An inspiring story to tell

Today, one of our amazing runners inspired us all with her story:

"This weekend my sponsorship kit for the Manchester 10k arrived from The Christie and I cried. They were tears of sadness because the logo on the t-shirt took me back to being there for my treatment and also for all those who are still experiencing it. They were also happy tears though, every single time I sat in that chair for chemo, I dreamt of a day that I would be back up and running and now I am 😄

Thank you mileshyclub for the part you have played in helping me to accomplish this. I appreciate your time and support enormously.

I'm now looking forward to Saturday when I'll become coach Janette and to all the opportunities that this will bring for me to enable people to achieve their running dreams".

Runner Self Defence

Last night we hosted our annual self defence class for runners! The safety of our runners is of the utmost importance to us, and it was brilliant to see so many of you take part. We even learnt that some of our members already had safe words! (ahem!) Many thanks to Atlantic Martial Arts and to Gordy and Bronagh from the club for organising.

If you go down to the woods today...

We had no idea how popular our head torch runs would be so we were delighted to throw another one into the mix before the lighter nights set in! We were truly in awe of just how exhilarating our runners found wearing head torches whilst running along the river in the darkness! Stacks of fun and everyone stayed safe under close supervision. We will definitely be bringing these popular runs back later in the year.

When we say we invest in our volunteers, we really mean it...

We are absolutely delighted to be in a position where we can invest in our volunteers. Huge congratulations to Trish who completed her mental health first aid training, to help with her work in our Mental Health support team. Bronagh from the club will also be taking the same qualification to join coach Jane as one of three coaches with this fantastic qualification.

Then there’s a shout out to Coach Bram who is going to be taking on more running coaching qualifications with England Athletics and completing his Level 2 Coach in Running Fitness Qualification!

Hats off too to our new qualified Level 1 Running Coaches - Sasha, Tara, Mark, Janette, Bronagh, Trish, Charlotte, Jill and Kath! It is also great to see the majority of our coaches are also first aid qualified, again, we have been lucky enough to find funding to finance this important training. (Coach Jane also qualified as a Personal Trainer this month, but this was funded personally).

With 13 coaches now at the #MileShyClub in Trafford alone, we are setting the foundations to start up more clubs. We also couldn’t go without saying a huge thank you to our non-running volunteers - our social events organisers and our social media experts! We really are a great team.

Trafford 10k - We came, we saw, we... swam...

Sometimes when weather conditions are so horrendous, you have two choices - to give up, or plough on. We’re happy to report that all of our runners completed their race, with one or two of you completing your first ever 10k. We have had confirmed reports of there being plenty of tears at the finish, but we’re happy to keep up the pretence that it was just the rain…

We’re not going to tell you how bad the weather was, just have a look at this photo which speaks a thousand words…

Coach Jane gives an inspiring talk on International Women's Day

As part of IWD celebrations, coach Jane was invited by Trafford Council to deliver a talk at the Sale Waterside Theatre about her experiences and reasons for setting up the #MileShyClub. The talk gave a humorous insight into what it was like starting a club when suffering with anxiety, and being able to push ahead with progress, despite being scared. Earlier in the week, coach Jane also delivered a one off session to Trafford Council employees, and we are pleased to say we have heard that one or two are still plodding away! Thanks to much to Trafford Council for supporting us.

First timers take over Stretford ParkRun

Just under 40 #MileShyClub first timers turned out today at Stretford ParkRun to take on their first 5k. This was truly an epic achievement for us as a club - it was so wonderful to see everyone achieve their goals. We really had a strong presence today at the ParkRun, and it was great to see so many of our more experienced runners come out and run and volunteer, cheering everyone on. We hoped you liked the Slimming World inspired goody bags too!

The #MileShyClub teams up with Slimming World

We were super excited and grateful for an invite this evening to Slimming World. We met with existing members of Slimming World and gave a talk about what we do here at the #MileShyClub and how exercise in any form can be a way to help lose weight. We really had a lot of interest from our session, and we have a feeling we’ll be seeing lots of you soon! Many thanks to Area Manager Claire, who organised our visit.

We donate fitness clothing to charity shop, The Light

During January, one of our club members, Caroline, took it upon herself to collect any pre-loved fitness clothing, or unwanted Christmas gifts, which could be passed on to those wanting to get into exercise in an affordable way. It was wonderful today to present our items to The Light charity shop. Many thanks to other running clubs in the local area who supported this initiative.

Club Founder Jane appears on BBC Radio Manchester to talk all things running...

Radio DJ Chelsea Norris is training to complete her first 5k, and who better to invite along for advice than #MileShyClub founder Jane Dennison! It was a pleasure to talk all things running with Chelsea, and offer some expert advice. We’re looking forward to seeing how Chelsea gets on!