Name of club

Tingley RunFIT

Club information

We meet on Tuesday and Thursday in Birstall and Overton

And on Wednesday in Tingley (with bonus sessions from East Ardsley at the moment while we limit numbers as well as Morley and Drighlington) 6pm for all sessions

We have occasion Sunday runs for those who want to get extra miles in too!

How the club started

I set the group up in March 2016 after becoming a qualified leader in running fitness. I had started running a couple of years earlier to support a friend at Race for Life, and soon realised that despite doing a lot of exercise my running was not good!  

I started to do parkrun weekly and then decided to set up the group to ensure others had the chance to run with other people and for when it was dark on an evening. This then led to the enjoyment of running in a group, plus when you commit to running with a group you stay motivated (before I used to just sneak home after a mile!). 

I am also qualified in fitness instruction, meaning sessions have variety included to improve strength and flexibility for everyone.

In 2017 some of the runners decided to do their LiRF to support as I was due to take a bit of a break as I was pregnant  it was great as it gave us more leaders and opened up the other locations 

Any major milestone / success stories  

We’ve grown from there and this shows in the England Athletics volunteer awards. As a group we have won this for Yorkshire and Humber in 2017 and 2018 and this year proud to be runners up. 

With an award winning group come award winning leaders! I’ve won the run leader of the year for the region in 2017, 2018 and 2020, even making it to the top 3 nationally in 2018! Super proud also with Hazel and Sharon as runners up in 2019 and 2020 respectively  

How the club’s responded to covid-19

COVID related running was a challenge at first but we’ve learnt to roll with it, with fun bingo challenges you can even get involved in from home, charity events, weekly collective mileage updates and just a bit of social chat in our Facebook group to keep each other motivated. We love a social media post saying #spottedTRF when we see another runner out!

5 words to describe the club or club motto

Recently my motto would be ‘proud to be TRF’ as throughout lockdown the group have supported each other physically and mentally which is great, a highlight was Lynda running her virtual London marathon around tingley in organised (covid secure) little groups. Switching her support pack every few miles!