The Beauty of a Running Buddy

A confession: I am an evil person. This point was driven home to my icy heart the day my running partner complained her ankle was hurting. My buddy – we’ll call her Sally – and I were halfway through a long winter run, battling snow drifts and slush when she uttered the dreaded words, “I might have to rest my ankle this week.” My first thought was not for the wellbeing of my trusty partner.  No, my evil brain screamed, ‘Who am I going to run with?’

I’ve known Sally for almost four years. We met when I joined a running program to train for my first half-marathon. Sally was in the fast group and seemed intense. I was in the slow group and was silent during our pre- and post-run stretching sessions, too intimidated to say anything. But as our group changed and runners came and went, Sally and I ended up spending hours together on the roads. I got faster – and chattier – and she slowed her pace to stay with me. Sally is the most energetic person I have ever met and her almost non-stop chatter during our long runs helps the kilometres pass quickly. No, not effortlessly – she’s not that good – but the distance seems far more enjoyable than slogging it out alone.

Don’t get me wrong, I used to be a lone runner. I harboured great disdain for runners who hung in groups, sporting near-identical jackets and fuel belts, dutifully calling out their walk breaks and splits. If you can’t run alone, I thought, you were less of a runner.

The fact is, I was jealous, envious of their laughter, their common goals and their shared aches and pains. Now that I have a running buddy, I don’t want to go back to running alone. I don’t think I can go back to running alone. Which is why Sally’s casual mention of a sore ankle has forced me to make a second confession: not only am I evil, I am also addicted to running with a buddy. This is not such a bad thing. The perfect running buddy will guilt you out of bed at 5 a.m. in the depths of winter. She will inspire you to greatness, such as a (relatively) fast 10K, or assure you that no, that new running skirt does not look dumb.

The perfect running buddy will introduce you to organic energy gels and the wonders of natural sweeteners. She will forgive you for occasionally wimping out on a run and chide you for not holding your stretches long enough. She’ll even offer a warm hug when the stresses of real life make the demands of a long run seem trivial. The perfect running buddy will make you a better friend, which is why I kept my evil thoughts to myself when Sally took a few days off to rest her ankle. I even headed out for a run by myself. The roads never seemed so lonely.

Deborah Wiles is a newspaper editor and freelance writer in Halifax. She’s working hard to forgive her running buddy for heading south instead of running a half-marathon together.