Running has been having a renaissance moment of late; Gen Zers and Millennials are flocking to run clubs, Parkrun’s popularity has been steadily growing year on year, and the 2025 Robin Hood Half Marathon was the biggest one yet with over 14,000 participants involved. Matteo D’Alesio speaks to one of the city’s most vibrant running crews, Embankment Running Club, to hear how they value inclusion, sociability and safety over performance.
As I was heading into 2025 I’d ticked off Parkrun and a Robin Hood Half Marathon but I was yet to join a club. I’d heard a lot about them – that they were wellness cults, that they were the new dating apps, but mainly I heard that they were welcoming communities where people get together to run and then end up at a pub or cafe. I liked the sound of that – croissants not cults, beers not Bumble.
Nottingham is lucky to have a few run clubs (Notts Front Runners, Rebel Runners, Up & Running to name a few), but the biggest of the bunch is Embankment Run Club, known familiarly as ERC.
I first went to ERC earlier in 2025 on a bright spring evening. There were 200 people chatting away and limbering up. I didn’t know anyone so I made the effort to chat to strangers, trying to strike that balance between being friendly without latching onto anyone and generally trying to conceal my first-day-at-school-like nerves.
Many months later and I’ve still been going most weeks despite the cold dark nights drawing in faster and faster, I’ve found a group of people who have grown into friends, and I still enjoy running. An all-round success story. But the cold dark months have highlighted another key resource that run clubs like ERC can offer – safety.
The main change to my routine for winter has been extra layers and a slightly dorky body torch, but research by This Girl Can found that 72% of women change their habits during the winter months, because of fears that public spaces are not safe. Frances, both a regular attendee and friend I’ve made through ERC, tells me how her habits change during the winter.
“I normally love running around Attenborough,” she tells me. “But in winter when it's dark I only run on busy road routes and always wear my running light. I would never run alone late at night or in quiet places without lots of people around.”
This isn’t surprising. A 2024 study by the University of Manchester reported that 68% of women have experienced some form of harassment whilst running. Ensuring people feel and are both comfortable and safe is a key concern for ERC.
“I normally love running around Attenborough,” she tells me. “But in winter when it's dark I only run on busy road routes and always wear my running light. I would never run alone late at night or in quiet places without lots of people around.”
It's a place to come and meet people, hang out, get your miles in. I think for us it's reminding people that it's a place for everyone. There's no barriers to entry
This isn’t surprising. A 2024 study by the University of Manchester reported that 68% of women have experienced some form of harassment whilst running. Ensuring people feel and are both comfortable and safe is a key concern for ERC.
“You know there's going to be a big group of people running around a traffic-free loop in the middle of winter,” Luke Myers, co-founder of ERC, explains. Running as a large group acts as a collective safety net, meaning no-one is isolated and everyone can watch out for each other. Safety in numbers in full effect.
ERC also considers the apprehension that many face before joining, that voice in your head asking ‘Can I join? Should I go?’ which can be another barrier that stops people from getting involved.
“We get a few messages from people asking ‘Am I good enough to join?’” Luke shares. “Of course you are. If you want to run and you want to run with a group, you are good enough. There's a group here that's big enough that, regardless of what pace you run, there will be someone to run with.”
ERC has a few mechanisms in place to ensure people feel welcome, such as the first-timer briefing where Luke or Millie, the other ERC co-founder, will say hello and explain the basics to newcomers, such as the route.
“If at the very least two new people connect in that moment [the first-timer briefing], that's really good,” Luke tells me. “And then they can connect to the wider group during the run or at the pub.”
Luke and Millie haven’t only helped other people find friends through ERC – it helped them settle into Nottingham five years ago when they didn’t know a single person and hadn’t had luck with traditional athletics clubs.
“No one really wanted to chat or hang around afterwards,” Luke shares. “We thought this isn't where we're going to meet people we want to hang out with. Some of our best friends we've met at ERC. I know a lot of other people have done the same. Whatever their situation, they've come, they've met people.”
ERC has taken on a self-perpetuating energy, with the group WhatsApp chat now featuring a weekly poll asking which Parkrun people are going to attend.
“Alex [ERC member] just came to us with this idea, and he was like, ‘I think this would be a really nice way of getting people to go [to Parkrun] on a Saturday morning’,” Luke tells me. “It's another way of getting to interact with people from the group, which is really nice.”
I ask Luke what the future holds for ERC, which has gone from a first session featuring 25 people to sessions now regularly attracting hundreds each week.
“We get this question a lot,” he tells me. “From other run clubs across the UK, it's always like, what's the goal? What's the next thing? If ERC stays as it is now, a place that just keeps welcoming Nottingham's runners, that's perfect.”
Frances is one of those Nottingham runners, I ask her what has kept her coming back over the past two and a half years she’s been running with ERC.
“I immediately felt at home, I've made some true friends,” she tells me. “And the run flies by whilst we're chatting and catching up. ERC is a really special group of people, it's formed part of my community in Nottingham and I'm so glad I gave it that first go.”
As we round off our chat, I ask Luke what’d he say to people who are on the fence about coming to an ERC session.
“If people haven't tried ERC or have been thinking about it,” Luke tells me. “You're welcome. It's a place to come and meet people, hang out, get your miles in. I think for us it's reminding people that it's a place for everyone. There's no barriers to entry.”
So if you want to hit the ground running in 2026 (pun intended), don’t let safety during cold dark nights or a lack of running buddies be a barrier – ERC offers plenty of both.
ERC is a free meet-up every Wednesday at 6pm by the City War Memorial on Victoria Embankment, running a 5k loop, and finishing at the Embankment Pub for a drink and a chat.
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