May - Space Coast Runners

(IT’S FUN TO STAY AT THE)RRCANational Convention comes to LakelandBy Cyndi BergsThis past weekend, April 22-25, 2010, the RRCA (Road Runners Club of America) was held in Lakeland,Florida. RRCA was founded in 1958 and is the oldest national association of running clubs, running events,and runners. The mission of RRCA is to promote running as a competitive sport and a healthy physical activity.The RRCA achieves their mission by promoting the common interest of its members by providing educationalopportunities, program, and services. The organization’s membership consists of more than 1,100 runningclubs and events nationwide. Each year, a city is selected to host the National Convention providing theopportunity to have RRCA members from across the country to come together and share ideas, learn aboutnew programs, and become inspired by the many community outreach events that take place to promote healthand fitness.A few of us, Carol Ball, Ty Bowan, Kara & Ed Springer, and myself had the opportunity to attend the conference.Over the course of the two days, several sessions were held including “How to Grow Your Race”,“Developing Programs for Older Runners/Walkers”, “Chi –Running”, “Biomechanics/Injury Prevention”,“Non-running events in a club to build Camaraderie”, and “Nutrition, Supplements, and Performance Enhancers”.Having multiple people attend allowed us the opportunity to cover different sessions. Other highlights ofthe event included inspiring talks by Pat Williams, the Orlando Magic VP and Keith Brantly, the 1996 U.S.Olympic marathon team member from Winter Gardens, Florida. Saturday evening was the awards banquetwhere several clubs and individuals were recognized by the RRCA for their achievements and contributions torunning. Finally, we were treated with keynote speaker Bill Rodgers who led us down his path of running success—withmany twists and turns! I personally enjoyed the opportunity to visit with several members of myprevious running clubs from Memphis and Milwaukee (sorry, SCR was not my first!) and share our vision andideas on how we can make our clubs stronger.Page 6The Space Coast Runners is a member ofRRCA and benefits from its many services.We insure our events through theRRCA as well as benefit from its trainingprograms and opportunity to obtain grantmoney for our children’s running programs.In 2009, the Space Coast Marathonwas selected as a RRCA State Championshiprace and this year, both the halfmarathonand marathon are selected asState Championship races. We look forwardto the continued success of our partnershipwith RRCA and hope to bring newideas and opportunities to our club members.Left to right: Carol Ball, Ed Springer, TyBowan, Kara Springer and Cyndi Bergsare taking care of (running) business.