syndicate log, issue no. 008 | an ode to run clubs

an ode to run clubs

the sport that makes you stay

one of my favorite parts of trail racing is the community, and near the top of the kreuzeck climb at the zugspitz ultratrail last weekend, a group of locals from garmisch-partenkirchen delivered it yet again. the zegapa cheering section is powered by the nomads, a local trail running crew who were there at my first zuggy in 2023 and have grown into one of the defining moments of the entire event. they named it zegapa after zegama-aizkorri, the legendary basque race famous for its walls of noise, and they've transplanted that energy to the bavarian alps and made it completely their own.

what makes zegapa hit the way it does is the timing. it comes on the heels of 30 switchbacks, a four-mile climb that gains over 5,000 feet. for every runner in the field, whether you're racing the 29K, the 45K, the 107K or beyond, it arrives in the back half of your race. you are already cooked. and then the noise finds you in the trees before the crowd does, and something shifts.

on friday during the 29K, i sent my in-laws up to experience it while they cheered on friends of mine who were racing. my mother-in-law cried. it brought that kind of emotion to a spectator who had never seen a trail race before. that's the feeling i get every time on that climb. the placement is the stuff that saves races with an almost insistence to every runner that you're going to make it. and when you're baking in the sun at over 90 degrees, every bit helps.

this year my 107K became a 75K when utmb officials modified the course, but even setting off at 5AM, zegapa was loud. the nomads had been up there since the middle of the night. that's real devotion. and it's an expression of something this sport does better than almost any other: the race inside their backyard belongs to everyone who shows up, not just the people who paid the entry fee.

two weeks before zugspitz, i was at a wedding in dc. the groom is someone i met for the first time at the boston marathon. we were strangers a day before the start. today he's one of my good friends. we're dropping this issue on the birthday of another one of those people, someone i met during a trail race in washington state, who is now a best friend in the way that only shared suffering can produce.

i'm not sure any other sport does this. golf gives you four hours of intermittent conversation and the social pressure to be impressive. cycling has a draft and a pace line where talking can get complicated. but running, especially long running, strips out the performance. you can't posture at mile twenty. you can't be cool on a trail climb. somewhere between an hour in and the finish line - in training and in racing - the conversation goes where it actually wants to go: family, strategy, fueling, work, politics, kids, whatever is real. you can't yell at someone in the middle of a hard effort, so you end up actually listening. the friendships that come out of that are a different category.

this is what makes the run club boom feel like something more than a fitness trend. strava reported a 59% increase in running club participation globally in 2024. by 2025 the platform had crossed one million total clubs, with new club creation nearly quadrupling year over year. 58% of users said they made new friends through a run club. these aren't just fitness numbers. these are people finding their people. the run club is becoming the thing it was always quietly capable of being: a place where you show up for the miles and stay for everything else.

if you want to understand what that looks like at its best, watch the nomads at zegapa. the reel from last weekend is worth two minutes of your time. watch it here.

botrc corner

the competition is the excuse. the people are the point.

most people aren't flying to germany for a trail race. and that's fine, because the zegapa energy isn't the point. the people are. the run club in your city, the group that does the tuesday track session, the five friends who somehow convinced each other to start logging vert every week, that's the same thing at a different altitude.

battle of the run clubs launches august 1. the one thing we're hoping it does is get someone to run with a new person, or run with a group for the first time this month. clubs of up to five members, scoring on total mileage and vertical. if you've been meaning to get in, now is the time.

that's it for this one. if you dig it, forward it to a running friend.

midwest grit meets pacific northwest rain.

come run with us.

graham + mark

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