When did you know it was time to hang up the race shoes and just do races for fun?

A shift in mindset

Running all races for fun while still competing because it's something you like helps with that.

I was good at it, but I never "enjoyed" racing. I always enjoyed the day to day mileage effort of just hammering. I was in my own little world, floating and not concerned if anyone was on my tail. I still do this today.

A little different for me. The "chase" was always something to look forward to. And I mean chase because the front was never a position I got to experience especially in college, being denied an adequate physiology. However I share with you the pleasure of "my own little world" and continue to do so. Fantasy is an excellent pill to take at the start of a run.

Nothing fun about paying $40-$60 for some fun run. I just run on my own since the racing days are over.

fromtheheart wrote:

A little different for me. The "chase" was always something to look forward to. And I mean chase because the front was never a position I got to experience especially in college, being denied an adequate physiology. However I share with you the pleasure of "my own little world" and continue to do so. Fantasy is an excellent pill to take at the start of a run.

I love training and the changes of seasons as you start in the dead of winter, progress through spring and the hot days of summer, taper the month before the Marathon, and then nail a fall marathon.

Everyone I've talked to, regardless of times, felt SO blessed today that Cbus went through mostly like normal years.

When I wasn't willing to try to be super skinny anymore.

I thought I was done when I started my career in my late 20s. I was still running for fitness but not really training as the 60-80 hour weeks were taking a toll. I'd do a race or two a year. Finally after 5 years of this, I felt kind of embarrassed at my race times, I couldn't even run 6 min pace for a 5k anymore. I started training again full bore and racing and moved to a new position with only 50 hours of work a week on average (with very uneven overtime, could work 40, could work 80). I basically lost a year to the pandemic as I lost the track I train on (and no other is available to me), had no races, and was expected to pick up the slack for teleworking coworkers. Finally, I'm getting back to where I was just before the pandemic at 34, 20 years after I started competitive running. I'm hoping to be in shape to pr in another couple years, with luck sooner.

I guess my long winded response is to say you never really know when its time to quit. I for see myself chasing masters times and trying to lose as little as possible in my 40s, 50s, and beyond.

I totally get why guys who were subelite or even just good in D1 hang them up though. I was just some D2 also ran and always have felt there is more I can achieve and better training that I can do to get there.