The two kinds of runners in the world are those who run alone and those who prefer running with a group.
By AMIR AFSAITokens from recent marathons(photo credit: AMIR AFSAI)‘Like a lot of runners, I am an introvert by nature. Running naturally appeals to introverts because it’s a solitary activity…”– Dean Karnazes, 50/50“Running is a time when we can unwind and be with friends. Conversation is a natural and integral part of that experience.” – Sakyong Mipham, Running With the Mind of Meditation ‘There are two kinds of runners in the world,” is the first half of a sentence with more second halves than a weekend in Israel’s soccer league. There are cheetahs, fast runners over short distances, and antelopes, endurance runners whose weekly mileage is routinely in the triple digits; there are pavement pounders, urban runners with mental maps of every bubbler and public restroom in town, and trail runners, for whom the crunch of dirt beneath their feet is music for the soul; there are gear junkies, runners with more pockets and straps and powders and pills than a Golani field medic, and minimalists, who would run in literally nothing but a pair of Crocs if it were socially acceptable.At the most basic level, though, the two kinds of runners in the world are those who run alone and those who prefer running with a group. In fact, the distinction is so fundamental across nature that it applies to human runners as well as to animal runners and their aquatic and aerial counterparts.The solo runner likes to be his or her own boss – to set his own rules, pursue his own goals, and let his intuition be his guide. He might consult with a coach or a running peer, but rarely, if ever, will he modify his training plan to accommodate someone else’s. When out for a run, he prefers being alone with his thoughts to sharing them with others, or having others share theirs with him. And when the run is over, his own mental pat on the back is no less rewarding than someone else’s real one would be.Group runners, in stark contrast, perform best when surrounded by fellow runners, feeding off each other’s energy like wild pronghorns in a herd. Within the group they are stronger, bolder, more enthusiastic, more ambitious, whereas alone they feel vulnerable, exposed, or just plain lonely and bored. The support network generated by the group is something they not only appreciate but very often depend on: when injury strikes or a dilemma arises, they look to the group for direction and encouragement, and they find it. As far as they are concerned, their immediate goals can take a back seat to the goal of continuing to train with the group.Like everything related to the sport, running groups come in an endless array of styles. There are ultra-competitive clubs with rigid criteria for joining and benchmarks for staying on. In the Sharon region, for example, the yellow-shirted Altermans club is notorious for the killer instinct it smelts out of its trainees, who push and shove their way to the front of corrals and treat every run as an A-race. There are volunteer-based groups, in which the social component is almost as important as the training itself.In Jerusalem, this ethic is exemplified by the group Someone to Run With, where selfies and post-race potluck meals are a hallowed tradition at the same time that members of the group frequently place at individual and relay race events. Then there are niche groups, such as Miri Forst’s all-women running group in Kiryat Malachi, Fadi Awisat’s Arab runners group in Jerusalem, and the nationally syndicated Etgarim for disabled runners.It goes without saying that running groups are ideal for beginners. The training-wheels stage of running can be fraught with unanticipated setbacks, be they injury, a slump in motivation, or sudden dread of an approaching race. In such cases, access to an attentive coach and to the collective experience of a group is an asset whose value cannot be overstated. What a newcomer to running will learn from training even briefly with a group would take months of trial and error training alone. Not just how to run or how to prep for a 10K, but where to run, what to wear, what to eat – even what to read. And while one might think the group dynamic could place undue pressures on members to over-perform, this is true only of the elite groups.Recreational running groups will certainly encourage runners to explore their limits, and extend them, but never in a manner that is forceful.Running groups also serve another, more implicit, function: they offer runners physical security. July and August 2016 were dark months in the annals of running. In a span of nine days, three women in the US were murdered while out for runs. What they had in common was that they ran alone. The events led many women to arm themselves with pepper spray, and many others sought out local partners and groups to run with solely for the purpose of feeling protected.In a way, solo and group runners are like sister species, descendants from a common ancestor whose evolutionary paths diverged over time. They still share the same habitats – the same roads, trails, physical therapy waiting rooms – but their coexistence is limited. The dictum “You’re either with us or against us” ensures that cross-species interactions are few and far between. You might not be born solo or group, but at some point you choose a side, and it pretty much sticks.Between the solo and group runners, however, there is now a middle ground of sorts, a shared venue where each can run in the other’s shoes, as it were. Perhaps you were once out for a jog in the neighborhood and passed by someone who made you wonder, how much is he running? Is she a casual jogger? A marathoner? Single? How is it no one has invented a way to see who all these people are that I’m passing on my runs? Well, as it turns out, someone has invented a way – it’s just still not as commonly used among runners in Israel as it is in Europe and the US. As long as you run with a GPS watch or track your runs with a location app on your smartphone, syncing the runs with STRAVA.com and viewing the Flyby feature can reveal the identities of many of those faces you keep encountering.Thus even the solo runner is in a virtual sense always running in a group or community, and the group runner sets herself apart from the pack by showcasing her runs in isolation as something uniquely hers.Which of the two camps is larger, the solo or the group? In Israel, judging by appearances, they are about evenly matched. Whichever camp one’s personality, goals and priorities align with, a runner is always in good company – regardless of how he or she chooses to engage with it.
Related Tagsfitness
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store