When did you realize Hanging up the running shoes was for the best for you??

Your a beast dude...Early 40's I was feeling all the miles and injuries after 20 years of hard running.

I was a 2:40 marathoner always thought I could run faster and punished myself in doing so.After running I transitioned into cycling and happy I did. no regrets

I’m right at the transition from running competitively to running for general fitness and to get my dog tired.

Have recently realized my time could be used more wisely. Dedicating 15+ hrs a week to being fit enough to race, but not having the funds or motivation to actually race more than a couple times a year seems crazy. Time to redirect my energy. Lots of growth needing to happen in career, relationships, lifestyle.

I stopped seriously competing when I was 29. I still run, but for health reasons and not fast. Got married, had kids and rearranged my priorities. I have no regrets.

Agree on all of this. Been running 10 years, feel like none of my PRs demonstrate what I could do off a decent block of consistent training but injuries are becoming more and more persistent. It seems to be 3 months of running at a time, followed by 6 weeks of injury. Getting boring and it’s difficult mentally.

I think you've had a great career. I wish I had put as much effort into it as you did. Well done.

You were really durable! About 80-90% of collegiate runners reach a point sometime between their Soph and Sr year where they realize they’re going real hard, it’s taking a ton of their total energy, and the improvement is slight. So, their running basically ends with their last college race. For those who continue, it can become a real balancing act with work, married-life, kids, and other hobbies and life events. And then, injuries can really suck. If a runner can find hobby jogging and being slow worthwhile, they can most likely keep it going, but it’s hard not to feel like a loser when putting around like that. I think a number of people stop after college and pick it up again 25-30 years and 30-40 lbs later.

I stopped running competitively about two years after finishing my college eligibility. My PR's were all set while in college. Once out of college I was in grad school at a different university. I never had the desire to run marathons so I didn't pursue that avenue. When I stopped running I went cold turkey. Didn't run a step for two years. Noticed I was getting a bit pudgy and also missed running a bit. Started back running but at a very low intensity level. The weight came off but not back to my competitive days but that was ok. I didn't need to be rail thin. Pretty much just ran 4-5 miles about 5-6 days a week. I didn't run races or anything like that. It works for me.

When I was permanently injured, age 20.

But after a couple years I could walk pretty much okay, and eventually got into walking races (50km). Was never any good, but probably top 100 in the U.S. at one point, which I certainly never would have been in any running event.

And I started coaching, too.

Have not hung up my running shoes yet. Even though my current hard paces were my easy paces not too many years ago. Optimistic view is I want to enjoy running no matter how slow I am getting. Pessimistic view quotes Guy Clark: "I guess I wasn't through fooling myself".

I'm turning 60 in 3 weeks and I still train with the goal of improving, though "improving" now means beating the time from my last race. My last PR was set 30 years ago. I'm nowhere close to what I was then but when I run fast now (7:30 pace) it still feels the same as when I ran fast then (5:30 pace). My watch must be broken!

As long as I can keep it up, I will. I'm just too dumb to quit.