What is the term for involuntarily speeding up on a easy run when you hear someone coming up on you?

It's called a throwdown, because, to quote Dave Chapelle, sometimes you just gotta race.

rsut wrote:

It's an egoceleration.

Bingo - you win.

In the mid 90s I ran mostly at Lake Merritt in Oakland, a near perfect 5K flat fast loop.

Sometimes I'd run my pace no matter what, keep my head and stick to the plan... other times I'd get into it with anyone who challenged. Maybe it's silly, but heck it was fun.

The best time was when I could not drop this dude no matter what. I really tried to throw it down. He finally caught me and we slowed down and chatted, here was a guy who was running marathons at my race pace for 15K, I had to respect him!

rsut wrote:

It's an egoceleration.

Another vote for this term.

* wrote:

rsut wrote:

It's an egoceleration.

Another vote for this term.

Gee, thanks for kind words--makes me wish I'd used one of my "regular" monikers, instead another random one!

Etymologist wrote:

This is a bush league move but I tend to do it when faced with a little competition. I apeed up a little to let the oncomer know that my easy pace is faster than anyone elses easy pace. I'm willing to drop all the way to tempo pace to make my point. It may be childish but I don't take this lightly.

There has to be a name in the running lexicon for this speeding up.

Lack of pacence.

rsut wrote:

* wrote:

Another vote for this term.

Gee, thanks for kind words--makes me wish I'd used one of my "regular" monikers, instead another random one!

I have a theory that there are only two people who post to letsrun.com: me and one other guy with a bunch of sock puppets.

In a similar vein, we used to torture runners who would pass our training group and then obviously struggle to keep in front. We'd tailgate them at 5 meters while talking to each other until the runner cracked. We called it The Treatment.

Once, right after I graduated high school, I was running at the local park in my old hometown and saw one of my old teammates. We had both gone to different schools to run.

I picked up my pace to catch up to him, but he seemed to be running unusually fast. I sped up, and he sped up. This went on for a while until finally I was running full tilt; finally I began to reel him in. When I caught up to him he stopped and, after catching his breath, started laughing.

Turns out he didn't have his contact lenses in and didn't recognize me; he thought I was just some random dude who was about to pass him, and he was not the sort of man who just let random dudes pass him when he was out for an easy run at the park.

Buxtonite wrote:

Justin91 wrote:

Hey, don't you remember when Steve Prefontaine was doing that charity run and he wouldn't even let a little kid beat him?

Maybe Prefontaine became so good for similar reasons.

Maybe Prefontaine could have NOT done it to the little kid and could have used the energy that kick expended to not let Stewart pass him in the last 10M of 5000M Olympic final.

kite fliar wrote:

Etymologist wrote:

There has to be a name in the running lexicon for this speeding up.

Insecurity. Freud might have said it stemmed from dick envy.

It could be pride, and a naturally competitive instinct. Which could be insecurity.

On the other hand, some people find being competitive fun.

In his case the dude is trying to establish dominance.

The only times I've ever done this in a training run is when someone tried to pass me with "authority."

The challenging ones are when you have just completed a tough 15 or 20 miler and are cooling down and they don't know it.

If they are a real runner, I just let them by.

It's the "motivated" hobby jogger with the horrible form that could trigger me to show 'em.

Sometimes you end up running together and making a new friend.

Justin91 wrote:

rsut wrote:

Gee, thanks for kind words--makes me wish I'd used one of my "regular" monikers, instead another random one!

I have a theory that there are only two people who post to letsrun.com: me and one other guy with a bunch of sock puppets.

There must be three of us then.

Why are you cooling down after a 20 miler?

Poster the III wrote:

Justin91 wrote:

I have a theory that there are only two people who post to letsrun.com: me and one other guy with a bunch of sock puppets.

There must be three of us then.

Or maybe it's just you and a guy with a bunch of sock puppets? I say that I don't have any - but would the letsrun.com puppeteer admit this?

I vote the term apeed

I apeed a guy so bad it was embarrassing ... for all fatties!

I was running around the Charles River in Boston at an easy pace (7:30s) and some college kid caught me unawares. I had already experienced a guy trying to hammer past me only to catch back up to him, so I was determined not to let these jokers get their kicks on my easy day.

The sweat-shirted fat man passed me meekly and stepped right back in front of me, cutting our hero off ...

I unleashed my primal yawp at the top of my lungs! --

"BLAAAAAAAAAHHRGGG!!!"

-- and viciously sprinted by him, dropped into the 5:30's, and didn't let up until I was out of sight.

Some day the courage of men might fail ... but it was not that day!

So, as much as I hate to admit it on this message board, I do jog when I push my kid to daycare in the early morning. The other day, when I was on the bike path that I take to get there, an older (late 40s/early 50s) runner had just made a turn onto the path slightly ahead of me. I didn't change my pace at this time, but as I slowly jogged up behind him (pushing a jogging stroller remember) he obviously picked up his pace.

I almost laughed at the situation, but then decided to match whatever pace he set - just to be annoying. I think the pace got down to ~6 min pace, which was apparently requiring quite a bit of effort from the older runner. This battle of the joggers lasted for around 1200m before I turned off to take my kid to daycare.

We were both being ridiculous, but now that I look back on it I don't really know who was being more absurd. Anyway, I appreciated the oddity on my run to work.

I once was running 6 mile tempo and was passed by this old man flying. I attempted to shift gears and go full metal on him but it was no use. He easily pulled away and out of sight. It was a mile or so later that I realized I had just been passed by myself, who had traveled back in time.

So now that I realize my future self can travel back in time and beat my current self I don't take it so personal. I'm actually comfortable knowing that I'm still in such great shape in the future.

Time Bandit wrote:

I once was running 6 mile tempo and was passed by this old man flying. I attempted to shift gears and go full metal on him but it was no use. He easily pulled away and out of sight. It was a mile or so later that I realized I had just been passed by myself, who had traveled back in time.

So now that I realize my future self can travel back in time and beat my current self I don't take it so personal. I'm actually comfortable knowing that I'm still in such great shape in the future.

An alterante theory is that someone else learned to make himself look like an older version of you. That would suck, because then you wouldn't be able to go back in time buy Google stock right after the IPO.