How competitive are you? (Is this a comet thread?) (Read 1175 times)

I have a fast finish though for a middle of the packer... I used to run the 400 & 800 many years ago. I tend to get strangers saying "good job I could not catch you" at the end and I realize they thought they were racing me.

Yep, I get that, too...I ran 100 and 200 all through middle school and HS. I now realize that I should have been running the 400 and 800 all those years....

I'm extremely competitive in virtually everything I do. I either try to do it well, or I do something else. I would say it is excessive but I benchmark against myself, not others, so it usually leads to healthy outcomes. This makes it very frustrating when I'm not running my best. I find it hard to take it less seriously.

Depends on the race and who shows up During training, I am competetive with myself, wanting to be the best Dopple Bock I can be. Although this year, I have half ass trained and drank more beer. Come race day, I compete on 2 levels ... Wtih myself to try and get the fastest race possible out of myself (Strategy + Effort) and with other racers. Depending on the race and who is around (You get to know your local running community), I may run my race and just "Race" others the last 10-20% of the race. Other times I will run the whole race tactically to beat certain people. I would not call wanting to improve as being competetive (New PRs etc) but running to be the best runner you can be. While the other approach is not as much about running, but enjoyment of the experience and possible health benefits. I respect either approach for its own merits.

one other thing I think is great about this site is that the people I consider super fast (running 17 minute 5ks and 2:45 marathons) never seem to give any negative waves to us middle of the pack runners. I really appreciate it. You guys are awesome. I have my first 5k race in a long time comming up in 2 weeks. I hope to run 23:00 but it may be more like 23:20. To a lot of you folks that is a warm-up. But I have never had anyone snicker at me here. and this is what I think is good about being competitive in this sport. you are really competing against yourself. I think sometimes were get motivated by others but we rarely actually are in competition with them. When I used to play ice hockey I remember a guy slipped a bit and whacked me in the face with his stick. I played the best hockey I ever played for the 60 seconds after that with pure adrenaline. It lasted until the ref called time and took me off the ice because I was bleeding too much. The guy came over to appologize. I gave him a semi-friendly whack to the head with my glove and told him to forget it but he can expect a good check later. Sometimes being competitive just means we are bringing the best out of ourselves. And the sports we play can be better for it. Can be... I've seen the bad side of being competitive also. My 8 year old loved flag football last year. This year after 3 practices he said he didn't want to play. One of the assistant coaches was way to negative and was the clipboard throwing type. I had no hesitation calling the head coach and letting him know why my son was dropping out. The practices had way too much tension and little joy.

Valerie: "Liar! L-i-a-r!!!!" Miracle Max: "Get back, witch!" Valerie: "I'm not a witch, I'm your wife. But after what you just said I'm not even sure I want to be that anymore."

"To the wench witch!"

Note to self: don't underestimate the stroller dudes

I'm the living example of the "old guys and gals" who get passed all the time by most everyone. I started running 7 months ago at age 69, and at the 1st 5K I thought I'd just walk, but that gun went off, and the competitive spirit took hold, and I have been tryng to "win" ever since. Well, everyone else was running like heck, so I tried my best to do the same. Not being last was my goal. Great fun, this competitive stuff! So far, everyone has been nice, even when I pass them, or they pass me! They say things like "you look good", etc. Mostly, of course, though, I am running against my own record. Like a turtle that wants to get faster and is out there trying to stretch out the legs. I like Econo's attitude! Hey, I'm new here. How do I add a quote?

I'd say I'm pretty competitive (not to say that I have any talent, I don't), but I'm pretty conflicted about it and kind of wish I wasn't. I never ran in HS/college (mostly out of ignorance), started as an adult. And it's real tempting to be a fun runner, low key ultrarunner, or marathon maniac type. I think these people get a good deal more joy from their running than I do. I think that this is where my running will eventually end up. But there is this thing inside of me...I have to get some idea how I would have ran if I had run competitively in high school or college. I need to find out what my potential is or was. It's pretty much a personality flaw, and explaining it, it sounds really dumb. I know, deep down in my heart, that goofing around on trails all day is what I really want, but I have to see how good of a runner I would have been before I can let myself do that. So yeah.