Tring Running Club Celebrates 40th Birthday

Living Magazines Tring Running Club Members in 1983

Tring Running Club members will be celebrating the club’s 40th birthday year with a variety of running-focused events, including a 40-mile relay and a ‘Treasure Hunt’ Score Challenge.

With its founding club run on 14 April 1981, ‘Tring Jogging Club’, as it was then known, has seen many changes in its 40-year history. Perhaps the most remarkable change is its significant increase in runners. Four decades ago, the club had 30 members; it now has over 250, and anticipates welcoming many more this year as Tring and its neighbouring villages move out of lockdown.

Adrian Fails, Tring Running Club Chair, says, ‘One thing that hasn’t changed in the club’s 40 years is our welcoming and sociable nature. People join us because they’re looking for a friendly and supportive group to run with. We have a range of pace groups, so we cater for new and experienced runners alike.’

The club is well known for hosting its annual Midsummer Fun Run; a family-friendly festival to encourage children and adults to get into running. Over the 20 years of hosting the Fun Run, the club has handed out 10,000 medals to children in the junior races and has raised close to £100,000 for local charities.

The 40th birthday celebrations include a Score Challenge, which involves running around Tring to visit as many checkpoints — and thereby collect as many points — as possible, within two hours. Members will also join together in the Autumn to run a 40-mile relay and enjoy a slice of birthday cake.

Living Magazines Tring Running Club Members on 40th BirthdayClub members are delighted to be able to run together again in small groups (in line with restrictions easing), to mark this significant anniversary.

‘It is fantastic to be running together as a club again after everything that’s happened recently, and we are especially pleased to be amongst friends to celebrate such a significant milestone,’ Adrian comments.

Fun facts about Tring Running Club

  1. The club has hosted the annual Ridgeway Run – a 15km scenic route that attracts runners from around the country — every year bar 2020 since 1981. In 1987, a hurricane struck on the weekend of the event; Tring Running Club members spent hours clearing fallen trees from the course for 400 runners to compete!
  2. Tring Running Club members have completed over 400 London Marathons.
  3. The club has an equal number of male and female members.
  4. Although based in Hertfordshire, Tring Running Club enjoys strong pedigree in the sport of fell running.
  5. The club is well known for hosting the annual Midsummer Fun Run; a family-friendly festival to encourage children and adults to get into running. Over the 20 years of hosting the Fun Run, the club has handed out 10,000 medals to children in the junior races and has raised close to £100,000 for local charities.

About Tring Running Club

Tring Running Club is a friendly and social running club with over 250 members, who run together in small groups every Wednesday evening. Tring Running Club welcomes new members, both experienced and newer runners alike. For more information, visit the Tring Running Club website at www.tringrunningclub.org.uk.

Images show:

  • Tring Running Club members in 1983. Founding member Ken Laidler is third from left on the back row.
  • Members on a club run on 14 April 2021, the 40th birthday of the club.