What is your biggest running-related regret?

Still pretty sad that I never chased my Olympic dream. I was a solid 4:45, 16:30 runner, so certainly would have had a shot at gold. Probably should have started doping at an early age.

I'm not a big drinker, but I regret never attempting the bicentennial challenge (100 beers/100 miles/7 days). There was a window in time where I think I could have given it a good try, but I failed to seize it. Now, I don't have the fitness or the metabolism to even think about it. Don't make my mistakes, kids.

It was at an aid station just prior to mile 15 that I dropped out. They had a smaller bus there for people who wanted to drop out which held about 10 people. From there that bus took us to a meeting point with the larger yellow "school buses" which took us to the finish line (the same yellow buses that transfer runners from Boston to Hopkinton pre-race). I am guessing that most smaller races do not have a system like this in place. There were a lot of people that DNF'D Boston 2012 (from heat, injury or both), and I referred to my rides to the finish as the "bus of broken dreams" because of the glum faces (mine included).

1. Went out too fast in almost every marathon, so PR not near what it should be relative to shorter distances. 2. Not really a regret, but I joined the Peace Corps straight out of college, at the peak of my running career. Was not able to train at nearly the level I would have in the US, so missed the prime running years and any other PR's I might have had. But the benefits of that experience far outweighed those concerns, so no complaints here.

Ha ha ha, love the dislikes on this post. Must be really repulsive, perhaps the biggest regret, for most runners to hear that they’ve neither made money nor used their hours and hours of super high mileage running time any better than those playing video games.

I gave a damn but in retrospect training could have been a lot more efficient. I was never going to be a 14:00 runner but I could have been 16:00 guy senior year instead of 16:40. Would have been enough to win states as a team.

It would be fun to be able to redo those last 15 months(Jr+sr summer+ cross country) to see how different the results would be but obviously it wouldnt change anything important...

-Not taking more days easy or off in college, got too caught up with keeping up with the better guys

-Not racing shorter distances more often as a 10,000m NCAA qualifier , ie 800/1500/mile

-Taking racing too seriously and not sitting and kicking more often

32:09 for 10K and 2:50 for the marathon. 31..anything and 2:4?? would feel much better as I look back

Not many regrets and the sport gave me more than I could ever pay forward, but ...

- not pushing all in collegiately and upping mileage and intensity to see if I could run sub 4;

- not moving up and focusing on steeple/5000;

- partying a bit less and focusing on CC and track a lot more.

Nothing. I did a ton of running and was never super good at it but I loved (and continue to love) every minute of it. It's something that has been a major positive in my life and that I'm very grateful for.

Hopping on a motorcycle to ride to training and hitting a lampost.

Blew my knee when there were no options for surgery.

Too many intervals and not enough threshold in high school.

I wish I would’ve kicked harder and I probably could’ve caught Charles Hicks on the line.

Haha here's my experience doing both. The end of soph year I was 1st chair in HS band and top distance runner on the track/xc teams. Band was the biggest time commitment with practice, performances, marching band, a jazz band group, and competitions. Band, running and school work made for a hectic schedule and I wasn't enjoying it.

When there was a conflict I had to pick which activity to do. This pissed off the band instructor and running coach. Before my junior year the band instructor gave me an ultimatum: choose band or running. I chose running and it proved to be the right call. The band instructor later walked back his ultimatum, but I just thanked him for showing me I could make a choice.

Biggest running regret: Not doing more in college to stay injury free.

Going to sober grad my senior year the night before the state meet 2 mile, absolutely stupid trying to run off no sleep and played basketball at 3 in the morning. Made it through the mile at state then faded. Should have been sub 9:15 and ran 9:30 something.

25 years later I am still upset

Don't be so sure. I chose D1 and walk-on over DIII that wanted me, and spent years chasing and trying to get over injury. Times I ran my redshirt first year would still be records at the DIII, and things would have turned out more or less the same. I'd be you, though, saying I should have gone D1.

Giving up in the freshman year of HS: one of my teammates was training half as hard and beating me regularly, so I figured out that I sucked and I just gave up.

Got back into running after turning 40 and realized that 1) my teammate (which sadly died in a car accident at the age of 19) went on to become of the best HS runners in my country and still holds a few HS national records and 2) my times were not too shabby for my age. I sometimes wonder what I could have run in my prime, and I'll never know.

Not being more discerning when choosing a coach to run for in college. I chose a coach who ran at the world level and had a history of success coaching distance runners. Problem was - he didn't have a clue how to build 800 runners, which was my primary event. This was masked by the fact that there were some milers who could run fast 800's as their side event, but those types of runners need to be coached much differently than the true 800 and 400/800 guys. I didn't realize this until my third year of running, when me and my 800 teammates were all running slower than we ran in high school.

If you're an 800 runner, don't assume that all distance coaches know how to coach that event, it's just not the same as coaching for long distance.

Was told by the athletic trainer to take a month or two off and begin physical therapy. I skipped the first PT session and went on my longest run ever by a few miles because I thought I could push through it. It was extremely painful and I nearly crawled back home at the end. Gained permanent damage to by lower back and never PRed again.