Running Groups Offer YPs More Than Just Fitness

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When Alex Yates, a marketing consultant, relocated two years ago to the Chicago area from San Diego he joined a running club. He had been a member of a track club in San Diego, and eyed the Chicago Area Runners Association, or CARA, as a way to integrate into his new community.
 
Through CARA, an organization with more than 8,600 members and the third largest running organization in the country, Yates was able to meet people and explore his new city by foot. He routinely recommends joining to friends and colleagues who have relocated to the area. Yates thinks young professionals seek out and need a “recess component to life," which is part of the reason why running groups are so appealing.
 
CARA is just one of thousands of running groups found across the United States. Within the Road Runners Club of America alone, the oldest and largest distance running-focused organization in the nation, there are more than 1,000 member clubs and events and more than 200,000 running club members across the country — and then there are the countless running clubs not associated with the RRCA.
 
And while it’s difficult to get a precise picture of just how many running clubs there are and the demographic information on members, it's clear young professionals are pounding the pavement in high numbers. In the 2009 Boston and New York City Marathons, the 18 to 39-year-old category accounted for nearly half of all race finishers.*
 
Of course, not everyone is training for a marathon, and no runner wants to join a group and feel as if he or she is the least fit person there.
 
“[CARA] realized that by adding a social component to the run, they lowered the threshold and made others feel welcome,” Yates, 37, said. So CARA holds social post-run pub outings. These gatherings offer runners a fun atmosphere, food and drinks, and make runners of all abilities feel comfortable, said Yates.
 
The running group also holds raffles. One night, Yates was with some new friends at a post-run event and mentioned he would love to win the night’s top raffle prize of airline tickets so he and his wife could travel back to San Diego.
 
Yates didn't win. But one of his new friends did, and gave the tickets to Yates, explaining that his fiancée worked for an airline and they already flew for free. “And I had only known the guy for an hour,” Yates said.
 
With an annual individual membership fee of just $44, Yates’ CARA membership had just paid for itself several times over--in terms of economics and friendship.
 
Running groups range from casual ‘fun run’ clubs to training groups focused on marathon preparation, and offer benefits from staying in shape, training for a race day goal, networking, socializing or even to meet the needs of an underserved group.
 
When Holly Shoemaker, 39 of Alexandria, Va., couldn’t find a running group for young cancer survivors, she created one herself.
 
Shoemaker, a graphic designer, has been an active runner and triathlete for the past 10 years. When she was diagnosed with melanoma in 2005 at age 35, she was training for Washington, D.C.’s Marine Corps Marathon.
 
Not wanting to give up her active lifestyle while undergoing chemotherapy, Shoemaker looked for resources on exercising and cancer treatment.
 
“I surprisingly didn’t find very much,” Shoemaker said.
 
Working out a plan with her doctor, her personal coach and with the help of two close friends who ran with her, Shoemaker ran and finished the 2005 Marine Corps Marathon. She took a break from exercising after the marathon, but noticed a change in how she felt. “My chemo side effects went through the roof,” she said.
 
So Shoemaker continued to exercise — with her doctor’s support and advice — throughout the course of her treatment.
 
Feeling that young adults were “underserved” in the cancer survivorship community and that there were other people out there like her, Shoemaker founded the Cancer to 5K running group in 2007. The free group focuses on training cancer survivors or those undergoing treatment ages 18 to 40 for a 12-week season that culminates in members running (or walking) a 5K race (3.1 miles).
 
“It’s been a huge success on a small scale…one person at a time,” Shoemaker said of her unique group.
 
Since the fall of 2007, 18 cancer survivors have joined the Cancer to 5K group and completed the program by racing at the end of the session. Shoemaker said that around 70 percent of the finishers have gone on to compete in longer races or return to Cancer to 5K to work as volunteers.
 
Other members of the running community have gotten involved, too, but these volunteer are not cancer survivors — though many have had their lives touched by cancer. Volunteers serve as pace leaders during group workouts or “race day Sherpas,” as Shoemaker calls them, on the actual race day.
 
“[Volunteers are] along for the ride and there to share their joy of running,” Shoemaker says.
 
And as Shoemaker herself can attest, that joy of running is a powerful thing.
 
To find a running group in your area, visit RRCA’s Web site or find a Meetup running group at Meetup.com.
 
*This figure also includes the international runners in that age group who competed.
 
Interested in more trends from the YP community, check out this piece on the power of social media.
 
(Photo credit: clarkmackey; C.C. 2.0)