In the darkness, they gather outside the Student Recreation Center (SRC). At only 6 a.m., the University of California, Riverside’s (UCR) Running Club comes together for the 47th Annual Mission Inn Run. Everyone has a different reason for running in this signature Riverside event; some have hopes and dreams of a record run and others go for the enjoyment of running with their friends, but most look to challenge themselves.
During the week, the Running Club at UCR meets everyday, Monday through Friday, at 5 p.m. Open to all, it’s a no commitment club. Their goal is to simply make running easy, accessible and less intimidating. With different levels of running, there are officers with each group, ensuring that no matter how fast someone runs; there will always be someone running with them, drastically decreasing the chance of running alone or getting lost. Emmanuel Green, the president of the club, shares that “running club is just a great way to run safely, meet a community and make friends.”
There is more to Running Club than just running. They do various events throughout the year, like hiking to the C and socials. This year, they will be meeting up with the Cal Poly Pomona and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) running clubs to meet other runners in SoCal and make friends.
Green joined the Running Club in his first year. His reason for running was because he used to run in high school and wanted to continue running in college. Green shared, “It’s a healthy habit and a part of my personality that I didn’t want to get rid of.”
Many of the club members have been preparing for the Mission Inn Run since the summer. For a handful of them, it’ll be the last time they’ll take part in this run as UCR students. Chock full of memories and opportunity, many set goals for the events they were going to run.
An alumni of UCR, Miguel Leon Fernandez, still comes back to run with the club occasionally. Sharing why, he states, “Being able to run with them is super cool, especially since a lot of them are very young in their first and second years just being able to watch them go not just like, in terms of running, but also in their career stuff.”
Last year, Fernandez won the 5k at the Mission Inn Run, and he recalls, “We were told the race was starting at nine, and it started a couple minutes before. Point is everybody got a 42 second head start on me. Winning the race was out the window. But apparently the bib has a chip on it, and it doesn’t start your time until you cross the start line. So I won it because I ran the fastest time of the course, which I never thought would ever happen, but here we are. It was very fun, and the people were very supportive. So that’s what made it super cool.”
For Navya Batra, a fourth-year computer science major, it was her first time running with the club ever, and she had prepared to run the 10k. She shares, “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to actually run a 10k. I’ve never done it before, so this will be exciting, but I’m also kind of nervous.”
One part of making runs like the Mission Inn Run more accessible is by applying for funding from the school. Running Club has a dedicated board who puts in the effort to make these runs affordable for those who take part. Green shares, “We apply for a grant from the school. We always try to get race discounts. There’s great hope that [the race] will be discounted and people can actually afford a race and not have to think about working [to afford it].”
One of the things that Green hopes to achieve is “making a welcoming community where people want to come back. They don’t have bad memories. They make friends, they have fun and they tell others. It comes with growth, because there’s a greatness to it that isn’t measurable, but it just makes sense.”
To those who are looking into running, join the Running Club at UCR. As Green shared, you really never know what it’s like until you try it. See if you like it, if you love it, then just keep coming. It’s free. I mean, you can’t get freer than free. We’re trying to give you guys everything we can, and so we’re always open to feedback, always open to improvement. We just want to give students the best experience possible.”
