The Lansing Area Running Community: Part 2

by Kari Chandler

As I sit here waiting for the rain to stop so I can go out for my run, I wonder again what makes the Greater Lansing area the running mecca that it is.

Certainly the brainchild that was the Playmakers Race Series inspired runners of all sorts, but speaking of inspired, have you ever met Chuck Block?

You see him at all the races, most often as the timer, sometimes as the race director, and a bit less frequently as a participant running for a piece of the age group action. He’s always busy, with a smile on his face and brings the term ‘positive energy’ to life.

Chuck ran in high school for Livonia Franklin, but found his true love of the sport some years later, and that’s when the inspired part of this story starts.

In his twenties he strayed a bit from his active and healthy high school self. I don’t know the details, but that’s what he said. Then he entered a race and remembered how good it felt to run and went all in on changing his lifestyle. “Running changed my life!” he exclaimed more than once during our conversation.

Having re-found his love for running, he also seemed to find the continuing theme of his entire life. He describes himself as being dedicated to running, not in the training and racing for glory (although he has done his fair share of that) but in sharing running with as many people as possible. Again he said that running changed his life, and he wants to help others find that source of joy and power within themselves.

When his kids chose colleges in this area, he moved to Lansing and happened upon the job of assistant cross country and track coach at Lansing Community College. Very soon he was the head coach. He also worked at Playmakers, ‘just for kicks’ he said, ‘because I just love running’. “I never planned it that way, it just seemed like things just happened because I loved running so much’, he enthused.

He dabbled in race directing, in both Detroit and Lansing areas. He did his own timing, which led to requests from other directors to do their timing, which eventually led to buying equipment and the start of his own timing business. Now, every weekend is spent timing multiple races. His kids and friends work with him in order to time several races at a time all over mid-Michigan.

You can see how this story is unfolding. One thing leads to another, and to yet another.

In the midst of all this, Chuck Block started the Michigan Running Foundation, whose mission statement starts with the sentence : ‘Our mission is to support youth running in Michigan’ and continues to elaborate with examples of the types of groups it supports and then states that the money made through hosting and timing races goes back into the foundation.

The Lansing Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day is his pride and joy. What started as 100 or so runners has grown to over 5000 registered participants, making it his biggest fundraiser. The upcoming Twilight Run is another race, directed and timed by Chuck, whose profits benefit the MRF.

The MRF distributes nearly $100,000 annually to school systems, youth running groups, and individuals, supporting, to some degree, about 80 different entities each year.

Chuck and his foundation stepped up to the plate to fund middle school running sports when the Lansing School District could no longer afford to do so. That includes uniforms, coaches, transportation, and whatever else it takes to run a school team. Michigan Running Foundation makes it happen.

Another example is the support of independent youth running groups, exposing children from all walks of life to the sport.

In talking to him, I could feel the joy he gets back from this endeavor. He spoke of thank you notes from a cross country team sent to summer running camp by MRF, or of a middle school runner who qualified and competed at the Honor Roll meet….the equivalent of the Olympics in her world. Many of these kids, with help through MRF sponsorship might go on to become college runners, or learn well the lessons of running as a lifelong sport for physical and mental health.

Talk about inspired. Chuck has touched countless lives through his coaching and the Michigan Running Foundation just for the purpose of giving others the chances he had, through running.

One cannot ignore the integral part he plays in forming the unique tapestry of Lansing area running.

Thank you, Chuck, for all you do.

See you at the races!