I am not a morning person, so when the alarm goes off at 6-ish on Wednesdays, I hem and haw.
As the acting director of Another Run Club (ARC), I never have the luxury of bailing in favor of a little more bedtime. I could fake sick, I suppose, but I’m turning 30 this year and have increasingly strong feelings about self-respect. So I get up and put on socks.
It’s not the running I dread. I love running. It’s the social interaction — the idea of cracking jokes and shaking hands at dawn feels impossible. Until…it just happens. I drag my ass down to Domino Square to see who showed up this week, and without fail, like magic, what follows is one of my favorite hours of the week.
InsideHook launched ARC in early October of last year. Why? To put our money where our mouth is. I write all the time about the importance of community in the world of wellness; and we knew we had the resources and wherewithal to create a run club of our own.
Run clubs are in the midst of an all-time renaissance right now. The sport is booming, expanding, including those it once left behind, and we wanted to be a part of that. We placed our run club in Williamsburg — a hotbed of running and wellness, and, as it happens, my home neighborhood. I run 20-plus miles around North Brooklyn each week, across bridges (Williamsburg, Kosciuszko, Pulaski) and through parks (Domino, McCarren, McGolrick).
I wanted ARC runners to be treated to the best running experience possible; the miles needed to be inspiring, linear and safe. I settled on a route that I named “Good Morning Greenpoint,” which traces a couple miles up the East River, cuts through the heart of Greenpoint at its quietest, before finally spitting us out at McCarren Park. Once there, runners can tack on a loop to push closer to a sum of three miles, or just tap “Finish” on their watches.
The entire run takes about a half hour. The group tends to stratify into a few pace groups (many of our runners latch onto a friend), but we all wind up outside Nick + Sons Bakery, on Lorimer Street, a few minutes after it rolls open its garage doors, around 7:35 a.m.
I’m partial to the croissant — it’s a buttery, flakey treat — and many of our runners add a cup of iced coffee or just ask for a water. InsideHook’s very own head of sales, one Jay Gallagher, puts it all on his card…mysterious, generous man that he is. I told you we’re putting our money where our mouth is. (Sidebar: some runners still seem to think Jay owns the bakery. I have neither the heart nor maturity to correct them.)
Then: chitchat. The exact thing I wasn’t excited to roll out of bed for, and yet, I talk for most of the morning. I talk through warm-ups, through the run itself, through croissants. It feels good to meet people, to make people feel welcome and to step out of your comfort zone — it’s a pretty powerful way to start the day.
One of the founding credos of ARC is “the more the merrier.” If you live in the New York area, we’d love to see you at ARC. If you’re reading this on mobile, follow this link to join our WhatsApp group. If you live in a different city (or country!), we’d still love for you to follow ARC on Instagram. Drop us a DM whenever you’re in the city — I’ll happily grant you a run club tourist visa.
Even if you can’t make our weekly programming — Wednesdays, 7 a.m., meet in Domino Square — keep your eyes peeled for exciting secondary events throughout 2025. We’ve got some partnerships in the works over here that I can’t wait to tell everyone about. Until then, happy running and happy alarm-setting. It’s never easy but it’s always worth it.
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