When did you realize you had no talent in running?

Yes, after reading a lot of posts here, I realized I was a slow casual hobby jogger too :)

If someone truly has no talent, the first timed mile in 7th grade PE will provide confirmation.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

If someone truly has no talent, the first timed mile in 7th grade PE will provide confirmation.

And what mile time in 7th grade PE will confirm you have no talent?

david45 wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

If someone truly has no talent, the first timed mile in 7th grade PE will provide confirmation.

And what mile time in 7th grade PE will confirm you have no talent?

Slower than 7 mins

SlowDad wrote:

david45 wrote:

And what mile time in 7th grade PE will confirm you have no talent?

Slower than 7 mins

So I have no talent

Could have been in middle school when I was running 40mpw to approach a 5 flat mile and an actually talented basketball player a year older than me ran 5 flat in PE class. Probably was actually when the top 2 guys on my XC team who were a little older but quite a bit faster than me (both D1 scholarship guys) got blown away at Foot Locker Regionals. Learned just how much crazy talent (and obviously hard work) it takes to be elite.

You must have gone over this in 100+ threads. No you're not talented. Quit asking. No one is going to say yes.

Rocket Mann wrote:

You must have gone over this in 100+ threads. No you're not talented. Quit asking. No one is going to say yes.

You do realize accepting that you have no talent is something hard to accept?

I don't know why it would be. I accepted it pretty easily. I just really enjoy running, and my enjoyment of it doesn't come from being the fastest or winning. I do feel a lot better and I strive to get faster, but I definitely am not talented, I just figured I'd run more to make up for it.

antinoqe wrote:

Zero talent wrote:

Long story short, I trained my ass off for a 56.3 400

Exactly the same story for me, down to the tenth of a second.

Never broke 18 minutes in a 5k but came within 10 seconds of doing so. Best mile is a 5:05. 10k is 39 and half is 1:27. Not much to talk about.

Interesting! I moved up in distance after HS and gave the other events a try. My best 1500 was 4:43, which is about equal to your 5:05 mile. I never raced or trained for the 10k or the half, though.

Zero talent wrote:

Absolutely true story here wrote:

I got to the point where I could race at 5:14 pace. Then I noticed that no matter the distance, I was running 5:14 pace. I ran a ten mile race (that was a thing back in the day), where I was number 514, and yes, I ran the race at 5:14 pace.

I pretty much gave it up at that point. I knew exactly what I could run, for any distance, so the fun was gone.

Running a marathon at 5:14 pace is pretty impressive!

Yeah, but it's pretty pathetic for a 100

Rocket Mann wrote:

I don't know why it would be. I accepted it pretty easily. I just really enjoy running, and my enjoyment of it doesn't come from being the fastest or winning. I do feel a lot better and I strive to get faster, but I definitely am not talented, I just figured I'd run more to make up for it.

It is hard to accept when you want to become a fast runner.

david45 wrote:

Rocket Mann wrote:

I don't know why it would be. I accepted it pretty easily. I just really enjoy running, and my enjoyment of it doesn't come from being the fastest or winning. I do feel a lot better and I strive to get faster, but I definitely am not talented, I just figured I'd run more to make up for it.

It is hard to accept when you want to become a fast runner.

Not everybody can become "fast" ... So why not become a faster version of yourself?

I can’t believe no one else has said this yet, but I played sports all my life and had talent when it comes to hand-eye coordination and sport-specific skills. I also thought that I was pretty fit based on the facts that I’m athletic and other adults are unfit. I started running more because my wife wanted to sign up for a marathon. I started training more seriously and doing my homework about running. One day I discovered LetsRun, and boom: I realized that I had no talent for running.

I’m a 30-something hobbyjogger who will never actually be fast, but no one heavier than me has beat me in a 5k in a few years, and if I want to keep training semi-seriously, then I think I can still hit PR’s for another 10 years. I don’t think I mind my situation. I’d rather be able to dunk on kids in local pickup games than run a 16:XX minute 5k.

Casual Impartial Observer wrote:

david45 wrote:

It is hard to accept when you want to become a fast runner.

Not everybody can become "fast" ... So why not become a faster version of yourself?

I know that, but HS XC and track teams do have minimum requirements you have to meet.

Talent exists on a spectrum. There are no zero talent people, and there are no 100% talented people.

I'm towards the better than average part for running. Which makes me better than a lot of recreational runners. But not nearly as good as a collegiate runner. I have a crappy VO2max, my feet are too big, hips too wide, and I just don't recover like other people do. That said, I'm pretty proud to be able to run a 36 minute 10K given that I started in the sport struggling to run 9:00/mile.

david45 wrote:

Casual Impartial Observer wrote:

Not everybody can become "fast" ... So why not become a faster version of yourself?

I know that, but HS XC and track teams do have minimum requirements you have to meet.

That has no correlation to my post.

You said "It is hard to accept when you want to become a fast runner" and I replied "Not everybody can become "fast" ... So why not become a faster version of yourself?"

Bringing up high school cross country and track teams having minimum requirements that you have to meet has no merit, because we weren't talking about high school cross country and track & field.

Therefore, keep with the idea of becoming a faster version of yourself by putting in hard work! You can be faster tomorrow than you are today by putting in the work today!

No one heavier than you beat you ?

Either you’re pretty or pretty good.

Piano_Man87 wrote:

Talent exists on a spectrum. There are no zero talent people, and there are no 100% talented people.

I'm towards the better than average part for running. Which makes me better than a lot of recreational runners. But not nearly as good as a collegiate runner. I have a crappy VO2max, my feet are too big, hips too wide, and I just don't recover like other people do. That said, I'm pretty proud to be able to run a 36 minute 10K given that I started in the sport struggling to run 9:00/mile.

Same here. My VO2 Max has been stagnating at around 40 for the past half year