Why after 27 years as a runner I am still chasing my potential

As someone who has been running the majority of my life, it seems that there are three main groups of runners. And I don’t fit into any of them. The first group is comprised of those who starting running at a young age and who ran competitively throughout high school, college, and beyond. Many in this group ran times so fast during college or their early post-collegiate career that the feel as though they have already fulfilled their potential as an athlete and are satisfied with continuing to train without constantly chasing PRs. The second group is the group that came to running later in life and have an entire world of PRs ahead of them. Then, of course, there are those who run because they enjoy it and aren’t using running as a goal-setting metric. However, in my experience, there haven’t been a whole lot of people who have been lifelong (or near lifelong runners) but who still don’t feel that they’ve met their peak potential.

For example - I’'ve been running since I was 12. I started running marathons when I was 25. Except for the few years I didn’t run, I have always been fairly serious about my training. However, I didn’t run my marathon PR until I was almost 38 and I still fully believe I have more left to give.

The idea of potential has always held great meaning for me. I had years of training and running workouts and races that indicated one fitness level and then executing races that were nowhere reflective of my then fitness. And it’s not just about the time on the clock- but the feeling that what you gave is reflective of what you have.