Run clubs in NYC have just become another oversaturated dating market, singles say

“You have to be OK with seeing someone that you’ve gone on a date with show up and talk to someone else,” said Rachael Lansing, the head of Lunge Run Club, which meets every week at Washington Square Park.

Just a few months ago, the club was made of a couple dozen people mostly focused on working out. A few viral videos later, romance-deprived New Yorkers started flocking in droves.

“I want to find my soulmate in New York City,” said Fernanda Puentes, 29, who works as a nanny. “Dating apps are wild these days; I’m trying to meet someone organically. I like running, I like working out, so why not?” 

With groups now numbering hundreds of runners per session, some participants trying to use in-person interest-based activities to find that meaningful connection said the task can be as hard as swiping. 

At Lunge’s run the Wednesday before Labor Day weekend, New Yorkers from all walks of life — consultants, waiters, nannies, finance workers, and doctors — all excitedly mingled with each other hoping to find romance in the three miles ahead.

A summer marked by the boom in singles run clubs is reaching its denouement as cuffing season, when singles are looking to pair up for the winter, quickly approaches. NBC News pounded the pavement and spoke to over a dozen attendees — some said they were obsessed with the concept, but others said months of running after love had not yielded much more than a couple of phone numbers.

“You can easily get lost,” said Barbara Cheng, a 29-year-old consultant. “I think it’s better for people who are very, very outgoing.”

Are run clubs worth the hype? 

Since the beginning of summer, New York City run clubs like Lunge have become the latest playground of lifestyle influencers on TikTok. The West Side Highway, a popular running destination, is now a vast pool for young urban professionals seeking hot, athletic partners. 

“Running at run clubs until I find my wife,” one TikToker captioned a video. 

Lunge has taken advantage of a city hungry for in-real-life encounters by creating a running group specifically oriented toward dating. It’s a three-mile run (or a little over a one-mile walk) that ends at a bar in the West Village. The turnout is often so big that Lunge has to plan for a spillover bar next door. 

Run clubs have a long history, and runners have always tended to date each other, a relationship expert said. Groups like the Prospect Park Track Club have been active since the 1970s. The New York Road Runners, the organizers of the New York Marathon, started as a 40-person run club in the 1950s. 

“Having a common shared goal to work towards is the main reason why it works so well,” dating coach and “City of Dating” columnist and founder Stevie Bowen said. “There’s a camaraderie there.”

New run clubs have popped up all over the city in the last few years, but they’ve gotten increased attention on social media this summer. As people tire of the basic dating apps like Tinder and Hinge, singles mixers in general have grown in popularity, Bowen said. 

Lunge Run Club combined both concepts into its weekly runs and drinks after.

It was formed by the creators of fitness-based dating app Lunge. Lunge started its Wednesday evening runs in May with an original cohort of around 30 runners. That number has since swelled to around 1,000 runners per week. 

“It pretty much doubled week over week,” Lansing said. 

Singles are instructed to wear black and those in relationship colors — but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in a nonblack outfit in the vast crowd of singles that overtake Greenwich Village each week. 

Content creator Annie Jorgensen, 28, said that on her first week there in May, the group of around 30 runners formed a circle and introduced themselves to each other. Now, as the numbers each week break four figures, organizers stand on benches with a bullhorn and instruct runners and “hot walkers” to divide into pace groups. 

“At the happy hour afterwards, I remember I talked to every single person that was there,” she said. “I missed a week, and when I went back, there were over 100 people there.”

Runners have the chance to mingle before, during and after the run. Shy introductions are interrupted by heavy breathing and sneakers hitting the sidewalk. If the love of your life has a slower mile time than you, you may never find them. 

The sheer number of runners means that, even if someone catches your eye one week, you won’t necessarily be able to find them in the crowd the next week, Cheng said. 

“You don’t see the same people every time, so if you don’t click and you don’t set up a date right away, you don’t really get to connect after the run,” she said.

Runners also said the club still has some of the same problems as the apps. 

“Sometimes someone will ask you for your number, you’ll give it to them, and then you won’t hear from them,” said Ashley Korn, 29, who works in finance.

“I’ve heard through the grapevine that some people wear the wrong colors even if they’re in a relationship,” said model Sylvia Wadolowski, 23, who was walking alongside her. “You kind of have to do your own investigation.”

But it’s something the club’s creators have taken into account. Each week, Lansing posts on Lunge’s Instagram story asking runners to spill their gossip about the week before.  

“You’re always going to have a couple people who are ghosting or are acting like f---boys, but I think we’re getting a lot less of it in this run club,” she said. “It’s almost like a mutual understanding that everybody’s dating to try and find the right person for them.”

Zion Morrow, 26, stopped by Lunge that Wednesday on his way to a different run club in the area. 

“This one is definitely oversaturated,” he said. “But it’s a very welcome trend. We’re gonna see more and more of them. The one I’m a part of, it’s a small cohort of people, it’s definitely a more intimate setting. I see the same people every week.”

He said the one he attends weekly has a smaller group led by Black and brown runners, and he’s been able to form some meaningful connections there. When asked the name of the club, he declined to share.

“I gotta gatekeep it,” he said. On the backdrop of a Washington Square Park teeming with people, cameras and influencers, his request seemed reasonable. 

People want to meet “irl”

Jorgensen pointed out that it takes five minutes on a first date to know whether or not you’re interested in pursuing somebody. 

“By meeting people in person, you can catch the vibe immediately,” she said.

The number of people willing to pay for apps like Tinder fell in 2024, according to data from dating app giant Match Group, which owns both Tinder and Hinge.

Paywalls keep you from filtering for many of the things you want, young people say, and racism and sexism are rampant. “Irl” meetups make things feel more authentic off the bat, some users said.

“They’re not gonna be a catfish, because you’re meeting them in person,” Wadolowski said. 

Match Group representatives said they're working to recover, and that the performance of some of their dating apps is strong. Hinge downloads, for example, increased by 14% in the second quarter of 2024.

“We think that doomsday scenarios around dating apps are way overblown and you can start to see that in our results this quarter…dating apps are still the best way for people to meet and we intend to continue to capture that opportunity," Match Group CEO Bernard Kim said on the 2024 quarter two earnings call.

Singles want an in-person love story more than ever, Bowen said. 

“We’ve been in such a technology mindset that people are like, ‘OK, how do I interact in person?’ ‘How do I act?’” she said. “I think there’s a lot of social anxiety there, but by going to these run clubs and kind of pushing yourself to get out of your comfort zone, you’re really practicing that social muscle.”

Ultimately, she said, exercise is a good thing, both for your body and your social muscle. Every woman interviewed mentioned that, even if they haven’t met a romantic partner through run clubs, they’ve made a strong group of new girlfriends. And they’re pretty sure they’d never ghost them.