Meet Carlos Rendon The Fearless Victoria Run Club Leader
The Capital City Run Crew is definitely a one of a kind Victoria run club. The one thing that makes this club special is its leader and founder, Carlos Rendon. Carlos is one of the most encouraging and supportive run leaders out there. Carlos makes an effort to create a real down to earth community along with a relaxed and comfortable approach to his training.
Because of this, he created an opportunity to bring people who have never run before and turned them into people who are excited and in love with running.
What also makes this Victoria run club so special is that they meet up at local restaurants for their casual run supporting small businesses while burning a few calories.
Carlos is a very special man who many in the community appreciate and respect. This is Carlos Rendon's running journey.
The one thing that keeps me running is the social aspect of running. Carlos Rendon
Tell us a little about how you found running and what keeps you tying your laces up every week?
I started running after signing up for Muay Thai classes. My instructor came to me and told me that my cardio was terrible and I should consider taking up running, cycling or swimming.
He said he didn’t want to keep taking my money anymore if I was going to be sitting down half the class trying to recover and catch my breath. I took his advice as I really wanted to continue learning Muay Thai. Running was the cheapest and least dangerous of the three recommended exercises.
I started running alone, around my block and was able to slowly over time increase my speed and distance from 3k, to 5k to 7 and then 10k. Once I reached 10k, it got really boring running alone for 1 hour so I started looking online to see if there were any run groups in my area.
I previously was living in Burnaby BC. I found two which totally changed my life. One of the groups was a learn to run group for newbies. I was a bit more advanced than the newbies, but the people were great and it felt like home. Slowly the newbies got better and they caught up to me and we started running as a crew and it was magical. The days of a lone wolf running were gone.
The one thing that keeps me running is the social aspect of running. The running community is full of fantastic people and it’s been my pleasure to be part of so many people’s running journey.
Your run group Capital City Run Crew has built a community around running but has also given people a place to be themselves and have fun.
How did this group begin and what inspired you to make it what it is today?
The group at first was just a joke. Something that some of my friends in Burnaby were joking about after I mentioned to them that I was moving to Victoria to be closer to my girlfriend (Sarah). When I came over to Victoria every 2nd weekend, I would seek out other groups, but each week it was the same.
I would join a group and the participants in that group would be so keen on their training that instead of being social and fun they just wanted to run fast and hit their pace goals for that run. There was no community for me as I wasn’t training for any races at that time and I was only coming over every 2 weeks.
I found it difficult to fit in and I didn’t want to keep being the new guy in the group. I wanted to be “the guy”. So after 2 years of visiting Victoria every 2 weeks, I moved in with my girlfriend and we started talking about making our own run group now that I was a resident of Victoria. We searched around and asked a few of the run leaders who started the group in Burnaby and Vancouver.
Everyone said the same basic thing. “Call yourselves a group by coming up with a name and a cool logo. Then plan runs every week, show up, do the run and post about the run. Invite, invite, invite.” This was a slow build, Sarah and I started a meetup.com page and we started posting our runs there. I taught myself how to use the basic commands of Adobe Illustrator and created the logo.
The group started growing and slowly one after another a new person would join us every week. Eventually, the cost of having a meetup.com group got too high and we decided to switch to Instagram and Facebook, as both platforms are free. We continued to attract different runners from the community.
After the first year, we went out and sourced a supplier for our Tshirts and race bibs. This really made us feel legit. We were able to attract the attention of two Sponsors, Moon under Water Brewery and DreamStrides and we were well on our way to growing the group to where it is now.
You and your group train for different races within the city. What races do you have planned for this year?
We usually aren’t too serious about our training, but over the last 3 years we have provided free training for the TC10k and the Victoria Goodlife Half Marathon. I like to lead the crew through a 13-week program for both the 10k and half marathon distance.
I have been lucky enough that over the last few years of running, while I was still living in Burnaby I was able to participate in a couple of training sessions put on by a running Doctor in North Vancouver. They provided us with quality training and gave us some really easy to follow training programs.
The best part of the training programs is that they incorporate track workouts. Track workouts have proven to be so beneficial to our crew members in helping with speed and stamina. It has been a lot of fun teaching new runners about the track workouts.
What advice would you give to people who want to start running?
I always tell new runners that, Yeah, running is FREAKEN hard at first. But if you keep coming out every week, it does get easier and your fitness level does improve really fast.
I also try to tell new runners not to worry about feeling like you’re going to be left behind or slow down the group. If the group does leave you behind or does get upset because you’re running much slower that the group’s pace, well clearly that’s not the group for you. There is always a beginner’s group, you just need to keep looking.
Where on social media can our readers follow you at?
You can find us on Facebook or Instagram at the following links:
If you ever need a good run, a good crowd to hang with or increase your running skills meet up with the Victoria run club Capitol City Run Club. Find when they run next by connecting on social media.
A post shared by Running/Run Crew/VictoriaBC (@capitalcityruncrew) on Feb 21, 2020 at 1:05pm PST
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