Why you did not become an elite runner?

For runners who post here (so supposedly people who run and train) who didn't become "very good", the answer is the same as I already gave...they aren't talented enough.

Humblebrag found.

I quit kind of abruptly during my freshman season of college and didn’t give running or my falling out with it a single ounce of my mental energy until late last year when I... sort of had an epiphany I guess? I decided I never properly came to grips with the issue even though I (seemingly, to other in my life) had moved on almost immediately; got dragged into doing a race and had an embarrassing result, as expected since I was overweight and of course had hardly practiced for the last 6 years.

I used to chalk up my failures as “bad luck”, which I always knew deep down wasn’t true but never wanted to admit it until I properly reflected on the issue. Honestly, I had tons of things handed to me on a silver platter, great HS coach and very good teammates, walked onto a fantastic d1 program despite less than stellar times, just on the whim of my coach thinking I had some talent. Sure, I did my runs and my workouts consistently in season at least, but had a terrible attitude, I could tell a few other runners resented me on the college team (not because I was slow, because I was a negative person who obviously hated running), never put any thought into the sport and never cared to do my own research or ask my coaches questions, and whenever they’d try to stick me in a 4x400 I’d cry my way out of it (despite it being the event I probably had the most raw talent in, even though I trained more for distance). Of course, I also had awful eating habits, got drunk quite often, no sleeping schedule whatsoever, and when I ran on my own I didn’t do stretches, despite my many injury problems.

It hurts realizing all of this but I feel I can move on now that it’s off my chest and I’ve been training again and losing weight for the last 6 months. I know I’ll never realize my full potential in the 400 or 800, but I hope to PR on a few of my more modest longer distance times and have finally adjusted my lifestyle to try and make this happen, best I reasonably can.

When I was younger I feared to put too much effort or thought into running because I never believed I could be great, I thought if I put all this effort and thought into it and still didn’t make it pro, that’d make me a loser, and it would be better to be the lazy but talented kid. I still don’t follow pro running too closely (though I’m becoming more familiar these last few months), but I think we all know it’s a trope that’s common in many other sports; I wish I was more mature when I was younger but it is what it is, basically my own negative attitude is why I never had a shot to become elite

I’m not talented enough!

Though I probably was physically talented enough to have become a serviceable D1 mid-d runner (1:56/4:23 at 16 after not running from November till February) but I’ve always had my issues with depression, ADHD, and whatever else a psychiatrist might decide to slap me with (hence no running over the winter despite caring about it deeply). I was briefly recruited by ISU, but let’s just say that didn’t pan out—their admissions department said I had “the strangest combination of numbers they’d ever seen.”

Ah, but some of us had bad coaching, or at other times just ran a lot, but didn't train, so possibly had enough talent. Possibly enough talent because you never know if you don't
get there, and there have been even US champions who are weren't pro. You've probably heard this before because I've posted pieces of my running story over the years here, but I had poor coaching in my two years of high school running, so
that already put me off track for becoming elite straight away. If you don't
make college running, you don't get coaching, teammates, support, or even
ability to get into meets, especially before the internet. I basically ran
myself into the ground in hard sessions in high school because that was my
understanding of how to train, and the coaches didn't correct that. I was always in an overtrained state and ran well below my capability.
I was painfully shy
(dreaded making phone calls, much less cold calls), so my extent of trying to
walk on at UCLA was to call the coach's office once. When told I needed a
4:30/9:30 in high school to attempt to walk, I just said, "Oh," and
hung up - I couldn't go back in time to high school. I ended up riding on the cycling
team for a year, then back to running on my own when my bike frame broke and I
didn't have anything to ride. I ran because I enjoyed being outside, had
insatiable appetite for exploring, and ran lots of easy miles (up to 145
mpw). I did almost insane stuff like 20-milers every run for
months on end. Eventually, I backed off and added 6-mile tempo runs. After a
while, I found myself doing the 6-mile tempo runs in the 29s (solo, in old
trainers of the day, no warm up). I kind of was trial and error learning better
training/what worked for me, but I was really just running, not training. I had
no big races that I could get into, and no car to get to races anyway (I walked or
biked everywhere.) If you were to look at it as "training" rather
than "just running", my "training" was similar or worse
than Seth James Demoor training because I wasn't even aiming at any races. But
I think I likely got into 29-mid to -low 10,000m shape just estimating based on my tempo run times. I'm sure with any semblance of smart
training, I would have easily been sub-29. With personalized, pro-level training, even faster, but how much under, possibly sub-28?,
or actually being good enough to be pro I have no way of knowing since I didn't do it. But seeing
people who had decent training in high school make good jumps in college and
then college runners make large jumps afterward college, I'm sure there was a
lot of levels left in my body beyond where I reached. I was a runner who essentially did base training only.
I really didn't know
how to train until the internet came around, and training knowledge was spread
around better (see how training in the '90s/high school track times in the US sucked, then
LR/Dyestat/etc. spread better training knowledge around). Plus I learned
controlled paces in hard workouts from when I helped assistant coach at my high
school, by the mid- to late-'90s. By that time, I had suffered through 2-years
of chronic fatigue syndrome from 22-24 (possibly Epstein-Barr virus related), and that was the final straw, putting ambitions to PR at any distance to an end.
After I recovered, I was good enough to have fun, meaning able to win on
occasion local races from my 20s to mid-40s when I felt like racing (often
years with no racing too) with basically my standard everyday easy miles 10-14
miles per day on trails, no training plans, and racing into shape when I was
feeling like racing (for head-to-head results, never having time goals... ambitions to PR ended at age 24). I remember going to the track at age 30 to do my first track
session in years/not really raced a couple years because my GF wanted company
for her track session, and I averaged 5:00 for 4x1600. I suspect many former pros that
age couldn't do that after similar time off racing and hard workouts, so I had
decent remaining talent from just hobby jogging.

I was probably talented enough to become an elite runner but made all the wrong choices at all the wrong times. The biggest lesson I've learnt is to not look at seasons or years but as blocks of seasons. I would get frustrated if I didn't have a huge improvement in one year but when you get to a certain level it takes 4-5 years of consistency to see big improvements.

I think its a lot easier now to become elite as the support for sub elite athletes such as kit and sponsorship is wider than it was 10 years a go. I also think once you're in the system these days you're in - e.g. cryochambers, physio, altitude trips, nutritionists.

Trying to make up for it in my thirties now but the ship has sailed sadly.

I was a 2 time national xc finalist and part of the national h.s. indoor winning dmr team in the early 90's. I ran with some of the best of them at the time but I decided drugs were better. Years later I was diagnosed with a.d.d, bipolar, and anxiety. I still run for fun

1) Not enough talent, by far the most determining factor for almost everyone

2) Lack of metal fortitude. You know that feeling when you toe the line and you wish you could be anywhere else? That was me all through high school and college. Now that I'm racing (and PR'ing) post college, finally I've found the fun and excitement in competition. But I've also realized that this is because the stakes are now lower. Drop a turd at the state meet? You let the whole team down. Have a bad race in the Turkey Trot? No one cares! I can only imagine what it feels like to have your reputation and earning potential at stake as a pro.

3) Lack of pain tolerance. Wanting to win so badly that you go deep into the red was... never possible. Whenever a race started to hurt too much I would tap out and phone in the rest of it. Forget the pros, watching the state or NCAA champs was enough to unsettle me. It's not just fitness, those guys wanted to make it HURT. I guess I am pain adverse by nature.

4) Even if I had #1-3, being a professional athlete is a raw deal. You've got to figure out what to do with the rest of your life once it's over. I can't imagine a worse arrangement than depending on your own health, and your "image", to put food on your table. Some day both will leave you.

It was never an option that I was aware of while growing up. I would start running on the first day of practice and wouldn't run again after the last race of the season. Nobody told me I could keep running in the offseason and my shoes were worn out by then anyway. I improved in college but I still didn't get much help on how to get to a higher level. Part of it was I didn't have opportunities, but I also didn't know how to take advantage of the opportunities I did have.

So when my kid started running, I made sure he had shoes, knowledge, a good coach (not me) and opportunities to get better. Now he is in college and running fast.

Looking back:

I never would have been elite but I could have been much better.

I wasn't consistent with my training. As a result (?) I was always looking to get better too quickly- like crash programs, etc.

I'm not as lucky biomechanically so I think running before the new shoe technology hurt me (injuries, discouragement).

I got custom orthotics in 1984- I improved quite a bit very quickly and was over my injury cycle.

Going back to the late 70's- I was in high school a podiatrist wanted to give me orthotics that were just huge and cumbersome and he said- you will never run more than 3 miles faster than 9 minutes per mile again.

In 1990 when I ran a marathon at 6:11 per mile on about 45 mpw of training I called him and told him and I told him that he really shouldn't try to discourage people like that.

But, I think it was circumstances and mainly- while I didn't train enough (or maybe properly) I trained too hard when I was training and didn't do the proper recovery.

I wonder about coaching in a situation like this.

I ran 50.3 for 440 (400) in high school on a cinder track. I couldn't break 2:00.

I've coached 51-52 kids who ran 1:55-56.

I ran 4:51 for the mile in 9th grade and never ran it again- they had me running the 400/800 and relays.

I was into sciencey stuff on my way towards getting a phd and sports was always just fun play, never remotely a career option. Running in particular also felt just silly, not a fun game you could play with friends like so many other sports.

Discovered and started running regularly in my forties.

Oh really?

Like one poster pointed out I didnt have that need or desire to win at all costs. Enjoyed running and ran some quick times, but the competitiveness aspect eluded me in high school. I look back on it now and think how weird! Ha, oh well.

Too bad you weren't more talented. My son ran 4:35 in 8th grade and 4:10 in HS on 30 MPW. He isn't running in college.

I did. But I ran in disguise like Quenton Cassidy.

I ran a 2:57 marathon running about 30-35 miles a week, with kind of stupid training

(never ran longer than about 8 miles at a time, always running the 5 miles a day I did run almost all out. Plus, I was quite frequently injured)…

I lacked the talent to a) be strong, b) have a high VO2, 3) resist injury. And I "gave up" because I was permanently injured at age 20.

There is a persistent myth among distance runners that success is not determined by talent. It's not *entirely* determined by talent, but is impossible *without* talent.