South Side Run Club Celebrates 2nd Anniversary

Members of Onthe9 Run Crew recently participated in the Shamrock Shuffle. Photo provided by Onthe9 Run Crew.
Members of Onthe9 Run Crew recently participated in the Shamrock Shuffle. Photo provided by Onthe9 Run Crew.

South Side Run Club Celebrates 2nd Anniversary

By Tia Carol Jones

The Onthe9 Run Crew commemorated its two-year anniversary and members of the run club recently participated in the Shamrock Shuffle. It started as a group of friends who were part of another run crew, that disbanded, but they still wanted to run together. Onthe9 Run Crew started with five or six runners two years ago. At their last Saturday meet-up, there were more than 35 people in attendance, and their group chat has more than 100 people in it.

“It has been very humbling to see how much we’ve grown in the past two years,” Neishe Russell said. She said every year the number of members has grown.

Russell said when it comes to the Onthe9 Run Crew’s impact on the community, it isn’t really about the number of members, it is more about the lives of the people the run club has been able to touch. She said it is a really strong, tight-knit community that has a family vibe to it. Russell and Phillip Weatherspoon have been with the run club since it started. Anthony Craig has been a member for less than a year. Craig became a member after seeing a flyer and attending a community run.

Weatherspoon said that the Onthe9 Run Crew is filling the void they saw with the lack of a South side-based run club. He said that what makes Onthe9 special is that it is inclusive and considerate runners of paces.  Russell said being inclusive was important because she wants the runners in the club to feel like they are part of the community and wants them to have a sense of belonging, which is what the run club offers its members.

Russell said the longer the race, the longer it takes to train for it. She said that for a marathon, which is 26.2 miles, it usually takes 18 weeks to train. For the Shamrock Shuffle, it took about a month for the runners to train. Weatherspoon said for a lot of the runners, the Shamrock Shuffle was their first race. For those runners, they were training each week, running about three to six miles. The runners also do strength training to prepare for the races.

Russell, Weatherspoon and Craig agreed that not only have they found a sense of community with the Onthe9 Run Crew, they have also seen major health benefits to running since being a part of the club. Craig said running has been life changing for him. He lost around 110 pounds since he started running. He has also seen his diet change to be more disciplined. Russell said that when she got back into running, she was able to lose about 80 pounds. She said running has made her more disciplined and helped with her mental health as well.

“I get to be around these wonderful people and be a part of this great community that I didn’t know I needed,” Russell said, who has run in 13 Shamrock Shuffles.

Weatherspoon said that running came into his life during the pandemic. He wasn’t really a strong runner when he first started but the more he ran, the more confident he became. He lost weight, became more toned. He said running has helped him feel and look better the more he runs. Since starting in 2020, he has completed 40 races. He said that he has felt motivated by the community and being surrounded by other runners.

“It really has transformed my whole life,” Weatherspoon said.

For more information about the Onthe9 Run Crew, people can follow @onthe9runcrew on Instagram.

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