Okay everyone, find your buddy

I enjoy a solo run as much as the next superhero, but there's something to be said about running with a buddy. A few case studies to prove my point:

Case #1 - Cinco de Miler, May 7th: A Running Buddy You Don't Know

The Cinco de Miler was my first race of 2011 and was five miles along the lakefront. Let me start by saying I had not run over three miles for about 6 months. Let me continue by adding that I had also not run more than, um, 1-ish (maybe) day(s) a week for about 6 months. So I did not wake up excited about this race. My run a week prior went well. I needed it for a multitude of reasons, but I hadn't run since then. I like to think it was to save my knee, but the week also just got away from me. It had been a long week and the alarm going off Saturday morning didn't make it feel any shorter.
I was not excited about this race. This was the first race I'd registered for all on my own. The first one I'd run on my own and attended on my own. No one with whom to bide time before the race starts. No one waiting for me at the finish line. I arrived at the race start line a full hour and ten minutes prior to the start. Initially it was peaceful. A mariachi band was playing and there were a few dozen early arrivers like me. The lake was absolutely beautiful, so still and so blue. The temperature was cool, but not uncomfortable. I thought, "I should do this more often. It is good for me to be alone and center myself." While this may be true, there's only so much "centering" I can do. (And so many bathroom breaks I can take.) I strolled around, stretched some, and people-watched (one woman was dressed as a taco! Note to self: race in more costumes). But in the end, I was lonely and not looking forward to running by myself. The extra time also gave me too much time to think and worry about how the race would go. As I said, my knee had been bothering me and I was totally untrained for this event. My goal for this race was simple. Finish. Secondary goal...run the whole way. I wasn't positive how well I could accomplish either by myself.
Finally the race started and we were on our way, sort of. Apparently the race organizers thought a stagger start would be best. They were right, because some of the lake front path had runners going both directions, so we could only run two across. However, without knowing that at the start, it was quite annoying to wait for 40 minutes to start. It didn't help my nerves, and I was more worried about pacing. Once I got started, I was careful to not go out too fast. The treadmill running does help with self-pacing. About a mile into the run, I noticed a "heavy stepper" close behind me. Normally heavy steppers frustrate me, but this time I realized that he may be the only person going my pace. I decided to run with him. This is where I am unsure of "running rules". Should I have asked him if I could pace with him? Should I introduce myself? I spent, oh, the remaining 4 miles wondering about this, never actually talking. I figure if he really didn't want to run with me, he could either slow down or speed up. And since he had his headphones in, I figured he didn't want to talk. So we just ran. We would pass people and end up side-by-side again. At the water stops, I always grab some water but he didn't. He didn't get ahead of me either. Having him as a running buddy made my race go well. My knee hurt, but didn't get the better me, and I ran the whole way. He got me by a hair at the end. I guess he didn't want to be beaten by a girl... As we went our separate ways, I simply said "Thanks for the run." Sometimes running buddies are people you don't know, who are there just when you need them helping pull you through. Having a running buddy is about strengthening resolve.

Case #2 - An Online "Running Buddy"

My next race is the Soldier Field 10-miler. I was not trained for the 5-mile race and I'm not well trained for this upcoming race either. There's some general guidelines for how quickly to bump up your weekly mileage, and I am dutifully ignoring them. I have somewhat of an accountability partner at work though. One of the divisions has a running team that are competing in a fall half marathon. I know one of the women on the team and she invited me to join. I'm a runner that needs goals, so I agreed. The team encouraged us to sign up for a program called "Exercise Across Abbott". I didn't want to join, but didn't want to be a Scrooge. I signed up on the last possible day. After signing up, I looked for this team only to realize that they didn't have a team, they were encouraging us to join any team. I didn't want to join just any team, so I didn't. I also ignored all future emails reminding me to join a team. Well, apparently Exercise Across Abbott had other plans for me. A week later I received an email from a team leader reminding me, and the others on the team, to log our week one minutes. Odd, I thought. Seems like Exercise Across Abbott automatically signed me up for a team when I didn't choose my own. Fine. I will log minutes. I only ran once in the last week (being the Cinco de Miler), but I will right it down. I logged into the system to see to what team I had been assigned. Not only does Exercise Across Abbott sign me up for a team, it has a sense of humor about it and signed me up for the team "Working Off Our Abbotts". Thanks, Exercise Across Abbott, for saying I have a big "Abbott". Nice. On the plus side, having this program forced on me has been a good thing. It's given me an accountability running buddy...even if it is electronic. Having a running buddy is about strengthening commitment

Case #3 - May 16th recovery run: A Dear Friend as a Running Buddy

In an effort to make sure I'll survive my upcoming 10 mile race, I ran a 7.7 mile loop on May 15th at the local forest preserve by my house. I was sluggishly slow, but able to run the whole thing. I would have been perfectly content to not run for the next couple days, but I had already made plans to run with Bethie. Bethie has been on injury reserve for the past 4 months and just getting back into running. We decided that a nice 2 miles would serve us both well. With her injury and my general laziness we have not run together in quite a while. It used to be a regular occurrence for us and I've missed it. We used the time to catch up on the past few months and have some fabulous girl time...okay, there was one boy, Duke, but I don't think he minded our chatter. He may have minded our pace though. :) I read an interview with a celebrity trainer wherein she said that if you can have a conversation while your exercising that you're not working hard enough. Maybe that's true, but I think that on certain runs, if you can't hold a conversation then you're missing the point of running with a dear friend. Those runs aren't really about the "run", they're about the friend. Having a running buddy is about strengthening the spirit.

Most of my training runs may be solo runs, but to scatter some runs with a running buddies makes running more than just strengthening muscles. It's about strengthening my whole self. Thank you to all of my running buddies out there! I <3 you! Looking forward to our next run. :)