Friends

COMMUNITY Breaking in

Longing for a running buddy/ company on your run? Here’s how to break into the running community

BY SHEILA MULROONEY ELDRED

When Hayley Russell moved to Minneapolis to start a Ph.D. program, she knew no one in Minnesota. She’d been running consistently for several years, so she figured running would be a good way to meet people. But like many people new to running and/or Minnesota, she also worried that she wouldn’t be able to keep up on a group run or that everyone else would be more serious about competition.

So, she did some research, looking at the values of various clubs before settling on one that professed to being accessible to all runners. She got up her nerve, laced up her shoes and wound up running with three other women who became some of her closest friends in Minneapolis.

Now with her doctorate in kinesiology with an emphasis on sports psychology under her belt, she realizes even more fully the advantages of running with others:

“There are lots of benefits to running with other people,” she says. Foremost among them? Accountability. “It’s really important for

Angie Voight of St. paul gets a high five after the victory day race in september. Photo by Wayne Kryduba

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motivation,” she says. “You’re much less likely to cancel on someone else than you are on yourself.”

Another advantage, she says, is “upward and downward comparisons.” That’s sports psychology speak for sizing yourself up in comparison to your running partner. The good news is that there are perks to running with both faster and slower partners: “If you run with someone faster, you’re often motivated to improve,” she says. When you’re the faster runner, the comparison is a validation of your strength. And, it may also help you enjoy running -- and/or work a much needed easy day into your schedule.

The perks of running with others hold true whether you’re a beginner or an Olympic runner. As a coach of elite runners, Team USA Minnesota coach Chris Lundstrom says that group training is essential.

“It’s pretty well proven to help bring people to the next level, having someone to push you through the more challenging workouts,” he says. “And the amount that [elite athletes] are running would be very difficult to sustain mentally if you didn’t have some type of group support.”

This could be true of many sports, but running lends itself exceptionally well to socializing. Think about how runners describe paces (or perceived levels of exertion) in terms of conversation. A coach may encourage a pace “easy enough to hold a sustained conversation” for an easy run or “hard enough that you only talk if you have to” for a threshold run. Bottom line: it’s worth getting over any intimidation. Fortunately, with such a large running community in the Twin Cities, opportunities abound.

Here are Russell’s and Lundstrom’s tips on breaking the ice over a workout:

Find a group with members at your level. “Sometimes people are intimidated by a larger group, but as soon as the run starts it sorts out to particular paces and then you have a small group,” Lundstrom notes.

To find that group, follow Russell’s lead and do some homework on a club’s values. If nothing is stated online, email or pick up the phone and ask. If you do end up out of your league, don’t generalize that experience, she suggests. “Don’t decide that all running groups aren’t for you - think that that one running group wasn’t for you.”

Remember that most runners are happy to have company, Lundstrom says, and remember that you have to have at least one thing in common to talk about, Russell adds.

Groups are generally an easier way “in” than a 1:1 running “date” they agree, but if you’re in a smaller area without as many official groups, a more casual and intimate workout may be your best bet. When Russell moved to St. Peter to her new job at Gustavus Adolphus College as an assistant professor in health and exercise science, she discovered this first hand. Happily, she also discovered that people tend to help connect runners with each other. “When I started here, I told people I ran and they told me who else ran on campus,” she says. “Even this week, I got an email from the new chaplain saying she had to meet me because we both run. So make it public that you run.”

If casual networking fails, strike up conversations at races. “See who else is at the same pace, age and ability,” Russell advises. “It can be awkward and uncomfortable -- but that’s how it is for all friendships.”

And, like all friendships, remember that friends serve different purposes. “There are some people you do activities with and that’s the basis of the friendship,” Russell says. “If you’re lucky, you’ll have other things in common and choose to be friends outside of running.”

Fortunately, running tends to break down barriers, Lundstrom says. “If you’re sweating and stopping to use the bathroom...you get to know each other pretty well pretty quickly. People tend to become fast friends. I teach a marathon training class at the U and it’s amazing how over the course of a couple of weeks, I can’t believe this group of people didn’t know each other before the class. They seem like old friends.”