Tying it all together!
There are some things that I noticed about running that transcended borders, and some things that were unique to each city. For example, in London people focused a lot more on the community aspect of running clubs, whereas in America, many people did not start running because of a running club. I think this is mostly due to cultural differences – I found people in the US to be a lot friendlier than people in the UK, both inside and outside of running clubs. A friend I made in the New York hostel, someone from Scotland, confirmed this: he said people in New York were noticeably more friendly than people in London. I am guessing this is why people in London cared more about the social aspect of running clubs – the schedule of a run club gives people the opportunity to talk with others on a regular basis. Furthermore, running with other people is inherently social – even if the group run is a short three mile run, including 5-10 minutes before the run starts when everyone is standing around, you likely have at least half an hour to talk with someone. In New York and Chicago, a lot of people talked about how they felt connected to the running culture in their cities, but it was not their main focus when running by themselves or with others. My guess is that it is easier to connect with others in the United States, and not everyone may be looking for the same level of connection that UK runners were.
I think the most obvious thing that I noticed is that no matter where I did a track workout, people noted that running with others made track workouts significantly easier and more manageable. Some people who were race training even mentioned that the main reason they joined a run club was so that they did not have to do their speed workouts alone. Track workouts are far more challenging than easy runs, so being encouraged by people around you who are going through the same challenge makes them a lot more doable and it is easier to maintain a consistent pace. Similarly, at least one person at every run club I went to said that one of the reasons they kept running is because it is a sport that focuses on self-improvement. I think this is the most powerful part of running – it encourages people to set goals and face challenges for the sake of their own growth. Running is one of the few sports where competitions do not focus on beating someone else, rather, people enter races because they want to improve upon a previous performance or they set a new goal they are trying to reach. Some races are small, and have only a few hundred people in them, but other races, like the Boston Marathon, have tens of thousands of runners. Winning a race, or even one's age group, is extremely unlikely at most events; everyone running a race is running with the sole purpose of achieving a personal goal. And similar to the rest of life, running is about the journey, not the destination. Hitting a new PR is a very exciting achievement, and I know what it's like to spend years chasing a specific time in a race, but those race times are not a result of just that race, results come from months of hard work. And just like race times are the results of work over a long period of time, I believe that all of the self-development that comes with running is a far more important achievement than running a specific time or distance. Not only does someone need to set a goal and make a plan to achieve that goal, they need to be disciplined enough to stick to their training plan, react in a positive manner when something inevitably does not go to plan, and overcome all of the mental and physical challenges associated with running. These are necessary skills for running, but should also be applied to one's personal lives. Furthermore, running is physically challenging, but I think the most difficult part of running is mental. Even when I know my body is capable of running a certain pace or distance, the real challenge is convincing myself to start and to keep going when I don't want to. People mentioned pieces of this sentiment everywhere I went, and all but a few people I talked with said that, at its core, running is about making themselves a better person. Paying attention to race times and distances can be fun and a good method for goal setting, but I think that most runners are ultimately running for the sake of their own self-improvement.
One of the reasons I took this project on is because running clubs have recently become quite popular. A lot of news articles rationalize this rapid growth because of the social opportunities and people on social media talk about using running clubs instead of dating apps to meet potential partners. Running can be a very social sport, and I find that runners are usually very friendly, so for people looking for a community, a running club is a great place to start. However, I hope that people get more out of running than just a community. Runners are, in general, an excellent group of people to spend time with, but I think that the sport offers so much more. I hope that while running is trendy, people take advantage of all the gifts that running offers.