Rebel Runners Club

Rebel Runners Club

A new organization has been founded at Ole Miss: the Rebel Runners Club. Until now, there has not been an official running group for Ole Miss students. Muddy Buddy’s, an outdoor trail running club, was organized through Ole Miss Outdoors. However, Rebel Runners is the first road running club, meaning they only take routes along paved roads.

The Rebel Runners Club was established this winter, with the first run March 2^nd. The founder of Rebel Runner’s Club, Emily Heer, believed it was time to get the students involved in an organization that keeps student’s active.

“With Mississippi being one of the most obese states in the country, I really wanted to make people aware about going out and getting fit and it doesn’t have to be about being the best, nothing else but just having fun and getting fit and basically that’s what I hope to get out of it,” said Heer.

There are currently 40 members in the Rebel Runners Club, ranging from beginners to marathon runners. Members of the club paid a $20 fee, which includes a one year membership, t-shirt and free entry into the city wide race that the running club will be sponsoring this year. Not only does Rebel Runners Club help student’s stay in shape, it also helps out the local community. Proceeds collected from membership dues will go to a different charitable organization in Oxford. The club is open to all Ole Miss undergraduate and graduate students.

“I joined the Rebel Running Club as a way to stay active while making new friends,” said Junior Stephanie Konkle. “Hopefully the club will continue to grow, the more runners in each distance group, the more fun.”

Rebel Runners Club meets every Sunday and Wednesday at 4 p.m. outside the Turner Center. All runners’ start together but then split off into their respective distance group: 5k, 10k and half-marathon.

“The Rebel Runners group is great motivation for working out. I’ve always been a distance runner, but since joining the running club, I feel my runs have become more beneficial and I’m getting more from my workouts than ever before,” said Junior Lori Dennis.

Starting the running club took a tremendous amount of work. Heer first met with the Coordinator of Intramural Sports and Sports Clubs, Traci Meredith. She was responsible for writing a constitution for the club, stating the advisors, meeting days and times, officers, cost of dues and persons permitted to join the club. Once the constitution was in order, Heer had to get approval from the Board of Directors of orgsync.com, a website that handles the organizations and clubs of various schools. The Rebel Runners Club is currently pending to become a certified sports club of the university, where they would receive funding from Ole Miss.

For more information, visit the blog at www.rebelrunnersclub.blogspot.com or e-mail them at rebelrunnersclub.com.