Runclubbing Up That Hill

Harry and Randa try to get to the bottom of the Run Club Industrial Complex

HK

Randa

As you know i’ve been on a secret quest to talk to someone who has successfully gone to a run club and smashed same-day. If that is you, PLEASE hit my line. 

in the meantime though, I've spent a fair amount of time actively perusing the digital run clubs vibe nexus. My algorithm has pulled me in two directions, Austin, Texas, and the West Side highway. 

The run clubs im talking about, the ones seemingly with a certain algorithmic juice, i would describe as having a totally horned-up post-libidinal vibe. They are either explicitly run clubs ‘for single people’ or they are framed as ‘a great place to meet single people.

My initial knee-jerk reaction when i see this kind of thing is “These people are perverts.” 

It’s like somewhere the information superhighway, the pop psychology slop of some tiny man on book tok brandishing Bowling Alone and being like ‘3 nonfiction books you need to read to have a thinking-boi brat summer’ smashed into Posting Ass on Main. The final product was “come with me to Austins hottest sunrise morning run club”. Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck. 

HOWEVER…removing the aesthetic that is beamed to me in my personal algorithm designed likely by a cabal of sinister cross-fit product managers to make me go insane, I like the idea of running clubs. I even like the idea of running clubs as a way to meet someone and go on a date with them. I also like projects and people putting themselves out there and Not Being a Hater. So im torn! 

What do you think Randa?

RS

I’m SO glad you asked Harry………..

so lemme take our readers back to to february 2022… i’m in new york planning eight days of back-to-back singles parties. these singles parties, on the surface were “successful…” lots of people showed up and they were like poppin and people seemed to have a good time. however - i had to bust my ass to get normal nice straight guys to show up to them. i was tapping the friend of friend network to its last drop. which led me to develop a theory…

guys don’t like taking social risks. like normal guys aren’t going to some experimental party run by “Hot Singles NYC” because most guys aren’t really down to just talk to strangers where they’ll be judged by the conversation without some other activity. and especially not if everyone knows they are there bc they’re single and looking.

This is not bc guys are afraid to hang out with strangers. Au contraire. Because what is every single guy on the planet part of? A pickup basketball group chat. literally every guy i know plays basketball somehow. you guys will walk up to a court and befriend the most ragtag group of fellas for love of the game. but you won't go to a singles party to rizz up some ladies.

I tell you guys this to support my next point, which is that i think Run Clubs are Good. because guys love sports. it’s sort of like how girls went to college to get married before… now it’s like girls should join run clubs (or pickleball leagues, etc.) to get married bc guys like sports. (also i like sports)

@d1aDoes everything have to be a “singles event?” Check out the latest episode of After School with @Casey Lewis at our link in bio 🎙️

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has this worked for me? no. but that’s bc i’ve revealed myself to be totally uncommitted to the cause. i famously quit the softball team after game 1. but if i had stayed on it i would be engaged to be married………….

HK

Ok interesting you think as a guy im sort of specifically primed to not want to go to a singles event, but because I love sports so much I’ll do anything to run around with my pals, even risk the off chance that I have to Talk to Girls? 

I think this is probably right. 

But if I may, I'd like to compliment hot singles and perhaps also make a point about the relationship between clubs and the internet. 

Hot Singles grew because people, actual literal people, shared the newsletter with each other. You did not ‘go viral’. Yes you leveraged the internet to grow your thing, but i think you did so in a way to skirt an algorithm recommendation nexus. (One of the many reasons

Casey Lewis

had you on her podcast this week #you know the vibes)

These TL assrun clubs that are being recommended by the algorithm (which make no mistake is a conscious branding strategy. There are other ways to show that you are going on runs with your run club that doesn’t involve beautiful out-of-breath coeds running on a 9:16 screen). 

If i’m being the most cynical about the run club dating apparatus, i might even say that nobody, not even the hosts of these run clubs, believes that a dating run club is a good idea. Rather, they believe its a good idea for a post

Sex and dating shit bangs on social media. Chompsky said that I believe. I wonder if the tail might be wagging the dog here. Even if Run Clubs broadly are Good.

RS

you bring up an interesting question – is a friend’s recommendation inherently more valuable than an algorithmic one?

before tiktok, people found out about clubs through flyers or radio ads or something. now they find out through their instagram algorithm. i think the primary difference here is that the algorithm isn’t as hyperlocal as say, a flyer on your local posting wall. but it’s still essentially an advertisement.

if you find out about something from an advertisement vs. a friend, you may be less inclined to lean in because there are fewer social consequences. same thing as meeting someone off a dating app who doesn’t know any of your friends. you might try one run club, think the vibe is off, and move onto another run club. whereas if your friend brought you to it, you’d just keep going bc they were going and then eventually you’d feel like you were part of something.

i think we can overcome the cons of algorithmic recs for IRL activities – by inviting our friends along, by actually committing to something despite the aesthetic feeling misaligned. i think you should go to horny run club every week for a month. and then report back to us.

HK

Horny run club is a total nonstarter for me. I just can’t do it. But I would consider going to a regular run club. I was referred to Commonwealth Running Club via the intranet (a friend texting me). They strike me as a valuable foil to this kind of algo-depraved post-horniness. The Instagram does exist but is clearly not branded in the same way as some of these other RCs are. I chatted with Jonathan, the creator of Commonwealth Running Club this week for a piece i hope to finish at some point but we ended up talking about this horny run club phenomenon and he seemed to be approaching the whole thing with a lot of thoughtfulness.

I wonder if the correct growth model for a club is to flit back and forth between thoughtful branding that plays digitally and actual IRL human-to-human recommendations. Hot Singles had great branding, but not in the way that appealed to a nameless algo, it appealed to people. Ironically, a good analogy for this is the tortoise and the hare. A more methodical and organic growth trajectory for a club will always be cooler then one that pops off mad quickly.

RS

i think you just don’t relate to this Type of Guy

rawdawgrunclub

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rawdawg is actually a funny name for a run club. i also dont relate to horned up influencers in austin texas but i dont think it’s THAT DIFFERENT from hot singles. hot singles was just a more intellectual semi-athletic media-adjacent brooklyn coded brand. if you were served the right reel (or substack recommendation) i think u would be down…

HK

I’ll join a run club if i find out about it on TWITTER

RS

ok - what if the Hegelian e-girls started a horny run club

HK

yes I would go to that

plz elaborate in the comments…