The "I coulda been a contender, but . . ." Thread

Genetics

Poor coaching.

We didn't know what we were doing back in the day...

Better knowledge now... Either for finding a good coach, or being informed enough about training methods.

Doesn't matter what your excuse is, Injuries aren't stopping our top dogs today, Talent didn't slow down Lindgren or Pre from running in the Olympics.

Varied interest,Girlfriends,jobs,family are all excuses that are used by people who never really had their heart into doing anything outside of highschool/college.

In the end the story is the same, you aren't a contender because you didn't have the desire or the worth ethic required to contend.

o.O wrote:

Injuries aren't stopping our top dogs today

Really? Have you followed the careers of Webb, Ritz, Fernandez, Solinsky?

o.O wrote:

In the end the story is the same, you aren't a contender because you didn't have the desire or the worth ethic required to contend.

All the desire in the world couldn't get me under 63 seconds for a 400m.

Everyone has physical limitations.

I find that hard to believe.

samesie wrote:

I find that hard to believe.

Of course. There are millions of people that could get off their couch right now and run a 60 second quarter. None of them can understand why I can't, because it's easy for them.

I can speak 12 languages. I find it hard to believe when people can only speak 3 or 4. They must be lazy, or dumb or something. Right?

My training was so bad and so badly organized that in retrospect I'm amazed I never ended up with a serious injury. I don't think I would have been that good even with better training, but I could have been a lot better than I was if I trained smarter and harder.

Lack of work ethic and dedication, plain and simple. I was often injured as well, but that's just because I was too lazy and aloof to go through the proper healing process. In college I had recurring hamstring issues, and my coach told me I needed to be going to the trainers every day for rehab, but instead I would just ditch that and goof off. Then I'd come back to practice after a few weeks and tell him it was all better. Lo and behold, it wasn't long before I re-injured myself. And even when I was relatively healthy, I would ditch practice frequently. It was truly a wonder that I wasn't kicked off the team.

I don't necessarily think I had the talent to be an Olympian, but I fully believe I had enough to go to NCAAs and perhaps even be an All-American if I had worked hard enough to fulfill my potential. Pitiful waste of time and talent. Nothing I can do about it now except use it as a cautionary tale when I see young people wasting their talent like I did.

I could have been a contender, but then i took an arrow to the knee...

Charles Nonhomogenous wrote:

I can speak 12 languages. I find it hard to believe when people can only speak 3 or 4. They must be lazy, or dumb or something. Right?

12 languages!? Impressive. You need to contact poster Ghost and start your own linguist/translation business. That guy also speaks a number of quirky languages.

I just had no idea what it took. When I was 16 I ran 9 flat for 3km of off two interval sessions a week and maybe a 20 min run here and there - I thought I had tons of talent and thought I was training hard at the time. I figured I would be a star in no time.

All through HS I played five or six sports, had a job, studied, had a GF - kept running 20 to 30kms a week and wondered why I was not progressing as much as I wanted.

Managed to keep running in university - got the miles up here and there, but always ended up taking weeks off at a time to study or go on a road trip, or whatever. I ended up with PBs of 8:30 and 3:50 but I always wonder what could have been. That said I had a hell of a lot of fun and my life would be no different if I ran 8flat.

Dedication. Plain and simple. I didn't want it bad enough and found other activities more interesting.

o.O wrote:

Doesn't matter what your excuse is, Injuries aren't stopping our top dogs today, Talent didn't slow down Lindgren or Pre from running in the Olympics.

Varied interest,Girlfriends,jobs,family are all excuses that are used by people who never really had their heart into doing anything outside of highschool/college.

In the end the story is the same, you aren't a contender because you didn't have the desire or the worth ethic required to contend.

This has got to be the dumbest and most self-serving post I have ever read. Pure Crap fried in the urine of an idiot! Another poster already pegged the stupidity of the injury argument. Next, Lindgren and Pre didn't have talent? Really??? How many people can do the 30-40 workout Pre did? It takes talent on a level that Most don't have...it has nothing to do with desire. Absurd!

And all those other excuses are not good reasons for not being solely dedicated to running (assuming they had sufficient talent)??? do you think everyone who has talent is a die-hard running enthusiast with nothing else to do but run??? Sorry, but life has much more to offer than reaching the pinnacle of competition. Absolute BS! and BTW, it is possible to have many, varied interests and still have a huge passion and dedication to running. That doesn't guarantee success.

And to your last foolish claim, you seem to be saying...ALL...non-contenders simply didn't have a solid enough work ethic. That is a simpleton's view!! If you're trying to run the 1500 at a world class level, Work ethic isn't squat if you cant run a 200 faster than 28 seconds because you DON'T HAVE THE SPEED to do it.

You, Sir, are a raging IDIOT!!!

This guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JOEPYtCq7k

Everyone is good at something, they don't tell you not everyone can be great at something

It took me 10 years of steady training to win one race!

If you do indeed speak 12 languages, then that is very impressive indeed.However, how many do you speak at a fluent or even a graduate school level?That ghost guy acts like the s--t, saying that he\'s fluent in Spanish and has \"no problem\" in expressing himself when he clearly is not that good at it. And this is coming from a guy that\'s spent a good amount of time abroad in Spanish speaking countries and was one of the top Spanish majors at his very large, big ten college. I\'ll take native/near-native knowledge of English, Spanish, and, say, Chinese Mandarin over the same level of knowledge in 10 tiny languages.

Charles Nonhomogenous wrote:

samesie wrote:

I find that hard to believe.

Of course. There are millions of people that could get off their couch right now and run a 60 second quarter. None of them can understand why I can\'t, because it\'s easy for them.

I can speak 12 languages. I find it hard to believe when people can only speak 3 or 4. They must be lazy, or dumb or something. Right?

Ghost used to pop up from random places in the Middle East and Asia, so I'd bet he speaks more than Spanish fluently.

No he doesn't. I've seen his writing in Spanish and he only spent like 2 months in Mexico. That's NOT enough time at all to be REALLY good. It sucks compared to my Spanish and I haven't spoken much in the last 4 years. To be fair, my Spanish used to be extremely good for a non-native speaker.His writing had all kinds of mistakes, not just grammatical errors seen from the view of academic writing but misuse of colloquial words. If you are truly good at a language you should be able to have proper word diction and choose the appropriate word based on the situation. Denotation does not equal connotation.

linguists unite wrote:

Ghost used to pop up from random places in the Middle East and Asia, so I'd bet he speaks more than Spanish fluently.

i f'ed around and partied a ton first 3 years of college.. then i f'in balled it up as a senior. no big deal