When the world shut down for COVID, they started clubs to keep runners going
A decade ago, Rick Raeder was an enthusiastic walker — with no interest in running. He would walk about four miles a day in South Park, and a friend there would run by and tell him he should try picking up the pace.
“I would say, ‘I don’t think I’m built like a runner,’ ” he said. “But one day, I decided to try it.”
Using a mix of running and walking, Raeder, of Bethel Park, was hooked. His wife joined him as they tried the Great Race, the Pittsburgh Marathon relay and then the Pittsburgh Half Marathon.
“Believe me when I tell you this,” he said. “We had zero idea what we were doing.” To learn more about training, they joined the Steel City Road Runners, a running club affiliated with the Pittsburgh Marathon — eventually becoming mentors for other runners.
They were ready to run the half marathon in the spring of 2020 when the COVID pandemic shut down the marathon and all organized running-activities surrounding it.
Raeder, who had just passed a test to become a certified coach, decided to put together some informal runs in the Strip District.
“One person would run on one side of the street, one on the other,” he said. “Nobody got sick.”
With Steel City Road Runners still shut down because of COVID, Raeder’s group became a new running club called the Rogue Runners, loosely organized through a Facebook page.
At the same time, Kim Lambert was traveling a similar path.
Lambert, of Ross, had also come to running just over a decade ago after being active in other sports. Through running clubs, she found the perfect combination of a physical and social outlet and became involved in coaching and leading clubs such as Steel City and at local running stores, in addition to her full-time job as a corporate event planner.
As she led running clubs affiliated with larger organizations, she had always thought about starting an independent club.
“It had always been my dream — I had this vision of a club that wasn’t backed by anyone,” she said. “It would be all volunteer, all member-led, member-funded. You have a lot of flexibility to serve the needs of runners.”
When COVID hit, that opportunity arose. Through the summer,
Lambert laid the groundwork for a new club. “We started when we couldn’t even gather, which allowed us to do our due diligence,” she said. She built a website, filedpaperwork and obtained insurance. The City of Bridges run club opened up registration Nov. 1 of 2020 — just to watch cases rise and restrictions go back into place. They started small, with masked weekday runs, capped at 25, meeting in parking garages rather than indoors.
As 2021 progressed, those caps increased. The running club hosted more than 100 people for a “virtual” half marathon on what would have been marathon weekend. And the club has continued to grow since. There are more than 500 official members of the club, who pay dues of $55 per year, and another 1,000 people in the database who have come to events without being members.
Rogue Runners, which charges $20 per year for dues, ended 2023 with about 175 members. Both have endured even as other, more established running clubs have also come back from their pandemic shutdowns.
Both clubs thrive on creating a welcoming environment for runners — and walkers — of all abilities and experience levels. And while the training and exercise are important, it’s the relationships that really make his running club worthwhile, said Raeder.
When his son got married three years ago, a Presbyterian minister that he met through Rogue Runners officiated the wedding.
“We’re had babies born, people who have gone through life-changing events, it’s kind of like we’re the family that they share it with,” he said. “I probably get asked a half dozen times a year, ‘Do you realize what you’ve created here?’ ”
For Lambert, her commitment to the club was tested two years ago when she suffered a serious leg injury during a run. She has only recently gotten back to walking and careful running, and just recently participated in her first race since the injury. But she has stayed involved in the club anyway, along with dozens of others who help out.
“I couldn’t do all of this alone. It takes a team and it takes a lot of work to sustain a club of over 500 people,” said Lambert. “It takes a lot of pacers and selflessness and people sometimes giving up their own goals to help other people succeed in theirs — that’s really why we do it.”
Anya Sostek: asostek@post-gazette.com.