I re-joined my local running club this week. I had fallen off a few years ago when work and family life got a bit more intense. Mainly, it was the extra time commuting to a new job. It was being the Engineering Supervisor at the Marriott in Houston's medical district.I resigned after just two years. My boss happened to be a psycho nut case that threw massive temper tantrums. Who needs it?
Anyway, my club is the Bay Area Running Club and I was rather active at the time. We do a lot of race management so I did a lot of volunteering. But there's many more running club benefits that you score than just giving back to the community.
Motivation and socializing are two of the biggest ones. It gets hotter than Hades here in the Texas during the summer (come on climate change!), and just knowing that there will be a group run is enough to silence the sedentary part of the brain. It sure beats going to the gym and running by yourself doing a treadmill workout!
Beginning runners can also benefit from the pool of experience that exists in any club. Most importantly, how to train for a 10K or a marathon and avoiding an injury like plantar fasciitis.
The interesting thing about running clubs in the Houston area is that there are so many of them that back in '93, an umbrella organization called HARRA (Houston Area Road Runners Association) was formed to coordinate things.
Unfortunately, runners in more rural areas may not have such a selection. Why not start your own club?
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