If you have questions about joining the Eagles, hopefully, you will find the answer here. If not, please get in touch by emailing us at info@ealingeagles.com. 

Q. How do I join?

A. Get in touch with us via the online contact form or emailing info@ealingeagles.com in the first instance and we will come back to you with full joining details and how to find us for your first club run. After that you will need to fill in your details on the joining form and we will send you the details of how to pay your fee. Annual membership is £43.

If you want to take part in our social Monday and Wednesday 7.30pm club runs, we do ask that you should be able to run the whole distance for the short club run (normally around 5.5k / 3.5miles) without needing to walk.

Q. What does my membership fee include?

A. We feel that £43 represents excellent value for money when you take into account the coached club sessions, discounted transport to certain races, league race entry fees and subsidised social events that we offer to club members. It’s far cheaper than a gym! £19 of your joining fee covers your England Athletics affiliation fee, which gives runners discounted entry to affiliated races and other benefits. Under EA rules you must also be an EA member and an Eagles member in order to race for the club. 

Q. I’ve asked to join the Eagles’ Facebook group. Why haven’t I been accepted?

A. We encourage all club members to join the Ealing Eagles Running Club Facebook group. It’s by far the easiest way for us to communicate quickly and efficiently to our 700+ runners and it’s the place where you’ll find easy access to club information, updates on training sessions and club events. We restrict access to the group to paid-up club members, so you will need to have paid your joining fee before you will be accepted to the group. We also need to check members’ details against our membership database before we can accept them to the group, and this can take us a few days. Please do remember that the club is staffed entirely by volunteers – we aim to accept you onto the group as soon as possible and we thank you for your patience. Please also note that we can only check the membership database if we have your real name – if you use a different name for Facebook, please email info@ealingeagles.com to let us know.

Q. Do I automatically get a club running vest when I join?

A. Club kit is not included in your joining fee. When you have joined up you can order your kit online as soon as you like in our Kit Shop. Club kit is handled by volunteers from the club. The Kit Officer will get in touch with you once you have placed an order with the details of when your order will be ready. 

Q. I’m nervous about attending a club run. What if I get lost?

A. We have runners of all paces at our club runs. Our only stipulation is that you must be able to run our short route (approximately 3.5 miles) without stopping or walking. If you’re unable to do this, our Beginners Programme will help get you up to this level. We have tailrunners for the Monday and Wednesday night club runs so you can run at your own pace and not worry about getting lost.

We encourage new members to make themselves known to the club run lead and to chat to other runners when they arrive for their first club run – we’re a very friendly club and you’ll usually find there’s someone you can run with whatever your pace. The club run routes are also available on the members section of the website – they are fairly straightforward but we recommend that you familiarise yourself with them before you arrive to run. There’s just one simple thing to remember on a club run if you’re unsure of the route – if you lose sight of the runners in front of you and don’t know where to go, slow down until someone behind you catches you up – the tail runner won’t lose you!

Q. I’m a fast runner. Is there anything for me?

A. Yes! We welcome runners of all standards and have plenty of fast runners in the club. The club 5k records are currently 16:43 (men) and 18:43 (women), while the marathon records are 2:37:44 (men) and 2:51:32 (women). The club sends teams to some very prestigious events including the Welsh Castles Relay and Green Belt Relay, and we compete in a local Summer League and two cross country leagues over the Autumn and Winter. In addition to our club runs, which you can run at your own pace, our track, hills and intervals sessions are designed to improve performance for all of our runners and our club coaches will work with you to help you achieve your running goals. There are also plenty of opportunities to race for the club at all distances.

Q. I’d like to join the club, but I can’t run 5k. What do I do?

A. We have a free Beginners Programme with intakes throughout the year. This follows a gradual programme progressing from two minutes’ running with one minute walking, at your own pace, and increasing the amount of time you spend running each week until you are able to run 5k (3.1 miles) continuously, without stopping. At this point, the beginners’ coaches will take you on a run around the shorter of the Eagles’ club run routes, and/or you may complete a continuous run at a 5k parkrun event, at which point you are deemed to have ‘graduated’ from the beginners’ programme and are welcome join the main club. You must sign up to join the Beginners Programme - more information about the programme can be found here including a link to join the waiting list or the next programme as appropriate.

Q. Is there a charge for the training sessions?

A. No. We offer several official club training sessions per week, including Monday and Wednesday night club runs, hill training sessions, interval sessions and technique/drills sessions, depending on the time of year. All of these sessions are included in your joining fee (though you may asked to pay a fee or make a donation to help with cost of track fees or other hire of facilities - this will always be made clear in the publicity). Runners are also free to organise their own runs, and the Facebook group is very useful for this. We also have several qualified running coaches (with the UKA Coach in Running Fitness qualification) and qualified run leaders (with the UKA Leader in Running Fitness qualification) – all club volunteers who provide input into some of the sessions. There is no charge for this.

Q. Can I wear headphones during club runs?

A. We prefer that club members don't wear headphones on club runs, as they are designed to be social runs where people can chat to each other. We would also remind runners of the safety implications of wearing headphones, particularly as our club run routes use roads, paths and pavements that are also used by motorists, cyclists and other pedestrians. However, there is no specific rule banning the use of headphones on club runs.

Q. Can my child/teenager join the club?

A. We run a popular and active junior section for juniors aged 8 and above. These sessions are led by qualified coaches, coaching assistants and volunteers and run throughout the school terms. Please see full information and sign up form on our Juniors page.

For children aged 4–14, we also recommend trying the free junior parkruns at: