Strava is home to many types of people. Most of them are supportive, lovely athletes simply trying to do their best and work on their fitness.
Lurking amongst these people however, are a different breed of athlete.
They're not built from the same stuff as the rest of us. These people don't see Strava as a social platform to support friends and track progress.
No, they see Strava as a battleground, and each of your runs is an arrow shot directly at them.
When these people see your run, they don't see a friend getting out, being active and living their life. Instead, they see an attack on their running street cred.
Your pace and distance are the sword and arrows swung in their direction, their own runs are their armor. In their mind, a fierce battle rages.
They see your runs as being in direct competition with them. Each run they see is mentally compared to their own. Pace and distance figures, compared relenlessly in their head.
They create competition between you and them when none formally exists. You've been dragged into a race that you never signed up for, and there's no medal here, only an annoying gimp who insists they're better than you, it's just that the data is wrong.
Jokes and tortured metaphor aside, what I am talking about here is very real and very human.
Human beings are naturally disposed to comparison. Running and Strava provide probably one of the easiest modes of direct comparison available.
Running can be very numbers focussed and 'improvement' for those numbers is very clear and directional. Pace number go down, good. Distance number go up, good.
Strava showcases these performance figures for others in a very explicit way and makes comparison easy.
For some people, this makes every run they see of yours a battleground of numbers. They can only compare their figures to yours and place both on a mental leaderboard of their own making.
Personally, I've found that people tend to do this mainly with people that are genuinely fitter than them. Maybe it comes from a need to not be bad at something, but I don't know and am not qualified to predicate on why they do it.
How to spot when someone is silently competing with you on Strava
It's normally pretty clear in person when someone has decided you're competing.But there are some signs you can look out for:
Only like your slower runs, never runs that demonstrate your higher fitness. I call this selective support.
They create competition where there really is none. The worst way this manifests is when the brag about beating someone who never signed up for it, and was clearly never going to win. Racing the perennial back of parkrunners who love their social parkrun isn't a flex, it's manufacturing hollow wins.
Create fantasy scenarios where they could beat you. Maybe it's clear you're faster over 5k, but they could definitely outrun you over 100 meters.
Cling to numbers to demonstrate fitness, obsessions with VO2 max figures is common here. If their number is higher, clear proof of their superiority, if it's not, the watch is wrong.
They're certain that it's not their fitness, it's the watch they use, the GPS signal, Strava itself or literally anything else outside their control.
They know everything about running. Advice is never taken or was already obvious.
Despite this mental competition, they will never actually directly compete with you.
If they run a faster 5k than you, it was a race and you lost.
If you run a faster 5k than them, they were taking it easy and felt awful.
You get the idea. These people feel the need to be better than you at running, regardless of the actual truth.
A note on compassion
I think all people should always lead with compassion.
These people are very real and their antics can be very annoying. But they're not demons.
I think this type of activity stems from insecurity and the need to show how good they are.
Don't attack people you suspect of doing this. Encourage them to the light side of running.
Where competition is primarily with yourself and support for your friends is better than any pace.
What to do if you think you're one of these people
This is really common. I've done this. I've seen friends increase their fitness during periods where mine has lacked. I've not liked their runs purely because I know deep down i couldn't do that and was jealous.
The below advice is genuine. You shouldn't feel pain at a friends fast run, your running performance is your own. No one worth knowing is judging your running.
All good, decent and experienced runners have been on the perfromance rollercoaster. They know that performance isn't linear, they understand.
Advice:
Internalise that there is no competition, it's in your head. No one is racing you. There's no need to feel pangs when you see fast runs.
Turn envy into awe and inspiration. That person who's faster than you, what do they do that you can integrate intor your own training? Ask their advice and listen, bite your tongue when you feel the need to ignore their words like you already know better.
That friend that's slower than you, lead with encouragement and support. Creating competition with someone for the sole purpose of always winning becuase they're not just as fit as you just isn't the right thing to do.
The most important thing, is remember that no one cares about your runs as much as you do, and that's amazingly liberating. No one's looking at you and judging, only others like you.
Train for you, whether that's to get faster or just to run for the love of it. Other people aren't competition, they're support, advice and friends.