Why is it when the new year rolls around, millions of people take on the false promise of getting healthier by signing up for a gym membership, followed by eating healthier, or cutting down on sweets, or alcohol? Fast forward 4–6 weeks later and those good intentions, well, they remain good intentions and not much more.
The gym membership gets canceled, life gets in the way, we get busy with work, kids soccer practice, or travel, and we find ourselves back to default mode. We get stressed so we eat, or blow off steam with a couple of cocktails, or mindlessly end up eating a full bag of peanut M&M’s.
The reason this happens can be summed up by one word — accountability. Trying to conquer old or bad habits by yourself is really hard. You skip the gym, no one is going to give you crap about it. You might have a little guilt, but you tell yourself there is always tomorrow. You go out for drinks with friends or find yourself getting more takeout (the pizza place, Chipotle, and Chinese food establishments all thank you) and the spiral continues. No one is there to hold you accountable to your goals.
Enter the local running club. I kid you not when I tell you a running club can change your life if you want it to. How you ask? Many clubs are open to all types of runners. New, experienced, young, and old, all with similar and unique stories. You’ll meet Jane, the 40 something year old mom with 3 kids all involved with sports. Running with the club has become her personal escape. You’ll meet Max, a 74-year-old who has been running for 60 years and loves to continue to meet new people and stay healthy. Then there’s George, the 50-year-old whose doctor has instructed him to start running to prevent diabetes and heart disease. Finally, there is Emily, a late 20’s post-collegiate runner looking to qualify for Boston (the marathon).
The list goes on, but the people above (although fictitious for this blog) are the people you can expect to meet on the club. They may have just joined 2 weeks ago or may have even started the club 15 years ago. Regardless, they all have very different backgrounds but share their love for running and belonging to a group of likeminded people.
They will make running fun. Maybe you start with the group who is going out for an easy 2–3-mile jog. Perhaps you are coming back from an injury and want to take it easy with the group doing an easy 4 miles. Or, if you’re Emily, you’re joining the crew of marathon training runners going out for their long run of 18 miles. During each of these runs you can expect a lot of chatting covering all of life’s topics. You’ll share success stories, war stories from work, or with your kids, where you went to college, what each other’s hobbies are, the last movie you saw or book you read. It won’t even seem like running because the group makes it fun by being very social.
Suddenly you find yourself hooked. You enjoy the groups company, you begin to make new friends, you begin to look forward to meeting up with them for weekend runs or even other runs during the week. They will begin to naturally ask you how your running is going on the days when you’re alone. They’ll talk about past injuries, or successes and failures from races in the past. They’ll provide motivation, inspiration, and that one word I mentioned earlier, ACCOUNTABILITY. You’ll feel like you owe it to yourself and them to not be “that” person who didn’t run all week and then joined the weekend run. Furthermore, it may show. You may find yourself suddenly drifting to the back of the pack during the group run, struggling to keep up because you took 5 days off in a row. You won’t make that mistake again!
Fast forward to a year later. Your healthier, fit, in shape. Hell, maybe you’re no longer taking blood pressure medication, or have avoided pre-diabetes. Your mentally in a better spot because you have a system and a group of people to rely on to help with life’s stressors. You’re more upbeat, positive, and confident. You’re eating healthier as part of your new lifestyle. All of this because you decided to join a running club.
To the few who make the New Year’s resolution and stick to it, cheers to you. For the rest of us who need accountability, cheers to our running club family for keeping us accountable.