| Dennis |
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I love that poem. |
| Hector Matos |
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NO! |
| Alan2004 |
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Most of the posters seem quite bitter and jaded towards your fellow non-runner. Why? Dennis hit the nail on the head. Constantly reassess yourselves and striving to grow as a WHOLE person: mind, body, spirit. Find other loves in addition to running. Personally, I am a family man and my family life is full of ups and downs of health, success and failure in career and all kinds of other characters. It is tied to places, events and histories. With all of these experiences life ingrains itself into my memory and personality. It's difficult to imagine anything more worthy. "Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!" |
| alltime |
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NEVER regret living a life less ordinary. |
| jman |
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Sandstone-- Never thought of it quite like you said it....I love the part about the top 50 XC guys being hired. Great words, man. |
| calling Alan |
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Do you hear those gentle voices from very many different places. |
| The High Life |
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I find a good solution to running taking up so much time is to wake up early and do it. It isn't a cure all, but on easy days you will have way more time to go live "The High Life". THL |
| ttc |
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I don't regret the time, because I haven't done the things that some people have considered on this board: Quit their job, move to a different location, alter/change career path, etc.. Everything else is exactly the way it would be without the sport. I'm working 50 hours/week, going to night school and hitting the social scene often. The sport just adds on. A 100 mile week works out to 10 hours in that span (at 6min/mile pace). That means 86 minutes/day. Add on 1 hour/day for plyos/stretching/icing, etc.. (overestimating) and you still have 2 hours/26 minutes. That's significant, but not enough to compromise everything else. Remember that a certain 57 year old can average in the upper 6:00's for a 5K....and he works a side job as President. |
| bric |
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My regret is I wish I partied more |
| M.Glidal |
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Sometimes you have to compromise. I'm a runner with little talent. No, not 15 minute 5k in college, try 17 after a lot of training. I wanted so badly to improve, it was a driving goal for me. After a while I had to realize that its okay to compromise a little. Whether I top out at 15:50 or 16:00 it doesn't really matter. If you don't enjoy running then don't do it, period. It's good to want to improve and all, but you shouldn't have to force yourself through every run. I scaled back the running a little and now I enjoy it more and feel more balanced in general. "If you don't enjoy the journey you won't enjoy the destination" Not always true, but in this case I think it is. |
| Duane Allman2 |
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My 26th year....all I wanna do..I used to fish. Last time I fished was in 1993 when I had PF bad. 48, will do a 100 mile week this week..but that's and un-usual week...mostly 70-80 miles every week. Every penney that I have and every promotion I ever got was due to this sport. |
| adgain |
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ok, well tell me what businesses have runners in influential positions cos i'll apply immediately. if they need an accountant i'll relocate to just about any decent size city. every employer i've talked to doesn't have a clue about what it takes to run at the college level for example. they'd rather see me doing accounting tutoring or something for an hour each week, seriously. i think it's great that we're all "rah rah" about being a runner. and i am too. more power to the runner ya know. but that doesn't find some of us a job or make the people that employ us understand running any more. my advice to runners is to balance their time, especially in college. that's my only regret, is that i sort of ignored my career and devoted myself to early bedtimes and naps in the daytime and missing classes for meets and what not. i had one decent internship (most of my teammates had less even) during a summer and hated it cos it took so much time away from my running/recovering. it's impossible to have any sort of decent internship or career endeavor if you're SERIOUS about the sport. we all know the committment it takes in running. i know there are guys like bob kempainen and probably a lot of stanford guys who make it work in both running and other stuff...but my question is whether there are other people that sacrificed a bit too much and are regretting it??? regret is a strong word so are there guys who second guess themselves....a lot?? |
| RookieoftheYear |
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I just have one thing to say about running in college and high school, I can't comment on beyond as I haven't experienced it yet...but I imagine I won't be quite as serious. In my opinion, running makes everything in my life better. I don't party very much, but when I do, it's always unbelievable, probably a lot more enjoyable than if I drank myself into a stupor every night like a lot of people in college. It makes studying easier and more interesting because running sharpens my focus and makes me enjoy just sitting around and reading for an afternoon. It makes relationships exponentially stronger because of the connections I feel with my teammates. When I look back on four years of running, I'll surely think of other things I could have been doing. They might have been more fun or rewarding in certain aspects. But it's given me a sense of purpose that I couldn't have gotten in any other way. Maybe that's naive and in the "real world" nobody cares about running. That just makes it even better. They don't understand how it feels to love something so much that you never want to stop. That passionate desire to run, and live every mile to the fullest, the fact that only a certain few understand it, just makes me smile. Some people just won't take that risk, they won't invest time and energy in something because they fear it won't "pay off". If running makes me penniless, which I doubt it will as it has opposite effects, then I'll at least know I spent my few precious days doing something I loved. No one can take that away. |
| erp |
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If I could do it all over again, not only would I still run, I would run more. |
| indiana |
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I missed every Little 500 weekend on IU's campus for four years because we always had an away meet with Tennessee. When I was a grad student, I finally attended the bike race and checked out the IU campus the night before to see if this really was "the world's greatest college weekend". What a load! Nothing but overweight frat boys puking on the lawns and the bike race itself was like watching paint dry. Only good part were the wipeouts. Even though I enjoyed "Breaking Away", being there in person was a let down. In the yearbook, there would be pictures of campus events that I never attended because of XC or Track meets to travel to or go to bed early for. My teammates never bemoaned what we were supposedly missing. We were part of a small group that were trying very hard to achieve something. This small group is the only "alumni" I have any connection with. Whenever I'm in Bloomington, I look up my coach. Our former teammates kids are running for HS/ colleges now and it's a hoot to compare our times with theirs. I do not correspond to former classmates in my academic or anyone like that. The fraternity of distance runners and the shared experiences binds like nothing else. I |
| indiana |
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Forgot to add, Go Bob Kennedy!! |
| dunes runner |
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Since you're an accountant, couldn't you work for yourself and have your own business. |
| Sgt. Carter |
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Quit feeling sorry for yourself...whaaaaa..whaaaaa!!!..You have talent and a college education...its up to you to use it...dont blame running or anyone else..if its to be its up to me... |
| scotth |
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No, no I don't regret all the time I've devoted to running. The benefits have enriched my life every step of the way for 36 years. As interest/capacity for performance waned in the 80's, I'd already fallen into a variety of running-related support roles. I'll admit that some of those support roles are growing old but that comes w/changing priorities. Running has been very good to me. I can't believe there are many people that've had as many fulfilling experiences as I've had in the sport. In the end, it's a matter of balance, making running fit your lifestyle. In the grand scheme of things, running is not important but to be good it's important to take it seriously. |
| adgain |
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i have no start up money to start my own business... and since i'm fresh out of college, living at home with mommy and daddy, and have very little credit history it's just not realistic. i don't mean to sound like i have excuses galore...but i've thought out my options a lot... |