> Why do recreational distance runners care about speed so much? Qualifying times and cutoffs are a thing, so that's it for some people. For others, it's about

> Why do recreational distance runners care about speed so much? Qualifying times and cutoffs are a thing, so that's it for some people. For others, it's about having goals, or even just measuring progress. You might find the running "satisfying" and "rewarding" in itself, but for many that's not the case. For them, the satisfaction is not in running but in having run, and part of that is in the numbers. Times go down, heart rates go down, weights go down, whatever. Without goals and metrics, there's nothing but the grind. And yeah, some people are just competitive. But there's nothing wrong with that either. People are just motivated different ways.