June Letter from the CRC President

Since I joined our Charlotte Running Club, there has always been one misconception that has just seemed to follow our club.

“The Charlotte Running Club is just for ‘FAST’ runners.”

This is simply not true. The Charlotte Running Club is open to all paces and welcomes all paces.

We have specifically organized our Facebook pace groups to accommodate multiple pace ranges. We have organized prediction, Easter Egg, holiday lights, brain freeze, endurance, and relay runs/races because they allow for other aspects aside from “speed” to be the determining factor in the finishing order. We schedule Happy Hours Socials and Summer Picnics so members have opportunities to meet and talk outside of running. We have gone to great lengths to make sure our activities connect with as many members as possible.

In my opinion people join the Charlotte Running Cub because they are passionate about running, they want to be more consistent, and they want the extra motivation and accountability that comes from being surrounded by “like minded” individuals. After they join and probably before they even realize it, they are attending more group runs, going to more workouts, and running more miles. They are becoming more visible at group runs, workouts, and races. Low and behold they may become faster. 

So yes, if you passionate about running, I would love for you to join our club and I don’t care what pace you run. Just don’t be surprised if after you join, you find yourself running faster. 

 

Upcoming CRC Activities and Events:

Our board is working hard to have a CRC presence all over Charlotte this year.

· Upcoming Activities and Group Run Series

·         7/8/14 CRC/Charlotte Running Company Group Run – Dilworth Location – 6:30 PM

·         7/10/14 CRC/DART/Omega Sports Group Run – Summit Coffee Davidson – 6:30 PM

·         7/15/14 CRC Track Night 5k under the lights @ UNCC Irwin Belk Track

·         7/24/14 CRC/US Whitewater Center Group Run 6:15 – Main facility 6:15 PM

·         7/29/14 CRC/Inside Out Sports Group Run – 6:30 PM

·         8/3/14 Brain Freeze Run – Metropolitan 4 PM

·         8/5/14 CRC/Blue Ridge Relay – preparty – at Charlotte Running Company – Dilworth 6:30 PM

·         8/10/14 CRC/Sunday Long Run (SLR) Half Marathon – McMullen Greenway 7AM

·         Sept BB&T Stadium Run – Uptown Charlotte

·         Oct 10/4/14 Uptown Throwdown 12hr Run/Relay

·         CRC/Run Safer Clinic Oct

·         12/9/14 Holiday Lights Run (5:30 PM near Freedom Park )

 

CRC Summer Picnic:

In mid-June of each year we hold our annual club picnic and social. For the second year in a row, we choose to hold this event at Freedom Park. The Park & Rec guys hooked us up with an awesome shelter. It was nestled very nicely in the shade of several large trees.

Throughout the afternoon, we were able to wonder between Corn Hole games and volleyball games. Big thanks, to Rob, Wen, and Brad for sharing their games with the rest of us.

The club supplied the hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, and accessories, and I would like to personally thank our members for their side items. There was plenty of food for everyone. I also would like to thank Brad for stepping in to the chef’s role and grilling our hamburgers and hotdogs.

CRC Happy Hour @ BlackFinn

I would like to thank BlackFinn for hosting our second CRC Happy Hour. This is something new that we started just this year. Attendance is usually around 10 club members, but we hope to continue to have them and grow them over time.

Tour de Charlotte:

While you are watching the Tour de France unfold, plan to join us for our little tour of Charlotte during the month of July.

We will kick things off with a group run from the Dilworth Charlotte Running Company store on 7/8. We head to Summit Coffee in Davidson for a run with our buddies from DART at 6:30 on 7/10. Look for Omega Sports to join us. We turn on the lights at UNCC Irwin Belk Track on 7/15 for CRC’s summer track night – events start at 7 PM and remember it is free for both members and non members. The following week 7/24, we will head out to the US Whitewater Center and join them for a trail run. There are several distance options so pick your poison. We will finish the month of July off by joining our friends from Inside Out Sports on 7/29 from their Church Street location for a group run.

Plenty of opportunities to join us so mark your calendars.

Mileage Program:

Audrey has tabulated the May results for our club and posted it to our CRC website.

You can still join our mileage program by replying to Audrey’s monthly email. If for some reason, you have not received an email from her, you can still email Audrey at run.charlotte.miles@gmail.com

Member Status:

We soared to more than 300 members this month for the first time in since the early days when club was founded. Our current member count stands at 315. Could we get to 400 by the end of the year? I would love to see us do it so please invite your friends to join our club.

Board Members:

During our late May meeting our CRC board approved Loril’s nomination to our club’s board, and Eric Bilbrey was nominated and approved as the board’s Vice President. Loril will be completing Stephanie’s term which ends December of this year.

During our June meeting, Dave Munger was nominated and approved by our club’s board to complete Laurie’s term which ends in December of ’15.

Board Meeting Update:

Our May board meeting was pushed back into the first week of June to accommodate the schedules of our board members. Here is a link to our May Board Meeting notes.

 

Our June board meeting was on the 6/26 at Whole Foods.

We postponed approval of the board meeting minutes from May. They still needed to be reviewed by the board members.

Next up, Dave Munger’s name was placed into nomination and approved to fill the boards open position.

Paul delivered the club’s Treasury report. Current balance stands at $5448.95

We then went into a discussion of the group runs and events for the CRC during the months of July and Aug – see the list below.

·         July 8th CRC/Charlotte Running Company Group Run meeting  - Dilworth -6:30 PM

·         July 10 CRC/DART/Omega Sports Group Run - Summit Coffee - 6:30 PM

·         July 15th Summer Track Night - UNCC– 7 PM

·         July 24th CRC/US Whitewater Center Trail Group Run (Main Center) 6:30 PM

·         July 29th CRC/Inside Out Sports - Group Run – 6:30 PM

·         Aug 3 - CRCBrain Freeze Run - Metropolitan – 4 PM

·         Aug 5 – CRC/Charlotte Running Company/BRR Logistic Meeting – Dilworth – 6:30 PM

·         Aug 10 - SLR 1/2 marathon – McMullen Greenway – Rea Rd Entrance – 7 AM

We plan to provide water and Gatorade for the SLR event on Aug 10^th.

Mike was approved to pay for up to $50 dollars in food and refreshments for 7/8 and 7/29 runs.

The club is extremely low on CRC Promo cards. The board authorized Mike to purchase a new bundle of cards – costing no more than $150.

  Discussions are continuing about holding a BB&T Stadium benefiting the ‘Let Me Run’ group. No dates and times are available at this point. 

Work on the WC8k Sponsorship materials will be delayed until we have locked down a date and location for the Winter Classic 8k. The current plans say that McAlpine XC will be closed after the first of the year. Therefore, we are looking at other options for our club’s race next year.

Eric will be heading up our push for information sharing during the month of July. Each week, we will be posting different information about group runs, running stores, trails, races, and friends of CRC to our club’s Facebook and www.CharlotteRunningClub.org. Additionally, we will be sending emails to club members with this same information.  

 Loril has agreed to head up a communications group. More details about their efforts will be shared once they have had a chance to meet and chart a direction.)

I am not sure if everyone realizes but we use Survey Monkey for our surveys and board voting. This cost of us just over $200 dollars per year. We are looking to let this expire and pick up similar functionality from Constant Contact. The cost will be roughly $84 per year versus the $206 that we currently pay with Survey Monkey. This transition will take place during the month of September.

Wrapping Up:

With dawn pushing back the darkness before 6 AM, I am super excited about the longer days. No head lamps needed and I can attempt to finish a run before the heat and humidity of the day overtakes me.

So don’t waste your summer. Head out the door and get in those runs.

If there is every a question, a concern, or just general feedback about our club, reach out to run.charlotte@gmail.com. Our board members monitor this email inbox and usually respond to emails within 24 hours.

 

Come run with me,

Bill Shires

CRC President

run.charlotte@gmail.com