Running is a Community

What makes this group a community is that everyone loves to push their bodies' to the limit and endure great pain to reach a goal unlike any other. Each runner is there to reach a personal goal and each runner is supporting the group as a whole. Since they are all running the same race, the same distance traveled, each runner is going through the same thing. No matter how fast or how slow a runner is they are still in a community of runners.

Each runner holds the group together. Each one helps another to keep training and keep motivated. Running is an individual sport but each runner motivates another and you need a community of runners to have fun and keep going. Runners commonly share the same interests and values. Some interests are that they like sports and they like learning about the mechanics of running. They like learning about running form and they really enjoy researching events, such as marathons, half marathons, or 5K's, that they can mark on their calendars and look forward to doing. Some values they share are that they want to do their best each time they enter an event, they value the friendships they make in the running community, and they value reaching their goals. Each runner sets goals for themselves and they strive to reach them. Some needs runners share are that they need to have good shoes, they need to eat healthy to have energy, and they need some great reliable running partners. Having good shoes is essential to a runner to prevent injury. They need to eat healthy too in order to give their bodies the energy they need to perform. Also runners have to have great running partners they can rely on if they need some help to get up and get moving. Many runners can go out and run on their own and do just fine but a lot of runners need a little help from friends every now and then to keep motivated. They need a running community.

My running community is full of some great people. Because I like to run I have gravitated to a community of runners. That is where I feel I belong and I enjoy belonging to this community. We all share common interests and even though we all have completely different personalities, we all mesh together really well. We all rely on each other to keep each other motivated and accountable to do our runs. That way you will be less tempted to skip runs or run less. Having a running community is a great way to stay in shape too. Also I know that there will always be someone to run with no matter what. I really enjoy being a part of this particular community because the people are amazing. I have really liked getting to know a bunch of new people and I enjoy being around them. There are people of all ages in the community too, all coming together for the same reason, because they love running. I also enjoy being a part of a running community because running is my passion and running can take you places all over the world. There are community running events all over the world that anyone can do. If I had done a sport such as volleyball or basketball then I might not have been able to continue to play those sports throughout my life unless I was extremely good, but with running you can do it anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. It is a free sport, you don't have to pay to run. I have also completed a half marathon and two full marathons, and one of the hardest yet best days I have had was when I completed the Seattle Marathon. Throughout the 26.2 miles I met some incredible people and heard some amazing and inspiring stories of other people's lives and what they have gone through to get to where they are now. Having others to experience that with made the long journey that much more memorable. At the end about a mile to go I experienced the "runner's high" and gained all this energy to push myself even harder until I was done. After I had finished I felt accomplished and extremely happy. I looked around me and saw all of these other runners who had come in before me and who were still coming in and I couldn't believe so many people enjoy putting themselves through the pain of 26.2 miles but I was happy to be a part of that community. I will always be happy to be a part of the running community and be able to experience the journeys with different people along the way. Running is a community, and it is a great one.