10/27/2022: 6.27 Miles
Last week, I happened across some information online for a running club held weekly at the Marathon Sports store in Brookline. Seeing as most of my high school teammates are off doing wonderful things elsewhere nowadays and I have a couple months to kill here, I realized that finding some new people to run with would be a lovely way to pass the time! This week, I’ve come back to do the Marathon Sports Halloween Run, which was quite fun.
I showed up a bit late, but the group was running in my direction so I just whirled around and joined them. Then, before I knew it I was talking a complete stranger, and we chatted all the way to the store in Boston proper. This is part of why I would really encourage any runners to seek out a local club; everyone is ultimately there to make friends and have fun. That’s a hard thing to find in many modern American communities outside of school and work, at least from my experience.
There was a party at the Boston store that I hung out at for a while, complete with a costume contest and free pizza (A guy from the Brookline store won the contest- the winner was one of at least five guys in our club named Ben). Then I headed home on the T with my newfound running buddy, and we went our separate ways from there. Maybe I’ll see him again- maybe I won’t.
I walked away from the night feeling very fulfilled. For the longest time, running has been something that has kept me too exhausted to put a larger part of my energy into my social life. As a result, many of my friendships were found entirely within the team, which wasn’t a bad thing, but it did feel like all aspects of my life were immersed in running. But now running is producing more social opportunities for me, and it feels like running can be more of a byproduct of my social life! Being a runner is at its best for me when I feel like I’m getting more out of it than I’m putting into it, and this night helped to provide me with more of that feeling. My goal in this sport from now on is not victory nor improvement; my goal in this sport is happiness, both given and received. And so of course, Tim’s still running.