Slowly does it: Slow Run Club Lincoln offers a different path for those who get fit in a lower gear

Christina Deex has created something Lincoln has never had: a run club but for slow runners. Deex started her fitness journey six months ago. "I wanted to try running, which I know sounds kind of silly, because anybody can do it. We have legs. There's road outside, or treadmills and gyms, but it was a little bit of an intimidating exercise for me personally," she explained. "I've never considered myself to be a runner, and I've always thought that running was this elite sport that only these really athletic individuals have the capability of doing." She began with walking and running intervals on a treadmill at a gym. She started loving it due to the effects it had on her mental health, breath work and heart. Deex then began to look for a run club to join. She attended one in Roseville that made her feel inadequate. "They were just way faster than I ever could really dream about being frankly. You know, these folks are running like 6 1/2-minute miles, seven-minute miles, and I'm over here at the time running 14-minute miles," she shared. "I just left there feeling kind of bad about myself ... and sort of defeated and unmotivated and again, trying to grapple with that feeling of like not fitting in somewhere." She decided to create her own club: Slow Run Club Lincoln. Deex recruited by using local Facebook groups like "Good Neighbors Lincoln" and "Fun Neighbors Lincoln." She was nervous for the first run six weeks ago. "I think we had 11 people besides myself show up. It was just really cool to have a connection moment for all of us, with community members that we probably would not have normally connected with, around sort of just 45 minutes of running beside each other and getting to know one another," Deex shared. Since then, the club has met every Saturday around 7 a.m. at different locations in Lincoln to run about three miles. The group runs in three groups: faster friends in front, middle runners and walk-run pacers in back. Everyone gets to run with a buddy. On Sundays, Deex will explore a new path to find for the run club. "I will go find a new spot and again, that either I've never run before or an area that I haven't really explored, which is also the sort of secondary goal of this is we have folks in our community that have never been over to," she shared. "A lot of this is introducing folks not just to sort of the joy of running but also an appreciation of our community and what this small town has to offer as far as breadth and beauty." Deex shared she has loved watching different people from different eras come together to run. "This has really provided a wonderful opportunity to get to know people from all walks of life, all different age groups. We have some really young individuals that are right out of high school and then we have some other individuals that are in their 70s. It's just a cool opportunity to have that cross-generational connection that I don't know if you would normally have in your everyday life," Deex said. You can join Slow Run Club Lincoln by joining their public page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/654610537106137/?sorting_setting=RECENT_ACTIVITY