerk to not be a lier?

tommy flanagan wrote:

As a high school and college (DI) coach you wouldn't

believe how many self-proclaimed sub 4 minute milers

I have met.

Ha, I guy I used to work with claimed to be a sub-4 miler in the army... I asked what he did run... "398." yeah, that was probably just him not knowing what the heck he was talking about than lying, but still...

duckshirt wrote:guy I used to work with claimed to be a sub-4 miler in the army... I asked what he did run... "398."

Ha! That guy's a genius! I ran a 4:32 mile but I think I'm going to start calling it a 3:92 so I can claim sub-4.

Brilliant!!

one of the running clubs I belong to does not have a website and do not post results online or in newspapers. some good times have been run over the years. several olympians, at various times in their careers, have shown up and run and it's not really known. the club will mail index cards to us with our results sometimes. they always post a sheet of full results on paper tacked up on a bulletin board. very low key and old fashioned and I like it. another couple of clubs I belong to have very good sites and your results will be known to the world.