By Michael Goff
Considering how many hours I spend each week running by myself, I am constantly amazed by how wonderfully social and supportive our sport is. If you had told me in the spring of 2012 that my Couch-to-5K program was literally my first steps toward making running an important part of my life, I would have been skeptical (also, I probably wouldn’t have heard you because I was breathing so loudly). While I did complete the 4th of July 5K I was training for (and ran a few other 5Ks and a 10K), I didn’t really love running, and it was a sporadic part of my life that seemed more like a chore “to be healthy.”
Fast forward to June 20, 2015: I had made a renewed effort toward running in May, and then I had a crazy idea: why not ask two friends to join me for a run? I used to joke that I ran early in the morning because no one would see me. Asking anyone to join me on a run was well outside my comfort zone, but it was the most fun and most enjoyable run I’d ever done. We ran at a pace that worked for everyone. We chatted, laughed, and before we knew it, we were back where we started with 2.9 miles under our belts. My new BRFs and I ran together at least two or three times a week, and I was on my way to being a consistent year-round runner who loved running and getting to go outside and play.
“I used to joke that I ran early in the morning because no one would see me. Asking anyone to join me on a run was well outside my comfort zone, but it was the most fun and most enjoyable run I’d ever done.”
In the spring of 2016, my friends Sheila, Liz, and Patrick each posted something on Facebook about the Boston Bulldogs Running Club’s Run for Recovery - a 5K and tribute to loved ones who had lost their lives to addiction (the Bulldogs promote wellness and support people in recovery and those impacted by addiction). My brother Douglas died by suicide in March 2011 after fighting addiction to opioids and depression for much of his life, so this was more than just another 5K to me. A few months later, I joined the Bulldogs on one of the Saturday morning runs at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Boston and became a member.
Boston Bulldogs at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir
By this time, I had run a couple of half marathons. I was devouring podcasts from Another Mother Runner (the host Sarah and I rowed together in college, and she was my guide on my running journey), How Was Your Run Today, and Runner’s World (especially their Human Race podcast). I was reading Runner’s World every month, and there were stacks of running books on my nightstand. I had made a lot of virtual running friends on Strava and through training plans with Another Mother Runner. But despite all this love for running, I was still hesitant to call myself a runner, and the thought of telling people I was in a running club just seemed crazy.
Boston Bulldogs with How Was Your Run Today at the Boston Public Library
But the more Saturdays I ran with the amazing people in the Bulldogs, the more I loved going outside to play - with my friends. With the encouragement of Peter and Bryan from How Was Your Run Today, I started showing up for November Project Boston workouts on Fridays. I joined my virtual friends from the Sub-30 Club in real life at the Runner’s World Half and Festival in 2018 and had the most fun I had ever had racing (a trail race, 5K, 10K, and 13.1 all in one weekend - I even got to run part of the half with Bart Yasso!). I ran Beach to Beacon in 2019 with some Another Mother Runner friends. I finally ran the Millinocket Half in 2019 after hearing about it so many times on How Was Your Run Today - and I ran with friends from How Was Your Run Today, Another Mother Runner, November Project, Sub-30, and the Boston Bulldogs (I saw race director Gary Allen after I finished, too, but was too exhausted to introduce myself)!
2019 Beach to Beacon 10K
Running 13.1 in December in Maine - with “feels like” temperatures of 10 degrees on snowy roads with 676 feet of climbing - with so many running friends (and the best community aid and cheer stations) was the ultimate “going outside and playing with your friends.” I’m keeping my fingers crossed for 2020 (we have a lot more Bulldogs registered this year), but I look forward to returning to Millinocket whenever we can.
2019 Millinocket Half Marathon
For now, I’m running the virtual Boston Marathon with the Boston Bulldogs team on September 12th. While it won’t be the experience we were all planning for, I am so grateful that we get to run, that I’ve made so many friends that get so much out of running, and that we’ve raised money and awareness to promote wellness. I actually prefer training to racing so even though we haven’t been able to run as a big group as much as we would have liked, going outside to play has meant even more these days - especially with the support of friends by your side or just on Strava.
About the Author
Michael Goff lives in Needham, Massachusetts, with his wife Marcia and is a proud dad to their two sons, Alex and Spenser. He works as Principal, Product Marketing for Flexera Software’s Revenera division. Self-described as “athlet-ish,” he is a completionist of many races from 5K to 26.2 and is always happy to be outside running. Fun fact: as a collegiate rower at Colgate University, his first time ever in a racing shell was just moments before the start of the Head of the Textiles Regatta in Lowell, Massachusetts (spoiler: it wasn’t pretty, but they finished without incident).
