Do you ever feel foolish for taking running so seriously?

Yeah, you can think this way. Or you can think, "It makes me happy so who cares?"

Unless it really makes you unhappy and peevish.

Art Vandelay the fake one wrote:

I love the sport and it brings joy to my life, but I'm a freaking hobby jogger. Why do I structure so much of my life around strutting around in my little shorts? I could be doing something useful with myself. Who cares if I set a PR or place at the Joggerville 5k?

You are close to breaking the addiction and mental disorder. The others who will surely give you a hard time are still in denial about their addictions and mental disorders.

Art Vandelay the fake one wrote:

I love the sport and it brings joy to my life, but I'm a freaking hobby jogger. Why do I structure so much of my life around strutting around in my little shorts? I could be doing something useful with myself. Who cares if I set a PR or place at the Joggerville 5k?

Just earlier today, I was thinking that a good thread to start would be to ask the older/maybe wiser people on here if they ever regret running all those miles in their lives. Not that we all don't enjoy it, but there is an enormous physical toll that we pay. Couple that with all the sacrifices you make, and it seems really trivial. If I sat down and tried to justify it, I'm not sure I could.

So, I just don't ask myself the question, the last thing I need is an existential crisis!

Art Vandelay the fake one wrote:

I love the sport and it brings joy to my life, but I'm a freaking hobby jogger. Why do I structure so much of my life around strutting around in my little shorts? I could be doing something useful with myself. Who cares if I set a PR or place at the Joggerville 5k?

I also think about this quite often and it applies to any of the sports that I do. It can get in your head. But the reality is that instead of taking away from your efforts to cure cancer you are probably only taking time away from watching tv or playing on your phone.

Sports are a win win - healthy, fun and they probably make you a better spouse, employee and parent. Of course, like anything else you can take it too far, but most people don't.

Yeah, once you start down that existential / nihilist path then nothing is off limits. Why am I sitting in this office all day? Everything is meaningless. Not a good place to go.

Sometimes I have felt silly. Then I remember that most people I know take jobs that they hate and are slowly killing them even more seriously than I take running and I feel better about it again.

If it makes you happy, that's it, that's all right there. That is what ought to matter.

For me, it's also my career, but the happiness is the key aspect.

I've had that thought too recently. Not just running, but fitness in general. It all feels so pointless sometimes or like im some wannabe athlete. Just last weekend tho i had some beers with some old friends. We are 28 and while we were sitting around my friends living room i was looking at all their bodies and they were all pudgy with feeble looking legs. 28 years old and they already look terrible. In that moment i realized that i never wanted to stop being in shape.

I enjoy when I fart and it smells like what I just ate

Art Vandelay the fake one wrote:

I could be doing something useful with myself.

What useful something could you be doing? I'm guessing you are pretty useless, so you might as well run.

Nope. Especially not when it helps pay for my education. If it didn't, I still wouldn't feel foolish. It's called having a hobby - doing something because you enjoy it, not because it brings you external rewards.

Think how weekend golfers feel and you'll feel better about just running.

I just look at the costs/benefits and comparisons to putting energies into other pastimes. More-serious runners can look foolish, but no more so than efforts put into other things. Golfers were already mentioned; what sprung to my mind was some guy who puts his wood-working or handyman talents to making tacky lawn ornaments.

In the Grand Scheme, is obsessing how I can shave 5 sec/mi in an upcoming half-marathon, sometimes using vacation time to do so, important and prudent? No. But the mindset and process are,

Hmmm, how does this make you feel?

Running well gives me a sense of pride. I find that I can only really give it a strong effort or no effort, because doing something in the middle seems like a waste of my time. In other words I want to do it well or I don't want to do it all. I'm like this with many things in my life, though. So when I'm taking running seriously it seems rewarding and worthwhile to see my health improve and run some okay times.

Running don't control me I control running.

I am lucky to have found something I enjoy and have never felt foolish, but I have felt PRIDE.

Bottom Line... wrote:

I just look at the costs/benefits and comparisons to putting energies into other pastimes.

In the Grand Scheme, is obsessing how I can shave 5 sec/mi in an upcoming half-marathon, sometimes using vacation time to do so, important and prudent? No. But the mindset and process are,

Exactly. That mindset and process carry over into all areas of life; work, relationships, etc.

It's the people who are obsessed about watching other people play a sport or who spend hours playing video games or going over stats for their fantasy football team that are foolish. In other words, two-thirds of males ages 18-34.

Yeah you're right, maybe I should be bragging about my meaningless monday hangover like it makes the world progress in an attempt to hide my insecurities while blowing my parent's hard earned money in the process and then complain that I don't have enough time to do the required schoolwork?

Sounds like a good alternative.

I've come to terms with no matter how well I do, no one outside of my friends and family are going to care. I do not care what others think of my hobbies.

Related q: why even live? idk man lmao