What do you regret as a runner?

not being there at the moment when your high school coach found out what you did...

Not sure yet if it's a regret, but not getting out of my hometown!

For 4 years i beat this one guy like a borrowed mule, he would talk trash and i would toy with him, turn and smile at him just as i started my kick. i Turned our "races"into workouts sprinting hard then easing up so he would catch me then take off again, he was a total jerk and i was sick of his mouth so every time we ran i made sure it was a humiliating experience for him.

then my senior year i had been doing alot more sprinting and not much distance work, i had bronchitis so i had backed off.

ANYWAY i decided to hammer the first lap to make quick work of him, i was just starting to ease back as we broke for lanes and i see this guy fly by me

"Holy crap i went out 3 seconds too fast and this guy picks up the pace????!"

so i settle in behind him and just tried to hang in,

for the next 40 seconds i realized this guy had changed, he had put in his work he was looking strong, his form was better and i was in trouble because i had taken it too easy all week. he started pulling away in the last 150 meters, i could feel my legs tighten but then he stumbled

i realized he was in worse shape then me, i dug down found another gear and caught him at the line.

My team went crazy but i felt bad knowing this guy had done more work and probably deserved the win far more than i did. I went over to tell him he ran a good race & i was lucky to have won, when some vile comment came flying out of his mouth so i said something like "same old same old"

i felt bad about not being the bigger man and congratulating him on a race well run.

The next year we met in XC and i destryed him again, i really felt bad because his coach belittled the whole team after the race by leaving a large noose in the team area,because they were the favorites and they choked.

We couldn't believe that a coach could be so vicious to his own runners, it was embarrasing. I regret not having the balls to put competition aside and tell him he was a good runner and well respected by all of us. The look on those guys faces after running as hard as they could, coming up empty and then they go to get their warmups on and there is a huge noose laying across their duffel bags and gear. We were so shocked we didn't say a word to them.

Big regret

I regret not taking up running until I was 40!!!! I envy those of you who have been running your whole lives, I've missed out. Our HS cross country coach used to bother me to run for him, not b/c I appeared particularly talented, but b/c we had about 7 guys on the team and I was little and skinn, hence I qualified as a warm body thay may or may not be able to run...but since I was a do nothing POS I turned him down every time...bad move on my part!

I regret not being born with TALENT! I have to work for everything, and yet, I'm not fast.

WWRD wrote:

I regret not taking up running until I was 40!!!!

Ditto, except I was 38.

After I graduated college, there was a two year period when I was in great shape - fitter than I had ever been - and I didn't race. I was just into experimenting with different training loads. I thought that I would get around to racing at some later point, but a bad injury made that impossible. I would not have set the world on fire, but probably could have run a mile 5 or 6 seconds faster than I had in college and I regret that I never focused on doing that when I had the chance to.

I often have regrets that I didn't run a marathon earlier than I did. I also regret never following a plan when training for marathons. I have books and online training plans but never pay them attention because I'd rather just do the same old runs all the time. A friend of mine followed the Runner's World plan in preparation for this past Boston and took 10 minutes off his previous best. And that plan really isn't demanding.

And I sometimes regret that I started running when young because it's hard to admit to myself that I won't ever be able to run those times again - not that they were really that fast. It really sucks running a 10K ten minutes slower than my PR!

Regret not racing more frequently when at my peak. Didn't realize at the time that I would never be in the same kind of shape ever again. Injuries and getting old are a bitch.

Regret overtraining in my senior year in college and the 2 years after. I made good improvements in sophomore/ junior year (basically from 15.00 to 14.00 on about 70-75M a week), and decided to 'go for it' and started logging regular 100+M a week with a lot of intensity as well. Completely burned myself out when I should have had my best years... ran some races backwards and got tired of running after 2 years of trying too hard. Then focused more on work, trained 45-50M a week and actually approached the old level, but I'm pretty sure those two years were my shot to really find out what I could do!

I would agree with you except many of us who started younger are so banged up we can hardly run anymore.

I regret, terribly, having gotten snookered into doing LSD training. It works for some (though very few, IMHO), but not for me.

The irony is that this "gentle" training was, I'm almost certain, a major cause of my career-ending injury/injuries. (Thirty-plus years later, I still can't run a step.) If I had been training at a mix of speeds and intensities, I suspect I would have been more resistant to overuse injuries, because I would have been stronger and more supple throughout my range of motion.

With the rare exception of runners who are almost 100% slow twitch (there are people like this, but very, very few of them), I don't think a runner is well served by all-slow training--not even as one phase of the training cycle. The *proportions* of faster/more intense and slower/easier running may vary through the year, but training should never be all one or the other.

running at a D3 college

I regret not telling my ex-girlfriend how proud I was of her. She was not a runner when we first met. After dating for a year, she started running to stay in shape. Then a year after that, she asked me to help her train for races. She eventually became a 20:00 5K runner, which was a top-three finishing time for females in most of the local races. I was extremely proud of her, but never really conveyed it.

Things went sour not long after that, and I’ve heard that she hasn’t run a step since we broke up. It’s been a few years now, and I still think about her every day.

Running for a certain coach/school that was/is a top program. The coach only cared about one guy on the team. About 3/4 of the recruited freshman and sophomores (while I was there) left before their junior year.

I regret not running in college. I was not a very good runner but still would have enjoyed the experience of being on the team and improving. Would have involved choosing a different college experience at a smaller D3 school.

me. me. me. me. me.

I regret not getting more kids involved. i'd like to change that.

Not enjoying it more when I was younger.

Not thanking the people that encouraged me the most when I was younger. Some of them probably have no idea how much of an influence they had on me.

Not training through my early 20s, but who knows.... if I had, maybe I wouldn't be doing it now.. and I think I need it in my life more now.

My new goal: NO REGRETS!!!

I like how you think HE was a total jerk. Douche.

For 4 years i beat this one guy like a borrowed mule, he would talk trash and i would toy with him, turn and smile at him just as i started my kick. i Turned our "races"into workouts sprinting hard then easing up so he would catch me then take off again, he was a total jerk and i was sick of his mouth so every time we ran i made sure it was a humiliating experience for him.