Ryan Lane, running

Ryan Lane, who says he's enjoyed running since high school, has found a way to keep enjoying it.

Lane, a freshman at Southeast Missouri State University, leads the university's running club. The club, in its first year, is sponsored by the university and quickly is becoming popular around campus.

"Definitely," Lane said. "We have 20 members, and this is the first semester there's been a club. We hope to get up to 30 or 40 members by the end of the year, we just want to continue to get bigger and bigger."

Lane ran both cross country and track while at Francis Howell North High School, but the distance and competitiveness of cross country was always his favorite.

"Cross country was great because you didn't have to run in circles the whole race," he said.

The club practices Monday through Thursday every week, using the weekends to compete in road races around the area.

"There are no other colleges around the area that we can compete with, so we're always searching for road races to enter," Lane said. "We have a core group who have all run before, and who like to race."

"There's also a group of runners who aren't into racing as much, but are looking for something to keep them in shape, and that's OK, too. They don't run the races."

Despite the weather, practices are held outdoors, which lessens the turnout from time to time.

"Some people don't like the cold," Lane said. "But we just go out and try to have some fun."

The club is split into two groups that run together for motivational purposes.

The top group will pound six or seven miles of pavement all over Cape Girardeau. The low group stays mainly on campus and runs one or two miles a day.

Lane is optimistic that participation in the club will grow.

"The more members you get, the more you are recognized by the campus as a team, which can help financially," he said. "I think it has the chance to become very popular in a couple of years."

-- David Unterreiner