turning back

No one gets left behind. That’s been one of my core rules of my deep involvement in a run club.

Look, if you go out to train and your goal is to go fast and boost your performance and build your own personal stamina, good on you. That’s a noble effort, and I genuinely hope your training goes well. You should probably find the right group for that or just train solo.

But if you come out to a community of run club members with the goal of running with the group, then run with the group. Support the group. Help keep the group together. 

Not every run club is big enough to have pace categories, and I will fully admit that finding a group that goes your speed and meets your expectations is hard as hell.

But once you’re in that group, committed to running with a community, then support the community. 

For me, that’s the little things: high fives at the end of a session, positive feedback to everyone, and turning back to keep stragglers in sight of the main pack.

Some people are going to flat out say “don’t wait” and if they tell you that insistently, believe them. Thinking that they are holding up a group can be an extra layer of demotivation for some people. 

But for most people, even if they are hinting that they are too slow to keep up, it can mean the world to turn back and keep them as part of the pack as much as possible. Every ten minutes or so looping a one-eighty and saying “Let’s keep the group together!” will drag most everyone right along with you.

It’s safer. It’s friendlier. It’s kinder. And it’s how you build a stronger community.