LA Running Connoisseur

By: Kate Olson (@onthejumbotron)
Founder, LA Running Connoisseur

I planned on waiting a year or so before writing about what this passion project has meant to me, but driving home from Hermosa Run Club this morning, I realized something new and words kept falling out of my head.

In the Los Angeles area, there are so many run clubs (125+ to put a number to it) because we often stick to the neighborhoods we’re connected to by home or work. Sometime, we get a little caught up in our own nook of the city, sticking to the clubs nearby and surrounding ourselves with the people we are, often, most like (that’s just how neighborhoods in LA work). It’s all understandable, since driving around this town can be a beast and a burden.

But there’s something magical about going to clubs and running in areas just beyond the ones you typically run in. Drive out a little past the norm (obviously weekend runs are best for this) and it can feel like you’re in an entirely different place.

You can see new areas and experience local habits, run alongside humans with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and soak in different cultures. Los Angeles has it all – we notably celebrate this – and it can be easy to forget that when you don’t get out to explore.

I feel like I’ve been adventuring around my own city the past few weeks. Slightly outside my comfort zone, though the commonality of running makes it easier, I get to expand my worldview a little bit. I’ve learned. I’ve connected. I’ve grown.

And it’s all been within an hour of my home. Being able to travel within the city is one of the coolest things about Los Angeles and if you have an opportunity to club hop a little like I’ve been doing, I highly recommend it (just be ready to chat up some strangers).

I have always intended this resource to be a way to support our community. I want to give back, share my own knowledge, make the running space feel like an easier one to enter, and help connect people with whatever they might need when it comes to this sport. And I know this project does that.

But it’s also given back to me and I’m grateful for all of you supporting my personal mission and being so welcoming as I pop up for runs around the city.

More to come in the future but I just couldn’t stop these words from being written today.

-KO