In high school I ran against guys who are now NCAA champions and even Olympians. I ran some in college (not all five years) and had some success, but never really ran to my potential for a number of reasons. I recently met a guy who went pro after college and had slower PRs than I did when I graduated... the whole thing stirred up some emotion in me and got me thinking, "I'm 26. My best years of running are probably now until I'm 31 or so. What am I doing tying myself down with other things?" I don't plan to put everything on the line for 4-5 years, but with the Olympic trials being in 2016 and the marathon trials being next year, it got me thinking that maybe taking time off from my life and really focusing on running for two years or so might be worth it. I'll never have the chance again as you can't really do this when you're 35 or something. However, I have a history of injuries and think it might be stupid to dive into running again only to get injured or something. At the same time, I really hate the idea of wondering "what could I have done" the rest of my life? It's just hard for me to break away and focus on running exclusively since I am currently one semester into a PhD program (but hating it).
Anyone done something like this? What were your results? How do you feel about your decisions?