SUNDAY MORNING RUN TAKES OFF
FITNESS fanatic Meg Sutherland never had issues finding likeminded people to spend her time with, until moving to the Gold Coast from the Redlands area earlier this year.
It was the city’s deeply rooted party culture that the physiotherapy student struggled with, regularly looking for excuses to skip evenings out on the town.
“I found that if you told people you had a 10km run on a Sunday morning then they tended to understand why you might not want to go out,” she said.
From there came a light bulb moment – she would meet new friends by launching her own run club aptly named MEGARUN.
Since launching to members in March, the club has grown ten-fold with hundreds taking part every Sunday morning as well as expanding to 15 locations nationwide and overseas.
“There’s actually a lot of people who do want to get after it but don’t have that social outlet to do that, and this is filling that gap and offering that without having to go out drinking,” she said.
Participants to the free event each Sunday at 5.30am are encouraged to run up to 10 km from Nobby’s Surf Club to Burleigh Heads and back.
Though no attendees showed
to her first event in March, the movement has since expanded to 15 new locations nationwide and overseas including Wellington and Argentina.
“A lot of people told me not to put it on Sunday mornings but the purpose wasn’t just to get numbers there, the purpose was filter out the people who were the go-getters,” Ms Sutherland, 24, explained.
“This never was intended to be a big thing but I just realised the necessity of it and people responded really well to it. We want people to feel alive.
“People are … building social connections. It’s really been life changing for some.”