About Us

The 1000 Mile Club is the organized running club at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.  The club is coached and sponsored by the Tamalpa Running Club located in Marin County, California.  Tamalpa coaches are seasoned runners who have competed at various distances ranging from track sprints to 100-mile ultramarathons.  Coaches train at San Quentin with members of the 1000 Mile Club and share their running experiences, training methods, and race strategies.  

Goal

The goal of the 1000 Mile Club is to provide motivated inmates with the opportunity to experience the physical and mental rewards that running, particularly long distance running, can provide.  Many members of the 1000 Mile Club are first time runners who benefit from the coaching, camaraderie, and organized running events.

History

The club began in 2005 when San Quentin Community Liaison Representative Laura Bowman contacted the local Tamalpa Running Club to inquire about helping a small group of inmates who were running at the prison.  Tamalpan Frank Ruona volunteered to begin coaching and running with the group.  Ruona and Bowman formed the 1000 Mile Club with the goal being for club members to work towards running a thousand miles in the prison.   

19 years later, the club has grown to over sixty members. Coach Frank retired in 2023 and the group is now led by Tim & Diana Fitzpatrick, Jim Maloney, and several alumni. Many members have reached the thousand mile goal and several have run several thousand miles in San Quentin.

Club Members

Club members are physically, ethnically, and racially diverse and range in age from early 20’s to early 70’s.  There are approximately sixty members of the 1000 Mile Club.

The 1000 Mile Club is self-managed.  Inmates elect the club officers, recruit members, maintain the roster, develop the competition schedule, and record member miles.  The volunteer coaches, under the leadership of USA Track and Field certified Frank Ruona, run the workouts and competitions.

Honoring Retired Coach Frank Ruona

Frank, has been the 1000 Mile Club’s volunteer head coach since the club’s 2007 inception. He is a veteran of 78 marathons and 38 ultra-marathons. He believes that having the “Marathon Mindset,” the toughness, focus, and determination necessary to succeed as a runner, is also what it takes to succeed in life. As the idea of running as a form of rehabilitation spreads, Frank assists other prisons in creating their own long-distance running clubs; Washington Corrections Center has formed its own 1000 Mile Club and has recently completed its first half marathon.