I'm a Certified Running Coach!

I'd like to announce that I'm a newly minted Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) Level 1 coach! I'd been thinking about the RRCA Coaching Certification for a while. I figured the modest financial investment would be worthwhile given the education I would receive. The problem was that it was hard to get into the classes, and most of them required travel to another city. When I found out that there was one scheduled for this September in Columbus, I jumped on it.



Preparation & Overview

In addition to attending class and taking a 100 question test, I would need to provide proof of CPR and first aid certification. My CPR certification was more than two years old, so I got myself into class in May, just a week after I registered for the coaching class. Then I took an online First Aid course the week leading up to class.
There were two official pre-work items that all students needed to do:
  1. Watch an online video of Randy Accetta (Coaching Director for RRCA) present on the history of running coaches and coaching philosophy.
  2. Use the RRCA website to find RRCA running clubs in our area.
The RRCA class was a busy two days in early September. It was almost like not having a weekend, since class was on Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There were 35 students registered with one no-show. Several of the students were already coaching and wanted the official credential. Several of us were new to coaching and wanted to apply the knowledge to our own running or to help friends and family. The facility hosting the class was RISE Fitness Community, and five people attended from RISE. We were led by RRCA instructor Cari Setzler, who has an interesting background. Cari is a veterinarian by profession, but is not currently in practice. She is a sub-elite runner herself, and has years of experience coaching individuals and cross country/track teams. I liked the wealth of experience and the medical perspective she was able to bring.

 Class Day 1 - Saturday

The first day of class was heavy on lectures about RRCA, types of runners and their motivation, types of training and workouts, physiology, and how to build a training plan for a distance runner. It was a lot of information but I found it very interesting. It confirmed some things I already knew from years of running. It also filled in gaps in my knowledge, and explained the reasons for other things. At the end of the day we were given some homework.
  1. Take a simple assessment to determine our communication style, which should help us understand how to interact with clients and how to develop our own coaching philosophy.
  2. Begin to create a training plan for fictitious marathoner Robin, who was hoping to run a Boston Qualifier in 12 weeks.
Selfie with my book

 Class Day 2 - Sunday

We spent significant parts of the day in small groups working on the case study for Robin. My group had four people (one of them was a fellow Marathon Maniac) and we worked well together. The rest of the day we learned about injuries, nutrition, ethics, the business of coaching, and other topics.

Our group's version of fictitious runner Robin's training plan

I found the class to be very informative, and some of the content in the manual will be useful to me immediately. I also got to try a group running class at RISE on the Sunday evening after RRCA class.

 The Exam

We had to pass the exam with a score of 85% within 30 days of completing the course. Instructor Cari suggested logging in, printing the test questions, and answering them off-line in preparation for completing the online test. That's what I did, but the online test would only allow me to print 10 questions at a time before answering them; that was a little annoying. On the positive side, it broke things up a bit and I worked in some other chores, like laundry, in between answering test questions.

I felt pretty good about the course material. But the test took longer than I thought it would. I took time to verify all of my answers (the exam was open-book, but no collaboration was allowed with other coaching students). There were some questions that didn't seem to have a single correct answer, so I did my best on those. After submitting the test, I was immediately given my passing score.

 What's Next?

Now that I'm a certified RRCA Level 1 Coach, what will I do about it? I have some specific ideas about coaching for supplemental income. Or at first, maybe taking on some work pro bono, to get some actual experience on my resume. I'm thinking about a target demographic of runners, which I'm keeping to myself for now. No matter what, I'm so glad I took the course. It has given me invaluable knowledge that has already improved my own training. And when I pace races, I will now bring with me this additional credential, lending myself credibility even beyond my race resume.
Are any of my readers looking for a running coach, or some advice from a coach? Would you like to be my first client? Let me know, and we'll see where it takes us!

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