In the event you ever attempt boosting the spirits of a struggling runner by sharing an encouraging phrase, solely to have the gesture returned with a toothy snarl or deflated sigh, attempt to not take it personally. That runner crashing and burning earlier than your eyes has possible reached a psychological depth the place processing motivational phrases is unimaginable, and your good intentions get misplaced in translation.
Luckily, years of dismal race performances have made me fluent within the language of failure. Ought to you end up saying one in every of these well-meaning phrases, solely to have your phrases land with a thud, contemplate how they could actually sound to the ears of a struggling runner.
You say: “Good job!”
They hear: “You might be clearly the inferior runner.”
I’ve had sturdy races, and others that sputtered right into a DNF. The one time I hear the phrases “good job” from different runners is once I’m completely tanking. That’s as a result of there’s an unstated hierarchy—sooner runners can inform slower runners they’re doing a great job, however it doesn’t work the opposite approach round. I’m going to inform Cam Levins he’s doing a “good job?” Who do I believe I’m?
Each time a runner tells one other they’re doing a great job, as type because the intentions are, it’s an acknowledgment that the previous is definitely doing a greater job than the latter. What’s actually infuriating is once you cross paths with one other runner who’s clearly struggling as a lot as you’re, they usually lob a “good job” at you. “You’re ‘good jobbing’ me?! If anybody ought to be ‘good jobbing’ anybody, I ought to be ‘good jobbing’ you!”
It’s particularly soul-crushing to be the “good jobee” in an out-and-back race, once you hear a swelling refrain of “good job”s as runners cross you, after which get handled to an encore as they double again to the end line. And one thing I realized simply this weekend after blowing a race in Mexico: “¡Buen trabajo!” is “Good job!” in Spanish. It sounded way more romantic, however it didn’t damage my coronary heart any much less.
You say: “You’re within the residence stretch!”
They hear: “You’re nowhere close to the end line.”
Sturdy and struggling runners outline “residence stretch” in another way. To the previous, it could possibly be the whole second half of a marathon. To the latter, if the end line isn’t inside spitting distance, you’re not within the residence stretch. This innocent phrase is supposed to bolster shaky runners by way of that ultimate, powerful push of a race. The struggling runner, in the meantime, causes that if this actually had been the house stretch, it will be apparent to everybody, and there’d be no have to declare it as such. It’s as useful as listening to, “You’re in the beginning line!” because the race begins.
For runners who’re having a extremely powerful time of it and are in a very snarky temper, “You’re within the residence stretch” may also be translated as: “You don’t know the space of this race you’re operating proper now, though you signed up for it, and also you’re clearly unable to learn that big GPS watch in your wrist that’s monitoring your distance.”
You say: “Ache is short-term, glory is without end!”
They hear: “You look completely horrible.”
This one’s often reserved for runners who, at greatest, appear like they’re not going to complete the race, and at worst, are a brief step from oblivion. It’s the Hail Mary of motivational sayings, directed at solely probably the most determined of souls. To the struggling runner, it merely underscores what horrible form they seem like in. An alternate translation: “Please preserve shifting so I don’t have to have a look at you anymore.”
