It’s Friday so I am linking up with three DC area bloggers Mar at Mar On the Run, Cynthia at You Signed Up For What?! and Courtney from Eat Pray Run, DC . Anyone can join with their own Friday Five post (yes, it must be a Friday Five!!) They encourage you to visit other blogs on the linkup, comment, share and engage!
My Friday Topic is Five Reasons Not To Run Alone
- Safety
Obviously you are safer in numbers. Or at least with one other person.
Especially if you run in the dark – either early morning or late evening, you should not run alone (if you can help it.)
2. Forging Friendships
Running is what you have in common so it’s what brought you to together.
But while you are running, you wind up chatting about work, family and basically all your problems. Now you are not just running friends but friends.
Judy & I have even gone to the movies together in addition to planning race-ations.
3. Staying Focused
In order to run with other people, you have to plan. You have to agree on a time and a place. It’s takes a lot of coordination.
Alyssa works in Albany til 4:30, I work in Guilderland til 4 and Barbara is retired & lives in Delmar – we still manage to run together once a week
After all that planning, you wouldn’t think about skipping the run…even if it is 95 degrees or 10 below.
And if you pay to be part of a training group, you don’t want to waste money and your friends are there, so you show up and run even if it’s raining or you just ran 13 miles the day before.
4. Improving Your Running
I get very distracted when I run alone. I stop and take pictures. I walk when I am tired. When I run with others, I don’t want to slow them down so it forces me to run more consistently. In fact Alyssa always jokes that even though we don’t try, we always have negatives splits.
And you are lucky enough to have a faster runner want to run with you, you will get better.
she left me in the dust in this race but we do run together.
5. It’s just plain more FUN.
The miles go by faster. The hills don’t seem as steep.
11 miles with Denise discovering that we were both French majors at the same college….
Happy Running! Do you prefer to run alone or with others?
I definitely prefer running with others, yet I run by myself most of the time and could barely run with my group this summer.
Um, running with faster runners hasn’t made me faster! I need to find someone who’s just a *little* faster than me.
Denise always struggles through long runs, yet always leaves me in the dust in a race!
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Yet that day, she was running faster than me…must have been all that French nostalgia stuff…
Hey, keep it up, YOU may get faster or
do we ever really know what our fast is?? Before a 5k, I think maybe 26 minutes and then when I am running I think I hope I’m under 30 LOL.
It really depends on where you start and how much you have improved. If you started at 40 min and you’re now at 32 minutes, you’ve improved more than someone who started at 33 and is at 27.
You’re out there running…no matter how fast…that’s what really matters.
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Believe me, I’m working on goals that don’t involve time — it’s hard, though! Good luck in your half.
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Me too. Finish. Lol. Thanks.
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Always good. 🙂
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I do prefer to run alone, altho after running Big Sur with Kristina, I now want to do more running with other folks!
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It is easier in a lot of ways to run alone. You can run when and where and what distance you want. Plus you run at your own pace – not slower or faster than you want.
You will get to in December but unfortunately not with me. I am not that fast. I bet Marcia & Holly will be up there with you.
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I like having a balance of running with others and running with myself. I lucked out because I have a good friend that got into running around the same time as me and another friend we convinced to join us last year. So it’s a great way to stay in touch with them. I definitely think we wouldn’t see each other as often as we do if it wasn’t for the running.
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That’s great.
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Well you know I am all about running with others, LOL! There is something theraputic about running side-by-side, not looking at each other, but talking nonetheless, that allows for some deep conversation (amidst the gasps, depending on how fast we are running). We call it the “runner’s cone of silence” because whatever is spilled during the run is not discussed again unless that spiller brings it up.
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How funny but how true.
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99% of the time I am alone. The only person that ran here at work moved to a new job in July so I don’t even have a real life to bud to chat with now about running. I am always hoping one day I will find a real life buddy to kick around with.
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Too bad. Hopefully you will find another running partner soon
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And we can be virtual buds.
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I think I enjoy alone and with friends equally, although I tend to run alone more. The scheduling thing is what gets me every time.
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That used to me but I found two flexible friends. So at least once a week, I can have company.
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i used to always run alone, then I found MRTT and agree with all the benefits you’ve listed, but my schedule has me running alone most of the time again.
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I know. My schedule will get in the way too. Especially when I travel for work.
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Yes, it’s all true! Wish I could find someone to hook up with to help me improve!
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I think it does help.
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