Sucking it up

At the beginning, runecrafting was a fun skill to train as the levels came rather quickly and there was something new at each one. Once level 20 came around, I could make all the F2P runes. Of course, why not keep going until 30 so I can be on the hiscores? That's about all you need for F2P, the other runes will have to be bought. Around this time, I got membership. P2P comes into it with the ability to make new runes until 77 and throwing in 4 essence pouches as well. After level 77, the only things to change are more runes per essence and a schmexy cape if you're a weirdo who likes runecrafting. :P

So what keeps me slogging my way through a skill I absolutely despise?

It steams from a mix of reasons. One, I need certain runes, like astrals, laws and nats, for crafting and alchemy and I'm not buying when I only need a few hundred or so. Two, goals of all levels above 70/80/90. Three, I've finally relieved my kung-fu grip of hoarding runes Just In Case and am making deaths to sell. 

And why don't I like runecrafting?

It's a lot of work for a little pay. When first starting, 5 exp per rune is great because the experience between levels is small. Right now, I'm staring at 413k exp until level 88. Just thinking about all those runs through ZMI or the Abyss is killing my will to train it. ZMI will make it go faster, giving me nearly double the experience over the same number of death runes.