Not just a running club
Recently I stumbled upon a startling discovery: I spotted an Instagram post where the poster was wearing the black and green vest emblazoned with ‘Vegan Runners’.
I’m no professional but I do enjoy going for a run on a Saturday or Sunday morning. This summer I increased my longest distance to ten miles (one hour thirty-three minutes, if you’re interested) and I do the occasional parkrun.
NB – parkrun is a weekly 5km run around a local park, free to enter, for all ages and abilities. If you register in advance you get a barcode to present at the finish and later you receive an email with your official time.
As a new vegan who enjoys running, I was of course interested in the black and green, or neroverde as I hope no one is calling it, so I looked it up. It turns out Vegan Runners is the fastest growing running club in the UK with over 1700 members (as of November 2017) and, as a year’s membership is only £6, I took the plunge.
Well reader, I must confess I have been very pleasantly surprised. There are several Facebook groups for members, including one for each region. I was quickly invited to join my local group, Milton Keynes & Northampton and received a nice welcome message from the membership secretary. I ran my first parkrun in quite a while the following Saturday where I spotted a couple of VR vests as I went round (23 minutes 50 seconds). A day or so afterwards I got a mention in the Facebook group as a new member, which was good. Another local VR member spotted that I had been at the same parkrun and invited me to the Kettering parkrun group, and told me there would be a meet up at a local vegan cafe after that week’s run. As a fairly introverted person, I’m not really fond “people”, by which I mean meeting new people or being in a big group. I’m much happier with a few close friends who I know really well. While I was deciding whether to go or not fate conspired to make the decision for me: I needed to collect my daughter from gymnastics shortly after the end of the parkrun. This would I could stay behind after I’d finished to say hello and introduce myself and then make my excuses.
The day came and after the run itself (a new PB of 22:53!) I spotted a few VR vests and apprehensively made my way over. I needn’t have worried. I met a great bunch of people, from age twelve to late fifties (it seemed rude to ask the exact number), all vegan, all runners, all making it work for them in their own way. We had a great chat and not only was I invited to the next meet up at Rutland Water in a few weeks, but I was also allowed in the group photo despite not having a VR top.
The group were very friendly, and the Facebook groups seem equally so. There are so many posts where people are displaying their achievements, not just those running marathons in new PBs, but also people achieving their first ever parkrun, or just asking for advice on running kit or vegan snacks to eat during a run. All the responses are positive and supportive and everyone appears to be made to feel welcome. I definitely feel that way so far. The next step for me is to get a running vest and make the effort to say “hello” to fellow VR members, or “hello” to Jason Isaacs; I’ll let you which happens first.
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/
https://www.veganrunners.org.uk/
Vegan Bloke 