One for the Vets

[Deleted User]

One of the main things that motivates me is the thought that I don't want to get older and think `what could I have done if I'd tried harder'?

Are there any other mistakes more experienced runners have made that they think held them back in the past?

Muttley

Yup. I wish I knew when I was a young man what I know about women now, as I slide into middle age.

[Deleted User]

is the Pope a small elderly man ?

Wardi

When I started running at the age of 33 I realised I was the black sheep of the family. No-one in my family had ever been interested in running. I started from scratch with no talent and gradually increased both distance and effort.

I have learned very gradually how to become a better runner; there is no substitute for hard training. Now age 46.

In answer to BR's question, I have no regrets about my progress because getting faster as I have got older is a reward in itself. However, I know that I may possibly be 'peaking' now so I intend to go for it in 2004. At all distances.

Unknown

Please, BR, this is just TOO painful

Like Marvin, the paranoid android, I always assumed that because I had a "brain the size of a planet" I did not need to explore my physical potential.

Taking up running at the age of 45 (5 years ago), it would be all too understandable if I was plagued with "what ifs". S*d it. I am going to be the best 50 year old runner that I can be - and just maybe there is some slight advantage to starting on this voyage of discovery uninjured....?

Unknown

PS there are a lot of vets on this forum who have been invaluable role models in my quest - ceal, JJ etc, etc.

[Deleted User]

dont work in a holistic mind-body way then Lynne


mens sana in corpore sana ....

mens sana in thingummy doo dah


;-))

Pammie*

Although i just scrape through as a vet, the only thing i wish i had done all those years ago was to remain consistent in my training and kept it up over all these years (15)

Stickless

Wish I had started distance running a whole lot younger. I had wanted too, even as a teenager, and had run instead of walked as a child

Wish I had known that knee troubles often can be sorted out by the right sort of shoes. I might have not given up running 15 years ago. Wish I had known about run/walk at that time too. Wouldn't have found progress so elusive.

Wish there had been the forum back then too.

But these regrets don't trouble me over much. I did get back running, and have seen it in a way I might never have had I been forever comparing myself with the youngster I once was, watching the dust collect on the trophies, seeing pb's stand unchallenged growing more remote year after year. I did a lot of other things then too. It was fun.

No regrets worth worrying over. I've had a good time.

Minks

I'm not sure when one officially becomes a 'vet' but I suspect I may cross that line next year (gulp). Regrets? I don't have any. Maybe I could have started running when I was younger, but I doubt that I would have been as driven and motivated as I am now. The rest of my life is stable and happy and in order, leaving me able to concentrate more on my running. I still have plenty of years to get better and faster and shatter all my PBs (!) but even if I don't, I know I'm doing something that I'll enjoy doing for many years to come, and something that's only going to benefit me in the long term.

If I really think about it, I suppose I wish they'd let us do cross-country at school in proper trainers (rather than hockey boots!), and that we had been allowed to wear more than just gym knickers and a thin t-shirt. I still remember with horror those freezing mornings on the recreation ground, with goose pimples the size of duck eggs. Running then was an activity to be endured rather than enjoyed.

[Deleted User]

Not really a "vet" yet. I think worrying about the past and thinking of "what-if" scenarios doesn't make me a better runner. I am happy with how far I got so far.

Those who spent a lot of time runnning while younger possibly think, what would have happened if I spent some more time studying instead of running.

old father tim

"When I were young" (oh god......)

I wish I'd had a really, really good coach/mentor - eg a famous one noted for turning out Olympic GB medal winning rowing crews and shunning the trad Public School/Oxbridge scene - and that this person had told me, at an early age (say in my teens ?) firmly but not too hurtfully, to accept the fact that I'd never, ever, ever, get into the national rowing squad as I was, clearly, blatantly, obviously, far too light to be a lightweight (let alone heavyweight) and that I should, instead, take up something else such as running...

Oh hang on a minute - he did...


And in fairness to me, the message did eventually sink in (20 years later ?!)

old father tim

..you can't rush these things !!

[Deleted User]

Yes, I wish I'd had more fun, been to more wild parties, ridden motorbikes, got a tatoo. Was that what you meant BR?

[Deleted User]

Hell yes. Regret that I didn't discover running at the age of 33 (rather than 10 years later). Regret doing (and not doing) a number of things but you can only do what you think or feel is right at the time and s0d the consequences. No use in looking back - best to look onward and upward. Amongst other things am just trying to be the best 46 year old male veteran runner I can be.

Hilly

I was good at 15, but wasn't interested enough to keep at it then! That's one of my regrets as I didn't get back to running until I was 32 having spent the 15 years in between as a smoker, that being my second and biggest regret. But no point dwelling on these things! As GDL's says onward and upward!

[Deleted User]

I too was good when I was younger, trialled for Hampshire no less, gave up when I left school, took it up in my thirties ... again life got in the way, so I gave it up again .. big regret as I was running and training quite well at that point ... so here I am again, trying to take up running again in my forties

The pattern is repeated in my daughter, who used to run for Southampton at cross-country, gave up due to osgood-schlaters disease and yet to return .. threatening to come out training with me at the moment

However ... I agree with Hilly, no time for regrets ..

[Deleted User]

BR, interesting that you have raised this question. Having had a more relaxed summer of running I feel like giving everything I have to making 2004 my best ever running year. I enjoy relaxed running but have this desire to see what I can achieve if I commit totally to running next year. This will involve an alcohol ban, a controlled sensible eating plan to reduce unnecessary weight and of cause training as hard as my body will allow.

After the year is up I am looking forward to running as and when I want and not worrying about times.....

PS If I manage to get to a level of training you do I'll not be going far wrong.

All the best,
TR.

[Deleted User]

Not quite a vet - but I wished I'd run more. I should have tried running twice a day. I thought I was training hard, but I wasn't really - I thought I didn't have the time, but now that I have a family and a 'career' as opposed to be single with a job I realise how much time I had on my hands. Oh well.

[Deleted User]

It's never too late. Clarence DeMar won his first Boston marathon in 1911, then some doctors told him to stop running due to heart murmur. Ten years later he started training again and won again. Don't want to think what he could have had achieved.

Monique

I was pretty good at running at school- never found out how good - but then had I had the right encouragement I would now be thinking about all the cider and punk rock concerts I missed out on.

I would sooner be discovering fitness now than missing the Ramones then.