FALKLAND TRAIL RUNNERS:
Who are we?
Our club was founded to encourage runners of all abilities to come & run with us over the tracks & trails of Falkland Estate and the surrounding area. Our runs are inclusive and we try to match groups by ability where practical.
What is the club like though?
The ethos of the club is to have some fun along with our running. Training sessions are sometimes a bit seat of the pants due to the location and terrain that we run on. Weather can play havoc with our plans so we prefer to organise sessions around the attendees and the prevailing conditions.
We have a broad range of abilities and you will get encouraged to push yourself. We have people who just want to get fit, we have Parkrunners, Hill Runners, Racers who do everything from 5k to Ultras. You will meet people who share your interest and more importantly who are happy to share their experience and enthusiasm.
Have a look at the training page to see what goes on.
The club welcomes pets to its sessions. All we ask is that you make sure you have your own public liability insurance that covers your pet during sessions and that you follow some simple rules.
Other stuff:
We are a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2012, run by members for our members. We are now an established part of the running community in Scotland.
We have a strong community focus – while some of the surplus we make from events goes into club development, we have also donated to Falkland Estate, Falkland War Memorial, Falkland Cricket Club, the ‘Friends of Craightoun Park’ and many other good causes.
FALKLAND TRAIL RUNNERS – A SHORT HISTORY
Falkland Trail Runners were formed in April 2012 as ‘Falkland Trail Running Group’ by a small band of runners with many years of experience in running, coaching and promoting running events. The group’s initial aims were to introduce the specifics of trail running to a broad audience. Looking at the successful ‘ JogScotland’ and ‘Parkrun’ models, they particularly wished to attract non-club runners as well as the more ‘seasoned’ runners in order to maintain an ‘open to all’ group.
Using the Cricket pavilion as a base with the emphasis on technical work on Thursday’s and Social trail runs on a Sunday, this provided an environment that ensured all runners, especially those new to the sport, could train with confidence and without fear or intimidation by others. The added bonus is that they had somewhere comfortable to meet, have a chat and refreshments post run.
The group evolved into ‘Falkland Trail Runners’ (FTR), and by the end of 2013 had just over 60 regular attendees who could meet up on any of the club’s training dates.
They began to organise running events within Falkland Estate which brought new faces along to the community. Affiliation to the ‘Association of Running Clubs’ and ‘Scottish Athletics’, (the national governing bodies), attracted even more runners to come along and train.
After three years based at the cricket club, the club found that they had outgrown the clubhouse and needed to secure a larger venue in order to keep their members comfortable and warm, thus the move to the Falkland Community Hall was deemed a necessity. Training still continues on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings from the Hall. Refreshments are still made available to the runners after their run!!
Over the past five years, the club has promoted three race series events as well as a further 16 individual events at the Estate. From 2019 the club have organised The Annual Falkland Hill Race rebranded as ‘The Falkland Hill Trail Race’.
FTR has UK Athletics qualified coaches as well as Jog Scotland ‘Jog Leaders’. Who ae all competent at leading and coaching the groups. The club is well established in the running community with members constantly winning individual awards/races and the club has won many team trophies as well. Their membership includes social runners, through to ultra-marathon runners. There has been a remarkable growth in members competing in cross country over the winter months and this forthcoming season will be no exception. With their distinctive branded clothing and the ‘Squirrel’ motif, the club are now firmly established and recognised all over the country…and further afield!!
We are a member of the Association of Running Clubs.
We organise trail races throughout the year. Forthcoming races can be seen on our events page.
So if you fancy training and running with a friendly group then we’re at Falkland Community Hall at 6:30pm on Thursdays and 9:30am on Sundays. We have tea/coffee, stretching and a chat at the end of each session. The cost of all of this Squirrely goodness? A single new pound!
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