The last few days I have been absolutely exhausted by the community that usually brings me so much joy. To the point where I have wanted to be off social media as much as possible (I know, I know, that’s probably a good thing regardless). But the truth is, there has always been a toxic part of running that is just somehow louder this week than normal.

With the new year, I’d hazard a guess that quite a few people are trying out running for the first time. Whether you’ve signed up for a race or are out running miles for the fun of it, starting from zero is a scary place, and it’s especially scary going through it alone. Here's my advice for any beginner runners.

I’m sure you’ve now seen that everyone (from runners to Spotify) is now “wrapping up” 2025. Lots of posts about how great 2025 was, how many obstacles people overcame to meet their goals, how they did incredible things in the last 365 days…and I debated not even bothering to resurface these goals that I didn’t even get a passing grade on; after all, no one really cares about my own, individual goals, right?