Motivation through comparison in Cool Running

Erika and Jesse have already done an excellent job summarizing this article, so I'll sum it up in one sentence for my own benefit: people frequently compare themselves to others in order to evaluate their current state or make some prediction about their aptitude for a different activity.

Application
While much of the comparison occurs out of my view offline (or privately, internally), I feel pretty confident that comparison with others is a common activity on Cool Running. The upward and downward comparisons Suls describes are readily available in this community. In fact, the criteria by which I could compare myself are made readily available in the thread titles/topics. The Couch-to-5K program, the 30-somethings threads, the "pre-dawn patrol" runners, all offer me easy access to upward or downward comparisons described by Suls.

The "self-improvement motive" Suls described (he cites Wood (1989)) provides a very plausible description of the types of and reasons for comparison in Cool Running. Motivation can be drawn from comparison to proxies, and can be either positive or negative in Cool Running.