Running in Worcester is on a high and our club the Black pear Jogger’s is certainly flying! Currently the club has just over 420 members and this year we have seen an average of 4 new people joining a week. The club is now a large, diverse group of people and as others both see and hear about our running exploits and social events they in turn are encouraged to join. So, the main reason for our increasing numbers and success is due to you the members and your continuing enjoyment of our club.
To continue and grow this level of membership the club committee has opted to achieve the Club-mark standard as this will help us run this larger club more effectively. This will also give us more opportunities and already a number of courses have been delivered that our members have participated in. The ‘leadership in running fitness’ course has given individuals the chance to learn the skills needed to deliver programmes such as ‘couch to 5k’ and ‘5k-10k’ and has also given ideas to running group leaders as to how to better support others. Although these courses are ending over the next few weeks, further courses will be rolled out through 2016.
The club has also delivered two UK affiliated running events in the past year. Both ran smoothly on the day despite the fog at Croome Park and the crazy change of venue that was necessary for the Wild One due the problems at Perdiswell. The success of these events and the friendships we have forged with the National Trust has enabled us to have a club run at Croome Park and also The Croome Capability Canter which will take place later this month. Entries to this race were snapped up in under one hour so the pressure is on us now to deliver a good race experience.
The club have also added an extra running day into the week. On Tuesday nights the club are now meeting at the Riverside Centre on Hylton Road. This gives our members a chance to run four times a week with the club.
The club has seen its members take part in many diverse events around the Midlands and beyond this year. This has enabled all runners regardless of their background to participate in competitive races. The Clubs X country teams have picked up pace over the past year. The Men’s team have moved out of division Three in The Birmingham League into division two. The women keep battling hard and the number of runners at each event continues to rise.
It’s been events like all of the above which have been noticed by Sport Worcester. This resulted in Club picking up an award in September for ‘Contribution to Physical Activity’ in Worcester. We should all be proud of this achievement!
I would like to thank you all for your support and help over the past year and I hope it will continue. The club has a number of new and different challenges to overcome this next year so please get involved where you can! Only with the continued support of the members will the club continue to grow and evolve next year as it has this.
Enjoy your Running
Mike Lane
