What were your biggest misconceptions about running when you started?

I was the only person running out on the roads. It was 1968. The only other runners I saw were at the local tracks.

Was I wrong.

That running clubs would have hot girls, and that since I was running under 15:30 at the time, I'd meet them and get laid often.

I used to think it would be dangerous to run on the roads but it turns out it's pretty safe

For those that state they worked hard or out worked their competition but never reached the level of being "fast" ...I would love to know specifics of your training. My assumption is that you were not working as hard as you thought or you were doing things very wrong. Provide some details.

I decided out of nowhere to go for a 5 mile(‽) run, thinking it would be easy. I was 13 years old and didn't finish.

That the ladies were interested in me because I was a good runner. Turns out it was because I was hot.

POD!

Flagpole wrote:

That the ladies were interested in me because I was a good runner. Turns out it was because I was hot.

. . . wrote:

POD!

Flagpole wrote:

That the ladies were interested in me because I was a good runner. Turns out it was because I was hot.

Thanks, brother!

That I would become be thrust into stardom with an excellent D1 program.

RacingtheCantaloupe wrote:

Trainability. I assumed all were born equal, and the hardest workers were the fastest.

The Republican fallacy in today's economy

That a mid-pack hobby jogger like me would remain that way at races and in the results, rather than rise despite performances that were treading water (or having the usual age-decline).

When I started at the tail end of the first running boom, there were a lot more and a greater percentage of faster runners. Sub-7 paces can put me in the 90th percentile of finishers nowadays.

When I ran my hometown 5-miler for the first time in 33 years, it was really disappointing to see a mid-30s guy win in just under 29 minutes. There were only 3 high school kids running it, and only one broke 6:30 pace.

A silver lining is the quality of top-end females at my local races are better than they were in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

I was also clueless. I was the only boy in middle/high school when we played "tag" could catch the girls. I was also one of the near bench warmers in basketball, football and baseball. When I started running in H.S. it took four months to make it real - place in the States. The next year State Champion. No more playing with any sport round balls.

That 22:00 was a pretty good time for a 5k and anything under 6 minutes for 1 mile was fast (5 minutes was superhuman).

Critical Thinking wrote:

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?

When I say end-all, I am referring to the concept that no matter how much more you train, you reach this "blockade". I'm talking about training at low levels, such as 25 MPW and not ridiculously high levels like 150 MPW. An individual on our team didn't bother to increase his training load and was stuck at 16:30. For some reason, I was under the impression that he was at his max fitness. It didn't cross my mind that you could train "more" or "smarter" and achieve better results. It wasn't until he undertook a collegiate training regimen that his times dropped further.

I understand where you're getting at, but you misinterpreted my comment.

My high school PR was 17:03 on 20 MPW. I thought I was stuck there for eternity. I hadn't come to grasp the idea of "training more."

Under a collegiate training regimen I proceeded to run 15:55.

Similar to others...I had no concept of mileage. The summer before my Senior year of HS, in prepping for a season of 5K XC races, I would run 2-4 miles hard for five days a week and expected to be a state level runner. The longest run we ever did was 5.5 miles and I just thought it was a marathon! Nobody in my life, including my coach, advised me that training longer distances at a slower pace would be beneficial. Needless to say, I improved a lot post-HS.

Okay, fair enough.

When I first started running in 8th grade I didn't understand the concept that the act of running could eventually be easy. I thought every run was going to be like that first week where your throat burned and you got side stitches constantly. I also thought that all the "athletic" kids who were good at baseball and basketball were going to be the best runners too.

Later on as a high schooler, I thought if I worked hard enough I could eventually beat anyone regardless of talent and I thought huge improvements would keep coming year after year. When I ran 10:09 for 3200 as a freshman and "knew" I'd be sub-9 by the time I left. ... When I graduated with only a 9:30 and didn't even make the state meet in that event, I realized that's not how it works.