A Little Lie

People lie all the time.  They lie about big things and they lie about little things.  Nothing gets under my skin more than someone who lies about their running.  It makes my skin crawl.  I know people who will tell me that they ran a 4 minute mile in high school or something ridiculously fast in the marathon and I'll just shake my head knowingly, all the while doing a slow burn.

It's a topic the Czarina and I discuss frequently.  She feels the same way.  While neither one of us are great runners, we aren't slouches either.  We're both happy with what we've accomplished in road races and even on the track.  The Czarina will immediately go to the Internet when someone tells them they run and babble about running this time or that.  She's generally suspicious about what others say about their running unless she's seen it for herself.  The Czarina will get really angry when she finds out that she's been lied to about a running accomplishment and it takes every fiber in her body to not call that individual out on their lie.

I've got friends who lie through their teeth about their running accomplishments.  I simply don't understand the need to exaggerate their abilities.  In fact, most of these guys are or were decent runners. I guess it's just human nature to stretch the truth but when it comes to running, the time and distance are something like sacred truths to me.

Don't get me wrong, I've told lies and I've stretched the truth about incidents relating to my life.  I'm better about not doing it as I've gotten older, but I'm not perfect.  Still, when it comes to my running exploits, I've always played it straight.  And in this day of the Internet, the consequences of lying are very unforgiving.

I get the feeling that the majority of serious runners feel the same way I do about running fibs.  It can lead to a tangled mess, whether you're a course cutting marathoner or a candidate for Vice President of the United States.  There will be hell to pay in the running community.  Which leads me to a head scratching moment about why someone would slice more than an hour off their marathon best in an interview with a reporter.  If someone is willing to tell that kind of whopper, where else are they cutting the corners when it comes to the truth?