Find Your Sole Mates: How Mondays Run Club is Bringing Runners (and Friends) Together

Like many new transplants, Veronica Skye arrived from Toronto with visions of mountain hikes and beach weekends… and a sudden love for fitness. “I decided before I even moved to Vancouver: I’m going to be one of those cool girls who runs the seawall,” she says. Only one small hiccup—she wasn’t actually a runner.

Undeterred, she ordered her first pair of Nikes and hit the pavement. Reality hit back. “It was terrible. I hated it,” she laughs. But she kept at it, determined to understand what kept so many Vancouverites lacing up in rain or shine, chasing that elusive “runner’s high.” And when the pandemic hit, she found herself using running to chase community, too, trying in vain to discover a casual, community-driven run club. When she couldn’t find one that fit her vibe, she created her own, posting an open invite on Instagram for a 3K run followed by a beer. To her surprise, a handful of people showed up.

“We ran, took breaks, grabbed a beer—and it was really fun,” she recalls. In its first year, the club drew a steady 20 or so regulars, but one rainy Monday after New Year’s, attendance spiked unexpectedly. “There were like 40 people, and we thought, ‘OK, this is weird,’” Skye remembers. “But then I realized it was likely New Year’s resolutions —everyone wants to try something new, be brave, get fit. From that point, it just kept growing.”

Three and a half years later, Mondays Run Club has grown to upwards of 150 runners meeting weekly, with a seven-person leadership team keeping things organized. They’ve yet to miss a Monday. “Mondays are a fresh start—a chance to make good choices,” says Skye. There are no attendance caps, with pace groups for different skill levels and even a walking group led by Bryony Wright, a life coach who keeps conversations meaningful with thoughtful prompts.

From its inception, Mondays had been about more than running; it’s also about being social, with Halloween costume runs, brunch meetups, mural tours, “City Bingo” and beach days to help fuel the friendship fires (or more-than-friends connection: this past summer, Skye launched Sole Ties, a six-week singles running series to help Vancouverites meet-cute face to face).

“All you have to do is show up,” says Skye. “That’s where the magic happens.” Even if a runner’s high isn’t real, a Mondays’ high sure is.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by mondays | run + social club (@mondaysrunclub)

The Deets

Mondays Run Club is free to join; learn more at @mondaysrunclub