I struggled a lot more in London than I did in New York. The New York running culture was a lot more robust than I expected, and my proximity to Central Park made this especially obvious, and this was not my experience in London. Considering all the runners I knew previously and everyone I encountered in New York were quite friendly, I did not expect people to be less willing to talk to me, but I found people in New York were much more willing to talk to strangers than people in London. I was also sick for the entirety of my time in London, so running proved quite difficult, and running while trying to talk to people was especially challenging. Consequently, I have less information about running in London than I do about New York and Chicago, but I am glad I got to learn about the different running cultures between New York and London.
Queen’s Park Harriers
One of the clubs I went to was called the Queen’s Park Harriers, which run in north London. They do track workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and long runs on Saturdays. I joined for a track workout, so there was not much opportunity to talk to people while we were running, but I was able to talk to some runners during the warmup, cooldown, and post-run core workout. The first woman I talked with said this was the second running club she joined after she started running. She wanted more focused training, rather than the laid-back social running club she was a part of earlier, and found the track workouts at the Queen's Park Harriers were perfect for this. Prior to running with the Queen’s Park Harriers, she considered herself a jogger and not a runner. She differentiated the two by saying that she now pays attention to her distance and pace, and is far more disciplined with her running patterns. She wanted to get more serious about running and more consistent with speed workouts, so running with QPH seemed like a logical solution since she lives about a kilometer from the track at which the club practices. After the track workout, she noted that almost all the runners in the club lived very close to the track, and she would frequently see and talk with other runners whenever she saw them in the area.
I struck up a conversation with another woman, mostly because she was wearing a North Carolina tank top and I was happy to see another American. She noted that it was almost impossible to motivate herself enough to do speed workouts on her own, and speed training with other people made it far easier to discipline herself. Even though she was not training for a race, she noted that she liked that she could be more serious about running than she would be on her own. Like the first woman I talked to, she appreciates the social aspect of the club and her ability to encounter people she runs with consistently in the surrounding area.
I really liked this running club – I love doing track workouts so that likely influenced this feeling, but people cared much more about creating a close-knit community with other runners than the other clubs I encountered in London. Everyone I encountered was enthusiastic about running, the leadership was well organized and talked about the upcoming social events and races, and people valued spending time with the people around them. I’m sad I cannot return to this club, but so glad that this was one of my initial running experiences in London.
London City Runners
London City Runners is a big running Club in South London, and has multiple runs throughout the week, but has staggered starting times for Saturday morning runs depending on the distance people plan to run. I scheduled this club on Saturday so I could do a long run (they run about 11 miles), but I was so under the weather that I left with a later wave and could barely complete the 11 kilometer (about 6.8 miles) run. Despite not feeling good during the run, I was able to talk to a few people while we ran along the Thames. One man said that he used to run, transitioned to strength training, but now does both because he wanted to lose weight and have the fitness ability of a hybrid athlete. Running with London City Runners helps him stay consistent with running and helps him stay motivated to continue running. Another runner I talked to was relatively new to the club, but he wanted to start running with others before he ran his half marathon in the fall. Even though this will not be his first race, he liked the consistency and social aspect associated with a running club. Since London City Runners operates out of a clubhouse with a bar in it, he noted that he can connect with others before and after a run quite easily but can also be confident that he is staying on track for his race training.
London Social Runners
This was a really small club in Hyde Park that ran the perimeter of the park (about 4 miles) Sunday mornings, with a coffee stop at Whole Foods afterward. As the name of the club suggests, a majority of the people present run with London Social Runners to meet other people, though many people began running before they wanted to join a running club. Because friendships form with consistent contact and running clubs meet on a schedule, one person mentioned that the consistency associated with running clubs made making friends easier, as opposed to running into someone at a bar by chance. Once we started running, strung out pretty quickly because there were not enough people to form groups where people’s paces aligned. I talked with one woman who moved to London about a month previously after completing a PhD at the University of Chicago. She mentioned that a lot of people in the club were training for 5ks and 10ks and liked to be held accountable by a running club.
Overall
I am disappointed with how much I could learn about the running culture in London compared to New York and Chicago, but I was able to notice similarities and differences when I compared my experiences to running in America. Thankfully, by my last day in London, I was about 80% recovered from whatever virus I likely picked up in one of the hostels, so by the time I was in the airport I was feeling more hopeful about my upcoming plans for Chicago.