Am I the only person here who finds it difficult to enter races just for fun?

I'm much slower than I used to be. But, it still feels the same and I am just as competitive (within my AG). It's normal, I think.

I know a lot of people we would call hobby joggers and they love it just as much as I do but in a different way.

It's tough NOT to be competitive when you once were or started running that way.

There's no point in doing that.

If you aren't there to race, and race hard then go do a training run on your own time, free of charge.

I could do a race for fun if I were pacing a slower friend but short of that. Im just going for a run and avoiding all the mess.

I find races when not a peak fitness to be helpful in determining how may training is going and to guage my progress. Same deal when coming back from an injury. Of course, I would only show up to a race and run hard. I would never treat it like a training run. I cannot stand when people show up to a half marathon and do the first half at marathon pace and pick it up the second half. I race every race as hard as I can and then see where the chips fall.

That depends. I race almost every weekend. I classify races as A races, B races, and C races. I try to mix larger races and smaller races here and there. I only do A races once every 4-5 months. The B races are run to win...but I do not look at them as target races. C races are run usually at a hard effort...but not all out...more like a tempo run. These are usually the smaller races in which I still place well overall. Part of the reason that I race is to win...but there is more to it. I love the social part after a race and the whiole atmosphere. I do not think I would do hard workouts if I did not race. There would be little motivation to excel.