The best running club in the world? Probably not - but by any sensible measurement, PJR is a success
Parklands Jog & Run, which shares its home town with Carlsberg, recently celebrated its 14th birthday. In championing community over brands and influencers, it is everything a running club should be.
How do you measure success as a running club?
By having a coach who’s run at international Masters level and has a sub-16.30 5km time to their name?
Or by encouraging someone over the line when they finish last in a time trail at their first ever session?
Perhaps, in a perfect world, the answer is both.
And, just maybe, something akin to that ideal lives in the form of Parklands Jog & Run, a Northampton-based running club that boasts of catering for all-comers.
Last month, PJR - as it is most commonly known - celebrated its 14th birthday with coach Chris Lamb, he of the super speedy 5k, holding a time trial for members.
What better way to celebrate?
The ‘Quirky Runner’ who formed a running club:
“We’re quite unique in that we all run together. A lot of clubs cater for a range of abilities but they group them into different sections,” Chris told me.
“So, you have slower runners in one group and faster ones in their own sessions.
“I try to work it so everyone can train together.”
Avid run club watchers, perhaps those of a more cynical bent, may feel Chris’ vision for Parklands Jog & Run sounds all too familiar.
Doesn’t every running club claim, at the very least, to cater for all? And then, in reality, the ‘speedy’ runners shoot off on their own and men banter like pub bores while female runners are marginalised?
But they would be missing two key factors that really do make PJR ‘unique’.
Firstly, the club was born 14 years ago, before trendy trainer companies and influencers jumped on board the ‘all runners are equal’ bandwagon.
Second, Chris Lamb is not your everyday runner. If your looking for someone who makes the most of everything the sport has to offer, he’s your man.
His running honours include winning Bronze in the European Masters Championships 4x400 mixed relay, becoming the British Masters 800m champion, and setting a British record in the v35 4x800m men’s relay.
Chris has run everything up to 100-milers, taken part in obstacle races, and finished second - several times - in the UK wife carrying championships. He even founded his own race company, Quirky Races, which was celebrated in Northamptonshire for its mince pie and ‘Hallowine’ runs.
It’s safe to say that despite his dedication to the sport, Chris isn't one of those super serious running types - a quality which has meant he has been able to find an affinity with runners of all shapes, sizes and speeds.
‘We work it so everybody can run together’:
Parklands Jog & Run holds twice weekly sessions for club members, taking place at Northampton’s Parklands Community Centre and town centre Racecourse.
Those sessions both start at 6pm, with the community centre hosting PJR every Monday evening, as they have for the past 14 years.
The Racecourse runs, which are held on Thursdays, have been going for around nine years.
When asked if he thought the club would still be going 14 years after its inception, Chris is uncertain.
“I would have liked to have thought so,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s a given we would have been.
“You’ve got the established groups and big clubs in the town, but the smaller groups, like us, tend to come and go.”
May’s anniversary session saw PJR runners take on a 30-minute time trial, offering them the opportunity to chase a time for the mile or to run as many laps of a half-mile loop as they wanted.
“Some will go flat out for two loops and see how quickly they can run a mile, and others will keep going for the full time,” Chris said.
“As this is an anniversary session, it’s a bit different from what we usually do. We try and do this session every five to six weeks in the summer.
“Sometimes we just do the mile, occasionally we change it about.”
The fastest runner came home in five minutes 43 seconds, a time not to be sniffed at, but as Chris said, “there’s such a good range here. We’ll have people who will be over 10 minutes for the mile but we work it so everybody can still run together - when we are doing this thing and when we are doing our sessions as well.
“We do interval sessions, hill work, Fartlek, relays, all sorts of things.”
He added: “Other than this session, all our other sessions are run on a time basis, so if you are a bit slower you just run less distance in that time.
“A lot of the sessions are out and back, so the faster runners will just get further out but everyone will finish and start at the same time.
“I like it when we get beginner members in and they progress up, and they become established. Then we get some more new beginners again.
“We’ve got a lot of established members who have been here for a long time and then a lot of new people keep coming all the time as well.”
PJR simply puts on runs - for everyone:
Perhaps Northampton’s most famous business is Carlsberg, the brewer’s factory casting a shadow - and smell - over the town centre.
It’s tempting therefore to say PJR is ‘probably the best running club in the world’, but in fact its very appeal is its small, family feel.
This is not a club that is likely to be partnering with brands or seen ostentatiously blowing its own trumpet. PJR simply puts on runs. For everyone.
And it has done for 14 years. That sounds like a good way of measuring success to me.
What PJR runners told me about their club:
I managed four laps, so two miles in 28 minutes. It’s a mixed ability group which is good for me.
As you see people going past you appreciate it [their speed], but it’s also nice to feel included and not left out because you’re basically overweight and under-fit!
Tough but I got a PB, so it makes it worthwhile. It’s one of the hardest sessions, I’ve recently done a marathon and I found today harder.
My first session at the club was the mile, eight or nine years ago.
I did that first mile and a couple of people actually came out to run me in because I was the last one coming in.
I did that in nine minutes. Today, I did it in seven so that’s how much improvement I have made by coming here over the years, just in terms of this one session.
It’s good, very sociable. It’s good to push yourself, because when I go out and run by myself I just do the same speed.
I don’t do intervals on my own. I haven’t got the motivation to push myself, whereas here I push myself to my limits.
Everybody is really supportive and motivating. It doesn’t matter how fast anyone is running.
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An interesting article about a great local running group which has really proven to be for all abilities over the years. Kevin
Loved reading about PJR's community-first approach. Clubs that genuinely welcome all abilities - and actually keep everyone together - are pretty rare. Chris sounds like exactly the type of leader who creates lifelong runners. Congrats on 14 years!