Love running? Let's spread the word!

  

This week has made a whole new wave of people see just what a great sport we are all involved in. Thanks to the work of Run England groups and athletics clubs next week sees hundreds of opportunities for more people to get involved!

It has not just been the Olympic and Paralympic athletes who have been getting ready for their big moment over recent months! This coming week sees great work by hundreds of Run England groups and clubs coming to fruition as they hold community days to give people right across England the opportunity to give athletics a go.

Athletics Clubs, Running Clubs and Run England Groups have all been preparing to take advantage of a one-off opportunity to be part of an England Athletics campaign to help clubs make the most of the Olympics. England Athletics has spent recent years challenging ourselves as a sport 'Are You Ready?' as we have looked ahead to making the most of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The answer from so many clubs and groups has come back as a resounding 'YES!'.

Why not help our sport to spread the word by clicking the icons at the top of this page to Tweet this story or 'Like' it on Facebook - that way more people will find out about the great work being done by athletics clubs and this opportunity to get involved!

A listing of Community Days can be found at www.englandathletics.org/communityday

Our Are You Ready campaign has been boosted by being part of a national campaign backed by the BBC, Channel 4 and London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. As well as England Athletics' resources and publicity clubs and groups registering to host an Athletics Community Day between 12th and 29th August 2012, have also been able to take advantage of national marketing, online resources, hard copy resources and exclusive discounts through the Join In Local Sport campaign.

Hosting an Athletics Community Day makes the most of the great opportunity provided by the Olympic and Paralympics Days for us as a sport to bring our clubs together to engage the local community and give them the opportunity to try athletics and have fun!

England Athletics are pleased to be working with LOCOG and the BBC to promote Community Days using the ‘Join in Local Sport’ initiative.  ‘Join In’ is supported by Sport England, Seb Coe, David Moorcroft, the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association.

Seb Coe, Chair of London 2012, said: “We are really happy to support the ‘Join In’ project, it is a great idea that means that thousands of people across the UK can turn up and take part in local sports just after the Olympic Games finishes. Millions will be inspired by what they witness over the summer and I hope this creates opportunities in every community for people to join in their local sports clubs.” This is just one platform for clubs to be promoted upon and will allow clubs to achieve exposure that would not be possible for an independent event. Club’s events will also be promoted on www.london2012.com.

So spread the word:

• You can click 'Like' at the top of this story
• Post a Facebook comment about your running group and encourage friends to join you
• Post a link to www.runengland.org/groups and encourage friends to try running
• Or post a link to www.englandathletics.org/communityday and encourage friends to give it a go!