REEDLEY – On June 16, 2025, wife and husband duo Eliana Oropeza and Jesus Zamarripa started a grassroots effort to promote local health and build a community. More than one year later, local runners gathered to celebrate the first anniversary of the pair’s ever-growing run club.
On June 29, runners and fellow clubs assembled on the Reedley Rail-to-Trail to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Reedley Roadrunners. The evening saw a group run, raffles, club announcements and even a birthday cake, all before ending the night at The Tradewinds Pub.
Throughout the evening, the Roadrunners’ sense of community was tangible, with veterans and newcomers alike conversing and celebrating what has been built over the course of 12 months. For Oropeza, that supportive and welcoming environment is just as important to the club as the running itself.
“It’s not just about the running because if you’re going through a hard time, you can run, walk and work it out with friends, and this is just a way for people to connect,” Oropeza said in an interview.
After the run, Zamarripa announced a handful of new ambassadors who will help lead the club as he and Oropeza begin to spend more time growing their family. For newly-appointed ambassador Mayra Lopez, who said she has been with the club since its first meeting, the moment was an honor, and she expressed a sense of excitement to take on a new role.
Lopez shared in an interview that she used to run by herself, and had begun to wish that Reedley had its own club during the evening hours. After seeing a Facebook post from Oropeza meant to gauge interest from potential members, she hopped onboard immediately.
Since then, Lopez said she’s built up her confidence as a runner and has even begun running in 5K events, a feat that previously sparked some anxiety when thinking about doing it alone. Having experienced a handful of personal struggles over the past year, the club has also provided her with a valuable support system amongst her fellow runners.
“Everybody’s going through something in their personal lives, and we’ve all shared stories about what made us run or how running has helped us,” said Lopez. “There’s some sad ones and some good ones, but we all just come together and share our stories, and a lot of the running here is like inner healing.”
Even those who are completely new to the club dynamic got a taste for what the Roadrunners represent, such as Jordan Aniag, who joined up with the club for the first time during this one-year celebration.
Although he grew up in Dinuba, Aniag has lived in Pittsburgh for some years and recently came back to spend some time with family. He has his own club that he frequents back home, but decided to see what the group was about after seeing a promo post for the anniversary celebration.
Seeing the evening’s turnout and general atmosphere, Aniag expressed feelings of deep joy seeing a community like the Roadrunners flourish near his home town.
“I never had this growing up,” Aniag said. “Something like this was never really afforded to us, so seeing people taking a step to do it and having the initiative is great.”
Reflecting on the club’s journey over the past year, Oropeza said she got her inspiration to start it after learning about “Blue Zones,” which, according to Harvard Health Publishing, are regions where residents live notably longer and healthier lives.
While there have only been a handful of Blue Zones identified across the world, the United States has one in the city of Loma Linda, and Oropeza said her dream is to one day see Reedley standing alongside it. As a public health professional herself, she said that starting a run club has been a natural extension of her ongoing ambitions.
That ambition has begun to pay off recently, as the club has recently been awarded with a one-year mini grant from Sierra Kings Health Care District. Oropoeza was thrilled to receive the news, and said the current plan is to use that funding to provide club incentives and t-shirts for members.
“It’s not just me trying to make our community healthy, it’s other people that see the vision too, so why not partner together to make the vision come true and make Reedley one of the healthiest cities in the world,” Oropeza said.
After a prize raffle and some slices of celebratory cake, the group began to trickle into Tradewinds to close out the festivities, preparing for another year of pushing boundaries and building bonds.
