The Saturday 8AM Run in Nyon

There are two runs on a Saturday morning in Nyon. One of these is at 8am and the other is at 9am. The 8am run is aimed as a relaxed, conversational run. The pace, according to my own track was about 06:20 per kilometre. The elegance of such a run, if you live in Nyon is that it starts from Tête de Course and covers about seven kilometres, before stopping for an after-run breakfast.

If you’re feeling energetic you can then join the Saturday ride. If you’re in the mood for more running, then when you get to the end of the 8am run, you have the option of the Broccoli Running Club Nyon. It starts from different places each time. Today it was meant to start from Rive but I’m not sure where. I was almost tempted to join, to see what this run is like.

This means that there are at least three running clubs to choose from and they are not mutually exclusive. You could run with Ochsner Sport on Monday, the second group on Saturday at 8am, then with the next at 9am, and then you could go for a group ride.

This connects to my favourite subject, about social networks and social media. In the past we had to chat with people a train journey away, if we were lucky, or a flight away. Now those social networks are local to the towns we live in, or near. Strava is a social network of social networks. BRNC, that I mentioned above is in Nyon and on Strava, so is TDC. The 8am group is slightly more exclusive, as it’s on Whatsapp.

The point is that now, instead of social networking via Twitter, or Facebook, or other sites we can social network by running, and then having breakfast, or running with the second group of the morning, and then have brunch.

If we’re solitary, we don’t need to sit at a computer. We can sit at a café table in the physical world, rather than online. If we speak about the fediverse, and decentralisation, then this network of local networks plays in to my statement that social media has become so ubiquitous that we can remain local, and find that local community on Strava or Whatsapp groups, or Meetup.com.

We no longer need to be social with people a world away and long to meet them in person. We can be social with people, in person, and it continues online. It’s like the early days of Facebook as the University friends network. We have come full circle.