Why do so many great high school and college runners quit running after graduation?

either the fire burns or it doesn't. I had a college roommate who was a relucant runner at that point, but stuck it out for the 4 years. I knew he wasn't going to keep training and competing, post graduation. Others still wanted to improve, train and race, etc, and joined track clubs or kept training and racing to a high level. But, you are right, most pack it in. Real life gets in the way, too. It's not easy to keep going; it takes a real drive and dedication.

Why should someone run if they don't want to? Interests change.

Paul Osborn wrote:

Why should someone run if they don't want to? Interests change.

No one said they should. Why question is why would you want to?

Maybe it's just to do with the intensity and sheer amount of work you have to put in to get where you are. If you were a good D1 distance runner but realize you will never be an Olympian, would training moderately and winning the Challenge Diabetes 5K in 15:32, a minute ahead of the next guy, have much meaning to you? Sure, maybe you still run and enjoy it, but why kill yourself for the small competition most locales provide?

On the other hand, you see guys who were pretty average in college feel like they still have something to prove. Patrick Russell, for example, has become one of the top runners in Minnesota (except for the pros from Team USA-MN) from 8K to 100K.

Because jobs and life get in the way, and a lot of us aren't content to train 1/3 as much as we did in college and run 5k's 2 minutes slower than our PR's. Its easier to forget about running competitively and turn that competition gene towards a career.

Hard core runners after college tend to be 3 types of people:

1. Pros (not many)

2. Wannabe's who eke out a living believing they can drop a ton of time. These guys become assistant coaches until they are 37 then get a real job.

3. Old guys who were nothing in college but have time to run and like winning age groups

These last two groups are extremely annoying.

........................ wrote:

Hard core runners after college tend to be 3 types of people:

1. Pros (not many)

2. Wannabe's who eke out a living believing they can drop a ton of time. These guys become assistant coaches until they are 37 then get a real job.

3. Old guys who were nothing in college but have time to run and like winning age groups

These last two groups are extremely annoying.

...but not as annoying as the college runners who quit running and in their 40s talk about how fast they were... 20 years ago!

or as annoying as the fat lazy ones who no longer run but spend their time on letsrun.com all day.

. . . . . . . . . . . ¿ wrote:

or as annoying as the fat lazy ones who no longer run but spend their time on letsrun.com all day.

wait, that's me.

oh, well. i think the brief responses so far have been pretty spot on. some people find enjoyment in road racing at slower times than they ran in college, others find enjoyment in running 10-20 miles per week just for exercise, others turn to other sports such as cycling or add to their running (i.e. triathlon, duathlon).

running is not a "game" sport. nor is it really a skill sport. if you don't put in the practice time, your ability to do well rapidly declines. a top 3-point shooter in college will probably be able to pick up a basketball at any time in his life and shoot fairly well. a top miler has to keep training to maintain his, for lack of a better word, "ability". it makes it more difficult to dabble in running every once in a while. if you're not going to run at least 3-4 times per week, it's not too much fun in general.

the other thing is that you get used to running with teammates. that largely disappears after college.

What about me? 1) I'm not a pro2) I have a real career3) I had a fair amount of success in college (D3 AA, sub-31 10k, sub-15 5k)I still get out and pound the pavement for 70-80 miles a week and compete on the weekends. Maybe I'm the exception to the rule?

........................ wrote:

Because jobs and life get in the way, and a lot of us aren't content to train 1/3 as much as we did in college and run 5k's 2 minutes slower than our PR's. Its easier to forget about running competitively and turn that competition gene towards a career.

Hard core runners after college tend to be 3 types of people:

1. Pros (not many)

2. Wannabe's who eke out a living believing they can drop a ton of time. These guys become assistant coaches until they are 37 then get a real job.

3. Old guys who were nothing in college but have time to run and like winning age groups

These last two groups are extremely annoying.

you ask two different questions in your post. the first one i don't agree with. i don't think there are all that many "great" runners who quit running. the second - why do they stop competing - is a fairly easy one to answer and already has been: it ain't all that much fun to get your ass handed to you in a race or to run significantly slower than you did in your prime. in college, you could pretty much focus on running and still do all those other things in your life well. after college, all those other things in your life multiply and become more time-consuming. devoting the requisite time and effort becomes harder. so you ramp it down. many of the "great" runners you reference probably can still churn out times that are in the top few percent of road racers: but what's running sub-16:00 when we've tasted sub-14:00? it's hard to adjust expectations.

The big reason is the decrease in pay. If you were fortunate enough to get a full ride, that is worth about 100k. Running 4 years in high school and another 4 years in colege averages out about 12k a year. How many runners can make 12k a year running after college?

In basketball, a much higher percentage keep playing after college. The reason being that they can make very good money playing in any number of countries. Their are former Buckeyes (not even real good players) currently playing in aboout 8 different countries.

If a moderately good runner could make even 20k a year after college, you would see many more competing.

rippy cripple wrote:

The big reason is the decrease in pay. If you were fortunate enough to get a full ride, that is worth about 100k. Running 4 years in high school and another 4 years in colege averages out about 12k a year. How many runners can make 12k a year running after college?

In basketball, a much higher percentage keep playing after college. The reason being that they can make very good money playing in any number of countries. Their are former Buckeyes (not even real good players) currently playing in aboout 8 different countries.

If a moderately good runner could make even 20k a year after college, you would see many more competing.

If you don't run because you don't get paid, that's sad.

Naturally with full time jobs and live you can't train as hard as you did when you were in college and on a team. So you will be slower, but why give up the sport of racing?

If you loved the sport you would still train, push yourself and race. If you only raced for the money then you quit. If you only loved the winning but not the training and racing then you will quit. If you are uncomfortable running a race and not being at the very front of the pack then you quit.

If you love the sport, and you love training and competing, even though you might be slower you still race.

That's the way I see it.

I ran two cross seasons at a division One school before deciding to transfer schools and decided to not continue running at the new school. I was far from being the best and I knew that division 2 would have suited me better but I decided to go to a major uni. I improved a lot from high school but decided that I don't want to be competitive anymore and to just go out and run without any pressure. So far I've missed running with teammates but I can now go to sleep on my own time and run on my own time and I like it that way. Most importantly, I now have much more time for studying and I sure won't miss 6:30 am practices.

As someone who's 8 years of competitively running for a school is up in may, I'm starting to wonder what else do people use to keep motivated? I could probably run 80 miles a week with a full time job and still maybe improve some, but is it worth it when I could run half that and still win weekend road races? I guess I'm wondering what kind of opportunities are out there for the semi-competitive people. How exactly does the track club system work?

i'm glad you started a thread where you asked a question, proceeded to answer it yourself, and decide that no other view is correct.

chuck d wrote:

i'm glad you started a thread where you asked a question, proceeded to answer it yourself, and decide that no other view is correct.

Why else would you start a thread other than to show your superior knowledge on some topic?

i guess. it just seems odd to be so adamant about something that is obviously quite personal to people.

running is not all about competing against others but, much moreso than other sports, competing against yourself. if i'm interested in winning, i can still find races in which to do that. but that's not what i'm interested in - why would it be? we race largely to improve our times. but that is certainly impossible for me at this point. the problem is finding something to motivate yourself and reorienting yourself to lower performance expectations. both are difficult to accomplish. one race that i do each year is the jp morgan corporate challenge. i can get myself interested in that because it's not all about me: i'm competing on a team again. reorienting yourself is harder to do - most "older" runners i've spoken to who have dealt with this say it becomes easier as you get older. when you're in your twenties or early thirties, you still feel like you could train at that high level and run fast; but the older you get, the less real that potential becomes and you can get excited about running times slower. but, right now, i can't get excited about running minutes off my college times - so why pay $30 for the privilege of racing when i can go outside whenever i want and enjoy a run? racing in the local 5K isn't what running is all about.

Well, you are definetly annoying, so you meet that qualification. And you seem to think sub 15 is close to being elite, so you meet the wannabe criteria.

Give me your real income, and I'll let you know if you have a real career.

kaitainen wrote:

it makes it more difficult to dabble in running every once in a while. if you're not going to run at least 3-4 times per week, it's not too much fun in general.

You hit the nail on the head. Anyone who has ever tried running "occasionally" knows that it is no fun at all. Good high school and college runners get used to being able to cruise along fast and feel good, and no matter how fast you have been, you don't retain the ability to feel good running for very long at all.

To the original poster who seems to think that loving the sport = continuing to compete, I couldn't disagree more. I loved and still do love running, but I have chosen (well, not exactly chosen-- a very bad injury had something to do with it as well) to coach rather than run competitively myself. It's impossible to promote a love of the sport via coaching well while also training to your potential, especially if you are working a full-time job in addition to coaching. I don't think that coaches are any less in love with running than those who compete.

Additionally, training hard is a selfish lifestyle. I mean this as a neutral fact, not as a criticism. You spend a lot of time out running, doing strength exercises, icing, resting, traveling to races, etc. Some people choose life paths that for whatever reason-- career, family-- simply don't leave enough time to do all that training comfortably. I know that someone will reply to this with "You can always make time if running is a priority," but for many people, running at a high level is simply not worth giving up an extra hour with their kids or whatever else in life they love. Even if competitive running is no longer part of someone's day, they can still cherish a love of the sport.