January 2018 I joined ELR 10 years ago after ELR life member Karen Levison suggested I come along and give it a try. I had the aim of running once a week to keep my fitness up after retiring from playing football. Once a week then went to twice and I ended up running marathons by 2011. The club has changed quite a bit since I joined. A winter Wednesday night when I first joined would comprise of a small handful of runners but the club has grown considerably over the years I have been a member and it has been great to see. We all enjoy our running but we are also a friendly and sociable bunch and long may that continue. I have run 7 marathons as a member of ELR although I am currently in indefinite retirement from marathons! Although I am a "vet" I still have goals in running like achieving a 70% age grade in a race. I am getting closer and hope that 2018 will be my year to achieve that with the help of my friends at ELR. Being a member of ELR has really helped me to improve my running as well as making lots of good friends on the way. I was honoured to be the ELR ELVIS men’s team captain for 5 years. I wanted to establish the ELVIS series as a major part of the club’s activities and I believe that was achieved during my tenure as captain. We could barely manage a full scoring team in my first year but by the time I stood down we were up to nearly 100 entrants. We have been successful on a number of occasions but in my view the increased participation and social side of the races are just as important. Back in 2010/2011 I tried to start up track sessions but with limited success. We had 2 or 3 of us at the sessions to start with. However, I wouldn’t give up and after changing track night to a Monday a few years ago things have really picked up and we are now having great fun down at Ashton’s Playing Fields as well as improving our times. Once track night was established I thought that the sessions could be improved if I took some coaching courses. First, I took a course as a Leader in Running Fitness which was beneficial but after a while my thirst for more knowledge and in depth methods of coaching led me to take a course to become a fully qualified coach in running fitness in 2017. It took a fair bit of work but was well worth it. I thoroughly enjoy meeting up with everyone and running the Monday night track sessions where we have fun, improve our fitness and work on more technical aspects of running as well. I also enjoy working with individuals in order to help them with race training plans and running technique. I really enjoy meeting up on a Wednesday night and for weekend runs which are one of the highlights of my week. I like to chat and I like a social drink with fellow members as well! Grant