Peak Pulse Run Club Gainesville joins trend of emerging Generation Z run clubs

What do you get when you mix sneakers, serotonin and socializing? For Gainesville’s Generation Z crowd, the answer is Peak Pulse Run Club. 

According to Axios, 84% of Strava users tell the fitness tracker company their number one reason for exercising is social connection.

So what about this sweaty social scene has Generation Z so hooked?

Aydan Child, a 23-year-old UF information systems alum, noticed the trend after graduating in the Spring, and he decided to “bring that same energy to Gainesville and build a real community around it,” he said. 

Thus Peak Pulse Run Club was born. What started out early last summer as something for Child to do during the college town’s slow season has turned into a semiweekly ritual with 30 to 150 attendees.

Known by his friends as a hardcore runner, Child said he had to reiterate to early runners that “it's not a race” to get them to show up and run. Once they agreed, Child did as any typical member of Gen Z would and posted a selfie promoting the run club on Instagram, enticing others with Gatorade and water. 

Soon, the club grew to over 30 members within the first month. Now, the Gainesville run club’s Instagram bio proudly promotes, “Run, Walk or Crawl – All Levels are Welcome.” 

“I think students do just want a way to take a break from school, get out, do something active. I love that this kind of active, healthy lifestyle is becoming such a trend right now,” Child said.

In its short life thus far, Peak Pulse Run Club Gainesville has made efforts to grow and give back to its community through incentives like free Celsius energy drink days and a Hoka sneaker giveaway earlier this year. The rules for the giveaway stated that participants had to be at the run club event to claim the prize, and the event had the club’s highest turnout, with over 120 people. 

“It looked like a small army going on a run behind me,” Child said. “That was a great sight.” 

Inspired by the community Child built, Stryder Graft, Child’s good friend, created Peak Pulse Run Club Tally two and a half hours north of Gainesville with hundreds of members, according to Child. 

Each Thursday, Gainesville’s Peak Pulse Run Club meets at 5:30 p.m. across from the East overlook at Depot Park’s pond and runs through the park to Williston Road and back for a total of two miles. 

On Saturday mornings at 8 a.m., the group meets at 4th Ave Food Park, runs on the Hawthorne Trail, turns around at Williston Road and dashes back to 4th Ave Food Park for a total of 3.1 miles. You can usually find them by looking (or listening) for the big speaker blasting pop hits like “American Boy” by Estelle featuring Kanye West and “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter. 

The Saturday morning crowd tends to be much smaller than Thursday afternoons, Child said. 

“Understandably, a lot of people like sleeping in after a Friday night out,” he said. “There are quite a few dedicated individuals who come out, despite battling hangovers.”  

At varying paces, the group sets out in a beautiful cascade of smiling faces. Unlike a typical run, there are almost no headphones in sight. The university-aged runners can laugh, chit-chat and flash photos on disposable cameras. 

Child said most runners come to meet new people. It’s less about the miles and more about the sense of community. 

“It's just the combination of a fun activity, meeting new people and a bunch of nice, smiling faces,” he said. “Just getting out and doing something all together, and then just getting to talk.”

Child makes it a point to meet everyone who visits the run club and asks each passerby to join the group. The latter is sometimes successful — other times, not so much. 

His method and persistence, he said, have gained him consistent runners and close friends. He recalled one run in particular when he asked a fellow jogger if he wanted to join the run club three different times. It wasn’t until two stern “no’s” and a third request that the runner decided to join the group. He now religiously attends the run club. 

“I've definitely converted multiple people,” Child said with pride. “Very quickly, they will realize that it's a good place to be.” 

Perhaps it’s Child’s charismatic energy that keeps the group in good spirits during the multi-mile run or perhaps it’s the wholesome moments shared between clubgoers. 

For Antonio Longa, a 21-year-old UF hospitality, tourism and event management major, his favorite memory from attending the club since its early inception was when one member brought their mother, who made peanut butter chocolate protein balls to share with the group. 

“I think for college students, it’s very important to stay active and be social. A run club is a great way to do both,” Longa said. “It also allows students to branch out into the community and make connections outside of their normal friend group.” 

On a gloomy afternoon on Nov. 14, when college students could be doing anything from doom scrolling on social media to partying at local bars, Peak Pulse Run Club Gainesville was still able to bring in over 30 college students, including UF business management sophomore Natasha Rattray. 

Rattray danced along the Depot Park track, her electric red curls bouncing in a free-flowing ponytail. The 19-year-old said Peak Pulse Run Club is her version of a social media detox. 

“I hate social media, lowkey,” she said. “I think it is evil.” 

Rattray is among the growing number of Gen Zers taking measures to kick social media addictions and lower screen time. She recommends an app called Opal for fighting social media addiction, which prioritizes healthy digital habits by setting screen limits accompanied by encouraging or inspiring messages, like “make music, not Instagram” and “without music, life would be a mistake.” 

“[Social media] is literally an addiction because you get dopamine hits,” Rattray said. “I had to block myself from social media. [I] deleted Snapchat, [I] can’t go on Instagram. Facebook’s my new thing.” 

Contact Sabrina Castro at scastro@alligator.org. Follow her on X @sabs_wurld.

---