Since the last update we’ve had a few of months of great participation and achievement in the jogscotland Westhill ranks as well as a few changes in our committee. Firstly, after 10 weeks of training our Couch to 5k runners who bravely started their running journey in January signed up for the Run Garioch 5k on March 24th. Eighteen runners laced their running shoes and conquered their anxiety to stand on the start line and completed the hilly 5k course for the first time.
Finishing the C25K programme is a wonderful and admirable thing, to be able to run 5k is a massive achievement and we are very proud of our C25K 2019 “graduates”. If you continue to run 5k two or three times a week at a 'slow' pace forever that is fantastic. It does not necessarily make you a serious runner but it does mean that you’ve successfully embraced running as part of a personal fitness and wellbeing journey and gives an amazing platform on which to build.
A brilliant example of that are the seven runners from our 2018 C25K who continued their running journey and took part in the 2019 Inverness Half Marathon on March 10th in the wind and the rain. None of them could have imagined that when the started plodding around the streets, paths and hills of Westhill that they would have gone on to complete a 21.1 km, or a little over 13 miles in old money, just 15 months later.
As our club continues to grow, we’ve seen the number of regular runners increase and as a result introduced another group to accommodate the variety of abilities. We now have a Green group, for beginners aimed at those working up to running 5k; our Yellow group for those that can run 5k and are working up to a 10k; our Red group is a little faster and typically runs 7k and finally our Blue group for those that want to go a little faster or run a little longer. We’ve also introduced some new runs, a staggered start supported 10k allowing all our runners the chance to complete a 10k with the support of one of our trained leaders.
So, if you are thinking about doing the Westhill 10k and looking for some training runs we’re running a full 10k once a month throughout the summer months or if you just want to some friendly, non-competitive and supportive company while running come along to jogscotland WESTHILL on a Monday and Thursday nights. We leave from the swimming pool at 1830 and ask new members to be there about 15 minutes early. Membership of jogscotland is FREE and club fees are only £1.50 a night. You can find us on facebook or email us at jogscotlandwesthill@gmail.com.