u/pizzatummy

Me and this hobby jogger at the local trail started our "Couch to 5k Ultra" journey around the same time, about 8 months ago. We became pretty friendly—we’d trade Gu flavors, talk about our Zone 2 heart rates between intervals, overall cool dude.

But the past few months I’ve noticed he’s started copying literally everything I do. My training block, my pre-run beet juice protocol. Then it moved to every single piece of gear. Same Garmin, same hydration vest, same anti-chafe stick. He literally asked me which 2-inch inseam split shorts I wear and bought the same three colors.

At first I was kinda flattered, thought maybe he just wanted to look fast, but then it just kept going.
Last month I put some of my saved up allowance into a home setup. Got a Woodway treadmill and a commercial-grade cold plunge because the local path gets ridiculously packed with "resolutioners" and people walking four-abreast after 5pm. I mentioned it once in conversation and now he’s been casually dropping hints about coming over to "sync our strides" on the Woodway.

Like, I actually like the guy and I don’t want to be weird about it, but this is starting to feel like he’s trying to steal my identity. Am I just overthinking this, or is there a point where he’s going to start showing up to races in a mask of my own face to shave 10 seconds off his PR? And if it is an issue, how do you even bring that up without completely killing the friendship?

Help.