How did Christiansburg Run Club get started?
Christiansburg Run Club was founded on January 25th, 2020 by
Morgan Corl, Jonathan Roberts, and Sara Yun
History
Christiansburg Run Club was founded for one simple reason: our town needed an inclusive, welcoming place to walk and run together. From the start, our club was never truly about running. It’s about making friends, moving together, and creating a tight community here in our small town.
The first few runs and walks started out of Sara’s Yoga and massage studio in Cambria, a historic neighborhood in Christiansburg, Virginia. There was an initial influx of folks, eager to run together with the understanding that this was a community-building endeavor too. For the first few months, we had a committed group of 8 to 10 runners and walkers each time we met.
The Covid pandemic very temporarily halted run club activities. As soon as social distancing started to lift, the club began meeting together again. Initially, members wore masks at the start and took them off to run.
As run club naturally grew larger, the name was shortened from “Christiansburg Running Club” to “Christiansburg Run Club” on February 21st, 2021.
The club’s meeting location changed too. We moved from Cambria to downtown Christiansburg. Morning runs met at Brugh Coffee, a neighborhood staple at 407 Roanoke Street. While the coffee shop operation has since closed, morning runs continue to meet there in 2025.
Evening events originally met at the Christiansburg Farmers Market location on Hickok Street, until the town moved the market to the Christiansburg Rec Center. After the market left, run club began meeting at its current location, near the Montgomery County Courthouse main entrance and Iron Tree Brewing Company.
Once Iron Tree Brewing Company was open in May 2021, the brewery became a staple in the community at-large and a popular hangout spot for the club following their Thursday events. In collaboration with the brewery, the run club also started doing trash cleanups and volunteer events.
The club started to offer once-a-month morning trail runs at Pandapas Pond, led by Morgan Corl, in addition to track workouts at Cupp Memorial Stadium in Radford, Virginia.
Present Day, 2025
Five years in, Christiansburg Run Club continues to grow, with larger attendance and more runs and walks added all the time. Members meet outside of designated days as well—running and walking together as relationships are naturally created in the community.
Recently, a Slack community was created. This allows members to coordinate “Short Notice” runs and walks, talk about upcoming events, and let others know when they’re running late.
Into the future, the club hopes to grow and collaborate more with the community, perhaps adding larger organized runs and races, scholarships, and more volunteer events.
Updated: January 3rd, 2025