Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Charlotte Running Club, demystified

From today's mailbag:

Q. Can you describe a little about what type of group the Charlotte Running Club is? How is the CRC organized, and do you have to pay a fee to join? Any info would definitely be appreciated since I'm interesting in becoming part of a larger running group. Also, the Beer Mile photos on your Facebook profile look interesting. Was this a CRC function? I'd really like to join a running group that does cool stuff like that. --S.P.

The answer, from Charlotte Running Club marketing director Jay Holder:

We are a group of passionate, semi-competitive runners that strive to spread the love of our sport and help each other grow. Our goal is bring the expansive, diverse and excited Charlotte running community together under one umbrella through group runs and social events. The key here is "passion." Our motto is "a passion for running." If you have it, you should be running with us. Speed is NOT a factor. Ten-minute milers can easily be more passionate than a six-minute miler.

That said, we do have a lot of Charlotte's fastest, most accomplished runners in our club. But we do not allow them to take that for granted. We try to capitalize on their talents and abilities to help other runners reach their goals. For example, several of us have committed to pacing members at Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon on Dec. 12. Those runners also put together and lead workouts that will help others improve. Some of our club members dropped up to two minutes off their 5K time in a matter of months. Others have shaved 10-plus minutes off their marathon times.


There is not a membership fee.

With respect to the Beer Mile, it was indeed a CRC function. We take running very seriously, but also understand that if it stops being fun, we've missed the point. So, occassionally, we'll have events like that. Just this past weekend we held our first club social at a bar in Dilworth!


For more information about joining the Charlotte Running Club, click here.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

And this is why jay Holder is our marketing director. Let's all embrace running and share in the sense of joy that running brings to all our lives.

Allen said...

I joined for the really cool singlets. And because I took that old adage "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" a little too seriously.

Audra said...

S.P., I attended the social at Dilworth Bar & Grill this past weekend and CRC is a nice club with a great group of runners.

With that said I must (being their Social Director) point out that they are not the only club in town. The Charlotte Runner's Meetup Group is another great group with fun events. You can find them at http://www.meetup.com/CharlotteRunners/

Anonymous said...

Awesome I have been looking for a charlotte running club nearby and I was wondering if you guys still meet and how I could possibly join or meet up with you guys, are you an invite only or how does that all work?