Why can't we British learn to be proud of ourselves?

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The mere posting of this picture will have caused many English people to flinch then shake their heads at me.

In Britain one does not simply "Blow one's own trumpet".....

A while ago I posted the offending picture, above, of my home made medal display on to facebook. I couldn't decide whether it was naff or not so I thought I would shout the question in to the huge empty hole that is facebox. Of course, I managed to forget that most of my friends are English. This means that my posting the picture was seen as huge, in-your-face boasting.

Cue the ribbing....

"Don't be that guy"

"Home-made"

"Show-off"

"Impressively naff"

Of course, being English, the ribbing was good natured leg-pulling that wasn't meant to offend, but it did bring up an interesting issue: Why can't we British be proud of our achievements? And of course, this isn't confined to running; academic achievement or in fact, any sort of personal accomplishment is right in there.

(I should also mention that a couple of people did say well done and there was nothing wrong with being proud, but the overwhelming response was mickey-taking)

Hardly anyone I know displays their medals, and if they do, they are somewhere very inconspicuous. Most people I know put them in a drawer, never to see the light of day. Even wearing a race t-shirt is seen as boasting by some. 

When I started running again I charted my improvement on facebook especially each time I lowered a PB. At first that was ok, my times were slow enough that people didn't see it as boasting, but as I got faster, that changed. I, of course, didn't notice this subtle change. If I had to have a guess, I would say it started about the time I got down to 45 minutes for 10k.

Eventually someone told me that I "Wanted people to know that I took my running seriously" I didn't know what they meant. But apparently mentioning my times was interpreted that way. As I was finishing over 10 minutes behind the winners in any given race, it didn't occur to me that people would see it as boasting. To me, my times are nothing special and I maintain that. My 10k PB, although one I am very proud of, saw me finishing outside the top 500 of the race I set it in! Dominic, my frequent race day buddy's PBs are far faster than mine and even one of my best friends, Mark, who isn't a runner, but just very fit, can kick my arse in a 10k. These are the sort of people that are interested in my times and if I don't mention them, they ask, as I do with them. We take pleasure in each other's progress.

I "won" these for running up and down a big hill twice. Not the socks, I just wore them, that'd be weird

Then I discovered something really odd; people don't mind you saying that you broke your PB on facebook, providing you don't mention the time, but if someone asks you your time, it's fine to mention it.

I know, weird eh?

Another odd thing is that if I posted my garmin page link to a training run and mentioned it didn't go well, I received messages along the lines of "I'd be really pleased to run that speed, you should be happy"

It seems if you are faster than someone else, you are supposed to be happy with your time, even if it doesn't represent an improvement on your times or is even a step back. The funny thing is, they clearly judge themselves against me and my times, but I don't judge myself by the many people who finish in front of me. I simply don't care. I race against my own times only, and occasionally another runner if they are finishing near me and that's about it!

So I have learned to be self-deprecating about my times and my running, that way people don't misinterpret me and think I have suddenly decided my times are somehow good despite never finishing anywhere near a podium!

So it's an odd situation. I work very hard to keep my running progressing. This month has been one of my hardest ever, I am still coming back from the rib injury caused by falling and am not back to where I was. I have run 40 miles in the last week, garmin informs me, which is my most ever, that's how bad I want to get back to it. My PBs, race t-shirts, gummy bears, beer, mug, scars, flatter stomach and medals are hard won. Why can't I be proud of these without people thinking I am boasting? It probably explains why it's not easy to buy things to display your medals in Britain and it costs an arm and a leg for the ones you can get without economy of scale.

So here it comes, catharsis; let's break that wall down. A list of my PBs: 

5k- 19:26

10k - 39:27

1/2 Marathon 1:34:33

Marathon 3:17:45

And I am proud of these times.

And I am almost certain that lots of people now think this whole blog entry is just an excuse to post my PBs. I shouldn't bother to defend this, but I will mention that links to my garmin page are all over this blog so I wouldn't need to go to the trouble as they're all on there!

Wow, that was hard, and lots of my friends hate me now. (Don't worry, none of my friends read this, I know it's only you out there, spambot)

So what is wrong with mentioning these times? As long as I don't bring them up every 2 minutes or interrupt you telling me about your heart operation to tell you them, what is the harm?

The next step- moving my medal display out of the corner in the kitchen where it is seen by only me. I'll never move it over the mantel piece though!

Questions for you:

1) What PB are you most proud of?

2) Have you been accused of boasting?

3) Where do you keep your medals and other winnings?