This year’s beginners couch to 5k has proved to be bigger and more successful than we ever could have imagined. On the first night when over 170 runners turned up on a cold January Wednesday night, we were over whelmed. At 6:20pm we had a queue outside the door and we couldn’t fit anymore runners in the clubhouse. But we got them on the track running, 1 minute running, 1 minute walking. And they loved it. It was one of the most amazing club nights in recent memory. We hadn’t planned on getting such large numbers but we’d started something and we couldn’t turn all these new runners away now. Afterwards a few of us sat down with our usual post run brew said lets make this work, we hatched a fresh plan and asked our fellow club members for a little bit of help. We knew the second week would be even more popular. And so it proved with probably 200 runners on the track that night!
Since the starting the course, we had over 250 runners down the club. It’s been a fantastic experience for not only the new runners who love their Wednesday club nights, but it’s been even more rewarding all the Run Leaders and club members that volunteered their own time to come down the club to run with and encourage everyone taking part on the course. A huge thank you to everyone that’s come down the club helped out. You’ve definitely put our couch to 5k course on the map. For a few weeks we were the talk of the Staffordshire running community. We can’t run course without volunteers and it’s unfair to rely on the same faces every Wednesday. If you think that you could help one or two Wednesday nights a month please get in touch. You may just want to run with everyone else and motivate our new runners or you might want to dip your toe in the water and become a run leader. It’s not that scary and it’s a fun course, where you learn loads about your own running as well learning how to help others start out in running. And the club pays for the course.
We’ll be starting another couch to 5k course May, so tell your friends. In the meantime we’ll be starting a 5k group on a Wednesday night for runners wanting to improve their own 5k time or progress to 10k. It’s going to be a mix simple drills and sessions that will suit everyone from our graduated beginners and most experienced runners. So hopefully we’ll see there.
