What sport, if you had focused on instead of running, could you have had equal success as you did in running?

This thread is hilarious.

under the impression wrote:

This thread is hilarious.

I know right? Pure comedy

Ping pong or fooseball

re4ink wrote:

TheXCrunner wrote:

Soccer would have been my other sport of success, I played 2.5 seasons at high school then, cross country coach asked to try out and that is how I got into running. I have been running for the last 6 years, since then.

anyone else in here transitioned from soccer to running with success?

Brie Oakley was a soccer player who didn’t start running until 11th grade, and she won NXN senior year in 2016.

Also Obsa Ali - went out for XC for the first time in 11th grade and placed top 10 at NXN that year. Went sub 15 in a 5k senior year.

I don't understand the relevance of these cases. Are you suggesting that the runners would have done just as well in soccer?

Partial Observer wrote:

There is a lot of coulda woulda on this thread. Be thankful for what you have for goodness sake.

This thread is mostly for fun

Partial Observer wrote:

amkelley wrote:

I'm absolutely sure there was no other sport in which I could have even nipped at the heels of being sub-elite.

You sir are of the few posters on this thread who have estimated their abilities objectively. !

Maybe because sir is a she?

I was as good at bowling as I was as a runner. I could hold my own in scratch tournaments and bowled against a few pros. As a runner, I ran 4:30/9:55 mile/2 mile in high school and mid 18s 5k when I was 50. I consider those fairly equal accomplishments. Nothing like when I was 12-0 pitching in little league as the fifth man in the rotation!!

I may have still been bowling when this thread originally started 13 years ago!!

Played ice hockey as a kid an was always top level in speed. Given my endurance, speed skating would have been a better option as i had running form that would have translated much better onto the ice. Probably a 1500 or 5k+ as best events.

Lettered in D1 track, but might have gone better in speed skating.

Triathlon

Was way too poor to do this sport in the late 80's and it was still in its infancy as a sport.

I could have been equally successful in pretty much any sport I'd chosen.....zero success would be pretty easy to match!

And I was the opposite. I loved track and field and cross country in high school, but could only manage a 60.6 quarter and a 5:08 mile. So, swimming in HS and college is where I had athletic success and ended up coaching that sport for 45 years, but always kept an interest in track. In fact, one fall, two of my swimmers did cross country and made that all-conference team!

Tennis. I was good in HS, could have played in college at the D 2 or 3 level. Went to a D1 school instead with good academics but no way I was walking onto a team like that. Took up running &, after many years, I'd be a decent HS varsity runner, lol.

I love running but, yeah, I was much more naturally gifted at tennis. I picked up a racket basically Freshman year of HS & was playing singles at a competitive program junior year.

It's kind of like what you see with running, I was definitely under-trained & should have kept going.

I could probably be better at most other sports than I am at running. Not because I'm a freak athlete, I'm just not that good at running. But I played college basketball. I'm built for the major american sports, 6'7", 190 (220 during my playing days). I run because it's fun and I like the challenge, but physically I'm suited better for pretty much any other sport.

PR's: 4:57 mile, 36:49 10k, 1:24 Half

Hey Avocado that’s great. I used to spend hours as a kid reading books of plays, and practicing my back-rank strategies!

Mikeh33 wrote:

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Baseball. Was a shoe-in for MLB, but stupidly went into the military instead. Was a better baseball player than sprinter.

But since birth I have always held the 100m, the iron cross, and the clean and jerk in the highest of esteem.

Moron.

No one is a shoo-in for the MLB. No one!

Of course you are correct, but I was as close as they come. Could hit anything, and far. In CF was fast as F and had an arm like a cannon. Good times! I didn’t think that pro sports were a legit career/life path, and in that I was probably right. In hindsight I probably made the right decisions for me, ultimately.

Road Cycling. Could be making $5k a year and sleeping on couches instead of working a real job.

Got cut in HS basketball. I beat almost all of the varsity in one on one's, and later , after HS learned from guys from other schools that I would have played or started for their HS team.

A couple years after graduation, a player from my HS was drunk and admitted that " his dad heard the coach say he was going to cut you, and that was before tryouts.."

So, basketball for me. But, I am very glad I chose long distance running because I'm still doing it into my late 50's, while those varsity basketball players show up at the class reunion, very fat.

I played volleyball at high school and played soccer at a reasonable high level when I was fourteen, but wouldn’t have had the same success in either of them that I had in track. Likely would not have been good enough to play soccer in university and definitely could not have played volleyball in university.

In reality it would probably be something like XC skiing.

Definately Soccer. I doubt I would have had equal success to running. But it could have been more profitable. If you're an OT qualifier who has no shot of making the team then good luck making money running. If you're the 5000th best soccer player in the world you can still make a decent salary.