This Thursday in Sydney saw the Nike Centennial Park ‘She Runs the Night’ event. Open only to ladies and run over a rather unusual distance of 13KM, I headed down to support some of my friends and others that I have been coaching with their running.
It really is a marvel to see how a big marketing machine can be swung into action to sell an event to 3500 women at a rather hefty profit on a cold Thursday evening. Regardless of how they did it, I suppose having that amount of people walking and running through the park was better than them just sitting at home doing nothing.
One of my friends asked me after the run how she could improve her speed. Now I could have replied to her with the standard ‘You have to do speed work or intervals.. Blah Blah..’, but instead I chose to advise her to join a CLUB or a SQUAD where she would be exposed to a supportive environment and be able to run with runners faster than herself and hence improve on her speed.
Now the reaction I got from her was something to behold. It was as though I had just advised her that aliens had invaded and that we were about to killed by them.
I spent some time explaining to her that there was nothing to fear from joining a running club and that the people at the club would be most welcoming of her and she would be able to race more frequently amongst others and make new friends.
In the end she relented to try and see at least one squad. I would be interested to hear of other stories where people have encountered similar aversions to squad or club running.
Running together (while building the future of the sport) - stride for stride on a life changing ride! -- Sean Muller
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