Since Covid, London has seen a huge spike in running clubs.
In Greater London area there are 62 Park Runs, which, according to Park Run, have had an expediential membership uptake since the pandemic’s end.
Part of this uptake in the running has been largely due to the social media sensation called ‘RunTok.’
Smaller creators have exploded in the last year by posting motivational running videos online and attaching their Strava to highlight that anyone can run a sub-25-minute 5km if they train hard enough.
Saturday run clubs have exploded in membership and there seems to be a clear reason why.
I sat down with Delilah, one of many women I interviewed to better understand the attraction of running clubs.
She said: “I don’t think the trend is even a running thing or even necessarily a dating thing.
“I think after Covid, when real-life experiences were really damaged, people in their mid-twenties wanted to meet more people in real life.”
A report done by Campaign to End Loneliness showed Londoners were more likely than others in the UK to be affected by severe forms of loneliness.
According to the data, 700,000 of them feel lonely ‘most’ or ‘all of the time’.
The report went on to highlight that the pandemic is very likely to have exacerbated this further.
It suddenly becomes evident why perhaps the young are rushing to join run clubs. The set up for these new clubs is simple but incredibly effective. You sign up for the run, meet the other young people in your local area and usually go for a coffee/pint afterwards.
For the generation that is time-poor and financially strapped, this cheap form of socialising has blown up. Subsequentially from this several relationships have blossomed, and many hopeful singles have also joined the running movement.
Darius reached out via Instagram and explained why he’d taken to run clubs.
He said: “I didn’t love running but the girls who did it weren’t on the apps.
“All the guys who I knew were doing the Saturday run club was because they wanted that ‘Garmin’ girlfriend.”
For those of you unaware of what the Garmin girlfriend (GG) is, the GG is the middle-class, posh, svelte, runner girl who exclusively wears Hoka trainers, and florescent pink shorts, gets up at 5am on weekdays and lives somewhere between Clapham, Brixton, or Battersea.
She’s probably done Hackney Half, works in marketing or consulting, has a wide selection of alternative milks in her fridge, and attended one of the following universities: Exeter, Edinburgh, Durham, St Andrews, or Oxbridge.
You’ve probably have seen her in those inspirational videos on Instagram with her and her mates running at 7am on Saturday and to be incredibly clear here, I am NOT bashing her. I would like to be her by any stretch of the imagination. She, to the social media eye, has it all; a work-life balance, a central London flat, a group of motivated mentally healthy mates, and a banging bod.
It looks like the jury’s verdict on this is, to meet your future finance bro or GG, you should get yourself down to Battersea Park on a Saturday or Park Run on Clapham Common. Not only will it give you a great community and a toned bum, but a shot at running into The One.
