Our members are very proud of and really value our club, to the extent that we have some fabulous writing on their thoughts.
If you’re interested in running with us as a member or a visitor, “Read This!” gives a lovely flavour of our club. Enjoy..
A Personal View..
When I joined Tweed Striders eight years ago, in my mid 50s, I could never have imagined how this club would change my life. I’d signed up on a whim for the Walk-Jog programme, where we built up running ability from scratch over ten weeks.
In week four, hardly zipping along Springhill Lane, fields and sheep either side, I was struck by an insight, almost an epiphany – ‘So this is what running’s all about!’ I was converted.
A good hockey player through school, I loathed and dreaded cross-country. At sixteen I renounced all sports and my only running since was the odd dash for a train. After a few dutiful years at the gym, I wondered why I was puffing indoors when outdoors lay a stunning landscape. Too self-conscious to venture out running alone, I would never have started without the Striders.
Many attractions of an organized club are obvious; others are more subtle but precious. Early on I noticed that whenever any of the ‘proper’ runners sailed graciously past me as they often did (and still do!), they’d call ‘Well done, Anne!’ For me, this illustrates the sportsman-and-womanship deeply embedded in our club.
I never stop appreciating the contribution of the volunteers who make our activities possible, safe and purposeful. A team of enthusiastic running leaders support our head running coach, Caroline McDermott. She has advised me on matters ranging from avoiding injuries (oh, the temptation of doing too much too soon) to keeping hydrated.
Caroline, who seemingly effortlessly instructs, encourages and inspires us all, is an unsung heroine.
Caroline’s successful integration of runners with varying speeds, abilities and needs is apparent in every training session. Several routes are provided for a continuous run and the leaders ensure no-one gets left behind. Long-distance runners and sprinters are challenged, and those of more sedate pace similarly. I especially liked one Facebook post which provided options for fast, very fast and überfast runners. There’s no pressure to be an athlete, though we’re immensely proud of our gazelles.
Training is carefully planned and varied: speed endurance work, sprints, mile reps, timed 5Ks and 10Ks, track sessions at Shielfield. Even hill sessions are exuberant because we spur each other on and, let’s face it, we’d hardly be gasping up and down slopes solo.
And, behind the scenes, Judith – Striders’ Membership and Social Secretary – keeps us in the loop with what we’re meant to be doing when and where, so we’ve no excuses for getting things wrong!
The Striders are governed by seasons and tides. In summer and autumn we have the joy of running along Spittal beach – what more could anyone wish for? My affinity with our bleakly beautiful Northern landscape has deepened – and that includes fierce winds or hail in June.
There’s something undeniably addictive about running together – whether along the ramparts, river and cliffs or on grass, mud and sand.
Some unexpected encounters have arisen from running with the club. One hills training session I spotted, in a distant window, an elderly stranger who was obviously watching us all. Because running sometimes emboldens me to act out of character, I waved to the lady as I walked downhill and she waved back, and we waved to each other every time I descended. It made me happy. I hope it made her happy. Perhaps she’d loved running once too …
The Striders relish fun events including a Christmas run culminating in mulled wine, an Easter Egg run, not to mention a jog-with-the-dog jaunt. Often these quirkier occasions help to raise funds for charities such as Berwick Cancer Cars, Children in Need, Berwick Food Bank and BARK.
We have inter-club social runs with Wooler Running Club, Alnwick Harriers and Blyth Running Club.
Our recent Curfew Run attracted more runners, and more children, than ever before. This is a community-conscious club. I think that matters.
Tweed Striders is a vibrant, evolving community. Thank you to my dear running friends and to the special people who pour their time, energy and passion into the club.
Postscript..
I still haven’t quite captured the ways in which belonging to Tweed Striders has, for me, been so enriching, even transformative.
Our club is a wonderful cross-section: a balance of male and female runners, ages spanning about five decades, a range of occupations and talents. Some members were born here while others, like me, are incomers. There are gregarious runners and lone runners, elegant runners and lollopy runners. I’ve made cherished friendships. Congregating beforehand and running together, we chat about plans for supper and brands of running shoe – equally we share the ups and downs of our lives. The most distinctive sound made by a stream of runners is not necessarily breath and pounding feet; it is laughter.
Surely a great running club is one that enables people to surprise or reinvent themselves? Although many members complete marathons, ultras and cross-country, I generally do a few 10K races a year. I feel fulfilled to run just a little faster, a little further. Running offers so many physical and emotional benefits, not least a decent night’s sleep. If some of us are leaving behind a worry or misfortune, we’re also running through and perhaps transcending it! Being out on a run is a form of meditation, as I’m living in the moment, focusing only on how my body can keep going. Running certainly builds the less-recognised quality of doggedness – and there’s that glorious sense of liberation …
But my simplest motivation for running is simply that I am able to. My mother suffered a degenerative illness for forty years and, as a young carer, I witnessed her loss of mobility and freedom. Each run is a way of honouring the architectural miracle that is the human body.
Anne Ryland https://anneryland.co.uk/