Happiness and the Mob
“Happiness and the Mob” may sound like a movie title.
But, I chose it as the title of this article to catch your attention so that I can share some thoughts about your happiness as an endurance runner or walker that, as far as I recall, I’ve never shared.
When “mob” caught your eyes, what was your first thought?
The word “crowd” is sometimes interchanged with the word mob, and I want to talk about how it can be a positive or a negative for your happiness.
“Crowd” has a split personality.
- Good: “The crowd cheered when he walked onto the stage.”
- Bad: “The crowd grew angry.”
- Good: “They are using crowd funding to make a movie.”
- Bad: “Worker dies after being trampled by crowd on Black Friday.”
- Good: “The crowd of runners kept me going.”
- Bad: “He’s hanging out with the wrong crowd.”
Yikes!
A recent four-mile race and a subsequent chat with a training buddy prompted this article.
Racing the Crowd
I’ve talked about racing against others in Mental Tricks for Endurance Runners and Walkers and elsewhere on this website. For example, if you find someone who has a consistent pace that will pull you along with an invisible rope, then you may finish faster and be happier with your performance.
“4 the Park” was the four-miler that I ran earlier this month. I had been away from regular training for several weeks, so I wanted to use the race as a training run.
If I had run that race by myself, I probably would not have done as well. Comparing myself to others – to the crowd – would have depressed me instead of motivated me.
Fortunately, a neighbor who is relatively new to endurance running was at the start line, and we decided to use the 5:1 method to run it together. Good conversation let me tune out the crowd. When we finished with a 5-hour-marathon pace, we both commented on how the race seemed to fly by.
[Tweet “I didn’t race the crowd. It wasn’t right for me. Instead, I ignored the crowd and enjoyed the race.”]
My happiness with that race continues. It gave me an opportunity to connect with my neighbor, with whom I usually share only passing waves as one of us drives by the other. And, I was pleased with a decent chip-time – not great, but not bad for my recent lack of consistent training.
Chip-Times
After that race, my group training program’s head coach posted a congratulatory note on Facebook to celebrate several of the group’s members for setting personal records (PRs) in the race.
Given the focus of the group on improving 5K and 10K performance, I was very pleased to read that note. But, I decided not to look up their chip-times.
Why?
As one of my training buddies – Olga – said to me in a group workout last Saturday morning,
- You can have perfect conditions for a race and not do well.
- You can have crummy conditions for a race and do well.
I like to say, “Every race is a sample of size one,” but I like Olga’s comments, too.
Her comments also illustrate why I decided not to look up the group’s chip-times: I didn’t want to compare myself to the crowd. I don’t know their previous PRs, and I’m sure that most, if not all, of their chip-times would look better than mine.
[Tweet “I train with others for mutual support, not for competition. I can get that any day in a race.”]
That leads me to my final point:
[Tweet “You have a choice. Use other runners and walkers to raise, not lower, your happiness.”]
Crowds and You
How have you let crowds affect your happiness as a runner or walker? Has this changed over the years? Please share your experience and opinion with others by posting a comment below. Thank you!
