I hope you’re having a great day! With a new year upon us, it’s always a great opportunity to get a fresh start and tackle those goals that you may have put off for some time.
I’ll be honest – there are a few things that I’ve been meaning to do but couldn’t or wouldn’t make the commitment – running and non-running -related. It happens! Fortunately, I am finally getting back to a project that is near and dear to me – the Running Club Roundup! Keep reading to hear more details!
I’m linking up with Kim and Zenaida for Tuesday Topics, Debbie, Marc, and Rachel for the Running Coaches Corner, and Annmarie and Nicole for Wild Workout Wednesday!
Running Club Roundup Background
Surprisingly, it was about 3.5 years ago when I debuted this project on the blog! Originally, I wanted to run with a different club in the Philadelphia area each week. Believe it or not, this is a huge undertaking because Philly, the city of neighborhoods, has dozens of running clubs out there, so it would have kept me really busy! Along the way, I was able to review my experiences with the following groups:
- Philly Distance Runners
- Black Girls Run (Laurel, MD)
- Shake Shack Track and Field
- Fairmount Running Club
- City Fit Girls
- Philly Runners
Unfortunately, it all started to become too overwhelming for me to manage, so I set the project aside. The cool thing was that each group was unique. Some groups I really enjoyed and others were disappointing. It was very eye-opening!
My Company’s Running Club
Way back in 2011, when I first started running, I formed a running club at my place of work. I just finished running the Broad Street Run for the first time and I was HOOKED. I had previously been a treadmill runner (thank you, Planet Fitness!) but I wanted to reap the benefits of running outdoors. I thought it would be a way to meet new people and to continue a healthy habit.
Fast forward nearly 8 years and we’re still around! I always joke that as long as I work at my company, we’ll always have a running club! Membership has ebbed and flowed over the years, but it’s always been fun. We’ve trained for so many races together – 10 milers, 5K’s, marathons. This year, I was determined to revive the group and I’m so glad that I did!
A couple of weeks ago, I sent an email to the group and set a date for us to get back to it and I received so much positive feedback! For our first run, we had a group of 4 (including me) – two of us ran 5 miles and two of us ran 6. It was awesome! This experience helped cement that I’m doing the right thing. I look forward to exploring more running clubs!
Upcoming Running Club Roundups
In an effort to keep myself accountable, here is my shortlist of running clubs that I hope to visit in the near future! Running Club Roundups will be posted once a month!
- Pennypack Trail Runners
- Manayunk Beer Runners
- Chasing Trail
- Wissahickon Wanderers
- Conshy (Conshohocken) Running
If you’re interested in checking out running clubs in your area, here’s a post I created on how to find a running group you’ll love!
Have you ever run with a running club? Who do you think I should check out next on my list?
I joined a local running club last year and I’ve had some fun adventures with them! I like this group because they are more “regular” runners than the other local clubs. We just ran that indoor marathon relay which was a blast!
If you ever come to Chicago, I’ll introduce you!
That sounds great! I definitely would need to be in a group with more regular runners that don’t take themselves too seriously! Love your indoor marathon recap!
I love this topic! Running with different clubs is such a nice way to meet other runners and make friends. I lead the BGR group in my city, but we’re really small – only about 6 runners. I wish i could start a running club at my job but everyone here thinks I’m crazy for running, lol.
I didn’t realize you were a BGR leader, how cool! They used to have a huge group on Saturday mornings but I haven’t seen them in years. So funny about the coworkers…some folks just don’t get us, lol!
How cool that you started a running club at work! And that there are so many running clubs near you to check out. Sounds like a fun project 🙂
Thanks, Chaitali! Hopefully I’ll get to meet some really cool people along the way!
What a great idea. We tried to start one where I work but it fizzled.
I belong to 2 official running clubs but I only participate in their races not their weekly runs. Their runners tend to be on the fast and serious side.
I do feel lucky to b e able to find people to run with at least for long runs on the weekend.
We fizzle from time to time…hopefully I can keep up the momentum this year since people seem interested!
The faster running groups are definitely not for me…it’s a little embarrassing when no one else runs your pace. But doing the races sounds fun!
And you def have a strong running crew!
Philly does have so many running groups. I love this series. Of course I could never cheat on my Moms Run This Town group though 🙂
LOL, I hear you about not wanting to cheat on MRTT! I need to hurry up and pick my first group to visit in Philly!
Way to go on getting the work place club going! There’s a (tiny) handful of us who run (where I work), but we all live in different surrounding towns, so the only time we ever get together as a group is for the team relay event we do every May (76 total miles of fun!).
I love my company’s running club, I hope more people keep coming, but this cold weather isn’t helping matters haha!
There’s wonderful that you have a group to run with from work.
I belong to two groups locally, although I’m not really active in either and while I’ve met people through it, no BRFs, not yet anyway.
I sort of formed a group to go to Wineglass with me, and surprisingly we are still mostly running together — again, off & on, people coming & going.
This is such a fun idea. Where I live there are only a few running clubs, but it would still be fun to try running with them. I think it’s so great that you started a running club at work! Great way to help people stay fit!
Thanks, Debbie! I love my solo runs, but I think I need the motivation of running with others!
Thanks, Debbie!
I LOVE this Janelle! I used to be co-coordinator of the Starbucks running club when I worked there and we had SO MUCH FUN! a lot of times we’d just schedule a lunch run and run all around the harbour area (I worked at the roasting plant so we had to be near the water to get the coffee shipments in) and then go back, shower and tackle the rest of the day. We also did many races together. In fact, my first race ever was with the running club (obvs I wasn’t coordinating then) and one of my colleagues was really the inspiration that started me running in the first place. I miss it a lot! We have a very small club at my current company and I coordinated a race last September for 3 distances – it was hard work but fun! I officially run with 4 running clubs now, not all at the same time, 3 are in my city and the other is countrywide. I think it’s a brilliant idea to check out groups beyond my own – there are more and more popping up and we are a city with just 140K people!
I look forward to hear more about your upcoming endeavours with new groups!
Thanks so much, Renee! That’s so cool that you had a running club with Starbucks. It’s fun to see your coworkers in a different way. If only we had showers here at work…otherwise I’d love to do a lunch run at the office. Coordinating races can get really stressful – we have one we do every year for Earth Day and it’s always a hassle, but it’s exciting when everyone shows up! I really look forward to meeting some new groups, especially the ones in my neighborhood! I’ve been hiding for too long!
This is such a neat idea! I know that there’s about 5 running clubs in town but I’m sure there’s so many! Houston has many different “mini cities” in it that each probably has its own running club. Can’t wait to hear about each one you try out!
Thanks, Virjinia! I’ve never been to Houston, I’d love to visit sometime and meet a running group there!
What a great idea to run with a different group on each run. I am sure I can do that here since Chicago also has so many running clubs.
Glad to hear you were able to start again the run club at your work place.
I love that your work running club still persists. Even with a small group participating, you could be inspiring others. I love hearing about your running group experiences — look forward to the new ones!
Thanks, Coco! It’s been a labor of love, haha! Some people get the emails I send but never come up, apparently they still enjoy following along!
That’s awesome you’re making your rounds with the running clubs! I wish I could get out more, but with coaching, I often run with the team I’m coaching. I’d love to be able to run with people my own ability instead of hopping back and forth between kids.
I’m glad to finally get back going with this project! I can see how coaching can make you a little bit busy!