What has been the low point of your running career?

This is a low point of life for me and not just running. Last April I was starting to get into my best ever condition after a 3 year on/off battle with constant injuries. Started getting stomach pains and cramps all the time, dismissed it as some sort of virus or food poisoning, but ended up two weeks later unable to eat or digest anything and in hospital for a few days on a drip. End result was a diagnosis of Crohn's disease, prescriptions for powerful and dangerous drugs, and a fear of never being able to run seriously again (the drugs that allegedly I needed for years would have caused arthritis/osteoporosis and considerably weakened the immune system). For the next month I was practically bed/couch-ridden aside form the odd jog/walk, struggled to eat and had great pain. Couldn't sleep properly either as the drugs caused severe nightsweats often. Fortunately natural treatments worked for me, and I got off the drugs and returned to good health quickly (was jogging again in July and racing in Nov). Since then I've been able to train at 140-145km a week with no setbacks and run pb's over 5k, 10k, and HM.

I always have to be vigilant with diet these days, but little frustrations day to day just don't faze me any more after going through that. Wouldn't wish it on anybody.

Today knowing that my marathon PR just got even further from the WR.

The low point for me is recent and it's realising after 10 years of track I don't want to make the sacrifices any more and I don't want to try to get back to how I was, and that it's unlikely I'll ever be as good as I was again, or as good as I could've been if, at my peak, I'd have avoided illness.

yesterday today and tomorrow

The lowest point was definitely getting a permanent injury as a 20-year-old senior and never being able to run again, never having achieved any of my (extremely) modest career goals of 2:00 for a half, 10:00 for a deuce, 60:00 for 10M, or 3:00 for a marathon.

The low point in my actual running? Maybe one of my last races, a club affair over the college five-mile course. It was my only opportunity to run the varsity course and I just wussed through it, with a time *well* over 30 minutes. Gack.

My last marathon: I went out fast on a warm & humid day to get around some people, then blew up and crawled the last 10K. I had PR's up to 20 miles, alas.

I also returned to hard running too soon and suffered the consequences, I had been doing ALL my running in racing flats at that time. I haven't been the same since.

I grind my teeth when I see the 'minimalist' threads.

Stopping running completely, gaining 50 lbs, losing energy and becoming a slug after high school before picking up running again in my mid-30s.

Realizing that the stuff about old age and mortality and pain and all that is really true.

My low point? How about this: Junior year in college. Win the first cross-country meet of the year against 150 runners. Getting beaten by teammates (two future Olympians included) for the first time ever the next three races, although running well. Coming down with tendonitis in my knee so badly that I couldn't run a step. Running the conference championship anyway, and finishing buried in 18th place, meaning our team (which coulda been a contenduh) not going to nationals. Six weeks of therapy: Bingo, can run again without pain. Go out and turn a 50-second 400 meters based on pool work. Three days later: Mononucleosis. Recover (sorta) and two weeks later: German measles. Feel like I'm running underwater for weeks. Last man pulled off the track in a Devil-Take-the-Hindmost mile at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Quit the team. Start training on my own. After nine weeks I return to the team, run a 4:10.0 mile in Seattle. Week later, run a 4:07.6 mile in the Big Meet at Stanford Stadium. Two weeks later, run a 4:26.0 mile and finish last at the conference championship. (Prefontaine passed me at 800 yards...) Season over. My annus horibilis.

Mr. "this was my living hell": I have Crohn's. I ran a 2:38 marathon a few years after spending two weeks in the hospital with a severe flare up. Since then, however, I've had ups and downs (currently on a down). Would you mind posting what natural remedies worked for you?

Dec 18 2001 leg injury. In 2002 I missed a track season for the first time in about 25 years. By 2003 I was struggling to be mid-pack in my running group. It was shocking, but really put things in perspective. We take a lot for granted. Since that injury, every year I've become stronger, with ups and downs within each year.

When I won nationals by only 25 meters. It was always at least 50.

Great thread. Mine would be the winter/spring after I graduated college. I was coming back from a hip injury, and using my poor fitness as an excuse to run half-assed. I'd skip workouts, decide I felt too tired after my warm-up, skip runs, etc. I felt like such a p*ssy. Got it back, though. Just takes time.

The day I realized that I had grown old and would never PR at any distance again. It's a hard thing to know. Enjoy your youth.

Wow. That sucks. Well in my short career through my freshman year I had one race that sucked. I go to a small AA, 3 year old school who's school record is 17:54 in the 5k (as of the start of the season). My first race was OK, I of course made the rookie mistake of going out way too fast. My second race was at the state course where I ran a 17:51 on 4 hours of sleep. Then I won a smaller race (about 15 schools) on a hard course in again, 17:51. Now, the next race we had was supposed to be a fast course. So coming off a win, I was pretty pumped for this race. The gun went off and I started out slow, around 5:45 for the first mile. I started to make my move in to the second pack a little after the mile mark. There was about 4 of us in the pack and one of which is from our local douche bag private school of whom I have beaten in every race. WE came to two mile at about 17:10 pace. Everyone else is paying the price for going out too fast while I'm cruising along waiting for the 800m mark to pull away. Then I start getting a slight pain in my shins. We go up a hill and my shins start to burn in pain. I feel like shrieking in pain but the rest of my body feels so good. I finally couldn't take the pain anymore and fell down and layed there for 10 seconds. My coached screamed at me to get back up, so I did and half-limped/half-walked the rest of the race. I came in at 18:30 and was really pissed. One of the guys from our pack got 17:16, which just made the situation worse. I could have run 17:10, but of course one little thing had to go wrong.

Allan Greaves wrote:

The day I realized that I had grown old and would never PR at any distance again. It's a hard thing to know. Enjoy your youth.

You could always make up your own distance like 1400m and PR in that.....

present wrote:

The lowest point was definitely getting a permanent injury as a 20-year-old senior and never being able to run again, never having achieved any of my (extremely) modest career goals of 2:00 for a half, 10:00 for a deuce, 60:00 for 10M, or 3:00 for a marathon.

The low point in my actual running? Maybe one of my last races, a club affair over the college five-mile course. It was my only opportunity to run the varsity course and I just wussed through it, with a time *well* over 30 minutes. Gack.

what is your injury?

You know, my knee has been on and off for the past year, and right now it's bad enough that all I can do is jog a couple miles a day. But whenever I start feeling pissed or sorry for myself I read the Jenny Crain updates and thank God for small favors and small injuries.

JimG wrote:

But whenever I start feeling pissed or sorry for myself I read the Jenny Crain updates and thank God for small favors and small injuries.

Yeah. I've been feeling sorry for myself for 30+ years, but at least I can walk to work and back (~ 5 miles). For how many people would that be the dream of a lifetime?

I'm pissed--still!--at not being able to run, but try to be thankful every day that I can get out and move around on my own. Believe me, I know that that could end at literally any second.