Friday, December 18, 2009

Chanukah Special: 8 Things I Love About Runing


Night 8: Camaraderie

I know, I know, on the first night I wrote about how much I loved the solitude of my weekend long runs and most of my early morning runs. I believe there is a place for enjoying the solitude of a weekend long and  for running with company. Whether it's a small local 5k or the New York City Marathon, there is no better feeling than race day. The energy on race day is amazing. After I ran the New York City Marathon in 2007, people asked me if I ran with anyone I knew. My response was, "I ran with 38,000 of my closest friends." I am sure that most us have made conversation with total strangers during a road race.

The Nike Speed sessions is another place where I've enjoyed the company of other runners. I just can't see myself being able to run intervals at the right pace if I were running solo. The coaches are great motivators and give advice about form and breathing. The other runners in my group were also great company. We would provide motivation during a tough part of the workout and high five each other afterward.

The popularity of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter have made it even easier to meet new runners. I've participated in a few Tweet-up runs in New York. It's a pretty amazing thing. Up until a few weeks or months ago, these were people I only knew in a virtual world. Now groups of us are meeting up on a pretty regular basis. Running on the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, from Midtown to Battery Park, and in Central Park.

As tonight is the last night of Chanukah, this will be the last post in this special series. I had a lot of fun putting this together. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a comment letting me know what you think or what aspects you love about running that I didn't write about. I hope to do more of these special series in the future. For now, it's back to writing my everyday running and whatever else comes to mind.

Happy Chanukah!

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