Off ‘N Running Tours

I had one of the many specials that Cheryl advertised in the local LA area, and she was so unaccommadating that I gave up and just lost the deposit I’d put down for the tour. Terrible customer service.
Perhaps this would work out for the visiting tourist with a bunch of money to throw away, but for a local, fun thing to try out if you live here. Don’t waste your time or money.

I did the Running from the Paparazzi tour with Cheryl.
Pros: Nice idea, some good exercise, got to see the area, Cheryl was nice and easy to talk with/​be around. Very laid back and no pressure to keep a particular pace
The tour started out great, with introductions, a bottle of water, jogging, and taking us to a fancy hotel and telling us about specific celebrities who have used the hotel. Then it went downhill (not literally)
Cons:
1. Not very professional — no planned route (ran us through some construction scaffolding), didn’t have much to say about most things (just pointing out things people like to see, not anything about it – e.g., here’s a fountain people like to see, here’s a rock garden, here’s Prada)
2. Kept taking us into baby clothing stores during the tour (twice), and we don’t have babies or care about baby stuff! Why would that be part of a tour?
3. Kept walking instead of jogging. At first the mix was nice, then it was only walking and no jogging. When we asked to jog again she ran us to the corner and then walked us the rest of the way.
4. We had to keep stopping to «look» for celebrities. While this did give a little spy character feel, I think it would be much more interesting if we could hear about certain celebrities who frequent the area, how this became a celebrity hotspot, etc.
Overall, this had the feel of a friend taking you walking (with some jogging) in her town and showing you some things. I think this is a great idea and has fantastic potential — kudos to Cheryl on that, but I think she needs to up her game and add polish to be successful with the tour side of her business.

I found out about Off ‘N Running Tours by chance. In 2008, I had decided out of the blue to train for a half marathon. I never ran more than 3 miles in my life but I thought, «why not?» So I googled training groups because as determined as I was about running my very first half marathon, I knew I needed people to run with and a good trainer. So I signed up to train with Off ‘N Running Tours. My experience with the training group was great. I met a lot of runners with the same goal as me and we encouraged each other along the way. When I came across an injury during the course of my training, Cheryl was very encouraging and supportive. Needless to say, I crossed the finish line of my first half marathon! I couldn’t have done it without Off ‘N Running Tours!

I was a little nervous when I first joined the Off ‘N Running team, since I never really considered myself a «runner»…but I took the plunge after an encouraging phone call from Cheryl. I was so glad that I signed up and committed, it is such a great group of people! Everyone runs at their own pace, no pressure, but always encouragement and new scenery. Our weekly meetings kept me in line during the week, knowing that I had to keep up with my milage.
I look forward to joining the group again soon!
Cheryl works hard to make sure everyone is happy and healthy! Highly recommend!