United By Design Running

United By Design Running will be another great way for the design community, and friends of the design community, to come together just as we have done with for the Bike MS charity ride. We will be doing group runs twice a week and then at least three races between now and April; the Kirkwood Turkey Trot, the St. Patrick's Day Run, and St. Louis Go Races. Feel free to share this with all of your runner friends!


Team Training

We will be meeting up every Sunday morning for a 9 am start time for Team Training Runs. Much like the training rides, we will change up the locations, but we will get an e-mail out plenty ahead of time so you know where to meet up and if there is a time change. Starting out we will meet in Tower Grove Park at the intersection of Central Cross Dr & Southwest Ave Dr. There will be a few mileage options for all skill levels. We plan on having water on hand after every run.


We will also be meeting one weekday evening at 6:00 pm for a group run. Please e-mail me what day works best for you - Tuesday or Wednesday by 11/3. Which ever night gets the most votes wins. Our week night runs will meet at Francis Park at the intersection of Nottingham & Donovan Ave. It will be dark at this time of night, but it is a safe well lit one mile loop. We will have route options that go outside of the park, but the surrounding areas are safe as well.

Our weekday runs will typically be shorter routes than Sundays and we will vary the training with speed workouts, stretching sessions, etc.

Our first official team meet up with be either Tuesday the 8th or Wednesday the 9th at 5:30. I will let you know for sure when I have all of the votes back. We will then meet the following Sunday.


Team Races

Our first team race will be the Kirkwood/Webster Turkey Run on Thanksgiving Morning (11/24). It has a 3 mile & 6 mile option. If you are a new runner and think that it is to far to run, it is a walker friendly race and I encourage you to walk it at the very least. It is fun and inspiring to be apart of a race. It will be a great motivation for your training! http://www.kirkwoodmo.org/content/City-Departments/2339/turkey-day-run.aspx

Our second race will be the St. Patrick's Day run March 17th. It is a five mile race that goes through downtown. People dress up for the holiday and last year there were 13,000 runners. http://www.irishparade.org/site/run/


Our third race will be Go St. Louis April 15th. There is a 5K option, a marathon rely, a 1/2 marathon, and a full marathon. There is already a group interested in running the 1/2, so our group runs will have routes that follow the a training schedule to complete it come race day. http://www.gostlouis.org/marathon-weekend.html

We may add more races after the Go - we will know more as the season gets going.



The Details

United By Design Running will work a little differently than United By Design BikeMS. When you join the team you will get a long sleeve UbD running shirt, entry fee paid into the Turkey Run with registration taken care of, and water at the team training runs. To cover these costs, we are asking $50 to join the team. If you cannot run in the Turkey Day run, the amount ($17.50) will be applied to either the St. Patrick Run or Go St. Louis. Let me know if you have any questions on this part as I know it is different than our BikeMS team.

We will be working to get sponsors who can put their logo on our jerseys & website to help cover more costs, like race fees, team dinners & happy hours. I am also looking into getting a gym at a local community center or church to reserve for our weeknight workouts in case of bad weather which will be a team cost if we pursue that option. If you have a company who would be interested in sponsoring us, please let me know so I may reach out to them.


The Deadline

We will need to know by Nov. 14th if you would like to join the team for the deadline of the Turkey Day run. We will be putting in the running shirt order in on the 15th so we have them before race day. If we have more runners added to the team after that deadline, we will put in a second order as needed. Checks can be made out to me, Jessica Bahr, and sent to my address below. Money will be due Nov. 20th and you will not get your jersey unless you have paid. If you order a jersey, but then decide not to join and we cannot give your jersey to someone else, you will be responsible for the amount to cover the jersey.

I will not keep sending out mass e-mails after this one, only if you reply will you get e-mails on UbD running. If you were forwarded this e-mail, please contact me so I can add you to my list.

We look forward to running with you and please e-mail me at jessica@vervecolor.com if you have any questions!


Jessie Bahr