Would you join a running club? If not why not?

Spiritoftheseventies

Tingle wrote: »

This is inspired from another thread but I am just wondering what peoples thoughts are on running or athletic clubs here in Ireland? Are they too snobby or elitist? Can they do more to attract the 'recreational' runner? If you are a runner but not part of a club, what is stopping you? Have you had a bad experience? Any thoughts.

I would think if you are going to join a running club you need to be more than a recreational runner. as a rule runners are very set in their ways. unless you can run at their pace you would be slowing them down.

RoyMcC

bayviewclose wrote: »

I would think if you are going to join a running club you need to be more than a recreational runner. as a rule runners are very set in their ways. unless you can run at their pace you would be slowing them down.

But as Condo131 says in his excellent post above, any half-decent club will have runners of your pace/ability. No one expects a novice runner to be keeping up with the faster ones. This is just a perception that doesn't (usually) exist.

Peckham

I joined a well-established club after completing my first marathon and went along to training twice a week with them (one speed session and one road run session). The benefit I felt I got out of it were an introduction to speedwork and the camaradarie at training/seeing a friendly face at a race. However, getting to/from training after work was awkward and I lost motivation to continue going.

What disappointed me about the club set-up (or maybe it was this specific club, which is one of the best known clubs in the country), was the lack of formal training. Pretty much everything at the sessions was done ad-hoc and decided based on the group mood on that particular evening, and I don't think any of them had formal training qualifications.

Boards gives me everything that I would hope for from a club (although more conveniently than going to a club), and with the establishment of Boards AC, also provides a club singlet to run in.

domcq

I live 5 mins from Donore Harriers in Chapelizod. What I enjoy most about running is the freedom of the training schedule (within reason). Personally, I prefer to come home, hit the Pheonix park and have my run over for the evening.

With a club setup, you're waiting around after work to go to training later in the evening which just eats up your afternoon. I do see the benefit of clubs in terms of motivation though - my Garmin 405 is my new motivator

Spiritoftheseventies

chatoon wrote: »

Joined my first club a year ago, paid my money and never heard anything from anyone in the club since (despite them having all my contact details!) - I think they knew instantly by the look of me that I wasn't the type of runner that they really wanted in their club!

Then decided to join another one so that I could use their track facilities - I knew again that they didn't want me either, mainly because they only focus on juniors (and I'm way beyond that category now!)...but I have found the whole club thing to be a real let down - I really think there is so much that could be done for the 'not-so-fast runners' like me; I would have loved to be asked by either club to participate in club events, but sadly not, so I ended up doing all my running, training and racing on my own and now always register myself as 'unattached' when asked to fill in a club name on my entry.

Final comment (sorry if this sounds like I'm whinging!) - I only wished I lived near West Waterford as from what I have seen, they have a brilliant club that's aimed to all abilities - well done to anyone involved in that or similar clubs - it's by targeting all abilities that running becomes popular as a sport...:)

i think the reason for that is because clubs compete for team rankings over the course of the year in the various road races they are very reluctant to take on older runners. ie if you were a sixth runner running in a race with them you might affect their points from that race if you clocked a slow time.

RoyMcC

bayviewclose wrote: »

i think the reason for that is because clubs compete for team rankings over the course of the year in the various road races they are very reluctant to take on older runners. ie if you were a sixth runner running in a race with them you might affect their points from that race if you clocked a slow time.

Sorry but I don't know where you're getting this stuff from. Do you not think that a club would rather have a slow runner in 6th place than no runner?

To repeat much of what has been said, most clubs welcome new members of whatever ability, with open arms. Very little is expected of you other than you pay your subs. No club will expect you to run outside your ability range and they certainly won't expect you to race unless you want to.

littlebug

I go to a fit4life group (the peoples running club ) and we're encouraged to put the club name (rather than f4l) down when we register for races. If they were worried about slow runners affecting their league status they wouldn't bother since there's a few that frequently toddle in in Paddy last and nearly last position. The focus is very much on inclusion and participation at every level.

asimonov

littlebug wrote: »

I go to a fit4life group (the peoples running club ) and we're encouraged to put the club name (rather than f4l) down when we register for races. If they were worried about slow runners affecting their league status they wouldn't bother since there's a few that frequently toddle in in Paddy last and nearly last position. The focus is very much on inclusion and participation at every level.

its a good description littlebug - the harriers in kilkenny run a very good fit4life group and this translated into big fields for the road league series in april with fields of up to 150 with a huge spread of ability. Cut to 6 weeks later, and the country road championships had a field of 20 for the men and fewer again for the ladies.

rovers_runner

Depends what you want out of it.
To chase a time, be competitive then a club can help.
For someone who enjoys it regardless of where and when they can then a club not that important.

I'll be running for the rest of my life and I'll probably live in numerous places in between, will I join a club ever? maybe.
Does it matter? no.

shels4ever

I'd agree that most if not all clubs will treat new members well, the problem is not usually with the clubs attitude (maybe sometime) but with hoow people feel about their running. If you think that most club runners will have their training group and for an outsider to get into them can feel hard.

If your very new to the sport it may not be possible for you to go out on a scheduled 5 mile club run or do some of the sessions there needs to be a gradual introduction to the club with some sort of program that is designed for the individual. Something like the fit4life may help in this regard. I went down to one club last year and was show around the set up but in regards to training was told that “were doing a 7 miler tomorrow” I would have only been able for 3 miles at that stage.

Condo131

bayviewclose wrote: »

i think the reason for that is because clubs compete for team rankings over the course of the year in the various road races they are very reluctant to take on older runners. ie if you were a sixth runner running in a race with them you might affect their points from that race if you clocked a slow time.

Any club that competes in the masters categories is crying out for older members, both male & female. The problem for most clubs here is the lack of sheer numbers for, say, M50 teams.

Wrt affecting points, I don't understand where this is coming from. Any system I'm familiar with relies on the first 3, 4, 6 or 8 and anyone beyond that doesn't affect scores.

I think its important to point out also that, just because you don't get into the scoring team, your preformance, even though it may be well down the field, may be critical. For example, in one AAI road championship, with 4 to score, our 7th man finished well down the field but nearly killed himself to pass a rival in the last 200 metres. Turned out the rival was a scoring member of an opposition team and we tied with them. Our man didn't score for us, but if he hadn't passed the other guy, we'd have lost out on 'countback'. That guy was our most important man that day!

Our club's championship philosophy is, in order of importance:
Representation - get the club singlets out!
Teams - field teams
Winning medals - the bonus

For road races, it's just great to see club singlets on people, irrespective of club. Even in BHAA races, I wear my club singlet.

ecoli

bayviewclose wrote: »

i think the reason for that is because clubs compete for team rankings over the course of the year in the various road races they are very reluctant to take on older runners. ie if you were a sixth runner running in a race with them you might affect their points from that race if you clocked a slow time.

okay this is completely off the mark.
1. if you were to score on a team as a sixth runner it would mean that you have improved the team overall by beating who ever would have got sixth.
2. The older runner thing is a myth in fact many teams relish older runners to fill teams in the older age categories beacuse it means they are able to race for something without being disappointed not being high up in the senior placings. Many road races have O40,O45 etc up so more categories they are able to cover the better it looks for the club

chatoon

I can see from many of the positive posts about running clubs that my experience with the two clubs I joined was not the norm - I did turn up to club leagues and asked what nights training was on but was told that training nights varied and there were no real training sessions.
I later discovered that this was not the case and that there was a bunch of runners who met up regularly to train, but they were completely out of my league in terms of speed. With the second club I joined I spent hours (yes, hours!) running around on my own on their track and when I asked about training sessions, I was told that there was a group who went training but these were mostly juniors and there was nothing really for seniors... anyway, I'm sure there are brilliant clubs out there and well done to everyone who puts in so much time and effort involving all their members; I may have to consider travelling further to join such clubs, but in the meantime, I'm sticking to solitary training (albeit I do get a lot of inspiration from boardsies, so maybe it's not that solitary after all...!!)

Spiritoftheseventies

chatoon wrote: »

I can see from many of the positive posts about running clubs that my experience with the two clubs I joined was not the norm - I did turn up to club leagues and asked what nights training was on but was told that training nights varied and there were no real training sessions.
I later discovered that this was not the case and that there was a bunch of runners who met up regularly to train, but they were completely out of my league in terms of speed. With the second club I joined I spent hours (yes, hours!) running around on my own on their track and when I asked about training sessions, I was told that there was a group who went training but these were mostly juniors and there was nothing really for seniors... anyway, I'm sure there are brilliant clubs out there and well done to everyone who puts in so much time and effort involving all their members; I may have to consider travelling further to join such clubs, but in the meantime, I'm sticking to solitary training (albeit I do get a lot of inspiration from boardsies, so maybe it's not that solitary after all...!!)

have you tried joining a gym. Known there were a lot of runners in mine who went out and still go out on a regular bais.

chatoon

Cheers for that! I have been a member of a gym but I absolutely hate running on a treadmill and would much sooner be pounding the roads...but I'm sure it would be a good (if rather expensive!) way of meeting people to go running outside with...thanks for that - I will consider it....

Spiritoftheseventies

chatoon wrote: »

Cheers for that! I have been a member of a gym but I absolutely hate running on a treadmill and would much sooner be pounding the roads...but I'm sure it would be a good (if rather expensive!) way of meeting people to go running outside with...thanks for that - I will consider it....

yes well they went running outside. Never liked running inside myself. and advantage of gym is you get to work on your strength as well as warming down in sauna afterwards. Not sure where you are from but local gym in Raheny is very good and very well priced.

ecoli

chatoon wrote: »

I can see from many of the positive posts about running clubs that my experience with the two clubs I joined was not the norm - I did turn up to club leagues and asked what nights training was on but was told that training nights varied and there were no real training sessions.
I later discovered that this was not the case and that there was a bunch of runners who met up regularly to train, but they were completely out of my league in terms of speed. With the second club I joined I spent hours (yes, hours!) running around on my own on their track and when I asked about training sessions, I was told that there was a group who went training but these were mostly juniors and there was nothing really for seniors... anyway, I'm sure there are brilliant clubs out there and well done to everyone who puts in so much time and effort involving all their members; I may have to consider travelling further to join such clubs, but in the meantime, I'm sticking to solitary training (albeit I do get a lot of inspiration from boardsies, so maybe it's not that solitary after all...!!)

I am so shocked that any club would have this attitude i really feel that if we get the numbers up in the sport it has such a benefit at all levels (national general health,race quality, publicity, media coverage, funding all the way up to international level).
Hopefully this an isolated incident and no other athlete would have to be subjected to what you went through