Over The Hill? When Should You Give Up Running?
I came across this post on the Running Discussion Board on Facebook and thought I’d share my thoughts about it as it made me quite angry.
I’ve had people say similar things to me even though I am 33. People have told me that I’m too slow to classify myself as a runner. Others have said that my marathon times are disappointing and that I should be aiming for times that they find acceptable.
Thankfully I’ve stopped listened to them.
I don’t even know what it is I do. Am I runner? A jogger? A walker? A wanker?
Does it even matter?
My earliest memory involved running as a kid. My mind wasn’t there to eclipse the experience. I was the sunshine and the afternoon air. I was moving for the joy of moving.
That’s what I’m trying to get back to. Doing shit for the sake of it. At some point as an adult I got lost in my mind and by an extension of it, lost in society’s expectations.
I don’t care if I’m a runner or a jogger. Living my life to appease others is a miserable existence. At some point I had to free myself from all the bullshit to find my purpose in life.
When I die I’m only gonna ask myself a few things. Why couldn’t I have been at ease with myself more of the time? Why did I get caught up with the small irrelevant shit? Why did I listen to those that discouraged me? Why did I adopt their voices as my own desperately unhappy internal monologue for so long?
Why couldn’t I just be myself and do the things that came naturally to me? Running belongs to us all in our own unique way. Almost everyone can do it to some degree or other and you’ve gotta try and see what works for you.
I find joy in ultramarathons and moving forward over long distances slowly
I’m going to be plodding the Liverpool to Manchester ultramarathon on Saturday. It might take 12 hours. When I compare what I’m going to be doing on Saturday with what I would have been doing 10 years ago (lying hungover in bed and eating myself to death) then I know what I would choose if I had both options now.
As for the final point about being over the hill, I would say that you’re over the hill whenever you run over a hill and look back at the hill and say to the hill “hill you are a hill but I’m over you now”.
A hill
If you’re from the Low Countries/Benelux then you will never be over the hill unless you go to a country with hills and run over one.
P.S. Someone informed me that there is a hill in The Netherlands called Vaaiserberg which stands at over 300m in height on the German border. So you can be over the hill in The Netherlands. But not for long. By the time you’re over the hill you’re outside Angela Merkel’s house.
Well I’m 50 and been running for 6 years, I’m not the quickest but I can still beat people 20 years younger. I’ve had plantar fasciitis and get shin splints in the cold weather but I’m still going and as long as I can put one foot in front of the other I’ll continue.
I’m 55. I run. It’s not fast and it’s not pretty but I run. I have run half marathons before but after time off through injury I have struggled to get my pace and form back and started to hate the thing that kept me sane. Like you, my angry friend, I have decided that I want to run for me, like a child, just for the sheer joy of it.
Last summer I bought proper running shorts because I tend to get hot very quickly. To those feckers who don’t like my cellulite or spider veins, I say “who the f**k do you think you are!” and they can kiss my ass as I pass.
Love it Jacky!
I am 70YO – and I ran my 3rd HM last Sunday ( in 2 hours 23 mins) . I didn’t start running until I was 67. There was another runner there in his mid 60’s – he also only started running a few years ago but ran his HM in 1 hour24 mins. We are NEVER “too old” to be a runner – but old runners and young runners alike can do too much and hurt themselves. Training too fast too far hurts everybody regardless of whether you are 42 or 72 – and whether you or anybody else regards you as a runner, jogger, wogger, etc.
Some of the fastest runners in my club are pushing 70.
The people at Darren Morris’ work sound like a right bunch of miseries, to be avoided at all costs. By all means stop running while the injury heals and get back into it slowly, but if he can still run afterwards he has at least another 30 years!! I’d tell them where to stick their knitting.
Well….other peoples opinions ehh?
When i first started running a year or so ago I was overweight.
I got shin splints, hurt my back by just running bla bla bla.
It takes time for a body to get used to running, especially if like me the last time you ran at all was over 30 years ago im now 48.
Im running 10 miles 3 times a week, I seem to have settled on a 10.30 ish mile pace, but I run non stop.
I couldnt do that even 3 months ago.
Im to old to listen to negative shit off other people. Helpful, friendly advice I’ll listen to all day long.
Some people are jealous, some are just plain nasty.
Unfortunatly the worlds full of arseholes, bitches and twats, thats why I generally keep myself to myself, some fuckers always got an opinion about something if you involve them.
I have a resting angry face so I tend to get left to it most of the time which is fine by me.
I have a rule which is be nice to me and ill be nice to you, be a twat and ill be one back,works out ok for me. Also, if you want me to listen to your opinion of me or what im doing, I get to tell you as well.
Youd be amazed at how many people want to tell you stuff but get so offended when you start to tell them things about thenselves….
Well, I’m fucked. I’m 54 and I was just diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Been running for most of my adult life with multiple marathons and halfs under my belt. Been told I should have hung it up years ago. Now I’m getting scolded for trying to keep running while I figure out RA. When I tell advice givers MYOB, I’m the bad guy. I’m running slow right now because it’s all I can do. So I’m thinking about ultras. I mean, WTF?, right?
fuck them all keep running wendy