Runners, with your 26.2 stickers and your pictures of blackened toenails and your humble brags about how hard that run just was — we get it. You're into it. And that's great — no disrespect. But there are a bunch of people who would prefer not to run, thank you very much, not unless there's a fire we need to get away from. We'll be on the couch, cheering you on.

Google "couch to 5K" and you will see a slew of learn-to-run programs and encouragement. There's even a Couch to 5K app on iTunes. Runners are the ex-smokers of the sports world. Having fallen in love with the sight of the rising sun during morning runs and the sense of accomplishment they feel after a run, they want you to do it, too. The group Running USA gathers statitistics about these things and reported a 22 percent increase in the number of people who finished a running event in 2013 compared to 2012. We're talking millions of runners here.

It's OK to resist the call to run. In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal last year, Chad Stafko theorized that runners run "because there is no more visible form of strenuous exercise." Non-runners contend there are other ways to work out and feel good about yourself.

Amelia Koethen is a non-runner. It's not that she's a couch potato, even though she enjoys the couch. Put her in roller skates and you'll see it's not just runners who move fast. Koethen, 31, goes by "Murder Muffin" as a member of the Albany All Stars Roller Derby team. She does, on rare occasions, run, but only for a good cause, while in costume. She was among the runners at last year's Santa Speedo Sprint where she raised money to rebuild the Albany Damien Center. She used her dread of running as incentive for donors.

"If people donated at a certain level I agreed to run the whole thing rather than running a few blocks and then sneaking back to the bar," Koethen said.

The Santa Speedo Sprint course is along Lark Street between Madison and Washington avenues — and back. Koethen proudly displays a .08 sticker on her car, which sparks questions of two kinds because the distance of the race echoes the blood-alcohol threshold for drunken driving.

She also founded a group called the Lark Street Non-Runners.

"It was originally supposed to be a group training for that arduous .08 run, but we are so committed to non-running that we never even meet. I can't think of a group so committed to NOT running places. We are always accepting new members, as long as they are fully committed to never meeting, never running, and always taking it easy, preferably on a couch," Koethen said.

The Lark Street Non-Runners Facebook page features witticisms such as "If you want to go running with me, you better be prepared to walk a lot."

Search "non-runners" and you will find a similar sentiments from non-runners: "If you see me running, call the police," and "If you see me running, you better run too, because something is chasing me."

Koethen said it's not the passion runners have for their sport that she objects to, it's the proselytizing.

"Roller derby girls are equally obnoxious. It's nice to have passion about something, but I don't need to know everything about your run on Facebook. The track-my-run apps are a bit much, but I would never begrudge people their form of exercise," she said.

Still, running has an allure. Gina LaViolette, the wellness director at the Schenectady branch of the Capital District YMCA, runs a Couch to 5K training program. Her retention rate is good, but there are still people who drop out because it's harder than they expected, or they don't do the "homework" — running on their own. LaViolette started the most recent session with 34 trainees; at the end, 26 people ran the Glenville-Schenectady 5K on July 12.

While listening to a friend talk about her marathon experience recently, Amanda Setaro, 27, said all she could do was shake her head. Running isn't entertaining, she said, she doesn't do it unless it's part of the regimen at Albany CrossFit, where she works out. CrossFit is a combination of weight lifting, body weight movements and gymnastics. Sometimes there's a run of 200 to 400 meters included in the workout for the day.

Three years of doing CrossFit have added muscle to Setaro's frame, but that's not the only reason she does it. She's made friends by going to the classes. Setaro said she likes the group exercise element. It's what appeals to Koethen about roller derby. Plus, it's inside.

"When you run, you're alone with your thoughts and there's nature and it's just awful," she said.

lhornbeck@timesunion.com • 518-454-5352 • @leighhornbeck