Do people lie about fitness?

[Anonymous]

Curious about this. What made me start to wonder this was seeing an old friend post on social media about her new running hobby. I've run for 25 years so I was like, oh that's great. Then in a one month period she went from "really pushing myself to make the 5 mile mark!" to "I average 10 miles per day, with an average pace of 7:30." She's an overweight Marijuana enthusiast of nearly 50 who's been running maybe 6 weeks? Is this real? If so, those times suggest that she could easily train to become an elite runner. I just can't figure out what the motivation would be to lie though. Is this something people lie about?

[Anonymous]

Hello troll

[Anonymous]

There was an episode of normal gossip where this came up

[Anonymous]

Yes. People cheat on marathons too. https://www.marathoninvestigation.com/

[Anonymous]

People def lie about that stuff.

Not that this is lying, but my favorite is the before and after weight loss journey pics. The before pic is always in horrible unsupportive bra and huge granny panties, pushing the stomach out, not smiling and generally looking miserable. After pic is make up on, hair done, push up bra, bikini underwear, flexing and sucking in the stomach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. People cheat on marathons too. https://www.marathoninvestigation.com/

Haha, love that guy!

Some people lie about their fitness because they're seeking validation. They want the social media likes, the attention, the positive response -- even if they're lying about the thing they're posting about.

It's the same reason people lie about work accolades or embellish accomplishments, or lie about anything. Some people are just very very insecure while also being very very narcissistic.

[Anonymous]

Maybe she’s trying to become some kind of influencer? People lie about everything on social media just for the attention.

[Anonymous]

People definitely lie about this stuff. Actually, if I think about it, I've definitely stretched the truth on a few occasions to impress someone or to just not embarrass myself. But only occasionally in conversation, not proactively on social media. Like if I run into an old classmate and she asks if I'm still running, I'll say yes even though this is a stretch -- I go for a run 4-5x a year, remember that it causes hip problems, and not go out again for months. I also once told a guy on a date that I was "a swimmer" even though I'm not, because it seemed important to him and I think in the moment I though "I could be a swimmer" even though I only ever swim on vacation.

But yeah, PPs are right -- it's about validation and maybe some amount of self-delusion (like me thinking "I could be a swimmer"). I'd just let it go. Most likely she'll abandon it as a talking point at some point because how long is someone going to keep up the ruse that they are a serious runner when they aren't? There will be diminishing returns unless she starts doing stuff like running marathons and gets validation from that, but that would require a lot more effort (whether she actually learns to run a marathon or decides to try and fake it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about this. What made me start to wonder this was seeing an old friend post on social media about her new running hobby. I've run for 25 years so I was like, oh that's great. Then in a one month period she went from "really pushing myself to make the 5 mile mark!" to "I average 10 miles per day, with an average pace of 7:30." She's an overweight Marijuana enthusiast of nearly 50 who's been running maybe 6 weeks? Is this real? If so, those times suggest that she could easily train to become an elite runner. I just can't figure out what the motivation would be to lie though. Is this something people lie about?

Ask to go for a run with her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about this. What made me start to wonder this was seeing an old friend post on social media about her new running hobby. I've run for 25 years so I was like, oh that's great. Then in a one month period she went from "really pushing myself to make the 5 mile mark!" to "I average 10 miles per day, with an average pace of 7:30." She's an overweight Marijuana enthusiast of nearly 50 who's been running maybe 6 weeks? Is this real? If so, those times suggest that she could easily train to become an elite runner. I just can't figure out what the motivation would be to lie though. Is this something people lie about?

Ask to go for a run with her.

lol +1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about this. What made me start to wonder this was seeing an old friend post on social media about her new running hobby. I've run for 25 years so I was like, oh that's great. Then in a one month period she went from "really pushing myself to make the 5 mile mark!" to "I average 10 miles per day, with an average pace of 7:30." She's an overweight Marijuana enthusiast of nearly 50 who's been running maybe 6 weeks? Is this real? If so, those times suggest that she could easily train to become an elite runner. I just can't figure out what the motivation would be to lie though. Is this something people lie about?

Ask to go for a run with her.

lol +1

+1000. Even better, ask her to go run 10 miles, but only ask her the day before. That’ll shut her up real fast.

For me, I don’t want any of what I am doing on social media. I have a Strava account but very much limit that to a narrow selection of friends that seem to like to encourage each other. I really prefer to be left alone. I will let the race results speak for themselves, and even with those, I’m competing with myself anyways.

For sure people lie about this stuff.

[Anonymous]

I had the same thing happen ... a friend who almost certainly could NOT run 6 miles was suddenly claiming to run 6 very fast miles every day. So weird!

[Anonymous]

She’s probably just bad at math. That’s a good working assumption for most situations.

[Anonymous]

Some people are gifted runners. I know a couple people that started running and I was shocked at how fast they go. Others like your friend lie. I have one friend tell me they stop their watch to rest then restart it so it looks faster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about this. What made me start to wonder this was seeing an old friend post on social media about her new running hobby. I've run for 25 years so I was like, oh that's great. Then in a one month period she went from "really pushing myself to make the 5 mile mark!" to "I average 10 miles per day, with an average pace of 7:30." She's an overweight Marijuana enthusiast of nearly 50 who's been running maybe 6 weeks? Is this real? If so, those times suggest that she could easily train to become an elite runner. I just can't figure out what the motivation would be to lie though. Is this something people lie about?

Ask to go for a run with her.

lol +1

+1000. Even better, ask her to go run 10 miles, but only ask her the day before. That’ll shut her up real fast.

For me, I don’t want any of what I am doing on social media. I have a Strava account but very much limit that to a narrow selection of friends that seem to like to encourage each other. I really prefer to be left alone. I will let the race results speak for themselves, and even with those, I’m competing with myself anyways.

For sure people lie about this stuff.

Why would you do this, unless you are a hateful person? For some kind of fun gotcha?