STARTED
Two friends set up a course that encourages
would-be runners to join a running club. Lucy
Waterlow reports W
hen Helen Varley started training for a 5K Race for Life, it wasn’t long before she got the running bug.
She went on to compete in 10Ks and half marathons, yet it wasn’t until nine years later that she plucked up the courage to join her local club in Hertfordshire. Helen, 30, said: “I think running clubs can be very intimidating for beginners. I consider myself to be confident in new situations and at the time of joining a running club I’d already done a half-marathon. Yet it still took me a long time to overcome my fears and join a new and mysterious environment where I didn’t know anyone.”
PLUCKED UP COURAGE Helen became a member of the St Albans Striders. As her running times improved and her circle of friends widened, she wondered why she hadn’t joined the club sooner. She realised it would have been a lot easier to go along for the first time if she hadn’t been alone. A friend at the club, Becky Alexander, 40, agreed. She had joined with her husband, Steve, but knew not everyone was lucky enough to attend with the support of their other half. So they decided to start a course to help turn wary wannabes into confident fully-fledged running club members.
SIX-WEEK PLAN With the support of the club’s committee, Helen and Becky undertook a ‘Leadership in Running Fitness’ qualification and then developed a six-week plan for new members, aptly named the ‘Get Started’ course, which
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would allow people to join the club as part of a group and progress together. Helen explains: “Our aim was to get people running who had been thinking about taking it up but didn’t know where to start, and to encourage people who had dabbled with running and thought about joining the club to get on and do it! For both groups we wanted it to be a transition into the club.
IT TAKES OFF!
Via the club’s website and word of mouth, people soon started signing up for the course and before they knew it, Becky and Helen had 65 people on board for the twice weekly sessions, all of varying speeds and fitness. Lucy Martin, 26, was one of them. She said: “I was bored of the gym and wanted to try something new that would be fun and improve my fitness, but joining a
running club seemed quite serious and I thought it would be too high a level for me. I didn’t want to show up on my own and be a slow jogger amongst serious runners. When I heard the Striders were running the Get Started course, I thought “why not?” It provided a gradual introduction to running rather than being thrown in at the deep end.”
When the course began, the new
runners were split into groups who were taken on runs according to their fitness and advised on training, stretching and injury prevention.
Interval work was gradually introduced so that by the end of the six weeks, the Get Started members were able to join in with the club’s regular weekly track sessions and complete a 5K race.
GREAT RESULTS Becky and Helen were delighted to see improvements in fitness and self-belief. “One member has given up smoking,
several have lost weight and everyone has said they enjoyed it and feel fitter and more energised,” said Becky. As the course was such a success, the pair intend to run another in April and would encourage other running clubs around the country to set up similar schemes to support new members. Lucy, now trains regularly with the
Striders and is targeting an autumn marathon. She thinks runners shouldn’t be put off from joining a club, even if their local one doesn’t have a ‘Get Started’ course to ease them in.
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