What is your biggest running-related regret?

Not running after college for a decade. I could have set many PRs at longer distances.

Not transferring after my coach screwed me freshman year. He held me out of the national meet in place of a senior that he felt he owed it to, even though I'd beaten him 6 of 9 times and was never out of the top seven.

I turned to drink and drug after college and picked up gymnastics at 31. And running soon after again. I should have started running first. Hello from Indonesia

going all in to try and go sub 4 mile

Going on Letsrun

This. But only a few more days after NXN and I go cold turkey.

Deciding at about the age of forty that I should consciously shift from landing on my heels to landing on my forefeet. I went from being indestructible to being a near cripple.

When I was in high school, I was the guy on the cusp of varsity with a 4:40 mile/17:30 5K who drank the Kool Aid, bought in, but just wasn't good enough to arrive at a notable performance. I definitely experienced a lot of unnecessary negative emotion having an attachment to a goal that wasn't attainable. I wish I would have just enjoyed the ride more, been satisfied with setting some PBs, and stopped worrying.

Never ran in high school or college or until later in life. No regrets. Running more than 3-4 hours a week is a waste of time in life (except if that is your primary source of income)

Not running Cinque Mulini when I had the opportunity.

Oh yeah. I always wanted to run that race but doing it was just a pipe dream. Why did you miss it?

I wish I would’ve enjoyed highschool more, and been more patient with training.

None of it really mattered when it comes down to it. I’d get so mad when workouts or races went badly, and “important” races would be stuck on my mind the entire week before the fact. I ended up having a big injury at the end of senior year that had me out so long it hit the reset button. 7:45 pace would push my heart rate into the high 170s-low 180s.

The first thing my college coach said to me in person was something along the lines of, “CopperRunner, I don’t care what your PRs were in highschool. I care about how hard you are willing to work over these next few months and what that’ll produce for indoors and outdoors.”

Now I walk away from workouts and races saying “that’s what I had today. Because of the work I put in today I will be better next time” and leave it at that, despite being a lot more advanced and competitive. I think this significantly helps my mental health.

1. Try harder in college/make less excuses

2. Seek therapy for mental health/eating

3. Don’t quit

Stopped running for ~a year, got really out of shape, and now it's a long, hard road back to any kind of fitness. I stopped after I had a surgery which left me way more susceptible to any sickness, and now it feels like every time I get sick I lose all the gains I'd made. Looking back though, I've definitely made at least some progress.

"Don't run on that for three months".

Sad that it took me 32 years to find running (watching Meb and Ryan Hall at the OT race in Houston), but glad it happened then and not later!

Would love to see what kind of impact running in HS and early adulthood would have had on me (probably too many injuries / tendonitis to run now, heh). Running taught me many lessons about discipline, hard work, and failure that would have been useful as a young knucklehead.