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Running With a Friend Can Add Smiles to Your Miles

It’s 5:30 a.m., your alarm clock’s wailing, and you’re making a valiant effort to get yourself up and out on the roads. Rather than turning the alarm off and getting out of bed, you inexplicably hit the snooze button. Well, as they say: if you snooze, you lose.

Several hours earlier you'd vowed to run at least eight miles this morning (the goal had been six miles . . . but that was before you'd devoured that piece of chocolate mousse). And so, with thoughts of last night's dessert still melting in your mind, if not your mouth, you reach for the clock. At the last second, though, a strange force seems to take over. You hit snooze! The rest of the story is an old and sad one - you wind up postponing your run for another day (although, of course, the chocolate mousse may hang around a bit longer).

One way to avoid such an unhappy scenario - aside from buying an alarm clock that doesn't have a snooze button - is to start running with a friend. It's one thing to have an inanimate clock making noise at you, but it's quite another to have a friend pounding on your door and yelling, "C'mon, get up!" There's really no blowing off your friend. What's more, if he or she has the ability to get up at such an ungodly hour, what legitimate excuse could you possibly have not to? It may be true that friends don't make for the best business associates, but they're clearly unparalleled as motivators (they don't call it "peer pressure" for nothing).

There are two primary qualifications to look for in a running buddy: someone who runs at approximately the same pace as you and someone who can carry on a good conversation while they run. Although eating and running usually don't mix, talking and running most assuredly do (provided that you're a non-competitive, recreational runner and aren't concerned about your time). A good running partner will be so effective at keeping your mind occupied that your run will be done before you even know it. The concept of conversational distraction can't be overstated. Running, for the pure sake of running, can admittedly become a little boring - especially if you're running loops around the same course. But having someone to converse with while you exercise can almost make your effort seem "effortless."

If you're a woman, running with a partner offers a practical advantage, too - it makes your workout much safer. The vast majority of crimes perpetrated against runners involve solitary female runners. That's because most of these attacks are sexual assaults (runners, for the most part, make poor targets for robbers because they rarely carry valuables with them). As a result, the term "safety in numbers" absolutely rings true when it comes to running. The more people you run with, the safer your run will be. Just look at how safe the New York City Marathon is!

The reasons to start running with a friend are many. Safety, camaraderie, and motivation are all excellent examples of what running with others can offer. But the main reason to run with a friend is probably that . . . well, it's just more fun!