Sophie Raworth: How a new run club transformed my long runs and introduced me to a new generation of runners

It is still dark when I cross London on a cold Sunday morning. It’s 7.45am. The roads are deserted. But out of the gloom I spot a steady stream of runners all heading in the same direction. By the Thames on Putney Embankment, there’s a big crowd. More than 200 young people in trainers. I laugh. I can’t believe they’re all up and ready to run this early on a Sunday morning. Why aren’t they still in bed?

This is the inaugural Long Run at The Clubhouse in Putney, which is a bike shop and a cafe co-owned by Tristram Kelly. The average age here today is 31, he tells me. ‘We had all these people coming in last January saying, “Ugh, I’ve got to do my long run for the marathon.” It was a negative thing that they weren’t particularly looking forward to. So, I thought that maybe we could try to make the long run a positive thing.’

There are six pace groups to choose from, ranging from 4:45 min/km to 7:15 min/km. I slot into the third group, 5:30 min/km, and we set off along the Thames Path. Grace, 28, is one of our run leaders. She laughs when I describe my lonely training runs 15 years ago. ‘Marathon running has become the new kind of hot running,’ she says. ‘It’s a new social life. You see a lot of people now, especially in their twenties, who don’t really drink that much. So, the pub is less appealing and people are socialising and meeting others through running. Being part of a run club has changed my life.’ As the weeks pass, the runs get longer, but still the numbers turning up stay high. Most are training for a spring marathon. But some, like Heather, who like me is in her fifties, are just knocking off 30km for fun. She hasn’t run a marathon since 1999, but realising she can more than keep up with the youth really spurs her on. Age doesn’t matter here; you are just part of the group chatting away to everyone, young and old, as you run.

Back at the Clubhouse, the Olympic triathlete Alistair Brownlee is handing out gels to exhausted runners. His new company, Truefuels, is one of several brands wanting to get in with this sporty young community. ‘Running was the anti-cool when I started out 30 years ago,’ he says laughing. ‘That has really changed in the past five years.’ We get free coffee, too, from Tristram. The Clubhouse has created a real community, he tells me. Lots of singles, who’ve had enough of dating apps, are coming here as well. ‘If you meet going for a run, you have one thing in common at least,’ says Tristram. ‘When we started this up, I knew people would come.’ The Long Run proved such a huge success, with 1,700 people turning up over 12 weeks, that it’s still going now, even though spring marathons are long gone.