To join or not to join

[littlemac24]

I graduated in February and have been running 30 minutes 2-3 times per week since then.

We have a local running club and I have been dithering about joining.

The main reasons being

1) am I good enough?

2) will it be too competitive?

3) will I be able to keep up?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated 😁

[SlowLoris]

I sent an email to the membership secretary with pretty much the same questions. Reply was come along you'll be very welcome. I suspect most will be the same.

They normally let you attend a session or two before committing to a joining fee.

[littlemac24 Graduate in reply to SlowLoris]

Thanks think I will try it once.😁

[MarkyD Graduate]

Sorry to be brutal, but the answers are - No, Yes, No.

Now it all comes down to the temperament of the folks leading the running club. They may be helpful, supporting, understanding, encouraging and really help your running. Or they may not. You won't know until you've given it a try, and I'm sure that there are other running clubs if this one does not work out. If you have a poor experience, they may have another session on a different evening with different leaders, or possibly a time in the year when the majority of new runners join (that would be a good time to start).

Please don't misunderstand me - running clubs are great motivators, really help your running and you can meet loads of similar-minded folks. But it could be a jump into the deep-end and you may need a little resilience for a few weeks to get the benefit.

[littlemac24 Graduate in reply to MarkyD]

Thanks. Think I’ll try it and see 😁

[Timeoff Graduate]

I'm always wary of the people who claim not to be competitive, and I actually think women (I'm one) are worse than men, I think because they compete more furtively, men are at least straightforward about it. So a club wouldn't be for me but then I haven't told anyone I'm doing this either in order to avoid competitive nature of this stuff. If I get to the end, (I'm on W6) I think I'll do park run type things from time to time but other than that I think running's going to be solitary experience for me, which is fine. Everyone's different though and it might, on the other hand, be just what you need to keep you going!

[littlemac24 Graduate in reply to Timeoff]

Thanks. Yes it’s been exactly that for me too. I think I’ll try it and then see 😁

[Tasha99 Graduate]

Best thing I did after starting ParkRun was joining my running club. We have people who run 18 minutes 5k up to 40 minutes. You just have to find the right club. I hated my first one - not friendly enough. Email them with your 5k time and see what they say. Hopefully they do a range of groupings in their sessions.