You may have seen these Salem residents jogging along the Riverfront City Park. They’re members of the Salem Run Club and they’re looking to grow their community. By Zach Marqua & Robert Saffeels.
This story is sponsored by FASTSIGNS of Salem.
Transcript
These Salem residents are smiley, savvy, and sweaty! You may have seen them jogging along the Riverfront City Park. They’re members of Run Club Salem, and they want anyone and everyone to pound some pavement first thing every Saturday morning. You’re watching the “Local News Network”, brought to you by FastSigns of Salem. Travis Gordon, Run Club Salem’s assistant organizer, is passionate about the weekly ritual. He wants to bring people together through running. He extended a warm invitation to the people of Salem to meet at the Riverfront Carousel, Saturdays at 8:00 a.m.
It’s much more fun to run with people. It’s easier to run faster with other people. And you know, when people expect you to come out here and put on, like, a three-mile little jog together, we expect to come out here and have a good time too.
Community is not easy to find these days, especially for those who’ve moved to a new city. This was the experience of Run Club Salem’s founding member, Briana Lopez.
I wasn’t originally from Salem. I had joined a run club out in Santa Barbara. When I moved here, I kind of wanted to build a community of running for everyone of all ages. So just creating one here and seeing how many people would come out. To be honest with you, I was blown out of my mind to see where we’re at now versus that very first time we had the club.
If you’re nervous about your cardiovascular ability compared with your peers, Lopez and Gordon assure that this is not your high school gym class. No competition here, and they hopes the vibe will help the the club grow bigger, not faster.
Anybody can show up any age, any pace. We welcome everybody. We try to make sure no one runs alone. It does happen. Especially if you’re really fast, you might be on your own way ahead of everybody else. We don’t care. We wanted to just make this club as big as possible and have a big community.
We don’t push you to do things out of your comfort zone. It’s kind of just come as you want, we’re always going to be here. If you ever, you know, feel unmotivated, come join us. We’ll help you along the way.
At the end of three miles, runners gather at the finish line and cheer each other on, as if they’ve completed a marathon. Then, as a bonus incentive, members treat themselves to coffee and breakfast at Archive Coffee Roasters, where they replenish their carbs and strengthen their bond.
It’s not just another run club where you kind of meet up and you just put your headphones in, but everyone becomes friends. Like, I think we have, like, probably 14 people going to Archive right now. Like we’re not just runners that just show up here and go. We actually want to be friends with people.
We kind of all hang out other than at run clubs. So it’s like, you know, some people go snowboarding together, some people go on hikes or longer runs and they kind of collab with each other and kind of create these like running activities where they meet up and run together on separate occasions. So I feel like it’s just, I don’t know, we’ve kind of built this family.
Run Club Salem charges no fees and has no obligations. Just join the fun and enjoy the community. Rain or shine, the club gathers Saturdays at 8:00 a.m. at the Riverfront Carousel and begins running at 8:10. You can learn more on their Instagram account, @runclubsalem. For more stories like these, visit midvalleylocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of the “Local News Network”, I’m Zach Marqua.
