Putney has a new running club, and it finishes at a pub.
The Half Moon on Lower Richmond Road has been a music venue since 1963. It has teamed up with a group called The Pub Run Club, which sends runners out from Putney Pier every Thursday at 7pm, with speakers and lights. Young’s, which owns the pub, and the beer brand Estrella Damm are partners. Everyone is welcome, whatever their ability, and the finish line is the bar.
After a test run in September, the club went weekly this month.
Anyone picturing a pub crawl at a jog can relax. The run comes first and the pint comes after, though the pub’s own announcement sets a challenge: “Race you to the bar.”
On Thursday 29 October the runners go out in fancy dress for Halloween, and a Christmas jumper run is planned for December.
If running clubs are the new nightclubs, as exercise-tracking app Strava has declared, a pub was bound to start one eventually. Strava found running club participation up 59 per cent worldwide that year, and more than half the people it surveyed had made new friends through fitness groups.
On the Embankment, the Half Moon already has company. The Clubhouse, bike brand Raptor Bikes’ café and bar, sends free social runs out three times a week. Last month another run club, SPORTL, took it over for a 6.5km run to Hammersmith Bridge, followed by pizza and a bar tab, for £3. That was on a Thursday at 7pm too.
The week’s group runs, from either side of Putney Bridge:
- Wednesday, 6.30pm: evening social run from The Clubhouse.
- Thursday, 7pm: the Half Moon run club, from Putney Pier.
- Friday, 7am: social run from The Clubhouse.
- Saturday, 9am: Fulham Palace parkrun, a timed 5km in Bishop’s Park, just over Putney Bridge. Register once on the parkrun website and bring your barcode.
- Sunday, 8.15am: long run from The Clubhouse.
The Clubhouse runs and parkrun are free, and The Clubhouse says there is no need to book, just turn up.
It looks as thought the same rules apply to the Half Moon’s new club, although it asks runners to save a space on its website.
