Insulting compliments

[Trek420]

We kept leap-frogging back and forth with a certain pace line for most of the ride--mainly because they kept having flats and/or other mechanical issues.

Sometimes stuff just happens, flats mechanicals etc But first or four hundred and first you maintained your speed and your bike. I think it was the great Eddy M. who said "you're faster going than not going" and you went fast and with nothing that landed you by the side of the road.

It sounds like something you say when you don't know what else to say and a whole group has been chasing a rabbit .... that rabbit being you ... for a 100 miles.

I'd take it as a compliment.

[lauraelmore1033]

Sometimes stuff just happens, flats mechanicals etc But first or four hundred and first you maintained your speed and your bike. I think it was the great Eddy M. who said "you're faster going than not going" and you went fast and with nothing that landed you by the side of the road.

It sounds like something you say when you don't know what else to say and a whole group has been chasing a rabbit .... that rabbit being you ... for a 100 miles.

I'd take it as a compliment.

Garsh what a wonderful sentiment!
That puts it into a different perspective, doesn't it. (although, I will concede that I was probably being a little too sensitive...)

Thanks for all the input!

[malaholic]

Yeah, I tend to agree with the other ladies - since everything else she was saying seemed to be complimentary, the "first century" question probably was not meant in a condescending way.

I appreciate hearing your perspective on this though....because a question like that is exactly the sort of question I might ask someone on a ride, and it's good for me to realize that it might not always be taken that way! I am forever sticking my foot in my mouth saying things that are easily taken in a way I didn't mean them, and I'm really trying to work on that.

Maybe a better question to start a chat would be something more along the lines of "have you done this ride before?" instead of "is this your first century?"

[lph]

You know, I would have been miffed too, at being taken for a beginner when I felt that I'd really achieved something and made a noticeable improvement. That said, it was obviously not meant as an insult, and probably just fell out of her mouth as casual conversation. And definitely, if ishe is a beginner herself it's a natural thing to say because it's what she's all aglow about herself.

I'll add one: my favourite "insulting compliment" came from an middle-aged gentleman a few years ago who asked me and a (girl)friend of mine, as we arrived at a parking lot on skis out of the mountains with sleds and camping gear, if we'd "really been out there all alone"

i.e. without any men