About Barrow Runners...

Barrow Runners are a friendly running club formed as the name suggests in Barrow, but welcoming runners from the local surrounding areas. We have weekly training runs and at weekends compete in various races, leagues, cross country events and at parkruns.

Tuesday night is club run evening with runs starting at various venues in Barrow, Woodhouse Eaves and Mountsorrel to name just a few. There are a number of groups running at varying paces with the distance often somewhere between five and seven miles. You can find details of each week's run on our Calendar page. We do our best to accommodate all runners on a Tuesday, but if you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch.

On Thursdays we have the use of a track, either in Quorn or at Ratcliffe College where one of the club's coaches will lead a session aimed at improving performance. While this might seem intimidating at first, it's actually a really supportive session with people of all speeds and running experience taking part – and as it's on a track, there's no danger of being left behind. Details of where the sessions are taking place each week are posted on the Calendar page.

Prospective members are more than welcome to come along and try a few sessions with us before signing up. There's more detail about our membership offer here.

We also have a thriving junior section at the club with weekly training sessions taking place at the same time as the adults. More details can be found here.

History

Barrow Running Club (Barrow Runners) was formed in 1985 by a group of enthusiastic runners living in and around Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire.

Some 30+ years of existence and the club is fortunate enough to still have a few of these founder members involved and indeed still running with the club, although maybe not as quick as they were then!

The club is a founder member of the Leicestershire Road Running League, which for many years was the backbone to the clubs running activity. The club has had mixed success over the years but in can boast victories in the Leicestershire Men's Senior, Men's vet, Female Senior and Female Vets categories, with several runner up and third placed spots along the way.

In 2017 the club devised it's own Club Championship, selecting a range of races of varying distance and terrain that are accessible to all members.

The Club is also a member of the Derby Runner Cross Country league, which holds events over the winter months, off road, in locations across Leicestershire and south Derbyshire, which has proven popular with Club members.

Although we have been successful as a club we are far from an 'Elite Club' where focus is on the taking part more than the winning. There is plenty of friendly competition between members, before we start involving other Clubs. But before you think this is about competitive runners, this is just not the case. Our last runner home in any race or training run is as important as the first one in and often gets the biggest cheer.

How big is the Club?

In its early years the Club survived on around 40 members, but with the popularity of running increasing and the Club's appeal widening, membership has grown to an annual average of approx 200.

Although the Club name remains that of the Barrow Village where original founding members were mainly based (and Barrow remains very much central to the Club's history and focal point) our membership spreads well beyond the village, with most of the Membership living outside the village these days. Members come from, Barrow, Loughborough, Sileby, Mountsorrel, Quorn , Wymeswold, Woodhouse Eaves, and other local villages.

Is there any fun?

Alongside the fun we have while running, there is plenty of fun to be had at the regular social events held throughout the year, which usually involve food and drink.

The Club has an annual Dinner Dance and Presentation evening which has been hugely popular over the years, and often leaves plenty to gossip about whilst on training runs for a few weeks afterwards.

At Christmas we have our Christmas Party, which is low key affair, usually held in Barrow, following a training run in Fancy dress around the village.

Theatre trips, Summer BBQs, canoeing evenings, curry nights are just a few examples from the social calendar over the last few years.

Can I get involved with the organisation of the Club?

The Club is run by an elected committee from the current Membership. Voted in at the annual AGM to represent the interests of the Membership. All are welcome to put their names forward for election to join the organising committee and new people onto the committee are always welcomed.

The Club is keen to offer the very best of coaching that we can, with a huge amount of effort input into recent years to develop this. We have an excellent base of coaches who gel well together but again we are always keen to continue to develop and enhance this side of the Club. Anyone interested in coaching are free to talk to the existing coaching staff or committee members to start to get involved.

We are also very fortunate that we have an army of friends and relatives who give up their valuable time to help in the organisation of the various race events that we stage. Without this valuable help we could not hope to host what are generally accepted as excellent events by the running community. If you are able to help at events, marshalling, water stations, time recording, first aid etc we would like to hear from you.

Need more Information?

If you have any questions about the club, please do not hesitate to contact us on [email protected]