Increasingly popular across the nation since the COVID-19 pandemic, run clubs are fostering community in the metro area.
While they have been around for decades, run clubs began forming during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way for people to be active and safely connect with others, according to The New York Times. Run clubs were a way to combat the isolation people faced as communication shifted to digital, combining socialization with something many do in their daily life: exercise.
Amber Chen, biomedical engineering senior, and Lucy Westemeyer, chemical bioscience senior, became friends while on the rowing team their freshman year at OU. After eventually leaving the team, they realized they missed working out with others and starting a run club seemed like the perfect solution.
“I was running on my own, and it was just kind of sad,” Chen said. “I was like, ‘I miss having people to work out with,’ so we thought, ‘Oh, let's join a run club.’ There were no run clubs on campus (at the time). So then we started one.”
Chen and Westemeyer started the Healthy Celebrations at OU run club in January 2023. The club is a subgroup of nationwide organization Healthy Celebrations, a network of run clubs at universities across the U.S. The first club was founded by Rachael Whittenburg at the University of Georgia in 2020.
Westemeyer said getting people to join was a slow start but the club now has a consistent group. She cherishes all the new people she met through the club and how it expanded her horizons and wants to help others do the same.
“There’s so many freshmen coming to campus that are looking for community, and we can kind of provide that, which I really love. And others and myself have gotten to meet all these amazing people and make friends that I know will last a lifetime,” Westemeyer said.
Oklahoma City residents Naomi Murrell, originally from Arkansas, and Sadye Smothers, who lived overseas until college, come from running backgrounds. The duo met through mutual friends and grew their friendship, eventually founding the Run Like a Girl run club in February.
“I think it’s unique that both of us have moved and lived in multiple places and we both value a strong sense of community,” Smothers said. “I feel like a lot of the running clubs around us are obviously there for running but we really do emphasize community, specifically in women and girls all across the metro.”
Murrell said making friends as an adult can be hard, so creating Run Like a Girl seemed like a good way to make friends with a similar interest. With many women facing fears of being attacked or harassed while running, and recent cases of violence against female runners amplifying those fears, she also said the club offers a way to exercise safely.
“We wanted to create a network of women who enjoy running, a shared interest, but then there's also a shared value of doing it in a safe way,” Murrell said.
Murrell, a track coach, said she knows the running world can be intimidating and that Run Like a Girl is more casual and open to all runners, from beginners to professional athletes.
“There's plenty of other running groups where they're going to push people: it’s going to be a longer distance, it's going to be a little bit more of an intense workout or whatever it is,” Murrell said. “So I appreciate that we're doing something that's a little bit more approachable to somebody who might be intimidated to go join a bunch of expert runners.”
Healthy Celebrations OU run club on a run in Norman.
Chen and Westemeyer agreed that aside from forming a community, run clubs also help people unplug and enjoy nature while staying accountable for working out.
“If we're doing a morning run club, we get to see the sunrise with the campus, and in the fall, we run down the streets that have really good leaves,” Chen said. “It's beautiful. If I wasn’t with the run club, I would probably not venture to some of the spots that we venture to.”
Chen and Westemeyer highly value the community they’ve built with Healthy Celebrations and want everyone to feel welcome and encourage people to join, no matter who or what level runner they are.
“I feel like just going to the first one, it’s going to be by far the scariest one,” Westemeyer said. “But then once people get there, it’s like ‘Oh, there was nothing to worry about,’ because we're just really welcoming and really fun.”
Smothers said that while the focus of Run Like a Girl is creating community in the metro area, anyone is welcome. She said on their second run, the club gained a member from Germany who was in Oklahoma for the summer and sought a sense of community.
“No matter where people are coming from, community and a sense of belonging is always needed,” Smothers said. “It’s sweet that we're able to touch everyone who needs that because it's not just about running, it's making people feel valued and connected, and running is the way we're doing it.”
Healthy Celebrations meets at 5 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Friday at Haystack Coffee near OU’s campus. To learn more, visit the run club's Instagram page. Run Like A Girl meeting times and locations vary and more information can be found on its Instagram page.
This story was edited by Shelby Emery. Geethika Kollu and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
