By Tom Roper
Striders line up for a 5k race along the seafront
At the time of writing, the Couch to 5k group has met six times, and we’ve never had fewer than twenty participants! We’ve attracted a wide range of people, from those returning to running after time off, to people who have never run or seriously exercised before. It has been inspiring to watch their progress, as each week they have tackled a different challenge.
This influx of new members has also been very healthy for the whole club. At the end of the programme, we will join other Striders at Preston Park Parkrun on 13th May – click here. We can also expect many members to participate in our annual 5K Solstice run along Seaford seafront on Wednesday 21 June.
We hope that many of you will graduate to join more challenging groups of runners on a Monday and/or Wednesday evenings, but we also plan to continue to offer an easy-paced, short-ish (3-4 mile) Wednesday night run, for a steady progression to 10K.
Thanks are due to Hilary Humphreys, Terry Ward, Emma Goodman and Simon Nixon who have helped lead the groups.
We will probably repeat the exercise later in the year: it is clear there is a demand. So tell your family and friends who are interested in starting running to get in touch. Also if any other Striders would like to help lead, please contact Tom (tom[dot]roper[at]gmail[dot]com – this does not need to be on a permanent basis, and it could work when recovering from injury?