What is the biggest blow to your ego you've recieved in running?

There will always be someone more talented than you. Why has it taken you 42 years to get over it?

Subject: What is the biggest blow to your ego you've recieved in running?

That I would never be an elite runner?

Got passed in a 10K by a 10 year old a few years ago and could not hang on.

Also, years ago, but after college, I had taken a long break and had started to work myself back into shape, with a goal of a 5 minute mile. On this night, I was going for a 5:15 as a stepping stone. I wound up running 5:10, but was beaten by a running back on some football team who ran 5:05. While carrying the football for the whole mile.

A few years ago I entered a race but ended up pacing the 5K womens winner. The last 400 meters or so there were a couple of guys around me that never beat me, like 90 seconds back in a typical 5K. I said "I might as well drop these guys since they're here". Well they heard what I said and both dropped me and beat me to the finish.

I attempted a sub 4 mile on a track, and I invited a lot of friends and family to watch and film.

Not only did I finish 4:02, but a bunch of random people decided to join in, and I was outkicked by a pregnant woman, Al Gore, a cancer patient running with an IV pole, and both Olson twins in fairy costumes...all of whom ran sub 4.

Also, my shorts tore, exposing my cold-shriveled penis.

My girlfriend dumped me on the spot, and the pregnant woman vomited on me.

bummed out wrote:

I attempted a sub 4 mile on a track, and I invited a lot of friends and family to watch and film.

Not only did I finish 4:02, but a bunch of random people decided to join in, and I was outkicked by a pregnant woman, Al Gore, a cancer patient running with an IV pole, and both Olson twins in fairy costumes...all of whom ran sub 4.

Also, my shorts tore, exposing my cold-shriveled penis.

My girlfriend dumped me on the spot, and the pregnant woman vomited on me.

That doesn't sound so bad.

another one is my 1st collegiate race indoors at the university of indiana I had been selected over some of my teammates after winter training for the 1st hard meet. well the race was 5k and I got lapped so many times i couldnt count and It felt like I was just running in circles for 16 minutes. To make it worse they mis counted my laps and made me run a complete extra lap after everyone else was already done to make things even worse for my first collegiate indoor track meet.

Another time was when I raced Kirubel Erassa in highschool in a 5k. you can imagine how it went. running all my summer miles thinking I will dominate my hs xc scene n the fall then the 1st race I race Kirubel and he runs 14's

Not so much getting beaten by somebody, but in my final track season I ran a pretty bad 10k after a winter of great workouts and feeling very optimistic/confident. Running about 80 seconds slower in this race than I was hoping to, my friend/old teammate proceeded to tell me after the race that I was having bad races because I was a mental case (my winter season wasn't great, but I somewhat expected it because I was training at a much higher level in prep for outdoors). Given that for my entire career up until that point I had prided myself on giving the absolute best effort I could in races whether I was sick, nursing a nagging injury, or just flat out not having a good day, I was pretty pissed off he had the nerve to say that to me.

My first 5k. I was running comfortably until I looked back and saw a guy behind me with a baby stroller. I decided 'no way' and ran as fast as my little legs could carry me but as time progressed the stroller guy got closer and closer and eventually passed and left me in the dust.

i kinda like running wrote:

I like how half these posts about a "blow to your ego" really boil down to: "One time I got second in a race but I still ran really fast". Wow. How embarrassing.

Especially when the person who you were "oh so embarrassed" to lose to is Jim Ryun.

last year, I entered my area 800 champs... I'd run OK the day before in the 1500, with a PB by 12 seconds, so I expected to improve a similar amount again (idiotic, I know)... From the gun, I was in last place and hurting about 300 in... 350 in the only guy within 10m of me dropped out. I went through 400 in 60 and in serious pain... My eyes started clouding up at 500, and I simply couldn't run properly with 200 to go. The race was won in c. 1:55, the guy closest to me was 2:04, and I struggled home in 2:11.

Safe to say, my ego was crushed. I didn't run another 800 all season, so I received a secondary blow to the ego when I discovered that a 15 y/o girl in my club had a faster PB than me... Ego shattered.

Was out on a long (for me) 4 hour quiet Sunday run through the forest. The trail I had chosen has quite a few long climbs along the way. Couple of hours in and I was rolling along up one of the climbs, pretty relaxed and contemplating my place in the universe. Obviously a little too relaxed as I suddenly spotted a guy walking past me. In the same direction. Not my proudest moment and, once I had woken up and gone past him, way too late to explain to him that I can actually run faster then this.

kartelite wrote:

i kinda like running wrote:

I like how half these posts about a "blow to your ego" really boil down to: "One time I got second in a race but I still ran really fast". Wow. How embarrassing.

Especially when the person who you were "oh so embarrassed" to lose to is Jim Ryun.

An event doesn't have to be embarrassing to be a blow to your ego. Most of us have, at some point in our careers, entertained the hope that we could someday amount to something great in running. For some of us, stepping on the track against a great runner is the moment of truth where we realize that national or world class guys are on such a different level that no amount of work will allow us to be in their league. Seeing times on paper is one thing. Stepping on the track and experiencing first hand the ease with which an elite can demolish you drives the point home, though.

A 2 flat 800m guy will pretty much be a running God at a small high school. When that 2 minute guy steps on the track with an athlete who can twice that distance at a faster pace, he will get a reality check. Embarrassing? No. A blow to the ego? Probably.

how about henry rono, he got lapped in a 10k race, wait, then he put on the after burners and won the race.

how would you feel getting second in this race?

this is not the race, but rod dixon and kenya and britain are in this race. (there is a bit of altitude)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ue2xwdqJ-M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gecLMIpYCaY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjlG7iFR3vA

rono sprints, really sprints then jogs over hurdles....

in the heats! taking 8 foot strides at times....

probably the greatest talent of all time.

because he was so far ahead of the world, not on epo, and did a lot of it with a big hangover.

Entered a 3000m at 7,000ft elevation and was first indoor race at altitude & underestimated how much the lack of O2 would slow me down

I was hit shit at my NAIA school years ago. I'd run 15:00 or a handful of times and wanted to break 15. My coach took a handful of us to a meet in Michigan and I pleaded with him to put me in the fast heat. He initially said no and said the second heat would be good because I'd have a chance to win and the pace would be fast enough to break 15 (14:58 was the national qualifier for the NAIA at the time). Anyway, after an hour of pleading my case, my coach relented, fudged my time by about 20 seconds and got me in the fast heat. Cut to race day...pace goes out absurdly fast, winner runs something like 13:2x and wins in a kick over a group of 6-7. I finish 23rd and outkick a guy to not finish last (not counting the one DNF). I ran a PR (14:4x) and qualified for nationals, but that was the moment when I realized that no matter what I did, I'd never be able to compete with those guys.

I wasn't embarrassed by it, but my ego took an ass-whooping that day. A well-deserved ass-whooping, I might add.

Old Ultra Guy wrote:

5000 meter race in Van Cortlandt Park in the 70's. Started on the track in the stadium then went out to the cross country course for the first hill to the overpass,then back in, and finished on the track.

Matt Centrowitz was in NY for the summer from Oregon.

I had been up all night partying and a buddy drove me to the race. He was in the stands amazed that I was hanging on Matt's shoulder for the first mile when the announcer said:

"That's Matt Centrowitz in first. We don't know who that is in second."

How far behind him did you finish? I would think staying anywhere close to Centrowitz would be a pretty big ego boost

I used to do a session at my running club 8 x 300m with 100m rec and got down to 44/45's. I would be near the front unless the top guys from the club were down who would be doing them in 42/3

Went down to a new track were different clubs trained and this group I didn't know were doing the same session. I asked a guy what time he was going for and he said 35, I said don't you mean 45 and he said no 35.

Anyway first one I did in 45 and I was right near the front. Next one I set off and they all flew straight past me, the last one, a girl did the same as I realised they did the 1st just as a warm up. Dropped out half way round and that was that! Afterwards I left and just hoped they were sprinters who somehow could manage the recoveries

It was that first one that gave me a false sense of security thay made it worse