Recently, one of my good friends (we’ll call her L) asked me to help her design a running plan so she can tone up a bit before her upcoming wedding (and just to improve her fitness in general). I was pretty excited to jump in and help her and of course said yes instantly! If you’ve never introduced (or re-introduced) a friend to running, you may want to think about it. I’ve been having so much fun! Here’s why you will too:
- You have an instant new running buddy! I’m always excited to have someone to run with and its been fun to be able to run and catch up with L. Run dates are a healthy, fun and free way to spend some time with your favorite people.
- It’s fun to introduce someone to your
obsessionfavorite hobby. Let’s face it, once you get the running bug, it tends to take over your life a bit. Races, foam rolling, injuries, PRs, etc. Your friends and family who don’t run can only take so much. However, your newbie runner friend is probably just as excited as you are! - Those who can’t do, teach, right? While giving tips about hydration, form and the like, I realized that I should be taking my own advice more. As it turns out, I know some good stuff, but just don’t apply it all the time on my runs.
- This goes hand in hand with number 3, but as I’m attempting to help someone new to running get in her groove, I find myself reading up on better running techniques, stretching techniques, gear and the like. I want to be as knowledgeable as possible to help her and that is truly a win-win.
Have you ever introduced a friend to running? How did it go?
I’ve found so many new running buddies. Love having a passion like that in common!
emma @ amomrunsthistown.com
It is so great to be able to share it with friends (and make new friends from running!)
Love it!! I wish I could get more of my friends into it.
I know – I’m working on converting everyone 🙂
I love turning my friends into running buddies! It’s such a social sport–and the more friends I can get involved, the happier I am. I’m selfish, I want to see my friends ALL the time. (And see them happy and healthy, too!)
I totally agree. Also, runners are such a friendly group that it’s easy to bring new folks into the fold 🙂
really enjoyed this post. i can totally relate to the idea of not following the info you know to be true in your brain lol. 🙂 going to add you to my feedly so i can follow your blog! found you through your post in running bloggers grp of fb. so happy i did!
Great post! I agree with this, I love introducing someone to running for the first time and I love watching their journey! Hope you don’t mind I had to share this on twitter:)
Thanks for sharing it — I don’t mind at all 🙂
Actually, it was the other way around…my friend introduced me to running! Now I have a great running partner…we are planning a long run together this weekend!
That’s awesome — it absolutely goes both ways!
I started to introduce my mom to running. She lives in Texas and I’m in California but she flew out do her her first 5k with me last year. One race and she was hooked. I really enjoyed sharing what I knew with her and coaching her along the way.
It is my not so secret dream to convince my mom to run with me. She’s not a runner but I’m hoping I can somehow get her hooked. How did you start your mom off running?
She doesn’t run much. Her goal this next year is to run the entire 5K. But It started out after I finished my first 5K. It was an all women race and I told her they had mother daughter teams. She mentioned that would be cool to do. So I just kept mentioning doing it and she eventually agreed. She trained on her own. But after she finished that first race she was hooked.
That’s awesome!
I sadly don’t run with people, though I have met a ton of people on race courses. How do you reconcile trying to go at your own pace with running w/ those who are either slower or faster than you? That’s my problem! I will often tell people that I’ll start a race with them, but won’t necessarily finish it with them, and sometimes I feel mean saying that.
I run w/my friend once a week and just consider it an “easy” day. During races, I have the same strategy as you — it’s every woman for herself! I do think it’d be an issue if I was running w/faster or slower folks more than 1x a week. But with this level of frequency, it’s okay!