Jog in the Bog to celebrate 20 years this weekend!

Hundreds of runners will take to Free Derry Corner this Sunday to help celebrate two decades of Jog in the Bog.

From kids dressed as superheroes to seasoned runners young and old, the event, named in honour of local athlete Colm Quigley 14 years ago, has evolved into arguably the most unique and popular road race event in the running calendar throughout the city.

The Jog in the Bog has survived Covid, date changes, time changes and many other issues throughout recent years, with hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds coming out to support an event which is all about having fun and creating memories.

Ciaran Lockhart, Research and Engagement Officer for Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum, believes the attraction of the event is down to the fact that literally anyone can take part.

“It's probably the thing we like most about it,” he explained. “What we'll have is every year we'll have your kind of seasoned runners who are looking to take it on as a proper challenge and because it's a timed chipped race, it's in their calendar to complete Jog in the Bog every year and they're looking to improve on times from previous years.

“But then you have people at the complete opposite end of the spectrum as well who've maybe been doing a Couch to 5K and they've put Jog in the Bog is their target event to cover, just to mark their progress. Then you have everybody in between; you have people returning from other years, people who maybe are a runner or an athlete and they've gone through maybe an injury and this is their path back to fitness again, so we really love just having a full range of everybody taking part in it.

“We get messages from people who ask, “Can I walk Jog in the Bog?”, and we say yes. That's probably something people don't realise. We just set the walkers off even earlier than the runners and it's just to show people that making the decision to take part in it is making a decision that you're going to improve your health and fitness overall so that's what we love to see.”

‘Heart of the Community’

During Covid, people across the world completed the Jog in the Bog in their own way, and that method has continued, with those not able to attend the event in person signing up to do it remotely, regardless of location.

“It's set in the heart of the community but we would have people year on year contact us and they're maybe from the city or from the community but they're maybe living away now,” Ciaran continued. “They care so much about the event and what it represents that they're always looking to do it remotely, so we have that option as well too with people signing up to register online, we've had the option, if you're not local, we can post your pack ID and you can do your run remotely.

“I've actually been sending a few replies to people. We sent a pack off to Scotland and we have a couple of runners who are actually going on holidays but they still want to do Jog in the Bog on the date of Jog in the Bog. They're really keen to do it, so I suppose that's one thing that's helped. Yeah, there's been difficulties in the past with Covid etc but it's great that it's been supported for so long and I think it's a testament to the event itself. People really want to support it so we're kind of lucky in a way that we have that support year on year.”

Each year all proceeds from the event go towards Mental Health Services in the town, a much-needed funding boost which will help people in need of support at difficult times in their lives.

“A big one for us is being able to facilitate mental health counselling in the community and every registration goes towards that,” Ciaran acknowledged. “That's why we're always as keen to get as many people signed up for it as possible and there's even people I know in the past people who sign up for Jog in the Bog and they have no intentions of running the race, but they just see it almost as a charity donation because they know that their money is going to a good cause.

“I've done that myself in previous years. Even before I worked here It was always something I did because I know where the money is going and it's going to be putting to good effect as well too.”

New time

Traditionally, the Jog in the Bog event takes place on a Thursday evening, but this year it has been moved to early on Sunday morning. The move has not affected interest in the race one bit.

“Last year we changed it because there was a clash with Derry City’s European game and we did change it because we didn't want to affect the overall traffic In the city on that day,” Ciaran said. “This year we're back on our normal week of Féile . I think we were supposed to be on a Thursday night but the Whistling Donkeys are going to be headlining as part of Féile  so we've gone for the Sunday morning slot, but it doesn't seem to have dampened the enthusiasm for it.

“There's still loads of people signed up for it and we're still taking registrations. We've only been taking registrations so far online but we're going to have our pack collection days this Thursday and Friday in Destined.

“People have already been messaging asking can they sign up at those pack collection nights and yeah, they absolutely can. People can even sign up on the morning of as well too. We're very happy with the numbers that are signing up taking into account that we've just been doing online registrations so far.”

The day will start with the Superheroes Race at 9am from Free Derry corner, giving local kids the opportunity to share the limelight on a day where everyone runs with a smile on their face.

“The children's event for us is just as important as the main 5k race because we're trying to instil in children from a very young age the importance of fitness, health and wellbeing,” Ciaran explained. “It's really an opportunity to just celebrate them and just letting them dress up in their costumes is always such a fun part of the day. We also love it whenever the parents watch them as well for that wee bit of extra support so we just love ravishing them with attention on the morning.

“Obviously this year is pretty special being the 20th year of it as well too so it's a big milestone for us. I'm sure when it first started off, we never would have imagined that we would still be running Jog the Bog all these years later.”