5 common excuses people give to not Run!

This is something I am sure most runners would have experienced. As a runner, you consider it a moral obligation to nudge others to take up running and reap the fitness benefits. But, most often, your friends/colleagues have very interesting things to say in defense of not running. This, by no means, is intended to demean people who do not run. The eternal hope is that someone might be inspired to take up running just by reading this!

So, here are the top 5 things I have heard and my view on each of them.

1) Running is boring

The most common thing that you will hear from people who do not run. I used to say this a few years back.

Time to face the fact. You do not stop a run because you are bored. You stop a run because you are either out of breath or you are tired. Saying that you stopped because you are bored is much easier way to pull out. It feels good to say that but honestly it is not right.

2) Running on the road can cause serious injuries

Well, this is partly true but do we really have any other option? Most ultramarathons/marathons/half marathons/10K/5K across the world (except the trail runs) are on the road so we have to accept it and move on. Secondly, India isn’t blessed with great public infrastructure (like parks, tracks etc.) so you are forced to run on the road.

So the fact is this, if majority people are running on the road and enjoying the same without major injuries, it wouldn’t kill us to run on the road either.

3) Running is for loners

Again, partly true as most often you run alone. But, that’s the beauty of the sport. Take any other sport and you will need to find a few more people to just get started.

However, running is now becoming a good social sport. People now practice running in groups. Just type running group + ‘your area’ on Google and you will be surprised to see the results. I have seen running groups that run together, travel together, shop together and also eat & drink together. In nutshell, running communities are very vibrant and runners definitely are not loners!

4) Running is not suitable for my body type

Let me pull out a secret here. Human body is designed to run. We evolved from our quadra-pod ancestors to two feet upright posture only to ensure that we can run and more importantly we can run longer, and thereby, outrun our prey (food). There are enough scientific evidences to prove this and celebrated runner/author Christopher McDougall spends a lot of time justifying this in his bestseller ‘Born to Run’.

Bottom line is that it doesn’t matter whether you are on the left of the BMI chart or on the right, you can run. Let us just say that Running does not discriminate between trivial things like age, body type etc.

5) Running requires special shoes and advice on training

I get to hear this a lot from people who are fitter and proficient at other sports. The truth is that running is the simplest, yet most effective, form of exercise. See a child run on the field and you will get a proof of simplicity of running.

Yes, there are technicalities around shoes, training plans, nutrition etc. But, that is only for top 10%-20% of the runners who seriously want to push boundaries. If your goals around running are modest, like it is for most other sports as we are not professionals, technicalities are just that – technicalities. Shoes or no shoes (barefoot), you can run.