Local group builds fitness and community.
“I moved to Plant City, and had nothing to do and no friends, and I decided to start running, because ‘I could do that by myself,’” Jillian Wilder said. “Then I found a group on Facebook that wasn’t very active, but I ended up connecting with this girl in the group named Maggie, and we started going out for runs. We found some other people through Facebook and started in early 2017, meeting up in Walden Lake to run. Eventually, we found other people.”
From this small start, the Plant City Running Club has flourished. The group’s main event is a weekly Saturday morning run or walk. Somewhere between 20 and 30 people normally come out to the 7:00 a.m. 3.5-mile course. “This is the best one for newbies and walkers,” Wilder said. “There are also people who run at 5:00 a.m., and at 6:00 a.m. and circle back. There are middle school kids we have run with since they were in strollers. We have a snowbird that runs with us who is 81.” The club meets at Hole-In-One Donuts, which provides a convenient place to hang out and replace the calories burned off after the exercise. The club also has options on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. “Most of our runs are more of a social run, not a training run, or a targeted pace,” Wilder commented. “So, you are not going to be seeing those six-minute mile people most of the time. We do have those, but they are also willing to run whatever pace we have at that time.”
“We are super-inclusive,” Kathleen Kilton added. “For the people who are worried that they are going to be too slow, we have places that we stop and collect everybody. If you want more miles, you can run back and check on the walkers. There are plenty of options for everyone.”
For those who are more competitive, the club also has Friday runners who work on targeted speed training. The club has several marathoners, including two who are chasing their majors. They have four of the six stars; Boston, London, Tokyo, Chicago, New York, and Berlin. An ultra marathon runner also participates. She has a November 100-mile run in Tampa, and can count on several of her club friends to come out to run part of the race with her, and others to show up to cheer her on.
Runners from the club have traveled together to several races. Twenty-four people went to Seattle to compete in a relay race. Another 20 traveled to Washington, DC in 2023 for the Marine Corps Marathon. Thirteen ran and seven cheered on the runners.
John Hodgkinson joined the club, “To make new friends and run with other people,” he said. “It has introduced me to a lot of good people in Plant City; folks who are like-minded, and given me a number of new friends who I expect to be lifelong friends and running buddies. It has helped me be consistent for sure. Having some folks who are expecting you to show up helps you get out there even when you don’t quite feel like it. It has allowed me to help some other people achieve their goals as well.”
Club runners are known to dress in holiday wear for special runs like the Cinnamon Roll run on Thanksgiving, and wear lights for Christmas runs. “The club is for anybody,” Wilder said. “It is for our community. I try to encourage everybody to come out. We have walking groups at several of our runs. I know people are always afraid they are going to be too slow, but that should not be something to stop them. We’ve got every option of pace available.”
There are no dues or fees. To find out more, see the Facebook page, “Plant City Running Club.”
