Why Crusaders is great... in under 500 words

In a rare painfully sobering moment I gave my running club an honest nearly joke free review... Don't get use to it!

The first night I went down at least 3 members introduced themselves to me. I was welcomed with open arms which would have been hard as I weighed 20 stone at the time. While completely unprepared and overwhelmed physically, I continued to go back each week. Each time getting to know more people and becoming healthier and fitter (I lose 4 stone at the club). I never missed a training session and soon I was asked to supervise the beginners group on Thursday nights. This gave me a real sense of belonging.

Eventually I began to make friends and not just did you see game of thrones friends but ones that you share your life with, ones that you get yourself out of bed at 8am so you can watch them run around a muddy field while getting your new runners destroyed in the process but you do it because they would for you. Crusaders are about running but it is also a club and it is a club that supports one another.

Crusaders have plenty of achievements, a rich history of thriving Juvenile sections, some of the strongest female runners in the country and Ronnie Delany calls it home. I’m not going to talk about that, I want to talk about what the club means to me.

While Crusaders is based in Irishtown it attracts people from not all over Ireland but other countries as well. It feels more like an international club than it does a local club but at the same time there is a real sense of family in the club. I’m going to be honest and say I’m not the best runner out there, in fact I probably one of the worst. Yet in the last 3 years I have been accepted at Crusaders for who I am and not what my PB time happens to be.

I don’t think any member would dispute that Crusaders for those who embrace it becomes like family. They are there for you like family. They are there to celebrate when you win and commiserate when you lose. They go and support a table quiz you organize, take 6 hours to run a marathon and be your plus one at a family event.

The cub isn’t perfect but it genuinely cares for its members. I will never be a great runner but at Crusaders I am accepted and treated as one of their own and as we say at Crusaders once you’re a Crusader your Cru 4 life!

Try Crusaders for yourself-

Crusaders site