In the club

There is an unsaid common bond between people who run. 

When you start out on a run by yourself or with someone it is just you and the challenge of the run ahead. However, as you find yourself running you notice there are many other people out to get some exercise too. Suddenly, you find yourself giving these strangers, who have now become your fellow runner friends, a slight wave of the hand. Nothing much. Just a small elevation of the hand with a flick of the wrist. It hardly counts as a wave but when you are running it counts as a wave. 

With that exchange of the wave you feel like you are "in the club". It may be your first time out on a jog but as soon as you see someone else out running with you there is an instant connection. A feeling of either 1. If they can do it I can do it, or 2. We are all crazy together running these miles for a workout.  Yet, you are in the club. 

Not hard to do--just pretend to go running--and make a pathetic wave and your are in. It is kind of like bus drivers. Have you ever noticed how when two bus drivers pass each other while in route they always wave to each other like they are meaning to say "Oh, you drive a bus too, well let's be friends. A wave will do".

Lately, I have been training for a half marathon. As I go on my daily runs, and I give the "runners wave", I feel like I am in the club.