The Roodepoort Athletics Club, one of the oldest running clubs in the West Rand is has already started working hard towards making the New Year a success.
The club has already recruited more than 10 new members this year.
This follows the successful hosting of the Northgate Road Race and Sportsmans Warehouse Road Races last year.
The club is now determined to improve on the organization of these events.
“The club has been busy because once again our road race events were a success and runners from across the province came to participate and support the races,” said the club’s chairperson Charlie Herselman.
The club members are also gearing for the Comrades Marathon later this year and have already started preparing.
They have club runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays while time trials are held on Wednesdays.
“Every year we try to organize a bus for our members going to the Comrades and we also rent a place to stay for all of us. This is always fun as we build bonds during these trips. To prepare for the event, our athletes participate in numerous races but if the venue is too far, we as a club try to organize a club run with a similar distance so our members can still get the extra training they need,” said Herselman.
Every year, six weeks before the Comrades Marathon, the club organizes a long run from the club house to Magaliesburg where the members then camp for the rest of the weekend.
“At first, running is about getting medals because it’s exciting but after a while you begin to realize that training and having fun are more important. I have boxes of my medals somewhere at home and I rarely look at them anymore. Just having fun and running with your club mates becomes and even better reward,” said Herselman.
The club has started license renewals for members while the license fee for new members is included in their registration.
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