Cool & Competitive: Running Crews in 2018

The following is an excerpt from an article on zafiri.com, by Will Ross

In response to their humid summers, New Yorkers employ a fine defiance act, spending mornings in the precise calculation of the afternoon’s chances of rain. Studious attention is spent debating percentage points and what determines “likely” or “certain”, numerically speaking. Ultimately any rain results in a deluge and near-Apocalyptic fury, rupturing schedules across the five boroughs. But the most determined are able to overcome this breakpoint, continuing to carve a sure, uninterrupted path through the day.

It was in the middle of a violent rainstorm that I found myself in May, at the doorstep of Brooklyn Running Company for a Tuesday evening track workout with Brooklyn Track Club. With the street washed clear of pedestrians, we proceeded with the evening workout as scheduled, packing in a slightly refined set of intervals around McCarren Park, the group dividing according to pace as usual. Without doubt, the group provided an extra layer of justification for runners, who might otherwise call off a session in such torrential conditions.
Seeking out group runs has become one of my go-to activities whenever travelling between cities. Requirements are demanding, based on a need to balance the casual, cool and competitive cornerstones of a sport that is going through a slow renaissance. Digital-first running groups, or “crews”, are at the forefront of this, and Brooklyn Track Club are no exception, part of a growing swell of dynamic organisers establishing their own communities in world’s most progressive cities.

Whereas legacy running clubs leveraged their sense of place and entrenched this with club-only rights, groups like Brooklyn TC relate to a different perspective on the sport. Inclusivity allows for a range of abilities and per-session needs, fundamentally encouraging a diversity which makes new clubs more representative of a neighbourhood, and more socially robust as a consequence (running is merely a topic not the entire focus). In this way, newer groups look more like collectives to be part of, than clubs to be apart from.

READ MORE: ​https://www.zafiri.com/cool-competitive-running-crews-in-2018/