Run those January blues out of town

National World - LocalTV

In our quest to get fit for the new year and beat the January blues, we took on a snowy session with Ponteland Runners club to see how running can help improve your physical and mental health.

Transcript

00:00A lot of people think to join a running club you have to be a really good runner or you have to be really fit.

00:04That is absolutely not the case. I was not when I joined the running club.

00:08I joined to try and meet people in a new area that I just moved into to find new running routes and

00:14along the way I did get a lot fitter and now I do kind of do quite a lot of activity.

00:19Ponteelum Runners was started in 2005 by a group of friends and neighbours who all loved running

00:23and wanted to run together. They became formally constituted through England Athletics and have

00:27grown into a club that contains triathletes, park runners and a cross-country team amongst

00:31other groups. I swim and cycle as well and I coach swimming on a weekly basis. It's all just about

00:39being involved with the club to be honest you know. I'm past my days of competing or anything

00:45so I'm just more into like coming along for the social side of it. Running is a great way to get

00:51fit for January because I think it's one of those activities that is really accessible to everyone.

00:56You don't need to spend a lot of money you just need a pair of trainers and you can go out and you

01:00can do it. Running is traditionally a singular sport but actually for cross-country you're part

01:05of a team and every runner who competes counts towards the team's effort and it's just brilliant

01:10and as we've already said what makes cross-country great is the cake at the end.

01:17Well I'm not the quickest here but I'm still going so that's something. You never know

01:25I might make a runner out of me yet. We've really got the full spectrum of runners and triathletes

01:32in the club so we have got people who are trying the couch to 5k for the first time and yeah we've

01:37got people who are kind of qualifying for things like Ironman so there's something for everyone.

01:42There is a combination of things so it's about fitness and for some people there's competition

01:46as well which allows people to set targets and such like. The biggest thing is probably

01:51the friendship and the social side which underpins everything else. Whilst the club started with just

01:56a few friends it now has over 200 members but still has a friendly and relaxed ethos that

02:00builds and strengthens friendships whilst also improving people's health and fitness. Come along

02:05find sessions that meet your needs whether that be a park run a 5k on a Saturday whether it's

02:11just a slow jog on a Friday evening with people around the trails or a day like today

02:17out in the snow doing a bit of a long run on a Sunday morning there'll be something for everyone.

02:23A lot of people come to the club because they're running on the road and they want to get fit

02:27and then you know they're not making any improvements and then as soon as you join the

02:30club you find out other people are doing the same thing you know they want to just get fit

02:36there's lots of different abilities and you don't have to be really fast. Ponteal and Runners why

02:41you should join them in particular is because personally I think it's one of the friendliest

02:46clubs I've ever come across everyone's so nice and so interesting there's lots of different

02:51people there they'll be somebody who's interested in whatever it is you want to do whether that's

02:56an ultra marathon or whether you just want to get yourself around a park run for the first time.

Category

Transcript

Recommended