Club presidents, race directors and industry leaders reflect on lessons they’ve learned from 2024 and forecast what’s ahead.
By Kelyn Soong for RRCA
There appears to be another running boom taking place. The big, splashy marathons with tens of thousands of participants are back in full force, selling out within hours or breaking records with the number of finishers. Race participation in other road races are also matching or surpassing pre-pandemic levels from 2019.
Industry reports by organizations like Road Race Management, RunSignup, and Running USA all reveal the same thing: there is a surge of interest in running.
“People are as upbeat as I’ve seen them in a decade,” says Phil Stewart, the event director for the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile and 5K and a 2015 RRCA Hall of Fame inductee. “There does seem to be a new enthusiasm as numbers increase.”
As 2025 gets underway, running industry leaders forecast that those trends will continue. Here are some lessons they’ve learned and predictions they have for the sport in the year ahead.
Marathons will be the fastest growing distance
If you want to run a marathon this year, register early. The increased attention and interest in the seven Abbott World Marathon Majors — Tokyo, Boston, London, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago and New York City — will have a trickle down effect on smaller marathons, industry experts predict.
In November, the TCS New York City Marathon became the world’s largest marathon ever with 55,646 total finishers, surpassing the previous record set just months earlier at the BMW Berlin Marathon in September by more than 2,000 runners.
That means as the World Marathon Majors gain in popularity, runners who can’t get into those events will seek out races like the Allianz Richmond Marathon, the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., which is sold out for this year, and the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., says Brian Murphy, president of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club in Maryland.
And while the half marathon continues to be the most popular race distance in the country, the marathon is the fastest growing distance in the United States right now, according to Jay Holder, Running USA’s executive director. Its growth is partially due to an increase in younger runners participating in the 26.2-mile distance. Running USA told the Wall Street Journal late last year that the share of marathon finishers between ages 20 and 24 has grown from about 5 percent to 8 percent since 2021.
Loosely organized run clubs will get even bigger
Last year, newspaper headlines declared running clubs as the latest place to find love — or at least a date.
- “The Best Alternative to Dating Apps? Running Clubs, Apparently.” —The New York Times, June 17, 2024
- “The Hottest (and Sweatiest) Place to Find a Date: Run Club” —The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 6, 2024
Running club leaders predict that informal running clubs and run crews will only continue to grow. That’s not a bad thing, says Nikkia Young, the president of the Richmond Road Runners Club, an all-volunteer organization with approximately 2,500 members that sponsors nearly 20 races a year. “This is a very positive thing because it means more people are moving,” she says.
Murphy, the president of MCRRC in Maryland, agrees. “I think rising tide lifts all boats,” he says. “When someone gets involved in these informal ones, it opens the door to larger, structured ones.”
Stewart says that Credit Union Cherry Blossom race organizers “made a strong outreach last year to the loosely organized running crews.” Months before the race, the organization held an event called DMV Run Club Mixer, with running clubs of different sizes and scope in attendance. “They were really enthusiastic and appreciated our outreach to them,” Stewart says.
“The RRCA has developed a variety of tools to help loosely organized run clubs get more formally organized.” explains Jean Knaack, RRCA CEO. “Our goal is help the organizers of these loosely organized clubs learn more about their potential risks and how to best protect their leaders, volunteers, and runners while participating in group runs and social gatherings.”
Running will be more social and less competitive
Participating in a race is a social event. From the large marathon majors to local 5Ks, runners choose to participate because they want to connect with others, industry leaders say.
Because of that, “running will continue to be more and more social and perhaps less competitive,” says Bob Bickel, the founder of RunSignup. “What that means is things like having running clubs, like having social teams, post- and pre-activities to races. You’re going to see an increase in all those different pieces being part of successful races.”
Larger races, like the World Marathon Majors, are no longer just one-day events, Tim Bradley, the executive director of Chicago Area Runners Association, says. There is often an expo for participants to buy race merchandise. There are shakeout runs with professional athletes. Shoe brands might also have their own pop-up experiences. “People are encouraged to be there all week,” Bradley says.
Holder believes that any race can become a destination race. “I think that races are learning to market the uniqueness of where they are and what they’re doing has caused so many other races to be sellouts,” he says.
Running influencers aren’t going anywhere
Content creators and influencers can play a key role in converting new runners.
Laura Green, a 38-year-old former collegiate runner who posts comedy sketches about running on Instagram, aims to find ways to tell stories of professional athletes that can connect with everyday runners and bring more eyes to the sport.
Her goal is to reach the broadest range of potential fans of running by introducing them to professional runners like Aliphine Chepkerker Tuliamuk, an Olympian who won the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. “If they get to know Aliphine through my account, they’ll see her and know a few facts about her,” Green says.
Bickel of RunSignup predicts that more collegiate runners will become content creators after the NCAA approved name, image and likeness legislation in 2021 that allows student-athletes to earn money from their personal brand. He envisions that more races will partner with these athletes.
“If I’ve got a 5K in my town, why not pay the local influencer that ran in college to post on their Instagram to come to the 5K and pay them a couple thousand bucks?” Bickel says. “Some of the runners that are out there, they have hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. They can leverage that.”
About RRCA: The Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) is the oldest and largest national association of running organizations, run coaches, and runners dedicated to growing the sport since 1958. The RRCA champions the development of community-based running clubs and events that serve runners of all ages and abilities in pursuit of health and competition. The RRCA’s vision is to Empower Everyone to Run. To learn more, visit: www.RRCA.org