The Aggie Running Club is a Northern California based distance running club. The club was founded in 1976 by alumni of UC Davis. Today there is no formal connection to UC Davis. Many of the newer members continue to come from UC Davis, but also from Cal Poly SLO, Fresno St., San Jose St., Chico St., Humboldt St., Cal St. Bakersfield, Stanford, Oregon St., Wester St. (Col.), Cal St. Hayward, Brown, Wesleyan, Trinity (Dublin), and Oxford.
The club is dedicated to developing athletes to the National level by running hard and having a good time, the club motto being, "the faster we run, the sooner the fun." As club #111 of the Pacific Assoc. (PA) of USATF, the Aggs compete in the PA LDR and XC Grand Prix. The club is also a major power in local track come Spring. Nationally, the club travels to the USATF XC nationals each year, has a few individuals at Outdoor Track Nationals and swamps the US Men's Olympic Marathon Trials, filling 9% of the 1992 field and showing 5 runners in 1996. What makes the ARC world famous, however, is the founding and domination of Centipede competition.
The club uses a time based 5-level program to support it's athletes with shoes, apparel and travel reimbursement. See the membership section to see how to get our club handbook so you can learn more about it.
The Aggie History
Where it all began.
Back in the early ages, before there was Air and Lycra, there was plain old running. It was in the year of our lord one thousand nine hundred seventy-six that the Aggie Running Club was placed upon the state of California. Roots trace the club to four soles from UC Davis and three others who banded together at Lake Tahoe for a stab at the 72 mile relay around the mile high lake. Some say it was the altitude, others say it was the beer, but the result was as clear as the lake is cold, the Aggie Embryo was unleashed. Those 7- Ed Schelgle, Pete Sweeney, Mike Sweeney, Angel Martinez (all of UC Davis), Bill Hunsaker (U.C. Irvine), Hal Schulz (Redwood H.S.), Mike Killen (Humboldt St.).
During the early stages up on to the present, Dwayne "Peanut" Harms has been a bubbling spring of Aggie consciousness. Other luminaries in the club include the Mighty Killeen family, the brothers Sweeney, and Paleo Ags Jim VanDine and Angel Martinez. In recent years, dudes like Joe "Justin Tyme" Fabris, Terence "OneManDown" Boynton, Stacy "Stick" Geiken, Melissa "Tequilla Queen" Martel and Dave "Papillion" Frank have maintained the club infrastructure.
On or about the year 1978, the Aggies made an alliance with Converse for equipment. From that time until the mid 1980's, they were known as the Converse Aggies. But low and behold, core Aggies Angel Martinez and Jim Van Dine were busy climbing the corporate ranks at Reebok. When the time was right, they made their play and in the bloodless coup of the century, converted the Aggies from a basketball team to a set of finely tuned cheetahs known throughout the land as the Reebok Aggie Running Club.
Also on or about 1978, the Aggie Centipede was born of late night road tripping and sleep deprivation. Some say it was Steve White & Doug Peck, others say it was Peanut & Angel, and nobody says it was Sweeney & Tuna, that came up with the original idea to link 13 brothers together to run the world's craziest run, the Bay to Breakers. Be that as it may, The Aggie centipede is now world infamous, with stories on the event reaching from Runner's World and Sports Illustrated to the Wall Street Journal.
So where are we now? In 1997 the club lists over 120 members. The centipede has been taken to new marketing heights. Most of the Aggies above have gotten hitched and are learning the true meaning of bottle feeding unlike the term that applied at St. James Infirmary or Steamers. A new crowd of able bodies toe the line at Bay to Breakers and other local races. A few have done great things- Mark Conover, Danny Gonzalez, Melissa Martel, Jamey Harris...
The club routinely trips to XC Nationals and has someone on the track come outdoor Nationals. Kevin Searls, Joe "der Furer" Rubio, Terence "El Presidente" Boynton, Jeff "CEO" Shaver and Chris "Brewmaster" Schille are the five most recent club presidents. The contacts page lists all the other semi important folks.
Coaching
Club member, Joe Rubio, serves as club coach. He communicates by email and runs his own web based coaching service via www.coachbynet.com.