How much better would your life be without running?

if everyone in the world ran, it would be a muchmuchmuchmuch better place. the longest i've gone without running in the past 5+ years was ~3 months this fall (injured). effing depressing. how can a person wake up, do their thing, and go back to sleep sanely without having run (or sweat in some way) that day??? it is cheaper than therapy. and for introverts like myself, i don't think it promotes being antisocial, but i think it provides a guaranteed window of time each day where you really can just be alone and in your own head. and then reserve socializing and talking to other people or whatever for the rest of the day.

and to all you dudes who say you can't get girls because you are too skinny.... simply incorrect. CALL ME.

Let me put it this way son:

I might be dead.

I might (if I was lucky) be an overweght 50+ yr old with a heart condition.

Boy- every time I see some fat slob who can barely get out of his car I thank my lucky stars that I kept running all these years.

I was in the pool area of a hotel recently (before a 15K race) and a much younger woman asked me to her room!

I've had girls in their 20's and 30's tell me I'm hot and energetic.

OK kid- this is all because I've been running since I was 12.

Keep at it kid.

runn wrote:

Let me put it this way son:

I might be dead.

I might (if I was lucky) be an overweght 50+ yr old with a heart condition.

Boy- every time I see some fat slob who can barely get out of his car I thank my lucky stars that I kept running all these years.

I was in the pool area of a hotel recently (before a 15K race) and a much younger woman asked me to her room!

I've had girls in their 20's and 30's tell me I'm hot and energetic.

OK kid- this is all because I've been running since I was 12.

Keep at it kid.

A much younger woman ask you to her room! That is beyond pathetic. You are a old, but immature man if you still base your self worth on getting approval from others. You just proved the point that runners lack true confidence and worry about other people's opinions of them.

You don't have to be a fat slob just because you aren't obsessed about running.

The current generation talks about AMUSEMENT every time. Our world pushes for living every kind of amusement, that means TO ESCAPE FROM A LIFE THAT PEOPLE DON'T LIKE. Now is very difficult to find ideals, and there is no more the taste of winning something using your own ability.

In 1960, Herbert Elliot (22 years old) won OG beating the World Record with 3'35"6. That one was the last race of his career.

For winning Olympics, he took holidays from his job, beeing OG in September, and working Elliot as the most part of normal people.

At that time, there were three possibilities for using your time : for a job (and all people worked for living), for fun, for doing something that was your passion. So, not beeing possible to do well all the three activities, PASSION HAD TO COINCIDE WITH FUN, so every athlete spent his time working and training (and, of course, competing) without thinking about other amusements, because ATHLETICS ITSELF WAS A FUN.

Now, nobody wants to forgo the amusement, SO ATHLETES WANT THAT TRAINING AND COMPETING COINCIDE WITH THEIR JOB.

Young people speak about "big sacrifices" for training, forgoing many types of amusements with great regrets.

This is a way to look at athletics activity not "positive". The motivation and the pleasure to reach some results in an activity that you love must be greater than the regret of what you don't do.

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=220022&page=7#ixzz2bnvZ5rY7

advice from Renato wrote:

The motivation and the pleasure to reach some results in an activity that you love must be greater than the regret of what you don't do.

I think the above comment sort of sums it up. The pursuit of excellence in anything -- career, raising a family, athletics -- has to have intrinsic value. Of course, no matter what you do, you can always play the "what if" game. What if I hadn't run? What if I had married that woman instead of this one?

What if I had taken this job or majored in that academic field? But to play that game disrespects the choices that you made and the value that you derived from those choices. No one says that you can never move on to new opportunities, and maybe this is the time for the OP. However, you can move on without devaluing the thing that you know that you really did love.

Sacrifices? Why do you need to sacrifice anything? I run for like an hour a day? It makes me feel like a million bucks. There's really nothing not to like.

I think I've seen this thread and thought I'd already posted in it three years ago, but didn't recognize anything.

If I hadn't started running, I probably would have had better grades in college, maybe gotten into a better graduate program and started with my career earlier. And if I had saved a dollar for every mile I've run, I'd have a pretty good nest egg and would probably be getting close to retirement! Sigh.

But running has brought much more than that. If found early on it reduced anxiety and boosted self-esteem. Nice little things to have in your pocket as a teenager. Gave a goal, and sets of goals, then a lifestyle. Keeps you trim. Gives a sense of accomplishment. Good way to meet people, get outside, and enjoy the day away from a life of quiet desperation. Now I coach and still run as as age group athlete. It's still fun. I especially like hammering tempo runs and longer road/trail races every few weeks, with an occassional shorter one to get the blood flowing.

Running is awesome. I'm going into my senior year, running at a D3 school. I'm a sprinter so I can't sympathize with you 120 lb dudes, but I'm in great physical shape. I'm 6'2" and I weigh 175 lbs. Running provides me with some form of discipline lifting a few times a week, running 5-6 days a week. I stay "jacked" year round and the ladies love it. I still manage to go out, definitely not a teetotaler. I love the gear we get, I get to travel. It sucks not having that much free time, but no one ever said "I wish I had played more Call of Duty during college." Running has been in my life for 8 years and it's hard to imagine life after it.