For a town that is known for its longstanding basketball tradition, Storrs, Connecticut is definitely not a place that’s short on runners. As soon as you reach campus you are bound to see students running around on campus or out near the infamous Horsebarn Hill. But if you head over to the track, at 7:00PM on a Monday night, you will see the dedicated runners of the revitalized UConn Running Club.

While there has been a running club on campus for many years, the group was loosely formed and had no set workouts. Because of this, the club almost fell into non-existence during the 2005 school year. RunUC, the University of Connecticut running club as we now know it, was formed that same year with the goal of establishing a club for retired high school runners. The well organized group grew slowly but surely over the next two years. The team would travel to local road races and would have 10-15 runners showing up to the practices which were held a few days a week.

In search of some intercollegiate competition, UConn’s club joined NIRCA the fall of 2007. Having traveled to UPenn, James Madison and UM-Dearborn for meets in their first year of racing, the team showed that they are certainly not to be taken lightly. Still striving for more structure, the club found a volunteer coach this past spring. Terrence Abney, a community advisor and former collegiate coach, came ready to motive and strengthen the team with his boundless energy.

This fall the team, already the largest club sport on campus, has 30-40 runners showing up to the six weekly practice times. The team is poised to display their new energy at the Binghamton Open this Saturday, September 27. And as the host of the Northeast Regional Championships, RunUC looks to show their full strength on their home course in preparation for the National Championships at Penn State.

UConn's Tips for Running Club Growth

• Host a meet
  Since we are hosting Northeast Regionals this fall it has been a great way to promote our club to perspective members, and it has also helped legitimized the club within the general community at UConn. A little publicity and some home turf advantage certainly never hurts.
• Recruit all runners
  Many runners may have never run cross country in high school, but there are plenty of track athletes out there that would love to get back into the swing of things. And perhaps if enough interested is sparked, club teams can move to a more stable, year-round running circuit that includes both xc and track seasons - start recruiting so it can happen!
• Emphasize communication
  This has been a vital part to retaining our club members. If the group’s leaders do not communicate with the runners, things can become unorganized. If the runners do not communicate with their leaders, they won’t get everything they can out of the experience. And if you are lucky enough to have a coach, always keep him/her in the loop.
• Organize speed/track workouts
  Having just regular runs at every practice can get monotonous for anyone, and it doesn’t provide enough training for the competitive runners. Rarely do you find someone that likes to do speedwork on their own, and because of this, track workouts are the most well attended practices of the week in our experience. These workouts can also give the runners a better chance to get to know each other, as everyone is on the track together, rather than spread out over a route.