Do you ever feel foolish for taking running so seriously?

We determine for ourselves what gives our lives meaning.

If running is that thing for you currently, then great!

In 5 years time it may be something else.

Everything is arbitrary.

Enjoy the ride.

Lightswitch wrote:

Life is a series of scaling misery. No person is truly happy until the moment just before they die.

You mad bro?

I would never want to go back to the life's I had before I started running seriously. I was very uninteresting and uninspired. I sat on the couch watching TV or searching the Internet. Maybe it was because I was 18 and bored of high school and not because I wasn't a runner, but since I started running I've had more friends and more close friends. Again, it's tough to say why because I started running right as I started going to college, so a lot would've changed anyway

Nihilism is one way of looking at life, but most people who adopt this worldview are the one's you don't want to spend much time with.

i have been running for over 45 years. i am almost 72 and looking back i think a life of running is a wonderful life and i am glad i found it. i am less compulsive about it as i simply cannot run ever day. i was never a really good runner so i had to run a lot of miles (started in my early 30s when i dislocated a shoulder playing baseball). best marathon 2:3212 and could not improve as i never ran track. running evolved into a life governing experience that i am thankful for. i am fortunate that my gait resulted in very few injuries. i think that i am healthier from a physical standpoint than most my age, my weight is good, my sleep habits are good, and i feel great. when i run 9 minute miles now it feels identical to when i did much of my training around 6:30 miles or below. it is just in kind of slow motion. is there a price you pay? there is but it is well worth it. compared to a sedentary person i have been exercising at a significant level for many decades. i averaged near 90 miles/week for over 8 years so i was compulsive. many lonely cold miles but i wish i could do it again.

No, but my wife always reminds that I take it too seriously. I raced a 5k one morning and asked her to come watch. I ran 15:57, was ecstatic. Later I was catching up on the London marathon, watching a clip of kipchoge. My wife asked, "what 5k pace is he running there?Me- " I don't know, 14:40's?"Wife- "wow. He looks a lot more comfortable than you in your race today"Haha, that sums it up.

Art Vandelay the fake one wrote:

I love the sport and it brings joy to my life, but I'm a freaking hobby jogger. Why do I structure so much of my life around strutting around in my little shorts? I could be doing something useful with myself. Who cares if I set a PR or place at the Joggerville 5k?

Like the vast majority of runners who run on most days of each year I do not let it dominate my life. I have been coaching high school track and cross country since 1969. I consider myself a serious coach. However, encouraging and helping to do better in the classroom was always on the front burner. Longer than I have had a love affair with the sport (grade school playground and street races and my dad's taking me to high school track meets) I have been an avid reader. My goal is to be able to run as long as I can. I can't imagine ever losing interest in the sport. Running has enhanced my life!

Make your choices and move on. People who sit around wringing their hands about everything are pathetic.

How come doing something you enjoy for no benefits is foolish while doing something you absolutely hate for money is encouraged? Come on now, aren't we evolved enough now to know that money isn't the end all of our existence? And what makes something "useful" anyways? Newsflash, nothing you do in this life is "useful" as you're going to die anyway, so you mine as well enjoy yourself and find some way to find fulfillment in this life while you still can. As long as you're not hurting anybody in the process, how you do that is nobody else's business.

Don't worry about it. There's nothing you could have done that would have been better in any real objective sense. All values are subjective. The universe is a nihilistic vacuum. We're all Sisyphus.

As Daycart said:

"I think, therfore I run."

If it was good enough for a Irishman, it's good enough for me.

Old Man Winter1 wrote:

Just earlier today, I was thinking that a good thread to start would be to ask the older/maybe wiser people on here if they ever regret running all those miles in their lives. Not that we all don't enjoy it, but there is an enormous physical toll that we pay. Couple that with all the sacrifices you make, and it seems really trivial. If I sat down and tried to justify it, I'm not sure I could.

So, I just don't ask myself the question, the last thing I need is an existential crisis!

At 29, I run 20-30 mpw with a relatively random workout thrown in. Most miles are with my wife and dog. Way happier than I was doing 70-80 per week and running (marginally) faster.

Nothing better than running. If I could run all day everyday I would. Don't stop running guys we might not be Olympians but we can have fun racing each other.

Triathletes are worse wrote:

Think how weekend golfers feel and you'll feel better about just running.

This. Or just LOOK at most weekend golfers and you will feel better about just running. They are not exactly fit.

My buddy owned a house on a golf course. some weekend mornings they would sit out and watch the weekend warriors hack at it. They would get so mad when they hit a bad shot. One time, he looked at a guy who was absolutely cursing up a storm and said "Dude you aren't good enough and don't play enough to get mad". The guy looked at him, laughed and said "you're right". We all just laughed and how brutally honest it was.

Agree with this. Additionally, it seems so silly that in college, many people think you're a better person/human being if you make nationals or are all conference verse being 30 seconds slower in the 5k. Your self worth is partially based on how fast you run.

It's silly. That's not to say running doesn't create discipline, teach you to go for a long run even if you don't feel like it because you had a bad race the day before (fail and get up and keep going), and learn to be a good team mate. You don't see race on a team. You see teammates. There's value.

But some of it is silly and taking it less seriously would probably benefit many.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

"Dude you aren't good enough and don't play enough to get mad".

I think that's a cultural thing in hacker golf. Pretty common and the other golfers don't even mind.

Your golf example highlights an important point.

Mileage or workouts or anything training related is not what defines "taking it way too seriously" in running. Training is simply respecting the sport. Going too far would be:

* delusions of grandeur

* talk about running with ppl who don't care

* inflexible because always HAVE TO get in a run

The challenges of life , running, career, relationships have all ended in failure. I am a lonely broken person , i have no biase about all things political, and the grass is never greener on the other side of the fence. As I commute to work in my 10 year old car , I see happy couples, tall women , and kids laughing. Now I don't even care how good or bad the weather is.

So your answer to the OP is "no".

Running is my partner who waits patiently for me to be a part of it. It allows me to go on journeys/places that I can leave my shoe imprint behind. It gives me a sense of freedom to lose myself in thinking, solving and day dream. It allows my heart to beat in a steady state when I want to go slow or challenges it to see how many beats in a minute it can produce when I gradually push the pace hard. It allows me to sweat out any anger, fears, disappointments or stress in my life. It's always loyal to me when I want it or not. I miss Running the most when I'm too busy, tired or injured. It completes me...