Run Clubs Are the New Dating Apps

The singles run club was the brainchild of Lunge’s founder, Steve Cole, and Rachael Lansing, a NYC-based fitness coach. The two met through a mutual industry connection and dreamed up a weekly meet-up where singles could chat with one another in a casual, fitness-based environment. They added a few twists on a traditional club: encouraging those hoping to find a date to wear black to telegraph their availability, and leading the group to a bar after the jog, where everyone can mingle (and sparks will hopefully continue to fly).

Cole, a former college athlete, came up with the idea for his app after noticing how frustrated his generation was with the state of dating online and feeling like there needed to be a way to make in-person connections more easily. The Lunge Run Club, to him, is the best of both worlds. It takes the pressure off by creating an environment where it is clear who is looking for love (avoiding, he says, the weirdness of hitting on someone who may be taken) while not making dating the sole purpose of the event.

“I think there needs to be some comfortable space where it’s okay to put yourself out there and be a little more intentional,” he tells me.

Both Cole and Lansing were shocked, though, by just how fast their idea took off. Since May, it has racked up more than 25,000 followers on Instagram, and Howard tells me that the run she attended had more than 1,000 RSVPs. Like Howard, Lansing attributes its growth to just how much modern dating sucks.

“It took off a lot quicker than we expected, but I think we always knew that this was a community that New York City was craving and was missing and that we would see that reflected in our numbers eventually,” she says, adding that it even worked for her. Lansing met her now-boyfriend at one of the runs.

But while Lunge Run Club is probably the most viral iteration of this trend, run clubs for love is a national phenomenon. Angioletti says she organically started going to free fitness events hoping to meet someone after realizing that trying to find a match at a bar or a club didn’t make a lot of sense for her because going out isn’t something she likes to do on her own (and she also hates the apps).

“I made the decision to just focus my energy on doing the things I love and enjoy and hopefully I will meet my person along the way,” she tells me. “Since I love fitness I thought going to a run club would be a unique way to meet someone that also shares my passion for fitness.”

She agrees that singles these days are ready to think outside the box.

“I think a lot of people like myself are burnt out from trying to date the ‘conventional’ way,” she says. “Run clubs have turned dating into almost like a casual, social event.”