Out for a run

Let's say you're a runner and you then cease to be one. It matters to you, because being a runner is part of who you are. But it isn't, because you aren't. Not any more. Well, it matters because you were a runner and regret being one no longer. Yet if you are one no longer, and it therefore isn't part of who you are, you're regretting it as a former runner, that is, as a non-runner - and consequently for reasons not having to do with your identity. It could be said here that it's for reasons of the identity you would like to have. But a would-like-to-have identity is like the identity someone who's never been a runner has when they set out to become one. Perhaps, however, being a runner is sort of in your identity even when you've ceased to be one, in a way that it isn't in your identity before you've yet become one, when you merely want and intend to become one - such that all former smokers are still smokers, all ex-husbands are still married, and all adults are still children. But does what you've lost matter, then, because it was part of who you were, or because you value it whoever you are? Who knows?