Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Marathoners: Do you find this annoying?

As I last posted, I ran the SF marathon on Sunday.  I had a blog post on it and also posted to facebook.  A friend of a family member who is a "friend" of mine on facebook (but otherwise do not know real well) posted the following either later that day or early the next day:


Not only did he post it, but then changed it as his main picture.  Maybe because I just ran a marathon, I found this annoying.

I would never compare running a marathon to an ironman.  Heck - the marathon is after you swim and biked a crazy distance.  I know that I could not come close right now to doing an ironman.

I think people should be very proud of their accomplishments, but I don't understand the need to say "Oh, you ran a marathon?  That's cute".  That just seems arrogant to me.  I hope I would not tell someone that just ran their first half "Oh, you ran a half?  That's cute" and then put a 26.2 sign up.

I do hope to do an ironman one day.  It is on my list along with doing an ultra.  It is not in my current plan because (i) have more than a full time job (more than 50 hours per week), (ii) I'm an adjunct professor (one class each semester) and (iii) I have a young daughter who I want to spend time with on my free time.  Thus, no time for the training.  A sign like this does light a fire in me and makes me want to do it . . . but I think I prefer a 50 mile run first.

Anyone else find this a bit irritating or annoying?  I do understand that some/most/all of us marathoners can be a bit irritating to people that do not run marathons.

Maybe, I need to do an ironman so that I can understand the need to post this after someone just ran a marathon.   If I ever end up doing an ironman, will I also now have disdain for marathon runners?