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The Club Founder and how she "done" it.......
Up until her mid thirties, Rita had done no physical exercise whatsoever and like a lot of women at that age, she was a bit over weight. She had a very stressful full time teaching job to hold down, a house to look after, meals to cook, washing to do, children to ferry around and cats to feed etc. She felt that she needed some time for herself, some way of losing weight, some time to think through her problems, to de-stress, to meet new friends and wouldn’t cost too much money. It was at this point, much to her athletic coach
husband Phil’s disbelief and
scorn, that Rita started running, even though she She didn’t do too much to begin with, just walking and jogging until
eventually the walking got less and less and the running became more and more
until she was fit enough to enter a local fun run, which to her surprise, she
thoroughly enjoyed and didn’t come last. After that she was well and truly hooked and with the
help of Phil, who by this time had accepted that she was
serious, she went on to become one of the best female roadrunners for her age
group in the Midlands, winning races and prizes whenever she ran. Her life was changed forever, her bottom and thighs
were firmer, she was slimmer, she looked better, she felt better, she became
more confident and was able to relax more, she slept better and made loads of
friends from all walks of life around the midlands.
She realised that there must be other women in the
same position that she used to be in when she first wanted to start running, but
they hadn’t got the confidence or knowledge to take the first step, let alone
run with an established group of experienced male runners. So Rita devised her now infamous 12 week beginners
running courses, based upon her own experiences and designed it to take women who
were absolute beginners from nothing, up to and over, 3 miles. She spread the word about what she was going to do
amongst all her friends and work colleagues, put up posters in local libraries
etc and waited to see what response she From talking to the new recruits and other women runners in general, she very quickly realised that unless someone takes the time to tell beginners all the things that experienced runners take for granted and physically show them what to do, they’d never know. Throughout the course she arranged for a physio to
give a talk on sports injuries, a podiatrist to talk on foot-care, a team of
sports masseurs to have an evening of rubbing legs and a local sports shop to
sell sportswear at discount prices. At the end of the course all the women put on a posh
frock and went out to a presentation evening where they were presented with a
medal, a certificate and a commemorative Tee-shirt proving that they ran a
minimum of 3 miles without stopping, coughing or wheezing. The news and popularity of the course soon spread and
after 5 or 6 years of continual snowballing, Rita was regularly getting over 300
people turn up to her courses. All this success however had a price and what started
out as
Since that day, Rita has never been happier, the club
has continued to grow from strength to strength, the Beginners Courses are as
popular as ever and she is making a whole new set of friends and meeting a real
need in the community. Rita say’s, “ Until you are fit it’s hard work,
there’s a lot of sweating, swearing and gritting of teeth but, because Dudley
Ladies is an all women’s group, when you’re in the pack there’s also a lot
of laughing, joking, support and a real sense of achievement. It has changed a
lot of women’s lives forever.” “It has changed a lot of women’s lives forever and when we did the “Calendar Girls” photo shoot that brought everybody even closer together. To begin with everybody was very enthusiastic but as the actual time of the photo shoot got closer some of the girls got cold feet – the rest of us that saw it through got other things even colder! – but it was great fun and it really bonded us all a lot closer together as a group and nobody will ever forget it”
“ Running isn’t a magic off the shelf solution to
everybody’s problems but if you are prepared to follow the guide and put in
just a little bit of work, then the rewards are enormous and Phil will tell you,
that if I can do it then anybody can”. |
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If you want to find out more about Dudley Ladies Running Club, email Rita on: rita@dudleyladies.co.uk For technical queries or comments about this web site please
contact The Administrator
nick@yesits.me.uk
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Rita Vanes was born in Lower Gornal near Dudley
in 1948, went to St Chads Primary
School in Sedgley, Bishop Milner School in Dudley, Dudley Technical College and
then Dudley Teachers Training College before becoming a Primary School Teacher
and marrying her now husband Phil in 1972.
had never done any sport or
physical activity in her life other than carry his sports bag.
After several years of running
as the only female with Phil
and the men of Dudley Kingswinford Running Club, Rita decided that she’d got
to do something to encourage other women in to the sport. At that time, there
were only about 2 or 3 other women runners at the club.
’d
get and on the first night about 15 people turned up.
a de-stressing bit of fun, eventually became a hassle of committee
meetings and political manoeuvrings within the rugby club where she was based,
so she decided to form her own ladies-only running club and relocate to
Wombourne in South Staffs in July 2002. She called the club Dudley Ladies
Running Club.