If I’m Not PRing, Is It Worth Racing?

There’s no singular good reason to run. You might do it for fun, for physical and mental health, to spend time with friends, to get outside. Or you may be motivated by competition against others and yourself. The latter is often a reason many runners run and race: to improve and set new personal best times.

I can personally relate to this motivation. I run because I’m in competition with myself, and I’m inspired by the dream of chasing new PRs on race day. But when I recently sustained a hamstring injury during the beginning of my build for the Chicago Marathon, I had to have a hard conversation with my coach. The time I took off to heal truncated my training cycle. A PR would be unlikely.

“But you can still run the marathon!” he told me.

While I genuinely love running and enjoy the mere act of it, I have to admit that I questioned whether or devoting the time and energy to training—not to mention the expense, hassle, and emotional and physical cost of racing—would be worth it if I knew I would run slower than I have before. And this self-reflection got me thinking about the reasons why people run, and if some motivations are healthier or more sustainable than others.

What’s the point in racing if you’re not going to PR? Turns out, there are many.

RELATED: It’s Time to Pick Your Fall Marathon. We’ll Show You How to Choose.

Why We Run 

While the hope of setting a PR fires me up, it’s far from the only reason to run. Understanding your own personal motivation to lace up your shoes and head out the door can help you make it an even more enjoyable and sustainable part of your life.

Blair Evans, PhD, is an assistant professor in the kinesiology department at Penn State University who studies the psychology of physical activity, often focusing on runners. He’s published several journals that survey and examine the behaviors of runners, one of his most popular being a Strava-partnered study called Why We Run.

This study consisted of 25,000 runners across the U.S. and looked at their primary reasons for running, and who or what influenced their motivations.

Evans discovered five types of runners based on the data he collected, each with a significant reason for running. He says that you can be a mix of these, but most runners lean toward one.

Passionate Runners run in many social settings and are the most likely type to say that running helps them feel connected to others. They show a particular interest in psychosocial benefits of running like accomplishment and happiness.

Invested Runners run in many social settings and are the most likely to be racers, but are middle-of-the-pack in terms of experiencing social benefits from running. They somewhat believe that running provides psychological benefits like happiness.

Fitness Runners rarely race and typically run alone—although 50 percent occasionally run in groups. Their dominant motives for running are to support general health, body image, and strength.

Mindful Runners tend to run alone, although more than 50 percent also race. They mirror the health and body-related motives of other types, although they resemble Passionate Runners by highly valuing psychosocial benefits of running like happiness.

Reluctant Runners. Perhaps the name says it all: Reluctant Runners rarely compete in races and primarily run alone. Reluctant Runners mirror the health and body-related motives of other types, but perceive the fewest social or psychological benefits.

People who run purely for the sake of PRing may fall into the category of an Invested Runner, someone who may use running to socialize sometimes, but for the most part, are motivated by competition. For many of the athletes in this category, the psychological benefits of running are sort of the last thing on their mind.

“There’s a bunch of reasons why the idea of a running identity or approach focused around development and achievement first and foremost is so significant,” Evans says. “We have our apps that are constantly updating us on how we’re doing relative to ourselves, which is good! I think it’s really useful to have that automatic feedback. But often the impact of seeing that isn’t something we’re necessarily aware of all the time.”

When you see your time improve, say for example on a Strava segment, you get a rush of dopamine, your “achievement” hormones, and feel really good. Similar to thrill-seekers who are always looking for the next novel experience that will give them those rewarding neurotransmitters, PR-motivated runners are constantly seeking that next big hit of “you-nailed-that-run” dopamine.

This can also be called having extrinsic (or external) motivation, which means you’re driven by a reward from your outward environment, like a PR or a finisher’s medal. Whereas runners with intrinsic (or internal) motivation might race purely because they enjoy doing it and love the feeling of crossing the finish line.

Amanda Nurse, a Boston-based running coach, can relate to this cycle. She started feeling attached to external motivation when she saw success in her marathon times with every race she ran, and suddenly there was a pressure to keep improving.

“I certainly lean towards extrinsic motivation, while I wish I didn’t,” Nurse says. “I definitely feel a sense of internal satisfaction while training and enjoying the process, but for me, if I’m going to race, I really only am excited about it if I feel I have a chance of a PR. That’s the reality.”

The Potential Peril of a PR

While reaching for PRs can be incredibly motivating, it also comes with a cost. New runners may find that they’re shattering their PRs on every try, but as you improve you come closer and closer to your potential. You may go from shaving off minutes to seconds to sometimes nothing at all.

Not to mention that different seasons of life will throw various hurdles in your way, such as injury, sickness, and stress. And if we’re lucky enough to get to continue racing as we grow older, eventually Father Time will impede our progress, too.

“I think it can be really healthy to be focused on personal development and achievement,” Evans says. “It feels great to develop, but it’s not alway sustainable. So when we look at motivation, it’s good to have diversity.”

If you, too, are motivated by improvement, the good news is there are myriad metrics we can focus on beyond just a PR, such as negative splitting the race, maintaining a positive attitude to the finish line, nailing the pre-race routine, or finding fellow runners in the race with whom to compete.

Boston-based sport psychologist Emily Saul says a focus on linear improvement  is common in runners because of all the data available to them. Runners essentially spend their life crafting evidence to show that they’re making progress. So for many of us, if you’re not getting a personal best in every race, it seems like you’re regressing—which, Saul explains, obviously isn’t true.

“Even when you don’t run a faster time than you have before, a lot of progress actually depends on that persistent pursuit,” Saul says. “There’s a variety of different metrics of fitness that are relevant to running—it’s also very much a mental challenge.”

You might run a particularly hilly, hot race to build mental fortitude and resilience. Or you might toe the line with the intention of practicing your fueling. Longtime runners will tell you, every race is an opportunity to learn something new and grow as an athlete.

While both Saul and Evans don’t disparage the desire to improve times and reach for PRs, they stress the importance of balance in order to prevent burnout.

“When people overfocus on time and have it be their only ‘thing’, they either become devastated if it doesn’t happen or begin to avoid it,” Saul says. “They begin to protect themselves from that experience of disappointment, which is really only a product of their strictness of their definition of success.”

Overly fixating on one metric of success, such as setting a PR, could develop into not only an unhealthy relationship with racing, but also create anxiety and negative self-talk around running in general.

RELATED: Try This 60-Second Grounding Exercise Before Your Next Run

Keep Your Ratio In Check 

Rather than fixating on a PR, you may find it helpful to focus on the pursuit of performing your best. In other words, “I want to go faster or longer under the conditions of raceday based on the training that I’ve done.” This is very different from an all-or-nothing mindset.

“There’s nothing wrong with external motivation as long as it is helpful to you,” Saul says. “You really have to find that right ratio of how much emphasis you put on outcomes versus how much emphasis is on other indicators of performance like how you felt, your fitness, nutrition, recovery, how much you enjoyed it, how positive your mindset was, how well you followed your strategy.”

Sometimes it’s important to reevaluate why you run. If it’s purely to PR, that’s fine, but be wary of the implications that come with that, like potential burnout and a negative, anxious feeling around running in general. If you want to run for a long time and maintain a sense of joy in your practice, you should celebrate your progress, mix up your motivations, and set an array of different goals.

From my own self-reflection, Chicago is a special race for me, and I want to be at my best when I take it on. But that doesn’t mean I’ll be opting out of a fall race completely, just adjusting my goals and motivations. For example, I’m taking on shorter, faster races this year, as well as a fitness competition. Tis the season to welcome change!