The run club.

Found a run club over a year ago. Ten or fifteen people, Tuesday mornings, 5k loop, coffee after.

Some of these people run 80km a week. Some of them only run this 5k. Nobody cares which one you are. You just show up, run at whatever pace keeps the conversation going, and talk about your week, what you're training for, or whatever race someone has coming up.

The coffee after is not optional. That's where half of it happens.

I thought I was going for the run. Turns out I was going for the people. The run is just the reason everyone shows up at the same time.

This is the bit that's hard to explain before you find it. Training on your own works. You can get fit, run a marathon, hit your numbers, do all of it alone. But there's something about showing up somewhere that other people are also showing up to. You stop going because you should and start going because they're expecting you.

That's a different kind of motivation. It doesn't wear out the same way.

I'd encourage anyone reading this to find their version of it. Doesn't have to be a run club. A training partner, a gym at a time when the same people are always there, a group chat that keeps everyone honest. Whatever it is, it changes the consistency equation.

Self-care isn't always the quiet solitary stuff. Sometimes it's committing to be somewhere at 7am, head torch on, pouring rain in the middle of winter, because fourteen other people are going to be there too. That actually happened. We all showed up.