More than one god again.

Gen 18:1 says, “And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,”  The lord appears to him as three men?  And if I read this correctly they appear next to him but he has to run to meet then.  Maybe back then next to was further away than it is now?