One month on – Run England off to a flying start

One month into Run England the project has had well over 1100 new members sign up and has seen dozens of new running groups created across the country.

Run England is the official England Athletics recreational running project to which aims to get the whole nation running. Regardless of your age, fitness level, aspiration, background, or location you can be a part of Run England and benefit from being a part of England's running community. We are here to help and encourage more people to run, and to run more often.

Project manager Geoff Wightman commented on the first launch of the project, “It has been great to see people’s enthusiasm for running, to have so many members signed up and new groups being created. We have over 1100 individuals signed up and as the number of Official Run England registered groups now stands at more than 370 we expect that number to grow quickly as new group members register.

"We launched the project simply by getting the website live and attending the Expo for the Virgin London Marathon before we had any full time staff in post. We have just appointed three Regional Coordinators and so we are confident as they take up their roles we will continue to see the project grow. But the project will always be built upon the enthusiasm of people who want to get into running, lead groups and share their love of running with others.

“Another development is that we will have a new member of staff in place in the next few weeks who will be bringing a lot of new content to the website and leading the work on our new member e-bulletins so that people can read more inspiring stories from other runners, gain training advice and also find out about the latest member discounts.

“Many running clubs and athletics networks are also creating and registering new running groups specifically for beginners with Run England. It is really encouraging to see those who have great experience showing their desire to help people take their first steps in the sport and make specific provision for them.

“New resources for group leaders have also been created and are now available in the Group Leader’s section so it has certainly been an eventful month!”

You can become a member of Run England at www.runengland.org/signup. You can find out more about membership at www.runengland.org/join.
To find out more about creating or registering a group go to www.runengland.org/leader.
To register running groups led by a qualified leader (whether set up by an individual, club, network, community organisation or business) go to www.runengland.org/groupsignup.