The Power of the Group

We've said it before, but it bears repeating: running with a group makes a vital difference to your success as a runner.

To state the obvious, the Toronto Go Girls believe in the power of the group. (If we didn't believe in it, why would we run in a pack?) Running with a group makes running fun. Perhaps more importantly in the dead of winter, running with a group makes you get out of bed even when it is cold outside. You know that there are people waiting for you. You know that if you do not haul your sorry bum out of bed and get down to the run location, you will receive irate emails and maybe even a phone call or two.

I must say that 2010 has demonstrated to me the importance of the accountability factor in running with a group. Saturday's have been cold here in the Big Smoke. In the first six Saturdays of 2010, we have had four Saturdays in which the temperature (with the wind chill) dipped below -20C. On two occasions, the temperature was -27C (yes, with the wind chill)! The other two frigid Saturdays involved temperatures of -24C and -21C.

It's enough to make even a die-hard fan of winter start to resent winter. Especially because the weekdays leading up to the Saturday runs have frequently been quite nice, almost ideal for winter running. My hopes rise and I start to envision a lovely Saturday morning long run. But then late on Friday, a cold front inevitably moves in and on Saturday morning, we find ourselves in Arctic conditions.

A local polar bear shares his feelings about early morning runs.

There have been more than one morning when I would gladly have hit the snooze button rather than get up and venture outside. But one thing stopped me: my group. My fellow runners. My peeps.

Oh, they may be a motley crew, but they are my motley crew and these women have materially improved my life. They make me laugh. They teach me things. They give me good advice. They keep me accountable. They are good friends. They make it worthwhile to layer-up at 8am and to put Vaseline on my face just so that I can run outside with them in -27C temperatures.

Without the power of the group to motivate me, I know that I would not be running as well and as consistently as I do now. I know that I would certainly not be laughing as much.

So to all you "single," lone-wolf runners out there: get a group. You'll like it. Besides, when it's really cold, running in the midst of a pack helps to keep out the chill.