How much better would your life be without running?

We were always told in college that we had to have a balance between all of our activities. Nothing took priority over other things, running was just as important as schoolwork or a job or your social life (note that this does not mean partying- this means developing social skills and having friends). I ran for a strong Division I team too.

I've been out of college for 6 years now and almost all of my teammates still run and race, a lot of us have coached or helped out at a high school, and all of us have gone on to very successful careers and lives. I really think this is because our coach stressed that running is only a PART of who you are-not all of it. He also stressed that a main benefit of running is to be HEALTHY- your running shouldn't be making you unhealthy and this goes for your physical health as well as mental health.

I have maintained my running for the most part after college. I took the summer off after graduating but then fall came and I missed XC so I started up again. My teammates and I meet up once in a while at various locations and we always take the time to run while we are together. A teammate was recently married and guess what we all did that morning? Got up at 6 am and ran together.

I went to a top 20 academic school and saw students who were obsessed with getting good or perfect grades, students who were obsessed with their organization, and students who were obsessed with their frat/sorority. We used to talk about how the athletes at our school were the most normal people because we had several interests and didn't spend our Saturdays in the library like most other kids on campus. Instead of looking at running as burden on our team it was viewed as just a part of your life and you were damn lucky to be on a team with a bunch of like-minded people.

After working in a job which required me to make conversation with several people a day, I realized something: everyone has their "thing". Whether its running, playing the piano, knitting, cars, disc golf, being the head of an organization, volunteering somewhere,etc....I'd say that 99% of people have something that they are absolutely passionate about and they devote much of their time to. I look at the person who spends an hour a day browsing the internet looking for disney collectibles in the same way as I look at someone who spends an hour a day running. It (should) make both of them happy so why not?

the thing about running is that it can encourage anti social behavior. I remember during the summer I would never have people to train with and I would stay in some nights on the weekends just to get up early and run a long run BY MYSELF. Even worse, I would often drive fifteen minutes to trails to get lost in BY MYSELF. I am not the only one to do such a thing and it is not healthy.

I have stumbled upon this thread about a year late but I can not help but voice my disgust with some of these posts. I believe that the presence of weightlifting in this thread holds the exact answer to the question the OP asked. In my opinion, most of the people who said that they are now happier after quitting running, especially the ones who also mentioned body building are stereotypical anti-runners. These are people that I have observed every since my high school days running on the cross country team. These guys basically started running for the wrong reasons and probably should have never started to begin with. Most of them continue to run through college because they they become obsessed or are very talented. Although they like winning and everything else positive that running brings, inside they feel deeply insecure and secretly wish they were 200 pound football players instead of runners. There unhappiness is easy to pick up on so they lose meaningful friendships, relationships etc..

as a result, they blame running for these problems.Finally, After they stop running they take up wait lifting to satisfy the macho mentality that they feel they must live up to as men. Bottom line, this is what I can't stand about people who bad mouth running, they are almost always guys who desperately want to be the macho tough guys they never were. They feel there life would be more meaningful if they screwed every female life form on the planet and consisted of nothing but muscle and testosterone.

Most posters assume that their actual personalities would be different if they did not run - they wouldn't, so life/relationships would be no different. Fatter and less healthy? Yes. but for most thats not an issue until after the dating game is over anyway (say30's or 40's)Any real runner who stopping running would take up another sport/pastime (so no saved time) and post on other boards about how much life would be better if....blah blah.

Sometimes i wish i chose another sport to be obsessed with. I played soccer as a youngsters and was good enough to make one of the top 5 club teams in my state and be one of the top players with zero practice outside of team practices. Even my freshman year of high school I practiced maybe once outside of team practices and I was one of the top 3 players on my team. When I finally switched over to running I was extremely dedicated with my diet, sleep, and training, much, much more so than with soccer. I'm also not one of those unathletic or small kids (6'2 and about 140) who comes to running because it requires less physical ability, I was a good athlete before I started breaking my body down every single day. Also the fact that my brothers were able to get into some of the best D1 schools for soccer with a lot less dedication than i show in running tells me i could have been very good, most likely a pro player.

Running is f*cking magnificent!

ive seen so many good looking straight buff guys who remain single because they are vain and self absorbed.

at the same time, i have seen so many nerdy skinny dweebs who are with attractive girls.

it is not because you are a skinny runner that you cant get a women. it is because you are either closet gay or selfabsorbed.

heck if galen can get a girl the skinny dweeb runners can get a girl.

Don't worry, when you're 50, healthy and still able to get it up the women will flock to you. Your non-running friends will be fat, tired all the time and impotent.

Hellllllloooooooo

Happy Runner 123 wrote:

ahhhh I suppose Id be able to walk pain-free all year long, play the occasional game of basketball without worrying about my achilles and party and drink more...

I'd also be fat and unhealthy

This is about it for me. It's a double edged sword. When running is good, it's very very good. When it's bad, it's the worst thing in the world.

F RUNNING wrote:

Suppose that you weren't anchored to running and you allowed yourself to organize your life around more productive activities instead. Suppose you weren't always chronically injured and depressed, and lifted weights to stay healthy and improve your appearance instead, and never got injured doing it. How much better would your life be without an activity that produces nothing, accomplishes nothing, is totally irrelevant to modern life, and actually undermines your health rather than improves it?

It's interesting that this thread was posted in 2010. That year, I got horrible Achilles problems that I couldn't run through, so I quit running for about half a year. Before then, nearly everything in my life revolved around running.

After I quit, I replaced running with other activities - flying airplanes, riding horses, playing video games, etc. But other than that, life didn't change much. "Can't go out tonight, want to train tomorrow" was replaced by "Can't go out tonight, got to take my jet skis to the lake tomorrow." Commitments to go to track meets were replaced by commitments to take flying lessons.

Bottom line? Running, like everything else, has its good and bad sides. It can crowd out other activities, but it can also give you a great sense of accomplishment. But think about this: you only have until your mid-late 20s to reach your potential in running, but you have the rest of your life to pursue other interests. So if you're a recent grad and want to devote yourself to running, go for it. But if you're 35, not a pro, and are still planning your life around running, you're missing out on a lot of great experiences.

iagree wrote:

And in the grand scheme of things, nobody gives a f*** how fast you ran. You probably won't dwell much on it either. I hate to tell you this but its the truth.

That's right. But why limit it to running? Unless you're one of the best in the world at it, nobody gives a f*** how much you bench, what your golf handicap is, or how fast you can throw a baseball. And that goes for non-sport activities too. I no longer run competitively, but not many people at my office had much interest in listening to my off-roading adventures last week.

Running is a creative choice in the making of my life. I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing. Letting it go would not improve my life, as it is an expression of something deep inside for me. It gives me pleasure on many levels (despite the uncomfortable hardness of racing). It has increased the aliveness in my life. I'm happy.

i think the problem is that some people are fd up and running brings them a lot of joy and maybe they cant get that from other areas of their life. maybe theyve really tried and they still miss running and just absolutely loved it. or maybe they were on the verge of running internationally and fd it up and now want to come back to it.

my life didnt improve when i stopped running and i really missed it.

dony understand the anti depressant thing.

I don't even know why i took up running in the first place. i've always been healthy and fit, played basketball well and rode a bmx with my friends. it is an addiction to be honest

running sucks

My life has improved substantially since I started running. Prior to running I was wholly addicted to skateboarding and that ate every single free moment I had. Skateboarding isn't something you can just go out and do in 45-minutes. Heck 2 hours isn't enough time to really go skate. You need all freaking day to even start to get into it.

There aren't fixed workouts that build strength in skating. You have to be out there jumping down stairs and flipping your board for hours every single day just to get a basic working knowledge of the physics of it. And that is assuming you are even halfway decent at it. Now, if you aren't even any good you will spend the same amount of time and never get past the beginning stages. So, after years and countless hours you still are about as good as you were when you started.

Imagine being stuck at 9:00.00 miles for 20 years after training every day like your life depended on it?

After that, running is a freaking cake walk. I have tons of time to hang out with friends and enjoy other hobbies. I am not stuck driving from spot to spot, hoping I don't get kicked out, ticketed, arrested, in a fight, or hurt. I can see myself getting better and I know exactly when to start and stop running.

Skating--now that is something that can ruin your life.

thecontemplation wrote:

the thing about running is that it can encourage anti social behavior. I remember during the summer I would never have people to train with and I would stay in some nights on the weekends just to get up early and run a long run BY MYSELF. Even worse, I would often drive fifteen minutes to trails to get lost in BY MYSELF. I am not the only one to do such a thing and it is not healthy.

Sometimes you need some alone time. Doing something alone isn't necessarily unhealthy. I love the isolation of doing a long run on a trail, and I consider it to be a healthy activity.

Nobody here has mentioned the ability to plan, set a target, take actions to achieve said target, and then repeat.

It takes a lot of self-control to run competitively (same as any other sport or activity) and I would bet this transfers over to other aspects of your life.