In May of 1975 beautiful Mill Creek Park became the site of the first fun run of the newly formed Youngstown Road Runners Club (YRRC). Organized by about a dozen runners the YRRC began staging weekly non-competitive runs of varying distances to invite interested area runners and joggers to join in the comradeship of the recreational club. The club's first competitive race as a 20km event held in Youngstown in November of 1975. This was the forerunner of the Peace Race, which was run for the 31st time last October.
In 1976 the club became a member of the Road Runners Club of America. Between the years of the 1976 and 1980 the club's membership grew along with the nation's running boom. A newsletter roster of over 375 families represented over 1,100 runners in the northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania areas.
The club sponsored many races to benefit area charities throughout the `970's and 1980's. Often the monies charged by the club to provide finish line services were donated back to charities. Many Youngstown area businesses became sponsors of races, many of which continued into the 1990's.
The club's activities nave included the rental of Mill Creek cabins in winter months for weekly runs, club picnics, pancake breakfast runs, chili runs, children's runs, cross country trail runs and organized club trips to various races. Building and maintaining strong ties with the running community has always been an YRRC priority. The club has actively assisted with cross country races finish lines and has always extended a warm welcome to coaches to bring their runners to the club's summer and fall runs to train and enjoy the company of other runners.
Mill Creek Park became the setting for the Youngstown Road Runner Club's Mill Creek Distance Classic Half Marathon in 1989. This event with its outstanding rugged course and stiff competition has become a must run event for runners training for spring marathon. Held on the first Sunday in March this often cold run as drawn over 500 runners annually from Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and beyond.
In 1999 the Youngstown Road Runners Club initiated a Hall of Fame to honor those members from its past whose dedication and enthusiasm for running and the YRRC helped build it into a thriving club it remains today. Since then 25 worthy inductees including founding members, officers, editors, volunteers, runners and coaches have been honored. They have proven themselves to be the backbone of the local running community.
In 2004 two YRRC members, Matt Folk and Laura Kaulen had the distinction of being named Road Runners of America Male and Female Runners of the Year from over 160,000 runners. Also in 2004 the Road Runners Club of America honored three members of the YRRC Hall of Fame, Pat Malandra, Leonard Vieth and Tom Bresko by being given the 2004 National Volunteer Award, Now reaching the end of 30 years the Youngstown Road Runners Club is still running strong. The club has also been awarding scholarships to area runners attending college for the last four years. The club recently implemented a running shoe program to purchase training shoes for qualified cross-country athletes who cannot afford to purchase shoes.
This year the Youngstown Road Runners Club will be giving a special edition wind jacket at their Mill Creek Distance Classic Half Marathon on March 6th, rather than a wind shirt.
As a believer in the premise to promote running for health and fitness the Youngstown Road Runners Club =know has 150 member families including the second generations of some of those dozen runners from 1975.
For more information on the Youngstown Road Runners Club go to:
http://members.aol.com/yt ownrrc
