Jingle Bell Jog & Downtown Running Club

A huge thanks to those who joined us on a chill Sunday morning the week before Christmas for what we hope will become the annual downtown Rogers Jingle Bell Jog!

We were a small (18ish) but mighty group of jinglers, including strollers, a tricycle and lots of smiles.  It was another epitome of downtown Rogers - we put the word out, and they did indeed come.  It was delightful to have enthusiastic walkers, joggers, runners and supporters.  We raised a small sum to support the distribution of yearbooks to Tillery Elementary students (suggested donation was $5 - $10 per person), and a good time was had by all.

Originally, we wanted to assess interest in an annual event and explore the possibility of a running program for kids in the downtown area (knowing good would come of it for adults as well).  The Girls on the Run program was our motivation, but unfortunately it is for grades three and up, and a number of families expressing interest have kids in the K - 2 range.  There seemed to be ample interest in forming a downtown running club.  This post will be emailed to those who expressed an interest - please share your thoughts on the structure of such a club.

One thought is to set standing weekly runs with time for stretching and good habit development, supplemented by a monthly group run and perhaps two annual "event" runs.  For example, the running club might convene every Tuesday and Saturday morning at 7 a.m. with any who are able participating, particularly focusing on kids on the weekends.  On the first Saturday of each month, we might do a particular route or distance.  For both the regular weekly "training" runs and the Saturday runs, it would be very informal - just attend if you're able. 

Then, we could invite the general public to join us for the annual Jingle Bell Jog (perhaps a 5K in 2011?) and a May/June run as well.  We could plan on Saturday, December 17 or Sunday, December 18 for the coming year.  There is merit to Saturdays in that there are no church conflicts, but on the flip side, many families are very busy on Saturdays and there is virtually no downtown traffic to contend with on Sunday mornings.

So... that was an enormous brain dump.  Share your thoughts on the concept of a kids' running club, adult running club and the potentially annual Jingle Bell Jog in the comments section.

For those of you who care little about running and lots about downtown Rogers, fear not!  We'll return to our regular programming with the next post. 

Here's to a fantastic 2011 for downtown Rogers!