Midnight Runners centred around the social aspect of running rather than personal bests and competition, and it was while getting after-run drinks one timethat a fellow runner asked her about the knee support she was wearing. It turned out they both had the same injury.
Seven years on, Welling and Lorenzo Aversa, both 31, have been on running trips all over the world, from the Faroe Islands to Cape Town. The couple have just bought their first home together, and in October they’re doing an Ultra Trail in Cappadocia, Turkey.
“I’m sure we would never have crossed paths if not for this mutual hobby of ours. I was a student at the time and he was a consultant, originally from Italy. We didn’t have any shared friends,” says Welling, who works in marketing for M&S.
The couple still run with the same club - although it’s a bit bigger now, with outposts in 19 cities worldwide, including Tokyo, Barcelona, Sydney and Bogota.
“Everyone and their sister and neighbour seems to be running these days,” she laughs.
Britain in particular has seized the baton. A record 840,000 people applied for the London Marathon this year. Places for the Hackney Half Marathon (the largest half-marathon in the UK) for 2025 sold out last Sunday, just two weeks after going on sale.
It's even permeating love lives - running is the top pastime listed on Tinder, the original swipe-based dating app. Photo / Getty Images
On TikTok, the #RunTok hashtag has had over 3.4 billion views. As Gen Z’s alcohol consumption has dropped - 25 per cent over the last four years - running has overtaken night clubs as the new hub for socialising. Take Friday-night running club Friday Night Lights, with whom instead of drinking or dancing, you run round the park. As Welling admits: “I love people, but I only like running. It’s the social aspect that keeps me coming back.”
It’s not just young people. At the 1263 parkrun events that take place around England every weekend, it’s not unusual to see whole families, as well as friends and couples, taking part, then heading off afterwards for Saturday brunch.
“The genie is well and truly out of the bottle. You can do this stuff anywhere - in a park, through the streets of a major city,” says Theo Larn Jones, founder and director of dedicated trail-running festival Love Trails.
He has been part of a drive, along with early running communities like Midnight Runners, Run Dem Crew and Project Awesome, to prioritise enjoyment and community ahead of elite performance.
From 300 people in 2017, Love Trails has already sold out all of its 4000 tickets for this year’s weekend-long event in the Gower Peninsula. Instead of drinking culture and the attendant hangovers, the focus is on adventure, running and wellbeing.
While he credits cult fitness communities Hyrox and CrossFit for normalising the blending of social and fitness lives, where running has the competition beat is that not only is it good for you, it’s also low-cost and can be done almost anywhere.
Simultaneously, the outdoors has become fashionable in and of itself. Trail-running in particular is now part of the zeitgeist and brands like Salomon are deeply desirable.
“Gorpcore”, a fashion movement where clothing typically created for outdoor recreation is worn as streetwear, has been led by Gen Z and social media influencers, and by grassroots subcultures, communities and run crews, says Larn Jones.
No mere fashion trend, though - for many, concerns a deeper craving for real-world connection.
“How we spend time, and with whom, is something we’re all thinking about more and more,” says Mark White, founder of Run Grateful, a platform that encourages people to commit to at least a mile a day of walking or running as a time to reset and move the body. “In a world full of information [in which we’re] being pulled in lots of different directions, the old-fashioned meeting up in person to connect with others, and not just in the pub, seems more attractive than ever!”
Louise Bruce joined her local running club in Cheltenham five years ago at the age of 52.
It's not just about the rush of endorphins - many people are taking up running and joining clubs for the social benefits they provide. Photo / Getty Images
“Most of us were doing Couch to 5K [exercise plan]. Once you’ve sweated your way through the early stages of running, you are bonded like never before,” says the PR manager.
Since then, Bruce and her group of “Running Girls” have gone on to do multiple 10km runs, half-marathons, full marathons, triathlons, aquathlons and duathlons. They have also supported each other through mental health issues, the death of partners, parents getting Alzheimer’s disease, new jobs and old jobs. “I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to say that running has saved a few of us,” says Bruce.
Moving more with your friends is something few could find fault with. However, it doesn’t hit the mark for all. The queen of steamy literature, Jilly Cooper, recently opined that she suspected the reason people aren’t having as much sex is because everybody is doing so much exercise.
Indeed, running is the number-one pastime listed on Tinder, the original swipe-based dating app. As such, on June 12, Tinder is launching a run club in Clapham, South London in partnership with running coach app Runna called SoleMates Run Club. The aim is to take swiping into the IRL sphere, and its hoped sparks will fly on the jog. Although the thought of trying to flirt while sweating through a 5km course certainly doesn’t sound very attractive. Perhaps Cooper has a point after all.
For Welling and Averso, though, running provided the common ground needed to get to know each other and the foundation for the life they’ve built together.
“It sounds cheesy, but it’s something that continues to help us nurture our relationship together - going on chatty runs after a long day at work, or for a Sunday morning run. It’s been a really great outlet for us.”
