All my friends are running marathons and leaving me behind
As a grad student turning 28 next week, pretty much everyone around me spends their free time at run clubs, or running along our local trails, or talking about their pace or their training schedule or their upcoming races.
But my knees and feet just can't take that kind of stress anymore, if they ever really could. I've recently realized how much I need to protect my knees especially. I'm still active (long walks with my dog, hiking, pilates 3x/week), but not the types of things my friends are doing. I was wondering why I've been feeling more and more lonely, and I realized it's because all my friends are hanging out without me on their runs.
I know that I have so many other things in my life to be grateful for, but it's just so hard to not be able to join the activity that is the number one way to make friends in my demographic where I live.