Northern Virginia Running Club: To Enhance Our Members’ Enjoyment of the Sport of Running

The Northern Virginia Running Club (NOVA) is a leading DC-area professionally-coached running team dedicated to promoting running and racing for its 250 members. NOVA hosts two practices a week in Arlington, Virginia: coached track workouts on Tuesday evenings (our main event!) and tempo runs on Thursday evenings. The team is skillfully led by Head Coach Jerry Alexander whose training program takes a thoughtful and conservative approach to helping runners get faster with an emphasis on staying healthy.

As a member of Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), NOVA welcomes runners of all levels and ages. The club is a diverse group made up of local elite athletes, former collegiate competitors, top Masters runners, long time members, and new runners training for their first race. NOVA serves to fill an important niche in the running community for serious runners who seek to train under the guidance of a professional coach in the company of a friendly, welcoming community of dedicated runners, all of whom recognize the importance of balancing running with full professional and personal lives.

Members’ ages range from the teens through the 70s, with a variety of abilities and running backgrounds. Most members live in Arlington and Alexandria, but many live in other communities throughout Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the District. People join NOVA because they have one thing in common: running. Some NOVA members are serious athletes and have been training and competing in races for decades, some have been working out with the club for a few years, while others are just starting out because they are interested in getting back into shape. Some members regularly participate in biathlons or triathlons, of which running is just one event. Others are hoping to complete and do well in at least one marathon, and then we have members who would not even consider doing any race longer than a 10k.

NOVA has been a fixture in the DC area running community since the early 1970s; some of NOVA’s current members have been around since the club’s inception, and have their ancient team jerseys to prove it. This loyalty is emblematic of the close-knit NOVA community, and the solid friendships that are formed through the club are often the reason many of the NOVA members keep coming back, year after year.

Considering joining the NOVA team?

Come run with us at a Tuesday evening track workout to see what we're all about.

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