So here we are in the second month of 2019 enjoying all the new enthusiasm that the new year brings to our popular little running group.
We kicked of January by launching our couch to 5k programme again. This ten-week progressive programme is supervised by our team of qualified jogleaders. Its designed to get people of any ability up to the level of jogging 5k non-stop. 35 excited people turned up to start (or re-start) their running journey in the friendly and supportive environment of our local jogscotland group. Combined with our ever-increasing regular runners this saw over 80 runners regularly pounding the streets and paths of Westhill on our twice weekly runs.
The club, supported by the Westhill & District Community Sport and Leisure Hub, has had a tremendous 2018. We have almost doubled our membership which is now in excess of 140, although some run more regularly than others, all our runners have had huge personal achievements.
Running 5 and 10ks for the first time or getting new personal bests. Completing half and full marathons in the heat of the 2018 summer. As well as running or volunteering at the free, weekly parkruns both at Hazlehead and Aberdeen Beach on a regular basis. Our individual club runs totalled 2547, equated to over 50 discrete runs per week and it gets even more impressive when we think about just how far we’ve run, considering we only run around Westhill. In 2018 our three groups (Green, Red and Blue) covered at remarkable 13,294 miles.
With the group expanding so quickly 2018 saw us train 6 new Jog Leaders to ensure that we can support every runner regardless of pace with their running journey. Our compliment of fully-trained, enthusiastic and patient Jog Leaders have motivated all our new runners throughout 2018 to embrace a healthier and more active lifestyle through running.
Meeting every Monday and Thursday at Westhill Swimming Pool at 6.20pm, we begin our warm-up at 6.30pm. Our biggest group, the greens regularly run about 3.5 miles (6k), with our mid-paced group of Reds covering about over 4 miles (7k) in the same time. Our quickest Blue group run 5 miles (8k) during the post warm-up 45 minute sessions.
Although we’ve been pounding the streets for years, we held our 2nd AGM under the new governance model on Mon 4 February at the Holiday Inn Westhill. Our chair for the past couple of years, Leslie Murison stood down. The success of the group in 2018 is a credit to Leslies enthusiasm for running and jogscotlad Westhill and the committee and members are greatly appreciative of her efforts.
So, if you are reading this and keep finding an excuse not to join jogscotland - STOP IT! Speed, size, gender - none of that matters - remember “FEAR” – Forget Everything And Run.
