The Real Reason I Turned to Running From Soccer
I always thought I gave up playing soccer and turned to running because I broke my leg. However, running was always calling and I would have veered that way regardless of a serious injury.
You see, I enjoyed soccer too much to be that successful. What are you on about I hear you cry?! Surely, that’s the point of sport. And you would be right, of course. But I lacked aggression playing soccer. I lacked the drive to progress.
The eye of the tiger was missing. I smiled, had fun, and enjoyed the crack (the laugh that is, not my leg going crack!) with my teammates and the opposition. It was not what managers of competitive football clubs wanted.
However, it is what running encourages and what I was instantly drawn to. The irony was running then managed to do what football could not — it brought out my true competitive nature.
A competitive beast was born
The simple explanation would be that I turned out to be a better runner than a soccer player. This oversimplifies the matter, as I believe I was a decent footballer, but turning to running in my mid-twenties was good timing. There was an untapped running well that was released while young enough to fully exploit it.
