Physically Distanced but Socially Connected!

Races postponed. Parkrun cancelled. Run groups unable to meet up. Restrictions on movement.

The coronovirus pandemic has had a huge impact on running communities globally. And at a time when many of us needed our runs more than ever to help cope with the life altering impact of the virus.

And yet amongst all the challenges the pandemic and lockdown has posed, many positives can be found and as a group we’ve much to celebrate:

She Runs: Cardiff has seen an increase in membership with many first time runners joining, assisted with the launch of our first ever SRC Couch25k programme in June.

As a running group we’ve adapted to providing more support virtually and via our social media as we’ve been unable to meet in person and hold our twice weekly runs. This includes Virtual Runs twice a week where we encourage members to share their runs (and obligatory running selfies of course!). A virtual relay took place in May which saw the baton head to more postcodes of SE Wales than the career of your average local postman!

We’ve taken part in some fantastic fundraising challenges including #milesformind in May and Autism Awareness Day in April, raising much needed funds for charities needing our support more than ever. And On Sunday 28th June 116 women of She Runs: Cardiff took part in our first virtual event. Between 7am and 930pm there were 4 women running every half an hour for exactly 30 minutes before handing the virtual baton on to the next 4.
We literally turned Cardiff purple! And in the process raised an absolutely phenomenal £2900 for Cardiff Women’s Aid; a huge thank you to all who took part to make this such a fun, happy event and to those who donated in support.

Lockdown has also seen not one but two kit drops, a SRC playlist (head over to Spotify to hear the brilliant tunes) and the SRC book club. We were fortunate enough to have author, ultra marathoner and endurance adventurer Lowri Morgan as one of our featured authors, who kindly joined us for a hugely inspiring zoom chat about her latest book, Beyond Limits.

As if ALL of that wasn’t enough we launched a very successful bingo during the month of June, whereby our members ticked off bingo squares on each run- not particularly surprisingly, hill sprints and an early morning run pre-7am weren’t the most popular squares… whereas a post run slice of cake was DEFINITELY a favourite!

Phew! I’m not sure about you, but all this fantastic activity and engagement has led me, for one, to need a rest day! Although we may be limited in running all together for a little while longer, one thing is for sure, for a running group only nine months old, She Runs: Cardiff is going from strength to strength during these unprecedented times.

Kate Morgan, Run Buddy at She Runs: Cardiff.