Loong ago there was this funny guy who wanted to be a big time sportsman ever since he was in high school.
He got involved with the right people, learned how to be pushy in the hallways, even did a bit of basketball in the winter and went out for field events in the summer. He was above average in looks so getting dates was never a hassle..a big plus in the sport world. He got good grades, was good to all his teachers and went to college where he did very well. He later got married and was a good family man. He still wanted to be a sportsman however so he stayed out late at night and that got to be too much for his family so he was one day without. He was sad for awhile but got over it and later did become a big time sportsman. He took up golf, tennis, pool, cards, horse racing. He later got to be around all the whoswhoo in the running world and soon was very knowledgeable on who was the best in that sport. This funny guy one day wanted to see what it was like to win a race so he began to train, and train, and train, until he lost 28 pounds, and could run 20 miles without feeling too bagged after. He was ready to try a race. He did that but came in last almost 2 minutes behind second to last guy. This 10 k race he tried, he found he had to run a lot faster than he wanted to just to keep up. You see he trained all the time by himself and had no idea about what it WAS like to run to win, to even pacing properly. It was all too new to him. He never got himself used to the lung burning feeling of honest effort. He thought because he had seen others do races and look like they were on a cakewalk he could do it too. His 20 mile runs took him near 4 1/2 hr. to do as he would take a lot of walk breaks with a lot of wind sprints at this baseball field he would pass by. Tempo, intervals hills he never ever thought about.
Sometimes it's not a good thing to have everything else in life come easy.
Maybe this funny guy should have got himself a coach.
He later remarried and now has two sons who run sub 2:10 marathons. Good genes?
His sons got coaches.
He should have been a songwriter as his major in college was music.