EVERYONE IS RUNNING RIGHT NOW

Written by Tobi Oke

Somewhere between a pandemic, a burnout epidemic, and the slow exhaustion of being terminally online, something quietly shifted. People started running. Not because a doctor told them to. Not because a New Year’s resolution demanded it. But because the road, the pavement, the morning air before the notifications start, started to feel like the only honest thing left.

This is not a fitness story. It is a cultural story.

Running has always existed. But what is happening right now is different. This is the third running boom, and unlike the first two, it is not built on public health campaigns or race registrations. It’s built on community, identity, and a collective decision that the algorithm cannot give you everything. Strava’s own 2025 trend report put it plainly: “Gen Z is logging off and lacing up.” The platform grew from 55 million users in 2020 to over 180 million by late 2025, a 327% increase. That is not a fitness trend. That is a cultural migration.

The numbers are almost absurd when you look at them directly. In September 2025, nearly 1.1 million people entered the lottery for the 2026 London Marathon, almost double the previous record, for just 50,000 available spots. Getting a bib is now statistically harder than getting into certain universities. People are paying hundreds of dollars in entry fees, investing in GPS watches, subscribing to coaching apps, and travelling across cities just to run alongside strangers. Running began as the simplest sport in the world. It has become one of the most expensive hobbies a person can voluntarily take on.

But here is what the numbers miss. When Gunna launched the Wunna Run Club, hosting massive free 5K community runs across tour cities globally in partnership with Under Armour, he was not selling fitness. He was selling belongings. When Victony organized the Tanko Run, a 10km run through the streets of Lagos to celebrate a single release, the significance was not just cultural. It was personal. Victony had spent time in a wheelchair recovering from a near-fatal car accident in 2021. Leading thousands of his Outlaws through Lagos on foot was not a marketing activation. It was a statement of survival. When Diplo hosts run events and Travis Barker launches his Run Crew, the throughline is identical. The road has become the new venue.

Lagos did not need to be convinced. Imagine over 90 runners moving through the streets of Ikoyi in complete silence, each one locked into the same wireless headphone frequency, music only they can hear, bodies moving in sync with a beat the street cannot. That is the Shight Running Club’s Silent Disco Run, Nigeria’s first, and it is just one chapter. The Eko Runners Club has turned Yaba, Ikeja, and Lekki into weekly finishing lines, partnering with streetwear brands along the way. The Access Bank Lagos City Marathon in partnership with the Water brand Aquafina, built an entire campaign around a single Pidgin phrase, “run am with your padi,” because someone understood that community is the product, not the race.

There is a phrase that has quietly taken root in fitness communities globally: “if it is not on Strava, it did not happen.” That sentence tells you everything. Strava is not a tracking app. It is a social network where the price of entry is physical effort. Your kilometres are your content. Your pace is your personality. 77% of Gen Z athletes reported feeling more motivated to exercise after seeing their friends’ activity on the platform. The dopamine loop is identical to any other social platform. The difference is what you have to do to earn it.

And the business sitting underneath all of this is enormous. On Running has crossed 3 billion Swiss Francs in revenue. Asics, once considered slightly unfashionable compared to hype-driven competitors, has seen its operating margins climb from low single digits to 17% in 2025. Garmin’s fitness division alone now generates over 2 billion dollars annually. 65% of Gen Z say they are directly affected by inflation, yet 30% plan to spend more on fitness in 2026. A generation under economic pressure is choosing to prioritize this. That is not irrational. That is values.

What running offers that the internet cannot is deceptively simple. A finish line. A real one. The kind you cross with your body, not your thumbs. In a world where everything is content and nothing fully counts, logging a 10km on a Sunday morning and sharing it with people who were also out there, tired and alive and choosing something real, is its own kind of meaning.

Everyone is running right now. And the most interesting thing about it is not the distance. It is what they are running toward.