A thumbs up after completing a lap.

TIFTON — Tift County’s summer running club began its sessions this week with a three-day kickoff of meetings featuring guest speakers.

Laural Mullen led Thursday evening’s group at the Red Hill Tennis Center at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, where they will continue to meet on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Turnout has been wonderful during the week, she said, with 30-40 students participating.

Calling the group “a family affair,” Mullen said that additionally “at least four or five mamas” had been running with them.

Thursday’s speakers were Jonathan Jones and David Vann, who talked about running as a lifestyle. Before they spoke, the duo led more seasoned runners around a longer course at ABAC.

At earlier meetings, Mullen said the speakers were Amy Grist and Mike Beeman. Grist talked about nutrition and Beeman discussed proper running shoes.

Another well-known name in running circles, Beeman works with cross country and track teams at Tift County High. He ran his 40th Boston Marathon in April.

Mullen led runners through a series of stretches, including warrior lunges, star touches and lateral lunges.

While stretching, she thanked several individuals for their support of the program, including the Sunbelt Running Club, which meets at Eighth Street Middle.

“They’ve been helping us with our meets forever,” she said.

After the stretches, Jones and Vann took the advanced group around ABAC while Mullen led less experienced runners around the track surrounding the soccer and softball fields.

Mullen said numbers had been good at the middle school level, but she’s looking for even more.

“I want at least 50 middle schoolers,” she said.

Some key members were not at ABAC Thursday.

Emily Golden, who finished second in the Region 1 track meet and competed at state, was attending the In the Game Magazine South Georgia Athletic Awards Banquet.

In cross country, Golden was second at area competition and finished 30th in the state meet.

Beeman was also at the banquet.