When someone moves to Bloomington-Normal, it's easy to connect with people who play your favorite sport. Soccer, baseball, tennis, volleyball, basketball and even pickleball players have one-stop shopping.
City parks and rec departments (Bloomington and Normal) have all the deets. Some groups are a little harder to find. As part of WGLT's series Welcome Home, we'll go through a few of those so people who love a particular kind of sport can find others who like the activity as much as they do.
Let’s start by going on the road, with bicycling. You might think of cyclists as spandex-wearing, skinny people with tree trunks for legs who go by in half a second of churning gears. That’s not what the McLean County Wheelers is about.
Kellie Williams is president of the four-decade old club that has more than 200 members. She said they want to avoid the stereotype that they ride too far and too fast.
"That has been part of our effort these last few years, to add not just low mileage but frame it in time — that this is an hour ride. Because if you are riding long, you probably are in a spandex top with pockets in the back," said Williams.
The club focuses on events and rides for people of all cycling abilities. They have trail rides of an hour, and up. There are 3-5 scheduled rides per week centered on an activity: breakfast, Constitution Trail, ice cream, whatever.
Sure, there are rides available for people who want to do 100 miles in a day. That’s called a century. But Williams said there are plenty of folks who prefer a more sedate recreational speed of 8-10 mph.
"You can have a hybrid or a beach cruiser bike and be in shorts and ride with us as well. We want to provide those opportunities. We say the only requirement is a helmet," she said.
The pandemic caused bike sales to go up 40%. So did the club's membership, and it has even grown slightly since. The club is growing in diversity, too; 40% of members are women.
The ride leaders are trained and experienced on McLean County roads. They don’t use state highways and try to avoid roads that get a lot of traffic.
"The ride leaders know these roads. They know the layout of McLean County. They know which roads dead end. They know which roads turn into gravel halfway through and they know which roads have more traffic than less," said Williams.
That expertise may even extend to more esoteric knowledge — like where territorial-terrorizing farm dogs live.
The Wheelers schedules rides for people who work as well as retirees. There are after-work rides three times a week, weekend morning rides, and even night or full moon rides with everyone lit up and flashing.
Runners are on the road, too
There also are runners on those roads. Kevin McCarthy is part of the Lake Run Club.
"The story goes there was a group of guys that were going off to a race. The race didn't happen, and on the way, they stopped at Lake Bloomington and went for a run, then stopped in at Green Gables and had burgers and beers. Thus began the Thursday Night Lake Run Club," said McCarthy.
A couple decades later, they dropped the "Thursday Night" from the title and became a nonprofit — now with more than 400 members.
The club does youth education with learn-to-run and learn-to-run-better programs. They put on six races per year. There are training sessions in late March through early May to get people from the couch to a 5K run. There are kids’ fun runs in the summer starting at 200 meters and age 2.
Lake Run Club president Tod Williamson said the club is particularly good for young adults who no longer have a school and a team to run with.
"One, just an active healthy lifestyle. It's good for reducing stress and managing weight. It's good for developing relationships with runners that push each other. You might find someone in your club with the same abilities or goals or objectives from just running a 5K up to a marathon distance. It's a lot easier if you have a partner," said Williamson.
The club also draws in other organizations and gives back to the community for the groups that man aid stations in races. Williamson said the VFW, for instance, has been a partner for more than a quarter century in support of the Park to Park Run. Money raised from the run goes back to the community.
Ice, ice baby
If roads are not your thing, maybe ice is. Adult hockey is big in Bloomington-Normal. More than 100 people play at the Bloomington Ice Center in downtown Bloomington, managed by Michael Hernbrott. There are several leagues: A and B groups have intermediate-to-skilled players. The C league is for beginners, or those who are picking up the sport as adults.
Hernbrott said they also have a hockey skills class once a week run by the coaching staff.
"We've even found some of our A-B players come out to those practices just to get more ice time. And they almost become teachers themselves," he said.
Hockey has an adult summer league, but as you might expect, there are more offerings during the winter. Hernbrott said yes, it’s good for fitness. You have to have strong cardio and legs and skills to play, but the joy of hockey is not all on the ice.
"There's a lot of camaraderie. It's not a sport where you're on the ice all the time. You do your 45-second to one minute shift and then you are back on the bench with your team mates laughing and joking. Some of the funniest conversations I've ever had are on the bench," said Hernbrott.
And it's for all ages.
"Emil Ludy is in his upper 80s. He has been involved in central Illinois hockey from the start. He and several players from central Illinois just won the 75 and older national championship down in Florida about a month or so ago," said Hernbrott, noting 20% of the roughly 100 adults on the ice are women.
Ludy started playing in 1946. He coached the Illinois State University Hockey Club in the 1970s.
Hitting the caves
On the road, on the ice — we’ve covered. How about under the ground? The Near Normal Grotto of the National Speological Society goes caving. Mark Tiritilli with the club said it started in 1991. There are more than 30 members from around the region. Tiritilli said they offer education, training, and supply extra gear.
The ethos is safety first.
"At least a party of three," he said. "That way, if there was an incident one person can stay behind and one person can go for help. Ideally four, so that if somebody is trying to exit they are not doing it alone. Carry a minimum of three sources of light. You try and have enough food and water ideally to be able to survive for 24 hours."
Tiritilli said some people are hardcore cavers. Some are there for the social aspects and some are in between.
"I go underground, and I feel young again. I'm 57. I'm getting up there in years. Things don't work the way they used to, but I get under ground, and I start bouncing over rocks and some of the college students I'm bringing on their first trips are kind of like...how old are you again? There's just something energizing about being underground," said Tiritilli.
He said you leave all your problems on the surface. There’s no cell phone reception, no light, and sound is limited to your vicinity. Some caves are shallow and lateral. Some are very deep. One in Georgia has a 500-foot vertical drop with a waterfall. Tiritilli said you end up over 1,000 feet underground. On one trip, there was a lot of rain and the cave was taking on water. Tiritilli said it was beautiful.
"The waterfall, which starts about 150 feet below where you initially start your rappel, was roaring quite well. There's all this water entering, which means air has to get out to displace the volume. There's all this spray and this wind. You can't see the walls around you. You can't see up down. There's just this gray fog of you and your light and the rope in front of you and all this water just whipping around. It was really a lot of fun," said Tiritilli.
There aren’t caves to speak of in central Illinois, so Near Normal Grotto drives all over the place to cave — Iowa, southern Illinois and southern Indiana. Further away are caving hot spots in New Mexico and the border area of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, called TAG, which has more than 10,000 caves.
There are many other adult sports with active presences in Bloomington-Normal, too.
The Central Illinois Cricket Association has an eight-team league, and sometimes more. The Illinois Central Curling Club shoves stones up and down the ice. There are competitive table tennis and badminton groups that also welcome beginners. Plus, a variety of more sedate competitive endeavors that make the Twin Cities a welcome home for the sports enthusiast.
