Running club?

Here is another post that mysteriously sat around in my drafts folder waiting for me to click 'publish', can't work out why its been there for nearly 3 years but anyway some thoughts from back in the day when I was new to the run club world... Written Sept 2018...

Over the last little while I have been exploring and then enjoying running club life, which was initially born out of my experience of swimming classes early in the year which had a club feel. Coming from a history where I was once an active rowing club member it could be seen as a little odd that it has took me as long as it did to seriously consider and then join a running club. For a number of reasons I have arrived here and so I have been dipping my toe in the waters and have actually come to some conclusions.

My story was a tale of two clubs. There are of course many more than two clubs I connected with, and I suppose living in a capital city you could perhaps expect that. Although tracking them down can be a bit of a journey in itself.

Narrowing the list down to two clubs for me was based on the following considerations:

• location
• days of the week they meet
• size of the club
• outlook / ambitions of the average club member
• UK Athletics (UKA) / Welsh Athletics (WA) affiliation - lets face it basically for event discounts, and insurance
• facilities
• kit
• feel - perhaps the most subjective and one that ultimately sealed the deal

The two I visited were the Maindy Harriers and the Pegasus Running Club, and the first thing that has to be said was that both were fabulously friendly, approachable, welcoming and understanding. It felt a little cheeky saying "can I come along, not join, and have a couple of runs with you to see how it is?", but it was absolutely the right thing to do. I would encourage anyone to do the same - maybe the club is too competitive, or not competitive enough; maybe they don't offer as many sessions as you'd like; maybe you don't 'click' with the coach / run leader - whatever sense you get will help you decide and moreover help you get more out of being a club member.

I had the pleasure of doing a couple of sessions with the Maindy Harriers before I tried out Pegasus, and by the time I arrived at my first Pegasus session I was absolutely sold on joining one or other because club running just felt right. As a long time 'lone wolf' runner it was definitely the right time to come in from the 'cold'.

In the end I went with my heart because the Pegasus club is based out of a rowing club that I used to row for (the one that forms a lot of my earlier blog posts), and so it felt like a place I wanted to be associated with again (albeit in a new form).

Both clubs can be found in the Welsh Athletics club listings, by searching with a search engine, on social media (a Facebook search will find them).

Race Report - Welsh Virtual Road Relay 12-14th Feb 2021

One from the vaults of 'stuff I wrote and then never clicked send, so finished or not here it is from back in February...

I ran a race! - Welsh Virtual Road Relay 5 miles 12-14th Feb 2021 - so why not do a race report like the 'old days'?...

My impressions from the day: I picked Saturday of the three days that were on offer. With Friday being a work day and Sunday being Valentine's day, there was really only one choice of day for me to be honest!

Course: 9/10 - a very simple, familiar, flat, quick, well designed course with only a handful of road crossing to negotiate - well the Strava explore route design tool (available in the paid version of the app only I think) certainly found me a familiar and straight forward route to run. I was a bit worried about how busy it would be as it covered some common run routes in the area, but it was okay on the day.

Marshalling: 5/10 - no marshals around the route for this event of course, however everyone I passed by was very good at social distancing and were generally very cheery and smiley to be outdoors.

Facilities: 10/10 - after years of supporting various running and sports events the household was well set to provide everything that the runners needed - clean toilets, great food outlet (a very homely kitchen looking affair, something that more events could think about laying on), excellent changing facilities, good runners village entertainment, and a super supportive atmosphere.

Organisation: 7/10 - given that the event is all organised online I can't really fault the overall organisation, I can though fault my own ability to remember a password from one log in to the next... I could try and blame a busy lockdown brain, but truth is I am always rubbish at that.

Fellow runners: 0/10 (10/10 online)- with no one allowed to run the same route at the same time this of course was always going to make the most difference to the event. No one to pace off of, no one to chat to, no one to arrange to meet in the finish zone, etc, etc. I can though say that the fellow runners in the online club environment were fabulous, and it was nice to be involved in an event again.

Crowd: 0/10 - really not the biggest of crowds... well lets face it there wasn't a crowd - of course, d'uh!

My performance: 8/10 - pleased with my pre-run plan and application during the run. I am trying to be comfortable with the outcome, as I know I could have gone faster. I ran within myself with control and with a sense of lets enjoy it and not have it hurt (during or after)

My time: 48:43 was pretty solid but in the back of my mind I thought I could have done more. Though truth be told this was a solid run and I thoroughly enjoyed it.