Converting the beginner

Friends and people whom I used to work with are often asking me how I would go about converting a beginner runner to take the sport abit more seriously and hence invest more in their health and happiness.

My answer is simple. What many people class as beginner runners, I would class as occassional runners. These are people who may come out of the woodwork once or twice a year to complete a signature event in their area or city. For us here in Sydney, the most obvious of these events is the City to Surf, which takes place each year in August.

For those that are not aware of the event, it is the largest single fun run in the world with in excess of 75000 people running, walking or skipping the 14km from the city centre to Bondi Beach. Many of these people do absolutely no training whatsoever (I know this as I did no training for my first such event) and though they complete it, the physio clinics around town tend to make a killing off of people suffering standard first time injuries.

These occassional runners often then just disappear into the woodwork again and are not seen of again until the following year. They often have no idea just how good they could become and how much they could enjoy their running if only they were to indulge in a little more training and perhaps be willing to make some slight adjustments to their diet and lifestyle.

They do not need converting – they are already taking part in various events. What they do need is gentle coercion or persuasion to stick with the sport. Herein comes the job of the veteran/seasoned runner. Encouragement and a willingness to include these individuals in your activities will hopefully produce the desired effect of them wanting to return to running.

In fact everyone in the sport owes it to themself and others to keep encouraging to grow the run. Keep encouraging!

Running together stride for stride on a life changing ride! – Sean Muller