Why do people LIE to serious runners?

why not

all the runners here lie to eachother...and the nonrunners just want in on the action....they're just too running illiterate to come up with believable lies

I can understand why people lie on a message board. The anonymity of the Internet removes the fear of public embarassment or consquence. You get caught in a lie on letsrun. No. Big. Deal.

But, these people lie to my face. I have to work around this guy. And see these people on a semi-regular basis.

I would feel like a fool if I got caught in a lie and had my integrity and honor destroyed in a public manner.

The real question is why you care.

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.

The great thing is when non-runners don't realize that every race result ever is online. "Oh you ran 4:21 mile at the state meet your senior year? Well according to this you didn't even qualify."

Honestly this guy had no excuse to lie like that but you come off as kind of a jerk in this situation. Why laugh in his face?

tell me about it. happens all the time. he's trying to impress and buddy up to you. I was top ten in my State for my distance. after a while I just humor them. knowing they could never do that. I just say you did what for real??? they get all sheepish and try to change the subject. the shameless ones just go on. hahaha

I'd rather come off as a jerk than a liar.

hd wrote:

The great thing is when non-runners don't realize that every race result ever is online. "Oh you ran 4:21 mile at the state meet your senior year? Well according to this you didn't even qualify."

Both my 1600 and 3200 high school PRs happened in Tuesday night duel meets and the results of those aren't online. For the record they are 4:39 and 9:48.

You are obviously lost. Let me help you out. The game is to not call him, or anyone, EVER, on their lies, so that they will never call you on yours. That's the game, and those are the unspoken rules. Enjoy!

Seriously, give it a try. Tell him that you used to be the most highly recruited basketball player in the country, but you decided you wanted to go straight into coaching track. In fact, you almost signed onto an NBA team straight from HS, but you can't say any more than that because that team requested you to keep it all hush-hush.

Sad Sack wrote:

Honestly this guy had no excuse to lie like that but you come off as kind of a jerk in this situation. Why laugh in his face?

I don't understand this attitude. Someone lies to your face and you're the jerk if you call them on it? No, they're the jerk for being a dishonest human being. They should be called on it. When someone is rude to you, it's fine to let them know that you don't appreciate their behavior.

rcyouknow wrote:

I'd rather come off as a jerk than a liar.

You should make a serious effort to be neither. Like most ex runners He can't remember what times he ran. I know, I meet these people all the time.

People are also lying when they see you at a meeting and say, "It's nice to see you again." People lie all the time...it's part of who we are.

I love these threads. Keep the stories coming.

Please, enough calling people jerks for laughing at these situations. We get it. I'm still friends with people after investigating their running stories.

Lying is not forbidden by The Ten Commandments.

Some people are just clueless. Back in high school, there were people who honestly thought some guys on the track team had run sub-4 minute miles.

There was an elementary school kid I knew who heard my times (nothing amazing, just under 5 minutes for the mile) and said there was a kid at his school who did that also (seriously, an elementary school kid running <5 for the mile?).

A college student I know told me there was a guy at her high school who had run <14 for the 5K. Never heard of the guy, and there aren't many <14 high school people in a given era.

So, some people are just clueless. But when you actually say you ran a 1:26 fifteen years ago, that is stupidity or lying. Tell him you threw the shot 85 feet and see if that impresses him and start making up names of people you competed against and watch as he pretends he has heard of them...

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. This happened 15 years ago the guy probably just forgot about what time he ran, or maybe the distance and wasn't actually trying to lie. Perhaps he is not a track junkie like you. Next time act polite and don't mock people. The title of this thread should actually be

'why do runners get their panties in a bunch when they hear other people make wrong statements'

When someone says you are a runner do you correct them and say "I'm not a runner, I'm a seriour runner"?

That's right. We serious runners are like Gods. How could anyone ever think to lie to Us?