About Us & Mission

Club History
The Anniston Runners Club was founded in 1980 when a group of Anniston businessmen, who ran together each Sunday afternoon for fitness, decided to form a running club. After a Sunday run, they met at one of their homes and drafted the bylaws. One of their first member meetings was at Golden Springs Community Center with Dr. Charles Veale speaking on health and fitness. Over the following three years, the club began to grow to 180 members that consisted of doctors, lawyers, bankers, insurance agents, Mayor Norwood Hodges, teachers, and others. The name Anniston Runners Club (ARC) was chosen.

At the time the ARC was formed, the Anniston Star sponsored the largest local foot race held in Anniston, the Midsummer Morn 5K. This race was held in conjunction with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the ARC helped with the coordination of the event. When the Shakespeare Festival moved to Montgomery in 1986, the ARC and the Star agreed that the ARC would adopt the race. Since the race was held on Woodstock Avenue, it was renamed the Woodstock 5K.

The Woodstock 5K was designated by the Calhoun County Historic Preservation Committee and the City of Anniston in 2013. The city funded the production and erection of two beautiful historic markers for the start and finish of our largest race. While our club is named “Anniston” Runners Club, it is by no means exclusively an Anniston club, or even just a Calhoun County entity.

The Club hosts a total of four annual races and when runners compete in all four, they are eligible for the Fab Four Series. Other races include the Half-Naked ½ and ¼ Marathon in January around the beautiful Ft. McClellan, the Canyon Climb 5-Miler with scenic views of Anniston, and the Plucked Turkey 10K in the Golden Springs neighborhood.

Mission
The mission of the Anniston Runners Club is to promote, encourage and foster the love of running, as well as to facilitate the healthy benefits of running, and mentor new runners.

Our goal is to provide runners with opportunities to train and improve individual running results. We strive to promote running by planning and sponsoring quality running-related events. As part of our outreach effort to educate the public about running, we encourage runners of all levels and abilities.