What started as a joke and fun way to hang out with friends, the local Summit Run Club has become a regular twice a week event on Tuesday evenings at the Sparks Marina and Saturday mornings at varying locations fostering a love for running in the local community.
“It was me [Jose Anguiano] and my buddy Gerardo … and then my buddy Eddie Gomez. It was us three. We ran the LA marathon, and then we came back and we were like, you know what, let’s start a run club,” club organizer Jose Anguiano explains.
The club now brings out 20 plus members weekly and is a tight knit community of its own. Whether you are brand new to running, or regularly run ultra marathons, the Summit Run Club will welcome you.
“Right here we have a mix of everything. You have people who come after work, people that come after school, after everything,” Anguiano said.
Anguiano, a Reno local and recent UNR grad, is a teacher in Washoe County, teaching Spanish at Spanish Springs high school.
Isaac Anguiano, another run club member, does landscaping with his two older brothers, helping to run their family company. “I would run here [Sparks Marina] and I would see them around and you know, I decided to join them, and I’ve made a lot of friends,” Isaac said.
An important attribute of this club is the fact you can count on the Tuesday and Saturday runs to happen rain or shine, whatever the weather. “At most, I think we’ve only missed once or twice, either due to graduation or being out of the country. We stay consistent,” Anguiano said.
The summer months got so popular it became difficult to find parking. “Me and my buddy Gerardo, we'd bring a whole cooler full of Celsius, probably like 100 [cans of] Celsius. All of them would get wiped out. Then, Celsius sponsored us for a solid one or two months,” Anguiano said.
With the support of the community and consistency of runners, the dream of creating a successful run club became a reality for its founders.
Apart from being successful, the run club became a way to start friendships, and even love. “Social media helped because they said that run clubs were the new dating platforms. We actually had people come over here and then they found the love of their lives,” Anguiano said.
Even if finding a soul mate isn’t in the cards for participants, “seeing people push their limits, seeing people get out here every Tuesday, being consistent, you know, and just making friends and having a good time with it. I think that matters a lot,” Anguiano said.
The Summit Run Club meets on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. at Sparks Marina and Saturdays at 8 a.m. with updated info on the Instagram @summitrunclub where that meetup is.