Is it rude to ask half marathon time ?

Cowgirl a lot of folks tend to get into a p*ssing contest about times it's humna nature. It's not rude but I won't answer folks about mine and used to fib so the racing snakes didn't get into that sort of thing with me. I'd just tell them time is irrelevant achievement is permanent. If that doesn't suffice just break there other ankle.

Just ask what their idea of good is and if they;ve ever done it with a knowing smile. Most people whp ask are genuinely interested and that "Not bad" might just have been genuine and a complement. If thought not, refer to first sentence

I've always found that the reaction to a half marathon is 'oh only a half'  you could tell them that you had run sub 60 minutes but they wold be more impressed with a 6 hour marathon.

My philosophy is there, will always be someone quicker than you.. If i ask someone their running time, and i am quicker, i will say it, but it just general banter. True runners will never get into a pissing contest, since the person we have to impress the most is our selves.

In my mind it is only the person that came first who is the true runner, and has the right to revel in his / her glory. Its always interesting to compare times. Its human nature. I am just naturally curious. If someone is quicker, then i want to know what makes them quicker, what training they use, so i might improve mine.

I have done some quick times, but then i have had injuries, and found my times suffered as a result. Its kind of an up and down battle with myself.

Unless you do the exact route in a training run, you cannot compare times. Also some people run better in the morning, or the evening, or when they have had a few days break.

One thing a serial winner cannot get away with is bringing up the subject of their victories. Just in case its considered boasting.

However, it is ok for me to bring up the subject of their great victories and performances. Then they can expound at length guilt free.

Its like, "Hey Mike, didn't you once do 64 minutes for a half marathon, what was that about?".

Really entertaining. Makes their day, someone else wanting to talk about your races.

In the circumstances of the guy at the gate, surely most runners would listen to the OP's time, and keep their own time to themselves.

Sounds suspiciously like he was making it up. I doubt he covered 8miles, got changed twice and showered within a lunch hour!

And as for the breaking an ankle, classic excuse. He's probably one of those, "the older I get the better I was" types, who funnily enough has no recorded results, and his best times are his own training runs, not recorded by GPS.

Stevie G . wrote (see)

 

And as for the breaking an ankle, classic excuse. He's probably one of those, "the older I get the better I was" types, who funnily enough has no recorded results, and his best times are his own training runs, not recorded by GPS.

 

hah heard that so many times, its also amazing how much slower/shorter some people i know runs got once they got smartphones/garmins

I dont mind anyone asking me what time I got because, being over 60, whatever time I say they always tell me that it is very good. Mind you someone the other day followed up with 'is that a PB' and I thought, I have been running for over 30 years now and was not fast then and it must be 25 years since I set a PB over any distance and felt very tempted to say yes just to see what they said.

Derek, , merely the moronic set patter every runner goes through.

A lot of runners take the now as all there has been and forget a lot of older runners would have massively taken them to school at their peak.

One thing to remember is that "lunch hour" is a term that is often used simply to mean "lunch break". It may well have been substantially over an hour.

PSC wrote (see)

Avoid KMs unless talking to the under 25s as most people think they are much shorter. So 21k isn't a distance anyone would recognise.

I always run miles, 'cos I'm hard like that.

A guy starting talking to me at the end of a training run and told me that his female friend ran a marathon in just over two hours.  Her name wasn't Paula.  

In answer to the OP's school gate incident - the 8 miles in an hour at lunch time - unless it is a properly timed race any quoted time is meaningless and probably made up.

The only way to really tell how fast one is is to do a race.

Most people are serial bullshitters.

Best approach, try not to believe most things that most people say.

I dont believe that for one minute

Surrey Runner wrote (see)

In answer to the OP's school gate incident - the 8 miles in an hour at lunch time - unless it is a properly timed race any quoted time is meaningless and probably made up.

The only way to really tell how fast one is is to do a race.

Utter pony.

You've never heard of a GPS watch then.

Pretty accurate they tell me.

8miles in an hour is a fairly comfortable pace. For goodness sake that's only 7:30 pacing.

The doubt about the story is that he got changed twice, showered, ANDgot 8miles in, WITHIN the hour. That's unlikely.