Building your village with run club

Florence Papougnot found her tribe twice over in London, first with Your Friendly Runners and then with Hot Boys Athletics. Flo will be joining the Run Club Culture panel in London next month.

Jul 03, 2024

What do you do when you move to a big city? How do you find your place? How do you find your people? Run club, perhaps.

That’s what Florence Papougnot ended up doing when she moved to Hackney, East London a decade ago. Starting out with solo daily 5Ks around Victoria Park to build a personal routine in her new home, she soon found a friend in a runner doing the same loop of the park on the same schedule. That was Oliver Hooson, a co-founder of Your Friendly Runners - one of London’s premier run crews.

Florence Papougnon running the 2023 London Marathon © Simon Nicholls — Florence Papougnot running the 2023 London Marathon © Simon Nicholls

Making friends & being influenced

Flo joined YFR when there were maybe 10 people, when they were “just mates meeting for runs, and then getting a pastry - because that's important,” but threw herself into running with her new tribe.

“When you're running with other people, you get more into it. I started doing marathons, but I was always very conscious of not putting times on anything and trying to do it on feel. If I'm running because I want to, and there's no pressure of a race or a time, that's when I was enjoying it the most, and then that’s also where you're progressing the most.”

That progress showed itself in 2021 when she ran a 3:04 marathon in Paris “without proper training blocks.” Quite reasonably, Florence started wondering if she could run a sub-3hr marathon. Enter Hot Boys Athletics, a collective founded by Kimiko Ninomiya in 2022 that provides specific marathon training for women.

“I think that was the kind of structure that I needed. It's all levels. We're not hitting times or splits. I'm running on the track without knowing what time I’m doing - just running hard or at 80%. I love chasing that enjoyment.”

Hot Boys Athletics on tour in Lanzarote © Ria Nicholls — Hot Boys Athletics on tour in Lanzarote © Ria Griffin

The pursuit of happiness

A licensed therapist might give you more complete insights, but I believe we are a product of our childhoods. That enjoyment that Flo searches for might be a reaction to an intensely competitive early life. Attending an exclusive school to hone her swimming prowess, there was pressure on Florence to perform from the age of 10. Understandably, it burnt her out.

“I remember hiding at the bottom of my bed when they would come around at 5.30 am, just pretending that I wasn’t there so I wouldn’t have to go swim. I was just done with it. I didn't want to do anything competitively.”

She talks about her deep love for running. She talks about wanting to run forever.

“I want to have a long running life. I want to maybe progress to ultras, but that’s what I love about all the different race formats available now - exploring all of them. I want to be led by curiosity, because I think that's empowering. When I see a cool race, I want to try that, and not be wedded to one thing.”

Her recent life has seen Florence traveling to run. Last year saw her join a team to run from L.A. to Las Vegas in The Speed Project (“An epic experience.”), and she recently took part in (and won) an ultra relay race where her team ran 466 km (290 miles) from the Polish/Lithuanian border to the tiny peninsula town of Hel, Florence explains how it’s an inimitable experience.

“I came off such a high after Border to Hel. It's six mates going places that you don't find in tourist books or blogs, because you're running through a field in the middle of Poland. And there’s the weird bonding that you get with the people that you’re doing this with. You’re seeing their lows and seeing their highs. You're all up at 4am and nobody’s talking to each other, but you've got this understanding between you.”

Shrinking the big city

That love of exploration, and the seeking out of community courses through Florence’s relationship with running at home as well, though. As one of the first couple of females in Your Friendly Runners, she’s been keen to find a comfortable spot within her running community, and Hot Boys is providing that by bringing women together, and supporting them.

“All-female teams… you can believe it when you see it. I think that making noise within what is traditionally a super male-dominated space - and showing that power - has been really important.”

We go on to discuss how testosterone-fueled environments can often be the antithesis of the progress she craves. I prefer to do a lot of my training with women for that exact reason. The machismo of those male-dominated spaces, and the one-upmanship and peacocking that inevitably accompanies it doesn’t allow for much nuance in a situation. It’s a gender stereotype, sure, but if we accept the work that society at large needs to do to achieve parity, it should be understandable.

“It makes you feel really supported, and there's strength in that softness.”

Hot Boys Athletics is the London outpost of running luminary Knox Robinson’s coaching pockets, which also include Black Roses in New York, and Capri Collective in Los Angeles. When Flo has visited those cities, she’s gladly accepted offers of a local running tour by her comrades. It’s a way of building a network in order to connect people. It’s a way of making the world smaller. The same concept applies to London.

“London is so vast, and you have friends all over the city. It's always such a mission to book the time in. Your Friendly Runners has made it feel like a village again. You send a text asking if anyone’s up for a run tomorrow morning, and there's always someone. The same applies to a drink on a Friday. I love that feeling.”

Flo prepared for a handover during The Speed Project © Duncan Nicholls

Find your tribe? Build it.

As a “Day 2” member of Your Friendly Runners, Flo has made untold numbers of friends (including her partner) from the community that she’s seen grow to triple digits. She’s been an integral part of maintaining the ethos of the East London run crew, taking on pacing duties among other organizational necessities, while the leadership team of Oli Hooson and Matt Horrocks maintain the unquenchable vibes. They’ve kept it fun. The best games, after all, have the clearest rules.

“It's always difficult to manage bigger numbers, but I hope it's still as friendly as when I turned up. I think there's more going on now: the post-marathon party, using the space at Knees Up to showcase the art and the creation around running. It’s become more of a hub, which is a cool thing.”

The grassroots community aspect of running culture is paramount to Florence’s enjoyment of the sport, and as a leader in multiple groups, she sees how the power of people coming together is being co-opted by brands.

“It used to be only the top level athletes that Brands would look for and sponsor, and now they seem to be realizing it’s actually the community where you get a lot of impact, because we're the ones buying all the stuff.”

She does see value however, when brands use their budgets to bring people together “to share ideas, rather than just focus on products.”

I’m very pleased to say that Florence is the second panelist I can announce for the forthcoming Running Sucks event, RUN CLUB CULTURE. I guess I’m the brand in this equation, and you’d better believe that we’ll be sharing some knowledge.