I really enjoy running alone.

It’s the only time I get for myself. It’s the only time I have for my thoughts to finally get processed. It’s my meditation time. My one and only moment of Zen.

Not sure why, two years ago I had the guts to go and change things up. I’ve had two running buddies since, Mike in 07 and Roberta in 08, and I’ve met both of them through the Running Partners section of the NYRR site.

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous the first time because I hadn’t met Mike before our first run. We had a very similar pace, we lived like two blocks away from each other, we had a similar training schedule, so it worked out great. We were running early before work, and I got the weekend run for myself. He was training for the NYCM so he was putting in way more miles than me and I couldn’t be bothered to wake up early on a Saturday! And then… he moved to Brooklyn!

The next year I met Roberta, and we did just our long runs together as her schedule is very different to mine. She lives across the park, but we did have the same training program for the marathon, reporting every run and every ache, every day! And I did get the weekdays runs for myself!

I really like having training partners: they make the miles disappear with conversation and laughter and they also push you to go faster and longer when you’d want to give up. But I also really like my alone time chasing the road. Having both is the key for me, heck, who doesn’t like to have it both ways?

Here is to Running + Friends!