Run Clubs Are Replacing Dating Apps and Nightclubs

Run, don’t swipe. That’s the ethos of run clubs these days. 

It may have seemed like a novelty on “Sex and the City” when Miranda happened to meet a guy while training for the New York City marathon, but with the proliferation of run clubs around the city and beyond, this is the new norm. 

With groups popping up across the country, run clubs, of course, offer an affordable means for working out, but they also foster relationships — both platonic and romantic. New runners and marathoners alike are taking advantage of the opportunity, kicking dating apps, nightclubs and heavy drinking to the curb.

For Slow Girl Run Club, a pace-inclusive group in New York, it’s all about connection. Isabel DiGiovanni started the group in fall 2022 while training for the New York City marathon and seeking like-minded runners. What started with a small group of women has now turned into up to 80 attendees weekly. 

“I’ve seen people form complete friend groups from the club,” says DiGiovanni, noting that the 11- to 12-minute pace allows people to actually hold conversations throughout the run. 

For example, Jenna Giordano, a Slow Girl Run Club regular, quickly made friends by attending.

“I went for the first time alone. I was scared, so nervous, too scared to talk to anybody,” she recalls, noting it’s “like a rite of passage” to be nervous the first time you attend a run club.

However, the slower pace and social vibe made it easy for her to connect with DiGiovanni and another attendee. Now, the trio have a group chat that they text in nearly every day, according to Giordano.

“It’s very rarely we’re talking about running anymore because we’ve just become friends,” she says. “The great thing about run club is that we all have this shared hobby that doesn’t necessarily prioritize drinking or going out.”

Similarly, influencer Reneé Noe’s run club, which travels nationwide, brings people together.

“You have girls meeting who probably wouldn’t meet otherwise,” Noe says, adding that she decides where to host each run based on her community’s feedback.

She continues: “When we went to Nashville, I remember seeing a couple weeks later, a group of girls who went to that run club [tagged me in a post] and they made their own run club.”

Mallory Kilmer has a similar social-first approach with her run club appropriately named No More Lonely Runs. Upon moving to New York, Kilmer, who has more than 41,000 followers, posted on her Instagram story encouraging people to meet her for a run. On a cold February day, six women showed up and ran the full Central Park loop with Kilmer.

“The seven of us went to a local bagel shop, which we still go to every Saturday that we’re in Central Park,” she says. “We sat there for an hour and a half just talking and hanging out. It was the most euphoric experience.”

This social euphoria brings a whole new meaning to the term “runners’ high.” Now Kilmer hosts a weekly run on Saturdays and speed workouts on Wednesdays. While 100 attendees is the average, she’s seen 200-plus runners at times, always welcoming a new face each run.

“There’s always a social 30 minutes-plus afterwards,” Kilmer says. “Everyone at that point is feeling the runners’ high and wants to hang out and meet people.”

She has made it a rule that people have to make a new friend at each run, and it’s definitely working.

“I remember getting tagged in an Instagram story, and it was a group of girls,” she recalls. “They went to a wine bar, and it said, ‘from run club friends to real life friends.’.. I realized this is more than just a run club.”

Additionally, she has seen some dates come to fruition following run club meet-cutes — but no long-term relationships just yet.

While many are able to meet like-minded friends at run clubs, some are also finding romantic connections. For example, Ruth Axton met her boyfriend of six months at an electrolyte-tasting event hosted by a member of their go-to run club, Endorphins, which has a cohort in New York City and is also expanding nationwide. Until that point, Axton had gone on some unsuccessful dating-app dates.

“We didn’t know anybody else there very well. We just met each other, then got to talking and then were friendly for a while [and] hung out at runs,” she says.

On Monday runs, which weren’t based on pace groups, he would find her and they would talk the whole time.

“We would always end up running together and talking about very random things… We talked for 40 minutes about how I hate the newest ‘Batman’ movie, and he thinks it’s the best piece of cinema ever made,” she says. “In February, we started talking more, and then finally, he asked me on a date.”

Six months later, they’re still going strong and, of course, still running.

While any run club could be an opportunity to meet a partner, one New York-based group in particular, Lunge Run Club, is taking it a step further by targeting singles specifically. Lunge was born from the dating app of the same name which connects people based on where they work out. 

“[Lunge chief executive officer Steven Cole] saw a market for a singles run club because run clubs are a great way to meet people, but nobody was marketing it as singles-specific,” says Rachael Lansing, the head of Lunge Run Club. “We created the first-ever singles-oriented run club. We put community first, and the running is secondary.”

Each Wednesday, Lunge hosts more than 1,000 runners, evenly split male and female and of all sexual orientations, looking to make a romantic connection, for a three-mile run or 1.5-mile walk. Afterward, everyone convenes at two bars, mingling with the intention of finding love. 

“People are being so intentional about putting themselves out there and stepping out of their comfort zone with the intention of meeting someone,” says Lansing. 

While the club is in its infancy, there have already been success stories. Singles come to the weekly runs dressed in all black, while couples show up in colors. 

“We have had five success stories of people actually showing up in colors,” Lansing says. 

While Lunge is just starting in New York, the company plans to expand its singles-only run club to other cities.

Whatever runners are seeking — relationships, friendships or just a good workout — run clubs seem to be doing it all.

“[Run club] was the perfect marrying of, ‘let’s try to get back into exercise,’ says Axton. “‘Let’s try to figure something out that’ll make me feel good and also meeting new people.’”