I don’t have a friend to run with and I hate running alone
This post is part of the 31 Excuses To Not Run series, where I asked 31 friends to give me their excuses. 31 excuses for 31 days – you have an excuse for every day of the month. And now you have a little motivation and some ideas on how to get past those excuses.
I don’t have a friend to run with and I hate running alone. – Sara
When you want to go for a run but have no one to run with, that’s a pretty easy excuse to use. I remember the first time that I just decided to go running by myself. It was weird. I didn’t have my wife next to me, running along to chat. And there wasn’t a huge group (like at a race) around me making me feel like something bigger.
I was just all alone… running… by myself.
Ok, so there’s two ways to go with solving the problem of running by yourself.
You can either own it or find people to run with.
Own Running By Yourself
When you’re ready to venture out by yourself for a run there are a few things that you can do that will help you get past the idea that you’re running by yourself.
First, pick a route that is interesting, maybe it has a great view, or maybe it’s somewhere new that you have been wanting to explore. Personally, the first time that I ran by myself I went down to Round Lake in Camas, WA – it’s a city that my wife grew up in and we previously talked about that being a good spot to for a run. I made it a challenge for myself to do two laps of the lake, which was roughly running a 5k total. I wanted to get a new Personal Record (PR) for a 5k – but it was about 92 degrees outside. Probably not the best day to push myself, but I did, and I made a new PR. It was fun, I hadn’t been there before and it was filled with people playing on the lake – and while it was busy, I still felt like I was able to stick to myself and get a nice run in.
Second, Decide that you’re going to zone out to an extent for some personal time – pick a few great songs and listen to them as motivation on your run. Gamify it. Make the songs roughly the same length of time so that you can run intensely for a song, back off for another song.
Solve The Problem of Running By Yourself.
Get some friends. =)
Seriously though, the running community is huge and very friendly. You will find plenty of running groups for different levels of interest and experience in your local area. We have a ton in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR and if you wanted to run every day with someone, you really could.
Find a few friends to run with that are going to run at the same speed, pace and intensity that you will run at – this makes a huge difference if you want to enjoy running.
Running Sucks…Ok, that’s it. Go make some friends.
(Read the other 30 excuses for not wanting to run?)
