10 hours max wrote:
Running is one of the only sports where training time is so limited by injury risk. In every other endurance sport 10 hours per week would be light...for a 13 year-old. Decent swimmers are physically IN THE POOL for four hours A DAY from their teens onward.
So your "dedication" is pretty piddling, really.
What a great thread! It's true that most of us runners don't actually spend as much time doing the sport/hobby/activity as people do in actual "skill" sports. And our time spent running is nothing in comparison to anyone who "burns the candle at both ends" to become a great musician. Think of all the people who have ambitions to be great writers. How many succeed? And yet they just keep trying, and they have big dreams. So many of us runners have big dreams of winning that state championship, getting that four-year athletic scholarship, becoming world-class, getting to the Olympics, winning the Olympics, and setting a world record. But how many actually make it even as far as the state championship? But isn't it still worth trying? Isn't it still worth enjoying? Think about one of your best runs--when everything was flowing and you felt like you were Superman (or Superwoman), that life was wonderful, and that you'd never get old. As I've gotten "old," I've increasingly come to believe that when it comes to running, all of that "success" stuff is nice, but it's not really why we run. And if any of those things are why YOU run, chances are that you will eventually stop running. I leave you with a quote by a great man. This is why I still run:
“For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to the rain, and look to the day when it is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight.”
― George Sheehan