Running Buddies

I have been fortunate enough to run with buddies before in various training sessions. In the early days of 2020 BC (Before Covid), I was intending to run the Bath Half with Nikki and Jodie. We enjoyed a comfortable mixture of sessions, running loops outside on the hilly roads of our old streets and meeting up at the gym after work for some treadmill action when the weather turned sour. It was nice to have company and certainly changed the dynamic of my runs.

Running? With people?

However, while we ran together, we still had our headphones firmly in place to allow us to concentrate and not listen to any pained wheezing or grunting. Running with others was a nice experience but it didn't really change how I felt about the activity or enhance my perspective. It was simply nice to have others along for the ride and share the suffering. Plus, watching Nikki and Jodie achieve new personal best distances was a fantastic experience.

For most of the time I've been an active runner (or a reasonably active runner), I have been doing it solo. Nothing but me, my headphones, and a goal in mind. I didn't mind it. Good tunes and zero distractions let me get lost in my own thoughts. I could set goals and focus on what I needed to do to reach those targets. I listened to plenty of Iron Maiden, and even a few audiobooks. For all I knew, this was how running should be.

But in the summer of 2021, I made a change - and a new friend. It began simply enough when I posted on the local community social page, asking about the nearby Parkrun and if anyone on the estate wanted to tackle it together. There were one or two interested responses and we got to talking.

That was how I met my friend and running buddy Tracy. We decided to try and tackle some local roads together and see how we got along. It was weird at first. Neither of us had much experience in running with other people, but we stuck with it and made awkward small talk. Initially, I struggled like hell to keep up. Tracy is in good shape - she runs, attends local workout classes, and eats healthy foods. I, meanwhile, have just scoffed three Christmas chocolates while writing that sentence.

This is quite accurate.

But we slowly fell into a good groove together. The first few sessions, we took our headphones and ran together, but separately. After that, we started chatting while running and within a few weeks, we became those annoying runners that hog the path and loudly talk without a care for anyone else. It's actually really nice to have a buddy out there with me. We motivate each other, push ourselves to do better, and refuse to quit.

This, I've learned, is the best part of having a running buddy. Now that someone is relying on me for regular jaunts, there's an added incentive not to give up or make excuses to stay home. Even when we run at the crack of dawn, or plan increasingly long Saturday morning sessions that seem to encompass the entirety of Chippenham, I'm more excited to do it because someone is willing to go through it with me.

As 2022 draws to a close, I'm looking back on the things Tracy and I achieved this year. We managed to get out before work several times a week during the summer. We ran the Bristol 10k together. I ran several 10k circuits throughout the year and managed to bring my time down a little more with each medal gained. It felt incredible.

Now I'm looking at 2023 and wondering what interesting new challenges lie in wait. Will we sign up for a half marathon? Maybe even a full 26 mile run? Who knows. All I know for certain is that running is fun by yourself, but it's even more enjoyable with a buddy.

Previously on AdamVMarathon...

I'm not dead. Truth be told, I sort of forgot about this blog while everything went crazy for a little while. 2020 ended up as sort of a weird, blurry streak where we hibernated like animals and waited for the storm to pass.

"Is it over yet?"

Let me try and sum up the last couple of years before I attempt to continue recording my experiences as an amateur runner. I spent the summer of 2020 hiding indoors with no idea what was going on outside. There was a brief window in the autumn where I took part in a work competition to accumulate group distance together. It was a lot of fun and helped me get back in the saddle. After few painful sessions, I found my legs again and even began to enjoy running again.

There were some difficult times initially. I struggled to run half a mile and had to remember that it was more than a year since I was even close to being some kind of decent runner. I'd curse myself, beat myself up, regret putting my body through all this again. But in the end, it was worth it. Within a few weeks, I was back to running a nice 10K loop without stopping. It felt great, it felt like I'd found my old self again.

Then we moved. In January 2021, my wife and I found a gorgeous house in Chippenham about 30 minutes away from the flat. Everything fell by the wayside as we scrambled to find the money, pack up our entire lives, and get rid of all the things we didn't need to take. We had a lot of help from our families, but we did it. We moved into our first house together in the middle of May and by the time we stopped, half the year had already slipped away.

You blink in January and suddenly it's July.

I started again-again. Found a nice loop around the local area and started running. I went through all the motions again; struggling to run half a mile; cursing my lack of fitnes; slowly upping the ante; and finally, settling into a decent groove and finding my pace again.

As I began the long process of getting back to some basic level of fitness, I started to enjoy myself. I even did something I've never done before: made a new friend through running. Before long, Tracy and I became running buddies, and started to inspire and encourage each other to stick to a regular routine, work out at local classes, and pick up the pace.

Now, as 2022 winds down, we're managing a good four mile run twice a week, plus a longer challenge at the weekends. I'll probably go into more detail about this in a later post.

The real reason I was inspired to reopen this dusty old blog is because of a friend of mine. My university chum Colin - the very same Colin who once waved to me as I started the marathon some three years ago - ran through London yesterday on his own challenge. He completed the marathon in five hours, thirty nine minutes, and one second. I watched the broadcast on TV and followed his progress in the app. The whole time, I smiled to myself. I knew exactly where he was on the route and what he would be seeing. I described the course to my wife as TV cameras captured forty thousand runners rushing through the city. It was like being there all over again. All those old feelings came rushing back.

Maybe it's time I stopped with these little runs and started pushing myself even more. I know I can run 10K. I can do nine miles fairly comfortably (albiet with a lot of swearing and grunting). Perhaps it's time to aim for some new challenges...?