The Buddy System

The best way to stay motivated is to make your running interesting, easy, and enjoyable. The single best thing you can do to make your running easier and more enjoyable isn’t getting the latest, greatest pair of shoes or eating just the right food, or putting on those cool running sunglasses. It’s much simpler than that—run regularly with a friend. That person is your training partner.

We’ve all heard about the loneliness of the long-distance runner. Yes, running can be an intensely solitary experience, and that’s one of the main things that many people love about it. I certainly enjoy the opportunity to get away from the usual distractions with only my thoughts to accompany me. But if that’s how you always run, you’re missing out on one of the greatest and generally unknown aspects of running—the social side. Most people find that the miles pass a lot quicker when they’ve got a friend by their side (see the following figure).

When I was training to be the best marathoner in the world in the ’70s, I ran twice a day, pretty much every day of the year. That’s a lot of runs! I had company on more than half of those runs. These days, I might run with someone else only once or twice a week. This makes the running tougher now, even though I only run about half the number of miles per year that I used to. That’s because training partners are great motivators. As I said in the introduction to this chapter, inertia can be one of your toughest foes as a runner. Once you get out the door and start running, you’ve won the battle for the day. The best way to do that is to plan to meet a friend to run. Knowing that your friend is depending on you to be at such and such place at such and such time makes it very unlikely that you won’t show. Once you show up, you’ll start your run, and the workout will take care of itself.

Training partners can also help to motivate you during your run. If the two of you have planned to run five miles together, but you’re feeling a little apathetic that day, you’re a lot more likely to stick with your original goal for the day when you’re with someone than if you’re running on your own. That’s why even the most solitary runners often try to hook up with others for their longest run of the week. In the same way, training partners can help you to get more out of yourself on days when you’ve planned to run faster than usual. You’re just a lot less likely to give up and take it easy if you and a friend are out there sharing the effort, helping each other reach your potential.
Not that running with someone else is all about mutual teeth gritting and pain withstanding. Running at an easy pace with others is one of my favorite social activities.

Nonrunners often can’t believe this, because they think that running always hurts and always leaves you breathless. The opposite is usually true when you run with a friend—you can’t get yourselves to shut up! For a lot of people, running seems to loosen their tongues like a few drinks do. (Note that when you run with someone else, you’ll regularly be seeing whether you can pass the talk test and are running at the right level of effort.)

How do you find training partners? The easiest way is to have a friend or spouse who runs at about the same pace as you, but don’t worry if you don’t. Most local running clubs hold group runs a few times a week. There, runners of similar pace levels will hook up, even if they don’t know each other. You can also meet potential training partners through the people who finish near you in a race.

I don’t want to get too hokey here, but the whole idea of training partners is a big reason why I think runners lead more interesting lives than most people. Once you’re an adult, it can be pretty tough to make new friends away from work. But running with someone, even a stranger, has a way of making bonds like few other things do. Running has created and strengthened innumerable friendships, because the training partners have been through so much together.