Dear older Pros, is it time to move on in life?

unoriginal loser wrote:

[quote]Ghost of Igloi wrote:

OK, but at some point you’re just kidding yourself if you’re a 28 year old 7th place Olympic Trials finisher with $500 in savings.[/

Because maybe they're rather live they're life while they're young than have a crappy job for the next 30-40 year only to retire when they're too old do anything fully functional. Maybe they enjoy racing? Maybe they enjoy the travel?

Why are you so arrogant to assume how someone should live their life? Probably someone that hates their life in many ways.

I ran two Olympic trials in the marathon. My best year of running was at age 23 when I was working full time. After my second Olympic Trials at age 25 I realized I was not "that guy."

Hey if someone wants to live their life that way fine. It just seems pointless and rundant to me.

@kyle merber

Wise Old Man wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I had similar thoughts.

That 38 yr old finished 2nd in a marathon major last year and will most likely break the American record this year. She’s far from washed up on the roads. Her earning power remains strong too.

Who are these OPs? Sara Hall won the New York mini 10k road race 2 weeks prior. She came in 6th here, not too shabby, and set the 2nd best American women's marathon time this past year. She's sponsored by Asics and is not just chasing a dream. She's getting paid to do a job which is how she supports the 4 kids.

niner wrote:

Wise Old Man wrote:

That 38 yr old finished 2nd in a marathon major last year and will most likely break the American record this year. She’s far from washed up on the roads. Her earning power remains strong too.

Who are these OPs? Sara Hall won the New York mini 10k road race 2 weeks prior. She came in 6th here, not too shabby, and set the 2nd best American women's marathon time this past year. She's sponsored by Asics and is not just chasing a dream. She's getting paid to do a job which is how she supports the 4 kids.

+1

How many Sara Halls are there?

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

OK, but at some point you’re just kidding yourself if you’re a 28 year old 7th place Olympic Trials finisher with $500 in savings.

Sure beats being a 28 year old barista working for minimum wage (plus tips!) with $500 that has to get stretched so thin you'd never call it "savings."

It depends what you want from life. My wife and I are friends with a couple of artists, painting, sculpting,etc. I've known them maybe 35 years. Their dream seems to have been to make a living doing their art work and at times it sort of worked. At other times they'd scramble to do something else for money, house painting, sign painting, waiting tables, and never wanted any kind of normal job. They're in their seventies now and have never had a "real" job for more than a few months at a time. I think of Sienfeld's line to Costanza about, "If you worked as hard at working as you do at not working you wouldn't have to work so hard." But they wanted that life though they'd have liked it to have paid better.

If you've hung on as a running pro to your mid thirties it's realistic to think you can hang on a bit longer and make some money at masters racing. And there are plenty of 28 year old non runners who have $500 or less to their names.

HRE wrote:

If you're making your living from the sport is it really a dream? And if you're making your living doing something you really like doing why would you quit doing it to start doing something you don't like as well? Why wouldn't you keep doing it for as long as you can. Look at other professional sports and you see guys hanging on for as long as someone will give them a uniform and a paycheck.

Yep - the original post is contradictory. If they are pros then it's their job, so they can do it as long as they want.

I think if the athlete is self sustainable (or even just gets money from mommy and daddy) then it’s no harm no foul.

There was a local club of subelites near me (think 14:00/2:18 Marathon Types) in college. They told teammate of mine they were collecting social security/Medicaid trying to run “pro” at 27/28 years old. That seems like a burden on society to me.

False premise, not all of those runners "think" they can make the Olympic team. They know their abilities and limitation as much as anyone, what they ARE trying to do is maximize their ability and see how far they can go.

Following your logic you should have quit the minute you realized you couldn't win your state championship.

Of course it is a rhetorical question. Your whole life is wrapped up in this fantasy of a pursuit. Wanting to be Peter Pan and never grow up. No responsibility, no accountability. Selfish, when you examine it. But there could be far worse behavior, but not some model of life pursuit, IMHO.

Do you have life advice for other people?

5k prediction (based on 5x1000m intervals) wrote:

Do you have life advice for other people?

Sure. Life isn’t fair, get used to it.

I think the decision to continue is all about opportunity cost and your talents.

I had several friends when I was in my 20s who were sub-elite marathoners, say 2:16-2:18 or so. They kept on running for years chasing the dream. I thought they lacked leg speed for the marathon, but since I never broke 60 minutes in a 10-mile training run (I ran a 3:40 1500m) or even really tried, they lived in a world I knew nothing about.

One friend quit the whole thing at 35 and successfully transitioned to insurance sales at this age. He literally was a running bum for 15 years, and the only job he held was nannying for a rich runner doctor who wanted to see him keep running.

Most of his clients were runners and even when he ran all the time, he was quite the social networker. I admire him for pulling it off.

Of course, he married another runner woman. She didn't seem to mind his broke status for years, so her patience won out.

So a traditional job in corporate America? No, But he did just fine.

Now if you want to do high finance, medicine, engineering, or serious academics, you have to pack it in early if you are not great.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

5k prediction (based on 5x1000m intervals) wrote:

Do you have life advice for other people?

Sure. Life isn’t fair, get used to it.

Life is like a $hit sandwich. The more bread you have, the less $hit you have to eat.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

How many Sara Halls are there?

Not many. I agree with you in the main, I was responding to the dumb post by DanM. He doesn’t seem to know who he’s talking about.

HRE wrote:

If you're making your living from the sport is it really a dream? And if you're making your living doing something you really like doing why would you quit doing it to start doing something you don't like as well? Why wouldn't you keep doing it for as long as you can. Look at other professional sports and you see guys hanging on for as long as someone will give them a uniform and a paycheck.

This is the key. If a sponsor is willing to keep paying you to do it, and you still want to do it, why stop? Let the sponsor decide they don't want you to continue when your contract's up.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

For many of the older professional distance runners it is apparent they need to move on in life. Continuing to hold that same dream for even another year seems pointless to me.

Curious which ones in particular you think should move on?

DanM wrote:

I had the very same impression as I watched the women run 10,000 meters and there was a 38-year-old with 4 kids trying to finish in the top 3 out of 41 runners. Then some idiotic photo appeared on the screen showing her husband in a U-Haul because there were no rental cars available. I thought: What are they trying to prove ?

What? Maybe her husband makes great money and she doesn't need to have a career outside running. My wife doesn't work. It would be totally awesome if she still ran competively for low or zero pay.