Run clubs now more than ever

What is the role of run clubs during the second Trump administration, and who is welcome?

“Run clubs now more than ever”

That’s the sentiment conveyed by many a run club late last week, but what does it mean?

Silver Lake Track Club on IG: “We are a force for unity, resilience, and well-being.”

Thursday was a tough day. It wasn’t a surprising result — it’s difficult to manufacture genuine surprise in a perennial two-horse race — but I woke up in London to the U.S. Election result more or less accepted.

What’s this got to do with run clubs, though?

Over the past two years I’ve written extensively about what run clubs provide their communities.

• Somewhere group exercise can occur freely

• A third place for socializing away from home and/or work

• A safe space for marginalized communities to be together

• Somewhere ideas and activism can be built at a grassroots level

What’s the common factor? It’s togetherness. It’s safety in numbers. It’s a place for like-minded people, whatever that might mean.

While many might want running communities to be a safe space away from politics, these groups prov…