My Journey With Weight Loss – The Running Community

Today was my interval training day so I headed off to the beach at 5:30am. It was a beautiful day to do my training along the beach with the sun coming up and the tide in all the way. Then I saw them, the dreaded geese. There was a huge group of them swimming in the ocean and as I ran by I started counting though I stopped when I got to 100 geese. I fervently hoped that the tide would stay out until I finished my training along the promenade because I knew if not I’d be back to having to get past them as they would come up from the water and onto the promenade. Fortunately by time I was heading back only about 6 of them were on the promenade and much to my relief they ignored me.

Last Saturday when I was doing part of my 10 km along the promenade I realized there wasn’t very many walkers out which was likely to do with the pouring rain. However, I noticed there were even more runners than usual. I also realized there are several of us that see each other pretty much every day. We seem to have become more friendly with each other always saying hello or commenting on how the run was going. One young man always gives me a huge grin and tells me I’m doing great (note he probably runs 10 times my pace but he also at least 25 years younger than me).

But Saturday something a bit unexpected happened. I ran past a man who I hadn’t seen before while I was heading back along the pier. As I always do, I greeted him and he smiled and responded. He then passed me as I was doing the final leg of the promenade which is where I encountered the hissing goose and so ran at my top speed for the next kilometer or so. When I got to the promenade the same gentleman was there stretching and shouted out good job, I saw you really push it that last leg (I don’t think he knew it was because of the goose incident). I told him this was my 2nd ever 10 km so he asked how much further I had to do. I shouted out 2 km! His response, you’ve got this!

I’m starting to recognize that even if like me you run on your own, other runners become part of your community. The smiles, greetings and encouragement always seem spontaneous but sincere. I know for me as a new runner this means a lot to me and helps me keep going. It also always makes me feel like I am in my happy place.

So here’s to meeting more people in my new community.