The 24 Best Running Clubs in Los Angeles
LA is such a great city for runners. The combination of year-round good weather, beach access, parks and mountain trails spoils Angelenos for choice.
Better still, there are dozens of active running clubs around the city so that you can turn your workout into something social — a way to meet new people and perhaps add an extra layer of accountability for your fitness.
Below are 24 of the best running clubs in Los Angeles. For the most part, we tried to keep our list within the boundaries of Los Angeles County, but we colored outside the lines on a couple of occasions to include noteworthy groups nearby.
If you are trying to establish a consistent running habit, or if you would just like to meet some good people, connect with whichever of the groups below are closest to you geographically or interest-wise.
L.A. Leggers
This Santa Monica-based group celebrates 25 years of group running this year. That’s a quarter century of everything from training marathon runners to simply getting people off the couch. Memberships go on a 31-week basis and cost $75. This includes weekly training, nutrition plans, and Saturday morning access to the beachfront clubhouse.
The Downtown LA Running Group
DTLA Running is designed for busy professionals who work downtown and need to squeeze in a run once or twice a week. Most weeks, the group runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings along various downtown routes.
LA Frontrunners
LA Frontrunners was created to be a running club for LGBT, their friends and their supporters; people of all sexual identities are welcome. The group hosts early evening fun runs every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday around the LA area plus a Saturday morning run in Griffith Park. Yearly membership is $25 for single people and $35 for couples who share an address.
A Runner’s Circle Fun Runs
Local running shop A Runner’s Circle, on Los Feliz Boulevard, hosts free fun runs every Thursday night. Participants can choose whether they prefer the runners-only three-mile loop or the run/walk five-mile loop (the store is the start and end point in both). Afterward, there will be food.
Pasadena Pacers
Pasadena Pacers is a free group that’s open to anyone of any level of fitness. There are track workouts on Monday evenings, hill runs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and a Saturday morning group meeting.
Coyote Running
Coyote running has both free group runs and training programs available to road runners and trail runners. If you are preparing for a big race, particularly a non-traditional marathon, this is a good group of runners to reach out to.
LA Road Runners
This is the official training group of the ASICS LA Marathon, and they meet bright and early every Saturday morning in Venice. LA Road Runners is much more suited to runners who are committed to training for the marathon — that $165 membership might be too steep otherwise.
Club Ed
Not quite the all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean, Club Ed is led by longtime runner and USC professor Ed Avol, who at a given time is training as many as 150 people per week. Group runs take place three times per week, usually on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Club Ed’s Facebook group can be found here.
My Coach Larry
Coach Larry, like Ed above, is a longtime runner — he even competed in multiple events as a college student athlete. Coach Larry hosts training events three times per week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and membership rates vary depending on how often you want to participate.
Team in Training: California Southland Chapter
This is the local training group for Team in Training, the largest sports training network worldwide. Team in Training events and members use their activity to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Since 1988, there have been more than 600,000 participants in the Team in Training program, and their combined efforts have raised more than $1.4 billion (billion!) for blood cancer research.
A Snail’s Pace
Don’t let the name fool you; there are some serious runners at A Snail’s Pace, a group of four running shops around the LA area. Each shop (locations: Mission Viejo, Fountain Valley, Brea and Monrovia) has its own running club, each of which hosts an evening run once a week. Follow along on Facebook, too, for store updates and any other announcements regarding group runs.
AREC
AREC, which stands for “A Running Experience Club,” is a nonprofit based out of Long Beach that seeks to provide a safe environment for runners and walkers of all ages and abilities. The groups hosts a Wednesday evening run/walk and a Saturday morning run/walk.
Cal Coast Track Club
Cal Coast Track Club meets three times per week, twice in Newport Beach and once in Irvine, and the group is open to anyone of any age and any level of fitness. Membership is $200 for new registrations and $100 per renewal.
Club Run With Us
Pasadena sports store Run With Us hosts a fun run every Monday evening. There are four- and six-mile runs and three-mile walks on fun run evenings, and the store’s team also goes out of its way to create fun experiences such as pub runs and gear giveaways.
Glendora Ridge Runners
The Glendora Ridge Runners group is free to join, and they train or race somewhere frequently. The biggest weekly events are the Tuesday night speed training at Azusa Pacific University and the long endurance run on Saturday morning that typically goes up into the foothills or along the ridge.
SoCal UltraRunner’s Grand Prix Series
This is the group for the most hardcore runners, the ultra runners. Group members earn points for races completed during the season, and awards are given at the end of the year for the longest runners and for the best in each age group.
Los Feliz Flyers
The Los Feliz Flyers have a track workout at CalTech on Wednesday evenings and a Friday tempo run by Rose Bowl Stadium. The club dues themselves are just $35 per year, but there is also a $120 annual track fee if you plan to do the Wednesday night workouts.
Foothill Flyers Weekend Warriors
This is a pretty informal running group that does Saturday morning trail runs, hikes and sometimes bike rides along the trails in the San Gabriel Mountains. Keep an eye on the group’s website Thursday evening or Friday morning for exact times and locations for the Saturday event.
Santa Monica Mountain Goats
Founded in 1982, this is one of the old trail running groups in Southern Califronia. Every Saturday moring, the group meets at 7:15 at a different trail in the area. “We run/jog/walk for time, not distance,” organizers write. “Everyone goes out at their own pace for 60 minutes (more or less), then we all turn and come back. This way, the faster people and the slower people all finish at the same time & place.”
New Basin Blues
New Basin Blues is a running club in the Valley that traces its origins back to the early-60s, when a group of UCLA runners who lived and trained in the area would get together to train. Group activity faded after a while, but in the ‘90s the group reorganized and officially got a 501(c)(3) status from the State of California so the group could go out into the community and do some good in addition to running.
Santa Clarita Runners Club
This is another club with deep roots, tracing its origins back to 1980. The group boasts a membership of 200-plus and meets four times per week. These four meetings include marathon training, a workout, a fun run and a 10-mile run.
Shoreline Frontrunners of Long Beach
Shoreline Frontrunners organized in 1984 as a sister club to LA Frontrunners to reach out to people in Long Beach, Orange County and South Bay. As with LA Frontrunners, this is an LGBT group, but everyone is welcome to join. Standard individual membership is just $20 per year, but that’s cut in half if you register for the Pride Run. They host regular evening runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and morning runs and breakfasts on Saturdays.
Sole Runners
If you are training for a marathon or a half marathon, this is a good group to reach out to. Based out of Long Beach, Sole Runners “uses the latest science, ChiRunning and Yoga to give you the only full and half marathon training experience of its kind in the world.” Membership fees for new signups start at $180.
South Coast Road Runners
This Orange County group first organized 30 years ago and currently organizes three group events each week: On Monday evenings, Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. New individual signups are $30, and new families get a discounted price of $45.
images by:
Krocky Meshkin / Flickr
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