First, I need to distinguish between running for competitive sport and running for exercise. Like many of you, I was once a competitive runner and I wouldn't trade my experience for anything. It's running merely for the purposes of recreation, or, worse, for health and fitness, that I am opposed to.
Many former competitive athletes cling to running for irrational emotional reasons and allow it to occupy a much larger part of their lives long after it ceases to have any actual value in terms of setting personal bests, winning competitions, qualifying for championship meets, getting scholarship money, etc. In other words, long after it has any actual purpose.
Others run obsessively under the mistaken belief that the activity provides great health and fitness benefits. The reality being that it has modest health benefits while at the same time posing seroius health RISKS and that the benefit/risk ratio of running is drastically inferior to that offered by strength training.
I was forced to quit running in 2005 after developing a permanent derangement of my patellofemoral joint. It took me several years to get over the loss because I was truly devoted to running despite having been a mediocre amateur runner at best. I eventually took replaced running as a way of life with strength training as a way of life and the results are so much more satisfying that I now consider the knee injury to be a blessing rather than a tragedy. It broke the hold on my mind that running had and forced me to find another way of life.
After two years of hard weight training, I look and feel far better than I did during my running years. I look at older men and women in the gym who lift weights seriously and they are far more attractive and healthy looking than the older runners in their 40s, 50s and beyond who typically appear absolutely gaunt and sick by comparison. Sure the activity keeps you skinny and allows you to eat a lot and pound beers without gaining weight, but you still don't look good at all unless you have some muscle covering your skeleton. That goes for women as well as men. I can't believe I ever found running women attractive (apart from a few exceptions) having seen the bodies produced by weight training.
Anyway, I still post here to follow the goings on in the track world, but I'm convinced that running has very little value outside the context of competitive track and field and cross country. From reading the posts here over the years, it's obvious that many of the regulars are very maladjusted in real life, and use running as an escape or an antidepressant. A lot of runners have a cynical, defeatist view of life in general, and adopt a degrading view of themselves (as evidenced by all the degrading handles on here) and of man in general.
One thing I've noticed while posting on weight training boards is that the regulars there seem so much happier and confident in themselves in general than the regulars on the running boards. The contrast is striking. The bodybuilders are generally far less prone to bitch and moan about their problems, and seem to be far more confident in their ability to stand on their own feet and survive a tumultuous economy than the posters here. They are far less stressed out in general.
So to end my rant and avoid making this post any longer than it already is, if your glory days are over, you're still clinging to your running hobby and you think your life sucks in general, consider dropping running and picking up a weight instread. I know it's not an easy pill to swallow but at least consider an alternative to your current lifestyle.