Sometimes it's tough to get up and moving in the summer, especially when some of these organized runs bring out experienced athletes and tough competition. If you're looking to lace up those sneakers on a more low-key scale, the
Charlottesville Track Club may have the meet for you and your family.
The
All-Comers Track Meets date back to 1975 and are meant to open the sport of running to people of all ages and abilities. The nights of racing draw anywhere from 50 to 100 people aging from three to 70 years old.
"It's a wonderful, wonderful organization that absolutely there's one mission of positively promoting the sport," Charlottesville Track Club's Mark Lorenzoni said. "And trying to encourage as many people, they open their arms to the fastest people in town to some of the slowest runners in town, and that's the way it's always been, and that's what they continue to want to be."
Events range from 100-meter sprints and parent-child relays, to two-mile runs and 5k's.
For some runners like Jerri Emm, it's not just a way to stay in shape. A number of families introduce their kids to running with these events and hope it provides a chance to bond on the track as well.
"There are definitely the people who just come out here to get their kids introduced to it, and then there are the people who are really serious runners who bring their kids out to see if they're going to catch on," Emm explained.
The directors of the All-Comers Track Meets stress that the event is meant to be accessible to all. They mentioned for a number of organized races, runners have to sign-up far in advance and shell out to sweat it out. However, All-Comers Track Meets require no pre-registration, and participants pay a maximum of $2 to run in as many races as they want.
Meet director Leah Connor said, "It's low-key that's the best part about it. You don't, there's no big huge time commitment."
Everyone is invited to come out to Thursday night's track meet, which is the second of three All-Comers' events this summer. The first event starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Charlottesville High School track.
Click here for a more detailed schedule.
The race organizers say a meet has never been canceled because of the heat, but encourage runners to drink plenty of water before coming out to the track.
