When founder of Camosun Running Club Camilo Dib moved to Canada from Mexico, his search for a weekly community running group fell short. Noticing the demand wasn’t singular, he and peers within the Sport Management program started their own to accommodate the lacuna.
After registering the club with the Camosun College Student Sociey and marketing online, Dib says he couldn’t have predicted the attendance at the club’s first meeting (meetings take place every Sunday at 9:00 am in front of the Legislature building).
“I remember the first Sunday I got there, and, of course, I was expecting zero or two people. But no, we were actually 18, we had a really good turnout,” says Dib. “Because I realized there’s a lot of people, I don’t want to say without friends, but willing to make friends.”
While the club began signing up for Victoria marathons, including the TC10K, when he noticed improvement in the runners’ performance, he emphasizes that the club still maintains its open door to all levels and splits up to accommodate different speeds.
“So the mantra of the club is we’ll leave no one behind,” he says. “So if it’s just me on a Sunday leading the club, well, if there’s someone behind, I will walk with that person.”
Dib, with a background in triathlon, believes that runs can transcend areas of difference. He says the club offers Camosun students without English proficiency a way of communication and connection beyond conversation alone.
“Sport is the universal language of love. [It] is the only thing that unites countries, cultures. Even if we don’t speak the same language, you can always play the same sport,” says Dib. “I mean, translating that into running, we experience that every Sunday. We have people learning English. We have a lot of exchange students.”
While students spend their weekends in a variety of ways, Dib says his club offers something different to the community. But, after runs, they make time for some well-deserved relief.
“It’s a way to give them one more option. You don’t have to party every Saturday. I love partying, I love drinking as well. But there’s something else you can do,” he says. “You can also go to bed at 10:00 pm and wake up at 7:00 and go for a run. And then we are having, we call it our after-running party, after-running coffee. So that’s the other thing: we are having coffee. That’s mandatory after every run. Sometimes we run for four minutes, and we stay at the coffee shop for two and a half hours.”
What makes the Running Club special, Dib says, is what it offers to Camosun students’ sense of belonging where they may not have found it otherwise at the college. He hopes to ensure that the club can be a comfortable environment for anyone interested in becoming a runner.
“The success of the run club is not running. Maybe it’s not even making friends. It’s something that you can belong to… belong to something bigger than [yourself],” says Dib. “[I want to] provide people with a safe space to start doing physical activity in a place where they feel welcome and included.”
To sign up, Dib says students can access the application form on their Instagram (@camosunrunningclub) or look out for their merchandise among Camosun students for more information.
“Ask anyone on campus, if you see someone wearing a Camosun Running hoodie or T-shirt, just tell them you want to join us,” he says. “Or, well, just come on Sunday.”