Meet the new Run Club Leaders at Moorside Park Run Club

Moorside Park Run Club initially started with just 2 Run Leaders but as the group has grown, 2 members of Run Club put themselves forward to become Run Leaders; Chris Beasley & Elizabeth Van Duyvenbode.

Chris is a participant at the local Community Fitness Sessions and has been a member of Run Club since the group started over 12 months ago:
Paula and Elizabeth have been members of the running club since it started, with the latter joining for two reasons. She told us, "Firstly, I wanted to get fitter and slimmer, and secondly I wanted to get involved in the local community. Having been somewhat of a nomad before moving to Crosby with Paula and the girls it has allowed me to cement my roots. The running club has allowed me to meet some fantastic people and build great friendships."

Nikki Holding added, "As Merseyside Run Activator I linked with Jim Hicks who is one of the leaders last year and he informed me of how the group was developing with numbers steadily increasing."

The natural step for Chris was to try and become a Run Leader as he wanted to give something back for all the support and encouragement he has been given by everyone in the club. "Jim and Chris do a fantastic job and becoming a Run Leader will enable me to share some of their workload and will hopefully allow the running club to go from strength to strength."

Elizabeth will be the new ‘Couch 2 5k’ Run Leader for Run Club. In the last few months she took part in her first EVER half marathons:

She stated, "Ok so I won’t lie, one of the main reasons I joined run club was so I could see my best friend at least once a week!  She had told me about a run club she had joined in Crosby so I thought, I actually wouldn’t mind doing something like that! I had been doing some running (mostly by myself) and I wanted to challenge myself more and get fitter."

Once she had joined, she absolutely loved it, even though her first outing with Run Club was in pretty awful weather conditions, it didn't put her off.  "It was like running had turned into something that wasn't boring anymore and I liked that no one judged you for however slow or fast you ran or tried to push you too far either."

One year later and Elizabeth is still loving it!  Not just for having gone further distances than she ever thought her legs were capable of but also she's met and made friends with some amazing people.

Elizabeth explained, "I decided I wanted to become a Run Leader so I could get more involved with the club and help out the current Run Leaders.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am the person who hides away in the corner; I'm not a leader by any stretch of the imagination.  But for some reason Moorside's magic powers have got the better of me and I actually want to stand up and help people to do a bit more and run that bit further than they thought they could.  So here goes, this is a new thing for me, I’ll do my best."

Nikki Holding commented, "I help to advertise the group and where/when possible help get more leaders qualified to meet the demand of the varied sessions and participants.  The club is fantastic and caters for all which is perfect for a Run England group."

The weekly Run Club is held every Tuesday, meeting at 6:30 by the outdoor gym equipment).