Quit around age 42. Was a sub 28/sub 14 runner in college. After college started running marathons. Trained for and ran 10 or so marathons and had full intentions of running more. Took some time off to recover after the last one and when I went to start back up again I found that I had zero interest in running. That was 6 years ago. I’ve tried several times to get back into running but each time I quit after a couple days. Absolutely no interest in it anymore and I can’t say why.
In college I was dialed in on the idea of running post college thought it was my calling. In high school I had modest PR’s 800m 2:02, 1600m 4:24, 3200m 9:19, 5KXC 15:39. In college I transferred to a solid running school as a walk on and wound up running a 5000m in 14:39, and a 10,000m in 30:04 and finishing 45th at Nationals in XC for my division. My coach took a new job and wanted a bunch of us to follow which I did. I wound up improving to a 7th place finish at XC Nationals and running PR’s of 800m 1:52, 1500m 3:45, Mile 4:04, 5000m 14:17, and 10,000m 29:05. I was told I should come back and train post college and when I called my coach about it after training all summer, he basically noted his intentions that he was done with me as an athlete. I gave it a shot for almost a year moving to the roads and running a 10k in 30:50, 15k in 46:49, and a marathon in 2:23 and called it a career at that point. The idea of living broke and chasing a running dream was more work than it was worth. I tried to get back into it bussing tables and working as a bar back in Venice Beach, CA. In 2007 I was walking down Hollywood Blvd saw a sign that said hiring on a Navy Recruiters door walked in went through the process and was in bootcamp 3 months later, a year after that I was married, a year after that I had a daughter. Ran a couple of races for the Navy nothing too impressive such as a marathon in 2:24 winning the 2008-Armed Forces Title, Ran another one in 2:27, and one in Serbia in 2:31, also ran a couple of 5000m races in 14:38, 14:39, 14:57. At the end of 2010 I was done with the running and did it mainly for fitness reasons still running low 15’s for a 5k with training like 2 days a week. I tried to give it one more shot in 2014 but a cardiac event almost killed me. Went to some advanced Navy Schools and Completed the college degree that I was never pushed to do as an athlete, also went to Grad School and completed that along with multiple master’s degrees now. I was medically retired from the Navy due to the cardiac event and now work for the DoD happily married 42 years old gluten free and still jog for fitness but have zero desire to train hard and have found other competitive interests playing in the WSOP this summer and that is way more exciting than destroying myself on a track. I also found when I stepped away from running how much I disliked the attitude that goes along with it I also did not care for the person it made me.
I wish I would have had a career as successful as this. I worked darn hard at it and like you was put on military teams ( Army 10-mile run being my favorite)
I also ended up after active duty working at a Navy Base… and retired from there although it’s an obscure place NSWC Crane is what it used to be called. Haven’t been there since I was retired but loved it and it was an honor to work there.
Running did EVERYTHING for me. I owe distance running everything. It was responsible for every promotion and penny I ever made ( although my times weren’t close to yours and hats off) I got everything out of myself I could ( 2700-3300 miles a year, races everywhere…RD’d all of Cranes races, high school volunteer XC coach) and man am I gonna miss it. I think unlike you as well, I really like the person it made me, it made me anything I ever was.
Well done on your great running career!
Crane is an amazingly beautiful base huge and empty. I went to Naval Special Warfare Armorer out there in 2014. We drive into the little Amish Town Odin and buy marinated Turkey and Amish Meat Locker. Took my wife and kids in 2016 and they loved it.
I wish I would have had a career as successful as this. I worked darn hard at it and like you was put on military teams ( Army 10-mile run being my favorite)
I also ended up after active duty working at a Navy Base… and retired from there although it’s an obscure place NSWC Crane is what it used to be called. Haven’t been there since I was retired but loved it and it was an honor to work there.
Running did EVERYTHING for me. I owe distance running everything. It was responsible for every promotion and penny I ever made ( although my times weren’t close to yours and hats off) I got everything out of myself I could ( 2700-3300 miles a year, races everywhere…RD’d all of Cranes races, high school volunteer XC coach) and man am I gonna miss it. I think unlike you as well, I really like the person it made me, it made me anything I ever was.
Well done on your great running career!
Crane is an amazingly beautiful base huge and empty. I went to Naval Special Warfare Armorer out there in 2014. We drive into the little Amish Town Odin and buy marinated Turkey and Amish Meat Locker. Took my wife and kids in 2016 and they loved it.
Correction: We would drive into the little Amish Town Odin and buy marinated Turkey at Amish Meat Locker.
@ 47. I had patellar tendonitis in both knees. My training had been crappy for the last two years. Even with making adjustments (one hard workout a week instead of two, adding cross training, etc.), I was just spending all my time trying to keep from getting slower. I got back into running when I was 32 and had a good 10-12 years of improving times with my PRs coming in my early 40s. But once age caught up to me, I just lost interest after it took months to get over patellar tendonitis and did not feel like climbing the mountain anymore.
I still run a few miles 4-5 days a week just to keep the weight off. I broke my ankle last Memorial Day and put on almost 20 lbs. Running, lifting weights and watching my diet helped me drop the weight over a period of about 4 months. I am now just 5 lbs from what I weighed when I stopped training and racing. And a good bit of that is more muscle mass from going to the gym.
Everything comes to an end. As the spider said in Charlotte's Web, "we are born, we live a little and then we die." Life is too short to force yourself to keep doing something just because you always did it. There is a time when training and racing is a lot of fun and very rewarding. After 45, it is an entirely different activity. So, for me, it was clear that it was time to call it quits and move on.
I also had double patellar tendinitis and off and on bad posterior tibialis issues at about the same age (42-46), and couldn't even run for about a year. But I found that I missed it, so went through a couple rounds of PT and finally got it fixed. These injuries started after I kind of had decided to hang it up, and was only running a few miles a day. Once I finally got healthy, I wouldn't stop until I had to. My best years (by far, although I do miss being young and spry) age grade wise have been 50+.
Stopped training seriously at age 31. Continued running and racing regularly until 56 when I tore the meniscus in my right knee for the second time -- the left knee had stage four arthritis. Continued sporadic jogging (especially on treadmill) and random low key 5ks until 68. Still miss being able to just head out the door and stride for miles -- walking and biking aren't the same. Total knee replacements at 62 and 67.
Quit running seriously at 17, right after junior year of high school. I trained like crazy and gave it my all but just wasn't getting anywhere. It was one small nagging injury after another, and the times I was running in training never seemed to carry over into races. I was tired of running 40-50mpw and being called things like "anorexic" and "twig" because I was so skinny.
I took up powerlifting and never looked back. Now, ~7 years and 45lbs of muscle later, I'm very happy with that decision. The added muscle mass has improved my confidence tremendously, and that has paid dividends in my career as a military officer. It's fun to rep out 500lbs on the deadlift and think back to how far I've come.
In hindsight, during my running years in high school, I should have focused more on things like hobbies and socializing rather than running. I never had the genetic potential to be anything more than average in the sport, so I should have just ran for fun and not taken it too seriously. However, I learned many important lessons from it and would definitely do it again.
I hope not but it could be coming soon as I approach 50.
I didn't start running until well into my 30s and pb'd in London with sub 2:50 as I was approaching 42.
A few years on now I've only ever had a couple of minor injuries but the latest ones, probably mixed with some post COVID issues, really knocked me out and made it very difficult to get back.
Now I run without a GPS watch, don't time myself in order to try and remove any self inflicted pressure and just get a return to the full fitness I once had.
Unfortunately I don't know why but I now seem to have some sort of adrenaline related issue which can kill my run at any time.
Sometimes I'll be at the start of a run, going uphill and my heart will just get out of control and my body is overcome with an extreme tiredness and I have to stop! Couple of months ago this happened within a mile of starting my run and I literally had to sit down on a bench and try and get my breathing / body under control.
Yesterday the same thing happened approaching the end of a 5 / 6 mile run. I was coming towards the end and I weirdly got some sort of euphoric release as I realised I'd ran well and was feeling really strong towards the end. Exhilaration is probably the word I'm looking for. Anyway, again I think I got some kind of adrenaline release and my body pretty much instantly fell apart and I had to start walking.
No idea what's causing this and if I keep working towards getting back to full fitness it will go away. But if it doesn't, it looks like my running is coming to an end.
I quit right after college. I was pretty done with running and training. I had been doing the same thing since I was 12 years old, it was time to do grown up stuff (get married, buy a house, etc..) Also my job had a really varied schedule so I couldn't plan on doing anything more than like 10 days in a row.
Then in my mid30's I got back into it and went in full bore.. what has finally taken me out at age 56 is injury. My knees just will not allow me to put in any significant running, and when every single step hurts you just start looking for another way to stay reasonably fit in your old age.
This post was edited 35 seconds after it was posted.
Plantar Fasciitis has kept me from running consistently for about 15 years. I would be, at best, a jogger at this point. I do miss running trails but the daily pain in the feet makes it not worthwhile. Biking and hiking are okay substitutes.
Competitive running…at the age of about 24. I was starting to get bored with the training (more on that later) and started to look in different directions. I took up swimming ( I sucked at it up to that age) and trained for and competed in my one and only triathlon. I realised that that was not the direction I wanted to go in. Soon after I started playing soccer for a team, and my competitive running days were over. Soccer became my thing for the next fourteen years. Looking back, that was a mistake that my knees will never forgive me for.
At that time, what I didn’t realise, because I wasn’t very self aware, was that it wasn’t the running I was bored with, but the competing, and the training for it. Plus, my training was stupid. Remember, this was a time when the ideas of hard / easy, 80/20 training hadn’t filtered down to the masses ( mid eighties UK). Most of my runs I pushed…and pushed hard. Easy days were when my body forced me to. I also didn’t really like racing…but it was the norm to do so if you ran ( in those days…and now also it seems).
If I had my time again…I would never have trained to compete ( I was just above average at best) but I would have run just for the pleasure, stress release and health benefits for body and mind. I would have been far more relaxed about the whole thing., and I certainly wouldn’t have graduated to soccer…