In denial about the death of my college running career

CRIPPLED 4 LIFE wrote:

holy christ you f***ing pussy. be happy you can run at all.

I second this. I'm half way through my undergrad, and I haven't been able to run a single race. That's two effing years of being injured. Go run a ten miler and be happy.

OP, I don't know where you are but if you can find a USATF Club, join it. If you can't, then found one in your area. You don't need anything to start a club that you don't already have.

Get a USATF membership. Start a club. Name it after your geographical area, like Greater whatever your nearest well-known city is or name it after your state if it is not so populated or a part of your state. We have in Massachusetts the Central Mass Striders, and many Boston clubs. Get other runners like yourself. Set a fixed practice time once a week. Establish a racing schedule. You don't need a coach so much as a person who manages everyone.

Remember that after college, "The world is a conspiracy to keep you from training and racing." A running club is an organization to fight that conspiracy.

If you want a model, go to

www.gbtc.org

, then go to the USATF website and your local USATF association.

Join a club or start your own. The running goes better with teammates.

Best wishes,

Tom

Or you could try ultra-marathoning. I just read this article over at Time.com. Interesting stuff:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1902027,00.html

We've all made this transition, some more gracefully than others. Not to worry though. You will soon figure out that there are much bigger fish to fry, especially in today's environment, than killing yourself so you can run multiple times around a tartan oval a few seconds faster than you did it last year without anybody but you and your coach actually noticing or caring. In a way, graduating from competition and running just to run is very liberating.

Sagarin wrote:

We've all made this transition, some more gracefully than others. Not to worry though. You will soon figure out that there are much bigger fish to fry, especially in today's environment, than killing yourself so you can run multiple times around a tartan oval a few seconds faster than you did it last year without anybody but you and your coach actually noticing or caring. In a way, graduating from competition and running just to run is very liberating.

My biggest (only) regret about running was that from the age of 23 to 25 I trained well and was in great shape but did not race. I thought I'd get to racing later. Wrong. A broken navicular rocked the boat and family responsibilities sunk it a bit later. I wish I had raced when I was 23 to 25 as I would have run my best then. Not earth shattering, nor a personal tragedy of great meaning, but it would have been nice.

D1 5ker,

I never post....but hear me out please:

This summer keep running pick a bunch of small road races that give prize money and win the darn things! I did this the summer I got out of college and man it felt good! I think I made like $400 bucks that summer by driving within a 2 hour radius on Saturday morning's and beating out 16:15 guys to pick up $100 each time. I could keep the money instead of having to deny it, road peeps look at you in awe running low 16's (since they don't know what its like to be in great track shape) and you will never be in this shape again. DO NOT kid yourself- you will never be in "oh i qualified for nationals but didn't go" 5 k shape again in your life! It took you 5 years to tweak you body into that and all that talent around everyday to push you?

I would make a day of it get up early drive to race, win and hang out in the town for the day, go to a BBQ have a few and hang out with some hot chick who watched me win that morning, It really was a great summer. Now I am Fat and slow but I will always have that summer.

Billy Bad A out!

bumpster!

Haha yeah I will probably do a few races (I'll pick the ones that offer the most prize money lol), but I also want to be smart about my training since I've been racing all year and need to get back to training for awhile.

move up, dude! wrote:

give up the game wrote:

I too just finished college...Kind of sick of running at the moment. Realized i'm never going to run 1.47 for 800. Spent 3 years hovering around 1.49.

Forget the 800, you can become an elite 1500/5K runner with 1:49 800 speed.

except i can't break 3.57 in the 1500m...even after running cross for 3 seasons and doing miles...Wasn't like i was doing the wrong training either- my coach had run 3.36

Dude, you must have gone to LSU.

You are at a cross roads.

One path leads you to a career, a home and certainty for the rest of your life. You will be as you termed it "washed up".

The other path leads you to a part time job, a shitty apartment and uncertainty. This will not last forever. You will be allowed to continue chasing your dreams.

Will you walk the path of the warrior?

It is time.

Enter the dojo.

In fact, you have a much greater chance of realizing your potential than the football player that doesnt' make it to the NFL, the baseball player that doesn't get drafted, etc.

It's all up to you and there's better post-collegiate competition than you think.

Sagarin wrote:

We've all made this transition, some more gracefully than others. Not to worry though. You will soon figure out that there are much bigger fish to fry, especially in today's environment, than killing yourself so you can run multiple times around a tartan oval a few seconds faster than you did it last year without anybody but you and your coach actually noticing or caring. In a way, graduating from competition and running just to run is very liberating.

spoken like a true loser who left the sport bitter.

bitter are we? wrote:

Sagarin wrote:

We've all made this transition, some more gracefully than others. Not to worry though. You will soon figure out that there are much bigger fish to fry, especially in today's environment, than killing yourself so you can run multiple times around a tartan oval a few seconds faster than you did it last year without anybody but you and your coach actually noticing or caring. In a way, graduating from competition and running just to run is very liberating.

spoken like a true loser who left the sport bitter.

Not at all. Just didn't end up like some of my friends, 30 years old, a dead-end job making crappy money working in a running store, and a 29:0x 10k PR that helped nobody and nobody cares about. If you want to devote a couple of years post-collegiately to see what your potential is, then I'm all for it. But don't make running the be-all, end-all as it is for so many here. You will realize this when you grow up. Unfortunately, for some of you, that won't be until your early 30s, and you will be way behind the eight-ball in the rest of your life. The thrust of my point is that running can actually become MORE enjoyable when you start doing it for the right reasons after your competitive life is over.

And by the way, I actually had my running "taken away from me" for health reasons. But it was a blessing in disguise and I have a much greater appreciation for the simple ACT of running for pleasure now. You don't know what you have until it's gone.

you are wrong. I ran competitevly til age 30 when i retired, realizing that i wasn't going to break through to the elite level. yes, i was a few years behind, career-wise, but now, 20 years later, I am making over 100k a year and have been for 15 years. I am hardly behind the 8 ball. have 2 kids in college, own a home and am doing fine, thank you and left the sport at age 30 with prs that i am proud of, even if nobody else cares. I care.

You don't have to pick running or a career. Members of GBTC have good jobs using their education or they are in high-value graduate programs. They don't waste their time and for them running is their social life, an outlet, not a substitute for providing something useful to society.

Post collegiately you can define your running, racing, in some way. For example you can see how good you can get or remain on an hour a day of training and a race once a month and a 2 hour run each non-racing weekend. Or whatever you wish. I have heard of runners who would pick a season, cross, indoors, or outdoors or summer road racing for the year's focus and only race that season that year.

If a sport is worth being good at it is also worth being not-so-good.

Maybe for a short time in your life you wage total war to race to the best of your ability. Then you just skirmish.

Tom

I think you misunderstand me. We are saying the same thing. Most of these people have not made running the be-all, end all. It is a part of their lives, perhaps a spiritual part, and they are doing it for the right reasons.

uh....not exactly.. wrote:

you are wrong. I ran competitevly til age 30 when i retired, realizing that i wasn't going to break through to the elite level. yes, i was a few years behind, career-wise, but now, 20 years later, I am making over 100k a year and have been for 15 years. I am hardly behind the 8 ball. have 2 kids in college, own a home and am doing fine, thank you and left the sport at age 30 with prs that i am proud of, even if nobody else cares. I care.

Congratulations for being the exception and not the rule. A lot of cling-ons don't fare so well.

"Maybe for a short time in your life you wage total war to race to the best of your ability. Then you just skirmish."

Now THAT'S quotable...