SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Meet the running group who value a post-run coffee as highly as a new PB
WHATEVER YOU DO, don’t call Harborough Social Runners (HSR) a club. The running g roup, off icially co-founded by Leanne Shrive three years ago, prides itself on being about much more than performances and PBs.
‘I’d been part of a couple of running clubs, and I realised there was nothing local for people who just wanted to run,’ says Shrive. ‘I had no interest in track or cross-countr y races, and I realised there was a whole g roup of people just like me, who just wanted to get out and run with others without the pressure of pace, time or distance.’
What started as Shrive running with a few friends was formalised with the launch of a Facebook g roup in October 2019. Within months, word got around the small town of Ma rket Harborough, Leicestershire, and hundreds of people joined. Bra nded kit was rolled out in 2020 and that’s when ‘we started to feel like a real community’, says Shrive.
The g roup, which has also attracted members from local running clubs, has three simple rules. ‘No one gets left behind, we don’t mind walking and we love a post-run coffee or beer,’ says Shrive. ‘By setting these out to our runners, it means we’ve created a safe place for people to run among others. It’s a social run, there’s no pressure and there’s always a happy face to greet you.’
There are four social runs a week, up to 10K in leng th, which attract about 35 runners at a time and always finish near a coffee shop or the pub. But runners are also encouraged to use the Facebook g roup to shout out if and when they want to run with others. ‘The main thing for me is that ever y runner counts. We’re a non-competitive g roup who embrace all kinds of runners and their abilities. We wanted to create somewhere where there’s an equal emphasis on running and being social,’ says Shrive.
But that doesn’t mean that HSR isn’t interested in formal training. Shrive
