New
Dudley Ladies Beginners Course Starts 15th April 2008
Dudley Ladies now infamous beginners running course will start
start on Tuesday 15th April 2008 at 7.30pm at Wombourne Leisure Centre.
Every year, club
founder, Rita Vanes organizes this very popular beginners running course for
women who have either never run before or else haven’t run for some time and
it has proven to be extremely successful.
Last
year, nearly
300 ladies turned up to take their first steps towards achieving
their goal of running 3 miles within 10 weeks and practically everyone did
it, with some even going on to run this years London Marathon.
That was on top of the
existing membership of 300 plus members, so things were a bit hectic, good fun but
hectic.
Rita has been running
these courses since 1996, first at Dudley Kingswinford where she established
their ladies section and now at her own Dudley Ladies group based here at
Wombourne Leisure Centre, in Ounsdale Road.
Dudley Ladies Running
Club has grown to become the largest ladies only road running club in the
Midlands and following a number of high profile articles in various national
running magazines and newspapers, Rita has been inundated with requests to
set up ladies running clubs and beginners courses in areas as far a field as
The Outer Hebrides, The Isle of Wight, Wales and Norwich.
Rita’s Beginners
courses set a target of running 3 miles within 10 weeks and the way the
training is structured ensures that most people achieve it. People are
allowed to progress at their own rate within the group and do as little or
as much as they are capable of until they achieve or exceed their target and
with no men around, there is no pressure to compete, be intimidated or
bother what you look like. You just be yourself and you do it.
This years’ course
starts at 7.30pm on Tuesday the 15th April. It costs £25 and at
the end of the course, everyone receives a Tee shirt, a medal and a
certificate at a Presentation Evening held at
Linden House in Tettenhall.
Rita makes the course
as flexible as possible so that ladies can come either on a Tuesday and
Thursday evening or just once a week on whichever night suits them.
“A
lot of people ask what the secret of our success is”, says Rita, “but all I
can say is that it works by building up people’s confidence and making them
feel comfortable with running whatever their size, age or fitness level.”
And it certainly works – the 10-week beginners’ programmes are now so
popular that there are waiting lists for them.
“We have large ladies looking to lose weight and smaller ladies looking to
build themselves up. The youngest is about 12 and the oldest over 65. We
have numerous Nurses, Teachers, Doctors, Council Workers, Office Workers and
Housewives. In fact the whole spread of society”.
Rita
goes on to say “No-one can believe
how fantastic the atmosphere is until they come and experience it for
themselves and because it’s an all women’s group, everyone is in the same
boat and there’s lots of laughing and talking but most of all, it’s fun and
because we’re out doors there’s always something different to see.
But it's much more than a running club and we regularly go out for social
evenings and trips to Baltis, Discos, and Skittle Evenings etc, and one
year, some of the girls even stripped off for a Calendar Girls type
photoshoot."
So
if you are a beginner that wants to join in with the fun and learn to run or
you're an established runner that would like the safety and companionship of
running within a large group, you can get further information by emailing
Rita on rita@dudleyladies.co.uk
