By Emma Griffiths
With TCS’s London Marathon having just overtaken the city and our socials, and race participation rising by 39% in 2024 alone, it’s obvious that running is well and truly back. And with women now representing half of marathon runners, despite not being allowed to race long distance until 1975, the sport is undergoing a complete makeover.
Nowadays, grueling recollections of your colleague’s ‘easy 32 km long run’ are common break room conversation topics, as the UK is increasingly lacing up their trainers. And it seems that this popularity, which has continued to gain traction post-COVID, is here to stay, especially amongst women, who recently overtook (excuse the pun) men for the first time in marathon participation in 2018. This must, in part at least, be attributed to the changing expectations attached to the sport, as a recent survey revealed that 58% of runners have improving their mental health as their primary goal in 2025 – a number that rises to 65% amongst Gen Z.
This marks a shift away from the historic rhetoric of running as simply a weight loss tool, especially for women, and instead towards one more wellness and community-focused, something demonstrated by the run club boom. These staggering phenomena – with a 59% increase in membership in 2024, and 89% amongst women- are a key part of the new face of running, convincing more and more people to join the sport with their inclusive atmospheres, pre-planned routes, and sense of community. With groups like Runners and Stunners, aimed at improving accessibility to running regardless of speed, body type, or experience, expanding to London, Bristol, and further in the future, it is obvious that there is an incredibly vibrant market for these social-based clubs. Lucia, founder of the increasingly popular Bristol Run Club (BRC), which has recently celebrated 10k followers on Instagram, spoke of starting the run club not because of sporting competitiveness, but simply because she “wanted to make friends in Bristol”.
“When I started it, we were a year or so after COVID – I think that nowadays a lot of people are trying to meet people through activities … and focusing on the social aspect and creating an inclusive atmosphere was really important to me.”
These run clubs move away from the historically competitive, solitary nature of running, and instead lean into the social aspect, providing a safe space for new and established runners alike in a judgement-free, positive atmosphere.
“I think with social media there’s a lot of people that post a 3 hour marathon or a 1 hour 20 half, which if you’re a new runner and you see that, you think that’s how fast you should be running and you can really quickly get sucked into that. But I wanted to keep it to the social side, which is why getting a pastry and a coffee after is so great … After the first run, a girl came up to me at the end and said that “I could only run 1km but I really wanted to meet you guys for coffee so I walked it” and the fact that she felt comfortable enough to join for the social aspect is amazing”.
The safety side of these groups is another key area of their appeal, especially for female runners. 92% of women, compared to 28% of men, reported feeling concerned for their safety whilst running, and the large group environment of run clubs acts as a key tool in allowing women to run all year round, instead of being dictated by daylight hours. Lucia highlighted that:
“At the start, I was thinking how I feel unsafe when I go on a run on my own, and how I can change that for other people: running at night was one of the biggest things … The number of women who approach me now saying they have never run at night on their own and now they can, and almost thank me – it’s so nice that you can do that”.
As well as the physical communities breaking down barriers to the sport, the virtual groups online have also been key in improving the accessibility of running, educating new runners with the goldmine of information readily available, from training and nutrition plans to injury prevention and form tips.
Leading this market of science-backed performance is the training app Runna, which has recently announced its multi-million pound acquisition by the sporting giant Strava. Launched by Ben Parker and Dom Maskell in 2021, the app has amassed over 90,000 active users, acting as a quantified testament to the enduring popularity of entry-level running. The buildable, achievable plans are created by certified coaches and backed by science, something particularly important when aimed at women, as their capacity for endurance exercise changes in sync with their menstrual cycle. With head coach Anya Culling, who recently achieved a 2:36 marathon at London, at the forefront of Runna’s content, the app has become a trusted companion to many women’s journeys, providing not just a training plan but an inspirational female figure to follow.
Jasmine, a Runna employee, echoed this, saying that “Anya has had the most incredible impact on women’s sport because she’s showing women, especially that you can do whatever you put your mind to if you put the hard work in. Running in general has shown so many people what they’re capable of, and if you can do hard things in sport, you are more equipped to face the challenges of everyday life. I think that movement in women’s sport has been really powerful over the last few years.”
Runna has strong connections across the running world, from working with run clubs like BRC to collaborating with the online influencers dubbed ‘RunTok’, which is arguably one of the most powerful tools in converting people to running. Awash with marathon training blocks, pre-race rituals, and fueling tips, this corner of the Internet – particularly on Instagram and TikTok – has overtaken people’s feeds with everything from sub-3-hour marathon attempts with Mary McCarthy to pages dedicated to slower running like Hannah Trenches. RunTok is an unapologetically ‘girly’ space, full of carefully curated pink emojis, matching gym sets, and aesthetic almond croissants, aiming to replace the attitude that women and their femininity can’t belong in competitive sports environments. Instead, through emphasising these experiences in combination with their impressive performances, these creators are reflecting the message that Female Invest recently plastered across the London Marathon route: that ‘Women can do hard things, and we can do them well’.
And their effect is twofold – as well as their armies of followers like London based Mary McCarthy’s 178k Instagram followers, brands across the board are increasingly capitalizing on their fame and influence, like British Vogue following Mary pre London Marathon, and Rimmel partnering with Hannah Trenches for a campaign to ‘look good, feel good, run good’. These high-profile campaigns highlight the gold dust that these ‘runfluencers’ are dusted with as targeting their online audiences is overtaking traditional forms of advertising like physically targeting races – evidence of how powerful the running community has become as its own culture.
However, although the influences of both RunTok and run clubs are undeniably key in maintaining and increasing running’s popularity, there is still a difficult conversation to be had when considering how these groups affect the mental health of those consuming and interacting with their content and events. Montages of energetic dancing at 5 am before an ‘easy’ 25km, perfectly composed pictures after 3-hour marathons, and ‘inclusive’ run clubs being capped at a 5:30 min/km pace are arguably creating a deeply unrealistic and comparative culture surrounding running. It’s easily done in a culture of chasing personal bests, and something worsened by the monetization of this content, with quantity being prized by the algorithm and viewers alike.
A run-club member and consumer of RunTok content, Isabel spoke on this dichotomy. Although she was quick to highlight the positives of “combining those endorphins [from running] and fresh air with the company of like-minded people, which is even better”, she also admitted that “I’d be very wary of joining a new club … I think they have shifted from a fun social activity to a far more competitive one, [especially with] the ease of comparison through apps like Strava”.
Her feelings seem to be an accurate summation of what the running revolution has become – as much as it is an incredibly powerful movement, proving to women nationwide just how much they are physically capable of, the self-comparisons to the online performances (which often also act as a financial stream for their creators) can foster a negative, competitive environment.
However, it would be unfair, and ultimately untrue, to label this content and movement as fickle and toxically unachievable. With social clubs and communities like BRC and Runners and Stunners, and the candid emotions of influencers like Mary McCarthy’s disappointment at her London Marathon time, running in all its variations has become a far broader movement than simply pounding the pavement for a certain time. All of these emotions, whether that be tears of a ‘runfluencer’ online or the cheers of your local run club, serve to highlight the real message behind running’s new makeover: that it’s a sport centered around self-belief, mental toughness, and ultimately an unwaveringly supportive community.
