One of the greatest victories of my running career was the day that I beat Triple Stroller Guy in a race. It only happened once - meaning that every other time we were in a race together he beat me. In every other race he was able to make it around the course, while pushing three other humans in a huge stroller, faster than I could it do with nothing but a couple of goo packs.
In the Austin running scene, about 10 years ago, the Triple Stroller Guy was famous. It was around this time that I was doing the Distance Challenge series of races that leads up the Austin marathon. Triple Stroller Guy was doing the Distance Challenge as well so we were in all of those races together and many others races in Austin around that time.
He always starts at the back because of the stroller, not because he is slow. In the longer runs I would gauge my success by how long it took him to pass me.
You don't have to look behind you to know that he is about to pass you. You can hear everybody commenting about him. "Look at that guy with the stroller!" "How many kids are in there?" "How do you make it up the hills!" "That guy with the stroller is amazing." "GO TRIPLE STROLLER GUY!"
In a half marathon I once picked up pace when he was passing me and ran with him for a half mile or so. It was like running with a celebrity. Everybody along the way would cheer and encourage him. I was able to run faster due to the encouragement, and they weren't even cheering for me.
I beat him in a 12 mile race called the Decker Challenge. It is run on a lot of long rolling hills east of Austin near Decker Lake (hence the name). Somewhere near the middle of this race Triple Stroller Guy passed me while we were going down hill. On the next uphill I passed him back as he had to really work hard getting those three kids up the hill. This went on the rest of the race. My good fortune was that this race had a finish line just after an uphill. Uphill finish = victory for me.
Shortly after I finished, he pushed the three kids across the line. To celebrate he pulls a beer out of the 12 pack he had stored in the stroller. That's right. He pushed 3 kids, a stroller, and a 12 pack of beer (probably with ice to keep it cold) and still almost beat me.
(I looked up the actual results after writing this and it turns out that he crossed the finish line just 12 seconds after me.)
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