What were your biggest misconceptions about running when you started?

My dad asked me last year (before I was a runner) what I thought I could run for a mile. I knew that 4 was pretty good (lol) so I gave myself a 4:30 (thought I was being modest).

A year later and I'm about 90m away from the finish line 4:30 into a mile.

Oh well, ports do it this year...

RUN HARD EVERYDAY TO GET BETTER

i never thought i would love it so much or that i would still be doing it some 30 years later

i never thought i would love it so much or that i would still be doing it some 30 years later

Not mine but it is funny. A friend of my father (60 yrs old) wanted to take up running. He thought that whenever you start your run you must do it from blocks. Like sprinters do. So even if you go for a jog in a park you start your jog from the blocks like you were running 100m race.

As others have said, I think my biggest misconception was the idea that running eventually gets easier. In other words, I thought that the top runners were not straining at all and that they could easily run 4:15 miles, etc. I was not happy when I found out this was not the case.

That all distance runners are skinny waifs, and that none of the distance running women have nice racks.

That hard core distance runners were almost always friendly. I held that belief from my first days of serious running in the Indian summer of 1996 until roughly the spring of 2008, when I discovered the letsrun.com messageboards.

My high school team was solid, but not spectacular. We were probably the 20-25th best team in the division regarding the entire state. I recall that everyone in our top 5 made a conscious effort to get the runs in that our coach prescribed for us. We did everything he asked for a maybe a bit more and for some reason we just could not attain the level to be a competitive team at the state meet. (Our team never did qualify.) We would always observe in awe when we raced competitive teams at bigger invitationals, and we would wonder day in and day out how some particular teams always managed to be contending for a top ten team finish at state.

At first I just thought some teams were insanely lucky with the people they got, but over time I realized that there was no way these specific teams could compete so well year after year.

The epiphany was that you need to run more than 25 MPW, which is what our team had been stuck at for literally decades with an old and aging coach. My biggest misconception was that genetics are an end-all determinant to how good you can become. Our top individual on the team who was stuck at 16:30 for 2 years and it was my belief that he had reached his ultimate plateau that could never be broken. I didn't realize that to get better you had to differ your training intensity or volume.

this here wrote:

My biggest misconception was that genetics are an end-all determinant to how good you can become.

So . . . what's your 5000 PR, if you don't mind my asking?

RE: What were your biggest misconceptions about running when you started?

That I would make the Olympics?

Magnolia Rd. would be an easy run.

Cantaloupe in the Safari wrote:

I should PR in every race I ran

Every high school kid still thinks this!

SlipperyPete13 wrote:

As others have said, I think my biggest misconception was the idea that running eventually gets easier. In other words, I thought that the top runners were not straining at all and that they could easily run 4:15 miles, etc. I was not happy when I found out this was not the case.

Well, they aren't straining to run 4:30 pace; and 5:30 pace is pretty easy if you are a 12:xx guy....so I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at, unless you mean that you thought that running a race became easier as you were more fit.

I started running in 8th grade which was right after watching the Barcelona Olympic marathon. I thought all races were going to be a huge pack until the end. A few seconds into my first cross country race I realized how wrong I was.

I thought running a marathon would be really hard.

That I could beat everybody else if I tried hard enough.

That I needed to run fast every day to get fast.

That my physiology was suited to that of an endurance athlete.

Honestly, the only misconception I had when I started was that "running is boring." And, that was only in my head because some stupid human being had said that when I said I was going to go for a run (summer training for my HS frosh year of XC.)

And it was boring, for about 5 minutes, when I thought "geez, this IS boring," lol, and then my next thought was "Well, I'm going to have to find a way to make it not boring, how could I do that?"

And the next thought, or the answer that came into my mind was...was the answer...and running was never boring again.

If you don't know the "answer," then maybe you aren't meant to be a runner.

I would say, that the greatest misconception that is perpetrated out there, is "work hard and you can make it," and other rote positive thinking, well meaning, actually shallow pieces of advice.

Rote optimism is better than rote pessimism, today, however, with all the sports science we have etc., I actually respect runners who had their VO2max and everything else tested...and decide to run for fun and fitness and not for dreams.

As I've said before, pursuing glory or success in running is about the stupidest thing you could do -- the odds of success are about the lowest of any endeavor you could think of. Your potential is 100% determined by your genetic luck.

On the other hand, I got good enough to compete in Europe for one season, if I hadn't "dreamed the dream," who knows if I would have ever gotten to Europe -- a trip that widened my worldview and led to many more trips.

So I don't regret it; I do in retrospect wish there had been more realism around me in my early days and era (which I think there is today, due to such a greater access knowledge etc.) HS coaches, teammates, friends, all well meaning etc., putting the Olympic dream in you at say age 14...is very unrealistic.

Another way to put it is, I think there are a lot of, say, high school 2:00min 800 meter runners who work as hard as the few sub 1:50 high school 800 meter runners.

Another aspect, something others have mentioned before, is that when they started out running they wanted to be good at X and discovered their best ability was at Y.

I've seen guys and girls start out wanting to be good at the 400 and ending up in the 1600 (or the 3200 in case of one girl.). I knew a guy who wanted to be a 5,000 runner only to find himself breaking 50. in his 4th 400 race.

Run for the love of running, is the best plan.

Fate/Genetics/Luck will take care of the rest. Yes, hard work and proper training are important. I think more people work hard than this board tends to give credit. Yes there are always examples of people who weren't really working hard, then do, and have breakthroughs, but I think most kids, the majority, do the work put before them and do their best. ("Proper training," does include both working hard and the guidance to not over work, and to recover etc.)

This was actually a very good question, and one of the most under discussed topics about running: Misconceptions.

Since so few people can make it to the elite level, let alone make a national or Olympic team -- the best goal to have is to protect both your outlook on running, and your running health, so you can have running as a life long fitness or health endeavor.

Good Luck!

A Duck wrote:

Honestly, the only misconception I had when I started was that "running is boring." !

I just ran close to 40 miles and I was bored out of my mind for parts of the run.