Why you did not become an elite runner?

I had the opposite experience. I didn't get to train with many fast people, but the times I got to train or pace others, I always ended up feeling like the stronger runner, including with a CA high school state cross country champion/800 speed demon while I was a hobby jogging assistant coach with occasional pacing duties.

I trained reasonably hard for many years and topped out at 2:03 for the 800 in college and 1:19 for the half at the club level 😃

At that half, I placed ~200th out of ~25,000 people, so by one standard I was top 1%. Is that elite? I think all of us would say no. Perhaps our standard is more like 99.9%. The 25th finisher at that half ran 1:10. Is that elite? I'd still say no. What's elite for a man at the HM level, 1:02? Making an Olympic team?

Point is, Elite might actually be 99.99% performance in our minds. and that's kind of a crazy standard.

I showed up at junior high school T&F to throw javelin. I had a cannon for an arm. My state didn't have javelin as an event. Then I was a long sprinter. Then I was demoted or promoted (depends how one sees it) from long sprinting to middle distance with XC. I showed up at college as a 140 pound runner. My choices: stay a runner since I hadn't thrown anything, baseball or football in years or try to bulk up and throw. I stayed a runner. After seeing Neeraj Chopra win javelin gold at 5'11" (185 to 190)lbs. All I can do is tip my cap to N. Chopra.

I was the opposite. Great engine but no speed. My best 400m relay split was 57 in college but I did a 76.5 for the Max VO2. Plus I would always break down physically at >80 miles/wk. A 15:00/31:00 guy was about my limit.

After reading all the way to the end, I see school-sponsored coaching is the most-blamed factor. Why is this? Why do all of you join school teams? By your own admission, it ruined your running career or potential for such.

I did not make the same mistake the rest of you did. Ran in high school. Best distance runner in the school district. Track coach was unaware of my existence. Trained pretty well, unlike most of you who obeyed your school's idiot coach. No interest in the NCAA; did not let training on a program designed for someone else, overracing (2-3 times in a single day), sacrificing long-term development for a conference title, or the disadvantages of collegiate life ruin me.

So, coaching was not the reason for me. If you don't obey coaches - or better yet, don't even meet them - they don't hinder you at all. My reason is that I switched to another sport for my 20s and 30s. Pretty successful at that; accomplished more than I thought I might and much more than most people. You can't do both (distance running and that other sport) at the same time.

Surprisingly, none of you had this as your reason. I figured plenty of good teenage runners spent their prime years doing something else. Maybe not a lot, it seems.....

Started way too late (only ran senior year in high school but fortunately it got me to give up cigarettes!). Ran 4:48-mile, 2:04-800, and 54-relay off of never doing anything faster than probably 4:20-mile pace 400s that year. Freshman year in college was doing workouts that said I was in approx 4:24 or so shape (3xmile under 5:00-min/mile). Got sick or injured every year. Opened up a couple of years with a 1:58-880 first race indoors in Jan but would then get sick or injured. Ran a workout with a 47.9 400-m guy for fun with coach timing us and ran 23.0, 23.0, 22.3, 23.0 without having been doing anything near that fast in practice and kept up with him (I should have been training for the 400-m I think). Didn't get to race much since most meets were away. I just wanted to qualify for nationals once and that was my dream but not to be. Got old.

I regret not being more mature in HS and working harder with what I had. 18:53 in HS. Freshman coach was solid and had been coaching for 30 years. He had me peaking at the end of the year, from 22:30 at the start to 20:32 at the end of the year. The following 3 years we had a coach that was inexperienced and I was also immature.

In hindsight, with proper training and maturity on my end, I may have gone high-17s.

Sometimes a window shuts in your life and you don't realize it until years later. Same with careers. You can only work with what you have and you must be open to opportunities while they are there.

i got screwed by poor genetics, weak running program, and the realization that it's not worth running doubles if you have school/work to do. the best i can do is whatever i can do at 50mpw. i suppose pushing it up to 70 is possible, but ultimately isn't worth it if i know i'm not going to succeed.

I think you need to run at least 10K @ 32:30 @ your age to proceed to elite, because I am 60years old this year and I run 35: 57 2 years before in my age group. running avg 45 miles a week

I found out I was elite at something else

Huh?

That's like asking a bunch of people that played HS football or basketball why they didn't go on the NFL or NBA.

Too busy Drinking beer & chasing skirts.....

We are of very similar ability. I figure the best I ever could have ever have hoped to accomplish as a distance runner would be to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon. But that still would have required a lot of things to go right for me.

I always loved running but I never ever really thought I'd be an Olympian or win a major marathon or anything like that. I was always very cognizant of how bad I was. That's thing about this sport, it is very objective. You are what the clock says you are.

There was a brief window in my early to mid 20s where I entertained the notion of training to become a high level 10,000 or marathon runner. But I simply couldn't withstand the training. I just wasn't built for the kind of work necessary, and every time I tried, I would break down to injury.

Running HS XC and track is a great experience. Are you saying that if someone is interested in later taking up a different sport he should blow off the opportunity to compete in HS? Doesn’t make sense to me.

Wow… what a great open ended question…. But the truth is, even if you are chasing Olympic dreams…. Money and fun ( would say chasing tail in the old days but I don’t know if the woke left will kill me for that haha) become the main issue…. Would not have wanted to miss my 20s to get 8 second's faster over 1500 by the time I was 28…. …. So see you later running…. See you in 20 years haha

Didn't run fast enough. Is there any other reason?