What are run clubs for? Ask Blacklist LA

Erik Valiente has been blending health and artistic exploration of Los Angeles to build and serve the Blacklist LA community for 11 years

Run clubs have been a hot topic for the past 12 months, but the idea of running with a group is a new one for so many. As a result, I often see people asking where exactly all these run clubs came from (there are 150 in Los Angeles now), and otherwise trying to make sense of the phenomenon when news headlines focus on the more fringe clubs – the ones that focus on dating, or the ones that block traffic with their numbers.

The real underbelly of the running community is found in run clubs like Blacklist LA, which, by being in its 12th year, is one of Los Angeles’ historic run clubs.

I personally ran with Blacklist just one time, back in 2014 or 2015, when I was searching for new friends. (It’s always been a thing!) I’d seen someone wearing a Blacklist shirt on one of the 5k or 10k races I was running while getting to know the big new city I’d just moved to.

Via Instagram I’d successfully identified a group that was interested in two of the same things I was interested in – running and str…