At What Point Did You Give Up On Your Dream Of Being A Great Runner?

I respect the process more than I respect anyone's times. I've seen plenty of really talented individuals who do the minimum and still run faster than others who eat, sleep, and breath running.

I don't care if you're qualifying for nationals or running an 11 minute 2 mile, if it's not about exploring your personal limits then you're focusing on aspects of running that really shouldn't matter all that much.

I think it was five weeks ago.

Joel salatin has a book, you can farm, to paraphrase his message- if farming is your dream what are you doing about it right now? Don't have the resources then do you have a backyard? A porch? How about a windowsill?

If running is where your heart is then times, doubt, injury, talent shouldn't have any bearing on its pursuit. Nothing should.

I hung them up recently not because i wasn't getting where i wanted to be, but because I no longer possessed the desire to put in the sacrifice to chase them. Instead I'm putting my energy into a different frivolous thing that i willingly and unhesitatingly give too much energy to. It's all about the heart.

I never gave up, and I became one.

When I was in 8th grade I ran 4:52 in the mile and 55 seconds for an open 400m. Ever since then I have always had ambitions of running a fast mile. I looked at Alan Webb's progression chart and saw he had run 4:52 as an 8th grader and just knew one day I could be as fast as he was. I was surrounded by people who thought I was very talented and put a lot of pressure on me to perform.

Through my HS career I slowed. I let the pressure of being good as a younger runner create anxiety and high expectation. When I ran I under performed. I had flashes of being descent running 4:36 as a sophmore. I only dropped down to 4:27 by my senior season.

In college I performed poorly running 1:55 for 800m and 3:59 for 1500m as a junior. My senior year I trained very well in the fall and was ready to have one of my best seasons. The anxiety I had run with for 8 years had begun to dissipate. I was seeing a sports psychologist and had begun training with a new coach. The sky seemed as if it was the limit for me. Off of just mileage and a few tempos I won a tactical mile beating some pretty good runners running 4:17 indoor closing in 59 the final 400m. It was the first indoor meet in January. I had high hopes for the remaining season. I had only done one track workout and knew with a few weeks of interval training I would be ready to run 4:10-12ish in the mile.

The week before my final race I began to feel very weak and my training began to suffer. I was diagnosed with an auto immune disease a few weeks later and did not get to compete the rest of indoor or that outdoor season. Over the next three years I half heartedly ran.

I am now 26 years old. About 6 months ago I got a job that allows me to train at a high level. After a few consistent months of training I have suddenly become more fit than I have ever been. That thought of running a fast mile suddenly re-enters my mind. I am going to attempt to run under 4:10 this spring. When I do then I will attempt to run sub 4:05 the following year and sub 4:00 the year after. Running 4:52 in the mile as an 8th grader was a negative thing for me it created expectation and anxiety. But running 4:52 as a 13 year old also showed great talent. As we say on letsrun "talent never goes away," neither should a dream. If you keep improving year after year why stop? I may not have the potential to be a sub 4:00 miler but I have had a dream of being a sub 4 miler since I was 13. When I train for a year and can't get any better I will then stop. Until then I will enjoy the journey and not worry about what the end result might be until I get there.

In my late 30's and still haven't broken 5 for the mile - still haven't given up the dream.

I agree with cmosub4. I think you continue to try as long as you enjoy the journey. I think you can prolong that enjoyment and continue to spark that journey by taking more time off between seasons as you grow older. Respite from the physical and mental toll that your body takes from training can be very refreshing and reboot your motivation. If you're feeling rough, take as long as you need to start feeling good again. It becomes more difficult as you leave organized school sports. Many begin to lose that identity of being "the runner" and thus lose motivation for running. There have been a few who have taken years off and come back as national class runners (*if I'm not mistaken, Scott Wietecha of TN did this.). As an old coach I had used to say to those who wouldn't run over the summer and who complained of not having time to, "You make time for what you love."

runfrancisco wrote:

In my late 30's and still haven't broken 5 minutes for the mile - still haven't given up the dream.

Same here.

Never give up, never surrender -- Galaxy Quest

When I realised that my appetite for food gets the better of my discipline again and again.

If great means getting to the Olympics, then after my freshman track season where my 3200m pr was 13:02. I was able to become a decent runner so at least I salvaged something.

When I worked my butt off for years just to get pneumonia when it mattered. It was not just once but a few times I would get in great shape and get to my racing season and get some sort of flu or respiratory illness. I now run when I feel like it and train when I feel like it. It's good to keep some sort of running in your life but it doesn't have to be hard core. You are probably the only person that cares about your running. So if you don't like it, take some time off and regroup.

I understand where you're coming from. Im kind of in the same place at the moment, although Im not injured or anything like that and my health is the best its ever been. So my reasons for knocking training and racing on the head arent because Im sick of ill health or injuries, its because I want to do more with my life than just be a runner. To get anywhere in athletics or any sport you have to give it a lot of time and effort and for me thats come at a very high cost. A cost that I was willing to pay for a while but for whatever reasons something inside of me has decided enough is enough its time to live my life. And thats nothing to do with the vacant party lifestyle, I did all that before Ii even took up running seriously. For me its about being authentic and doing the things that make me happy. And if theres one thing I've learned its that putting all your energy and life into one thing is a sure fire way to making yourself unhappy. Life is meant to be lived in a balanced way, just like mr Miyagi said. Physically and mentally and I know I could be a really good runner at the sharp end of things, so its not about admitting failure or that Im not good enough. For me its not worth giving your life or your happiness for.

mettooo wrote:

When I worked my butt off for years just to get pneumonia when it mattered. It was not just once but a few times I would get in great shape and get to my racing season and get some sort of flu or respiratory illness. I now run when I feel like it and train when I feel like it. It's good to keep some sort of running in your life but it doesn't have to be hard core. You are probably the only person that cares about your running. So if you don't like it, take some time off and regroup.

Did you ever consider that working your butt of is what got you sick every time? Maybe you just repeatedly overtrained.

good story.

just because you ran fast as a young kid doesn't necessarily mean you are talented. could just mean you were a early developer. a common mistake people make.

the glory is in the going for it, no matter your talent or previous level.

the dream is the process and the pursuit. don't do it because you were talented, do it because you love the pursuit of excellence.

When I graduated college.

Priorities change.

I have picked up new hobbies. Running WAS a big part of a way of life. I'm glad I went as far as I did, but it would have been foolish to think I was going to the Olympics or even USAs.

The OP is Wejo or Rojo, right?

When I realized there was a sport called speed golf.

For me, it all pointed towards the year that I turned 26, which was an Olympic year.

That's when I was going to stop.

And that's when I did stop full time training.

So I didn't give up on a dream of being great, it just didn't happen in the time that I had allotted.

And I wasn't going to get much better from there.

The end of freshman year in college when I ran 4:20 in the mile and realized partying / drinking a lot / meeting tons of awesome non-runners was way more enjoyable than devoting my life to running 10 seconds faster in the mile.

prefan wrote:

Thanks, webfoot. I will take your advice and ignore ksosi. He's obviously an idiot troll, probably 40 years old, single, still living in his mother's basement, and unemployed. Gets his jollies out of anonymously calling strangers "weak" when he's as weak as one can be. Great criticism, that - "weak" LOL. We can all see who the weak one is.

Thanks again webfoot, sorry to hear injuries forced you out, I was lucky to never have to deal much with injury.

-prefan

From the two people's names above, I am reminded of the running scene around Eugene in the late 70s/80s. It was crazy. I would sit in my dorm and see the amazing talents of the Ducks and AW runners running to or from Hayward. Then there were the next tier of runners. Not quite the Salazars, Chapas or McChesneys, but those that desperately wanted to keep that dream alive. In high school, I had always visualized racing amongst the U of O and WSU runners, but it was somewhere then as I hammered my training runs probably a minute a mile slower than those guys that I fully realized that my days of greatness would be measured by a different scale.