A lot of people make a New Year’s resolution to get off the couch and exercise more, but not many people keep with it.
According to Statistics Canada, 61 per cent of Canadian adults are either overweight or obese, and the same goes for 26 per cent of Canadian children. Many people when trying to start exercising regularly find the prospect of actually finding a place to start to be overwhelming. In the beginning it hurts, it’s unpleasant and when you do it by yourself sometimes you’re not even sure if you’re doing it
right. Running is a great form of exercise and for those who want to pick it up – even if you haven’t run for exercise before in your life – the Prince Rupert Runner’s Club is starting its “Learn to Run” program at the Charles Hays Secondary School track on February 7.
The club will be meeting three times a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:15 p.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m.
“For the first four to six weeks, we run on the track and we do the training program there, and then we go out onto the road,” said Charlene Hamilton from Rupert Runners.
The program starts off slow with new runners starting off slow only running for a couple minutes then walking to rest then running again. Very gradually the running time gets longer and the rests less frequent until the new joggers find themselves running for kilometres at a time without stopping.
This isn’t the first year that Rupert Runners has held the program. Last year the program attracted 84 people looking to run, but according to Hamilton this year the group will have to be limited to just 60.
The club scheduled two information sessions for those who are interested at Cowpuccinos, the fist was on Tuesday of this week, but the next one is this Saturday at 9:30 a.m. With only 60 spots available registration is on a first-come-first-serve basis.
If you can’t make it to the information sessions visit www.rupertrunners.com for more info.