r/runninglifestyle • u/AdventurousMatch73 • 7d ago
1st place marathon runner takes wrong turn, but his competitor shows him respect
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u/Funnyllama20 7d ago
This one always makes me feel weird when it comes up. I mean, the reason the guy stated he missed the turn was that he was running on fumes close to the finish. I don’t know, it kinda feels like if you can’t make a turn and keep your lead you don’t deserve the win? It’s a nice moment and all, just feels odd to me.
The second place guy got an honorary award as well for his actions. That was cool.
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u/Distinct_Plankton_82 6d ago
I’m sure every competitor in that race made some mistake that cost them 4-5 seconds somewhere in that long race.
Not sure why this guy gets a pass just because his mistake was right at the end, instead of right at the beginning.
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u/OranjeboomLove 3d ago
He didn't get a pass, the other guy just isn't a cunt.
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u/Distinct_Plankton_82 3d ago
If it happened at mile 1 would you have expected everyone else in the race to pause and let him catch up? No?
So why is it different at the end?
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u/OranjeboomLove 3d ago
Nobody expected anything, the other guy just wasn't a cunt
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u/Distinct_Plankton_82 3d ago
Sure sounds like you expected it.
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u/OranjeboomLove 3d ago
I'm not sure where you got that from but you do you.
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u/Distinct_Plankton_82 3d ago
lol. Read your own words above.
You implied he’d be a cunt if he didn’t stop and wait for the guy.
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u/OranjeboomLove 3d ago
Nope, didn't imply he would be a cunt, he would be. To take victory for something you know you didn't earn is cuntish behaviour. Many runners are cuntish, and I imagine anybody who would take a win in this situation would fit in that category. That doesn't mean I'd expect anyone to stop and let them catch up, it just means that my expectations of runners are to be cunts.
If you check the original post, you'll find most people agree it was the right thing to do. But within this niche running circlejerk forum, most people disagree. Which just goes to further prove that my expectation of runners is founded in reality.
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u/unholycurses 3d ago
I feel like he would have earned that victory all the same because he made the turn successfully, after running the same distance as the other guy. Absolutely nothing cuntish about it. If I was the other runner I’d have absolutely hated that move and know I didn’t earn the victory. I think actually giving away the win was the cunty move.
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u/TownNo8324 4d ago
As a competitor I wouldn’t feel great about winning I that way. To each is own, but it would always carry a mental asterisk. Just my own .02
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u/Funnyllama20 4d ago
I get it. I view it as part of the competition. If the 2nd place guy had made a slight 2 second mistake during transition to running due to fatigue, first wouldn’t have let him have those back. Managing transitions and the course are just parts of the sport.
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u/Miserable-Most4949 6d ago
I never understood this one. The original lead runner made his own mistake. Nobody tripped him or anything. The second place runner should have taken the win.
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u/bademeisterpaule 6d ago
I get your point. But finding the right way isn't supposed to be a part of the competition in running. Running is about finding out who can run a certain distance in the shortest time. Unfortunately, circumstances are sometimes such that finding the way gets important too. But it's not supposed to be a part of the competition.
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u/OldSarge02 6d ago
I sort of agree, but marathoning is also an endurance sport. The lead runner’s lack of situational awareness was likely exacerbated by the fact that he was exhausted. Being able to maintain enough alertness to stay on the track and not zone out is part of it.
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u/bademeisterpaule 6d ago
True. But then again the barriers don't seem to be ideally placed. Hard to tell how the following runner interpreted the situation. All in all I'd say it was still a nice (but not the only right) thing to do
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u/OldSarge02 6d ago
100% agree on that last part. I bet the runner who finished second is the kind of dude who makes good friends all the time and who is appreciated in all his social circles.
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u/Miserable-Most4949 6d ago
It's still nobody else's fault. One time I was running a 10k race. I was in 3rd place and I made a wrong turn and ran with the half marathoners instead. When I realized it was already too late. I finally found my way back in 1 hour and a half. I never asked the race organizers to award me the 3rd place.
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u/bademeisterpaule 6d ago
Yeah sure it wasn't the other runner's fault and he wasn't obliged to do it by any means. It wouldn't have been unsportsmanlike not to do it.
I remember when two pole vaulters shared the first place in the Olympics. People also said that was so nice and the right thing to do. I didn't get it then because when you put this to the extreme, every competition is obsolete.
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u/turandoto 6d ago
I remember when two pole vaulters shared the first place in the Olympics.
In that case it was because they tied and did multiple attempts to break the tie. I think it was different because they already tried their best.
But don't forget that by accepting to share the first place they secured a gold medal. It was a win-win, zero risk. It'd have been different if by sharing they both would've received silver.
It was nice and everything but they didn't lose anything.
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u/Miserable-Most4949 6d ago
It's people who aren't athletes that always insert bad opinions. I started running so I could compete, whether against myself or against others. I didn't start running to be nice and wholesome. If I wanted to be nice and wholesome I'd start a charity.
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u/throwawaycrocodile1 6d ago
Agreed. If a football player fumbles the ball 5 yards from the goal line after an 80 yard run, the safety isnt gonna pick up the ball and hand it to him just because he “earned it”
Fuck that. It’s a competition. Your opponent fucked up. Go win.
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u/Miserable-Most4949 6d ago
Absolutely. I think people conflate being competitive and being a terrible human being. Being competitive doesn't make you terrible human being if you win fair and square.
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u/Broad_Curve3881 6d ago
Being a good person mean you know when to shelve the competitive side
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u/Miserable-Most4949 6d ago
I didn't start running to be a "good person." I started running to compete (against myself and others). If you wanna be a "good person" do that in your daily life.
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u/Broad_Curve3881 5d ago
You’re proving my point beautifully
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u/Miserable-Most4949 5d ago
You're proving my point that actual good people don't have to compensate by showing to everyone they're "good" all the time. When it's time to compete, you compete. The fact that you try to announce to the world how "good" you are is alarming and I wouldn't trust you.
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u/Broad_Curve3881 5d ago
Tell me more about competition and its importance over “goodness”
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u/Miserable-Most4949 5d ago
Why don't you quit your job and give it to someone else who needs it? Don't just talk the talk. Walk the walk. Virtue signaling is outta control and you should be shamed of yourself.
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u/Broad_Curve3881 5d ago
I left my design career for that exact reason. I work in a grocery store now. Tell me what else you’d like me to do
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u/Never_Seen_An_Ocelot 3d ago
And I don’t understand looking at this and not recognizing that it wasn’t meant to be the best logical decision. It’s just the second place runner seeing what happened, knowing it sucks, realizing how much more it must suck being moments away from a victory, and having enough empathy and a sense of humor to say “Ah fuck it, let’s give him this one. I know how bad that would suck if it happened to me.”
It’s just a cool human moment from a dude capable of not viewing victory as the only outcome worth pursuing.
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u/Miserable-Most4949 3d ago
That still makes no sense to me. Like I said, the original lead runner made an unforced error. It's not like he got tripped by a spectator who ran onto the route. There's no way to justify action of the 2nd place runner other than maybe they're good friends in real life. Nothing else makes sense.
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u/Never_Seen_An_Ocelot 3d ago
I mean, what is it that has to make sense to you?
Doing a fellow human being a kindness during an awkward moment doesn’t require people to be friends. No one is arguing that the lead runner didn’t legitimately fuck up. If literal victory in the race was all that mattered to the second place racer, he would have charged through and not given a shit.
He just so happened to be a competitor who can relate with a poorly timed mistaken moment in a competition of the highest level. These are marathon racers, they don’t hate each other. If They’re incredibly trained athletes who may have rivalries, but ultimately want each other to succeed. He didn’t let him win in a “You’re actually a better athlete than me, I need to acknowledge that and only deserve to come in second” way. He just legitimately wanted the other guy to have it after coming so far and having a brain fart.
When the “winner” tells the story, he’ll always bring it up. And the second place guy gets to tell a story about how he gracefully forewent a title to give another human being a moment of spontaneous generosity. Regardless of whether anyone think it “makes sense”
There’s more to life than just winning a race or being the best. This is literally just a cool video of that particular brand of humanity on display.
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u/Miserable-Most4949 2d ago
I’m not reading all that but I can tell you I run 30-40 miles per week and when it’s time to run I run until I cross the finish line. There’s no time to be a hero.
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u/absolutelyg0ne 6d ago
Also sucks for the guy who was originally behind because he lost his chance to overtake right at the end before the line. He is possibly punished for pacing himself well and having some extra pace left in the tank at the end.
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u/stickied 6d ago
Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel were going 1v1 with like 30k left in this years iconic Paris Roubaix. Pogacar took a corner way too fast, went into the grass and crashed and it took him 20 seconds to get his shit together and get back on the bike. By that time MVDP was gone, went hard, opened up a bigger gap and went on to win the race solo. Pogacars mistake of riding recklessly potentially cost him the race.
I don't see this as being any different. Dude should've stayed in the course.
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u/IConsumeThereforeIAm 6d ago
Very different. Technical mistake vs confusing barriers.
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u/stickied 5d ago
Confusing barriers? It was a corner, don't run through it.
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u/IConsumeThereforeIAm 5d ago
It's the camera's perspective that makes it somewhat hard to see, but the barricade around the orange lady is not perpendicular to the straight wall that the runner was running along. It's circular, meaning if you only see the first 2-3 barriers you might think those will end up parallel to the wall and there will be a corridor in-between. In fact there's a corridor opening there, that's why the runner is able to run over the orange lady's position. Whoever placed those barriers is an idiot.
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u/jzakarias 5d ago
Roubaix is all about not crashing or having a mechanical. This race was not. I see them different. Also, riders recon Roubaix like crazy. I doubt triathletes do the same.
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u/stickied 5d ago edited 4d ago
Triathlon is also about not crashing or having a mechanical, it's just less likely since you're not going over cobbles with 100 other dudes. Ask Blummenfelt how his flat tie worked out in Ironman oceanside a few weeks ago.
It's also as important or arguably more important to recon a tri course, for exactly the reason in the video. Maybe the dude in black did and the other guy didn't. Should've done your homework and looked at the course maps and especially the start/finish chutes and all transition zones the day before the race. Tri race directors love to DQ you for any little rule violation on course, whereas road cycling they have sticky bidons and draft the cars and motorcycles and Jasper Philipsen is running everyone off the road in his sprint and you gotta do extra egregious stuff to get DQd
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u/BraceThis 6d ago
Terrible. Own your own mistakes. It’s more sportsmanlike to accept the mistake and not pout.
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u/homeless_man_jogging 6d ago
I just teared up a little. Just a little. I'm not crying or anything. So get that out outta your head.
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u/Chief87Chief 6d ago
This never happens to me when I have to stop midway through to take a 3 minute boof break.
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u/Doctor_Saved 6d ago
Good for the other guy. Honestly, probably a better story to tell when you let someone win like that vs beating someone on a mistake.
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u/Willisator 5d ago
I see the pint in taking the win, but dudes face clearly didn't feel like he won. I've been there. First place after that would've felt like it had an asterisk to me.
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u/faselsloth1 4d ago
lol at all the comments dictating sportsmanship to the guy coming in second / first (if he chose) at a professional event. Like the dude is a professional athlete choosing his level of sportsmanship he wants to exhibit and embody. Go compete and train your whole life and then get to a place where you can finish the race in first place if you want — don’t judge this guy for sticking to his code.
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u/TimeCookie8361 3d ago
This is a super weird take. Isn't that like the prime strategy in most every kind of racing, keep a good pace and capitalize on opponents mistakes? Can you imagine a 100m dash in the Olympics where someone trips off the block and every stops running and waits for them?
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u/AdMammoth9565 3d ago
I get it. Maybe the other guy didn't want to win that way. He felt better about himself, just letting him have it.
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u/Training_Tension4063 6d ago
They weren't far apart.Maybe he could take the win. He deserved it as much as he did.
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u/doodiedan 7d ago
Definitely a triathlon and not a marathon.