Dear AARC Members,

It was great seeing so many of our members at the AARC Spring meeting on March 19! For those who missed the event, we had a short but productive general meeting followed by an inspiring video and presentation by Macharia Yout and Vince Touey on Macharia’s odyssey from war and starvation in Sudan to Widener University and the US Olympic Marathon trials. What an amazing and inspiring story! Also at the meeting, we conducted annual elections. I’m delighted to serve as AARC President for the next year and I’m eager and excited to work with the Board and membership to make our great running club even better!

I’ve been looking at the websites of some of the other local running clubs. For a club of our size (we currently have about 160 dues paying members), the number and scope of our club activities is rather impressive! Just to recap some of our ongoing programs and activities:

• Fun runs/training runs 4 days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday)

• Track workouts every Wednesday night (spring through fall)

• AARC teams at the major Philly running events (Broad Street Run, PDR)

• Relay Teams (Reach the Beach)

• Phils Tavern 5K (July) and Frostbite 5 Miler (February), AARC-sponsored races which grow in size and popularity every year that raise money for our beneficiaries, provide scholarships to graduating local high school seniors, and help fund the club activities

• Supporting other local races

• Spring and Fall meetings with guest speakers to educate, motivate and inspire us

• Social events throughout the year: Summer picnic, Fall wine and cheese (which recognizes our Race Sponsors), Winter Holiday party, post-race celebrations after the major Philly racing events, and informal get-togethers (Two Slice Tuesday, Thursty Thursday) after fun runs

• Shoe recycling to help save the Earth

• Newsletter, website, e-mail updates and our new online forum

For more information about these programs, see the Club website at www.aarclub.com.

This year we plan to add additional features to our running programs, including:

• “Traveling” Saturday morning runs at various nearby locations to provide a change of scenery and some added adventure

• Special events at our weekday fun runs such as “prediction runs” and “staggered start runs”

• Coordination for running events of special interest, such as carpooling to watch the Penn Relays

As I mentioned, this is quite a lot of activity for a club of our size! These events are designed to be fun and geared to meet our membership’s broad and varied interests.

So here’s the point of my message: we need your help and active participation to plan and execute these programs. If we all help out on a program or two during the year, the workload is easily manageable and does not become a burden to anyone. Please volunteer to serve on one of our Club “committees” or small work groups. You can sign up by contacting me (president@aarclub.com) or Nathan (volunteer@aarclub.com) for more information.

Members of the Board and I will be reaching out to the membership in the next few weeks asking for your participation as well. Please let us know of any ideas or suggestions you have regarding AARC.

It’s Spring! The weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer at last! Time to put away the gloves and hats! I look forward to seeing everyone out on the roads, trails and track! Happy Running!

Ken