Once seen as ‘daggy’, running is now exploding in popularity. Why?
When Sofie Spelta and her close friend Sophie Rindfleish started their social run club in Brisbane in 2023 – a club they fittingly named SoSo’s – they put a cheeky call-out on TikTok and Instagram.
“We put up a reel and we joked like, ‘Put down your Hinge, delete your Tinder and come down to your local run club’,” Spelta recalls.
Sophie Rindfleish (left) and Sofie Spelta, co-founders of a social run club in Brisbane they called SoSo's. Supplied
Their run club has exploded in popularity in the three years it’s existed, to the point where 100 people – and sometimes a few hundred – show up at Waterfront Park in Newstead on any given Saturday morning to jog five kilometres and chit-chat over coffee.
There are social run clubs like SoSo’s that have popped up all over Australia in recent years.
That proliferation is one of the clearest indications that running at the recreational level in Australia has never been so popular. The record participation numbers running events are attracting is another clear sign; so, too, the general vibe that running is cool again. Cooler than ever before.
As the boss of the Sydney Marathon, Wayne Larden has witnessed the boom in popularity firsthand.
“Running has moved from what would have been a bit of a daggy sport done by a few people in the community to something that the mainstream community is taking part in,” Larden says.
“And it’s part of popular culture now.”
Jessica Stenson, a three-time Olympian and the Australian women’s marathon record holder, has loved seeing friends and family members who had never shown any interest in running getting hooked on the sport.
“I’ve been enjoying the benefits of running for so long and I love seeing others getting to experience that as well,” Stenson says.
The boom spans cities and regional areas Australia-wide, males and females, and road and trail running.
It is a microcosm of the explosion in popularity the world’s most ancient sport has enjoyed worldwide.
Nine.com.au asked a host of people, including Australian marathon running royalty Rob de Castella, why they think the sport has suddenly become so popular.
The impact of the pandemic
It’s no secret the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged the popularity of the sport.
People couldn’t go and shift iron in their local gym because gyms were closed – but they could step outside and run. And as the days, weeks and months in lockdown stacked up and up, the thought of stepping outside for a run became increasingly appealing.
“People have taken up running through COVID because that’s all they’ve been able to do, and I think that probably did make people feel good, and it did help their mental health, and they’ve continued on with it,” Larden says.
“If people wanted to take their health into their own hands, running was one of the few options available,” says Stenson.
“And I think because it was a prolonged period, it was long enough for people to persist and actually catch the running bug.”
Joggers running across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 2025 Sydney Marathon. Getty
The proliferation of social run clubs
Social run clubs took off after the lockdowns were lifted. After months on end of isolation, people were craving social connectivity, and social run clubs offered exactly that.
“Soph and I used to live together, and during COVID used to go for runs, and that was how we eventually got into running,” Sofie says.
“And then SoSo’s kind of came about because we’d post on social media and all our friends would say, ‘Let me know next time you’re going’ ... We had like 15 of our friends there [early on] and it just kind of grew from there.
“It’s a chance for people to do something good for their mental health, and just their health in general, and get a coffee and meet some new people.”
For some people, Sofie says, it has absolutely become a bit like Tinder or Hinge.
“We have had some success stories,” she says with a laugh.
De Castella, the 1983 marathon world champion and a former marathon world record holder, has no doubt.
“If you want to meet someone, you want to meet someone who’s healthy and who’s fit and who’s got a bit of commitment and dedication, then you hook up with someone who’s a regular runner, and the place to do that is your local social run club,” de Castella says.
Social run clubs have popped up all over Australia in recent years. Supplied
‘It’s a dopamine thing’
Rock up at any Parkrun on any Saturday morning, and you’ll see and hear Garmin watches everywhere, or Apple watches, Coros watches or Fitbits. There is now an astronomical demand for running watches and the major watch companies are delivering in spades.
Modern running watches measure just about anything: distance and route, pace and heart rate, cadence and stride length, elevation and sweat loss.
And they ask for feedback – inviting the user to record how they felt, and how easy or difficult they found the run.
The metrics and feedback are gobbled up by a computer and out spit training and recovery recommendations.
The watches go hand in hand (excuse the pun) with social media. Runs are recorded on Garmin and pop up on Strava – basically Facebook for runners. And TikTok and Instagram get in on the fun.
In his heyday, Pat Carroll won the Gold Coast Marathon four times, ran a marathon in Japan in two hours and nine minutes, and represented Australia more than half a dozen times. He now has a running coaching business in Brisbane called Pat Carroll Running Group.
“A lot of people are obsessed with technology now,” he says.
“You can have the fancy sat nav [satellite navigation] watch ... and people just love that – they can get feedback.
Runners taking on Sydney's City to Surf in 2024. Supplied
“The sat nav watches are a major driving force for keeping them in running, and getting the feedback and uploading it to online and saying, ‘Look at me, look at what I’m doing’, and taking photos on Instagram and all that sort of stuff.
“It’s a dopamine thing; no different to how we’re addicted to our phones. I see people out running, and they’re looking at their watch every minute, every two minutes ... The feedback satisfies them.”
Shoe companies have changed the game
De Castella has no doubt the emergence of “super shoes” – which in most cases feature a carbon-fibre plate and a huge chunk of foam – has played a major hand in the running boom.
And not only “super shoes” but “max-cushion” shoes. No less than 46.5 millimetres of spongy, springy foam is packed into the ASICS Superblast 3.
“Running can be pretty brutal on your body ... but the softer, rebounding midsoles that the running shoe companies have developed take a lot of that jarring and that shock out of the impact,” says de Castella, who heads up the Indigenous Marathon Project.
“So it’s a lot more enjoyable and a lot more pleasant. You don’t get quite as stiff and sore through the legs and through the joints.”
Stenson says she’ll “never forget the day” she first put on a pair of super shoes.
“I remember the feeling it gave me and the way I could run with that extra bounce, and I felt fast,” says the Commonwealth Games marathon gold medallist.
“And so I think people are enjoying that feeling.”
And, of course, the shoes are flashy.
The ASICS Superblast 3. ASICS
‘There are just too many war stories’
A lot of people are new to running and a lot of those people want to challenge themselves. They don’t just want to head along to a social run club once a week; they want to run a 10km personal best, or run a half-marathon personal best, or finish a marathon.
And key to those people remaining in the sport, and continuing to chase their goals, is expert coaching.
The West Australian Marathon Club (WAMC) is one of many clubs Australia-wide that offer the sort of coaching that keeps novice runners on the right track.
Runners taking part in the HOKA Ultra-Trail Australia. Tim Bardsley.
“There are just too many war stories in running where they’re one and done; they’ve done their one marathon, ticked it off, but it was so brutal because of the ineffective training that they don’t want to go back,” says Ann Maree O’Callaghan, an executive committee member at the WAMC.
“We want to make sure people can do it socially ... but they do it with good advice, they do it with a good, structured program, good connection to a coach, and with the wisdom of all the other people that have been running for so long.”
‘It’s wonderful’
“Running addresses every single chronic disease and also makes you feel good, and it addresses mental health,” de Castella says.
“So it’s wonderful to see the popularity.”
