Running is individual sport and some way we all enjoying that. Making the own progress, see what you can do independently. If you fail or you run marathon slower as you hoped, you can only blame yourself. Whereas in team sport there are always other players who are the major part also, not to mention the opposite team.
But, is it running as individual sport as it seems?
Depending where you live and own interest, many runners training with group, they have coaches and running buddies. For the many people it’s more encouraging to work with someone than alone. Image dark and cold early morning or late evening after work day when you are tired and want nothing but lay down, you have agreed to go for the run with your friend. The change is you go to running easier when you have a company, as it’s often harder to say no someone else than yourself.
When we go back in time, even less than 10 years, there was a huge different. A few years ago people just put the shoes on and went for the run. Whereas, now there are social media, even beginners have more information on their hand than back then. It doesn’t matter where you are living, you can make friends around the world. You can follow other runners for example via Instagram or Twitter. There are enormous number of people in Instagram who share their running journey, even some professional do it.
Why we follow some random runners across the world? In my opinion, it’s just motivation and feeling of cohesion. Running are often questionable sports, non-runners can’t understand what is the point just run, they see it boring, as there are not happening much, like ice hockey or basketball. Non-runners have not experienced the atmosphere of marathon, where thousands of people gather together to do something where they have been training for months, often alone.
Running community is the “place” where people can get tips, share their journey, get motivated, motivate others, follow others and occasionally even see each other and feel cohesion. It doesn’t matter how good we are as we have the same interest and love; running.