I am so glad to be back running with people. In the week, I am catching up with two people from Chorlton Runners who live near me for runs, then at the weekends I have been leading or attending a group run. Frankly it is marvellous to run with others again, as much as I don't mind running on my own.
In normal times (whatever that is now) I group lead at club events quite a lot. I did my UKA LiRF and there is some merit in the course. One of the hardest things about leading groups is coping with mixed abilities. On a Tuesday club night this isn't too much of a problem as the groups at at 20-30 second intervals and we make fairly regular stops in the groups I lead. But it can be more tricky at weekends when even club runs are 1 minute intervals and some of my trail and fell runs are a mixture of race winners and complete novices.
One thing I alwasy try and check with the fell and trail runs in particular is who is coming in advance, and what they have done before. For the most part I tend to know the ability levels of those in the club, but sometimes I have to ask. I also set out in the (usually facebook) invite that the run is going to be fairly slow, and fast runners are welcome but might have to wait around a bit. Honesty is often the best policy. If I know I have some novices or slower runners, I may arrange extra easy to navigate loops for the speedies, or short cuts for the steadier runners, right from the outset of route planning.
Some clubs use set routes, so that runners of all pace are running the same route but at their own pace, and usually split off in to their own pace clusters. This is great if you don't have too many people attending at one time, but for a very large club it can put a lot of pressure on the route used. Usually you would also need a tail marker, and someone to take new people around until they learn the routes. Most people will learn them fine, some people will never learn the route and will have to run with someone forever, even on road based routes. Everyone also gets the same length run which is great if you don't have people at extremes but some clubs will have some people who do seven miles on a club night, and some people who do three, which may make set routes a bit tricky. There is also potentially a big time difference between the time groups arrive back.
Another version of the above I have seen is an out and back route where you have a reasonably lenthy route out, and the fastest runners will head out along this with everyone else following behind. Then at the end of the out (say 3-4 miles) the fast runners turn for home, and the idea is that as the fast runners come back past the slower runners, they turn for home as well. This reduced the gap between people arriving back (but there will always be some) but everyone gets a different length run which again might not suit everyone.
Within a smaller group you can use tricks like rendez vous points and loop backs. The former are quite straight forward if people know where they aare going but can be bit tricky in new areas where your description of the meeting point doesn't quite match someone elses (or they simply don't see the huge statue/telephone mast/ etc.). The guys at the front can also get cold. The latter involves the front runners getting to a certain point, turning around and jogging to the back of the group, which increases their distance but keeps them moving and warm.
If you can teach a few people of different speeds the route, that is even more useful as you can then string people out between you. But people need to keep roughly in sight of one of you if they are in a complicated navigation area.
Finally don't underestimate the joy of a shared warm up and cool down in a session. Even if people are running completely different routes at different paces, a shared warm up can make a group feel more like a team or community rather than people who happen to have turned up to run in a similar vicinity. Using things like laps of a quiet car park or field to warm up, jogging on the spot or drills can mean everyone can warm up and chat across abilities without affecting the pace they want to run out for the bulk of the session.
I don't really consider myself an expert on this and would love to hear if people have other options and ideas!
In other news, no sign of a race season yet but keep hoping things will improve soon and I can do race reviews rather than prattling on about stuff I am not really an expert on!
