How many times has a well-meaning, but uninformed co-worker asked you this? How do the avg. AGers like me respond? I always get some disinterested reaction when I tell them why I do this stuff and who’s out there to win.
Good question…I usually break it down to a percentage so it’s a bit more positive… 
I think the best way to respond is “I had a good day”.
A friend of mine used to get the same question time and time again about running marathons. So he decided to see what if anything people knew about marathons. He would say no i didn’t win but I ran a XX:XX time. He started lowering the time each instant he was asked. At one point he was telling people he ran a 1 hour and 55 second marathon. Their response was that is nice but why do you race if you don’t win. They had no clue that a 1:55 would have broken the world record at the time by 10 minutes.
It is difficult to explain what most can’t understand 
Someone else posted the correlation of ask them if they golf. Did they win the Masters? Why do you do it then? 'nuf said.
That’s hilarious. I work with a guy who’s pretty arrogant and said that the reason he doesn’t run marathons is because he would only put that much time into something if he could win. Well, the guy smokes two packs a day and probably couldn’t finish a 5K if he prayed to every deity out there.
Hand them another doughnut while you munch happily on your protein bar.
Or one that I have used…
Asked by the smoker/potbellied dude at the water cooler…
Him: Hey did you win?
Me: No, but I beat you.
Oh yeah…I once drove a marathon in 15 minutes…beat that bitch! 1:55…maybe he was on a bike?
Most of the people he was telling this too didn’t know the distance of a marathon much less that 1:55 was pretty much impossible.
Sort of like the time when a friend introduced me to a group of her friends,
Her: This is Kurt he and his wife race Ironman triathlon.
Snotty woman: Well my husband runs full marathons. She meant 10k’s.
It was awesome.
Man, I’m loving these stories. I thought I was the only one walking around confused at the lack of care or knowledge. I had a dude at work knod and say, “Yeah, my dad’s running a 10K marathon this weekend.” Also, a guy ask “How long was that marathon that you ran.” LOVIN’ IT!
I always say: “Good lord, no. I’m slow. I do this for fun.”
maybe if you win your age group you could be able to answer “yes” to the “did you win?” question.
Yeah I have been lucky enough to get an AG win at smaller races. Then the explanation of what an AG is seems to be lost as well.
I’ve come to the point where my only response is usually ‘I finished’. Anything more, unless I won, is lost on them.
My favorite was last week. School just started for my kids so we were at the open house and ran into some parents we hadn’t seen all summer. They asked about a 1/2 IM I did after school was out. After replying my standard ‘I finished’ they went on and explained the distances to some other parents there. One women said ‘I run 10K marathons’.
My 5-year-old son asks me this after each race. I am a constant disappointment to him.
I try the “…but I tried as hard as I could…” line, but he’s usually wandering away by then or he cuts me off and asks “Well, who did?”.
This from a kid who DNF’d his only race to date (a 50-yarder).
Aren’t we all winners?
~Matt
We ARE all winners, just for getting to the starting line:)
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Its only my first season of triathlon, but I’ve already gotten plenty of “did you win?”.
Thankfully many of my friends, the people I care about, are active runners and triathletes themselves, so they have a bit more knowledge on the subject.
Uhhhh…You Rawk!?
~Matt
My 6 year old asks me this after every race. I say “heck yeah, I got a t-shirt and everything”. At this point to her, entering and finishing a race is a win…kj