Eighty-seven people from the Cypress Run for God running club completed their 12-week training program by running in the Huntington Beach Surf City 10 mile/10K/5K race on Sunday, Oct. 25.
The group meets at SeaCoast Grace Church in Cypress on Thursday nights to train together physically and spiritually.
Although people run for many different reasons, this program is for those who make God the center of their lives—or need to be reminded to do so. The class is broken into three parts. They spend the first part of their meeting training spiritually by comparing training for a race to training for their faith. The next part of the class has speakers coming in to discuss everything from running shoes, running form, injury prevention and nutrition. The final part of the class has the team breaking out into their distance training groups to run together.
One of the best parts of the class is the camaraderie and support. All 87 runners waited at the finish line for each other until the last person finished the race. It’s truly a family of people of all ages from 5 to 80 that care about each other and support each other.
The first Run for God class at SeaCoast Grace started out as a 12-week plan for beginners with no experience with running to train for a 5k.
They started out alternating just 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking. Many of the graduates of that class came back to the next class so eventually a 10K training program was added. By class six, they added a half marathon program.
Currently, the club is considering adding a marathon program next as many of those people that couldn’t even run for longer than 60 seconds are asking for more now.
The next class starts on Thursday, Jan. 7. Contact Brenda Brennan at RunForGod.SCG@gmail.com for more information.
