RUNNING can be boring and a lonely sport, out there plodding along on your own. Sometimes people like the solitude of running, but other times when it feels hard or tedious it’s good to have someone to have a chat with or just run alongside, and many that run with Barry Running Club benefit from this.

Some running clubs like their runners to have a 5km run base or more but not here. However, if you are a non-runner and have never run, you need to know that the group will not just run away from you each week - that won’t be much fun and you will not learn any new running skills from this.

At Barry Running Club if you turn up and cannot run you are always welcomed and someone will be there to help you, whether its someone to run alongside you at your pace.

Something unique the club provides is bike support. Having this kind of assistance on some of the longer runs, allows the group to be monitored and checked up on to make sure everyone is ok, and it works really well.

As the run progresses, supplies for the runners can be carried and shuttled between everyone, like additional water and gels, and personal belongings such as keys and phones can be kept safe.

This past week the club had a hill session scheduled for the guys to do on Tuesday, but prior to this, Paul Currie, Abi Anderson and Brandon Rees had gotten together, to test out a specific sprint section to add onto the end of Tuesday.

Safety and suitability of options at the club is paramount and has become quite common place for segments to be tested in advance. The consensus was that it was a good addition, and Tuesday nights session was modified accordingly.

Gathering under the multi-coloured lit shelter at 7.30pm at Barry Island on Tuesday, the gang started off with a nice 10 minute warm up jog up and down the full length of the prom. The main set was eight lengths of the sloped path up from Marco’s Café, to the end wall.

The fastest runner turned around at the end of the path, and at that point, a whistle was blown and everyone turned around and ran back. This allows the same level of effort to be put in by everyone, and everyone is kept together in one safe group.

The new addition of the hills sprints segment was welcomed by all that did the maximum effort, which was repeated four times, before the session came to a close with a gentle slow paced jog to cool down.

Thursdays session was a choice of three different lengths of run, all starting off from Jackson’s Bay, and the club once again met at Porthkerry Park on Sunday, where the route to St Hilary was run once again. Each route as always, having options for complete beginners, to the more experienced runner.

Fancy a run? Check out the session schedule on the club website at http://barryrunningclub.weebly.com and find them on Facebook.