Feeling about ready to move on

No one can answer this for you. If the fire burns, feed it. If not, find something else.

Understandable, I know ultimately the decisions come down to myself, but I was just asking for other's stories or advice on how they handled the transition

You can always run for fitness and enjoyment. Ultimately, you have to do it for yourself. Based on my personal experience, move on with life. Career, relationships, and family are far greater pleasures than being an unpaid journeyman runner.

What do you want with this post? For us to play the world's smallest violin? No one expects you to keep training like you're training for a college sport after you graduate. Want a different hobby after you graduate to keep you in shape? Get into rock climbing or something I don't care. Here's what I noticed from former college runners. A good 40% get fat and out of shape after a few years, 30% keep running for fun and the reminder get into some other hobby to keep in shape which route you choose is up to you. I really don't care I just hate whiners.

Everyone quits running competitively at some point in life... even olympic gold medal winners. When you decide to give it up is up to you.

Start working on that Dad bod. You are old enough to be let in on a secret that most adults know. No one cares if you run or not.

If on scholarship, finish out the year and move on. Honor the contract and give it what you got.

After that, devote yourself to your next stage of life... marriage, work, whatever. If you are not a paid profe

You are too worried about what other people think. That leads me to believe you are looking for support of the excuses you are making to discontinue. You arent clear on your running goals. At that rate, Id say its over. Just clear your mind and focus on new goals that need to become more clear so you can make a definite plan for them. Otherwise, you get stuck in a neverending loop and you begin to thrive on it.

My experience. I trained and raced independently for 1 year beyond college eligibility. I was able to manage it because while I worked, I didnt start my chosen career yet. I continued to improve. New routines and schedules along with no training partners beyond the watch were difficult to get used to at times, especially in a midwest winter. But I really enjoyed toeing the line and competing. Travel, meet entries etc...wasnt as fun but the focus on goals was what kept me going. Let me tell you, getting your butt kicked at the Trials is what a lot of people do but the experience is still worth it. I have had 3 hs athletes qualify and that experience went a long way in helping them stay focused, have fun and improve. If you plan to coach, its still fun avenues as a coach to have those special opportunities to experience from a different perspective.

After that final competitive season, I had an opportunity to start my full time career. I was still single and like you, needed a steady income. I still trained and took to the roads and had fun with that along with coaching a ton of kids 2 seasons a year. Made a lot of friends locally and around the country sharing in a common passion of helping others and paying it forward to those who helped me.

My only regret....finding a way to go 1 more season to make my ultimate goal, Sub 4. I was close, life got in the way and I will alway know I could have, should have, if and or but... Didnt happen. Took a few decades to develop the suler shoes of today and them maybe I could have told my kids, grand kids I did it. Not easy for anyone or everyone would be doing it.

Regardless of what you think your talent is, it doesnt matter when you lose sight of your goals and motivation. Like my old man used to tell me, $hit or get off the pot. I made my decision and cant blame anyone but myself.

Further natural progression for me and many others...I like variety and making up for lost time doing all that running/training at a high level. Cycling, backpacking, kayaking, lifting etc... Still attend a lot of championship meets so Im not missing out as a fan. I spent about 25 years helping area universities with timing, announcing, jury of appeals, etc. while coaching, presenting at clinics etc so Ive stayed quite connected in those ways as well. It feels great to be somewhat fit while helping others when they are at their peak. Its hard to look at all of the overweight officials scrambling for the feed tent at meets but Im glad they are willing to help. They have a passion for the sport too and many are my friends but Its a lot of fun going for a run on Pre's trail or RimRock Farm etc..before the day begins with some of those friends that love the sport.

Its whats in your heart that will keep you going or cause you to tack but just dont sit and spin. Stay healthy mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually!

Your time is limited and its always going to be a roller coaster so good luck!

what a great post

have you started a family? are you faced with unusual academic demands where it's time to grow up and finish the master's? is the 5th year eligibility proving overkill? cause otherwise i'd just say you have senioritis.

let me tell you how this works. you are eager to get into the world and work. however, THAT IS NOT REALITY YET. you have a semester of college reality left instead. use that to sprint through your personal college finish line(s). making a paycheck sounds exciting, but you aren't there yet, and you're about to do 30-40 years of work. which once you get far enough in becomes its own treadmill, even at an interesting job. from that context blowing off the closing part of college fun in favor of spending time fixating on a future not yet arrived will feel absurd when you are other side of this.

now, i would respect i am just sick of competitive running, or got my fill in my first 4, or now have a kid/wife, or it's either this or not finish the masters with quality. that's an adult response. and sick of TF i would sit down and self assess whether a different event set might freshen things. but i am so looking forward to work? my dear naive child. if you have any passion for TF left at all you will regret this in 5-10 years. you will want this time back.

last, let me be blunt, but quitting without a plan B, a new passion, sounds kind of like depression talking. you're not talking about seeing the world. you're not saying i am burnt out on running and want to try some new outlets. you're trying to tell me you're feeling a hole but work will fill it. yeah, i don't buy it. a significant other? yes. birth of a child? yes. seeing the world? yes. the weekday grind and bills? meh.

After finishing up my bachelors I decided to call it with my NCAA career despite technically having two years of eligibility left. By the end of my career I was running very well, but I was also getting very depressed, very lonely outside of running because I dedicated all of my time to it, and extremely stressed out.

I decided to call it a career and start using my energy for track to start working on bettering myself outside of running. I got my sleep/social life right and that really started improving my mental health, and then me and an old highschool teammate ended up training for and running a marathon together.

Ive started training some highschool kids, and it’s reinvigorated my love for the sport and I’ve found myself training hard again. This time i’m feeling a lot better about it mentally though. I don’t feel pressured to perform and I know if I need to take time off I totally can, and I feel myself feeling much more motivated during workouts than I have in years.

If you want to be done, give it a break, you have years of high quality running potential left in you, and if there’s still a spark there the passion will come back.

I was a D3 scrub, but for what it's worth, I also completely phoned it in my senior year and I do regret it. However, you've probably had way more success than I ever did. I probably wouldn't regret it as much if my first three years had gone better.

when i re-read this, it sounds like it's about post-college more than college. i don't even consider that decision to be a debate from what i am reading. i get zero enthusiasm or belief you can make Big Things Happen professionally in sports. ok, you're done end of the season then. if you have a job, a fairly definitive idea that you either don't want to put in the work or it won't be enough. you then either run for fun or you transition to something else. QED. i changed sports in my 30s and wish i did it sooner. i got pretty good at my sport.

in terms of now, finish your bookend and take your accolades. you already have a job lined up which is one standard excuse for bailing early. that should actually ease the situation. quiting track because you'll soon be a working stiff is overrating working stiff life.

Just run less. 50 mpw is plenty.
You can have plenty of good running in the next 20-30 years if you want too.

Or you can stop and get fat in the next 10.
It's your choice.

If you have a chance at making NCAAs and the trials I think many people on here are super jealous of that talent and hard work you have put in and they would hate to see that go to waste. You have come to the site of "Has-Beens" or "Want-to-bes" some never put in the work other put in the work but don't have the talent so they would all love to be in your shoes or a few on here who made it to that level.

I am def a wish-I-was in this situation. 2 things I can say:
1. Don't live with the regret that you never tried to make NCAA's or the trials.
Or
2. at the end of the day the people you are around and truly love you will love you whether you hang up the spikes or not so quitting may be better for your mental health.

All that being said. You need motivation and you aren't finding it within yourself. If you can't do that for just 6 months at something you are one of the very best in the nation I am scared for you in your career where you aren't likely to be near that level at your company much less the metro area or nation. but maybe that's because I am very much a over performer at work because I am so self motivated.

One thing you can do is talk about this with your coach and teammates.. they may have you do something like skip indoor or take time off so you can refocus but IDK your coach they may not be too happy with this.

Maybe don't know it but there are others that aren't jealous of you but love you and love that you do whatever it is to the best of your ability and maybe this is enough motivation for you to keep doing it for just 6 more months to the best of your ability. That shows character of a great friend, a good future spouse, parent co-worker etc. Giving up right before the finish line also shows character. What do you want to be known as?

You won’t regret grinding out one last season. Then focus on your career for a few years. After a mental break of competitive running you may want to get back into it. You have another good 15 years to compete at a high level if you so choose. Bekele just ran 2:04 at age 41 for goodness sakes.

You’ll probably hate your job and want to quit but not be able to because of money

And you’ll try and get competitive with running again because it made you feel something more than whatever you are buying with that money and you’ll wish you tried when it mattered

There are good things that might happen too, you will probably meet someone you like and it will be fun to be young and (relatively) rich for a while. Hell you might even like your job and have one that matters but I doubt that’s super common.

Sounds like you answered your own question in that you don’t feel like doing the day to day work needed to achieve further success in running. And that’s absolutely okay.

You’ll realize soon after you enter the real world that whatever your coach/teammates think is irrelevant. After I graduated it took all of about a week to see that life on a college track team is pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things (although it felt like a huge deal during college).

Just finish the last semester strong so you don’t have regrets later and focus on making good memories with the team. Afterwards you’ll be happy you did and you can stop running 10-15 miles a day and focus on other opportunities both athletically and otherwise. If you were to keep running so much after college and with a full time job (coursework is NOT full time) you’ll soon realize you won’t have much capacity for other things that could enrich your life. Good luck.

You are so young, try not to be so 'all or nothing'. You may regain motivation 4 years from now and go on to have a running career you never imagined, but if you give up you won't know.