Quitting competitive running

Stick with it while you are younger. Give it up later when you realize you won't be making a living as a professional runner and have to get a real job like everyone else. That's what I did. Unless you are literally a world class (read: contract equivalent to the average salary plus healthcare) runner, you aren't going to make enough to survive, especially if you have a significant other that wants to get hitched and you want to buy a house and start a family. That time will come quick enough. No need to rush. In the interim pound out the miles and get the kind of PR's your kids and the guys at the water cooler will never believe you ever ran until you show them proof. You have the rest of your life to sip whiskey, puff cigars and watch clips of Kenyan women eclipsing your PR in the half. Speaking of whiskey, it's about that time.

If you think it's right, but I think you should stick with it.

Go the Ed Whitlock way, run until the end.

No way, I got 3 majors in 4 years and ran xc and track, get out of here. No excuses. You need to sacrifice social life and get committed. GOGOGO, get off letsrun and hit the books

Jhm1014 wrote:

Is being a college athlete actually appealing to potential employers? is that something they even look at? I think they would prefer a higher gpa and more internships/experience than me being a college athlete.

Yes, it's huge. I have gotten more random job offers (and ones I applied for) for well paying legitimate jobs simply because I had college athletics on my resume. I rarely get asked about grades on job applications. Being a college athlete, particularly at a high division, shows that you are able to manage your time effectively with a busy schedule while working in a team environment. It also shows you are competitive and know how to set goals and dedicate yourself to achieving them. My dad was a CEO of a company for a number of years and made hundreds of hires and told me he likes to target former college athletes, particularly Division I athletes, even if their majors are unrelated to the job, simply because he knows the skill set gained from athletics is one that can apply to the job he's hiring for.

Kotic wrote:

My girlfriend would drink/smoke in the off- season and be super disciplined otherwise. Try that.

Pics? She sounds scalding hot and like a real lunatic.

I coached a girl years ago that got a partial scholarship to run at a NAIA school. Her freshman year, she saw some good improvement and ended up being an All-American in cross country. She liked her coach and had chopped about 30 seconds off her best high school 5k time. However, she felt like she was missing out on the fun social stuff from school (she was very much the social extrovert) because their practices were held in the late afternoon/early evening.

The last couple weeks of the semester, after XC season was done, she had some down time and really enjoyed getting to go eat dinner with her non-XC friends and other social activities. When she came back from Christmas break, she told her coach that she was quitting and giving up her scholarship.

Since her parents weren't rich, she had to work to make up for the loss of the scholarship money. She ended up having to work as many hours as she was putting in running before to earn enough money. Ironically, one of the jobs she worked was in the cafeteria, so she couldn't have dinner with her friends anyway.

Basically, what ended up happening was she traded the time she spent running (she actually liked to run and still does run recreationally to this day) for time spent working in the cafeteria and other campus jobs she didn't really enjoy. She did get a little more social time since she wasn't traveling to meets on the weekends, but overall, she wishes she had stuck with the running for multiple reasons.

OP, get through your freshman year (as a previous poster said, the first year transition is tough) and re-evaluate after that time. As another poster said, you have your whole life to party and "have fun". I can't tell you how many kids I coached who didn't come out for track as seniors so they could "have fun" ended up regretting their decisions.

I had to respond to this because the same thing happened to me. I graduated and never knew who I was outside of running and ending up smoking and drinking almost every day and was massively depressed for 2 years. Running too much effs you up if you don't have balance, and let's be honest, most runners run because they don't have balance and I actually noticed there is a pretty high correlation between being too serious with running and being messed up in the head. Glad I wasn't the only one this happened to. Man I was so messed up I hated that my parents started me in the sport when I was in the 7th grade. And I want to mention, I don't hate running, I actually love/loved it, but it was more like an addiction that I used to distract me from the real world etc. Runners are usually masochists and let's be honest they aren't the happiest people in the world..

I stumbled into running in high school because I joined to late for the football team. I ran and I was decent #2 on my team and at states actually finished well. Yet I wanted to play football because that would make girls want me (So I thought). My senior year I decided to stop running and play football, I got injured. So I tried running but my coach at that point was tired of me and my attitude, my terrible work ethic and throwing what talent I had away.

Years later I'm still chasing the dream of being cool and popular, no longer run. I drink, do drugs and bang tons of girls! Finally had the life I had worked so hard for, man I was living the dream! Then I woke up at 35, realized I was an addict and out of shape. So I tried running again and my body couldn't handle it. So I got into cycling for a couple years to help with sobriety. Then I started running with the hopes of finishing a half marathon. Since then I've ran every distance up to 50k and ran all over America.

Now I am 40 years old and trying my damnedest to qualify for Boston and reach that potential I flushed away. I still have to work through and deal with all the crap I did to my mind and body. Not a day goes by I wish I hadn't just stuck with running, who knows where I would have gone and done and where I would be now. All that crap I thought would make me happy just ruined me. They say youth is wasted on the young, maybe that's because wisdom comes with age. Yet when your young you don't want to hear what some old fart has to say, your young and indestructible. Well life moves fast and one day you'll wake up and be 40 with a wife, kids and a ton of regret.

Keep running!

I did not run junior year in college. 42 years later, I sometimes have a dream at night where I get a call from the NCAA. The NCAA says "We have researched your records and it turns out you have 1 semester of spring track eligibility remaining!"

In the dream, I thank the NCAA, hang up the phone, and start figuring out how I'm going to make this work. "OK, I'm old, I'm fat, I'm slow, but I'll work in the morning, then drive to the school and work out with the team in the afternoon. I'm gonna do it!"

All the posters who regret not running in college or quitting prematurely, I agree 100%

SlowFatMaster wrote:

I did not run junior year in college. 42 years later, I sometimes have a dream at night where I get a call from the NCAA. The NCAA says "We have researched your records and it turns out you have 1 semester of spring track eligibility remaining!"

In the dream, I thank the NCAA, hang up the phone, and start figuring out how I'm going to make this work. "OK, I'm old, I'm fat, I'm slow, but I'll work in the morning, then drive to the school and work out with the team in the afternoon. I'm gonna do it!"

All the posters who regret not running in college or quitting prematurely, I agree 100%

Why is everyone putting so much emphasis on the feeling of regret? It's funny how little of you barely understand your own emotions and the value of them. Regret is common and natural (not exactly a good trait - more common in idiots) and often you feel regret over things that you did or didn't do, but just because you feel regret that you did something doesn't mean it was a bad choice. It's just an emotional/irrational response. I regret doing a lot of things in retrospect, but tbh at the time I realize the things I did were the best decision for me to make. Hence "no regrets" doesn't necessarily mean don't regret anything it just means realize the low value of the feeling of regret. Our limited vocabulary often dictates our thoughts and values and everyone here is talking about "regret" but very few of you even understand the word. Life is more about dealing with our regrets and also realizes how regretting things is so wasteful and along the lines of wishful thinking. Regret is the equivalent of "the grass is always greener on the other side". It's you assuming you could've made a better decision. Basically everyone here who says "40 years later I still regret X, so if I could back I would do Y" is an idiot because they now assume they know the best option. People change and they way we think changes, if my 50 year self came back in time to me now and said don't do this or don't do that I regret it now, Id say "Eff you, you are removed by 30 years from me and forgot how I felt at the time, you washed up piece of sheeit."

You know I'm right. And you're welcome.

old guy advice wrote:

My advice would be to stay on the team and just don't worry so much. Flat out don't take it so serious. A little fun here and there isn't going to kill your fitness, and if you start to make some big improvements you can refocus and buckle down. Frankly with the way these coaches peak their athletes 3 times in two semestres, it will be a miracle if you don't get forced to take time off due to injury anyway.

I really like this response and i think this i just what i'll do. I'll stay on the team but just try not to stress too much about it. I'll put school first and try not to completely dead my social life, and if that gets in the way of running a little bit so be it. Between people talking about jobs having preference for athletes, and people talking about all the regret they feel later in life i dont think its worth it to quit.