How many failed college runners make a comeback?

Dear Goose,

Some of the best runners I know, excel at the sport because they love the sport itself, not the glory that comes with it. Winning races and acknowledgment of success is just icing on the cake. Figure out what you love about the sport and you will do well at whatever level you compete. There is a reason Jim Ryun still runs local 10k's and doesn't care he can only take first in his age division.

P.S.

I lived and you died.

Tom Freaking Cruise

If you need coaching, post your e-mail.

I am one of those runners. Nationally ranked in high school, multiple time state champ, etc. Went to college and had terrible coaching. Quit, came back at another school for a year and ran very well in xc (all conference; all region; almost qualified for nationals individually), then terrible in track after coaches started running me down the same old path I told them not to (forcing me to run on injuries, do a bunch of hard interval training that has never worked for me, etc). I plan on writing about my experiences once I graduate this spring. I also plan on training on my own (something I've done with success before) and getting myself back into good shape, hopefully going 64:xx for half marathon and <13:50 on the track (guys I beat in cross country have run 13:5x and 14:0x).

Because 13:40s isn't really anything to write home about for the general fans out there when we have guys running <13:00, I probably won't get any notice from anyone besides my close running friends even if I succeed, but it will give me peace of mind and satisfaction knowing I did it and could have done it in college had I had a coach with common sense.

How did you end up running for not one but two coaches/programs that took you down the "same old path"?

Let me put it like this: If a girl tells me her last boyfriend was crazy, I sympathize. If a girl tells me all of her boyfriends have been crazy, well...

Anyway, good luck with your running! I hear the desire in your writing!!

It is not really a huge comeback from a great high school career, but I will share my 'comeback'. . .

My sophomore year of high school, cross country was going well - I won a number of my first races; nothing too fast, but 17:30 or so on relatively little training. Then I got hurt, and just did not really get better (knee injury).

The rest of high school, I didn't even break 5 minutes for a 1600. I managed about 10:20 for a 3200, but didn't ever have the speed to run much faster in a 1600.

In college, I ran about 4:40 my freshman year - which was a huge drop in time for me, but still nothing special. I gradually worked my way down to a 4:20 mile by my 4th year, and had a fifth year to do indoors again.

I trained like crazy, determined to get as close to 4 flat as possible - 100 mpw, 110 mpw, even 130 mpw. Then I got hurt - I still ran, but it was slower than before.

In all of 2010 and 2011, I did not PR at any distance. That was tough. Whenever I seemed close to a breakthrough, I would get hurt; coming painfully close to my best shape ever, only to have to start over a couple months later.

This spring, I have taken a longer term approach. I am still training hard, just about at focused as I have ever been. But I know I probably won't run 4 flat for a mile this year - and probably not next year. But after that, I have a chance, as long as I believe.

Just a few days ago, I ran 3:59 for a 1500 - my first PR in two and a half years.

It is worth it! Even if I don't run any faster, it is worth it - knowing I went for it.

Its very rare for any runner to quit and take even two years off and come back to even national class level. Some women have done it in the marathon later in life.

For men, I can't think of a single example. Some were great runners in high school, underwhelming in college, and had one great year later on, but never completely got away from competition and training. Jay Marden was a high school stud like that who had his best year 8 years later and ran 28:00. I doubt he ever truly quit.

I suppose Bill ROdgers is an example of quitting the sport and coming back at age 27 to become one of the top marathoners in the world. He was probably not training for 3 years in his early 20's.

honest question wrote:

How did you end up running for not one but two coaches/programs that took you down the "same old path"?

Let me put it like this: If a girl tells me her last boyfriend was crazy, I sympathize. If a girl tells me all of her boyfriends have been crazy, well...

Anyway, good luck with your running! I hear the desire in your writing!!

I understand that. The thing is, the first school I went to brings in a lot of talent, but very little goes on to run well there... I was one of 6 incoming freshman at School A. After two years, only 2 were left, and a year later one more quit too. The coach only cares about his number 1 guy and runs everyone else into the ground. I think we had more guys DNF at conference than we had finish. I think that should be pretty good evidence that the program was no good. I transferred to School B for reasons completely unrelated to running (other my just wanting to get the hell away from School A). School B just so happens to finish last or second to last in their conference just about every year. The training we did in xc was decent and I had no injuries, then when track came around our training changed to a lot more intervals, I got injured, and then I was harrassed to run on the injury which made it much worse and caused me to miss about 7 weeks of training. After my experience at School A, I didn't really have much patience for that by the time I was at School B and decided one year was enough.

And just fyi, I had a lot of say in my training in hs when I ran so well. My college coaches didn't seem to care about what had worked for me in the past and instead had me train radically differently (despite telling me otherwise while recruiting me for School A). I've trained on my own with success. I ran a faster 10k off of 7 weeks of training on my own than I have off of 12+ weeks of training here. I think most would agree nothing but 200s and 800s and completely neglecting long runs and thresholds isn't the best way to train for 10,000m, but maybe I'm wrong...

If you're interested in hearing specifics, I might consider posting my blog here in a few months.

I'm a male who didn't even break 11minutes for 3200m in high school

I came close to breaking 16min 5k recently

Got injured with sacral stress fracture, still injured

By letsrun standards I suck, but I love to run high mileage and push myself

My long term goal is a 2:30 marathon

Nobody who truly quits will make a comeback. Those who have made comebacks might have "gone away" for a while, but they were almost certainly still running or cross training or something in that time. To reach one's potential takes a TON of work and dedication. Anyone who quits has decided it's not worth it, and let me tell you from experience, once that happens, the door is closed. Only under extraordinary circumstances does it ever open again.

Summer sport wrote:

If you need coaching, post your e-mail.

What type of training would you have someone do who is grossly overweight and out of shape at this point?

Ummm...ever heard of Again to Carthage?

Ummm, ever heard of Bill Rodgers?

And those BYU runners from the 70s and 80s who would leave, not train, for two year missions?

Paul Cummings, Henry Marsh, Doug Padilla, Ed Eyestone were the most noteworthy. Lynn Jennings had a great high school career but did not run much in college and then tore it up for 10 or 12 years.

I guess it depends on how you define "stepping away" vs. quitting. Two years is a long time, but athletes have come back from that. Not many could do it after five years.

ummmmm, ever heard of jordan hasay?

oh wait - wrong thread. continue...

GooseIsDead wrote:

Summer sport wrote:

If you need coaching, post your e-mail.

What type of training would you have someone do who is grossly overweight and out of shape at this point?

Do you need, the coaching are not?

post college comebacks or big improvements for mediocre college runners can be done. The key is being patient, not pushing it too hard, too fast. If you're still in your mid 20s, great. You have over a decade to pr, probably longer than your running career has been going now.

And to the op, you don't need anecdotal advice. So what if no one has a good story about making big leaps post collegiately, doesn't mean it can't be done.

It doesn't really speak to the OP's question, but I toyed with the idea a year ago of starting up a "Second Chance TC" for this sort of thing. Only problem is, who would want to run for such a team that isn't trying to make a comeback?

Dan

Goose,

What's your running like now? How old are you? Where are you now in comparison to where you were when you were running/training seriously?

This site is a testament itself to people coming back to / staying with running.

GooseIsDead wrote:

Anyone have personal experience or know another runner who was able to get over their college slump and respark their passion for the sport? Any hope for guys like that?

After dying, Goose came back to life, and running as Anthony Edwards ran the NY Marathon just a few minutes over 4 hours in both 2009 and 2010. I was there in 2010-and witnessed the race as he DROPPED THE HAMMER on both Jared from Subway and the Chilean miner. So yes, there is hope-remember-just never leave your wingman.

Who is that Australian dude who went from being an overweight party boy to running ultra fast times? Also mad Len was out of the action for quite a while