How much better would your life be without running?

The OP makes a number of truly BS normative judgments as well as factual assertions.

Boiled down to its essence, the OP is saying that we would be happier if we spent an hour a day in an air conditioned box lifting weights so we could fill out our Ed Hardy t-shirts when we went out to the club to find some chippee to screw.

Running undermines your health? Right. Last injury I had kept me out for 3 months. I decided to go the way of the OP and hit the gym, forgetting about trying to keep up running fitness in the pool. The result: I gained about 10 lbs on a 135 lbs frame, resting HR went up about 15 bpm, I had trouble sleeping at night and looked the same, just fatter. And at my gym there are guys who lift every day for 1-2 hrs, and they have giant guts.

Fact of the matter is that running is a lot of fun. If you can't enjoy it and become obsessed over it, it is your fault, not running. Take a long look in the mirror and sort yourself out. Don't blame running for your own personal demons.

I am almost 40 and I can do 60-80 mpw and have plenty of time for everything, lifting weights at the gym. I very thankful that I am built like a runner and have some talent. It is a privilege to be able to go out everyday and glide along at @7 min mi, feeling like I am just floating above the ground. Most people bust their butts just to run that fast at a 5k race. It is a gift to be able to race a marathon out front, somewhere between the sub-3 dreamers and the sub-elites. I have as many running friends as non-running and have made excellent business contacts running. Why should I give this up to try to achieve a body image that is impossible for me to achieve without buckets of steroids? What else should I be doing with the hour to hour and a half a day I spend running? Can't even play nine holes of golf in that amount of time.

golfing is heck of a lot more social than running, running sucks

i would have killed myself by now. probably some other people as well.

Golfing is miserable. Its boring, slow, in the heat, sometimes unhealthy, takes little athletic ability, and more skill than necessary to enjoy a simple hobby. Rounds take hours to complete.

The beauty of many sports is the ability to release pent up energy into something physical and fun.

This isn't one of those guys that has lost interest in running. This is one of those porn-addicted haters that reads articles saying that running will kill you. He probably spends his time bitter at what he lost in running, but doesn't see the fact that it's his own bitterness that is making his life miserable. Running isn't an "exercise" addiction for true runners. Most real runners view exercise addicts as hobbyjoggers who can't sit still. This guy is acting hostile because we all are enjoying our gift, but he despises our balanced, active lives and wants us to feel what it's like to be a miserable old sap like himself who does whatever he wants, but never truly finds satisfaction. If you're a runner, you probably know why, or else you would have quit a long time ago. Runners have purpose, and of course nobody's perfect, but we realize that, and pushing for a goal helps us to enjoy life and get a kick out of competition. My life is very nice the way it is, thank you, Mr. Antirunner.

Boy if I didn't have to run, I would have passed Calc 2 and Aced Organic Chemistry.

then again, if I wasn't running, I'd probably be smoking and drinking and be extremely fat

I think I'd also be jealous of runners and their incredible relationship with the sport.

So...I'm never going to stop :]

Here is what I don't understand. If so many people on here stopped running and are so much happier for it that they never regretted their decision then why are they coming on to this forum?

Also you don't bemoan people who spend 2 hours a day playing video games, reading or watching tv. So why do you criticize running?

There are fringe benefits to running. I improved my relations with my boss partly because he found about and was impressed with my running. He isn't even a runner but a lot of people appreciate the dedication and talent.

Sad Sack wrote:

Here is what I don't understand. If so many people on here stopped running and are so much happier for it that they never regretted their decision then why are they coming on to this forum?

Also you don't bemoan people who spend 2 hours a day playing video games, reading or watching tv. So why do you criticize running?

There are fringe benefits to running. I improved my relations with my boss partly because he found about and was impressed with my running. He isn't even a runner but a lot of people appreciate the dedication and talent.

Great post. My sentiments, exactly. Most people who are anti-runners are bitter, or else they wouldn't spend so much time trying to convince healthy runners that they are addicts. They come on here trying to play psychiatrist with messed-up runners because they want to see the system fall and all of its happily active participants plunged into a world where they are without that thing that used to make them happy. They want us to be like them. It's a sad state to be in, but I really hope the best, and that people who feel the need to convince runners that they are wasting their time that they will eventually find peace with themselves, and just move on with their lives instead of attacking the very joy which had left them.

I;m and alcoholic and feel the same way. My therapist are just mad they can't be alcoholics anymore.

To the OP: If you hate running so much don't do it! If you hate running so much why in the world are you posting on letsrun? Talk about a waste of time. You ought to go post on letsbeabigfatjerk.com.

The flaws of people who are obsessed with running are inherent in the people, not in the sport. They would be no more able to do any other goal oriented activity without putting immense pressure on themselves and completely investing themselves emotionally in it, often to be disappointed.

Also, to whoever said that running is some people's cowardly way of escaping reality, that might be true to an extent, but so are most/all leisure activities. At least with running you are (probably) outdoors.

If they didn't run, most runners wouldn't be more productive. They would spend more time with things like TV, video games, facebook and texting.

I don't know why people are claiming running is an antisocial activity. At least for college age runners and down, people run on a team and spend most of the run socializing.

I run for a d3 college right now and the vast majority of my teammates are not the miserable bastards described by the OP. Being generous, maybe 1 in 20 are, but as I said, that's more inherent in the person rather than the sport.

Some of us want to warn youngsters about what they are getting themselves into. I'm mostly venting on the college years. They are only kids and sometimes they don't know whats what. Adults who run marathons usually have a job, family, and sensibility about what comes first. However, some college kids literally waste four opportunity filled years for running which will give them nothing in life, and the scary thing is that they don't realize it until its over. They literally will bend over backwards for their coaches(some of whom are not on scholarship). Its not right and it not good. Then the people who spend another five years running, I just feel sorry for them I knew not to do this. I wasn't going to be duped twice.

D3 is merely recreation running. The only ones under real pressure are D1 runners at competitive schools (these people have a hectic travel schedule) And one of the things that makes running so darn hard is that is ALL YEAR ROUND. Its almost torture. Flight after flight after flight. Of course this is going to affect your academics and social life.

Our society is overly concerned with competitive performance, but that applies to all sports. Hell, my barely-teenage daughter's swim team was filled with coaches and parents who thought they were all prepping their kids for the Olympics. Constant swim meets, 90 minute workouts every day, parents with spreadsheets filled with their kids' race times...for kids 11-12 years old. Kids on competitive soccer or baseball teams start traveling before age 10 these days. Personally, I think it is absurd and does nothing to teach kids the real benefits of sports...moving the body, enjoying feeling good, working toward a goal, being around positive people.

Helping to burn young people out is a sickness of some adults...I don't understand the mentality. Most young people are gullible and go along with these things for a long time until they either make it or snap. Either way I wish there was more emphasis on teaching people how to make sports a fun, positive, lifetime activity.

I have spent 1000 dollars on therapists because running caused my ex girlfriend to break up with me. I entered a state of depression.

so I would be 1000 richer and counting without running

You are absolutely right, "Possible...". One of my sons was a star on his championship PAL football team. 10 to 12 year olds. He played with a broken finger (a big deal for a little kid) by splinting it between two other fingers and wrapping it in foam. The coachs all loved him and were constantly telling him how good he was. I warned him about them.

When he sprained a collateral ligament and was on crutches near the end of his last season, they didn't care beans for him. At half time, they took the team off the field and left him lying on the sidelines. Everyone got to watch him crawl ten yards to get his crutches and hobble off alone. He refused to play after. Half the starters on that championship team never played high school ball. They burned out by 13.

Saw the same thing with other kids in soccer. The parents try to live vicariously through their kids. The coachs only care about winning to build there own self esteem. The kids are pawns. I can understand completely why these young guys grow to hate running. But we know, the problem isn't running, it's obsessiveness by the coach and/or runner.

stuck with match.com wrote:

I have spent 1000 dollars on therapists because running caused my ex girlfriend to break up with me. I entered a state of depression.

so I would be 1000 richer and counting without running

Thats because you are an idiot, not because of your running.

As easy as a life without running sounds, I don’t think I’d be happy with it. I feel like it would be a hollow life. There would always be something missing. I’ve always loved this quote from Again to Carthage (sequel to Once a Runner):

“When you’re a competitive runner in training you are constantly in a process of ascending.

That’s it.

It’s a simple idea, but the more I thought about it, the more profound it became to me. It’s not something most human beings would give a moment of consideration to, that it is actually possibly to be living for years in a state of constant betterment. To consider that you are better today than you were yesterday or a year ago, and that you will be better still tomorrow or next week or at tournament time your senior year. That if you’re doing it right you are an organism constantly evolving toward some agreed-upon approximation of excellence. Wouldn’t that be at least one definition of a spiritual state?

When I was a runner it was something we lived every second of our lives. It was such a part of us that if we had ever given a second’s thought, it would have been a mental lapse, a sign of weakness. Of course I am getting better every day, I would have said, what the hell am I training for otherwise? As if there were only one alternative, as if the arrow of improvement necessarily parallels the arrow of time, and in only one direction.”

I think this puts into words exactly what running gives to me. That feeling of constant betterment is a powerful thing. Knowing I’m better than the day before creates a very satisfying life. I’m sure you don’t need it to be happy, but I certainly find it to be fulfilling.

I found out a professor in undergrad was a runner, so I requested him to be my advisor. More in common right? I took several of his courses, made honor roll on several occasions, got into graduate school, got a job in the field, made some money, paid off some credit cards.

Nothing bad has ever happened because of running for me, if it did, it was me not listening to my gut.

Free will, right?