Two Eastern Bay mothers cannot believe their run club has taken off like it has.

The Zone Two Run Club, created by Danielle Herewini and Anahera Hakiaha, was recently awarded the ASB Bank Good Sorts Award.

Originally it was intended to be a small group for people who wanted to go for a casual run.

However, it has grown significantly with well over 40 runners joining each run, along with children.

Hakiaha said the idea came randomly while training for a race.

“The idea of run club came from signing up for a race here in Whakatāne and Ōhope Sun to Surf.

“We trained together for four weeks, and then randomly we thought about doing a run club so we had more friends to run the riverbank with.”

She said it’s incredible just how big the group had become.

“We are so stoked that others want to join in with us.

“The first six months of Zone Two Run Club we had people that knew us that joined in to keep us all accountable. Heading into month seven and onwards, we had many more people from the community start coming along as they heard from friends of friends about a “social run club in Whakatāne – where you can walk and or run”.

Creating the club was all about a fun and safe environment for people to do some exercise.

“The focus was to get the community moving, creating a safe space for people doing exercise without judgment.

“We have seen that people can get anxious when having to go outside their comfort zone and we believe we have achieved these goals.

“We have been able to meet a variety of people. A friend of ours, Chris King, pre-diabetic – weighing well over 120 kilograms, is now down to 95kg. Seeing that is amazing.”

They try and head out for a run at least a couple of times a week.

“We run two to three times a week from various locations.

The locations are usually the Whakatāne Rowing Club, Whakatāne Coastguard, Maraetotara, Port Ōhope and the athletics field for track work. During winter it varies between one and two days a week.”

Herewini said it was amazing to even be nominated for something like the ASB Good Sort Award.

“Winning the ASB good sort award was mind blowing, because as much as we give, being gifted this made us view the community we have created in a different light. It made us feel special and seen.

“We have realised that we are making a positive impact on the community we have created, more than we thought.”

The group have no intentions of changing their focus and wants to continue providing for all fitness levels.

“Our goals with Zone Two are still the same – to bring in more of our community, and get more people to join us.

“Creating our own race event at some stage, starting a movement for kids and creating a massive community event based around movement, possibly travelling the world to get our club over to international races.”

As for who can join? This club sets no limits.

“Anyone can join. We encourage anyone to come along with us; kids, mums, dads, nanas and poppas. Kids can ride on bikes or scooters, mums or dads can push prams and just enjoy the time outside with their families.

Zone Two Run Club is about including the whole family, we move for at least 30 minutes, two to three times a week,” Hakiaha said.

Herewini said the opportunity to see people become more confident in themselves and their ability had been mindblowing.

“Run club has been wicked. We have got a lot of our members signed up for events around New Zealand this year, so training is in full force for those who are doing events.

“But for our social side our run club is still thriving and filled with so much joy,” Herewini said.

“We are slowly gaining a lot of new faces from all walks of life.”

What to do with the $10,000 boost from ASB remains undecided.

“At this point we haven’t even thought about it – we are still soaking it all in,” Hakiaha said.