A breif discussion on the merits of running solo or in a group.

“I, I follow, I follow you
Deep sea baby, I follow you
I, I follow, I follow you
Dark doom honey, I follow you”

Wait, What? What does that even mean? Why deep sea? These thoughts zig zag into my mind as I rip off my headphones in annoyance. Deeply perplexed at why Likki Li wants me to run into an ocean and truly questioning whether my “Great Songs for Great Runs” playlist is actually either of those things. Panting like a dog in a desert I realise, not really for the first time, that I have been doing running wrong. My occasional high octane pseudo sprints are no way to get better, or to go for longer and I need to figure out something else.

Running is very much a double edged sword, at once it’s the easiest sport to take part in. I know someone who ran a 10k in brogues, its not something I would recommend but he did, its definitely possible. Anyone can go for a run; you don’t need a pitch, you don’t need a goal, you don’t need anyone else to participate, you could probably stand up right now and run out the door and come back 5 kilometres later, it might really freak out your cat, but it would be possible.

So running solo can be great, you can run for as long as you like, there are multiple apps that help you keep a tab on your distance and pace and anything else you might care to measure. You can do it whenever and more or less wherever and you are really only trying to improve yourself. As author Haruki Murakami puts it in his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running “running is both exercise and a metaphor. Running day after day, piling up the races, bit by bit I raise the bar, and by clearing each level I elevate myself…I’m no great runner…But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself”. Now that’s a lovely approach and one that certainly works for many people but it’s far from being alone.

Now the idea of running in a group always conjured memories of running cross country on days that were too cold to play rugby. Hours of slow trudging around frozen fields on the coldest and greyest of days, knees red raw with cold being regularly lapped by the faster boys, young whippets with boundless energy. So the idea of a running club was not immediately appealing until I came to the realisation that I was not very good at running by myself. I would start far too fast and be exhausted by the third kilometre or earlier, without other people as context it can be very difficult to pace yourself. I felt like I was fit enough to run further but was going about it in the wrong way.

Now the first thing to say is that to run in a group can mean different things, it can mean just running with a partner, ideally someone who’s at a similar level or to run with instruction like a podcast about running, a couch to 5k kind of scenario which can be incredibly helpful for keeping yourself aware of your progress. It can also mean running with actually other runners. I found this very daunting until I met a friend of a friend who had a small running club who’s USP was that they would run to a pub. A classic pleasure/pain scenario. Running with them was a great feeling, they do differing distances but I started with joining them for 5k runs. Having a group of people around meant that I was much more aware of what I was doing right and wrong, my consistency improved and having people that you know will push you to come, or at least be slightly mean to you if you’re being lazy and try and back out, is a great motivation.

There’s no right answer to how one should run but trying different approaches and trying to align with like minded people is a good place to start, just don’t try and figure out why likki li wants you to run through a sea.