Forums >Racing>Outkicking in Races
I ran Monkey this year in 3:45:00. GAH.
My first attempt at a sub-40 10K yielded... 40:00.00. Yeah. Timed to the hundredth second.
I've dug deep to outkick the same person at 4 of my PR races. In all of them the PR was there and secure and I wasnt really planning on kicking that hard. But then I heard the footsteps. They were trying to outkick ME. Oh. Hell. No. Yeah, I valiantly fought off and outkicked the 78 year old guy 4 times. I've also kicked to the finish in a PW.
I've dug deep to outkick the same person at 4 of my PR races. In all of them the PR was there and secure and I wasnt really planning on kicking that hard. But then I heard the footsteps. They were trying to outkick ME. Oh. Hell. No.
Yeah, I valiantly fought off and outkicked the 78 year old guy 4 times.
I've also kicked to the finish in a PW.
LOL! Poor guy. I'm picturing he's doing pull-ups with E-N-N-A-Y tattoed on each finger.
My blog is JT Running DC. It's awesome. Guide to Washington DC Area Running Routes. Guide to the New York City Marathon. Guide to the Boston Marathon. Guide to Running Gear. Guide to Running Clothes.
Wickedly Average
Outkicking's fine. Unfortunately, I can't summons up a great deal of "eat my dust", but I'm getting better at it. I'm usually pretty spent by the end of the race, plus I've only now been training in fatigued-leg sprints.
Tom (formerly known as PhotogTom)
5K - 25:16, 10K - 55:31, 15K - 1:20:55, HM - 1:54:54
Reasonable: outkick him Rude: The dude who decided to jump in front of me right before the end of the race. Literally. He didn't just outkick me... he moved over directly in front of me at the very end and slowed slightly so that I couldn't possibly regain without trying to go through him. Congratulations, dude, we both just ran a 4:15 marathon. Hope it was good for you.
Reasonable: outkick him
Rude: The dude who decided to jump in front of me right before the end of the race. Literally. He didn't just outkick me... he moved over directly in front of me at the very end and slowed slightly so that I couldn't possibly regain without trying to go through him.
Congratulations, dude, we both just ran a 4:15 marathon. Hope it was good for you.
Should have smashed him to the ground!
(Not sure how RWOL humor transfers across the various forii...)
Walk-Jogger
... Devil's advocate question... If you know you could dig deeper if an OA or AG is at place, why didn't you did deeper just because it's a race? Isn't that sandbagging?
...
Devil's advocate question... If you know you could dig deeper if an OA or AG is at place, why didn't you did deeper just because it's a race? Isn't that sandbagging?
For the record, I'm mainly racing the clock, and that guy that's looking back at me in the mirror every morning. But I have a pretty good kick for a geezer, and for the final 2-3 hundred meters of a race I can often run close to a 4-minute per mile pace. Even if that race is 13.1 miles long. There's no way in hell I can come anywhere close to running that fast for the entire race. So even though I probably already did dig deeper, I can usually fire up the afterburners approaching the finish line, ESPECIALLY if there's someone I can RACE and try to beat. Anyone between me and the finish better HTFU or GTF outta my way. If they don't try to pick it up and outrun me, I'm offended and inclined to think they're wimpy.
And don't stop in front of me AT the finish line in the chute that's only one person wide thereby blocking my way when I'm running a PR time, because as one young man found out when I set my 10K PR, I will not slow down before I cross the finish line. Every second counts...
Retired & Loving It
duplicate post
It's a race.
If you don't want to get passed you should run faster.
In either case, i dont think you can call it sandbagging. Your mental state plays a significant part in how you race and what you feel at the start line might be completely different from what you feel a couple of hundred metres from the finish line.
In road racing though, etiquette amongst the elites (i am told) demands that they take turns leading the pack if there is a headwind. There, if you tucked in behind the leader all the way till the end and just managed to outkick him, then its definitely a "Well Done!!" on the tactical racing front but on the "Unwritten code of racing ethics" front, it would fare poorly.
I dont sweat. I ooze liquid awesome.
As I near the end the end of a race I am always gauging how much distance and elevation is left and sizing it up for my final kick. Doesnt matter if anyone else is around or not. Sometimes people in front of me hear my footsteps and they either outkick me or not but when we cross the finish we are usually smiling about it. That is the FUN Part! I vote for "It's a race! Outkicking is fair game".
Someone is behind me and gaining, Run Faster!
It ain't pretty!
I always kick at the end of a race if I'm not nursing an injury. I enter races to push myself and I kick because I think that the purpose of a race is to get across the finish line as quickly as I can. When I kick sometimes I actually speed up and sometimes I don't because I have nothing left.
Every Olympic games that I've ever seen was filled with track and field races where all of the competitors kick at the end of the race. If it's a good strategy for all of those inspiring Olympic heroes then it's a good strategy for this middle-aged, overweight, recovering smoker!
Running for my life!
not bad for mile 25
It appears to me that an elite marathon is to determine who can win a 1.2 mile race after a 25 mile hard warmup.
Feeling the growl again
A warmup of 25 miles at sub-4:50 pace...
Heh.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
A warmup of 25 miles at sub-4:50 pace... Heh.
Well, I did say a hard warmup.
That's what she said.
I once was running about 15 yards behind a dude during a race away from home
It was a multi-loop course, and it seemed like the guy had his own cheering section dispersed throughout the course who kept screaming: "Go, Ricky, Go!" (not his real name) every few hundred yards or so. The bad part was, those same folks seemed to become dead stone silent as soon as I passed. Fair enough--after all, it was his hometown race, but after a couple laps of the same, it became just a little tiresome.
In any event, at about the last quarter mile mark, I decided to have a "go" at Ricky. Sure enough, as I pulled even, he sped up, and the game was on.
We were two old dudes huffling and puffing down the stretch, when I suddenly noticed he seemed to be veering into me. I kept gradually moving over, but didn't realize until too late, I was being pushed right in line with the left side of the finishing arch post.
We were about 5 feet from the line, when I managed to lurch forward just inside the stanchion to outlean him at the finish. Afterwards, we shook hands, and he was pretty cool about the whole thing. However, the sequential photos my wife took showed that he was indeed forcing me over (although probably unintentionally).
I had no idea at the time, but I later found out that by outkicking Ricky, I ended up with a 3rd place Masters overall. Best part was, it even came with the only cash prize I've ever won in my life.
So, yep---IMHO, outkicking is fair game, especially if you're being pushed off the course.