Feature: Runners find solace in pastime

The club has been around in one form or another for many years, but it has recently become more organized and cohesive. The current president of the club, sophomore Evan Warner, credited Kyle Smith ’09 for the club’s reinvigoration.

Smith ran varsity cross-country and track for Princeton but later quit the varsity team and put his energy into giving the running club more life.

In its current iteration, the club holds five weekly runs and a workout each Tuesday. Warner said that five to 10 people usually show up to each run, and they often split into different groups depending on how fast and how far each of the runners wants to go.

“Part of our goals is to get regular practice attendance up to 10–15 people every single day,” Warner said.

Warner also hopes to have a more set mileage schedule in the future. Right now, the runs are still very informal and most runners are on their own training schedules. As the team tries to become more competitive, Warner said he hopes to introduce more structure on a daily and weekly basis.

The club has competed in local road races for many years, but this year was the first time that it competed against running clubs from other schools. “The road races are generally lower-key than intercollegiate competition,” Warner said.

A big part of this change was making the switch in the club’s designation from a student group, overseen by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, to a club sport. Now that the University recognizes the club as a club sport, it is allowed to compete against other college club teams in the National Intercollegiate Running Club Association.

For the first time last fall, the club hosted a cross-country meet for other collegiate running clubs. For its efforts, it was awarded “Best New Meet of the Year” by NIRCA, and Warner said the club hopes to host the meet again next year.

The running club also sent a squad to compete at the NIRCA Northeast Regional Championship in October. Despite missing a few of their top runners, the Tigers finished sixth in the meet.

Members of the club have also been active in the local road-racing circuit. Last Saturday, the club sent two teams to compete in the Jersey Shore Relay Marathon, with runners on each team working together to finish the 26-mile course.

Out of more than 450 teams at the marathon relay, the five members of the Princeton “A” team finished fourth overall with a time of 2 hours, 35 minutes, 13.4 seconds, and the “B” team — which only had three runners due to last-minute cancelations — finished 19th with a time of 3:01:11.6.

Warner was happy with the results, but he said that the goal had been to finish third overall. Princeton lost a close battle to a Rutgers team, which it will probably face again in two weeks at the annual May Day Race between Princeton and Rutgers.

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Started as a race between the math departments of the two schools, it has since opened up to any teams from the two schools, but the trophy still sits in a case in Fine Hall. Teams race in relay style along the towpath to cover the 25 miles between Princeton and New Brunswick.

“It’s another fun event that’s not just another 5K,” Warner said. “We could definitely win it if we get together a good team.”

Most of the members of the club are former high school cross-country and track athletes who wanted to keep running. The club is co-ed, but Warner noted that more men attend runs regularly than do women.

“We’re trying to make it more of a co-ed team,” Warner said.

Though largely an undergraduate organization, the club is open to graduate students, and a number of them come to runs.

The change in the club’s designation has increased the emphasis on competing against other college club teams, but the core mission of the running club has remained bringing runners together. The club maintains a website and an active listserv, where runners will often send e-mails looking for a running partner at all times of the day and night.

After all, Warner said, “It’s much more fun to run with people than by yourself.”

This is part of a weekly series on club sports at Princeton.