Group Spotlight – Jog Derbyshire Chesterfield

Leader of Jog Derbyshire Chesterfield, Rachel Wylde tells us all about the group.

How many leaders do you have? 1

How many co-leaders do you have? 10

Roughly how many participants regularly run with you? 10-15 in each group ( 2 groups)

When and where do you meet?

Thursdays, outside Loundsley Green Community Centre, Cuttholme Rd, Chesterfield.

Group 1: Meet to leave at 6pm Group 2: 6:45pm

Tell us about the history of the group. How long has it been going and how did it start?

I never really saw myself as a runner, but the first time I tried it I was shocked at how bad I really was! When I got back (from my 5 minutes around the block), I signed up for a 10k in London. With just 15 weeks to train, I had no choice other than to get out and try to improve. I managed the 10k, loved it and a year later got a place in the London Marathon. I realised if I could run then anyone could.

Over the next few years, I started running with friends, but they weren’t keen on running in the winter. This meant sometimes running on my own in the cold and the dark at a time when I would have really liked the company.

In January 2014 I saw an advert for a run leader course through Jog Derbyshire. I thought that doing this course and then setting up my own group would be a great way to meet other people who liked running. It would also be a good way to get more people into running, something just a few years earlier I never thought would happen to me!

I completed the course and started the group with just a few friends to begin with. I didn’t want to advertise the new group because at the time I was waiting for a date for my daughter to have open heart surgery. I knew it would be at least a couple of months until my daughter was fully recovered, so I didn’t want to commit to starting a new group that I might have to stop soon after.

When the group eventually did get started, it soon began to grow. We now have many regular runners and people who join us when they can.

Tell us a bit about the group – its atmosphere, anything which makes it special etc.

We have two groups:

Group one is the easier group with routes that are around 3 miles. This group is for people who haven’t done much running before or for people who like to run shorter distances at a slower pace.

Group two is for people who prefer a slightly faster pace, with routes that are usually 5-6 miles.

Some people wanting to run further like to do both groups.

We are a social, non-competitive running group. Everyone is very supportive and no one ever gets left behind. If you like to run and like to chat then this could be a good group for you.

If you join our Facebook group, you will not only see the different routes we do each week, but also see some of the other things we do too.

Attending races is always more fun as a group, we like weekend runs with cake, runs out in the Peak District and the occasional night out too. We have a 10k/half marathon run to support Ukraine coming up and a number of us will be doing the Virtual London Marathon together. At Christmas we have a Christmas Bingo month and our fantastic reindeer run.

Although we do have some serious runners, our group nights are about running for fun.

The group is free, just turn up and run when you want to. If you are local and want to give it a try, come and join us!

What’s your best memory of the group?

If you are local to Chesterfield, you may remember Beat the Streets. This was a fantastic event organised for the town and a time when the group really came together.

Teams had to work together to collect points from boxes positioned all over town. This game soon became very addictive and was brilliant for anyone wanting to get out and exercise. Brilliant too for anyone wanting to run further! Our weekly runs together became far more frequent and if you ever went out on your own, you knew you would bump into others in the group doing the same.

We might not be a competitive running group but this period in time was perhaps an exception. Of course our team had to win, and we did!

What’s the best thing about being part of Jog Derbyshire?

Over the years more and more people have heard about Jog Derbyshire. It’s great to be a part of what is well known to be a network of friendly groups across the county.

It is through Jog Derbyshire that so many of us have got fitter, found a love for running and made great friends for life.

You can find out more about Jog Derbyshire Chesterfield by joining their Facebook group here. If you’d like to find a different local group, use our ‘Find a Group’ map here.