Today I ran my first Half Marathon for the season. This is an annual event for charity called The Run For Reach (www.runforreach.com). It has been some years since I ran it last, and this year was the first that I did the 21Km.

What I found interesting, as I stood in the 7C morning air trying to keep warm and maintaining my focus on why the heck I was up so early to do this to myself on a Sunday morning, I noticed how many couples were together in the group. Of course running is a very collegial sport; a lot of friendships embrace the sport and support one another doing it.

What was nice to see, were actual couples quietly chatting with each other. Runners I believe by their nature are often solitary souls. The sport by its very nature is one that pits the individual against the road, or trail. At the end of the day it is just you, the road, and the clock. What results from years of focusing on mastering the road and taming the clock is a solitude that the runner experiences, eventually endures and then embraces over time. This I think is even more pronounced in long distance running such as the Marathon.

To see all these couples getting ready to pound out 21km was for me very heart warming. I know from experience that it takes time and commitment to train on your own. At times it seems to take an inordinate amount of time. For a couple, it must be even more of a commitment. Not only do you have to find the time, and energy, you have to co-ordinate it with each other. Now that takes commitment.

For a sport that seems to enforce solitude to release its bonds on the individual and allow them to embrace someone to share and train with is very affirming for me. What these couples have done is taken the time and effort to support and encourage each other so that together they can spend time together, enjoy their company and together accomplish a goal they both want.

Perhaps the solitary grip of running is just an illusion. It only makes us think it is just us against the road and the clock, when in fact it works just fine to have a partner who you spend most of your time with moving forward to your goals also running beside you. The solitude of running then is a myth. The road and the clock are more easily tamed when you have someone to share the load with.