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Compliments from a complete stranger....!

I wish, the nearest i get is the life guard asking if i'm ok or need any help...



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  • JessterJesster Posts: 482
    Okay so I was having a fairly easy swim this morning and just doing a few sets/drills/etc and i was nearing the end of my session and taking a quick recovery when this older chap started chatting to me. He said;



    "You know, fifteen years i've been swimming in this pool and i can tap the feet of anyone i choose, but you? When you decide to lengthen your stroke I have no chance of catching you, and you glide so effortlessly too. and you can keep that pace for ages!"



    Man, I could have hugged him. I always train alone and i have no idea of how much i'm doing wrong/right, (just joined a tri club recently and havent been yet) This guy gave me a real boost today.



    So, what this thread is about is; While training/racing, have you had a compliment from a complete stranger and if so, how did it make you feel? [8|]
  • julesojuleso Posts: 279
    Someone once told me that when I'm swimming I look like I'm not making much effort, which I decided to take as a compliment rather than a comment on how I can look lazy even while doing physical activity....



    Impressive work Jesster, you must have been walking on air for the rest of the day.

  • jacjac Posts: 452
    Nice one Jesster..this guy must have tapped a lot of feet in 15 years.

    Reckon he's got his eye on you.

    Sadly I've only had: 'You go first because you're much faster than me' from a snail who has found its way into the wrong lane. I know, for a fact, I am not fast.



  • BlinkybazBlinkybaz Posts: 1,144
    You must have read my swimming pool story! Its going to be in Coneheads new book I think.

    In brief - I went swimming on a tuesday night which I would not normally do. The pool is not open till 9 so I am waiting and when we all get let in a group of old people have taken over the pool. I walk down to the sallow end to get in when they all part to leave a path to the middle lane. i get in do 2 lenghts to warm up as you do. Then just about to start a 499 split and an old guy gets in the lane and tells me he likes my shorts. I am very hard of hearing and wear hearing aids so when swimming I AM QUITE DEAF. So I say sorry mate I cant hear, he then shouts the same thing at me for all to hear! Then he wants to know where they came from. I explain for everyone who is now listening that they came from Ebay, and you guessed it I had to explain what Ebay was too.





    So in a nut shell I am sure the compliment was about my shorts and if its anything else about that area I am going to kill myself.





    I never swim on a tuesday anymore!!!
  • FlavadaveFlavadave Posts: 749
    Hmmm... never had a compliment on my sporting prowess, although a fellow cyclist did compliment me on my gore jacket not so long ago. Asking me where I got it I replied "Wiggle" which produced a confused look on his face, then the lights changed so I didn't have time to explain.



    Could you post a picture of your swimming shorts Baz, they sound great!
  • Mine's a swimming story too...



    After finishing my Tri at the weekend my wife came to congratulate me and told me that the girls who where in my sisters army relay team had told her I swam really and it was because of my big powerful arms...



    Not rally a compliment about by technique or ability. but hey I don't care because I got "Big Powerful Arms"!!



    Scotty









  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    couple of weeks ago i was doing drills in the pool.



    whilst having a rest one woman commented that when i was doing one arm drills she could keep up with me but once I went back to straight swimming she was toast.



    Felt really good.



    When I got out i looked back... and she was doing the dry-as-a-bone-blue-rinse-breast stroke.



    Oh well....



    didds
  • BlurredgirlBlurredgirl Posts: 292
    Best compliment I've ever had?



    'Nice bike'.



    Says it all.



    blurredgirl

  • BopomofoBopomofo Posts: 980
    It all happens in the pool... I've had a few people comment along the lines of "how do you go so fast when it looks like you're not trying?" which is nice. Many have asked for advice, too, or even asked if I give lessons. You wouldn't want me to do that, really you wouldn't.



    Occasionally I'll get some youngster who wants to show off for his girlfriend who'll get in the lane next door and wait for me to turn, then have a 'race' up the pool to show how fast he is. It always makes me chuckle to beat them while just carrying the same steady pace and see them flailing around and puffing like a train after 22m. [:D] One guy did say "Well I nearly beat you" when I stopped... to which I replied "No, I'm 160 lengths ahead of you."[8D] It feels like a compliment that people want to race me.



    Half of the Hampshire cricket team (completely unknown to me) got in to do some water jogging once and ended up having a relay race against me. I just carried on swimming wondering what they were up to - while beating them, of course. Only found out who they were afterwards. Apparently they were playing an exhibition match at the Rose Bowl next door later that day... I was chuffed they thought it was worth having a pop at me!



    Anyway, I'm crap at cricket so that's fair enough.



    I was strangely chuffed at the Winchester sprint tri the other week when the scrutineer had a quick check of my hat, brakes etc then said "Nice bike, there. Well prepared too." All that pre-race cleaning and oiling made her look a treat!



    Finally: does all the applause and 'Well done' comments from the bunch of complete strangers at the finish line of a race count? I always love that bit, and I make sure I hang around at the finish line to return the compliment and cheer in a few complete strangers myself. Gotta love the people! [:D]
  • JulesJules Posts: 987


    Finally: does all the applause and 'Well done' comments from the bunch of complete strangers at the finish line of a race count? I always love that bit, and I make sure I hang around at the finish line to return the compliment and cheer in a few complete strangers myself. Gotta love the people! [:D]



    I usually get a "well done, keep going" during races - mostly fat old blokes as they steam past me.[8|]
  • AndreAndre Posts: 103
    The applause and cheering definitely counts!



    At the Cambridge Duathlon a few weeks ago a North American (I have no idea if she was American or Canadian) shouted "Looking good, 230!" - I'd had a storming T2 and came out of transition impossibly fast. She probably thought I was running for a podium finish, but 200m later I was breathing out of my arse!



    Speaking of arses, I often get "Nice bum!" from inappropriately young girls on my way home - I have no idea if they mean this with a deep sense of irony, though.
  • Ron99Ron99 Posts: 237
    Last week, some French bloke walked past while I was stopped at lights. 'Nice bike...now you just need a license to ride it'. Not sure exactly what he meant, but I'm pretty sure he was taking the piss. Tosser.
  • joolzdjoolzd Posts: 245
    "gosh you're lookin mighty fine in that wetsuit, swim hat and goggles!!" said in a sarcastic tone by both my mother and sister during my very first tri!... & like with Jules the "keep going..you're nearly there"; always inspiring for that last push to the finish line....by those that have finished, changed and packed their bags...
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    joolzd wrote:


    by those that have finished, changed and packed their bags...



    Why do people who have finished feel the need to warm down - by running back in the direction the run came from?
  • danny_sdanny_s Posts: 235
    I was really pleased last week when some guy - in front of his girlfriend - asked me how I got to be so "big." I thought that being 6'3 was genetic and told him I was just tall, since no one's ever described me as big in any other sense. I was completely lost for words when he wanted to learn how to get big arms and shoulds... I said to just swim a lot and be bad at it so that the only way to go faster is pulling really hard. Swimming efficiently looks so easy for these tiny girls who breeze by me...
  • MowfMowf Posts: 272
    Marshal at the Cotswold tri saw me on my second lap and shouted 'good running' at me - i'm guessing because he recognised me from my first lap when i missed the water handed to me by a little girl. I clocked a 5k PB, so i must have been going fairly quickly.



    It felt good so when i got passed by someone running really strongly in a tri a few weeks later, i returned the favour and panted 'good running mate' as he stormed past me.
  • AndreAndre Posts: 103
    I do the same - and, on the rare occasion when it happens, if I pass someone I'll try to encourage them or say something like "Good effort!" I've yet to workout if the person I'm passing is thinking: smug tosser!
  • j27rtj27rt Posts: 102
    Some kids shouted 'run forrest run' at me the other night... Not a compliment at all, just thought I'd share!
  • md6md6 Posts: 969
    i think that encouraging people you are running with is nice, i certainly have appreciated it, and hope that people have appreciated it when i've done it. Of course that is unless you are being a smug t*sser, they might not like that so much.
  • FlavadaveFlavadave Posts: 749
    Better than 'COCK!!' although at the time when it was shouted at me unning along the canal, I did have to admire it's simplicity.



  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    just before the finish of an aquathlon last year I passed three teens walking the other way. one of them shouted at me "I thought you were supposed to be running!".



    I did have to smile at his remark though!



    didds

  • scott_burrowsscott_burrows Posts: 381
    I competed in the Knacker Cracker 10k on New Years Day at Box Hill, Surrey, between 8-9km is down then up 270 (ish) very steeps steps.. as I was slowly ambering up them as I passed a man and his 2 young girls.. one the girls turned to the dad and Said "Daddy I can run faster than that" then proceeded to hop up 6-7 steps over taking me.. the dad sort of just went red and smiled in embarrassment at me.. Grr.. kids...
  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    Mine wasn't really a comment, more of a knowing dissaproval. I was getting ready for a local 10km running race a few years back and they had sent us out the T-shirts to run the race in beforehand, so it was a sunday morning of the race, I proudly had my T-shirt on, gone up to the bus stop, sat next to this old guy and waited for the bus. 10min later, all of these people came running past wearing race T-shirts for my race!! I didn't know what was going on, first thoughts ran to a separate "elite" race but by the time the geriatrics were hobbling by, I realised, the clocks had gone forward and I was an hour late for the race. The old guy looked at my T-shirt and all he did was raise one eyebrow. We both knew and it said it all. So I just stood up and walked back home.
  • garyrobertsgaryroberts Posts: 869
    some senile old dude in the pool told me i had just swam a length in 5 seconds! I tried to explain to him that i hadn't but he was having none of it. Then he told me the 20 lengths i'd just swam was equal to a mile.



    Its not a compliment but its as close as i've ever come to getting one regarding my training!
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 335
    not sure that its a complment but I've had a local guy thanking me for inspiring his wife to get fit and do a tri like me on the basis that if I can do it anyone can - decided to take any positive comment I can[:D]
  • When I joined the local triathlon club last year, I went to a swim session which was then followed by a bike session. Being a swimmer, I got in the pool and took up a position several down the line. When it came to the kicking set, everyone else had fins and I didn't. As it turned out, my normal kicking was better than most of those using fins. the coach complimented me on my leg strength. Unfortunately, that all went out the window when I got on the bike and got left behind on several occasions.



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