What is your biggest running-related regret?

Who lies about breaking 5:00 for the mile? Me. My first week of college

i met some guys in my dorm who were going to be on our team. They were not HS stars but they were good runners. When the inevitable "What are your PRs" popped up, I panicked, and said 4:44 might be more palatable than my actual 5:02. You are reading this correctly. I lied about a time that wouldn't tax a decent girl. I think about that occasionally.

1. That I ran the workouts easier and avoided pissing contests on runs.

2. Ran through more early races and focused on keeping mileage up until championships. I always seemed to peak the last few invites before conferences.

3. Chased more chicks and avoided serious relationships. That really has nothing to do with running but is still a regret lol

Not running more short (800-mile) races when I was younger.

I don't have any running regrets.

You're all a bunch of whiners.

Smoking and vaping thru frosh years of HS, mile PR 6:42 fresh and 5:58 soph, finally took it serious last track season to break 4:30 but I wonder where i'd be if i had started serious about it... oh well, best I can do is keep working at it.

Glad I didn’t work harder in HS - if I had I could have run for a crappy D1 school where I can guarantee in the late 90s with a “sturdier” bone structure I would have ended up with an eating disorder - and nothing lasting to show for it.

However, I quit D3 XC after my freshman year when I was only 7th runner (with slower times than my senior year of HS because I *really* wasn’t taking it seriously) and I met the guy I’m now married to and he didn’t like going for runs. I wish I’d stuck with it no matter how much I sucked and had a much better foundation for lifelong hobbyjogging. It’s been way too hard to chase those times after so many years off of serious-ish running.

not quitting in college when I was miserable. Should have done that.

I wanted to be a distance runner (3x national champ on the roads) but my real talent was in the mile (I recently tied my age group mile record off no speedwork). I sometimes wonder what I would have done had I dedicated to the mile instead of "chasing glory" in the marathon. I have won 6 mid-level marathons but never really ran fast

I ran a 4:21.9 mile at 18, but only improved to 4:20.9 for the mile, and 4:01.0 for the 1500 (age 21.)

Too much beer, plain and simple.

Putting other things off in my life because of it. “I’ll ask that girl out after I qualify for state” or “As soon as I hit that sub 4:15 mile I’ll take that trip with my friends” You can do both. You can have fun and run fast, and the vast majority of people don’t understand the sport anyway. I was so obsessed with running fast times and winning races when I was in high school and in college I would put other things off in my life for later. It left me with really solid times in my events, but extreme lack of experience in other important areas of life. I wish I would’ve told the younger me that you can do both.

1) Didn't do XC in high school. I guess I just assumed you had to be fast to be on the team.

2) Only broke 20:00 in a 5k one time, then found out the course was a bit short.

3) Never did Boston. It would have been really hard for me, but I probably could have qualified before I got old and injured.

Never felt a tape snap across my chest, not even once.

Actually there are probably world class runners who never felt a tape snap because they don't use it anymore.

If you avoid serious relationships, you can spend more time running and doing other hobbies. Sounds good to me.

I think I eventually enjoyed running just the right amount for my talent level and opportunity. That is in hindsight, though. My regret is that I didn’t enjoy it more in high school due to my overly competitive nature. In reality, there were far more talented runners than me around, but I became depressed if I could not beat everyone on my own team. What the Hell was the matter with me?

I felt this a lot. I got way into running after my sophomore year even though I just wasn't that good. I was on a small team in high school so I could still be the best on my team but was always disappointed that I never hit the external standards of "real runners," even as I continued to improve at my college club. Overall should've focused more on my own improvement because looking back I'm actually pretty proud of where I got myself.

Hip checked a dude at a local turkey trot. Went viral.

In 1989, a freeway bypass was built and upon completion, on a Saturday morning held a 10K race followed by walkers/bikers. Could have done it but decided against it because I was in good shape, but not kick-ass shape. The only chance because it has been open to traffic since.