HER Outdoors Week: Raheny Shamrock AC

In conjunction with Sport Ireland and HER Outdoors week, Athletics Ireland launch the availability of the Her Outdoors Club Grant Scheme, following on from the major success in 2022. Learn more and apply HERE.

Firstly, we’d like to thank Athletics Ireland for affording us to opportunity to participate in HER Outdoors Week by way of the HER Outdoors Club Grant Scheme.

Over the course of the week, we ran two different events, with a particular focus on teenage girls.

On Monday August 8th, we organised a trail run in St. Anne’s Park for girls and women of all ages in the club, with refreshments after in the clubhouse. We advertised the event on our club social media platforms beforehand and invited non-members to join too (some did!). We got a fantastic turnout on the evening of almost 50 ladies, all of whom went back to the clubhouse for refreshments after. It was fantastic to see the mix of young and old all heading out from the clubhouse together on what turned-out to be a gorgeous summer evening. Hopefully the teenage girls in the group can see how enjoyable (and social!) recreational and trail running can be and hopefully they will see the benefits of staying in sport. We also ran a pilates class for the teenage girls beforehand.

On Saturday August 13th, capitalising on both the inclusiveness of parkrun and the fact that the Sport Ireland Campus parkrun is in fact a trail run, we brought a group of the teenage girls in the club to participate in the Sport Ireland Campus parkrun and we took them all out for breakfast after. Some of the ladies who ran with the teens on the Monday run decided to join the girls for both the parkrun and the breakfast, which was absolutely fantastic to see! Based on all the happy faces over breakfast and going home, they had a great time. Sometimes running isn’t just about the running and the chats and friendships are just as, if not more important!!

As a club, we decided to participate in HER Outdoors week because we wanted to demonstrate to teenage girls how fun trail and recreational running can be! Not everyone needs to compete. We'd love it if the girls can see running as a fun social activity, and something which they can always fall back on for friendship and fitness as they progress into their later teens / adult years.