You Are the Community You Build

Sep 6

3 min read

Today, I ran the Cotswold Classic 10 Mile with Thame Runners.

It was another race, another start line and another opportunity to pull on the Thame Runners vest alongside people I've spent the last five and a half years running with.

But something felt different today.

There wasn't some huge moment. No PB that suddenly changed my perspective. No dramatic finish-line story.

Instead, it was one small act before the race that made me realise something I've probably been trying to put into words for years:

You are the community you build.

Finding My Place

For a lot of my life, I've felt like an outsider.

I've been part of different clubs, teams and brotherhoods over the years, but I've often carried this feeling that I was somehow on the outside looking in.

That's probably one of the reasons community means so much to me now.

When I joined Thame Runners five and a half years ago, I don't think I could have predicted just how important the club would eventually become to me and over those years, I've realised something about creating the type of community you want to belong to.

At some point, you have to stop waiting for somebody else to create it.

Lead From the Front

I'm a big believer in leading from the front.

Not just when it comes to training, coaching or pushing yourself physically, but in the environment you create around other people.

If you want a supportive community, be supportive.

If you want people to feel welcome, welcome them.

If you want people to celebrate each other's successes, be the first person cheering.

If you want nobody to feel like they're on the outside, bring them in.

It's very easy to talk about what a club, organisation or community should be. It's much harder to recognise that every person within it has some responsibility for creating that culture.

Today reminded me that we've built something pretty special at Thame Runners.

Sometimes It's the Smallest Things

Before today's race, I managed to miss the Thame Runners pre-race photo.

It wasn't a big deal.

I just missed it.

Then Sue, one of our lovely club members, encouraged Craig, Mark and I to get together and have our own photo.

That's it.

It probably took less than a minute.

Sue didn't have to do it. She probably didn't think much of it afterwards either.

But I did.

Because inclusion is often found in those tiny moments.

It's noticing someone.

It's asking someone to join you.

It's making space in a photograph.

It's making sure the person standing slightly outside the group knows there's a place for them inside it.

For someone who has spent a lot of their life feeling pushed aside or like they simply didn't matter, those small acts can mean far more than the person making them will ever realise.

And I think we've underestimated the importance of that.

Here is that photo:

What Running Can Give Us

I've been part of plenty of different clubs and communities throughout my life, but running continues to remind me just how powerful sport can be.

We all turn up with different reasons for being there.

Somebody is chasing a PB.

Someone else is running their first 10 miles.

Someone is coming back from injury.

Someone might be struggling with something nobody else there knows anything about.

And somebody might simply need somewhere they feel like they belong.

Yet we all stand on the same start line.

That's the bit of running that doesn't appear on Garmin.

You can't measure it through pace, heart rate, mileage or race results.

But for many people, it might be one of the most valuable things running gives them.

Belonging.

Five and a Half Years Later

I've been saying for years that community is something we create ourselves.

Today made me realise that I wasn't just saying it anymore.

I could actually see it.

In the people around me. In the conversations. In the support. And in something as simple as Sue making sure when I missed a photograph I still felt included.

That's the Thame Runners I want to be part of.

It's the club I want new runners to discover and it's the environment I want to continue helping build for the people who come after us.

So, TR, please don't ever lose that.

Keep noticing people.

Keep celebrating each other.

Keep welcoming the person standing on the edge of the group.

Keep creating a place where someone's pace, background, experience or ability doesn't determine whether they belong.

Because you never really know what being included might mean to somebody.

Today it meant quite a lot to me.

Five and a half years into being a Thame Runner, I'm incredibly grateful for the community we've built.