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Should I run in a running group?

It’s Thursday evening. I’m on the sofa. Working late. But I have a good excuse. Two good excuses actually. I was running this morning and I was running earlier this evening. It does mean I’m not running now. Running group Bergeijk is.

Running group Bergeijk is the group I want to become a member of. Kind of. Actually, I’m still in doubt.

Contractor

See, Sara and I moved to Bergeijk, in the Netherlands, more than a year ago. We still don’t know a lot of people here. That’s not true. We still don’t know anybody here. Except for the former owners of our house, the electrician, the carpenter, and the retired contractor who helped us rebuild our house, office and yoga shala. That’s not a good score.

We have an excuse. COVID. For the first six months we lived here, not a lot was possible, because of COVID. When the restrictions were lifted, we were busy. Sara had to keep our company going, I was in charge of moving the company to the Netherlands, and of rebuilding our house and office.

No excuses

But now? Now we don’t have any excuses anymore. Yes, we’re bears. We like to be on our own. But we like to have some nice people around us as well. It’s just, you know, we’re older. We work at home. We work online. That makes it harder to get to know like minded people.

Don’t get me wrong. We do have friends. It’s just that they live in Italy. And some of my old friends here in the Netherlands live an hour away, and have kids. That makes it hard to just pop over for a cup of tea and a brownie.

Running group Bergeijk

Which brings us to Running group Bergeijk. Every Thursday evening a group of runners from Bergeijk get together, led by running coach Frans Pasmans, to train. I’m thinking of joining them. I mean, it’s a great way to meet people, and we already have something in common; running.

The thing is, I like to run alone. Just me, myself and I, and a podcast. I like to run in the morning, when the sun is coming up. Not in the evening, when the sun is already down. I like to feel my body and decide – based on how it feels – what type of training I do. Not doing the training somebody else has designed for me.

So these days, I ask myself, should I run in a running group or not run in a running group. When I’ve made up my mind, I’ll let you know.

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