dealing with realizing you never reached your full running potential

If you had reached your running potential, would your life be any more worthy than it is now? You let go by observing that life would’ve been about equally mediocre either way.

If you are younger than Abdi Abdirahman, then you are just being weak-minded and not willing to commit to doing the work to achieve your full potential.

oh ok. by your logic, any person's maximum potential is the same at age 44 as it is at 23-30. abdi himself is prove that that isn't the case (....which is not at all to take anything away from what he's done - to the contrary, it's amazing).

the performances of the vast majority of runners (particularly males) decline in their mid-late 30's. even for those who think that they reached their potential, I don't think they got slower just because they "got soft"

You can still run good marathons in your late 30's and even early 40's. The decline in your late 30s is marginal at best. You should actually just reconcile with the fact that you're a lazy person who chose not to pursue one particular hobby.

ok

Not reaching your potential in one thing leaves room to more nearly reach your potential in another maybe more important thing.

If you are in your late 30s you have at least good 10 running years ahead of you. Maybe more.

You are stuck in the thought that you could have been better in the past. Well, everybody thinks that, even Kipchoge. But as runners we deal with the road ahead of us.

So get your butt out there and see what you can do in your late 30s. After that you figure out what you can do in your 40s.

Good luck.

You still have the potential to break age group records through your 90s.

You may not race often, but when you do, race to win.

Stay healthy my friend.

I believe I have not come anywhere close to my potential when in my 20's and early 30's due to a variety of factors. Fast forward and I'm now in my late 40's and having a great time getting in shape and am on the verge of running very competitive times for my age.

My advice is to forget about the past and what could have been and focus on being the best possible runner you can be at the moment. Focus on the process more than the outcome too.

Look to those who never reached the potential of their youth as inspiration. There is no better example of this to me than Ed Whitlock.

I am pretty much sure Ed Whitlock never reached his potential as far as lifetime PB is concerned.

That did not stop him from establishing countless Masters WRs.

All you can do is make the best of each day.

I am 37. Ran a race on the weekend, first time in 15 years. Actually, the first race in 18 years because the one I did 15 years ago was a relay leg.

All of the years from age 20-36 where I had optimal time to train, compete and set new PRs are gone. I certainly did not reach my potential. I'm sure (I know some posters may try to give me a hard time if I say this) I had sub 15 5k ability if I had stuck with the sport.

Now getting there seems unlikely, but I can still compete and possibly get back to my old PRs. If I can do that, I'd be happy. Even just improving from race to race is something that can bring satisfaction.

Lol, you are a good example of trolling someone like me who has better PRs than you

A big part of it is the level of runner you are. Sometimes I regretted not running after college and maybe getting the marathon OT qualifier. I had friends that did but they had part-time jobs and it probably wouldn’t have been worth it for me as I was working full-time.

I was running with the U.C. Davis distance coach one time and he told me about a former Aggie that ran about 4:15 during college that wanted to make a comeback and maybe shoot for 4:05. He said his response to the guy was, “Why?”.

just pound out some 2 hour long runs all out brah

You let it go by realizing that in the scheme of things you were never very good anyway. Let us be real here. There are probably women who run faster than you ever did. So what?

"chose not to pursue"? nowhere in my post did I say "I chose not to pursue" running (with the exception of the few years I missed, mostly due to injury). I ran 80-100 miles a week for years and am still running weeks in the 70's which is the best I can do right now. your assumption that training well and hard automatically translates to getting PR's for years and years is almost as idiotic as your assumption that I'm "lazy"

P.S. was I asking for sympathy?

maybe I'm biting the troll-bait too hard here, but even being a troll still makes you an idiot

yeah, I've used this reassurance tactic before. basically at the top of my game I was running with elite female marathoners, so no big deal. but I'm talking more about reaching one's potential, regardless of what level you are at

Wawawa. Shut up n run kiddo.