Interview: Old Man Run Club for Distance

This is an interview piece I managed for Distance, a brand with stores in Paris and Lyon. It was a treat to work as the copy editor for the interview because it introduced me to the Old Man Run Club, which started up in my hometown, New York City. Their approach of democratizing running is just the kind of thing that encourages me to lace my joggers up and trot the hills in Lyon.

Check out an excerpt of the interview below, the entire piece after the jump.

Dao: I think that ours is a bit different from some other run clubs because it isn’t so serious. It’s simply for people who like or love running. We always say that this isn’t really the run club to join if you’re trying to set a PR. There are plenty of other run clubs in New York for that. 

I think a lot of our members enjoy the lack of pressure. Nobody is worried about running worse than someone else. It’s about bringing people together on the weekend and giving them the motivation to get up and out early in the morning. That’s our identity. Getting people involved in the sport of running. There are other great programs for becoming a better athlete. We’ll introduce you to the sport, make it fun, and push you a little bit in terms of distance. Though, for us, striking the right balance means that it will never be super serious.

Individually, we have our own goals, but as a group – Old Man and Old Woman Run Club – the mentality is that running itself is a long race. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.