Is social media ruining your running?

Or are you just using it wrong?

I watched a Reel on Instagram the other week where a 3:00 hour marathon runner shared that she doesn’t prioritise strength training, doesn’t skip runs even if her body hurts and doesn’t run slow on her easy runs. The general sentiment of the post in the text beneath the Reel I agreed with: find what works for you and don’t be influenced by what others are doing. And yet I have a feeling that message got missed by many of the 900k views and that it was the bold statements on the video that were the takeaway.

I first started running in 2008. Instagram hadn’t been invented yet, Strava wasn’t around yet and Twitter (because I will forever call it that) was in its infancy. I didn’t yet have a smart phone, let alone a smart watch. But I’m not going to declare that it was a better time because it wasn’t. For me, it was a lonelier time. I didn’t know anyone else like me - a struggling beginner runner - until started to find them online.

My running journey - from beginner to marathon runner and to coach - has been documented by me on the internet for a decade and a half. There have been good and bad sides to that. Top of my ‘Good List’ isn’t the book deal that it led to but the people I’ve met. Strangers who also wrote about their running during 2010s blogging and running boom became real life friends - we’ve supported each other through races, travelling to events together or just cheer each other on in Wales, Ireland, Germany and Denmark.

But there are also major flaws to how we (and I include all runners in that) use social media. It can be damaging to our running and definitely damaging to our enjoyment of running.