Experiences winning races with bad times?

I can no longer relate to HS or college meet competition for me because that was so long ago and I won very few races that weren't invitationals. However, this happens a lot with road racing if you show up to a race with no competition. I just decide not to do those races and race the ones where I know I'll be beat so that it pushes me to get the best out of myself.

It sounds like you cannot choose which races to do, so that simply means finding ways to motivate yourself to run all out, or, save it for the post season and just run the races as workouts until then

In high school I had a meet with tough competition early in the year and ran roughly 9:10 for 3200 meters, then ran local meets where no one fast showed up and it was tough to just run 9:20's. I think it was more because I was training hard through those meets and not fresh, later in the year when I tapered up a bit for the championship races I was able to drop down to 9:05.

It was definitely frustrating, because in my mind I wanted to keep PRing and bringing my times down, but I was running slower than I did at the early season race.

I think it is good to be unhappy with your performance even though you're winning because it is keeping you hungry and working hard to have a good one.

In high school there were certainly some schools that field small track teams where I sometimes would run a random event just to collect the points (we were also a small team) and won with some bad times. I liked to think of myself as the Jose Oquendo of high school track; during my sophomore year I competed in all 16 events over the course of the season. Probably the one that stands out is getting asked to run the IM hurdles with about 2 minutes notice by my coach as the other team only had two runners and I ended up finishing first but it was definitely not a great time and I ended up getting yelled at by the coach b/c I waved to my teammates down the stretch when it was clear I was going to win. I personally found that to be the worst race in terms of how I felt afterwards so I stuck with the mile and 4x400 as my primary events.

Today I run a lot of 5K and 10Ks and sometimes if the weather is crappy or the field is small I have finished first with fairly so-so times, I think it's a factor of the field size and weather. For example I did a Turkey trot once that offered a 5K and 10K on a loop course where the first loop was 5K and the 10K was supposed to do a 2nd loop. It was 24 degrees and snowing and so that winnowed the field to about 200 from the usual 400 or 500 and although their were some strong runners (one person in the field who finished first the prior year in just under 31 minutes decided to bail after 5K (along with most of the field) so I was able to beat out about a couple of dozen hearty runners with a time that wasn't that far under 40 minutes. Think about the Boston marathon in 2018, both the male and female winners weren't favorites and ran pretty slow times vs. a typical year but that's b/c the conditions were so horrendous and a lot of the favorites dropped out before the finish.

Another race I didn't win but was with the lead pack of a trail race that was misdirected by an official on the course and we all ended up running an extra 500 or 600 meters with some serious elevation gain allowing a slower runner who stayed on course to win.

I don't think most recreational runners are doing small races or Turkey Trots for bragging rights but rather b/c it's fun and they enjoy the comradery. That said some of the best prizes I've gotten have been for winning small local races vs. some of the larger events I've run. I find that unless you are in a truly elite race like the Peachtree or Falmouth, etc. the prizes leave much to be desired but sometimes the local rotary club might get some some pretty good prize packages from local businesses like spa and restaurant gift certificates, beer, wine, etc.

There's no such thing as a bad winning time. Go ahead and win with minimal effort, or enough effort for a good workout. Pushing yourself to the limit every week if you don't have to is counterproductive. That will just leave you burned out before you get to the races that count at the end of the season. So train through the victories for now, and focus on the big races to come.

my 2c wrote:

There's no such thing as a bad winning time. Go ahead and win with minimal effort, or enough effort for a good workout. Pushing yourself to the limit every week if you don't have to is counterproductive. That will just leave you burned out before you get to the races that count at the end of the season. So train through the victories for now, and focus on the big races to come.

I wouldn’t completely agree. Sure there’s no such thing as a bad winning time at NCAAs or states or whatever, but there is against bums in a dual meet. If you’re a 9:30 guy running 10:20 to beat 10:25 guys in dual meets when you want more than just the points, I’d call that a bad winning time.

Running fast times alone is a mental thing. Way harder to physically and mentally go to war without yourself than it is to have your opponent right there next to you. No secret to it, you’ll either figure it out in a few races or you won’t.

Personally, i can’t do it. Stride for stride with someone my 1600 was about 10 seconds faster than what I could do running alone up front.

I had a similar experience. I won a collegic track race in the 3k running 11:23. That indoor season I previously ran 10:49. Even though the 2nd place runner wasn't far behind me, I was leading almost the whole race in windy conditions. This was not a position I was use to being in and probably didn't push as hard as I could have. In addition, this was also my worst time of the season by a longshot because I was just coming back from injury. I couldn't run for a month because I injured my IT band running though snow.

I won an invitational 800m in 2:19 once because the weather was really cold and rainy and no one wanted to try so everyone just packed up and jogged until the last 200m. It was very odd because everyone in the heat was 2:08 or faster with 2 sub 2 guys (which I was not at the time) so I just can’t understand how I won.

I once won an XC race in 18:26, but apparently people that used gps on the course got 3.3-3.4 miles, so I guess that somewhat makes sense. My PB was 16:07 that season, and I never podiumed at any race other than that one.

I anchored a JV 4x4 Jr year and went from 6th to a commanding first with a 54.5 split. (I love and miss JV races)

My only senior year Indoor race was a 400m and me and my friend didn’t sign up in time to be put in a fast heat, so we got thrown in with the 1:10 type speed demons and both ran 55.x. We won the 400m race by about 100m which I loved so much.

I won a 12k + 5k double event 2 years ago. There was no one close to me (I'm not even fast), but the bad part was that I followed the cop car down the wrong road during the 5k and ended up winning with like a 22 minute "5k". Think the distance was actually around 3.4 miles. My 12k pace was faster than my "5k" pace.

I had a similar situation last fall with Covid. The workouts I was doing said I was in 15:30 shape but I didn’t run faster than 16:40 because I couldn’t push myself to run any faster when I was winning every race by 2 min.

I won a tactical 800m over 10 seconds off my PR. You just don't get to do those very much. Set an 800m PR the following week.

Decades ago I went to UNC to try for a USA qualifier or at least a decent time.

3:42-3:44 range.

They had no rabbit and the race wasn’t very stacked.

A fast time went out the window in the first lap. The second lap was even slower and I wasn’t going to head that early.

I just waited for the last 200 to move and won in 3:54.

It felt like a wasted trip.

One week later, Brian Hyde beats Steve Holman in 3:35 on the same track.

That was Hyde’s ticket to the Olympics the next year.

I wasn’t going to challenge for the win, but maybe 3:41 if I could hang on.

indoorszn wrote:

my 2c wrote:

There's no such thing as a bad winning time. Go ahead and win with minimal effort, or enough effort for a good workout. Pushing yourself to the limit every week if you don't have to is counterproductive. That will just leave you burned out before you get to the races that count at the end of the season. So train through the victories for now, and focus on the big races to come.

I wouldn’t completely agree. Sure there’s no such thing as a bad winning time at NCAAs or states or whatever, but there is against bums in a dual meet. If you’re a 9:30 guy running 10:20 to beat 10:25 guys in dual meets when you want more than just the points, I’d call that a bad winning time.

In dual meets especially, winning by a minute when you could win by 10 seconds is just a waste. It's far more useful to your team to win by a little in multiple events than to lap the field in one. Winning by 10 seconds is even better for the bums you're competing against, as it gives them a chance to push themselves and use you to pace themselves.

There are no bad winning times.