Running in a Community

I love the track. Love it. I love the smell of the rubber on a hot day; love the lonely silence of the empty stands in the early-morning chill; love the imperceptibly shifting line of sun and shadow across the lanes; love the hubbub of runners working hard; love it all.

For the past few years, I’ve done all my track work alone. It’s all I knew. I’d go out there and whip around, doing 400s or 800s or 1600s, not really knowing how fast to go, but loving every gut-wrenching second of it (unless the bathrooms were closed – what is it about speedwork that inevitably cleans out the system?). There were times, however, when I would lose the pace, start to slow, start to doubt, and eventually pull up short on an interval, or on the entire workout.

Those were lonely moments.

Recently, I’ve started running with a group at the SMU track on Wednesday evenings under the watchful eye of an excellent coach. The first workout I did with them was a revelation. For one, I discovered that I’d been doing some of my intervals WAY too fast, especially my 400s. My previous idea about running 400s was pretty much go out there and run your guts out and see what happens. So I would do 73s or 74s to begin and then lose the pace with each interval until I threw up my hands and cried “no mas!” Apparently, that’s not the best way to do things. So now I have a coach who sagely gives me my paces (from Daniel’s tables), and I do my best to hit the right splits.

The other revelation I received from that first group workout was this: it’s wonderful to run with others. There’s just something about moving around the track as a pair or as a group of three or four that almost eliminates the mental strain I suffered as a lonely intervalist. On the one hand, it’s surprisingly comfortable to follow someone, to have him or her set the pace – I can take my mind off of the pace and just run. On the other hand, it’s also fun to lead, especially when I’m running with folks who I know are faster than I am.

As a result, I’ve been having surprisingly great track workouts. For example, that first one I did was 2 sets of 8x400m @ 82s with very short rests between intervals. That’s way more 400s than I’d ever run before – and it felt great. I was tired, but I wasn’t on the edge of doom. And I ran a bunch of them with a world-class woman marathoner. That’s pretty cool too.

I must admit, I do miss those lonely morning speed sessions… but not that much. With the group, not only am I running better, but I’m also learning a lot from the coach and getting to glimpse the aspirations of other runners. I’m discovering too that there is strength in sharing your goals with others and sharing in their goals. So even though I’ll always crave the loneliness of the long distance runner, I’m beginning to understand that sometimes the loneliness is not all it’s cracked up to be; sometimes there's strength to be gained and shared in a community of runners.