Lauren Fleshman - Queen of the Humblebrag

She seems like a nice girl and I wish her well. That said her statement was a but puffed up.

Some people have an elevated opinion of themselves and are not afraid to share it. Even in thinly veiled comments like this one.

Michael Berry I wrote:

We've had enough of her and her silly blogs which are nothing more than an attempt to keep her name in the game. Give it up Lauren, you are done. Please move over and get out of the way for others. How ridiculous can this saga get?

She qualified for the trials 5000, showed up, and made the final on guts. Nothing ridiculous about that.

Man you people are mean. Seriously.

Queen of the dumb f'kin decisions. Running that marathon was retarded. It's all fun and games until someone gets injured.

Alysia and Lauren are our girls.

Go Alysia!

Go Lauren!

Fleshman is great.

Picking apart every possible nuance of meaning from casual statements in order to find something to criticize is a stupid Internet hobby.

OP needs to find a political website where he can pick apart stuff Romney or Obama says so he can be outraged at the possible implications of something they might or might not have intended. For me, I'm fine with appreciating good runners and being glad when they are willing to talk publicly.

This.She is interesting, intelligent and working hard to be a good runner. It is cool that she has a blog that tells what she is doing, rather than the platitudes we get from a lot of runners' blogs.

Gimme a break wrote:

Fleshman is great.

Picking apart every possible nuance of meaning from casual statements in order to find something to criticize is a stupid Internet hobby.

OP needs to find a political website where he can pick apart stuff Romney or Obama says so he can be outraged at the possible implications of something they might or might not have intended. For me, I'm fine with appreciating good runners and being glad when they are willing to talk publicly.

Gimme a break wrote:

Fleshman is great.

Picking apart every possible nuance of meaning from casual statements in order to find something to criticize is a stupid Internet hobby.

OP needs to find a political website where he can pick apart stuff Romney or Obama says so he can be outraged at the possible implications of something they might or might not have intended. For me, I'm fine with appreciating good runners and being glad when they are willing to talk publicly.

Absolutely. Had she used the word "tough," the one that the OP put into her mouth, then yes, it would be a humblebrag. But the word she used was "stubborn." Being tough is a desirable trait in our sport. Being stubborn is either desirable or undesirable depending on the context. The context Lauren's putting it in is that her competitors/peers make better (tougher?) decisions than her that have resulted in better long term health than she's experienced. Her comment is nothing more than acknowledging that her inability to make good long term decisions is the cause of her chronic injury issues.

The (few) haters here should either watch the whole LRC interview video with her, or the FloTrack one. Not much bragging to be found, if any. Kind of like after she won Nationals, and while being interviewed she specifically said that many of the athletes at the meet had gone through injury issues, not just her.

And I'm going to guess that it's plenty humbling to go from 7th at Worlds last year to being a longshot just to make the finals at trials. That she still has a strong sense of self is, to me, admirable.

Alternately, if you don't like what she has to say, or are tired of her ... don't read her blog, follow her on twitter, or click on videos entitled "Interview with Fleshman." Three simple steps to a Fleshman-free life. Personally, my life is slightly more interesting with her words occasionally in it.

dpmrunner wrote:

It's been a tough road, and she's had to sit out OTs in the past. I can't say I blame her for not wanting to miss the action this time around. I don't even necessarily think she's casting aspersions on other runners, and I think much depends on whether a runner chooses to take her comment as some kind of criticism.

She's just saying how things are for her. But because what she says will be on the web and/or in papers, the public will spend a lot of time analyzing her comment, and the media, wanting a story, will blow up the controversial aspects of her statement.

Meanwhile, I wish her a full recovery!

Agree. classy take. If you watch her post race video from the other day... She's just trying to express how things are for her, and to add some spirit and levity to it.

The truth is, it is a rather amazing saga of spirit and tenacity to try and break through awful injury limitations and somehow race.

Doesn't anyone here know what a humblebrag is?

That was clearly a humblebrag. That doesn't mean she's a terrible person or the OP is a hater. Everyone just needs to settle down, chuckle at the nice humblebrag OP pointed out, and move on.

What? An elite athlete gave herself a subtle compliment??? Holy cow I need to tell all my friends right now.

I don't know much about Stanford per se, but somehow Fleshman to me epitomizes the archetypal Stanford woman, and humblebragging would definitely fit in with that. That said, she can probably laugh about and even mea culpa that accusation over a beer.

I wouldn't call it a brag of any kind. She's simply acknowledging she lacks the self-control to do what's best in the long-term so she can meet short-term goals. If anything it's copping to a fairly hefty fault and I can sympathize with her on that (at least as a younger person I could).

She certainly needs to be smarter about her training and racing if she wants to improve down the road, but let's not put words in her mouth and make something of nothing.

Are you for REAL? You linked to a (very boring) thread started 8 years ago!!! Move on already.The Flagpole haters should leave this board and never come back. Seriously, you have a very unhealthy obsession with a poster you don't even know.

Casey just sayin wrote:

.....crazy talk.....crazy talk.....crazy talk....

Here's the thread where Christine E. calls it an "ED" -

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=481322&thread=479889

10/10

Right on!

That is painful to read. I would like to see the whole interview to get a better idea if it is "humblebragging".

It does read like something straight out of "entry level job interview 101" in response to the dreaded "tell me about some of your weaknesses" question.

Hang in there, Lauren. We love you here in Hollywood, your home.

It's cool that Fleshman's blog gives us insight into the mind and training of an elite runner. However, there are times when the blog moves from helpful insight into a more masturbatory realm. If Fleshman wants to give herself a big ol' public pat on the back, that's fine, but some people are going to be critical of unnecessary self promotion. You people complaining about all the big meanies need to get over that.