According to Jeff Galloway, there are five distict stages of a runner. These are

• the Beginner
• the Jogger
• the Competitor
• the Athlete
• the Runner

the Beginner (Stage One – Making the Break)

You want to be healthier and fitter. But, you are probably very secure in your inactive world. There is usually a struggle within and without. The old lifestyle is there and offers security. You’ll face a lot of obstacles at first and there will be distractions, even criticisms, from your less active friends. The rate of progress isn’t as fast you expected. And, like many beginners you may even stop and start again 10 or 15 times before you get the habit established.

Gradually you begin to change. You get used to the positive relaxed feeling. Your body starts clearing itself up, establishing muscle tone, circulating blood and oxygen more vigorously. One day you’ll find you’re addicted – and the beginner becomes a jogger.

the Jogger (Stage Two – Entering the New World)

The jogger feels secure with running. It may be hard to start each day’s run but, unlike the beginner, you can identify with those who are addicted. There is almost always a ‘glow’ at the end of the run. If you miss a run you may feel guilty – a rare experience for a beginner. Beginners often complain that they’re bored while running, but joggers find this problem decreases and then disappears as their distances increase.

As a beginner you may have attended a few fun runs or an occasional race. Joggers, however mark the local 10k’s on their calendars. These are motivational stepping stones to keep the daily runs on track. Although you’re not running competitevely or for time improvement, a sense of competition may begin to develop. When the year’s big race is over, you may lose the motivation to keep going. A jogger will sometimes give up running completely, but usually will start again after an extended layoff.

the Competitor (Stage Three – When Competition is the Main Driving Force)

There is a competive streak, sometimes hidden, in all of us. You become a competitor when you start to plan your running around racing goals. After a few races you begin to wonder how fast you might run if you really trained. Before you know it you’re caught in a compulsive drive to run faster at the expense of running enjoyment.

Not all joggers enter this stage. Many simply remain joggers while a very few pass directly to the stage of ‘runner’. If you do find yourself becoming obsessed with competion you may find that you lose sight of your limitations. If a small mileage increase brought about a small improvemen, you’ll try a large mileage increse t gain a large improvement. Although you’ve read many times about the need for rest, you feel that yours is a special case and that you don’t need as much recover time as other mortals. And it goes on. Finally, you push too far and break down with injury, sickness or fatigue and you either can’t or don’t want to run.

Still, when the frustration has passed, you’ll probably start running again. Hopefully you’ll have learned a lesson. When you’ve put competition into perspective you’ll pass into the stage of athlete or even runner.

the Athlete (Stage Four – Being the Best You Can Be)

As an athlete, you find more meaning in the drive to fulfil your potential than in compulsively collecting times and trophies. Being an athlete is a state of mind which is not bound by age, performance or place in the running pack.

Gradual progress is more important to the athlete than a fast time in a given race. Planning is important. Although you’re flexible, you plot goals and races 6-9 months in advance. Great athletes at any level realise that ‘success’ is in the eye of the performer. There can be success in every experience. If you can sieze upon the positive aspect of each experience you can string together a series of successes that form a pattern of progress.

Some athletes reach a level of achievement or satisfaction and retire from competition. Many choose a reduced level of activity, others maintain a fairly high yet sensible level. Many continue to grow and move into the final most rewarding stage, the runner.

the Runner (Stage Five – the Best of All Stages)

The final stage of the running journey blends the best elements of all the previous stages. The runner balances the elements of fitness, competition, training and social life and blends running with the rest of his or her life.

If scientists announced tomorrow that running was harmful, you’d read the news with interest and go out on your daily run. You know about the positive effects of exercise, but that alone doesn’t get you out on the roads or trails. You get so much satisfaction from the experience itself that running has become a necessary and stable part of your active lifestyle.

As a runner you experience the enjoyment of each stage and retain the best of each of them. You can relive the beginner’s excitement in discovery, appreciate the jogger’s balance of fitness and enthusiasm, share the competitor’s ambition and internalise the athlete’s quest. Having consolidated and balanced all these stages, you appreciate the creative and positive aspects of each and let them enrich your running life.

From Jeff Galloway’s ‘Galloway’s Book on Running (1984).

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