I would have preferred that he beat me and then turned back with a high-five. DUH!
I would have preferred that he beat me and then turned back with a high-five. DUH!
la la la, la la la wrote:
Before seeing this thread I didn't realise I had done this. But a few years back I outkicked a fairly well known (nationally) female athlete who was coming towards the finishing in a half marathon she was going to win easily. She was a long way off her PR and clearly wasn't worried about time. I was a fair way off mine too for what it's worth, but I still decided to kick for the line.
I even remember sitting in a bar with a friend afterwards saying something like 'it wasn't a very good race for me but hey I finished ahead of .... (good female athlete) and so it could be worse because she's a good athlete and I'm not.' I wasn't getting excited about it or anything, I realised how irrelevant I was crossing the line, and even if I'm the only one who cares about my race times, that particular race was instantly forgettable for me. But I think I thought you know what I could be 60lbs heavier sat on my couch watching a 'Everybody Loves Raymond' marathon eating takeout but instead I ran a couple of seconds faster than an athlete I've stood and cheered for in major championships.
Now having read this thread I realise what a clown I would have looked outkicking the female winner. I probably wouldn't do that again (at least so long as I wasn't on for a PR). But what you going to do?
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WHAT! You say you would have looked like a clown outkicking the female winner?? Why????? What would you owe this female runner in a race? If she was famous that's even more reason to try and outkick her!
It's a race! If you don't want to race in a Race, why get in it? Why favor certain runners in a race?
Beat as many runners as you can and let the scorers sort the genders and ages.
The only time I ever let up at a finish line was during a 10 mile race. I had run with the female leader for the last 6 miles. We ran well together and helped her move from 2nd to first among the females with just over a mile to go.
We both came in feeling pretty good closing in sub 6 just fine.
I eased up in the last 50 meters to let her have her moment without crowding her finishing win.
60:33 to 60:36, decent altitude times on a pretty tough course. She was in her prime and I was in my late forties.
racetraining wrote:
I eased up in the last 50 meters to let her have her moment without crowding her finishing win.
That's ok. It's sportsmanship, not gender discrimination.
Lol. Evil? Really a bit over dramatic are we? Not evil. But it just makes you look kind of silly. And like you have a very fragile ego. If you don't care about this then go for it. But it certainly does nothing to make yourself look what? Why do you do this? To look fast, strong, macho?
It just does the opposite. But if it makes you feel good and you need it to elevate yourself in your own mind. To assure yourself that you still "got it" lol. Then by all means go for it.
When I see someone do something silly like this (other than a junior high school boy) I kinda cringe and am almost embarrassed for them.
Ladybuggers wrote:
I would have preferred that he beat me and then turned back with a high-five. DUH!
sorry I'm not your bestie although I'm sure you have a whole bunch of lapdogs you've friend-zoned
Ah Ha wrote:
Lol. Evil? Really a bit over dramatic are we? Not evil. But it just makes you look kind of silly. And like you have a very fragile ego. If you don't care about this then go for it. But it certainly does nothing to make yourself look what? Why do you do this? To look fast, strong, macho?
It just does the opposite. But if it makes you feel good and you need it to elevate yourself in your own mind. To assure yourself that you still "got it" lol. Then by all means go for it.
When I see someone do something silly like this (other than a junior high school boy) I kinda cringe and am almost embarrassed for them.
You think kicking it in at the end of the race is silly? I think people who don't kick it in are far sillier if they actually pay to race and then don't race. I really laugh at the insecure people who are secretly fearful of getting beat by a girl so much that they compensate by not kicking it in so they can pretend they weren't trying. If I'm just going to jog it in and not give my all to the finish, might as well just take a free run in the park and not bother trying to beat anyone.
Dan Suher does it all the time. But many confuse him for a woman...
I'm your (below) average female runner, I'm there giving it everything I've got and I expect everyone else is doing the same. I'll try to beat everyone I can, the 10 year old, the 75 year old, doesn't matter. If I was any good, it would probably bug me even more if someone let up and allowed me to beat them.
mom2runner wrote:
I'm your (below) average female runner, I'm there giving it everything I've got and I expect everyone else is doing the same. I'll try to beat everyone I can, the 10 year old, the 75 year old, doesn't matter. If I was any good, it would probably bug me even more if someone let up and allowed me to beat them.
Now, that's refreshing after reading this thread. Why in the world would any runner (racer) want another runner to allow them to prevail in a kick to the finish of a "race"?
Well, it depends. Once, besides being well off my best shape, I had some major back/hip/leg problems and was finishing a marathon in more than four hours, about 1.5 hours slower than my PR. The race finished on a track and I found myself, despite my legs, gaining on a woman who was wearing a t-shirt that had been decorated on the back by her daughter with a large flower and "Go Mom!" In those circumstances, I knew it would be a jerk move to "sprint" past her so I just followed her and tried to adopt a Zen attitude about my horrific performance.
What was a woman doing running a race to begin with?
Why was she ahead of you?
practicedhumility wrote:
I had some major back/hip/leg problems and was finishing a marathon in more than four hours, about 1.5 hours slower than my PR.
Why would a 2:30 female marathoner risk her career by running injured for 4 hours? I have problems believing this.
[/quote] Why would a 2:30 female marathoner risk her career by running injured for 4 hours? I have problems believing this.[/quote]
I'm not a woman. The thread is about males deciding whether or not to kick past a woman at the end of a race. My point was, any decent runner, when he "hits the track," could probably summon some sort of a sprint, but in this case it seems like it would have been utterly preposterous to do so.
I wasn't really injured. I've just been falling apart with age for the last several years![quote]suspicious wrote:
If there's a runner ahead of you you have to take them from behind. That's what you did. You took her from behind.
mom2runner wrote:
I'm your (below) average female runner, I'm there giving it everything I've got and I expect everyone else is doing the same. I'll try to beat everyone I can, the 10 year old, the 75 year old, doesn't matter. If I was any good, it would probably bug me even more if someone let up and allowed me to beat them.
As a female, I'm in this camp too. It's a race, and I assume that men nearby are looking for the same thing I am--their best performance. If they pass me in order to get it, I'm cool with that. By the end of a race, in any event, I'm often too fried to pay attention to who passes me or vice versa. ;)
The only thing that bothers me (and not all that much) that guys do is when they do a kind of cat and mouse game throughout--i.e., the guy who's walking or jogging and then when I catch up, he sprints ahead a few hundred yards, then starts to jog/walk, then repeats the sprint when I catch up. That's more annoying than insulting--I'm thinking, "dude, the first woman finished a while back. What are you trying to prove?"
But the guys who simply run hard and are aiming for their strongest effort usually aren't into those silly games, and if they pass me, no big deal. I'd be as ready to pass them in similar circumstances--no harm, no foul. Now if the guy trips me before I finish, not cool--but that hasn't ever happened to me. So run your race--I'll run mine, and if we're near each other and you outkick me, good on you or vice versa!