Ask not what your club can do for you…

26 November 2017 - By Tony Wallen

…ask what you can do for your club!

It’s always good to start by paraphrasing from a well-known speech but this is especially important at this time of year as we enter a busy period for our club.

Another good way to start is by asking a few questions –

• Do you take part in races?
• Did you enjoy the experience?
• Was it well organised and well marshalled?

If you have answered “YES” to any of the above, you will no doubt appreciate the hard work that goes on behind the scenes by the host club and the role of the marshals in encouraging runners and making sure they don’t take a wrong turn.

Host clubs obviously want their events to be successful. We are all runners and want to make sure the participants have an enjoyable and stress-free experience – after all, we want the same from the events that we enter.

But there’s more to it than that.

Races are often one of the main revenue streams for a club and funds raised go a long way towards subsidising the activities throughout the year. WRC covers the cost of taking part in the 53/12 and Essex XC leagues, the Essex Senior and Vets XC Championships as well as the XC Relays, the Road Relays and the Ekiden Relay. It also subsidises events throughout the year – the London Marathon coach, the Awards Dinner and this year’s Christmas party to name a few. For most of us, it’s easy to receive more from the club than we have paid in membership fees.

For this reason, it is important that we make our events as successful as possible.

Over the Christmas and New Year period, we will be hosting the Boxing Day 5 (on December 26th!) and the Essex Senior XC Championships (January 6th). Both events will need a small army of volunteers to make sure they go without a hitch. The pre-event work has been done but we will need people to help with course set-up, organising car-parking, handing out numbers, dealing with late entries, marshalling, refreshments, breaking down the courses and clearing up. The more volunteers we have, the easier it is for everyone.

If you’ve helped at one of our races before then you will know how rewarding an experience it is. If you’ve not helped before then why not make this the year you do. You’ll only miss two races (three with the May Day 10) and you’ll have the satisfaction of giving something back – giving back to your club and giving back to all those other runners who have given up their runs to provide the races you have enjoyed.
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