What is your cut off time for racing X time for Y distance? At what point would you just not bother.

Why not race? One of the benefits of racing is that you get to establish a baseline for your fitness. Plus, racing is fun. I don't see any reason to deprive yourself of the enjoyment of lining up and giving it everything you have.

I quit running for 8 years after college. If I had cut-off times, I'd probably never race again. But I'm thoroughly enjoying version 2.0 of my running career, even though I'll never touch my old times. Just accept that things don't always work out neatly, and enjoy the process of trying to improve.

I have a fast friend (28 min 10k) and he made me feel like absolute shlt about my running. "Why bother running if all you can is 17-18 mins 5k?" "Anything more than a 15 min 5k and you're just a hobby jogger" "Why even run?" And it made me stop running for a little bit, cause I thought he had a good point. Why go out there and struggle and put in the miles if all I can run is 17:59? Then I realized he's a dip. Who cares? I wasn't running to impress him or anyone else, I was running cause it made me feel good. I was running to see if I could improve my own times. I never claimed I was a fast runner, I realize where I am on the pecking order, but it's fun.

Having said that: if running stops being fun, I'll stop and find something else: running trails, cycling, swimming, even just walking. So for me personally, it won't be a "time" that stops me from running, but rather once the enjoyment goes. If it starts to hurt to run, I'm not going to put myself through pain for this sport, I'll find something new.

Yeah, that's what got me to thinking about these arbitrary times... I know that whether I run 22 or 1958 for a 5k is about the same level of slow, but still.. I've just never like to race unless I was really trying to test myself and I felt somewhat "race ready".

The idea of getting a good baseline is certainly worth while.

If you plan to keep running as you get older, you'd better get used to those cutoff times getting way, way slower. In my early 30s I would not have bothered racing if I wasn't in shape to at least go under 40 min for 10K (female). In my early 50s I would not have entered a half-marathon unless I was in at least 1:40 shape. Now I'm 60 and wondering how much longer I can stay under my half-marathon personal worst of 1:57, run when I was an overweight and clueless 24-year-old.

Moby Dick wrote:

I have a fast friend (28 min 10k) and he made me feel like absolute shlt about my running. "Why bother running if all you can is 17-18 mins 5k?" "Anything more than a 15 min 5k and you're just a hobby jogger" "Why even run?"

You will have a good time laughing at him when he's 40 years old, fat, and still talking about his "fast" days that have passed him by 20 or so years ago. I know a lot of runners from my past who now look terrible because they are afraid to get out and see how slow they have become. They can't stand the fact that they are now has-beens and won't even compete.

I'm not impressed by the 22-year sub-31 10K runner. You are young and you are at your peak and you should be running fast.

I'm more impressed with the 40-50 year old guys who can still run 16-18 minutes for a 5K, have full time jobs, have two or more kids, have successful marriages, and still have time for other hobbies.

marathon - 3 hrs