What's the dumbest running decision you've ever made?

russggg wrote:

dropping out of NYCM then three weeks later running the philly marathon.

Awful time in philly. I've never cried before or after a sporting event. Made me hate running for years.

Jesus dude, explain.

Getting into a career where the hours and demands sacrifice your health and ability to run. Dumb mistake that has cost me 10 years and will take me another 10 years to dig myself out of.

Doing 5 x 18 miles in a single workout.

Dumbest idea ever. Almost died. Who suggested that bs workout anyway?

setyourselffree wrote:

Mine was quitting running when I got tendinitis. I gained 40 pounds and obviously got out of shape.

Going skiing for three days at Mammoth a week prior to a track meet at Mt. Sac. Ran the 1500 M. Wasn't pretty. Coach was pissed.

setyourselffree wrote:

Mine was quitting running when I got tendinitis. I gained 40 pounds and obviously got out of shape.

Running a very hard workout two days before state. My coach was not there since he was at the girls state meet and I definitely got too excited. Ended up 10th and 13th in the mile and two mile. Next year I got sick so I never had a good showing at state.

setyourselffree wrote:

Well crap. I guess I need to rethink my plan for this year... maybe switch to the half.

Don't. I BQ'd in my first marathon, in my first year back running (in 15 years), as a 40-something. Do, however, avoid Hal Higdon's plans.

In high school at a championship race. I'm in 1:55 shape mentally and physically. My kick was lethal from about 150 out. I went for glory 300m+ out, it didn't work out and ran a 2:01 for 7th place. Coach was pissed.

Put Splenda in my electrolyte drink mix because I didn't think it was sweet enough

Bailing out on running in my Cal State CIF qualifying event in high school in order the complete a driver training course which conflicted with the meet date. Had already missed two driving sessions to complete and advance through league finals. one more and I would have had to repeat the whole course. Too young to have the best foresight and neither the coach or my parents offered a better perspective.

To start

Going to a crappy D1 instead of a good D2 or D3 where I could actually develop and get faster.

Still haven't improved since HS

Not me. But my son's law school roommate admitted that, when he was a college couch potato, he and some of his friends saw a news story about a 100 year old Sikh running the London Marathon. Their reaction was "If a 100 year old guy can do it, how hard can it be to run a marathon?" "WE should run a marathon!" "Yeah!!!" 72 hours later, they're toeing the line at the start of a local marathon. Zero training. In Chuck Taylor high tops. "The last nine miles were REALLY painful." He said that he was on crutches for three weeks.

theacorn wrote:

One time during a race I was leading and made a wrong turn in the last 300, while simultaneously telling my teammate to come with me.

My brother and I did this in a cross country race. It was only 2 miles and the race coordinators didn't get in place in time and we actually ran farther but still got DQ'd despite being over a minute in front of 3rd. lol

Stretching on a high hamstring injury. I was relatively new and thought my hamstring was just tight and needed stretching. It took about seven years for the injury to completely resolve itself.

half as much wrote:

In high school at a championship race. I'm in 1:55 shape mentally and physically. My kick was lethal from about 150 out. I went for glory 300m+ out, it didn't work out and ran a 2:01 for 7th place. Coach was pissed.

Oh Yes! I did this in a 4x800 cause I was anchoring and in the lead by a stride ahead of a guy that had won the state title in XC the previous fall. (Sidenote, I didn't know who he was because I missed state in XC due to the flu.)

I was a Junior and in about 2:00 shape, but 50.xx shape in the 400. So I tried to drop him on the first lap to not give up the lead. Needless to say we went through in 53.xx and he passed me with 50 m left and I blacked out from Oxygen depletion as I crossed the finish line.

One Long Night in Vegas wrote:

Run a 10km race in Vegas after spending all night in S. Favor Hamilton.

Yeah, and you're a lousy tipper too. My crew be look'n for your fool a$$

zoo_manimal wrote:

setyourselffree wrote:

Well crap. I guess I need to rethink my plan for this year... maybe switch to the half.

Don't. I BQ'd in my first marathon, in my first year back running (in 15 years), as a 40-something. Do, however, avoid Hal Higdon's plans.

I'm 33 going on 34 this summer, and running a marathon in March of next year, My last race was a 1:31 half marathon after averaging 35mpw and peaking at 50mpw for a couple of weeks. I can truly only max out at about 55 mpw, so I'll have to run a few halfs before next March to gauge where I am. I am currently running mostly easy runs, some somewhat moderate, and building up my mileage to 50mpw. If I can hold that for the 6 months leading up to marathon training, I should be in a pretty good position to run a decent race... I hope. Part of me wonders, though, if I did just stick to the half that weekend instead of the marathon... how fast I could run it with all of those miles behind me. We'll see!

Running a 10 mile race in denial that I had a stress fracture. Shattered the metatarsal at Mile one and ran the next 9 miles in excruciating pain. Ran fast, but spent months in a cast and took over a year to return to my previous level of fitness.

Not banging a couple of girls on my high school track team. Or not running my last year of eligibility as a graduate student.