Stephenville Running Club reaches new heights with 30 local runners taking part in marathons.
- Sara Vanden Berge
- Oct 25
- 2 min read
Special to Beneath the Surface News
"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start" - John Bingham
Stephenville Running Club spends a lot of time encouraging runners to just start.
SRC was founded by Julie Brinkley and four running friends.
Using a Facebook group as the platform to stay connected, the club has grown to more than 1,000 with hundreds of active participants.
Why are the statistics from a local running club so important? Because SRC is far from average.
Statistics show that less than one percent of the world's population will ever attempt a marathon.
SRC has over 30 runners who will complete a marathon/ultra marathon before the end of this calendar year.
The Stephenville Running Club was established to motivate and encourage runners to share their running highs and lows with the group in order to grow a running community.
“We were working on a club and we grew a family instead,” Julie said.
The club had three runners who represented in September’s Berlin World Major Marathon; Cindy Gibson, Vickie McCombs and Delette Gazaway.
Kate Denning ran Chicago’s World Major Marathon, and this weekend, 19 runners from SRC will participate in the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington D.C.
They are Angel Taylor, Debbie Sheets, Jason Huffman, Joey Fraley, Ashton Sheets, Emily Heinrichs, Kelsey Goates, Amanda Meyers, Lesslie Bull, Tori Anderson, Ryan Young, Monica Monk, Delette Gazaway, Brook Rumbolz, Chelsea Taylor, Joe Sandoval, Cruz Arredondo, Shawn Ellifrit and Edward Ellifrit.
Additionally, Melodee O’Neal and Mandy McGee will run in the Marathon 2 Marathon this weekend.
WHAT'S NEXT
On Nov. 2, Julie Brinkley and Cruz Arredondo will run in the TCS New York City Marathon.
Monica Ruffing will run in the Fort Worth Marathon.
Kell Harris-Roberts, Kristen Wolfe and Renee Alexander will run the San Antonio Marathon and Koll Binkerstaff was chosen to run the Last Man Standing in New Gloucester, Maine.
Lesslie Bull, Jason Huffman, Tess Silva-Matthews, Cindy Gibson and Kodi Hansen will run ultra distances in Glen Rose at the Dino Valley Endurance Run.
An Ultra Marathon is any distance over 26.2 miles.
SRC celebrated all these runners at its October social at Grumps in Stephenville.
This is a great indicator of activity and team spirit. Such a large number of participants inspires others to join in and fosters an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual support among athletes. Running unites people not only physically but also mentally. For a more varied experience, you can follow other competitions at https://indi.1xbet.com/line/cricket/988155-india-premier-league. This is also exciting and demonstrates how sport can unite people in different ways.